On this day: September 26

Events on September 26

• 46 BC Julius Caesar dedicated the Temple of Venus Genetrix in Rome to Venus, the mythical ancestor of his family. Wikipedia
• 46 BC Julius Caesar dedicates a temple to Venus Genetrix, fulfilling a vow he made at the Battle of Pharsalus. Wikipedia
• 1087 William II, son of William the Conqueror, was crowned king of England. Wikipedia
• 1423 Hundred Years' War: A French army defeats the English at the Battle of La Brossinière. Wikipedia
• 1493 Pope Alexander VI issued the papal bull Dudum siquidem, one of the Bulls of Donation, marking the beginning of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Wikipedia
• 1580 English explorer Francis Drake's galleon the Golden Hind (replica pictured) sailed into Plymouth, completing his circumnavigation of the globe. Wikipedia
• 1580 Francis Drake finishes his circumnavigation of the Earth in Plymouth, England. Wikipedia
• 1687 Morean War: The Parthenon in Athens, used as a gunpowder depot by the Ottoman garrison, is partially destroyed after being bombarded during the Siege of the Acropolis by Venetian forces. Wikipedia
• 1777 American Revolutionary War: British troops capture and begin the occupation of Philadelphia, which had been serving as the American capital city, during the Philadelphia campaign. Wikipedia
• 1789 George Washington appoints Thomas Jefferson the first United States Secretary of State. Wikipedia
• 1905 Albert Einstein publishes the third of his Annus Mirabilis papers, introducing the special theory of relativity. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: The Battle of Polygon Wood, part of the Battle of Passchendaele, began near Ypres, Belgium. Wikipedia
• 1917 World War I: The Battle of Polygon Wood begins. Wikipedia
• 1933 As gangster Machine Gun Kelly surrendered to the FBI, he supposedly shouted "Don't shoot, G-Men!", which became a nickname for FBI agents. Wikipedia
• 1936 Spanish Civil War: Lluis Companys reshuffles the Generalitat de Catalunya, with the marxist POUM and anarcho-syndicalist CNT joining the government. Wikipedia
• 1942 Holocaust: Senior SS official August Frank issues a memorandum detailing how Jews should be "evacuated". Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: The Soviet Red Army completed the Tallinn offensive, driving German forces out of Estonia. Wikipedia
• 1950 Korean War: United Nations troops recapture Seoul from North Korean forces. Wikipedia
• 1968 The Beatles completed the recording of John Lennon's song "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", regarded by all the band members as their favourite on the album The Beatles. Wikipedia
• 1978 Air Caribbean Flight 309 crashes in Residencial Las Casas in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing six. Wikipedia
• 1980 A terrorist bombing at the Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany, kills 13 people and injures 213 others. Wikipedia
• 1983 Cold War: Soviet lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov averted a potential nuclear war by identifying as a false alarm signals that appeared to indicate an impending U.S. missile attack. Wikipedia
• 2008 Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy flew a wingpack powered by jet engines across the English Channel. Wikipedia
• 2010 Scottish aid worker Linda Norgrove and three Afghan colleagues were kidnapped by members of the Taliban in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Wikipedia
• 2022 A mass shooting occurs at a school in Izhevsk, Udmurtia, Russia, resulting in the deaths of 18 people, including 11 children. Wikipedia
• 2024 Hurricane Helene makes landfall in Perry, Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, killing over 250 people, causing US$78.7 billion in damage and becoming the deadliest hurricane in the mainland United States since Katrina. Wikipedia

Born on September 26

• 1791 Théodore Géricault, French painter and lithographer (died 1824) Wikipedia
• 1849 Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1936) Wikipedia
• 1865 Archibald Butt, United States Army Officer (died 1912) Wikipedia
• 1870 Christian X of Denmark (died 1947) Wikipedia
• 1886 Archibald Hill, English physiologist, academic, and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1977) Wikipedia
• 1888 T. S. Eliot, English poet, playwright, critic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1965) Wikipedia
• 1889 Martin Heidegger, German philosopher and academic (died 1976) Wikipedia
• 1897 Pope Paul VI (died 1978) Wikipedia
• 1898 George Gershwin, American pianist and composer (died 1937) Wikipedia
• 1909 Bill France Sr., American race car driver, founded NASCAR (died 1992) Wikipedia
• 1914 Jack LaLanne, American fitness expert (died 2011) Wikipedia
• 1918 Eric Morley, English businessman and television host, founded the Miss World (died 2000) Wikipedia
• 1932 Manmohan Singh, Indian economist and politician, 13th Prime Minister of India (died 2024) Wikipedia
• 1936 Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, South African academic and politician, 8th First Lady of South Africa (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1946 Andrea Dworkin, American activist and author (died 2005) Wikipedia
• 1948 Olivia Newton-John, English-Australian singer-songwriter and actress (died 2022) Wikipedia
• 1956 Linda Hamilton, American actress Wikipedia
• 1965 Petro Poroshenko, Ukrainian businessman and politician, 5th President of Ukraine Wikipedia
• 1968 Jim Caviezel, American actor Wikipedia
• 1976 Michael Ballack, German footballer Wikipedia
• 1981 Serena Williams, American tennis player Wikipedia
• 1983 Ricardo Quaresma, Portuguese footballer Wikipedia

Died on September 26

• 1328 Ibn Taymiya, Islamic scholar and philosopher of Harran (born 1263) Wikipedia
• 1536 Didier de Saint-Jaille, 46th Grandmaster of the Knights Hospitaller Wikipedia
• 1868 August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician and astronomer (born 1790) Wikipedia
• 1943 Henri Fertet, French Resistance fighter (born 1926) Wikipedia
• 1945 Béla Bartók, Hungarian pianist and composer (born 1881) Wikipedia
• 1952 George Santayana, Spanish philosopher, novelist, and poet (born 1863) Wikipedia
• 1973 Anna Magnani, Italian actress and singer (born 1908) Wikipedia
• 1976 Leopold Ružička, Croatian-Swiss chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1887) Wikipedia
• 1978 Manne Siegbahn, Swedish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1886) Wikipedia
• 1990 Alberto Moravia, Italian author and critic (born 1907) Wikipedia
• 2002 Nils Bohlin, Swedish engineer, invented three-point safety belt (born 1920) Wikipedia
• 2008 Paul Newman, American actor, director, producer, and businessman (born 1925) Wikipedia
• 2010 Gloria Stuart, American actress (born 1910) Wikipedia
• 2019 Jacques Chirac, French politician, President of France (born 1932) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast days: Canadian Martyrs (Catholic Church in Canada) Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Cosmas and Damian Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Blessed Crescencia Valls Espí Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: John of Meda Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Blessed Kaspar Stanggassinger Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Blessed Luigi Tezza Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Nilus the Younger Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Thérèse Couderc Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: Wilson Carlile (Anglican) Wikipedia
• Christian feast days: September 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Day of the National Flag (Ecuador) Wikipedia
• Dominion Day (New Zealand) Wikipedia
• European Day of Languages (European Union) Wikipedia
• International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons Wikipedia
• Petrov day Wikipedia
• Revolution Day (Yemen) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “September 26” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.