By The Associated Press

              - Today is Monday, July 26, the 207th day of 1999. There are 158 days
                left in the year.

              - On July 26, 1947, President Truman signed the National Security Act,
                creating the Department of Defense, the National Security Council,
                the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
              - In 1775 Benjamin Franklin became Postmaster General.
              - In 1788 New York became the 11th state to ratify the U.S.
                Constitution.
              - In 1908 U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte issued an order
                creating an investigative agency, a forerunner of the FBI.
              - In 1928 Stanley Kubrick was born in New York City.
              - In 1945 Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister after
                his Conservatives were trounced by the Labor Party. (Clement Attlee
                became prime minister.)
              - In 1948 President Truman signed executive orders prohibiting
                discrimination in the U.S. armed forces and federal employment.
              - In 1952 Argentina's first lady, Eva Peron, died in Buenos Aires at
                age 33.
              - In 1956 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez
                Canal.
              - In 1964 Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa and six others were
                convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the handling of a union
                pension fund.
              - In 1971 Apollo 15 was launched from Cape Kennedy.

              - Ten years ago Mark Wellman, a 29-year-old paraplegic, reached the
                summit of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park after hauling himself
                up the granite cliff six inches at a time over nine days.
              - Five years ago the House Banking Committee opened limited hearings
                on the Whitewater controversy. A car bomb heavily damaged the
                Israeli embassy in London, injuring 14; hours later, a second bomb
                exploded outside a building housing Jewish organizations in north
                London.
              - One year ago the White House said President Clinton's lawyers were
                working with prosecutor Kenneth Starr to avert Clinton's direct
                testimony to a grand jury about the Monica Lewinsky case. (The
                president ended up testifying via closed-circuit TV.) AT&T and
                British Telecommunications PLC announced they were forming a joint
                venture to combine international operations and develop a new
                Internet system.
 

              *Happy Birthday*
              ----------------
              - Actor Jason Robards Jr. is 77.
              - Movie director Blake Edwards is 77.
              - Actor James Best ("The Dukes of Hazzard") is 73.
              - Singer Dobie Gray is 59.
              - Rock star Mick Jagger is 56.
              - Movie director Peter Hyams is 56.
              - Actress Susan George is 49.
              - Actor Kevin Spacey is 40.
              - Rock singer Gary Cherone (Van Halen) is 38.
              - Actress Sandra Bullock is 35.
              - Actor Jeremy Piven ("Ellen") is 34.
              - Actress Kate Beckinsale is 26.