By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Friday, Feb. 26, the 57th day of 2021. There are 308 days left in the year.

Todayís Highlight in History:

On Feb. 26, 1993, a truck bomb built by Islamic extremists exploded in the parking garage of the North Tower of New Yorkís World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others. (The bomb failed to topple the North Tower into the South Tower, as the terrorists had hoped; both structures were destroyed in the 9/11 attack eight years later.)

On this date:

In 1904, the United States and Panama proclaimed a treaty under which the U.S. agreed to undertake efforts to build a ship canal across the Panama isthmus.

In 1940, the United States Air Defense Command was created.

In 1942, ìHow Green Was My Valleyî won the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1941, beating out nine other films, including ìThe Maltese Falconî and ìCitizen Kane.î

In 1945, authorities ordered a midnight curfew at nightclubs, bars and other places of entertainment across the nation.

In 1952, Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed its own atomic bomb.

In 1966, South Korean troops sent to fight in the Vietnam War massacred at least 380 civilians in Go Dai hamlet.

In 1984, the last U.S. Marines deployed to Beirut as part of an international peacekeeping force withdrew from the Lebanese capital.

In 1994, a jury in San Antonio acquitted 11 followers of David Koresh of murder, rejecting claims they had ambushed federal agents; five were convicted of voluntary manslaughter.

In 1998, a jury in Amarillo, Texas, rejected an $11 million lawsuit brought by Texas cattlemen who blamed Oprah Winfreyís talk show for a price fall after a segment on food safety that included a discussion about mad cow disease.

In 2014, Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill pushed by social conservatives that would have allowed people with sincerely held religious beliefs to refuse to serve gays.

In 2017, at the 89th Academy Awards, ìMoonlight,î an LGBT coming of age drama, won three Oscars, including best picture of 2016 (in a startling gaffe, the musical ìLa La Landî was mistakenly announced as the best picture winner before the error was corrected).