7 Esfand 1404 | Thursday 26 February 2026

This day in four calendars

1815 (211 years ago) Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from exile on the island of Elba.
1935 (91 years ago) Adolf Hitler orders the Luftwaffe to be re-formed, violating the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.
1936 (90 years ago) In the February 26 Incident, young nationalist Japanese military officers assassinate multiple cabinet statesmen and start a rebellion in downtown Tokyo, which is ended 3 days later.
1945 (81 years ago) World War II: US troops reclaim the Philippine island of Corregidor from the Japanese.
1960 (66 years ago) A Kyiv-bound Aeroflot airliner crashes on approach to Snilow Airport in Lviv, killing 32 of the 33 people on board.
1971 (55 years ago) U.N. Secretary-General U Thant signs United Nations proclamation of the vernal equinox as Earth Day.
1987 (39 years ago) Iran–Contra affair: The Tower Commission rebukes President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff.
2026 The government of Pakistan declares "open war" against the Taliban in Afghanistan, initiating the 2026 Afghanistan–Pakistan War.

1564 (462 years ago) Christopher Marlowe, English playwright, poet and translator (died 1593)
1802 (224 years ago) Victor Hugo, French author, poet, and playwright (died 1885)
1861 (165 years ago) Nadezhda Krupskaya, Russian soldier and politician (died 1939)
1928 (98 years ago) Ariel Sharon, Israeli general and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Israel (died 2014)
1946 (80 years ago) Ahmed Zewail, Egyptian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2016)
1950 (76 years ago) Helen Clark, New Zealand academic and politician, 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand
1956 (70 years ago) Michel Houellebecq, French author, poet, screenwriter, and director
1959 (67 years ago) Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkish political scientist, academic, and politician, 37th Prime Minister of Turkey

1821 (205 years ago) Joseph de Maistre, French lawyer and diplomat (born 1753)
1921 (105 years ago) Carl Menger, Polish-Austrian economist and academic (born 1840)
1931 (95 years ago) Otto Wallach, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1847)
1961 (65 years ago) Mohammed V of Morocco,
1969 (57 years ago) Karl Jaspers, German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher (born 1883)
1969 (57 years ago) Levi Eshkol, Israeli soldier and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Israel (born 1895)
1998 (28 years ago) Theodore Schultz, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1902)
2025 (a year ago) Michelle Trachtenberg, American actress (born 1985)