January 26
January 26 is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar . There are 339 days remaining (340 in leap years ).
Events
1340 - King Edward III of England is declared King of France .
1500 - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to discover Brazil .
1531 - Lisbon , Portugal is hit by an earthquake --thousands die.
1699 - Treaty of Carlowitz signed.
1700 - The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake took place off the coast of the American Northwest, as evidenced by Japanese records.
1736 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.
1785 - Benjamin Franklin writes a letter to his daughter expressing disappointment over the selection of the eagle as the symbol of the United States; he wanted the turkey .
1788 - The British First Fleet , led by Arthur Phillip , sail into Sydney Harbour to establish the first permanent European settlement on the continent. Celebrated as Australia Day .
1802 - The U.S. Congress passes an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol ; eventually this becomes the Library of Congress .
1808 - Rum Rebellion , the only successful (but temporary) armed takeover of the government in Australia .
1837 - Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state .
1838 - Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States
1841 - The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong , which China had ceded .
1863 - American Civil War : General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign . He is replaced by Joseph Hooker .
1863 - American Civil War : Massachusetts Governor receives permission from Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.
1870 - American Civil War: Virginia rejoins the Union.
1885 - Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum .
1887 - Battle of Dogali : Abyssinian troops defeat Italians .
1905 - The Cullinan Diamond is found near Pretoria , South Africa at the Premier Mine .
1911 - Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane .
1934 - The Apollo Theater opens in Harlem, New York City .
1939 - Spanish Civil War : Troops loyal to Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona .
1942 - World War II : The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland .
1946 - Félix Gouin becomes Prime Minister of France .
1950 - India promulgates its constitution forming a republic and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president .
1956 - 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo , Italy .
1961 - John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman holds this appointment.
1962 - Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon . The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
1965 - Hindi becomes the official language of India .
1970 - Folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel release classic album Bridge Over Troubled Water .1980 - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations .
1983 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released.
1986 - Super Bowl XX : The Chicago Bears defeat the New England Patriots , 46-10.
1992 - Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia is going to stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons .
1992 - Super Bowl XXVI : The Washington Redskins defeat the Buffalo Bills , 37-24.
1993 - Václav Havel elected President of the Czech Republic .
1994 - A man fires two blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney , Australia .
1996 - Whitewater scandal : Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
1997 - Super Bowl XXXI : The Green Bay Packers defeat the New England Patriots , 35-21.
1998 - Lewinsky scandal : On American television, Bill Clinton denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky .
1998 - Compaq buys Digital Equipment Corporation .
2001 - A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar , Venezuela killing 24.
2001 - An earthquake hits Gujarat , India , causing more than 20,000 deaths.
2003 - Super Bowl XXXVII : The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Oakland Raiders , 48-21, earning the Buccaneers their first Vince Lombardi Trophy .
2005 - The Glendale train crash occurs, involving three trains; the accident kills 11 and injures 200 in Glendale, California near Los Angeles early in the morning peak hours.
2005 - Having been confirmed earlier in the day by a vote of 85-13 in the United States Senate , Condoleezza Rice is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State , becoming the first African American woman to hold the post.
2005 - A helicopter crash in eastern Iraq kills 31 United States soldiers.
Births
1763 - Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, Napoleonic general and King Charles XIV of Sweden and Norway (d. 1841 )
1781 - Achim von Arnim , German poet (d. 1831 )
1826 - Louis Favre , engineer Gotthard tunnel (d. 1879 )
1826 - Julia Dent Grant , First Lady of the United States (d. 1902 )
1831 - Mary Mapes Dodge , writer (d. 1907 )
1880 - Douglas MacArthur , American general (d. 1964 )
1891 - Frank Costello , gangster (d. 1973 )
1892 - Zara Cully , American actress (d. 1978 )
1900 - Karl Ristenpart , German conductor (d. 1967 )
1901 - Stuart Symington , American politician (d. 1988 )
1904 - Ancel Keys , scientist (d. 2004 )
1905 - Charles Lane , actor
1905 - Bernhard Minetti , actor
1905 - Maria von Trapp , singer (d. 1987 )
1908 - Stéphane Grappelli , musician, composer (d. 1997 )
1913 - William Prince , American actor (d. 1996 )
1915 - William Hopper , American actor (d. 1970 )
1913 - Jimmy Van Heusen , songwriter (d. 1990 )
1918 - Nicolae Ceauşescu , Romanian dictator (d. 1989 )
1918 - Vito Scotti , American actor (d. 1996 )
1918 - Philip José Farmer , science fiction writer
1921 - Akio Morita , co-founder of Sony (d. 1999 )
1922 - Michael Bentine , British comedian (d. 1996 )
1923 - Anne Jeffreys , actress
1924 - Annette Strauss , philanthropist, former mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1998 )
1924 - Rauf Denktash , Cypriot politician
1925 - Paul Newman , actor
1925 - Joan Leslie , American actress
1928 - Roger Vadim , French film director and actor (d. 2000 )
1929 - Jules Feiffer , cartoonist , writer
1932 - Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd , Jamaican record producer
1935 - Bob Uecker , broadcaster, baseball player, actor
1937 - Joseph Saidu Momoh , Sierra Leone political leader (d. 2003 )
1941 - Henry Jaglom , director
1941 - Scott Glenn , actor
1943 - Jean Knight , singer
1943 - César Gutiérrez , Major League Baseball player (d. 2005 )
1944 - Angela Davis , feminist and activist
1945 - Jacqueline du Pré , English cellist (d. 1987 )
1946 - Gene Siskel , film critic (d. 1999 )
1953 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen , Prime Minister of Denmark
1953 - Lucinda Williams , country singer
1955 - Eddie Van Halen , musician
1958 - Ellen DeGeneres , actress, comedienne, talk show host
1961 - Wayne Gretzky , ice hockey player
1963 - Andrew Ridgeley , musician
1963 - Jazzie B. , singer
1970 - Kirk Franklin , gospel singer
1977 - Vince Carter , basketball player
Deaths
1855 - Gérard de Nerval , French writer (b. 1808 )
1886 - David Rice Atchison , American politician (b. 1807 )
1942 - Felix Hausdorff , German mathematician (b. 1868 )
1947 - Grace Moore , singer, died in plane crash (b. 1898 )
1946 - Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Westrobothnia , second in line to the Swedish throne (b. 1906 )
1962 - Lucky Luciano , mobster (b. 1897 )
1968 - Merrill C. Meigs , newspaper publisher, aviation promoter (b. 1883 )
1968 - Yvor Winters , poet, critic
1972 - Mahalia Jackson , gospel music singer (b. 1911 )
1973 - Edward G. Robinson , actor (b. 1893 )
1979 - Nelson Rockefeller , Governor of New York , Vice President of the United States (b. 1908 )
1983 - Paul 'Bear' Bryant , football coach
1885 - British General 'Chinese' Charles George Gordon is killed in Sudan .
1990 - Lewis Mumford , historian (b. 1895 )
1992 - José Ferrer , actor (b. 1912 )
1993 - Jeanne Sauvé , Governor-General of Canada (b. 1922 )
1993 - Jan Gies , Dutch resistance leader
1996 - Dave Schultz , Olympic wrestler
1996 - Harold Brodkey , American author
1998 - Shinichi Suzuki , music teacher
1997 - Jeane Dixon , astrologer
2000 - A. E. van Vogt , science fiction author (b. 1912 )
2000 - Don Budge , tennis player (b. 1915 )
2000 - Kathleen Hale , children's author
2001 - Al McGuire , basketball coach
2003 - Valeriy Brumel , Soviet athlete (b. 1942 )
2003 - Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton , British historian
2003 - George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie , British politician (b. 1931 )
2004 - Fred Haas , golfer (b. 1915 )
2004 - Wilhemina Barns-Graham , Scottish artist (b. 1912 )
Holidays and observances
External links
January 25 - January 27 - December 26 - February 26 -- listing of all days
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