41st year - Nr 146 Tuesday, 26 May 2026

BIRTH(+)FACT(᙮)DEATH(-)
41st year - Nr 146 Tuesday, 26 May 2026

26 May / Today's 46 Events:

---

(+) 548 years ago Sunday 26th of May 1478 219th Pope Clemens VII, originally Giulio di Giuliano de Medici is born in Firenze, Toscana, Italy.

---

(-) 379 years ago Sunday 26th of May 1647 Alse Young is executed by hanging at the age of 47 in Meeting House Square, State House Square, Hartford, Connecticut, United States. Young was the first person in the records executed for witchcraft  in the United States. Young was symbolically exonerated on 6 February 2017 by a Windsor Town Council resolution, along with Lydia Gilbert, the second Connecticut woman to be executed for witchcraft.

---

(x) 204 years ago Sunday 26th of May 1822 113 die in old Grue Church fire in Grue, Kirkenær, Solør, Norway. The site of the old church is today in the middle of the river Glomma.

---

(x) 198 years ago Monday 26th of May 1828 16-year-old Foundling Kaspar Hauser aka The Wild Child is found by a shoemaker named Weickmann in Unschlittplatz, Nürnberg, Bayern, Germany.

---

(+) 173 years ago Thursday 26th of May 1853 Outlaw, gunfighter and folk icon John Wesley Hardin aka Little Arkansaw is born in Bonham, Texas, United States.

---

(+) 159 years ago Sunday 26th of May 1867 Queen Mary of Teck, originally Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes is born in Kensington Palace, Kensington, London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

---

(+) 143 years ago Saturday 26th of May 1883 Serial killer Peter Kürten aka The Vampire of Düsseldorf is born in Mulheim-am-Rhein, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

---

(-) 142 years ago Monday 26th of May 1884 Murderess Mary Lefley is executed by hanging at the age of 49 in Lincoln Prison, Greetwell Road, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. Lefley had been convicted of murdering her 59-year-old husband William by putting arsenic in his rice pudding at their home in Wrangle. She had to be dragged to the gallows screaming "murder, murder!" and struggling with the warders.

---

(+) 140 years ago Wednesday 26th of May 1886 Singer, actor and comedian Al Jolson, originally Asa Yoelson aka The World's Greatest Entertainer is born in Srednik, Lithuania, Russia.

---

(+) 127 years ago Friday 26th of May 1899 War criminal and art collector Pieter Nicolaas Menten is born in Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.

---

(-) 122 years ago Thursday 26th of May 1904 Neurologist Gilles Georges Albert Édouard Brutus de la Tourette dies of depression and hypomania at the age of 47 in Hôpital de Cery, Prilly, Vaud, Switzerland.

---

(+) 119 years ago Sunday 26th of May 1907 Actor John Wayne, originally Marion Robert Morrison is born in 216 South Second Street, Winterset, Iowa, United States.

---

(+) 113 years ago Monday 26th of May 1913 Actor Peter Wilton Cushing known for playing Baron Victor Frankenstein and Professor Van Helsing is born in Kenley, Surrey, United Kingdom.

---

(+) 111 years ago Wednesday 26th of May 1915 Heart patient Arne Larsson known for having the first pacemaker implant is born in Skultuna, Västmanlands Län, Sweden.

---

(x) 110 years ago Friday 26th of May 1916 25-year-old Serial killer, rapist, arsonist and burglar Carl Panzram aka A Journal of Murder sets fire to the prison’s flax mill and workshops in Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, Oregon, United States.

---

(+) 106 years ago Wednesday 26th of May 1920 Singer-songwriter Peggy Lee, originally Norma Deloris Egstrom is born in Jamestown, North Dakota, United States.

---

(x) 104 years ago Friday 26th of May 1922 52-year-old Political theorist and communist revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, originally Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov suffers the first of three strokes, which left him unable to speak for weeks, and severely hampered motion in his right side in St. Petersburg, Northwestern Federal District, Russia.

---

(+) 103 years ago Saturday 26th of May 1923 Actor Horst Tappert known from Derrick is born in Elberfeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

---

(-) 102 years ago Monday 26th of May 1924 Fritz Wittig is killed and his meat sold by serial killer Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf in Das Mordhaus, Rote Reihe 4, Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

---

(-) 102 years ago Monday 26th of May 1924 Friedrich Abeling is killed and his meat sold by serial killer Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf in Das Mordhaus, Rote Reihe 4, Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

---

(+) 100 years ago Wednesday 26th of May 1926 Musician Miles Dewey Davis is born in Alton, Illinois, United States.

---

(+) 98 years ago Saturday 26th of May 1928 Pathologist and euthanasia activist Jack Kevorkian, originally Murad Jacob Kevorkian aka Doctor Death is born in Pontiac, Michigan, United States.

---

(-) 88 years ago Thursday 26th of May 1938 Murderer Robert Hoolhouse is executed by hanging at the age of 21 in Durham Gaol, Elvet, Durham, North East, United Kingdom.

---

(+) 88 years ago Thursday 26th of May 1938 Murderess Pauline Yvonne Parker aka Heavenly Creature is born in Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand.

---

(x) 84 years ago Tuesday 26th of May 1942 45-year-old Doctor and serial killer Marcel André Henri Félix Petiot aka The Triangular Chamber of Death Murderer is sentenced to one year on probabtion and fined 10.000 Francs for prescribing heroin to drug addicts Jean-Marc Van Bever and Jeannette Gaul in Paris, Île-de-France, France. Van Bever is sentenced to one year imprisonment and fined 2.400 Francs in absentio and Gaul to six months imprisonment and fined 2.400 Francs. On 26 January 1943 Petiot's fine was brought down to 2.400 Francs.

---

(+) 80 years ago Sunday 26th of May 1946 Guitarist, songwriter, arranger and producer Mick Michael Ronson known from David Bowie’s Spiders from Mars is born in Kingston upon Hull, West Riding of Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

---

(x) 72 years ago Wednesday 26th of May 1954 103 die in USS Bennington (CV-20) aircraft carrier explosion in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, United States. The fluid in one of the Bennington's catapults leaked out and was detonated by the flames of a jet causing the forward part of the flight deck to explode, setting off a series of secondary explosions.

---

(+) 72 years ago Wednesday 26th of May 1954 Irish republican hunger striker Michael James 'Mickey' Devine, originally Micheal O Duibhinn is born in Derry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

---

(+) 72 years ago Wednesday 26th of May 1954 Serial killer Danny Harold Rolling aka The Gainesville Ripper is born in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States.

---

(+) 70 years ago Saturday 26th of May 1956 Army veteran and suicide pilot Frank Eugene Corder is born in Perry Point, Maryland, United States.

---

(+) 69 years ago She Was a Child of Hell Sunday 26th of May 1957 Child killer Mary Flora Bell aka Child of Hell is born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, United Kingdom.

---

(x) 67 years ago Tuesday 26th of May 1959 'The Outsider' by 28-year-old Angry Young Writer Colin Henry Wilson is first published by Victor Gollancz in London, Greater London, United Kingdom.

---

(x) 55 years ago He Lay the Machete Down Wednesday 26th of May 1971 37-year-old Serial killer Juan Vallejo Corona aka The Machete Murderer is arrested and charged with the murders of 25 migrant farm workers in Yuba City, California, United States.

---

(-) 50 years ago Wednesday 26th of May 1976 Philosopher Martin Heidegger dies of unknown causes at the age of 87 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

---

(-) 48 years ago Friday 26th of May 1978 Eric Christgen is abducted, sexually abused and suffocated by serial killer Charles Ray Hatcher aka Evil Incarnate in . In February 1979 25-year-old Melvin Reynolds, a man of limited intelligence, confessed to Christgen's murder after 14 hours of questions, promises and threats. Reynolds gave in and said "I'll say so if you want me to". He was sentenced to life imprisonment and released four years later when Hatcher confessed to the murder.

---

(-) 42 years ago Saturday 26th of May 1984 Michelle Denise Simms is abducted, raped and strangled by serial killer Bobby Joe Long aka The Adman Rapist in Tampa, Florida, United States.

---

(-) 35 years ago Sunday 26th of May 1991 Konerak Sinthasomphone is drugged, strangled and dismembered by serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer aka The Milwaukee Cannibal in Oxford Apartments #213, 924 25th North Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Sinthasomphone was found by two women wandering the streets of Milwaukee naked, under the influence of something and bleeding from his rectum. Dahmer told the two responding police officers that the boy was actually 19 and his boyfriend and they were just having a lover's quarrel. Back at Dahmer's apartment, the officers smelled something strange but didn't think to investigate that.

---

(x)
35 years ago

Sunday 26th of May 1991

223 die in Lauda Air Boeing 767-3Z9ER Flight 004 crash in Phu Toei National Park, Amphoe Dan Chang, Suphanburi, Thailand.

---

(-) 23 years ago Monday 26th of May 2003 Falun Gong practicer Li Rongxian is tortured to death at the age of 44 in Yinmahe Forced Labor Camp, Jiutai, Jilin, China. Rongxian also suffered of advanced stages of pulmonary tuberculosis.

---

22 years ago The Eyes had it Wednesday 26th of May 2004 Performing 'He Who Has No Heart Will Have No Heartaches' in Factor 44, Bleekhofstraat 44, Borgerhout, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

---

(x) 22 years ago Wednesday 26th of May 2004 45-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'Hij die geen Hart Heeft zal geen Hartepijn Hebben' in Factor 44, Bleekhofstraat 44, Borgerhout, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium. I lay on the floor with my head under a cupboard. On my chest is written “He Who Has No Heart Will Have No Heartaches”. Driven by an electric motor a knife cut back and forth over my chest. The performance continued for one hour.

---

19 years ago The Eyes had it Saturday 26th of May 2007 Paul McCarthy's 'Inflatable Pigs' in Middelheimmuseum, Wilrijk, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

---

(-) 18 years ago He Didn't Shoot Horses, Did He? Monday 26th of May 2008 Actor and film director Sydney Irwin Pollack dies of stomach cancer at the age of 74 in Pacific Palisades, California, United States.

---

(-) 13 years ago Sunday 26th of May 2013 Wiener Aktionist Otto Muehl dies of Parkinson's disease at the age of 88 in Moncarapacho, Olhão, Algarve, Portugal.

---

10 years ago The Eyes had it Thursday 26th of May 2016 Wood paneling in an abandoned room in Oude Beurs, Hofstraat, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

---

(x) 8 years ago Saturday 26th of May 2018 Noise music band Club Moral play their 151st concert at In Utero II festival in Cultuurcentrum, Minderbroedersgang 5, Mechelen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

---