October 26

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

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances
5 Fiction
6 External links

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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
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 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 - The Beatles are appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs)
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.
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
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.

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Births

1427 - Archduke Sigismund of Austria (d. 1496)
1473 - Friedrich of Saxony (d. 1510)
1491 - Zhengde, Emperor of China (d. 1521)
1673 - Dimitrie Cantemir, Moldavian 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)
1854 - C. W. Post, American 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)
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

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Deaths

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)
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 British 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 - 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)

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Holidays and observances

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
- Saint Demetrius of Salonika
- 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

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Fiction

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.