10/26 in History

Selectively sampled from Wikipedia:

306 – Martyrdom of Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki

740 – An earthquake strikes Constantinople, causing many deaths.

1689 – General Piccolomini of Austria burned down Skopje to prevent the spread of cholera. He died of cholera himself soon after.

1881 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place at Tombstone, Arizona.

1912 – First Balkan War: The capital city of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, is unified with Greece on the feast day of its patron Saint Demetrius. On the same day, Serbian troops captured Skopje.

1917 – World War I: Battle of Caporetto; Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat at the forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany.

1917 – World War I: Brazil declared in state of war with Central Powers.

1947 – The Maharaja of Kashmir agrees to allow his kingdom to join India.

1959 – The world sees the far side of the Moon for the first time.

1967 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowns himself Emperor of Iran and then crowns his wife Farah Empress of Iran.

1977 – The last natural case of smallpox is 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.

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.

1994 – Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty.

1995 – Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Mossad agents assassinate Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shikaki in his hotel in Malta.

2001 – The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.

2002 – Moscow Theatre Siege: Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian Spetsnaz storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the terrorists during a musical performance three days before.

Dishonourable mention:

• 1963 – On October 26 (10/26), JFK assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was residing at a Dallas rooming house located at 1026 North Beckley Avenue. On this day, it had been 10 days since being hired for his job at the Texas School Book Depository; his 2nd daughter was born just 6 days earlier. Twenty-seven (26+01) days later, he would be arrested on suspicion of the murder of Dallas police officer J. D. Tippit, and would afterward be implicated in the assassination of president John F. Kennedy.
(It’s a veritable conspiracy of numbers! : )
Here’s the audio from the president’s speech at Amherst College on October 26, 1963. (Running time: 14:30)