On this day: October 26 — The last naturally acquired smallpox case and a peace treaty

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October 26 brings two major, documentable moments in world history. No exact-date anniversary directly tied to the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu or Kerala could be verified to the required standard, so no local event has been invented.

1977 — The decisive date in the last naturally acquired smallpox case

On 26 October 1977, hospital worker Ali Maow Maalin developed the rash of smallpox in Merca, Somalia. His illness became the world’s last recorded naturally acquired case. October 26 was not the diagnosis date: the CDC’s detailed history says fever began on October 22 and smallpox was correctly diagnosed on October 30, while the WHO account says the case was discovered on October 31. Symptom onset, diagnosis and discovery are therefore kept distinct here. The World Health Assembly formally certified the world free of naturally occurring smallpox in May 1980.

Sources: CDC — Last Naturally Acquired Case; CDC — History of Smallpox; WHO — Last endemic case

1994 — Israel and Jordan signed their peace treaty

Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty at the Arava/Wadi Araba crossing on 26 October 1994. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordanian Prime Minister Abdelsalam al-Majali signed at a ceremony attended by King Hussein of Jordan and U.S. President Bill Clinton. The signature date was October 26, but the UN Treaty Collection records that the treaty entered into force on 10 November 1994 after the instruments of ratification were exchanged.

Sources: United Nations Treaty Collection; Clinton White House Archive

Selected, double-checked October 26 events; not an exhaustive chronology.