published on August 30, 2024 in blog

Historical Events on August 26

August 26 Calendar

Battle of Crécy

1346 Battle of Crécy: Edward III's English longbows defeat Philip VI's army south of Calais in northern France, cannons are used for the first time in battle

1466 A conspiracy against Piero di Cosimo de Medici in Florence, led by Luca Pitti, is discovered

Pietà Commissioned

1498 Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pietà sculpture by French Cardinal Jean de Bilhères

1545 Pope Paul III names his son Pierluigi Farnese as Duke of Parma
1629 Cambridge Agreement, Massachusetts Bay Company stockholders agree to emigrate
1641 West India Company conquers Sao Paulo de Loanda, Angola
1648 People's uprising against Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin
1652 Battle of Plymouth: General-at-Sea George Ayscue of the Commonwealth of England attacked a convoy of the Dutch Republic commanded by Vice-Commodore Michiel de Ruyter. Dutch victory

Halley Observes his Comet

1682 English astronomer Edmond Halley first observes the comet named after him

A Tale of Mother Goose

1691 Charles Perrault's poem "The Marquise of Salusses or the Patience of Griselidis" read aloud at the French Academy, later attached to his "Tales of Mother Goose" (1697)

1748 First Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1778 First recorded ascent of Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia by Balthasar Hacquet
1789 The National Constituent Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen at the beginning of the French Revolution
1791 John Fitch granted US patent for his working steamboat
1843 American inventor Charles Thurber patents a typewriter

Mendelssohn's Elijah

1846 Felix Mendelssohn's oratorio "Elijah" premieres at the Birmingham Festival in England

1846 W. A. Bartlett appointed 1st US mayor of Yerba Buena (San Francisco)
1863 Battle of Rocky Gap, West Virginia (White Sulphur Springs): Colonel George S. Patton's Confederate forces defeat Union brigade advance

First Free US Kindergarten

1873 First free kindergarten in the United States is started by Susan Blow in Carondelet, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri

1874 16 blacks kidnapped from Gibson County Jail and lynched in Trenton, Tennessee
1894 Netherlands Social-Democratic Worker's party (SDAP) forms
1895 Electric generator at Niagara Falls produces first power
1896 Armenian Revolutionary Federation assaults the Ottoman Bank in Constantinople to draw attention to the mass-pogroms and massacres of Armenians instigated by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul-Hamid II
1903 Phillies walk 17 Dodgers in a game

Houdini's Underwater Escape

1907 Harry Houdini escapes from chains underwater in 57 seconds at Aquatic Park in San Francisco, California

1909 Australian cricket all-rounder Frank Tarrant scores 145 and takes 13-67 in a county game for Middlesex as they beat Gloucester by an innings and 31 runs in a single day

Johnson's Winning Streak Ends

1912 MLB pitcher Walter Johnson's 16-game winning streak ends

1914 -9/10] Russian army attacks Austrian army in Galicia

Battle of Tannenberg

1914 Battle of Tannenberg begins (WWI): 8th German army defeats Russian Second army

1915 German troops overrun Brest-Litovsk, Russia
1916 Philadelphia Athletic's Bullet Joe Bush no-hits Cleveland, 5-0
1918 Winchell Smith & Frank Bacon's comedic play "Lightnin'" premieres in NYC
1920 Surrey cricket all-rounder Percy Fender scores 100 in 35 minutes [113no] in a county match vs Northamptonshire at the County Ground, Northampton
1922 Japanese cruiser Niitaka driven onto rocks in storm at Kamchatka, 284 killed

1933 Jan van Houten bicycles world record time (44,588 km)
1935 CCC camp opens in Brecksville Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks

Nationalists Take Santander

1937 General Franco's Nationalist troops conquer Santander during the Spanish Civil War

1937 Pumping to build Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay is finished
1938 British leaders & Arabians fight in Palestine
1938 Montreal Maroons dropped from NHL
1939 1st major league baseball telecast on W2XBS- Cincinnati Reds defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, Brooklyn
1939 Belgium mobilizes
1939 Croatia gets autonomous status
1940 Chad is the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France's first black colonial governor
1940 RKC soccer team forms in Waalwijk
1942 7,000 Jews are rounded up in Vichy-France
1942 Japanese troops land on Milne Bay, New Guinea
1942 Soviet counter offensive begins in Moscow
1942 Transport #24 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
1944 Bulgaria announces withdrawal & German troops are to be disarmed

1944 French General Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division and Charles de Gaulle parade down the Champs Elysees in Paris after the liberation of the city from Nazi occupation

1944 US 12nd Army Corps crosses river Seine East of Paris
1945 Japanese diplomats board USS Missouri to receive instructions on Japan's surrender at the end of WWII
1947 Dodgers' Dan Bankhead, MLB's 1st African-American pitcher, homers in his 1st MLB at bat in 16-3 loss to Pittsburgh, at Ebbetts Field, Brooklyn, NYC
1951 Dutch professor Jacob Jongbloed demonstrates an artificial heart in Paris

An American In Paris

1951 Film "An American in Paris" with music by George Gershwin, directed by Vincente Minnelli, and starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron premieres in London (Academy Award for Best Picture, 1952)

1952 Fluoridation of San Francisco water begins
1955 "Pather Panchali", Indian film directed by Satyajit Ray, starring Subir Banerjee, Kanu Banerjee and Karuna Banerjee, is released
1956 KREY TV channel 10 in Montrose, CO (CBS/NBC) begins broadcasting

1957 USSR announces successful test of intercontinental ballistic missile

1959 British Motor Corporation introduces the Morris Mini-Minor, designed by Alec Issigonis. It is only 10 feet long yet seats four passengers.

1961 Official International Hockey Hall of Fame opens in Toronto
1962 Minnesota Twins Jack Kralick no-hits KC A's, 1-0
1963 West Indies beat England 2-1 in series, 1st holders of Wisden Cricket Trophy
1964 Italian Communist Party selects Luigi Longo as chairman

LJB Nominated

1964 LBJ nominated at Democratic convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey

1966 Baltimore Orioles Roznovsky & B.Powell are 4th to hit consecutive pinch HRs
1966 KLOC (now KCSO) channel 42 in Charlotte, North Carolina (PBS) begins broadcasting
1967 Dean Chance pitches a 2-1 no-hitter, & Twins sweep Cleveland
1967 Dutch 2nd Chamber demands US stop bombing North Vietnam

1968 "Hey Jude" single released by the Beatles in US (Billboard Song of the Year 1968, Billboard 10th biggest song of all time 2013)
1970 Minister of Home Affairs Robert Porter resigns from the Stormont government (North Ireland parliament)

Bobby Orr

1971 Bobby Orr signs a five-year contract with the Boston Bruins worth one million dollars, the first million-dollar contract in NHL history

1971 MLB Baltimore Orioles' Don Buford struck out 5 times in a game
1971 NY Giant football team announces they're leaving Bronx for New Jersey in 1975

Team Manger

1972 Leo Durocher replaces Harry Walker as manager of Houston Astros

1972 NY Cosmos beat St Louis Stars, 2-1 to win NASL championship
1972 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
1972 XX Summer Olympic Games open in Munich, West Germany
1973 10-year-old Mary Boitano is 1st woman to win 6.8-mile Dipsea Race in Marin County, CA, beating a field of 1,500 runners
1973 David Eisenhower writes his last sports column
1973 University of Texas (Arlington) is first accredited school to offer belly dancing
1974 Soyuz 15 carries 2 cosmonauts to space station Salyut 3
1977 Frank Martinus Arion forms Surinamese Writers group 77
1977 Ian Dury releases the single "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll"
1978 Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice becomes Pope John Paul I
1978 Soyuz 31 carries two cosmonauts, including one East German, to space station Salyut 6
1980 John Birges plants a bomb at Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada
1980 Pete Comita replaces Tom Peterson as bassist of American rock band Cheap Trick
1981 Space Shuttle vehicle moves to Launch Complex 39A for STS-2 mission

1981 Voyager 2 takes photos of Saturn's moon Titan

1982 NASA launches Telesat-F satellite
1983 Floods destroy most of the old town of Bilbao, Spain.
1984 Tatyana Kazankina of USSR sets 3k woman record (8:22.62) in Leningrad
1984 Zdena Silvaha (Cz) throws discus 74.55 m (women's world record)

Baseball History

1985 Baltimore Oriole Eddie Murray knocks in 9 RBIs in a game vs California Angels

1985 French government denies knowledge of bombing of the Greenpeace flagship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland New Zealand

1986 Robert Chambers, the "Preppie Killer" murders Jennifer Levin in New York City's Central Park, afterwards claimed "rough sex" as motive

Mota Wins Marathon

1986 Rosa Mota of Portugal wins the women's Stuttgart marathon (2:28:38)

Baseball Record

1987 Paul Molitor goes 0-for-4 ends hitting streak at 39 consecutive games

1988 Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri arrives at Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Roissy-en-France, France, stays for almost 8 years
1989 Trumbull, Conn, is 1st US team since 1983 to win Little League WS
1990 2 murdered college students found in Gainesville, Florida

1991 Royal Brett Saberegen no-hits White Sox 7-0
1992 Hurricane Andrew makes landfall in Louisiana as Category 3 storm after causing deaths and severe damage in Florida

Interim President Appointed

1993 Ernest Shonekan is appointed interim president of Nigeria by General Ibrahim Babangida

Cricket History

1995 Andrew Symonds hits 20 sixes in match for Gloucestershire v Glamorgan

Lara Scores 179

1995 Brian Lara completes his 7th Test Cricket century, scoring 179 at The Oval in London

Welfare Reform

1996 US President Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law, representing a major shift in welfare policy

1997 Beni-Ali massacre in Algeria; 60-100 people killed
1999 Michael Johnson breaks the 400 metres world record with a time of 43.18 seconds.
2000 Australia clinches first Tri Nations Rugby Series with a 19-18 win over South Africa in Durban; Wallabies centre Stirling Mortlock lands 4 penalties and a conversion
2002 Earth Summit 2002 begins in Johannesburg, South Africa
2003 The Columbia Accident Investigation Board releases its final reports on Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

American Dominate 200m

2004 An American 1-2-3 in the 200m medals at the Athens Olympics; Shawn Crawford gold in 19.79 ahead of Bernard Williams & Justin Gatlin

2004 Félix Sánchez wins the men's 400m hurdles 47.63 in Athens; the Dominican Republic's first ever Olympic gold medal
2004 Germany wins its first ever Olympic women's field hockey gold medal with a 2-1 win against the Netherlands in Athens
2004 Hamish Carter of New Zealand wins the men's gold medal ahead of teammate Bevan Docherty, whilst Kate Allen of Austria takes out the women's Triathlon at the Athens Olympics

US Women Win Football Gold

2004 Lindsay Tarpley and Abby Wambach score as the US beats Brazil 2-1, maintaining an undefeated record to win the women's football gold medal at the Athens Olympics

The Ray Charles Station

2005 US Postal Service christens a Los Angeles facility as "The Ray Charles Station"

Gilmour at Gdańsk Shipyard

2006 David Gilmour performs with his band and the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra before a crowd of 50,000 at Gdańsk Shipyard, Poland

NZ Win Tri Nations

2006 New Zealand retain Tri Nations Rugby Series with 45-26 win over South Africa in Pretoria; All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter lands 4 penalties and 4 conversions

Rolling Stones Tour Ends

2007 The Rolling Stones close their two-year, 147 concert "A Bigger Bang" tour at O2 Arena in London, England; box office gross of tour exceeds $558M, a record at the time

2008 Russia unilaterally recognizes the independence of the former Georgian breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, prompting the Georgian government to sever diplomatic relations with Russia
2011 The 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's all-new composite airliner, receives certification from the EASA and the FAA
2012 17 villagers in Afghanistan's Kajaki district are beheaded by an unknown organization
2012 36 people are killed in a bus crash in Yan'an, China
2012 Legionella outbreak in Quebec City, Canada, kills 8 and infects 104
2013 All 25,000 applicants to the University of Liberia fail their university entrance examination

Burger King Buys Tim Hortons

2014 Burger King agrees to purchase Canadian donut chain Tim Hortons for $11.4 billion

2014 Democratic Republic of Congo's health ministry informs the WHO of an outbreak of Ebola; later confirmed as a different strain to that affecting west Africa
2014 Israel and Hamas accept another ceasefire
2015 WDBJ TV reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward are fatally shot live on TV by an ex-colleague in Moneta, Virginia
2017 Half a million people take part in a peace march in Barcelona, following terrorist attacks
2017 Hurricane Harvey downgraded to a tropical storm, National Hurricane Center warns of “multiday rainfall disaster”

Man City Starts Record

2017 Manchester City scores a 2-1 win at Bournemouth to start EPL record 18 game winning streak; Raheem Sterling scores for City but is sent off with 2 yellow cards in injury time

2017 Violent clashes after conviction of spiritual leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh kill 31 in Panchkula, 120 admitted to hospital
2017 Women's Rugby World Cup: New Zealand Black Ferns defeat England 41-32 in the final in Belfast

Claims Made Against Pope

2018 Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, former US Vatican Ambassador, claims Pope Francis knew of and ignored sex abuse allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick

2018 Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop resigns after losing Liberal Party leadership contest

KSI vs Logan Paul

2018 Boxing match between YouTubers KSI and Logan Paul ends in a draw in Manchester, England

2018 Danny Boyle pulls out of directing the next James Bond film due to 'creative differences'

2018 Gamer at a Madden NFL 19 gaming tournament in Jacksonville, Florida, loses then returns to shoot two dead and wound nine
2018 Moroccan pop singer Saad Lamjarred arrested in Saint-Tropez, France on a rape allegation
2018 Pope Francis asks for forgiveness in speech on child abuse in Dublin, during first official visit to Ireland since 1979

Proposal to Move Capital

2019 Indonesian President Joko Widodo proposes moving the country's sinking and over-crowded capital from Jakarta to the island of Borneo (Kalimantan)

2019 Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay state of Oklahoma $572 million in 1st trial against opioid manufacturer
2019 Leo DiCaprio's environmental organization Earth Alliance donates $5m to fighting fires in the Amazon
2019 Meeting of the G7 agrees on $20 million aid package to fight fires in the Amazon in Biarritz
2020 At least 100 people killed in flash floods in the city of Charikar, Afghanistan, with 500 houses destroyed
2020 Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld (29) is the youngest to win the International Booker prize for their debut novel "The Discomfort of Evening"

Milwaukee Bucks Forfeit

2020 Milwaukee Bucks forfeit their NBA playoff game after the shooting of Jacob Blake, leading to the NBA postponing more games

2021 Two bomb blasts from suicide bombers at Kabul Airport, Afghanistan, kill at least 60 civilians and 13 US soldiers, amid international efforts to evacuate citizens out of the country
2023 Longest alligator ever recorded in Mississippi at 14ft, 3in (4.3m), captured in Sunflower River, weighing 802.5 pounds (364 kilograms) [1]
2023 Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa "The Crocodile" elected to a second term amid claims of vote-rigging [1]

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