October 26

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

Events

700-1899

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.

1900-1999

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.

1944 - The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends.

1944 - Vice 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.

1955 - Following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, the last Allied troops leave the country. Austria declares its permanent neutrality.

1955 - Ngo Dinh Diem declares himself Premier of South Vietnam

1958 - 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.

1985 - In the movie Back to the Future, scientist Dr. Emmett Brown breaks the time barrier in Hill Valley, California.

1991 - Lori Keevil-Matthews is killed after a 485-pound umbrella slams her against a boulder in a Christo art installation.

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.

2000-2099

2000 - Laurent Gbagbo takes over as president of C�te d'Ivoire following a popular uprising against President Robert Gu��

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.

2002 - Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson get married in Austin, Texas.