Victory in Battle
30 BC Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves minor victory over Octavian, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to Octavian's invasion of Egypt
Mark Antony
Augustus Caesar
- 432 St Sixtus III begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 768 [Philip] begins and ends his reign as Catholic Pope
- 781 The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: July 6, 781)
- 1291 Egyptian Mamelukken occupies Akko, crusaders driven out of Palestine
- 1423 Hundred Years' War: Battle of Cravant - the French army is defeated by the English on the banks of the river Yonne in Burgundy
- 1451 Jacques Cœur is arrested by order of Charles VII of France
Historic Discovery
1498 Christopher Columbus discovers the island of Trinidad on his third voyage
Christopher Columbus
- 1620 Pilgrim Fathers depart Leiden, Netherlands for England on their way to America
- 1653 Fronde-leaders surrender in Bordeaux
- 1655 Russo-Polish War (1654-1667): the Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for six years
- 1658 Aurangzeb appoints himself Mongol emperor
- 1664 Pierre Corneille's "Othon" premieres in Paris
- 1667 Peace of Breda: 2nd English war-Suriname vs New-Netherlands ends
Event of Interest
1703 Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers
Daniel Defoe
Event of Interest
1777 Marquis de Lafayette, 19, made major-general of Continental Army
Marquis de Lafayette
- 1790 1st US patent granted, to Samuel Hopkins for a potash process
- 1792 Cornerstone laid for 1st US government building: US Mint in Philadelphia
- 1794 All Jacobijnse clubs together in Haarlem
- 1809 1st practical US railroad track (wooden, for horse-drawn cars), Philadelphia
- 1813 British invade Plattsburgh, NY
- 1849 Benjamin Chambers patents breech loading cannon
- 1852 Hottest July in Netherlands since at least 1783 (68.4°F (20.2°C) avg)
- 1855 Hottest July in Stockholm since at least 1756 (21.4°C avg)
- 1856 Christchurch, New Zealand, is chartered as a city.
- 1861 9,300 mm rainfall in July in Cherrapunji, Assam: then world record
Event of Interest
1864 Ulysses S. Grant is named General of Volunteers
Ulysses S. Grant
- 1865 The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia
- 1874 Patrick Francis Healy, SJ, inaugurated as President of Georgetown U
- 1876 US Coast Guard officers' training school established (New Bedford Massachusetts)
- 1877 Second Russian assault on Plevna, Turkey fails, during Russo-Turkish War, 7,300 Russian casualties
- 1879 The first cable connection between South Africa and Europe is laid by the British electrical engineer Charles Tilston Bright as part of his project to link the British Empire with growing telecommunications technologies
- 1893 Gaelic League is founded by Douglas Hyde and Eoin MacNeill in order to encourage Irish people to speak the language and take a greater interest in their culture
- 1899 Albert Trott hits Monty Noble over the Pavilion at Lord's
- 1900 Boer Generals Prinsloo & Roux surrender in Brandwater Basin
- 1901 Abraham Kuyper becomes premier of Netherlands
- 1905 Matumbi rebellion at Samanga, German East Africa
- 1910 Chic Cub King Cole no-hits St Louis, 4-0 in a 7 inning game
- 1910 Clement van Maasdijk gives flying demonstration
- 1911 Hungarian education is only taught in German
Event of Interest
1914 German Emperor Wilhelm II threatens war, orders Russia to demobilize
Wilhelm II
- 1914 Oil discovered in Lake of Maracaibo
- 1917 World War I: Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres) begins, goes on to cause approximately 500,000 casualties
- 1919 The Weimar Constitution establishing the German Republic is adopted
- 1922 18-year-old Ralph Samuelson rides world's 1st water skis (Minnesota)
- 1922 General strike in Italy against fascist violence
- 1923 Belgian Chamber discusses bilinguality at Ghent University
- 1925 Last allied occupying troops leave Ruhrgebied
- 1925 Unemployment Insurance Act passed in Britain
Event of Interest
1929 Aristide Briand becomes premier of France for the 6th time
Aristide Briand
- 1932 German Election (NSDAP gets 37.3%)
- 1935 3rd Dutch government of Colijn sworn in
- 1938 Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius in Persepolis.
- 1940 Riechskommissar Seyss-Inquart bans homosexuals
- 1941 U-boats sink and damage 21 allied ships this month (80,521 tons)
- 1942 German SS gases 1,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia
- 1943 Transport #58 departs with French Jews to Nazi Germany
Eduard Wirths
Victory in Battle
1945 Pierre Laval, fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria
Pierre Laval
- 1948 US President Harry Truman dedicates Idlewild Field (now Kennedy Airport), NY
- 1951 Japan Airlines is established
- 1954 First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio
- 1958 Anti-Chinese uprising in Tibet
- 1959 1st exhibit of bongos at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo opens (Cleveland, Ohio)
Event of Interest
1960 Elijah Muhammad, leader of Nation of Islam, calls for a black state
Elijah Muhammad
- 1961 Israel welcomes its one millionth immigrant
- 1963 Arturo Illia elected President of Argentina
- 1963 Cleve ties record of 4 consecutive HRs (Held, Ramos, Francona, Brown)
- 1964 Al Parker glides 644 miles without a motor
- 1964 US Ranger 7 takes 4,316 pictures before crashing on Moon
- 1965 Cigarette advertising banned on British TV
- 1969 Mariner 6 makes its closest approach to planet Mars at 3410 km
- 1969 National Guard mobilizes in racial disturbances in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Black Tot Day
1970 Black Tot Day: the last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy (started 1740)
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- 1970 Daniel O'Hagan (19), a Catholic civilian, is shot dead by the British Army during a serious riot in the New Lodge Road area of Belfast, Northern Ireland
- 1971 Apollo 15 astronauts take 6½ hour electric car ride on Moon
- 1971 Venezuela's Hydrocarbons Reversion Law mandates gradual transfer to government ownership of all "unexploited concession areas" by 1974 and "all their residual assets" by 1983
- 1972 Thomas Eagleton withdraws as Democratic VP candidate
- 1972 Operation Motorman: the British Army use 12,000 soldiers supported by tanks and bulldozers to re-take the "no-go areas" controlled by the Provisional Irish Republican Army
- 1972 Claudy bombing: nine civilians were killed when three car bombs exploded in County Londonderry, North Ireland; no group has since claimed responsibility
- 1973 Delta Airlines DC-9 crashes in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, killing all but one of 89 aboard. Lone survivor dies 5 months later
- 1975 The Miami Showband killings: Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), a loyalist paramilitary group, shoot dead three members of an Irish showband at Buskhill, County Down, Ireland
- 1976 Seychelles Independence (Independence day)
- 1977 E. Henry Knoche, ends term as deputy director of CIA
- 1977 John F. Blake promoted from acting to deputy director of CIA
- 1978 Gunman shoots his way into Iraqi Embassy in Paris
- 1980 John Phillips of Mamas and Papas is arrested on drug charges
- 1980 Soyuz 37 crew returns to Earth aboard Soyuz 36
- 1980 USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1980 Hurricane Allen forms in the Atlantic Ocean, will go on to become the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin with winds of 190mph (305km/h)
- 1981 Arnette Hubbard installed as 1st woman president of National Bar Association
- 1982 46 kids & 7 adults die as 2 buses and several cars collide near Beaune, France
- 1982 Finland, Italy, Germany, Austria and France form American European Football Federation (AEFF)
- 1982 USSR performs nuclear Test
- 1983 Dutch July average temperature is 20.1°C; warmest July since 1852
- 1984 Venz commandos terminate hijacking of an aircraft, 2 killed
- 1987 Battle between Iranian pilgrims and Saudi-Arabian troops, 402 killed
- 1987 Rockwell International awarded contract to build a 5th shuttle
- 1987 A rare, class F-4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage
Event of Interest
1988 Last Playboy Club closes in Lansing, Michigan
Hugh Hefner
- 1988 32 people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Malaysia
- 1989 Twins trade AL Cy Young Award winner Frank Viola to Mets
- 1990 Bosnia-Hercegovina declares independence
- 1991 Russia and US sign long range nuclear weapons reduction pact
- 1991 Senate votes to allow women to fly combat aircraft
- 1991 The Medininkai Massacre in Lithuania. Soviet OMON attacks Lithuanian customs post in Medininkai, killing 7 officers and severely wounding one other
- 1992 Thai Airbus crashes into mountain at Kathmandu, 113 die
- 1993 Inkatha-arm forces killed 49 ANC-followers in Johannesburg
- 1993 Prince Ronald "Ronnie" Mutebi crowned king of Uganda
- 1994 102.7°F (39.3°C) in Pleschen, East-Germany
- 1994 Arcen Limburg averages 71.6°F (22.0°C) in July: record
- 1994 Netherlands' warmest July since 1783 - average 21.4°C
- 1994 Sergei Bubka ploe vaults his 35th world record (6.14 m)
- 1994 Stockholm averages 21.5°C; the warmest July since 1855
- 1994 UN votes 12-0 (2 abstentions) to authorize use of force against Haiti
- 1999 Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector - NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface
- 2002 Polaroid Corporation is purchased by One Equity Partners, continuing to operate under the Polaroid Corporation name
Event of Interest
2006 Fidel Castro temporarily hands over power to brother Raúl Castro. This leads to a celebration in Little Havana (La Pequeña Habana in Spanish), Miami, Florida, where many Cuban Americans participated.
Raúl Castro
- 2007 Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end
- 2012 Two car bombs kill 21 people in Baghdad, Iraq
- 2012 A second power grid failure in India in two days leaves 670 million people without power
- 2014 The US agree to resupply arms to Israel - including rocket launchers, mortar rounds, grenades - despite condemnation of civilian casualties in Gaza
- 2014 Israel and Hamas agree to a 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire
Event of Interest
2015 It is announced that creative director Alexander Wang will leave Balenciaga
Alexander Wang
Historic Publication
2016 “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child", a play by Jack Thorne with contributions by J. K. Rowling is published worldwide at midnight
J. K. Rowling
- 2016 Yuriko Koike is the first woman to be elected Tokyo Governor
- 2017 Anthony Scaramucci removed as White House Communications Director after less than 2 weeks
- 2018 Facebook discloses and removes Russian-linked network of sites attempting to interfere in American politics
- 2018 Aeroméxico flight 2431 crash lands in Durango, Mexico, all 103 on board survive
- 2019 US Federal Reserve cuts interest rates for the first time since 2008 by 0.25%
Event of Interest
2019 Russian President Vladimir Putin orders Russian army to help put out huge wildfires in Siberia covering three million hectares (7.4 million acres) after 700,000 people sign petition
Vladimir Putin
Event of Interest
2019 American officials announce Osama bin Laden's son, Hamza bin Laden and potential successor has been killed in US air strikes in Pakistan
Osama bin Laden
- 2019 Kelly Craft confirmed by US Senate as US ambassador to the UN [1]
- 2020 Eurozone economic activity falls 11.9% for April-June with Spain the worst at -18.5%, its deepest in modern times
- 2020 Mexico overtakes the UK to have the world's third highest death toll from COVID-19 with 46,688 fatalities
- 2020 Apple wildfire starts near Beaumont, California, forcing the evacuation of nearly 8,000 people over the next few days