Today in History – July 26 in History
What happened on this day in history – July 26 in History around the world
| 657 | Mu’awiyan defeats Caliph Ali in the Battle of Siffin in Mesopotamia. | |
| 1526 | Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon and colonists leave Santo Domingo for Florida. | |
| 1529 | Francisco Pizarro receives a royal warrant to “discover and conquer” Peru. | |
| 1758 | British forces capture France’s Fortress of Louisbourg after a seven-week siege. | |
| 1759 | The French relinquish Fort Ticonderoga in New York to the British under General Jeffrey Amherst. | |
| 1775 | The Continental Congress establishes a postal system for the colonies with Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general. | |
| 1790 | An attempt at a counter-revolution in France is put down by the National Guard at Lyons. | |
| 1794 | The French defeat an Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus, France. | |
| 1830 | King Charles X of France issues five ordinances limiting the political and civil rights of citizens. | |
| 1847 | Liberia becomes the first African colony to become an independent state. | |
| 1848 | The French army suppresses the Paris uprising. | |
| 1886 | William Gladstone is replaced by Lord Salisbury as Prime Minister of England. | |
| 1918 | Britain’s top war ace, Edward Mannock, is shot down by ground fire on the Western Front. | |
| 1920 | The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified. | |
| 1948 | In an Executive Order, President Harry Truman calls for the end of discrimination and segregation in the U.S. armed forces. | |
| 2005 | The shuttle Discovery launches on mission STS-114, marking a return to space after the shuttle Columbia crash of 2003. | |
| Born on July 26 | ||
| 1796 | George Catlin, American artist and author. | |
| 1856 | George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (Pygmalion, Heartbreak House, Major Barbara). | |
| 1875 | Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist. | |
| 1893 | George Grosz, German satiric artist. | |
| 1895 | Gracie Allen, actress, wife and foil of George Burns. | |
| 1914 | Erskine Hawkins, trumpeter. | |
| 1928 | Stanley Kubrick, film director (Spartacus, 2001: A Space Odyssey). | |
| 1928 | Bernice Rubens, Welsh novelist and filmmaker. | |
| 1943 | Mick [Michael Phillip] Jagger, musician, member of the Rolling Stones. | |
| 1947 | Alan Gordon [Big Al] Anderson, musician, songwriter, member of New Rhythm and Blues Quartet [NRBQ] and The Wildweeds. | |