ROSS SIMPSON

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor
(February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011)

Elizabeth Taylor was a British and American actress. She
began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and
was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood
cinema in the 1950s. She then became the world’s highest
paid movie star in the 1960s, remaining a well-known public
figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film
Institute named her the seventh-greatest female screen
legend of Classic Hollywood cinema.

1963

D

The World Trade Center, located in the heart of Manhattan in
New York City, was built in 1966 and instantly became an
iconic landmark for the city.

The Twin Towers, as they were known, stood over 1,360 feet
above ground — each holding 110 floors.

On this day in history, Feb. 26, 1993, the World Trade Center
was bombed — injuring more than 1,000 people.

At around 12:00 p.m., a group of terrorists, including a man
named Ramzi Yousef (below) drove a van into the public
parking garage below the Towers. 

The van exploded roughly 17 minutes after noon — creating
a 100-foot crater within the north tower.  Six people near the
bomb site were almost immediately killed.

   
A bomb exploded in the parking garage of the World Trade Center.

Barbara Bosson (November 1, 1939 – February 18, 2023)

Barbara Bosson, who received Emmy nominations in five
consecutive years for her turn as the divorcee Fay Furillo
on the acclaimed NBC drama Hill Street Blues, co-created
by her then-husband Steven Bochco, has died.

Bosson made guest appearances on many series, including
Mannix,  L.A. Law, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine  and Lois &
Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

Her son, director-producer Jesse Bochco, said she died
Saturday in Los Angeles. 

William Franklin Graham Jr.
(November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018)

Billy Graham was a evangelist and an ordained Southern Baptist
minister who became well known internationally in the late 1940s.

He was a prominent evangelical Christian figure, and according to
a biographer, was "among the most influential Christian leaders"
of the 20th century.

On February 19, 1847, the first rescuers reach surviving members
of the Donner Party, a group of California-bound emigrants
stranded by snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

In the summer of 1846, in the midst of a Western-bound fever
sweeping the United States, 89 people—including 31 members
of the Donner and Reed families—set out in a wagon train from Springfield, Illinois. After arriving at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, the emigrants decided to avoid the usual route and try a new trail
recently blazed by California promoter Lansford Hastings, the
so-called “Hastings Cutoff.” After electing George Donner
(below) as  their captain, the party departed Fort Bridger in
mid-July.

The shortcut was nothing of the sort: It set the Donner Party back
nearly three weeks and cost them much-needed supplies. After
suffering great hardships in the Wasatch Mountains, the Great
Salt Lake Desert and along the Humboldt River, they finally
reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains in early October.

Overnight,  an early winter storm blanketed the ground with
snow, blocking the mountain pass and trapping the Donner
Party.     
       

George Donner (1836 – 1874)
        

James F. Reed and his wife, Margret W. Keyes Reed, seen
in this file photo taken in the 1850s, were survivors of the
tragic Donner Party.

Map of the route taken by the Donner Party, showing the Hastings Cutoff—which added 150 miles (240 km) to
their travels—in orange.