Canals, codes of play, quiet separations and sudden violence: 26 October covers a great deal of ground. This timeline follows the date from 1825 to 1994.
Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.
The Erie Canal, linking the Hudson River to Lake Erie, opened on 26 October 1825. Governor DeWitt Clinton travelled its full length from Buffalo aboard the Seneca Chief, carrying lake water he poured into the Atlantic eight days later.
Source: Library of Congress: Opening of the Erie Canal ↗Eight men met at the Freemasons’ Tavern in Great Queen Street, London, on the evening of Monday 26 October 1863, and founded the Football Association. Among them was Ebenezer Cobb Morley, who had drafted thirteen laws of the game at his home in Barnes. Those laws, agreed over the following weeks, separated association football from the handling game that became rugby. The tavern was demolished in 1927 and its front was built into the Connaught Rooms, which still stand on the site.
Source: The Football Association: The history of The FA ↗The thirty-second gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, on 26 October 1881 left three of the Cowboys dead and became the most famous shoot-out of the American West.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral ↗War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.
Sweden recognised Norwegian independence on 26 October 1905 and Oscar II renounced the Norwegian throne, ending a union of the two crowns that had lasted since 1814 — a separation carried through without fighting.
Source: The Royal House of Norway: Dissolution of the union, 1905 ↗President Park Chung Hee of South Korea was shot dead on 26 October 1979 by Kim Jae Kyu, the head of the Korean CIA, ending eighteen years of rule. General Chun Doo Hwan took power within months.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica: Park Chung-Hee ↗Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in the Arava valley on 26 October 1994, settling their boundary and the sharing of water. Jordan became the second Arab state to make peace with Israel.
Source: United Nations Peacemaker: Treaty of peace between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan ↗Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.
This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 26 October, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.
Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.
Discover the lighter side of the date with famous birthdays, culture, firsts and lives remembered.
Sunset over the Erie Canal at North Tonawanda, New York.Image: 
Ebenezer Cobb Morley, who drafted the first laws of the game.Image: 
Tombstone, Arizona Territory, photographed probably in 1881.Image: 
Oscar II, king of Sweden and, until 1905, of Norway.Image: 
Park Chung Hee.Image: 
Yitzhak Rabin, who signed for Israel.Image: