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Saturday, February 28, 2026

Almanac for February 28th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 28th: https://ko-fi.com/Post/February-28-C1C41BFHIY

Bummer February 28th

February 28, 1909: Actor Irene Muza (a stage name) dies when her hairdresser accidentally sets her on fire. According to a Perth, Australia, newspaper account published March 30, 1909, “Before taking part in a charitable performance on Tuesday she sent for her hairdresser to come and dress her hair. The hairdresser had applied a petrol lotion, when a few drops of it fell upon the kitchen stove. The stuff, ignited in an instant, and the flames caught the actress's hair and her dressing-gown and the clothing of the hairdresser. [...] In a moment she was a mass of flame.' A friend who was in an adjoining room tried to save her by tearing away the burning gown, but before this could be accomplished she had sustained terrible injuries. She was conveyed to the hospital, where she expired. Her hairdresser, who was also badly injured, lies in a precarious condition.”

February 28, 1916: The Turn of the Screw author Henry James dies of pneumonia.


February 28, 1958: Twenty-six students and their bus driver drown following a bus crash near Prestonsburg, Kentucky. The bus strikes a wrecker truck, slides down an embankment, and goes into the Big Sandy River. 

February 28, 2001: The InterCity 225 high speed train from Newcastle to London collides with a Land Rover that has fallen onto the track near Great Heck, England. The high speed passenger train derails onto the track of a freight train. The engineers of both trains are killed, as are eight other people. The collision also injures 82 people. The driver of the Land Rover was able to exit his vehicle after his accident and called the local authorities after his vehicle rolled down an embankment onto the train tracks.

February 28, 2015: Charmayne Maxwell, a member of the R&B group Brownstone, bleeds to death after falling backwards, shattering the wine glass she has been holding, and cutting her neck on the broken glass.

Friday, February 27, 2026

Almanac for February 27th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 27th: https://ko-fi.com/post/February-27-O4O51BFHHI 

Audiobook 99 cents at Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/audiobook/civil-disobedience-68?sId=4528426b-43a6-4592-941c-610fe6ed1226&ssId=pl1MMVd2lG_MxicsX0ZsR&cPos=1


Bummer February 27th

February 27, 1938: A storm over the Pacific Ocean moves inland over California, beginning a series of floods that kills approximately 114 people between late February and early March. More than 5,500 homes and businesses are destroyed and hundreds more are damaged. 

February 27, 1968: 25-year-old R&B singer Franklin “Frankie” Lymon dies of a heroin overdose.

Thursday, February 26, 2026

Almanac for February 26th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 26th: https://ko-fi.com/post/February-26-O5O7J0SFJ

Artist Birthday: Johnny Cash



Beatles Trivia

February 26
Sunday, February 26, 1995, South Bend: I went to the Morris Performing Arts Center and saw 1964: The Tribute, a Beatles tribute band. I recognized three people in the audience: a pair of sisters who went to the same grade school as me, and Mr. Thomas Gerencher.

February 26, 1997: At the 39th Annual Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden, The Beatles won a Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal Grammy for “Free As a Bird.” Other winners included Tony Bennett, Tracy Chapman, Sheryl Crow, the Dave Matthews Band, and The Smashing Pumpkins.


Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Goddess Nut

Bummer February 26th

February 26, 1972: A coal slurry impound dam bursts in Logan County, West Virginia, sending 132 million gallons of coal-contaminated water into the Buffalo Creek Valley, where 16 coal mining towns housed a total of about 5,000 residents. An estimated 125 people were killed, more than a thousand were injured, and over 4,000 residents were left homeless. 

February 26, 2013: 19 tourists are killed in Luxor, Egypt, where balloons are often used to view the Nile River, when their hot air balloon crashes. A leak in the fuel system causes a fire on board. Seven of those who died had jumped from the balloon. Two men from the United Kingdom initially survive the accident, but one of them dies at the hospital five hours later. 

February 26, 1993: A terrorist bomb explodes in the underground parking garage under the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring hundreds more.

February 26, 1994: Comedian Bill Hicks dies of pancreatic cancer at age 32. 

February 26, 2015: Australian author Jessica Ainscough, age 29, dies of a rare cancer, epithelioid sarcoma. In 2008, her doctors suggested amputating her affected left arm at the shoulder, which would have given her a greater than 50% chance of surviving for ten years or more. Ainscough chose to treat her cancer with alternative therapies rather than having the amputation. She used the alternative treatments for six years, only returning to conventional medical treatments near the end of her life when she developed a tumor that bled continuously for ten months.

What was Diane Meyer grateful for on February 26th, 2024?

https://bottlecap.press/products/ordinarygratitude

resilience and not giving up
strength and getting stronger
allowing myself to be so many things
I love my family
I love the things that I love
staying true to myself
respecting myself
respecting other people
I listen
I am thoughtful
putting myself first, but never losing sight of other people

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Almanac for February 25th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 25th: https://ko-fi.com/post/February-25-Welcome-to-The-Jungle-K3K4J0SDL

Artist Birthday: W. Somerset Maugham
Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Anthony Burgess


Bummer February 25th

February 25, 1899: Edwin Sewell, age 31, becomes the first motor vehicle driver in Great Britain to be killed in a roadway accident when his Daimler automobile strikes a brick wall. His passenger dies in the hospital on February 28th.

February 25, 1983: Playwright Tennessee Williams dies of an apparently accidental overdose of the barbiturate medication Seconal.

Tuesday, February 24, 2026

Almanac for February 24th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 24th: https://ko-fi.com/post/February-24-G2G3J0KAQ

Artist Birthday: Wilhelm Grimm


Bummer February 24th

February 24, 1809: London’s Drury Lane Theatre burns down. No one is injured, but the loss of the building is a financial disaster for its owner, Richard Brinsley Sheridan.



February 24, 2004: Swiss air traffic controller Peter Nielsen is stabbed to death at his home in Kloten. His killer is Vitaly Kaloyev, a Russian architect whose wife and two daughters both died when BAL Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 collided in mid-air with a DHL cargo plane on July 1, 2002. Nielsen was the sole air traffic controller on duty when the collision occurred. 

Kaloyev is originally sentenced to eight years in prison for manslaughter by a Swiss court, but later has his sentence reduced to less then four years since he experienced diminished mental capacity at the time of the stabbing due to his grief and trauma. Kaloyev is considered something of a folk hero in his hometown of Ufa, where many other parents of the deceased child passengers from Flight 2937 live.

February 24, 2010: Animal trainer Dawn Brancheau is pulled underwater and drowned by an orca during an animal show at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida.

February 24, 2012: 14-year-old Gabriela Yukari Nichimura dies at a nearby hospital after falling 20 meters (about 66 feet) from her seat on the La Tour Eiffel drop-tower ride at Hopi Hari amusement park in São Paulo, Brazil. The ride has no seat belts, but the chairs have locks; Nichimura’s lock opened while the ride was in operation, causing her to fall.

Monday, February 23, 2026

Almanac for February 23rd

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 23rd: https://ko-fi.com/post/February-23-D1D2IZEN1

Bummer February 23rd

February 23, 2000: Singer Ofra Haza dies of AIDS-related pneumonia in Ramat Gan, Israel. She’s believed to have contracted the virus when she needed a blood transfusion following a pregnancy loss.

Sunday, February 22, 2026

Almanac for February 22nd

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 22nd: https://ko-fi.com/post/February-22-George-Washington-N4N1IY87Y

  • The Chapel Hill Weekly (N.C.), February 19, 1926
Artist Birthday: Atsuko Yamano of Shonen Knife


Bummer February 22nd

February 22, 1976: 32-year-old Florence Ballard, an original member of The Supremes, dies in a Detroit hospital of a blood clot in a coronary artery. She’d entered the hospital the previous day with numbness in her fingers and toes.

February 22, 1984: David Vetter, the subject of Paul Simon’s song “The Boy in the Bubble,” dies of Burkitt lymphoma at age 12. Vetter was born with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), a condition that makes common illnesses unusually severe. He had to live in a specialized sterile environment until he could receive a bone marrow transplant. Vetter did receive a successful transplant in 1984, but unfortunately it did not prevent his cancer.

February 22, 1987: Pop artist Andy Warhol dies of a heart condition while in the hospital recovering from gall bladder surgery. He has never fully recovered from being shot by Valerie Solanas in 1968.