July 26

From Metapedia

[edit] Events

• 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 becomes the 11th state of the United States.
• 1803 - The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world's first public railway, opens in south London.
• 1847 - Liberia declares independence.
• 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.
• 1882 - Premiere of Richard Wagner's Parsifal at Bayreuth.
• 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).
• 1914 - Serbia and Bulgaria interrupt diplomatic relationship.
• 1934 - Assassination of Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss.
• * 1936 - The Axis Powers decide to intervene in the Spanish Civil War.
• 1944 - The first German V-2 rocket hits Great Britain.
• 1945
  • The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power.
  • 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.
• 1953 - Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution.
• 1965 - Full independence was granted to the Maldives.
• 1971 - Apollo Program: Apollo 15 Mission - Launch of Apollo 15.
• 1975 - Formation of a military triumvirate in Portugal.
• 1994 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders the removal of Russian troops from Estonia.

[edit] Births

• 1856 - George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel Laureate (d. 1950)
• 1865 - Philipp Scheidemann, First Chancellor of the Weimar Republic (d. 1939)
• 1875 - Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (d. 1961)
• 1894 - Aldous Huxley, English-born author (d. 1963)
• 1939 - John Howard, 25th Prime Minister of Australia
• 1940 - Mary Jo Kopechne, American aide to Robert F. Kennedy (d. 1969)

[edit] Deaths

• 1863 - Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas (b. 1793)
• 1925 - William Jennings Bryan, American politician (b. 1860)
• 1932 - Frederick S. Duesenberg automotive pioneer (b. 1876)
• 1952 - Eva Perón, First Lady of Argentina and wife of Argentine President Juan Perón (b. 1919)
• 1986 - Averell Harriman, American diplomat (b. 1891)
• 1987 - Frank Marshall Davis, poet, journalist, communist and mentor to Barack Obama (b. 1905)
• 1995 - George Romney, American businessman and politician (b. 1907)