October 26

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 Martinez 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 - Francois 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 - Gyorgy 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 Garzon, 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 Farfan, 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 - Amedee-Francois 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 - Jozef Dowbor-Musnicki, 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 Gonzalez de Recabarren, Chilean human rights activist (b. 1925)
2018 - Warren B. Hamilton, American geologist (b. 1925)
2018 - Gyorgy Karoly, 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
Days of the year