26 July in history
6 events that happened on 26 July, from 1581 to 1956.
✦ Anniversary of the day
1581 CE 445 years ago
Dutch provinces renounce Philip II in the Act of Abjuration
The States General of the rebel provinces declared that Philip II had forfeited his rule by tyranny. The Act of Abjuration was in effect a declaration of independence for what became the Dutch Republic.
1745 CE 281 years ago
First recorded women's cricket match is played in Surrey
Eleven women of Bramley played eleven of Hambledon on Gosden Common near Guildford, reported in the Reading Mercury. It is the earliest recorded women's cricket match.
1847 CE 179 years ago
Liberia declares independence
Liberia, founded by the American Colonization Society as a home for freed Black Americans, declared itself an independent republic. It became Africa's oldest modern republic, though settler rule marginalised indigenous peoples.
1908 CE 118 years ago
The Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of the FBI, is created
Attorney General Charles Bonaparte set up a force of special agents in the US Justice Department. Renamed the FBI in 1935, it grew under J. Edgar Hoover into America's main federal police agency.
1953 CE 73 years ago
Fidel Castro leads the attack on the Moncada Barracks
Fidel Castro led some 160 rebels against the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. The attack failed, but his trial speech 'History Will Absolve Me' made him a national figure, and 26 July named his movement.
