July 26: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 158 days remaining.

Events

• 811 - Battle of Pliska; Byzantine emperor Nicephorus I is slain, his heir Stauracius is seriously wounded
• 1139 - Afonso, then a count, is proclaimed 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.
• 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 - José de San Martín arrives in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to meet with Simón Bolívar.
• 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 - The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom General Election, removing Winston Churchill from power.
• 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.
• 1953 - Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle orders a law enforcement crackdown on Short Creek, Arizona, home to a polygamous sect of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
• 1956 - Following the World Bank's decline to fund building the Aswan High Dam, Egyptian leader Gamal 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 - Earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia - 1100 dead
• 1963 - The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development votes to admit Japan.
• 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.
• 2005 - Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery, NASA's first scheduled flight mission (STS-114) after the Columbia Disaster in 2003.
• 2005 - Mumbai (f.k.a. Bombay) - the financial capital and most populated city of India - receives 995mm of rain within 24 hours, bringing the city to a halt for over 2 days. (See: 2005 Maharashtra floods.)

• 1030 - Stanislaus of Szczepanów, St. Stanislaw (d. 1079)
• 1678 - Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1711)
• 1782 - John Field, Irish composer (d. 1837)
• 1791 - Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian composer (d. 1844)
• 1802 - Mariano Arista, President of Mexico (d. 1855)
• 1829 - Auguste Marie Francois Beernaert, Belgian statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1912)
• 1855 - Ferdinand Tönnies, German sociologist (d. 1936)
• 1856 - George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)
• 1865 - Philipp Scheidemann, German politician (d. 1939)
• 1874 - Serge Koussevitsky, Russian conductor (d. 1951)
• 1875 - Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (d. 1961)
• 1875 - Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (d. 1939)
• 1886 - Lars Hanson, Swedish actor (d. 1965)
• 1892 - Sad Sam Jones, baseball player (d. 1966)
• 1894 - Aldous Huxley, English-born author (d. 1963)
• 1897 - Paul Gallico, American author (d. 1976)
• 1903 - Estes Kefauver, U.S. Senator from Tennessee (d. 1963)
• 1908 - Salvador Allende, President of Chile (d. 1973)
• 1909 - Vivian Vance, American actress (d. 1979)
• 1920 - Bob Waterfield, American football player (d. 1983)
• 1921 - Jean Shepherd, American writer (d. 1999)
• 1922 - Blake Edwards, American film director
• 1922 - Jason Robards, American actor (d. 2000)
• 1923 - Hoyt Wilhelm, baseball player (d. 2002)
• 1926 - James Best, American actor
• 1928 - Francesco Cossiga, eighth President of the Italian Republic
• 1928 - Stanley Kubrick, American film director (d. 1999)
• 1939 - John Howard, twenty-fifth Prime Minister of Australia
• 1939 - Bob Lilly, American football player
• 1940 - Mary Jo Kopechne, American aide to Robert F. Kennedy (d. 1969)
• 1942 - Vladimír Mečiar, Slovak president
• 1943 - Mick Jagger, English musician (The Rolling Stones)
• 1945 - Helen Mirren, English actress
• 1949 - Roger Taylor, English musician (Queen)
• 1950 - Nelinho, Brazilian football player
• 1956 - Dorothy Hamill, American figure skater
• 1957 - Nana Visitor, American actress
• 1959 - Kevin Spacey, American actor
• 1961 - Keiko Matsui, Japanese musician and composer
• 1964 - Sandra Bullock, American actress
• 1965 - Jeremy Piven, American actor
• 1969 - Jonty Rhodes, South African cricketer
• 1973 - Kate Beckinsale, British actress
• 1976 - Chad Pennington, American football player
• 1977 - Martin Laursen, Danish footballer
• 1977 - Rebecca St. James, Australian-born musician
• 1980 - Dave Baksh, Canadian guitarist (Sum41)
• 1985 - Gael Clichy, French footballer
• 1993 - Taylor Momsen, American actress

• 456 - Offa, King of Mercia
• 811 - Nicephorus I, Byzantine Emperor (killed in battle)
• 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)
• 1712 - Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English statesman (b. 1631)
• 1723 - Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (b. 1660)
• 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)
• 1935 - Winsor McCay, American cartoonist (b. 1871)
• 1942 - Roberto Arlt, Argentinian writer (b. 1900)
• 1952 - Eva Perón, wife of Argentine President Juan Perón (b. 1919)
• 1953 - Nikolaos Plastiras, Greek general and politician (b. 1883)
• 1969 - Frank Loesser, American composer (b. 1910)
• 1971 - Diane Arbus, American photographer (suicide) (b. 1923)
• 1984 - Ed Gein, American serial killer (b. 1906)
• 1986 - Averell Harriman, American diplomat (b. 1891)
• 1988 - Fazlur Rahman, Pakistani scholar (b. 1919)
• 1992 - Mary Wells, American singer (b. 1943)
• 2001 - Peter von Zahn, German journalist (b. 1913)

• Cuba - Anniversary of the Moncada Barracks Attack Day (1953), Revolution Day
• Liberia - Independence Day
• Maldives - Independence Day
• India - Vijay Divas (end of Kargil War)

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