
July 26 is the 207nd (208rd in leap years) day of the year according to the Gregorian calendar. There are 158 days left until the end of the year.
Railways
- 26 July Bed and dining wagons were put into service with the contract signed with 1926 International Hospital.
Events
- 1552 – Temeşvar fortress was conquered by the Ottoman army.
- 1581 – Provinces of North Holland affiliated to the Union of Utrecht, (South Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijssel, Groningen and Friesland) King of Spain II. They declared their independence from Felipe.
- 1788 - New York ratified the US Constitution, making it the 11th state of the USA.
- 1882 – Richard Wagner's Parsifal The opera was staged for the first time in Bayreuth, Germany.
- 1887 - Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof publishes his first book on the artificial language Esperanto (in Russian).
- 1891 - France annexed Tahiti.
- 1914 - Serbia and Bulgaria broke off diplomatic relations.
- 1919 – Balıkesir Congress started (until 30 July).
- 1923 - Scottish engineer John Logie Baird patented the first mechanical television.
- 1933 - Adolf Hitler; announced that disabled Germans with vision and hearing problems will be sterilized.
- 1944 – II. World War II: The first German V-2 rocket crashes on British soil.
- 1944 – II. World War II: The Soviet Army enters western Ukraine, ending the Nazi occupation.
- 1945 – In the United Kingdom, the Labor Party wins the election: Clement Attlee becomes Prime Minister. Winston Churchill lost.
- 1948 - André Marie becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1951 – The first oil in Turkey was found in the Raman Mountain region.
- 1952 – King Farouk I of Egypt is deposed by the Free Officers Movement and exiled from Egypt. (he handed it over to his son Fuad II).
- 1953 - The Cuban revolution begins with the Moncada barracks raid. The leader of the revolutionaries, Fidel Castro, was arrested.
- 1956 – Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal after the World Bank stopped supporting the construction of the Aswan Dam.
- 1957 - Guatemalan President Carlos Castillo Armas is assassinated.
- 1963 – Earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia: 1100 dead and 100 people on the street.
- 1967 – An earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale in the town of Pulumur, Tunceli: 95 dead, 127 injured.
- 1974 – Foreign Minister Turan Güneş joined the ceasefire negotiations for Cyprus. "The ceasefire does not mean that we do not use certain of our rights," Güneş said.
- 1974 – After seven years of military rule in Greece, a civilian Government is established under the Prime Minister of Constantine Karamanlis.
- 1994 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin approves the withdrawal of Russian troops from Estonia.
- 1995 – Istanbul Gold Exchange was opened.
Births
- 1678 – Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1711)
- 1856 – George Bernard Shaw, Irish journalist, critic, and playwright (d. 1950)
- 1861 – Vaja Pshavela, Georgian writer and poet (d. 1915)
- 1875 - Carl Gustav Jung, German psychoanalyst (d. 1961)
- 1885 – André Maurois, French writer (d. 1967)
- 1893 – George Grosz, German painter (d. 1959)
- 1894 – Aldous Huxley, English writer (d. 1963)
- 1898 – Günther Korten, soldier in Nazi Germany (d. 1944)
- 1917 – Alberta Adams, American jazz and blues singer (d. 2014)
- 1922 Blake Edwards, American director (The Pink Panther director of the movie) (d. 2010)
- 1922 Jason Robards, American actor (d. 2000)
- 1928 – Francesco Cossiga, Italian politician (d. 2010)
- 1928 – Stanley Kubrick, American film director (d. 1999)
- 1939 - John Howard, 25th Prime Minister of Australia
- 1943 – Mick Jagger, English rock musician, composer, and founding member of the Rolling Stones
- 1945 – Metin Cekmez, Turkish actor
- 1947 – Wiesław Adamski, Polish sculptor (d. 2017)
- 1949 – Roger Taylor, English drummer
- 1950 - Susan George, English actress
- 1955 – Alexandrs Starkovs, Latvian football player and manager
- 1955 – Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan
- 1956 – Kevin Spacey, American actor and director
- 1964 – Sandra Bullock, American actress
- 1966 - Anna Rita Del Piano, Italian actress
- 1967 - Jason Statham, English actor
- 1968 – Vítor Pereira, Portuguese football player and manager
- 1968 – Olivia Williams, English television, theater and film actress
- 1969 – Tanni Grey-Thompson, Welsh politician, television presenter and former wheelchair racer
- 1973 - Kate Beckinsale, English actress
- 1973 – Metin Uzun, Turkish football player and coach
- 1977 – Martin Laursen, Danish national football player and manager
- 1979 – Engin Altan Düzyatan, Turkish actor and presenter
- 1979 – Juliet Rylance, English actress and filmmaker
- 1980 – Jacinda Ardern is a New Zealand politician.
- 1981 – Vildan Atasever, Turkish actress and 42nd Golden Orange Film Festival Best Actress Award winner
- 1981 – Maicon, Brazilian actor
- 1983 - Christopher Lindsey, American professional wrestler
- 1983 - Delonte West, American former professional basketball player
- 1984 – Sabri Sarıoğlu, Turkish national football player
- 1985 – Gaël Clichy, French football player
- 1987 – Panagiotis Kone, Albanian-born Greek national football player
- 1987 – Fredy Montero, Colombian national football player
- 1987 – Evelina Sašenko Lithuanian pop and jazz singer
- 1988 – Sayaka Akimoto, Japanese singer, actress, host, and model
- 1993 – Elizabeth Gillies, American singer and actress
- 1993 – Ferda Yıldız, Turkish basketball player
- 1993 – Taylor Momsen, American singer and actress
- 1994 – Shmagi Bolkvadze, Georgian Greco-Roman wrestler
Deaths
- 432 – Celestinus I was the pope between 10 September 422 and 26 July 432 (b. ?)
- 811 – Nikephoros I, Byzantine Emperor (b. ?)
- 1380 – Kōmyō was the second Northern Suitor in Japan during the Nanboku-chō period (b. 1322)
- 1471 – II. Paulus, pope from 1464-71 (b. 1417)
- 1533 – Atahualpa, thirteenth and last emperor of the Inca Empire (b. 1502)
- 1801 – Maximilian Franz von Österreich, German clergyman and politician (b. 1756)
- 1863 – Sam Houston, first President of Texas (Texas senator after joining the United States) (b. 1793)
- 1867 – Otto, first King of Greece (b. 1815)
- 1915 – James Murray, English lexicographer and philologist (b. 1837)
- 1925 – Gottlob Frege, German mathematician (b. 1848)
- 1928 – Tunalı Hilmi Bey, Turkish politician and one of the leading figures of the Turkism movement (b. 1871)
- 1930 – Pavlos Karolidis, one of the most outstanding Greek historians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (b. 1849)
- 1934 – Winsor McCay, American cartoonist and graphic artist (b. 1869 or 1871)
- 1941 – Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician (b. 1875)
- 1942 – Román Viñoly Barreto was a German-Argentine writer and journalist (b. 1900)
- 1944 – Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (b. 1878)
- 1952 – Eva Peron, Argentine politician and 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)
- 1960 – Cedric Gibbons, American art director and production designer (b. 1893)
- 1968 – Cemal Tollu, Turkish painter (b. 1899)
- 1971 – Diane Arbus, American photographer (b. 1923)
- 1973 – Konstandinos Georgakopoulos, Greek Prime Minister (b. 1890)
- 1978 – Hasan Ferit Alnar, Turkish composer and conductor (b. 1906)
- 1984 – Ed Gein, American serial killer (b. 1906)
- 1986 – Sadık Şendil, Turkish playwright (b. 1913)
- 1988 – Fazlur Rahman Malik, Pakistani academic, scholar and intellectual (b. 1919)
- 1993 – İbrahim Minnetoğlu, Turkish poet, journalist and columnist (b. 1920)
- 1995 – George W. Romney, American businessman and Republican Party politician (b. 1907)
- 2000 – John Tukey, American statistician (b. 1915)
- 2003 – İsmail Akbay, Turkish engineer (b. 1930)
- 2004 – Oğuz Aral, Turkish cartoonist (b. 1936)
- 2004 – Kamran Usluer, Turkish theater artist (b. 1937)
- 2009 – Merce Cunningham, American choreographer and dancer (b. 1919)
- 2010 – Edip Günay, Turkish musicologist (b. 1931)
- 2012 – Lupe Ontiveros, Mexican-born American actress (b. 1942)
- 2012 – Mary Tamm, English actress (b. 1950)
- 2013 – Sefika Akhundova, Azerbaijani composer (b. 1924)
- 2013 – JJ Cale, American musician, singer, and composer (b. 1938)
- 2013 – George P. Mitchell, American businessman (b. 1919)
- 2013 – Sung Jae-ki, South Korean philosopher and writer (b. 1967)
- 2015 – Bobbi Kristina Brown, American TV star, singer and model (b. 1993)
- 2015 – Joe Williams, American film critic, journalist, and author (b. 1958)
- 2017 – Magnus Böcker, Swedish businessman (b. 1961)
- 2017 – Patti Deutsch, American actress and comedian (b. 1943)
- 2017 – June Foray, American actress (b. 1917)
- 2017 – KE Mammen, Indian freedom fighter, activist (b. 1921)
- 2018 – Alfredo del Águila, Mexican former football player (b. 1935)
- 2018 – María Concepción César, Argentine actress, singer and dancer (b. 1926)
- 2018 – Aloyzas Kveinys, Lithuanian chess player (b. 1962)
- 2019 – Russi Taylor, American voice actor and actress (b. 1944)
- 2020 – Olivia de Havilland, English-French actress (b. 1916)
- 2020 – Francisco Frutos, Spanish politician (b. 1939)
- 2020 – Hans-Jochen Vogel, German lawyer and politician (b. 1926)