August 26
French defeated in Battle of Crécy
1346: In the Hundred Years' War, Edward III of England landed some 4,000 men-at-arms and 10,000 archers (longbowmen) on the Cotentin peninsula in mid-July 1346, ravaged lower Normandy, marched south, and was set upon by Philip VI of France, who wielded 12,000 men-at-arms and numerous other troops. In the ensuing battle at Crécy-en-Ponthieu on this day, Edward III, along with his son Edward the Black Prince, met and repelled Phillip's assault. Italian crossbowmen in Philip's service began an assault on the English position, but they were routed by English archers and fell back into the path of the French cavalry's first charge. More and more French cavalry came up, making further thoughtless charges at the English centre; but while the latter stood firm, the archers wheeled forward, and the successive detachments of horsemen were mowed down by arrowshots from both sides. By the end of the day, Philip's brother, Charles II of Alençon, and his allies King John of Bohemia and Louis II of Nevers, count of Flanders, as well as 1,500 other knights and esquires, were dead.
1978: Cardinal Albino Luciani was elected pope as John Paul I; he died of a heart attack 34 days later.
1936: The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty established Egypt as a sovereign state after 50 years of British occupation.
1920: The 19th Amendment became part of the Constitution of the United States, giving U.S. women the right to vote.
1914: During World War I the Battle of Tannenberg, between the Germans and the Russians, began.
1883: The volcano Krakatoa in Indonesia began to erupt; 36,000 people were killed by it and the resulting tsunami.
1629: English Puritan stockholders of the Massachusetts Bay Company pledged to emigrate to New England under the terms of the Cambridge Agreement.
1071: Seljuq Turk forces under Alp-Arslan vanquished the Byzantine army and captured the emperor Romanus IV Diogenes at the Battle of Manzikert. |
