A birthday on the globe
26 July on the globe: what happened in the world on this day, and who was born
For 26 July, the English Wikipedia lists 78 events and 230 births. 42 of the events stand at their places as rays of light; nine more are dashed circles, where the sentence links only to a country or a sea. The taller the ray, the longer ago it happened. The people born that day come further down, as blue points.
A birthday, yours or someone else’s:
Turn it into a greetingScroll: the globe turns to each place
The day you were born, on the globe.
Three things from your day
Scroll: your day first, then 26 July through the years
The Earth on 26 July
The picture on the globe was assembled by NASA from satellite photographs taken in July 2004: the snow, the ice and the green are those of the month.
On 26 July the Sun passes straight overhead at noon along the parallel of 19.4° north. In London, the day lasts about 15 hours 45 minutes.
Beyond 71° north the Sun no longer sets; beyond 71° south it no longer rises.
The line between day and night is tilted on the globe exactly as on this day of the year. On the dark side you can see the lights of towns.
Britain & Ireland · Guildford
1745
The first recorded women's cricket match takes place near Guildford, England.
On the map: Guildford.
Europe · Bayreuth
1882
Premiere of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal at Bayreuth.
On the map: Bayreuth.
Also on the day’s list of Wikipedia in Spanish, Romanian and Chinese.
Europe · Göttingen
1918
Emmy Noether's paper, which became known as Noether's theorem was presented at Göttingen, Germany, from which conservation laws are deduced for symmetries of angular momentum, linear momentum, and energy.
On the map: Göttingen.
Latin America · Guayaquil
1822
José de San Martín arrives in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to meet with Simón Bolívar.
On the map: Guayaquil.
Also on the day’s list of Wikipedia in Spanish and Chinese.
North America · University of Wisconsin–Madison
1848
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is established by Nelson Dewey, first Governor of Wisconsin.
On the map: University of Wisconsin–Madison.
North America · Daniel K. Inouye International Airport
1946
Aloha Airlines begins service from Honolulu International Airport.
On the map: Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
Also on the day’s list of Wikipedia in Chinese.
North America · 2016 Democratic National Convention
2016
Hillary Clinton becomes the first female nominee for president of the United States by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
On the map: the coordinates Wikidata gives for the article “2016 Democratic National Convention”.
Also on the day’s list of Wikipedia in Chinese.
26 July
What the other Wikipedias remember#
For these years the English list has nothing on this day. The events below come from the same day’s lists on Wikipedia in Spanish and were translated for this page.
From Wikipedia in Spanish · Atlanta
1996
At the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, the Ecuadorian athlete Jefferson Pérez wins the 20 km race walk, earning Ecuador's first gold medal.
On the map: Atlanta.
Translated from the list on Wikipedia in Spanish.
The article on Wikipedia in Spanish: Juegos Olímpicos de Atlanta 1996
26 July
Born on 26 July#
The English Wikipedia lists 230 births for this day. The blue points are the birthplaces of 60 of these people: those written about in the most Wikipedia editions, where Wikidata gives a place of birth.
Born on 26 July
1856
George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1950)
Place of birth: Dublin.
Born on 26 July
1928
Stanley Kubrick, American director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer (died 1999)
Place of birth: The Bronx.
Born on 26 July
1875
Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (died 1961)
Place of birth: Kesswil.
Born on 26 July
1894
Aldous Huxley, English novelist and philosopher (died 1963)
Place of birth: Godalming.
Born on 26 July
1964
Sandra Bullock, American actress and producer
Place of birth: Arlington County.
Born in Britain and Ireland
1945
Helen Mirren, English actress
Place of birth: Hammersmith.
Born in Britain and Ireland
1943
Mick Jagger, English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
Place of birth: Dartford.
Born in Britain and Ireland
1967
Jason Statham, English actor
Place of birth: Shirebrook.
26 July
Number one in the charts that week
At the cinema
An animal recorded that day
The record can be seen in GBIF, which brings together wildlife records from around the world.
All your birthdays
The weather that day
Data: Met Office Hadley Centre (HadCET); NOAA (GHCN-Daily, Mauna Loa).
Above the Earth
Sources: Jonathan McDowell, GCAT (launches); GFZ Potsdam (Kp index). Days are counted in Universal Time.
Football that day
International matches played that day:
Source: the “International football results” dataset kept by Mart Jürisoo (CC0).
Also that day
The earthquake’s page at the USGS
Source: the USGS catalogue. The day is counted in Universal Time (UTC).
In those days
Make a link for someone
Type the name, pick the day and the year of birth. The link opens straight on their day, with their name in the greeting.
The link carries the name, date and place typed here; anyone who gets it can see them.
Put another birthday beside it
Your mother’s, your child’s, a friend’s: the two days appear side by side.
Below: 26 July through the years.
The whole globe of the day
Drag the globe to turn it. Touch a ray or a point to read what happened there.
Everything Wikipedia lists for 26 July
The list is the English Wikipedia’s, in its own wording, as it stood in October 2026. 27 events have no place on the map: the sentence links to no place with coordinates, only to places too wide to mark, or to several countries.
- 657
First Fitna: In the Battle of Siffin, troops led by Ali ibn Abu Talib clash with those led by Muawiyah I.
Asia · Battle of SiffinWikipedia: First Fitna - 811
Battle of Pliska: Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros I is killed and his heir Staurakios is seriously wounded.
Europe · Battle of PliskaWikipedia: Battle of Pliska - 920
Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at the Battle of Valdejunquera.
Europe · Battle of ValdejunqueraWikipedia: Battle of Valdejunquera - 1184
Erfurt latrine disaster: At a Hoftag, a meeting with local notables, organized by Henry VI, the building collapses and many of the nobles in attendance drown in the sewage pits below.
Europe · Erfurt latrine disasterWikipedia: Erfurt latrine disaster - 1309
Henry VII is recognized King of the Romans (Holy Roman Emperor) by Pope Clement V.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor - 1509
Krishnadevaraya ascends to the throne as Emperor of Vijayanagara, marking the beginning of the regeneration of the Vijayanagara Empire.
Asia · Vijayanagara EmpireWikipedia: Krishnadevaraya - 1529
Francisco Pizarro González, Spanish conquistador, is appointed governor of Peru.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Francisco Pizarro - 1551
The Knights Hospitaller surrendered the Castello of Gozo to the Ottoman Empire following a brief siege, leading to the mass enslavement and dispersal of the Gozitan population.
Europe · CittadellaWikipedia: Invasion of Gozo - 1579
Francis Drake, the English explorer, discovers a "fair and good" bay on the coast of the Pacific Northwest (probably Oregon or Washington).
no place on the mapWikipedia: Washington - 1581
Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Act of Abjuration): The northern Low Countries declare their independence from the Spanish king, Philip II.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Act of Abjuration - 1703
During the Bavarian Rummel the rural population of Tyrol drove the Bavarian Prince-Elector Maximilian II Emanuel out of North Tyrol with a victory at the Pontlatzer Bridge and thus prevented the Bavarian Army, which was allied with France, from marching as planned on Vienna during the War of the Spanish Succession.
Europe · County of TyrolWikipedia: Bavarian Rummel - 1745
The first recorded women's cricket match takes place near Guildford, England.
Britain & Ireland · GuildfordWikipedia: History of women's cricket - 1757
A French army under Marshal d'Estrées defeats a smaller British-German army under the duke of Cumberland in the battle of Hastenbeck.
Europe · Battle of HastenbeckWikipedia: Battle of Hastenbeck - 1758
French and Indian War: The Siege of Louisbourg ends with British forces defeating the French and taking control of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
North America · Siege of LouisbourgWikipedia: French and Indian War - 1759
French and Indian War: Troops led by French brigadier general François-Charles de Bourlamaque attempted to blow up Fort Carillon, near present-day Ticonderoga, New York, rather than defending it against approaching British forces.
North America · Battle of TiconderogaWikipedia: Battle of Ticonderoga - 1775
The office that would later become the United States Post Office Department is established by the Second Continental Congress. Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania takes office as Postmaster General.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Second Continental Congress - 1778
The Emigration of Christians from the Crimea in 1778 begins.
Europe · CrimeaWikipedia: Eviction of Christians from the Crimea - 1788
New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Constitution of the United States - 1803
The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world's first public railway, opens in south London, United Kingdom.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Surrey Iron Railway - 1814
The Swedish–Norwegian War begins.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Swedish–Norwegian War - 1822
First day of the three-day Battle of Dervenakia, between the Ottoman Empire force led by Mahmud Dramali Pasha and the Greek Revolutionary force led by Theodoros Kolokotronis.
Asia · Ottoman EmpireWikipedia: Battle of Dervenakia - 1822
José de San Martín arrives in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to meet with Simón Bolívar.
Latin America · GuayaquilWikipedia: Guayaquil Conference - 1847
Liberia declares its independence from the United States. France and the United Kingdom are the first to recognize the new nation.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Liberia - 1848
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is established by Nelson Dewey, first Governor of Wisconsin.
North America · University of Wisconsin–MadisonWikipedia: University of Wisconsin–Madison - 1861
American Civil War: George B. McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.
North America · First Battle of Bull RunWikipedia: American Civil War - 1863
American Civil War: Morgan's Raid ends; At Salineville, Ohio, Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his volunteers are captured by Union forces.
North America · Salineville, OhioWikipedia: Morgan's Raid - 1882
Premiere of Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal at Bayreuth.
Europe · BayreuthWikipedia: Richard Wagner - 1882
The Republic of Stellaland is founded in Southern Africa.
Africa · StellalandWikipedia: Stellaland - 1887
Publication of the Unua Libro, founding the Esperanto movement.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Unua Libro - 1890
In Buenos Aires, Argentina the Revolución del Parque takes place, forcing President Miguel Ángel Juárez Celman's resignation.
Latin America · Buenos AiresWikipedia: Revolution of the Park - 1891
France annexes Tahiti.
Oceania · TahitiWikipedia: Tahiti - 1892
Dadabhai Naoroji is elected as the first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Dadabhai Naoroji - 1897
Anglo-Afghan War: The Pashtun fakir Saidullah leads an army of more than 10,000 to begin a siege of the British garrison in the Malakand Agency of the North West Frontier Province of India.
Asia · Siege of MalakandWikipedia: Siege of Malakand - 1899
Ulises Heureaux, the 27th President of the Dominican Republic, is assassinated.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Ulises Heureaux - 1908
United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation).
no place on the mapWikipedia: United States Attorney General - 1918
Emmy Noether's paper, which became known as Noether's theorem was presented at Göttingen, Germany, from which conservation laws are deduced for symmetries of angular momentum, linear momentum, and energy.
Europe · GöttingenWikipedia: Emmy Noether - 1936
King Edward VIII, in one of his few official duties before he abdicates the throne, officially unveils the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
Europe · Canadian National Vimy MemorialWikipedia: Abdication of Edward VIII - 1936
Spanish Civil War: Germany and Italy decide to intervene in the war in support for Francisco Franco and the Nationalist faction.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Spanish Civil War - 1937
Spanish Civil War: End of the Battle of Brunete with the Nationalist victory.
Europe · Battle of BruneteWikipedia: Battle of Brunete - 1941
World War II: Battle of Grand Harbour, British forces on Malta destroy an attack by the Italian Decima Flottiglia MAS. Fort St Elmo Bridge covering the harbour is demolished in the process.
Europe · Raid on Grand HarbourWikipedia: World War II - 1941
World War II: In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indochina, the United States, Britain and the Netherlands freeze all Japanese assets and cut off oil shipments.
Asia · French IndochinaWikipedia: French Indochina - 1944
World War II: The Red Army enters Lviv, a major city in western Ukraine, capturing it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jews survive out of 160,000 living in Lviv prior to occupation.
Europe · LvivWikipedia: Red Army - 1945
The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power.
no place on the mapWikipedia: 1945 United Kingdom general election - 1945
World War II: HMS Vestal is the last British Royal Navy ship to be sunk in the war.
Asia · HMS VestalWikipedia: HMS Vestal - 1945
World War II: The Potsdam Declaration is signed in Potsdam, Germany.
Europe · PotsdamWikipedia: Potsdam Declaration - 1945
World War II: The USS Indianapolis arrives at Tinian with components and enriched uranium for the Little Boy nuclear bomb.
Oceania · Tinian, Northern Mariana IslandsWikipedia: Little Boy - 1946
Aloha Airlines begins service from Honolulu International Airport.
North America · Daniel K. Inouye International AirportWikipedia: Aloha Airlines - 1947
Cold War: U.S. president Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Cold War - 1948
U.S. president Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating the military of the United States.
North America · National Archives BuildingWikipedia: Executive Order 9981 - 1951
Walt Disney's 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, premieres in London, England, United Kingdom.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Walt Disney - 1952
King Farouk of Egypt abdicates in favor of his son Fuad.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Farouk of Egypt - 1953
Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle orders an anti-polygamy law enforcement crackdown on residents of Short Creek, Arizona, which becomes known as the Short Creek raid.
North America · Short Creek raidWikipedia: Short Creek raid - 1953
Cold War: Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution. The movement took the name of the date: 26th of July Movement
Latin America · Attack on the Moncada BarracksWikipedia: Attack on the Moncada Barracks - 1953
Soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment repel a number of Chinese assaults against a key position known as The Hook during the Battle of the Samichon River, just hours before the Armistice Agreement is signed, ending the Korean War.
Asia · Battle of the Samichon RiverWikipedia: Battle of the Samichon River - 1956
Following the World Bank's refusal to fund building the Aswan Dam, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, sparking international condemnation.
Africa · Aswan High DamWikipedia: Suez Crisis - 1957
Carlos Castillo Armas, dictator of Guatemala, is assassinated.
Latin America · GuatemalaWikipedia: Carlos Castillo Armas - 1958
Explorer program: Explorer 4 is launched.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Explorers Program - 1963
An earthquake in Skopje, Yugoslavia (present-day North Macedonia) leaves 1,100 dead.
Europe · 1963 Skopje earthquakeWikipedia: 1963 Skopje earthquake - 1963
Syncom 2, the world's first geosynchronous satellite, is launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Syncom - 1963
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development votes to admit Japan.
Asia · JapanWikipedia: OECD - 1968
Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Trương Đình Dzu is sentenced to five years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.
Asia · South VietnamWikipedia: Vietnam War - 1971
Apollo program: Launch of Apollo 15 on the first Apollo "J-Mission", and first use of a Lunar Roving Vehicle.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Apollo program - 1974
Greek Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis forms the country's first civil government after seven years of military rule.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Greek junta - 1977
The National Assembly of Quebec imposes the use of French as the official language of the provincial government.
North America · QuebecWikipedia: Quebec - 1989
A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
North America · Cornell UniversityWikipedia: Cornell University - 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is signed into law by President George H. W. Bush.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 - 1993
Asiana Airlines Flight 733 crashes into a ridge on Mt. Ungeo on its third attempt to land at Mokpo Airport, South Korea. Sixty-eight of the 116 people on board are killed.
Asia · Asiana Airlines Flight 733Wikipedia: Asiana Airlines Flight 733 - 1999
Kargil conflict officially comes to an end. The Indian Army announces the complete eviction of Pakistani intruders.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Kargil War - 2005
Mumbai, India receives 99.5cm of rain (39.17 inches) within 24 hours, resulting in floods killing over 5,000 people.
Asia · MumbaiWikipedia: Maharashtra floods of 2005 - 2005
Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission: Launch of Discovery, NASA's first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster in 2003.
North America · Space Shuttle Columbia disasterWikipedia: Space Shuttle Columbia disaster - 2007
After widespread controversy throughout Wales, Shambo, a black Friesian bull that had been adopted by the local Hindu community, was slaughtered due to concerns about bovine tuberculosis.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Shambo - 2008
Fifty-six people are killed and over 200 people are injured, in the Ahmedabad bombings in India.
Asia · AhmedabadWikipedia: 2008 Ahmedabad bombings - 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.
Africa · Boko HaramWikipedia: 2009 Boko Haram uprising - 2011
A Royal Moroccan Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules crashes near Guelmim Airport in Guelmim, Morocco. All 80 people on board are killed.
Africa · 2011 Royal Moroccan Air Force C-130 crashWikipedia: 2011 Royal Moroccan Air Force C-130 crash - 2012
The New Irish Republican Army was formed from a merger of a number of dissident republican militant groups.
no place on the mapWikipedia: New Irish Republican Army - 2016
Hillary Clinton becomes the first female nominee for president of the United States by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
North America · 2016 Democratic National ConventionWikipedia: 2016 Democratic National Convention - 2016
Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth.
no place on the mapWikipedia: Solar Impulse - 2016
The Sagamihara stabbings occur in Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. Nineteen people are killed.
Asia · Sagamihara stabbingsWikipedia: Sagamihara stabbings
What the other Wikipedias remember
For these years the English list has nothing on this day. The events below come from the same day’s lists on Wikipedia in Spanish and were translated for this page.
- 1996
At the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, the Ecuadorian athlete Jefferson Pérez wins the 20 km race walk, earning Ecuador's first gold medal.
North America · AtlantaTranslated from the list on Wikipedia in SpanishWikipedia: Juegos Olímpicos de Atlanta 1996
Who was born on 26 July
In order of how many Wikipedia editions have an article about each. The first 60 of 230 are shown.
- 1856
George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1950)
- 1928
Stanley Kubrick, American director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer (died 1999)
The BronxWikipedia: Stanley Kubrick - 1875
Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (died 1961)
KesswilWikipedia: Carl Jung - 1894
Aldous Huxley, English novelist and philosopher (died 1963)
GodalmingWikipedia: Aldous Huxley - 1964
Sandra Bullock, American actress and producer
Arlington CountyWikipedia: Sandra Bullock - 1975
Liz Truss, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1980
Jacinda Ardern, 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand
HamiltonWikipedia: Jacinda Ardern - 1945
Helen Mirren, English actress
HammersmithWikipedia: Helen Mirren - 1943
Mick Jagger, English singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
DartfordWikipedia: Mick Jagger - 1967
Jason Statham, English actor
ShirebrookWikipedia: Jason Statham - 1955
Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistani businessman and politician, 11th President of Pakistan
KarachiWikipedia: Asif Ali Zardari - 1959
Kevin Spacey, American actor and director
South OrangeWikipedia: Kevin Spacey - 1928
Francesco Cossiga, Italian academic and politician, 8th President of Italy (died 2010)
SassariWikipedia: Francesco Cossiga - 1939
John Howard, Australian lawyer and politician, 25th Prime Minister of Australia
EarlwoodWikipedia: John Howard - 1973
Kate Beckinsale, English actress
ChiswickWikipedia: Kate Beckinsale - 1949
Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai businessman and politician, 23rd Prime Minister of Thailand
San KamphaengWikipedia: Thaksin Shinawatra - 1885
André Maurois, French soldier and author (died 1967)
ElbeufWikipedia: André Maurois - 1842
Alfred Marshall, English economist and academic (died 1924)
- 1875
Antonio Machado, Spanish poet and academic (died 1939)
SevilleWikipedia: Antonio Machado - 1949
Roger Taylor, English singer-songwriter, drummer, and producer
DersinghamWikipedia: Roger Taylor - 1993
Taylor Momsen, American singer-songwriter, model, and actress
St. LouisWikipedia: Taylor Momsen - 1678
Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1711)
- 1893
George Grosz, German painter and illustrator (died 1959)
BerlinWikipedia: George Grosz - 1829
Auguste Beernaert, Belgian politician, 14th Prime Minister of Belgium, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1912)
- 1855
Ferdinand Tönnies, German sociologist and philosopher (died 1936)
OldenswortWikipedia: Ferdinand Tönnies - 1919
James Lovelock, English biologist and chemist (died 2022)
Letchworth Garden CityWikipedia: James Lovelock - 1981
Maicon Sisenando, Brazilian footballer
Novo HamburgoWikipedia: Maicon - 1739
George Clinton, American general and politician, 4th Vice President of the United States (died 1812)
Little BritainWikipedia: George Clinton - 1922
Jason Robards, American actor (died 2000)
ChicagoWikipedia: Jason Robards - 1922
Blake Edwards, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2010)
- 1865
Philipp Scheidemann, German journalist and politician, 10th Chancellor of Germany (died 1939)
- 1985
Gaël Clichy, French footballer
ToulouseWikipedia: Gaël Clichy - 1953
Felix Magath, German footballer and manager
AschaffenburgWikipedia: Felix Magath - 1968
Olivia Williams, English actress
Camden TownWikipedia: Olivia Williams - 1942
Vladimír Mečiar, Slovak politician, 1st Prime Minister of Slovakia
- 1782
John Field, Irish pianist and composer (died 1837)
DublinWikipedia: John Field - 1928
Joe Jackson, American talent manager, father of Michael Jackson (died 2018)
Fountain HillWikipedia: Joe Jackson - 1880
Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Ukrainian playwright and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Ukrainian People's Republic (died 1951)
KropyvnytskyiWikipedia: Volodymyr Vynnychenko - 1925
Ana María Matute, Spanish author and academic (died 2014)
BarcelonaWikipedia: Ana María Matute - 1965
Jeremy Piven, American actor and producer
ManhattanWikipedia: Jeremy Piven - 1796
George Catlin, American painter, author, and traveler (died 1872)
Wilkes-BarreWikipedia: George Catlin - 1841
Carl Robert Jakobson, Estonian journalist and politician (died 1882)
- 1954
Vitas Gerulaitis, American tennis player and coach (died 1994)
BrooklynWikipedia: Vitas Gerulaitis - 1966
Angelo di Livio, Italian footballer
- 1895
Gracie Allen, American actress and comedian (died 1964)
San FranciscoWikipedia: Gracie Allen - 1957
Nana Visitor, American actress
New York CityWikipedia: Nana Visitor - 1791
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1844)
- 1931
Telê Santana, Brazilian footballer and manager (died 2006)
ItabiritoWikipedia: Telê Santana - 1977
Martin Laursen, Danish footballer and manager
FårvangWikipedia: Martin Laursen - 1030
Stanislaus of Szczepanów, Polish bishop and saint (died 1079)
SzczepanówWikipedia: Stanislaus of Szczepanów - 1863
Paul Walden, Latvian chemist (died 1957)
Livonia GovernorateWikipedia: Paul Walden - 1874
Serge Koussevitzky, Russian-American bassist, composer, and conductor (died 1951)
Vyshny VolochyokWikipedia: Serge Koussevitzky - 1986
Leonardo Ulloa, Argentinian footballer
General RocaWikipedia: Leonardo Ulloa - 1987
Panagiotis Kone, Greek footballer
- 2000
Thomasin McKenzie, New Zealand actress
WellingtonWikipedia: Thomasin McKenzie - 1802
Mariano Arista, Mexican general and politician, 42nd President of Mexico (died 1855)
San Luis PotosíWikipedia: Mariano Arista - 1956
Dorothy Hamill, American figure skater
ChicagoWikipedia: Dorothy Hamill - 1984
Sabri Sarıoğlu, Turkish footballer
ÇarşambaWikipedia: Sabri Sarıoğlu - 1877
Jesse Livermore, American investor and security analyst, "Great Bear of Wall Street" (died 1940)
MassachusettsWikipedia: Jesse Livermore - 1879
Shunroku Hata, Japanese field marshal and politician, 48th Japanese Minister of War (died 1962)
What is celebrated on 26 July
- Christian feast day: Andrew of Phú Yên
- Christian feast day: Anne and Joachim (Western Christianity)
- Christian feast day: Bartolomea Capitanio
- Christian feast day: Blessed Camilla Gentili
- Christian feast day: George Preca
- Christian feast day: Blessed Maria Pierina
- Christian feast day: Paraskevi of Rome (Eastern Orthodox Church)
- Christian feast day: Titus Brandsma
- Christian feast day: Venera
- Christian feast day: July 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Emancipation Day (Barbados)
- Day of the National Rebellion (Cuba)
- Esperanto Day
- Independence Day (Liberia), celebrates the independence of Liberia from the American Colonization Society in 1847.
A greeting link for someone
Type a name and, if you like, the year of birth. The link opens with a greeting, and beside each event it says how old the person turned that day, or how many years before their birth it happened.
The name and the year go only into the link you send.
All 366 days
How the globe is made
Where the events come from
Each edition of this page uses the day’s list from Wikipedia in its own language: Romanian, English, Spanish, Chinese. The lists are written by volunteers and differ from one edition to the next; the text of each event is Wikipedia’s, with a link to the article. A row that appears twice in a list is shown once. The lists have not been checked event by event: they are Wikipedia’s, mistakes included.
For events before 1582, and for countries that moved to the Gregorian calendar later (Britain in 1752, Russia in 1918), the same day may be counted Old Style in one list and New Style in another.
The chapter “What the other Wikipedias remember” adds up to five events a day from the lists of the other three editions, only for years in which the English list has nothing on that day. They were translated for this page, passed the same filters as the tour, and are not counted among the events of the English list.
How an event gets onto the map
The place comes from Wikidata. If the sentence links to the article about the event itself (a battle, an opening, an earthquake), dated to the same year, the ray stands on its coordinates or on those of its location. Otherwise it stands on the first place the sentence links to: a town, a building, a mountain, an island. This second step can be wrong: sometimes the sentence only mentions the place. That is why the page says, under each event, which place the ray stands on.
When the sentence links to a single state or province, or to a single sea, lake or desert larger than 5,000 km², the globe shows a dashed circle, not a ray. The circle has the area Wikidata gives, with its radius kept between 1.2° and 16°, or a radius of 4.5° when Wikidata gives no area; it says only that the sentence links to that place. Organisations, ships, spacecraft, museum objects, rivers, mountain ranges, languages and continents are never used as places. When a sentence names several states and no exact place, the event stays in the list only.
What the height means
The height of a ray shows how many years have passed, on a logarithmic scale: 10 years, 100 years and 1,000 years are equal steps apart; anything older than about 2,600 years has the tallest ray. The colour runs from pale yellow for recent years to violet for antiquity.
Where the tour stops
In each region the tour stops at up to three events (five in Britain and Ireland), chosen mainly by three things: whether Wikipedia’s editors put the event in the “On this day” box of their main page (the English, Spanish and Chinese editions), how many Wikipedia editions have an article about it, and how many of the four lists include it. Events whose sentence or article is about a war, an attack, a crime or a disaster are left out of the tour; they stay in the whole list, in Wikipedia’s wording. The filter is a list of words and a list of Wikidata types, so it can miss some.
The tour of births names the people with articles in the most editions and leaves aside those whom the list or Wikidata describes as rulers, politicians, commanders, leaders of movements or criminals; they stay in the list.
The Earth and the Sun
The daytime images are NASA’s Blue Marble Next Generation mosaics, one for each month of 2004; the night side is Black Marble 2016. The tilt of the line between day and night is computed for the day; the hour is chosen so that the place being read is in daylight. The latitude where the Sun stands overhead is the average of the four years of the leap cycle; in a given year it can differ by up to 0.4°.
The day you were born
The number ones come from the weekly lists on Wikipedia: Billboard for the United States (from 1940; the Hot 100 from August 1958), the UK Singles Chart (from November 1952), Los 40 Principales for Spain (from July 1966) and, for Romania, the Romanian Top 100 and Airplay 100 (2001–2021, with missing weeks). The page shows the chart of the week in which the day of birth falls, with its date; Billboard and the UK chart are dated at the end of their week. For Romania before 2001 and for China these sources have no weekly chart.
The films are those that reached cinemas in the United States up to ten days before or three days after that day (some of them in a few cinemas at first), from the English Wikipedia’s yearly lists (from 1968), in order of how many editions have an article about them. The events “in those days” are the ones on the neighbouring days’ lists that carry the year of birth, passed through the same filter as the tour.
The day of birth, year included
The Moon, the star sign and the constellation are worked out by the page itself, for noon Universal Time on the day. The lit part of the Moon is rounded and can differ by a few per cent from that at the hour of birth. The sign follows the usual zodiac of twelve equal parts starting at the March equinox; the constellation is the one the Sun actually stood in front of, by the borders set by the International Astronomical Union, and within a day of a border the page does not name it. When the Sun changes sign while it is that day anywhere on Earth, the page gives the moment of crossing, rounded to ten minutes and accurate to within about a quarter of an hour, and the clock time in a few cities, with the time zone and summer time of that year.
The year in the Chinese calendar is the one your device’s own calendar gives for the date, checked against the Hong Kong Observatory’s tables. “All your birthdays” uses the same sources as the rest of the chapter for the same day in every year since the birth: the temperature, well-known launches that took place on that very day, matches of the teams the edition follows, snow deeper than 10 cm and strong geomagnetic storms. The three things at the top and the four on the picture are chosen in a fixed order (the song, the animal, a full Moon, a well-known launch before an ordinary earthquake); on the picture you can change them.
When the link carries a year of birth, the page adds a few things about that exact day. The weather is the Met Office’s Central England temperature record and the readings from New York’s Central Park; the “usual high” is the average of the daily highs of 1961–1990 for that date, with two days either side. The carbon dioxide figure is the monthly mean at the Mauna Loa observatory, where measurements begin in March 1958.
The earthquake is the one with the largest magnitude in the USGS catalogue for that day, counted in Universal Time. Before the 1960s the catalogue has gaps even above magnitude 5.5, so in the older years many days have no earthquake. The page gives only the magnitude and the place: the country the epicentre falls in or, when the epicentre is at sea within 300 km of a coast, the nearest country; farther out, only the ocean.
The launches are those that reached orbit or left for the Moon and the planets, from Jonathan McDowell’s GCAT catalogue. If nothing left that day, the page shows the nearest launch within three days before or after, and says how many days away it was. The geomagnetic storm appears only when the Kp index reached at least 5 in one of the day’s eight three-hour intervals.
The animal comes from GBIF: an observation made by a person (the animal seen or heard, or its tracks), dated to that exact day, with coordinates and a CC0 or CC BY licence. Only a few hundred well-known species are searched (mammals, birds, turtles, butterflies); of those noted that day, mammals and species with articles in many Wikipedia editions come first; birds noted almost every day, and species used recently, wait their turn. Observations dated 1 January are left out, because records without a day are often filed there. An observation shows that the animal was recorded there, not how many animals there were.
The matches are those between national teams. Only matches of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, Canada and Australia are shown, along with those at the big final tournaments. The picture to send is drawn in the page from the day’s globe and the facts above, and stays on your device until you send it.
Sources
- Events, births and holidays: the day’s page on Wikipedia, text under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Coordinates, places of birth and the number of editions: Wikidata (CC0).
- The Earth by day: NASA Blue Marble Next Generation. The Earth by night: NASA Black Marble 2016.
- Borders and regions: Natural Earth.
- World population and births per year: UN World Population Prospects 2024.
- Charts and films: Wikipedia’s lists for Billboard, the UK Singles Chart, Los 40 Principales, Romanian Top 100, Airplay 100 and American films by year (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Weather: Met Office Hadley Centre, HadCET (Open Government Licence) and NOAA GHCN-Daily, New York Central Park. Carbon dioxide: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, Mauna Loa.
- Earthquakes: the USGS catalogue. Launches: Jonathan McDowell, GCAT (CC BY). Kp index: GFZ Potsdam (CC BY 4.0). Matches: International football results, Mart Jürisoo (CC0).
- Animal observations: GBIF, with a link to each record; species names come from Wikidata.