Daily Calendar for August 26th, 2018

The Old Farmer's Almanac daily calendar gives you quick reference for the significant events on any day throughout the year.

Women's Equality Day

Formerly known as Woman Suffrage Day, this day marks the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1920), granting women the right to vote. Ratification came in Tennessee, where suffragist (Anitia) Lili Pollitzer, age 25, persuaded Tennessee state legislator Harry T. Burn, age 24, to cast the deciding vote. "I know that a mother's advice is always safest for a boy to follow," he said, "and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification." The country's 26 million voting-age women were enfranchised by this change in the Constitution. Longtime suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt summed up her experiences in the battle this way: "Never in the history of politics has there been such a nefarious lobby as labored to block the ratification." Upon ratification, Catt founded the League of Women Voters, an organization now dedicated to providing impartial, in-depth information about candidates, platforms, and ballot issues.

Every Year

• Women's Equality Day

1660s

• Died 1666: Frans Hals (painter)

1820s

• 1826: Quincy Market opened, Boston, Massachusetts

1830s

• 1839: Amistad captured off Long Island

1850s

• Died 1850: Louis-Philippe of France

1870s

• Born 1873: Lee DeForest (inventor)

1880s

• 1883: Krakatoa, a volcano on the Indonesian island of Rakata, erupted. The explosions heard in the eruption remain the loudest noise on human record. The sound was heard across the Indian Ocean as far away as Rodriguez Island and Australia

• 1883: Krakatoa, a volcano on an Indonesian island, began to erupt. Over this and the next day, the eruption caused tsunamis that killed 36,000 people. Particles from the eruption were released into the stratosphere, causing the average temperature of Earth to lower by one degree for the next two years.

1890s

• Died 1894: Celia Thaxter (poet)

1900s

• 1902: A starch process that led to puffed grain cereals was patented

• Born 1909: Frank F. Gasparro (designed the Lincoln Memorial reverse on the penny)

1910s

• Born 1910: Mother Teresa (missionary)

1920s

• 1920: The Nineteenth Amendment was adopted, granting women the right to vote. It was nicknamed the "Anthony" amendment in recognition of the lobbying efforts of suffragette Susan B. Anthony.

• Born 1921: Benjamin Bradlee (journalist)

• Born 1922: Irving Levine (broadcast journalist)

1930s

• 1930: Philo Farnsworth patented a television

• Born 1935: Geraldine Ferraro (politician)

• 1939: WXBS televised the first major-league baseball games, a double-header between Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers

1940s

• 1946: Norma Jeane Baker was signed to a contract with 20th Century Fox--her first studio contract

1950s

• Born 1952: Will Shortz (puzzle creator and editor)

• 1957: The first Ford Edsel was produced

1960s

• Born 1960: Branford Marsalis (musician)

• 1968: The Beatles released their smash hit "Hey Jude"

• Born 1969: Melissa McCarthy (actress)

1970s

• 1970: Guitarist Jimi Hendrix made his last public appearance in the UK

• Died 1974: Charles Lindbergh (aviator)

• 1977: Bill 101 took effect, making French the official language of Quebec

1980s

• Born 1980: Macaulay Culkin (actor)

• Born 1980: Chris Pine (actor)

• Died 1986: Ted Knight (actor)

1990s

• Born 1993: Keke Palmer (actress)

2000s

• Died 2004: Laura Branigan (Grammy-nominated pop singer best known for her hit Gloria)

• Died 2009: Dominick Dunne (American writer and investigative journalist)

2010s

• Died 2018: Neil Simon (Pulitzer prize-winning playwright)