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The hours of service (HOS) are regulations issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration governing the working hours of anyone operating a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) in the United States for the purpose of interstate commerce. This includes truck drivers and bus drivers who operate CMVs for motor carriers (their employers). These rules limit the number of daily and weekly hours spent driving and working, and regulate the minimum amount of time drivers must spend resting between driving shifts. The driver of a CMV is required to keep a record of working hours using a log book, outlining the total number of hours spent driving and resting, as well as the time at which the change of duty status occurred. In lieu of a log book, a motor carrier may keep track of a driver's hours using an electronic on-board recorder, which automatically records the amount of time spent driving the vehicle. The HOS's main purpose is to prevent accidents caused by driver fatigue. This is accomplished by limiting the number of driving hours per day, and the number of driving and working hours per week. Enforcement of the HOS is generally handled by DOT officers of each state, and are sometimes checked when CMVs pass through weigh stations. Requests to change the HOS are a source of contentious debate, and many surveys indicate some drivers get away with routinely violating the HOS. (more...)

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February 26: Liberation Day in Kuwait (1991); Ayyám-i-Há begins (Bahá'í calendar); Savior's Day in the Nation of Islam

• 1266 – King Manfred of Sicily was killed while fighting Angevin forces led by Charles of Anjou near Benevento, Italy.
• 1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from Elba, an island off the coast of Italy where he had been exiled after the signing of the Treaty of Fontainebleau one year earlier.
• 1919 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed a law that designated most of Arizona's Grand Canyon (pictured), a gorge of the Colorado River that is considered to be one of the major natural wonders of the world, as a national park.
• 1935 – With the aid of a radio station in Daventry, England, Scottish engineer and inventor Robert Watson-Watt first demonstrated the use of radar.
• 1991 – British computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee introduced WorldWideWeb, the world's first web browser and WYSIWYG HTML editor.
• 1993 – A bomb-laden van exploded in the underground garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six and injuring more than one thousand people.

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