July 26

July 26 is the 207th day of the year (208th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 158 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

• 657 – First Fitna: the Battle of Siffin see the troops led by Ali ibn Abi Talib and those led by Muawiyah I clashing.
• 811 – Battle of Pliska: Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus I is killed and his heir Stauracius is seriously wounded.
• 920 – Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at Pamplona.
• 1309 – Henry VII is recognized King of the Romans by Pope Clement V.
• 1469 – Wars of the Roses: the Battle of Edgecote Moor pitting the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of Edward IV of England takes place.
• 1581 – Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Act of Abjuration): the northern Low Countries declare their independence from the Spanish king, Philip II.
• 1745 – The first recorded women's cricket match takes place near Guildford, England.
• 1758 – French and Indian War: the Siege of Louisbourg ends with British forces defeating the French and taking control of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
• 1775 – The office that would later become the United States Post Office Department is established by the Second Continental Congress.
• 1788 – New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States.
• 1803 – The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world's first public railway, opens in south London.
• 1822 – José de San Martín arrives in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to meet with Simón Bolívar.
• 1822 – First day of the three-day Battle of Dervenakia, between the Ottoman Empire force led by Mahmud Dramali Pasha and the Greek Revolutionary force led by Theodoros Kolokotronis.
• 1847 – Liberia declares independence.
• 1861 – American Civil War: George B. 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.
• 1882 – Premiere of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal at Bayreuth.
• 1882 – The Republic of Stellaland is founded in Southern Africa.
• 1887 – Publication of the Unua Libro, founding the Esperanto movement.
• 1890 – In Buenos Aires the Revolución del Parque takes place, forcing President Juárez Celman's resignation.
• 1891 – France annexes Tahiti.
• 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).
• 1914 – Serbia and Bulgaria interrupt diplomatic relationship.
• 1936 – The Axis Powers decide to intervene in the Spanish Civil War.
• 1936 – King Edward VIII, in one of his few official duties before he abdicates the throne, officially unveils the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
• 1937 – End of the Battle of Brunete 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.
• 1944 – World War II: the Soviet army enters Lviv, a major city in western Ukraine, liberating it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jews survive out of 160,000 living in Lviv prior to occupation.
• 1944 – The first German V-2 rocket hits Great Britain.
• 1945 – The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power.
• 1945 – The Potsdam Declaration is signed in Potsdam, Germany.
• 1945 – The US Navy cruiser USS Indianapolis arrives at Tinian with parts of the warhead for the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
• 1946 – Aloha Airlines begins service from Honolulu International Airport
• 1947 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council.
• 1948 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military of the United States.
• 1952 – King Farouk of Egypt abdicates in favor of his son Fuad.
• 1953 – Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution.
• 1953 – Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle orders an anti-polygamy law enforcement crackdown on residents of Short Creek, Arizona, which becomes known as the Short Creek Raid.
• 1956 – Following the World Bank's refusal to fund building the Aswan High Dam, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation.
• 1957 – Carlos Castillo Armas, dictator of Guatemala, is assassinated.
• 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 – An earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia (now in the Republic of Macedonia) leaves 1,100 dead.
• 1963 – The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development votes to admit Japan.
• 1965 – Full independence is granted to the Maldives.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Trương Đình Dzũ 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.
• 1974 – Greek Prime Minister Constantinos Karamanlis forms the country's first civil government after seven years of military rule.
• 1975 – Formation of a military triumvirate in Portugal.
• 1977 – The National Assembly of Quebec imposes the use of French as the official language of the provincial government.

Space Shuttle Discovery STS-114 launch on July 26, 2005.

• 1989 – A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
• 1990 – The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is signed into law by President George H. W. Bush.
• 2005 – Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission – Launch of Discovery, NASA's first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster in 2003.
• 2005 – Mumbai, India receives 99.5cm of rain (39.17 inches) within 24 hours, bringing the city to a halt for over 2 days.

Births

• 1030 – Stanislaus of Szczepanów, Polish bishop and martyr (d. 1079)
• 1678 – Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1711)
• 1739 – George Clinton, 4th Vice President of the USA (d. 1812)
• 1782 – John Field, Irish composer (d. 1837)
• 1791 – Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian composer (d. 1844)
• 1802 – Mariano Arista, 42nd President of Mexico (d. 1855)
• 1829 – Auguste Marie François Beernaert, Belgian statesman, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (d. 1912)
• 1846 – Texas Jack Omohundro, American frontier scout, actor and cowboy (d. 1880)
• 1854 – Philippe Gaucher, French dermatologist (d. 1918)
• 1855 – Ferdinand Tönnies, German sociologist (d. 1936)
• 1856 – George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel Laureate (d. 1950)
• 1858 – Tom Garrett, Australian cricketer (d. 1943)
• 1865 – Philipp Scheidemann, First Chancellor of the Weimar Republic (d. 1939)
• 1874 – Serge Koussevitsky, Russian conductor (d. 1951)
• 1875 – Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (d. 1961)
• 1875 – Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (d. 1939)
• 1880 – Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Ukrainian statesman (d. 1951)
• 1885 – André Maurois, French author (d. 1967)
• 1886 – Lars Hanson, Swedish actor (d. 1965)
• 1888 – Reginald Hands, South African cricketer (d. 1918)
• 1892 – Sam Jones, American baseball player (d. 1966)
• 1893 – George Grosz, German painter (d. 1959)
• 1894 – Aldous Huxley, English-born author (d. 1963)
• 1895 – Jane Bunford, Britain's tallest-ever person (d. 1922)
• 1895 – Gracie Allen, American actress and comedian (d. 1964)
• 1896 – Henry Birkin, British racing driver (d. 1933)
• 1897 – Paul Gallico, American novelist (d. 1976)
• 1903 – Estes Kefauver, U.S. Senator from Tennessee (d. 1963)
• 1906 – Irena Iłłakowicz, Polish agent of Intelligence (d. 1943)
• 1908 – Lucien Wercollier, Luxembourgish sculptor (d. 2002)
• 1909 – Peter Thorneycroft, British politician (d. 1994)
• 1909 – Vivian Vance, American actress (d. 1979)
• 1914 – Erskine Hawkins, American trumpeter and bandleader (d. 1993)
• 1914 – Ellis Kinder, American baseball player (d. 1968)
• 1918 – Marjorie Lord, American actress
• 1919 – Virginia Gilmore, American actress (d. 1986)
• 1920 – Bob Waterfield, American football player (d. 1983)
• 1921 – Jean Shepherd, American writer, radio and TV personality and actor (d. 1999)
• 1922 – Blake Edwards, American film director
• 1922 – Jason Robards, American actor (d. 2000)
• 1923 – Jan Berenstain, American author
• 1923 – Hoyt Wilhelm, American baseball player (d. 2002)
• 1925 – Jerzy Einhorn, Polish-born Swedish doctor, researcher, politician and concentration camp survivor (d. 2000)
• 1926 – James Best, American actor
• 1926 – Ana María Matute, Spanish writer
• 1927 – Gulabrai Ramchand, Indian cricketer (d. 2003)
• 1928 – Don Beauman, British racing driver (d. 1955)
• 1928 – Francesco Cossiga, 8th President of the Italian Republic
• 1928 – Ibn-e-Safi, Pakistani fiction writer and Urdu poet (d. 1980)
• 1928 – Stanley Kubrick, American film director (d. 1999)
• 1928 – Peter Lougheed, Canadian politician
• 1929 – Marc Lalonde, French-Canadian politician
• 1929 – Alexis Weissenberg, Bulgarian-born French pianist
• 1929 – Joe Jackson, American manager, boxer and talent scout, the patriarch of the Jackson family
• 1931 – Takashi Ono, Japanese gymnast
• 1931 – Telê Santana, Brazilian football manager and player (d. 2006)
• 1936 – Mary Millar, English actress (d. 1998)
• 1938 – Darlene Love, American singer
• 1939 – John Howard, 25th Prime Minister of Australia
• 1939 – Bob Lilly, American football player
• 1940 – Dobie Gray, American singer
• 1940 – Mary Jo Kopechne, American aide to Robert F. Kennedy (d. 1969)
• 1940 – Bobby Rousseau, Quebec ice hockey player
• 1940 – Tolis Voskopoulos, Greek singer
• 1941 – Bobby Hebb, American singer-songwriter
• 1941 – Jean Baubérot, French historian and sociologist
• 1941 – Brenton Wood, American singer-songwriter
• 1942 – Vladimír Mečiar, Slovakian politician, 1st and 3rd Prime Minister of Slovakia
• 1942 – Teddy Pilette, Belgian racing driver
• 1943 – Peter Hyams, American film director
• 1943 – Mick Jagger, English singer (The Rolling Stones)
• 1944 – Kiel Martin, American actor (d. 1990)
• 1945 – Betty Davis, American funk, rock and soul singer
• 1945 – Helen Mirren, English actress
• 1948 – Herbert Wiesinger, German pairs skater
• 1949 – Roger Taylor, English drummer and vocalist (Queen)
• 1949 – Thaksin Shinawatra, 23rd Prime Minister of Thailand
• 1950 – Susan George, English actress
• 1950 – Nelinho, Brazilian footballer
• 1950 – Rich Vogler, American race car driver (d. 1990)
• 1951 – Rick Martin, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1953 – Robert Phillips, American classical guitarist
• 1953 – Edie Mirman, American voice actress
• 1954 – Vitas Gerulaitis, American tennis player (d. 1994)
• 1955 – Aleksandrs Starkovs, Latvian footballer
• 1956 – Dorothy Hamill, American figure skater
• 1956 – Tommy Rich, American professional wrestler
• 1957 – Nana Visitor, American actress
• 1957 – Yuen Biao, Hong Kong actor
• 1957 – Hart Hanson, American television writer and producer
• 1958 – Angela Hewitt, Canadian classical pianist
• 1959 – Rick Bragg, American writer
• 1959 – Kevin Spacey, American actor
• 1959 – Michael Ross, American serial killer (d. 2005)
• 1961 – Gary Cherone, American vocalist (Extreme, Van Halen)
• 1961 – Andy Connell, English keyboardist (Swing Out Sister, A Certain Ratio)
• 1961 – Dimitris Saravakos, Greek footballer
• 1962 – Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Irish fiddler and vocalist (Altan)
• 1964 – Sandra Bullock, American actress
• 1964 – Ralf Metzenmacher, German painter and designer
• 1964 – Danny Woodburn, American actor
• 1965 – Jeremy Piven, American actor
• 1967 – Anthony Durante, American professional wrestler (d. 2003)
• 1967 – Tim Schafer, American computer game designer
• 1968 – Olivia Williams, English actress
• 1968 – Frédéric Diefenthal, French actor and director
• 1969 – Greg Colbrunn, American baseball player
• 1970 – Joan Wasser, American singer-songwriter and violinist (Dambuilders)
• 1971 – Khaled Mahmud, Bangladeshi cricketer
• 1972 – Nathan Buckley, Australian rules footballer
• 1973 – Kate Beckinsale, British actress
• 1973 – Chris Pirillo, American TV host and blogger
• 1973 – Lenka Šarounová, Czech astronomer
• 1974 – Dean Sturridge, English footballer
• 1974 – Daniel Negreanu, Canadian poker player
• 1974 – Dan Konopka, American drummer (OK Go)
• 1975 – Joe Smith, American basketball player
• 1976 – Brad Wilkins, American architect
• 1976 – Tanja Szewczenko, German figure skater
• 1977 – Martin Laursen, Danish footballer
• 1977 – Rebecca St. James, Australian-born singer
• 1979 – Friedrich Michau, German rugby player
• 1979 – Derek Paravicini, British autistic savant
• 1979 – Peter Sarno, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1979 – Mageina Tovah, American actress
• 1979 – Erik Westrum, American ice hockey player
• 1980 – Dave Baksh, Canadian guitarist (Sum 41)
• 1980 – Lee Dong-gun, South Korean actor
• 1981 – Abe Forsythe, Australian actor and director
• 1982 – Chez Starbuck, American actor
• 1983 – Delonte West, American basketball player
• 1983 – Roderick Strong, American professional wrestler
• 1984 – Kyriakos Ioannou, Cypriot high jumper
• 1985 – Marcus Benard, American football player
• 1985 – Gaël Clichy, French footballer
• 1985 – Mugdha Godse, Indian actress and model
• 1987 – Fredy Montero, Colombian soccer player
• 1987 – Miriam McDonald, Canadian actress
• 1988 – Francia Raisa, American actress
• 1989 – Areti Ketime, Greek singer and santouri player
• 1993 – Elizabeth Gillies, American actress
• 1993 – Taylor Momsen, American actress and singer

Deaths

• 796 – King Offa of Mercia (birth year unknown)
• 811 – Nikephoros I Logothetes, Byzantine Emperor (birth year unknown)
• 1380 – Emperor Komyo of Japan (b. 1322)
• 1471 – Pope Paul II (b. 1417)
• 1592 – Armand de Gontaut, baron de Biron, French soldier (b. 1524)
• 1611 – Horio Yoshiharu, Japanese warlord (b. 1542)
• 1680 – John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English writer (b. 1647)
• 1684 – Elena Cornaro Piscopia, Italian mathematician (b. 1646)
• 1712 – Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English statesman (b. 1631)
• 1723 – Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (b. 1660)
• 1801 – Archduke Maximilian Franz of Austria (b. 1756)
• 1863 – Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas (b. 1793)
• 1867 – King Otto of Greece (b. 1815)
• 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)
• 1925 – Antonio Ascari, Italian racing driver (b. 1888)
• 1932 – Fred Duesenberg German-born American automotive pioneer (b. 1876)
• 1934 – Winsor McCay, American cartoonist (b. 1871)
• 1941 – Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician (b. 1875)
• 1942 – Roberto Arlt, Argentinian writer (b. 1900)
• 1952 – Eva Perón, Argentine First Lady (b. 1919)
• 1953 – Nikolaos Plastiras, Greek general and politician (b. 1883)
• 1960 – Maud Menten, Canadian biochemist (b. 1879)
• 1960 – Cedric Gibbons, American art director (b. 1893)
• 1964 – Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe, British politician and race driver (b. 1884)
• 1969 – Frank Loesser, American composer (b. 1910)
• 1970 – Robert Taschereau, French-Canadian jurist (b. 1896)
• 1971 – Diane Arbus, American photographer (b. 1923)
• 1980 – Ibn-e-Safi, Pakistani fiction writer and Urdu poet (b. 1928)
• 1984 – George Gallup, American statistician and opinion pollster (b. 1901)
• 1984 – Ed Gein, American serial killer (b. 1906)
• 1986 – Averell Harriman, American diplomat (b. 1891)
• 1988 – Fazlur Rahman Malik, Pakistani scholar (b. 1919)
• 1990 – Brent Mydland, American keyboardist (Grateful Dead) (b. 1952)
• 1992 – Mary Wells, American singer (b. 1943)
• 1993 – Matthew Ridgeway, American army general (b. 1895)
• 1994 – Christy Henrich, American gymnast (b. 1972)
• 1994 – James Luther Adams, American theologian (b. 1901)
• 1994 – Tonia Marketaki, Greek film director and screenwriter (b. 1942)
• 1994 – Terry Scott, British actor (b. 1927)
• 1995 – Laurindo Almeida, Brazilian guitarist (b. 1917)
• 1995 – Raymond Mailloux, Quebec politician (b. 1918)
• 1995 – George W. Romney, American businessman and politician (b. 1907)
• 2000 – John Tukey, American statistician (b. 1915)
• 2001 – Rex Barber, American WWII aviator (b. 1917)
• 2001 – Peter von Zahn, German journalist (b. 1913)
• 2004 – William A. Mitchell, American food chemist (b. 1911)
• 2005 – Betty Astell, British actress (b. 1912)
• 2005 – Alexander Golitzen, American art director (b. 1908)
• 2005 – Jack Hirshleifer, American economist (b. 1925)
• 2005 – Gilles Marotte, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1945)
• 2007 – Lars Forssell, Swedish writer (b. 1928)
• 2007 – John Normington, English actor (b. 1937)
• 2007 – Skip Prosser, American basketball coach (b. 1950)
• 2009 – Marcey Jacobson, American photographer (b. 1911)

Holidays and observances

• Christian Feast Day:
  • Anne (Western Christianity)
  • Bartolomea Capitanio
  • Blessed Andrew of Phu Yen
  • Saint Paraskevi (Eastern Orthodox Church)
  • Joachim (Anglican Communion)
• Day of the National Rebellion (Cuba)
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Liberia from the United States in 1847.
• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Maldives from the United Kingdom in 1965.
• Kargil Victory Day or Kargil Vijay Diwas (India)

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada