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August 2026 www.OverTheHumpSaver.com PAGE 54

100 YEARS AGO: HISTORICAL

EVENTS FROM AUGUST 1926

T he month of August
has been home
to many historical
events over the
years. Here’s a look
at some that helped
to shape the world in August 1926.

A thrown dagger narrowly misses
the head of Spanish dictator Miguel controlled breathing to remain is believed to contain the remains
Primo de Rivera on August 1 in conscious within the coffin for one of British Army officer and colonial
Barcelona. A 34-year-old anarchist is hour and 31 minutes. administrator Field Marshal Herbert
arrested for the failed assassination Kitchener, but the coroner finds the
attempt.
The first British Grand Prix is held at coffin contains only tar upon opening
the Brooklands motor racing circuit it in the presence of police. The stunt
The French passenger ship S.S. near Surrey, England, on August 7. is later deemed a hoax.
Lotus strikes the Turkish freighter Frenchman Louis Wagner wins the
S.S. Bozkourt on August 2. Eight
passengers drown, and the captain of inaugural race. A bloodless coup overthrows Greek
the Lotus is eventually charged with dictator Theodoros Pangalos on
liability for the deaths. Richard Reese Whittemore, the August 22. The coup is led by General
leader of a group of bank robbers Georgios Kondylis, who places
On August 3, the Mount Batur active in the mid-Atlantic and eastern Pangalos on the naval destroyer
volcano on the island of Bali erupts United States in the mid-1920s, is Pergamos.
for the first time since 1917. The hanged on August 13. Whittemore’s
village of Karang Anyar is destroyed wife, Margaret, also was arrested but Popular Italian film actor Rudolph
during the eruption, but all residents was never convicted for her role in Valentino dies in New York on
safely evacuate. the robberies. August 23. Valentino, just 31 at
the time of his death, underwent
Shortly before noon on August 3, the Father Luis Bátiz Sainz is arrested emergency surgery for a ruptured
first traffic lights in London come into by Mexican government agents in appendix eight days prior to his
operation at Piccadilly Circus. the state of Zacatecas on August 14. death but was stricken with a case
The arrest is part of a government- of then-untreatable pleuritis while
A hurricane strikes Nova Scotia on orchestrated purge of Roman convalescing on August 21.
August 10. Two fishing boats capsize Catholic clerics, and Bátiz is executed
during the storm, claiming the lives of by firing squad the next day. Forty-four coal miners are killed
48 individuals. after an explosion at a Clearfield
Marshal Józef Pilsudski conducts Bituminous Coal Corporation mine in
Magician and escape artist Harry a purge of the Polish military on Clymer, Pennsylvania, on August 26.
Houdini survives being sealed in a August 21. The purge is conducted to
coffin and lowered into a swimming remove any potential challenges to The last voting rights of Italians
pool at a New York City hotel on Pilsudski’s authority. are removed when the Fascist
August 5. Houdini, who would die government abolishes the popular
from peritonitis less than three A coffin brought from Norway arrives elections of municipal officials on
months after the stunt, used in London on August 16. The coffin August 30.