Today in history

February 26

1965
Jimmie Lee Jackson was beaten and shot by state troopers as he tried to protect his grandfather and mother from a trooper attack on civil rights marchers, in Marion, Ala.

1966
Four thousand picketed outside New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel as President Lyndon Johnson received the National Freedom Award. As Johnson began his speech in defense of his Vietnam policies, James Peck of the War Resisters League jumped to his feet and shouted, “Mr. President, peace in Vietnam!” On the streets, meanwhile, activist A.J. Muste presented the crowd’s own “Freedom Award” to Julian Bond, who had been denied his seat in the Georgia legislature for refusing to disavow his opposition to the war., and for his support of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

Julian Bond at a peace rally New York City, 1966.

1986
The new Philippines president, Corazon Aquino was sworn in, bringing to an end 20 years of dictatorship under Ferdinand Marcos. In the face of mass demonstrations against his rule and a fraudulent election, Marcos abdicated, and the next day was airlifted from the presidential palace in Manila by US helicopters.
Elected in 1966, Marcos declared martial law in 1972 in response to leftist violence, assuming dictatorial powers the next year. Backed by the United States, his regime was marked by misuse of foreign support, repression, political murders, and the multi-billion dollar looting of the Philippine treasury.

Ferdinand & Imelda Marcos……………………………Corazon Aquino

1972
West Virginia coal slag heap, which had doubled as a dam, suddenly collapses, flooding the 17-mile ling Buffalo Creek Valley. 118 die, 14 mining camps leveled, & 5,000 people left homeless.

1998
An international weapons inspection team, including Canadian Member of Parliament Libby Davies,was not allowed entry to determine the presence or absence of weapons of mass destruction at the Bangor, Washington, nuclear submarine base.