Today in history

On Oct. 26, 1774,

the First Continental Congress adjourned in Philadelphia.

In 1825

the Erie Canal opened in upstate New York, linking Lake Erie and the Hudson River.

In 1881

the “Gunfight at the OK Corral” took place in Tombstone, Ariz., as Wyatt Earp, his two brothers and “Doc” Holliday confronted Ike Clanton’s gang. (Three members of Clanton’s gang were killed; Earp’s brothers were wounded.)

In 1902

aviator Beryl Markham was born in Leicester, England.

In 1911

gospel singer Mahalia Jackson was born in New Orleans.

In 1942

the U.S. ship Hornet was sunk in the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands during World War II.

In 1947

Hillary Rodham, who would become first lady as the wife of President Bill Clinton, was born in Chicago.

In 1949

President Harry Truman signed a measure raising the minimum wage from 40 cents to 75 cents an hour.

In 1951

funk musician Bootsy Collins was born William Collins in Cincinnati.

In 1957

the Soviet Union announced that defense minister Marshal Georgi Zhukov had been relieved of his duties.

In 1958

Pan American Airways flew its first Boeing 707 jetliner from New York to Paris in eight hours and 41 minutes.

In 1962,

in one of the most dramatic verbal confrontations of the Cold War, American U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson asked his Soviet counterpart during a Security Council debate whether the Soviet Union had placed missiles in Cuba; “I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over,” Stevenson said.