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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.

1776 - Benjamin Franklin departed America for France on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution

1795 - The French Directory, a five-man revolutionary government, is created.

1825 - The Erie Canal opens - passage from Albany, New York to Lake Erie.

1859 - The Royal Charter is wrecked on the coast of Anglesey, north Wales with 459 dead.

1860 - Meeting of Teano. Giuseppe Garibaldi, conqueror of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, gives it to King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.

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.

1912 - The city of Thessaloniki is unified with Greece on the feast day of its patron Saint Demetrius.

1917 - Battle of Caporetto: Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat at the hands of Germany and Austria during the World War I.

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.

1940 - The P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight.

1942 - World War II: In the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the Guadalcanal Campaign, one U.S. aircraft carrier, ''Hornet'', was sunk and another aircraft carrier, ''Enterprise'', is heavily damaged.

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.

1947 - The British Military Occupation ends in Iraq.

1948 - Killer smog settles into Donora, Pennsylvania.

1951 - Boxer Joe Louis comes out of retirement to fight Rocky Marciano. However, Marciano would win the fight in eight rounds.

1954 - Trieste return to Italy.

1955 - After the last Allied troops have left the country and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares its permanent neutrality.

1955 - Ngô Đình Diệm declares himself Premier of South Vietnam.

1958 - Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York to Paris.

1964 - Eric Edgar Cooke becomes last person in Western Australia to be executed.

1965 - The Beatles are appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs).

1965 - The body of Sylvia Likens is found in Indianapolis, Indiana.

1977 - The last natural case of smallpox was discovered in Merca district, Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination.

1978 - Independent Counsel Act is 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 is eventually thrown out.

1985 - Major League Baseball umpire Don Denkinger makes a controversial call in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series.

1986 - The Buckner Error.

1992 - The command and control system of the London Ambulance Service fails catastrophically.

1992 - The Charlottetown Accord fails to win majority support in a Canada wide referendum..

1994 - Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty.

1994 - Announcement that Andrew Wiles correctly proved 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.

2000 - PlayStation 2, successor to the highly successful PlayStation, is released.

2000 - On the same date, Majora's Mask came out to Nintendo 64.

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 Spetsnaz storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the rebels during a musical performance three days before.

2004 - AT&T Wireless is officially acquired by Cingular Wireless.

2005 - The Chicago White Sox defeat the Houston Astros in the World Series to win their first championship since 1917.

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1427 - Archduke Sigismund of Austria (d. 1496)

1473 - Friedrich of Saxony (d. 1510)

1491 - Zhengde, Emperor of China (d. 1521)

1673 - Dimitrie Cantemir, Moldavian prince, 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)

1768 - Eustachy Erazm Sanguszko, Polish general and politician (d. 1844)

1794 - Konstantin Thon, Russian architect (d. 1881)

1800 - Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prussian field marshal (d. 1891)

1802 - King Miguel of Portugal (d. 1866)

1842 - Vasili Vasilyevich Vereshchagin, Russian painter (d. 1904)

1849 - Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, German mathematician (d. 1917)

1854 - C. W. Post, American entrepreneur (d. 1914)

1865 - Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (d. 1912)

1869 - Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, President of Brazil (d. 1957)

1871 - Guillermo Kahlo, father of Frida Kahlo (d. 1941)

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 (d. 2003)

1911 - Mahalia Jackson, American singer (d. 1972)

1911 - Sorley MacLean, Scottish poet (d. 1996)

1912 - Don Siegel, American director (d. 1991)

1913 - Charlie Barnet, American jazz saxophonist and bandleader (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)

1921 - George Forrest, Northern Irish MP (d. 1968)

1925 - Jan Wolkers, Dutch author

1929 - Neal Matthews, Jr., American singer (The Jordanaires) (d. 2000)

1942 - Bob Hoskins, British actor

1945 - Pat Conroy, American writer

1945 - Jaclyn Smith, American actress

1946 - Pat Sajak, American game show host

1947 - Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the United States and United States Senator

1947 - Holly Woodlawn, Puerto Rican actress

1949 - Steve Rogers, Major League Baseball pitcher

1951 - Bootsy Collins, American musician (P Funk)

1952 - Andrew Motion, English poet and Poet Laureate

1957 - Bob Golic, American football player

1958 - Rita Wilson, American actress

1959 - Evo Morales, President of Bolivia

1959 - Brian Bovell, British actor

1961 - Dylan McDermott, American actor

1962 - Cary Elwes, British actor

1963 - Natalie Merchant, American singer

1963 - Ted Demme, American film and television director (d. 2002)

1965 - Aaron Kwok Fu-Shing, Hong Kong singer

1966 - Jane Hajduk, American actress

1966 - Steve Valentine, British actor

1966 - Jeanne Zelasko, American sportcaster

1967 - Keith Urban, New Zealand singer

1970 - Raveena Tandon, Indian actress

1971 - Anthony Rapp, American singer and actor

1973 - Seth MacFarlane, American animator

1974 - LISA, Japanese musician

1976 - Miikka Kiprusoff, Finnish hockey player

1977 - Jon Heder, American actor

1978 - Jimmy Aggrey, English footballer

1978 - CM Punk, American professional wrestler

1978 - Mark Barry, English musician (BBMak)

1980 - Cristian Chivu, Romanian footballer

1981 - Guy Sebastian, Australian singer

1984 - Sasha Cohen, American figure skater

1985 - Andrea Bargnani, Italian basketball player

1985 - Asin Thottumkal, Indian actress

1989 - James Utechin, British actor

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899 - Alfred the Great

1235 - King Andrew II of Hungary (b. 1175)

1440 - Gilles de Rais, French serial killer (b. 1404)

1633 - Horio Tadaharu, Japanese warlord (b. 1596)

1671 - Sir John Gell, 1st Baronet, 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)

1803 - Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician (b. 1721)

1806 - John Graves Simcoe, first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada (b. 1752)

1817 - Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, Austrian scientist (b. 1727)

1866 - John Kinder Labatt, Irish-Canadian brewer (Labatt Brewing Company) (b. 1803)

1890 - Carlo Collodi, Italian writer (b. 1826)

1896 - Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour, French statesman (b. 1827)

1902 - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American feminist and suffragette (b. 1815)

1909 - Hirobumi Ito, Japanese Prime Minister, de facto Resident-General of Korea (b. 1841)

1930 - Harry Payne Whitney, American businessman (b. 1872)

1931 - Charles Comiskey, baseball team owner (b. 1859)

1937 - Józef Dowbór-Muśnicki, Polish general (b.1867)

1941 - Arkady Gaidar, Russian children's writer (b. 1904)

1943 - Marc Aurel Stein, Hungarian-born archaeologist (b. 1862)

1944 - Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, daughter of Queen Victoria (b. 1857)

1944 - William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1881)

1945 - Paul Pelliot, French explorer (b. 1878)

1945 - Alexei Krylov, Russian engineer and mathematician (b. 1863)

1947 - Canon Edwin Sidney Savage, English rector (b. 1862)

1952 - Hattie McDaniel, American singer and actress (b. 1895)

1956 - Walter Gieseking, French pianist (b. 1895)

1957 - Gerty Cori, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate (b. 1896)

1957 - Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer (b. 1883)

1966 - Alma Cogan, English singer (b. 1932)

1971 - Vincent Coleman, American actor (b. 1901)

1972 - Igor Sikorsky, Ukrainian-born inventor (b. 1889)

1979 - Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea (b. 1917)

1984 - Gus Mancuso, baseball player (b. 1905)

1986 - Jackson Scholz, American runner (b. 1897)

1989 - Charles J. Pedersen, American Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)

1994 - Wilbert Harrison, American singer (b. 1929)

1995 - Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter (b. 1913)

1999 - Hoyt Axton, American musician (b. 1938)

2002 - Jacques Massu, French general (b. 1908)

2002 - Movsar Barayev, Chechen militant

2004 - Bobby Avila, Major League Baseball player (b. 1924)

2006 - Pontus Hultén, Swedish art collector and pioneering museum director (b. 1924)

2006 - Rogério Duprat, Brazilian composer (b. 1932)

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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

St. Demetrius (aka St. Dimitrios) of Thessaloniki

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