July 26

Tuesday 26, 2005:

receives 995mm of rain within 24 hours bringing the city to a halt for over 2 days.

Friday 26, 1991:

Sonic the Hedgehog is released for the Sega Megadrive in Japan.

Wednesday 26, 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.

Monday 26, 1971:

Apollo program: Launch of Apollo 15.

Friday 26, 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.

Tuesday 26, 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.

Friday 26, 1963:

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development votes to admit Japan.

Saturday 26, 1958:

Explorer program: Explorer 4 is launched.

Thursday 26, 1956:

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

Sunday 26, 1953:

Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle orders a law enforcement crackdown on Short Creek, Arizona, home to a polygamous sect of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Monday 26, 1948:

André Marie becomes Prime Minister of France

Saturday 26, 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.

Thursday 26, 1945:

The Potsdam Declaration is signed in Potsdam, Germany.

Saturday 26, 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.

Sunday 26, 1936:

The Axis Powers decide to intervene in the Spanish Civil War

Sunday 26, 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).

Tuesday 26, 1887:

L. L. Zamenhof publishes "Dr. Esperanto's International Language".

Friday 26, 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.

Sunday 26, 1863:

At Salineville, Ohio, Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his volunteers are captured by Union forces.

Friday 26, 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.

Monday 26, 1847:

Liberia gains independence.

Friday 26, 1822:

Simón Bolívar and José de San Martín meet in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Tuesday 26, 1803:

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

Saturday 26, 1788:

New York ratifies the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 11th state of the United States.

Wednesday 26, 1775:

The birth of what would later become the United States Post Office Department was established by the Second Continental Congress.

Sunday 26, 1581:

Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Oath of Abjuration). The declaration of independence of the northern Low Countries from the Spanish king, Philip II.

Monday 26, 1469:

Battle of Edgecote Moor

Wednesday 26, 1139:

Afonso, then a count, is proclaimed first king of Portugal and declares independence from Castile

Tuesday 26, 811:

Battle of Pliska; Byzantine emperor Nicephorus I is slain, his heir Stauracius is seriously wounded

More on July, 26

• People Born on July, 26
• They left us on July, 26