- 432 St Celestine I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
Event of Interest
1501 Nicolaus Copernicus formally installed as a canon of Frauenberg Cathedral
Nicolaus Copernicus
Event of Interest
1586 Walter Raleigh brings the 1st tobacco to England from Virginia
Walter Raleigh
Victory in Battle
1641 Prince Frederick Henry captures castle of Gennep
Frederick Henry
Victory in Battle
1643 Oliver Cromwell defeats Royalists at Battle of Gainsborough
Oliver Cromwell
- 1655 Jews of New Amsterdam petition for a Jewish cemetery
- 1655 Netherlands and Brandenburg sign military treaty
- 1661 English Parliament confirms Navigation Act
- 1663 English Parliament accepts Staple Act
- 1689 Battle of Killicrankie: Jacobite Scottish Highlanders under Viscount Dundee defeat royalist force under General MacKay
- 1694 Bank of England granted 12 year charter by Act of Parliament
- 1713 Russia and Turkey sign peace treaty
- 1714 Battle at Hango (Hangut): Russians beat Swedish fleet
Event of Interest
1714 British Queen Anne dismisses premier Robert Haley
Queen Anne
Coup d'état
1794 Maximilien Robespierre is overthrown in a coup in Paris
Maximilien Robespierre
- 1795 Spain and France sign peace treaty
- 1809 Battle of Talavera: British/Spanish army vs French army
- 1816 US troops destroy Fort Apalachicola, a Seminole fort, to punish Indians for harboring runaway slaves
- 1830 Revolution breaks out in Paris, opposing laws of Charles X
- 1836 The ship the "Duke of York" arrives with the first colonists at Nepean Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia
- 1837 US Mint opens in Charlotte, North Carolina
- 1839 Chartist riots break out in Birmingham, England
- 1844 Fire destroys US mint at Charlotte, North Carolina
- 1861 Battle of Mathias Point, Virginia - Rebel forces repel a Federal landing
- 1861 Battle of St Augustine Springs, New Mexico Territory
- 1861 Confederate troops occupy Fort Fillmore, New Mexico
Event of Interest
1861 Union General George McClellan takes command from McDowell of Potomac Army
George McClellan
- 1862 Hurricane hits Canton; about 40,000 die
- 1862 Steamer "Golden Gate" burns and sinks off west coast of Mexico
- 1864 Battle of Darbytown, Virginia (Deep Bottom, Newmarket Road) (Strawberry Plains)
- 1865 Welsh settlers arrive at Chubut in Argentina.
- 1866 Atlantic telegraph cable successfully laid (1,686 miles long)
- 1880 Alexander P. Ashbourne patents a process for refining coconut oil
- 1880 Battle of Maiwand, at which Dr Watson is wounded, breaks out
- 1884 The East Cleveland Street Railway Company begins the first U.S. commercial electric streetcar line in Cleveland, Ohio, on the Bentley-Knight system
- 1888 Philip Pratt unveils 1st American electric tricycle
Event of Interest
1890 Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh shoots himself in Auvers-sur-Oise, dies of injuries 2 days later
Vincent van Gogh
Event of Interest
1909 Orville Wright tests 1st US Army airplane, flying 1h12m40s
Orville Wright
- 1909 British ship SS Waratah is last seen en-route from Durban to Cape Town; 211 on board are missing and no trace of the ship ever found
- 1914 Felix Manalo registers the Iglesia ni Cristo with the Filipino government.
- 1917 World War I: Allied troops reach the Yser Canal in the prelude to the Battle of Passchendaele
- 1918 Socony 200, 1st concrete barge in US, launched to carry oil, NY
- 1919 Chicago race riot (15 whites & 23 blacks killed, 500 injured)
- 1920 Radio compass used for 1st time for aircraft navigation
- 1921 2nd government of Ruijs de Beerenbrouck forms
Event of Interest
1921 Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolate insulin at the University of Toronto
Frederick Banting
- 1922 International Geographical Union forms in Brussels
- 1927 Mel Ott, 18, hits his 1st league home run (inside the park)
- 1928 AVRO, General Vereniging Radio Omroep, forms
- 1928 Tich Freeman becomes only bowler ever to take 200 first-class wickets before end of July
- 1929 Dike of Wieringermeerpolder finished
- 1931 Chilean president Carlos Ibáñez forced out
- 1931 Grasshoppers in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota destroyed thousands of acres of crops
- 1932 Paul Gorgoulov, assassin of French president Doumer, sentenced to death
- 1934 French socialist/communist party of People's Front forms
- 1935 Floods at Yangtzee Jiang and Hoangh, kill 200,000
- 1941 103°F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in July
- 1941 German army enters Ukraine
- 1941 Japanese forces land in Indo-China
- 1943 772 British bombers attack Hamburg
- 1944 1st British jet fighter used in combat (Gloster Meteor)
- 1944 Soviet Army frees Majdanek concentration camp
- 1944 US troops occupy le Mesnil-Herman/Hill 183 Normandy
- 1945 US Communist Party forms
- 1947 Yogi Berri starts record 148 game errorless streak
- 1948 Australia set 404 to win v England at Headingley
- 1948 Otto Skorzeny escapes anti-nazi camp at Darmstadt
- 1949 1st jet-propelled airline (De Havilland Comet) flies
- 1950 US President Harry Truman promises aid to Taiwan
Korean War Ends
1953 North Korea and the United Nations sign armistice to stop fighting and divide Korea at the 38th parallel
Learn More >>
- 1953 Vatican disallows priest holiday work in factory
- 1954 Armistice divides Vietnam into two countries
- 1955 Austria regains full independence after 4-power occupation since WWII
- 1955 Israeli passenger plane shot down above Bulgaria, 58 die
- 1957 St James' Theatre in London closes
- 1959 Abbas Ali Baig scores 112 for India v England on debut
Presidential Convention
1960 US Vice-president Richard Nixon nominated for presidential candidate at Republican convention in Chicago
Richard Nixon
- 1962 Mariner 2 launched to Venus; flyby mission
Event of Interest
1962 Martin Luther King Jr. jailed in Albany, Georgia
Martin Luther King Jr.
Event of Interest
1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill requiring cigarette makers to print health warnings on all cigarette packages about the effects of smoking
Lyndon B. Johnson
- 1967 Arabs Federation premier Hoesein Al Bayoomi resigns
- 1967 LBJ sets up commission to study cause of urban violence
- 1967 US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
- 1968 Race Riot in Gary Indiana
- 1970 France performs nuclear Test at Mururoa atoll
- 1972 The F-15 Eagle flies for the first time.
- 1974 House Judiciary Committee votes 27-11 recommends Nixon impeachment
- 1974 Kanhai & Jameson add 465 for 2nd wicket, Warwickshire v Gloucs
- 1975 The British government closes its consulate in Angola following increasing fighting between the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola and South African troops
- 1976 Japanese ex-premier Tanaka arrested (Lockheed Affair)
- 1978 Indians Duane Kuiper is 3rd to hit 2 bases-loaded triples (vs Yanks)
Event of Interest
1978 Portuguese President António Ramalho Eanes fires Premier Mário Soares
Mário Soares
Event of Interest
1982 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's first visit to the US in almost 11 years
Indira Gandhi
- 1983 104°F (40.3°C) in Garmersdorf (German record)
- 1986 Iraqi jets attack central Iranian city of Arak; Iran threatens missile attack of gulf states supporting Iraq
- 1987 John Demjanjuk, accused Nazi "Ivan the Terrible", testifies in Israel
- 1987 Salt Lake City Trappers lose 7-5 to Billings Mustangs, ending their professional-record winning streak at 29 consecutive
- 1987 First expedited salvaging of Titanic wreck begins by RMS Titanic, Inc.
- 1988 Boston's worst traffic jam in 30 years
- 1988 General Sein Lwin succeeds San Yu as the 6th President of Burma
- 1988 Radio Shack announces Tandy 1000 SL computer
- 1989 Atlanta Brave Dale Murphy is 10th to get 6 RBIs in an inning (6th)
- 1990 White-Russia declares independence
- 1990 Zsa Zsa Gabor begins a 3 day jail sentence for slapping a police officer in Beverly Hills
- 1991 TV Guide publishes its 2000th edition
- 1992 Dimitri Lepikov, Vladimir Pychenko, Veniamin Taianovitch and Evgueni Sadovyi swim world record 4x200m freestyle (7:11.95)
Event of Interest
1992 Nelson Mandela says a general strike will go ahead to protest for the removal of South African President F. W. de Klerk from power and for free elections
Nelson Mandela
F. W. de Klerk
- 1993 Detroit Tiger Fryman hits for cycle but loses 12-7 to Yankees
- 1993 Javier Sotomayor jumps world record 2.45 m high
- 1993 Mafia bombs historical buildings in Rome, Milan and Vatican City, 5 killed
- 1995 Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.
- 1997 Si Zerrouk massacre in Algeria; about 50 people killed.
- 2002 Ukraine airshow disaster: A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes during an air show at Lviv, Ukraine killing 85, injuring more than 100, largest air show disaster in history
Event of Interest
2003 A group of 321 Filipino armed soldiers called "Magdalo" take over Oakwood Premier Ayala Center in Makati City to show Filipino people the alleged corruption of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
- 2005 STS-114: NASA grounds the Space shuttle, pending an investigation of the external tank's continued foam-shedding problem
- 2006 The Federal Republic of Germany is deemed guilty in the loss of Bashkirian 2937 and DHL Flight 611, because it is illegal to outsource flight surveillance
- 2008 British Senior Open Men's Golf, Royal Troon: Bruce Vaughan birdies first extra playoff hole to beat fellow American John Cook by a stroke
- 2013 100 people are killed and 1,500 injured in a crackdown against protesters in Cairo, Egypt
- 2013 1,000 inmates escape from a prison in Benghazi, Libya
- 2013 First Przewalski’s horse (whose wild populations were believed extinct in 1969) is born via artificial insemination at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute as part of a worldwide effort to rebuild the wild herds
- 2014 Liberia shuts down most of its borders with fears about the spread of Ebola epidemic
Event of Interest
2014 Obama reaffirms Israel's "right to defend itself", but condemns civilian casualties in Gaza
Barack Obama
Event of Interest
2017 Boy Scouts of American chief Michael Surbaugh apologies for politically motivated remarks made by President Donald Trump at rally attended by 30,000 scouts
Donald Trump
Event of Interest
2017 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos briefly becomes world's richest man at $91.4bn overtaking Bill Gates for half a day
Jeff Bezos
Bill Gates
- 2017 Reince Priebus resigns as Chief of Staff to US President Donald Trump, shortest non-interim tenure ever
- 2019 US President Trump, calls Baltimore a "disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess," calls Congress Rep Elijah Cummings responsible
- 2019 At least 65 mourners killed in a gun attack at a funeral near Maiduguri, by suspected Boko Haram militants in north-east Nigeria
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, 1844Light 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, 1851Oh! 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, 1970Cricket'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
