more events on October 26
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2002
Russian Spetsnaz storm the Moscow Theatre, where Chechen terrorists had taken the audience and performers hostage three days earlier; 50 terrorists and 150 hostages die in the assault.
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2001
The USA PATRIOT Act signed into law by Pres. George W. Bush, greatly expanding intelligence and legal agencies’ ability to utilize wiretaps, records searches and surveillance.
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1994
Israel and Jordan sign a peace treaty.
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1979
The President of South Korea, Park Chung-hee, asssinated by Kim Jae-kyu, head of the country’s Central intelligence Agency; Choi Kyu-ha is named acting president.
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1970
Gary Trudeau’s comic strip Doonesbury first appears.
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1967
Keith Urban, singer, songwriter, musician; “Golden Road” (2002) named biggest country hit of the decade 2000–2010 by Billboard magazine.
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Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowns himself Emperor of Iran and his wife Farah as empress.
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1958
The first New York – Paris transatlantic jet passenger service is inaugurated by Pan Am, while the first New York – London transatlantic jet passenger service is inaugurated by BOAC.
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1957
The Russian government announces that Marshal Georgi Zhukov, the nation’s most prominent military hero, has been relieved of his duties as Minister of Defense. Khrushchev accused Zhukov as promoting his own “cult of personality” and saw him as a threat to his own popularity.
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1955
Ngo Dinh Diem declares himself Premier of South Vietnam.
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The Village Voice is first published, backed in part by Norman Mailer.
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1953
Keith Strickland, songwriter, musician; guitarist with The B-52s.
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1950
A reconnaissance platoon for a South Korean division reaches the Yalu River. They are the only elements of the U.N. force to reach the river before the Chinese offensive pushes the whole army down into South Korea.
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1947
Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the United States (1993–2001), Senator from New York (2001–2009) and US Secretary of State (2009–2013).
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1944
Pat Conroy, novelist (The Prince of Tides).
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1942
U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Hornet is sunk in the Battle of Santa Cruz Island, in the South Pacific.
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Japanese attack Guadalcanal, sinking two U.S. carriers.
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1919
Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, the Shah of Iran who was overthrown in 1979 and died in Egypt
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1918
Germany’s supreme commander, General Erich Ludendorff, resigns, protesting the terms to which the German Government has agreed in negotiating the armistice. This sets the stage for his later support for Hitler and the Nazis, who claim that Germany did not lose the war on the battlefield but were “stabbed in the back” by politicians.
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1916
French leader Francois Mitterrand.
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1911
Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer.
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1905
Norway signs a treaty of separation with Sweden. Norway chooses Prince Charles of Denmark as the new king; he becomes King Haakon VII.
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1902
Beryl Markham, aviator and writer.
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1881
Three Earp brothers and Doc Holliday have a shootout with the Clantons and McLaurys at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.
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1879
Leon Trotsky, a leader of the Bolshevik Revolution.
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1854
Charles William Post, food manufacturer, creator of “Grape Nuts” and “Post Toasties.”
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1825
The first boat on the Erie Canal leaves Buffalo, N.Y.
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1800
Count Helmuth Karl Von Moltke, a Prussian Field Marshal, whose reorganization of the Prussian Army lead to military victories which allowed the unification of Germany.
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1795
When General Paul Barras resigns his commission as head of France’s Army of the Interior to become head of the Directory, his second-in-command becomes the army’s commander—Napoleon Bonaparte.
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1774
The first Continental Congress, which protested British measures and called for civil disobedience, concludes in Philadelphia.