On this day in history

May 26

26 births · 17 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

Dunkirk evacuation

86 years ago

Born this day

1907

John Wayne

Would be 119

Photo (modified): Unknown photographer · Public domain

Oldest record

548th

Clement VII

birth anniversary

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Famous births26

1478 · 548 yrs

Clement VII

Pope Clement VII (Latin: Clemens VII; Italian: Clemente VII; born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 56

View profile Photo (modified): Sebastiano del Piombo · Public domain

1566 · 460 yrs

Mehmed III

Mehmed III (Ottoman Turkish: محمد ثالث, Meḥmed-i sālis; Turkish: III. Mehmed; 26 May 1566 – 22 December 1603) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1595 until his death in 1603.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleDied aged 37

View profile Photo (modified): 1598 · Public domain

1623 · 403 yrs

William Petty

Sir William Petty (26 May 1623 – 16 December 1687) was an English economist, physician, scientist and philosopher. He first became prominent serving Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth in Ireland.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 64

View profile Photo (modified): John Closterman · CC BY 4.0

1650 · 376 yrs

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.) was a British army officer and statesman.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryDied aged 72

View profile Photo (modified): Attributed to Michael Dahl · Public domain

1667 · 359 yrs

Abraham de Moivre

Abraham de Moivre (French pronunciation:; 26 May 1667 – 27 November 1754) was a French mathematician known for de Moivre's formula, a formula that links complex numbers and trigonometry, and for his work on the normal distribution and probability theory.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 87

View profile Photo (modified): Joseph Highmore · Public domain

1822 · 204 yrs

Edmond de Goncourt

Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt (pronounced; 26 May 1822 – 16 July 1896) was a French writer, literary critic, art critic, book publisher and the founder of the Académie Goncourt.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 74

View profile Photo (modified): Nadar · Public domain

1860 · 166 yrs

Isaac Albéniz

Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual (Spanish:; 29 May 1860 – 18 May 1909) was a Spanish virtuoso composer, conductor, and pianist. He is one of the foremost composers of the post-romantic era who also exerted a significant influence on his contemporaries and younger composers.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 48

View profile Photo (modified): Napoleón · Public domain

1867 · 159 yrs

Mary of Teck

Mary of Teck (Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes; 26 May 1867 – 24 March 1953) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 6 May 1910 until 20 January 1936 as the wife of King George V.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 85

View profile Photo (modified): Bain News Service ; edited by Fir0002 · Public domain

1877 · 149 yrs

Isadora Duncan

Angela Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877, or May 27, 1878 – September 14, 1927) was an American-born dancer and choreographer, who was a pioneer of modern contemporary dance and performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the United States.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 149

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

1894 · 132 yrs

Paul Lukas

Paul Lukas (born Pál Lukács; 26 May 1894 – 15 August 1971) was a Hungarian actor.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 132

View profile Photo (modified): Trailer screenshot Licencing information : https://web.archive.org/web/20080321033709/http://www.sabucat.com/?pg=copyrig · Public domain

1907 · 119 yrs

John Wayne

Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne, was an American actor. Nicknamed "Duke", he became a popular icon through his starring roles in films which were produced during Hollywood's Golden Age, especially in Western and war movies.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 119

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown photographer · Public domain

1912 · 114 yrs

János Kádár

János József Kádár (né Csermanek; 26 May 1912 – 6 July 1989) was a Hungarian Communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, a position he held for 32 years. Declining health led to his retirement in 1988, and he died in 1989 after being hospitalized for pneumonia.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 114

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown Romanian photographer · Attribution

Showing 12 of 26

Famous deaths17

1512 · 514 yrs

Bayezid II

Bayezid II (Ottoman Turkish: بايزيد ثانى, romanized: Bāyezīd-i s̱ānī; Turkish: II. Bayezid; 3 December 1447/1448 – 26 May 1512) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 64

View profile Photo (modified): Darwish Mahmud b. Abdullah nakkash, Istanbul, ca. 1495 · Public domain

1595 · 431 yrs

Philip Neri

Philip Neri, born Filippo Romolo Neri, pronounced (21 July 1515 – 26 May 1595) was an Italian Catholic priest who founded the Congregation of the Oratory, a society of secular clergy dedicated to pastoral care and charitable work.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 79

View profile Photo (modified): Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0

1703 · 323 yrs

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys ( PEEPS; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tory politician.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 71

View profile Photo (modified): John Hayls · Public domain

1762 · 264 yrs

Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten

Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (German:; 17 July 1714 – 27 May 1762) was a German philosopher. He established aesthetics as a philosophical discipline.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyDied aged 47

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1848 · 178 yrs

Vissarion Belinsky

Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky (Russian: Виссарион Григорьевич Белинский; 11 June 1811 – 7 June 1848) was a Russian literary critic of Westernizing tendency. Belinsky played one of the key roles in the career of poet and publisher Nikolay Nekrasov and his popular magazine Sovremennik.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MediaDied aged 36

View profile Photo (modified): Kirill Gorbunov · Public domain

1876 · 150 yrs

František Palacký

František Palacký (Czech pronunciation:; 14 June 1798 – 26 May 1876) was a Czech historian and politician. He was the most influential person of the Czech National Revival, called "Father of the Nation".

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipDied aged 77

View profile Photo (modified): Jan Vilímek · Public domain

1883 · 143 yrs

Abdelkader El Djezairi

Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhyi al-Din (between 1806 and 1808 – 26 May 1883; Arabic: عبد القادر ابن محي الدين, romanized: ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Muḥy al-Dīn), known as Emir Abdelkader or ʿAbd al-Qadir al-Hasani al-Jazaʾiri, was an Algerian religious and military leader who led a struggle against the French colonial invasion of…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 74

View profile Photo (modified): Ange Tissier · Public domain

1908 · 118 yrs

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (13 February 1835 – 26 May 1908) was an Indian religious leader and the founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in Islam.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 73

View profile Photo (modified): Markazan-e-Tasaweer · Public domain

1955 · 71 yrs

Alberto Ascari

Alberto Ascari (13 July 1918 – 26 May 1955) was an Italian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1950 to 1955. Ascari won two Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in 1952 and 1953 with Ferrari, and won 13 Grands Prix across six seasons.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleWould be 108

View profile Photo (modified): El Gráfico · Public domain

1976 · 50 yrs

Martin Heidegger

Martin Heidegger (26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher whose work was central to the development of phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He has had significant impact within subsequent philosophy, social sciences and humanities, and theology.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyWould be 137

View profile Photo (modified): Willy Pragher · CC BY-SA 3.0

1978 · 48 yrs

Tamara Karsavina

Tamara Platonovna Karsavina (Russian: Тамара Платоновна Карсавина; 9 March 1885 – 26 May 1978) was a Russian prima ballerina, renowned for her beauty, who was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and later of the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 141

View profile Photo (modified): Unknown author · Public domain

2008 · 18 yrs

Sydney Pollack

Sydney Irwin Pollack (July 1, 1934 – May 26, 2008) was an American film director, producer, and actor.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

FilmWould be 92

View profile Photo (modified): Arthur from Westchester County north of NYC, USA, at Arthur@NYCArthur.com · CC BY-SA 2.0

Showing 12 of 17

Events5

1940 · 86 yrs

Dunkirk evacuation

In the Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, more than 338,000 Allied soldiers were evacuated during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk in northern France between 26 May and 4 June 1940.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1940 · 86 yrs

Battle of Dunkirk

The Battle of Dunkirk (French: Bataille de Dunkerque) was fought around the French port of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) during the Second World War, between the Allies and Nazi Germany.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

1942 · 84 yrs

Battle of Gazala

The Battle of Gazala, also the Gazala Offensive (Italian: Battaglia di Ain el-Gazala; German: Schlacht von Gazala), was fought near the village of Gazala during the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, west of the port of Tobruk in Libya, from 26 May to 21 June 1942.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

War

2018 · 8 yrs

2018 UEFA Champions League Final

The 2018 UEFA Champions League final was the final match of the 2017–18 UEFA Champions League, the 63rd season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 26th season since it was renamed from the European Cup to the UEFA Champions League.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Sports

2020 · 6 yrs

George Floyd protests

Protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020 as reactions to the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed African American man, by city police during an arrest. They spread nationally and internationally.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

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