Mass graves discovered in Hue

On February 26, poet and playwright Christopher Marlowe is baptized in Canterbury, England, two months before the birth of his fellow playwright William Shakespeare. Marlowe, the son of a Canterbury shoemaker, was a bright student. He won scholarships to prestigious schools and earned his B.A. from Cambridge in 1584. Historians believe Marlowe served as a […]

In a crucial step toward U.S. entry into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson learns of the so-called Zimmermann Telegram, a message from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador to Mexico proposing a Mexican-German alliance in the event of a war between the U.S. and Germany. On February 24, 1917, British authorities […]

In a controversial move that inspires charges of eastern domination of the West, Congress establishes Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Home to some of the most stunning alpine scenery in the United States, the territory in and around Grand Teton National Park also has a colorful human history. The first Anglo-American to see the […]

The National Dollar Stores Strike begins in San Francisco’s Chinatown on February 26, 1938. The three-month strike delivered a win for workers and became the neighborhood’s first major organized labor dispute. In 1938, the garment industry was the largest employer in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Chinatown’s garment factories were not unionized, in part because of the […]

On February 26, 1974, Nike receives a U.S. patent for its waffle trainer running shoes. Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman invented the now-iconic soles in a waffle iron over breakfast. Before Air Jordans and “Just do it,” Nike was a small sneaker company founded at the University of Oregon. Bill Bowerman, the coach of the Oregon […]

A year after agreeing to free elections, Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government loses at the polls. The elections brought an end to more than a decade of U.S. efforts to unseat the Sandinista government. The Sandinistas came to power when they overthrew long-time dictator Anastacio Somoza in 1979. From the outset, U.S. officials opposed the new […]

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.