January 26

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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 hit by an earthquake--thousands die.
• 1564 - The Council of Trent issued its conclusions in the Tridentinum, establishing a distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
• 1565 - Battle of Talikota, fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and the Islamic sultanates of the Deccan, leads to the subjugation, and eventual destruction of the last Hindu kingdom in India, and the consolidation of Islamic rule over much of the Indian subcontinent.
• 1699 - Treaty of Carlowitz signed.
• 1700 - The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake took place off the west coast of the North America, 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 Sydney, 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.
• 1861 - The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.
• 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.
• 1920 - Former Ford Motor Co. executive Henry Leland launches The Lincoln Motor Co., which he'd later sell to his former employer.
• 1930 - The Indian National Congress declares 26 th January as Independence Day or as the day for Poorna Swaraj (Complete Independence)
• 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.
• 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.
• 1966 - The Beaumont Children go missing from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, South Australia.
• 1980 - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.
• 1983 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released.
• 1988 - Australia celebrates its Bicentennial.
• 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.
• 1996 - Whitewater scandal: Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
• 1998 - Lewinsky scandal: On American television, Bill Clinton denies he had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
• 2000 - Robert F. Vasa ordained Bishop of the Diocese of Baker.
• 2000 - XHTML 1.0 becomes a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation.
• 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.
• 2004 - President Hamid Karzai signed the new constitution of Afghanistan.
• 2005 - Three trains crash , killing 11 and injuring 200 in Glendale, California near Los Angeles.
• 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.
• 2006 - A large fire breaks out on Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa.
• 2006 - Western Union discontinues use of its telegram service.

Births

• 1497 - Emperor Go-Nara of Japan (d. 1557)
• 1541 - Florent Chrestien, French writer (d. 1596)
• 1714 - Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor (d. 1785)
• 1716 - George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, British soldier and politician (d. 1785)
• 1722 - Alexander Carlyle, Scottish church leader (d. 1805)
• 1763 - King Charles XIV of Sweden, Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, Napoleonic general (d. 1844)
• 1781 - Achim von Arnim, German poet (d. 1831)
• 1813 - Juan Pablo Duarte, founding father of the Dominican Republic (d. 1876)
• 1826 - Julia Dent Grant, First Lady of the United States (d. 1902)
• 1857 - the 12th Dalai Lama (d. 1875)
• 1880 - Douglas MacArthur, American general (d. 1964)
• 1891 - Frank Costello, Italian-born gangster (d. 1973)
• 1892 - Zara Cully, American actress (d. 1978)
• 1900 - Karl Ristenpart, German conductor (d. 1967)
• 1901 - Stuart Symington, American politician (d. 1988)
• 1902 - Menno ter Braak, Dutch author and polemicist (d. 1940)
• 1904 - Ancel Keys, American scientist (d. 2004)
• 1904 - Seán MacBride, Irish statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1988)
• 1905 - Charles Lane, American actor
• 1905 - Maria von Trapp, Austrian-born singer (d. 1987)
• 1908 - Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist (d. 1997)
• 1911 - Polykarp Kusch, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
• 1913 - James Van Heusen, American songwriter (d. 1990)
• 1914 - Princess Hadice Hayriye Ayshe Dürrühsehvar (d. 2006)
• 1915 - William Hopper, American actor (d. 1970)
• 1918 - Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
• 1918 - Philip José Farmer, American writer
• 1921 - Akio Morita, Japanese businessman (d. 1999)
• 1922 - Michael Bentine, British comedian (d. 1996)
• 1923 - Anne Jeffreys, American actress
• 1924 - Rauf Denktash, Cypriot politician
• 1924 - Annette Strauss, philanthropist and Mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1998)
• 1924 - Alice Babs, Swedish singer
• 1925 - Joan Leslie, American actress
• 1925 - Paul Newman, American actor
• 1927 - José Azcona del Hoyo, President of Honduras (d. 2005)
• 1928 - Roger Vadim, French film director and actor (d. 2000)
• 1929 - Jules Feiffer, American cartoonist and writer
• 1932 - Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, Jamaican record producer
• 1935 - Bob Uecker, baseball player, broadcaster, and actor
• 1937 - Joseph Saidu Momoh, Sierra Leone political leader (d. 2003)
• 1941 - Scott Glenn, American actor
• 1941 - Henry Jaglom, English director
• 1943 - César Gutiérrez, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
• 1943 - Jean Knight, American singer
• 1944 - Angela Davis, American feminist and activist
• 1945 - Jacqueline du Pré, English cellist (d. 1987)
• 1946 - Gene Siskel, American film critic (d. 1999)
• 1950 - Janet Lupo, colossally endowed Playmate (Miss November 1975)
• 1953 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark
• 1953 - Lucinda Williams, American singer
• 1955 - Eddie Van Halen, Dutch-born musician
• 1958 - Anita Baker, American singer
• 1958 - Ellen DeGeneres, American actress, comedian, and talk show host
• 1961 - Wayne Gretzky, Canadian hockey player, coach, and team owner
• 1962 - Oscar Ruggeri, Argentine footballer
• 1963 - José Mourinho, Portuguese football manager
• 1963 - Andrew Ridgeley, English musician
• 1963 - James May, British writer
• 1965 - Natalia Yurchenko, Soviet gymnast
• 1970 - Kirk Franklin, American singer
• 1971 - Dorian Gregory, American actor
• 1977 - Vince Carter, American basketball player
• 1977 - Justin Gimelstob, American tennis player
• 1978 - Corina Morariu, American tennis player
• 1979 - Sara Rue, American actress
• 1985 - Matt Heafy, Japenese-born American musician (Trivium)
• 1989 - Emily Hughes, American Figure Skater
• 1992 - Tom Witcombe, Australian
• 1993 - Cameron Bright, Canadian actor
• 1995 - Kyle Chavarria, American actress

Deaths

• 1567 - Nicholas Wotton, English diplomat
• 1630 - Henry Briggs, English mathematician (b. 1556)
• 1636 - Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul, French diplomat (b. 1552)
• 1697 - Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician (b. 1640)
• 1744 - Ludwig Andreas Graf Khevenhüller, Austrian field marshal (b. 1683)
• 1750 - Albert Schultens, Dutch philologist (b. 1686)
• 1795 - Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer (b. 1732)
• 1799 - Gabriel Christie, British general (b. 1722)
• 1823 - Edward Jenner, English physician (b. 1749)
• 1824 - Théodore Géricault, French painter (b. 1791)
• 1855 - Gérard de Nerval, French writer (b. 1808)
• 1885 - Edward Davy, English inventor, physician, and scientist (b. 1806)
• 1885 - Charles George Gordon, British general (b. 1833)
• 1886 - David Rice Atchison, American politician (b. 1807)
• 1891 - Nikolaus August Otto, German inventor of the internal-combustion engine (b. 1833)
• 1942 - Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (b. 1868)
• 1943 - Harry H. Laughlin, American eugenicist (b. 1880)
• 1943 - Nikolai Vavilov, Russian botanist (b. 1887)
• 1947 - Grace Moore, American soprano (plane crash) (b. 1898)
• 1947 - Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Westrobothnia, second in line to the Swedish throne (b. 1906)
• 1952 - Horloogiyn Choybalsan, leader of Mongolia (b. 1895)
• 1961 - Stan Nichols, English cricketer (b. 1900)
• 1962 - Lucky Luciano, American mobster (b. 1897)
• 1968 - Merrill C. Meigs, American newspaper publisher, and aviation promoter (b. 1883)
• 1968 - Yvor Winters, American poet and critic (b. 1900)
• 1973 - Edward G. Robinson, American actor (b. 1893)
• 1979 - Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States (b. 1908)
• 1983 - Paul "Bear" Bryant, American football coach (b. 1913)
• 1990 - Lewis Mumford, American historian (b. 1895)
• 1992 - José Ferrer, Puerto Rican actor (b. 1912)
• 1993 - Jan Gies, Dutch resistance leader (b. 1905)
• 1993 - Jeanne Sauvé, Governor-General of Canada (b. 1922)
• 1996 - Harold Brodkey, American author (b. 1930)
• 1996 - Dave Schultz, American wrestler (b. 1959)
• 1997 - Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (b. 1904)
• 1998 - Shinichi Suzuki, Japanese music teacher (b. 1898)
• 2000 - Don Budge, American tennis player (b. 1915)
• 2000 - Kathleen Hale, British author (b. 1898)
• 2000 - A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-born author (b. 1912)
• 2001 - Al McGuire, American basketball coach (b. 1928)
• 2003 - Valeriy Brumel, Russian athlete (b. 1942)
• 2003 - Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, English historian (b. 1917)
• 2003 - George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, British politician (b. 1931)
• 2004 - Fred Haas, American golfer
• 2004 - Miklós Fehér, Hungarian footballer (b. 1980)

Holidays and observances

• Australia - Australia Day.
• Roman Empire - third day of the Sementivae in honor of Ceres and Terra.
• Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
  • Timothy and Titus
  • Saint Paula
  • Polycarp
  • Saint Alberic
  • Margaret of Hungary
• India - Republic Day - One of only three state holidays in India, celebrated with pomp and a military parade in New Delhi.
• Uganda - Liberation Day.

External links

• On this day in Canada
• NY Times: On this day
• BBC: On This Day

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January 25 - January 27 - December 26 - February 26 — listing of all days