Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index January 26 is the 26th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 339 days remaining (340 in leap years). Table of contents 1 Events 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances Events 1340 - King Edward III of England is declared King of France. 1500 - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón become the first European to discover Brazil. 1531 - Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake-- thousands die. 1699 - Treaty of Carlowitz signed. 1736 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne. 1788 - The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, land at Botany Bay just outside present-day Sydney. They would establish the first permanent European settlement on the continent. Celebrated as Australia Day, the country's national day. 1837 - Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state. 1841 - The United Kingdom occupies Hong Kong. 1861 - American Civil War: Louisiana secedes from the Union. 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 Theatre 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 1948 - President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, ending segregation in the United States Armed Forces. 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. 1965 - Hindi becomes the official language of India. 1980 - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations. 1983 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released. 1992 - Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia is going to stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons. 1993 - Vaclav 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. 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. Births 1781 - Achim von Arnim, poet († 1831) 1826 - Louis Favre, engineer Gotthard tunnel († 1879) 1826 - Julia Dent Grant, First Lady of the United States 1831 - Mary Mapes Dodged, writer († 1907) 1880 - Douglas MacArthur, general († 1964) 1901 - Stuart Symington, politician († 1988) 1904 - Ancel Keys, scientist 1905 - Bernhard Minetti, actor 1905 - Maria von Trapp, singer († 1987) 1908 - Stéphane Grappelli, musician, composer († 1997) 1918 - Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator († 1989) 1918 - Philip Jose Farmer, science fiction writer 1923 - Anne Jeffreys, actress 1925 - Paul Newman, actor 1926 - Ralph Brance, baseball star 1928 - Eartha Kitt, singer and actress 1928 - Roger Vadim, French film director and actor († 2000) 1929 - Jules Feiffer, cartoonist, writer 1932 - Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd, Jamaican record producer 1941 - Henry Jaglom, director 1941 - Scott Glenn, actor 1944 - Angela Davis, feminist and activist 1945 - Jacqueline du Pré, cello player († 1987) 1946 - Gene Siskel, film critic († 1999) 1953 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark 1955 - Eddie Van Halen, musician 1958 - Ellen DeGeneres, actress, comedienne 1961 - Wayne Gretzky, ice hockey player 1963 - Andrew Ridgeley, musician Deaths 1886 - David Rice Atchison, American politician 1962 - Lucky Luciano, mobster 1973 - Edward G. Robinson, actor 1979 - Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States 1972 - Mahalia Jackson, gospel music singer 1992 - José Ferrer, actor 1993 - Jeanne Sauvé, Governor-General of Canada 2000 - A.E. van Vogt, science fiction author 2000 - Don Budge, tennis player 2003 - Valeriy Brumel, Soviet athlete Holidays and observances Roman Empire - third day of the Sementivae in honor of Ceres and Terra Australia - Australia Day Catholicism - Feast day of Ss. Timothy and Titus. India - Republic Day See Also: January 25 - January 27 - December 26 - February 26 -- listing of all days January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.