October 26

Events

Pre-1600

• 1185 - The Uprising of Asen and Peter begins on the feast day of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki and ends with the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire.
• 1341 - The Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 formally begins with the proclamation of John VI Kantakouzenos as Byzantine Emperor.
• 1377 - Tvrtko I is crowned the first king of Bosnia.
• 1520 - Charles V is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1597 - Imjin War: Korean Admiral Yi Sun-sin routs the Japanese Navy of 300 ships with only 13 ships at the Battle of Myeongnyang.

  1601–1900

• 1640 - The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between Covenanter Scotland and King Charles I of England.
• 1689 - General Enea Silvio Piccolomini of Austria burns down Skopje to prevent the spread of cholera; he dies of the disease soon afterwards.
• 1774 - American Revolution: The First Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia.
• 1813 - War of 1812: A combined force of British regulars, Canadian militia and Mohawks defeat the United States Army in the Battle of the Chateauguay.
• 1825 - The Erie Canal opens, allowing direct passage from the Hudson River to Lake Erie.
• 1859 - The Royal Charter Storm kills at least eight hundred people in the British Isles.
• 1860 - Unification of Italy: The Expedition of the Thousand ends when Giuseppe Garibaldi presents his conquests to King Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia.
• 1863 - The Football Association is founded.
• 1871 - Liberian President Edward James Roye is deposed in a coup d'état.
• 1881 - Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday participate in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.
• 1890 - Malleco Viaduct in Chile, at the time "the highest railroad bridge in the world", is inaugurated by President José Manuel Balmaceda.
• 1892 - Ida B. Wells publishes ''Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.''

  1901–present

• 1905 - King Oscar II recognizes the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden.
• 1909 - Japanese occupation of Korea: An Jung-geun assassinates Japan's Resident-General of Korea.
• 1912 - First Balkan War: The Ottomans lose the cities of Thessaloniki and Skopje.
• 1917 - World War I: Brazil declares war on the Central Powers.
• 1918 - World War I: Erich Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the Imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.
• 1936 - The first electric generator at Hoover Dam goes into full operation.
• 1937 - Nazi Germany begins expulsions of 18,000 Polish Jews.
• 1942 - World War II: In the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the Guadalcanal Campaign, one U.S. aircraft carrier is sunk and another carrier is heavily damaged, while two Japanese carriers and one cruiser are heavily damaged.
• 1944 - World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with an overwhelming American victory.
• 1947 - Partition of India: The Maharaja of Kashmir and Jammu signs the Instrument of Accession with India, beginning the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 and the Kashmir conflict.
• 1955 - After the last Allied troops have left the country, and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares that it will never join a military alliance.
• 1955 - Ngô Đình Diệm proclaims himself as President of the newly created Republic of Vietnam.
• 1956 - Hungarian Revolution: In the towns of Mosonmagyaróvár and Esztergom, Hungarian secret police forces massacre civilians. As rebel strongholds in Budapest hold, fighting spreads throughout the country.
• 1958 - Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris.
• 1967 - Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowns himself Emperor of Iran.
• 1968 - Space Race: The Soyuz 3 mission achieves the first Soviet space rendezvous.
• 1977 - Ali Maow Maalin, the last natural case of smallpox, develops a rash in Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date to be the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination.
• 1979 - Park Chung Hee, President of South Korea, is assassinated by Korean CIA head Kim Jae-gyu.
• 1985 - The Australian government returns ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aboriginals.
• 1989 - China Airlines Flight 204 crashes after takeoff from Hualien Airport in Taiwan, killing all 54 people on board.
• 1991 - Three months after the end of the Ten-Day War, the last soldier of the Yugoslav People's Army leaves the territory of the Republic of Slovenia.
• 1994 - Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty.
• 1995 - Mossad agents assassinate Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shaqaqi in his hotel in Malta.
• 1995 - An avalanche hits the Icelandic village of Flateyri, destroying 29 homes and burying 45 people, and killing 20.
• 1999 - The United Kingdom's House of Lords votes to end the right of most hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.
• 2000 - A wave of protests forces Robert Guéï to step down as president after the Ivorian presidential election.
• 2001 - The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.
• 2002 - Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian special forces troops storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the terrorists during a musical performance three days before.
• 2003 - The Cedar Fire, the third-largest wildfire in California history, kills 15 people, consumes, and destroys 2,200 homes around San Diego.
• 2004 - Rockstar Games releases Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PlayStation 2 in North America, which sold 12 million units for the PS2, becoming the console's best-selling video game.
• 2012 - Microsoft made a public release of Windows 8 and made it available on new PCs.
• 2015 - A 7.5 magnitude earthquake strikes in the Hindu Kush mountain range in South Asia, killing 399 people and leaving 2,536 people injured.

  Births

Pre-1600

• 1416 - Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent, English politician, Lord High Treasurer
• 1427 - Sigismund, Archduke of Austria
• 1431 - Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, Italian politician
• 1473 - Friedrich of Saxony, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights
• 1483 - Hans Buchner, German Renaissance composer
• 1491 - Zhengde Emperor of China
• 1518 - John Basset, Devonshire gentleman
• 1529 - Anna of Hesse, princess of Hesse
• 1551 - Charlotte de Sauve, French courtesan
• 1556 - Ahmad Baba al Massufi, Malian academic
• 1564 - Hans Leo Hassler, German organist and composer

  1601–1900

• 1609 - William Sprague, English-American settler, co-founded Charlestown, Massachusetts
• 1612 - Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester
• 1673 - Dimitrie Cantemir, Moldavian geographer, historian, and philosopher
• 1684 - Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin, Prussian field marshal
• 1685 - Domenico Scarlatti, Italian harpsichord player and composer
• 1694 - Johan Helmich Roman, Swedish composer and academic
• 1747 - Ivan Mane Jarnović, Italian violinist and composer
• 1757 - Karl Leonhard Reinhold, Austrian philosopher and academic
• 1759 - Georges Danton, French lawyer and politician, French Minister of Justice
• 1768 - Eustachy Erazm Sanguszko, Polish general and politician
• 1794 - Konstantin Thon, Russian architect, designed the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
• 1795 - Nikolaos Mantzaros, Greek composer and theorist
• 1797 - Giuditta Pasta, Italian soprano
• 1799 - Margaret Agnes Bunn, Scottish actress
• 1800 - Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prussian field marshal
• 1802 - Miguel I of Portugal
• 1803 - Joseph Hansom, English architect and publisher, designed Birmingham Town Hall
• 1842 - Vasily Vereshchagin, Russian soldier and painter
• 1849 - Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, German mathematician and academic
• 1850 - Grigore Tocilescu, Romanian archaeologist and historian
• 1854 - C. W. Post, American businessman, founded Post Foods
• 1860 - Frank Eaton, American marshal and author
• 1865 - Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman
• 1869 - Washington Luís, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 13th President of Brazil
• 1871 - Guillermo Kahlo, German-Mexican photographer
• 1873 - A. K. Fazlul Huq, Bangladeshi-Pakistani lawyer and politician, 5th Pakistani Minister of Interior
• 1873 - Thorvald Stauning, Danish union leader and politician, 24th Prime Minister of Denmark
• 1874 - Martin Lowry, English chemist and academic
• 1874 - Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, American philanthropist, founded the Museum of Modern Art
• 1876 - H.B. Warner, English actor
• 1878 - William Kissam Vanderbilt II, American motor racing enthusiast and yachtsman
• 1880 - Andrei Bely, Russian novelist, poet, and critic
• 1881 - Louis Bastien, French cyclist and fencer
• 1883 - Napoleon Hill, American philosopher and author
• 1883 - Paul Pilgrim, American runner
• 1884 - William Hogenson, American sprinter
• 1888 - Runar Schildt, Finnish author
• 1890 - Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, Indian journalist and politician
• 1893 - Miloš Crnjanski, Serbian poet and author
• 1894 - Florence Nagle, English trainer and breeder of racehorses
• 1899 - Judy Johnson, American baseball player and coach
• 1900 - Ibrahim Abboud, Sudanese politician and general, 1st President of Sudan
• 1900 - Karin Boye, Swedish poet and novelist