On this day: July 26

Events on July 26

• 1551 The Knights Hospitaller surrendered the Castello of Gozo to the Ottoman Empire following a brief siege, leading to the mass enslavement and dispersal of the Gozitan population. Wikipedia
• 1579 Francis Drake, the English explorer, discovers a "fair and good" bay on the coast of the Pacific Northwest (probably Oregon or Washington). Wikipedia
• 1703 During the Bavarian Rummel the rural population of Tyrol drove the Bavarian Prince-Elector Maximilian II Emanuel out of North Tyrol with a victory at the Pontlatzer Bridge and thus prevented the Bavarian Army, which was allied with France, from marching as planned on Vienna during the War of the Spanish Succession. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1847 Liberia declares its independence from the United States. France and the United Kingdom are the first to recognize the new nation. Wikipedia
• 1882 Premiere of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal at Bayreuth. Wikipedia
• 1887 L. L. Zamenhof published Unua Libro, the first publication to describe Esperanto, a constructed international language. Wikipedia
• 1890 In Buenos Aires, Argentina the Revolución del Parque takes place, forcing President Miguel Ángel Juárez Celman's resignation. Wikipedia
• 1918 Emmy Noether's paper, which became known as Noether's theorem was presented at Göttingen, Germany, from which conservation laws are deduced for symmetries of angular momentum, linear momentum, and energy. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: Battle of Grand Harbour, British forces on Malta destroy an attack by the Italian Decima Flottiglia MAS. Fort St Elmo Bridge covering the harbour is demolished in the process. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: The Red 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. Wikipedia
• 1945 The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1951 Walt Disney's 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, premieres in London, England, United Kingdom. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1953 Cold War: 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 Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 1957 Carlos Castillo Armas, dictator of Guatemala, is assassinated. Wikipedia
• 1963 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development votes to admit Japan. Wikipedia
• 1963 An earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia (present-day North Macedonia) leaves 1,100 dead. Wikipedia
• 2005 Mumbai, India receives 99.5cm of rain (39.17 inches) within 24 hours, resulting in floods killing over 5,000 people. Wikipedia
• 2005 Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission: Launch of Discovery, NASA's first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster in 2003. Wikipedia
• 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. Wikipedia
• 2016 Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth. Wikipedia
• 2016 Hillary Clinton became the first female nominee for president of the United States by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Wikipedia

Born on July 26

• 1739 George Clinton, American general and politician, 4th Vice President of the United States (died 1812) Wikipedia
• 1829 Auguste Beernaert, Belgian politician, 14th Prime Minister of Belgium, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1912) Wikipedia
• 1842 Alfred Marshall, English economist and academic (died 1924) Wikipedia
• 1856 George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1950) Wikipedia
• 1875 Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (died 1961) Wikipedia
• 1885 André Maurois, French soldier and author (died 1967) Wikipedia
• 1894 Aldous Huxley, English novelist and philosopher (died 1963) Wikipedia
• 1928 Joe Jackson, American talent manager, father of Michael Jackson (died 2018) Wikipedia
• 1928 Stanley Kubrick, American director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer (died 1999) Wikipedia
• 1928 Francesco Cossiga, Italian academic and politician, 8th President of Italy (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1939 John Howard, Australian lawyer and politician, 25th Prime Minister of Australia Wikipedia
• 1943 Mick Jagger, English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor Wikipedia
• 1945 Helen Mirren, English actress Wikipedia
• 1949 Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai businessman and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Thailand Wikipedia
• 1955 Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistani businessman and politician, 11th President of Pakistan Wikipedia
• 1959 Kevin Spacey, American actor and director Wikipedia
• 1964 Sandra Bullock, American actress and producer Wikipedia
• 1967 Jason Statham, English actor Wikipedia
• 1973 Kate Beckinsale, English actress Wikipedia
• 1975 Liz Truss, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Wikipedia
• 1980 Jacinda Ardern, 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand Wikipedia
• 1993 Taylor Momsen, American singer-songwriter, model, and actress Wikipedia

Died on July 26

• 811 Nikephoros I, Byzantine emperor Wikipedia
• 1471 Paul II, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1417) Wikipedia
• 1533 Atahualpa, Inca emperor abducted and murdered by Francisco Pizarro (born ca. 1500) Wikipedia
• 1684 Elena Cornaro Piscopia, Italian mathematician and philosopher (born 1646) Wikipedia
• 1863 Sam Houston, American general and politician, 7th Governor of Texas, and 6th Governor of Tennessee (born 1793) Wikipedia
• 1867 Otto, king of Greece (born 1815) Wikipedia
• 1925 Gottlob Frege, German mathematician and philosopher (born 1848) Wikipedia
• 1925 William Jennings Bryan, American lawyer and politician, 41st United States Secretary of State (born 1860) Wikipedia
• 1926 Robert Todd Lincoln, American lawyer and politician, 35th United States Secretary of War, son of Abraham Lincoln (born 1843) Wikipedia
• 1941 Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician and academic (born 1875) Wikipedia
• 1952 Eva Perón, Argentinian politician, 25th First Lady of Argentina (born 1919) Wikipedia
• 2013 Sung Jae-gi, South Korean philosopher and activist (born 1967) Wikipedia
• 2020 Olivia de Havilland, American actress (born 1916) Wikipedia
• 2023 Sinéad O'Connor, Irish singer and musician (born 1966) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Andrew of Phú Yên Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Anne and Joachim (Western Christianity) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Bartolomea Capitanio Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Camilla Gentili Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: George Preca Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Maria Pierina Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Paraskevi of Rome (Eastern Orthodox Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Titus Brandsma Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Venera Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: July 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Emancipation Day (Barbados) Wikipedia
• Day of the National Rebellion (Cuba) Wikipedia
• Esperanto Day Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Liberia), celebrates the independence of Liberia from the American Colonization Society in 1847. Wikipedia
• Independence Day (Maldives), celebrates the independence of Maldives from the United Kingdom in 1965. Wikipedia
• Kargil Victory Day or Kargil Vijay Diwas (India) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “July 26” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.