August 26

is the 238th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (239th in leap years). There are 127 days remaining.

Events

55 BC - Julius Caesar invades Britain
1071 - Battle of Manzikert: The Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert
1278 - Ladislaus IV of Hungary and Rudolph I of Germany defeat Premysl Ottokar II of Bohemia in the Battle of Marchfield near Dürnkrut in Moravia.
1303 - Ala ud din Khilji won Chittor
1346 - Hundred Years' War: The military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights is established at the Battle of Crécy.
1498 - Michelangelo commissioned to carve the Pietà.
1778 - The first ascent of Triglav, the highest mountain of Slovenia.
1789 - Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen approved by Constituent Assembly at Palace of Versailles
1839 - The ship Amistad is captured off Long Island.
1858 - First news dispatch by telegraph.
1862 - American Civil War: The Second Battle of Bull Run begins.
1883 - Eruption of Mount Krakatoa.
1914 - World War I: Germans defeat Russians in Battle of Tannenberg.
1914 - World War I: The British Expeditionary Force briefly checks the German advance at Le Cateau.
1914 - World War I: The German colony of Togoland is invaded by French and British forces, who take it after 5 days.
1920 - 19th amendment to U.S. Constitution gives women the right to vote.
1939 - The first Major League Baseball game is telecast, a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, in Brooklyn, New York.
1940 - Chad is the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France's first black colonial governor.
1944 - World War II: Charles de Gaulle enters Paris.
1957 - The USSR announces the successful test of an ICBM - a "super longdistance intercontinental multistage ballistic rocket ... a few days ago," according to Tass Soviet News Agency.
1968 - Democratic National Convention opens in Chicago, Illinois
1968 - The Beatles' "Hey Jude" is released as a single in the United States under the Apple Records label.
1970 - The third annual Isle of Wight rock festival, which would feature the last UK performance from Jimi Hendrix, opens in Great Britain.
1972 - Games of the XX Olympiad open in Munich, Germany.
1976 - Raymond Barre becomes Prime Minister of France.
1978 - Papal conclave, 1978 (August): Pope John Paul I is elevated to the Papacy.
1978 - Sigmund Jähn becomes first German cosmonaut on board of the Soyuz 31 spacecraft.
1980 - John Birges plants a bomb at Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada.
1986 - Toxic gas kills 1700 in Cameroon.
1987 - President Ronald Wilson Reagan proclaims September 11, 1987 as 9-1-1 Emergency Number Day.
1988 - Merhan Karimi Nasseri arrives at Charles de Gaulle International Airport.
1995 - The International Rugby Board lifts all restrictions on payments relating to the game of Rugby Union, thus bringing the game's amateur age to an end.
1997 - Beni-Ali massacre in Algeria; 60-100 people killed.
2002 - Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Éric Gagné converts his first of a record 84 consecutive successful save opportunities.
2002 - Earth Summit 2002 begins in Johannesburg, South Africa.
2003 - Columbia Accident Investigation Board releases its final reports on Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
2005 - Fiji's High Court rules that the island's sodomy law is unconstitutional.
2005 - Jean Michel Jarre's "Space of Freedom" concert in Gdańsk, Poland

Births

1469 - Ferdinand II of Naples (d. 1496)
1540 - King Magnus of Livonia (d. 1583)
1676 - Robert Walpole, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1745)
1694 - Elisha Williams, American rector of Yale College (d. 1755)
1736 - Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle, French chemist (d. 1790)
1743 - Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist (d. 1794)
1775 - William Joseph Behr, German writer (d. 1851)
1789 - Abbas Mirza, Prince of Persia (d. 1833)
1792 - Manuel Oribe, Uruguayan political figure (d. 1857)
1850 - Charles Robert Richet, French physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1935)
1862 - Herbert Booth, the third son of William and Catherine Booth (d. 1926)
1873 - Lee DeForest, American inventor (d. 1961)
1874 - Zona Gale, American novelist (d. 1938)
1875 - John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, Scottish novelist, Governor General of Canada (d. 1940)
1880 - Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet and art critic (d. 1918)
1882 - James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1964)
1896 - Ivan Mihailov, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1990)
1897 - Yoon Boseon, President of South Korea (d. 1990)
1898 - Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector (d. 1979)
1900 - Hellmuth Walter, German engineer and inventor (d. 1980)
1901 - Maxwell Taylor, American general (d. 1987)
1901 - Chen Yi, Chinese communist military commander and politician (d. 1972)
1904 - Christopher Isherwood, English-born writer (d. 1986)
1906 - Albert Sabin, American polio researcher (d. 1993)
1909 - Jim Davis, American actor (d. 1981)
1914 - Julio Cortázar, Argentine writer (d. 1984)
1921 - Benjamin Bradlee, American journalist
1922 - Irving R. Levine, American journalist
1923 - Wolfgang Sawallisch, German conductor and pianist
1934 - Tom Heinsohn, American basketball player and commentator
1935 - Geraldine Ferraro, U.S. Vice Presidential candidate
1936 - Yvette Vickers, American actress
1940 - Don LaFontaine, American voice actor
1941 - Barbet Schroeder, Swiss film director
1941 - Akiko Wakabayashi, Japanese actress
1942 - Vic Dana, American singer
1942 - Dennis Turner, British politician
1944 - Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester
1944 - Maureen Tucker, American musician (The Velvet Underground)
1945 - Tom Ridge, first United States Secretary of Homeland Security
1946 - Valerie Simpson, American singer
1946 - Mark Snow, American composer
1946 - Zhou Ji, Education Minister of the People's Republic of China
1952 - Michael Jeter, American actor (d. 2003)
1952 - Will Shortz, New York Times crossword editor
1953 - Pat Sharkey, Irish footballer
1954 - Efren Reyes, World Pool Player
1956 - Brett Cullen, American actor
1957 - Dr. Alban, Nigerian singer
1960 - Branford Marsalis, American saxophonist and bandleader
1965 - Chris Burke, American actor
1965 - Jon Hensley, American actor
1966 - Jacques Brinkman, Dutch field hockey player
1966 - Shirley Manson, Scottish singer
1969 - Melissa McCarthy, American actress
1971 - Thalía, Mexican singer and actress
1977 - Saeko Chiba, Japanese seiyuu
1979 - Jamal Lewis, American football player
1979 - Cristian Mora, Ecuadorian footballer
1980 - Macaulay Culkin, American actor
1980 - Brendan Harris, Baseball player
1982 - Petey Williams, Canadian professional wrestler
1993 - Keke Palmer, American actress

Deaths

1278 - King Otakar II of Bohemia
1346 - Killed in the Battle of Crécy:
- Charles II of Alençon (b. 1297)
- Louis I of Flanders (b. 1304)
- John I, Count of Luxemburg (b. 1296)
- Rudolph, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1320)
1349 - Thomas Bradwardine, Archbishop of Canterbury
1551 - Margareta Leijonhufvud, queen of Gustav I of Sweden (b. 1516)
1595 - Antonio, Prior of Crato, claimant to the throne of Portugal (b. 1531)
1666 - Frans Hals, Dutch painter
1714 - Edward Fowler, English Bishop of Gloucester (b. 1632)
1723 - Anton van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch scientist (b. 1632)
1785 - George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, British soldier and politician (b. 1716)
1850 - Louis-Philippe of France (b. 1773)
1865 - Johann Franz Encke, German astronomer (b. 1791)
1915 - John Bunny American comedian (b. 1863)
1930 - Lon Chaney, Sr., American actor (b. 1883)
1944 - Adam von Trott zu Solz, German anti-Nazi diplomat (executed)
1945 - Franz Werfel, Austrian writer (b. 1890)
1958 - Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (b. 1872)
1968 - Kay Francis, American actress (b. 1899)
1974 - Charles Lindbergh, American aviator (b. 1902)
1976 - Lotte Lehmann, German soprano (b. 1888)
1978 - Charles Boyer, French actor (b. 1899)
1978 - José Manuel Moreno, Argentine footballer (b. 1916)
1979 - Mika Waltari, Finnish author (b. 1908)
1980 - Rosa Albach-Retty, German actress (b. 1874)
1980 - Tex Avery, American cartoonist (b. 1908)
1981 - Roger Nash Baldwin, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (b. 1884)
1986 - Ted Knight, American actor (b. 1923)
1987 - Georg Wittig, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
1988 - Carlos Paião, Portuguese singer (b. 1957)
1989 - Irving Stone, American author (b. 1903)
1990 - Minoru Honda, Japanese astronomer (b. 1913)
1998 - Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
2003 - Jim Wacker, American football coach (b. 1937)
2004 - Laura Branigan, American singer (b. 1957)
2005 - Denis D'Amour, Canadian guitarist (Voivod) (b. 1960)
2005 - Robert Denning, American interior designer (b. 1927)

Holidays and observances

RC saints - St Zephyrinus, Saint Ninian, David Lewis (one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales)
Namibia - Namibia Day or Heroes' Day
Zanzibar - Sultan's Birthday

External links

BBC: On This Day

August 25 - August 27 - July 26 - September 26 -- listing of all days

Gourt Home::Gourt :: August 26

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links