February 26
The 59th running of 
The Daytona 500 will held today.  The Daytona 500 has been NASCAR's season-opening race since 1982.
Events
1616  
Galileo Galilei is formally banned by the Roman Catholic Church from teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun.
1815  Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from 
Elba.
1909  
Kinemacolor, the first successful color motion picture process, is first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London.
1914  HMHS (His Majesty's Hospital Ship) 
Britannic, sister to the 
RMS Titanic, is launched at 
Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
1919  President Woodrow Wilson signs an act of Congress establishing the 
Grand Canyon National Park.
1929  President Calvin Coolidge signs an executive order establishing the 96,000 acre 
Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
1966  
Apollo program: Launch of 
AS-201, the first flight of the 
Saturn IB rocket.
1979  The 
Superliner railcar enters revenue service with 
Amtrak.
1987  IranContra affair: The 
Tower Commission rebukes President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff.
1993  
World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a truck bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing six and injuring over a thousand.
1995  The UK's oldest investment banking institute, 
Barings Bank, collapses after a rogue securities broker 
Nick Leeson loses $1.4 billion by speculating on the 
Singapore International Monetary Exchange using futures contracts.
2008  The 
New York Philharmonic performs in Pyongyang, North Korea in the first event of its kind to take place in North Korea.
2013  A 
hot air balloon crashed near Luxor, Egypt, killing 19 people in history's deadliest ballooning disaster.
Births
1564  Christopher Marlowe, 1802  Victor Hugo, 1829  Levi Strauss, 1846  Buffalo Bill Cody, 1852  John Harvey Kellogg, 1866  Herbert Henry Dow, 1882  Husband E. Kimmel, 1887  William Frawley, 1908  Tex Avery, 1914  Robert Alda, 1916  Jackie Gleason, 1920  Tony Randall, 1928  Fats Domino, 1928  Ariel Sharon, 1931  Robert Novak, 1932  Johnny Cash, 1945  Mitch Ryder, 1950  Jonathan Cain, 1953  Michael Bolton, 1954  Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 1958  Tim Kaine, 1971  Erykah Badu, 1979  Corinne Bailey Rae
Deaths
1903  Richard Jordan Gatling

, 1997  David Doyle