February 26, 2018

1,075 years ago
943

Died on this date
Muirchertach mac Néill. King of Ailech, 938-943. Muirchertach mac Néill was the son of Niall Glúndub, High King of Ireland, and became King of Ailech--in modern-day County Donegal in Ireland--while his uncle Donnchad Donn mac Flainn served as High King. Muirchertach mac Néill was killed in battle by Blácaire mac Gofrith, King of Dublin.

180 years ago
1838

War
In the Upper Canada Rebellion, Rensselaer Van Rensselaer invaded Pelee Island in Lake Erie with 500 American sympathizers of the Canadian Republican rebels (Hunters Lodges); the occupation lasted until March 3, 1838. In the Lower Canada Rebellion, Robert Nelson gathered between 600-700 rebel volunteers, the Société des frères Chasseurs (Hunters' Lodges), in an attempt to invade Lower Canada. He pledged to liberate the Canadian provinces from British rule and join the United States.

170 years ago
1848

Franciana
The Second French Republic was proclaimed.

110 years ago
1908

Born on this date
Tex Avery. U.S. animator. Frederick Bean Avery was credited with the creation of Daffy Duck, and played a key role in the development of the characters of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. He died of lung cancer on August 26, 1980 at the age of 72.

100 years ago
1918

Disasters
An estimated 604 spectators were killed when the grandstand of the Hong Kong Jockey Club collapsed and burned; it was the deadliest disaster in sports history.

90 years ago
1928

Aviation
The United States Navy dirigible Los Angeles left Lakehurst, New Jersey at 6:15 A.M., flew over New York City, then headed south.

Disasters
A transcontinental air mail plane from New York to San Francisco, carrying 29 sacks of mail and one passenger, was wrecked at daylight near Marquette, Nebraska. The passenger, S.N. Craig of Beaver, Pennsylvania, was killed.

75 years ago
1943

Died on this date
Theodor Eicke, 50. German SS officer. SS Obergruppenführer Eicke was a commander of the Waffen SS and was one of the key figures in the establishment of concentration camps in Nazi Germany. He was killed when he was shot down while performing a battlefield reconnaissance during the Third Battle of Kharkov.

War
Soviet forces advanced west of the Kharkov-Kursk line and captured Anglinsk and Staronizhe-Steblievsk. Under continued bombardment, Axis troops retreated along the entire central Tunisian front. Yemeni leader Imam Yahya ordered the arrest of 40 Italians and 2 Germans, effectively silencing two pro-Axis radio stations.

Diplomacy
Praising the Spanish regime of President Francisco Franco, U.S. Ambassador to Spain Carlton Hayes said that the United States had been suppplying Spain with foodstuffs, textiles, and oil.

Economics and finance
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered War Production Board Chairman William Nelson to undertake a program to stimulate the sagging production of lumber.

70 years ago
1948

Theatre
Me and Molly, written by and starring Gertrude Berg, and based on the radio series The Goldbergs, opened at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway in New York.

Diplomacy
The U.S.A., U.K., and France issued a joint protest against the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia, engineered "by means of a crisis artificially and deliberately instigated."

Politics and government
The United Nations General Assembly's Interim Committee on Peace and Security voted to advise the UN Korean Commission to proceed with plans for elections in Korea despite the U.S.S.R.'s refusal to cooperate.

Society
Southern U.S. Congressmen blocked House of Representatives action on an anti-lynching law, which had already been approved by the House Judiciary Committee.

60 years ago
1958

Space
U.S. State Secretary John Foster Dulles, in closed House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee hearings, said that the U.S.S.R. was more likely than the U.S.A. to be the first country on the Moon because "they have a good big start on us" and because "spectacular things" that "use up human labor in useless ways" are "the products of despotisms...not of a democratic way of life."

Diplomacy
United Arab Republic President Gamal Nasser denounced the Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan as a "false federation" aimed against the U.A.R.

Labour
The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Improper Labor-Management Activities opened hearings in Washington on the 46-month-old United Auto Workers strike against the Kohler Company of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the nation's longest major walkout.

50 years ago
1968

Hit parade
#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Koi no Shizuku--Yukari Itō

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Cállate Niña--Pic-Nic (8th week at #1)

Economics and finance
Canadian Finance Minister Mitchell Sharp repatriated U.S. $426 million currency and gold deposited with the International Monetary Fund, with the aim of driving up the value of the Canadian dollar.

Disasters
21 female patients died in a fire that swept through a wing of the Shelton Mental Hospital near Shrewsbury, England.

Eight people were killed and 70 injured when a gas tank truck exploded in Mexico City.

40 years ago
1978

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: Mull of Kintyre--Wings (5th week at #1)

Golf
Jack Nicklaus won the Jackie Gleason-Inverrary Classic in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with a score of 276; first prize money was $50,000.

Nancy Lopez earned her first win on the LPGA tour in the Bent Tree Classic in Sarasota, Florida, with a score of 289; first prize money was $15,000.

Hockey
CHL
Dallas 3 @ Kansas City 5

30 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): My Love is a Tango--Guillermo Marchena (2nd week at #1)

Politics and government
The Panamanian National Assembly ousted President Eric Arturo Delvalle from office, a day after Mr. Delvalle had sought to fire dictator General Manuel Noriega. The pro-Noriega majority installed Education Minister Manuel Solis Palma as minister in charge of the presidency. Mr. Delvalle denounced the assembly's actions, and called for a general strike. He then responded to a military ultimatum to leave the country by going into hiding. The main anti-Noriega newspaper in Panama was shut down. The United States said that it supported Mr. Delvalle, but had no plans to intervene militarily.

25 years ago
1993

At the movies
Falling Down, directed by Joel Schumacher, and starring Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall, opened in theatres.

Died on this date
Constance Ford, 69. U.S. actress. Miss Ford tended to play shrewish women in movies such as A Summer Place (1959), but appeared mainly on television. Her best known role was as the character Ada Hobson in the soap opera Another World from 1967-1992.

Terrorism
Five people were killed and over 1,000 injured when a car bomb exploded under the World Trade Center in New York City (see also here).

20 years ago
1998

Died on this date
Theodore Schultz, 95. U.S. economist. Dr. Schultz was chairman of the Economics school at the University of Chicago from 1946-1961, and shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences with Arthur Lewis "for their pioneering research into economic development research with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries."