Today in History — October 26

c. 899 – Alfred the Great,who fought the Vikings and created the first English legal code, dies of natural causes at Winchester.  His Doom Book quotes Leviticus: “You shall do no injustice in judgment!  You shall not be partial to the poor; nor defer to the great!  But you are to judge your neighbor fairly!”

1640 – King Charles I of England and Scotland signs the Treaty of Ripon with the Scots Covenanters, putting an end to the Second Bishops’ War but setting in train a series of events that will turn out very badly for him.

1774 – Having transmitted its list of colonial grievances to Parliament, the First Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia. Exactly one year later King George III will declare the colonies in rebellion.

1854 – Future cereal tycoon Charles William Post is born at Springfield, Illinois. His Postum Cereal Co. will eventually become General Foods.

1881 – Deputy U.S. Marshal Virgil Earp, along with his brothers Wyatt and Morgan and dentist John “Doc” Holliday, out-shoot five cowboys near the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. All three Earp brothers are wounded.

1883 – The father of the modern self-help movement, Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich) is born in a one-room mountain cabin near Pound, Virginia.

1947 – Future Charlie’s Angel Jaclyn Smith and future Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are both born, in Houston and Chicago respectively.

1999 – After 700 years, the right of hereditary peers to vote in Parliament is revoked.

FGS