On This Day - February 26, 2026

The U.S. Patent Office issued patent no. 534,840 to Michael Joseph Owens for a glass-blowing machine. Later that same year, Owens would co-found the Owens Bottle Machine Company in Toledo, Ohio. He also filed several other patents for bottle making.

The Palace Theatre in London introduced the public to Kinemacolor with a showing of 21 short films. George Albert Smith created the process for adding color filters to film.

National Public Radio files articles of incorporation with the District of Columbia Recorder of Deeds. The organization's membership is comprised of independent, private, public U.S. radio stations.

Congress established the title of Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry on December 20, 1985. On February 26, 1986, Robert Pen Warren was named the nation's first Poet Laureate.