History of 26 August
1920 – The 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect. The amendment prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in the voting booth.
1934 – Adolf Hitler demanded that France turn over their Saar region to Germany.
1937 – All Chinese shipping was blockaded by Japan.
1939 – The first televised major league baseball games were shown. The event was a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1939 – The radio program, “Arch Oboler’s Plays”, presented the NBC Symphony for the first time.
1945 – The Japanese were given surrender instructions on the U.S. battleship Missouri at the end of World War II.
1947 – Don Bankhead became the first black pitcher in major league baseball.
1957 – It was announced that an intercontinental ballistic missile was successfully tested by the Soviet Union.
1957 – The first Edsel made by the Ford Motor Company rolled off the assembly line.
1961 – The International Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto opened.
1973 – A U.S. Presidential Proclamation was declared that made August 26th Women’s Equality Day.
1978 – Sigmund Jahn blasted off aboard the Russian Soyuz 31 and became the first German in space.
1981 – The U.S. claimed that North Korea fired an antiaircraft missile at a U.S. Surveillance plane while it was over South Korea.
1987 – The Fuller Brush Company announced plans to open two retail stores in Dallas, TX. The company that had sold its products door to door for 81 years.
1990 – The 55 Americans at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait left Baghdad by car and headed for the Turkish border.
1991 – Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev promised that national elections would be held.
1992 – A “no-fly zone” was imposed on the southern 1/3 of Iraq. The move by the U.S., France, and Britain was aimed at protecting Iraqi Shiite Muslims.
1998 – The U.S. government announced that they were investigating Microsoft in an attempt to discover if they “bullied” Intel into delaying new technology.
1999 – Russia begins the Second Chechen War in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade.
2009 – Kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard is discovered alive in California after being missing for over 18 years.
2011 – The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Boeing’s all-new composite airliner, receives certification from the EASA and the FAA.
2015 – Two U.S. journalists are shot and killed by a disgruntled former coworker while conducting a live report in Moneta, Virginia.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Tino Best, Barbadian cricketer
- 1981 – Sebastian Bönig, German footballer
- 1981 – Andreas Glyniadakis, Greek basketball player
- 1981 – Vangelis Moras, Greek footballer
- 1981 – Petey Williams, Canadian wrestler
- 1982 – Angelo Iorio, Italian footballer
- 1982 – John Mulaney, American comedian, actor, writer, and producer
- 1982 – Jayson Nix, American baseball player
- 1982 – Noah Welch, American ice hockey player
- 1983 – Mattia Cassani, Italian footballer
- 1983 – Félix Porteiro, Spanish race car driver
- 1985 – Oleksiy Kasyanov, Ukrainian decathlete
- 1985 – Brandon McDonald, American football player
- 1985 – David Price, American baseball player
- 1986 – Vladislav Gussev, Estonian footballer
- 1986 – Colin Kazim-Richards, Turkish footballer
- 1986 – Cassie Ventura, American singer, dancer, actress, and model
- 1987 – Juan Joseph, American football player, and coach (d. 2014)
- 1988 – Elvis Andrus, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1988 – Evan Ross, American actor
- 1988 – Danielle Savre, American actress
- 1988 – Wayne Simmonds, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1988 – Lars Stindl, German football player
- 1989 – James Harden, American basketball player
- 1990 – Mateo Musacchio, the Argentinian footballer
- 1991 – Jessica Diggins, American cross-country skier
- 1991 – Dylan O’Brien, American actor
- 1993 – Keke Palmer, American singer-songwriter, presenter and television personality