Sunday 26th of May 1478

219th Pope Clemens VII is born as Giulio di Giuliano de Medici in Firenze, Toscana, Italy.

Sunday 26th of May 1647

Alse Young is executed by hanging at the age of 47 in Meeting House Square, State House Square, Hartford, Connecticut, United States.

Young is the first person in the records executed for witchcraft  in the United States.

Sunday 26th of May 1822

113 die in old Grue Church fire in Grue, Kirkenær, Solør, Norway.

The site of the old church is today in the middle of the river Glomma.

Monday 26th of May 1828

16-year-old Foundling Kaspar Hauser aka The Wild Child is found by a shoemaker named Weickmann in Unschlittplatz, Nürnberg, Bayern, Germany.

Thursday 26th of May 1853

Outlaw, gunfighter and folk icon John Wesley Hardin aka Little Arkansaw is born in Bonham, Texas, United States.

Sunday 26th of May 1867

Queen Mary of Teck is born as Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes in Kensington Palace, London, Kensington, Greater London, United Kingdom.

Saturday 26th of May 1883

Serial killer Peter Kürten aka The Vampire of Düsseldorf is born in Mulheim-am-Rhein, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Monday 26th of May 1884

Murderess Mary Lefley is executed by hanging at the age of 49 in Lincoln Prison, Greetwell Road, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.

Lefley had been convicted of murdering her 59-year-old husband William by putting arsenic in his rice pudding at their home in Wrangle. She had to be dragged to the gallows screaming "murder, murder!" and struggling with the warders.

Wednesday 26th of May 1886

Singer, actor and comedian Al Jolson aka The World's Greatest Entertainer is born as Asa Yoelson in Srednik, Lithuania, Russia.

Friday 26th of May 1899

War criminal and art collector Pieter Nicolaas Menten is born in Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.

Thursday 26th of May 1904

Neurologist Gilles Georges Albert Édouard Brutus de la Tourette dies of depression and hypomania at the age of 47 in Hôpital de Cery, Prilly, Vaud, Switzerland.

Sunday 26th of May 1907

Actor John Wayne is born as Marion Robert Morrison in 216 South Second Street, Winterset, Iowa, United States.

Monday 26th of May 1913

Actor Peter Wilton Cushing known for playing Baron Victor Frankenstein and Professor Van Helsing is born in Kenley, Surrey, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 26th of May 1915

Heart patient Arne Larsson known for having the first pacemaker implant is born in Skultuna, Västmanlands Län, Sweden.

Friday 26th of May 1916

25-year-old Serial killer, rapist, arsonist and burglar Carl Panzram aka A Journal of Murder sets fire to the prison’s flax mill and workshops in Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, Oregon, United States.

Wednesday 26th of May 1920

Singer-songwriter Peggy Lee is born as Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, United States.

Friday 26th of May 1922

52-year-old Political theorist and communist revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Lenin suffers the first of three strokes, which left him unable to speak for weeks, and severely hampered motion in his right side in St. Petersburg, Northwestern Federal District, Russia.

Saturday 26th of May 1923

Actor Horst Tappert known from Derrick is born in Elberfeld, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.

Monday 26th of May 1924

11-year-old Friedrich Abeling is killed and his meat sold by serial killer Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf in Das Mordhaus, Rote Reihe 4, Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Monday 26th of May 1924

18-year-old Fritz Wittig is killed and his meat sold by serial killer Fritz Haarmann aka Der Hannover Werwolf in Das Mordhaus, Rote Reihe 4, Hannover, Niedersachsen, Germany.

Wednesday 26th of May 1926

Musician Miles Dewey Davis is born in Alton, Illinois, United States.

Saturday 26th of May 1928

Pathologist and euthanasia activist Jack Kevorkian aka Doctor Death is born as Murad Jacob Kevorkian in Pontiac, Michigan, United States.

Thursday 26th of May 1938

Murderess Pauline Yvonne Parker aka Heavenly Creature is born in Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand.

Thursday 26th of May 1938

Murderer Robert Hoolhouse is executed by hanging at the age of 21 in Durham Gaol, Durham, Elvet, North East, United Kingdom.

Tuesday 26th of May 1942

45-year-old Doctor and serial killer Marcel André Henri Félix Petiot aka The Triangular Chamber of Death Murderer is sentenced to one year on probabtion and fined 10.000 Francs for prescribing heroin to drug addicts Jean-Marc Van Bever and Jeannette Gaul in Paris, Île-de-France, France.

Van Bever is sentenced to one year imprisonment and fined 2.400 Francs in absentio and Gaul to six months imprisonment and fined 2.400 Francs. On 26 January 1943 Petiot's fine was brought down to 2.400 Francs.

Sunday 26th of May 1946

Guitarist, songwriter, arranger and producer Mick Michael Ronson known from David Bowie’s Spiders from Mars is born in Kingston upon Hull, West Riding of Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 26th of May 1954

103 die in USS Bennington (CV-20) aircraft carrier explosion in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, United States.

The fluid in one of the Bennington's catapults leaked out and was detonated by the flames of a jet causing the forward part of the flight deck to explode, setting off a series of secondary explosions.

Wednesday 26th of May 1954

Irish republican hunger striker Michael James 'Mickey' Devine is born as Micheal O Duibhinn in Derry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 26th of May 1954

Serial killer Danny Harold Rolling aka The Gainesville Ripper is born in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States.

Saturday 26th of May 1956

Army veteran and suicide pilot Frank Eugene Corder is born in Perry Point, Maryland, United States.

Sunday 26th of May 1957

Child killer Mary Flora Bell aka Child of Hell is born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, United Kingdom.

Wednesday 26th of May 1971

37-year-old Serial killer Juan Vallejo Corona aka The Machete Murderer is arrested and charged with the murders of 25 migrant farm workers in Yuba City, California, United States.

Wednesday 26th of May 1976

Philosopher Martin Heidegger dies of unknown causes at the age of 87 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Friday 26th of May 1978

4-year-old Eric Christgen is abducted, sexually abused and suffocated by serial killer Charles Ray Hatcher aka Evil Incarnate in .

In February 1979 25-year-old Melvin Reynolds, a man of limited intelligence, confessed to Christgen's murder after 14 hours of questions, promises and threats. Reynolds gave in and said "I'll say so if you want me to". He was sentenced to life imprisonment and released four years later when Hatcher confessed to the murder.

Saturday 26th of May 1984

22-year-old Michelle Simms is abducted, raped and strangled by serial killer Bobby Joe Long aka The Adman Rapist in Tampa, Florida, United States.

Sunday 26th of May 1991

223 die in Lauda Air Boeing 767-3Z9ER Flight 004 crash in Phu Toei National Park, Amphoe Dan Chang, Suphanburi, Thailand.

Sunday 26th of May 1991

15-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone is drugged, strangled and dismembered by serial killer and cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer aka The Milwaukee Cannibal in Oxford Apartments #213, 924 25th North Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States.

Sinthasomphone was found by two women wandering the streets of Milwaukee naked, under the influence of something and bleeding from his rectum. Dahmer told the two responding police officers that the boy was actually 19 and his boyfriend and they were just having a lover's quarrel. Back at Dahmer's apartment, the officers smelled something strange but didn't think to investigate that.

Monday 26th of May 2003

Falun Gong practicer Li Rongxian is tortured to death at the age of 44 in Yinmahe Forced Labor Camp, Jiutai, Jilin, China.

Rongxian also suffered of advanced stages of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Wednesday 26th of May 2004

45-year-old Performance artist Danny Devos aka DDV performs 'Hij die geen Hart Heeft zal geen Hartepijn Hebben' in Factor 44, Bleekhofstraat 44, Antwerpen, Borgerhout, Antwerpen, Belgium.

I lay on the floor with my head under a cupboard. On my chest is written “He Who Has No Heart Will Have No Heartaches”. Driven by an electric motor a knife cut back and forth over my chest. The performance continued for one hour.

Saturday 26th of May 2007

Paul McCarthy's 'Inflatable Pigs' in Middelheimmuseum, Antwerpen, Wilrijk, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Monday 26th of May 2008

Actor and film director Sydney Irwin Pollack dies of stomach cancer at the age of 74 in Pacific Palisades, California, United States.

Sunday 26th of May 2013

Wiener Aktionist Otto Muehl dies of Parkinson's disease at the age of 88 in Moncarapacho, Olhão, Algarve, Portugal.

Thursday 26th of May 2016

Wood paneling in an abandoned room in Oude Beurs, Hofstraat, Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium.

Saturday 26th of May 2018

Noise music band Club Moral play their 151st concert at In Utero II festival in Cultuurcentrum, Minderbroedersgang 5, Mechelen, Antwerpen, Belgium.