On this day: February 26

FBI Confirms Wiretaps of Journalists in 1976 Disclosure

In February 1976 the FBI acknowledged that it had monitored the communications of some reporters. The admission heightened concerns about press freedom and fueled ongoing investigations into domestic intelligence practices.

The 1884 Bradford Milk Poisoning: The First Documented Mass Food Contamination

On February 26, 1884, in Bradford, England, dozens of people fell ill and several died after consuming contaminated milk adulterated with the preservative copper sulfate—one of the earliest well-documented incidents of mass food contamination that prompted public health and food-safety reforms.

The 1884 Bradford Tea Poisonings: an early mass food-contamination crisis

On February 26, 1884, residents of Bradford, England, began falling ill after consuming locally sold tea mixed with arsenic that had contaminated a shipment of ground arsenic used as a pesticide—one of the first widely recorded incidents of mass food contamination in an urban setting.

Hearings Open Over Pentagon Papers Disclosure

On February 26, 1971, congressional hearings convened to examine the classified Pentagon Papers and the government's handling of their publication, spotlighting legal and political conflicts over national security and press freedom.

Public Hearings Open on the Pentagon Papers

On February 26, 1971, the U.S. Senate’s judiciary subcommittee convened public hearings into the Pentagon Papers litigation, bringing previously secret U.S. government analyses of the Vietnam War into a courtroom and public forum amid a fierce debate over press freedom and national security.