On this day: October 26

POSTED: 12:17 PM PDT Oct 25, 2012    UPDATED: 11:00 PM PDT Oct 25, 2012 

The Erie Canal opens, the Pony Express closes, Wyatt Earp shoots it out in Tombstone, "Baby Fae" gets a baboon heart, and the Patriot Act is signed into law, all on this day.

OTD October 26 - Hattie McDaniel
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1952: Singer and actress Hattie McDaniel, who became the first African-American to win an Academy Award when she won Best Supporting Actress in 1940 for her role of Mammy in "Gone with the Wind," dies of breast cancer at the age of 57 in Woodland Hills, Calif.

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