This Day in History
July 26

Copyright © 2006-2024 Ken Polsson
internet e-mail: ken@kpolsson.com
URL: http://kpolsson.com/thisday/
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What happened in history on this day: July 26?

On July 26 in ...

  • 1581 - The States-General renounces King Philip II's sovereignty over the provinces Friesland, Gelderland, Groningen, Holland, Overijssel, Utrecht, and Zeeland.
  • 1643 - In England, Prince Rupert storms Bristol.
  • 1704 - Spain surrenders fortress of Gibralter to England.
  • 1739 - Birth of George Clinton New York, (Democrat-R) fourth Vice President (1805-12).
  • 1775 - Benjamin Franklin is appointed Postmaster General of the Continental Post Office, with salary set at $1000 per year.
  • 1788 - New York becomes 11th state to ratify US Constitution.
  • 1790 - US passes Assumption Act making federal government responsible for state debts.
  • 1796 - Birth of George Catlin; US author, painter of American Indian scenes.
  • 1799 - Birth of Isaac Babbitt; invented Babbitt's metal for bearings.
  • 1805 - Birth of Constantine Brumidi; artist (Myrtle Murdock).
  • 1826 - Birth of Mahlon Loomis in Oppenheim, New York, USA; obtained patent for wireless technology (radio), first wireless telegrapher.
  • 1846 - US Congress authorizes Treasury notes to finance war with Mexico.
  • 1847 - Liberia declares independence from American Colonization Society.
  • 1848 - Matale Rebellion against British rule in Sri Lanka.
  • 1856 - Birth of George Bernard Shaw in Dublin Ireland; dramatist (Pygmalion - Nobel Prize 1925).
  • 1861 - Confederación Granadina name changes to Estados Unidas de Nueva Granada.
  • 1863 - Sam Houston, president of Texas, dies at age 70.
  • 1863 - At Salineville, Ohio, John Hunt Morgan and 364 troops surrender.
  • 1872 - Birth of George Louis Beer; historian (authority on British colonies).
  • 1874 - Birth of Serge Koussevitzky in Vishny-Volotchok, Russia; conductor (Boston Symphony).
  • 1875 - Birth of Carl Gustav Jung in Switzerland; founded analytic psychology.
  • 1876 - Birth of Ernest Schelling in Belvidere, New Jersey, USA; composer/conductor (Victory Ball).
  • 1887 - First Esperanto book is published.
  • 1894 - Birth of Aldous Huxley in England; author (Brave New World).
  • 1895 - Birth of Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen AKA Gracie Allen in San Francisco, California, USA; comedian, actor (Burns and Allen Show on radio and TV), spouse of George Burns.
  • 1899 - Birth of Danton Walker in Mariette, Georgia, USA; columnist (Broadway Spotlight).
  • 1903 - Birth of Donald Voorhees in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA; orchestra leader, musical director (Bell Telephone Hour on radio and TV).
  • 1905 - P Gotz discovers asteroid #568 Cheruskia.
  • 1907 - Birth of Istvan Pelle in Hungary; gymnist (Olympic-gold-1932).
  • 1908 - Birth of Salvador Allende Gossens; Chile's president (1970-73).
  • 1908 - US Federal Bureau of Investigation is established.
  • 1909 - Birth of Vivian Vance AKA Vivian Roberta Jones in Cherryvale, Kansas, USA; actress (Ethel Mertz - I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show).
  • 1913 - Birth of Lou Salica; US flyweight boxer (Olympic-bronze-1932).
  • 1914 - Birth of Erskine Hawkins in Birmingham, Alabama, USA; trumpeter and bandleader ("Tuxedo Junction" (1939)).
  • 1917 - Birth of Bertil Nordahl in Sweden; soccer player (Olympic-gold-1948).
  • 1917 - Birth of Richard Burnell in England; double sculls (Olympic-gold-1948).
  • 1918 - Race riot in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (three whites and one black killed).
  • 1918 - Birth of Marjorie Lord; actress (Make Room for Daddy).
  • 1920 - Birth of Bob Waterfield; NFL quarterback (Cleveland Rams).
  • 1922 - Birth of Blake Edwards; writer/director (10, SOB, Breakfast at Tiffany's).
  • 1922 - Birth of Jason Robards Junior in Chicago, Illinois, USA; Oscar, Tony, and Emmy-winning actor (Inherit the Wind (1998), A Thousand Clowns, Act 1, Any Wednesday).
  • 1922 - Birth of Marjorie Lord in San Francisco, California, USA; actress (Kathy - Danny Thomas Show).
  • 1924 - Birth of Louis Bellson in Rock Falls, Illinois, USA; orchestra leader (Pearl Bailey Show).
  • 1925 - Death of William Jennings Bryan, Christian fundamentalist, five days after public humiliation at the "Monkey Trial" of John Scopes.
  • 1926 - Birth of Don Carter; bowling great (first PBA president).
  • 1926 - Birth of James Best in Corydon, Indiana, USA; actor (Savages, Sounder, Rolling Thunder, The Dukes of Hazzard).
  • 1926 - American National Bar Association incorporates.
  • 1928 - Birth of Stanley Kubrick in New York City, New York, USA; director (2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr Strangelove, Lolita).
  • 1928 - New York Yankees score 11 runs in 12th inning beating Detroit Tigers 12-1.
  • 1929 - Birth of Alexis Weissenberg in Sofia, Bulgaria; pianist (Levintritt-1948).
  • 1929 - Birth of Jean Shepherd; humorist (Playboy satire Award 1966, 1967, 1969).
  • 1931 - Birth of Takashi Ono in Japan; gymnist (Olympic-gold-1956, 1960).
  • 1931 - The millennialist Bible Student movement adopts the name Jehovah's Witnesses at a meeting in Columbus, Ohio.
  • 1933 - Joe Dimaggio ends 61-game hitting streak in Pacific Coast League.
  • 1936 - Birth of Kathryn Hays; actress (Kim - As the World Turns).
  • 1938 - Spanish Loyalists launch counteroffensive, cross the Ebro River, capture many towns.
  • 1939 - New York Yankees catcher Bill Dickey hits three consecutive home runs.
  • 1941 - Birth of Bobby Hebb in Nashville, Tennessee, USA; country singer ("Sunny").
  • 1941 - Birth of Brenton Wood in Shreveport, Louisiana, USA; rocker ("Gimme Little Sign").
  • 1941 - Birth of Darlene Love; singer/actress (Lethal Weapon).
  • 1942 - Birth of Dobie Gray in Brookshire, Texas, USA; singer (In Crowd).
  • 1943 - 120 degrees F (49 degrees C), Tishmoningo, Oklahoma (state record).
  • 1943 - Birth of Mick Jagger; rock vocalist (The Rolling Stones).
  • 1944 - Birth of Kiel Martin in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; actor (Detective John "J.D." La Rue - Hill Street Blues).
  • 1944 - Birth of Micki J King; springboard diver (Olympic-gold-1972).
  • 1945 - Birth of Linda Harrison in Berlin, Maryland, USA; actress (Bracken's World, Planet of the Apes).
  • 1945 - At the Potsdam conference, a final ultimatum is presented to Japan: unconditional surrender or "complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and ... devastation of the Japanese homeland".
  • 1945 - Winston Churchill resigns as Britain's Prime Minister.
  • 1945 - Birth of Helen Mirren; actress (Prime Suspect).
  • 1945 - USS Indianapolis delivers key components of the two nuclear bombs to be dropped on Japan, to Tinian on the Northern Marianas Islands.
  • 1946 - Birth of Helen Mirren [Eleni Mironova] in England; actress (Cook Thief Wife).
  • 1947 - National Security Act establishes the US Central Intelligence Agency.
  • 1948 - Birth of Norair Nurikian; Bulgari bantam weight (Olympic-gold-1972, 1976).
  • 1948 - US President Harry Truman issues Executive Order No. 9981 directing "equality of treatment and opportunity" in armed forces.
  • 1949 - Birth of Roger Taylor; drummer (Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody").
  • 1949 - Birth of William M Shepherd in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA; Captain US Navy/astronaut (STS-27, 41).
  • 1950 - Birth of Susan George in London, England; actress (Straw Dogs, Mandingo, EastEnders, Tales of the Unexpected).
  • 1951 - Birth of William Surles "Bill" McArthur Junior in Laurinburg, North Carolina, USA; Lieutenant Colonel / astronaut.
  • 1952 - Birth of Ludmila Maslakova in the USSR; relay runner (Olympic-silver-1980).
  • 1952 - Eva "Evita" Peron, Argentina's first lady, dies in Buenos Aires at age 33.
  • 1952 - Mickey Mantle hits his first grand-slammer.
  • 1953 - Fidel Castro leads attack on Moncada Barracks, begins Cuban revolution.
  • 1954 - Birth of Vitas Gerulaitis in Brooklyn, New York, USA; tennis star (Australia 1987).
  • 1955 - Birth of Nicholas Walker in Bogota, Colombia; actor (Capitol, Jimmy - General Hospital).
  • 1955 - Ted Allen throws a record 72 consecutive horseshoe ringers.
  • 1956 - Birth of Dorothy Hamill in Connecticut, USA; ice figure skater (Olympic-gold-1976).
  • 1956 - Egyptian leader Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser announces immediate nationalization of the Suez Canal Company.
  • 1957 - Mickey Mantle hits career home run number 200.
  • 1957 - USSR launches first intercontinental multistage ballistic missile.
  • 1958 - Army launches fourth US successful satellite, Explorer IV.
  • 1959 - C Hoffmeister discovers asteroid #2183.
  • 1959 - Birth of Kevin Spacey; actor (Wiseguy, The Murder of Mary Phagan).
  • 1961 - Birth of Andy Connel; rocker (Swingout Sister - "Swingout").
  • 1961 - Birth of Gary Cherone in Boston, Massachusetts, USA; heavy metal vocalist (Extreme - "More Than Words", Van Halen).
  • 1963 - Birth of Andrew C Timmons in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA; guitarist (Danger Danger - "Screw It").
  • 1963 - US Syncom 2, first geosynchronous communications satellite, is launched.
  • 1964 - Birth of Sandra Bullock; actress (Working Girl, George Lopez).
  • 1964 - Teamsters' President Jimmy Hoffa convicted of fraud and conspiracy.
  • 1964 - Train from Povoa de Varzin, Portugal derails near Oporto, 94 die.
  • 1965 - Birth of Jennifer Ashe; actress (As the World Turns).
  • 1965 - Republic of Maldives gains independence from Britain.
  • 1965 - Birth of Jeremy Piven; actor (Entourage, Ellen).
  • 1967 - Minnesota Twins beat New York Yankees 3-2 in 18 innings.
  • 1967 - In the Pulumur region of Turkey, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake occurs. 92 killed, and about 3,000 houses destroyed or made uninhabitable.
  • 1970 - Birth of Cress Williams; actor (Close to Home).
  • 1971 - Apollo 15 launched to the Moon.
  • 1971 - N Chernykh discovers asteroid #1836 Komarov.
  • 1973 - Birth of Mike Burke; New York Yankees president/CEO of Madison Square Garden.
  • 1973 - Birth of Kate Beckinsale; actress (Emma, One Against the Wind).
  • 1974 - Birth of Dan Konopka; drummer (OK Go).
  • 1974 - USSR's Soyuz fails to dock with Salyut 3.
  • 1975 - Soyuz 18B returns to Earth.
  • 1977 - Death of Oskar Morgenstern in Princeton, New Jersey (born in Görlitz, Germany); economist, professor at University of Vienna, Princeton University and New York University, author of Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944).
  • 1978 - Death of Mary Robinson in Soquel, California, USA at age 66; Disney artist (It's a Small World), worked on Disney animation and live films, and parks, named Disney Legend in 1991.
  • 1979 - Birth of Johnson Beharry, British recipient of the Victoria Cross.
  • 1979 - Estimated 109 cm (43 inches) of rain falls in Alvin, Texas (national record).
  • 1981 - Two climbers rappel 550 metres down cliff near Angel Falls, Venezuela.
  • 1981 - E Bowell discovers asteroids #2845 Franklinken and #2882 Tedesco.
  • 1982 - Betty Walker, actress (Steve Lawrence Show), dies at age 54.
  • 1982 - Canada's Anik D1 Comsat launched by US Delta rocket.
  • 1983 - Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czech sets 800m woman's record (1:53.28).
  • 1984 - Death of George Gallup, American statistician and opinion pollster (born 1901).
  • 1984 - Death of Ed "Psycho" Gein, American serial killer (born 1906).
  • 1984 - In the USA, one New York resident wins US$20 million in the state lottery, a new record for unshared win.
  • 1986 - Averell Harriman, statesman, dies in Yorktown Heights, New York at age 94.
  • 1986 - Lebanese kidnappers released Reverend Lawrence Martin Jenco.
  • 1988 - Mike Schmidt sets National League record appearing in 2,155 games at third base.
  • 1989 - A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert Tappan Morris, Junior for releasing a computer virus, making him the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
  • 1990 - Death of Brent Mydland at age 37, found dead of a drug overdose in his California home; keyboard player (Grateful Dead - "Far From Me").
  • 1990 - US beats the Soviet Union 17-0 in baseball at the Goodwill Games.
  • 1990 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act, designed to protect disabled Americans from discrimination.
  • 1991 - Montreal Expos' Mark Gardner no hits Los Angeles Dodgers for 9 innings, but loses in 10th.
  • 1992 - Death of Mary Wells at age 49 of larynx cancer in Los Angeles, California, USA; singer ("My Guy" (1964)).
  • 1993 - Asiana Air Flight 733 crashes into Mt. Ungeo in Haenam, South Korea killing 68.
  • 1995 - Death of Laurindo Almeida in Los Angeles at age 77; one of Brazil's greatest guitarists ("Viva Bossa Nova", five Grammy awards).
  • 1997 - Apple Computer releases Mac OS 8.0 for US$99. Code-name during development was Tempo.
  • 1998 - Death of David-Allen (Chico) Ryan at age 50 in a nursing home in Beverly, Massachusetts, USA; musician (Sha Na Na), actor (Grease).
  • 1999 - The last Checker taxi cab is retired in New York City and auctioned off for approximately US$135,000.
  • 1999 - Death of Trygve Haavelmo, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1911).
  • 2002 - Death of Norman Dale "Buddy" Baker in Sherman Oaks, California, at age 84; musician, composer for hundreds of Disney attractions, movies, TV shows, The Mickey Mouse Club, The Monkey's Uncle, named a Disney Legend in 1998.
  • 2004 - (to July 29) The Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts nominates John Kerry for U.S. President and John Edwards for Vice President.
  • 2005 - Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on its "Return To Flight" mission. This is the first space shuttle flight in nearly 2 1/2 years since the breakup of Space Shuttle Columbia on its return from mission STS-107.
  • 2005 - Mumbai and the Mumbai Conurbation area are submerged in 5-7 feet of water due to heavy rains, making nearby dams release water causing a massive flood, which virtually stops the financial capital of India for 4-5 days.
  • 2005 - Greg Maddux of the Chicago Cubs becomes the 13th pitcher in major league baseball history to register 3,000 strikeouts.
  • 2007 - A 50-pound chunk of white ice crashes through the roof of a house, in Dubuque, Iowa, USA. Other large chunks of ice fall from the clear sky, tearing through nearby trees.
  • 2008 - In India, 19 separate explosions in the western city of Ahmedabad, all within an hour, kill 51 people and wound 200.
  • 2009 - In Donington, Great Britain, round 10 of the FIM MotoGP Championship is won by Andrea Dovizioso.
  • 2009 - In Budapest, Hungary, round 10 of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship is won by Lewis Hamilton.
  • 2009 - Former world boxing champion Vernon Forrest is shot dead in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, the victim of an apparent robbery.
  • 2010 - A joint United Nations - Cambodian tribunal sentences Khmer Rouge commander Kaing Guek Eav to 35 years in prison for overseeing 14,000 deaths in the 1970s. Eav was found guilty of murder, torture, rape, crimes against humanity and other charges as chief of Tuol Sleng prison.
  • 2016 - In Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, two terrorists with knives enter small church, killing 85-year old priest and critically injuring another.
  • 2016 - A man breaks into a care home for disabled in Japan, stabbing over 40 in beds, killing 19.
  • 2016 - Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth.
  • 2017 - Death of Leo Kinnunen, Finnish racing driver (born 1943).
  • 2018 - The share price of Facebook drops by almost 20 percent after the company warns investors that user growth has slowed following the data leak scandal. Over $109 billion is wiped from its market value, the largest single day loss in corporate history.
  • 2018 - Heavy wildfires in Greece leave 87 dead and more than a hundred buildings destroyed.
  • 2019 - (to August 11) The 2019 Pan American Games are held in Lima, Peru.
  • 2022 - Death of James Ephraim Lovelock at age 103; scientist (Shell, NASA, Hewlett-Packard, Pye Chemicals, University of Reading), environmentalist (Gaia theory), inventor (electron capture detector), author (Gaia, Novacene).
  • 2023 - Death of Jean-Jacques Honorat at age 92; Prime Minister of Haiti (1991-1992).
  • 2023 - Death of Sinéad O'Connor at age 56 in London, England; Irish singer-songwriter ("Nothing Compares 2 U" song (1990), Video Music Award winner (Video of the Year, 1990), Grammy Award winner (1991, refused)), actor (Virgin Mary - The Butcher Boy movie (1997)).
  • 2023 - Death of Randy Meisner at age 77 from complication of chronic pulmonary disease in Los Angeles, California, USA; founding member of the Eagles.

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