October 26^th is

National Day of The Deployed *

Eradication of Smallpox Day *

Intersex Awareness Day *

Mule Day *

National Mincemeat Day

National Pumpkin Day

Howl at the Moon Night

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MORE! St Demetrius, Benjamin Franklin and Hillary Clinton, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Austria – National Day

Bulgaria – St. Demetrius Day *

Benin – Armed Forces Day

Nauru – Angam Day *
(Day of Fullfillment)

Rwanda – Armed Forces Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

306 – Feast Day of Saint Demetrius * of Thessaloniki, revered by the Bulgarian, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian and Serbian Orthodox churches, and the Roman Catholic and Coptic churches as well – tradition says he was run through with spears during the Christian persecutions of Diocletian and Galerian (see also next entry)

1185 – The Uprising of Asen and Peter begins on the feast day of St. Demetrius *of Thessaloniki and ends with the creation of the Second Bulgarian Empire, ruled by the Asen dynasty (see also 1912 entry)

1774 – The first Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia

1775 – King George III of Great Britain goes before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorizes military response to quell the American Revolution

1776 – Benjamin Franklin departs from America for France on a mission to seek French support for the American Revolution

1785 – Mule Day * commemorates the first Spanish Jacks given as gifts to America and President George Washington by King Charles III of Spain, delivered on October 26 in Boston. George Washington is one of the first Americans to breed them

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

1854 – Charles William Post born, inventor of  Grape Nuts and Post Toasties cereals

1881 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, between the three Earp brothers with Doc Holiday and the Ike Clanton Gang, takes place at Tombstone, Arizona

1905 – Sweden accepts the independence of Norway

1909 – Itō Hirobumi, four time Prime Minister of Japan (the 1st, 5th, 7th and 10th) and Resident-General of Korea, is assassinated at the Harbin train station in Manchuria

1912 – The Ottoman-occupied city of Thessaloniki, is liberated and unified with Greece on the feast day of its patron saint, Saint Demetrius *

1917 – Erwin Rommel, as a young Oberleutnant, begins his military legend, leading 100 German soldiers to capture Mount Matajur in Italy, overcoming a force of 7,000 Italians

1921 – The Chicago Theater opens on North State Street in the Chicago Loop

1932 – The first Angam Day * in Nauru – the small island has a goal of maintaining a minimum population of 1,500 people to assure survival. Twice, on 1932 and in 1949, the population have been lower than that, and Angam Day is a celebration the birth of the 1,500^th baby

1936 – The first electric generator at Hoover Dam goes into full operation.

1940 – The P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight

1947 – Hillary Rodham Clinton born, U.S. Secretary of State (2009-13), Senator from New York (2001-09), former First Lady (1993-2001), current Democratic candidate for U.S. President 

1949 – President Harry S. Truman raises minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents an hour

1951 – Winston Churchill returns as the prime minister of Great Britain

1955 – New York City’s “The Village Voice” is first published

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

1962 – The Soviet Union makes an offer to end the Cuban Missile Crisis by taking their missile bases out of Cuba if the U.S. agrees not to invade Cuba and to remove its Jupiter missiles from Turkey

1967 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowns himself Shah of Iran

1968 – Soviet cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy pilots Soyuz 3 on a four-day space mission

1970 – “Doonesbury,” Gary Trudeau’s comic strip, premieres in 28 U.S. newspapers, and Elton John’s “Your Song” is released in the U.S.

1971 – Al Green’s hit single “Tired of Being Alone” goes gold

1975 – Egyptian president Anwar Sadat makes an official state visit to the U.S.

1977 – The last known case of naturally-occurring smallpox in Somalia, regarded by the World Health Organization as the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination – Eradication of Smallpox Day *

1984 – “Baby Fae” receives a heart transplant from a baboon, and lives for 21 days

1985 – The Australian government returns ownership of Uluru (Ayres Rock) to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines

1988 – Soviet and American icebreaking ships work together to free two whales which had been trapped for nearly 3 weeks in an Arctic ice pack

1992 – Pearl Jam’s album Vs. sets a new first week sales record of 950,000 copies

1994 – Prime Ministers Abdel Salam Majali of Jordan and Yitzak Rabin of Israel sign a peace treaty

1996 – First Intersex Awareness Day * in Boston MA, held by the Intersex Society of America in cooperation with the Transexual Menace group

2001 – The USA PATRIOT Act passes into law

2006 – Shelle Michaels Aberle founds Day of the Deployed,* asking North Dakota Governor John Hoeven to be the first governor to proclaim a day of recognition for the men and women serving their country overseas. The date was chosen because it is the birthday of Aberle’s cousin, LTC Davis Hosna, who was deployed to Iraq at the time.  When John Hoeven became a Senator representing North Dakota, he introduced a resolution to make this a National Day, which was passed in 2011

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Visuals

• U.S. Troops
• International flags
• 1185 Uprising of Asen and Peter, Bulgaria
•  The Donkey, by Nikolaos Lytras (1883-1927)
• Undated photo of the OK Corral, Tombstone, AZ
• The Chicago Theater
• 1940s P-51 Mustangs
• Debut issue of The Village Voice
•  Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, in 1967
• First “Doonesbury” comic strip by Gary Trudeau
• Intersex Awareness Day poster

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