What happened on your birthday?

What’s Your Vietnam War Draft Lottery Number?

The Vietnam War draft lottery ran from 1969 to 1972. If you were born on August 26, would your number have been called?

  • Vietnam War 1969 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    245
  • Vietnam War 1970 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    91
  • Vietnam War 1971 Lottery
    Not CalledNot drafted
    348
  • Vietnam War 1972 Lottery
    CalledDrafted
    76

Read on to learn more about the Vietnam war draft lottery.





more events on August 26

  • 1999

    Russia begins the Second Chechen War in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade.

  • 1978

    Sigmund Jähn becomes first German to fly in space, on board Soviet Soyuz 31.

  • Albino Luciani elected to the Papacy and chooses the name Pope John Paul I ; his 33-day reign is among the shortest in Papal history.

  • 1977

    The National Assembly of Quebec adopts Bill 101, Charter of the French Language, making French the official language of the Canadian province.

  • 1970

    Melissa Ann McCarthy, comedian, writer, producer, Emmy-winning actress (Mike & Molly TV series).

  • A nationwide Women’s Strike for Equality, led by Betty Friedan on the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment calls attention to unequal pay and other gender inequalities in America.

  • 1966

    South African Defense Force troops attack a People’s Liberation Army of Nambia at Omugulugwombashe, the first battle of the 22-year Namibian War of Independence.

  • 1960

    Branford Marsalis, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader.

  • 1957

    Nikky Finney (Lynn Carol Finney), poet; won National Book Award (Head Off & Split).

  • Ford Motor Company reveals the Edsel, its latest luxury car.

  • 1952

    Will Shortz, American puzzle creator and editor.

  • 1945

    Tom Ridge, first US Secretary of Homeland Security.

  • 1944

    Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard Alexander Walter George).

  • 1943

    The United States recognizes the French Committee of National Liberation.

  • 1940

    Donald Leroy “Don” LaFontaine, voice-over actor; recorded more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers.

  • 1922

    Irving Levine, journalist; first American television correspondent to be accredited in the Soviet Union.

  • 1920

    The 19th Amendment to the Constitution is officially ratified, giving women the right to vote.

  • 1910

    Mother Teresa (Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu), missionary, Nobel Prize laureate for her work in the slums of Calcutta.

  • 1906

    Albert Sabin, medical researcher, developed the polio vaccine.

  • Christopher Isherwood, English novelist and playwright, author of Goodbye to Berlin, the inspiration for the play I am a Camera and the musical and film Cabaret.

  • 1898

    Peggy Guggenheim, art patron and collector.

  • 1883

    The Indonesian island of Krakatoa erupts in the largest explosion recorded in history, heard 2,200 miles away in Madagascar. The resulting destruction sends volcanic ash up 50 miles into the atmosphere and kills almost 36,000 people–both on the island itself and from the resulting 131-foot tidal waves that obliterate 163 villages on the shores of nearby Java and Sumatra.

  • 1875

    John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir, writer and governor general of Canada, famous for his book The Thirty-Nine Steps.

  • 1874

    Lee de Forest, physicist, inventor, considered the father of radio.

  • 1862

    Confederate General Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson seizes Manassas Junction, Virginia, and moves to encircle Union forces under General John Pope.

  • 1789

    The Constituent Assembly in Versailles, France, approves the final version of the Declaration of Human Rights.

  • 1743

    Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry who defined the role of oxygen and named it.

  • 1429

    Joan of Arc makes a triumphant entry into Paris.

  • 1071

    Turks defeat the Byzantine army under Emperor Romanus IV at Manzikert, Eastern Turkey.