26 May in history

5 events that happened on 26 May, from 1637 to 1969.

  1. 1637 CE 389 years ago

    English colonists destroy the Pequot fort at Mystic

    Connecticut forces and their Mohegan and Narragansett allies set fire to the fortified village, killing some 400 to 700 Pequot, many of them women and children. The Pequot War ended months later.

  2. ✦ Anniversary of the day

    1868 CE 158 years ago

    Last public hanging takes place in England

    Michael Barrett, convicted of the Clerkenwell bombing, was hanged before a crowd outside Newgate Prison. Three days later a new Act moved executions inside prison walls.

    England

  3. 1896 CE 130 years ago

    Nicholas II is crowned Tsar of Russia

    Nicholas II and Alexandra were crowned in the Kremlin's Dormition Cathedral. Days later more than a thousand people died in a crush at the celebrations on Khodynka Field, a grim omen for the reign.

    Russian EmpireNicholas II

  4. 1940 CE 86 years ago

    Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begins

    Operation Dynamo began. By 4 June more than 338,000 British and French soldiers had been carried to England by warships and hundreds of civilian 'little ships'.

    England

  5. 1969 CE 57 years ago

    Apollo 10 splashes down after the Moon landing rehearsal

    Apollo 10 returned safely after its lunar module descended to about 15 km above the Moon. The mission tested every step of a landing except the touchdown itself.

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