On this day in History - Jan. 26

• 0066 -5th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
• 1340 - King Edward III of England is declared King of France.
• 1497 - Emperor Go-Nara of Japan was born (d. 1557)
• 1500 - Some sources tell that the Spanish explorer Vicente Yáñez Pinzón become the first European to discover Brazil when he reaches the northeastern coast of Brazil during a voyage under his command. I always learned that he had been the Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral the first one to discover Brazil in 22 April 1500. May be i was wrong.
• 1531 - Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake -about 20.000 die.
• 1541 - Florent Chrestien was born (d. 1596). French writer.
• 1654 - Portuguese troops conquer last Dutch base on Recife (Brazil).
• 1697 - Isaac Newton received and solved Jean Bernoulli's brachistochrone problem. The swiss mathematician Bernouilli had challenged his colleagues to solve it within six months. Newton not only solved the problem before going to bed that same night, but in doing so, invented a new branch of mathematics called the calculus of variations.
• 1699 - Treaty of Carlowitz signed.
• 1700 - The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake took place off the coast of the American Northwest, as evidenced by Japanese records.
• 1714 - Jean-Baptiste Pigalle was born (d. 1785). French sculptor.
• 1715 - Claude-Adrien Helvetius was born. French philosopher.
• 1716 - George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville was born (d. 1785). British soldier and politician.
• 1722 - Alexander Carlyle was born (d. 1805). Scottish church leader.
• 1736 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.
• 1748 - England, Netherlands, Austria & Sardinia sign anti-French treaty .
• 1763 - Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte was born (d. 1841). Napoleonic general and king Charles XIV of Sweden-Norway.
• 1781 - Achim von Arnim was born (d. 1831). German poet.
• 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 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.
• 1810 - Joseph Rogers Brown was born (d. 23 Jul 1876). American inventor and manufacturer who made numerous advances in the field of fine measurement and machine-tool production.
• 1812 - Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, 1st Count of Linhares, Portugal, dies in Rio de Janeiro (b. 4 Aug 1745 ). Portuguese diplomat and politician.
• 1813 - Juan Pablo Duarte was born (d. 1876). Founding father of the Dominican Republic
• 1823 - Edward Jenner dies (b. 17 May 1749). English surgeon and discoverer of vaccination for smallpox.
• 1825 - Se constituye la provincia de Costa Rica, dentro de la República Federal de las Provincias Unidas de Centroamérica.
• 1826 - Louis Favre was born (d. 1879). Engineer Gotthard tunnel
• 1826 - Julia Dent Grant was born (d. 1902). First Lady of the United States
• 1827 - O Perú anuncia o fim de sua união com a Colômbia e declara a sua independência.
• 1831 - Mary Mapes Dodged was born (d. 1907). Writer.
• 1837 - Michigan became the 26th state in the United States.
• 1838 - Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States
• 1838 - É fundado, no Rio de Janeiro, o Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro.
• 1841 - The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong, which China had ceded.
• 1848 - Justo Sierra Méndez was born. Mexican writer, diplomat and politician.
• 1857 - the 12th Dalai Lama was born (d. 1875)
• 1861 - Louisiana becomes 6th state to secede .
• 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. .
• 1871 - The Rugby Football Union was founded in London, by 20 clubs.
• 1875 - George F. Green of Kalamazoo, Michigan patented the electric dental drill for sawing, filing, dressing and polishing teeth.
• 1878 - António Maria de Fontes Pereira de Melo assume o cargo de primeiro-ministro de Portugal, pela 2ª. vez (ver Lista de Primeiros-Ministros de Portugal).
• 1878 - Nascimento do poeta português Afonso Lopes Vieira. Interessou-se também pelo cinema tendo realizado um pequeno filme com crianças (O Afilhado de Santo António) e encarregou-se dos diálogos de Camões e Inês de Castro, de Leitão de Barros, e do Amor de Perdição, de António Lopes Ribeiro.
• 1880 - Douglas MacArthur was born (d. 05. Apr. 1964). U.S. Army General and Commander of Allied Forces, WWII: “I shall return.”, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”
• 1880 - Douglas MacArthur was born (d. 1964). American general, who commanded the Southwest Pacific Theatre in World War II, administered postwar Japan during the Allied occupation that followed, and led United Nations forces during the first nine months of the Korean War.
• 1885 - Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum.
• 1886 - Karl Benz patents 1st auto with burning motor .
• 1886 - David Rice Atchison dies, American politician (b. 1807) .
• 1887 - Tem início a construção da Torre Eiffel, em Paris, no local onde se realizará a Exposição Universal de Paris.
• 1887 - Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat Italians.
• 1891 - Frank Costello was born (d. 1973). Italian-born gangster.
• 1892 - Zara Cully was born (d. 1978). American actress.
• 1893 - Bessie Coleman was born in Atlanta, Texas (d. 1926). Aviator.
• 1900 - Karl Ristenpart was born (d. 1967). German conductor.
• 1901 - Stuart Symington was born (d. 1988). American politician.
• 1902 - Menno ter Braak was born (d. 1940). Dutch author and polemicist.
• 1904 - Seán MacBride was born in Dublin (d. 1988). Irish Statesman / Amnesty International co-founder, recipient of Nobel Peace Prize in 1974.
• 1904 - Ancel Keys, was born, (d. 20.11.2004). American nutritionist and epidemiologist who was the first to identify the role of saturated fats in causing heart disease.
• 1905 - Charles Lane was born, actor .
• 1905 - Bernhard Minetti was born, actor .
• 1905 - Maria von Trapp was born (d. 1987). Austrian-born singer.
• 1905 - The Cullinan Diamond (Worl's largest diamond) is found near Pretoria, South Africa at the Premier Mine.
• 1907 - Hans Selye, was born (d. 16 Oct 1982). Austrian-born Canadian endocrinologist known for his studies of the effects of stress on the human body.
• 1908 - Stéphane Grappelli was born (d. 1997). French musician, composer.
• 1911 - Polykarp Kusch was born (d. 20 Mar 1993). German-American physicist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1955 for his accurate determination that the magnetic moment of the electron is greater than its theoretical value
• 1911 - Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane.
• 1911 - Herman Max Gluckman was born (d. 13 Apr 1975). South African social anthropologist who pioneered the study of traditional African legal systems.
• 1911 - Polykarp Kusch was born (d. 1993). German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate.
• 1913 - James Van Heusen was born (d. 1990). American songwriter
• 1914 - Vatican puts Belgian Nobel winner Maeterlinck's works in their index.
• 1915 - William Hopper was born (d. 1970). American actor.
• 1918 - Nicolae Ceauşescu was born (d. 1989). Romanian President (1967-90) .
• 1918 - Philip José Farmer was born. American science fiction writer .
• 1921 - Akio Morita was born (d. 1999). Japanese businessman, co-founder of Sony.
• 1922 - Michael Bentine was born (d. 1996). British comedian.
• 1923 - Anne Jeffreys was born. American actress (I Married an Angel, Dick Tracy [1945], Boys’ Night Out, General Hospital [soap], Clifford).
• 1924 - Annette Strauss was born (d. 1998). Philanthropist, former mayor of Dallas, Texas
• 1924 - Rauf Denktash was born. Cypriot politician.
• 1924 - Alice Babs was born. Swedish singer.
• 1925 - Joan Leslie was born in Detroit, American actress (High Sierra, Yankee Doodle Dandy).
• 1925 - Sir James Mackenzie, dies (b. 12 Apr 1853) Scottish cardiologist, pioneer in the study of cardiac arrhythmias. In 1892, he built a machine for detecting and recording physiological activity, such as pulse rate and blood pressure, since known as a polygraph, and later used as a lie detector.
• 1925 - Paul Newman was born. American actor ( Hud, Hombre, Hustler).
• 1926 - Francis R. "Joe" Boyd was born (d. 12 Jan 2004). American geologist whose studies on the origins of volcanic rocks contributed to the understanding of the formation of the Earth
• 1927 - José Simón Azcona del Hoyo was born. President of Honduras (1986-1990)
• 1928 - Roger Vadim (Roger Vladimir Plemiannikov) was born (d. 11. Feb. 2000). French film director (And God Created Women, Barbarella) .
• 1929 - Jules Feiffer was born. American Cartoonist and writer .
• 1932 - the US Patent Office recieved a patent application for the cyclotron by Ernest Orlando Lawrence. By 1939, this atom-smashing instrument won the Nobel Prize for its inventor.
• 1932 - Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd was born. Jamaican record producer .
• 1932 - British submarine M-2 sinks in Channel (60 dead) .
• 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.
• 1940 - Nazis forbid Polish Jews to travel on trains .
• 1941 - Henry Jaglom was born. Director .
• 1942 - Scott Glenn was born. Actor (Apocalypse Now, The Right Stuff, Silverado, The Hunt for Red October, The Silence of the Lambs ) .
• 1942 - World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
• 1942 - Felix Hausdorff dies (b. 1868). German mathematician (b. 1868) .
• 1943 - Jean Knight was born. Singer .
• 1943 - César Gutiérrez was born (d. 2005). Major League Baseball player.
• 1944 - Angela Davis was born. Feminist and civil rights activist, teacher.
• 1945 - Jacqueline du Pré was born (†19 Oct 1987). British cellist.
• 1946 - Prince Gustaf Adolf dies (b. 1906). Duke of Westrobothnia, second in line to the Swedish throne.
• 1946 - Gene Siskel was born (d. 1999). Film critic.
• 1946 - Félix Gouin becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1947 - Gustav Adolf, crown Prince of Sweden, dies in air crash .
• 1947 - KLM Dakota crashes near Copenhagen, 22 die .
• 1949 - A Suíça reconhece o estabelecimento do Estado de Israel.
• 1949 - David Strathairn was born in San Francisco, California. American actor.
• 1949 - Victor Fleming dies at 65. Film director (Wizard of Oz, Gone With Wind).
• 1950 - India promulgates its constitution forming a republic and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president. The Indian constitution takes effect, making the Republic of India the most populous democracy in the world.
• 1950 - Janet Lupo was born. The biggest breasted Playmate (Miss November 1975)
• 1951 - Elizabeth Taylor divorced her first husband, Nicky Hilton, on the grounds of mental cruelty. It was less than a year after their highly publicized wedding.
• 1952 - Egypt is placed under martial law in response to wide-spread riots against the British.
• 1953 - Film actress, dancer, and sex symbol Rita Hayworth divorced Prince Aly Khan in Reno, Nevada on this date.
• 1953 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, was born, Prime Minister of Denmark .
• 1956 - Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
• 1957 - Eddie Van Halen was born. Grammy Award-winning musician, guitar, singer, [Van Halen] .
• 1957 - José Linhares dies. President of Brazil (1945-1946).
• 1958 - Ellen DeGeneres was born. Actress, comedienne .
• 1958 - Anita Baker singer: Sweet Love, Rhythm of Love, Giving You the Best that I Got
• 1961 - John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman holds this appointment.
• 1961 - Wayne Gretzky was born. Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and team owner Wayne Gretzky. He holds the NHL record for points (2,857), goals (894), and assists (1,963) and is considered by many the game's greatest player of all time.
• 1962 - Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles.
• 1962 - Lucky Luciano dies (b. 1897). Mobster.
• 1962 - Oscar Ruggeri was born. Argentine footballer .
• 1963 - José Mourinho was born in Setúbal. Portuguese football manager.Considered the best in recent designation. Winner of Uefa Cup in 1992 and Uefa Champions League in 1993 for FCPorto
• 1963 - James May was born. British writer.
• 1963 - Andrew Ridgeley was born. English musician .
• 1965 - Colombia win the World Championship of Baseball.
• 1965 - Hindi becomes the official language of India.
• 1966 - The Beaumont Children go missing from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, South Australia.
• 1968 - Israeli submarine Dakar crashes in Mediterranean Sea, 69 die
• 1968 - Merrill C. Meigs dies (b. 1883). Newspaper publisher, aviation promoter .
• 1970 - Folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel release classic album Bridge Over Troubled Water.
• 1970 - Kirk Franklin was born. American singer
• 1971 - Dorian Gregory was born. American actor.
• 1972 - Mahalia Jackson dies (b. 1911). American American gospel music singer.
• 1973 - Edward G. Robinson dies (b. 1893). American actor.
• 1976 - João Branco Núncio dies in Goleegã (b. 15 Fev 1901). Portuguese bullfighter horseman /Morre na Golegã, João Branco Núncio, cavaleiro tauromáquico português nascido em 15 de Fev 1901 em São Romão, Alcácer do Sal.
• 1977 - Vince Carter was born. American basketball player .
• 1977 - Justin Gimelstob was born. American tennis player .
• 1978 - Corina Morariu was born American tennis player
• 1978 - Mário Soares forms Portuguese government .
• 1979 - Nelson Rockefeller dies (b. 1908). Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States.
• 1980 - 175,000 pay to hear Frank Sinatra sing in Rio de Janeiro .
• 1980 - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.
• 1982 - Mauno Koivisto elected President of Finland.
• 1983 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released.
• 1983 - Paul 'Bear' Bryant dies, football coach .
• 1985 - 42th Golden Globes: Amadeus wins .
• 1986 -The National Resistance Army takes over the Ugandan capital of Kampala.
• 1986 - Super Bowl XX: The Chicago Bears defeat the New England Patriots, 46-10.
• 1986 - José Azcona toma posesión como presidente de la República de Honduras.
• 1987 - 14th American Music Award: Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie & Alabama .
• 1987 - Los reyes de España, Juan Carlos I y Sofía colocan la primera piedra de la Exposición Universal de Sevilla de 1992, en el recinto de la Isla de la Cartuja.
• 1988 - Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera opened on Broadway. It would go on to become the longest-running Broadway show.
• 1990 - Lewis Mumford dies (b. 1895). Historian.
• 1991 - Rebels overrun the Somalian capital of Mogadishu.
• 1992 - José Ferrer dies (b. 1912) . Puerto Rican actor and director (Cyrano de Bergerac).
• 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 - Jeanne Sauvé dies, Governor-General of Canada (b. 1922) .
• 1993 - Václav Havel elected President of the Czech Republic.
• 1993 - Cameron Bright was born. Canadian actor
• 1994 - A man fires two blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney, Australia.
• 1994 - Frederico George dies. Portuguese painter and architect.
• 1995 - Mário Feliciano dies. Portuguese theater director.
• 1995 - Kyle Chavarria was born. American actress
• 1996 - Whitewater scandal: Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.
• 1996 - David Schultz, wrestler (Olympic Gold, 84), killed by John Du Pont .
• 1996 - A Roménia foi o primeiro país do antigo Pacto de Varsóvia a aderir à OTAN (Organização do Tratado do Atlântico Norte).
• 1997 - The Green Bay Packers defeat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI, with a score of 35-21.
• 1998 - Lewinsky scandal: On American television, Pres Clinton says "I want to say one thing to the American people I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky" .
• 1998 - Compaq buys Digital Equipment Corporation. The purchase made Compaq the world's biggest seller of personal computers and allowed Compaq to enter the world of high-end computing, offering workstations and Internet services manufactured by Digital .
• 2000 - A. E. van Vogt dies, science fiction author (b. 1912) .
• 2000 - Don Budge dies, tennis player (b. 1915) .
• 2000 - O Benfica perde com o Sporting por 1-3 para a Taça de Portugal, no Estádio da Luz, com golos de Acosta 2 e André Cruz para o Sporting e Uribe pelo Benfica.
• 2000 - Robert F. Vasa ordained Bishop of the Diocese of Baker
• 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.
• 2002 - A post-mortem examination was due to take place on a former top executive of bankrupt US energy giant Enron who apparently committed suicide.
• 2003 - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers win their first Super Bowl title by defeating the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII .
• 2003 - World chess champion Garry Kimovich Kasparov [13 April 1963-], with White, defeats computer program Deep Junior (who has a human to physically move the pieces) in the first game of a match which will end in a draw with its 6th game on 07 February 2003 (28 Jan Game 2 — 30 Jan Game 3 — 02 Feb Game 4 — 05 Feb Game 5).:
• 2003 - Valeriy Brumel dies, Soviet athlete (b. 1942) .
• 2003 - Lord Dacre (Hugh Trevor-Roper) dies. British historian .
• 2003 - George Younger dies, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, British politician (b. 1931) .
• 2004 - President Hamid Karzai signed the new constitution of Afghanistan.
• 2005 - O Benfica derrota o Sporting para a Taça de Portugal nos penalties (7-6) depois de 3-3 após prolongamento, num dos melhores jogos do ano. Tudo sobre o jogo aqui.
• 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.