Don't miss downtown McKinney's 24th annual Krewe of Barkus Mardi Gras Dog Parade on Sunday, February 15, 2026. It's a free, family friendly event with vendors, a costume contest for dogs and their owners, and a Mardi Gras parade for the dogs. This year's theme is "Dogs Going Overboard - Barkus Sails the Seven Seas". You must register online prior to the event at mckinneytexas.org. The cost is $5 per dog, if you want to be in the parade.

A world premiere by a Grammy Award-winning composer along with piano soloist Aaron Kurz anchor the Lone Star Wind Orchestra’s 20th Anniversary Season Celebration concert on Sunday, Jan. 25, at 3 p.m. at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in the Dallas Arts District (2301 Flora St., Dallas). The milestone performance marks two decades of music-making and community impact while honoring the orchestra’s past and looking boldly toward the future in the spirit of its mission of “music changing lives.”

Broadway Dallas and Broadway Across America (BAA) are thrilled to announce that tickets for the North American tour of the smash hit Broadway musical and global sensation, The Great Gatsby, based on the beloved novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, will go on sale Friday, October 24 at 10 a.m. The party to end all parties will play Dallas’ Music Hall at Fair Park from February 17 to March 1, 2026, as part of the 2025/2026 Broadway Series presented by Broadway Dallas. Samantha Pauly (center) & cast in the Broadway production of The Great Gatsby. © Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Ash Wednesday Worship Service will be held on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, at 6:30 p.m. in the Sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church Bonham. We invite the community to join us for this meaningful service as we begin our journey through the Lenten season, preparing our hearts for Easter and celebrating the promise of new life in Christ.

ArtFest transforms the historic McKinney Cotton Mill into a destination for art lovers, gift seekers, and weekend explorers. Visitors can browse a thoughtfully curated lineup of artists, offering fine art, handcrafted silver and gold jewelry, studio ceramics, fiber art, woodwork, photography, and more—all handmade, all original.

1564 – birth of Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist, and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. He was born in the city of Pisa, then part of the Duchy of Florence. Galileo has been called the father of observational astronomy, modern-era classical physics, the scientific method, and modern science. Galileo studied speed and velocity, gravity and free fall, the principle of relativity, inertia, projectile motion, and also worked in applied science and technology, describing the properties of the pendulum and "hydrostatic balances." He was one of the earliest Renaissance developers of the thermoscope and the inventor of various military compasses. With an improved telescope he built, he observed the stars of the Milky Way, the phases of Venus, the four largest satellites of Jupiter, Saturn's rings, lunar craters, and sunspots. He also built an early microscope. Galileo's championing of Copernican heliocentrism was met with opposition from within the Catholic Church and from some astronomers. The matter was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, which concluded that his opinions contradicted accepted Biblical interpretations. Galileo later defended his views in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632), which appeared to attack and ridicule Pope Urban VIII, thus alienating both the Pope and the Jesuits, who had both strongly supported Galileo until this point. He was tried by the Inquisition, found "vehemently suspect of heresy," and forced to recant. He spent the rest of his life under house arrest. During this time, he wrote Two New Sciences (1638), primarily concerning kinematics and the strength of materials.