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Today in History, October 26th

On October 26, 1825, the Erie Canal opened, linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic. Plus the O.K. Corral gunfight and the USA PATRIOT Act.

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

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

October 26 is best known for the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, which linked the Great Lakes to the Atlantic by way of the Hudson River. The date also brought the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1881 and the signing of the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001.

The big story: The Erie Canal opens (1825)

New York was making a very big bet on a very long ditch. Work started in 1817, pushed hard by DeWitt Clinton, and most of the digging was done by immigrant laborers, many of them Irish, earning $10 a month with simple tools. The finished canal ran about 363 miles from Albany to Buffalo and needed 83 locks to lift boats more than 500 feet. On October 26, 1825, it opened, and Governor Clinton set off from Buffalo aboard the canal boat Seneca Chief, bound for New York City. The bet paid off quickly. Freight now moved between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic at about a tenth of the old cost and in less than half the time. Farm goods and raw materials floated east, and manufactured goods went west. Settlers poured into western New York and on to Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. Tolls paid off the construction cost within nine years.

More events on October 26

Year	What happened
1776	Benjamin Franklin left Philadelphia for France, where he would seek an alliance for the American cause.
1813	British and American troops clashed at the Battle of Châteauguay during the War of 1812.
1881	The Earp brothers faced Ike Clanton’s outlaw gang in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.
1917	Brazil declared war on Germany, joining the Allies in World War I.
1942	Japanese planes damaged the aircraft carrier USS Hornet so badly in the Battle of Santa Cruz that it had to be abandoned.
1955	Austria promulgated a constitutional law declaring its permanent neutrality.
1958	The Boeing 707, America’s first jet airliner, went into service with Pan American World Airways.
1979	South Korean President Park Chung Hee was assassinated by Kim Jae Kyu, head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency.
1984	Dr. Leonard Bailey performed the first baboon-to-human heart transplant, on an infant known as “Baby Fae.”
1986	Boston Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner let a ground ball roll through his legs in the 10th inning of Game 6 of the World Series, after the game ran past midnight, one of baseball’s most famous errors.
2001	President George W. Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act into law.
2015	At the United Nations in New York, the International Olympic Committee announced the first Olympic refugee team. It competed at the 2016 Summer Games in Brazil.

Born on October 26

1902: Beryl Markham, English aviator and author, the first person to fly solo westward across the Atlantic, born in Leicester.
1911: Mahalia Jackson, the “Queen of Gospel Song,” born in New Orleans.
1916: François Mitterrand, president of France from 1981 to 1995, born in Jarnac.
1947: Hillary Rodham Clinton, first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state, born in Chicago.