July 26 is

Americans With Disabilities Day *

All or Nothing Day

Aunt and Uncle’s Day

Coffee Milkshake Day

One Voice Day *
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MORE!  Ben Franklin, Donaldina Cameron and Aldous Huxley, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Cuba – Día de la Rebeldía

India – Hariyali Teej
(Hindu festival celebrating love)

Liberia – Independence Day

Maldives – Independence Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

363 – Julian (“the Apostate”) last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire dies of wounds just hours after the Roman army wins the Battle of Samarra, fighting against the Sassanid Empire, the last imperial dynasty in Persia before the rise of Islam

1581 – Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Act of Abjuration): The northern Low Countries declare their independence from Spanish King Philip II

1711 – Lorenz Christoph Mizler born, German polymath, physician, mathematician, musician, composer, publisher, science writer and historian

1775 – U.S. postal system established by Benjamin Franklin as Postmaster General

1782 – John Field born, Irish pianist and composer

1791 – Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart born, Austrian composer and conductor, Mozart’s youngest child

1796 – George Catlin born, American painter, author, and traveler

1819 – Justin Holland born, African American classical guitarist, musical arranger, teacher who wrote music method books; abolitionist and civil rights activist, working with the Underground Railroad; attended Oberlin College, and learned Spanish, French, Italian and German to further his musical education

1847 – Liberia declares its independence

1856 – George Bernard Shaw born, Irish playwright, Nobel Prize laureate

1865 – Rajanikanta Sen born, Indian poet and composer

1869 – Donaldina Cameron born, social justice advocate in San Francisco who fought to end the illegal smuggling of Chinese girls and young women by the Tongs to be used as prostitutes or slave labor, rescuing over 3,000 Chinese women held by the traffickers, who called her Fahn Gwai, “white devil”

1875 – Carl Jung, pioneer in analytical psychology, is born

1891 – France annexes Tahiti

1894 – Aldous Huxley born, English novelist and philosopher

1897 – Paul Gallico born, author and journalist

1908 – U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte issues an order that initiates the Office of the Chief Examiner, which evolves into the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as it is renamed in 1935

1914 – Erskine Hawkins born, American trumpeter and bandleader

1921 – Jean Shepherd born, American author, screenwriter and radio host

1923 – Jan Berenstain born, with husband Stanley, wrote and illustrated children’s books, how-to guides for parents, and cartoons for magazines

1933 – “Yomo” Toro, Puerto Rican guitarist and composer

1939 – Kay Starr records “Baby Me” with Glenn Miller’s orchestra

1943 – Mick Jagger, Rolling Stones, singer-songwriter, is born

Mick Jagger, photo from Young magazine

1946 – Aloha Airlines begins service from Honolulu International Airport

1947 – President Truman signs the National Security Act,  forming the Department of Defense, the CIA, the National Security Council, and the Joints Chiefs of Staff

1948 – Truman’s executive order desegregates U.S military and federal agencies

1953 – Arizona Governor Pyle orders raid on polygamists in Short Creek AZ

1956 – Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal

1963 – World’s first geosynchronous satellite, Syncom 2, is launched

1971 – Apollo 15 launched from Cape Kennedy FL on a manned moon mission

1977 – Quebec’s National Assembly declares French the province’s official language

1979 – The Clash releases their first U.S. single, “I Fought the Law”

1984 – Prince’s movie Purple Rain premieres in Hollywood

1990 – Americans With Disabilities Day * – The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) is signed into law

1997 – One Voice Day * is launched, a global peace initiative, asking people everywhere to take a few moments at 6 PM Universal Time to read aloud the Universal Peace Covenant, created by the faculty and students at the School of Metaphysics

1999 – NY Christie’s displays 1,500 of Marilyn Monroe’s personal things for future sale

2002 – Federal judge approves a $1.25 billion settlement between Swiss banks and over 500,000 plaintiffs alleging the banks hoarded money deposited by Holocaust victims

2016 – Hillary Clinton becomes the first woman nominee for U.S. President by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia
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