October 26 in History

Laurent Gbagbo seized the presidency of Cote d'Ivoire after a popular uprising toppled the military ruler Robert Guei, who had tried to steal a disputed election. Gbagbo's presidency descended into civil war and ethnic violence, culminating in his own refusal to leave office after losing the 2010 election and his eventual arrest by international forces.

John VI Kantakouzenos proclaimed himself Byzantine Emperor at Didymoteicho, starting a six-year civil war. Emperor Andronikos III had just died. His son was nine years old. Kantakouzenos had been regent and chief minister. The boy's mother claimed power. Kantakouzenos declared himself senior co-emperor. The war devastated what was left of Byzantium. The Ottomans used the chaos to seize more territory. Both sides hired them as mercenaries.

Admiral Yi Sun-sin had 13 ships left. The Japanese had 333. He positioned his fleet in the Myeongnyang Strait where the current runs 11 knots and only a few ships could attack at once. The Japanese couldn't maneuver. Yi's turtle ships destroyed 31 enemy vessels without losing one. It remains one of the most lopsided naval victories in history. Korea survived.

General Piccolomini ordered Skopje burned to stop a cholera outbreak spreading through his Austrian army. Soldiers torched the city systematically, neighborhood by neighborhood. Thousands of civilians fled into the mountains. Piccolomini stayed to oversee the operation. He contracted cholera within days and died in his tent. The fire worked—the epidemic stopped at Skopje. The city rebuilt. Piccolomini was buried in Vienna. Nobody named anything after him.

Franklin was 70 years old and suffering from gout. The voyage would take six weeks in winter seas. Congress sent him because he was famous in France—his electricity experiments had made him a celebrity. He spoke French. He was charming. He arrived in December wearing a fur cap, which Parisians found exotic. Within a year, he'd secured French loans, then military support. Without France, Washington loses. Franklin stayed nine years.

A force of 1,630 British, Canadian, and Mohawk troops stopped 4,000 Americans at the Chateauguay River, 50 miles from Montreal. The Americans were supposed to capture Montreal and knock Canada out of the War of 1812. They outnumbered the defenders two-to-one. The defenders used bugles in the woods to make their force sound larger. The Americans retreated. Montreal never came under threat again.

Giuseppe Garibaldi hands his conquered southern territories to King Victor Emmanuel, instantly transforming a collection of fragmented states into the Kingdom of Italy. This handover forces the dissolution of the Bourbon rule in Sicily and Naples, establishing a unified nation that transforms Mediterranean power dynamics for the next century.

Garibaldi had conquered Sicily and Naples with 1,000 volunteers in red shirts. Now he controlled half of Italy. King Victor Emmanuel II marched south with an army to claim it. They met on a road near Teano. Garibaldi saluted and said 'Hail to the King of Italy.' He handed over everything. No negotiation. No conditions. He refused titles, land, and money. He retired to a rocky island with one cow. Italy unified six months later.

An Jung-geun shot Itō Hirobumi three times at Harbin train station in Manchuria. Itō had been Japan's first prime minister and was now Resident-General of Korea, overseeing its annexation. An was a Korean independence activist. He was caught immediately, tried by a Japanese court, and hanged six months later. Japan used the assassination to justify fully annexing Korea the next year.