October 26 facts for kids

October 26 is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 66 days remain until the end of the year.

October 26 is a special day with many important events throughout history. People around the world celebrate different holidays and remember famous people who were born or passed away on this date. Let's explore some of the interesting things that happened on October 26!

Historical Events on October 26

Early History (Before 1600)

• 1185 – The Uprising of Asen and Peter started. This led to the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire.
• 1341 – A Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 officially began when John VI Kantakouzenos was declared Byzantine Emperor.
• 1377 – Tvrtko I became the very first king of Bosnia.
• 1520 – Charles V was crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1597 – During the Imjin War, Korean Admiral Yi Sun-sin bravely defeated a huge Japanese Navy of 300 ships with only 13 ships at the Battle of Myeongnyang.

Events from 1601 to 1900

• 1640 – The Treaty of Ripon was signed, bringing peace between Scotland and King Charles I of England.
• 1689 – General Enea Silvio Piccolomini of Austria had Skopje burned down to stop the spread of a disease called cholera. He sadly died from the disease soon after.
• 1774 – The American Revolution: The First Continental Congress finished its meeting in Philadelphia.
• 1813 – During the War of 1812, British, Canadian, and Mohawk forces defeated the United States Army in the Battle of the Chateauguay.
• 1825 – The Erie Canal opened. This allowed boats to travel directly from the Hudson River to Lake Erie.
• 1859 – The Royal Charter Storm caused a lot of damage and killed at least eight hundred people in the British Isles.
• 1860 – Unification of Italy: The Expedition of the Thousand ended. Giuseppe Garibaldi gave his conquered lands to King Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia.
• 1863 – The Football Association, which governs football (soccer) in England, was founded.
• 1871 – Liberian President Edward James Roye was removed from power in a coup d'état.
• 1881 – Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were part of the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.
• 1890 – The Malleco Viaduct in Chile was opened. At the time, it was known as "the highest railroad bridge in the world."
• 1892 – Ida B. Wells published her important work, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.

Modern History (1901–Present)

• 1905 – King Oscar II agreed to the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden.
• 1909 – During the Japanese occupation of Korea, An Jung-geun killed Japan's Resident-General of Korea.
• 1912 – First Balkan War: The Ottoman Empire lost the cities of Thessaloniki and Skopje.
• 1917 – World War I: Brazil declared war on the Central Powers.
• 1918 – World War I: Erich Ludendorff, a top general of the Imperial German Army, was removed by Kaiser Wilhelm II.
• 1936 – The first electric generator at Hoover Dam started working fully.
• 1937 – Nazi Germany began forcing 18,000 Polish Jews to leave the country.
• 1942 – World War II: In the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, during the Guadalcanal Campaign, one U.S. aircraft carrier was sunk.
• 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ended with a big American victory.
• 1947 – Partition of India: The leader of Kashmir and Jammu signed an agreement with India. This started the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948.
• 1955 – After all foreign troops left, Austria declared that it would never join a military alliance.
• 1955 – Ngô Đình Diệm announced he was President of the new Republic of Vietnam.
• 1956 – Hungarian Revolution: In some towns, Hungarian secret police forces caused many civilian deaths.
• 1958 – Pan American Airways made the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris.
• 1967 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowned himself Emperor of Iran.
• 1968 – Space Race: The Soyuz 3 mission achieved the first Soviet space rendezvous, where two spacecraft met in orbit.
• 1977 – Ali Maow Maalin, the last natural case of smallpox, got a rash in Somalia. This date is seen as the anniversary of smallpox being wiped out.
• 1979 – Park Chung Hee, President of South Korea, was killed by the head of the Korean CIA.
• 1985 – The Australian government gave ownership of Uluru back to the local Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal people.
• 1991 – The last soldier of the Yugoslav People's Army left the Republic of Slovenia.
• 1994 – Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty.
• 1995 – Agents from Mossad killed Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shaqaqi in Malta.
• 1999 – The United Kingdom's House of Lords voted to end the right of most hereditary peers to vote in Parliament.
• 2000 – Protests forced Robert Guéï to step down as president after the Ivorian presidential election.
• 2001 – The United States passed the USA PATRIOT Act into law.
• 2002 – Russian special forces ended a hostage situation in a Moscow theater.
• 2003 – The Cedar Fire, a very large wildfire in California, killed 15 people and destroyed many homes.
• 2004 – Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PlayStation 2. It became the console's best-selling video game.
• 2012 – Microsoft publicly released Windows 8 for new PCs.
• 2015 – A strong earthquake hit the Hindu Kush mountain range in South Asia, killing 399 people.

Famous Births on October 26

People Born Before 1900

• 1416 – Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent, an English politician.
• 1427 – Sigismund, Archduke of Austria.
• 1431 – Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, an Italian politician.
• 1473 – Friedrich of Saxony, a Grand Master.
• 1483 – Hans Buchner, a German Renaissance composer.
• 1491 – Zhengde Emperor of China.
• 1556 – Ahmad Baba al Massufi, a Malian scholar.
• 1564 – Hans Leo Hassler, a German organist and composer.
• 1609 – William Sprague, an English-American settler who helped found Charlestown, Massachusetts.
• 1673 – Dimitrie Cantemir, a Moldavian geographer and historian.
• 1685 – Domenico Scarlatti, an Italian harpsichord player and composer.
• 1759 – Georges Danton, a French lawyer and politician.
• 1800 – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, a Prussian field marshal.
• 1802 – Miguel I of Portugal.
• 1842 – Vasily Vereshchagin, a Russian soldier and painter.
• 1854 – C. W. Post, an American businessman who founded Post Foods.
• 1863 – Washington Luís, the 13th President of Brazil.
• 1871 – Guillermo Kahlo, a German-Mexican photographer.
• 1873 – A. K. Fazlul Huq, a Bangladeshi-Pakistani lawyer and politician.
• 1874 – Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, an American who helped found the Museum of Modern Art.
• 1880 – Andrei Bely, a Russian novelist and poet.
• 1883 – Napoleon Hill, an American philosopher and author.
• 1899 – Judy Johnson, an American baseball player.
• 1900 – Ibrahim Abboud, the first President of Sudan.

People Born After 1900

• 1902 – Jack Sharkey, an American boxer.
• 1906 – Primo Carnera, an Italian boxer and actor.
• 1911 – Mahalia Jackson, a famous American singer.
• 1914 – Jackie Coogan, an American actor.
• 1916 – François Mitterrand, the 21st President of France.
• 1919 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran.
• 1922 – Madelyn Dunham, the grandmother of Barack Obama.
• 1925 – Jan Wolkers, a Dutch sculptor and author.
• 1934 – Hot Rod Hundley, an American basketball player.
• 1936 – Shelley Morrison, an American actress.
• 1942 – Bob Hoskins, an English actor.
• 1942 – Milton Nascimento, a Brazilian singer.
• 1945 – Jaclyn Smith, an American actress.
• 1946 – Pat Sajak, an American game show host.
• 1947 – Hillary Clinton, an American lawyer and politician, and former First Lady of the United States.
• 1951 – Bootsy Collins, an American singer and bass player.
• 1953 – Roger Allam, a British actor.
• 1956 – Rita Wilson, an American actress and producer.
• 1959 – Evo Morales, the 80th President of Bolivia.
• 1961 – Uhuru Kenyatta, the 4th President of Kenya.
• 1961 – Dylan McDermott, an American actor.
• 1962 – Cary Elwes, an English actor.
• 1963 – Tom Cavanagh, a Canadian actor.
• 1963 – Natalie Merchant, an American singer.
• 1967 – Keith Urban, an Australian-American singer.
• 1971 – Anthony Rapp, an American actor and singer.
• 1973 – Seth MacFarlane, an American voice actor, director, and producer.
• 1976 – Miikka Kiprusoff, a Finnish ice hockey player.
• 1977 – Jon Heder, an American actor.
• 1978 – CM Punk, an American wrestler.
• 1980 – Cristian Chivu, a Romanian footballer.
• 1981 – Guy Sebastian, a Malaysian-Australian singer.
• 1982 – Nicola Adams, an English boxer.
• 1984 – Sasha Cohen, an American figure skater.
• 1984 – Jefferson Farfán, a Peruvian footballer.
• 1985 – Andrea Bargnani, an Italian basketball player.
• 1985 – Monta Ellis, an American basketball player.
• 1985 – Kieran Read, a New Zealand rugby player.
• 1986 – Schoolboy Q, a German-American rapper.
• 1994 – Allie DeBerry, an American model and actress.
• 1997 – Rhenzy Feliz, an American actor and singer.
• 2002 – Julian Dennison, a New Zealand actor.

Notable Deaths on October 26

People Who Died Before 1900

• 664 – Cedd, an English monk and bishop.
• 899 – Alfred the Great, a famous English king.
• 1440 – Gilles de Rais, a French knight.
• 1580 – Anna of Austria, Queen of Spain.
• 1631 – Michael Maestlin, a German astronomer.
• 1675 – William Sprague, an English settler.
• 1764 – William Hogarth, an English painter.
• 1806 – John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.
• 1866 – John Kinder Labatt, an Irish-Canadian brewer who founded the Labatt Brewing Company.
• 1890 – Carlo Collodi, an Italian journalist and author, famous for Pinocchio.

People Who Died After 1900

• 1902 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an American activist for women's rights.
• 1909 – Itō Hirobumi, a Japanese politician and Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1930 – Waldemar Haffkine, a Russian-Swiss physician and microbiologist.
• 1932 – Margaret Brown, an American philanthropist and activist, known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."
• 1944 – Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom.
• 1952 – Hattie McDaniel, an American actress and singer.
• 1957 – Gerty Cori, a Czech-American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner.
• 1957 – Nikos Kazantzakis, a Greek philosopher and author.
• 1972 – Igor Sikorsky, a Ukrainian-American engineer who founded Sikorsky Aircraft.
• 1979 – Park Chung Hee, the 3rd President of South Korea.
• 1989 – Charles J. Pedersen, an American chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
• 1999 – Hoyt Axton, an American singer-songwriter and actor.
• 2002 – Jacques Massu, a French general.
• 2007 – Arthur Kornberg, an American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner.
• 2008 – Tony Hillerman, an American journalist and author.
• 2015 – Leo Kadanoff, an American physicist.
• 2021 – Roh Tae-woo, the 6th President of South Korea.

Holidays and Celebrations

• Accession Day is celebrated in Jammu and Kashmir, India.
• Angam Day is a public holiday in Nauru.
• Armed Forces Day (Benin) is celebrated in Benin.
• Christian feast days include:
  • Alfred the Great
  • Cedd
  • Cuthbert of Canterbury
  • Demetrius of Thessaloniki
  • Pope Evaristus
• National Day in Austria. This day celebrates the anniversary of Austria's Declaration of Neutrality in 1955.

See also

In Spanish: 26 de octubre para niños