October 26

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
• 1795 – The French Directory, a five-man revolutionary government, is created
• 1863 – The Football Association is formed
• 1881 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place at Tombstone, Arizona.
• 2000 – Laurent Gbagbo takes over as president of Côte d'Ivoire following a popular uprising against President Robert Guéï
• 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.

Births

• 1427 – Sigismund of Austria, regent of the Tyrol and Further Austria
• 1673 – Dimitrie Cantemir, Moldavian, writer, domnitor (d. 1723)
• 1685 – Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer (d. 1757)
• 1759 – Georges Jacques Danton, French Revolutionary leader (d. 1794)
• 1854 – C. W. Post, Anerican entrepreneur (d. 1914)
• 1865 – Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (d. 1912)
• 1873 – Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 1942)
• 1874 – Martin Lowry, British chemist (d. 1936)
• 1883 – Paul Pilgrim, American athlete (d. 1958)
• 1902 – Jack Sharkey, boxer (d. 1994)
• 1906 – Primo Carnera, 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, actor (d. 1984)
• 1916 – François Mitterrand, President of France (d. 1996)
• 1919 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran, Shah of Iran (d. 1980)
• 1942 – Bob Hoskins, British actor
• 1945 – Pat Conroy, American writer
• 1946 – Pat Sajak, game show host
• 1947 – Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the United States and Senator from New York
• 1947  – Jaclyn Smith, actress
• 1947  – Holly Woodlawn, actor
• 1951 – Bootsy Collins, American musician (P Funk)
• 1952 – Andrew Motion, poet
• 1953 – Keith Strickland, drummer (The B-52's)
• 1954 – D.W. Moffett, actor
• 1957 – Bob Golic, American football player
• 1958 – Rita Wilson, actress
• 1961 – Dylan McDermott, actor
• 1962 – Cary Elwes, British actor
• 1963 – Natalie Merchant, singer
• 1965 – Aaron Kwok Fu-Shing, Hong Kong singer and actor
• 1967 – Keith Urban, country singer
• 1971 – Anthony Rapp, singer and actor
• 1973 – Seth MacFarlane, American animator

Deaths

• 899 – Alfred the Great
• 1440 – Gilles de Rais, serial killer
• 1764 – William Hogarth, British painter
• 1806 – John Graves Simcoe, first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada
• 1890 – Carlo Collodi, Italian writer
• 1902 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton, feminist, suffragette
• 1909 – Prince Hirobumi Ito, former Japanese governor of Korea (assassinated)
• 1931 – Charles Comiskey, baseball owner
• 1937 – Józef Dowbór-Muśnicki, Polish general, commander of Greater Poland Uprising in 1919 (b.1867)
• 1947 – Canon Edwin Sidney Savage, Rector of Hexham Abbey and St Bartholomew the Great
• 1952 – Hattie McDaniel, American singer
• 1956 – Walter Gieseking, French conductor (b. 1895)
• 1957 – Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer
• 1972 – Igor Sikorsky, helicopter pioneer
• 1979 – Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea
• 1986 – Jackson Scholz, American sprinter
• 1991 – Bill Graham, rock and roll entrepreneur
• 1995 – Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter
• 1999 – Hoyt Axton, musician
• 2002 – Jacques Massu, French general

Holidays

• 1955 – National Holiday: Anniversary of the Austrian Declaration of Neutrality
• Intersex Awareness Day
• Angam Day in Nauru

External links

• BBC: On This Day

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