26 Mordad 1398

Events

• 1488 (538 years ago) Konrad Bitz, the Bishop of Turku, marks the date of his preface to Missale Aboense, the oldest known book of Finland.
• 1798 (228 years ago) The Vietnamese Catholics report a Marian apparition in Quảng Trị, an event which is called Our Lady of La Vang.
• 1942 (84 years ago) World War II: U.S. Marines raid the Japanese-held Pacific island of Makin.
• 1945 (81 years ago) Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim the independence of Indonesia, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.
• 1949 (77 years ago) The 6.7 Ms Karlıova earthquake shakes eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 320–450 dead.
• 1999 (27 years ago) The 7.6 Mw İzmit earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 17,118–17,127 dead and 43,953–50,000 injured.
• 2004 (22 years ago) The National Assembly of Serbia unanimously adopts new state symbols for Serbia: Bože pravde becomes the new anthem and the coat of arms is adopted for the whole country.
• 2005 (21 years ago) Over 500 bombs are set off by terrorists at 300 locations in 63 out of the 64 districts of Bangladesh.

Births

• 1629 (397 years ago) John III Sobieski, Polish–Lithuanian king (died 1696)
• 1893 (133 years ago) Mae West, American stage and film actress (died 1980)
• 1926 (100 years ago) Jiang Zemin, Chinese engineer and politician, former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (paramount leader) and President of China (died 2022)
• 1932 (94 years ago) V. S. Naipaul, Trinidadian-English novelist and essayist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2018)
• 1943 (83 years ago) Robert De Niro, American actor, entrepreneur, director, and producer
• 1953 (73 years ago) Herta Müller, Romanian-German poet and author, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1960 (66 years ago) Sean Penn, American actor, director, and political activist
• 1977 (49 years ago) Thierry Henry, French footballer

Deaths

• 1786 (240 years ago) Frederick the Great, Prussian king (born 1712)
• 1850 (176 years ago) José de San Martín, Argentinian general and politician, 1st President of Peru (born 1778)
• 1908 (118 years ago) Radoje Domanović, Serbian satirist and journalist (born 1873)
• 1935 (91 years ago) Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American sociologist and author (born 1860)
• 1969 (57 years ago) Otto Stern, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1888)
• 1987 (39 years ago) Rudolf Hess, German soldier and politician, convicted Nuremberg war criminal (born 1894)
• 1988 (38 years ago) Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistani general and politician, 6th President of Pakistan (born 1924)
• 2010 (16 years ago) Francesco Cossiga, Italian lawyer and politician, 8th President of Italy (born 1928)

All 392 events, births and deaths of August 17