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, mainly due to smoke inhalation. (The bomb failed to topple the north tower into the south tower, as the terrorists had hoped; both towers 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 2008, the New York Philharmonic performed in North Korea as part of a historic cultural exchange in a feat of musical diplomacy. It was the first American orchestra to ever perform in the isolated communist nation.
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 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.
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