By: HISTORY.com Editors

1990

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) signed into law

Published: July 20, 2020Last Updated: May 28, 2025

On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the most sweeping affirmation of rights for the disabled in American history at the time, into law.

As disability rights attorney Arlene Mayerson would later write, the story of the ADA began “when people with disabilities began to challenge societal barriers that excluded them from their communities, and when parents of children with disabilities began to fight against the exclusion and segregation of their children.” Activists explicitly compared their struggle to the Civil Rights movement, arguing that without federal requirements in place, the disabled faced discrimination both as patrons of public spaces and businesses and in seeking employment. In 1986, the National Council on Disability, an independent government agency, issued a report that reached the same conclusion, highlighting the many gaps in federal law that made full participation in society and equal opportunities for employment impossible for many disabled Americans.

Thanks largely to the lobbying efforts of Patrisha Wright, cofounder of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, federal legislation similar to a version of the Civil Rights Act for the disabled gained support in the late 80s. The eventual bill, the ADA, covered a wide range of physical and mental disabilities. The bulk of the act provides legal recourse against employers who discriminate against the disabled and set standards of access to public buildings and public accommodations (hotels, restaurants, etc.). It also established federal laws regarding service animals, among other things.

In March of 1990, a group of disability rights activists staged the Capitol Crawl, in which disabled people pulled themselves up all 100 steps of the Capitol building in order to highlight the nation’s lack of accessibility. Despite pressure from some church groups, who felt the ADA unfairly burdened them, the bill passed the House by unanimous voice vote and the Senate 76-6, paving the way for its signing on July 26 by President Bush, who said, “Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.”

When the ‘Capitol Crawl’ Dramatized the Need for Americans with Disabilities Act

The 1990 protest demonstrated the barriers that inaccessible buildings create for people with disabilities.

By: Becky Little

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on July 26th

1533

Pizarro executes last Inca emperor

Atahuallpa dies at the hands of Pizarro’s Spanish conquistadors.

1775

U.S. postal system established

The U.S. postal system is established by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster general.

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1797

John Quincy Adams marries Louisa Johnson, first foreign-born first lady

She never much liked life in the White House.

1847

Liberian independence proclaimed

The Republic of Liberia, formerly a colony of the American Colonization Society, declares its independence. Under pressure from Britain, the United States hesitantly accepted Liberian sovereignty, making the West African nation the first democratic republic in African history. A constitution modeled after the U.S. Constitution was approved, and in 1848 Joseph Jenkins Roberts was elected […]

1:28m read

1863

Confederate leader John Hunt Morgan is captured

On July 26, 1863, Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his men are captured at Salineville, Ohio, during a spectacular raid on the North. Starting in July 1862, Morgan made four major raids on Northern or Northern-held territory over the course of a year. Although they were of limited strategic significance, the […]

1908

FBI founded

On July 26, 1908, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is born.

4:50m read

1941

United States freezes Japanese assets

On July 26, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt seizes all Japanese assets in the United States in retaliation for the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China. On July 24, Tokyo decided to strengthen its position in terms of its invasion of China by moving through Southeast Asia. Given that France had long occupied parts of the region, […]

1:32m read

1943

Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger is born

The musician, actor, film producer and Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger is born in Dartford, Kent, England on July 26, 1943. Raised in a middle-class English family, Michael Philip Jagger attended the London School of Economics but left without graduating in order to pursue a career in music. In the early 1960s, Jagger, along […]

1:30m read

1943

Hitler discusses plans to prevent Italy’s imminent defection

On July 26, 1943, the day after Nazi ally Benito Mussolini is deposed by Italy’s Grand Council—who nominally claim they will keep fighting with the Germans—Adolf Hitler calls the act “naked treachery.” In a military briefing at his headquarters, the Führer declares the Italians are buying time before negotiating surrender terms with the WWII Allies […]

1:58m read

1945

Winston Churchill resigns

In the 11th hour of World War II, Winston Churchill is forced to resign as British prime minister following his party’s electoral defeat by the Labour Party. It was the first general election held in Britain in more than a decade. The same day, Clement Attlee, the Labour leader, was sworn in as the new […]

2:44m read

1947

President Truman signs the National Security Act

President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act, which becomes one of the most important pieces of Cold War legislation. The act established much of the bureaucratic framework for foreign policymaking for the next 40-plus years of the Cold War. By July 1947, the Cold War was in full swing. The United States and […]

2:34m read

1948

President Truman ends segregation in the military

On July 26, 1948, President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981, banning racial discrimination in the military. Truman’s order ended a long-standing practice of segregating Black soldiers and relegating them to more menial jobs. African Americans had been serving in the United States military since the Revolutionary War, but were deployed in their largest numbers […]

1956

Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal

The Suez Crisis begins when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the British and French-owned Suez Canal. The Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean and Red Seas across Egypt, was completed by French engineers in 1869. For the next 87 years, it remained largely under British and French control, and Europe depended on it as […]

1975

Van McCoy’s “The Hustle” is the #1 song in America

On July 26, 1975, Van McCoy’s “The Hustle” topped the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles charts simultaneously, signaling the beginning of the disco era. For as popular as it was during much of the first half of the 20th century, couples dancing seemed poised to go by the wayside of American popular culture […]

0:48m read

1984

Infamous serial killer Ed Gein dies

On July 26, 1984, Ed Gein, a serial killer infamous for skinning human corpses, dies of complications from cancer at the Mendota Mental Health Institute at age 77. Gein served as the inspiration for writer Robert Bloch’s character Norman Bates in the 1959 novel “Psycho,” which in 1960 was turned into a film starring Anthony Perkins […]

1:46m read

1998

Three race fans killed at Michigan Speedway

The U.S. 500, the most prestigious race in the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) series, dissolves into tragedy on July 26, 1998, when three fans are killed and six others wounded by flying debris from a car at Michigan Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. CART (later known as Champ Car) was an open-wheel racing circuit created […]

1:48m read

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