- 657 Battle of Siffin during the first Muslim civil war between Ali ibn Abi Talib and Muawiyah I beside Euphrates River
- 811 Battle of Pliska: Bulgarians under Krum beat Byzantines
- 920 Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at Pamplona
- 1267 Inquisition forms in Rome under Pope Clement IV
- 1309 Henry VII is recognized King of the Romans by Pope Clement V
- 1469 Wars of the Roses: Battle of Edgecote Moor - Pitting the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of King Edward IV
- 1497 "Edward IV's son" Perkin Warbeck's army lands in Cork
- 1499 Spanish conquistador Alonso de Ojeda discovers Curacao Island
Event of Interest
1519 Francisco Pizarro receives royal charter for the west coast of South America
Francisco Pizarro
- 1524 James V declared fit to govern by the Scottish Parliament
- 1529 Francisco Pizarro appointed Governor of Peru
- 1576 Muitende Spanish troops conquer Aalst
Event of Interest
1579 Francis Drake leaves San Francisco to cross Pacific Ocean
Francis Drake
- 1588 English Admiral John Hawkins knighted for his actions against the Armada
Event of Interest
1656 Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn declares he is insolvent
Rembrandt van Rijn
Event of Interest
1755 Giacomo Casanova is arrested in Venice for affront to religion and common decency and imprisoned in the Doge's Palace
Giacomo Casanova
- 1757 Battle at Hastenbeck: French army beats Duke of Cumberland
Victory in Battle
1758 British battle fleet under general James Wolfe conquers Louisbourg
James Wolfe
Event of Interest
1775 US Continental Congress creates United States Post Office (U.S.P.O.) in Philadelphia under Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Event of Interest
1822 Secret meeting of Simón Bolívar and Jose de San Martin
Simón Bolívar
José de San Martín
- 1826 Vilnus Lithuanian riots cause death of many Jews
- 1832 HMS Beagle anchors in Montevideo
- 1835 1st sugar cane plantation started in Hawaii
- 1847 Moses Gerrish Farmer builds 1st miniature train for children to ride
- 1847 The Liberian Declaration of Independence is signed making Liberia a sovereign nation, independent from the American Colonization Society
- 1858 Baron Lionel de Rothschild becomes the 1st Jewish person elected to the British Parliament
- 1863 Battle of Salineville Ohio, John Hunt Morgan and 364 troops surrender
- 1864 -31] Riot at McCook's to Lovejoy Station, Georgia
- 1864 -31] Riot at Stoneman's to Macon, Georgia
- 1864 Battle at Ezra Chapel (Church), Georgia [Hood's Third Sortie]
- 1865 Patrick Francis Healy is 1st African American awarded PhD (from University of Leuven, Belgium)
- 1865 The capital of New Zealand moves from Auckland to Wellington
- 1866 Canoe Club opens in England
- 1878 In California, poet and American West outlaw calling himself "Black Bart" makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box found later with a taunting poem inside.
- 1881 French marines occupy Tunisian harbor city Sfax
Music Premiere
1882 Richard Wagner's opera "Parsifal" premieres in Bayreuth, Germany
Richard Wagner
- 1887 1st Esperanto book published
- 1891 Henry James' "American" premieres in London
- 1891 France annexes Tahiti.
- 1896 Vitascope Hall, 1st permanent for-profit movie theatre, opens in New Orleans
- 1897 37.5 cm rainfall at Jewell, Maryland (state record)
- 1902 Australia beat England by 3 runs at Old Trafford
- 1903 1st automobile trip across the United States (San Francisco to New York) completed by Horatio Nelson Jackson and Sewall K. Crocker
- 1908 United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation)
Event of Interest
1914 First Lord of the Admiralty (British Minister of Navy) Winston Churchill orders British fleet to remain
Winston Churchill
- 1914 For the next two days, the foreign ministries and leaders of major states work feverishly to avert war
- 1914 Irish Volunteers unload a shipment of 1,500 rifles and 45,000 rounds of ammunition arrive from Germany aboard Erskine Childers' yacht the Asgard; British troops fire on jeering crowd on Bachelors Walk, Dublin, killing three citizens
- 1914 12th Tour de France won by Philippe Thys of Belgium
- 1915 International School for Wijsbegeerte forms
- 1916 The US Protests the 'Blacklist' issued by the British forbidding trade with some 30 US firms
Event of Interest
1917 J. Edgar Hoover gets job in US Department of Justice
J. Edgar Hoover
- 1918 Race riot in Philadelphia (3 whites & 1 black killed)
- 1926 National Bar Association incorporates
- 1926 Philippines government asks USA for a plebiscite on independence
- 1928 Gene Tunney TKOs Tom Heeney in 11 for heavyweight boxing title
- 1928 Yanks score 11 runs in 12th beating Tigers 12-1
- 1931 Western Open Women's Golf, Midlothian CC: June Beebe beats Mrs. Melvin Jones, 3 & 2 for golf's only major title
- 1931 26th Davis Cup: France beats Great Britain in Paris (3-2)
- 1931 25th Tour de France won by Antonin Magne of France
Baseball Record
1933 Joe DiMaggio ends 61 game hitting streak in Pacific Coast League
Joe DiMaggio
- 1936 The Axis Powers decide to intervene in the Spanish Civil War.
- 1937 End of the Battle of Brunete in the Spanish Civil War.
- 1938 1st radio broadcast of "Young Widder Brown" on NBC
- 1939 Yankee catcher Bill Dickey hits 3 consecutive HRs
- 1941 1st Dutch Austrians depart Hague
- 1941 US embargo on oil-export to Japan
- 1942 RC churches protest, Dutch bishops stand against spread of Judaism
- 1943 120°F (49°C), Tishmoningo, Oklahoma (state record)
- 1943 Otto Skorzeny's commando group arrives in Rome
- 1944 Japanese suicide attack on US lines in Guam
- 1944 Soviet troops arrive in Weichsel
- 1944 US offensive at St-Lo/2nd Armour div occupies St Gilles
- 1944 The first German V-2 rocket hits Great Britain (nicknamed "gasometer").
Election of Interest
1945 After Labour landslide in general election, Clement Attlee becomes British Prime Minister
Clement Attlee
- 1945 Declaration of Potsdam: US, Britain and China demand the Japanese surrender during WWII
- 1945 Japanese government disregards US ultimatum
- 1945 US cruiser Indianapolis reaches Tinian with atom bomb
- 1945 Winston Churchill resigns as Britain's Prime Minister after election defeat
Nuclear Bombing of Nagasaki
1945 Physicist Raemer Schreiber and Lieutenant Colonel Peer de Silva depart Kirtland Army Air Field to transport the plutonium core for the Fat Man bomb (bombing of Nagasaki) to the island of Tinian where the bomb is assembled
More >>
- 1946 Aloha Airlines began service from Honolulu International Airport
Event of Interest
1947 President Truman signs National Security Act (1947), establishing Department of Defense, CIA, National Security Council and Joint Chiefs of Staff
Harry Truman
- 1948 1st black host of a network show-CBS' Bob Howard Show
Event of Interest
1948 Leo Durocher returns to Ebbets Field as a NY Giant
Leo Durocher
- 1948 President Harry Truman issues Executive Order No. 9981 to desegregate the US armed forces, directing "equality of treatment and opportunity" in the military
- 1949 WCPO TV channel 9 in Cincinnati, OH (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1950 Dodgers' Jim Russell is 1st to switch-hits HRs twice in a game
- 1950 KNIL (Royal Dutch East Indies Army) unites
- 1951 Netherlands ends state of war with Germany
- 1952 King Farouk I of Egypt abdicates [Black Saturday]
Event of Interest
1952 Mickey Mantle hits his 1st grand-slammer
Mickey Mantle
- 1953 Cuban pirate radio station's 1st transmission at Santiago de Cuba
Event of Interest
1953 Fidel Castro leads a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks, intended to spark a revolution in Cuba
Fidel Castro
Fulgencio Batista
- 1953 Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle orders an anti-polygamy law enforcement crackdown on residents of Short Creek, Arizona, which becomes known as the Short Creek Raid
- 1953 Tour de France: Louison Bobet of France wins first of 3 consecutive Tour general classification events
- 1954 WCET TV channel 48 in Cincinnati, OH (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1955 37th PGA Championship: Doug Ford at Meadowbrook CC Detroit
- 1955 Last day as Test Cricket umpire for Frank Chester
- 1955 Ted Allen throws a record 72 consecutive horseshoe ringers
- 1956 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announces plan to nationalize Suez Canal, initiating the "Suez Crisis"
- 1957 Mickey Mantle hits career HR # 200
- 1957 USSR launches 1st intercontinental multistage ballistic missile
- 1957 Carlos Castillo Armas, Dictator and President of Guatemala, is assassinated by a palace guard with leftist sympathies
- 1958 Army launches 4th US successful satellite, Explorer IV
- 1959 Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Western Golf Open
- 1960 Italian government of Fanfani forms
- 1962 Maria Oeljanov, 1st airship with nuclear missiles, arrives in Cuba
- 1962 Milwaukee Brave Warren Spahn sets HR record of 31 by a pitcher
- 1963 Skopje, Yugoslavia, destroyed by earthquake, kills 1,000+
- 1963 US Syncom 2, 1st geosynchronous communications satellite, launched
- 1963 The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development votes to admit Japan.
- 1964 Teamsters President and US union leader Jimmy Hoffa convicted of fraud and conspiracy
- 1964 Train from Povoa de Varzin, Portugal derails near Oporto, 94 die
- 1965 Republic of Maldives gains independence from Britain (National Day)
- 1966 WRLH TV channel 31 in Lebanon, NH (NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1966 Lord Gardiner issues the Practice Statement in the House of Lords stating that the House is not bound to follow its own previous precedent
- 1967 Twins beat Yanks 3-2 in 18
- 1969 Sharon Sites Adams, 39, becomes 1st lady to solo sail the Pacific
Baseball Record
1970 Cincinnati Reds Johnny Bench hits 3 consecutive HRs off Philadelphia Phillies Steve Carlton
Johnny Bench
- 1971 Apollo 15 launched (Scott and Irwin) to 4th manned landing on Moon
- 1972 Rockwell receives NASA contract to construct Space Shuttle
- 1973 Peter Shaffers "Equus" premieres in London
- 1974 France performs nuclear Test at Mururoa atoll
- 1974 USSR's Soyuz fails to dock with Salyut 3
- 1975 Soyuz 18B returns to Earth
- 1977 USSR performs underground nuclear Test
- 1977 The 'Committee of 10' formed by prominent Soweto residents, issues a programme for the election of a new community board to have total autonomy in Soweto, South Africa
- 1978 France performs nuclear Test at Mururoa atoll
- 1978 Johnny Bench hits his 300th career home run
- 1978 11th San Diego Comic-Con International opens at El Cortez Hotel
- 1979 Estimated 109 cm (43") of rain falls in Alvin, Texas (national record)
- 1981 2 climbers fall 550 m down cliff near Angel Falls, Venezuela
Golf Major
1981 36th US Women's Open Golf Championship won by Pat Bradley
Pat Bradley
Event of Interest
1982 Indian film star Amitabh Bachchan is seriously injured filming a fight scene for the movie "Coolie"
Amitabh Bachchan
- 1984 Kuhn announces pitcher Vida Blue is suspended for the rest of 1984 due to cocaine conviction
- 1986 Lebanese kidnappers released Rev Lawrence Martin Jenco
- 1987 Catfish Hunter Billy Williams and Ray Dandridge inducted in Baseball Hall of Fame
- 1987 74th Tour de France won by Stephen Roche of Ireland
Baseball Record
1988 Mike Schmidt sets NL record appearing in 2,155 games at 3rd base, as Phillies & NY Mets end that game at 2:13 AM
Mike Schmidt
Event of Interest
1990 US President George H. W. Bush signs Americans With Disabilities Act
George H. W. Bush
- 1990 US beats Soviet Union 17-0 in baseball at Goodwill Games
- 1991 CFL assumes ownership of Ottawa Rough Riders
- 1991 Expo's Mark Gardner no hits Dodgers for 9 innings, but loses in 10th
- 1991 Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) is arrested in Florida, for exposing himself at an adult movie theater
- 1992 "Man of La Mancha" closes at Marquis Theater NYC after 108 performances
- 1992 47th US Women's Open Golf Championship won by Patty Sheehan
- 1992 Britain honours her dead in the Falklands War
Baseball Record
1992 Nolan Ryan strikes out his 100th batter for 23rd consecutive seasons
Nolan Ryan
- 1992 Tour de France: Miguel Induráin of Spain defends his title by 4' 35" from Italian Claudio Chiappucci; Laurent Jalabert points winner
- 1993 Boeing 737-500 crashes in South Korea, 66 killed
- 1993 Mars Observer takes 1st photo of Mars, from 5 billion km
- 1994 Cambodia's Red Khmer surprise attack on train, kills 13
- 1994 Turkish air force bombs Kurds, struggle in Iraq, 70 killed
- 1998 19th U.S. Senior Golf Open: Hale Irwin
- 1999 Fighting ceases between India and Pakistan in the Kargil War, Kashmir, after two months of fighting
- 2005 Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission - Launch of Discovery, NASA's first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster in 2003
- 2005 Mumbai, India receives 99.5cm of rain (39.17 inches) within 24 hours, bringing the city to a halt for over 2 days
- 2005 Samir Geagea, the Lebanese Forces (LF) leader, is released after spending 11 years in a solitary confinement. His release came after the end of the Syrian occupation to Lebanon.
- 2007 40th San Diego Comic-Con International opens at San Diego Convention Center
- 2009 96th Tour de France won by Alberto Contador of Spain
- 2009 British Open Seniors Golf, Sunningdale: American Loren Roberts wins his second Open Seniors title in a playoff with Mark McNulty and Fred Funk
- 2012 At least 200 people are killed in a day of violence in Syria
- 2012 Insurgent attack kills 19 people and destroys a helicopter at Baqubah, Iraq
- 2012 North Korea is hit by Tropical Storm Khanun, killing 88 people and leaving 60,000 people homeless
- 2013 57 people are killed in a market bombing in Parachinar, Pakistan
- 2014 Taghrooda wins the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes
- 2014 While Israel reject long-term ceasefire that does not include destroying the Hamas tunnels, they agree to 12 hour ceasefire; Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip now exceeds 1000
- 2014 The Chinese government suspendes the operations of a Shanghai meat dealer and has makes arrests after the company sold out-of-date meat to fast food chains, including McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken
- 2015 102nd Tour de France won by Chris Froome of Great Britain
Event of Interest
2015 British Open Seniors Golf, Sunningdale: American Marco Dawson wins by 1 shot from Bernhard Langer of Germany
Bernhard Langer
Event of Interest
2017 US President Donald Trump announces policy to ban transgender people from the military, overturning Obama era changes
Donald Trump
Barack Obama
- 2017 Great Britain announces it will ban gasoline and diesel cars by 2040
- 2017 3 live king cobras reported found inside potato chip cans by customs officials in Los Angeles
- 2018 Facebook has the single worst day of any public company on the stock market - losing 19% or $119 billion market value
- 2018 Authorities in Stung Treng province, Cambodia, evacuate 25,000 below collapsed Laos dam as waters rise
- 2018 Over 700 immigrant children still separated from their parents in the US as court-imposed deadline to reunite them passes
Event of Interest
2018 Sir Paul McCartney performs a secret gig at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where the Beatles began
Paul McCartney
Historic Publication
2018 Observation of a black hole by The Very Large Telescope in Chile proves Albert Einstein's prediction of "gravitational redshift", published in "Journal Astronomy & Astrophysics"
Albert Einstein
July in History
Spoonerism – Or Just A Lack Of Pies?
A Spoonerism is a phrase that comes out all wrong, and the man responsible for them, William Spooner, was born on this day. Did he just get bad Press?
July 22, 1844
Light and Air For All – With No Charge!
One of Britain's most hated taxes, which had been in force for more than 250 years, was finally abolished on this day.
July 24, 1851
Oh! Calcutta! - The Bare Facts
Born when free love and anything goes were the mantra of youth, the show "Oh! Calcutta!" opened in London on this day. Police considered a prosecution for obscenity.
July 26, 1970
Cricket's Most Prolific Run-Scorer Of All Time
A world record was set up on this day when Graham Gooch, captain of England, stepped up to the crease at Lord’s, the legendary home of cricket.
July 31, 1990