Title: October 26 Content: == 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 * 2009 - Nathan Colwell, Professional nerd == 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 Category:Days of the year