October 26

1774 – The first Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia.

1825 – The Erie Canal opens, allowing direct passage from the Hudson River to Lake Erie.

1864 – Confederate William ‘Bloody Bill’ Anderson is killed in battle against Federal troops in Albany, Missouri.

1881 – The Earp brothers and Doc Holliday engage the Clanton and McLaury brothers, along with Billy Claiborne, in a gunfight in an alley about 6 doors west of the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, killing the McLaury brothers and Billy Clanton.

1912 – During the First Balkan War, Ottoman troops are forced to abandon the cities of Thessaloniki in Greece and Skopje in Northern Macedonia, to reinforce the Çatalca Line, their final defensive line protecting the peninsula and Constantinople

1917 – During World War I,  Brazil declares war on the Central Powers.

1918 – During World War I, Erich Ludendorff, quartermaster-general of the Imperial German Army, is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II for refusing to cooperate in peace negotiations.

1936 – The first electric generator at Hoover Dam goes into full operation.

1942 – In the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the Guadalcanal Campaign, the U.S. carrier Hornet and destroyer Porter are sunk, the carrier Enterprise, battleship South Dakota and cruisers Portland and San Juan damaged, while 2 Japanese carriers Shōkaku and Zuihō and cruiser Chikuma are damaged.

1944 – Off Cape Engaño north of Luzon Island Philippines, the final battle between Japanese and U.S. naval fleets results in an overwhelming American victory.

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

1967 – On his 48th birthday, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowns himself Emperor of Iran.

1977 – Ali Maow Maalin, the last natural case of smallpox, develops the disease in Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date to be the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, not that that stops the U.S. Army from going bonkers from time to time and mandating all troops get inoculated.

1994 – Jordan and Israel sign the Wadi Araba Treaty ending the state of war between the 2 nations.

1995 – Israeli Mossad agents kill Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shaqaqi in Malta.

2001 – The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.

2003 – The Cedar Fire forest fire, started by a hunter as a rescue signal,  kills 15 people, burns 250,000 acres of land and destroys 2,200 homes around San Diego.

2012 – Microsoft releases Windows 8