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Red Cross / UEFA / The Terminator / Whitney Houston

On This Day (October 26): Your quick daily trip back in time.

Author

Fatih Taskiran
October 26, 2025

PRESENTED BY

🌟 Editor's Note

Good morning — it’s Sunday, October 26. Today we're talking about the Erie Canal opening, the birth of the Red Cross, The Terminator, beating smallpox, and much more—fast, snappy.

Plus, don't miss our legendary Strange Times story about Napoleon vs Rabbits, which will amaze you.

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— Fatih, Editor

🚀 Time Machine

-1825

The Erie Canal opens, linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean through the Hudson River.

-1850

The fabled Northwest Passage was first sighted by Robert McClure, traveling from Banks Island to Melville Island.

-1861

Pony Express (Missouri-California) was launched after 19 months.

-1863

Geneva hosted an international conference to improve battlefield medical care, leading to the creation of the Red Cross.

-1863

The Football Association was formed in England to standardize soccer and separate it from rugby.

-1977

The last natural case of smallpox was discovered in Somalia's Merca District, marking the end of smallpox through vaccination.

-1984

"The Terminator," directed by James Cameron, starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, and was released in the US.

-1985

Whitney Houston shot to stardom with the #1 single "Saving All My Love For You" on the Billboard Hot 100.

-2001

President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks.

-2015

IOC announces the first Olympic refugee team to raise awareness of forced displacement worldwide.

-2019

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📸 Snapshot

Nose-shaping appliances were used to adjust the nose permanently, 1944

🗨️ Final Words

❝

“Don't cry for me, for I go where music is born.”

🤯 Strange Times

The Great Bunny Rebuff—Napoleon’s Shortest Campaign on Record

There's some strange stuff here: multiple accounts say bunnies charged the hunters instead of fleeing during a bunny hunt for Napoleon. A later, colorful 1894 memoir pins it on Marshal Berthier and describes ~1,000 rabbits swarming until Napoleon beat a retreat to his carriage. Basically, domestic rabbits, expecting lunch, mistook the emperor for the guy who feeds them.

In the popular version, the tally is inflated to "hundreds or even 3,000" rabbits, but historians say those numbers are embellishments. There's one thing that stands out: Europe's most feared commander was attacked (and defeated) by hungry fluff. Let's call it Hare-loo: not Waterloo, but a hop-off that still nips at his legend.

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