Events on July 26 65
Year 657
First Fitna: In the Battle of Siffin, troops led by Ali ibn Abu Talib clash with those led by Muawiyah I.
Year 811
Battle of Pliska: Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I is killed and his heir Staurakios is seriously wounded.
Year 920
Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at Pamplona.
Year 1469
Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Edgecote Moor, pitting the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of Edward IV of England, takes place.
Year 1509
The Emperor Krishnadevaraya ascends to the throne, marking the beginning of the regeneration of the Vijayanagara Empire.
Year 1529
Francisco Pizarro González, Spanish conquistador, is appointed governor of Peru.
Year 1581
Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Act of Abjuration): The northern Low Countries declare their independence from the Spanish king, Philip II.
Year 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.
Year 1775
The office that would later become the United States Post Office Department is established by the Second Continental Congress. Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania takes office as Postmaster General.
Year 1788
New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States.
Year 1803
The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world's first public railway, opens in south London, United Kingdom.
Year 1822
First day of the three-day Battle of Dervenakia, between the Ottoman Empire force led by Mahmud Dramali Pasha and the Greek Revolutionary force led by Theodoros Kolokotronis.
Year 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.
Year 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.
Year 1890
In Buenos Aires, Argentina the Revolución del Parque takes place, forcing President Miguel Ángel Juárez Celman's resignation.
Year 1897
Anglo-Afghan War: The Pashtun fakir Saidullah leads an army of more than 10,000 to begin a siege of the British garrison in the Malakand Agency of the North West Frontier Province of India.
Year 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).
Year 1936
King Edward VIII, in one of his few official duties before he abdicates the throne, officially unveils the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
Year 1941
World War II: In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indochina, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
Year 1944
World War II: The Soviet Army enters Lviv, a major city in western Ukraine, capturing it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jews survive out of 160,000 living in Lviv prior to occupation.
Year 1945
The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power.
Year 1945
HMS Vestal is the last British Royal Navy ship to be sunk in the Second World War.
Year 1945
The United States Navy cruiser USS Indianapolis arrives at Tinian with parts of the warhead for the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
Year 1947
Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council.
Year 1948
U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the military of the United States.
Year 1951
Walt Disney's 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, premieres in London, England, United Kingdom.
Year 1953
Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution. The movement took the name of the date: 26th of July Movement
Year 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.
Year 1953
Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment repel a number of Chinese assaults against a key position known as The Hook during the Battle of the Samichon River, just hours before the Armistice Agreement is signed, ending the Korean War.
Year 1956
Following the World Bank's refusal to fund building the Aswan Dam, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, sparking international condemnation.
Year 1963
Syncom 2, the world's first geosynchronous satellite, is launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster.
Year 1963
An earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia (present-day Republic of Macedonia) leaves 1,100 dead.
Year 1963
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development votes to admit Japan.
Year 1968
Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Trương Đình 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.
Year 1971
Apollo program: Launch of Apollo 15 on the first Apollo "J-Mission", and first use of a Lunar Roving Vehicle.
Year 1974
Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis forms the country's first civil government after seven years of military rule.
Year 1977
The National Assembly of Quebec imposes the use of French as the official language of the provincial government.
Year 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.
Year 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.
Year 1993
Asiana Airlines Flight 733 crashes into a ridge on Mt. Ungeo on its third attempt to land at Mokpo Airport, South Korea. 68 of the 116 people onboard are killed.
Year 1999
Kargil conflict officially comes to an end. The Indian Army announces the complete eviction of Pakistani intruders.
Year 2005
Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission: Launch of Discovery, NASA's first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster in 2003.
Year 2005
Mumbai, India receives 99.5cm of rain (39.17 inches) within 24 hours, resulting in floods killing over 5,000 people.
Year 2008
Fifty-six people are killed and over 200 people are injured, in the Ahmedabad bombings in India.
Year 2009
The militant Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram attacks a police station in Bauchi, leading to reprisals by the Nigeria Police Force and four days of violence across multiple cities.
Year 2016
The Sagamihara stabbings occur in Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. 19 people are killed.
Year 2016
Hillary Clinton becomes the first female nominee for President of the United States by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.