August 26

1346 The Battle of Crécy (see below) took place on August 26, 1346 near Crécy in northern France during the Hundred Years War when the English routed the French. The French were over-reliant on crossbows that could fire only one or two bolts a minute; the English longbows were five times as fast. Because of the way the English used longbows to defeat the unwieldy crossbows of the French knights some historians call this battle the beginning of the end of chivalry.

1676 Robert Walpole was born in Houghton, Norfolk on August 26, 1676. One of 19 children, he was the third son and fifth child of Robert Walpole, who was the most influential Whig leader in Norfolk.  He entered office in 1721 as the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom under King George I. Walpole pursued a policy of peace abroad and efficient financial management at home. Under Walpole's leadership the British economy boomed as never before.

1723 Dutch microscopist and biologist Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek died on August 26, 1723. Using his handcrafted microscopes, Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe and describe microorganisms, which he originally referred to as animalcules. Van Leeuwenhoek was also the first to document microscopic observations of muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa, and blood flow in capillaries.

A portrait of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek by Jan Verkolje

1748 The first Lutheran church body in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 26, 1748. The group was known as the "Ministerium of North America" until 1792, when mindful of other Lutheran church bodies being founded in North America, the group renamed itself "The Ministerium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States".

1768 The Royal Survey engaged Lieutenant James Cook to travel to the South Pacific to witness the transit of Venus as it passed between the earth and the sun. Cook set sail from England on board HMS Endeavour on August 26, 1768 and during the voyage claimed the East Coast of Australia for Britain.  Cook returned from his three year voyage in 1771 to find two of his children had died in his absence. However, the successful results set the pattern for subsequent voyages such as Darwin’s journey in the Beagle.

HMS Endeavour, leaving Whitby Harbour in 1768. By Thomas Luny, dated 1790

1778 The first recorded ascent of Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia, was made in 1778 by Luka Korošec, Matija Kos, Štefan Rožič and Lovrenc Willomitzer, on the initiative of industrialist and polymath Baron Sigismund Zois. They climbed the mountain from the south, starting from the village of Bohinjska Bistrica. The ascent was a difficult one, and they had to use ropes and ladders to get over some of the obstacles. However, they eventually reached the summit on August 26, 1778.

1809 At the Battle of Talavera fought in late July 1809, an Anglo-Spanish army under Sir Arthur Wellesley combined with a Spanish army under General Cuesta fought the French some 120 kilometres (75 mi) southwest of Madrid. The French advanced in three columns and were repulsed several times by Wellesley. Following his victory at Talavera, Wellesley was elevated to the Peerage of the United Kingdom on August 26, 1809 as Viscount Wellington of Talavera and of Wellington.

The Battle of Talavera de la Reina, by William Heath

1819 Prince Albert was born at Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg, Germany on August 26, 1819, the second son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Albert's future wife, Queen Victoria, was born earlier in the same year with the assistance of the same midwife. After their first meeting, Queen Victoria said Prince Albert was "extremely handsome." She wrote in her diary: "His hair is about the same color as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth."

1883 One of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history began on August 26, 1883 on Krakatoa, a small, volcanic island west of Sumatra in Indonesia. Heard 3,000 miles away, the volcano's explosions threw five cubic miles of earth 50 miles into the air, created 120-foot tsunamis and killed 36,000 people.

An 1888 lithograph of the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa

1891 Charles Dodgson (aka Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll) showed some interest in the Jack the Ripper case; however, this is hardly unusual, given the profound publicity surrounding the crimes. A passage in his diary dated August 26, 1891, reports that he spoke that day with an acquaintance of his about his "very ingenious theory about 'Jack the Ripper'". No other information about this theory has been found.

1910 Mother Teresa was born Agnes Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje (now the capital of the Republic of Macedonia), Ottoman Empire. She was the youngest child of Nikollë Bojaxhiu  a merchant who was in sympathy with Albanian patriots and Dranafile Bojaxhiu (Bernai). Agnes left home in 1928 at age 18 to join the Sisters of Loreto at Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, Ireland, to learn English with the view of becoming a missionary; She never saw her mother or her sister again.

1920 In the USA the Nineteenth Amendment, which guarantees suffrage to women, became part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920. It states, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." The first woman to cast a ballot in Chicago after women's suffrage was passed did so using her feet—her father had burnt her arms off. 

1928 On August 26, 1928, a Mrs Donoghue was drinking ginger beer in the Wellmeadow café in Paisley, Scotland, when she found a dead snail in the bottle. Mrs Donaghue fell ill, and sued the ginger beer manufacturer, Mr Stevenson. The ensuing civil action case Donoghue v Stevenson resulted in a landmark court decision by the House of Lords, which held that the manufacturer owed a duty of care to Mrs Donaghue, which was breached. This laid the foundation of the modern law of negligence, establishing general principles of the duty of care.

The Paisley Snail By PiotrHalas -

1939 The first televised major-league baseball game was shown by WXBS on August 26, 1939. They broadcast Brooklyn's 6-1 victory over Cincinatti at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Announcer Red Barber interviewed Dodger manager Leo Durocher and Reds manager Willliam McKechnie between games.

1958 English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams became increasingly deaf in his old age because of the noise of gunfire he'd been exposed to when he was serving as a stretcher bearer in World War I. He went on composing through his seventies and eighties, producing his last symphony months before his death at the age of 85. Vaughan Williams died suddenly in the early hours of August 26, 1958 at Hanover Terrace, London. Two days later, after a private funeral at Golders Green, he was cremated.

1970 The Women’s Strike for Equality was a strike which took place in the United States on August 26, 1970. Spearheaded by feminist activist Betty Friedan, it celebrated the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment, which effectively gave American women the right to vote. Around 50,000 women gathered for the protest in New York City and even more throughout the country. At the time, it was the largest gathering on behalf of women in the United States.

1974 Wracked with incurable cancer, Charles Lindbergh flew from a New York hospital to Hana, on the Hawaiian island of Maui, to spend his last days in solitude with his family, where he died on August 26, 1974. Having planned all the details of his simple funeral, Lindbergh was buried on the grounds of the Palapala Ho'omau Church where his epitaph, which quotes Psalm 139:9, reads: “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.”

1976 The naming of the Ebola Virus occurred when an outbreak began in Yambuku, a small rural village near the Ebola River in Mongala District in northern Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Village school headmaster Mabalo Lokela began displaying symptoms on August 26, 1976 after visiting the Ebola River in Northern Zaire, before dying a fortnight later. In total, 318 cases were of Ebola were identified in Zaire, and 280 resulted in death.

1994 62-year-old former movie stuntman Arthur Cornhill was given the world’s first battery operated heart in a pioneering operation at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire, England on August 26, 1994. The heart was made from titanium and plastic and the surgery was performed by an 11-man team led by top heart surgeons Sir Terence English and John Wallwork.

1994 The Sunday Trading Act was introduced in 1994 in England and Wales, coming into force on August 26 of that year. It allowed shops to open on Sundays, but restricted opening times of larger stores to a maximum of six hours, between 10am and 6pm only. By 1996 more than 31% of all employees in England had to work on a Sunday.

2011 The Boeing 787 Dreamliner received certification from the EASA and the FAA in August 26, 2011. Boeing's most fuel-efficient airliner, the 787 is also a pioneering airliner with the use of composite materials as the primary material in the construction of its airframe.  The Dreamliner made its maiden commercial flight from Tokyo Narita to Hong Kong on All Nippon Airways two months later.

2016 On August 26, 2016 in Hardangervidda, Kingdom of Norway, a herd of wild reindeer was struck by lightning. More than three hundred reindeer died in what wildlife officials say was "a highly unusual massacre by nature."

2016 The Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, which was built for rail and motor vehicle transit over the Bosphorus, north of two existing bridges in Istanbul, Turkey, opened on August 26, 2016. At 322 metres (1056 feet), the bridge is one of the tallest suspension bridges in the world. It is also one of the world’s broadest suspension bridges at 58.4 meters (192 feet) wide.