February 26

Today in History
• 364 - Valentinian I is proclaimed Roman Emperor
• 1548 - Ottoman fleet retakes the port of Aden from the Portuguese
• 1606 - First known European landing in Australia by Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon
• 1732 - 1st mass celebrated in 1st American Catholic church, St Joseph's, Philadelphia
• 1797 - Bank of England issues first £1 note
• 1804 - Vice-admiral William Bligh ends siege of Fort Amsterdam, Willemstad
• 1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the Island of Elba
• 1863 - U.S. President Lincoln signed the National Currency Act


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Carnival Day
• Carpe Diem Day
• For Pete's Sake Day
• Letter to an Elder Day
• Levi Strauss Day
• National Pistachio Day
• Orthodox Forgiveness Sunday
• Thermos Bottle Day

Birthdays
• 1361 - Wenceslas of Bohemia, Holy Roman Catholic German emperor, 1378-1400
• 1671 - Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury
• 1720 - Gian Francesco Albani, Italian Catholic cardinal
• 1725 - Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, French inventor who designed and built 1st automobile
• 1829 - Levi Strauss, American clothing designer, 1st company to manufacture blue jeans
• 1841 - Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer, British diplomat
• 1845 - Alexander III, Russian Tsar (1881-94)
• 1852 - John Harvey Kellogg, American surgeon and nutritionist