Today in History: July 26, Americans with Disabilities Act signed into law

Today in History

Today is Friday, July 26, the 208th day of 2024. There are 158 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA, prohibiting discrimination based on mental or physical disabilities.

Also on this date:

In 1775, the Continental Congress established a Post Office and appointed Benjamin Franklin its Postmaster-General.

In 1847, the western African country of Liberia, founded by freed American slaves, declared its independence.

In 1863, Sam Houston, former president of the Republic of Texas, died in Huntsville at age 70.

In 1945, 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 1948, President Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the U.S. military.

In 1953, Fidel Castro began his revolt against Fulgencio Batista (fool-HEN’-see-oh bah-TEES’-tah) with an unsuccessful attack on an army barracks in eastern Cuba. (Castro ousted Batista in 1959.)

In 1971, Apollo 15 was launched from Cape Kennedy on America’s fourth successful manned mission to the moon.

In 2002, the Republican-led House voted to create an enormous Homeland Security Department in the biggest government reorganization in decades.

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.

In 2018, the last six members of a Japanese doomsday cult who remained on death row were executed for a series of crimes in the 1990s, including a gas attack on Tokyo subways that killed 13 people.

In 2020, a processional with the casket of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama, where Lewis and other civil rights marchers were beaten 55 years earlier.

Today’s Birthdays: Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard is 85. Football Hall of Famer Bob Lilly is 85. Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Darlene Love is 83. Singer Brenton Wood is 83. The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger is 81. Actor Helen Mirren is 79. Rock musician Roger Taylor (Queen) is 75. Olympic gold medal figure skater Dorothy Hamill is 68. Actor Kevin Spacey is 65. Actor Sandra Bullock is 60. Actor Jeremy Piven is 59. Actor Jason Statham is 57. Actor Olivia Williams is 56. Actor Kate Beckinsale is 51. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is 44. Actor Juliet Rylance is 44. Actor Monica Raymund is 38. Actor Francia Raisa is 36. Actor-singer Taylor Momsen is 31. Actor Elizabeth Gillies is 31. Actor Thomasin McKenzie is 24.