July 26
(Redirected from
26 July )
July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years ) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar , with 158 days remaining.
Events
1139 - Afonso , then a count, is procclaimed first king of Portugal and declares independence from Castile
1469 - Battle of Edgecote Moor
1581 - Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Oath of Abjuration) . The declaration of independence of the northern Low Countries from the Spanish king, Philip II .
1775 - The birth of what would later become the United States Post Office Department was established by the Second Continental Congress and Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first Postmaster General .
1788 - New York ratifies the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 11th state of the United States .
1803 - the Surrey Iron Railway , arguably the world's first public railway , opens in south London .
1822 - Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín meet in Guayaquil , Ecuador .
1847 - Liberia gains independence.
1861 - American Civil War : George McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run .
1863 - American Civil War: Morgan's Raid ends - At Salineville, Ohio , Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his volunteers are captured by Union forces.
1878 - In California , the poet and American West outlaw calling himself "Black Bart " makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box will be found later with a taunting poem inside.
1887 - L. L. Zamenhof publishes "Dr. Esperanto's International Language" .
1908 - United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation ).
1936 - The Axis Powers decide to intervene in the Spanish Civil War
1941 - World War II : In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China , US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States .
1945 - General election results in the United Kingdom are announced; The Labour Party wins 48% of the vote and a Parliamentary majority of 146 seats (the largest in post-war British history). This is in spite of Conservative Party leader Winston Churchill 's popularity.
1945 - The Potsdam Declaration is signed in Potsdam , Germany .
1947 - Cold War : U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency , Department of Defense , Joint Chiefs of Staff , and the National Security Council .
1948 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military of the United States .
1948 - André Marie becomes Prime Minister of France
1953 - Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks , thus beginning the Cuban Revolution .
1956 - Egyptian leader Gamal Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation.
1958 - Explorer program : Explorer 4 is launched.
1963 - Syncom 2 , the world's first geosynchronous satellite , is launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster.
1963 - Earthquake in Skopje , Yugoslavia - 1800 dead
1966 - Lord Gardiner issues the Practice Statement in the House of Lords stating that the House is not bound to follow its own previous precedent .
1968 - Vietnam War : South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu is sentenced to five years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war .
1971 - Apollo program : Launch of Apollo 15 .
1989 - A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing a computer worm , thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act .
1991 - Paul Reubens , better known as Pee Wee Herman, is arrested for allegedly exposing himself at a Sarasota, Florida adult theatre.
1991 - Sonic the Hedgehog is released for the Sega Megadrive in Japan
Births
1030 - Stanislaus of Szczepanów , St. Stanislaw (d. 1079 )
1782 - John Field , composer (d. 1837 )
1791 - Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart , composer (d. 1844 )
1802 - Mariano Arista , president of Mexico (d. 1855 )
1856 - George Bernard Shaw , author, playwright, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1925 (d. 1950 )
1865 - Philipp Scheidemann , politician (d. 1939 )
1874 - Serge Koussevitsky , Russian conductor (d. 1951 )
1875 - Carl Jung , founder of analytic psychology (d. 1961 )
1875 - Antonio Machado , Spanish poet (d. 1939 )
1892 - Sad Sam Jones , Major League Baseball player (d. 1966 )
1894 - Aldous Huxley , author (d. 1963 )
1897 - Paul Gallico , author (d. 1976 )
1902 - Gracie Allen , actress, comedienne (d. 1964 )
1903 - Estes Kefauver , former United States Senator from Tennessee (d. 1963 )
1908 - Salvador Allende , President of Chile 1970 -1973 (d. 1973 )
1909 - Vivian Vance , actress (d. 1979 )
1920 - Bob Waterfield , National Football League player (d. 1983 )
1921 - Jean Shepherd , writer (d. 1999 )
1922 - Blake Edwards , movie director
1922 - Jason Robards , actor (d. 2000 )
1923 - Hoyt Wilhelm , Major League Baseball player (d. 2002 )
1928 - Stanley Kubrick , movie director (d. 1999 )
1928 - Francesco Cossiga , eighth President of Italy
1939 - John Howard , twenty-fifth Prime Minister of Australia
1939 - Bob Lilly , NFL player
1940 - Mary Jo Kopechne , aide to Robert F. Kennedy (d. 1969 )
1943 - Mick Jagger , musician
1944 - Micki King , Olympic gold medal diver
1945 - Helen Mirren , actress
1949 - Roger Taylor ,musician(Queen )
1956 - Dorothy Hamill , Olympic gold medal figure skater
1957 - Nana Visitor , actress (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 1957 - Elizabeth Wollner-Grandville
1959 - Kevin Spacey , Academy Award winning actor
1964 - Sandra Bullock , actress
1965 - Jeremy Piven , actor
1973 - Kate Beckinsale , actress (Van Helsing 1976 - Chad Pennington , NFL player
1993 - Taylor Momsen , actress
Deaths
456 - Offa , king of Mercia
811 - Nicephorus I , Byzantine emperor (slain in battle)
1380 - Emperor Komyo of Japan , second of the Northern Ashikaga Pretenders (b. 1322 )
1680 - John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester , writer (b. 1647 )
1863 - Sam Houston , American politician, former President of the Republic of Texas (b. 1793 )
1919 - Sir Edward Poynter , British painter (b. 1836 )
1925 - Gottlob Frege , German mathematician and logician (b. 1848 )
1925 - William Jennings Bryan , American politician (b. 1860 )
1932 - Frederick Duesenberg , automotive inventor
1935 - Winsor McCay , early cartoonist (b. 1871 )
1952 - Eva Perón , former wife of President of Argentina (b. 1919 )
1969 - Frank Loesser , composer (b. 1910 )
1971 - Diane Arbus , photographer (b. 1923 )
1984 - Ed Gein , American serial killer (b. 1906 )
1986 - Averell Harriman , American diplomat (b. 1891 )
1988 - Fazlur Rahman , Pakistani scholar (b. 1919 )
2001 - Peter von Zahn , German journalist (b. 1913 )
Holidays and Observances
Cuba - Anniversary of the Moncada Barracks Attack Day (1953), Revolution Day
Liberia - Independence Day
Maldives - Independence Day
India - Vijay Divas (end of Kargil War)
External links
July 25 - July 27 - June 26 - August 26 -- listing of all days
