October 26: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

October 26 is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 66 days remaining.

Events

• 740 - An earthquake strikes Constantinople, causing much damage and death.
• 1640 - The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between Scotland and Charles I of England
• 1774 - The first Continental Congress adjourns.
• 1795 - The French Directory, a five-man revolutionary government, is created
• 1825 - The Erie Canal opens - passage from Albany, New York to Lake Erie
• 1859 - The Royal Charter is wrecked on the coast of Anglesey, Wales with 459 dead.
• 1863 - The Football Association is formed
• 1881 - The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place at Tombstone, Arizona.
• 1905 - Norway becomes independent from Sweden
• 1917 - Battle of Caporetto: Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat at the hands of Germany and Austria during the First World War
• 1918 - Erich von Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the Imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.
• 1936 - The first electric generator at Hoover Dam went into full operation.
• 1944 - The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends.
• 1944 - Future Vice-president, and later, President Harry Truman publicly denies ever having been a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
• 1947 - The Maharaja of Kashmir agrees to allow his kingdom to join India
• 1948 - Killer smog settles into Donora, Pennsylvania.
• 1954 - Trieste return to Italy.
• 1955 - After the last Allied troops have left the country and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares its permanent neutrality.
• 1955 - Ngo Dinh Diem declares himself Premier of South Vietnam
• 1958 - Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York to Paris.
• 1965
• 1965 - The Beatles are appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs)
• 1965 - The body of Sylvia Likens is found in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
• 1977 - The last natural case of smallpox was discovered in Merca district, Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination.
• 1976 - Transkei declares its "independence" from South Africa
• 1978 - Independent Counsel Act signed into law
• 1979 - Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea is assassinated by KCIA head Kim Jae-kyu. Choi Kyu-ha becomes the acting President; Kim is executed the following May.
• 1984 - "Baby Fae" receives a heart transplant from a baboon
• 1984 - John D. McCollum shoots and kills himself after spending a day listening to Ozzy Osbourne records; a lawsuit is later filed by his parents over the song "Suicide Solution", but the case eventually gets thrown out.
• 1984 - The Terminator is released in theaters nationwide.
• 1991 - Lori Keevil-Matthews is killed after a 485-pound umbrella slams her against a boulder in a Christo art installation.
• 1992 - The command and control system of the London Ambulance Service fails catastrophically.
• 1992 - The Charlottetown Accord fails to win majority support in a Canada wide referendum.
• 1994 - Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty
• 1994 - Announcement of Andrew Wiles correct proof of Fermat's last theorem.
• 1995 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Mossad agents assassinate Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shikaki in his hotel in Malta.
• 1997 - The left arms of Chen Ming-Kuo and Yang Chung-ming are amputated by the rope in a 1,500-person tug-of-war contest in Taipei; both arms are successfully reattached later on.
• 1997 - Basketball player Charles Barkley is charged with aggravated battery and resisting arrest after throwing Jorge Lugo through a plate glass window in a dance club in Orlando, Florida.
• 1999 - Britain's House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.
• 2000 - Laurent Gbagbo takes over as president of Côte d'Ivoire following a popular uprising against President Robert Guéï
• 2000 - The successor to the highly successful PlayStation, the PlayStation 2 was released.
• 2001 - The United States passes the controversial USA Patriot Act into law.
• 2002 - Moscow Theater Siege ends: Approximately 50 Chechen rebels and 150 hostages die when Russian commandos storm the House of Culture theater in Moscow, which had been occupied by the rebels three days before.
• 2005 - Last day of Cream reunion shows at Madison Square Garden.
• 2005 - The Chicago White Sox win the World Series after defeating the Houston Astros 1-0 in a four game sweep. It is their first championship since 1917.

• 1427 - Archduke Sigismund of Austria (d. 1496)
• 1473 - Friedrich of Saxony (d. 1510)
• 1491 - Zhengde, Emperor of China (d. 1521)
• 1673 - Dimitrie Cantemir, Moldavian Prince, linguist and scholar (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)
• 1757 - Karl Leonhard Reinhold, Austrian philosopher (d. 1823)
• 1759 - Georges Jacques Danton, French Revolutionary leader (d. 1794)
• 1794 - Konstantin Thon, Russian architect (d. 1881)
• 1800 - Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prussian field marshal (d. 1891)
• 1802 - King Miguel of Portugal (d. 1866)
• 1854 - C. W. Post, American entrepreneur (d. 1914)
• 1865 - Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (d. 1912)
• 1869 - Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, President of Brazil (d. 1957)
• 1873 - Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 1942)
• 1874 - Martin Lowry, British chemist (d. 1936)
• 1880 - Andrei Bely, Russian writer (d. 1934)
• 1883 - Paul Pilgrim, American athlete (d. 1958)
• 1902 - Jack Sharkey, American boxer (d. 1994)
• 1906 - Primo Carnera, Italian boxer (d. 1967)
• 1911 - Sid Gilman, American football player, coach, and manager (d. 2003)
• 1911 - Mahalia Jackson, American singer (d. 1972)
• 1911 - Sorley MacLean, Scottish poet (d. 1996)
• 1912 - Don Siegel, American director (d. 1991)
• 1914 - Jackie Coogan, American actor (d. 1984)
• 1916 - François Mitterrand, President of France (d. 1996)
• 1919 - Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran, Shah of Iran (d. 1980)
• 1925 - Jan Wolkers, Dutch author
• 1942 - Bob Hoskins, British actor
• 1945 - Pat Conroy, American writer
• 1946 - Pat Sajak, American game show host
• 1947 - Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the United States and Senator from New York
• 1947 - Jaclyn Smith, American actress
• 1947 - Holly Woodlawn, Puerto Rican actress
• 1951 - Bootsy Collins, American musician (P Funk)
• 1952 - Andrew Motion, English poet
• 1957 - Bob Golic, American football player
• 1958 - Rita Wilson, American actress
• 1961 - Dylan McDermott, American actor
• 1962 - Cary Elwes, British actor
• 1963 - Natalie Merchant, American singer
• 1965 - Aaron Kwok Fu-Shing, Hong Kong singer and actor
• 1967 - Keith Urban, New Zealand singer
• 1971 - Anthony Rapp, American singer and actor
• 1973 - Seth MacFarlane, American animator
• 1977 - Jon Heder, American actor
• 1981 - Guy Sebastian, Australian singer
• 1982 - Matt Shamblin, American musician

• 899 - Alfred the Great
• 1440 - Gilles de Rais, French serial killer (b. 1404)
• 1633 - Horio Tadaharu, Japanese warlord (b. 1596)
• 1671 - John Gell, English politician (b. 1593)
• 1679 - Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, British soldier, statesman, and dramatist (b. 1621)
• 1686 - John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater, English politician (b. 1623)
• 1717 - Catherine Sedley, English mistress of James II of England
• 1751 - Philip Doddridge, English religious leader (b. 1702)
• 1764 - William Hogarth, British painter (b. 1697)
• 1803 - Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician (b. 1721)
• 1806 - John Graves Simcoe, first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada (b. 1752)
• 1817 - Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, Austrian scientist (b. 1727)
• 1890 - Carlo Collodi, Italian writer (b. 1826)
• 1902 - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American feminist and suffragette (b. 1815)
• 1909 - Prince Hirobumi Ito, Japanese governor of Korea (assassinated) (b. 1841)
• 1931 - Charles Comiskey, baseball team owner (b. 1859)
• 1937 - Józef Dowbór-Muśnicki, Polish general, commander of the Greater Poland Uprising (b.1867)
• 1941 - Arkady Gaidar, Russian children's writer (killed in combat) (b. 1904)
• 1943 - Marc Aurel Stein, Hungarian-born archaeologist (b. 1862)
• 1944 - William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1881)
• 1945 - Paul Pelliot, French explorer (b. 1878)
• 1947 - Canon Edwin Sidney Savage, English rector (b. 1862)
• 1952 - Hattie McDaniel, American singer (b. 1895)
• 1956 - Walter Gieseking, French conductor (b. 1895)
• 1957 - Gerty Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1896)
• 1957 - Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer (b. 1883)
• 1972 - Igor Sikorsky, Ukrainian-born inventor (b. 1889)
• 1979 - Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea (b. 1917)
• 1986 - Jackson Scholz, American runner (b. 1897)
• 1989 - Charles J. Pedersen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
• 1995 - Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter (b. 1913)
• 1999 - Hoyt Axton, American musician (b. 1938)
• 2002 - Jacques Massu, French general (b. 1908)

• Roman festivals - first day of Ludi Victoriae Sullanae (until 1 November)
• R.C. Saints - October 26th is the feast day of the following Roman Catholic Saints:
  • St. Bean
  • St. Evaristus
  • St. Albinus
  • St. Alfred the Great
  • St. Cedd
  • St. Cuthbert
  • St. Demetrius (aka St. Dimitrios) of Thessaloniki
  • St. Eadfrid
  • St. Fulk
  • St. Gibitrudis
  • St. Lucian
  • St. Rogatian
  • St. Rusticus
  • St. Quadragesimus
• Also see October 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
• Austria - National Day: Anniversary of the Declaration of Neutrality (1955)
• Nauru - Angam Day

• In the movie Back To The Future, all of the "present" events occur on this date in 1985.
• In the movie Death Becomes Her, Helen first drinks the immortality potion on October 26, 1985. Like Back To The Future, this movie was also directed by Robert Zemeckis.

October 25 - October 27 - September 26 - November 26 - more historical anniversaries