On This Day, Oct. 26: Allied troops take 1,450 Axis prisoners in Egypt

Oct. 26 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1825, the Erie Canal, America's first man-made waterway, was opened, linking the Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River.

In 1881, the storied gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurred in Tombstone, Ariz.

In 1920, the lord mayor of Cork, Ireland, Terence McSwiney, demanding independence for Ireland, died after a 2 1/2-month hunger strike in a British prison cell.

In 1942, Allied troops moving through the Egyptian front captured 1,450 Axis prisoners, routed Nazi tanks in the armored clash and pulverized the enemy line.

In 1944, after four days of furious fighting, the World War II battle of Leyte Gulf, largest air-naval clash in history, ended with a decisive U.S. victory over the Japanese.

File Photo by US Navy/UPI

In 1951, British voters placed Winston Churchill's Conservative Party at the helm of government today after six years of socialism.

In 1979, South Korean President Park Chung-hee was assassinated by the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency.

In 1984, doctors in California performed the first baboon-to-human heart transplant in a 14-day-old girl, known as Baby Fae. The baby died of heart failure Nov. 15.

In 1990, District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $5,000 for his conviction on misdemeanor drug charges. Barry became mayor again in 1995.

File Photo by Bruce Young/UPI

In 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty at a desert site along the Israeli-Jordanian border.

In 1995, Islamic Jihad leader co-founder, Fathi Shaqaqi (Fathi ash-Shiqaqi), was assassinated by Mossad agents at his hotel in Malta.

In 1998, the presidents of Ecuador and Peru signed a peace treaty, ending a decades-long border dispute.

In 2002, a four-day Moscow hostage crisis came to a bloody end after Russian soldiers stormed a theater where Chechen rebels had held 700 people for ransom. Ninety hostages and 50 rebels were killed.

In 2010, GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug manufacturer, agreed to settle criminal and civil complaints for $750 million, stemming from accusations of knowingly selling drugs with questionable safety standards.

In 2015, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck northeastern Afghanistan, killing nearly 400 people there and in India and Pakistan.

In 2017, President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency.