July 26 (UPI) -- On this date in history:
In 1775, Congress establishes the U.S. postal system.
In 1847, Liberia became a republic and Africa's first sovereign, black-ruled democratic nation.
In 1908, the FBI was born as the Bureau of Investigation, or BOI, when a group of newly hired investigators reported to the Justice Department. The special unit officially became the FBI in 1935.
In 1931, swarms of grasshoppers decimated millions of acres of crops throughout the southwestern United States.
In 1941, Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur was named commander of U.S. forces in the Philippines.
In 1945, voters ousted Winston Churchill as prime minister of Britain after five years in the position. His Conservative Party would be voted back into power in 1951, and he would regain his position.
In 1948, President Harry S. Truman ordered desegregation of the U.S. military.
In 1956, Egypt created a crisis by nationalizing the British- and French-owned Suez Canal.
In 1984, serial killer Ed Gein, the inspiration for the movie Psycho, dies of cancer.
In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, prohibiting discrimination against the disabled in employment, public accommodations, in telecommunications, and on public or private buses or trains.
In 1992, under pressure, Iraq agreed to allow U.N. inspectors to look for documentation on weapons of mass destruction.
In 2005, the Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral in the first shuttle launch since the 2003 Columbia tragedy.
In 2010, the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, said the site decided to post more than 75,000 secret U.S. Afghan war documents on the Internet to give a more complete picture of the conflict. The White House said the deed had "a potential to be very harmful."
In 2018, Facebook had the worst single day of trading in history, losing some $110 billion.
In 2020, the body of civil rights icon and Rep. John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., nine days after he died of cancer.