Today is Friday, February 26, the 57th day of 2010. There are 308 days left in the year.

On this date

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

In 1916, the Germans sank the French transport ship Provence II, killing 930 people.

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

In 1995, the British merchant bank Barings collapsed after losses run up in Singapore by trader Nick Leeson.

Thought for Today

"There is one thing more powerful than the armies of the world, and that is an idea whose time has come." — Victor Hugo (1802-1885).