Tuesday, July 26

This Day In History

• 1775   Benjamin Franklin became postmaster-general.
• 1788   New York became the 11th state to ratify the Constitution.
• 1908   Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte issued an order creating an investigative agency that was a forerunner of the FBI.
• 1945   Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister after his Conservatives were soundly defeated by the Labor Party. Clement Attlee became the new prime minister.
• 1947   "The National Security Act of July 26, 1947" was passed into law. It established the National Security Council and provided for all armed forces in the U.S. to be under the control of the National Military Establishment. That office is now called the Department of Defense.
• 1948   President Harry S. Truman signed executive orders prohibiting discrimination in the U.S. armed forces and federal employment.
• 1948   Babe Ruth was seen by the public for the last time as he attended the New York City premiere of the the motion picture, "The Babe Ruth Story".
• 1952   Adlai E. Stevenson was nominated for president by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
• 1952   Argentina's first lady, Eva Peron, died in Buenos Aires at age 33.
• 1952   King Farouk I of Egypt abdicated in the wake of a coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.
• 1953   Fidel Castro began a revolt against Fulgencio Batista with an unsuccessful attack on an army barracks in eastern Cuba.
• 1956   Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.
• 1964   Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa and six others were convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the handling of a union pension fund.
• 1986   Kidnappers in Lebanon released the Rev. Lawrence Martin Jenco, an American hostage held for nearly 19 months.
• 1990   President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• 1990   The House of Representatives reprimanded Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., for ethics violations.
• 1990   The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that a young woman, later identified as Kimberly Bergalis, had been infected with the AIDS virus, apparently by her dentist.
• 2000   A federal judge approved a $1.25 billion settlement between Swiss banks and more than a half million plaintiffs who alleged the banks had hoarded money deposited by Holocaust victims.

Happy Birthday To

• 1856   George Bernard Shaw (playwright: Pygmalion; died Nov 2, 1950)
• 1894   Aldous (Leonard) Huxley (philosopher, satirist, author: Brave New World, Crome Yellow, Point Counter Point; died Nov 22, 1963)
• 1906   Gracie (Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie) Allen (vaudeville, radio, TV, stage actress w/husband, George Burns: The Burns and Allen Show; College Swing, Honolulu, Two Girls and a Sailor, We’re Not Dressing; died Aug 27, 1964)
• 1922   Jason Robards Jr. (Obie Award-winning actor: The Ice Man Cometh; Academy Award-winning Supporting Actor: All the President’s Men [1976], Julia [1977], Long Day’s Journey into Night, A Boy and His Dog, The Adventures of Huck Finn, Philadelphia, All the President’s Men, Tora! Tora! Tora!, The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre; son of actor Jason Robards, Sr.; died Dec 26, 2000)
• 1964   Sandra Bullock (actress: Speed, Speed 2: Cruise Control, The Net, While You Were Sleeping, A Time to Kill, Hope Floats, Forces of Nature, Miss Congeniality, Fool Proof, Exactly 3:30, The Chambermaid)