On This Day

What Happened on January 26 in History

8 events that happened on January 26, oldest first. Every entry is written in our own words and links to its source.

Colonial America and the Revolution

1700
A great earthquake of about magnitude 9 ruptures the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the Pacific Northwest.
The quake shook the coast from northern California to British Columbia and sent a tsunami across the Pacific. Written Japanese records of the damage it caused there let scientists fix the date to the evening of January 26, 1700.
Source: earthquake.usgs.gov

1837
Michigan joins the Union as the 26th state.
Admission had been held up by the Toledo War, a boundary dispute with Ohio. Michigan gave up the Toledo Strip and received most of the Upper Peninsula instead.
Source: michigan.gov; history.com
1861
Louisiana's secession convention votes to leave the Union.
Meeting in Baton Rouge, delegates approved the ordinance of secession by 113 votes to 17. Louisiana became the sixth Southern state to secede in the weeks after Abraham Lincoln's election.
Source: www2.tulane.edu; nps.gov

1915
Rocky Mountain National Park is established in northern Colorado.
President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the park, which protects high peaks, alpine tundra and the headwaters of the Colorado River along the Continental Divide.
Source: nps.gov; home.nps.gov
1934
Germany and Poland sign a ten-year declaration of non-aggression.
Signed in Berlin, the declaration committed both governments to settle disputes by peaceful means for ten years, citing the 1928 Pact of Paris as their basis.
Source: avalon.law.yale.edu
1945
Lieutenant Audie Murphy holds off a German attack in France, earning the Medal of Honor.
Near Holtzwihr, Murphy ordered his men back, climbed onto a burning tank destroyer and used its machine gun against advancing German tanks and infantry, though he was wounded. He became one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War II.
Source: history.com; history.army.mil

1950
India becomes a republic as its new constitution takes effect.
Two and a half years after independence from Britain, the new constitution made India a democratic republic, and Rajendra Prasad became its first president. With it, India became the world's most populous democracy.
Source: history.com; archive.nytimes.com

2001
A powerful earthquake devastates the state of Gujarat in western India.
Striking on India's Republic Day, the quake was centered in the Kutch region near Bhuj. It killed about 20,000 people, destroyed whole towns and caused widespread ground liquefaction.
Source: science.nasa.gov; cires1.colorado.edu