Today is Saturday, Feb. 26, the 57th day of 2005. There are 308 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Feb. 26, 1993, a bomb built by Islamic extremists exploded in the parking garage of New York’s World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others.

On this date:

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

In 1848, the Second French Republic was proclaimed.

In 1919, Congress established Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

In 1929, President Coolidge signed a measure establishing Grand Teton National Park.

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

In 1945, a midnight curfew on night clubs, bars and other places of entertainment was set to go into effect across the nation.

In 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, was ratified.

In 1979, a total solar eclipse cast a moving shadow 175 miles wide from Oregon to North Dakota before moving into Canada.

In 1987, the Tower Commission, which probed the Iran-Contra affair, issued its report, which rebuked President Reagan for failing to control his national security staff.

In 2003, in a victory for abortion foes, the Supreme Court ruled that federal racketeering and extortion laws had been wrongly used to try to stop blockades, harassment and violent protests outside clinics.

Ten years ago: The United States and China averted a major trade war by signing a comprehensive agreement. Barings PLC, Britain’s oldest investment banking firm, collapsed after Nick Leeson, a 28-year-old securities dealer, lost over $1.4 billion by gambling on Tokyo stock prices.

Five years ago: Pope John Paul II visited Mount Sinai in Egypt, where he prayed for religious tolerance in a garden under the peak revered as the place where Moses received the Ten Commandments.

One year ago: Two church-sanctioned studies documenting sex abuse by U.S. Roman Catholic clergy said that about 4 percent of clerics had been accused of molesting minors since 1950 and blamed bishops’ “moral laxity” in disciplining offenders for letting the problem worsen. Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski was killed in a plane crash in southern Bosnia.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Mason Adams is 86. Actress Betty Hutton is 84. Singer Fats Domino is 77. Political columnist Robert Novak is 74. Country-rock musician Paul Cotton (Poco) is 62. Actor-director Bill Duke is 62. Singer Mitch Ryder is 60. Rock musician Jonathan Cain (Journey) is 55. Singer Michael Bolton is 52. Actor Greg Germann is 47. Bandleader John McDaniel is 44. Actress Jennifer Grant is 39. Singer Erykah Badu is 34. R&B singer Rico Wade (Society of Soul) is 33. R&B singer Kyle Norman (Jagged Edge) is 30. Country singer Rodney Hayden is 25.

Thought for Today: “Rien n’est plus affreux que le rire pour la jalousie.” (Nothing is more frightful than laughter when it comes to jealousy.) – Francoise Sagan, French author.