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What happened in history on this day: October 26?
On October 26 in ...
- 1466 - Birth of Desiderius Erasmus Holland, scholar/author (In Praise of Folly).
- 1576 - Death of Friedrich III AKA "Friedrich der Fromme" in Heidelberg, Germany; elector of the Palatine of the Rhine.
- 1685 - Birth of Domenico Scarlatti Naples Italy, composer/harpsichordist.
- 1759 - Birth of Georges-Jacques Danton in Arcis-sur-Aube, France, revolutionary leader.
- 1774 - First Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia.
- 1791 - Birth of Charles Sprague in Boston, Massachusetts, USA; banker/poet (Curiosity).
- 1825 - Formal opening of the Erie Canal, 364 miles long from the Hudson River, New York City to Lake Erie, Buffalo.
- 1842 - Antonio López de Santa Anna resigns (6th time) as President of Mexico.
- 1855 - Birth of Charles Post; breakfast cereal maker (Post).
- 1861 - Last ride of the Pony Express, between Missouri and California.
- 1861 - Birth of Richard D Sears in Boston, Massachusetts, USA; first to win US amateur national tennis match.
- 1863 - Football Association forms in England, standardizing soccer.
- 1868 - B F Randolph, South Carolina state senator, is assassinated.
- 1868 - White terrorists kill several blacks in Saint Bernard Parish, Louisiana.
- 1869 - First American steeplechase horserace (Westchester, New York).
- 1873 - Birth of Thorvald Stauning in Denmark; Prime Minister (1924-26, 1929-42).
- 1876 - US President sends federal troops to South Carolina.
- 1881 - In Tombstone, Arizona, USA, the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday face off against the Clanton-McLaury gang in a shootout at the OK Corral. The Earp brothers consist of bank security guard Wyatt, town marshal Virgil, and Morgan. The Clantons (Ike, Billy) and McLaurys (Tom, Frank) and Billy Claiborne are cowboys, cattle rustlers, thieves, and murderers. The 30-second shootout ends with Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers dead, and Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday wounded.
- 1887 - Detroit (National League) beats Saint Louis (AA) 10 games to 5 in the World Series.
- 1893 - Battleship USS Oregon is christened at a launching ceremony in San Francisco Bay, California.
- 1894 - Birth of John S Knight in West Virginia, USA; publisher (Knight-Ridder).
- 1903 - Yerba Buena is first Key System ferry to cross San Francisco Bay, California.
- 1903 - Colombia passes Law 33, creating new gold peso on par with US dollar, equal to 100 paper pesos.
- 1905 - First Soviet (workers' council) formed, in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
- 1905 - By the Karlstad Convention, the Union of Norway and Sweden is formally dissolved. King Oskar renounces the Norwegian throne, and declines to elect a prince of his to the throne.
- 1909 - Prince Ito of Japan is assassinated by a Korean.
- 1910 - Birth of John Cardinal Krol; archbishop of Philadelphia.
- 1911 - Birth of Mahalia Jackson in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; gospel singer ("Whole World in his Hands", Ed Sullivan Show).
- 1911 - Birth of Sid Gillman; NFL coach (Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers, San Diego Chargers, Houston Oilers).
- 1911 - Philadelphia Athletics beat New York Giants, 4 games to two in 8th World Series.
- 1913 - Birth of Charlie Barnet in New York City, New York, USA; big band leader, saxophonist ("Cherokee").
- 1914 - Birth of Jackie Coogan in Los Angeles, California, USA; actor (Uncle Fester - The Addams Family).
- 1916 - Birth of François Mitterand in Jarnac, France; President of France (1981-1995).
- 1916 - Margaret Sanger is arrested for obscenity (advocating birth control).
- 1917 - Felix the Cat is created as a cartoon character.
- 1919 - Birth of Edward W Brooke; American politician (Senator-Republican-Massachusetts).
- 1919 - Birth of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Aryamehr; Shah of Iran (1941-79).
- 1921 - US President Warren Harding appoints Solomon Porter Hood US Minister to Liberia.
- 1931 - Birth of Hank Garrett in Monticello, New York, USA; actor (Car 54 Where Are You, Generations, Max Headroom).
- 1932 - Birth of Chinadorai Deshmutu in India; field hockey player (1952).
- 1933 - Birth of Suzy Parker in San Antonio, Texas, USA; model/actress (Chamber of Horrors).
- 1936 - The first electric generator at Boulder Dam goes into full operation.
- 1936 - Birth of Bruce Belland in Chicago, Illinois, USA; singer (Tim Conway Hour).
- 1936 - Birth of Shelley Morrison; actress (Will and Grace).
- 1939 - Birth of John Arden in England; novelist/playwright (Left Handed Liberty).
- 1940 - The US P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight.
- 1941 - Birth of Harald Nielsen in Denmark; soccer player (Olympic-silver-1960).
- 1941 - U.S. Savings Bonds go on sale to the public.
- 1942 - Birth of Bob Hoskins in Suffolk, England; actor (Brazil, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The Englishman's Boy, Wind in the Willows).
- 1942 - US ship Hornet sunk in Battle of Santa Cruz Islands.
- 1944 - The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends, as the Japanese fleet withdraws from the victorious American fleet. The Japanese lost 34 ships, including four carriers, three battleships, and forty cruisers.
- 1945 - Birth of Jaclyn Smith in Houston, Texas, USA; actress (Charlie's Angels, Nightkill, The District).
- 1945 - Birth of Pat Conroy; American writer (Great Santini, Prince of Tides).
- 1946 - Birth of Pat Sajak in Chicago, Illinois, USA; TV host (Wheel of Fortune, Pat Sajak Show).
- 1947 - Maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir accedes to India.
- 1948 - Birth of Marshall Colt in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; actor (Eric - Lottery).
- 1949 - US President Harry Truman increases minimum wage from 40 cents to 75 cents.
- 1950 - Birth of Chuck Foreman; NFL running back (Minnesota Vikings).
- 1950 - Branch Rickey resigns as Brooklyn Dodgers' president.
- 1951 - Birth of Bootsy Collins in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; rocker (Parliaments - "We Got the Funk").
- 1951 - Birth of Maggie Roche; singer (The Roches).
- 1951 - Rocky Marciano knocks out Joe Louis in the 8th round at Madison Square Garden, New York, USA.
- 1952 - Death of Hatti McDaniel at age 57; actress (Beulah TV show).
- 1952 - Birth of James Pickens Junior; actor (Grey's Anatomy).
- 1953 - Birth of Julian Keith Strickland; drummer/guitarist (B-52's - "Rock Lobster").
- 1954 - Birth of Lauren Tewes in Braddock, Pennsylvania, USA; actress (The Love Boat, Eyes of a Stranger).
- 1954 - Birth of D.W. Moffett; actor (Skin, For Your Love, Chicago Sons).
- 1955 - Ngo Dinh Diem proclaims Vietnam a republic with himself as president.
- 1956 - Birth of Rita Wilson; actress (From the Earth to the Moon).
- 1956 - United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency statute approved.
- 1956 - Vietnam promulgates its constitution.
- 1957 - USSR fires defense minister, Marshal Georgi Zhukov.
- 1957 - Vatican Radio begins broadcasting.
- 1958 - Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707, from New York to Paris.
- 1960 - American League announces Minneapolis and Los Angeles to get teams in 1961.
- 1960 - American League's Washington Senators move to become Minnesota Twins.
- 1961 - Birth of Dylan McDermott; actor (The Practice, Dark Blue).
- 1962 - Birth of Cary Elwes; actor (Glory, Princess Bride, From the Earth to the Moon, The X-Files).
- 1962 - The Soviet Union transmits a proposal for ending the Cuban Missile Crisis: The missile bases would be removed in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba.
- 1962 - Death of Louise Beavers at age 60 of a heart attack; actress (over 125 films in 30 years, Beulah - Beulah TV show, Louise - Danny Thomas Show (1953-55)).
- 1963 - Birth of Kerri Lynne Rosenberg in Burlington, Iowa, USA; Miss Iowa-America (1991-top 10).
- 1965 - The Beatles receive Member of the British Empire medals at Buckingham Palace.
- 1966 - First Pacific communications satellite launched, Intelsat 2.
- 1966 - Birth of Olga Bicherova; gymnastics (won title at age 15 years 33 days).
- 1967 - Shah of Iran crowns himself after 26 years on Peacock Throne.
- 1968 - Birth of Tom Cavanagh; actor (Ed, Scrubs).
- 1968 - Soyuz 3 launched.
- 1969 - In the Banja Luka area of Yugoslavia, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake occurs. 20 killed, 150 seriously injured, and 65,000 left homeless.
- 1970 - Doonesbury comic strip debuts in 28 newspapers.
- 1972 - Henry Kissinger declares "Peace is at hand" in Vietnam.
- 1974 - Cleveland Coliseum opens for NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers and MISL's Crunch.
- 1975 - Anwar Sadat becomes first Egyptian president to officially visit the US.
- 1976 - Transkei gains independence, not recognized outside of South Africa.
- 1976 - Trinidad and Tobago becomes a republic.
- 1977 - Birth of Jon Heder; actor (Tankman Begins).
- 1977 - 5th and final test of space shuttle Enterprise.
- 1977 - Dr Clifford R Wharton Junior named chancellor of State University of New York.
- 1978 - Birth of Mark Barry; singer (BBMak).
- 1979 - Park Chung-hee, the President of South Korea, is assassinated by KCIA director Kim Jaegyu.
- 1980 - Saint Louis Cardinals sack Baltimore Colts' quarterbacks an NFL record-tying 12 times.
- 1981 - An IRA bomb in a Wimpy Bar in Oxford Street, London, kills a bomb disposal expert.
- 1981 - Birth of Guy Sebastian; singer (Australian Idol TV show (2003)).
- 1981 - Los Angeles Dodgers beat New York Yankees, four games to two in 78th World Series.
- 1981 - The 10th season of TV show M*A*S*H begins on CBS.
- 1982 - Steve Carlton becomes first pitcher to win four Cy Young awards.
- 1982 - NBC premieres the TV hospital drama St. Elsewhere.
- 1984 - "Baby Fae" gets baboon heart transplant, lives 21 days.
- 1984 - Death of Sue Randall at age 49; actress (Miss Landers - Leave it to Beaver).
- 1984 - Orion Pictures releases the film The Terminator to theaters.
- 1986 - Bus deregulation goes into effect in the United Kingdom, except Greater London and Northern Ireland.
- 1986 - Donald Duck is shown for the first time in the People's Republic of China. Chinese television launches a weekly half-hour of old Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse cartoons.
- 1987 - Head of Salvadoran Human Rights Commission assassinated by death squads.
- 1988 - The Callaway Sledgehammer Corvette reaches a top speed of 254.76 MPH at the Transportation Research Center in Ohio. making it the fastest street car.
- 1989 - Death of Charles J. Pedersen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1904).
- 1990 - Death of William S. Paley at age 89 from a heart attack; CBS founder and CEO.
- 1990 - William Anthony Odom, North Carolina 15-year-old, accidentally hangs himself staging a gallows scene at a Halloween party.
- 1991 - In Canada, two people share a CDN$15 million Lotto 6/49 jackpot.
- 1992 - In Canada, the Charlottetown Accord is defeated in a national referendum.
- 1993 - The Carolina Panthers become the NFL's 29th franchise and the first expansion team since 1976.
- 1994 - Walt Disney Home Video releases the animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on videotape in the USA.
- 1994 - Death of Wilbert Harrison at age 65 of a stroke in a nursing home in Spencer, North Carolina, USA; singer ("Kansas City" (1959), "Let's Work Together" (1969)).
- 1995 - An avalanche hits the village Flateyri in Iceland, killing 20 people.
- 1995 - Death of Margaret Gorman, first Miss America (born 1905).
- 1996 - The New York Yankees win their 23rd World Series (first since 1978) with a 3-2 victory over the defending World champs Atlanta Braves in Game 6. John Wetteland is named Most Valuable Player of the series.
- 1997 - The Florida Marlins win Game 7 of the 1997 World Series against the Cleveland Indians 3-2 in 11 innings.
- 1998 - Last day in office of Helmut Kohl as German Chancellor, ending his 16 years in office.
- 1998 - Catcher Mike Piazza signs the most lucrative contract in Major League Baseball history: over US$91 million for a seven-year deal.
- 1999 - Death of Hoyt Axton at age 61 after a heart attack; singer/songwriter ("Greenback Dollar", "Never Been to Spain", "Joy To The World"), actor (Bonanza TV show, I Dream of Jeannie, McCloud, Diff'rent Strokes, Murder She Wrote, WKRP).
- 2000 - Pakistani authorities announce that their police have found an apparently ancient mummy of a Persian princess in the province of Balochistan.
- 2000 - The New York Yankees defeat the New York Mets in Game 5 of the 2000 World Series, 4-1, to win their 26th World Series title. This was the first matchup between the two crosstown rivals.
- 2000 - Sony Computer Entertainment introduces the Sony PlayStation 2 in the USA. The system can also play PlayStation games, and supports DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, CD-ROM, and Dolby Digital media. Price is about US$300. Sales during the first week: 681,855.
- 2001 - US President George W. Bush signs into law the USA PATRIOT Act.
- 2002 - In Moscow, Russia, after a 57-hour-standoff at the Palace of Culture, Russian special forces surround and raid the theater. Most of the guerrillas and 120 hostages are killed during the raid.
- 2004 - The Cassini probe passes within 1,200km of Titan.
- 2004 - Rockstar Games releases the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game for the PlayStation 2 in the USA and the United Kingdom. Worldwide sales in the first week are about 4.5 million copies.
- 2005 - At the "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran, Iran, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls for Israel to be "wiped off the map", and condemns the peace process.
- 2005 - The American death toll in the Iraq war reaches 2,000.
- 2005 - The Chicago White Sox of the American League defeat the Houston Astros of the National League in four games to win the World Series Fall Classic. This gives the team its first World Championship since 1917.
- 2005 - In the finale of the Japanese baseball series, the Chiba Lotte Marines win their first league championship in 31 years, defeating the Hanshin Tigers. Coach Bobby Valentine becomes the first foreign manager to win the Japan Series in the 70-year history of Japanese baseball.
- 2007 - Apple releases the Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" operating system for Macintosh computers. Price is US$129 for a single user or $199 for up to five computers in a single household.
- 2007 - Death of Friedman Paul Erhardt, German American pioneering television chef (born 1943).
- 2007 - Death of Chang Chi-Fu "Khun Sa", Burmese warlord and master of heroin trade in Burma/Myanmar up to 1996, in Yangon (Rangoon) at age 73 (born 1934).
- 2008 - The International Monetary Fund reaches an agreement with Ukraine for a US$16.5-billion loan package to help the country.
- 2008 - American commandos make a raid on a farm in Syria, across from Iraq. The Syrian government claims eight civilians killed.
- 2011 - The Perth Mint in Australia announces the world's largest gold coin, 1000 kilograms of 0.9999 fine gold, cast rather than struck, with face value of A$1 million, containing about US$55.5 million worth of gold. Diameter is 80 cm, thicness 12 cm.
- 2015 - A magnitude 7.5 earthquake strikes the Hindu Kush region and causes 398 deaths, with 279 in Pakistan, 115 in Afghanistan and 4 in India.
- 2019 - Death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi AKA Ibrahim Awad by suicide bomb at age 48; leader of Islamic State.
- 2020 - NASA confirms the existence of molecular water on the sunlit side of the Moon, near Clavius crater, at concentrations of up to 412 parts per million.
- 2020 - The US Senate confirms Amy Coney Barrett to join the US Supreme Court.
- 2021 - Death of Roh Tae-woo, 6th President of South Korea (born 1932).
- 2022 - Death of Julie Powell at age 49 of cardiac arrest at home in Olivebridge, New York, USA; writer (Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen book (2005)).
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