October 26
2015
October 2015 Hindu Kush earthquake
On October 26, 2015 a deep, powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.5 shook the Hindu Kush region beneath northeastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Though the rupture began roughly 200 km below the surface, the shaking was felt across South and Central Asia. In remote mountain villages, unreinforced homes collapsed, landslides cut roads, and hundreds of people were killed with thousands injured. The disaster underscored the vulnerability of traditional construction and renewed calls for long-term disaster risk reduction. Read more
2010
2010 eruptions of Mount Merapi
Mount Merapi on Java began a marked increase in activity on October 26, 2010, and entered its most dangerous phase in early November when summit lava-dome collapse produced fast, deadly pyroclastic flows. The eruption forced mass evacuations, killed several hundred people, and reshaped how Indonesia monitors and prepares for dome‑building volcanoes. Read more
1995
1995 Flateyri avalanche
On October 26, 1995, a pre-dawn avalanche swept down from the steep mountains above the Westfjords village of Flateyri, Iceland, destroying a row of harbor-front homes. Twenty people died and nine were injured. The disaster exposed the vulnerability of shorebound settlements to slope failure and led to new protections, hazard zoning, and rescue improvements in the years that followed. Read more
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1989
China Airlines Flight 204 crash
On October 26, 1989, China Airlines Flight 204, a Boeing 737-200 operating a short domestic hop from Taipei to Hualien, descended below a safe approach profile and struck terrain short of Hualien Airport amid low clouds, rain, and gusting winds. All aboard were killed. The accident underscored the risks of continuing unstabilized approaches into mountainous coastal airports and contributed to changes in approach discipline, crew training, and technology adoption in Taiwan's civil aviation community.
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1979
Assassination of President Park Chung Hee
On October 26, 1979, President Park Chung Hee was shot and killed inside the Blue House in Seoul by Kim Jae-gyu, director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. The killing followed a bitter confrontation with the president’s security chief, Cha Ji-chul, and it abruptly ended an 18‑year authoritarian rule. The immediate arrest, trial, and execution of Kim did not restore stability; instead, the assassination set off a chain of coups and crackdowns that shaped South Korea’s turbulent transition to democracy.
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1942
Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands
On October 26, 1942, carrier airpower collided in the waters near the Santa Cruz Islands, east of Guadalcanal, as U.S. and Japanese fleets fought to control sea lanes and the fate of Henderson Field; tactically the Japanese sank USS Hornet and damaged USS Enterprise, but the clash cost Japan irreplaceable veteran aviators and shifted the strategic balance in the Pacific.
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1909
Assassination of Itō Hirobumi (by An Jung‑geun)
On October 26, 1909, Itō Hirobumi, one of Meiji Japan’s most influential statesmen and the Resident‑General of Korea, was shot and killed by Korean nationalist An Jung‑geun on a platform at Harbin Railway Station. The killing removed a moderating voice in Tokyo and helped accelerate Japan’s formal annexation of Korea the following year; An was arrested, tried by Japanese authorities, and executed on March 26, 1910.
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