On this day in history

January 26

30 births · 15 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

1956 Winter Olympics

70 years ago

Born this day

1918

Nicolae Ceaușescu

Would be 108

Photo (modified): unknown · Attribution

Oldest record

327th

Treaty of Karlowitz

event anniversary

Famous births30

1715 · 311 yrs

Claude Adrien Helvétius

Claude Adrien Helvétius (French:; 26 January 1715 – 26 December 1771) was a French philosopher, Freemason, and littérateur.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 56

View profile Photo (modified): Alix, Pierre Michel (Paris, en 1762 - Paris, 27–12–1817), graveur · CC0

1763 · 263 yrs

Charles XIV John of Sweden

Charles XIV John (Swedish: Karl XIV Johan; 26 January 1763 – 8 March 1844) was King of Sweden and Norway from 1818 until his death in 1844 and the first monarch of the Bernadotte dynasty.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 81

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1777 · 249 yrs

Ugo Foscolo

Ugo Foscolo (Italian:; 6 February 1778 – 10 September 1827), born Niccolò Foscolo, was an Italian writer, revolutionary and poet.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 50

View profile Photo (modified): François-Xavier Fabre · Public domain

1781 · 245 yrs

Ludwig Achim von Arnim

Carl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim (26 January 1781 – 21 January 1831), better known as Achim von Arnim, was a German poet, novelist, and together with Clemens Brentano and Joseph von Eichendorff, a leading figure of German Romanticism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 49

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1799 · 227 yrs

Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron

Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron (French:; 26 January 1799 – 28 January 1864) was a French engineer and physicist, one of the founders of thermodynamics. He is known for developing the ideal gas law.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 65

View profile Photo (modified): (Unknown) · Public domain

1877 · 149 yrs

Kees van Dongen

Cornelis Theodorus Maria "Kees" van Dongen (26 January 1877 – 28 May 1968) was a Dutch-French painter who was one of the leading Fauves. Van Dongen's early work was influenced by the Hague School and symbolism and it evolved gradually into a rough pointillist style.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 149

View profile Photo (modified): Agence de presse Meurisse · Public domain

1880 · 146 yrs

Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 – 5 April 1964) was an American general.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 146

View profile Photo (modified): Photographer not credited. · Public domain

1884 · 142 yrs

Edward Sapir

Edward Sapir (January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American anthropologist-linguist, and one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipWould be 142

View profile Photo (modified): unnkown · Public domain

1904 · 122 yrs

Seán MacBride

Seán MacBride (26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988) was an Irish republican activist, politician, and diplomat who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff of the IRA from 1936 to 1937. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1947 to 1957.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 122

View profile Photo (modified): Bogaerts, Rob / Anefo · CC0

1911 · 115 yrs

Polykarp Kusch

Polykarp Kusch (German:; January 26, 1911 – March 20, 1993) was a German–American physicist who shared the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics with Willis Eugene Lamb for his accurate determination that the electron magnetic moment was greater than its theoretical value, thus leading to reconsideration of and innovations in…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 115

View profile Photo (modified): Nobel foundation · Public domain

1918 · 108 yrs

Nicolae Ceaușescu

Nicolae Ceaușescu (8 February 1918 – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last leader of Communist Romania as general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 until his overthrow and execution in 1989.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 108

View profile Photo (modified): unknown · Attribution

1921 · 105 yrs

Akio Morita

Akio Morita (盛田昭夫, Morita Akio; January 26, 1921 – October 3, 1999) was a Japanese entrepreneur and co-founder of Sony along with Masaru Ibuka.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

BusinessWould be 105

View profile Photo (modified): プレジデント社撮影者不明 · Public domain

Showing 12 of 30

Famous deaths15

1823 · 203 yrs

Edward Jenner

Edward Jenner (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 73

View profile Photo (modified): James Northcote · Public domain

1824 · 202 yrs

Théodore Géricault

Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (French:; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French painter and lithographer. His best-known painting is The Raft of the Medusa.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 32

View profile Photo (modified): Horace Vernet · CC0

1864 · 162 yrs

Vuk Karadžić

Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (Serbian Cyrillic: Вук Стефановић Караџић, pronounced; 6 November 1787 (26 October OS) – 7 February 1864) was a Serbian philologist, anthropologist and linguist. He was one of the most important reformers of the modern Serbian language.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipDied aged 76

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1864 · 162 yrs

Leo von Klenze

Leo von Klenze (born Franz Karl Leopold Klenze; 29 February 1784 – 26 January 1864) was a German architect and painter. He was the court architect of Ludwig I of Bavaria.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 79

View profile Photo (modified): Franz Hanfstaengl · Public domain

1879 · 147 yrs

Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Margaret Cameron (née Pattle; 11 June 1815 – 26 January 1879) was an English photographer who is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century. She is known for her portraits of famous Victorians and for illustrative images depicting characters from mythology, Christianity, and literature.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtDied aged 63

View profile Photo (modified): Henry Herschel Hay Cameron · Public domain

1891 · 135 yrs

Nicolaus Otto

Nicolaus August Otto (German pronunciation:; 10 June 1832 – 26 January 1891) was a German engineer who successfully developed the compressed charge internal combustion engine which ran on petroleum gas and led to the modern internal combustion engine.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

TechnologyDied aged 58

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1895 · 131 yrs

Arthur Cayley

Arthur Cayley (16 August 1821 – 26 January 1895) was an English mathematician who worked mostly on algebra. He helped found the modern British school of pure mathematics, and was a professor at Trinity College, Cambridge for 35 years.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 73

View profile Photo (modified): Herbert Beraud (1845–1896) · Public domain

1943 · 83 yrs

Nikolai Vavilov

Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov (Russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Вави́лов, IPA:; 25 November 1887 – 26 January 1943) was a Russian and Soviet agronomist, botanist and geneticist who identified the centers of origin of cultivated plants. His research focused on improvement of wheat, maize and other cereal crops.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 138

View profile Photo (modified): World Telegram staff photographer · Public domain

1973 · 53 yrs

Edward G. Robinson

Edward Goldenberg Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893 – January 26, 1973) was an American actor who was popular during Hollywood's Golden Age.

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FilmWould be 132

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1979 · 47 yrs

Nelson Rockefeller

Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979) was the 41st vice president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford. A member of the Republican Party and the wealthy Rockefeller family, he was the 49th governor of New York from 1959 to 1973.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 118

View profile Photo (modified): White House · Public domain

1992 · 34 yrs

José Ferrer

José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992) was a Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors during his lifetime and after, with a career spanning nearly 60 years between 1935 and 1992.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 114

View profile Photo (modified): Press photo · Public domain

2011 · 15 yrs

David Kato

David Kato Kisule (c. 1964 – 26 January 2011) was a Ugandan teacher and LGBT rights activist, considered a father of Uganda's gay rights movement and described as "Uganda's first openly gay man". He served as advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ActivismWould be 62

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Showing 12 of 15

Events5

1699 · 327 yrs

Treaty of Karlowitz

The Treaty of Karlowitz, concluding the Great Turkish War of 1683–1699, in which the Ottoman Empire was defeated by the Holy League at the Battle of Zenta, was signed in Karlowitz (present-day Sremski Karlovci, Serbia), in the Military Frontier of the Habsburg Monarchy, on 26 January 1699.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1934 · 92 yrs

German–Polish declaration of non-aggression

The German–Polish declaration of non-aggression, also known as the German–Polish non-aggression pact, was an agreement between Nazi Germany and the Second Polish Republic that was signed on 26 January 1934 in Berlin.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1950 · 76 yrs

Constitution of India

The Constitution of India is the supreme legal document of India, and the longest written national constitution in the world.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

1956 · 70 yrs

1956 Winter Olympics

The 1956 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VII Olympic Winter Games (Italian: VII Giochi olimpici invernali or VII Giochi olimpici d'inverno) and commonly known as Cortina d'Ampezzo 1956 (Ampezzan Ladin: Anpezo 1956), were a multi-sport event held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, from 26 January to 5 February 1956.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

1991 · 35 yrs

Somali Civil War

The Somali Civil War (Somali: Dagaalkii Sokeeye ee Soomaaliya; Arabic: الحرب الأهلية الصومالية al-ḥarb al-’ahliyya aṣ-ṣūmāliyya) is an ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta led by Siad Barre during the 1980s.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

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