August 26

Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert, gaining control over much of Anatolia.

A poorly prepared Byzantine army under Emperor Romanos IV suffered a catastrophic defeat against Seljuk Turkish forces near Manzikert in eastern Anatolia, a disaster that opened Anatolia to sustained Turkish settlement and permanently altered the region's demographic and political character.

Rudolf I of Germany defeats and kills King Ottokar II of Bohemia at the Battle on the Marchfeld.

German King Rudolf I of Habsburg decisively defeated and killed his rival, Bohemian King Ottokar II, at the Battle on the Marchfeld, establishing Habsburg dominance in Austria that would eventually grow into one of Europe's most powerful and enduring royal dynasties.

English forces decisively defeat a much larger French army at the Battle of Crecy during the Hundred Years' War.

Despite being significantly outnumbered, English longbowmen under King Edward III inflicted a devastating defeat on French forces at Crecy, demonstrating the longbow's battlefield superiority over heavily armored knights and marking one of the opening major engagements of the Hundred Years' War.

Francisco de Orellana completes his journey down the Amazon River, reaching its mouth at the Atlantic Ocean.

Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana completed an unplanned but historic journey down the entire length of the Amazon River after becoming separated from a larger expedition, becoming the first European known to navigate the river's full course to the Atlantic Ocean.

Captain James Cook departs England aboard HMS Endeavour on his first voyage of Pacific exploration.

Captain James Cook set sail from Plymouth, England, aboard HMS Endeavour on the first of his three famous voyages of Pacific exploration, a journey that would result in the first detailed European charting of New Zealand's coastline and eastern Australia.

France's National Constituent Assembly approves the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

France's National Constituent Assembly adopted a foundational statement of individual rights and liberties inspired by Enlightenment philosophy, establishing principles of liberty, equality, and popular sovereignty that became a cornerstone document of the French Revolution and later human rights declarations worldwide.

The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote, is formally certified.

Following ratification by the requisite number of U.S. states, culminating with Tennessee's decisive vote weeks earlier, the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteeing women's constitutional right to vote was formally certified by the Secretary of State. The certification, achieved without ceremony to avoid controversy, culminated over seventy years of organized suffrage activism dating back to the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention.

Charles de Gaulle leads a triumphant procession into Paris following the city's liberation from Nazi occupation.

Free French leader Charles de Gaulle led a triumphant procession down the Champs-Elysees following Paris's liberation, delivering a defiant speech proclaiming that Paris had liberated itself "by her own people with the help of the armies of France," a statement that notably downplayed the significant Allied military support that had actually made the liberation possible.

The Summer Olympic Games open in Munich, West Germany.

The Summer Olympic Games opened in Munich, West Germany, an event carefully staged to showcase a modern, open, and democratic Germany distinct from the militaristic 1936 Berlin Games. The optimistic atmosphere was later overshadowed just over a week in by the tragic hostage crisis and massacre of eleven Israeli athletes and coaches by Palestinian militants.

A suicide bombing at Kabul's airport kills 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians during the evacuation.

As chaotic evacuation efforts continued at Kabul's airport following the Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan, a suicide bomber affiliated with an ISIS affiliate detonated an explosive device amid the crowds, killing dozens of Afghan civilians and thirteen American service members.