Did you know about Peter Cullen
Peter Cullen voiced Optimus Prime in the original 1980s Transformers animated series, later returning to the role in Transformers media in 2007, starting with the first live-action film.
Notable Deaths on August 26
August 26 has 107 recorded notable deaths across history, from 787 to 2026. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
2026 — Peter Cullen
Canadian voice actor (born 1941)
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Notable Deaths
107 source records
787 – 2026
Today in history
Major events on August 26
See what else happened on this day in history.
- 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. Source
- 1748 The first Lutheran denomination in North America, the Pennsylvania Ministerium, is founded in Philadelphia. Source
Did you know about Charles Lindbergh
On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), flying alone for over 33 hours.
Did you know about Laura Branigan
Laura Branigan's signature song, the platinum-certified 1982 cover of Umberto Tozzi's single "Gloria", stayed on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for 36 weeks, then a record for a female artist, peaking at No. 2.
Did you know about John of Bohemia (born 1296)
John of Bohemia, also called the Blind or of Luxembourg, was the King of Bohemia and titular King of Poland from 1310, and Count of Luxembourg from 1313.
Did you know about Dominick Dunne
Dominick Dunne began his career in film and television as a producer of the pioneering gay film The Boys in the Band (1970) and as the producer of the drama film The Panic in Needle Park (1971).
More major people who died on August 26
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1974
Charles Lindbergh
American pilot and explorer (born 1902)
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris, a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), flying alone for over 33 hours. His aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis, was built to compete for the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the first flight between the two cities. Although not the first transatlantic flight, it was the first solo crossing of the Atlantic and the longest at the time by nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km), setting a new flight distance world record. The achievement garnered Lindbergh worldwide fame and stands as one of the most consequential flights in history, signalling a new era of air transportation between parts of the globe.
2004
Laura Branigan
American singer-songwriter and actress (born 1952)
Laura Ann Kruteck was an American singer. Her signature song, the platinum-certified 1982 cover of Umberto Tozzi's single "Gloria", stayed on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for 36 weeks, then a record for a female artist, peaking at No. 2. It also reached number one in Australia and Canada. In 1984, she reached number one in Canada and Germany and No. 4 in the U.S. with "Self Control". "Gloria" and "Self Control" were also successful in the United Kingdom, each hitting the top 10 on the UK singles chart.
1346
John of Bohemia (born 1296)
John of Bohemia, also called the Blind or of Luxembourg, was the King of Bohemia and titular King of Poland from 1310, and Count of Luxembourg from 1313. He is well known for having died while fighting in the Battle of Crécy at age 50, after having been blind for a decade. In his home country of Luxembourg, he is considered a national hero. Comparatively, in the Czech Republic, Jan Lucemburský is often recognized for his role as the father of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, one of the more significant Kings of Bohemia and one of the leading Holy Roman Emperors.
2009
Dominick Dunne
American journalist and novelist (born 1925)
Dominick John Dunne was an American writer, investigative journalist, and producer. He began his career in film and television as a producer of the pioneering gay film The Boys in the Band (1970) and as the producer of the drama film The Panic in Needle Park (1971). He turned to writing in the early 1970s. After the 1982 murder of his daughter Dominique, an actress who had her breakthrough role in the film Poltergeist that year, he began to write about the interaction of wealth and high society with the judicial system. Dunne was a frequent contributor to Vanity Fair, and, beginning in the 1980s, often appeared on television discussing crime.
1930
Lon Chaney
American actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1883)
Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney was an American actor and makeup artist. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and afflicted, characters and for his groundbreaking artistry with makeup. Chaney was known for his starring roles in such silent horror films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). His ability to transform himself using makeup techniques that he developed earned him the nickname "The Man of a Thousand Faces".
1978
Charles Boyer
French-American actor, singer, and producer (born 1899)
Charles Boyer was a French-American actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American films during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised, in romantic dramas such as The Garden of Allah (1936), Algiers (1938), and Love Affair (1939), as well as the mystery-thriller Gaslight (1944). He received four Oscar nominations for Best Actor. He also appeared as himself on the CBS sitcom I Love Lucy.
1944
Adam von Trott zu Solz
German lawyer and diplomat (born 1909)
Friedrich Adam von Trott zu Solz was a German lawyer and diplomat who was involved in the conservative resistance to Nazism. A declared opponent of the Nazi regime from the beginning, he actively participated in the Kreisau Circle of Helmuth James Graf von Moltke and Peter Yorck von Wartenburg. Together with Claus von Stauffenberg and Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg, he conspired in the 20 July plot and was supposed to have been appointed Secretary of State in the German Foreign Office and lead negotiator with the Western Allies if the plot had succeeded.
2006
Clyde Walcott
Barbadian cricketer and coach (born 1926)
Sir Clyde Leopold Walcott OBE KA GCM was a West Indian cricketer. Walcott was a member of the "three W's", the other two being Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell: all were very successful batsmen from Barbados, born within a short distance of each other in Bridgetown, Barbados in a period of 18 months from August 1924 to January 1926; all made their Test cricket debut against England in 1948. In the mid-1950s, Walcott was arguably the best batsman in the world. He was the manager of the West Indian squads which won the 1975 Cricket World Cup and the 1979 Cricket World Cup. In later life, he had an active career as a cricket administrator, and was the first non-English and non-white chairman of the International Cricket Council.
1346
Rudolph
Duke of Lorraine (born 1320)
Rudolph, called the Valiant, was the Duke of Lorraine from 1328 to his death. He was the son and successor of Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine and Elisabeth of Austria, the daughter of King Albert I of Germany of the House of Habsburg. Though he was but nine years of age when his father died and he succeeded to the duchy under the regency of his mother, he was a warrior prince, taking part in four separate wars in Lorraine, France, Brittany, and Iberia. He was killed at the Battle of Crécy.
1813
Theodor Körner
German soldier and author (born 1791)
Carl Theodor Körner was a German poet and soldier. After having lived for some time in Vienna, where he wrote some light comedies and other works for the Burgtheater, he became a soldier and joined the Lützow Free Corps in the German uprising against Napoleon. During this time, he displayed personal courage in many fights, and inspired his comrades by fiery patriotic lyrics he composed. One of these was the "Schwertlied", composed during a lull in fighting, only a few hours before his death, and "Lützow's wilde Jagd", each set to music by both Carl Maria von Weber and Franz Schubert. He was often called the "German Tyrtaeus".
2000
Bunny Austin
English tennis player (born 1906)
Henry Wilfred "Bunny" Austin was an English tennis player. For 74 years he was the last Briton to reach the final of the men's singles at the Wimbledon Championships, until Andy Murray did so in 2012. He was also a finalist at the 1937 French Championships and a championship winner at Queen's Club. Along with Fred Perry, he was a vital part of the British team that won the Davis Cup in three consecutive years (1933–1935). He is also remembered as the first tennis player to wear shorts.
1980
Tex Avery
American animator, director, and voice actor (born 1908)
Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery was an American animator, film director and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American animation. His most significant work was for Leon Schlesinger Productions and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's cartoon department, where he was crucial in the creation and evolution of famous animated characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd for Warner Bros. and Droopy, Butch Dog, Screwy Squirrel, The Wolf, Red Hot Riding Hood, and George and Junior for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
1992
Bob de Moor
Belgian author and illustrator (born 1925)
Robert Frans Marie De Moor, better known under his pen name Bob de Moor, was a Belgian comics creator. Chiefly noted as an artist, he is considered an early master of the Ligne claire style. He wrote and drew several comics series on his own, but also collaborated with Hergé on several volumes of The Adventures of Tintin. He completed the unfinished story Professor Sató's Three Formulae, Volume 2: Mortimer vs. Mortimer of the Blake and Mortimer series, after the death of the author Edgar P. Jacobs.
2013
John J. Gilligan
American soldier and politician, 62nd Governor of Ohio (born 1921)
John Joyce "Jack" Gilligan was an American politician who served as the 62nd governor of Ohio from 1971 to 1975. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented Ohio's 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1965 to 1967 and later served as the 6th administrator of the United States Agency for International Development. Gilligan was a World War II veteran and the father of Kathleen Sebelius, who served as governor of Kansas and United States Secretary of Health and Human Services.
2003
Jim Wacker
American football player and coach (born 1937)
James Herbert Wacker was an American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Texas Lutheran University (1971–1975), North Dakota State University (1976–1978), Southwest Texas State University—now Texas State University (1979–1982), Texas Christian University (1983–1991), and the University of Minnesota (1992–1996), compiling a career college football record of 159–131–3. Wacker won two NAIA Division II National Championships with Texas Lutheran in 1974 and 1975, and two NCAA Division II Football Championships with Southwest Texas State, in 1981 and 1982.
2018
Neil Simon
American playwright and author (born 1927)
Marvin Neil Simon was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He received three Tony Awards and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for four Academy Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards. He was awarded a Special Tony Award in 1975, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1991, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995 and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2006.
2024
Sven-Göran Eriksson
Swedish footballer and manager (born 1948)
Sven-Göran Eriksson was a Swedish football player and manager. After a playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management between 1977 and 2001, winning 18 trophies with a variety of league clubs in Sweden, Portugal, and Italy. In European competition, he won the UEFA Cup in 1982, the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1999, the last edition of the tournament before its abolition, the UEFA Super Cup in 1999, and reached the European Cup final in 1990.
1945
Franz Werfel
Austrian author and playwright (born 1890)
Franz Viktor Werfel was a Czech novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, a novel based on events that took place during the Armenian genocide of 1915, and The Song of Bernadette (1941), a novel about the life and visions of the French Catholic saint Bernadette Soubirous, which was made into a Hollywood film of the same name.
1976
Lotte Lehmann
German-American soprano (born 1888)
Charlotte "Lotte" Pauline Sophie Lehmann was a German-American dramatic soprano noted for her successful performances with international opera houses, on the recital stage and in teaching. She gave memorable appearances in the operas of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Puccini, Mozart, and Massenet. The Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Sieglinde in Die Walküre and the title-role in Fidelio are considered her greatest roles. During her long career, Lehmann also made almost five hundred recordings in both opera and art song.