On This Day

Today in History, March 26th

On March 26, 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty at the White House. Plus Salk's polio vaccine and the Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published March 26, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

March 26 is best known for 1979, when Egypt’s Anwar el-Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin signed a peace treaty at the White House, the first between Israel and an Arab state. The date also saw Jonas Salk announce his polio vaccine in 1953 and a cargo ship bring down Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in 2024.

The big story: Egypt and Israel Sign a Peace Treaty (1979)

Egypt and Israel had been enemies for three decades when Anwar el-Sadat traveled to Jerusalem in 1977, a trip that stunned the region and angered much of the Arab world. The next step came in September 1978, when Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin met with President Jimmy Carter at Camp David, Maryland, and hammered out the Camp David Accords. Turning that framework into a binding treaty took about seven more months. On March 26, 1979, Sadat and Begin signed it at a White House ceremony. The deal ended three decades of hostility between the two countries and opened diplomatic and trade ties. The two leaders had already shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. The price was steep. Egypt was suspended from the Arab League, and in October 1981 Sadat was assassinated in Cairo by Muslim extremists.

More events on March 26

Year	What happened
1804	At a Senate-sponsored party in Washington, President Thomas Jefferson cut the first slice of a giant “mammoth loaf” of bread baked by a Navy baker.
1827	Composer Ludwig van Beethoven died in Vienna at 56.
1885	Métis and Cree fighters under Gabriel Dumont forced police and volunteers to retreat at Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, during the North-West Rebellion in Canada.
1920	F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first novel, This Side of Paradise, was published and made the 23-year-old author famous.
1945	The U.S. military declared Iwo Jima secure after five weeks of fighting. More than 6,000 Marines and nearly all of about 21,000 Japanese defenders died.
1953	Jonas Salk announced on CBS radio that he had successfully tested a vaccine against polio. Mass trials followed in 1954.
1968	A panel of senior advisers known as the “Wise Men” told President Lyndon Johnson to stop adding troops in Vietnam and seek a negotiated peace. Days later he limited the bombing and said he would not run again.
2024	The container ship Dali lost power and struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, collapsing it and killing six road workers.

Born on March 26

1874: Robert Frost, American poet and four-time Pulitzer Prize winner, born in San Francisco.
1911: Tennessee Williams, playwright of The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire.
1944: Diana Ross, singer and actress from Detroit.