On this day: 26 March
Events, births and deaths on 26 March. Every date is checked against Wikidata.
Years ago today
1 year ago2025
Nothing recorded for that year.
10 years ago2016
- Events · Hokkaido Shinkansen
- Deaths · Jim Harrison
100 years ago1926
- Deaths · Constantin Fehrenbach
1000 years ago1026
Within 100 years of that
- 983 · Deaths · 'Adud al-Dawla
- 1091 · Deaths · Wallada bint al-Mustakfi
- 973 · Deaths · Guntram the Rich
Events · 26
- 1244(Julian date)Treaty of Almizra — 1244 treaty between Aragon and Castile
- 1351(Julian date)Combat of the Thirty — 1351 event of the Breton War of Succession
- 1697Safavid occupation of Basra — occupation of the city (1697 to 1701)
- 18121812 Caracas earthquake — magnitude 7 earthquake (March 26, 1812) in Venezuela damaging Caracas, La Guaira, Barquisimeto, San Felipe and Mérida
- 1885North-West Rebellion — 1885 resistance by the Métis and Cree peoples against Canada
- 1896Brunner Mine disaster — 1896 mining accident in New Zealand
- 1917First Battle of Gaza — 1917 battle in the Middle Eastern theatre of WWI
- 1931Swissair — defunct national airline of Switzerland
- 1931Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union — social-political organisation in Vietnam
- 1939final offensive of the Spanish Civil War — 1939 campaign in the Iberian Peninsula
- 1954Castle Romeo — 1954 codename for one of the first thermonuclear bomb tests
- 1955Pan Am Flight 845/26 — 1955 aircraft ditching
- 1971Bangladesh — country in South Asia
- 1971Bangladesh Liberation War — conflict that led to the independence of the majority-Bengali country
- 1971Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence — founding document of Bangladesh
- 1979Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty — 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel
- 19791979 Interflug Ilyushin Il-18 crash — airplane crash in Luanda, Angola
- 1981Social Democratic Party — Political party in the United Kingdom (1981-88)
- 1991Treaty of Asunción — 1991 economic treaty among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay
- 1991Singapore Airlines Flight 117 — aircraft hijacking
- 1998Oued Bouaicha massacre — part of the Algerian Civil War in 1998
- 2005
- 2010ROKS Cheonan sinking — combat incident between North and South Korea
- 2016Hokkaido Shinkansen — high-speed rail line in Hokkaido and Aomori Prefecture, Japan
- 20172017 Hong Kong Chief Executive election — election in Hong Kong
- 2024Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse — ship accident in Baltimore on 26 March 2024
Births · 60
- 1516(Julian date)Conrad Gessner — Swiss physician, bibliographer and naturalist (1516–1565)
- 1753Benjamin Thompson — American-born British physicist and inventor (1753–1814)
- 1850Edward Bellamy — American author and socialist (1850–1898)
- 1859Alfred Edward Housman — British classical scholar and poet (1859-1936)
- 1868Fuad I of Egypt — Egyptian former King and former Sultan
- 1874Robert Frost — American poet (1874–1963)
- 1875Syngman Rhee — President of South Korea from 1948 to 1960
- 1876William, Prince of Albania — Prince of Albania (1876–1945)
- 1893Palmiro Togliatti — former leader of the Italian Communist Party (1893–1964)
- 1898Rudolf Dassler — German businessman (1898–1974)
- 1904Joseph Campbell — American mythologist, writer and lecturer (1904–1987)
- 1904Emilio Fernández — Mexican film director and actor (1904-1986)
- 1905Viktor Frankl — Austrian Holocaust survivor, psychiatrist, philosopher and author (1905–1997)
- 1907Mahadevi Varma — Indian Hindi writer and poet (1907-1987)
- 1908Franz Stangl — Austrian-born SS officer, commandant at first Sobibór extermination camp and then Treblinka extermination camp (1908-1971)
- 1911Tennessee Williams — American playwright (1911–1983)
- 1911Bernard Katz — German-British biophysicist (1911–2003)
- 1911John Langshaw Austin — English philosopher (1911–1960)
- 1913Paul Erdős — Hungarian mathematician (1913–1996)
- 1914William Westmoreland — United States Army general (1914-2005)
- 1916Christian B. Anfinsen — American biochemist (1916–1995)
- 1916Sterling Hayden — American actor (1916–1986)
- 1925Pierre Boulez — French composer, conductor and writer (1925–2016)
- 1930Sandra Day O'Connor — American lawyer and jurist (1930–2023)
- 1931Leonard Nimoy — American actor (1931–2015)
Deaths · 60
- 752(Julian date)Pope-elect Stephen — priest of Rome elected pope in March 752
- 809(Julian date)Ludger — Bishop of Münster in Westfalen
- 903(Julian date)Sugawara no Michizane — Japanese poet
- 922Mansur Al-Hallaj — Persian mystic, poet and Sufi teacher (c.858–922)
- 973Guntram the Rich — Count in Breisgau; possible progenitor of the House of Habsburg
- 983'Adud al-Dawla — Buyid dynasty emir (936-983)
- 1091(Julian date)Wallada bint al-Mustakfi — Al-Andalus poet
- 1130(Julian date)Sigurd the Crusader — King of Norway from 1103 to 1130
- 1211(Julian date)Sancho I of Portugal — King of Portugal (1185–1211)
- 1350Alfonso XI of Castile and Leon — King of Castile, León and Galicia from 1312 to 1350
- 1517(Julian date)Heinrich Isaac — Franco-Flemish Renaissance composer (1450–1517)
- 1566(Julian date)Antonio de Cabezahueca — Spanish composer and organist (1510-1566)
- 1649John Winthrop — Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay and Author of "City upon a Hill" (1588-1649)
- 1675Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha — Duke of Saxe-Gotha and Saxe-Altenburg (1601-1675)
- 1726John Vanbrugh — English architect and dramatist (1664–1726)
- 1772Charles Pinot Duclos — French writer (1704-1772)
- 1780Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel — Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1713-1780)
- 1797James Hutton — Scottish geologist, physician, chemical manufacturer, naturalist, and experimental agriculturalist; (1726-1797)
- 1804Wolfgang von Kempelen — Austrian dramatic, graphic, constructer, linguist, painter, writer, inventor and nobleman (1734-1804)
- 1814Joseph-Ignace Guillotin — French physician (1738-1814)
- 1827Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer (1770-1827)
- 1880Theodor Hartig — German forestry scientist, entomologist and botanist (1805–1880)
- 1892Walt Whitman — American poet, essayist and journalist (1819–1892)
- 1902Cecil John Rhodes — British businessman, mining magnate and politician in South Africa (1853-1902)
- 1910Auguste Charlois — French astronomer (1864-1910)
Dates verified against Wikidata (CC0). Titles and descriptions come from Wikidata.