138 things happened on 26 October, from AD 664 to 2012. UK stories come first, then the rest of the world.
1640 · 386 years ago
King Charles I of England signed the Treaty of Ripon with the Covenanters, a political movement in Scotland. The treaty was a truce, which is an agreement to stop fighting. It brought an end to the fighting of the Second Bishops' War between the king and the …
UK history first: stories from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
UK story
King Charles I of England signed the Treaty of Ripon with the Covenanters, a political movement in Scotland. The treaty was a truce, which is an agreement to stop fighting. It brought an end to the fighting of the Second Bishops' War between the king and the Scottish Covenanters.
UK story
The War of 1812 was fought between the United States and Britain and its allies, mostly in North America. British forces and their Mohawk allies, led by Charles de Salaberry, turned back an American attempt to invade Canada. The fight became known as the Battle of the Chateauguay. Salaberry, a Canadian officer, is best remembered for this victory.
UK story
The Football Association, usually called the FA, was set up in London. It was the world's first governing body for football, which means a group that makes the rules and runs the game. It is still the oldest football association in the world. The FA looks after football in England, from amateur teams to the professional game.
UK story
The House of Lords is one of the two parts of the UK Parliament, which meets in the Palace of Westminster. For centuries, hundreds of its members had inherited their seats from their families. On this day, the Lords voted to end that right for most of these hereditary peers. The change became law as the House of Lords Act 1999, which still let 92 of them stay for the time being.
UK story
Partition of India: The Maharaja of Kashmir and Jammu signs the Instrument of Accession with India, beginning the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947–1948 and the Kashmir conflict.
The Erie Canal opened in upstate New York, in the United States. It linked the Hudson River with Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes. It was the first waterway boats could use to travel between the Atlantic Ocean and the upper Great Lakes, above Niagara Falls. Moving people and goods became far cheaper, and the canal helped settlers spread west.
The first electric generator at the Hoover Dam went into full operation. A generator is a machine that turns movement into electricity, and at dams it is driven by water turbines. The Hoover Dam is a huge concrete dam on the Colorado River. It sits on the border between the American states of Nevada and Arizona and was built between 1931 and 1936.
The airline Pan Am began regular passenger flights with the Boeing 707, flying from New York City to Paris. The 707 was Boeing's first jet airliner and the first American one. It had four jet engines and wings that swept backwards. Its wide body fitted six seats in each row, a layout Boeing kept for later aeroplanes such as the 737.
The Soviet Union launched Soyuz 3, flown by cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy. During the mission he met up in orbit with Soyuz 2, a spacecraft with no crew, which was the first Soviet space rendezvous. A planned docking, where the two craft would join together, did not work. At 47, Beregovoy was the oldest person to go into orbit up to that time.
Ali Maow Maalin, a hospital cook in Somalia, began to show signs of smallpox. He was the last person known to catch the disease naturally, and he made a full recovery. Health workers acted fast, and none of the many people he had met caught it. In 1980, smallpox became the only human disease ever to be wiped out.
The Australian government gave ownership of Uluru back to the local Pitjantjatjara Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people were the first people to live in Australia. Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is an enormous rock made of sandstone. It rises from the land near the centre of Australia, about 335 kilometres south-west of the town of Alice Springs.
The Uprising of Asen and Peter begins on the feast day of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki and ends with the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire.
The Byzantine army proclaimed chief minister John VI Kantakouzenos as emperor, triggering a civil war between his supporters and those of John V Palaiologos, the heir to the throne.
Tvrtko I is crowned the first king of Bosnia.
Charles V was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor.
Imjin War: Thirteen Korean ships commanded by Admiral Yi Sun-sin defeated a far larger Japanese invading fleet at the Battle of Myeongnyang in the Myeongnyang Strait.
American Revolution: The First Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia.
Unification of Italy: The Expedition of the Thousand ends when Giuseppe Garibaldi presents his conquests to King Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia.
Liberian president Edward James Roye was overthrown in modern Africa's first coup d'état.
Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday participate in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.
Malleco Viaduct in Chile, at the time "the highest railroad bridge in the world", is inaugurated by President José Manuel Balmaceda.
The Saint Petersburg Soviet held its first meeting, becoming the first elected body in Russia to represent workers.
King Oscar II recognizes the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden.
The Illinois Memorial, honoring Union army soldiers from Illinois who fought at the Siege of Vicksburg, was dedicated at Vicksburg National Military Park.
First Balkan War: The Ottomans lose the cities of Thessaloniki and Skopje.
World War I: Brazil declares war on the Central Powers.
World War I: Erich Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the Imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.
The Chicago Theatre (pictured), the oldest surviving grand movie palace, opened.
World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with an overwhelming American victory.
Ngô Đình Diệm proclaimed himself president of the newly created Republic of Vietnam after defeating former emperor Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum supervised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu.
After the last Allied troops have left the country, and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares that it will never join a military alliance.
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowns himself Emperor of Iran.
Three months after the end of the Ten-Day War, the last soldier of the Yugoslav People's Army leaves the territory of the Republic of Slovenia.
Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty.
Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty, settling relations between the two countries and pledging that neither would allow its territory to become a staging ground for military strikes by a third country.
Following protests against military leader Robert Guéï, Laurent Gbagbo (pictured) became the president of Ivory Coast.
President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act into law, significantly expanding the authority of United States law enforcement agencies.
Microsoft made a public release of Windows 8 and made it available on new PCs.
Every answer is somewhere on this page. Have a go, then check!
In which year did this happen: “British and Mohawk forces stop an American invasion of Canada”?
C: 1813. 1813 — that’s 213 years ago. Find it on the page
In which year did this happen: “The Football Association is founded in London”?
C: 1863. 1863 — that’s 163 years ago. Find it on the page
Which of these happened first?
A: British and Mohawk forces stop an American invasion of Canada. 1813: British and Mohawk forces stop an American invasion of Canada · 1999: House of Lords votes to remove most hereditary peers · 1863: The Football Association is founded in London Find it on the page
“House of Lords votes to remove most hereditary peers” happened in 1999. How many years ago was that?
A: 27 years. 2026 − 1999 = 27. Find it on the page
Famous people whose birthday is 26 October.
UK story
Martin Lowry was an English chemist, born in 1874. He came up with an important idea about acids and bases. Another scientist, Johannes Brønsted, had the same idea at the same time while working separately, so it is called the Brønsted–Lowry theory. Lowry also helped to found the Faraday Society, a group for scientists, and later became its president.
UK story
Nicola Adams is a British boxer, born in 1982. At the London 2012 Olympics she became the first woman to win an Olympic boxing gold medal. She won gold again at Rio 2016, becoming a double Olympic champion. She later turned professional and retired in 2019, unbeaten as a professional boxer.
Well-known people who died on 26 October.
Festivals, holidays and saints’ days celebrated on 26 October somewhere in the world.
Content note: these entries mention things like war, violence, deaths, disasters or crime. They are part of history, but they can be upsetting. Grown-ups and teachers: you may want to read them first. They come straight from Wikipedia and have not been rewritten for children.
Stories with a heading have been written for young readers by A Day in the Past, using the linked articles as sources. Other entries show text from Wikipedia’s “October 26” page and its “On this day” feed, written by Wikipedia contributors and shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Each “Read more” link goes to the article an entry is based on. Photos are credited under each picture. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us.