26 May - Definition and Overview

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

1300-1899

• 1328 - William of Ockham secretly leaves Avignon under threat from Pope John XXII.
• 1538 - Geneva throws out John Calvin.
• 1637 - Pequot War: an allied Puritan and Mohegan force under English Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, killing approximately 500 inhabitants.
• 1670 - In Dover, Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France secretly sign a treaty ending hostilities between their kingdoms.
• 1736 - Battle of Ackia: British and Chickasaw Native Americans defeat French troops.
• 1805 - In Milan's cathedral, Napoleon I of France is crowned King of Italy.
• 1828 - Mysterious foundling Kaspar Hauser is discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg, Germany.
• 1830 - The Indian Removal Act is passed by the U.S. Congress.
• 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.
• 1896 - Nicholas II becomes Tsar of Russia.
• 1896 - Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
• 1897 - The novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, goes on sale in London.

1900-1999

• 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, as 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.
• 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, a toy maker from Brooklyn, uses homemade climbing equipment to scale the 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 - A Lauda Air Boeing 767-300 explodes over rural Thailand killing 223.
• 1999 - Madejczyk Massacre Averted, Bridgman, Michigan school shooting plot

2000-2099

• 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

1200-1899

• 1264 - Prince Koreyasu, 7th Kamakura shogun of Japan (d. 1326)
• 1566 - Mehmed III, Ottoman Emperor (d. 1603)
• 1650 - John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (d. 1722)
• 1667 - Abraham de Moivre, mathematician (d. 1754)
• 1700 - Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf, German religious and social reformer (d. 1760)
• 1764 - Edward Livingston, jurist and statesman (d. 1836)
• 1799 - Aleksandr Pushkin, Russian author (d. 1837)
• 1822 - Edmond de Goncourt, writer (d. 1896)
• 1865 - Robert W. Chambers, artist (d. 1933)
• 1867 - Mary of Teck, Queen Consort of King George V of the United Kingdom (d. 1953)
• 1873 - Olaf Gulbransson, painter (d. 1958)
• 1878 - Isadora Duncan, dancer (d. 1927)
• 1886 - Al Jolson (d. 1950)
• 1887 - Paul Lukas, actor (d. 1971)
• 1893 - Norma Talmadge, actress (d. 1957)
• 1895 - Dorothea Lange, photographer (d. 1965)

1900-1999

• 1907 - John Wayne ("The Duke"), actor (d. 1979)
• 1908 - Robert Morley, actor (d. 1992)
• 1911 - Ben Alexander, actor (d. 1969)
• 1912 - Jay Silverheels, actor (d. 1980)
• 1913 - Peter Cushing, actor (d. 1994)
• 1916 - Henriette Roosenburg, journalist (d. 1972)
• 1920 - Peggy Lee, singer (d. 2002)
• 1923 - James Arness, actor
• 1923 - Roy Dotrice, actor
• 1926 - Miles Davis, musician (d. 1991)
• 1928 - Jack Kevorkian, physician
• 1938 - Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano
• 1939 - Brent Musburger, sports broadcaster
• 1941 - Cliff Drysdale, tennis star
• 1942 - Levon Helm, musician ("The Band")
• 1946 - Mick Ronson, guitarist (d. 1993)
• 1948 - Stevie Nicks, songwriter, actress
• 1949 - Philip Michael Thomas, actor
• 1949 - Hank Williams Jr., singer
• 1949 - Ward Cunningham, inventor of Wiki
• 1951 - Sally Ride, astronaut
• 1953 - Michael Portillo, politician
• 1954 - Alan Hollinghurst, British novelist
• 1955 - Morimoto Masaharu, Japanese chef (Iron Chef)
• 1957 - Margaret Colin, actress
• 1958 - Pete Michaels, actor, comedian, ventriloquist
• 1962 - Bobcat Goldthwait, actor, comedian
• 1964 - Lenny Kravitz, guitarist, singer
• 1966 - Helena Bonham Carter, actress
• 1968 - Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark
• 1970 - Nobuhiro Watsuki, manga-ka
• 1971 - Matt Stone, Co-creator of South Park

Deaths

600-1899

• 604 or 605 - Augustine of Canterbury
• 818 - Ali ar-Rida, Shia Imam (b. 766)
• 946 - King Edmund I of England (b. 921)
• 1055 - Margrave Adalbert of Austria
• 1648 - Vincent Voiture, poet (b. 1597)
• 1703 - Samuel Pepys, English civil servant, famous for his diary (b. 1633)
• 1824 - Capel Lofft, writer (b. 1751)
• 1881 - Jakob Bernays, philologist (b. 1824)
• 1883 - Edward Sabine, astronomer (b. 1788)

1900-1999

• 1902 - Almon Strowger, developed the Strowger switch (b. 1839)
• 1907 - Ida McKinley, First Lady of the United States (b. 1847)
• 1908 - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadi sect (b. 1839)
• 1924 - Victor Herbert, operetta composer (b. 1859)
• 1926 - Simon Petlyura, Ukrainian independence fighter, known mostly by the pogroms done when he ruled Ukraine (b. 1879)
• 1933 - Jimmie Rodgers, singer (b. 1897)
• 1943 - Edsel Ford, president of the Ford Motor Company (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, animator (b. 1905)
• 1999 - Waldo Semon, inventor (b. 1898)

2000-2099

• 2002 - Mamo Wolde, marathon runner (b. 1932)
• 2003 - Kathleen Winsor, novelist (b. 1919)

Holidays and observances

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

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