What happened on October 26 ?

740 - An earthquake strikes Constantinople, causing much damage and death.

1640 - The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between Scotland and Charles I of England

1774 - The first Continental Congress adjourns.

1795 - The French Directory, a five-man revolutionary government, is created

1825 - The Erie Canal opens - passage from Albany, New York to Lake Erie

1859 - The Royal Charter is wrecked on the coast of Anglesey, north Wales with 459 dead

1863 - The Football Association is formed

1881 - The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place at Tombstone, Arizona.

1905 - Norway becomes independent from Sweden

1917 - Battle of Caporetto: Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat at the hands of Germany and Austria during the First World War

1918 - Erich von Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the Imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.

1936 - The first electric generator at Hoover Dam went into full operation.

1940 - The P-51 Mustang makes it maiden flight.

1944 - The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends.

1944 - Future Vice-president, and later, President Harry Truman publicly denies ever having been a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

1947 - The Maharaja of Kashmir agrees to allow his kingdom to join India.

1947 - The British Military Occupation ends in Iraq.

1948 - Killer smog settles into Donora, Pennsylvania.

1954 - Trieste return to Italy.

1955 - After the last Allied troops have left the country and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares its permanent neutrality.

1955 - Ngo Dinh Diem declares himself Premier of South Vietnam

1958 - Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York to Paris.

1964 - Eric Edgar Cooke hanged, last person in Australia to be executed.

1965 - The Beatles are appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs)

1965 - The body of Sylvia Likens is found in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.

1977 - The last natural case of smallpox was discovered in Merca district, Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination.

1978 - Independent Counsel Act signed into law

1979 - Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea is assassinated by KCIA head Kim Jae-kyu. Choi Kyu-ha becomes the acting President; Kim is executed the following May.

1984 - "Baby Fae" receives a heart transplant from a baboon

1984 - John D. McCollum shoots and kills himself after spending a day listening to Ozzy Osbourne records; a lawsuit is later filed by his parents over the song "Suicide Solution", but the case eventually gets thrown out.

1992 - The command and control system of the London Ambulance Service fails catastrophically.

1992 - The Charlottetown Accord fails to win majority support in a Canada wide referendum.

1994 - Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty

1994 - Announcement of Andrew Wiles correct proof of Fermat's last theorem.

1995 - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Mossad agents assassinate Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shikaki in his hotel in Malta.

1997 - The left arms of Chen Ming-Kuo and Yang Chung-ming are amputated by the rope in a 1,500-person tug-of-war contest in Taipei; both arms are successfully reattached later on.

1997 - Basketball player Charles Barkley is charged with aggravated battery and resisting arrest after throwing Jorge Lugo through a plate glass window in a dance club in Orlando, Florida.

1999 - Britain's House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.

2000 - Laurent Gbagbo takes over as president of Côte d'Ivoire following a popular uprising against President Robert Guéï

2000 - The successor to the highly successful PlayStation, the PlayStation 2 was released.

2001 - The United States passes the controversial USA Patriot Act into law.

2002 - Moscow Theater Siege ends: Approximately 50 Chechen rebels and 150 hostages die when Russian Spetsnaz storm the House of Culture theater in Moscow, which had been occupied by the rebels three days before.

2004 - AT&T Wireless is officially acquired by Cingular Wireless.