August 26
1071. The Battle of Manzikert. One of the most significant battles in history, this battle was fought between the Seljuk Turks under Alp Arslan and Byzantine forces under the direct and personal command of Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes. The battle was a complete victory for the Turks, who captured the Emperor. More important were its long term ramifications -- the loss resulted in years of internal strife in the Empire, and loss of control over its borders with the result that an increasing number of Turks moving into the Anatolian heartland (the area we now know as Turkey), which had historically been the Empire's great breadbasket and mustering grounds for troops.
What makes it all the more tragic for Byzantium is that the battle need never have taken place. Byzantium had inflicted a stinging defeat on the Turks only a year earlier in defense of its borders, and Mazikert was the culmination of a war of further punishment/conquest undertaken by the Byzantine Emperor. Further, the Sultan had offered terms to the Emperor to induce his withdrawal, which the Emperor rejected, to the lasting misfortune of himself and his Empire.
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Originally Posted by Historian John Julius Norwich
(the Battle of Mazikert was the Byzantine Empire's "greatest disaster suffered . . . in its seven and a half centuries of existence" and its "death blow, though centuries remained before the remnant fell. The themes in Anatolia were literally the heart of the empire, and within decades after Manzikert, they were gone."
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Absent the Battle of Manzikert, it is entirely likely that Byzantium would have been better able to resist future Islamic expansion and delayed or thwarted the rise of the Ottoman Empire.
1346. The Battle of Crecy. Another famous battle, though better known to western historians than Mazikert. At Crecy, France, the ultimate supremacy of the English longbow over French crossbows and armored knights is firmly established during this critical battle in the Hundred Years' War. Many consider this battle to also be the beginning of the end of classic chivalry, due to the weapons and tactics employed.
The British, with a force of between 9,000 and 15,000, held the high ground in Northern France, fighting under thier King, Edward III. The French, under their King, Philip IV, had approximately 30,000 men under arms, including a great part of the mounted knight nobility of France and Genoese and French crossbowmen.
The battle was an utter disaster for the French. The range of the English longbows was greater than the crossbows, and when the English came somewhat forward and started annihilating hte crossbowmen with massed arrowstorms, they withdrew. The French knights, thinking the withdrawal cowardly, mowed them down as well. Then charged the English.
French armor could not stop the English arrows from penetrating, however, and their horses were practically unprotected. They and their horses were hit hard during the charge, and then (many now horseless) the knights floundered through the mud trying to get to the longbowmen, and were annihilated en masse.
Much of the nobility of France was killed or wounded, while Edward III, whose war in Frnace was increasingly unpopular back home, found new grounds for support. He would go on to besiege Calais, which would fall to him in a year and be held by the British for nearly 200 years.
1498. Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pieta.
1883. Mount Krakatoa begins its final, paroxysmal, eruption.
1939. The first major league baseball game is telecast -- a double header at Ebbets Field between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds.
1966. The Battle of Omuguluwombashe commences the Namibian War of Independence. I'm not sure how important this is in the greater historical sense, as my knowledge of Namibia is pretty limited, but I couldn't miss an opportunity to write "Omuguluwombashe".