1847: Liberian independence proclaimed. The Republic of Liberia, formerly a colony of the American Colonization Society, declares its independence. Under pressure from Britain, the United States hesitantly accepted Liberian sovereignty, making the West African nation the first democratic republic in African history. A constitution modeled after the U.S. Constitution was approved, and in 1848 Joseph Jenkins Roberts was elected Liberia’s first president.
1945: Winston Churchill resigns. In the 11th hour of World War II, Winston Churchill is forced to resign as British prime minister following his party’s electoral defeat by the Labour Party. It was the first general election held in Britain in more than a decade. The same day, Clement Attlee, the Labour leader, was sworn in as the new British leader.
1953: Fidel Castro leads a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks, intended to spark a revolution in Cuba.
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1956: The Suez Crisis begins when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the British and French-owned Suez Canal which later resulted in French, British, and Israeli forces briefly occupying parts of Egypt. The Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas across Egypt, was completed by French engineers in 1869. For the next 87 years, it remained largely under British and French control, and Europe depended on it as an inexpensive shipping route for oil from the Middle East.
1963: Syncom 2, the world’s first geosynchronous communications satellite is launched
Part of NASA’s Syncom program, it was responsible for transmitting the first TV signal from a geosynchronous satellite, a manmade satellite whose orbital period around the Earth matches the Earth’s rotation.
1965: Independence of Maldives. The Indian Ocean Island nation gained independence after 78 years of British rule.
1945: Potsdam Declaration is signed. Also known as the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, the declaration signed by the US, UK and China, detailed the terms of surrender for Japan after World War II.
1983: Mother loses contraception test case. Mrs Victoria Gillick began a nationwide petition against the DHSS ruling and claimed to have attracted between 250,000 and 500,000 names altogether. After securing legal aid, Mrs Gillick took the case to the Appeal Court in December 1984 and the decisions made in July 1983 were overturned.
1990: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 is signed into law. The law banned discrimination based on disability.
1995: At a press conference, security agents arrest General Obasanjo‘s lawyer, Olatunji Abayomi, who has just proclaimed his client’s innocence.
2017: President Donald Trump banned transgender persons from joining the US military.
2023: Niger President Mohamed Bazoum was removed from office by a military coup.
This made the fifth coup in Niger since it gained independence from France in 1960. The coup was condemned by many of the world’s foremost institutions and political bodies, including the World Bank, the United Nations, and the African Union.
BIRTHS ON THIS DAY: July 26
Mick Jagger, 81 years
The musician, actor, film producer, and Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is born in Dartford, Kent, England on July 26, 1943.
Raised in a middle-class English family, Michael Philip Jagger attended the London School of Economics but left without graduating to pursue a music career. In the early 1960s, Jagger, Brian Jones, Keith Richards, and Ian Stewart, founded the Rolling Stones, becoming one of the world’s most popular and enduring rock and roll bands.
Samuel Okoye (1939–2009)
Samuel Ejikeme Okoye was born on July 26, 1939. He was the first Black African astronomer to achieve a PhD in radio astronomy. He did so at the University of Cambridge in 1965, at the time when radio astronomy was beginning to reveal the high-energy universe. He went on to play a major part in establishing astronomy in Nigeria as both a discipline and to drive development. He died at 70.
