26 January - Definition and Overview

January 26 is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 339 days remaining (340 in leap years).

Events

• 1340 - King Edward III of England is declared King of France.
• 1500 - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón become the first European to discover Brazil.
• 1531 - Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake--thousands die.
• 1699 - Treaty of Carlowitz signed.
• 1700 - The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake took place off the coast of the American Northwest, as evidenced by Japanese records.
• 1736 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.
• 1785 - Benjamin Franklin writes a letter to his daughter expressing disappointment over the selection of the eagle as the symbol of the United States; he wanted the turkey.
• 1788 - The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sail into Sydney Harbour to establish the first permanent European settlement on the continent. Celebrated as Australia Day.
• 1802 - The U.S. Congress passes an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol; eventually this becomes the Library of Congress.
• 1808 - Rum Rebellion, the only successful (but temporary) armed takeover of the government in Australia.
• 1837 - Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.
• 1838 - Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States
• 1841 - The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong, which China had ceded.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Massachusetts Governor receives permission from Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.
• 1870 - American Civil War: Virginia rejoins the Union.
• 1885 - Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum.
• 1887 - Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat Italians.
• 1905 - The Cullinan Diamond is found near Pretoria, South Africa at the Premier Mine.
• 1911 - Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane.
• 1934 - The Apollo Theatre opens in Harlem, New York City.
• 1939 - Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.
• 1942 - World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
• 1946 - Félix Gouin becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1950 - India promulgates its constitution forming a republic and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president.
• 1956 - 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
• 1961 - John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman holds this appointment.
• 1962 - Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
• 1965 - Hindi becomes the official language of India.
• 1970 - Folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel release classic album Bridge Over Troubled Water.
• 1980 - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.
• 1983 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released.
• 1986 - Super Bowl XX: The Chicago Bears defeat the New England Patriots, 46-10.
• 1992 - Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia is going to stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.
• 1992 - Super Bowl XXVI: The Washington Redskins defeat the Buffalo Bills, 37-24.
• 1993 - Václav Havel elected President of the Czech Republic.
• 1994 - A man fires two blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney, Australia.
• 1996 - Whitewater scandal: Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
• 1997 - Super Bowl XXXI: The Green Bay Packers defeat the New England Patriots, 35-21.
• 1998 - Lewinsky scandal: On American television, Bill Clinton denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
• 1998 - Compaq buys Digital Equipment Corporation.
• 2001 - A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24.
• 2001 - An earthquake hits Gujarat, India, causing more than 20,000 deaths.
• 2003 - Super Bowl XXXVII: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Oakland Raiders, 48-21, earning the Buccaneers their first Vince Lombardi Trophy.
• 2005 - The Glendale train crash occurs, involving three trains; the accident kills 11 and injures 200 in Glendale, California near Los Angeles early in the morning peak hours.
• 2005 - Having been confirmed earlier in the day by a vote of 85-13 in the United States Senate, Condoleezza Rice is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State, becoming the first African American woman to hold the post.
• 2005 - A helicopter crash in eastern Iraq kills 31 United States soldiers.

Births

• 1763 - Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, Napoleonic general and king Charles XIV of Sweden-Norway (d. 1841)
• 1781 - Achim von Arnim, poet (d. 1831)
• 1826 - Louis Favre, engineer Gotthard tunnel (d. 1879)
• 1826 - Julia Dent Grant, First Lady of the United States (d. 1902)
• 1831 - Mary Mapes Dodge, writer (d. 1907)
• 1880 - Douglas MacArthur, general (d. 1964)
• 1891 - Frank Costello, gangster (d. 1973)
• 1892 - Zara Cully, American actress (d. 1978)
• 1900 - Karl Ristenpart, German conductor (d. 1967)
• 1901 - Stuart Symington, politician (d. 1988)
• 1904 - Ancel Keys, scientist (d. 2004)
• 1905 - Charles Lane, actor
• 1905 - Bernhard Minetti, actor
• 1905 - Maria von Trapp, singer (d. 1987)
• 1908 - Stéphane Grappelli, musician, composer (d. 1997)
• 1913 - William Prince, American actor (d. 1996)
• 1915 - William Hopper, American actor (d. 1970)
• 1913 - Jimmy Van Heusen, songwriter (d. 1990)
• 1918 - Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
• 1918 - Vito Scotti, American actor (d. 1996)
• 1918 - Philip José Farmer, science fiction writer
• 1921 - Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony (d. 1999)
• 1922 - Michael Bentine, British comedian (d. 1996)
• 1923 - Anne Jeffreys, actress
• 1924 - Annette Strauss, philanthropist, former mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1998)
• 1924 - Rauf Denktash, Cypriot politician
• 1925 - Paul Newman, actor
• 1925 - Joan Leslie, American actress
• 1928 - Roger Vadim, French film director and actor (d. 2000)
• 1929 - Jules Feiffer, cartoonist, writer
• 1932 - Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, Jamaican record producer
• 1935 - Bob Uecker, broadcaster, baseball player, actor
• 1937 - Joseph Saidu Momoh, Sierra Leone political leader (d. 2003)
• 1941 - Henry Jaglom, director
• 1941 - Scott Glenn, actor
• 1943 - Jean Knight, singer
• 1943 - César Gutiérrez, Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
• 1944 - Angela Davis, feminist and activist
• 1945 - Jacqueline du Pré, cello player (d. 1987)
• 1946 - Gene Siskel, film critic (d. 1999)
• 1953 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark
• 1953 - Lucinda Williams, country singer
• 1955 - Eddie Van Halen, musician
• 1958 - Ellen DeGeneres, actress, comedienne, talk show host
• 1961 - Wayne Gretzky, ice hockey player
• 1963 - Andrew Ridgeley, musician
• 1963 - Jazzie B., singer
• 1970 - Kirk Franklin, gospel singer
• 1977 - Vince Carter, basketball player

Deaths

• 1886 - David Rice Atchison, American politician (b. 1807)
• 1942 - Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (b. 1868)
• 1946 - Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Westrobothnia, second in line to the Swedish throne (b. 1906)
• 1962 - Lucky Luciano, mobster (b. 1897)
• 1968 - Merrill C. Meigs, newspaper publisher, aviation promoter (b. 1883)
• 1968 - Yvor Winters, poet, critic
• 1972 - Mahalia Jackson, gospel music singer (b. 1911)
• 1973 - Edward G. Robinson, actor (b. 1893)
• 1979 - Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States (b. 1908)
• 1983 - Paul 'Bear' Bryant, football coach
• 1885 - British General 'Chinese' Charles George Gordon is killed in Sudan.
• 1990 - Lewis Mumford, historian (b. 1895)
• 1992 - José Ferrer, actor (b. 1912)
• 1993 - Jeanne Sauvé, Governor-General of Canada (b. 1922)
• 1993 - Jan Gies, Dutch resistance leader
• 1996 - Dave Schultz, Olympic wrestler
• 1996 - Harold Brodkey, American author
• 1998 - Shinichi Suzuki, music teacher
• 1997 - Jeane Dixon, astrologer
• 2000 - A. E. van Vogt, science fiction author (b. 1912)
• 2000 - Don Budge, tennis player (b. 1915)
• 2000 - Kathleen Hale, children's author
• 2001 - Al McGuire, basketball coach
• 2003 - Valeriy Brumel, Soviet athlete (b. 1942)
• 2003 - Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, British historian
• 2003 - George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, British politician (b. 1931)

Holidays and observances

• Roman Empire - third day of the Sementivae in honor of Ceres and Terra
• Australia - Australia Day
• Catholicism - Feast day of Ss. Timothy and Titus.
• India - Republic Day - One of the only three state holidays in India, celebrated with pomp and a military parade in New Delhi

January 25 - January 27 - December 26 - February 26 -- listing of all days