August 26

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

• 55 BC – Julius Caesar attempts to conquer Britannia.
• 1071 – Battle of Manzikert: Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine Army at Manzikert.
• 1278 – Ladislaus IV of Hungary and Rudolph I of Germany defeat Premysl Ottokar I of Bohemia in the Battle of Marchfield near Durnkrut in then-Moravia.
• 1346 – Cannons are used for the first time in a European battle, the Battle of Crecy.
• 1444 – Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs: A vastly outnumbered forces of Swiss Confederates is defeated by Dauphin Louis (future King Louis IX of France) and his army near Basel.
• 1498 – Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pieta.
• 1542 – Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana and his expedition reach the Amazon Delta.
• 1768 – James Cook sets sail from England on the HMS Endeavour.
• 1789 – The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is approved by the National Assembly at the Palace of Versailles.
• 1791 – John Fitch is granted a US patent for the steam boat.
• 1810 – Former viceroy Santiago de Liniers of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata is executed after the defeat of his counter-revolution.
• 1813 – War of the Sixth Coalition: An impromptu battle takes place when French and Russian-Prussian forces accidentally run into each other near what is now Legnica, Poland.
• 1814 – Chilean War of Independence: Infighting between rebel forces of José Miguel Carrera and Bernardo O'Higgins erupts in the Battle of Las Tres Acequias.
• 1821 – The University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is founded.
• 1865 – A monument to Albert, Prince Consort is unveiled in Coburg, Germany.
• 1878 – Uyedineniya Island (also known as Lonely Island), one of Russia's remotest islands, located in the Arctic Ocean, is discovered by Norwegian seafarer Edvard Holm Johannesen.
• 1883 – Krakatoa's 1883 eruption reaches its final stage, ending in a major explosion and tsunamis the following day.
• 1883 – The Ashes, a cricket prize, is given to English captain, Ivo Bligh.

• 1914 – World War I: French and British forces invade the then-German colony of Togoland, (covering present-day Togo and western Ghana) in West Africa, taking it after five days.
• 1920 – An amendment to the United States Constitution allows women in the United States the right to vote.
• 1922 – The Japanese cruiser Niitaka sinks in a storm off the west coast of Kamchatka, eastern Russia, killing all 400 people on board.
• 1940 – World War II: Under Governor Felix Eboue, Chad becomes the first French colony to join the Allies.
• 1942 – Holocaust: In Chortkiav, Eastern Ukraine, German Schutzpolizei starts driving Jews out of their houses, divides them into groups of 120 people and deports them to Belzec Death Camp.
• 1944 – World War II: Bulgaria declares that it is neutral.
• 1944 – World War II: Charles de Gaulle enters Paris.
• 1961 – Changing its Constitution, Burma adopts Buddhism as its official state religion.
• 1966 – The Namibian War of Independence begins.
• 1970 – The then-New Feminist Movement, led by Betty Friedan, leads a women's national strike, for equality.
• 1972 – The 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich begin, officially opened by German President Gustav Heinemann.
• 1977 – Benin gets a Marxist-Leninist Constitution.
• 1977 – The Charter of the French language is adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec.
• 1978 – East German cosmonaut Sigmund Jaehn becomes the first German in space.
• 1978 – Albino Luciani (Pope John Paul I) is elected Pope. He dies just 33 days later, on September 28.
• 1980 – John Birges plants a bomb at Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada.
• 1988 – Aung San Suu Kyi holds a pro-democracy speech at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Burma as part of the 8888 Revolution.
• 1997 – Beni-Ali massacre in Algeria: Between 60 and 100 people are killed.
• 1999 – Russia begins the Second Chechen War in response to the invasion of Dagestan, by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade.

• 2002 – The 2002 Earth Summit meeting in Johannesburg begins.
• 2005 – The highest court in Fiji declares the ban on Homosexuality unconstitutional.
• 2008 – Russia unilaterally recognises the Republic of Georgia's break-away territories Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
• 2011 – Naoto Kan announces his resignation as Prime Minister of Japan.
• 2014 – A ceasefire enters into force between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
• 2018 – Jacksonville Landing shooting: A participant at a gaming competition in Jacksonville, Florida shoots two people dead before turning the gun on himself.

• 1469 – Ferdinand II of Naples (d. 1496).
• 1540 – King Magnus of Livonia (d. 1583).
• 1596 – Frederick V, Elector of the Palatinate, German aristocrat (d. 1632).
• 1676 – Robert Walpole, Prime Minister of Great Britain (d. 1745).
• 1694 – Elisha Williams, American rector of Yale college (d. 1755).
• 1695 – Marie-Anne-Catherine Quinault, French singer and composer (d. 1791).
• 1728 – Johann Heinrich Lambert, Swiss scientist (d. 1777).
• 1740 – Joseph Montgolfier, French inventor (d. 1810).
• 1743 – Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist (d. 1794).
• 1787 – Alexander Sergeyevich Menshikov, Russian general, admiral and statesman (d. 1869).
• 1789 – Abbas Mirza, Prince of Persia (d. 1833).
• 1792 – Manuel Oribe, Uruguayan political figure (d. 1857).
• 1797 – Innocent of Alaska, Russian Orthodox missionary priest (d. 1879).
• 1802 – Ludwig Michael Schwanthaler, German sculptor (d. 1848).
• 1819 – Albert, Prince Consort (d. 1861).
• 1826 – Princess Alexandra of Bavaria (d. 1875).
• 1828 – Prince Adalbert of Bavaria (d. 1875).
• 1845 – Mary Ann Nichols, victim of Jack the Ripper (d. 1888).
• 1850 – Charles Robert Richet, French physiologist, won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1935).
• 1854 – Arnold Fothergill, English cricketer (d. 1932).
• 1864 – Anna Ulyanova, older sister of Vladimir Lenin (d. 1935).
• 1873 – Lee De Forest, American inventor (d. 1961).
• 1874 – Zona Gale, American novelist (d. 1938).
• 1875 – John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, Scottish novelist and Governor-General of Canada (d. 1940).
• 1880 – Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet and art critic (d. 1918).
• 1882 – James Franck, German-born physicist (d. 1964).
• 1885 – Jules Romains, French novelist, dramatist and poet (d. 1972).
• 1886 – Jerome Hunsaker, American aeronautical engineer (d. 1984).
• 1892 – Ruth Roland, American actress and movie producer (d. 1937).
• 1895 – Earl Long, Governor of Louisiana (d. 1960).
• 1896 – Ivan Mihailov, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1990).
• 1896 – Besse Cooper, American supercentenarian (d. 2012).
• 1897 – Yun Poson, President of South Korea (d. 1990).
• 1898 – Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector (d. 1979).
• 1900 – Hellmuth Walter, German engineer and inventor (d. 1980).
• 1900 – Mark Sandrich, American movie director (d. 1945).

• 1901 – Chen Yi, Chinese Communist military commander and politician (d. 1972).
• 1901 – Maxwell D. Taylor, American army officer (d. 1987).
• 1901 – Eleanor Dark, Australian writer (d. 1985).
• 1903 – Jimmy Rushing, American singer and pianist (d. 1972).
• 1904 – Christopher Isherwood, English writer (d. 1986).
• 1906 – Albert Sabin, Polish-American polio researcher (d. 1993).
• 1906 – Bunny Austin, British tennis player (d. 2000).
• 1908 – Jacques-Paul Martin, French cardinal (d. 1992).
• 1909 – Jim Davis, American actor (d. 1981).
• 1910 – Mother Theresa, Catholic nun and missionary, Nobel Prize winner (d. 1997).
• 1913 – Boris Pahor, Slovenian writer.
• 1914 – Julio Cortazar, Argentine author (d. 1984).
• 1918 – Katherine Johnson, American physicist, mathematician and space scientist
• 1920 – Prem Tinsulanonda, 16th Prime Minister of Thailand.
• 1921 – Benjamin C. Bradlee, American journalist (d. 2014).
• 1923 – Wolfgang Sawallisch, German conductor and pianist (d. 2013).
• 1924 – Jacques Villiers, French aerospace engineer (d. 2012).
• 1925 – Alain Peyrefitte, French politician (d. 1999).
• 1925 – Pyotr Todorovsky, Ukrainian-Russian director and screenwriter (d. 2013).
• 1926 – Anahit Tsitsikian, Armenian violinist (d. 2007).
• 1928 – Santiago Vernazza, Argentine footballer (d. 2017).
• 1929 – Reuben Kamanga, 1st Vice president of Zambia (d. 1996).
• 1929 – Yoga Bhajan, Indian yoga teacher (d. 2004).
• 1932 – Lygia Bojunga Nunes, Brazilian writer.
• 1933 – Robert Chartoff, American movie producer (d. 2015).
• 1935 – Karen Sparck Jones, British computer scientist (d. 2007).
• 1935 – Geraldine Ferraro, American lawyer and politician (d. 2011).
• 1936 – Benedict Anderson, American political scientist (d. 2015).
• 1936 – Francine York, American actress (d. 2017).
• 1937 – Nina Companeez, French screenwriter and movie director (d. 2015).
• 1937 – Gennady Yanayev, Soviet politician (d. 2010).
• 1938 – Jet Black, English musician (The Stranglers).
• 1939 – Todor Kolev, Bulgarian actor and singer (d. 2013).
• 1940 – Don LaFontaine, American voice actor (d. 2008).
• 1941 – Akiko Wakabayashi, Japanese actress.
• 1941 – Barbet Schroeder, French director, actor and producer.
• 1941 – Chris Curtis, British musician.
• 1942 – Vic Dana, American singer and dancer.
• 1944 – Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, member of the extended British royal family.
• 1944 – Maurice Tucker, American singer-songwriter and drummer.
• 1945 – Tom Ridge, American politician.
• 1946 – Alison Steadman, English actress.
• 1946 – Valerie Simpson, American singer.
• 1946 – Zhou Ji, Chinese politician.
• 1946 – Chantal Renaud, Canadian actress, singer and scriptwriter.
• 1947 – Nicolae Dobrin, Romanian footballer (d. 2007).
• 1949 – Leon Redbone, Canadian singer and guitarist.

• 1951 – Edward Witten, American physicist.
• 1952 – Michael Jeter, American actor (d. 2003).
• 1954 – Steve Wright, British DJ.
• 1956 – Brett Cullen, American actor.
• 1957 – Rick Hansen, Canadian athlete.
• 1957 – Dr. Alban, Nigerian-born Swedish singer and musician.
• 1958 – Nichi Vendola, Italian politician.
• 1959 – Oliver Colvile, English politician.
• 1960 – Branford Marsalis, American musician.
• 1962 – Roger Kingdom, American athlete.
• 1962 – Tariq Ramadan, Swiss academic, philosopher and writer.
• 1963 – Ludger Beerbaum, German equestrian showjumper.
• 1963 – Stephen J. Dubner, American journalist.
• 1964 – Daphne Caruana Galizia, Maltese blogger and journalist (d. 2017).
• 1964 – Allegra Huston, English-American writer and editor.
• 1965 – Chris Burke, American actor.
• 1965 – Marcus du Sautoy, British mathematics professor.
• 1966 – Shirley Manson, British singer.
• 1966 – Jacques Brinkman, Dutch field hockey player.
• 1967 – Michael Gove, British politician.
• 1968 – Chris Boardman, British racing cyclist.
• 1969 – Adrian Young, American rock musician.
• 1970 – Melissa McCarthy, American actress.
• 1970 – Brett Schultz, South African cricketer.
• 1971 – Thalia, Mexican singer.
• 1974 – Kelvin Cato, American basketball player.

• 1976 – Amaia Montero, Spanish singer-songwriter.
• 1977 – Morris Peterson, American basketball player.
• 1979 – Cristian Mora, Ecuadorean footballer.
• 1980 – Macaulay Culkin, American actor.
• 1980 – Chris Pine, American actor.
• 1981 – Vangelis Moras, Greek footballer.
• 1982 – Noah Welch, American ice hockey player.
• 1983 – Mattia Cassani, Italian footballer.
• 1983 – Nicol David, Malaysian squash player.
• 1985 – Brandon McDonald, American football player.
• 1986 – Cassie, American singer.
• 1986 – Colin Kazim-Richards, Turkish footballer.
• 1987 – Greg Halman, Dutch baseball player (d. 2011).
• 1987 – Riley Steele, American pornographic actress.
• 1988 – Princess Maria Laura of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este.
• 1988 – Lars Stindl, German footballer.
• 1988 – Wayne Simmonds, Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1989 – James Harden, American basketball player.
• 1989 – Héloïse Guérin, French model.
• 1990 – Lil' Chris, English singer (d. 2015).
• 1991 – Tommy Bastow, English actor and singer.
• 1991 – Jessica Diggins, American cross-country skier.
• 1992 – Yang Yilin, Chinese gymnast.
• 1992 – Hayley Hasselhoff, American actress.
• 1993 – Keke Palmer, American actress.
• 1994 – Taylor Bright, American singer and actress.

• 303 – Alexander of Bergamo, Italian Catholic saint.
• 526 – Theodoric the Great, Ostrogoth King.
• 887 – Emperor Koko of Japan (b. 830).
• 1214 – Patriarch Michael IV of Constantinople
• 1278 – King Ottokar 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)
• 1572 – Petrus Ramus, French philosopher (b. 1515)
• 1595 – Antonio, Prior of Crato, claimant to the throne of Portugal (b. 1531)
• 1607 – Giorgio Basta, Habsburg general (b. 1550).
• 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)
• 1795 – Alessandro Cagliostro, Italian alchemist and adventurer (b. 1743)
• 1810 – Santiago Liniers, Viceroy of Rio de la Plata (b. 1753)
• 1850 – Louis-Philippe I of France (b. 1773)
• 1865 – Johann Franz Encke, German astronomer (b. 1791)

• 1902 – George Hoadly, 36th Governor of Ohio (b. 1826).
• 1910 – William James, American psychologist and philosopher (b. 1842).
• 1915 – John Bunny American comedian (b. 1863)
• 1921 – Matthias Erzberger, German politician (b. 1875).
• 1921 – Ludwig Thoma, German writer (b. 1867).
• 1921 – Sandor Wekerle, Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1848).
• 1930 – Lon Chaney, Sr., American actor (b. 1883)
• 1944 – Adam von Trott zu Solz, German diplomat opposing the Nazi regime (executed) (b. 1909)
• 1945 – Franz Werfel, Austrian writer (b. 1890)
• 1946 – Jeanie MacPherson, American actress and screenwriter (b. 1887)
• 1956 – Alfred Wagenknecht, German-born American activist (b. 1881).
• 1958 – Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (b. 1872)
• 1962 – Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Icelandic-Canadian explorer (b. 1879)
• 1968 – Kay Francis, American actress (b. 1899)
• 1972 – Francis Chichester, British sailor and adventurer (b. 1901).
• 1974 – Charles Lindbergh, American aviator (b. 1902)
• 1976 – Lotte Lehmann, German soprano (b. 1888)
• 1977 – H. A. Rey, German-American author and illustrator (b. 1898).
• 1978 – Charles Boyer, French actor (b. 1899)
• 1978 – José Manuel Moreno, Argentine footballer (b. 1916)
• 1979 – Mika Waltari, Finnish writer (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)
• 1987 – John Goddard, Barbadian-English cricketer (b. 1919)
• 1988 – Carlos Paião, Portuguese singer (b. 1957)
• 1989 – Irving Stone, American writer (b. 1903)
• 1990 – Minoru Honda, Japanese astronomer (b. 1913)
• 1992 – Bob de Moor, Belgian comic artist (b. 1925)
• 1998 – Frederick Reines, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
• 2000 – Bunny Austin, British tennis player (b. 1906).

• 2001 – Marita Petersen, 8th Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (b. 1940).
• 2003 – Jim Wacker, American football coach (b. 1937)
• 2004 – Laura Branigan, American singer (b. 1952)
• 2005 – Robert Denning, Interior designer (b. 1927)
• 2006 – Rainer Barzel, German politician (b. 1924)
• 2007 – Gaston Thorn, Luxembourg politician (b. 1928)
• 2010 – Raimon Panikkar, Spanish theologian (b. 1918)
• 2010 – William B. Lenoir, American astronaut (b. 1939)
• 2011 – George Band, British mountaineer (b. 1929)
• 2011 – Aloysius Ambrozic, Slovenian-born Canadian Roman Catholic Archbishop of Toronto (b. 1930)
• 2013 – John J. Gilligan, 62nd Governor of Ohio (b. 1921)
• 2014 – Christian Bourquin, French politician (b. 1954)
• 2014 – Simon Featherstone, British diplomat (b. 1958)
• 2014 – Peter Bacon Hales, American historian and photographer (b. 1950)
• 2014 – Samuel Sadela, Nigerian pastor, claimant to world's oldest man title (b. either in or after 1900)
• 2014 – Lars Mortimer, Swedish comic artist (b. 1946)
• 2015 – Peter Kern, Austrian actor and filmmaker (b. 1949)
• 2015 – Amelia Boynton Robinson, American civil rights activist (b. 1911)
• 2015 – Alison Parker, American journalist (b. 1991)
• 2015 – Adam Ward, American cameraman (b. 1988)
• 2015 – Vester Flanagan, American gunman (b. 1973)
• 2017 – Tobe Hooper, American film director and novelist (b. 1943)
• 2017 – Grzegorz Miecugow, Polish television news presenter and columnist (b. 1955)
• 2017 – Josef Musil, Czech volleyball player (b. 1932)
• 2017 – Wilson das Neves, Brazilian percussionist and singer (b. 1936)
• 2017 – Horacio White, Argentine swimmer (b. 1927)
• 2018 – Rosa Bouglione, French circus performer (b. 1910)
• 2018 – Kerry Hill, Australian architect (b. 1943)
• 2018 – Tony Hiller, British songwriter (b. 1927)
• 2018 – Neil Simon, American playwright (b. 1927)

• Saint Alexander of Bergamo, martyr
• Heroes Day (Namibia)
• Women's Equality Day (United States)
• Repentance Day (Papua New Guinea)