On This Day 2026
Hello, … and welcome to day 57 of the year.

Thursday, February 26th

Today is National Carpe Diem Day, Levi Strauss Day and For Pete’s Sake Day. Your star sign is Pisces and your birthstone is Amethyst.
1935 – Robert Watson-Watt first demonstrated RADAR (radio detection and ranging) at Daventry, Northamptonshire. This significantly contributed to winning the Battle of Britain and changed the outcome of World War Two.
Robert Watson-Watt first demonstrated RADAR (radio detection and ranging) at Daventry, Northamptonshire. This significantly contributed to winning the Battle of Britain and changed the outcome of World War Two.
Today’s birthdays
1947 – Sandie Shaw (79), English former pop singer (“Always Something There to Remind Me”, “Long Live Love” and “Puppet on a String”), born in Dagenham, East London.
1953 – Michael Bolton (73), American singer and songwriter (“How Am I Supposed to Live Without You”), born in New Haven, Connecticut, United States.
1966 – Fay Ripley (60), English actress (The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Cold Feet), born in Wimbledon, London.
1971 – Erykah Badu (55), American singer and songwriter (“On & On”, “Sweet Baby”), born in Dallas, Texas, United States.
1973 – Ole Gunnar Solksjaer (53), Norwegian football manager (Manchester United, Bereket Jimnastik) and former player (Manchester United), born in Kristiansund, Norway.
1977 – Shane Williams (49), Welsh rugby scrum half (87 caps Wales, 4 British & Irish Lions; Neath, Ospreys), born in Morriston, Swansea, Wales.
1979 – Corinne Bailey Rae (47), English singer and songwriter (“Put Your Records On”), born in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
1980 – Georgia Taylor (46), English actress (Casualty, The Bank Job), best known for her role as Toyah Battersby in Coronation Street since 1997, born in Wigan, Greater Manchester.
Famous deaths

2009 – Wendy Richard (b. 1943), English actress, best known for her television roles as Miss Shirley Brahms on the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served? from 1972 to 1985, and Pauline Fowler on the soap opera EastEnders from 1985 to 2006.

2023 – Betty Boothroyd (b. 1929), British politician and the only woman to date, in over 700 years, to have served as Speaker of the House of Commons.
2025 – Michelle Trachtenberg (b. 1985), American actress (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gossip Girl).
The day today
1914 – The launch of HMHS (Her Majesty’s Hospital Ship) Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, at Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast. She was the third and largest Olympic-class ocean liner of the White Star Line and was intended to enter service as a transatlantic passenger liner. However, she was launched just before the start of the First World War and was laid up at her builders in Belfast for many months before being put to use as a hospital ship in 1915. She struck a mine off the Greek island of Keain in November 1916, and sank with the loss of 30 lives.
1935 – Robert Watson-Watt first demonstrated RADAR (radio detection and ranging) at Daventry, Northamptonshire. This significantly contributed to winning the Battle of Britain and changed the outcome of World War Two.
1952 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill went public that Britain had its first atomic bomb and planned to test it in Australia by the end of the year.
1976 – Renowned transplant surgeon Dr. Samuel L. Kountz performed a live kidney transplant on NBC’s Today show to raise awareness for organ donation. The televised demonstration was a landmark event that resulted in over 20,000 people offering to donate a kidney. Dr. Kountz was a pioneering surgeon known for increasing public awareness of kidney disease and advancing transplantation techniques.
1979 – Accused of forging old masters, painter Tom Keating’s trial at the Old Bailey was halted due to Keating’s ill health. Keating, a brilliant technician, went on to present a television series on painters and became a celebrity in his remaining years.

1987 – The Church of England’s General Synod voted by a huge majority in favour of the ordination of women priests. It was a further 28 years before the first female bishop, Libby Lanewas consecrated Bishop of Stockport (26th January 2015) in a ceremony at York Minster.

1993 – World Trade Center bombing of 1993, terrorist attack in New York City in which a truck bomb exploded in a basement-level parking garage under the World Trade Center complex. Six people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured in what was at that time the deadliest act of terrorism perpetrated on U.S. soil.
1995 – Barings, the country’s oldest merchant bank, declared bankruptcy after discovering that Nicholas Leeson, the firm’s chief trader in Singapore, had lost approximately £625 million of the bank’s assets on unauthorized futures and options transactions.
1998 – A federal jury in Amarillo, Texas, found Oprah Winfrey not guilty of defaming the Texas beef industry. Winfrey had discussed the risks of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) on her show in 1996. Texas cattlemen sued for $11 million, claiming her comments—”It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger!”—caused a market crash. The court ruled that her remarks did not constitute malicious, knowingly false, or reckless disregard for the truth.
2002 – London Mayor Ken Livingstone confirmed that motorists would be charged £5 per day to drive into London on weekdays.
2006 – The XX Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy. Germany topped the medal table with 29 medals, followed by United States (25) and Austria (23). Great Britain was in a 4 way tie for 21st place with the only medal (Silver) coming from Shelley Rudman in the Women’s Skeleton.
2008 – The Svalbard Global Seed Vault officially opened in Norway’s Arctic archipelago, acting as the ultimate “Doomsday” backup for the world’s crop diversity. Located deep in the permafrost, it currently securely stores over 1.2 million seed samples which are duplicates from global genebanks to protect against natural disasters, war, and climate change.
2013 – A hot air balloon crashed near Luxor, Egypt, killing 19 out of the 21 people on board. A fire developed in the basket due to a leak in the balloon’s gas fuel system, causing the balloon to deflate mid-air and crash to the ground. It was the deadliest ballooning accident in history and the deadliest aerostat disaster since the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, which killed 36 people.
2018 – In Svalbard, Norway, the Global Seed Vault celebrated its 10th anniversary by adding its one-millionth seed.
2014 – Michael Adebolajo (aged 29) was given a whole-life term and Michael Adebowale (aged 22) was jailed for a minimum of 45 years for murdering 25 year old Fusilier Lee Rigby. They had driven into Fusilier Rigby with a car, before hacking him to death in Woolwich, south-east London, on 22nd May 2013. The two men claimed that they were ‘soldiers of Allah’ and that the killing was a legitimate act because Britain was at war with Muslim people.
2018 – The “Beast from the East,” a severe Siberian cold wave, brought heavy snow and freezing temperatures (down to -30°C) to Europe, causing at least 7 deaths. The unusual arctic blast covered Mediterranean areas in snow, including Pompeii and Vesuvius, while bringing travel disruption to the UK.
2019 – The UK recorded its highest-ever winter temperature of 21.2°C (70.2°F) at Kew Gardens, London, breaking the previous record of 19.7°C set in 1998. This unprecedented warmth for the season, which also marked the first time the 70°F mark was surpassed in a UK winter, was driven by a high-pressure system drawing warm air from the Atlantic and North Africa.

2020 – Saudi Arabia bars overseas pilgrims from accessing religious sites of Mecca and Medina because of COVID-19 fears for 1st time in living memory.

Today in music
1958 – Perry Como was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Magic Moments’ the second No.1 in a row for writers Burt Bacharach and Hal David. It stayed at No.1 for eight weeks. This song was used in the television commercial for Quality Street, a confectionery brand in the UK in the 1980s and continues to be used each year for the brand’s Christmas advertisements.
1965 – Jimmy Page released a solo single called ‘She Just Satisfies’ in the UK. Page played all the instruments on the track except for the drums and produced the track, as well as singing lead vocals.
1966 – Nancy Sinatra went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin’’. The song which was written by Lee Hazlewood was inspired by a line spoken by Frank Sinatra in the comedy-western film 4 for Texas (1963): “They tell me them boots ain’t built for walkin’.”

1969 – Peter Sarstedt started a four week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Where Do You Go To My Lovely?’ Some say the song was written about the Italian star Sophia Loren, but Peter Sarstedt has stated he wrote the song about a girl he fell madly in love with in Vienna in 1965, who later died in a hotel fire.

1983 – Michael Jackson’s Thriller went to No.1 on the US album chart. Thriller broke racial barriers in pop music, enabling Jackson’s appearances on MTV and meeting with President Ronald Reagan at the White House. The album was one of the first to use music videos as successful promotional tools, and the videos for the songs ‘Thriller’, ‘Billie Jean’, and ‘Beat It’ all received regular rotation on MTV. Thriller became the most successful album of all time with sales over 65 million copies.
1987 – The first five The Beatles albums, Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles for Sale and Help! were released on Compact disc. Capitol Records decided to release the original UK mixes of the Beatles albums, (the first four CDs were released in mono). This marked the first time that many of these mono mixes were available in the US.
1997 – At the 39th Grammy Awards hosted at Madison Square Garden in NYC, Celine Dion won Album of the Year with ‘Falling Into You’, Eric Clapton won Recod of the Year with “Change the World” and Best New Artist went to LeAnn Rimes. Toni Braxton also picked up an award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance with “Un-Break My Heart”.
2001 – Winners at the Brit Awards included Coldplay, Best British group and Best British album for ‘Parachutes’, Robbie Williams, Best British Male artist and Best single for ‘Rock DJ’, Sonique, Best British Female artist, Best Dance act went to Fat Boy Slim, A1 won Best British Newcomer, Westlife won Best Pop act, Eminem won Best International Male solo artist and U2 won Outstanding contribution to music.
2008 – Two original members of UK boy band Busted went to court, claiming an estimated £10m in unpaid royalties. Ki McPhail and Owen Doyle claimed they wrote songs with James Bourne and Matt Willis when the group formed in 2001, but said they were forced to sign away their rights after “threats” when they were sacked from the band later that year. The songs include ‘Year 3000’ and ‘What I Go To School For’, which went on to be hits for the group.
2011 – It was announced that Queen’s We Will Rock You was still the most-played song at US sporting events, according to a new survey from BMI, the royalty-distribution service. According to its data, based off of MLB, NFL and NHL games in 2009-2010, We Will Rock You was the No.1 song overall, as well as for the NFL specifically.
2022 – Ed Sheeran was at No.1 on the UK chart with his fifth studio album = (“Equals”). Selling 139,000 units in its first week it outperformed the rest of the week’s Top 30 combined. The album also debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart, becoming Sheeran’s fourth chart-topping album in the United States.
Today in history
1564 – The birth of Christopher Marlowe, English dramatist and poet of the Elizabethan era. He was the foremost Elizabethan writer next to William Shakespeare.
1616 – The Roman Inquisition ordered Galileo not to teach or defend his theory that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.
1797 – The Bank of England issued the first ever one pound note. Printed on watermark paper with a vignette of Britannia on the top left hand corner, the hand-signed white £1 notes were withdrawn in the 1820s.
1839 – The first Grand National Steeplechase was run at Aintree near Liverpool. The winner was ‘Lottery’ ridden by Jem Mason.
1852 – The British troopship, Birkenhead, sank off Simon’s Bay, near Cape Town, South Africa, with the loss of 485 lives.
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