August 26

1071 Turks defeat the Byzantine army under Emperor Romanus IV at Manzikert, Eastern Turkey.

1429 Joan of Arc makes a triumphant entry into Paris.

1789 The Constituent Assembly in Versailles, France, approves the final version of the Declaration of Human Rights.

1862 Confederate General Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson seizes Manassas Junction, Virginia, and moves to encircle Union forces under General John Pope.

1883 The Indonesian island of Krakatoa erupts in the largest explosion recorded in history, heard 2,200 miles away in Madagascar. The resulting destruction sends volcanic ash up 50 miles into the atmosphere and kills almost 36,000 people–both on the island itself and from the resulting 131-foot tidal waves that obliterate 163 villages on the shores of nearby Java and Sumatra.

1920 The 19th Amendment to the Constitution is officially ratified, giving women the right to vote.

1943 The United States recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation.

1957 Ford Motor Company reveals the Edsel, its latest luxury car.

1966 South African Defense Force troops attack a People’s Liberation Army of Nambia at Omugulugwombashe, the first battle of the 22-year Namibian War of Independence.

1970 A nationwide Women’s Strike for Equality, led by Betty Friedan on the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment calls attention to unequal pay and other gender inequalities in America.

1977 The National Assembly of Quebec adopts Bill 101, Charter of the French Language, making French the official language of the Canadian province.

1978 Albino Luciani elected to the Papacy and chooses the name Pope John Paul I ; his 33-day reign is among the shortest in Papal history.

1978 Sigmund Jähn becomes first German to fly in space, on board Soviet Soyuz 31.

1999 Russia begins the Second Chechen War in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade.

Born on August 26

1743 Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry who defined the role of oxygen and named it.

1874 Lee De Forest, physicist, inventor, considered the father of radio.

1875 John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir, writer and governor general of Canada, famous for his book The Thirty-Nine Steps.

1898 Peggy Guggenheim, art patron and collector.

1906 Christopher Isherwood, English novelist and playwright, author of Goodbye to Berlin, the inspiration for the play I am a Camera and the musical and film Cabaret.

1906 Albert Sabin, medical researcher, developed the polio vaccine.

1910 Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu), missionary, Nobel Prize laureate for her work in the slums of Calcutta.

1922 Irving Levine, journalist; first American television correspondent to be accredited in the Soviet Union.

1940 Donald Leroy "Don" LaFontaine, voice-over actor; recorded more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers.

1944 Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard Alexander Walter George).

1945 Tom Ridge, first US Secretary of Homeland Security.

1952 Will Shortz, American puzzle creator and editor.

1957 Nikky Finey (Lynn Carol Finney), poet; won National Book Award (Head Off & Split).

1960 Branford Marsalis, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.

1970 Melissa Ann McCarthy, comedian, writer, producer, Emmy-winning actress (Mike & Molly TV series).

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