108 things happened on 26 February, from 747 BC to 2025. UK stories come first, then the rest of the world.
1909 · 117 years ago
Kinemacolor, the first successful way of making colour films, was shown to the public at the Palace Theatre in London. It had been invented by George Albert Smith in 1906. Scenes were filmed in black and white through red-orange and blue-green filters, then p…
UK history first: stories from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
UK story
Kinemacolor, the first successful way of making colour films, was shown to the public at the Palace Theatre in London. It had been invented by George Albert Smith in 1906. Scenes were filmed in black and white through red-orange and blue-green filters, then projected through red and green filters to give colour. It was used in cinemas from 1909 to 1915.
UK story
The ocean liner Britannic was launched at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast. She was the younger sister of the Olympic and the Titanic, and the largest of the three. She was meant to carry passengers across the Atlantic, but during the First World War she served as a hospital ship instead. She was the largest ship that had ever been built in Ireland.
UK story
Scottish engineer Robert Watson-Watt and his colleague Arnold Wilkins set up two receiving aerials near a BBC radio transmitter at Daventry, England. When a Handley Page Heyford bomber flew nearby, radio signals bouncing off it showed up clearly. The test was so secret that only three people watched it. It led to radar, and by the Second World War a chain of radar stations watched over England's coasts.
UK story
The British East India Company factory on Balambangan Island is destroyed by Moro pirates.
UK story
Storm Ulysses struck Ireland, felling thousands of trees and causing damage to up to a quarter of all houses in Dublin.
UK story
Barings Bank, the oldest merchant bank in London, was declared insolvent after its head derivatives trader in Singapore, Nick Leeson, lost £827 million while making unauthorised trades on futures contracts.
Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon and his crew became the first Europeans known to land in Australia. They were sailing the small ship Duyfken for the Dutch East India Company, with orders to explore the coast of New Guinea. Janszoon did not realise he had reached a different land: he believed he was still on New Guinea.
After a panel of the Roman Inquisition, part of the Catholic Church, condemned the idea that the Earth moves around the Sun, Galileo Galilei was formally banned from teaching or defending it. This idea is called heliocentrism. Galileo later wrote about it in a book, was put on trial again and was kept under house arrest. He has been called the father of modern science.
Napoleon Bonaparte, the former Emperor of the French, escaped from Elba, the Italian island where he had been sent into exile. With about 1,000 men in a small fleet, he slipped away while British and French guard ships were absent. He landed in France on 1 March and soon took power again. His return, known as the Hundred Days, ended with his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
The Original Dixieland Jass Band recorded 'Livery Stable Blues' at a studio in New York City. Released with the 'Dixieland Jass Band One-Step' on the other side, it is widely accepted as the first jazz record ever sold. Later that year the band changed the spelling of its name from 'Jass' to 'Jazz'. Their most famous tune, 'Tiger Rag', became a jazz standard.
US President Woodrow Wilson signed a law creating Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. The park's main feature is the Grand Canyon, a huge gorge of the Colorado River that is often called one of the Wonders of the World. In 1979 UNESCO named it a World Heritage Site. More than 4.9 million people visited the park in 2024.
NASA launched AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket, as part of the Apollo programme that later landed astronauts on the Moon. No one was on board. The rocket carried an Apollo command module, the part of the spacecraft built to hold the crew. The test showed that the capsule's heat shield could survive coming back into Earth's atmosphere from space.
UN Secretary-General U Thant signed a proclamation making the March equinox, the first day of spring in the northern half of the world, Earth Day. The idea came from peace campaigner John McConnell, who wanted a day to honour the Earth and peace. Today Earth Day is most widely marked on 22 April, when people around the world take part in events to protect the environment.
According to Ptolemy, the reign of the Babylonian king Nabonassar (name in Akkadian pictured) began, marking a new era characterized by the systematic maintenance of chronologically precise historical records.
Chandragupta I is officially crowned as the first Gupta Emperor.
Valentinian I is proclaimed Roman Emperor.
Battle of Kemej: The royal army of Solomon, King of Hungary defeats the force of his rebellious cousin Duke Géza.
The Ava Kingdom and the royal city of Ava (Inwa) were founded by King Thado Minbya.
The Beach Pneumatic Transit in New York City, intended as a demonstration for a subway line, opens.
Japan and Korea sign the Treaty of Kangwha, which grants Japanese citizens extraterritoriality rights in Korea, opens three Korean ports to Japanese trade, and ends Korea's status as a tributary state of Qing dynasty China.
President Calvin Coolidge signs legislation establishing the 96,000 acres (390 km2) Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
World War II: US troops reclaim the Philippine island of Corregidor from the Japanese.
Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada.
The Superliner railcar entered revenue service with Amtrak.
Egypt and Israel establish full diplomatic relations.
In the first significant cultural visit from the United States to North Korea since the Korean War, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra performed in Pyongyang.
Every answer is somewhere on this page. Have a go, then check!
In which year did this happen: “Robert Watson-Watt shows that radio waves can detect aircraft”?
B: 1935. 1935 — that’s 91 years ago. Find it on the page
In which year did this happen: “The Titanic's sister ship Britannic is launched in Belfast”?
B: 1914. 1914 — that’s 112 years ago. Find it on the page
Which of these happened first?
C: Kinemacolor colour films are first shown to the public in London. 1914: The Titanic's sister ship Britannic is launched in Belfast · 1935: Robert Watson-Watt shows that radio waves can detect aircraft · 1909: Kinemacolor colour films are first shown to the public in London Find it on the page
“Christopher Marlowe” happened in 1564. How many years ago was that?
B: 462 years. 2026 − 1564 = 462. Find it on the page
Famous people whose birthday is 26 February.
Victor Hugo was a French author, poet and playwright. His most famous novels are The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862), which later inspired a well-known musical. He also made more than 4,000 drawings and campaigned for causes such as ending slavery. When he died in 1885, more than two million people attended his state funeral in Paris.
UK story
Christopher Marlowe was an English playwright and poet in the time of Queen Elizabeth I. William Shakespeare was baptised in the same year, and some scholars believe Marlowe greatly influenced him. Marlowe's play Tamburlaine was much copied, and he was probably London's leading playwright just before his early death. He was the first writer to become well known for using blank verse, poetry that does not rhyme.
Well-known people who died on 26 February.
Festivals, holidays and saints’ days celebrated on 26 February somewhere in the world.
Content note: these entries mention things like war, violence, deaths, disasters or crime. They are part of history, but they can be upsetting. Grown-ups and teachers: you may want to read them first. They come straight from Wikipedia and have not been rewritten for children.
Stories with a heading have been written for young readers by A Day in the Past, using the linked articles as sources. Other entries show text from Wikipedia’s “February 26” page and its “On this day” feed, written by Wikipedia contributors and shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Each “Read more” link goes to the article an entry is based on. Photos are credited under each picture. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us.