May 26

Events451 - The Battle of Avarayr between Armenian rebels and the Sassanid Empire takes place. The Armenians are defeated militarily but are guaranteed freedom to openly practise Christianity. 1293 - Earthquake strikes Kamakura, Japan, kills 30,000.1328 - William of Ockham, Franciscan Minister-General Michael of Cesena and two other Franciscan leaders secretly leave Avignon, fearing a death sentence from 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.1637 - Pequot War: A combined Puritan and Mohegan force under English Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, massacring approximately 500 Native Americans.1647 - Alse Young becomes the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies, when she is hanged in Hartford, Connecticut.1670 - In Dover, King Charles II of England and King Louis XIV of France sign the Secret Treaty of Dover. 1736 - Battle of Ackia: British and Chickasaw soldiers repel a French and Choctaw attack on the Chickasaw village of Ackia, near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi. The French, under Louisiana governor Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, had sought to link Louisiana with Acadia and the other northern colonies of New France.1770 - The Orlov Revolt, a first attempt to revolt against the Turks before the Greek War of Independence ends in disaster for the Greeks.1805 - Napoléon Bonaparte (Napoleon I) assumes the title of King of Italy and is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in the Duomo di Milano gothic cathedral in Milan.1828 - Mysterious feral child Kaspar Hauser is discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg. 1830 - The Indian Removal Act is passed by the U.S. Congress; it is signed into law by President Andrew Jackson two days later.1864 - Montana is organized as a United States territory.1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, is the last general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas.1868 - The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ends, with Johnson being found not guilty by one vote.1869 - Boston University is chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts1879 - Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak establishing an Afghan state.1889 - Opening of the first Eiffel Tower elevator to the public.1896 - Nicholas II becomes Tsar of Russia.1896 - Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.1896 - James Dunham murders six people in Campbell, California.1906 - Vauxhall Bridge is opened in London.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. 1913 - Emily Duncan becomes the Britain's first woman magistrate.1917 - A powerful F4 tornado rips Mattoon, Illinois apart, killing 101 persons and injuring 689. It was the world's longest-lasting tornado, lasting for over 7 hours and traveling 293 miles, spreading death and destruction along its path.1918 - The Democratic Republic of Georgia is established.1928 - The first motion picture is projected publicly in Athens, Greece.1936 - In the House of Commons of Northern Ireland, Tommy Henderson begins speaking on the Appropriation Bill. By the time he sat down in the early hours of the following morning, he had spoken for 10 hours.1938 - The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its first session.1940 - World War II: Battle of Dunkirk – In  France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk. 1948 - The U.S. Congress passes Public Law 557 which permanently establishes the Civil Air Patrol as an auxiliary of the United States Air Force.1966 - British Guiana gains independence, becoming Guyana.1969 - Apollo program: Apollo 10 returns to earth after a successful eight-day test of all the components needed for the forthcoming first manned moon landing. 1970 - The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2. 1972 - Willandra National Park is established in Australia. 1972 - The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. 1972 - The British state-owned travel firm Thomas Cook & Son is sold to a consortium of private businesses headed by the Midland Bank. 1977 - George Willig climbs the South Tower of New York City's World Trade Center.1978 - In Atlantic City, New Jersey, Resorts International, the first legal casino in the eastern United States, opens.1981 - The Italian Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani and his coalition cabinet resign following a scandal over membership of the pseudo-masonic lodge P2 (Propaganda Due).1983 - Strong 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Japan, triggers a tsunami that kills at least 104 people, injures thousands. Many missing people and thousands of buildings destroyed.1986 - The European Community adopts the European flag.1991 - Zviad Gamsakhurdia becomes the first democratically elected President of the Republic of Georgia in the post-Soviet era.1991 - Lauda Air Flight 004 explodes over rural Thailand, killing 223.1992 - Charles Geschke, co-founder of Adobe Systems, Inc. was kidnapped at gunpoint from the Adobe parking lot in Mountain View, California for $650,000 and is held hostage in a rented house in Hollister, California. The FBI rescues him four days later.1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Ellis Island, the historic gateway for millions of immigrants, is mainly in the state of New Jersey, not New York. At 23 years of age, Bear Grylls became the youngest British climber to scale Mount Everest and back down. 2002 - The Mars Odyssey finds signs of huge water ice deposits on the planet Mars.2002 - Álvaro Uribe becomes President of Colombia.2003 - Only three days after a previous record, Sherpa Lakpa Gelu climbs Mount Everest in 10 hours 56 minutes. The tourism ministry of Nepal confirms this record in July that year.2004 - The New York Times publishes an admission of journalistic failings, claiming that its flawed reporting and lack of skeptism towards sources during the buildup to the 2003 war in Iraq helped promote the belief that Iraq possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.2004 - The U.S. Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing. 2006 - The 2006 Java earthquake kills over 5,700 people, leaves 200,000 homeless.
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