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“After bread, education is the first need of the people.”
~ Georges Danton
Wikiquote (Georges Danton (October 26, 1759 – April 5, 1794) a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. Danton's role in the onset of the Revolution has been disputed; many historians describe him as "the chief force in the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the First French Republic". A moderating influence on the Jacobins, he was guillotined by the advocates of revolutionary terror after accusations of venality and leniency to the enemies of the Revolution.)
October 26th, 306
Martyrdom of Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki.
Wikipedia Image: 12th-century mosaic depicting St Demetrios, from the Golden-Roofed Monasteryin Kiev / 15th-century icon of St. Demetrius (Russian State Museum, Saint Petersburg).
October 26th, 1341
Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347: formally begins with the proclamation of John VI Kantakouzenos as Byzantine Emperor at Didymoteicho.
Wikipedia Image: John VI Kantakouzenos presiding over a synod.
October 26th, 1597
Imjin_War: Battle of Myeongnyang; Admiral Yi Sun-sin routs the Japanese Navy of 300 ships with only 13 ships.
Wikipedia Painting: Yi Sun Shin anchored his 13 ships in a line across a channel that had a particularly strong current. Seeing the formation of the small Korean fleet, the Japanese commander committed the entirety of his forces meant to destroy the Korean Navy.
October 26th, 1640
English Civil War:
1640 - Treaty of Ripon; is signed, restoring peace between Scotland and Charles I of England.
Wikipedia Painting: English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers);
John Milton publishes Areopagitica;
Battle of Naseby, victory of the Parliamentarian New Model Army;
Battle of Marston Moor, 1644;
"Cromwell at Dunbar", by Andrew Carrick Gow; Oliver Cromwell; King Charles I, painted by Van Dyck;
"And when did you last see your father?" by William Frederick Yeames.
October 26th, 1776
American Revolutionary War:
1774 - The first Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania over issues of mounting taxation without representation by British Parliament, which will lead to the American Revolution.
1775 - King George III of Great Britain goes before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorized a military response to quell the American Revolution.
1776 - Benjamin Franklin departs from America for France on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution.
Wikipedia Paintings: Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Leutz; Battle of the Chesapeake, French (left) and British (right) lines; Battle of Bunker Hill, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull; The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 13, 1782, by John Singleton Copley; Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, 1781; "The surrender at Saratoga" shows General Daniel Morgan in front of a French de Vallière 4-pounder; Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown by (John Trumbull, 1797).
Painting: Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, by Thomas Buttersworth (1768-1842).
October 26th, 1813
War of 1812:
1813 - Battle of Chateauguay; Canadians and Mohawks defeat the Americans.
Wikipedia Painting: Damage to the US Capitol after the Burning of Washington; HMS Shannon leading the captured American frigate USS Chesapeake into Halifax, Nova Scotia (1813); USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere; the death of Tecumseh at Moraviantown; Oliver Hazard Perry's message to William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie began with what would become one of the most famous sentences in American military history: "We have met the enemy and they are ours; "Andrew Jackson leads the defence of New Orleans; The mortally wounded Isaac Brock spurs troops on at the Queenston Heights.
October 26th, 1825
Erie Canal opens - passage from Albany, New York to Lake Erie.
Wikipedia Painting: Erie Canal - George Harvey: Pittsford on the Erie Canal, 1837 courtesy: Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester ● "Along the Erie Canal, Buffalo, N.Y." (No. M 71, Buffalo News Co., Buffalo, N.Y.) - Postcard; not postmarked; approximately 1908 ● Lock 16 hand cut limestone of the original Erie Canal preserved Saint St Johnsville New York on the Mohawk River.
October 26th, 1861
First Transcontinental Telegraph line across the United States officially ending the operations for the 18-month-old Pony Express.
Wikipedia Painting: 1860 The Pony Express: Depiction of the construction of the first Transcontinental Telegraph, with a Pony Express rider passing, by Carl Rakeman. credit Federal Highway Administration.
October 26th, 1881
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral: takes place at Tombstone, Arizona.
Wikipedia Painting: Streets of Tombstone, Arizona
October 26th, 1905
Norway becomes independent from Sweden.
Wikipedia Photo: Rondane National Park (Norwegian: Rondane nasjonalpark) is the oldest national park in Norway, established on 21 December 1962; Norwegian fjords; Norwegian Praise of Winter; Polar bears, credit National Geographics.
October 26th, 1912
Causes of World War I:
1912 - First Balkan War; The Ottoman occupied city of Thessaloniki, is liberated and unified with Greece on the feast day of its patron Saint Demetrius. On the same day, Serbian troops captured Skopje.
World War I:
1917 - Battle of Caporetto (Austro - Italian front); Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat by the forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany. The young unknown Oberleutnant Erwin Rommel captures Mount Matajur with only 100 Germans against a force of over 7000 Italians.
1917 - Brazil declared in state of war with Central Powers.
1918 - Erich Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the Imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.
Wikipedia Photo: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV Tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes. National Archives and Records Administration.
October 26th, 1936
Hoover Dam the electric generator goes into full operation".
Wikipedia Photo: Hoover Dam, credit National Geographic magazine
October 26th, 1940
World War II:
1940 - P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight.
1942 - Guadalcanal Campaign; Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, one U.S. aircraft carrier, Hornet, is sunk and another aircraft carrier, Enterprise is heavily damaged.
1943 - First flight of the Dornier Do 335 "Pfeil".
1944 - Battle of Leyte Gulf; ends with an overwhelming American victory.
Post World War II:
1947 - The Maharaja of Kashmir agrees to allow his kingdom to join India.
1955 - Austria declares permanent neutrality, after the last Allied troops have left the country and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty.
Wikipedia Photo: Bombing of Dresden in World War II; August Schreitmüller's sculpture 'Goodness' surveys Dresden after a firestorm started by Allied bombers in 1945.
USS Bunker Hill was hit by kamikazes piloted by Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa and another airman on 11 May 1945. 389 personnel were killed or missing from a crew of 2,600; Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a Kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945; Kamikaze Missions - Lt Yoshinori Yamaguchi's Yokosuka D4Y3 (Type 33 Suisei) "Judy" in a suicide dive against USS Essex. The dive brakes are extended and the non-self-sealing port wing tank is trailing fuel vapor and/or smoke 25 November 1944.
German V1 flying-bomb and V2 Rockets - Preparations for a Salvo Launch of V-2 Rockets in the Heidelager near Blizna (Poland) (1944), credit German History in Documents and Images GHDI.
Eastern Front (World War II); Germans race towards Stalingrad. August 1942; Soviet children during a German air raid in the first days of the war, June 1941, by RIA Novosti archive; Soviet sniper Roza Shanina in 1944. About 400,000 Soviet women served in front-line duty units Caucasus Mountains, winter 1942/43; Finnish ski patrol: the invisible enemy of the Soviet Army with an unlimited supply of skis; Men of the German Engineers Corps cross a river which is swollen after the first autumn rains, to strengthen bridges linking the German positions on the central front in Russia. by Keystone / Getty Images. October 1942; Russian snipers fighting on the Leningrad front during a blizzard. Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images, 1943; German soldiers surrendering to the Russians in Stalingrad, the soldier holding the white flag of surrender is dressed in white so that there could be no doubt of his intentions, a Russian soldier is on the right of the photograph. by Keystone / Getty Images, January 1943.
October 26th, 1977
The last natural case of smallpox is discovered in Merca district, Somalia.
Wikipedia Map: The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, credit GEBCO world map.
October 26th, 1984
"Baby Fae" receives a heart transplant from a baboon.
Wikipedia Photo: Stephanie Fae Beauclair (October 14, 1984 – November 15, 1984), better known as Baby Fae, was an American infant born in 1984 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. She became the first infant subject of a xenotransplant procedure, receiving the heart of a baboon. credit Loma Linda University
October 26th, 1994
Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
1994 - Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty.
1995 - Mossad agents assassinate Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shikaki in his hotel in Malta.
Wikipedia Photo: Israel, Middle East satellite image.
October 26th, 2001
The United States passes the Patriot Act into law.
Wikipedia Photo: September 11 attacks; From top to bottom: the World Trade Center burning; Trinity Cathedral; Statue of Liberty; a section of the Pentagon collapses; 9/11 memorial service.
October 26th, 2002
Moscow theater hostage crisis: after three days occupation by approximately 50 Chechen terrorists, 150 hostages die when Russian Spetsnaz storm a theater building in Moscow.
Wikipedia Photo: Victims Of Moscow Theater-Hostage Crisis Remembered; Chechen terrorists. Leader Movsar Barayev is on the right; Mourning for Moscow theatre hostage crisis, credit AFP / Radio Free Europe.
October 26th, 2003
Cedar Fire: the second-largest fire in California history, kills 15 people, consumes 250,000 acres (1,000 km2), and destroys 2,200 homes around San Diego.
Wikipedia Photo:Cedar Fire, the second-largest fire in California.
October 26th, 2016
Earthquake
2016 - Central Italy earthquakes; An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 strikes central Italy.
2015 - Hindu Kush earthquake; northern Hindu Kush, Afghanistan - A 7.5 magnitude earthquake strikes in the Hindu Kush mountain range in northeastern Afghanistan, killing 398 people and leaving 2,536 people injured.
Wikipedia Image: Preliminary Determination of Epicenters / Aleppo Syria; Anchorage, Alaska - March 28, 1964 Prince William Sound USA earthquake and tsunami; 8.9 Mega Earthquake Strikes Japan; Tsunami Swirls Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture March 12 2011. credit NOAA / NGDC, NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, USGS, National Geographics.