GMT 7/26/2017 Hump day

657 Mu'awiya defeats Caliph Ali in the Battle of Siffin in Mesopotamia.

1526 Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon and colonists leave Santo Domingo for Florida.

1529 Francisco Pizarro receives a royal warrant to "discover and conquer" Peru.

1758 British forces capture France's Fortress of Louisbourg after a seven-week siege.

1759 The French relinquish Fort Ticonderoga in New York to the British under General Jeffrey Amherst.

1775 The Continental Congress establishes a postal system for the colonies with Benjamin Franklin as the first postmaster general.

1790 An attempt at a counter-revolution in France is put down by the National Guard at Lyons.

1794 The French defeat an Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus, France.

1830 King Charles X of France issues five ordinances limiting the political and civil rights of citizens.

1847 Liberia becomes the first African colony to become an independent state.

1848 The French army suppresses the Paris uprising.

1886 William Gladstone is replaced by Lord Salisbury as Prime Minister of England.

1918 Britain's top war ace, Edward Mannock, is shot down by ground fire on the Western Front.

1920 The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified.

1948 In an Executive Order, President Harry Truman calls for the end of discrimination and segregation in the U.S. armed forces.

2005 The shuttle Discovery launches on mission STS-114, marking a return to space after the shuttle Columbia crash of 2003.

Born on July 26

1796 George Catlin, American artist and author.

1856 George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (Pygmalion, Heartbreak House, Major Barbara).

1875 Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist.