July 26

Events
Up to 1900
615 K'inich Janaab' Pakal I, aged 12, is crowned ruler of the Mayan city of Palenque.
1309 Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor is recognised as King of the Romans by Pope Clement V.
1469 Wars of the Roses: Forces of Edward IV of England defeat those of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick in the Battle of Edgecote Moor.
1533 Atahualpa dies at the hands of Francisco Pizarro's Conquistadors, marking the end of the Inca Empire.
1581 The northern Low Countries declare independence from King Philip II of Spain.
1745 The first recorded women's cricket match takes place in Guildford, Surrey, England.
1758 French and Indian War: The Siege of Louisbourg ends with British forces defeating the French and taking control of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
1775 Benjamin Franklin is named Postmaster-General by the United States Congress.
1788 New York ratifies the United States Constitution, becoming the 11th State.
1803 The Surrey Iron Railway opens in South London.
1805 An earthquake in central Italy kills an estimated 26,000 people.
1822 Jose de San Martin arrives in Guayaquil, present-day Ecuador, to meet with Simon Bolivar.
1822 First day of the three-day Battle of Dervenakia between the Ottoman Empire, led by Mahmud Dramali Pasha, and a Greek Revolutionary force led by Theodoros Kolokotronis.
1847 Liberia becomes independent, with Joseph Jenkins Roberts being its first President.
1861 American Civil War: George B. McClellan assumes control of the Army of the Potomac, following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Bull Run.
1882 Boer settlers found the Republic of Stellaland in present-day South Africa.
1882 Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal is first performed in Bayreuth, Bavaria.
1887 Unua Libro, the 'First book of Esperanto', is published.
1891 France takes control of Tahiti.
1901 1950
1908 The FBI is founded.
1910 The Rail Tunnel under the Detroit River linking Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan is opened.
1914 Serbia and Bulgaria interrupt their diplomatic relationship.
1936 The Axis Powers decide to intervene in the Spanish Civil War.
1936 Edward VIII of the United Kingdom unveils the Canadian Vimy Memorial.
1937 Spanish Civil War: End of the Battle of Brunete.
1944 World War II: The Soviet army enters German-occupied Lviv, in present-day Ukraine.
1944 The first German V-2 rocket hits the United Kingdom.
1945 The British Conservative Party under Winston Churchill loses the General Election to the Labour Party, led by Clement Attlee.
1945 The Potsdam Declaration is signed.
1946 Aloha Airlines begins service.
1947 The National Security Act of 1947 is signed by US President Harry S. Truman.
1948 Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the United States Military.
1951 2000
1951 Walt Disney movie Alice in Wonderland has its first showing in London.
1952 Argentina's First Lady Eva Peron dies aged 33.
1953 Begin of the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro later helps to found the 26th July Movement.
1956 The Suez Crisis begins, after Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal.
1957 President Carlos Castillo Armas of Guatemala is assassinated.
1958 The Explorer 4 space probe is launched.
1963 A earthquake strikes Skopje in the present-day Republic of Macedonia, killing around 1,100 people.
1965 The Maldives gain full independence from the United Kingdom.
1971 Apollo 15 launches from the Kennedy Space Center, with David Scott, James Irwin and Alfred Worden on board, to the Moon.
1974 Konstantinos Karamanlis forms the Greek Government.
1977 The National Assembly of Quebec imposes the use of French as an official language of the Provincial Government.
1990 The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 is signed into law by US President George H. W. Bush.
1994 Boris Yeltsin orders the removal of Russian troops from Estonia.
1994 A bomb explodes outside the Israeli Embassy in London.
1998 Cambodia holds its first election since regaining full independence.
From 2001
2005 Space Shuttle Discovery launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is the first Space Shuttle mission since the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster of February 1, 2003.
2005 Nearly a meter of rain falls in one day in Mumbai, causing flooding.
2006 A conference begins in Rome, Italy to discuss a solution to the Israel-Lebanon War, though without the participation of Israel, Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria.
2008 56 people are killed in a bombing in Ahmedabad, India.
2013 2013 Cleveland, Ohio, missing trio: Ariel Castro pleads guilty to all charges in order to avoid the death penalty. He commits suicide in prison on September 3.
2016 Mass murder with knife is carried out in an institution of Sagamihara in Japan for persons with disabilities out of disability hate crime; 19 people are killed.
2016 Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to complete a flight around the world.
2016 Roman Catholic priest Jacques Hamel is murdered at his church in Normandy, France, by an attacker linked to the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
2016 Hillary Clinton is officially nominated by the Democratic Party for President of the United States, becoming the first woman to be nominated for this position by a major US political party.
2017 US President Donald Trump announces via Twitter that he intends to ban Transgender people from serving in the United States Military.
2019 The 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, begin.
Births
Up to 1900
1030 Stanislaus of Szczepanow, Polish bishop and martyr (d. 1074)
1575 Anne Catherine of Brandenburg, Queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1612)
1678 Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1711)
1721 Samuel von Brukenthal, Governor of Transylvania (d. 1803)
1739 George Clinton, 4th Vice President of the United States and 1st State Governor of New York (d. 1812)
1756 Maria Fitzherbert, first wife of King George IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1837)
1782 John Field, Irish composer (d. 1837)
1787 Theodor Friedrich Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck, German botanist and pharmacologist (d. 1837)
1791 Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian composer (d. 1844)
1796 George Catlin, American painter (d. 1872)
1801 Maria Rohl, Swedish artist (d. 1875)
1802 Mariano Arista, President of Mexico (d. 1855)
1829 Auguste Beernaert, Belgian statesman and 14th Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 1912)
1842 Alfred Marshall, British economist (d. 1924)
1844 Stefan Drzewiecki, Polish scientist and inventor (d. 1938)
1846 Texas Jack Omohundro, American scout, cowboy and actor (d. 1880)
1855 Ferdinand Tonnies, German sociologist and philosopher (d. 1936)
1856 George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer (d. 1950)
1858 Tom Garrett, Australian cricketer (d. 1943)
1862 George P. Cortelyou, American politician (d. 1940)
1865 Philipp Scheidemann, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1939)
1866 Princess Milica of Montenegro (d. 1951)
1874 Serge Koussevitzky, Russian conductor (d. 1961)
1875 Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (d. 1961)
1875 Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (d. 1939)
1878 Ernst Hoppenberg, German swimmer and water polo player (d. 1937)
1880 Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Ukrainian statesman (d. 1951)
1882 Dixie Bibb Graves, American politician and United States Senator for Alabama (d. 1965)
1893 E. R. Dodds, Irish classical scholar (d. 1979)
1893 George Grosz, German painter (d. 1959)
1894 Aldous Huxley, British writer (d. 1963)
1895 Jane Bunford, UK's tallest woman (d. 1922)
1895 Gracie Allen, American actress and comedienne (d. 1964)
1896 Tom Birkin, English racing driver (d. 1933)
1897 Paul Gallico, American novelist (d. 1976)
1901 1950
1901 Umberto Caligaris, Italian footballer (d. 1940)
1903 Estes Kefauver, American politician (d. 1963)
1904 Edwin Albert Link, American inventor of the flight simulator (d. 1981)
1906 Irena Illakowicz, Polish intelligence agent (d. 1943)
1907 Donal McLaughlin, American architect and graphic artist (d. 2009)
1908 Lucien Wercollier, Luxembourg sculptor (d. 2000)
1909 Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft, British politician (d. 1994)
1909 Vivian Vance, American actress (d. 1979)
1910 Yann Fouere, Breton political activist (d. 2011)
1914 Erskine Hawkins, American trumpeter and bandleader (d. 1993)
1914 C. Farris Bryant, 34th Governor of Florida (d. 2002)
1916 Dean Brooks, American physician and actor (d. 2013)
1917 Alberta Adams, American singer (d. 2014)
1917 Bertil Nordahl, Swedish footballer (d. 1998)
1918 Marjorie Lord, American actress (d. 2015)
1919 James Lovelock, British scientist
1919 Angelo Felici, Italian cardinal (d. 2007)
1920 Mario Fasino, Italian politician, President of Sicily (d. 2017)
1921 Amedeo Amadei, Italian footballer (d. 2013)
1922 Gilberto Agustoni, Swiss cardinal (d. 2017)
1922 Blake Edwards, American movie director (d. 2010)
1922 Jason Robards, American actor (d. 2000)
1923 Jan Berenstain, American writer (d. 2012)
1923 Biff Elliot, American actor (d. 2012)
1925 Jerzy Einhorn, Polish-born Swedish doctor and politician (d. 2000)
1925 Joseph Engelberger, American physicist, engineer and entrepreneur (d. 2015)
1925 Gene Gutowski, Polish-American movie producer (d. 2016)
1925 Ana Maria Matute, Spanish writer (d. 2014)
1926 James Best, American actor (d. 2015)
1928 Joe Jackson, patriarch of the Jackson musical family (d. 2018)
1928 Stanley Kubrick, American movie director (d. 1999)
1928 Francesco Cossiga, 8th President of Italy (d. 2010)
1928 Peter Lougheed, Canadian politician (d. 2012)
1928 Bernice Rubens, Welsh writer (d. 2004)
1928 Ibn-e-Safi, Pakistani poet (d. 1980)
1929 Alexis Weissenberg, Bulgarian pianist (d. 2012)
1930 Barbara Jefford, English actress
1932 James Stafford, American cardinal
1932 Robert Timlin, American judge (d. 2017)
1933 Edmund Phelps, American economist
1933 Lance Percival, English actor, comedian and singer (d. 2015)
1936 Mary Millar, English actress (d. 1998)
1936 Lawrie McMenemy, English footballer and coach
1939 John Howard, 25th Prime Minister of Australia
1940 Brigitte Hamann, German-Austrian author and historian (d. 2016)
1940 Mary Jo Kopechne, American aide to Robert F. Kennedy (d. 1969)
1940 Jurgen Kurbjuhn, German footballer (d. 2014)
1942 Hannelore Elsner, German actress (d. 2019)
1942 Vladimir Meciar, former Prime Minister of Slovakia
1943 Peter Hyams, American director
1943 Mick Jagger, British musician
1945 Helen Mirren, British actress
1945 Panagiotis Pikrammenos, Greek jurist
1946 Erwin Huber, German politician
1947 Alejandra Da Passano, Argentine actress (d. 2014)
1947 Emilio de Villota, Spanish racing driver
1949 Sharron Angle, American politician
1949 Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai politician
1949 Roger Taylor, British musician (Queen)
1950 Nelinho, Brazilian footballer
1950 Susan George, English actress
1951 1975
1951 Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, German politician
1952 Heiner Brand, German handball player and coach
1953 Felix Magath, German footballer
1954 Mareike Carriere, German actress (d. 2014)
1954 Vitas Gerulaitis, American tennis player (d. 1994)
1955 Asif Ali Zardari, former President of Pakistan
1955 Aleksandrs Starkovs, Latvian footballer
1956 Dorothy Hamill, American figure skater
1957 Yuen Biao, Chinese actor
1957 Nana Visitor, American actress
1959 Kevin Spacey, American actor
1961 Gary Cherone, American singer-songwriter
1962 Sigga, Icelandic singer
1964 Sandra Bullock, American actress
1965 Jimmy Dore, American comedian
1965 Jeremy Piven, American actor
1966 Angelo Di Livio, Italian footballer
1967 Anthony Durante, American wrestler (d. 2003)
1967 Jason Statham, English actor and producer
1968 Olivia Williams, English actress
1969 Tanni Grey-Thompson, British wheelchair athlete
1971 Khaled Mahmud, Bangladeshi cricketer
1971 Andrea Fortunato, Italian footballer (d. 1995)
1971 Kendall Francois, American murderer (d. 2014)
1973 Kate Beckinsale, British actress
1975 Elizabeth Truss, British politician
From 1976
1976 Pavel Pardo, Mexican footballer
1977 Martin Laursen, Danish footballer
1977 Emma Barton, English actress
1979 Peter Sarno, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 Jacinda Ardern, 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand
1980 Madeleine West, Australian actress
1980 Dave Baksh, Canadian guitarist (Sum 41)
1980 Sonali Shah, English television presenter
1981 Maicon Douglas Sisenando, Brazilian footballer
1983 Kelly Clark, American snowboarder
1983 Stephen Makinwa, Nigerian footballer
1983 Delonte West, American basketball player
1985 Zhou Bichang, Chinese singer-songwriter and actress
1985 Brice Feillu, French road racing cyclist
1985 Gael Clichy, French footballer
1985 Leonardo Ulloa, Argentine footballer
1987 Fredy Montero, Colombian footballer
1988 Sayaka Akimoto, Japanese actress and singer (AKB48)
1988 Francia Raisa, American actress
1988 Diego Perotti, Argentine footballer
1989 Ivian Sarcos, Venezuelan model
1990 Jesus Herrada, Spanish motorcycle racer
1990 Bianca Santos, American actress
1993 Elizabeth Gillies, American actress and singer
1993 Taylor Momsen, American actress and singer
1993 Caleb Stanko, American soccer player
1993 Stormzy, English rapper
1996 Tatiana Vorobjova, Estonian tennis player
1998 Maya Sakura, Japanese singer and actress
Deaths
Up to 1900
342 Jin Chengdi, Emperor of China (b. 321)
432 Pope Celestine I
796 Offa, King of Mercia
811 Nicephorus I, Byzantine Emperor (killed in battle)
1380 Emperor Komyo of Japan (b. 1322)
1471 Pope Paul II (b. 1417)
1506 Anne of Foix-Candale, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia (b. 1478)
1533 Atahualpa, Inca ruler (b. 1502)
1592 Armand de Gontaut, baron de Biron, French soldier (b. 1524)
1605 Miguel de Benavides, Spanish clergyman and Sinologist (b. 1552)
1611 Horio Yoshiharu, Japanese warlord (b. 1542)
1630 Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy (b. 1562)
1680 John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English writer (b. 1647)
1684 Elena Cornaro Piscopia, Italian mathematician (b. 1646)
1712 Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English statesman (b. 1631)
1723 Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (b. 1660)
1726 Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (b. 1695)
1801 Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria (b. 1756)
1863 John J. Crittenden, Governor of Kentucky (b. 1786)
1863 Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas (b. 1793)
1867 King Otto of Greece (b. 1815)
1901 1950
1915 James Murray, English philologist (b. 1837)
1919 Sir Edward Poynter, British painter (b. 1836)
1922 Ciro Luis Urriola, 8th President of Panama (b. 1863)
1925 Antonio Ascari, Italian racing driver (b. 1888)
1925 Gottlob Frege, German mathematician and logician (b. 1848)
1925 William Jennings Bryan, American politician (b. 1860)
1926 Robert Todd Lincoln, American lawyer and politician (b. 1843)
1935 Winsor McCay, American cartoonist (b. 1871)
1937 Gerda Taro, German photographer (b. 1910)
1941 Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician (b. 1875)
1942 Roberto Arlt, Argentinian writer (b. 1900)
1943 Ruth M. Gardiner, American nurse (b. 1914)
1944 Reza Shah, ruler of Iran (b. 1878)
1951 2000
1952 Eva Peron, wife of Argentine President Juan Peron (b. 1919)
1953 Nikolaos Plastiras, Greek general and politician (b. 1883)
1957 Carlos Castillo Armas, President of Guatemala (b. 1914)
1969 Frank Loesser, American composer (b. 1910)
1970 Robert Taschereau, Canadian jurist (b. 1896)
1971 Diane Arbus, American photographer (suicide) (b. 1923)
1976 Stefanos Natsinas, Greek politician (b. 1910)
1980 Ibn-e-Safi, Pakistani poet (b. 1928)
1984 George Gallup, American statistician (b. 1901)
1984 Ed Gein, American serial killer (b. 1906)
1986 Averell Harriman, American diplomat (b. 1891)
1988 Fazlur Rahman, Pakistani scholar (b. 1919)
1990 Brent Mydland, American musician (b. 1952)
1992 Mary Wells, American singer (b. 1943)
1995 George Romney, Governor of Michigan and father of Mitt Romney (b. 1907)
1999 Phaedon Gizikis, President of Greece (b. 1917)
From 2001
2001 Peter von Zahn, German journalist (b. 1913)
2002 Tony Anholt, English actor (b. 1941)
2005 Mario David, Italian footballer (b. 1934)
2009 Merce Cunningham, American choreographer (b. 1919)
2011 Margaret Olley, Australian artist (b. 1923)
2011 Sakyo Komatsu, Japanese science fiction writer (b. 1931)
2012 Lupe Ontiveros, American actress (b. 1942)
2012 Mary Tamm, English actress (b. 1950)
2013 Sung Jae-ki, South Korean activist (b. 1967)
2013 JJ Cale, American singer-songwriter and musician (b. 1938)
2014 Oleh Babayev, Ukrainian politician (b. 1965)
2014 Charles R. Larson, American admiral (b. 1936)
2014 Majid Nizami, Pakistani journalist (b. 1928)
2014 Roland Verhavert, Belgian movie director (b. 1927)
2015 Bobbi Kristina Brown, American media personality and singer (b. 1993)
2015 Leo Reise, Jr., Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1922)
2015 Ann Rule, American true crime author (b. 1931)
2015 Vic Firth, American musician and instruments manufacturer (b. 1930)
2016 Jacques Hamel, French priest (b. 1930)
2016 David A. Katz, American judge (b. 1933)
2016 Mohamed Khan, Egyptian film director (b. 1942)
2017 Patti Deutsch, American actress (b. 1943)
2017 June Foray, American voice actress (b. 1917)
2017 Giovanni Battista Pichierri, Italian Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1943)
2017 Lawrence Pezzulo, American diplomat (b. 1926)
2017 Maxlei dos Santos Luzia, Brazilian footballer (b. 1975)
2017 Joachim Vobbe, German Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1947)
2017 Leo Kinnunen, Finnish racing driver (b. 1943)
2018 Adem Demaci, Albanian politician (b. 1936)
2018 Aloyzas Kveinys, Lithuanian chess player (b. 1962)
2018 Maria Concepcion Cesar, Argentine actress and singer (b. 1926)
2018 Anne Vermeer, Dutch politician (b. 1916)
2019 Graham Freudenberg, Australian political speechwriter (b. 1934)
2019 Jaime Lucas y Alamino, Cuban cardinal (b. 1936)
2019 Kevin Roster, American poker player (b. 1983)
2019 Russi Taylor, American voice actress (b. 1944)
Observances
Independence Day (Liberia and Maldives)
Days of the year