Today In History

TODAY IN HISTORY

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The Shelby County Historical Society & Museum is open Monday through Friday from 8 to 4. They’re ready to take you back in time, located on the corner of Morse Avenue and Pine Street in Harlan. Call 755-2437 for more information

February 26th - 57th Day of the Year

ASH WEDNESDAY

364
On the death of Jovian, a conference at Nicaea chooses Valentinan, an army officer who was born in the central European region of Pannania, to succeed him in Asia Minor.

1154
William the Bad succeeds his father, Roger the II, in Sicily.

1790
As a result of the Revolution, France is divided into 83 departments.

1815
Napoleon and 1,200 of his men leave Elba to start the 100-day re-conquest of France.

1848
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels publish The Communist Manifesto in London.

1871
France and Prussia sign a preliminary peace treaty at Versailles.

1901
Boxer Rebellion leaders Chi-Hsin and Hsu-Cheng-Yu are publicly executed in Peking.

1914
Russian aviator Igor Sikorsky carries 17 passengers in a twin engine plane in St. Petersburg.

1916
General Henri Philippe Petain takes command of the French forces at Verdun.

1917
President Wilson publicly asks congress for the power to arm merchant ships.

1924
U.S. steel industry finds claims an eight-hour day increases efficiency and employee relations.

1933
Ground is broken for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

1935
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler signs a secret decree authorizing the founding of the Reich Luftwaffe as a third German military service to join the Reich army and navy.

1936
Japanese military troops march into Tokyo to conduct a coup and assassinate political leaders.

1941
British take the Somali capital in East Africa.

1943
U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators pound German docks and U-boat lairs at Wilhelmshaven.

1945
- U.S. troops recapture Philippine island of Corregidor.
- Syria declares war on Germany and Japan.

1951
The 22nd Amendment is added to the Constitution limiting the Presidency to two terms.

1964
Lyndon B. Johnson signs a tax bill with $11.5 billion in cuts.

1965
Norman Butler is arrested for the murder of Malcom X.

1968
- Thirty-two African nations agree to boycott the Olympics because of the presence of South Africa.
- Allied troops who had recaptured the imperial capital of Hue from the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive discover the first mass graves in Hue.

1970
Five Marines are arrested on charges of murdering 11 South Vietnamese women and children.

1972
Soviets recover Luna 20 with a cargo of moon rocks.

1973
A publisher and 10 reporters are subpoenaed to testify on Watergate.

1984
The last U.S. Marines sent to Lebanon as part of a multinational peacekeeping force leave Beirut, the war-torn Lebanese capital where some 250 of the original 800 Marines lost their lives during the problem-plagued 18-month mission.

1990
Daniel Ortega, communist president of Nicaragua, suffers a shocking election defeat at the hands of Violeta Chamorro.

1993
A bomb rocks the World Trade Center in New York City. Five people are killed and hundreds suffer from smoke inhalation.

2012
Trayvon Martin, an African American teen walking home from a trip to a convenience store, is fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer patrolling the townhouse community of the Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Florida.

The Shelby County Historical Society would like to thank the following area businesses for their support:
KNOD, Harlan Newspaper, Hy-Vee, Milk & Honey, Farm Table Delivery, Nelson Farm Supply, Shelby County Physical Therapy, Shelby County State Bank, State Farm-EJ Leinen, Town & Country Credit Union, Ouren Real Estate, and ThinkSpace IT.