1. In 1815, the Battle of New Orleans officially ended the War of 1812 in Mississippi. The battle occurred on January 8, 1815, but news of the armistice did not reach the Mississippi Territory until February 26, 1815.

2. On February 26, 1870, Hiram Revels was sworn in as the first African American member of the United States Senate. Revels represented Mississippi and served until 1871.

3. In 1890, the Mississippi State Legislature established Mississippi State University, originally called Mississippi A&M College. Today, Mississippi State University is the largest university in Mississippi and one of the top research institutions in the South.

4. On February 26, 1952, Lala Mae Wallace, the widow of Mississippi Governor Fielding L. Wright, was killed in a plane crash. Wright, who served as governor from 1946 to 1952, died in a separate plane crash just one month earlier.

5. In 2004, the Mississippi House of Representatives voted to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag. The controversial emblem, which had been part of the flag since 1894, was replaced with a new design in 2020.