July 26

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

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