Monday 26th of October 1440

Baron, knight, companion-in-arms of Jeanne D'Arc and serial killer of children Gilles de Rais aka Gilles de Retz is executed by hanging at the age of 35 in Île de Biesse, Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France.

de Rais' body and those of his accomplices Henriet and Poitou, also hanged, are thrown into the fire.

Friday 26th of October 1685

Baroque composer Domenico Giuseppe Scarlatti is born in Napoli, Campania, Italy.

Wednesday 26th of October 1859

459 die in Royal Charter steam clipper shipwreck in Porth Alerth, Anglesey, Wales, United Kingdom.

Passengers, including many gold miners were killed by being dashed against the rocks by the waves rather than drowned. Others drowned weighed down by the belts of gold they were wearing around their bodies. The survivors, 21 passengers and 18 crew members were all men, with no women or children saved.

Wednesday 26th of October 1881

A 30-second shootout between lawmen and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys takes place in O.K. Corral, Tombstone, Arizona, United States.

Participants were 38-year-old Town Marshall Virgil, 30-year-old Special Policeman Morgan and 33-year-old Special Policeman Wyatt Earp and 30-year-old temporary policeman Doc Holliday vs. Cowboys 28-year-old Tom and 32-year-old Frank McLaury, 19-year-old Billy and 40-year-old Ike Clanton and 22-year-old Billy Claiborne. Virgil, Morgan and Holliday got wounded and McLaury and Clanton were killed.

Wednesday 26th of October 1898

Start of the trial against 29-year-old Serial killer Joseph Vacher aka L’Eventreur du Sud-Est in Bourg-en-Bresse, Rhône-Alpes, France.

Vacher entered the courtroom with "J'ai une balle dans la tête" written on a panel and shouting "Vive Jésus ! Vive Jeanne d'Arc".

Sunday 26th of October 1902

Phytotherapist and nutritionist Alfred Vogel is born in Aesch, Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland.

Thursday 26th of October 1916

President of the French Republic François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterand is born in Jarnac, Charente, France.

Sunday 26th of October 1919

Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi is born in Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Monday 26th of October 1925

Writer and artist Jan Hendrik Wolkers is born in Oegstgeest, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.

Saturday 26th of October 1935

21-year-old Serial bomber Hugh F. 'Idzy' Rutkowski aka The Mad Bomber of Milwaukee places a bomb under a 5-inch sewer in Shorewood City Hall, 3930 N. Murray Ave, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.

Rutkowski's dynamite bomb tore a hole through the cellar, splintered one of the large columns supporting the roof and shattered every window in the structure.

Monday 26th of October 1936

Victim of Charles Starkweather aka Little Red Robert George 'Bobby' Calvert is born in Beaver Crossing, Nebraska, United States.

Sunday 26th of October 1941

Member of the Rote Armee Fraktion Holger Klaus Meins is born in Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

Monday 26th of October 1964

Serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke aka The Australian Nightmare aka The Nedlands Monster is executed by hanging at the age of 33 in Fremantle Prison, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia.

Monday 26th of October 1964

Mass murderer Marc Lépine aka The Women-Hating Rambo is born as Gamil Rodrigue Liass Gharbi in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Tuesday 26th of October 1965

Victim of Gertrude Baniszewski Sylvia Marie Likens dies of a brain hemorrhage, shock and malnutrition after multiple beatings, burnings and scalding baths by Gertrud Baniszewski at the age of 16 in 3850 East New York Street, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States.

Baniszewski encouraged neighborhood children to torment Likens, including extinguishing cigarettes on her skin and forcing her to remove her clothes and insert a glass Coca-Cola bottle into her vagina on at least two occasions. Shortly before Likens died Baniszewski began to carve the words "I'm a prostitute and proud of it!" into Likens' stomach with a heated needle.

Thursday 26th of October 1972

Aviation pioneer Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky dies of natural causes at the age of 83 in Easton, Connecticut, United States.

Friday 26th of October 1984

Ozzy Osbourne fan John Daniel McCollum commits suicide by a shot in the head at the age of 19 in Indio, California, United States.

McCollum had been listening to Ozzy Osbourne singing 'Suicide Solution' all day long. In a lawsuit McCollum’s parents claimed that there were hidden lyrics in the song that incited the teenager to kill himself. A California court dismissed the McCollums’ lawsuit in 1988, ruling that John’s suicide was not a foreseeable result of Osbourne’s song.

Friday 26th of October 1984

0-year-old Baby Fae known for becoming the first infant receiving the heart of a baboon has a baboon heart transplanted in the first successful infant heart transplant by Dr. Leonard Lee Bailey in Loma Linda University Medical Center, Loma Linda, California, United States.

Baby Fae lived for 21 days with the baboon heart.

Saturday 26th of October 1985

Noise music band Club Moral perform their 47th concert at La Nuit Erotique in Vooruit, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 23, Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Saturday 26th of October 1985

Noise music band Club Moral play their 48th concert at the Bath festival in De Media, Molenstraat 31, Eeklo, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Thursday 26th of October 1995

45-year-old Serial killer William Lester Suff aka The Lake Elsinore Killer is condemned to death for 12 murders in Riverside, California, United States.

Suff resides on death row at San Quentin State Prison.

Saturday 26th of October 2002

After three days of occupation by 40 Chechnen terrorists involving 850 hostages operators from Federal Security Service (FSB) aka Spetsnaz brigade storm the building in Dubrovka Theatre, Moscow, Central Federal District, Russia.

All 40 of the terrorists were killed and up to 204 hostages died during the siege due to poisoning by gas pumped into the ventilation system during the rescue operation. The identity of the gas was never disclosed, although it is believed by some to have been a fentanyl derivative such as carfentanil.

Tuesday 26th of October 2004

Murderer Dominique Jerome Green is executed by lethal injection at the age of 30 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Wednesday 26th of October 2005

The Art Farm landlord posing proudly before its gate in Yang Zhen, Shunyi, China.

Friday 26th of October 2007

Noise music band Club Moral play their 129th concert in De Resoor, Sluisberg 9, Sint-Truiden, Limburg, Belgium.