- 180 6 inhabitants of Carthage, North Africa executed for being Christians. Earliest record of Christianity in this part of the world.
- 561 John III begins his reign as Catholic Pope succeeding Pelagius I
- 855 St Leo IV dies, ending his reign as Catholic Pope; he will be succeeded by Benedict III
- 1070 Arnulf III the Hapless becomes Earl of Flanders
- 1203 Siege of Constantinople begins during the fourth Crusade, Crusaders aboad a Venetian fleet attack the city
- 1245 Pope bans Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen for 3rd time
- 1393 Osmanen occupy Turnovo, Bulgaria
- 1429 Dauphin crowned King Charles VII of France (despite having been king since 1422)
- 1453 Battle of Castillon: French army beats English force under Talbot, turning point of the 100 Years' War
- 1473 Charles the Stout conquers Nijmegen
Event of Interest
1505 Martin Luther enters into an Augustinian monastery at Erfurt
Martin Luther
Event of Interest
1585 English secret service discovers Anthony Babington's murder plot against Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I
- 1596 At 10:30AM Dutch explorer Willem Barents arrives at Novaya Zemlya
Event of Interest
1603 Sir Walter Raleigh arrested by forces of King James
Walter Raleigh
- 1686 A meeting takes place at Lüneburg between several Protestant powers in order to discuss the formation of an 'evangelical' league of defense, called the 'Confederatio Militiae Evangelicae', against the Catholic League.
- 1712 Great Britain, Portugal and France sign ceasefire [or 19th]
- 1727 Simon van Slingelandt appointed Dutch pension advisor
- 1740 Prospero Lambertini chosen Pope Benedictus XIV
Murder of Interest
1762 Catherine II becomes tsarina of Russia following the murder of Peter III
Catherine the Great
Event of Interest
1774 Captain James Cook arrives in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
James Cook
- 1775 1st military hospital approved
Event of Interest
1791 Members of the French National Guard under command of General Lafayette open fire on crowd of radical Jacobins at Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution, killing up to 50 people
Georges Danton
- 1794 Richard Allen organizes Philadelphia's Bethel African Meth Episcopal Church
- 1816 "L'Argus" accidentally discovers raft holding survivors from wrecked French frigate "Méduse." After 13 days at sea only 15 of 151 remain, the rest having been cannibalised, murdered, or committed suicide. This event was made famous by Théodore Gericault’s painting "The Raft of the Medusa"
- 1841 British humorous and satirical magazine "Punch" first published; it finally closed in 2002
- 1850 Harvard Observatory takes 1st photograph of a star (Vega)
- 1856 The Great Train Wreck of 1856 between Camp Hill and Fort Washington, Pennsylvania kills over 60 people
- 1858 Recovery of the bell of HMS Lutine from ship's wreck, hung from rostrum in Lloyd's of London's Underwriting Room
- 1861 US Congress authorizes paper money
- 1861 At Manassas, Virginia General Beauregard requests reinforcements for his 22,000 men, General Johnston is ordered to Manassas
- 1862 Naval Engagement at Pascagoula River Mississippi: USS Potomac Expedition
- 1862 US army authorized to accept blacks as laborers
- 1862 United army officially divides corps
- 1862 John Hunt Morgan's raid reaches Cynthiana, Kentucky
- 1863 Battle of Honey Springs - largest battle in Indian Territory
- 1863 Māori forces are defeated by British troops at Koheroa, Waikato, in the New Zealand Wars between Maori tribes and British colonials
- 1864 CSA President Davis replaces General Joe Johnston with John Bell Hood
- 1866 Italian fleet under Admiral Count Carlo Pellion di Persano captures Austrian Fort Lissa
- 1867 1st US dental school, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, established
- 1878 Nqwiliso, tribal chief of Western Pondoland and eldest son of Ndamase, signs a treaty with H.G. Elliott ceding sovereign rights and shipping in the Umzimvubu River mouth to the Cape government, Southern Africa
- 1879 1st railroad opens in Hawaii
Event of Interest
1890 Cecil Rhodes becomes Premier of Cape Colony
Cecil Rhodes
- 1897 1st ship arrives in Seattle carrying gold from Yukon
- 1898 Spanish American War: Spaniards surrender to US forces at Santiago de Cuba
- 1900 NY Giant Christy Mathewson begins career losing to Bkln Superbas
- 1902 Lord Tennyson, son of the poet, is named to succeed Lord Hopetown, first governor general of Australia
- 1903 The Russian Social Democratic Workers Party meets, first in Brussels and then London because their leaders have been forced into exile by the Russian Government
Election of Interest
1906 Clement Armand Fallieres is elected President of France, but power lies with Georges Clémenceau
Georges Clémenceau
Execution of the Romanovs
1918 The Romanov royal family and several of their retainers are executed by a Bolshevik firing squad in the basement of Ipatiev House, in Yekaterinburg, Siberia
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World Record
1926 Paavo Nurmi walks world record 4x1500m (16:11.4)
Paavo Nurmi
- 1929 USSR breaks diplomatic relations with China
- 1933 After successfully crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the Lithuanian research aircraft Lituanica crashes in Germany under mysterious circumstances
- 1935 "Variety" publishes famous headline "Sticks Nix Hick Pix"
- 1936 Carl Hubbell begins winning streak, beating Pittsburgh 6-0
Event of Interest
1936 Spanish generals Francisco Franco and Emilio Mola lead a right-wing uprising, starting the Spanish Civil War
Francisco Franco
- 1938 Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan leaves NY flying for LA, winds up in Ireland supposedly by mistake
- 1942 3' of rain falls on Pennsylvania, flooding kills 15
- 1942 Estimated 34.5" (87.5 cm) of rainfall, Smethport, Pennsylvania (state record)
- 1942 Transport #6 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
- 1943 RAF bombs Germany rocket base Peenemunde
- 1944 2 ammunition ships explode at Port Chicago, California, killing 322
- 1944 Soviet troops cross Bug River and march into Poland
Potsdam Conference
1945 Potsdam Conference: Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill hold 1st meeting
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The Berlin Candy Bombers
1948 US Air Force pilot Gail Halvorsen encounters children in at Templehof Airport in Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, giving him the idea to drop candy in 'Operation Little Vittles'
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Appointment of Interest
1952 Shah of Persia Mohammed Reza Pahlavi names Ghavam Sultaneh premier
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
- 1954 Theodor Heuss re-elected president of West Germany
- 1955 Arco, Idaho, becomes 1st US city lit by nuclear power
- 1958 King Hussein declares himself head of Jordan/Iraqi federation
- 1958 Peter Shaffer's "Five Finger Exercise" premieres in London
- 1958 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak
- 1959 2,000 ft long by 1,300 foot wide section of ridge falls into Madis
- 1959 Tibet abolishes serfdom
- 1959 River Canyon extending man-made Lake Hebgen by 5 miles. (Montana)
Scientific Discovery
1959 Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey discovers partial skull of a new species of early human ancestor, Zinjanthropus boisei or 'Zinj' (now called Paranthropus boisei) lived in Africa almost 2 million years ago
Mary Leakey
- 1961 John Chancellor becomes news anchor of "Today Show"
- 1962 East Berliner Peter Fechter flees over Berlin Wall
- 1962 Robert White in X-15 sets altitude record of 108 km (354,300 ft)
- 1962 Senate rejects medicare for aged
- 1962 US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
- 1964 Don Campbell sets record for turbine vehicle, 690.91 kph (429.31 mph)
- 1964 Great Britain performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
Event of Interest
1964 ANC leader Nelson Mandela, recently sentenced to life imprisonment, is awarded the Joliot Curie Gold Medal for Peace
Nelson Mandela
- 1966 Indians set club record by hitting 7 HR in 15-2 win over Detroit
- 1966 Jim Ryun sets mile record (3m51s3)
- 1967 Monkees perform at Forest Hills NY, Jimi Hendrix is opening act
- 1967 Race riots in Cairo Illinois
- 1968 Bloodless coup in Iraq led by General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr
- 1972 1st 2 women begin training as FBI agents at Quantico
- 1973 Military coup in Afghanistan; King Mohammad Zahir Shah flees
- 1974 France performs nuclear Test at Mururoa atoll
- 1975 Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 make 1st US/USSR linkup in space
- 1975 Four British soldiers are killed by a Provisional Irish Republican Army remote-controlled bomb near Forkill, County Armagh; attack the first major breach of a February truce
- 1979 David Gower 200* in England score of 5-633 v India at Edgbaston
- 1979 Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle flees to Miami
- 1979 Sebastian Coe runs world record 3:49 mile in Oslo
- 1979 Simone Veil becomes chairman of European Parliament
- 1980 Bolivian military coup; General Garcia Meza becomes president
Presidential Convention
1980 Ronald Reagan formally accepts Republican nomination for US president
Ronald Reagan
- 1980 Zenko Suzuki becomes Premier of Japan
- 1981 Humber Estuary Bridge in UK opens, world's longest span (1.4 km)
- 1981 Israeli bombers destroy PLO/al-Fatah headquarters in Beirut
- 1981 Lobby walkways at Kansas City's Hyatt Regency hotel collapse killing 114 and injuring over 200
- 1981 USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1981 Fulton County (Atlanta) grand jury indicts Wayne B William 23 year old photographers, for murder of 2 of 28 blacks killed in Atlanta
- 1981 Glasdrumman ambush: the Provisional Irish Republican Army attack a British Army post in South Armagh, killing 1 soldier and injuring another
- 1983 1st USFL championship (Mich Panthers beats Philadelphia Stars 24-22)
- 1984 Pierre Mauroy resigns as Prime Minister of France
- 1984 Soyuz T-12 carries 3 cosmonauts to space station Salyut 7
- 1984 US passes National Minimum Drinking Age Act, prohibiting under 21's from buying or possessing alcohol as a condition of receiving State highway funds
- 1987 10 teens die in Guadalupe River flood (Comfort, Tx)
- 1987 Don Mattingly is 2nd to hit HRs in 7 straight AL games (en route to 8)
- 1987 Dow Jones closes above 2,500 (2,510.04) for 1st time
- 1987 Iran and France break diplomatic relations
- 1988 4 Billion tv-viewers watch Mandela's 70th Birthday Tribute
- 1988 Florence Griffith Joyner of USA sets 100m woman's record (10.49)
- 1988 Highest temperature ever recorded in San Francisco, 103°F (39°C)
- 1989 1st test flight of US stealth bomber
- 1989 Reds reliever Kent Tekulve retires after 1,070 appearances
- 1990 Hussein's Revolutionary Day speech claims Kuwait stole oil from Iraq
- 1992 Slovak parliament declares independence from Czechoslovakia, beginning the so-called Velvet Divorce
- 1994 French youngster (4) becomes Buddhist Lama Tulkou Kalou Rinpoche
Event of Interest
1995 Forbes Magazine announces Bill Gates is the richest man in world with a net worth of $12.9 billion dollars
Bill Gates
Event of Interest
1998 Russia buries Tsar Nicholas II and family, 80 years after they died
Nicholas II
- 2004 Former South African President Nelson Mandela calls for commitment by the world to take action against AIDS
Sports Awards
2005 13th ESPY Awards: Lance Armstrong, Annika Sörenstam win
Lance Armstrong
- 2007 TAM Airlines (TAM Linhas Aéreas) Flight 3054 crashes upon landing during rain in São Paulo. Brazil's deadliest aviation accident to date with estimated 199 deaths.
- 2009 Jakarta double bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotels killed 9 people including 4 foreigners
- 2012 17 people are wounded in a bar shooting in Tuscaloosa, Alabama
- 2013 7 people are killed by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria
- 2013 58 people are killed in floods in Sichuan Province, China
- 2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shot down over Eastern Ukraine by a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board
- 2014 5 hour humanitarian ceasefire, proposed by the UN, takes place between Israel and Hamas
- 2015 Suicide bomber in Khan Bani Saad, Iraq, kills 120, ISIS claims responsibilty
- 2015 Scientists solve mystery of sleeping sickness in two villages in northern Kazakhstan - uranium mining had caused increase in carbon monoxide
Event of Interest
2016 17 works by Swiss architect Le Corbusier included in UNESCO World Heritage sites list as "an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement"
Le Corbusier
Event of Interest
2018 Barack Obama gives speech honoring Nelson Mandela and warning of "strongman politics" in Johannesburg, South Africa
Barack Obama
Nelson Mandela
- 2018 Oldest evidence of bread, made from wild grains, discovered by archaeologists in 14,000 year-old dig in the Black Desert, Jordon
- 2019 Irrigation canal system collapses near Fort Laramie, Wyoming parching 100,000 acres of farmland across Nebraska and Wyoming
- 2019 World Health Organization declares the DR Congo Ebola outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern"
Event of Interest
2019 Mexican drug cartel head Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years in New York
Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán
- 2019 Bulgaria announces 5 million people, virtually every adult, has had their personal information exposed after national tax agency hacked
July in History
Voice 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, 1858Stormy Birth for the House of Windsor
Britain’s King with his German connections faced resentment when World War 1 bombs fell on London. It led, on this day, to a change of name for the monarchy.
July 17, 1917First Lady Pours Scorn Upon a King
American independence from Britain was declared and on this day a future US President's wife expressed her joy.
July 21, 1776
