Immigrants arriving in the U.S., circa 1920.

1924

President Coolidge signs Immigration Act of 1924

Born on This Day

Space Shuttle Astronaut Sally Ride

Sally Ride

1951 - 2012

First American woman to travel into outer space in 1983, aboard the space shuttle orbiter Challenger.

Photo of Miles DAVIS

Miles Davis

1926 - 1991

Legendary jazz trumpeter who explored new forms of improvisation on albums like "Birth of Cool" and "Kind of Blue."

2024 A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Cure Parkinson's Benefit

Stevie Nicks

1948 -

American singer-songwriter who made it big with Fleetwood Mac ("Landslide") and as a solo artist ("Edge of Seventeen").

1897

MAY

26

Bram Stoker’s horror novel "Dracula" goes on sale in London. Editors had lopped off the first 101 pages from the manuscript and altered the text to seem less "real," since London at the time had a serial killer on the loose.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on May 26th

1637

Pequot massacres begin

During the Pequot War, an allied Puritan and Mohegan force under English Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, burning or massacring some 500 Native American women, men and children. As the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay spread further into Connecticut, they came into increasing conflict with the Pequots, a tribe centered on the […]

1865

One of the last Confederate generals surrenders

Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, surrenders on May 26, 1865, one of the last Confederate generals to capitulate. Kirby Smith, who had become commander of the area in January 1863, was charged with keeping the Mississippi River open to the Southerners. Yet he was more interested in recapturing Arkansas […]

1868

President Johnson acquitted in Senate impeachment trial

At the end of a historic two-month trial, the U.S. Senate narrowly fails to convict President Andrew Johnson of the impeachment charges levied against him by the House of Representatives three months earlier. The senators voted 35 guilty and 19 not guilty on the second article of impeachment, a charge related to his violation of […]

Impeachment of President Andrew Johnson

1896

Czar Nicholas II crowned

Nicholas II, the last czar, is crowned ruler of Russia in the old Ouspensky Cathedral in Moscow. Nicholas was neither trained nor inclined to rule, which did not help the autocracy he sought to preserve in an era desperate for change. Born in 1868, he succeeded to the Russian throne upon the death of his […]

1907

John Wayne is born

John Wayne, an actor who came to epitomize the American West, is born in Winterset, Iowa. Born Marion Robert Morrison, Wayne’s family moved to Glendale, California, when he was six years old. As a teen, he rose at four in the morning to deliver newspapers, and after school he played football and made deliveries for […]

1927

Last day of Model T production at Ford

On May 26, 1927, Henry Ford and his son Edsel drive the 15 millionth Model T Ford out of their factory, marking the famous automobile’s official last day of production. More than any other vehicle, the relatively affordable and efficient Model T was responsible for accelerating the automobile’s introduction into American society during the first […]

1940

Britain’s Operation Dynamo gets underway as President Roosevelt makes a radio appeal for the Red Cross

On May 26, 1940, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt makes known the dire straits of Belgian and French civilians suffering the fallout of the British-German battle to reach the northern coast of France, and appeals for support for the Red Cross “Tonight, over the once peaceful roads of Belgium and France, millions are now moving, […]

1960

United States charges Soviets with espionage

During a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Henry Cabot Lodge charges that the Soviet Union has engaged in espionage activities at the U.S. embassy in Moscow for years. The charges were obviously an attempt by the United States to deflect Soviet criticisms following the downing of an […]

1962

The British Invasion has an odd beginning with clarinetist Acker Bilk

If you’d told a randomly selected group of American music fans in the spring of 1962 that a British act would soon achieve total dominance of the American pop scene, change the face of music and fashion and inspire a generation of future pop stars to take up an instrument and join a band, they […]

1972

SALT agreements signed

On May 26, 1972, Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev and U.S. President Richard Nixon, meeting in Moscow, sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) agreements. At the time, these agreements were the most far-reaching attempts to control nuclear weapons ever. Nixon and Brezhnev seemed unlikely candidates for the American and Soviet statesmen who would sign a […]

1991

Plane crashes in Thai jungle

On May 26, 1991, a Boeing 767 crashes into the jungle near Bangkok, Thailand, and kills all 223 people on board. The plane was owned and operated by the Austrian company Lauda-Air was the nation’s largest charter operation and famed race car driver Niki Lauda’s first foray into business after his retirement from racing. The flight originated […]

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