- 311 St Miltiades begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 626 Incident at Xuanwu Gate: in fear of assassination, Li Shimin ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng
- 706 Remains of Chinese Emperor Gaozong, his wife Empress Wu Zetian and family members interred in Qianling Mausoleum by Emperor Zhongzong, outside Chang'an on Mount Liangshan
- 963 The imperial army proclaims Nicephorus Phocas to be Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea
- 1140 Hartbert becomes bishop of Utrecht
- 1298 Battle on Hasenbuhl (Gollheim) between German kings Adolf and Albrecht I
Historic Event
1505 After an encounter with a violent thunderstorm, Martin Luther declares that he will become a monk
- 1555 Turkish naval commander Dragut [Turgut Reis] sacks the Italian city of Paola
- 1561 Menas, Emperor of Ethiopia, defeats a revolt in Emfraz
- 1576 Muitende Spanish soldiers conquer Zierik Sea
- 1578 English explorer Martin Frobisher sights Baffin Island
- 1582 Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats Akechi Mitsuhide
- 1600 Battle at Newport: Earl Mauritius van Nassau beats Spanish Army
- 1613 The first English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia led by Samuel Argall
- 1644 Battle of Marston Moor, North Yorkshire: Parliamentary forces under Lords Fairfax and Manchester defeat royalists led by Prince Rupert
- 1679 Europeans first visit Minnesota and see headwaters of Mississippi in an expedition led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth
- 1681 Earl of Shaftesbury arrested for high treason
- 1687 King James II disbands English parliament
- 1698 English engineer Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine
- 1776 New Jersey gives the right to vote to all adults who could show a net worth of 50 pounds
- 1776 Continental Congress resolves "these United Colonies are and of right ought to be Free and Independent States"
Historic Event
1776 At the Continental Congress, John Dickinson abstains from the votes that declare independence
Historic Event
1787 Marquis de Sade shouts from Bastille that prisoners are being slaughtered
- 1794 Second Battle of Seneffe: France-Austria
- 1808 Simon Fraser completes his trip down Fraser River, British Columbia, lands at Musqueam
- 1816 French frigate "La Méduse" runs aground under incompetent leadership of Viscount of Chaumareys, 400 passengers evacuated. 150 men, 1 woman are left on "la Machine," a poorly provisioned raft. 13 days later only 15 survivors remain, inspires Théodore Géricault's painting "The Raft of the Medusa"
- 1822 Denmark Vesey (aka Telemaque), accused of planning a slave rebellion in South Carolina, dies by hanging at approximately 55
- 1823 Bahia Independence Day: the end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia
- 1839 Slaves aboard a Spanish schooner La Amistad revolt to secure their freedom while being transported from one Cuban port to another
The Day an Alligator Fell from the Sky
1843 An alligator falls from sky during a thunderstorm in Charleston, South Carolina
- 1847 Envelope bearing 1st US 10 cent stamps used (still exists today)
Historic Event
1849 Giuseppe Garibaldi begins hunger strike in Rome
- 1850 Benjamin Lane patents gas mask with a breathing apparatus
- 1858 Partial emancipation of Russian serfs
- 1861 Battle of Hoke's Run, West Virginia - small Union victory
- 1862 Lincoln signs act granting land for state agricultural colleges
- 1863 Battle of Gettysburg (2nd day)
- 1863 R Morgan's: Burksville, Kentucky to Salineville, Ohio [->JUL 26]
- 1864 General Early and Confederate forces reach Winchester en route to Washington, D.C.
- 1864 Statuary Hall in US Capitol forms
A Salute To The Salvation Army
1865 One-time Methodist Reform Church minister William Booth and his wife Catherine found the East London Christian Mission, now known as the Salvation Army
Historic Event
1881 US President James Garfield shot by Charles J. Guiteau a disappointed office-seeker; Garfield dies 79 days later
Music History
1900 Jean Sibelius' "Finlandia" premieres in Helsinki
Historic Event
1900 First flight LZ-1, of a dirigible airship designed by Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin, at Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany
Historic Event
1901 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid rob train of $40,000 at Wagner, Montana
Wimbledon Women's Tennis
1902 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Muriel Robb wins her only major title with a 7-5, 6-1 defeat of fellow Briton Charlotte Cooper
- 1903 National League MLB batting champion Ed Delahanty, disappears after being removed from a train by force, found dead at bottom of Niagara Falls 2 weeks later
- 1903 Pitcher Jack Doscher, debuts for the Chicago Cubs, the first son of a major leaguer to play MLB, father Herm 1882-92
- 1906 Yanks win by forfeit for the 1st time
- 1907 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Philadelphia CC: Evelyn Sears beats fellow American Carrie Neely 6-3, 6-2 for her lone major singles title
- 1909 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Dora Boothby earns her only Wimbledon title with a 6-4, 4-6, 8-6 win over Agnes Morton
- 1915 Erich Muenter, an instructor in German at Cornell University, explodes a bomb in the US Senate reception room
- 1916 Russian offensive in Armenia
- 1917 Labor disputes lead to race riot in East St Louis, Illinois - Black neighborhood attacked and burned, 40-200 killed and 6000 left homeless
- 1921 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Bill Tilden beats South African Brian Norton 4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-0, 7-5 for the third of 10 Grand Slam singles titles
Boxing Title Fight
1921 In boxing's first million dollar gate ($1.7m), world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey KOs Frenchman Georges Carpentier in round 4 of his 3rd title defence; crowd 91,000 at Boyle's Thirty Acres in Jersey City, New Jersey
Historic Event
1921 Warren G. Harding signs a joint congressional resolution declaring the official end of war with Germany
- 1926 US Army Air Corps created; Distinguished Flying Cross authorized, to award "heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight"
- 1926 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Frenchman Jean Borotra wins his second Wimbledon singles title 8-6, 6-1, 6-3 over American Howard Kinsey
Wimbledon Women's Tennis
1927 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Helen Wills Moody beats Spaniard Lilí Álvarez 6-2, 6-4 for her first of 8 Wimbledon titles
- 1927 Jericho Earthquake in Palestine kills about 500
- 1927 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: In an all-French final Henri Cochet wins first of 2 Wimbledon singles crowns; beats Jean Borotra 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5
- 1928 British parliament reduces the age at women can vote to 21 - the same as men (Representation of the People Act 1928)
- 1928 The Jenkins Television Corporation (owned by Charles Jenkins) goes on air with W3XK, the first television broadcasting station in the USA
- 1930 Chicago outfielder Carl Reynolds becomes only the 2nd player in MLB history to hit home runs in 3 consecutive innings in 15-4 White Sox victory at Yankee Stadium
- 1932 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: American Ellsworth Vines beats hometown favourite Bunny Austin 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 for his only Wimbledon title
Sports History
1932 American golfer Walter Hagen wins his 5th and last Western Open in Cleveland, 16 years after he won his first
Sports History
1933 NY Giants pitcher Carl Hubbell works 18 innings of shutout ball without a walk to beat St Louis Cardinals, 1-0
- 1934 General Lazaro Cardenas elected president of Mexico
- 1935 Great Britain amateur boxing team beats United States in the first International Golden Gloves tournament in NYC, New York
- 1937 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Don Budge beats Germany's Gottfried von Cramm 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 for first of back-to-back titles
Historic Event
1937 Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan disappear flying over the Pacific Ocean en route to Howland Island. Noonan is declared dead the following year, and Earhart is declared the year after (1939)
- 1938 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Helen Wills Moody beats Helen Jacobs 6-4, 6-0 in 4th final between the pair (Wills Moody won all 4)
- 1940 Dutch PM Colijn publishes "Borders of 2 Worlds" (German victory)
- 1940 Lake Washington (Seattle) Floating bridge dedicated
Meeting of Interest
1940 British PM Churchill meets Major General Bernard Montgomery
- 1940 Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose is arrested and detained in Calcutta
Baseball Record
1941 Joe DiMaggio hits a 3-run homer off Boston's Dick Newsome to pass Willie Keeler's MLB record 44 game hitting streak
- 1941 Nazi mass murder in Lvov/Lemberg (7,000 dead)
Music History
1941 Noël Coward's "Blithe Spirit" premieres in London
- 1943 Gulf of Biskaje: Liberator bombers sinks U-126
- 1943 Lieutenant Charles Hall becomes 1st African American pilot to shoot down a Nazi plane
- 1944 German Field Marshal Günther von Kluge replaces General von Rundstedt
- 1946 Dutch Beel government forms
- 1946 Harbor workers end strike at Rotterdam and Amsterdam
- 1947 Military coup discovered in France
- 1948 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: American Bob Falkenburg beats John Bromwich of Australia 7-5, 0-6, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 for his only Grand Slam singles title
- 1948 British Open Men's Golf, Muirfield: England's Henry Cotton wins by 5 strokes from Irishman Fred Daly for his third Open victory
- 1949 "High Button Shoes" closes at Century Theater NYC after 727 performances
- 1949 "Red Barber's Clubhouse" sports show premieres on CBS (later NBC) TV
- 1949 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Louise Brough beats fellow American Margaret Osborne duPont 10-8, 1-6, 10-8 for the second of 3 straight Wimbledon titles
- 1950 Cleveland Indians' pitcher Bob Feller wins his 200th MLB game, 5-3 v Detroit Tigers
- 1950 Kinkaku-ji, a Zen Buddihst temple in Kyoto, Japan, burns down
- 1950 Henri Queuille is elected the seventh Prime Minister of the Fourth French Republic
Sports History
1951 Bill Veeck buys St Louis Browns from Bill & Charlie DeWitt; after 1953 season sells franchise to Clarence Miles, team moves to Baltimore (Orioles)
- 1951 "Bob & Ray show" premieres on NBC radio
- 1951 Worcestershire cricket wicket-keeper Hugo Yarnold makes a record 6 stumpings in an innings in a 1st-class match vs Scotland at Dundee
- 1951 Island advisor of Curacao installed
- 1951 Leidse astronomers discover radio signal out of Milky Way system
- 1952 Princess Beatrice opens miniature city of Madurodam
Wimbledon Men's Tennis
1954 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Czech Jaroslav Drobný beats Ken Rosewall of Australia 13-11, 4-6, 6-2, 9-7 for his only Wimbledon singles title
- 1954 England cricket batsman Denis Compton scores career best 278 in 287 mins in 2nd Test win over Pakistan at Nottingham
- 1955 "7th Heaven" closes at ANTA Theater NYC after 44 performances
- 1955 "Almost Crazy" closes at Longacre Theater NYC after 16 performances
- 1955 "Lawrence Welk Show" premieres on ABC
US Women's Golf Open
1955 US Open Women's Golf, Wichita GC: Uruguayan Fay Crocker beats Louise Suggs & Mary Lena Faulk by 4 to become the tournament's first overseas winner
- 1955 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Louise Brough beats fellow American Beverly Fleitz 7-5, 8-6 for her 4th Wimbledon singles title
Music Recording
1956 Elvis Presley records "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel"
- 1958 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island
- 1958 Musical drama Film "King Creole" starring Elvis Presley based on a novel by Harold Robbins premieres
- 1960 "Once Upon a Mattress" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 460 performances
Wimbledon Women's Tennis
1960 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Defending champion Maria Bueno of Brazil beats South African Sandra Reynolds 8–6, 6–0
Baseball Record
1961 Amidst 5 NY Yankee homers v Washington, Roger Maris hits 29th and 30th en route to 61 for the season
Historic Event
1962 Cuba's Minister of Foreign affairs Raúl Castro arrives in Moscow
Historic Event
1962 Fidel Castro visits Moscow
Historic Event
1962 Sam Walton opens his first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas
Baseball Record
1963 SF Giants legend Willie Mays breaks up classic Juan Marichal vs Warren Spahn pitching dual, homering in 16th inning off Spahn for 1-0 win vs Milwaukee Braves
Music Recording
1964 Cilla Black records Lennon/McCartney song "It's For You", Paul McCartney plays piano
- 1964 Grand jury indicts Byron De La Beckwith in murder of Medger Evers
Historic Event
1964 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law
Historic Event
1964 Architect Le Corbusier is made Grand Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Wimbledon Men's Tennis
1965 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Roy Emerson scores second consecutive title win over fellow Australian Fred Stolle 6-2, 6-4, 6-4
- 1966 1st France nuclear test on Mururoa atoll
Wimbledon Women's Tennis
1966 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: American Billie Jean King beats Maria Bueno of Brazil 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 for the first of her 12 Grand Slam singles titles
- 1966 West Indian cricket batsman Basil Butcher scores career best 209 not out to guide tourists to a 139-run 3rd Test win over England at Trent Bridge
- 1967 US Open Women's Golf, The Homestead: Catherine Lacoste wins by 2 strokes from Susie Maxwell & Beth Stone (youngest [22], 1st amateur winner)
- 1968 An El Al Israeli airliner is hijacked and diverted to Algeria by three armed members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
- 1969 American guitarist Leslie West and producer, bassist Felix Pappalardi form rock group Mountain
- 1969 Ireland cricketers dismiss West Indies for just 25 (Dougie Goodwin 5 for 6, Alec O'Riordan 4 for 18) to set up a huge upset in Londonderry
- 1970 1st Boeing 747 to land in Amsterdam & Brussels
- 1970 The Prevention of Incitement to Hatred Act (Northern Ireland) is introduced; it proves difficult to secure convictions under its provisions, seldom enforced
- 1970 Neil Blaney is found not guilty of illegal arms importation to the Irish Republican Army by a Dublin jury
- 1971 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: In an all-Australian final Evonne Goolagong beats Margaret Court 6-4, 6-1 for the first of 2 Wimbledon singles titles
- 1971 USSR performs underground nuclear test
- 1972 "Fiddler on the Roof" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 3242 performances
- 1972 US Open Women's Golf, Winged Foot GC: American Susie Maxwell Berning wins by 1 from Judy Rankin, Kathy Ahern & Pam Barnett
- 1972 American pole vaulter Bob Seagren breaks world record for the 4th and final time with 5.63m in Eugene, Oregon
- 1972 India and Pakistan sign Simla Agreement peace accord
- 1972 Two Catholic civilians are shot and killed in Belfast by Loyalist paramilitaries, probably the Ulster Defence Association (UDA)
- 1973 James R Schlesinger ends term as 9th director of CIA
- 1973 Nation Black Network begins operation on radio
- 1973 "You've Never Been This Far Before" single released by Conway Twitty (Billboard Song of the Year, 1973)
- 1974 Fernando Mameda of Portugal sets record for 10,000 m (27:13.81)
Wimbledon Women's Tennis
1976 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: American Chris Evert beats Evonne Goolagong Cawley of Australia 6-3, 4-6, 8-6 for second of 3 Wimbledon singles titles
- 1976 Formal reunification of North and South Vietnam
- 1976 US Supreme Court rules death penalty not inherently cruel or unusual
- 1976 Ramble Inn attack: the Ulster Volunteer Force killed 6 civilians (5 Protestants, 1 Catholic) in a gun attack at a pub near Antrim; the pub was targeted because it was owned by Catholics
Wimbledon Men's Tennis
1977 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Sweden's Björn Borg beats American Jimmy Connors 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 for the second of 5 consecutive Wimbledon singles titles
- 1978 MLB pitcher Ron Guidry beats Detroit 3-2 for a NY Yankee record 13-0 start to the season
Historic Event
1979 Susan B. Anthony dollar is issued, 1st US coin to honor a woman
- 1980 Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and Mickey Hart are arrested for incitement
- 1980 Julie Marie Bryan, 18, of Georgia, crowned America's Young Woman of Yr
- 1980 Comedy film "Airplane!" written and directed by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and starring Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty premieres
- 1982 Larry Walters using lawn chair & 42 helium balloons, rose to 16,000'
- 1982 Soyuz T-6 returns to Earth
- 1982 In South Africa, the Internal Security Act is passed, giving massive powers to the authorities to investigate any organization or publication
Wimbledon Women's Tennis
1983 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Martina Navratilova beats Andrea Jaeger 6-0, 6-3 for the 4th of 9 Wimbledon singles titles
Baseball Record
1986 Boston Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens (14-0) suffers his 1st loss (4-2 v Toronto), one win short of AL record for consecutive wins to start season
Wimbledon Women's Tennis
1988 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Germany's Steffi Graf beats Martina Navratilova 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 for the 3rd leg of her Golden Slam
- 1988 Lester Dumakude, commander of an Umkhonto we Sizwe special operations unit, detonate a car bomb by remote control outside Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa
- 1989 US Open Senior Men's Golf, Laurel Valley GC: Orville Moody wins by 2 from Frank Beard, 20 years after his US Open triumph in 1969
Golf Major
1989 Canadian Open Women's Golf (du Maurier Classic), Beaconsfield GC: Tammie Green wins her only LPGA major title with a 1 shot victory over fellow Americans Pat Bradley & Betsy King
- 1989 American jockey Steve Cauthen wins Irish Derby on Old Vic to become the first rider in history to sweep the world's 4 major Derbies (Kentucky, Epsom, French, Irish)
Historic Event
1990 Imelda Marcos and Adnan Khashoggi found not guilty of racketeering
- 1990 1,426 pilgrims trampled to death after a panic in a tunnel in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Film & TV History
1991 Donald Trump proposes to Marla Maples and gives her a 7.5 carat diamond ring
Historic Event
1993 Pope John Paul II hospitalized for Cat Scan test
- 1993 Royals Stadium is renamed Kauffman Stadium shortly before the death of Kansas City Royals owner Ewing Kauffman
- 1994 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Conchita Martínez of Spain upsets Martina Navratilova 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 for her only Grand Slam title
- 1994 John Wayne Bobbitt & Kristina Elliot arrested for domestic battery
- 1994 Middlesex cricket seam bowler Richard Johnson takes all 10 Derbyshire wickets for 45 runs at the County Ground in Derby
- 1994 US Air DC-9 crash in North Carolina, 37 killed
- 1995 "The Rose Tattoo" closes at Circle in the Square NYC after 80 performances
US Senior Golf Open
1995 US Senior Open Men's Golf, Congressional GC: Tom Weiskopf wins by 4 strokes from Jack Nicklaus for his only Champions Tour major victory
