TODAY IN HISTORY ― MARCH 26

March 26 is the 85th day of the year (86th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 280 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Thursday or Saturday (58 in 400 years each) than on Tuesday or Wednesday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Friday or Sunday (56).

NATIONAL NOUGAT DAY 

1344 – The Siege of Algeciras, one of the first European military engagements where gunpowder was used, comes to an end.  

1351 – Combat of the Thirty: Thirty Breton Knights call out and defeat thirty English Knights.

1552 – Guru Amar Das becomes the Third (of the Ten) Gurus of Sikhism.

1812 – A political cartoon in the Boston Gazette coins the term "gerrymander" to describe oddly shaped electoral districts designed to help incumbents win reelection. ― Image from bostonglobe.com

1917 – World War I: First Battle of Gaza – British troops are halted after 17,000 Turks block their advance.

1939 – The Spanish Civil War: Nationalists begin their final offensive of the war.

1942 – World War II: The first female prisoners arrive at the Auschwitz death camp in German-occupied Poland.

1945 – World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends as the island is officially secured by American forces.

1971 – East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Liberation War begins.

1978 – Four days before the scheduled opening of Japan's Narita International Airport, protesters destroy much of the equipment in the control tower with Molotov cocktails.

1979 – Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty in Washington, D.C.

1982 – A groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, D.C. 

1998 – The Oued Bouaicha massacre in Algeria: Fifty-two people are killed with axes and knives, 32 of them children under the age of two. 

1999 – The "Melissa worm" infects Microsoft word processing and e-mail systems around the world. On December 10, 1999 David L. Smith pleaded guilty to unleashing the virus and was sentenced to 10 years, serving 20 months, and was fined US $5,000.

1999 – A jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man. Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder and served eight years of a 10-to-25-year prison sentence.

2005 – The Taiwanese government calls on one million Taiwanese to demonstrate in Taipei, in opposition to the Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China. Around 200,000 to 300,000 attend the demonstration.

2014 – A massive fire breaks out in Back Bay, Boston killing 2 firefighters and injuring at least 18 people.

BORN TODAY

1859 – A. E. Housman, English poet and scholar (d. 1936)

1874 – Robert Frost, American poet and playwright (d. 1963)

1875 – Syngman Rhee, South Korean journalist and politician, 1st President of South Korea (d. 1965)

1881 – Guccio Gucci, Italian fashion designer, founded Gucci (d. 1953)

1893 – James Bryant Conant, American chemist, academic, and diplomat, 1st United States Ambassador to West Germany (d. 1978)

1914 – William Westmoreland, American general ―WWI, Korea, Vietnam  (d. 2005)

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.