Today In History From JJD

May 26th Past Events.

451 - The Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sassanid Empire takes place. The Armenians are defeated militarily but are guaranteed freedom to openly practice Christianity.
961 - German King Otto II crowned
1328 - William of Ockham forced to flee from Avignon by Pope John XXII
1538 - Geneva expels John Calvin and his followers from the city. Calvin lives in exile in Strasbourg for the next three years.
1596 - England, France & Netherlands signs Drievoudig Covenant against Spain
1637 - 1st battle of Pequot at Mystic, Connnecticut kills 500 indians
1647 - Massachusetts disallows priest access to colony
1647 - Alse Young becomes the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies, when she is hanged in Hartford, Connecticut.

1736 - Battle of Ackia (La), British & Chickasaw Indians defeat French
1770 - The Orlov Revolt, a first attempt to revolt against the Turks before the Greek War of Independence ends in disaster for the Greeks.
1781 - Bank of North America incorporates in Philadelphia
1790 - Territory South of River Ohio created by Congress
1798 - British kill about 500 Irish insurgents at the Battle of Tara
1805 - Lewis & Clark 1st see Rocky Mountains
French Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte 1805 - Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned king of Italy
1824 - Brazil is recognized by US
1828 - Mysterious feral child Kaspar Hauser is discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg.
1834 - Portuguese Civil war ends, Dom Miguel capitulates
1857 - US slave Dred Scott and family freed by owner Henry Taylor Blow 3 months after US courts ruled against them.
1860 - Giuseppe Garibaldi occupies Palermo, Italy
1861 - US Postmaster General Blair announces end of postal connection with South
1861 - Union blockades New Orleans LA & Mobile AL
1864 - -30] Skirmish along the Totopotomoy Creek, Virginia
1864 - Territory of Montana formed
1865 - Battle of Galveston TX, surrender of Edmund Kirby Smith
US Slave Dred Scott 1868 - President Andrew Johnson avoids impeachment by 1 vote
1869 - Boston University is chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
1874 - 2nd Preakness: William Donohue aboard Culpepper wins in 2:56.5
1876 - HMS Challenger returns from 128,000-km oceanographic exploration
1883 - 11th Preakness: G Barbee aboard Jacobus wins in 2:42.5
1884 - Fred Spofforth takes 7-34 & 7-3 v England XI in 4 hours
1887 - Racetrack betting becomes legal in NY state
1894 - Emanuel Lasker (26) becomes World Champion chess player
1896 - 1st American intercollegiate bicycle race, Manhattan Beach NY
1896 - Dow Jones begins an index of 12 industrial stocks (closing is 40.94)
1896 - Last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, crowned
1896 - James Dunham murders six people in Campbell, California.
1898 - 32nd Belmont: F Littlefield aboard Bowling Brook wins in 2:32
Tsar Nicholas II 1898 - SF approves City Charter, allows Municipal ownership of utilities
1900 - British troops under Ian Hamilton attack the Vaal in South Africa
1903 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Adventure of Three Gables" (BG)
1904 - In two days of bitter fighting, the Japanese Army soundly defeats the Russians at Kinchan and captures the forts at Nanshan
1905 - A pogrom against Jews in Minsk Belorussia
1906 - Archaeological Institute of America forms
1906 - Vauxhall Bridge is opened in London.
1907 - Chicago White Sox Ed Walsh no-hits NY Highlanders, 8-1 in 5 inning game
1908 - At Masjed Soleyman (مسجد سليمان) in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.
1911 - Germany passes legislation organizing Alsace and Lorraine as an autonomous state with a legislature
1913 - US Actors' Equity Association forms (NYC)
1913 - Emily Duncan becomes Great Britain's first woman magistrate.
1915 - H. H. Asquith forms a coalition government in the United Kingdom
1917 - Walt Cruise hit 1st HR out of Braves Field
1918 - Georgian Social Democratic Republic declares independence from Russia
1918 - Armenia defeats the Ottoman Army in the Battle of Sardarapat.
1919 - The Supreme Council of Allies, meeting at Versailles, decides to recognize two White Russian leaders, Admiral Kolchak and General Denikin, and support them against the Bolsheviks
Marxist Revolutionary and Russian Leader Vladimir Lenin 1922 - Lenin suffers a stroke
1923 - 1st Le Mans Grand Prix d'Endurance is run
1923 - Socialist Workers Youth International forms in Hamburg
1924 - German government of Marx resigns
1924 - Pres Calvin Coolidge signs Immigration law: restricting immigration
1925 - Babe Ruth is finally out of bed, 5 weeks after ulcer surgery
1925 - Tigers' Ty Cobb is 1st to collect 1,000 extra-base hits (ends 1,139)
1926 - Lebanon adopts constitution
The 1910 Model T Ford
Ford Motor Company Founder Henry Ford 1927 - Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company produce the last (and 15th million) Model T Ford / Tin Lizzie
1928 - A's commit 7 errors & lose to Yanks 7-4
1930 - Joe Sewell, strikes out twice of his 3 times in 1930, by Pat Caraway
1930 - Supreme Court rules buying liquor does not violate the Constitution
1932 - Admiral Makoto Saito forms parliament in Tokyo
1933 - 2nd emergency Dutch government of Colijn forms
1933 - Phillies Chuck Klein hits for cycle vs St Louis Cards
1934 - Century of Progress Exposition reopens in Chicago
1936 - 1st government of Zealand in Belgium ends
1937 - Dutch Rail NV at law forms
1937 - San Francisco Bay's Golden Gate Bridge opens
1938 - US House of Representatives Committee on un-American Activities forms
1940 - 1st successful helicopter flight in US: Vought-Sikorsky US-300 designed by Igor Sikorsky
Seamstress Credited with Creating the First American Flag Betsy Ross 1941 - American Flag House (Betsy Ross' Home) given to city of Phila
1941 - Aircraft from HMS Ark Royal sights German battleship Bismarck
1941 - German occupiers begin youth labor
1942 - Anglo-Soviet Treaty signed in London
1942 - Belgium Jews are required by Nazis to wear a Jewish star
1942 - Tank battle at Bir Hakeim: Afrika Korps vs British army
1943 - Edwin Barclay of Liberia becomes first president of a black country to visit US
1943 - Jews riot against Germany in Amsterdam
1943 - Premier Churchill & General Marshall fly from US to North Africa
1945 - US drop fire bombs on Tokyo
1946 - 2-for-42 & hitting .048 for 1946, Mel Ott stops playing baseball
1946 - Darius Milhauds 3rd Concert for piano/orchestra premieres in Prague
1946 - Klement Gottwald becomes premier of Czechoslovakia
1946 - Patent filed in US for H-Bomb
1948 - Entire Hagana-arm forces sworn-in as Israeli soldiers
1948 - South Africa elects a nationalist government under D.F. Malan with an apartheid policy
1951 - Vaughan Williams' "Pilgrim's Progress" premieres in London
1953 - Dutch Convair crashes at Schipholweg, 2 die
1955 - "7th Heaven" opens at ANTA Theater NYC for 44 performances
1955 - Conservatives win British parliamentary election
First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev 1955 - Khrushchev arrives in Belgrade
1956 - A fire on board the aircraft carrier USS Bennington in Narragansett Bay, off Rhode Island, kills 103 crew
1956 - Reds' John Klippstein, Hershel Freemman & Joe Blacks no-hitter, broken up with 2 outs in 10th & lose to Braves in 11th, 2-1
1957 - Beverly Hanson wins LPGA Land of Sky Golf Open

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Famous Birthdays

Birthdays 1 - 100 of 208
1264 - Prince Koreyasu, Japanese shogun (d. 1326)
1478 - Clement VII, [Giulio de' Medici], Italy, Pope (1523-34)
1566 - Mehmed III, Ottoman Emperor (1595-1603)
1591 - Dirck Janszoon Sweelinck, composer
1602 - Philippe de Champaigne, French painter (d. 1674)
1667 - Abraham De Moivre, French mathematician (De Moivre's theorem)
1669 - Sébastien Vaillant, French botanist (d. 1722)
1700 - Nikolaus L earl von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf, German evangelist
1759 - Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, writer/mother of Mary Shelley
1764 - Edward Livingston, American jurist and statesman (d. 1836)
1771 - Rahel Varnhagen von Ense-Levin, German saloon owner/author
1773 - Hans Georg Nageli, composer
1782 - Joseph Drechsler, composer
1799 - Alexander S Pushkin, Russia, writer (Eugene Onegin)
1806 - Henry Knox Thatcher, Comm (Union Navy), (d. 1880)
1822 - E de Goncourt, writer
1825 - Felipe Gutierrez y Espinoza, composer
1835 - Edward Porter Alexander, Brigadier General (Confederate Army)
1846 - Arthur Coquard, composer
1850 - Christine [Elizabeth C] Poolman, Dutch actress (Stupid force)
1853 - Monroe A Althouse, composer
1856 - George Templeton Strong, composer
1859 - Alfred Edward Housman, Bromsgrove England, poet (A Buried Life)
1863 - Robert Fitzsimmons, Boxing champion (d. 1917)
1865 - Akseli V Gallen-Kallela, Fins painter/graphic artist/illustrator
1865 - Robert W. Chambers, American artist (d. 1933)
1866 - John Eigenhuis, writer (Tough Workers)
1867 - Mary of Teck, wife of George V of the United Kingdom (d. 1953)
1871 - Camille Huysmans, Belgian premier (1946-47)
1873 - Cornelis G N de Vooys, translator/founder (New Taalgids)
1873 - Olaf Gulbransson, Norwegian artist (d. 1958)
1874 - Henry Farman, French aviation pioneer (double decker)
1876 - Jack Root, boxing's 1st light heavyweight champion
1877 - Isadora Duncan, San Franciso, American free form/interpretative dancer
1877 - Jean Schlumberger, French writer (La Mort de Sparte)
1877 - Sadao Araki, Japanese general/minister of War (1931-34)
1883 - Mamie Smith, American singer (d. 1946)
1884 - Charles Winninger, Athens Wisc, actor (Charlie Farrell Show)
1886 - Al Jolson, [Asa Yoelson], jazz singer/silent actor (Mamie, Swanee)
1890 - Kurt Edzard, German sculptor (nudes/portraits)
1893 - Eugene Goossens, conductor/composer (Perseus), born in London, England
1893 - Norma Talmadge, NY, actress (Sign on Door, Camille)
1895 - Dorothea Lange, US documentary photographer
1895 - Paul Lukas, Budapest Hungary, actor (Watch on the Rhine, Sphynx)
1898 - Ernst Bacon, composer
1898 - Gerard Bertouille, composer
1899 - Otto E Neugebauer, Austrian/US math historian
1899 - Pieter Menten, Dutch war criminal
1899 - Antonio Barrette, French Canadian politician (d. 1968)
1903 - Estes Kefauver, (Sen-D-Tn)
1904 - George Formby, [William Booth], British singer/comic (Let George Do It)
1904 - Vlado Perlemuter, Polish pianist (d. 2002)
1905 - Hans Holewa, composer
1907 - Carleton Young, NY, actor (Reefer Madness, Pride of the Bowery)
Actor John Wayne (1907) 1907 - John Wayne [Marion Mitchell Morrison], Winterset IA, actor (Green Berets, True Grit)
1907 - Jean Bernard, French physician (d. 2006)
1908 - Robert Morley, England, actor (High Road to China, African Queen)
1908 - Nguyen Ngoc Tho, Prime Minister of South Vietnam
1909 - Matt Busby, Scottish soccer coach (Manchester United)
1909 - Richard Maibaum, screenwriter (Goldfinger), born in NYC, New York
1910 - Adolfo Lopez Mateos, president of Mexico
1910 - Laurance S Rockefeller, CEO (Chase Manhattan Bank), born in NYC, New York
1911 - Ben Alexander, Goldfield, Nevada, American actor (Dragnet, Felony Squad)
1912 - Janos Kádár, premier Hungary (1956-58)
1913 - Fred Bertrand, Belgian politician
Actor Peter Cushing (1913) 1913 - Peter Cushing, England, actor (Dracula, Star Wars, Dr Who)
1913 - Robert Shaw, town planner
1914 - Archie Duncan, Glasgow Scotland, actor (Sherlock Holmes)
1915 - Sam Edwards, American actor (d. 2004)
1915 - Antonia Forest, British children's author (d. 2003)
1916 - Moondog, American composer, musician and poet (d. 1999)
1916 - Henriette Roosenburg, Dutch journalist (d. 1972)
1917 - Eva Szorenyi, Hungarian actress, freedom activist for Hungary
1918 - Anton Christoforidis, Greek boxer (d. 1985)
1919 - Jay Silverheels, Canadian actor (Tonto-Lone Ranger)
1919 - Peter Malcolm Gordon Raleigh, journalist
1920 - Jack Cheetham, cricketer (South African batsman, Test capt early 50's)
1920 - Peggy Lee, American singer (d. 2002)
1921 - Frank Mooney, cricketer (dependable wicket-keeper for NZ in 13 Tests)
1923 - Horst Tapper, German director/actor (Derrick)
1923 - James Arness, Minneapolis MN, actor (Matt Dillon-Gunsmoke, Thing)
1923 - Oren Lee Staley, 1st pres of National Farmers Organization (1955-79)
1923 - Roy Dotrice, Guernsey Channel Island, actor (Wizard)
1924 - Cooper Evans, (Rep-R-IA, 1981-87)
1925 - Alec McCowen, Tunbridge Wells England, actor (Never Say Never Again)
1926 - Maria de Lourdes Martins, composer
1926 - Dirch Passer, Danish actor
1926 - Phyllis Gotlieb, Canadian author
Jazz Musician Miles Davis (1926) 1926 - Miles Davis, Alton, Illinois, American jazz musician, trumpeter and composer (d. 1991)
1927 - Jacques Bergerac, France, actor (Gigi, Les Girls, Thunder in Sun)
1929 - Hugo Raes, Flemish writer (Horses Jump & Fresh Sea)
1932 - Grigor Vachkov, Bulgarian actor (d. 1980)
1934 - Abdulah M "Dulah" Omar, South African attorney/UDF-leader
1935 - Sheila Steafel, South African-born British actress
1937 - Yehuda Yannay, composer
1938 - Jackie Liebesit, rocker (Can)
1938 - Teresa Stratas, [Anastasia Stratakis], Toronto, soprano (Salome)
1938 - William Elden Bolcom, composer (Oracles), born in Seattle, Washington
1938 - Pauline Parker, New-Zealandic murderess
1938 - Lyudmila Petrushevskaya, Russian playwright and novelist

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Famous Weddings

Weddings 1 - 9 of 9
US General George S. Patton (1910) 1910 - US General George S. Patton (24) weds Frederick Ayer's daughter Beatrice Ayer at Beverly Farms Episcopal Church near Boston, Massachusetts
1973 - Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney (34) weds Mila Pivnicki (19)
1984 - Actress Annette Bening (25) weds J. Steven White
1994 - Michael Jackson (35) weds Elvis' daughter Lisa Marie Presley (26) in La Romana, Dominican Republic
1995 - US Secretary of State John Kerry (51) weds philanthropist Teresa Heinz (56) in Nantucket, Massachusetts
1996 - "Seinfield" actor-comedian Wayne Knight (41) weds makeup artist Paula Sutor (44) in Pacific Palisades, California
2006 - Soccer star player Joshua Kennedy (23) weds Australian Opals player Jacinta Hamilton at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Port Melbourne
2013 - "Breaking Bad" actor Aaron Paul (33) weds Lauren Parsekian at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu, California
United States Secretary of State John Kerry (1995) 2013 - Cobra Starship rocker Gabe Saporta (33) weds fashion designer Erin Fetherston at St Nicholas Abbey plantation in Barbados

Famous Deaths

Deaths 1 - 100 of 118
604 - Augustinus van Canterbury, bishop/apostle of England, dies (or 605)
735 - Bede (Beda Venerabilis), English historian and monk, (b. circa 672 or 673)
818 - Ali ar-Rida, Shia Imam (b. 766)
1055 - Margrave Adalbert of Austria
1421 - Mehmed I, Ottoman Sultan (1413-21). B. 1389.
1512 - Bayezid II, Ottoman Sultan (1481-1512) dies at 62
1595 - Philippus Nerius, [Filippo Neri], Italian merchant/saint, dies at 79
1609 - Cornelis Claesz, mapmaker, buried
1648 - Vincent Voiture, French poet (b. 1597)
1653 - Robert Filmer, English writer (b. 1588)
1679 - Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria (b. 1636)
1685 - Charles II, Elector Palatine (b. 1651)
1703 - Samuel Pepys, English marine expert (Diary)/composer, dies at 70
1742 - Pylyp Orlyk, Ukrainian Zaporozhian Cossack starshina, diplomat (b. 1672)
1753 - Willem Maurits, earl of Nassau/gov of Zeeuws-Flanders, dies
1762 - Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, German philosopher (b. 1714)
1799 - James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, Scottish judge (b. 1714)
1814 - Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, officially named the Guillotine (b. 1789)
1818 - Michael A Barclay de Tolly, Russian fieldmarshal/War Minister, dies
1824 - Capel Lofft, English writer (b. 1751)
1831 - Georg Hermes, German philosopher/theologist (Hermenianen), dies
1831 - Ciro Menotti, Italian patriot (b. 1798)
1832 - Francois-Louis Perne, composer, dies at 59
1840 - Sidney Smith, British admiral (b. 1764)
1864 - Ch Sealsfield, writer, dies at 71
1868 - Michael Barrett, Irish nationalist, last British public execution
1871 - Aime Maillart, composer, dies at 54
1873 - August Conradi, composer, dies at 51
1876 - Frantisek Palacky, Czech historian/MP, dies at 77
1880 - John Curwen, composer, dies at 63
1881 - Jakob Bernays, German philologist (b. 1824)
1883 - Abdelkader El Djezairi, Algerian leader, scholar and national hero (b.1808)
1883 - Edward Sabine, Irish astronomer (b. 1788)
1891 - Frederick Bowen Jewson, composer, dies at 67
1902 - Almon Strowger, American inventor (b. 1839)
1904 - Georges Gilles de la Tourette, French neurologist (b. 1857)
1905 - Alphonse de Rothschild, French banker, dies
1907 - Ida McKinley, First Lady of the United States (b. 1847)
1908 - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, Indies theologist (Ahmadiyya motion), dies at 69
1912 - Jan Blockx, Belgian opera composer (Bride of the Sea), dies at 61
1924 - Johann Heinrich Beck, composer, dies at 67
1924 - Victor Herbert, Irish/US cellist/composer/conductor, dies at 65
1926 - S V Petlura, Ukrainain ataman, assassinated by Shalom Schwarzbard
Country Singer Jimmie Rodgers (1933) 1933 - Jimmie Rodgers, country singer, dies at 35
1933 - Horatio Bottomley, British financier and politician (b. 1860)
1938 - John Jacob Abel, American Pharmacologist (endocrine glands), dies at 81
1939 - Charles H Mayo, US surgeon/co-founder (Mayo Clinic), dies at 74
1939 - Cornelis J Cutters, supreme commander of Navy (1910-18), dies
1943 - Edsel Ford, owner (Ford Motor Company), dies at 49
1944 - C M Francois, cricketer (WWII, 252 runs in 5 Tests for South Africa), dies
1946 - Friedrich A H von Waldeck, monarch of Waldeck, dies
1948 - Theodore Morell, Hitler's personal physician (b. 1886)
1950 - Antonina Neshdanova, Russian soprano (Bolshoi Theater), dies
1951 - Lincoln Ellsworth, artic explorer, dies at 71
1952 - Damaso Alonso, Spanish linguistic/poet (Hombrey Dios), dies at 55
1954 - Franz Pfemfert, writer, dies at 74
1954 - Lionel Conacher, Canadian athlete (b. 1900)
1956 - Al Simmons, outfielder (A's)/lifetime batting avg of .334, dies at 54
1959 - Ed Walsh, baseball pitcher (1.82 ERA), dies at 78
1959 - Joe Kelly, TV host (Quiz Kids), dies at 57
1963 - Sharon Lynn, actress (Way Out West, Big Broadcast), dies at 53
1966 - Don Castle, actor (Motor Patrol, Born to Speed), dies at 47
1966 - Neal Dodd, actor (Only Women, You Belong to Me), dies at 86
1967 - Antoon Spinoy, Belgian politician, dies at 60
1967 - George E Stone, actor (5 Star Final, Front Page), dies at 64
1968 - William E "Little Willie" John, US R&B-singer (Fever), dies at 30)
1969 - Kathryn Minner, entertainer, dies of heart attack at 77
1969 - Paul Hawkins, Australian racing driver (b. 1937)
1969 - Allan H. Loughead, American aviation pioneer (Lockheed Corporation; b. 1889)
1971 - John Longden, actor (Man From Interpol), dies at 70
1973 - Jacques Lipchitz, US cubist sculptor, dies at 81
1974 - Kitty Gordon, entertainer, dies at 96
1974 - Silvio Moser, Swiss racing driver (b. 1941)
1976 - Martin Heidegger, German philosopher (Holzweg), dies at 86
1976 - Juan Maino, Chilean leader of MAPU, "disappeared"
1977 - Jim Boles, actor (Kraft Music Hall, One Man's Family), dies at 63
1977 - William Powell, rocker (O'Jays), dies of cancer at 35
1978 - Cybele, Greek actress (b. 1887)
1979 - George Brent, actor (Baby Face, Dark Victory, 42nd St), dies at 75
1982 - Nanny Larsén-Todsen, Swedish opera singer, dies at 97
1989 - Don Revie, Former footballer and England and Leeds United Manager (b. 1927)
1991 - Tom Cassidy, anchor (CNN), dies of AIDs at 41
1991 - Tom Eyen, playwright (Dreamgirls), dies of cardiac arrest at 50
1993 - Carleton Morse, radio dramatist (One Man's Family), dies at 91
1993 - Cor de Great, pianist/conductor/composer (Vernissage), dies at 78
1993 - Marvin Young, producer/child actor (Player), dies at 90
1994 - George Wildman Ball, under minister of Foreign affairs, dies at 84
1994 - Warren Harding "Sonny" Sharrock, American jazz Guitarist, dies at 53
1995 - Isadore "Friz" Freling, cartoon director (Sylvester), dies at 88
1995 - Ron Weatherburn, jazz pianist, dies at 61
1995 - Severn Darden, comedian (Second City), dies at 65
1996 - Halka Grossman, resistance fighter/politician, dies at 76
1996 - Matima Kinuani Mpiosso, musician, dies at 45
1997 - Manfred Von Ardenne, German scientific pioneer, dies at 90
1998 - Sergey Yablonsky, Soviet and Russian mathematician and one of the founders of the Soviet school of mathematical cybernetics and discrete mathematics, dies at 73
1999 - Paul Sacher, Swiss conductor (b. 1906)
1999 - Waldo Semon, American inventor (b. 1898)
2001 - Vittorio Brambilla, Italian racing driver (b. 1937)
2001 - Anne Haney, American actress (b. 1934)
2001 - Moven Enock Mahachi, Defence Minister of Zimbabwe (b. 1952)