Year 1745
First recorded women’s cricket match at Guildford, England.
JULY 26
Daily Historical Chronicle
UPSC CSE • State PSC • SSC CGL Matrix
26 July: What Happened On This Day in History
Curated historical timeline of momentous political pacts, freedom struggle uprisings, constitutional developments, scientific breakthroughs, and prominent birthdays recorded on 26 July.
Observances & Special Days
Kargil Victory Day or Kargil Vijay Diwas (India)
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 1788
New York became the 11th state of the United States.
Year 1847
Liberia declared its independence.
Year 1856
The Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act, 1856, also Act XV, 1856, enacted on this day, legalized the remarriage of Hindu widows in all jurisdictions of India under East India Company rule.
Year 1892
Dadabhai Naoroji is elected as the first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain.
Year 1945
World War II: The USS Indianapolis arrives at Tinian with components and enriched uranium for the Little Boy nuclear bomb.
Year 1953
Fidel Castro’s failed attack on the Moncada Barracks triggered the Cuban Revolution, known as the July 26 Revolution.
Year 1956
Egyptian President Gamal Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal after the World Bank refused to finance the construction of the Aswan Dam.
Year 1965
The Maldives gained total independence from the British.
Year 1982
Indian film star Amitabh Bachchan got injured filming a fight scene for the movie “Coolie”
Year 1999
Kargil conflict officially came to an end. The Indian Army announced the complete eviction of Pakistani intruders.
Year 2008
21 blasts in Ahmedabad city of Gujarat, India. 56 people were killed and over 200 injured in the accident.
Born 1856
George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist, and political activist.
Born 1865
Rajanikanta Sen, Indian poet and composer (d. 1910)
Born 1875
Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst.
Born 1893
Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, an Indian vocalist of the Gwalior Gharana.
Born 1904
Malati Devi Choudhury, an Indian civil rights and freedom activist and Gandhian.
Born 1910
B. R. Panthulu, an Indian film director, producer, and actor.
Born 1915
K. Pattabhi Jois, an Indian yoga teacher, and Sanskrit scholar.
Born 1925
Tyeb Mehta, an Indian painter, sculptor, and filmmaker.
Born 1926
Pandit Gopal Krishan Sharma, an exponent of Vichitra Veena.
Born 1927
Gulabrai Ramchand, Indian cricketer (d. 2003)
Born 1928
Ibn-e-Safi, a fiction writer, novelist, and poet of Urdu from Pakistan.
Born 1967
Jason Statham, an English actor.
Born 1972
Jugal Hansraj, an Indian actor, model, producer, writer, author, and director.
Died 1891
Rajendralal Mitra, an Orientalist researcher in Bengal and the first president of the Asiatic Society.
Died 1980
Ibn-e-Safi, a fiction writer, novelist, and poet of Urdu from Pakistan.
Died 2009
Bhaskar Chandavarkar, an Indian sitar player, academic and film and theatre composer.
Died 2010
Sivakant Tiwari, Indian-Singaporean politician (b. 1945)
Died 2011
Madhu Sudan Kanungo, an eminent Indian scientist.
Died 2013
Obaid Siddiqi, the Founder-Director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research National Center for Biological Sciences.
Died 2015
Bijoy Krishna Handique, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of Mines (b. 1934)