June 26

Today in History
• 1284 - Pied Piper lures 130 children of Hamelin away (actually happened)
• 1498 - Toothbrush invented in China using boar bristles
• 1553 - Christ's Hospital in England granted a charter
• 1721 - Dr Zabdiel Boylston gives 1st smallpox inoculations in America
• 1797 - Charles Newbold patents 1st cast-iron plow, though farmers fear effects of iron on soil
• 1807 - Lightning hits gunpowder warehouse in Luxembourg; 230 die
• 1843 - Hong Kong proclaimed a British Crown Colony
• 1848 - 1st pure food law enacted in US


Holidays - Traditional and Obscure
• Armed Forces Day (U.K.)
• Azerbaijan Armed Forces Day
• Flag Day of Romania
• Forgiveness Day
• Madagascar Independence Day
• National Chocolate Pudding Day
• Somalia Independence Day
• World Refrigeration Day

Birthdays
• 1575 - Anne Catherine of Brandenburg, queen of Denmark and Norway
• 1681 - Hedvig Sophia, Duchess of Holstein-Gottorp
• 1689 - Edward Holyoke, American academic and 9th President of Harvard University
• 1703 - Thomas Clap, American academic, 1st President of Yale University
• 1742 - Arthur Middleton, American signer (Declaration of Independence)
• 1819 - Abner Doubleday, Army General-Major, and inventor (San Francisco cable cars)
• 1821 - Bartolomé Mitre, Argentine general, author, statesman and President (1862-1868)
• 1854 - Robert Laird Borden, C, 8th Canadian PM, 1911-20