August 26 is Women's Equality Day in the US, marking the 1920 certification of the 19th Amendment. It also marks a French Revolution milestone and a pivotal medieval siege in Indian history.
On this day
1789France's National Constituent Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, laying out freedom of religion, freedom of the press and other Enlightenment principles as the basis for the coming French constitution.Asamblea Nacional de Francia, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
1978Albino Luciani was elected pope on the fourth ballot of the conclave, taking the name John Paul I. He would die suddenly just 33 days into his papacy, one of the shortest reigns in the history of the office.Scotch Mist via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
1303IndiaDelhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khalji captured Chittorgarh Fort from the Guhila king Ratnasimha after an eight-month siege, a conquest still remembered through the legend of Rani Padmini and the fort's history of jauhar.SpeakingArch via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Did you know
The 19th Amendment giving American women the right to vote wasn't legally official until a government proclamation was signed — and in 1920, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed it quietly at his own house in Washington, D.C. on August 26, with no ceremony, which is why that date, not the amendment's earlier ratification, became the holiday.