OCTOBER 26: The first time on the cover of Hot Press / "Fire" / A fan plays better than Bono / "Sunday Bloody Sunday" at Skydome / The "tree" in New Zealand is destroyed / U2 play on KROQ-FM / The U2iPod in San Jose: Original Of The Species, All Because Of You / U2 won top tour for "Vertigo" tour - top draw and top Boxscore for Croke Park, Billboard Touring Awards!

"Early Ireland" - october 26, 1979 - U2 are featured the first time on the cover of Ireland's Hot Press magazine.

"October" tour - october 26, 1981 - U2 perform in Paris, France at Elysee Montmartre, playing "Fire" as the last song.

"The Joshua Tree" tour - october 26, 1987 - U2 perform in Kansas City, Missouri at Kemper Arena. Bono reminisces during "Southern Man": "...We'd come into town, maybe four five years ago. We played the Uptown Ballroom and put on a great show. I was nineteen and we were really good that night. I thought Kansas City was out of sight, celebrate!". Later on during the song, he says, "We came to this city in 1981 or '82, and I think the band were the only people in the Uptown under the age of drinking. There were some poeple outside saying 'Bono, I can't get into see you, man!' I said, 'I can't even get into see me, man!'" A fan gets on stage to jam with the band for the rest of the song, and plays better than Bono does. Support is "The BoDeans".

"POPMart" tour - october 26, 1997 - Toronto, Ontario, Canada - U2 begins the third leg of the PopMart tour -- and second in North America -- with the first of two shows at Toronto's Skydome. As he did for the last few shows of the European tour, Edge continues to sing a solo, acoustic version of "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" from the b-stage, replacing the nightly karaoke sing-along.

Tree on New Zealand's One Tree Hill is destroyed - october 26, 2000 - Continuing a bad week for U2-related trees, the famous lone pine tree at New Zealand's One Tree Hill site is destroyed after being deemed unsafe. The tree had been attacked twice since 1994 and suffered enough damage to cause it to lean heavily to one side.

"ATYCLB" promo tour - october 26, 2000 - Los Angeles, CA - Universal Studios - Elevation, New York, Stuck In a Moment , Beautiful Day. U2 perform and are interviewed live on KROQ-FM.

"Introducing: The U2 iPod" - october 26, 2004. Bono and Edge join Apple Computer chairman Steve Jobs in San Jose, California, today to introduce two new results of the new U2-Apple partnership. First is what Jobs calls a historical moment in music: the introduction of the first-ever "digital box set." Called The Complete U2, it's a collection of more than 400 U2 songs that will be sold exclusively on Apple's iTunes Music Store at a cost of $149. The second announcement is the creation of a U2-themed iPod, the first time Apple has produced a branded version of its super-popular digital music player. The unit is colored black with a red Click Wheel to match the branding of U2's upcoming album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. The signatures of each band member are engraved on the back. The unit has 20GB of storage and comes with an "exclusive" U2 poster. It's priced at $349 and will be available to ship in November. Bono and Edge speak during the event, and also perform two new songs: "Original of the Species" and "All Because Of You." Bono, Edge, and Jobs also appear live on CNBC-TV after the event where they're interviewed about today's announcements. During the interview, Bono reveals that no money has changed between U2 and Apple during the current partnership.

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U2 won top tour for "Vertigo" tour - top draw and top Boxscore for Croke Park, Billboard Touring Awards - October 26, 2005 - U2 Dominates Billboard Touring Awards - U2 came away with the most honors at last night's (Oct. 26) Billboard Roadwork '05 Touring Awards, winning top tour for its Vertigo trek, top draw and top Boxscore for its June 24-27 dates at Croke Park in Dublin. The event took place at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York. Other big winners include Clear Channel Entertainment, which was honored with top promoter; Jam Productions, winner of top independent promoter; Principle Management, which received the top manager award; and William Morris Agency, the winner of top agency. The top festival of the year was the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tenn., while top package was awarded to the Kenny Chesney, Gretchen Wilson, Uncle Kracker and Pat Green tour. The year's top small venue tour was Bruce Springsteen's Devils & Dust outing and the breakthrough act was Rascal Flatts. The top arena of the year was New York's Madison Square Garden, while the top amphitheater went to Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts in Mansfield, Mass. House of Blues Chicago won top club. The top small venue of the year with resident booking was The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, while the top small venue of the year with non-resident booking was the Fox Theatre in Atlanta. As previously reported, the Dave Matthews Band received Roadwork '05's Humanitarian Award for the band's philanthropic efforts. Pioneering promoter Jack Boyle, chairman emeritus for Clear Channel Entertainment and founder of Cellar Door Concerts, received the Legend of Live Award. Awards are based on box office performance reported to Billboard Boxscore from Nov. 20, 2004 through Sept. 30, 2005. billboard