Following are some of the major events to have occurred on May 26:
1940 – Britain launched a huge sea-borne operation to evacuate defeated Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk.
1942 – Britain and the Soviet Union signed a treaty providing for full collaboration during and after World War Two.
1969 – Apollo 10 lunar module re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, splashes down in Pacific Ocean.
1972 – The United States and the Soviet Union signed the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT 1) curbing nuclear weapons.
1986 – Flag of Europe officially adopted as symbol of European Union.
1988 – Edmonton Oilers win Stanley Cup, with Captain Wayne Gretzky before he was traded to the L.A. Kings later that year.
2001 – The U.S. Congress gave final approval to a $1.35 trillion tax cut package that was President George W. Bush’s top priority.
2002 – Franco-Polish director Roman Polanski won the Cannes film festival’s Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) award for his film “The Pianist”.
2004 – The Sudan government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) signed agreements in Kenya on how to share power and manage disputed strategic areas.
2005 – Inaugural “National Sorry Day” in Australia to acknowledge thousands of Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their homes between 1930 and 1950.
2009 – Rebels controlling northern Ivory Coast since 2002 officially handed over to civilian administrators in a step aimed at restoring government authority across the world’s biggest cocoa producer.
(Reuters)