May 26

May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (147th in leap years). There are 219 days remaining before the end of the year.

Events

• 1328 - William of Ockham, Franciscan Minister-General Michael of Cesena, and two other Franciscan leaders secretly leave Avignon, fearing a sentence of death from Pope John XXII.
• 1538 - Geneva expels John Calvin and his followers from the city. Calvin lives in exile in Strasbourg for the next three years.
• 1637 - Pequot War: A combined Puritan and Mohegan force under English Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Native Americans.
• 1670 - In Dover, King Charles II of England and King Louis XIV of France sign the Secret Treaty of Dover.
• 1736 - Battle of Ackia: British and Chickasaw soldiers repel a French and Choctaw attack on the Chickasaw village of Ackia, near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi. The French, under Louisiana governor Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, had sought to link Louisiana with Acadia and the other northern colonies of New France.
• 1805 - Napoléon Bonaparte (Napoleon I) assumes the title of King of Italy and is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in the Duomo di Milano gothic cathedral in Milan.
• 1828 - Mysterious feral child Kaspar Hauser is discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg.
• 1830 - The Indian Removal Act is passed by the U.S. Congress; it is signed into law by President Andrew Jackson two days later.
• 1864 - Montana is organized as a United States territory.
• 1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, is the last general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas.
• 1868 - The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ends, with Johnson being found not guilty by one vote.
• 1879 - Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state.
• 1889 - Opening of the first Eiffel Tower elevator to the public
• 1896 - Nicholas II becomes Tsar of Russia.
• 1896 - Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
• 1896 - James Dunham murders six people in Campbell, California.
• 1897 - Bram Stoker's novel Dracula goes on sale in London.
• 1906 - Vauxhall Bridge is opened in London.
• 1908 - At Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.
• 1918 - The Democratic Republic of Georgia is established.
• 1938 - The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its first session.
• 1940 - World War II: Battle of Dunkirk – In France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk.
• 1948 - The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 557 which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the United States Air Force.
• 1963 - The Organisation of African Unity is formed.
• 1966 - British Guiana gains independence, becoming Guyana.
• 1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing.
• 1969 - John Lennon and Yoko Ono begin their second Bed-In for Peace at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.
• 1970 - The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.
• 1972 - Willandra National Park is established in Australia.
• 1972 - The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
• 1977 - George Willig climbs the South Tower of New York City's World Trade Center.
• 1978 - In Atlantic City, New Jersey, Resorts International, the first legal casino in the eastern United States, opens.
• 1986 - The European Community adopts the European flag.
• 1991 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia becomes the first democratically elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era.
• 1991 - Lauda Air Flight 004 explodes over rural Thailand, killing 223.
• 2002 - The Mars Odyssey finds signs of huge water ice deposits on the planet Mars.
• 2002 - Álvaro Uribe becomes President of Colombia.
• 2003 - Only three days after a previous record, Sherpa Lakpa Gelu climbs Mount Everest in 10 hours 56 minutes. The tourism ministry of Nepal confirms this record in July that year.
• 2004 - The New York Times publishes an admission of journalistic failings, claiming that its flawed reporting and lack of skeptism towards sources during the buildup to the 2003 war in Iraq helped promote the belief that Iraq possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

Births

• 1264 - Prince Koreyasu, 7th Kamakura shogun of Japan (d. 1326)
• 1566 - Mehmed III, Ottoman Emperor (d. 1603)
• 1602 - Philippe de Champaigne, French painter (d. 1674)
• 1650 - John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, British general (d. 1722)
• 1667 - Abraham de Moivre, French mathematician (d. 1754)
• 1669 - Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist (d. 1722)
• 1689 - Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, English writer (d. 1762)
• 1700 - Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, German religious and social reformer (d. 1760)
• 1764 - Edward Livingston, American jurist and statesman (d. 1836)
• 1799 - Aleksandr Pushkin, Russian author (d. 1837)
• 1822 - Edmond de Goncourt, French writer (d. 1896)
• 1865 - Robert W. Chambers, American artist (d. 1933)
• 1867 - Mary of Teck, queen of George V of the United Kingdom (d. 1953)
• 1878 - Isadora Duncan, American dancer (d. 1927)
• 1886 - Al Jolson, American singer (d. 1950)
• 1887 - Paul Lukas, Hungarian actor (d. 1971)
• 1893 - Norma Talmadge, American actress (d. 1957)
• 1895 - Dorothea Lange, American photographer (d. 1965)
• 1907 - Rachel Carson, American environmental writer (d. 1964)
• 1907 - John Wayne, American actor (d. 1979)
• 1908 - Robert Morley, English actor (d. 1992)
• 1911 - Ben Alexander, American actor (d. 1969)
• 1912 - Jay Silverheels, American actor (d. 1980)
• 1913 - Peter Cushing, English actor (d. 1994)
• 1915 - Sam Edwards, American actor (d. 2004)
• 1915 - Antonia Forest, British children's author (d. 2003)
• 1916 - Henriette Roosenburg, Dutch journalist (d. 1972)
• 1920 - Peggy Lee, American singer (d. 2002)
• 1923 - James Arness, American actor
• 1923 - Roy Dotrice, British actor
• 1926 - Miles Davis, American musician and composer (d. 1991)
• 1928 - Jack Kevorkian, American physician
• 1938 - William Bolcom, American composer
• 1938 - Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano
• 1939 - Brent Musburger, American sports broadcaster
• 1941 - Cliff Drysdale, South African-born tennis player
• 1942 - Levon Helm, American musician (The Band)
• 1946 - Mick Ronson, English guitarist (d. 1993)
• 1948 - Stevie Nicks, American songwriter and actress
• 1949 - Philip Michael Thomas, American actor
• 1949 - Hank Williams Jr., American singer
• 1949 - Ward Cunningham, American inventor
• 1951 - Sally Ride, astronaut
• 1953 - Michael Portillo, British politician
• 1954 - Alan Hollinghurst, British novelist
• 1955 - Masaharu Morimoto, Japanese chef
• 1957 - Margaret Colin, American actress
• 1962 - Bobcat Goldthwait, American actor and comedian
• 1964 - Lenny Kravitz, American guitarist and singer
• 1966 - Helena Bonham Carter, English actress
• 1968 - Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark
• 1970 - Nobuhiro Watsuki, Japanese cartoonist
• 1971 - Matt Stone, American television producer
• 1982 - Yoko Matsugane, Japanese model
• 1991 - Dan Smith, Image Editor

Deaths

• 604 - Augustine of Canterbury, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 818 - Ali ar-Rida, Shia Imam (b. 766)
• 946 - King Edmund I of England (b. 921)
• 1055 - Margrave Adalbert of Austria
• 1536 - Francesco Berni, Italian poet
• 1595 - Philip Neri, Italian churchman (b. 1515)
• 1648 - Vincent Voiture, French poet (b. 1597)
• 1653 - Robert Filmer, English writer (b. 1588)
• 1679 - Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria (b. 1636)
• 1685 - Karl II, Elector Palatine (b. 1651)
• 1703 - Samuel Pepys, English civil servant and diarist (b. 1633)
• 1824 - Capel Lofft, English writer (b. 1751)
• 1881 - Jakob Bernays, German philologist (b. 1824)
• 1883 - Edward Sabine, Irish astronomer (b. 1788)
• 1902 - Almon Strowger, American inventor (b. 1839)
• 1907 - Ida McKinley, First Lady of the United States (b. 1847)
• 1908 - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Punjabi founder of the Ahmadi sect (b. 1839)
• 1924 - Victor Herbert, Irish composer (b. 1859)
• 1926 - Simon Petlyura, Ukrainian independence fighter (b. 1879)
• 1933 - Jimmie Rodgers, American singer (b. 1897)
• 1943 - Edsel Ford, American automobile executive (b. 1893)
• 1951 - Lincoln Ellsworth, American scientist and polar explorer (b. 1880)
• 1955 - Alberto Ascari, Italian race car driver (b. 1918)
• 1976 - Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (b. 1889)
• 1995 - Friz Freleng, American animator (b. 1905)
• 1999 - Waldo Semon, American inventor (b. 1898)
• 2002 - Mamo Wolde, Ethiopian runner (b. 1932)
• 2003 - Kathleen Winsor, American writer (b. 1919)
• 2004 - Dullah Omar, South African lawyer and politician (b. 1934)
• 2005 - Chico Carrasquel, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (b. 1928)
• 2005 - Eddie Albert, American actor (b. 1906)

Holidays and observances

• Australia - National Sorry Day
• Poland - Mother's Day
• Georgia - National Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day

May 25 - May 27 - April 26 - June 26 – listing of all days