TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2018 On this day in history: 1775 - A postal system was established by the 2nd Continental Congress of the United States. The first Postmaster General was Benjamin Franklin.

1858 - Sydney and Melbourne are linked by telegraph. 1908 - The Federal Bureau of Investigation commences operations.

1945 - Winston Churchill resigned as Britain’s prime minister.

1952 - King Farouk I of Egypt abdicated in the wake of a coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.

1953 - Fidel Castro began his revolt against Fulgencio Batista with an unsuccessful attack on an army barracks in eastern Cuba. Castro eventually ousted Batista six years later.

1956 - Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalise the Suez Canal. 1978 - The World Health Organisation announces that smallpox has been eradicated worldwide.

1998 - AT&T and British Telecommunications PLC announced they were forming a joint venture to combine international operations and develop a new Internet system.

1999 - 1500 pieces of Marilyn Monroe’s personal items went on display at Christie’s in New York, NY. The items went on sale later in 1999.

2005 - Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission: Launch of Discovery, NASA’s first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster in 2003.

2005 - Mumbai, India receives 99.5cm of rain (39.17 inches) within 24 hours, resulting in floods killing over 5,000 people.

2008 - Fifty-six people are killed and over 200 people are injured, in the Ahmedabad bombings in India.

2009 - The militant Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram attacks a police station in Bauchi, leading to reprisals by the Nigeria Police Force and four days of violence across multiple cities.

2016 - Hillary Clinton became the first woman to top a majority party ticket for President of the United States.