Today in History

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 26, the 57th day of 2025. There are 308 days left in the year. Today in history On Feb. 26, 1993, a truck bomb built by Islamic extremists exploded in the parking garage of the North Tower of New York's World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others. (The bomb failed to topple the North Tower into the South Tower, as the terrorists had hoped; both structures were destroyed in the 9/11 attack eight years later.) Also on this date In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from exile on the Island of Elba, sailing back to France in a bid to regain power. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act making the Grand Canyon a national park. In 1952, Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed its own atomic bomb. In 1987, the Tower Commission, which had probed the Iran-Contra affair, issued its report, which rebuked President Ronald Reagan for failing to control his national security staff. In 1998, a jury in Amarillo, Texas, rejected an $11 million lawsuit brought by Texas cattlemen who blamed Oprah Winfrey's talk show for a price fall after a segment on food safety that included a discussion about mad cow disease. In 2012, Trayvon Martin, 17, was shot to death in Sanford, Florida, during an altercation with neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who said he acted in self-defense. (Zimmerman was later acquitted of second-degree murder.) In 2013, a hot air balloon burst into flames during a sunrise flight over the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor and then plummeted 1,000 feet (305 meters) to earth, killing 19 tourists. In 2017, At the Academy Awards, "Moonlight" won three Oscars, including best picture of 2016; in a startling gaffe, the musical "La La Land" was mistakenly announced as the best picture winner before the error was corrected. Today's birthdays Singer Mitch Ryder is 80. Singer Michael Bolton is 72. Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Mullen is 68. Actor Greg Germann is 67. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is 67. Singer Erykah Badu (EHR'-ih-kah bah-DOO') is 54. Filmmaker Sean Baker is 54. Football Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk is 52. Olympic swimming gold medalist Jenny Thompson is 52. Singer Corinne Bailey Rae is 46. Tennis Hall of Famer Li Na is 43. Singer Natalia Lafourcade is 41.