WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2014

Today is Wednesday, February 26, the 57th day of 2014. There are 308 days left in the year.

1815 — Napoleon and 1,200 leave Elba to start 100-day re-conquest of France

1848 — Marx and Engels publish “The Communist Manifesto”

1919 — Congress established Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona

1930 — First red and green traffic lights installed (Manhattan, NYC)

1936 — Military coup in Japan

1952 — P.M. Winston Churchill announces that Britain has its own atomic bomb

1977 — First flight of Space Shuttle (atop a Boeing 747)

1980 — Egypt and Israel exchange ambassadors for the first time

1983 — Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album goes to No. 1 and stays No. 1 for 37 weeks

1995 — London finance house of Barings collapse after losses in Singapore by trader Nick Leeson