What are the important events that happened on August 26? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.

August 26: Facts & Myths About This Day

August 26 is the 238^th day of the year 2025 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 127 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Tuesday.

Under the Julian calendar, this day is August 13, 2025 – a Tuesday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?

When this day started, 487,824 hours has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.

Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘dihectatriacontaoctagon’ day.

Virgo is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Peridot is the modern birthstone for this month. Diamond is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.

According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 175 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.

The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,631 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.

August 26 Historical Events

• 1346 –
  Hundred Years’ War: the military supremacy of the English longbow over the French combination of crossbow and armoured knights is established at the Battle of Crécy.
• 1444 –
  Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs: A vastly outnumbered force of Swiss Confederates is defeated by the Dauphin Louis (future Louis XI of France) and his army of ‘Armagnacs’near Basel.
• 1778 –
  The first recorded ascent of Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia.
• 1789 –
  The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is approved by the National Constituent Assembly of France.
• 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.
• 1940 –
  Chad becomes the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France’s first black colonial governor.
• 1978 –
  Papal conclave, 1978 (August): Pope John Paul I is elected to the Papacy.
• 1980 –
  John Birges plants a bomb at Harvey’s Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada, US.
• 1999 –
  Russia begins the Second Chechen War in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade.

Who were born on August 26?

• 1775 –
  William Joseph Behr, German writer (d. 1851)
• 1819 –
  Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom (d. 1861)
• 1922 –
  Irving R. Levine, American journalist (d. 2009)
• 1930 –
  Joe Solomon, West Indian cricketer
• 1956 –
  Brett Cullen, American actor
• 1957 –
  Dr. Alban, Nigerian-born Swedish singer
• 1966 –
  Jacques Brinkman, Dutch field hockey player
• 1966 –
  Shirley Manson, Scottish singer
• 1968 –
  Byron Lawson, Canadian actor
• 1981 –
  Petey Williams, Canadian professional wrestler

Who died on August 26?

• 1666 –
  Frans Hals, Dutch painter (b. c. 1580)
• 1810 –
  Santiago de Liniers, viceroy of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (b. 1753)
• 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)
• 1986 –
  Ted Knight, American actor (b. 1923)
• 1987 –
  Georg Wittig, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
• 1992 –
  Arthur Leigh Allen, American suspected murderer (b. 1933)
• 2006 –
  Rainer Barzel, German politician (b. 1924)