Monday, October 26th
The 299th day of 2009.
There are 66 days left in the year.
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Today's Highlights in History
On Oct. 26, 1994, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali of Jordan signed a peace treaty in a ceremony attended by President Clinton. (Go to article.)
On Oct. 26, 1911, Mahalia Jackson, the American known as the queen of gospel singing, was born. Following her death on Jan. 27, 1972, her obituary appeared in The Times. (Go to obit. | Other Birthdays)
Editorial Cartoon of the Day
On October 26, 1872, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the relationship between state and national elections. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.)
On this date in:
1774 The First Continental Congress adjourned in Philadelphia.
1825 The Erie Canal opened, connecting Lake Erie and the Hudson River in upstate New York.
1881 The gunfight at the OK Corral took place in Tombstone, Ariz., as Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and "Doc" Holliday confronted Ike Clanton's gang. Three members of Clanton's gang were killed; Earp's brothers were wounded.
1962 In one of the most dramatic verbal confrontations of the Cold War, American U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson asked his Soviet counterpart during a Security Council debate whether the USSR had placed missiles in Cuba.
1967 The Shah of Iran crowned himself and his queen after 26 years on the Peacock Throne.
1972 National security adviser Henry Kissinger declared "peace is at hand" in Vietnam.
1984 A newborn with a severe heart defect was given the heart of a baboon in an experimental transplant in Loma Linda, Calif. She lived for 21 more days.
1996 Federal prosecutors cleared Richard Jewell as a suspect in the Olympic park bombing.
2001 President George W. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, giving authorities unprecedented ability to search, seize, detain or eavesdrop in their pursuit of possible terrorists.
2002 A hostage siege by Chechen rebels at a Moscow theater ended with 129 of the 800-plus captives dead, most from a knockout gas used by Russian special forces who stormed the theater.
2004 Israel's parliament approved Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.
2004 The final vote count in the Afghan presidential election gave a resounding victory to interim leader Hamid Karzai.
2005 The Chicago White Sox won their first World Series since 1917 by defeating the Houston Astros 1-0 in Game 4.
Current Birthdays
Hillary Rodham Clinton turns 62 years old today.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton turns 62 years old today.
73 Shelley Morrison
Actress ("Will and Grace")
67 Bob Hoskins
Actor
64 Pat Conroy
Author
64 Jaclyn Smith
Actress ("Charlie's Angels")
63 Pat Sajak
TV game show host ("Wheel of Fortune")
58 Bootsy Collins
Musician
58 Maggie Roche
Singer (The Roches)
57 James Pickens Jr.
Actor ("Grey's Anatomy")
56 Keith Strickland
Rock musician (The B-52's)
55 D. W. Moffett
Actor
53 Rita Wilson
Actress
48 Dylan McDermott
Actor ("The Practice")
47 Cary Elwes
Actor
46 Natalie Merchant
Rock singer (10,000 Maniacs)
42 Keith Urban
Country singer
41 Tom Cavanagh
Actor ("Ed")
38 Anthony Rapp
Actor ("Rent")
36 Seth MacFarlane
Writer, producer ("Family Guy")
34 Lennon Parham
Actress ("Accidentally on Purpose")
33 Hal Ozsan
Actor
32 Jon Heder
Actor ("Napoleon Dynamite")
31 Mark Barry
Singer (BB Mak)
25 Sasha Cohen
Figure skater
Historic Birthdays
Mahalia Jackson
10/26/1911 - 1/27/1972
American gospel singer
(Go to obit.)
71 Domenico Scarlatti
10/26/1685 - 7/23/1757
Italian composer
34 Georges Jacques Danton
10/26/1759 - 4/5/1794
French Revolutionary leader
? Henry Deringer
10/26/1786 - 2/28/1868
American gunsmith
59 Charles William Post
10/26/1854 - 5/9/1914
U.S. manufacturer of breakfast cereals
81 Richard Dudley Sears
10/26/1861 - 4/8/1943
American tennis champion
86 John S. Knight
10/26/1894 - 6/16/1981
American journalist and publisher
83 Beryl Markham
10/26/1902 - 8/3/1986
British aviator, horse trainer and breeder, and writer
91 Jack Sharkey
10/26/1902 - 8/17/1994
Hall-of-fame heavyweight boxer
60 Primo Carnera
10/26/1906 - 6/29/1967
Italian-born U.S. heavyweight boxer
77 Charlie Barnet
10/26/1913 - 9/4/1991
American musician
69 Jackie Coogan
10/26/1914 - 3/1/1984
American silent film actor; played "The Kid"
79 Francois Mitterand
10/26/1916 - 1/8/1996
French president (1981-95)
60 Mohammed Reza Pahlavi
10/26/1919 - 7/27/1980
Iranian Shah (1941-79)
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SOURCE: The Associated Press
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