TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Thursday, July 26, the 207th day of 2018. There are 158 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On July 26, 2002, the Republican-led House voted, 295-132, to create an enormous Homeland Security Department in the biggest government reorganization in decades.
On this date:
In 1775, the Continental Congress established a Post Office and appointed Benjamin Franklin its PostmasterGeneral.
■ In 1847, the western African country of Liberia, founded by freed American slaves, declared its independence.
■ In 1908, U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte ordered creation of a force of special agents that was a forerunner of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
■ In 1945, the Potsdam Declaration warned Imperial Japan to unconditionally surrender, or face “prompt and utter destruction.” Winston Churchill resigned as Britain’s prime minister after his Conservatives were soundly defeated by the Labour Party; Clement Attlee succeeded him.
■ In 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act, which reorganized America’s armed forces as the National Military Establishment and created the Central Intelligence Agency.
■ In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act.
■ In 2006, in a dramatic turnaround from her first murder trial, Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a Houston jury in the bathtub drownings of her five children; she was committed to a state mental hospital. (Yates had initially been found guilty of murder, but had her conviction overturned.)
■ In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Today’s Birthdays: Rock star Mick Jagger is 75. Actress Helen Mirren is 73. Rock musician Roger Taylor (Queen) is
69. Actress Susan George is
68. Olympic gold medal figure skater Dorothy Hamill is 62. Actor Kevin Spacey is
59. Actress Sandra Bullock is
54. Actor Jeremy Piven is 53. Rapper-reggae singer Wayne Wonder is 52. Actor Jason Statham (STAY’-thum) is 51. Actor Cress Williams is 48. Actress Kate Beckinsale is 45. Actor Gary Owen is 45. Actress Eve Myles is 40. Actress Juliet Rylance is 39. Actress Monica Raymund is 32.
Thought for Today: “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” — George Bernard Shaw (born this date in 1856, died 1950).