October 26

October 26 is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 66 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

1341 – The Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 begins.
1597 – Imjin War: Admiral Yi Sun-sin decisively defeats the Japanese navy of 300 ships with only 13 ships of his own.
1640 – The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between Scotland and Charles I of Scotland and England.
1689 – The Bill of Rights 1689 is recognised by Great Britain's dual monarchy.
1689 – General Enea Silvio Piccolimini of Austria burns down Skopje, in the present–day Republic of Macedonia.
1708 – The final stone of the newly rebuilt St. Paul's Cathedral in London is laid by the son of Christopher Wren.
1774 – The First Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1775 – George III of Great Britain and Ireland authorises military force against the American colonies.
1776 – Benjamin Franklin leaves the United States for France to seek French support for the American Revolutionary War.
1811 – Argentina's government declares the freedom of expression for the press by decree.
1813 – War of 1812: A combined force of British regulars, Canadian militia and Mohawks defeats the Americans in the Battle of Chateauguay.
1825 – The Erie Canal opens, linking Albany, New York to Lake Erie.
1859 – British clipper Royal Charter gets into a storm of the island of Anglesey, Wales, being thrown against rocks before sinking, killing 449 people, including all the women and children on board.
1861 – The Pony Express officially ends operations.
1863 – The English Football Association is founded.
1881 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place in Tombstone, Arizona.
1896 – Addis Ababa agreement forces Italy to recognise Ethiopia's independence.

1901 – 2000

1905 – Norway becomes independent from Sweden.
1909 – Japanese Governor of Korea, Hirobumi Ito is shot dead by Korean nationalist Ahn Jung-geun in Harbin, Manchuria.
1912 – First Balkan War: Thessaloniki officially unites with Greece.
1917 – World War I: In the Battle of Caporetto, Italy is decisively defeated by forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany.
1917 – World War I: Brazil declares a state of war against the Central Powers.
1918 – General Erich Ludendorff is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to take part in peace negotiations.
1921 – The Chicago Theatre opens.
1936 – The first electric generator at the Hoover Dam, on the Arizona–Nevada border, goes into full operation.
1942 – World War II: Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in the Guadalcanal Campaign, ending in Japanese victory.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends in US victory.
1947 – The Maharaja, state ruler, of Kashmir & Jammu agrees to allow his kingdom to join India.
1951 – Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for a second time.
1955 – Austria declares permanent neutrality.
1955 – Ngo Dinh Diem declares himself leader of South Vietnam.
1958 – Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris.
1964 – Eric Edgar Cooke is the last person to be executed in Western Australia.
1965 – Austria celebrates its national holiday on this date for the first time.
1967 – Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, ruler of Iran, officially has himself crowned.
1968 – Soviet cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy pilots Soyuz 3 into space for a four–day mission.
1977 – The last natural case of Smallpox is discovered in Somalia.
1979 – Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea is murdered by Kim Jae-kyu. Choi Kyu-ha becomes acting president.
1984 – The movie The Terminator, directed by James Cameron, and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, is released.
1984 – The 1984–85 NBA regular season begins.
1985 – Uluru (Ayers Rock) is returned to Pitjantjiara Aborigines.
1994 – Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty.
1995 – An avalanche hits the village of Flateyri, in Iceland's West Fjords, killing 20 people.
1995 – The European Parliament condemns French nuclear testing in the Pacific.
1997 – Canadian Jacques Villeneuve becomes the Formula One world champion.
1998 – President of Ecuador Jamil Mahuad and President of Peru Alberto Fujimori meet in Brasilia to agree to an end to their countries' border war.
2000 – Laurent Gbagbo becomes President of the Ivory Coast.

From 2001

2001 – The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.
2002 – Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian security forces storm a theatre building in Moscow, which had been occupied by terrorists for three days
2003 – The Cedar fire occurs in California, killing 15 people, destroying 1, 000 square kilometres of forests, and 2,200 homes around San Diego.
2012 – Media tycoon and former Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi is found guilty of tax fraud.
2015 – An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 strikes Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing at least 365 people.
2017 – Jacinda Ardern becomes the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand, leading a Labour–New Zealand First Party coalition government.
2017 – The Tangerang fireworks disaster near Jakarta, Indonesia, kills at least 47 people.
2018 – October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts: Police in Florida arrest a 56–year–old suspect, Cesar Sayoc, in their hunt for the sender of several mail bombs to well–known figures in the US Democratic party and people who have criticized US President Donald Trump.
2018 – Michael D. Higgins is re–elected President of Ireland; on the same day the country's voters also vote to get rid of its blasphemy law.
2019 – Climbing the rock Uluru in Australia is officially banned.
2019 – Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the self–proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, is reported to have blown himself up during a US military operation in Northern Syria.

Births

Up to 1900

968 – Emperor Kazan of Japan (d. 1008)
1416 – Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent, English nobleman (d. 1490)
1427 – Archduke Sigismund of Austria (d. 1496)
1431 – Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, Italian nobleman (d. 1505)
1473 – Friedrich of Saxony, German nobleman (d. 1510)
1491 – Zhengde, Chinese Emperor (d. 1521)
1609 – William Sprague, English–born co–founder of Charlestown, Massachusetts (d. 1675)
1673 – Dimitrie Cantemir, Moldovan prince and polymath (d. 1723)
1684 – Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin, Prussian field marshal (d. 1757)
1685 – Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer (d. 1757)
1694 – Johan Helmich Roman, Swedish composer (d. 1758)
1697 – John Peter Zenger, German–American journalist, publisher and editor (d. 1746)
1757 – Karl Leonhard Reinhold, Austrian philosopher (d. 1823)
1759 – Georges Jacques Danton, French Revolutionary leader (d. 1794)
1768 – Eustachy Erazm Sanguszko, Polish general and politician (d. 1844)
1778 – Charles Grant, 1st Baron Glenelg, Scottish politician and colonial administrator (d. 1866)
1794 – Konstantin Thon, Russian architect (d. 1881) (Nov 6 in Gregorian calendar)
1800 – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prussian field marshal (d. 1891)
1802 – King Miguel of Portugal (d. 1866)
1803 – Joseph Hansom, English architect and inventor (d. 1882)
1842 – Vasily Vereshchagin, Russian painter (d. 1904)
1849 – Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, German mathematician (d. 1917)
1850 – Grigore Tocilescu, Romanian historian, archaeologist (d. 1909)
1859 – Elizabeth Nourse, American painter (d. 1938)
1861 – Richard Sears, American tennis player (d. 1943)
1862 – Hilma af Klint, Swedish artist and mystic (d. 1944)
1865 – Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (d. 1912)
1869 – Washington Martínez Pereira de Sousa, President of Brazil (d. 1967)
1872 – Harold Fraser, American golfer (d. 1945)
1873 – Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 1942)
1874 – Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, American art collector (d. 1948)
1874 – Martin Lowry, English physical chemist (d. 1936)
1880 – Andrei Bely, Russian writer (d. 1934)
1880 – Dmitry Karbyshev, Russian general (d. 1945)
1881 – Louis Bastien, French cyclist (d. 1963)
1883 – Napoleon Hill, American writer and philosopher (d. 1970)
1883 – Paul Pilgrim, American runner (d. 1958)
1890 – Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, Indian journalist and freedom fighter (d. 1931)
1900 – Karin Boye, Swedish writer (d. 1941)
1900 – Ibrahim Abboud, President of Sudan (d. 1983)

1901 – 1950

1902 – Beryl Markham, British aviation pioneer (d. 1986)
1902 – Henrietta Hill Swope, American astronomer (d. 1980)
1906 – Primo Carnera, Italian boxer (d. 1967)
1909 – Ignace Lepp, French psychologist, writer and priest (d. 1966)
1910 – John Krol, American cardinal (d. 1996)
1911 – Sorley MacLean, Scottish poet (d. 1996)
1911 – Mahalia Jackson, American singer (d. 1972)
1912 – Don Siegel, American director (d. 1991)
1913 – Charlie Barnet, American jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader (d. 1991)
1914 – Jackie Coogan, American actor (d. 1984)
1916 – François Mitterrand, President of France (d. 1996)
1919 – Edward Brooke, American politician (d. 2015)
1919 – Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (d. 1980)
1919 – Princess Ashraf of Iran (d. 2016)
1919 – Thomas Funck, Swedish writer (d. 2010)
1919 – Jacob Pressman, American rabbi (d. 2015)
1922 – Madelyn Dunham, grandmother of Barack Obama (d. 2008)
1922 – Darcy Ribeiro, Brazilian anthropologist, author and politician (d. 1997)
1924 – Shaw Taylor, English actor and television presenter (d. 2015)
1924 – Reg Withers, Australian politician (d. 2014)
1926 – Bernhard Klodt, German footballer (d. 1996)
1926 – Bo Carpelan, Finnish writer (d. 2011)
1928 – Albert Brewer, former Governor of Alabama (d. 2017)
1930 – John Arden, British writer and dramatist (d. 2012)
1931 – Ronald Drever, Scottish physicist (d. 2017)
1933 – Takis Kanellopoulos, Greek movie director and screenwriter (d. 1990)
1934 – Jacques Loussier, French pianist (d. 2019)
1934 – Ulrich Plenzdorf, German author, screenwriter and dramatist (d. 2007)
1934 – Rod Hundley, American basketball player (d. 2015)
1935 – Mike Gray, American writer, screenwriter, cinematographer and producer (d. 2013)
1936 – Shelley Morrison, American actress (d. 2019)
1936 – György Pauk, Hungarian violinist
1939 – Willie Stevenson, Scottish footballer
1940 – Eddie Henderson, American jazz musician
1941 – Charlie Landsborough, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1942 – Milton Nascimento, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1942 – Bob Hoskins, English actor (d. 2014)
1944 – Jim McCann, Irish musician (d. 2015)
1945 – Pat Conroy, American writer (d. 2016)
1945 – Jaclyn Smith, American actress
1946 – Kevin Barron, English politician
1946 – Pat Sajak, American television host
1946 – Holly Woodlawn, American actress (d. 2015)
1947 – Hillary Clinton, 67th United States Secretary of State, and former First Lady of the United States
1947 – Christian Ude, German politician and former Mayor of Munich
1947 – Reg Empey, Northern Irish politician
1949 – Steve Rogers, American baseball player

1951 – 1975

1951 – Bootsy Collins, American musician
1951 – Tommy Mars, American musician
1952 – Arthur Graham, Scottish footballer
1952 – Andrew Motion, English poet
1952 – Lars Peter Hansen, American economist
1953 – Keith Strickland, American musician
1953 – Maureen Teefy, American actress
1955 – Baltasar Garzón, Spanish judge
1956 – Regina Benjamin, 18th Surgeon General of the United States
1956 – Rita Wilson, American actress
1957 – Hugh Dallas, Scottish football referee
1958 – Shaun Woodward, British politician
1959 – Evo Morales, President of Bolivia
1960 – Carlo Lucarelli, Italian writer and journalist
1961 – Dylan McDermott, American actor
1961 – Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya
1962 – Cary Elwes, English actor and writer
1963 – Natalie Merchant, American singer
1963 – Ted Demme, American director, producer and actor (d. 2002)
1963 – Tom Kavanagh, Canadian actor and director
1965 – Kelly Rowan, Canadian actress
1966 – Steve Valentine, Scottish actor
1966 – Judge Jules, English DJ and producer
1967 – Keith Urban, New Zealand singer
1967 – Douglas Alexander, British politician
1968 – Robert Jarni, Croatian footballer
1970 – Lisa Ryder, Canadian actress
1971 – Audley Harrison, English boxer
1971 – Anthony Rapp, American actor
1971 – Rosemarie DeWitt, American actress
1972 – Riaz, Bangladeshi movie actor
1972 – Shan Sa, Chinese–French author and painter
1973 – Seth MacFarlane, American animator, voice actor, producer and director, creator of Family Guy and American Dad
1973 – Austin Healey, English rugby player
1974 – Lisa, Japanese musician

From 1976

1977 – Sarah Storey, British Paralympic swimmer and cyclist
1977 – Jon Heder, American actor
1978 – CM Punk, American professional wrestler
1979 – Movsar Barayev, Chechnen militant (d. 2002)
1980 – Cristian Chivu, Romanian footballer
1980 – Khalid Abdalla, British actor
1981 – Martina Schild, Swiss apline skier
1981 – Guy Sebastian, Australian singer
1982 – Nicola Adams, British boxer
1983 – Dmitri Sychev, Russian footballer
1983 – Luke Watson, South African rugby player
1984 – Adriano Correia Claro, Brazilian footballer
1984 – Sasha Cohen, American figure skater
1984 – Jefferson Farfán, Peruvian footballer
1985 – Kieran Read, New Zealand rugby player
1985 – Andrea Bargnani, Italian basketball player
1985 – Monta Ellis, American basketball player
1985 – Asin, Indian actress
1985 – Kafoumba Coulibaly, Ivorian footballer
1986 – Marco Ruben, Argentine footballer
1986 – Schoolboy Q, American hip hop musician
1988 – Greg Zuerlein, American ice dancer
1992 – Cody Zeller, American basketball player
1993 – Sergey Karasev, Russian footballer
1994 – Allie DeBerry, American actress
1996 – Rebecca Tunney, British gymnast
2002 – Emma Schweiger, German actress

Deaths

Up to 1900

664 – Cedd, English Anglo–Saxon monk and Bishop of London (b. around 620)
899 – Alfred the Great, Saxon king of England (b. 849)
1235 – King Andrew II of Hungary (b. 1175)
1440 – Gilles de Rais, French serial killer (b. 1404)
1580 – Anna of Austria, Queen of Spain (b. 1549)
1609 – Matsudaira Tadayori, Japanese daimyo and samurai (b. 1582)
1633 – Horio Tadaharu, Japanese warlord (b. 1596)
1675 – William Sprague, English–born co–founder of Charlestown, Massachusetts (b. 1609)
1679 – Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, British soldier, statesman and dramatist (b. 1621)
1717 – Catherine Sedley, English royal mistress (b. 1657)
1764 – William Hogarth, British painter (b. 1697)
1773 – Amedée-François Frezier, French military engineer and explorer (b. 1682)
1806 – John Graves Simcoe, first lieutenant–governor of Upper Canada (b. 1752)
1864 – William T. Anderson, American Civil War rebel guerrilla leader (b. 1838)
1871 – Thomas Ewing, American politician (b. 1789)
1890 – Carlo Collodi, Italian writer (Pinocchio) (b. 1826)
1896 – Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour, French statesman (b. 1827)

1901 – 2000

1901 – Alfred Tysoe, British athlete (b. 1874)
1902 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American feminist, suffragette (b. 1815)
1909 – Prince Hirobumi Ito, former Japanese governor of Korea, and first Prime Minister of Japan (assassinated) (b. 1841)
1929 – Aby Warburg, German academic (b. 1866)
1931 – Charles Comiskey, American baseball owner (b. 1859)
1932 – Margaret Brown, American philanthropist, socialite and activist (b. 1867)
1937 – Józef Dowbór-Muśnicki, Polish general, commander of Greater Poland Uprising in 1919 (b. 1867)
1941 – Arkady Gaidar, Soviet/Russian children's writer, died in combat (b. 1904)
1944 – Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (b. 1857)
1944 – William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1881)
1945 – Alexei Krylov, Russian engineer and mathematician (b. 1863)
1945 – Paul Pelliot, French explorer (b. 1878)
1946 – Ioannis Rallis, Greek Prime Minister (b. 1878)
1947 – Canon Edwin Sidney Savage, Rector of Hexham Abbey and St Bartholomew the Great (b. 1861)
1952 – Hattie McDaniel, American singer (b. 1895)
1956 – Walter Gieseking, French conductor (b. 1895)
1957 – Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer (b. 1883)
1957 – Gerty Cori, Czech–born American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner (b. 1896)
1965 – Sylvia Likens, American torture victim (b. 1949)
1966 – Alma Cogan, British singer (b. 1932)
1971 – Vincent Coleman, American actor (b. 1901)
1972 – Igor Sikorsky, helicopter pioneer (b. 1889)
1979 – Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea (b. 1917)
1983 – Alfred Tarski, Polish mathematician (b. 1901)
1984 – Marc Kac, Polish mathematician (b. 1914)
1986 – Jackson Scholz, American runner (b. 1897)
1989 – Charles J. Pedersen, American organic chemist (b. 1904)
1995 – Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter (b. 1913)
1999 – Hoyt Axton, musician (b. 1938)
1999 – Rex Gildo, German actor and singer (b. 1936)

From 2001

2002 – Jacques Massu, French general (b. 1908)
2002 – Movsar Barayev, Chechen militant (b. 1979)
2005 – Rong Yiren, Chinese politician (b. 1916)
2007 – Khun Sa, Burmese warlord (b. 1934)
2007 – Dr. Arthur Kornberg, American scientist (b. 1918)
2008 – Tony Hillerman, American writer (b. 1925)
2009 – George Na'ope, American musician (b. 1928)
2010 – Paul the Octopus, FIFA World Cup 'oracle' (b. 2008)
2011 – Jona Senilagakali, Fijian politician, diplomat and physician (b. 1929)
2012 – John M. Johansen, American architect (b. 1916)
2013 – Ron Davies, Welsh photographer (b. 1921)
2014 – Oscar Taveras, Dominican baseball player (b. 1992)
2014 – Mo Collins, American football player (b. 1976)
2014 – Germain Gagnon, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1942)
2014 – Jeff Robinson, American baseball player (b. 1961)
2014 – Genpei Akasegawa, Japanese author and artist (b. 1937)
2014 – Senzo Meyiwa, South African footballer (b. 1987)
2015 – Ed Walker, American radio personality (b. 1932)
2015 – Leo Kadanoff, American physicist (b. 1937)
2017 – Ali Ashraf Darvishian, Iranian writer (b. 1941)
2017 – Arnett E. Girardeau, American politician (b. 1929)
2017 – Nelly Olin, French politician (b. 1941)
2017 – Stephen Toulouse, American policy specialist and policy relations manager (b. 1972)
2017 – Shea Norman, American gospel singer (b. 1971)
2018 – Nikolai Karachentsov, Russian actor (b. 1944)
2018 – Ana González de Recabarren, Chilean human rights activist (b. 1925)
2018 – Warren B. Hamilton, American geologist (b. 1925)
2018 – György Károly, Hungarian poet and novelist (b. 1953)
2019 – Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Iraqi terrorist, leader of the self–proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (b. 1971)
2019 – Paul Barrere, American guitarist (b. 1948)
2019 – Enriqueta Basilio, Mexican sprinter and hurdler (b. 1948)
2019 – Robert Evans, American film producer (b. 1930)
2019 – Chuck Meriwether, American baseball umpire (b. 1956)
2019 – V. Nanammal, Indian yoga teacher (b. 1920)
2019 – Natalya Pugacheva, Russian singer (Buranovskiye Babushki) (b. 1935)
2019 – Gregory E. Pyle, American politician (b. 1949)
2019 – Pascale Roberts, French actress (b. 1930)

Observances

National Holiday in Austria
Angam Day (Nauru)
Armed Forces Day (Benin)
Accession Day (Jammu and Kashmir)
Intersex Awareness Day