Event of Interest
138 Antoninus Pius succeeds Hadrian as Emperor of Rome
Antoninus Pius
Hadrian
- 911 Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy
- 1156 Siege of Shirakawa-den in Japan
- 1244 Khwarezmian Tatars sack Jerusalem, decimating the city's Christian population and driving out Jews
- 1302 Battle of the Golden Spurs (Guldensporenslag in Dutch) near Kortrijk, Belgium. Flemish coalition defeat French army
- 1346 Charles IV of Luxembourg is elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
- 1347 Heir to the Bohemian throne elected German anti-king Charles IV
- 1405 Chinese fleet commander Zheng He sets sail to explore the world for the first time
- 1423 Arnold van Egmont becomes Duke of Gelre
- 1476 Giuliano della Rovere is appointed bishop of Coutances
- 1525 Trial against "heretic" John Pistorius at The Hague
Excommunication
1533 Pope Clement VII excommunicates England's King Henry VIII
Henry VIII
- 1536 The Convocation of the clergy subscribe to the Ten Articles, beliefs of the English Church under Henry VIII
- 1576 Martin Frobisher sights Greenland
- 1588 French King Henri III accept demands of Catholic League
Event of Interest
1616 Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec.
Samuel de Champlain
Event of Interest
1663 Oxford mathematician John Wallis gives a lecture on Euclid’s parallel postulate, first Western attempt to derive the parallel postulate as a theorem
John Wallis
- 1673 Netherlands & Denmark sign defense treaty
- 1690 Battle of Drogheda Boyne (William III beats deposed James II)
- 1708 Battle at Oudenaarde: Great Alliance beats France
- 1735 Mathematical calculations suggest that it was on this day that Pluto moved from the ninth to the eighth most distant 'planet' from the Sun for the last time before 1979
- 1740 Jews are expelled from Little Russia by order of Tsarina Anne
- 1750 Halifax, Nova Scotia, is almost completely destroyed by fire.
Event of Interest
1776 Captain James Cook begins his third voyage
James Cook
- 1781 Thomas Hutchins designated Geographer of US
Event of Interest
1789 French King Louis XVI dismisses finance minister Jacques Necker, sparking riots in Paris
Louis XVI
Jacques Necker
Event of Interest
1804 Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel
Alexander Hamilton
Aaron Burr
Historic Publication
1811 Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro publishes his memoir on the molecular content of gases
Amedeo Avogadro
- 1812 US invades Canada (Detroit frontier)
Event of Interest
1818 English poet John Keats writes "In the Cottage Where Burns is Born", "Lines Written in the Highlands", and "Gadfly"
John Keats
- 1848 Edmund Hickly gets 1st known 10 wicket innings (Kent v England)
- 1848 London's Waterloo Station opens
- 1861 Battle of Laurel Mountain Virginia - General Morris forces retreat of rebels
- 1861 Battle of Rich Mountain, Virginia - Rosecrans forces rebels to surrender
- 1862 Lincoln appoints General Halleck general-in-chief
- 1863 Battle at Green River, Kentucky (Morgan's Ohio Raid)
- 1863 Japanese battle cruiser shoots at Dutch warship Medusa, kills 4
- 1864 Confederate forces led by General Jubal Early begin invasion of Washington, D.C. with the Battle of Fort Stevens
- 1877 Kate Edger becomes New Zealand’s first woman graduate and first woman in the British Empire to earn a Bachelor of Arts
- 1882 British fleet bombards Alexandria
- 1888 118°F (48°C), Bennett, Colorado (state record)
- 1888 Pennsylvania's Monongehela River rises 32' after 24 hour rainfall
- 1889 Tijuana in Mexico becomes a city
Historic Invention
1892 US Patent Office says Joseph Swan rather than Thomas Edison, invented the electric light carbon for the incandescent lamp
Thomas Edison
- 1893 The first cultured pearl is obtained by Kokichi Mikimoto
- 1893 A revolution led by the liberal general and politician, José Santos Zelaya, takes over state power in Nicaragua
- 1895 First ever automobile race: Paris to Bordeaux 1,178 km in 48 hours, 48 minutes
- 1895 Auguste and Louis Lumière show film for scientists
Event of Interest
1896 Wilfrid Laurier sworn in as the 7th Prime Minister of Canada
Wilfrid Laurier
Event of Interest
1900 Charlotte Cooper beats Hélène Prévost to become the 1st female Olympic tennis champion and the 1st individual female Olympic champion in any sport
Charlotte Cooper
Event of Interest
1902 British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury resigns
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
Event of Interest
1905 Black intellectuals and activists lead by W.E.B. Du Bois organize the civil rights Niagara Movement
W.E.B. Du Bois
- 1906 The Gillette-Brown murder inspires Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy"
- 1915 German cruiser Königsberg sinks off Dar-es-Salam
- 1916 US Congress passes Federal Aid Road Act
- 1916 Battle of Verdun: Germany launches an offensive on Fort Souville in France but are defeated by artillery and machine gunners
- 1919 Dutch 2nd chamber approves 8-hour day and no Sunday work
- 1920 East and West Prussia vote in a plebiscite to become part of Germany, though a slice of West Prussia will be handed to Poland to provide a 'Polish Corridor'
- 1921 Mongolia gains independence from China (National Day)
- 1922 The Hollywood Bowl opens.
- 1923 Harry Frazee, sells Red Sox to Ohio businessmen for $1M
- 1924 Muslim-Hindu rebellion in Delhi, India
- 1925 Queen Wilhelmina names H Colijn head of government
Donald Bradman
- 1931 NY Giants beat Phillies 23-8
Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 1936 Triborough Bridge linking Manhattan, Bronx and Queens opens
- 1939 7th All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 3-1 at Yankee Stadium, New York NY Yankee/AL maanager Joe McCarthy starts 6 Yankees
- 1940 British & German dogfight above Lyme Bay
- 1940 Marshall Henri Petain, French hero of World War One, becomes head of the collaborative Vichy government of France
- 1941 German troops attack Dnjepr
- 1943 7th day of battle at Kursk
Event of Interest
1943 Counter attack by Hermann Goering's Armoured division in Sicily
Hermann Goering
- 1943 US 45th Division occupies airport Comiso Sicily
- 1943 US 82nd Airborne division shot at by "friendly fire" in Sicily
- 1943 Massacres of Poles in Volhynia.
- 1944 12th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 7-1 at Forbes Field, Pittsburgh
- 1944 Franklin Roosevelt announces that he will run for a fourth term as President of the United States
- 1946 Kingman Douglass ends term as deputy director of CIA
- 1948 1st air bombing of Jerusalem
Event of Interest
1950 17th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 4-3 in 14 at Comiskey Park, Chic Ted Williams breaks his elbow; 1st extra inning All Star Game
Ted Williams
Presidential Convention
1952 General Eisenhower nominated as Republican US presidential candidate
Dwight D. Eisenhower
- 1952 British Golf Men's Open, Royal Lytham & St Annes GC: 3 titles in 4 years for Bobby Locke of South Africa beating Australian Peter Thomson by a stroke
- 1954 1st White Citizens Council organizes in Indianola, Mississippi
- 1955 Congress authorizes all US currency to say "In God We Trust"
- 1955 New USAF Academy dedicated at Lowry AFB in Colorado with 300 cadets
- 1960 28th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 5-3 at Municipal Stadium, KC
- 1960 Czechoslovakia adopts Constitution
- 1960 Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Upper Volta and Niger declare independence
- 1960 Moise Tsjombe declares Congolese county Katanga independent
Historic Publication
1960 "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee is first published by J. B. Lippincott & Co.
Harper Lee
- 1961 30th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 5-4 in 10 at Candlestick Park, San Francisco
- 1961 Gene Kiniski beats Verne Gagne in Minneapolis, to become NWA champ
- 1962 1st transatlantic TV transmission via satellite (Telstar I)
- 1962 Brothers Hank snd Tommie Aaron homer in same inning
- 1962 Cosmonaut Micolaev set then record longest space flight - 4 days
- 1962 Fred Baldasare is 1st to swim English Channel underwater (scuba)
- 1962 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Christmas Island
- 1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1963 South-African ANC Walter Sisulu/Andrew Mlangeni/Govan Mbeki arrested
Event of Interest
1965 Israeli Mapai-party nominates David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
Event of Interest
1967 Kenny Rogers forms 1st Edition
Kenny Rogers
Music Single
1969 David Bowie releases the single "Space Oddity" 9 days before Apollo 11 lands on the moon
David Bowie
- 1969 Rolling Stones release "Honky Tonk Woman"
- 1971 Chilean parliament nationalizes American copper mines
- 1971 Phillies Deron Johnson 3 HRs caps his 4 in a row
- 1971 The Irish Republican Army set off a number of bombs in the centre of Belfast injuring a number of people
- 1973 Brazilian Boeing 707 crashes near Paris, 122 killed
- 1974 House Judiciary Committee releases evidence on Watergate inquiry
- 1974 World Football League plays 1st games
- 1976 1st US football club in Austria forms (FAAFC-1st Austrian American)
- 1976 US Open Women's Golf, Rolling Green GC: JoAnne Carner wins in a playoff with Sandra Palmer
- 1976 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
- 1976 In pre-game promo at Atlanta County Stadium, 34 couples wed at home plate followed by Championship Wrestling "Headlocks & Wedlocks"
Event of Interest
1977 US Medal of Freedom awarded posthumously to Rev Martin Luther King Jr
Martin Luther King Jr.
- 1978 49th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 7-3 at San Diego Stadium
- 1978 All star MVP: Steve Garvey (LA Dodgers) collects his second award
- 1978 Auto with liquid gas crashes and explodes in Spain, 160 killed
- 1979 US Skylab enters atmosphere over Australia and disintegrates
- 1980 American hostage Richard Queen freed by Iran militants due to illness
- 1981 France performs nuclear test at Mururoa atoll
- 1981 Neva Rockefeller is 1st woman ordered to pay her husband alimony
- 1981 Sebastian Coe of UK sets record for 1K (2:12.18)
- 1982 "7 Brides for 7 Brothers" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 5 performances
- 1982 US Senior Open Men's Golf, Portland GC: Miller Barber wins by 4 strokes from Dan Sykes & Gene Littler; his first of 3 Senior Open titles
- 1982 FIFA World Cup Final, Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain: Italy beats West Germany, 3-1 in front of 90,000
- 1983 Lorraine Elizabeth Downes, 19, of NZ, crowned 32nd Miss Universe
- 1984 55th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 3-1 at Candlestick Park, San Francisco
- 1984 All star MVP: Gary Carter (Mont Expos) awarded for 2nd time
- 1984 Britain's MusicBox begins satellite transmission to Europe
- 1984 Government orders air bags or seat belts would be required in cars by 1989
- 1984 Lucas Mangope re-elected president of Bophuthatswana
Event of Interest
1985 Astros' Nolan Ryan, 1st to strike out 4000 (Mets' Danny Heep)
Nolan Ryan
- 1985 Refurbished space shuttle Columbia moves overland from Palmdale to Dryden
- 1985 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1986 Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway runs 10,000 m in world record 30:13.74
- 1986 Maricica Puica of Romania runs 2,000 m in 5:28.69 (record for women)
- 1986 Mary Beth Whitehead christens surrogate Baby M, Sara
- 1987 Heart's "Alone" single goes #1 for 3 weeks
- 1987 Orioles' Cal Ripkin becomes 1st to manage 2 sons, as Billy joins Cal
Event of Interest
1988 Mike Tyson hires Donald Trump as an advisor
Mike Tyson
- 1989 60th All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 5-3 at Anaheim Stadium, Anaheim All star MVP: Bo Jackson (KC Royals)
- 1989 President Ronald Reagan sportscasts All Star Game
- 1990 NYC police arrest "Dartman" (stabbed over 50 women with darts)
- 1990 Oka Crisis: First Nations land dispute in Quebec, Canada begins.
- 1991 Calumet Farm, home to 8 Kentucky Derby winners, files bankruptcy
- 1991 Total solar eclipse is seen in Hawaii
- 1991 Nigeria Airways DC-8 crashes at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 passengers and crew on board
- 1992 Presidential candidate Ross Perot at NAACP speech calls them "you people"
US Senior Golf Open
1993 US Senior Open Men's Golf, Cherry Hills CC: Jack Nicklaus wins by 1 stroke ahead of Tom Weiskopf for his second US Senior title
Jack Nicklaus
- 1993 Mike Smith aboard Sky Beauty wins the Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont to clinch thoroughbred racing's Triple Tiara for fillies
- 1994 Suriname guilder devalued: NŸ1 = SŸ105
- 1995 66th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 3-2 at Ballpark at Arlington Tx
- 1995 All star MVP: Jeff Conine (Florida Marlins)
- 1995 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men are massacred when Bosnian Serbs overrun the UN 'safe haven' of Srebrenica
- 1999 US Senior Open Men's Golf, Des Moines G & CC: Dave Eichelberger wins by 3 strokes ahead of Ed Dougherty for his lone major title
- 2000 71st All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 6-3 at Turner Field, Atlanta
- 2001 Iraq resumes oil exports, ending a 5-week halt in protest of a US and British-sponsored UN Security Council resolution
Golf Tournament
2004 Canadian Open Women's Golf, Legends on the Niagara GC: Meg Mallon wins by 4 strokes from Beth Daniel
Meg Mallon
Beth Daniel
- 2004 Senior Players Championship Men's Golf, TPC of Michigan: Englishman Mark James wins his lone career major title by 1 stroke from José Maria Cañizares of Spain
- 2006 209 people are killed in a series of bomb attacks in Mumbai, India
- 2006 77th All Star Baseball Game: AL wins 3-2 at PNC Park, Pittsburgh
- 2007 15th ESPY Awards: LaDainian Tomlinson, Taryne Mowatt win
Film Release
2007 "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", the 5th film based on the books by J. K. Rowling is released
- 2010 FIFA World Cup Final, Soccer City, Johannesburg, South Africa: Andrés Iniesta scores an extra time winner as Spain beats the Netherlands, 1-0 for first World Cup title
- 2010 US Open Women's Golf, Oakmont CC: Paula Creamer wins her first major championship, 4 shots ahead of runners-up Na Yeon Choi and Suzann Pettersen
- 2011 Neptune completes its first orbit since its discovery on September 23, 1846
- 2011 US Open Women's Golf, The Boardmoor: Ryu So-yeon wins her first major in a playoff with fellow South Korean Hee Hung Seo
- 2012 Police academy suicide bombing kills 20 in Sana'a, Yemen
- 2012 S/2012 P 1, the fifth moon of Pluto is discovered
Sports Awards
2012 20th ESPY Awards: LeBron James, Brittney Griner win
LeBron James
Event of Interest
2012 Steve Nash is traded by the Phoenix Suns to the Los Angeles Lakers
Steve Nash
- 2013 30 people are killed in a wave of bomb and gun attacks across Iraq
- 2013 "Orange Is the New Black" premieres on Netflix starring Taylor Schilling, first series to be nominated for comedy and drama Emmy awards
- 2014 The UN Security Council calls for a special meeting to discuss the current Israel–Palestinian conflict; Israel continue attacks on Gaza
El Chapo Finally Recaptured
2015 Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán escapes from Altiplano maximum-security prison west of Mexico City via a specially constructed 1.5 km tunnel from his cell to a nearby house
Learn More >>
Tennis Open
2015 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Serena Williams becomes oldest winner in Open era (33) beating Garbiñe Muguruza 6-4, 6-4
Serena Williams
- 2018 Oldest stone tools outside Africa discovered in Lantian country, western China, estimated 2.12 million years old made by hominins
- 2019 Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft lands on the Ryugu asteroid 300m km (185m miles) from earth for a second time to collect samples
- 2019 Last models of Volkswagen's Beetle car are produced in Pueblo, Mexico, ending production worldwide after 80 years
- 2019 US stock markets reach new records, the Dow tops 27,000 points for the first time and the S&P 500 hits 3,000 points
July in History
Spiderman! Web Feat Inspires Woebegone Warrior
Battle-weary, defeated and dejected, it took a spider to convince Robert the Bruce, born on this day, that his cause was not lost.
July 11, 1274Killing Spree of Lady Death
Soviet sniper, Lyudmila Pavlichenko is the most successful female sniper in history, having killed 309 German soldiers during the Second World War.
July 12, 1930Voice Of The Century – 'And Not Even Close'
Frank Sinatra cut his first disc on this day. It was a flop. But he would go on to be hailed as the “Voice of the Century”.
July 13, 1939Emmeline Pankhurst: Trailblazer for Women's Right To Vote
The founder of the Suffragette movement in Britain was born on this day. Sadly, Emmeline Pankhurst would not live to see equal voting rights for all women.
July 15, 1858
