This Day…

1841 – First wagon train arrives in California

October 26, 1881 — Possibly the most famous shootout in the history of America’s Wild West took place on this day – the Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.

1854 – Florence Nightingale with a staff of 38 nurses is sent to the Crimean War.

1867 – Alaska Purchase: US takes formal possession of Alaska from Russia, having paid $7.2 million.

1864 – Maryland voters adopt new constitution, including abolition of slavery

1877  – Chief Joseph surrenders, ending Nez Perce War

1846 – Anesthetic ether used for 1st time by American dentist Dr William Morton who extracts a tooth.

1918  – In the worlds worst flu epidemic in history (called Spanish Flu because the first major outbreak causing multiple deaths was in Spain), an estimated 30 million people died worldwide. Philadelphia was the hardest hit city in the United States. After the Liberty Loan parade on September 28, thousands of people became infected causing the death of 12,000 in the city.

1906 – Douglas Mawson, Edgeworth David and Alistair Mackay claim to have discovered the Magnetic South Pole in Antarctica.

1838 – Newly escaped slave Frederick Douglass marries free woman Anne Murray in New York.