Today in History February 26

1606 – The Janszoon voyage of 1605-06 becomes the first European expedition to set foot on Australia, although it is mistaken as a part of New Guinea.
1616 – Galileo Galilei is formally banned by the Roman Catholic Churchfrom teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun.
1775 – The British East India Company factory on Balambangan Island is destroyed by Moro pirates
1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba.

	Galileo Galilei

1914 – HMHS 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.
1935 – Adolf Hitler orders the Luftwaffe to be re-formed, violating the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.
1966 – Apollo program: Launch of AS-201, the first flight of the Saturn IB rocket
1987 – Iran-Contra affair: The Tower Commission rebukes President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff.

1993 – World Trade Center bombing: A truck bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing six and injuring over a thousand people

1564 – Christopher Marlowe, playwright, poet and translator (d. 1593)
1802 – Victor Hugo, French author, poet, and playwright (d. 1885)
1829 – Levi Strauss founded Levi Strauss & Co. (d. 1902)
1866 – Herbert Henry Dow, Canadian-American businessman, founded the Dow Chemical Company (d. 1930)
1908 – Tex Avery, American animator, producer, and voice actor (d. 1980)
1916 – Jackie Gleason, American actor and singer (d. 1987)
1928 – Ariel Sharon, general and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Israel (d. 2014)
1932 – Johnny Cash, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor (d. 2003)
1944 – Ronald Lauder, American businessman and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Austria
1954 – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,12th President of Turkey

Deaths
1275 – Margaret of England, Queen consort of Scots (b. 1240
1813 – Robert R. Livingston, American lawyer and politician, 1st United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs (b. 1746)
2015 – Theodore Hesburgh, American priest, theologian, educator, and academic (b. 1917)