August 26 is the 238th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (239th in leap years). There are 127 days remaining.

Events

100 BC-AD 1899

• 55 BC - Julius Caesar invades Britain
• AD 1071 - Battle of Manzikert: The Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert
• 1278 - Ladislaus IV of Hungary and Rudolph I of Germany defeated Premysl Ottokar II of Bohemia in the Battle of Marchfield near Dürnkrut in Moravia.
• 1346 - Hundred Years' War: The military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights was established at the Battle of Crécy.
• 1429 - Joan of Arc enters Paris.
• 1498 - Michelangelo commissioned to carve the Pieta.
• 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 - Amistad captured off Long Island.
• 1858 - First news dispatch by telegraph.
• 1862 - Second Battle of Bull Run begins in the American Civil War.
• 1883 - Eruption of Mount Krakatoa.

1900-1999

• 1914 - Germans defeat Russians in Battle of Tannenberg.
• 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.
• 1944 - Charles de Gaulle enters Paris.
• 1957 - Russia tests an ICBM.
• 1968 - Democratic National Convention opens in Chicago
• 1968 - The Beatles' Hey Jude was released as a single in the United States under the Apple Records label.
• 1972 - Games of the XX Olympiad open in Munich, Germany.
• 1976 - Raymond Barre becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1978 - Pope John Paul I elevated to Papacy,
• 1978 - Sigmund Jähn becomes first German cosmonaut on board of the Soyuz 33 spacecraft.
• 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.

2000-2099

• 2002 - Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Éric Gagné converts his first of a record 84 consecutive successful save opportunities.
• Monday, August 26, 2002 - Earth Summit 2002 began in Johannesburg, South Africa.
• Tuesday, August 26, 2003 - Columbia Accident Investigation Board releases its final reports on Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Births

1600-1899

• 1676 - Robert Walpole, British prime minister in 1721-1742 (d. 1745)
• 1740 - Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, inventor, worked on first hot air balloon (d. 1810)
• 1743 - Antoine Lavoisier, chemist (d. 1794)
• 1845 - Mary Anne Nicholls, the first confirmed victim of Jack the Ripper (d. 1888)
• 1873 - Lee DeForest, inventor of the vacuum tube (d. 1961)
• 1875 - John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, Scottish novelist, Governor General of Canada (d. 1940)
• 1880 - Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet, art critic (d. 1918)
• 1896 - Ivan Mihailov, Bulgarian revolutionary and leader of the IMRO, responsible for the assassination of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia (d. 1990)
• 1897 - Yoon Boseon, President of South Korea (d. 1990)
• 1898 - Peggy Guggenheim, art collector (d. 1979)

1900-1999

• 1900 - Hellmuth Walter, engineer and inventor (d. 1980)
• 1901 - General Maxwell Taylor, soldier (d. 1987)
• 1904 - Christopher Isherwood, writer (d. 1986)
• 1906 - Albert Sabin, polio researcher (d. 1993)
• 1909 - Jim Davis, actor (d. 1981)
• 1914 - Julio Cortázar, writer (d. 1984)
• 1921 - Benjamin Bradlee, journalist
• 1922 - Irving R. Levine, journalist
• 1923 - Wolfgang Sawallisch, German conductor and pianist
• 1934 - Tom Heinsohn, basketball Hall-of-Famer and commentator
• 1935 - Geraldine Ferraro, U.S. Vice Presidential candidate in 1984
• 1941 - Barbet Schroeder, director
• 1942 - Dennis Turner, Labour Party member of Parliament since 1987
• 1944 - Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester
• 1946 - Valerie Simpson, singer
• 1952 - Michael Jeter, actor (d. 2003)
• 1960 - Branford Marsalis, saxophonist, bandleader
• 1971 - Thalía, Mexican actress
• 1979 - Jamal Lewis, American football player
• 1980 - Macaulay Culkin, actor

Deaths

1200-1899

• 1278 - Premysl Ottokar II (b. c. 1230)
• 1850 - Louis-Philippe of France (b. 1773)

1900-1999

• 1930 - Lon Chaney, actor
• 1945 - Franz Werfel, writer
• 1958 - Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer
• 1968 - Kay Francis, actress, (b. 1899)
• 1974 - Charles Lindbergh, aviator
• 1975 - Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia
• 1976 - Lotte Lehmann, German soprano (b. 1888)
• 1978 - Charles Boyer, actor
• 1979 - Mika Waltari, author
• 1980 - Tex Avery, cartoonist
• 1981 - Roger Nash Baldwin, founder of the ACLU
• 1986 - Ted Knight, actor
• 1989 - Irving Stone, author

2000-2099

• 2001 - Aaliyah, singer
• 2003 - Jim Wacker, American college football coach
• 2004 - Laura Branigan, singer

Holidays and observances

• Namibia Day (Namibia)
• Sultan's Birthday (Zanzibar)
• St Zephyrinus Day

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