Events on October 26 50
Year 740
An earthquake strikes Constantinople and the surrounding countryside, causing destruction to the city's land walls and buildings.
Year 1185
The Uprising of Asen and Peter begins on the feast day of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki and ends with the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire, ruled by the Asen dynasty.
Year 1341
The Byzantine civil war of 1341-47 formally begins with the proclamation of John VI Kantakouzenos as Byzantine Emperor at Didymoteicho.
Year 1597
Imjin War: Admiral Yi Sun-sin routs the Japanese Navy of 300 ships with only 13 ships at the Battle of Myeongnyang.
Year 1640
The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between Scotland and Charles I of England.
Year 1689
General Piccolomini of Austria burns down Skopje to prevent the spread of cholera. He died of cholera himself soon after.
Year 1775
King George III of Great Britain goes before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorizes a military response to quell the American Revolution.
Year 1776
Benjamin Franklin departs from America for France on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution.
Year 1813
War of 1812: A combined force of British regulars, Canadian militia, and Mohawks defeat the Americans in the Battle of the Chateauguay.
Year 1859
The Royal Charter is wrecked on the coast of Anglesey, north Wales with 459 dead.
Year 1860
Meeting of Teano. Giuseppe Garibaldi, conqueror of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, gives it to King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.
Year 1909
Itō Hirobumi, four time Prime Minister of Japan (the 1st, 5th, 7th and 10th) and Resident-General of Korea, is assassinated by An Jung-geun at the Harbin train station in Manchuria.
Year 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.
Year 1917
World War I: Battle of Caporetto; Italy suffers a catastrophic defeat to 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.
Year 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.
Year 1942
World War II: In the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the Guadalcanal Campaign, one U.S. aircraft carrier, Hornet, is sunk and another aircraft carrier, Enterprise, is heavily damaged, while two Japanese carriers and one cruiser are heavily damaged.
Year 1944
World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with an overwhelming American victory.
Year 1955
After the last Allied troops have left the country and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares permanent neutrality.
Year 1958
Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris, France.
Year 1967
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowns himself Emperor of Iran and then crowns his wife Farah Empress of Iran.
Year 1968
Soviet cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy pilots Soyuz 3 into space for a four-day mission.
Year 1970
Muhammad Ali faces off against Jerry Quarry in Atlanta, Georgia for the first time after Ali's three-year hiatus from evading to be drafted in the Vietnam War.
Year 1977
Ali Maow Maalin, the last natural case of smallpox, develops rash in Merca district, Somalia. The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination.
Year 1979
Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea is assassinated by Korean Central Intelligence Agency head Kim Jae-gyu. Choi Kyu-hah becomes the acting President; Kim is executed the following May.
Year 1985
The Australian government returns ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines.
Year 1991
History of Slovenia: Three months after the end of the Ten-Day War, the last soldier of the Yugoslav People's Army leaves the territory of the Republic of Slovenia.
Year 1995
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Mossad agents assassinate Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shaqaqi in his hotel in Malta.
Year 1999
Britain's House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.
Year 2000
Laurent Gbagbo takes over as president of Côte d'Ivoire following a popular uprising against President Robert Guéï.
Year 2002
Moscow theater hostage crisis: Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian Spetsnaz storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the terrorists during a musical performance three days before.
Year 2003
The 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.
Year 2015
A 7.5 magnitude earthquake strikes in the Hindu Kush mountain range in northeastern Afghanistan, killing 398 people and leaving 2,536 people injured.