History for October 26

History for October 26 - On-This-Day.com
C.W. (Charles William) Post 1854 - Founder of Post cereals and products (Grape Nuts), Napoleon Hill 1883 - Writer (Think and Grow Rich), John S. (Shively) Knight 1894 - Reporter, editor, publisher (Knight-Ridder newspaper)


Francois Mitterand 1916 - President of France (1981-1995), Pat Sajak 1946 - TV host (Wheel of Fortune, The Pat Sajack Show), Hillary Rodham Clinton 1947 - First Lady: wife of 42nd U.S. President William J. Clinton, U.S. Senator from New York, U.S. Presidential candidate in 2008


1825 - The Erie Canal opened in upstate New York. The 363-mile canal connected Lake Erie and the Hudson River at a cost of $7,602,000.


1858 - H.E. Smith patented the rotary-motion washing machine.


1881 - The "Gunfight at the OK Corral" took place in Tombstone, AZ. The fight was between Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and Doc Holiday and the Ike Clanton Gang.


1942 - The U.S. ship Hornet was sunk in the Battle of Santa Cruz during World War II.


1944 - During World War II, the Battle of Leyte Gulf ended. The battle was won by American forces and brought the end of the Pacific phase of World War II into sight.


1958 - Pan American Airways flew its first Boeing 707 jetliner from New York City to Paris.


1991 - Former Washington Mayor Marion Barry arrived at a federal correctional institution in Petersburg, VA, to begin serving a six-month sentence for cocaine possession.


1998 - A French lab found a nerve agent on an Iraqi missile warhead.