Today's number is 26

Uh, 2 x 13, both primes
26 is Iron
26 is "breakfast" a notorious darts score where an attempted score of 180 (3 x triple 20) is misthrown as 1 + 20 + 5
There are 26 letters in the English Alphabet, making a string of letters a stronger password than a string or numbers
Switzerland has 26 cantons

Title 26 of the US Code is the Internal Revenue Code

26 BCE was the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Taurus

26 CE was the Year of the Consulship of Lentulus and Sabinus
Pontius Pilate was appointed prefect of Judea.
Tiberius retired to Capri

On this day in:
1493 -- Pope Alexander VI issued the papal bull Dudum siquidem giving the new world & more to Spain
1580 -- Sir Francis Drake completed a circumnavigation of the planet
1777 -- The Brits occupied Philadelphia looking for cheesesteak.
1914 -- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was created
1934 -- They launched the Queen Mary
1960 -- The first TV debate between Tricky Dick and JFK took place.
1969 -- The Beatles released Abbey Road
1973 -- The Concorde made its first non-stop flight across the Atlantic
1983 -- Stanislav Petrov decided that a reported incoming nuclear missile was a computer error, not a US attack
1984 -- The United Kingdom agreed to cede Hong Kong to China.
2008 -- Yves Rossy flew a jet powered "wingpack" across the English Channel.

Born this day in:
1750 -- Cuthbert Collingwood, an admiral - look him up sometime if he is unknown to you
1774 -- Johnny Appleseed, yeah, really.
1849 -- Ivan Pavlov, bell ringer
1888 -- J. Frank Dobie, journalist, author, and liberal Texan
1888 -- T. S. Eliot, poet, playwright, critic, Nobel Prize laureate, eater of peaches
1889 -- Martin Heidegger, philosopher and academic, Dasein
1891 -- Hans Reichenbach, philosopher (Vienna Circle, logical empiricist), commie
1898 -- George Gershwin, pianist and composer
1907 -- Anthony Blunt, art historian and rooskie spy
1925 -- Marty Robbins, singer, songwriter, guitarist
1945 -- Bryan Ferry, singer & songwriter
1946 -- Andrea Dworkin, "radical feminist" activist and author
1947 -- Lynn Anderson, never promised anybody a rose garden
1948 -- Olivia Newton-John, singer, songwriter and actress
1949 -- Wendy Saddington, Australian singer and journalis
1951 -- Stuart Tosh, singer, songwriter and drummer
1955 -- Carlene Carter, singer, songwriter and guitarist
1964 -- John Tempesta, drummer
1965 -- Cindy Herron, singer
1966 -- Dean Butterworth, drummer
1967 -- Shannon Hoon, singer, songwriter and guitarist

Died this day in:
1820 -- Daniel Boone, American hunter and explorer, allegedly had a farm
1868 -- August Ferdinand Mobius, mathematician and astronomer; also had a band
1902 -- Levi Strauss, businessman
1904 -- Lafcadio Hearn, author and academic
1937 -- Bessie Smith, singer and actress
1945 -- Bela Bartok, pianist and composer
1946 -- William Strunk, Jr., stylish author and educator
1947 -- Hugh Lofting, author and poet who did little
1952 -- George Santayana, philosopher, novelist, and poet noted for remembering the past
1991 -- Billy Vaughn, singer and bandleader
1998 -- Betty Carter, singe
2000 -- Baden Powell de Aquino, guitarist and composer
2003 -- Robert Palmer, singer & songwriter

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days and such:
Meh, try The Feast of Cosmas and Damian, it is as good as any.

So, for music we gots:

Abbey Road
George Gershwin
Marty Robbins
Bryan Ferry
Lynn Anderson
Olivia Newton-John
Wendy Saddington
Stuart Tosh
Carlene Carter
John Tempesta
Cindy Herron
Dean Butterworth
Shannon Hoon
Bessie Smith
Bela Bartok
Billy Vaughn
Betty Carter
Baden Powell de Aquino
Robert emerson-lake-and Palmer

Abbey Road

George Gershwin

Marty Robbins

Bryan Ferry

Lynn Anderson

Olivia Newton-John

Wendy Saddington

Stuart Tosh

Carlene Carter

John Tempesta

Cindy Herron

Dean Butterworth

Shannon Hoon (This cut is allegedly rare, heh)

Bessie Smith

Bela Bartok

Billy Vaughn

Betty Carter

Baden Powell de Aquino

Robert emerson-lake-and Palmer

So, this is an open thread, go to it