On This Day: 26 May

King Edmund I of England is murdered by a thief whom he personally attacks while celebrating St Augustine's Mass Day		946
Approximately 23,000 lives are lost in an earthquake in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan		1293
John Calvin and his followers are exiled from Geneva		1536
The French Assembly forces Louis XVI to surrender the crown and state assets		1791
The Bank of England issues the first £1 and £2 notes		1797
Napoleon is crowned King of Italy in Milan cathedral		1805
Wild boy Kaspar Hauser is discovered in Nuremberg market place		1828
The US Congress passes the Indian Removal Act – authorising the President (Andrew Jackson at the time) to negotiate with southern Native American tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for white settlement of their ancestral lands		1830
The Russian army defeats the Poles at Ostrolenka following their revolt		1831
Confederate surrender in Texas ends the American Civil War; President Johnson proclaims an amnesty for all Confederate states		1865
Britain's last public hanging: Michael Barrett, Fenian terrorist, outside Newgate Prison		1868
The impeachment of President Andrew Johnson fails as he is found not guilty by one vote		1868
Mount Etna begins a series of violent eruptions		1870
Ismailia annexed to Egypt		1871
Bram Stoker's Dracula is published		1897
Vauxhall Bridge opened		1906
The first major oil strike in the Middle East is made in Persia		1908
Emily Duncan, appointed a JP, becomes Britain's first woman magistrate		1913
Lagache and Leonard win the first 24–hour race at Le Mans with an average speed of 57.2 mph		1923
The US House Un–American Activities Committee begins its first session (not to be confused with the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, which was chaired by Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s)		1938
Operation Dynamo – the evacuation of Allied troops from Europe – begins		1940
The Siege of Calais ends with the surrender of the British and French garrison		1940
Churchill and Stalin sign a military pact		1942
South Africa elects a Nationalist government with apartheid policies		1948
Petrol rationing ends in Britain		1950
British Guiana gains independence as Guyana		1966
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is released in the UK (one week later in the USA)		1967
Iceland changes from driving on the left to the right		1968
John & Yoko begin their 'bed–in for peace' at the Hotel de la Reine, Montreal		1969
Apollo 10 returns to Earth after a successful eight–day test of all the components needed for the first manned Moon landing		1969
The Soviet Tupolev Tu–144 becomes the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2		1970
Pakistani soldiers massacre at least 71 Hindus in Burunga and nearby villages, in the district of Sylhet, Bangladesh		1971
An Icelandic gunboat shells and holes a British trawler		1973
Evel Knievel fractures his pelvis in a failed attempt to jump thirteen buses in a car, at Wembley Stadium		1975
The European Community adopts the European flag		1986
Cats opens in Moscow, with a British and American cast		1988
Michael Thomas clinches the League title for Arsenal by scoring a last–gasp goal at Anfield		1989
All 213 passengers and 10 crew on board lose their lives when a Lauda Air Boeing 767 breaks apart in mid–air (due to an unidentified technical fault) and crashes in Thailand's Phu Toei National Park		1991
Dozens of UN observers abducted by Serbs		1995
HM Government pardons over 300 British servicemen shot for cowardice during World War I		1997
Over a million people attend nationwide reconciliation events, as Australia holds the first 'National Sorry Day'		1998
Two late goals give Manchester United victory in the European Cup Final for the second time and an unprecedented treble		1999
HM the Queen opens the Welsh Assembly		1999
US Army veteran Terry Nichols is found guilty of 161 state murder charges for his part in the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995		2004
Princess Michael of Kent is reported to have told noisy black diners at a New York restaurant to "go back to the colonies" – but claims she was misquoted		2004

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On This Day: 26 May