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)
• 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
• 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

Deaths

• 456 - Offa, king of Mercia
• 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)
• 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

• BBC: On This Day (http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/26)

July 25 - July 27 - June 26 - August 26 -- listing of all days