Good morning. It's July 26th — let's begin where we always do: on this very date in history.
📅 On This Day — July 26
🥯 (It's also National Bagelfest Day.)
1956 — Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal, setting off an international crisis that would run through the rest of the year.
1963 — NASA launched Syncom 2, the world's first communications satellite placed in geosynchronous orbit — the ancestor of every satellite call and broadcast that followed.
1971 — Apollo 15 lifted off for the Moon, the first mission to carry the Lunar Roving Vehicle — astronauts were about to go for a drive up there.
1990 — President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, requiring accessible buildings, transit, and workplaces nationwide.
2005 — Space shuttle Discovery launched on STS-114, NASA's return to flight and the first shuttle mission in two and a half years.
Now, let's set the dial back to 1960…
⏪ REWIND: 1960 Dwight Eisenhower is in his final summer in the White House, a first-class stamp costs 4 cents, gas is about 31 cents a gallon — and the country is arguing about a young senator from Massachusetts and whether television will decide the election.
📰 The Headlines Two weeks ago, a first-time novelist from Monroeville, Alabama published a book about a small-town lawyer and his children. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird went out with a cautious print run of 5,000 copies. It would go through fourteen printings in its first year and win the Pulitzer Prize in the next one.
🎬 At the Movies Six weeks into its run and still packing houses is Psycho — Alfred Hitchcock's shocker, with a strict no-late-admission policy that theaters actually enforced, because Hitchcock insisted nobody be seated after the film began.
🎵 On the Charts At #1 on the Hot 100: "I'm Sorry" by Brenda Lee — a lush, string-drenched ballad delivered by a 15-year-old from Georgia, and her first chart-topper.
🏆 In Sports Last month at the Polo Grounds, Floyd Patterson knocked out Ingemar Johansson in the fifth round to become the first man in history to regain the world heavyweight championship — a year after losing it to the same fighter.
🏰 The Disney Vault In theaters this summer is Pollyanna, Disney's warm live-action adaptation starring a young Hayley Mills in her first Disney role — a performance that would win her a special Academy Award, even though the film didn't earn what the studio hoped.
— a couple of quick things before you go —
👟 Step Challenge: the Summer 2026 Step Challenge is rolling — grab the free Pacer app and walk with us: Join the challenge (already have Pacer? Club code E42727228). Every step counts.
💡 Health Snap: Sunday is a good day to do absolutely nothing strenuous — rest is part of the plan, not a break from it.
🎉 Born on a July 26th — or know someone who was?
Forward this to them right now — there's no better "this is the day you were born" gift than a little time travel.
🎂 In good company: July 26 babies include Rolling Stone Mick Jagger (1943), Sandra Bullock (1964), Dame Helen Mirren (1945), director Stanley Kubrick (1928), and Jason Statham (1967).
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