Current Events - August 2026

In a total solar eclipse, the Moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, and for a couple of minutes, day turns to something close to night.

This one crossed Greenland, Iceland, Portugal and northern Spain on August 12, and it was a genuinely big deal in Europe. It was the first total eclipse to touch the European mainland in 27 years.

Duane "Keffe D" Davis was convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of west-coast rapper Tupac Shakur, nearly thirty years after the shooting.

Davis was the only person ever charged in the case. He had spent years publicly describing his role in interviews and in a memoir, statements that became central to the prosecution.

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" (2026) opened to roughly $360 million domestically, the biggest domestic opening weekend in movie history, and went on to become the highest-grossing film of 2026, clearing $2.4 billion worldwide.

Flash floods tore through Grand Canyon National Park on the last weekend of August. More than 60 people were evacuated.

Late-summer monsoon storms make slot canyons and narrow drainages extremely dangerous, water can arrive from a storm miles away, with no rain falling where you're standing.

FUN FACT

A typical season produces seven hurricanes, so it was remarkable that not a single hurricane had formed. Five tropical storms had been named, but none had strengthened into a hurricane, putting the season on pace to challenge the record for the latest first hurricane, set between September 2 and 11 in past years.

The cause was a strengthening "super El Niño," one of the strongest on record. El Niño increases wind shear over the Atlantic, which tears storms apart before they can organize.