Ellis Wackett (13 August 1901 – 3 August 1984) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Its chief engineer from 1935 to 1959, he served on the RAAF's Air Board for a record seventeen years and was credited with infusing operations with new standards of airworthiness. Starting as a Royal Australian Navy cadet, he transferred to the Air Force in 1923. He inaugurated parachute instruction within the RAAF and made the country's first freefall descent from a military aircraft in 1926. Wackett rose to air commodore by 1942, assuming the role of Air Member for Engineering and Maintenance, then established the Technical Branch as a separate department of the RAAF in 1948. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Companion of the Order of the Bath. From 1960 to 1968, he was a member of the Australian National Airlines Commission, the parent of Trans Australia Airlines. (Full article...)

Stella Lefty

• ... that musician Stella Lefty (pictured), who had a US top-20 single in May 2026, is the daughter of a billionaire?
• ... that the Eiffel Tower features the names of 72 men, but it was a Femmes et Sciences list that inspired the idea of adding women's names too?
• ... that Dandara dos Santos, a murdered Brazilian, was honored with a sculpture exhibited in Manhattan from 2019 to 2020?
• ... that, during the production of Submarine, director Richard Ayoade insisted on using a 35 mm camera for filming after nobody on the crew wanted to use it?
• ... that Neozoon once made an art exhibition meant to trick visitors to a zoo into thinking that the "non-toed fur coatie" was a real animal?
• ... that subscribers chipped in $1 per week to buy a New York City suburb?
• ... that Kanmon Kaikyo Fireworks Festival is one of the largest fireworks displays in western Japan?
• ... that Gerald of Wales complained in his Speculum Duorum that the archdeacon of Brecon spoke too much Welsh, but that the bishop of St Davids spoke too little?
• ... that Boston City Hall has been compared to Lenin's Mausoleum, an inverted Lincoln Memorial, and a packing crate?

Demi Vollering

• A magnitude 7.4 earthquake strikes Chocó Department, Colombia, leaving at least 254 people dead.
• In cycling, Demi Vollering (pictured) wins the Tour de France Femmes.
• Shootings at a residence and a school in Nonthaburi province, Thailand, leave at least nine people dead.
• A consortium led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund purchases video game publisher Electronic Arts in a leveraged buyout.

August 13

Scene from the 1876 production of Das Rheingold

• 582 – Maurice was crowned as Byzantine emperor, succeeding Tiberius II Constantine.
• 1650 – General George Monck founded Monck's Regiment of Foot, the predecessor to the Coldstream Guards, the oldest regular regiment of the British Army in continuous active service.
• 1876 – A performance of Das Rheingold (scene pictured) opened the first performance of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle at the inaugural Bayreuth Festival, attended by emperors and other composers.
• 1918 – Opha May Johnson became the first woman to enlist in the United States Marine Corps.
• 2010 – After being boarded by Canadian authorities, MV Sun Sea docked in British Columbia and the 492 Sri Lankan Tamil refugee claimants on board were placed in detention.