HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TODAY is Thursday, October 26, the 299th day of 2017. There are 66 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1947 – The Maharaja of Kashmir and Jammu agrees to allow
his kingdom to join India. 1955 – After the last Allied troops have left the country and following the provisions of the Austrian Independence Treaty, Austria declares permanent neutrality. 1967 – Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowns himself Emperor of
Iran and then crowns his wife Farah Empress of Iran. 1968 – Soviet cosmonaut Georgy Beregovoy pilots Soyuz 3
into space for a four-day mission. 1977 – Ali Maow Maalin, the last natural case of smallpox, develops rash in Merca district, Somalia. The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, the most spectacular success of vaccination. 1979 – Park Chung-hee, President of South Korea is assassinated by Korean Central Intelligence Agency head Kim Jae-gyu. Choi Kyu-hah becomes the acting President; Kim is executed the following May. 1984 – “Baby Fae” receives a heart transplant from a baboon. 1985 – The Australian government returns ownership of Uluru
to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines. 1994 – Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty. 1995 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Mossad agents assassinate
Islamic Jihad leader Fathi Shaqaqi in his hotel in Malta. 1999 – Britain’s House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain’s upper chamber of Parliament. 2000 – Laurent Gbagbo takes over as president of Côte d’Ivoire following a popular uprising against President Robert Guéï. 2001 – The United States passes the USA PATRIOT Act into
law. 2002 – Moscow theater hostage crisis: Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian Spetsnaz storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the terrorists during a musical performance three days before. 2003 – The Cedar Fire, the second-largest fire in California history, kills 15 people, consumes 250,000 acres (1,000 km2), and destroys 2,200 homes around San Diego. 2014 – Britain withdraws from Afghanistan after the end of Operation Herrick which started on June 20, 2002 after 12 years four months and seven days.