Today in History in 1776 Benjamin Franklin leaves the United States for France to seek French support for the American Revolutionary War.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

October 26 is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 66 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

1341 - The Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 begins.

1597 - Imjin War: Admiral Yi Sun-sin decisively defeats the Japanese navy of 300 ships with only 13 ships of his own.

1640 – The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between Scotland and Charles I of Scotland and England.

1689 – The Bill of Rights 1689 is recognised by Great Britain's dual monarchy.

1689 - General Enea Silvio Piccolimini of Austria burns down Skopje, in the present-day Republic of Macedonia.

1708 - The final stone of the newly rebuilt St. Paul's Cathedral in London is laid by the son of Christopher Wren.

1774 - The First Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1775 - George III of Great Britain and Ireland authorises military force against the American colonies.

1776 - Benjamin Franklin leaves the United States for France to seek French support for the American Revolutionary War.

1811 - Argentina's government declares the freedom of expression for the press by decree.

1813 - War of 1812: A combined force of British regulars, Canadian militia and Mohawks defeats the Americans in the Battle of Chateauguay.

1825 – The Erie Canal opens, linking Albany, New York to Lake Erie.

1859 - British clipper Royal Charter gets into a storm of the island of Anglesey, Wales, being thrown against rocks before sinking, killing 449 people, including all the women and children on board.

1861 - The Pony Express officially ends operations.

1863 - The English Football Association is founded.

1881 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place in Tombstone, Arizona.

1896 – Addis Ababa agreement forces Italy to recognise Ethiopia's independence.

1901 – 2000

1905 – Norway becomes independent from Sweden.

1909 – Japanese Governor of Korea, Hirobumi Ito is shot dead by Korean nationalist Ahn Jung-geun in Harbin, Manchuria.

1912 - First Balkan War: Thessaloniki officially unites with Greece.

1917 - World War I: In the Battle of Caporetto, Italy is decisively defeated by forces of Austria-Hungary and Germany.

1917 - World War I: Brazil declares a state of war against the Central Powers.

1918 - General Erich Ludendorff is dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany for refusing to take part in peace negotiations.

1921 - The Chicago Theatre opens.

1936 - The first electric generator at the Hoover Dam, on the Arizona-Nevada border, goes into full operation.

1942 - World War II: Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in the Guadalcanal Campaign, ending in Japanese victory.

1944 - World War II: The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends in US victory.

1947 - The Maharaja, state ruler, of Kashmir & Jammu agrees to allow his kingdom to join India.

1951 - Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for a second time.

1955 – Austria declares permanent neutrality.

1955 – Ngo Dinh Diem declares himself leader of South Vietnam.

1958 - Pan American Airways makes the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris.

1964 - Eric Edgar Cooke is the last person to be executed in Western Australia.

1965 - Austria celebrates its national holiday on this date for the first time.

1967 - Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, ruler of Iran, officially has himself crowned.

1968 - Soviet cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy pilots Soyuz 3 into space for a four-day mission.

1977 - The last natural case of Smallpox is discovered in Somalia.

1979 – Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea is murdered by Kim Jae-kyu. Choi Kyu-ha becomes acting president.

1984 – The movie The Terminator, directed by James Cameron, and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, is released.

1984 - The 1984-85 NBA regular season begins.

1985 – Uluru (Ayers Rock) is returned to Pitjantjiara Aborigines.

1994 – Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty.

1995 – An avalanche hits the village of Flateyri, in Iceland's West Fjords, killing 20 people.

1995 - The European Parliament condemns French nuclear testing in the Pacific.

1997 - Canadian Jacques Villeneuve becomes the Formula One world champion.

1998 - President of Ecuador Jamil Mahuad and President of Peru Alberto Fujimori meet in Brasilia to agree to an end to their countries' border war.

2000 – Laurent Gbagbo becomes President of the Ivory Coast.

2001 - The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into law.

2002 – Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian security forces storm a theatre building in Moscow, which had been occupied by terrorists for three days

2003 – The Cedar fire occurs in California, killing 15 people, destroying 1, 000 square kilometres of forests, and 2,200 homes around San Diego.

2012 - Media tycoon and former Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi is found guilty of tax fraud.

2015 - An earthquake of magnitude 7.5 strikes Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing at least 365 people.

2017 - Jacinda Ardern becomes the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand, leading a Labour-New Zealand First Party coalition government.

2017 - The Tangerang fireworks disaster near Jakarta, Indonesia, kills at least 47 people.

2018 - October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts: Police in Florida arrest a 56-year-old suspect, Cesar Sayoc, in their hunt for the sender of several mail bombs to well-known figures in the US Democratic party and people who have criticized US President Donald Trump.

2018 - Michael D. Higgins is re-elected President of Ireland; on the same day the country's voters also vote to get rid of its blasphemy law.

2019 - Climbing the rock Uluru in Australia is officially banned.

2019 - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, is reported to have blown himself up during a US military operation in Northern Syria.