Daily List

Today in History, May 26th

On May 26, 1868, the Senate again fell one vote short of convicting President Andrew Johnson, ending his impeachment trial. Plus the last Model T.

By Grant Oster May 26, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published May 26, 2026

May 26 is best known for 1868, when the U.S. Senate’s second vote in the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson fell one vote short of conviction, ending the trial in his acquittal. The date also saw Henry Ford end production of the Model T in 1927 and the evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begin in 1940.

The big story: Andrew Johnson escapes conviction by one vote (1868)

Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republicans in Congress fought constantly over Reconstruction. In March 1867 Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act over his veto. It said the president could not fire officials the Senate had confirmed, cabinet members included, without the Senate’s consent. Johnson tested it anyway. In February 1868 he tried to replace Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, a Lincoln holdover allied with the Radicals, and Stanton barricaded himself in his office. On February 24, the House impeached the president on 11 articles. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presided over the Senate trial. On May 16 the Senate voted 35 to 19 to convict on the 11th article, one vote shy of the two-thirds required. On May 26 it voted on the second article and came up with exactly the same 35-19 count, and the trial ended. Seven moderate Republicans had sided with 12 Democrats to save him. Johnson finished his term but did not run again.

More events on May 26

Year	What happened
1521	The Edict of Worms banned the writings of Martin Luther.
1637	During the Pequot War, Puritan and Mohegan forces under Capt. John Mason attacked a Pequot village in Connecticut, killing about 500 people.
1865	Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederacy’s Trans-Mississippi forces, surrendered, one of the last Confederate generals to do so.
1896	Nicholas II was crowned czar of Russia in Moscow’s Ouspensky Cathedral.
1897	Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula went on sale in London.
1924	President Calvin Coolidge signed the Immigration Act of 1924, a stringent limit on immigration to the U.S.
1927	Henry Ford and his son Edsel drove the 15 millionth Model T off the line, the car’s last day of production.
1938	The U.S. House created the House Un-American Activities Committee, with Martin Dies Jr. as chairman.
1940	The British Expeditionary Force began its evacuation from Dunkirk, France.
1966	Guyana gained its independence.
1972	Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT arms-control agreements in Moscow, the most sweeping attempt yet to limit nuclear weapons.
2014	Narendra Modi was sworn in as prime minister of India.

Born on May 26

1907: John Wayne, American film star of westerns like Stagecoach and The Searchers, born in Winterset, Iowa.
1926: Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter and bandleader, born in Alton, Illinois.
1951: Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, born in Encino, California.