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THE FOLLOWING EVENTS TOOK PLACE ON FEBRUARY 26
 1797--The Bank of England issues £1 notes for the first time.
1848--Marx and Engels publish "The Communist Manifesto."
1919--Congress establishes Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.
1930--The first red and green traffic lights are installed in Manhattan, New York.
1932--Johnny Cash is born in Kingsland, Arkansas. As the "Elder Statesman" of American popular music, he bridged the gaps between country, gospel, and rock and roll, and had unparalleled success in all three styles during his lengthy musical career. Some of his biggest hits were Get Rhythm, I Walk the Line, Don't Take Your Guns to Town, and Ring of Fire. In 1968, Cash married June Carter, a member of the legendary Carter Family. Country singer, Roseanne Cash, is his daughter from his first marriage.
 1933--A Golden Gate Bridge groundbreaking ceremony is held at Crissy Field in San Franisco, California.
1936--Adolf Hitler opens the first factory for the production of the “People's Car,” the Volkswagen (also known as The Beetle), in Saxony.
 1947--English pop singer Sandie Shaw, best remembered for performing barefoot, is born Sandra Goodrich in Dagenham, England. Her hits include Always Something There To Remind Me and Girl Don't Come.
1952--Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces that Britain has developed its own atomic bomb.
1955--Billboard reports for the first time since their introduction in 1949, 45 rpm discs are outselling the old standard 78 rpm. Another change in the industry is also noted: on some New York City jukeboxes, it now costs ten cents instead of five cents to play a record.
1961--The Beatles perform at the Casbah Coffee Club, West Derby, Liverpool.
1962--The Beatles perform at the Kingsway Club, Southport.
1963--The Beatles perform at the Gaumont Cinema, Taunton, Somerset. The Helen Shapiro tour resumes, but the terribly frigid weather takes its toll on Shapiro, who is too ill with a cold to perform. Danny Williams takes her place at the top of the bill.
 1964--US release of the LP Jolly What! The Beatles and Frank Ifield on Stage (VeeJay). Includes the previously-released Please Please Me, From Me to You, Ask Me Why, and Thank You Girl, along with non-Beatles tracks. Despite its title, this is not a live album. 6 weeks on Billboard chart; highest position #103.
1964--The Beatles in the recording studio (Studio Two, EMI Studios, London). Mixing of the master tapes for the Can't Buy Me Love / You Can't Do That single. The single is issued in the US on March 16 and in the UK on March 20, and it topped the charts all over the world. In the afternoon and evening, The Beatles record 19 additional takes of I Should Have Known Better and 17 additional takes of And I Love Her, the latter track still not completed to their satisfaction.
1964--Two previously unpublished John Lennon poems, “The Tales of Hermit Fred” and “The Land of Lunapots” are included in Mersey Beat newspaper. Both show early signs of the Lennon surrealist wordplay that will culminate in the song I Am The Walrus three years later.
1965--The Beatles are in the Bahamas, filming scenes for their second movie, "Help!"
1970--US release of The Beatles' LP, The Beatles Again, later reissued as Hey Jude (Apple). When first released, the cover had the title Hey Jude, but the label had the title The Beatles Again. Songs: Can't Buy Me Love, I Should Have Known Better, Paperback Writer, Rain, Lady Madonna, Revolution, Hey Jude, Old Brown Shoe, Don't Let Me Down, and The Ballad of John and Yoko. 33 weeks on Billboard chart; highest position #2.
 1970--According to a New York newspaper, John Lennon has slammed the Toronto Peace Festival, claiming the profits aren't being used toward peace initiatives, but to line the promoter's pockets. His album Live Peace in Toronto, however, recently went top 10.
 1971--Giving evidence in High Court during The Beatles’ ongoing legal battle, Paul McCartney alleges that Allen Klein once told him: “The real trouble is Yoko. She is the one with ambition.” Paul adds: “I wonder what John would have said if he had heard that remark.”
1973--John Lennon and Yoko Ono edit down Death of Samantha as Yoko’s new US single.
1975--”Feel great,” John Lennon writes of his reunion with Yoko Ono to old friend, Derek Taylor. “Like a chicken wots got its ‘ead back.”
1987--The first batch of The Beatles CDs are released (on Capitol / EMI), part of a year-long campaign that returns all the group’s original albums to the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Included in this group are Please Please Me, With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, and Beatles For Sale. These initial releases on CD are in mono, which causes quite an unpleasant reaction among fans.
1993--Six people are killed and more than a thousand injured in New York City, when a van packed with a 1,210-pound bomb explodes in the parking garage underneath the World Trade Center. The explosion left a gigantic crater 200 feet wide and caused over 591 million dollars in damage. Dr. Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman and 14 of his followers were accused of the terrorist bombing.
1997--The Beatles are awarded three Grammy Awards for "Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group" (for Free As A Bird); "Best Music Video: Short Form" (for Free As A Bird); and "Best Music Video: Long Form" (for The Beatles Anthology). George Harrison comments, "What a nice surprise! It's good to know that people still like The Beatles."
For more day-by-day history go to HistoryUnlimited.net
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