Historical Events on 26 Jul

Historical Events on 26 Jul

1139 - Battle of Ourique: The independence of Portugal from the Kingdom of León declared after the Almoravids, led by Ali ibn Yusuf, are defeated by Prince Afonso Henriques. He then becomes Afonso I, King of Portugal, after calling the first assembly of the est
1309 - Henry VII is recognized King of the Romans by Pope Clement V.
1469 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Edgecote Moor - Pitting the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of King Edward IV.
1533 - Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire: Inca emperor Atahualpa is executed in Cajamarca by the garrote by Spanish invaders known as Conquistadores.
1581 - Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Act of Abjuration). The declaration of independence of the northern Low Countries from the Spanish king, Philip II.
1758 - French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg ends with British forces defeating the French and taking control of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
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.
1822 - José de San Martín arrives in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to meet with Simón Bolívar.
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.
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.
1882 - Premiere of Richard Wagner's Parsifal at Bayreuth.
1891 - France annexes Tahiti.
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.
1937 - End of the Battle of Brunete 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.
1944 - World War II: Soviet army enters Lviv, major city of western Ukraine, liberating it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jewish survivors left, out of 160,000 Jews in Lviv prior to Nazi occupation.
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.
1945 - The Potsdam Declaration is signed in Potsdam, Germany.
1945 - The US Navy cruiser Indianapolis arrives at Tinian with the warhead for the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
1946 - Aloha Airlines began service from Honolulu International Airport
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.
1952 - King Farouk of Egypt abdicates in favor of his son Fuad.
1953 - Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution.
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.
1956 - Following the World Bank's decline to fund building the Aswan High Dam, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation.
1957 - Carlos Castillo Armas, dictator of Guatemala, is assassinated
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, Republic of Macedonia (formerly part of Yugoslavia) - 1100 dead
1963 - The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development votes to admit Japan.
1965 - Full independence was granted to the Maldives.
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: Apollo 15 Mission - Launch of Apollo 15.
1974 - Greek Prime Minister Constantin Caramanlis forms the country's first civil government after seven years of military rule.
1975 - Formation of a military triumvirate in Portugal.
1977 - The National Assembly of Quebec imposes the use of French as the official language of the provincial government.
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.
1990 - The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush.
1994 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders the removal of Russian troops from Estonia.
657 - Battle of Siffin.
811 - Battle of Pliska; Byzantine emperor Nicephorus I is slain, his heir Stauracius is seriously wounded.
920 - Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at Pamplona.