Today in History in 1768 James Cook sets sail from England on the HMS Endeavour.

Our on this day in history archives contain over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

August 26 is the 238th day of the year (239th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 127 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

55 BC – Julius Caesar attempts to conquer Britannia.

1071 – Battle of Manzikert: Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine Army at Manzikert.

1278 – Ladislaus IV of Hungary and Rudolph I of Germany defeat Premysl Ottokar I of Bohemia in the Battle of Marchfield near Durnkrut in then-Moravia.

1346 – Cannons are used for the first time in a European battle, the Battle of Crecy.

1444 – Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs: A vastly outnumbered forces of Swiss Confederates is defeated by Dauphin Louis (future King Louis IX of France) and his army near Basel.

1498 – Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pieta.

1542 – Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Orellana and his expedition reach the Amazon Delta.

1768 – James Cook sets sail from England on the HMS Endeavour.

1789 – The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is approved by the National Assembly at the Palace of Versailles.

1791 – John Fitch is granted a US patent for the steam boat.

1810 – Former viceroy Santiago de Liniers of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata is executed after the defeat of his counter-revolution.

1813 – War of the Sixth Coalition: An impromptu battle takes place when French and Russian-Prussian forces accidentally run into each other near what is now Legnica, Poland.

1814 – Chilean War of Independence: Infighting between rebel forces of José Miguel Carrera and Bernardo O'Higgins erupts in the Battle of Las Tres Acequias.

1821 – The University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is founded.

1865 – A monument to Albert, Prince Consort is unveiled in Coburg, Germany.

1878 – Uyedineniya Island (also known as Lonely Island), one of Russia's remotest islands, located in the Arctic Ocean, is discovered by Norwegian seafarer Edvard Holm Johannesen.

1883 – Krakatoa's 1883 eruption reaches its final stage, ending in a major explosion and tsunamis the following day.

1883 – The Ashes, a cricket prize, is given to English captain, Ivo Bligh.

1914 – World War I: French and British forces invade the then-German colony of Togoland, (covering present-day Togo and western Ghana) in West Africa, taking it after five days.

1920 – An amendment to the United States Constitution allows women in the United States the right to vote.

1922 – The Japanese cruiser Niitaka sinks in a storm off the west coast of Kamchatka, eastern Russia, killing all 400 people on board.

1940 – World War II: Under Governor Felix Eboue, Chad becomes the first French colony to join the Allies.

1942 – Holocaust: In Chortkiav, Eastern Ukraine, German Schutzpolizei starts driving Jews out of their houses, divides them into groups of 120 people and deports them to Belzec Death Camp.

1944 – World War II: Bulgaria declares that it is neutral.

1944 – World War II: Charles de Gaulle enters Paris.

1961 – Changing its Constitution, Burma adopts Buddhism as its official state religion.

1966 – The Namibian War of Independence begins.

1970 – The then-New Feminist Movement, led by Betty Friedan, leads a women's national strike, for equality.

1972 – The 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich begin, officially opened by German President Gustav Heinemann.

1977 – Benin gets a Marxist-Leninist Constitution.

1977 – The Charter of the French language is adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec.

1978 – East German cosmonaut Sigmund Jaehn becomes the first German in space.

1978 – Albino Luciani (Pope John Paul I) is elected Pope. He dies just 33 days later, on September 28.

1980 – John Birges plants a bomb at Harvey's Resort Hotel in Stateline, Nevada.

1988 – Aung San Suu Kyi holds a pro-democracy speech at the Shwedagon Pagoda in Burma as part of the 8888 Revolution.

1997 – Beni-Ali massacre in Algeria: Between 60 and 100 people are killed.

1999 – Russia begins the Second Chechen War in response to the invasion of Dagestan, by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade.

2002 – The 2002 Earth Summit meeting in Johannesburg begins.

2005 – The highest court in Fiji declares the ban on Homosexuality unconstitutional.

2008 – Russia unilaterally recognises the Republic of Georgia's break-away territories Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

2011 – Naoto Kan announces his resignation as Prime Minister of Japan.

2014 – A ceasefire enters into force between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

2018 – Jacksonville Landing shooting: A participant at a gaming competition in Jacksonville, Florida shoots two people dead before turning the gun on himself.