What happened today
1958
Famous birthdays
1923
Get history's greatest tales
Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! newsletter for a blast from the past each week in your inbox.
more events on May 26
-
1977
The movie Star Wars debuts.
-
1969
Apollo 10 returns to Earth.
-
1961
A U.S. Air Force bomber flies across the Atlantic in a record of just over three hours.
-
The civil rights activist group, Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee, is established in Atlanta.
-
1958
Union Square, San Francisco, becomes a state historical landmark.
-
1951
Sally Ride, astronaut, the first American woman in space.
-
1946
A patent is filed in the United States for the H-bomb.
-
1940
The evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk begins.
-
1938
The House Committee on Un-American Activities begins its work of searching for subversives in the United States.
-
1923
James Arness, actor (Gunsmoke).
-
1920
Peggy Lee, jazz singer.
-
1919
Jay Silverheels, actor (The Lone Ranger).
-
1907
John Wayne [Marion Michael Morrison], American actor and film icon.
-
1903
Estes Kefauver, Tennessee senator.
-
1896
The last czar of Russia, Nicholas II, is crowned.