Historical Events -  July 26.

1745: First recorded women’s cricket match at Guildford, England.

1788: New York became the 11th state of the United States.

1847: Liberia declared its independence.

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.

1953: Fidel Castro’s failed attack on the Moncada Barracks triggered the Cuban Revolution, known as the July 26 Revolution.

1956: Egyptian President Gamal Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal after the World Bank refused to finance the construction of the Aswan Dam.

1965: The Maldives gained total independence from the British.

1982: Indian film star Amitabh Bachchan got injured filming a fight scene for the movie “Coolie”

1999: Kargil conflict officially came to an end. The Indian Army announced the complete eviction of Pakistani intruders.

2008: 21 blasts in Ahmedabad city of Gujarat, India. 56 people were killed and over 200 injured in the accident.

Famous Birthdays – July 26

1856: George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist, and political activist.

1875: Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst.

1893: Krishnarao Shankar Pandit, an Indian vocalist of the Gwalior Gharana.

1904: Malati Devi Choudhury, an Indian civil rights and freedom activist and Gandhian.

1910: B. R. Panthulu, an Indian film director, producer, and actor.

1915: K. Pattabhi Jois, an Indian yoga teacher, and Sanskrit scholar.

1925: Tyeb Mehta, an Indian painter, sculptor, and filmmaker.

1926: Pandit Gopal Krishan Sharma, an exponent of Vichitra Veena.

1928: Ibn-e-Safi, a fiction writer, novelist, and poet of Urdu from Pakistan. 

1967: Jason Statham, an English actor.

1972: Jugal Hansraj, an Indian actor, model, producer, writer, author, and director.

Death Anniversaries  -  July 26

1891: Rajendralal Mitra, an Orientalist researcher in Bengal and the first president of the Asiatic Society.

1980: Ibn-e-Safi, a fiction writer, novelist, and poet of Urdu from Pakistan. 

2009: Bhaskar Chandavarkar, an Indian sitar player, academic and film and theatre composer.

2011: Madhu Sudan Kanungo, an eminent Indian scientist.

2013: Obaid Siddiqi, the Founder-Director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research National Center for Biological Sciences.