On This Day - What happened 26 February

Al-Mu'ayyad Shihab al-Din Ahmad was the son of Sayf ad-Din Inal, and a Mamluk sultan of Egypt from 26 February to 28 June 1461.

At a meeting of the cardinals of the Inquisition on the following day, Pope Paul V instructed Bellarmine to deliver this result to Galileo, and to order him to abandon the Copernican opinions; should Galileo resist the decree, stronger action would be taken. On February 26, Galileo was called to Bellarmine's residence and ordered, to abstain completely from teaching or defending this doctrine and opinion or from discussing it... to abandon completely... the opinion that the sun stands still at the center of the world and the earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing. — The Inquisition's injunction against Galileo, 1616.

Hamilton created controversy among Cabinet members by advocating the establishment of the First Bank of the United States. Madison and Jefferson objected, but the bank easily passed Congress. Jefferson and Randolph insisted that the new bank was beyond the authority granted by the constitution, as Hamilton believed. Washington sided with Hamilton and signed the legislation on February 25, and the rift became openly hostile between Hamilton and Jefferson.

On 26 February, after much deliberation, Buller used all his forces in one all-out attack for the first time and at last succeeded in forcing a crossing of the Tugela to defeat Botha's outnumbered forces north of Colenso.

The assassination of moderate Prime Minister was followed by an attempted military coup in February 1936, the February 26 incident, mounted by junior Army officers of the Kōdōha faction who had the sympathy of many high-ranking officers including Prince Chichibu (Yasuhito), one of the Emperor's brothers. This revolt was occasioned by a loss of political support by the militarist faction in Diet elections. The coup resulted in the murders of a number of high government and Army officials.

Erdoğan was born in the Kasımpaşa neighborhood in Istanbul, to which his family had moved from Rize Province.

Margaret's announcement of her engagement, on 26 February 1960, surprised the press, as she had concealed the romance from reporters.

Microsoft moved its headquarters from Bellevue to Redmond, Washington, on February 26, 1986.

Under pressure from the United States, the belligerents agreed on a truce in late February, followed by a meeting of Croatian, Bosnian, and Bosnian Croat representatives with US Secretary of State Warren Christopher in Washington, D.C. on February 26, 1994.

On 27 February 2002, a train with several hundred passengers burned near Godhra, killing approximately 60 people.

The virus was carried to Hanoi, Vietnam by a fellow guest on the Metropole's ninth floor. A Chinese-American resident of Shanghai, Johnny Chen, had roomed across the hall from Liu at the Metropole. He travelled on to Hanoi, fell ill there, and on February 26, was admitted to the French Hospital of Hanoi where he infected at least 38 of the staff there.

On 26 February 2013, Kim Jong‑un met Dennis Rodman, which led many reporters to speculate that Rodman was the first American that Kim had met. Rodman described his trip to Kim Jong-un's private island: "It's like Hawaii or Ibiza, but he's the only one that lives there."

On 26 February 2014, Erdoğan acknowledged that his telephone had been tapped, but denied that the conversation was real, instead calling it an "immoral montage" that had been "dubbed" by combining other conversations. An analysis by Joshua Marpet of the United States, published by McClatchy, concluded that the recordings were "probably real", and if not, the fabrication was done with a sophistication he had not previously seen.

A second summit (Trump and Kim) took place in February 2019, in Hanoi, Vietnam. It ended abruptly without an agreement, both sides blaming each other and offering differing accounts of the negotiations.

Two days later, on February 26, a woman brought the dogs to a police station in Los Angeles. Both were unharmed. Los Angeles Police initially said the woman who dropped off the dogs did not appear to be involved with the shooting, but on April 29, she was one of five people charged in connection with the shooting and theft.

On 26 February 2022, Ukrainian authorities announced that the civilian search and rescue ship Sapphire was captured by the Russian navy off Snake Island.

A friend of Beethoven, a Czech born French composer and teacher, Antoine Reicha was born in 1770.