Tuesday 26th of January 1340

28-year-old King of England Edward III is declared King of France in Vrijdagmarkt, Gent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Thursday 26th of January 1826

Artist Théodore Jean-Louis André Géricault dies of tuberculosis at the age of 35 in Paris, Île-de-France, France.

Wednesday 26th of January 1848

Victim of Maria Swanenburg aka Goeie Mie Hendrik Frankhuizen is born in Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.

Thursday 26th of January 1871

Victim of Maria Swanenburg aka Goeie Mie Pieternella Swanenburg is born in Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.

Monday 26th of January 1880

Chief of Staff of the United States Army Douglas MacArthur is born in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States.

Saturday 26th of January 1918

General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party Nicolae Ceaușescu aka The Genius of the Carpathians is born in Scornicești, Olt, Romania.

Nicolae was the third of ten children in the Ceaușescu family.

Monday 26th of January 1925

Actor Paul Leonard Newman is born in Cleveland, Shaker Heights, Ohio, United States.

Thursday 26th of January 1928

Film director Roger Vadim is born as Roger Vladimir Plemiannikov in Paris, Île-de-France, France.

Tuesday 26th of January 1932

Chewing gum industrialist William Wrigley dies of natural causes at the age of 71 in Wrigley Mansion, Phoenix, Arizona, United States.

Wednesday 26th of January 1938

41-year-old Florence Genevieve Polillo is found killed and dismembered by unidentified serial killer Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run aka Cleveland Torso Murderer in 2325 East 20th Street, Cleveland, Ohio, United States.

Some other parts of Polillo's body were found near 1419 Orange Avenue on 7 February. Her head was never recovered.

Wednesday 26th of January 1944

Writer and political activist Angela Yvonne Davis is born in Birmingham, Dynamite Hill, Alabama, United States.

Sunday 26th of January 1947

Actor Patrick Dewaere is born as Patrick Jean Marie Henri Bourdeaux in Saint-Brieuc, Bretagne, France.

Monday 26th of January 1948

12 die due to poisoning during a bank-robbery by 56-year-old Tempera painter and presumed mass poisoner Sadamichi Hirasawa in Teikoku Ginko, Tokyo, Shiinamachi, Kantō, Japan.

A man calling himself an epidemiologist arrived at the Imperial Bank, explaining that he was a public health official who had orders to inoculate the staff against a sudden outbreak of dysentery. He gave all sixteen people present a pill and a few drops of liquid. Those present drank the cyanide solution and died while he robbed the bank of 160.000 yen. Hirasawa is believed to have been falsely charged.

Wednesday 26th of January 1955

Musician Eddie Edward Lodewijk Van Halen aka The Mozart of Rock is born in Nijmegen, Gelderland, Netherlands.

Sunday 26th of January 1958

167 die in Nankai Maru ferry capsizing in Awaji Island, Kansai, Japan.

Monday 26th of January 1959

Heilstrom mystic Bruno Gröning dies of stomach cancer at the age of 53 in Paris, Île-de-France, France.

Friday 26th of January 1962

Mobster and father of modern organized crime in the United States Charles Luciano aka Lucky Luciano dies of a heart attack at the age of 65 in Aeroporto Internazionale, Napoli, Campania, Italy.

Luciano had gone to the airport to meet with American producer Martin Gosch about a film based on his life. After the meeting Luciano was stricken with a heart attack and died.

Tuesday 26th of January 1965

19-year-old Serial killer Michel Bellen aka The Strangler of the Left Bank is arrested for auto-theft in Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Wednesday 26th of January 1966

The Beaumont children are presumably abducted and murdered in Glenelg Beach, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

9-year-old Jane Nartare Beaumont, 7-year-old Arnna Kathleen and 4-year-old Grant Ellis were seen in the company of a tall, blond and thin-faced man with a sun-tanned complexion of thin to athletic build in his mid-30s and wearing swimming trunks before disappearing forever. As of 2018 an A$1 million reward was offered for information related to the cold case by the South Australian Government.

Friday 26th of January 1968

19-year-old Linda Katherine Slawson is strangled by foot fetishist and serial killer Jerry Brudos aka The Lust Killer in Portland, Oregon, United States.

Brudos lured Slawson to the garage while his wife and children were in the house, knocked her out with a wooden plank, and strangled her. He dressed her in different female undergarments and shoes he had stolen, arranged her body in provocative poses, and used a hacksaw to cut off her left foot, which he kept in the freezer and used to model his collection of high-heel shoes.

Wednesday 26th of January 1977

Film director Laurence Merrick known for co-directing the Oscar nominated documentary ‘Manson’ is shot dead by 31-year-old Dennis Michael Mignano at the age of 51 in Merrick Studio Academy of Dramatic Arts, 870 N. Vine St, Hollywood, California, United States.

Mignano auditioned at Merrick's school and 'black magic' spells were cast upon him that caused him problems.

Friday 26th of January 1979

Businessman, philanthropist, public servant and politician Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller dies of a heart attack at the age of 71 in 13 West 54th Street, New York, Manhattan, New York, United States.

Rockefeller died in the presence of his 25-year-old aide Megan Marshack. "It became known that he had been alone with a young woman who worked for him, in undeniably intimate circumstances, and in the course of that evening had died from a heart attack."

Wednesday 26th of January 1983

20-year-old Stephen Sinclair Guild is strangled by serial killer Dennis Nilsen aka Killing For Company in 23 Cranley Gardens, London, Muswell Hill, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Saturday 26th of January 1991

32-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'Did Dillinger Die Right There and Then?' in Galerie Transit, Tiensevest 39, Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant, Belgium.

The space was divided in two parts by a cutout décor. On one side I was laying naked on a rotating metal table lighted by a stroboscope. From the other side the public could see the performance only through a few small holes in the décor. The stroboscope made it look like sometimes I was on the table and sometimes I wasn’t.

Friday 26th of January 1996

Rapist and murderer John Albert Taylor is executed by the firing squad at the age of 37 in Utah State Prison, Draper, Utah, United States.

Taylor's last meal request was for a large Ambassador pizza with thin crust, onions, mushrooms, hot peppers, sausage, pepperoni, ham and extra cheese. He also asked for a Coke. He gave his glasses to warden Hank Galetka and said "There is no need for them."

Tuesday 26th of January 1999

Murderer Martin Sauceda Vega is executed by lethal injection at the age of 54 in Huntsville Prison, 815 12th Street, Huntsville, Texas, United States.

Wednesday 26th of January 2000

Science fiction writer Alfred Elton van Vogt dies of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 88 in Los Angeles, California, United States.

Sunday 26th of January 2003

A crumpled page about the murder of John F. Kennedy recovered from artist Francis Bacon's studio in its reconstruction in The Hugh Lane, Parnell Square N, Dublin, Leinster, Ireland.

Saturday 26th of January 2008

Only child of actor Marlon Brando and Anna Kashfi Christian Devi Brando dies of pneumonia at the age of 50 in Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, 1300 N Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, California, United States.

Wednesday 26th of January 2011

Serial rapist and murderer Mike James Mitchell DeBardeleben aka The Lethal Shadow dies of pneumonia at the age of 71 in Federal Medical Center, Old North Carolina Highway 75, Butner, North Carolina, United States.