August 26 is the 238th day of the year (239th in leap years). There are 127 days remaining until the end of the year. (Illustration: The Battle of Crécy, from a 15th century illuminated manuscript of Jean Froissart’s Chronicles. The Battle of Crécy took place August 26, 1346.)

Today in History

• English longbowmen defeat French knights at the Battle of Crécy (1346)
• Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pietà (1498)
• The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen is approved by the French National Constituent Assembly (1789)
• Krakatoa erupts (1883)
• Women receive the right to vote in the US as the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution takes place (1920)

Birthdays

• Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, hot air balloon inventor (1740)
• Antoine Lavosier, chemist (1743)
• Albert, prince consort of the UK (1819)
• Mary Ann Nichols, victim of Jack the Ripper (1845)
• Lee de Forest, inventor known as the “father of radio” (1873)
• Guillaume Apollinaire, writer (1880)
• Christopher Isherwood, writer (1904)
• Albert Sabin, developed the polio vaccine (1906)
• Mother Teresa, missionary and Nobel Prize laureate (1910)
• Brant Parker, cartoonist (1920)
• Ben Bradlee, executive editor of the Washington Post (1921)
• Irving R. Levine, television journalist (1922)
• Geraldine Ferraro, US Vice Presidential candidate (1935)
• Vic Dana, singer and dancer (1942)
• Valerie Simpson, singer-songwriter (1946)
• Michael Jeter, actor (1952)
• Will Shortz, puzzle creator (1952)
• Branford Marsalis, saxophonist, composer, bandleader (1960)
• Melissa McCarthy, actress (1970)
• Seth MacFarlane, animator and comedian (1973)
• Chris Pine, actor (1980)
• Macauley Culkin, actor (1980)

Deaths

• Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, microscopist (1723)
• William James, psychologist and philosopher (1910)
• Lon Chaney, actor (1930)
• Franz Werfel, playwright (1945)
• Vaughan Williams, composer (1958)
• Charles Lindbergh, pilot (1974)
• H.A. Rey, creator of Curious George (1977)
• Charles Boyer, actor (1978)
• Tex Avery, animator (1980)
• Ted Knight, actor (1986)
• Irving Stone, author (1989)
• John Brunner, science fiction writer (1995)
• Laura Branigan, singer-songwriter (2004)
• Dominick Dunne, journalist (2009)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Heroes’ Day (Namibia)
• National Dog Day (US)
• Repentance Day (Papua New Guinea)
• Women’s Equality Day (United States)

Informal and made-up holidays include National Toilet Paper Day and National Cherry Popsicle Day.

(*O.S., or Old Style, when used, refers to the fact that Russia did not convert from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar until 1918.)