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October 26 in History

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Dinner at the Safehouse

October 26, 1979

Dinner at the Safehouse

Inside a guarded banquet hall in Seoul, South Korea's intelligence chief pulled a gun on the dictator he had served for decades. What drove a loyal spymaster to shoot President Park Chung-hee, and why did his gamble plunge the country into an even darker military grip?

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Also on this day

More that happened on October 26

Pick any event and Historai will make it an episode.

  1. 1774The First Continental Congress concluded its proceedings at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia after declaring colonial rights.
  2. 1825Governor DeWitt Clinton opened the Erie Canal, linking the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean across New York.
  3. 1863Representatives of several English football clubs met in London to establish the Football Association and codify the rules of soccer.
  4. 1881Lawmen led by Virgil Earp fought outlaws in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.
  5. 1917Brazil formally declared war on the German Empire after German U-boats sank several Brazilian merchant vessels in the Atlantic.
  6. 1947Maharaja Hari Singh signed an instrument of accession to integrate the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir into India.
  7. 1958Pan American World Airways inaugurated daily commercial transatlantic jet passenger service between New York City and Paris.
  8. 1994King Hussein of Jordan and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel signed a historic peace treaty ending decades of hostility.
  9. 1999Britain's House of Lords voted to strip the majority of hereditary peers of their historic right to sit and vote.
  10. 2001President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act into law, expanding federal surveillance and law enforcement authorities.
  11. 2002Russian special forces stormed a Moscow theater held by Chechen rebels, causing the deaths of numerous terrorists and hostages.

Chosen from the October 26 pages of HISTORY, HistoryNet and OnThisDay.com, retold in our own words.