On this Day ~ May 26th
0961 German King Otto II crowned
1328 William of Ockham forced to flee from Avignon by Pope John XXII
1521 Edict of Worms outlaws Martin Luther & his followers
1596 England, France & Netherlands signs Drievoudig Covenant against Spain
1637 1st battle of Pequot at New Haven CT kills 500 Indians
1647 Massachusetts disallows priest access to colony
1781 Bank of North America incorporated in Philadelphia
1788 Mary Clark of England gives birth to a baby without a brain
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
1805 Napoleon is crowned king of Italy
1824 Brazil is recognized by US
1834 Portuguese Civil war ends, Dom Miguel capitulates
1860 Garibaldi occupies Palermo Italy
1861 Postmaster General Blair announces end of postal connection with South
1861 Union blockades New Orleans LA & Mobile AL
1864 Skirmish along the Totopotomoy Creek VA
1864 Territory of Montana is formed
1865 Battle of Galveston TX, surrender of Edmund Kirby Smith
1868 President Andrew Johnson avoids impeachment by 1 vote
1874 2nd Preakness: William Donohue aboard Culpepper wins in 2:56½
1876 HMS Challenger returns from 128,000-km oceanographic exploration
1887 Racetrack betting becomes legal in New York 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 Czar of Russia, Nicholas II, crowned
1898 San Fransisco approves City Charter, allows Municipal ownership of utiliies
1900 British troops under Ian Hamilton attack the Vaal in South Africa
1903 Start of Sherlock Holmes "The Adventure of the 3 Gables" (BG)
1906 Archaeological Institute of America forms
1913 Actors' Equity Association forms (NYC)
1915 H H Asquith forms a coalition government in England
1918 Georgian Social Democratic Republic declares independence from Russia
1922 Lenin suffers a stroke
1923 Socialist Workers Youth International forms in Hamburg
1924 German Government of Marx resigns
1924 President Coolidge signs Immigration Law (restricting immigration)
1926 Lebanon adopts constitution
1927 Ford Motor Company manufactures its 15 millionth Model T automobile
1930 Supreme Court rules buying liquor does not violate the Constitution
1937 San Francisco Bay's Golden Gate Bridge opens
1938 House Committee on Un-American Activities begins work
1940 Operation Dynamo begins evacuating defeated Allied troops from Dunkirk
1941 American Flag House (Betsy Ross' Home) given to city of Philadelphia
1941 Ark Royal airplane sights German battleship Bismarck
1942 Belgian Jews are required by Nazis to wear a Jewish star
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 Patent filed in US for H-Bomb
1948 Entire Hagana-arm forces sworn-in as Israeli soldiers
1948 South Africa elects a nationalist government with apartheid policy
1951 Sally Ride, astronaut, born
1953 Dutch Convair crashes at Schipholweg, 2 die
1956 Aircraft carrier "Bennington" burns off Rhode Island, killing 103
1958 Union Square, San Fransisco becomes state historical landmark
1961 Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee establishes in Atlanta
1961 USAF bomber flies the Atlantic in a record of just over 3 hours
1965 Dutch Voting Rights Bill passes
1965 Revised International Convention on Safety of Life at Sea takes effect
1969 Apollo 10 astronauts returned to Earth
1969 John & Yoko begin their 2nd bed-in (Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montréal)
1972 Joe Frazier TKOs Ron Stander in 5 for heavyweight boxing title
1972 Nixon & Brezhnev signs SALT accord
1973 Beatles' "The Beatles 1967-1970" album goes #1
1974 During a David Cassidy concert in London a 14 year old is trampled
1974 Joanne Carner wins Hoosier LPGA Golf Classic
1975 Tennis game in the Surrey championships lasts 31 minutes
1977 "Beatlemania" opens in Winter Garden Theater on Broadway
1977 George Willig climbs NYC World Trade Center
1978 1st legal gambling casino opens in Atlantic City
1979 "Dancin' Fool" by Frank Zappa hits #45
1980 Dietmar Mogenburg of West Germany ties high jump record at 7'8"
1980 Phillie Steve Carlton is 1st National League-er to record 6, 1-hitters
1980 Soyuz 36 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Hungarian) to Salyut 6
1981 Marine jet crashes on flight deck of USS Nimitz, killing 14
1982 British ship Atlantic Conveyor & Coventry were hit in Falkland war
1983 Challenger moves to launch pad for STS-7
1983 Los Angeles Lakers set NBA playoff game record of fewest free throws
1984 Frisbee is kept aloft for 1,672 seconds in Philadelphia
1984 Tulsa OK gets 13" of rain, 14 die
1985 Explosions destroys 2 tankers off of Gibraltar, 30 die
1987 Supreme Court ruled dangerous defendants could be held without bail
1987 William H Webster replaces Robert M Gates as 14th director of CIA
1989 At 7:42 AM, radio has a 30 second silence, honoring radio
1989 Danish parliament allows legal marriage among homosexuals
1989 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1992 Weird Al Yankovic begins his Off The Deep End tour
1993 Emmy 20th Daytime Award presentation - Susan Lucci loses for 14th time
1994 Michael Jackson (35) weds Elvis' daughter Lisa Marie Presley (26)
1998 Date for Paula Jones sex harassment trial vs President Clinton