July 26

Historic Events

2016

The Sagamihara stabbings occur in Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. Nineteen people are killed. ›

2016

Hillary Clinton becomes the first female nominee for president of the United States by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. ›

2016

Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth. ›

2011

A Royal Moroccan Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashes near Guelmim Airport in Guelmim, Morocco. All 80 people on board are killed. ›

2009

The militant Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram attacks a police station in Bauchi, leading to reprisals by the Nigeria Police Force and four days of violence across multiple cities. ›

2008

Fifty-six people are killed and over 200 people are injured, in the Ahmedabad bombings in India. ›

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, resulting in floods killing over 5,000 people. ›

1999

Kargil conflict officially comes to an end. The Indian Army announces the complete eviction of Pakistani intruders. ›

1993

Asiana Airlines Flight 733 crashes into a ridge on Mt. Ungeo on its third attempt to land at Mokpo Airport, South Korea. Sixty-eight of the 116 people on board are killed. ›

1990

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is signed into law by President George H. W. Bush. ›

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. ›

1977

The National Assembly of Quebec imposes the use of French as the official language of the provincial government. ›

1974

Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis forms the country's first civil government after seven years of military rule. ›

1971

Apollo program: Launch of Apollo 15 on the first Apollo "J-Mission", and first use of a Lunar Roving Vehicle. ›

1968

Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Trương Đình 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. ›

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 (present-day North Macedonia) leaves 1,100 dead. ›

1963

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development votes to admit Japan. ›

1958

Explorer program: Explorer 4 is launched. ›

1957

Carlos Castillo Armas, dictator of Guatemala, is assassinated. ›

1956

Following the World Bank's refusal to fund building the Aswan Dam, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, sparking international condemnation. ›

1953

Cold War: Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution. The movement took the name of the date: 26th of July Movement ›

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. ›

1953

Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment repel a number of Chinese assaults against a key position known as The Hook during the Battle of the Samichon River, just hours before the Armistice Agreement is signed, ending the Korean War. ›

1952

King Farouk of Egypt abdicates in favor of his son Fuad. ›

1951

Walt Disney's 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, premieres in London, England, United Kingdom. ›

1948

U.S. president Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the military of the United States. ›

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, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council. ›

1946

Aloha Airlines begins service from Honolulu International Airport. ›

1945

The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power. ›

1945

World War II: The Potsdam Declaration is signed in Potsdam, Germany. ›

1945

World War II: HMS Vestal is the last British Royal Navy ship to be sunk in the war. ›

1945

World War II: The USS Indianapolis arrives at Tinian with components and enriched uranium for the Little Boy nuclear bomb. ›

1944

World War II: The Red Army enters Lviv, a major city in western Ukraine, capturing it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jews survive out of 160,000 living in Lviv prior to occupation. ›

1941

World War II: Battle of Grand Harbour, British forces on Malta destroy an attack by the Italian Decima Flottiglia MAS. Fort St Elmo Bridge covering the harbour is demolished in the process. ›

1941

World War II: In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indochina, the United States, Britain and the Netherlands freeze all Japanese assets and cut off oil shipments. ›

1937

Spanish Civil War: End of the Battle of Brunete with the Nationalist victory. ›

1936

Spanish Civil War: Germany and Italy decide to intervene in the war in support for Francisco Franco and the Nationalist faction. ›

1936

King Edward VIII, in one of his few official duties before he abdicates the throne, officially unveils the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. ›

1918

Emmy Noether's paper, which became known as Noether's theorem was presented at Göttingen, Germany, from which conservation laws are deduced for symmetries of angular momentum, linear momentum, and energy. ›

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). ›

1899

Ulises Heureaux, the 27th President of the Dominican Republic, is assassinated. ›

1897

Anglo-Afghan War: The Pashtun fakir Saidullah leads an army of more than 10,000 to begin a siege of the British garrison in the Malakand Agency of the North West Frontier Province of India. ›

1892

Dadabhai Naoroji is elected as the first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain. ›

1891

France annexes Tahiti. ›

1890

In Buenos Aires, Argentina the Revolución del Parque takes place, forcing President Miguel Ángel Juárez Celman's resignation. ›

1887

Publication of the Unua Libro, founding the Esperanto movement. ›

1882

Premiere of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal at Bayreuth. ›

1882

The Republic of Stellaland is founded in Southern Africa. ›

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. ›

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. ›

1848

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is established by Nelson Dewey, first Governor of Wisconsin. ›

1847

Liberia declares its independence from the United States. France and the United Kingdom are the first to recognize the new nation. ›

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. ›

1814

The Swedish–Norwegian War begins. ›

1803

The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world's first public railway, opens in south London, United Kingdom. ›

1788

New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States. ›

1778

The Emigration of Christians from the Crimea in 1778 begins. ›

1775

The office that would later become the United States Post Office Department is established by the Second Continental Congress. Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania takes office as Postmaster General. ›

1758

French and Indian War: The Siege of Louisbourg ends with British forces defeating the French and taking control of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. ›

1757

A French army under Marshal d'Estrées defeats a smaller British-German army under the duke of Cumberland in the battle of Hastenbeck. ›

1745

The first recorded women's cricket match takes place near Guildford, England. ›

1703

During the Bavarian Rummel the rural population of Tyrol drove the Bavarian Prince-Elector Maximilian II Emanuel out of North Tyrol with a victory at the Pontlatzer Bridge and thus prevented the Bavarian Army, which was allied with France, from marching as planned on Vienna during the War of the Spanish Succession. ›

1581

Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Act of Abjuration): The northern Low Countries declare their independence from the Spanish king, Philip II. ›

1579

Francis Drake, the English explorer, discovers a "fair and good" bay on the coast of the Pacific Northwest (probably Oregon or Washington). ›

1529

Francisco Pizarro González, Spanish conquistador, is appointed governor of Peru. ›

1509

Krishnadevaraya ascends to the throne as Emperor of Vijayanagara, marking the beginning of the regeneration of the Vijayanagara Empire. ›

1309

Henry VII is recognized King of the Romans (Holy Roman Emperor) by Pope Clement V. ›

1184

Erfurt latrine disaster: At a Hoftag, a meeting with local notables, organized by Henry VI, the building collapses and many of the nobles in attendance drown in the sewage pits below. ›

920

Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at the Battle of Valdejunquera. ›

811

Battle of Pliska: Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I is killed and his heir Staurakios is seriously wounded. ›

657

First Fitna: In the Battle of Siffin, troops led by Ali ibn Abu Talib clash with those led by Muawiyah I. ›