TODAY IN HISTORY(AP) — Today is Monday, February 26, the 57th day of 2007. There are 308 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from exile on the Island of Elba to begin his second conquest of France.

In 1901, the leaders of the Boxer Rebellion in China, Chi-hsui and Hsu Cheng-yu, were beheaded in public.

In 1935, Scottish inventor Robert Watson-Watt demonstrated the first practical version of radar.

In 1936, Adolf Hitler opened the first factory to produce the “People’s Car” — the Volkswagen — in Saxony.

In 1952, Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed its own atomic bomb and would test it in Australia.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Only the mediocrities of life hide behind the alibi ‘in conference.’ The great of this earth are not only simple but accessible.” — Isaac Frederick Marcosson, American journalist (1876-1961).