Aug. 5, 1926: The opening of a world congress of Esperanto-speaking socialists in Leningrad. The banner at top left reads: “Down with language barriers! Long live Esperanto—the workers' tool of understanding.”

Aug. 5, 1926: “Bucking like a bronco. This trick flivver has the rear axle moved forward, throwing the car off balance. In it are Helen Owens, Athleen Dickey, Myrtle Cannon, Mary Lynn Owens and Margaret Wise, all of Fitzgerald, Ga.” (Mid-Week Pictorial)

Aug. 5, 1926: “Soviet Russia insists on tractors! By order of the Soviet government, hand ploughing is to be done away with. The modern tractor is to be inaugurated. A group of peasants watching the new ‘plow’ at work in Russia.” (International News Service)

Aug. 5, 1926: A leopard that had been imported from India to live in a zoo in Middletown, N.J., escaped from its shipment box while it was left unattended and is on the loose, authorities reveal. It’s shot and killed two months later after wandering into an otter trap.

Aug. 5, 1926: “Battling Butler,” Buster Keaton’s latest movie comedy, has its premiere in Chicago. The actor-director stars in an adaptation of a stage musical, playing a weak and pampered heir who poses as a boxer (the Battling Butler of the title) to impress a new love interest. 1/2

Apologies for the posting drought. Appears to have been an international BlueSky outage. Resuming now!

Aug. 5, 1926: France and Germany sign trade treaties providing for lower tariffs on farm products and the exchange of coal and coke from the German Ruhr for steel from French Lorraine. The pact aimed at economic stability for the former WWI enemies is concluded in Paris.

Aug. 5, 1926: Harry Houdini seals himself into a coffin that’s then lowered to the bottom of the pool at the Hotel Shelton in New York. With no visible breathing apparatus, he remains underwater for 1 hour, 31 minutes, before signaling through a buzzer to be brought back to the surface. 1/2

Aug. 5, 1926: Scenes from French-ruled Vietnam. An outdoor lace-making school in Hadong, and a “Tonkinese lady of fashion” in an extremely wide-brimmed hat.

Aug. 4, 1926: “A giant arum lily is now to be seen in bloom at Kew Gardens [London] for the first time since 1889.” (Smith Archive)

August 1926: A view along the Tauentzienstrasse in Berlin.

Aug. 4, 1926: “This is Monbar Minckie, six-weeks-old Boston terrier, belonging to Mrs. H.V. Rusco of 215 East 83rd Street. The animal easily fitted into a four-ounce graduating glass.” (Los Angeles Daily News)

Aug. 4, 1926: L.P. Summers, a former U.S. attorney for Virginia, is indicted on charges of plundering $6,895 he held in trust for an 11-year-old orphan of a WWI veteran. He will end up serving a 15-month sentence in federal prison for payroll padding.

Aug. 4, 1926: Police officers and good Samaritans give first aid to 8-year-old Tony Vincenzo after he banged his head diving into a fountain in front of New York City Hall.

Aug. 4, 1926: C. Julius Ahlemann's clothing store in Leipzig, Germany.

Aug. 4, 1926: The future of energy lies in synthetic substitutes for coal and oil, says Robert T. Haslam, a leading chemical engineer and MIT professor. Not only will these solve any scarcity issues, they will contribute to world peace by ending international rivaries for petroleum resources.

Aug. 4, 1926: Proctor Dougherty is sworn in as president of the Board of Commissioners, or chief executive, of Washington, D.C. The civic leader was appointed by President Coolidge, as people in the District of Columbia don’t have self-rule.

Aug. 4, 1926: Workers sift through the wreckage of the Wiegand Fireworks Co. building in the Chicago suburb of Franklin Park, Ill., after it blew up. Two employees are seriously injured in an accidental blast blamed on heat igniting a fuse.

Aug. 4, 1926: The single-mast ship Leif Erickson, which sailed from Norway to re-create the trans-Atlantic exploration of the Viking explorers, after arriving at Sandy Point, Halifax. It will proceed to Philadelphia for the Sesquicentennial Exposition.

Aug. 4, 1926: Olive Filer and Carroll Fletcher make graceful leaps during the national women’s diving championships in Philadelphia.

Aug. 4, 1926: A fire destroys most of the Quebec town of Saint-Côme-de-Kennebec (now Saint-Côme–Linière). The blaze starts in a creamery, is whipped by a strong wind and burns 80 of the community’s 92 houses.

Aug. 4, 1926: President and Mrs. Coolidge take a vacation from their vacation, relocating from their summer home in Paul Smiths, N.Y., to his childhood homestead in Plymouth, Vt., after a 6½-hour train ride. They bring their dog Prudence Prim, who entertains children at a neighbor's house.

Aug. 4, 1926: The Brazilian coastal steamship Bitar sinks off the northern coast after striking a pontoon at night, with the deaths of 26 people. A few survivors, including the captain and cook, are rescued.

Aug. 4, 1926: Women hit the beach in San Sebastian, Spain, in conservative bathing suits.

Aug. 4, 1926: At Cleveland's Dunn Field, Joe Dugan of the Yankees comes sliding home as Indians catcher Luke Sewell loses track of the ball. The run that scores on a sacrifice fly by pitcher Waite Hoyt allows New York to tie the game, 2-2, but the Indians will win, 4-2.

Aug. 4, 1926: The Navy airship Los Angeles docks with a mooring mast on the tender Patoka off Newport, R.I., after a cruise from its base at Lakehurst, N.J.

Aug. 4, 1926: A Clayton steam railcar—a lightweight, self-propelled train with a built-in vertical boiler—enters service at Kurow, New Zealand.

Aug. 4, 1926: Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the sheik of the then-obscure emirate of Abu Dhabi, is shot to death by his brother Saqr, who then takes the throne as the new ruler. Sultan, too, had killed a brother to assume power in 1922; his successor Saqr will be in turn slain by a brother in 1928.

Aug. 4, 1926: Umberto Nobile, the Italian pilot of the airship Norge that flew over the North Pole in May, receives a hero’s welcome in Rome. He appears with Mussolini, who ignores the leadership of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and boasts, "Italy, it was you who were responsible for the glory."

Aug. 4, 1926: A fire hydrant gives relief from the heat to children in Everett, Mass.