Template:On this day - October 26

Pedro de Valdivia

• 1540 – 1,200 men under Pedro de Valdivia reach the Copiapó Valley (in the north of present-day Chile) after crossing the Atacama Desert on foot.
• 1608 – Death of Juan Pantoja de la Cruz, Spanish painter (b. 1553).
• 1783 – Birth of Jaime Alfonso "el Barbudo", Spanish bandit (d. 1824).
• 1802 – Death of Felipe González Ahedo, Spanish military officer and cartographer (b. 1714).
• 1810 – In Cuba, the Storm of the Saltpeter Frost breaks out (it will last 12 days, until 10 November). In Havana, 70 ships sink, and the sea rises 8 varas above the flagstaffs of the town's fortresses.
• 1811 – In Buenos Aires (Argentina), the revolutionary government decrees freedom of printing for the press, although in practice it applied sanctions, closures, banishments and persecution against publications or authors considered contrary to the secessionist cause.
• 1833 – In northern Chile, Diego de Almeyda founds the city of Chañaral.
• 1864 – Birth of José Gregorio Hernández, Venezuelan physician, scientist, professor and philanthropist (d. 1919).
• 1960 – In El Salvador, President José María Lemus is overthrown in a coup d'état, and a Government Junta is installed in his place, which would remain in power for 3 months.
• 1971 – On La Palma (Canary Islands), the Teneguía volcano erupts.
• 1976 – In Miami (United States), the terrorists Freddy Lugo and Hernán Ricardo (perpetrators of the Barbados crime) are deported to Venezuela.
• 1998 – Ecuador and Peru sign the Act of Brasilia, which puts an end to the border conflict.
• 2005 – Death of Rogers Becerra Casanovas, Bolivian musician, composer, researcher and writer (b. 1924).
• 2012 – Death of Félix del Rosario, Dominican musician, composer and orchestra conductor (b. 1934).
• 2013 – In Peru, the seaside resort of Huanchaco becomes the first beach in South America, and the fifth in the world, to be recognized as a "World Surfing Reserve".