July 26 in Military History

The Continental Congress establishes the United States Post Office and appoints Benjamin Franklin as the first Postmaster General, creating the communication infrastructure essential for coordinating the Revolutionary War effort.

Italian carabinieri arrested Prime Minister Benito Mussolini at the Villa Savoia in Rome, ending 21 years of fascist rule. Marshal Pietro Badoglio formed a new government and began secret armistice negotiations with the Allies that culminated in the September 8, 1943, surrender of Italy.

The United States, Britain, and China issue the Potsdam Declaration demanding Japan's unconditional surrender, warning of "prompt and utter destruction", a veiled reference to the atomic bomb that had been tested just ten days earlier.

The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis arrives at Tinian Island, completing the secret delivery of enriched uranium for the Little Boy atomic bomb. The ship would depart Tinian and be torpedoed four days later.

President Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947, creating the Department of Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council, restructuring America's entire national security apparatus for the Cold War.

President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, declaring "there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin," ending decades of official military segregation.

Fidel Castro leads 160 rebels in an assault on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba, beginning the Cuban Revolution. Though the attack failed militarily, it launched Castro's rise to power and reshaped Cold War dynamics in the Western Hemisphere.

Apollo 15 launched from Kennedy Space Center on a Saturn V rocket, carrying astronauts David Scott, Alfred Worden, and James Irwin on the first extended J-mission scientific exploration. The mission introduced the Lunar Roving Vehicle and extended surface stays that shaped later mission design for Apollo 16 and 17.

U.S. intelligence reporting on July 26, 1990, documented Iraqi Republican Guard armored divisions concentrating at Jahra and the Umm Qasr border area. The movements were the final pre-invasion positioning before the August 2 attack on Kuwait and produced the intelligence-assessment controversy that reshaped U.S. indicator-and-warning processes.

The U.S. Air Force's X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle 5 landed at Kennedy Space Center after a record 780-day mission, returning to earth a classified payload after the longest flight of the reusable spaceplane program. The mission set the precedent for long-duration on-orbit testing that now defines Space Force experimental systems.