THIS DAY IN HISTORY ― 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. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Wednesday, Friday or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Monday or Tuesday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Thursday or Saturday (56).

NATIONAL WEBMISTRESS DAY 

1071 – Battle of Manzikert: The Seljuq Turks defeat the Byzantine army at Manzikert.

1346 – Hundred Years' War: The military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armored knights is established at the Battle of Crécy.

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

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


1768 – Captain James Cook sets sail from England on board HMS Endeavour.

1789 – The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is approved by the National Constituent Assembly of France after the French Revolution.

1791 – John Fitch is granted a United States patent for the steamboat.

1813 – War of the Sixth Coalition: An impromptu battle takes place when French and Prussian-Russian forces accidentally run into each other near Liegnitz, Prussia (now Legnica, Poland).

1883 – The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa begins its final, paroxysmal, stage.

1914 – World War I: During the retreat from Mons, the British II Corps commanded by General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien fought a vigorous and successful defensive action at Le Cateau.

1920 – The 19th Amendment to United States Constitution takes effect, giving women the right to vote.

1942 – The Holocaust in Chortkiav, western Ukraine: At 2.30 am the German Schutzpolizei starts driving Jews out of their houses, divides them into groups of 120, packs them in freight cars and deports 2000 to Bełżec extermination camp. Five hundred of the sick and children are murdered on the spot.

1970 – The then-new feminist movement, led by Betty Friedan, leads a nationwide Women's Strike for Equality.

1977 – The Charter of the French Language is adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec.

1997 – Beni Ali massacre in Algeria where 60 to 100 people were killed.

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

2002 – Earth Summit 2002 begins in Johannesburg, South Africa.

2013 – Nationwide protests are held across the Philippines over the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam.

2015 – Two U.S. journalists are shot and killed by a disgruntled former coworker while conducting a live report in Moneta, Virginia.


TODAY'S BIRTHS

1797 – Saint Innocent of Alaska, Russian Orthodox missionary priest, then the first Orthodox bishop and archbishop in the Americas, and finally the Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia (d. 1879) 

1819 – Albert (Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel), Queen Victoria's Prince Consort of the United Kingdom (d. 1861) 

1874 – Zona Gale, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright (d. 1938)

1898 – Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim, American-Italian art collector and philanthropist (d. 1979) 

1910 – Mother Teresa, (born, Anjezë Gonxhe BojaxhiuMacedonian-Indian nun and missionary, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)

From Wikipedia and Google (images), ex as noted.