Today's Historical Events
- 390 BC Roman-Gaulish Wars: Battle of the Allia - Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leads to subsequent sacking of Rome
Canonization
1323 Pope John XXII proclaims theologian Thomas Aquinas a saint in Avignon
Thomas Aquinas
- 1334 The bishop of Florence blesses the first foundation stone for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by the artist Giotto di Bondone
- 1536 Pope's authority declared void in England
- 1572 Willem of Orange recognized as viceroy of Holland/Friesland/Utrecht
- 1630 Spanish troops occupy Mantua
- 1656 -20] Battle at Warsaw: Swedish King Charles X Gustav beats John II Casimir and occupies Warsaw
Peter the Great
- 1716 Decree orders all Jews expelled from Brussels
- 1737 Battle at Banja Luka: Turkish army beats Austrians
- 1743 1st half-page newspaper ad is published (NY Weekly Journal)
- 1753 Lemuel Haynes, escapes from slave holder in Framingham, Massachusetts
- 1766 Society of the Dutch Literary forms
- 1768 Boston Gazette publishes "Liberty Song", America's 1st patriotic song
- 1814 British capture Prairie du Chien (Wisconsin)
- 1853 Completion of Grand Trunk Line, trains begin running over 1st North American railroad between Portland, Maine and Montreal
- 1857 Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall's war against the French
- 1861 Battle of Blackburn's Ford, Virginia
- 1862 Battle of Newburgh, Indiana - captured by Union forces
- 1863 Battle of Fort Wagner, South Carolina - Second assault
Event of Interest
1864 US President Abraham Lincoln asks for 500,000 volunteers for military service
Abraham Lincoln
- 1870 Pope Pius IX and the First Vatican Council officially proclaim the concept of papal infallibility
- 1872 The Ballot Act introduces the secret ballot in elections in Britain; previously votes made openly
- 1878 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Frank Hadow makes his lone Wimbledon appearance, and wins; beats defending champion Spencer Gore 7-5, 6-1, 9-7
- 1882 Louisville Tony Mullane is 1st to pitch righty then lefty
- 1893 Australian Harry Graham scores 107 on cricket debut Australia v England, Lord's
- 1893 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Lottie Dod beats Blanche Bingley-Hillyard 6-8, 6-1, 6-4 for her 3rd consecutive and 5th overall Wimbledon singles title
- 1896 US Open Men's Golf, Shinnecock Hills: American-based Scot James Foulis wins by 3 strokes ahead of Englishman Horace Rawlins
- 1896 George Giffen is 1st to complete 1000/100 double, in 30th Test Cricket
- 1896 Ranjitsinhji completes 154* on Test Cricket debut v Aust, Old Trafford
- 1897 Cap Anson is 1st to get 3,000 hits
- 1907 Florenz Ziegfeld's "Follies of 1907" premieres in NYC
- 1907 French troops occupy Casablanca
- 1912 Chicago Cubs get 21 hits but lose to Philadelphia Phillies in 11 innings
- 1913 After 68 straight innings Christy Mathewson gives up a walk
- 1914 US army air service 1st comes into being, in Signal Corps
Event of Interest
1914 Gandhi leaves South Africa after successfully leading campaigns of Passive Resistance
Mahatma Gandhi
- 1915 Second Battle of Isonzo begins and ends with over 80,000 casualties
- 1915 Boston Braves start move from last place to become world series champs
- 1918 World War I: US and French forces launch Aisne-Marne offensive
- 1921 Black Sox trial begins in Chicago
- 1923 British House of Lords accepts new divorce law
- 1924 KPD points out Rote Frontkampferbund against Nazi
Historic Publication
1925 Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf (original title was the catchy "Four and a Half Years (of Struggle) Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice")
Adolf Hitler
- 1930 SHO soccer team forms in Old Beijerland
- 1931 1st air-conditioned ship (Mariposa) launched
- 1932 Belgium, Luxembourg & Netherlands sign Ouchy Convention, a customs treaty
- 1932 US and Canada sign a treaty to develop St Lawrence Seaway
- 1935 Amsterdam city council accept city growth plan through the year 2000
Event of Interest
1936 Spanish Civil War: General Francisco Franco issues manifesto and leads an uprising in the Spanish army stationed in Morocco
Francisco Franco
Charles "Lucky" Luciano
Oops, Wrong Way!
1938 Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan arrives in Ireland after a 28 hours flight, supposedly left NY flying for California
Learn More >>
Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 1941 SS drowns 40 Jews in Dvina River, Belorussia
- 1942 1st legal New Jersey horse race in 50 years; Garden State Park track opens
- 1942 Test flight of German Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jet engines for the first time
- 1943 British assault on Catania, Sicily
- 1943 Giants and Phillies strand record 30 baserunners, NY wins, 10-6
- 1944 7:45 Operation Goodwood: British assault east of Caen
- 1944 Allies air raid railways at Vaires, Paris
- 1944 Arne Andersson runs world record 1 mile (4:01.6)
- 1944 RAF Mosquitos attack Cologne and Berlin
- 1944 British air raid on German convoy SW of Heligoland
- 1944 British troops occupy Bourquebus hill range, Normandy
- 1944 Polish troops under General Anders occupy Ancona Italy
- 1944 US troop march into St Lo
- 1947 British seize "Exodus 1947" ship of Jewish immigrants to Palestine
- 1947 US President Harry Truman signs Presidential Succession Act
- 1947 Tigers shut out Yanks 2-0, end 19 game win streak
- 1947 US begins administering Trust Territory of Pacific Islands
- 1948 "Marinka" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 168 performances
- 1948 Pat Seerey of Chicago White Sox hits 4 HRs in an 11 inning game
- 1951 Uruguay accepts its constitution
Event of Interest
1951 Jersey Joe Walcott at 37 becomes oldest to win heavyweight champion
Jersey Joe
- 1952 KWGN TV channel 2 in Denver, Colorado (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1954 Cards losing 8-1 to Phillies begin stalling in 5th, they forfeit game
- 1955 1st electric power generated from atomic energy sold commercially
- 1955 280 mm rain in Martinstown, Dorset (UK-record)
- 1956 Erno Gero succeeds Matyas Rákosi as party leader of Hungary
- 1958 6th British Empire Games and Commonwealth Games open in Cardiff, Wales
- 1959 African American William 'Bill' Wright is the 1st colored person to win a major golf tournament (U.S. Amateur Public Links Championships)
Film Premier
1959 "The Nun's Story" based on the novel by Kathryn Hulme, starring Audrey Hepburn premieres in Los Angeles
Audrey Hepburn
- 1959 46th Tour de France won by Federico Bahamontes of Spain
- 1960 1st UN troops reach Congo
- 1960 Baseball's NL votes to add Houston and NY franchises
- 1960 Premier Kishi of Japan resigns
- 1961 Commissioner Ford Frick rules Babe Ruth's record of 60 HR in 154-game sched in 1927, must be broken in 1st 154 of 162 games
- 1962 Minnesota Twins Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew hit grand slams in 1st inn & Harmon Killebrew connect in a club-record, 11-run 1st inning
- 1963 Failed military coup in Syria
- 1963 The United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid releases its second interim report pressing for international sanctions against South Africa, particularly the supply of arms, ammunition and petroleum
- 1964 Race riot in Harlem (NYC); riots spread to Bedford-Stuyvesant (Brooklyn)
- 1965 Zond 3 launched to fly by Moon, enters solar orbit
- 1966 Carl Sagan turns 1 billion seconds old
- 1966 Gemini 10 launched (John Young & Michael Collins)
- 1967 Silver hits record $1.87 an ounce in NY
Andrew Grove
- 1969 Joe Namath agrees to sell interest in Bachelors 3, to stay in NFL
- 1970 "Boy Friend" closes at Ambassador Theater NYC after 119 performances
- 1970 Arthur Brown arrested for stripping on stage in Palemo Sicily
- 1970 Ron Hunt gets hit by a pitch for a record 119th time
- 1970 WJCL TV channel 22 in Savannah, GA (ABC) begins broadcasting
Baseball Record
1970 Willie Mays becomes 10th baseball player to get 3,000 hits
Willie Mays
Event of Interest
1972 Egyptian president Anwar Sadat throws out 20,000 Russian military aides
Anwar Sadat
Event of Interest
1972 Leader of the British Labour Party Harold Wilson holds meeting with representatives of the Irish Republican Army
Harold Wilson
- 1974 US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
- 1974 World's tallest structure, 646 metre Polish radio mast, completed
- 1975 Jury can't decide on trial of Dave Forbes of Boston Bruins (1st athlete indicted for excessive violence during play)
- 1976 "Something's Afoot" closes at Lyceum Theater NYC after 61 performances
- 1976 Stockhausens "Sirius" premieres in NYC
- 1976 Thiokol conducts 2-min firing of space shuttle's SRB at Brigham, Ut
- 1976 Nadia Comăneci becomes the first gymnast in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 score (total 7) at Montreal Games
- 1976 63rd Tour de France won by Lucien Van Impe of Belgium
- 1977 Hugh Leonard's "Da" premieres in London
- 1977 Vietnam becomes a member of the UN
- 1978 Egyptian and Israeli officials begin 2 days of talks
- 1979 Gold hits record $303.85 an ounce in London
- 1979 USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
Event of Interest
1980 Billy Joel's "Glass Houses" album tops US charts, featuring "Its Still Rock 'n' Roll to Me"
Billy Joel
- 1980 Failed attack on Iran ex-premier Bakhtiar in Neuilly, France
- 1980 Federal court voids Selective Service Act as it doesn't include women
- 1980 Quett Masire installed as President of Botswana
- 1980 Rohini 1, 1st Indian satellite, launches into orbit
- 1981 Polish communist party selects ex-party leader Edward Gierek
- 1982 "Blues in the Night" closes at Rialto Theater NYC after 53 performances
British Golf Open
1982 British Open Golf, Royal Troon: American Tom Watson wins his 4th Open Championship, 1 stroke clear of Peter Oosterhuis and Nick Price
Tom Watson
Nick Price
- 1983 Despite being in 1st place in NL East, Phils fire manager Pat Corrales
- 1984 Walter Mondale wins the Democratic Party presidential nomination in San Francisco
- 1984 21 people are killed and 19 are injured in a massacre in a McDonalds restaurant in San Ysidro, California; it ends with the shooting of its perpetrator, James Oliver Huberty
- 1985 USSR performs underground nuclear Test
- 1986 British Open Golf, Turnberry: Australian Greg Norman wins his first major championship at even-par, 5 strokes clear of runner-up Gordon J. Brand
- 1986 Royals announce that manager Dick Howser, 50, has a brain tumor
- 1986 Videotapes released showing Titanic's sunken remains
- 1987 Molly Yard elected new President of National Organization for Women
- 1987 NY Yanks Don Mattingly ties record of HRs in 8 cons games
- 1988 British Open Golf, Royal Lytham & St. Annes: Spaniard Seve Ballesteros wins his 3rd Open title by 2 shots from Nick Price of Zimbabwe
- 1988 Abu Nidal terrorists kill 9 on cruise ship City of Poros
- 1988 Shooting begins on Bond film "License to Kill"
- 1989 48 cm rainfall at Rockport, West Virginia (state record)
- 1991 Florida Marlins' logo unveiled
Meeting of Interest
1991 Mike Tyson meets Miss Black America contestants
Mike Tyson
- 1992 Sharon Belden, of Florida, 25, crowned Miss World USA
- 1992 The ten victims of the La Cantuta massacre disappear from their university in Lima, Peru
- 1993 British Open Golf, Royal St George's GC: Australian Greg Norman fires final round 64 (–6) to win his 2nd Open title, 2 strokes ahead of Englishman Nick Faldo
- 1993 Afghan President Ishaq Khan and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resign
- 1993 Graeme Obree bicycles world record time (51,596 K)
- 1993 Liberal-Democratic Party loses Japan's parliamentary election
- 1994 Bomb attack on Jewish center AMIA in Buenos Aires, 86 killed
- 1994 Comet Shoemaker-Levy's largest collision with Jupiter leaves black spot 12,000 km across
- 1994 Court upholds NBA salary cap and draft rights
- 1994 Crayola announces introduction of scented crayons
- 1994 Houston Astros tie NL comeback record, trailing 10-0, beat Cards 15-12
- 1994 NY Jets sign USA soccer goalkeeper Tony Miola as a place kicker
- 1995 DC3 crashes at Antananarivo, Madagascar, 34 die
Historic Publication
1995 "Dreams from My Father", a memoir by Barack Obama is published by Times Books
Barack Obama
- 1996 Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Québec's costliest natural disasters ever
- 1996 The UN approves an Iraqi aid distribution plan, a major step forward in the direction of allowing Iraq to sell oil under Resolution 986
- 1999 British Open Golf, Carnoustie: Scotsman Paul Lawrie wins his only major title by 3 strokes in 4-hole aggregate playoff with Jean van de Velde & Justin Leonard; recovers from 10 shots behind after 3rd round for biggest comeback in major championship history; van de Velde famously triple-bogies last hole
- 1999 New York Yankees' David Cone becomes 15th pitcher to throw a perfect game (6-0 vs Montreal)
- 2004 British Open Golf, Royal Troon: American Todd Hamilton wins his only major title, defeating 2002 champion Ernie Els of South Africa by a stroke in a 4-hole playoff
Sports Awards
2004 12th ESPY Awards: Lance Armstrong, Diana Taurasi win
Lance Armstrong
- 2009 Five members of one family are found murdered at Epping, New South Wales.
- 2010 "150th Anniversary" British Open Golf, St Andrews: South African Louis Oosthuizen wins his only major title, 7 strokes clear of runner-up Lee Westwood of England
- 2012 6 Israeli tourists are killed and 30 injured after a bomb explodes on a tourist bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria
- 2012 14 people are killed after a bomb explosion at Pakistan's Orakzai Agency
- 2012 Violence across Syria results in 97 deaths
- 2012 Syrian suicide bombing kills three high profile government officials, including Syria's Minister of Defence
- 2012 24 people are killed after a ferry sinks off the coast of Zanzibar
Event of Interest
2012 Kim Jong-un is officially appointed Supreme Leader of North Korea and given the rank of Marshal in the Korean People's Army
Kim Jong-un
- 2013 Detroit, Michigan, files for bankruptcy, becoming the largest US municipal bankruptcy ever at $18.5 billion
- 2013 46th San Diego Comic-Con International opens at San Diego Convention Center
- 2014 The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) call 18,000 additional reserves soldiers in campaign against Gaza
- 2015 "The Sun" newspaper in Britain controversially publishes old picture and video of Queen Elizabeth giving Nazi salute in 1933
- 2015 PayPal is spun off from eBay as a separate publicly traded company on the NASDAQ
- 2018 Google fined record $5.1 billion by the EU for abusing its power in mobile phone market
- 2018 44 Forest fires in Sweden as far north as the Arctic Circle prompt Swedish government to request extra assistance, with drought and warm weather to blame
- 2018 Turkey ends its two-year State of Emergency
- 2018 New Earth geological age announced, the Meghalayan Age 4,200 years ago to the present, by the International Commission on Stratigraphy
- 2018 Seventeen men charged with the gang-rape of a 12-year old girl in Chennai, India
- 2018 Lava from Kilauea volcano eruption has now destroyed 700 homes and added 700 acres to Big Island confirms Hawaii National Guard
- 2018 Nicaraguan government announces Masaya is back under its control after violent clashes with anti-government protesters
Event of Interest
2018 Cliff Richard wins privacy case against the BBC, for reporting he was being investigated over historic child sexual assaults
Cliff Richard
Articles on Events in July
![Emmeline Pankhurst: Trailblazer for Women's Right To Vote]()
Emmeline 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, 1858![Stormy Birth for the House of Windsor]()
Stormy 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, 1917![First Lady Pours Scorn Upon a King]()
First 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![Spoonerism – Or Just A Lack Of Pies?]()
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
