August 26:
2011 – The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's all-new composite airliner, receives certification from the EASA and the FAA
1920 – The 19th amendment to United States Constitution, giving women the right to vote, is certified
1849 – President Faustin Soulouque of the First Republic of Haiti has the Senate and Chamber of Deputies proclaim him the Emperor of Haiti, abolishing the Republic and inaugurating the Second Empire of Haiti.
1791 – John Fitch is granted a United States patent for the steamboat
1789 – The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is approved by the National Constituent Assembly of France.
1768 – Captain James Cook sets sail from England on board HMS Endeavour
1767 – Jesuits all over Chile are arrested as the Spanish Empire suppresses the Society of Jesus
1748 – The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, is founded in Philadelphia.
August 27:
2003 – The first six-party talks, involving South and North Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, convene to find a peaceful resolution to the security concerns of the North Korean nuclear weapons program.
1991 – The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
1980 – South Korean presidential election: After successfully staging the Coup d'état of May Seventeenth, General Chun Doo-hwan, running unopposed, has the National Conference for Unification elect him President of the Fourth Republic of Korea.
1964 – South Vietnamese junta leader Nguyễn Khánh enters into a triumvirate power-sharing arrangement with rival generals Trần Thiện Khiêm and Dương Văn Minh, who had both been involved in plots to unseat Khánh
1963 – An explosion at the Cane Creek potash mine near Moab, Utah kills 18 miners
1962 – The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA
1928 – The Kellogg–Briand Pact outlawing war is signed by fifteen nations. Ultimately sixty-one nations will sign it
1859 – Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania, leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well
1832 – Black Hawk, leader of the Sauk tribe of Native Americans, surrenders to U.S. authorities, ending the Black Hawk War
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Members of the 1st Maryland Regiment repeatedly charged a numerically superior British force during the Battle of Long Island, allowing General Washington and the rest of the American troops to escape
