TODAY’S HISTORY LESSON: AUGUST 26
55BC Roman forces under Julius C‘sar invade Britain
1346 Battle of Crécy, south of Calais in northern France; Edward III’s English longbows defeat Philip VI’s army, cannons used for first time in battle
1429 Joan of Arc makes a triumphant entry into Paris.
1682 English astronomer Edmond Halley first observes the comet named after him
1842 The first fiscal year was established by the U.S. Congress to start on July 1st.
1873 First free kindergarten in the U.S. started by Susan Blow in Carondelet, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri
1883 The Indonesian island of Krakatoa erupts in the largest explosion recorded in history, heard 2,200 miles away in Madagascar. The resulting destruction sends volcanic ash up 50 miles into the atmosphere and kills almost 36,000 people–both on the island itself and from the resulting 131-foot tidal waves that obliterate 163 villages on the shores of nearby Java and Sumatra.
1920 The 19th Amendment to the Constitution is officially ratified, giving women the right to vote.
1957 Ford Motor Company reveals the Edsel, its latest luxury car.
1959 British Motor Corporation introduces the Morris Mini-Minor, designed by Alec Issigonis, it was only 10 ft long but seated 4 passengers
1966 Namibian War of Independence Begins
1970 A nationwide Women’s Strike for Equality, led by Betty Friedan on the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment calls attention to unequal pay and other gender inequalities in America.
1973 U of Tx (Arlington) is 1st accredited school to offer belly dancing
1977 The National Assembly of Quebec adopts Bill 101, Charter of the French Language, making French the official language of the Canadian province.
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.
1996 US President Bill Clinton signs welfare reform into law, representing major shift in welfare policy
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.
2004 The US Census Bureau has released new figures which put the number of poor in the US at 35.9 million an increase of more than 1 million
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
