October 26

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

Events:

• 1664 - Royal Marines are formed
• 1825 - Erie Canal opened
• 1863 - The Football Association is formed
• 1863 - International Federation of the Red Cross is formed
• 1881 - The Gunfight at the O. K. Corral
• 1944 - Battle of Leyte Gulf ends
• 1955 - Ngo Dinh Diem declares himself Premier of South Vietnam
• 1965 - The Beatles receive MBE Members of the British Empire[?] recognition
• 1976 - Transkei declares its "independence" from South Africa
• 1984 - "Baby Fae" receives a heart transplant from a baboon
• 1999 - Britain's House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers[?] to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament
• 2002 - 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:

• 1685 - Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer
• 1759 - Georges Jacques Danton, leader of the French Revolution
• 1854 - Charles Post[?], cereal entrepreneur
• 1865 - Benjamin Guggenheim, businessman, went down on Titanic (+ 1912)
• 1874 - Martin Lowry, British chemist
• 1902 - Jack Sharkey[?], boxing champion (+ 1994)
• 1906 - Primo Carnera, boxing champion (+ 1967)
• 1911 - Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer (+ 1972)
• 1911 - Sid Gilman, American football player, coach, manager
• 1911 - Sorley MacLean, Scots Gaelic poet
• 1912 - Don Siegel, American director
• 1914 - Jackie Coogan, actor (+ 1984)
• 1916 - François Mitterrand, French president (+ 1996)
• 1919 - Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran, shah of Iran (+ 1980)
• 1942 - Bob Hoskins, actor
• 1945 - Pat Conroy[?], novelist
• 1946 - Pat Sajak[?], game show host
• 1946 - Ivan Reitman[?], actor, writer, director
• 1947 - Jaclyn Smith[?], actress
• 1947 - Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of former President of the United States, Senator from New York
• 1947 - Holly Woodlawn[?], actor
• 1951 - Bootsy Collins, American musician (P Funk)
• 1953 - Keith Strickland[?], drummer ((The B-52s[?])
• 1954 - D.W. Moffett[?], actor
• 1958 - Rita Wilson[?], actress
• 1961 - Cylan McDermott[?], actor
• 1962 - Cary Elwes, British actor
• 1963 - Natalie Merchant, singer

Deaths:

• 1764 - William Hogarth, British painter
• 1806 - John Graves Simcoe, first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada
• 1902 - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, feminist, suffragette
• 1905 - Norway becomes independent from Sweden
• 1931 - Charles Comiskey[?], baseball owner
• 1952 - Hattie McDaniel, American singer
• 1972 - Igor Sikorsky, helicopter pioneer
• 1975 - Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist
• 1979 - Park Chung-hee[?], president of South Korea
• 1991 - Bill Graham[?], rock and roll entrepreneur
• 1999 - Hoyt Axton[?], musician

Holidays:

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