Today is July 26 2014

National Bagelfest: More

• National Day of the Cowboy : More
  
• All or Nothing Day: More
• Aunt and Uncle Day: More
• National Dance Day: More
  Last Saturday in July
• National Coffee Milkshake Day: More
• FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) is founded: More
  jULY 26 1908.
• United States Post Office Department established: More
  July 26 1775, by the Second Continental Congress.
• National Security Act of 1947 became law.: More
  July 26 1947. Created: Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, United States Air Force, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council.
• Gracie Allen's birthday.: More
  July 26 1895 or 1902. On YouTube: More

• In 1775, A postal system was established by the 2nd Continental Congress of the United States. The first Postmaster General was Benjamin Franklin.
  From Wikipedia: 'The United States Postal Service, also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, often abbreviated as USPS, is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution.
  
  The U.S. Mail traces its roots to 1775 during the Second Continental Congress, where Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The Post Office Department was created in 1792 from Franklin's operation, elevated to a cabinet-level department in 1872, and transformed in 1971 into the U.S. Postal Service as an agency of the U.S. government'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1893, Commercial production of the Addressograph (addressing machine), the 'Baby O'm started in Chicago, IL.
  From Wikipedia: 'An addressograph is an address labeler and labeling system.
  In 1896, the first U.S. patent for an addressing machine, the Addressograph was issued to Joseph Smith Duncan of Sioux City, Iowa. It was a development of the invention he had made in 1892. His earlier model consisted of a hexagonal wood block onto which he glued rubber type which had been torn from rubber stamps. While revolving, the block simultaneously inked the next name and address ready for the next impression. The "Baby O" model was put into production on the July 26, 1893, in a small back room of the old Caxton Building in Chicago, Illinois.
  
  The original company which manufactured the Addressograph, Addressograph International, merged in 1932 with American Multigraph of Cleveland, Ohio, to form the Addressograph-Multigraph Corporation manufacturing highly efficient addressograph and duplicating machines. In 1978 the corporate headquarters moved from Cleveland to Los Angeles, California, and the corporation name changed in 1979 to AM International. In 1982, the firm filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11.
  
  An addressograph machine of the 1960s was essentially a steel frame with an integrated keyboard for stamping out address plates, a cassette-style plate feeder, a heavy-duty, rapidly moving inked ribbon, a platten for hand-feeding the mail piece, and a foot pedal for stamping the address. The individual steel address plates were inserted into card-sized frames which had a series of slots along the top where colored metal flags could also be inserted for sorting purposes. The plate assemblies were placed in steel cassettes resembling library card catalogue drawers, which were manually inserted into the machine. At the press of the foot pedal the plate assemblies were swapped in sequence in a similar fashion to a slide projector, placing an impression of the raised type onto the mail piece.
  
  Addressograph was one of the comparator companies in the book Good to Great.
  
  An Addressograph was used by the artist Jean Tinguely in his famous Homage to New York (1960) machine performance'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1908, The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) is founded.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States, which simultaneously serves as the nation's prime federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI is concurrently a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. A leading U.S. counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes.
  
  Although many of the FBI's functions are unique, its activities in support of national security are comparable to those of the British MI5 and the Russian FSB. Unlike the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which has no law enforcement authority and is focused on intelligence collection overseas, the FBI is primarily a domestic agency, maintaining 56 field offices in major cities throughout the United States, and more than 400 resident agencies in lesser cities and areas across the nation. At an FBI field office, a senior-level FBI officer concurrently serves as the representative of the Director of National Intelligence.
  
  Despite its domestic focus, the FBI also maintains a significant international footprint, operating 60 Legal Attache (LEGAT) offices and 15 sub-offices in U.S. embassies and consulates across the globe. These overseas offices exist primarily for the purpose of coordination with foreign security services and do not usually conduct unilateral operations in the host countries. The FBI can and does at times carry out secret activities overseas, just as the CIA has a limited domestic function; these activities generally require coordination across government agencies.
  
  The FBI was established in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation (BOI). Its name was changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1935. The FBI headquarters is the J. Edgar Hoover Building, located in Washington, D.C.
  
  The Bureau of Investigation (BOI) was created on July 26, 1908, after Congress had adjourned for the summer. Attorney General Bonaparte, using Department of Justice expense funds, hired thirty-four people, including some veterans of the Secret Service, to work for a new investigative agency. Its first chief (the title is now known as director) was Stanley Finch. Bonaparte notified Congress of these actions in December 1908.
  
  The bureau's first official task was visiting and making surveys of the houses of prostitution in preparation for enforcing the "White Slave Traffic Act," or Mann Act, passed on June 25, 1910. In 1932, the bureau was renamed the United States Bureau of Investigation. The following year it was linked to the Bureau of Prohibition and rechristened the Division of Investigation (DOI) before finally becoming an independent service within the Department of Justice in 1935. In the same year, its name was officially changed from the Division of Investigation to the present-day Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI'.
  - At FamousDaily: More
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1942, Judy Garland and Gene Kelly recorded 'For Me and My Gal'.
  From Wikipedia: '"For Me And My Gal" is a 1917 popular standard song by George W. Meyer, Edgar Leslie, and E. Ray Goetz and recorded by Van and Schenck.
  
  This song was used in the 1942 film of the same name, where it is the first song that Jo Hayden (Judy Garland) and Harry Palmer (Gene Kelly) perform together.
  
  The Decca single release of the Garland/Kelly version was a major hit of 1943. In 1961, rock'n'roll singer Freddy Cannon revived the song.
  
  The song was included on the Al Jolson compilation album The Jolson Story: Rock-a-Bye Your Baby (1957)'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1947,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.
  From Wikipedia: 'The National Security Act of 1947 was a major restructuring of the United States government's military and intelligence agencies following World War II. The majority of the provisions of the Act took effect on September 18, 1947, the day after the Senate confirmed James Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense. His power was initially limited and it was difficult for him to exercise the authority to make his office effective. This was later changed in the amendment to the act in 1949, creating what was to be the Department of Defense.
  
  The Act merged the Department of War (renamed as the Department of the Army) and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment (NME), headed by the Secretary of Defense. It also created the Department of the Air Force, which separated the Army Air Forces into its own service. Initially, each of the three service secretaries maintained quasi-cabinet status, but the act was amended on August 10, 1949, to ensure their subordination to the Secretary of Defense. At the same time, the NME was renamed as the Department of Defense. The purpose was to unify the Army, Navy, and Air Force into a federated structure.
  
  Aside from the military reorganization, the act established the National Security Council, a central place of coordination for national security policy in the executive branch, and the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S.'s first peacetime intelligence agency. The council's function was to advise the president on domestic, foreign, and military policies, and to ensure cooperation between the various military and intelligence agencies.
  
  The Joint Chiefs of Staff was officially established under Title II, Section 211 of the original National Security Act of 1947 before Sections 209–214 of Title II were repealed by the law enacting Title 10 and Title 32, United States Code (Act of August 10, 1956, 70A Stat. 676) to replace them.
  
  The act and its changes, along with the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, were major components of the Truman administration's Cold War strategy.
  
  The bill signing took place aboard Truman's VC-54C presidential aircraft Sacred Cow, the first aircraft used for the role of Air Force One'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1971, The launch of Apollo 15 on the first Apollo 'J-Mission', and first use of a Lunar Roving Vehicle.
  From Wikipedia: 'Apollo 15 was the ninth manned mission in the United States' Apollo program, the fourth to land on the Moon, and the eighth successful manned mission. It was the first of what were termed "J missions", long stays on the Moon, with a greater focus on science than had been possible on previous missions. It was also the first mission on which the Lunar Roving Vehicle was used.
  
  The mission began on July 26, 1971, and ended on August 7. At the time, NASA called it the most successful manned flight ever achieved.
  
  Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin spent three days on the Moon, including 18½ hours outside the spacecraft on lunar extra-vehicular activity (EVA). The mission landed near Hadley rille, in an area of the Mare Imbrium called Palus Putredinus (Marsh of Decay). The crew explored the area using the first lunar rover, which allowed them to travel much farther from the Lunar Module (LM) than had been possible on missions without the rover. They collected 77 kilograms (170 lb) of lunar surface material. At the same time, Command Module Pilot Alfred Worden orbited the Moon, using a Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) in the Service Module (SM) to study the lunar surface and environment in great detail with a panoramic camera, a gamma-ray spectrometer, a mapping camera, a laser altimeter, a mass spectrometer, and a lunar sub-satellite deployed at the end of Apollo 15's stay in lunar orbit (an Apollo program first).
  
  The mission successfully accomplished its objectives, but was marred by negative publicity that accompanied disclosure of the crew carrying unauthorized postage stamps which they had planned to sell after their return. Ironically, this mission was one of very few that had been honored with the issue of a commemorative US stamp, with this first use of a lunar rover happening one decade after the first Mercury astronaut launch'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1971, Nicolette Milnes-Walker completes sailing non-stop single-handedly across the Atlantic, becoming the first woman to successfully do so. She was in a 30 ft yacht and took 45 days.
  From Wikipedia: 'Nicolette Daisy Milnes-Walker, MBE (1943-) was the first woman to sail non-stop single-handed across the Atlantic. She set sail on 12 June 1971 from Milford Haven, UK and arrived in Newport USA forty five days later on 26 July. She made her crossing in a 30 ft yacht, Aziz, a 'Pioneer' Class 9 meter designed by Van Der Stadt and constructed by Southern Ocean Shipyard Ltd, Poole, Dorset'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
• In 1990, The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is signed into law by President George Bush.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is a wide-ranging civil rights law that is intended to protect against discrimination based on disability. Enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1990, it affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal. In addition, unlike the Civil Rights Act, the ADA also requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities, and imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations.
  
  In 1986, the National Council on Disability had recommended enactment of an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and drafted the first version of the bill which was introduced in the House and Senate in 1988. The final version of the bill was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush. It was later amended in 2008 and signed by President George W. Bush with changes effective as of January 1, 2009'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
  - On YouTube: More

I love Ice Cream Month. We continue the celebration, tomorrow with 'National Coffee Milkshake Day'. A perfect match.

Chow-down at breakfast for 'National Bagelfest'. Invite the relatives over for coffee or Bagels. It will be 'Aunt and Uncle Day'.

If all your relatives are busy, look west young man. Find a new friend for 'National Day of the Cowboy'.

After a day of fun food, it will be time for a little exercise. Bull back the rug and get out the fiddle. It will be 'National Dance Day'. Your new Cowboy friend might like an old fashion square dance.

Let's not be timid. Give it your best for 'All or Nothing Day'.

On July 26 1775 the United States Post Office Department was established. It became the United States Postal Service in 1971, On July 26 in 1908, the FBI was founded.

But wait, there's more. The National Security Act of 1947 became law on July 26 1947. That act created 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. 1 song

• A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles: More
  'Rag Doll'has been displaced by 'A Hard Day's Night', which will hold the no. 1 spot until August 15 2014, when 'Everybody Loves Somebody', takes over.

Top movie

• Marnie More
  Having displaced 'The Moon-Spinners', it will be there until the weekend box office of August 9 1964 when, 'The Night of the Iguana', takes over.

• FamousBirthdays.com: July 26 Birthdays More
• FamousDaily.com: July 26 History More
• History.com: Historical Events on 26th July More
• HistoryOrb.com: Famous Deaths on 26th July More
• On-This-day.com history 26th July More
• On-This-day.com music history 26th July More
• Wikipedia.com: History July 26 More

National Baked Bean Month, National Culinary Arts Month, National Grilling Month, National Hot Dog Month, National Ice Cream Month, National July Belongs to Blueberries Month, National Vacation Rental Month,

July is:

July origin (from Wikipedia): Named by the Roman Senate in honor of Julius Caesar.
"is the seventh month of the year (between June and August) in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of seven months with the length of 31 days. It was named by the Roman Senate in honor of the Roman general, Julius Caesar, it being the month of his birth. Prior to that, it was called Quintilis. It is, on average, the warmest month in most of the Northern hemisphere (where it is the second month of summer) and the coldest month in much of the Southern hemisphere (where it is the second month of winter). The second half of the year commences in July. In the Southern hemisphere, July is the seasonal equivalent of January in the Northern hemisphere."

July at Wikipedia: More

If you couldn't afford 90 cents for a movie ticket, 50 years ago, or your 45 RPM record player was broke, you might watch one of these shows on TV.
From this Wikipedia article: More

Best selling books of 1964 More

• Astronomy Picture of the Day: More
• NOAA: - National Hurricane Center - Atlantic Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook: More
• Listen to Old Radio Shows: (streaming mp3 with schedule) More
• NASA TV: (video feed) More
  NASA TV schedule: More
• Public Domain eBook Links

  Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More

• Podcast: A Moment of Science. Approximately 1 minute general science facts.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Podcast: The Naked Scientists. Current science, medicine, space and other science
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  RSS: More
• Podcast: Quirks & Quarks. Current science news.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Articles and videos: Universe Today. Current space and astronomy news.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Old Picture of the Day - "Each day we bring you one stunning little glimpse of history in the form of a historical photograph."
  Home page: More
  RSS: More

Below, are listed several holiday sites that I reference in addition to other holiday researches.

US Government Holidays

• 2014 Postal Holidays More
• 2014 Official Federal Holidays More

Holidays Worldwide

• List of holidays by country More
• Holidays and Observances around the World More