August 26th is

National Women’s Equality Day *

National Cherry Popsicle Day

National Dog Day *

International Tongue Twister Day

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MORE! Michelangelo, Zona Gale and Charles de Gaulle, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Abkhazia – Official Recognition Day

Bhutan – Thimphu: Mountain Echoes
Literary Festival

Mexico – Guadalajara: Encuentro
Internacional del Mariachi (thru 9-3)

Namibia – Heroes Day

Papua New Guinea –
National Day of Repentance

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On This Day in HISTORY

55 BC – Britain invaded by Roman forces under Julius Caesar

1346 – English archers with longbows prove superior to the armor of the French cavalry at the battle of Crécy in Picardy, France. The English forces are greatly outnumbered by the French, but English tactical flexibility, better use of terrain and outstanding weaponry win a decisive victory. The longbow is the dominant weapon of Western European battlefields until replaced by the arquebus in the 16^th century

1498 – Michelangelo commissioned to sculpt the ‘Pieta’

1676 –Robert Walpole born, British Prime Minister (1721-1742)

1695 – Marie-Anne-Catherine Quinault born, French singer and composer, composed motets for the Royal Chapel at Versailles, awarded the Order of Saint Michael

1728 – Johann Heinrich Lambert born, Swiss polymath, contributed to trigonometry, map projections, physics, optics and astronomy

1740 – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier born, French inventor; hot-air balloon co-inventor

1743 – Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier born, French pioneer in chemistry; work on oxygen, hydrogen, the nature of sulphur and the process of combustion, reformed chemical nomenclature; posited when matter changes form or shape, its mass stays the same

1768 – Captain James Cook’s first expedition sails from England

1789 – The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is approved by the National Constituent Assembly of France – the full rights applied only to property-owning French men, just 4.3 million”active” citizens out of a total population of 29 million

1827 – Annie Turner Wittenmyer born, American social reformer, author, magazine editor and relief worker; started a tuition-free school for underprivileged children; field agent during the Civil War for the Ladies’ Soldiers’ Aid Society and later, an advocate for war orphans; first President of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union

1842 – U.S. Congress establishes the first fiscal year is to begin on July 1st

1843 – Georg August Lumbye born, Danish composer and orchestra leader

1847 – Liberia proclaimed as an independent republic

1873 – Lee De Forest born, American inventor of the Audion vacuum tube

1873 – The St. Louis MO School Board authorizes the first U.S. public kindergarten

1874 – Zona Gale, American author and playwright; 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the first woman to win for drama, for her adaptation of her novel, Miss Lulu Bett; National Woman’s Party member who lobbied extensively for the 1921 Wisconsin Equal Rights Law

1878 – Lina Solomonovna Stern born, Soviet scientist and humanist, pioneering work on the blood-brain barrier; her medical discoveries credited with saving thousands of lives during WWII; Accused of belonging to a Zionist organization, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in 1949, she is arrested, tried and sentenced to prison, then exile, but is freed and reinstated in 1953

1885 – Jules Romains born, French author and poet, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 16 times; founder of the Unanimism literary movement, based on crowd behavior and collective consciousness

1886 – Jerome C. Hunsaker born, American aeronautical engineer; first course in aeronautical engineering at MIT; designed first transatlantic aircraft

1901 – Eleanor Dark born, Australian novelist; The Timeless Land, Prelude to Christopher and Return to Coolami

1903 – Caroline Pafford Miller born, American author, won 1934 Pulitzer Prize and the Prix Femina for her first novel Lamb in His Bosom 

1904 – Christopher Isherwood born in England, American novelist and playwright; the musical Cabaret is based on his play I Am a Camera

1906 – Albert Sabin born in Poland, American doctor who developed the polio vaccine

1907 – Harry Houdini escapes from chains underwater at Aquatic Park in 57 seconds

1915 – Humphrey Searle born, English composer and BBC producer

1920 – 19th Amendment of U.S. Constitution officially certified as ratified, it grants U.S. women the right to vote

1935 – Geraldine Ferraro born, American attorney, author and politician, member of U.S. House of Representatives (D-NY 1979-1985), first woman to run as vice president for a major US political party (1984); U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (1993-1996)

1939 – The NBC Symphony Orchestra plays on the radio for the first time

1944 – WWII: Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French, enters Paris

1947 – Don Bankhead becomes the first black pitcher in major league baseball

1951 – An American in Paris, with George Gershwin music, starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, premieres in London – it wins the 1952 Academy Award for Best Picture

1957 – Ford Motor Company rolls the first Edsel off the assembly line

1967 – U.S. release of “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix

1968 – The Beatles release “Hey Jude” (with “Revolution” on the b-side) as a single on their new Apple Records label

1970 – In NY City, Betty Friedan opens a nationwide protest called the Women’s Strike for Equality on the fiftieth anniversary of women’s suffrage, sponsored by the National Organization for Women. There were 20,000 activists on Fifth Avenue on New York City, 5,000 on Boston Common, 2,000 in San Francisco’s Union Square, and 1,000 in Washington DC.  Smaller groups participated in Syracuse and Manhasset in NY State, and in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Saint Louis.

1971 – First Women’s Equality Day,* initiated by Representative Bella Abzug (D-NY), is established by Presidential Proclamation, now reaffirmed annually

1981 – NASA’s Voyager 2 takes photos of Saturn’s moon Titan

1989 – Mayumi Moriyama is appointed chief cabinet secretary by Toshiki Kaifu, the first woman to hold this position. In 1992, she becomes the first woman Minister of Education in Japan

2002 – U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development opens in Johannesburg, South Africa, resulting in Johannesburg Declaration to address depletion of the world’s fisheries. U. S. President George W. Bush boycotted the summit, sending no delegation

South African President Thabo Mbeki welcomes delegates to the summit

2003 – Warren Zevon, fighting mesothelioma, releases his last album, The Wind. He dies only two weeks after its release

2004 – National Dog Day * is founded by animal advocate Colleen Paige to celebrate all dogs and to encourage adoption – rescue dogs make great companions and each one deserves a “forever home”

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