From Historynet: Today in History January 26

1699          The Treaty of Karlowitz ends the war between Austria and the Turks.

1720          Guilio Alberoni  is ordered out of Spain after his abortive attempt to restore his country's empire.

1788          A fleet of ships carrying convicts from England lands at Sydney Cove in Australia. The day is since known as Australia's national day.

1861          Louisiana secedes from the Union.

1863          President Lincoln names General Joseph Hooker  to replace Burnside  as commander of the Army of the Potomac.

1875          Pinkerton agents, hunting Jesse James , kill his 18-year-old half-brother and seriously injure his mother with a bomb.

1885          General "Chinese" Gordon  is killed on the palace steps in Khartoum by Sudanese Mahdists in Africa.

1924          Petrograd is renamed Leningrad.

1934          Germany signs a 10-year non-aggression pact with Poland, breaking the French alliance system.

1942          American Expeditionary Force lands in Northern Ireland.

1943          The first OSS (Office of Strategic Services) agent parachutes behind Japanese lines in Burma.

1964          Eighty-four people are arrested in a segregation protest in Atlanta.

1969          California is declared a disaster area after two days of flooding and mud slides.

2005          Condoleezza Rice  is appointed to the post of secretary of state. The post makes her the highest ranking African-American woman ever to serve in a U.S. presidential cabinet.