Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/July
Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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| An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Main Page 2026 day arrangement | ||||||
July 1: Canada Day (1867)
- 1523 – Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos were burnt at the stake in Brussels (pictured), becoming the first Lutherans executed by the Council of Brabant.
- 1841 – Thomas Lempriere and James Clark Ross carved a sandstone marker on Tasmania's Isle of the Dead, one of the oldest benchmarks for measuring sea level rise.
- 1916 – First World War: The first day of the Battle of Albert, the opening phase of the Battle of the Somme, became the bloodiest day in the British Army's history, with 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 deaths.
- 1959 – B. Anthony Stewart is credited with the first image on the cover of National Geographic featuring the 49-star flag of the United States after Alaska's admission to the Union as a U.S. state.
- 1983 – A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet crashed into the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea, killing all 23 people on board.
- Erik Satie (d. 1925)
- Diana, Princess of Wales (b. 1961)
- Learie Constantine (d. 1971)
- Lalu Muhammad Zohri (b. 2000)
- 626 – Li Shimin (pictured) led his forces to assassinate his rival brothers in a coup for the imperial throne of Tang China.
- 1816 – The French frigate Méduse ran aground off the coast of present-day Mauritania, with the survivors escaping on a makeshift raft, depicted in Théodore Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa.
- 1941 – A German SS unit arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania, and began the systematic execution of up to 100,000 people over the next three years.
- 1976 – More than a year after the end of the Vietnam War, North and South Vietnam officially merged under communist rule to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
- 2013 – The International Astronomical Union announced that the fourth and fifth moons of Pluto to be discovered would be named Kerberos and Styx, respectively.
- Sihayo kaXongo (d. 1883)
- Omar Suleiman (b. 1936)
- Philippa Mdluli (d. 1983)
- Lindsay Lohan (b. 1986)
- 1810 – Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811: A French frigate squadron under Guy-Victor Duperré defeated a convoy of three British East Indiamen near the Comoro Islands.
- 1970 – The Troubles: The British Army began the Falls Curfew in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which resulted in greater Irish republican resistance.
- 1988 – The US Navy warship Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard.
- 2005 – Same-sex marriage became legal in Spain under a law passed by the Cortes Generales.
- 2017 – In the U.S. state of Arizona, the Boundary Fire (pictured) burned out after 32 days, burning 17,788 acres (7,199 ha) of the Coconino and Kaibab National Forests.
- Li Shizhen (b. 1518)
- Jerónimo Saavedra (b. 1936)
- Crystal Dunn (b. 1992)
- Diogo Jota and André Silva (d. 2025)
July 4: Independence Day in the United States (1776); Republic Day in the Philippines (1946); Liberation Day in Rwanda (1994)
- 414 – Byzantine emperor Theodosius II proclaimed his elder sister Aelia Pulcheria as Augusta.
- 1776 – In Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence (signing pictured), announcing that the thirteen American colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire.
- 1954 – In what is known as "The Miracle of Bern", West Germany defeated Hungary 3–2 to win the FIFA World Cup.
- 1988 – Kylie Minogue's first album, Kylie, was released, and went on to top the charts in the UK and New Zealand.
- 2024 – Keir Starmer led the Labour Party to a landslide victory in the United Kingdom general election, ending fourteen years of Conservative rule.
- Thomas Jefferson (d. 1826)
- Roland Ratzenberger (b. 1960)
- Yvette Amice (d. 1993)
- Rikako Ikee (b. 2000)
July 5: Fifth of July in New York
- 1830 – Algiers surrendered to French invaders, ending the Regency of Algiers (coat of arms pictured).
- 1922 – Brazilian Army rebels took over Fort Copacabana and launched a rebellion in Rio de Janeiro against President Epitácio Pessoa and President-elect Artur Bernardes.
- 1937 – The Hormel Foods Corporation introduced Spam, the canned precooked meat product that would eventually enter into pop culture, folklore, and urban legend.
- 1950 – Korean War: In the first encounter between North Korean and American forces, an unprepared and undisciplined U.S. Army task force was routed at the Battle of Osan.
- 1990 – An explosion at a petrochemical plant in Channelview, Texas, United States, killed 17 people and injured 5 others.
- Greta Arwidsson (b. 1906)
- Gerard 't Hooft (b. 1946)
- Shohei Ohtani (b. 1994)
- Jon Landau (d. 2024)
- 1483 – The last monarch of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty, Richard III, was crowned King of England.
- 1801 – French Revolutionary Wars: A Royal Navy squadron failed to eliminate a smaller French Navy squadron at Algeciras before they could join their Spanish allies.
- 1971 – After visiting several Asian communist countries, Romanian leader Nicolae Ceaușescu (pictured) gave a speech on a number of neo-Stalinist and socialist-realist ideals, which became known as the July Theses.
- 1989 – A Palestinian Islamic Jihad member carried out a suicide attack by hijacking a bus and forcing it into a ravine near Kiryat Ye'arim, Israel.
- 2006 – A gunman killed an 18-year-old man and injured six other people in a mass shooting on Cabildo Avenue in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Maria Luisa, Duchess of Lucca (b. 1782)
- Maria Goretti (d. 1902)
- George W. Bush (b. 1946)
- Zhu De (d. 1976)
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: British forces caught up with American troops withdrawing from Ticonderoga, capturing more than 200 men at the Battle of Hubbardton.
- 1898 – US president William McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution, annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.
- 1911 – Four countries signed the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention, which banned the hunting of seals in the pelagic zone.
- 1974 – West Germany won the FIFA World Cup final against the Netherlands at the Munich Olympiastadion.
- 2016 – A U.S. Army Reserve veteran ambushed and shot at police officers (memorial service pictured) in Dallas, killing five of them and injuring nine others, before being killed by a bomb attached to a police robot.
- Fernande Sadler (b. 1869)
- Henri Nestlé (d. 1890)
- Maks Levin (b. 1981)
- 1776 – The United States Declaration of Independence received its first formal public reading, in Philadelphia.
- 1874 – Members of the North-West Mounted Police at Fort Dufferin began their March West, their first journey to the Canadian Prairies.
- 1947 – Following reports of the capture of a "flying disc" by U.S. Army Air Forces personnel near Roswell, New Mexico, the military stated that the crashed object was a conventional weather balloon.
- 1990 – West Germany won the FIFA World Cup final against defending champions Argentina, with Andreas Brehme scoring the game's only goal.
- 2022 – Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe (pictured) was assassinated with an improvised firearm.
- Etta Lemon (d. 1953)
- Tzipi Livni (b. 1958)
- Virgil van Dijk (b. 1991)
- Kim Il Sung (d. 1994)
- 551 – An estimated 30,000 people died when a massive earthquake struck the Roman province of Phoenice.
- 1763 – The Mozart family grand tour began, presenting the child prodigies Maria Anna and Wolfgang Amadeus across Western Europe.
- 1981 – Nintendo released the arcade game Donkey Kong, which featured the debut of Mario, one of the most famous characters in video-game history.
- 2006 – Italy won their fourth FIFA World Cup title, defeating France 5–3 on penalties following a 1–1 draw after extra time (players pictured).
- 2008 – Under the belief that Israel and the United States were planning to attack its nuclear program, Iran conducted the Great Prophet III missile test and war games.
- Elizabeth of Austria (b. 1526)
- Courtney Love (b. 1964)
- Shin Jae-chul (d. 2012)
- Fernando de la Rúa (d. 2019)
July 10: Independence Day in the Bahamas (1973)
- 1372 – The Treaty of Tagilde was signed between Ferdinand I of Portugal and representatives of John of Gaunt of England, marking the beginning of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, which remains in effect today.
- 1553 – Lady Jane Grey (pictured) was proclaimed the successor to King Edward VI of England, beginning her disputed reign as the "Nine Days' Queen".
- 1921 – Irish War of Independence: One day after a truce was agreed between the Irish Republican Army and British forces, violence broke out between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast.
- 1941 – The Holocaust: Ethnic Poles murdered at least 300 Jewish residents of Jedwabne in German-occupied Poland.
- 2011 – The Russian river cruise liner Bulgaria was caught in a storm in Tatarstan on the Volga and sank in several minutes, resulting in 122 deaths.
- Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham (d. 1460)
- Eleonora di Garzia di Toledo (d. 1576)
- Mahathir Mohamad (b. 1925)
- Gwendoline Yeo (b. 1977)
July 11: Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Genocide in Poland
- 1833 – Yagan, a Noongar warrior, was killed for leading attacks on British colonists in Western Australia.
- 1864 – A riot broke out in Leicester, England, at the failed launching of a gas balloon (pictured).
- 1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee featuring themes of racial injustice and the loss of innocence in the Deep South of America, was published.
- 1991 – Shortly after taking off from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 caught fire and crashed, killing all 261 people on board.
- Iskaq Tjokrohadisurjo (b. 1896)
- Giorgio Armani (b. 1934)
- Lady Bird Johnson (d. 2007)
- Satoru Iwata (d. 2015)
- 1561 – Saint Basil's Cathedral (pictured), located in Red Square, Moscow, was consecrated.
- 1963 – Sixteen-year-old Pauline Reade, the first victim of serial killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, disappeared in Gorton, England.
- 1979 – Rowdy fans at Comiskey Park in Chicago stormed the field during a Major League Baseball promotional event at which a crate of disco records was blown up.
- 1998 – France defeated the defending champions Brazil 3–0 to win their first FIFA World Cup title.
- 2006 – Hezbollah forces crossed the Israel–Lebanon border and attacked Israeli military positions while firing rockets and mortars at Israeli towns, sparking a five-week war.
- Alexander Hamilton (d. 1804)
- Malala Yousafzai (b. 1997)
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (b. 1998)
- Mau Piailug (d. 2010)
July 13: Kashmir Martyrs' Day in Pakistan
- 1643 – English Civil War: Royalist forces defeated the Parliamentarians at the Battle of Roundway Down near Devizes, Wiltshire.
- 1794 – The Battle of Trippstadt between French forces and those of Prussia and Austria began.
- 1831 – Wallachian officials adopted the Regulamentul Organic, which engendered a period of reforms that provided for the westernization of the local society.
- 1962 – In an unprecedented reshuffle, British prime minister Harold Macmillan (pictured) dismissed seven members of his cabinet.
- Afonso, Hereditary Prince of Portugal (d. 1491)
- Kate Sheppard (d. 1934)
- Ernő Rubik (b. 1944)
- Ken Jeong (b. 1969)
July 14: Bastille Day in France (1789); Festino di Santa Rosalia begins in Palermo, Italy
- 1223 – Louis VIII (seal pictured) began his three-year reign as King of France.
- 1798 – The Sedition Act became law, making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S. federal government.
- 1865 – A seven-man mountaineering team made the first ascent of the Matterhorn, marking the end of the golden age of alpinism.
- 1960 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 1-11 ditched off Polillo Island in the Philippines, killing one person and injuring 44 others.
- 2014 – Lightning strikes started four fires in the Methow Valley in the U.S. state of Washington, collectively known as the Carlton Complex Fire.
- Andreas Joseph Hofmann (b. 1752)
- Georgiana Hill (b. 1825)
- Harry Atwood (d. 1967)
- Ivana Trump (d. 2022)
July 15: Statehood Day in Ukraine (2022)
- 1410 – The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald, the decisive engagement of the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War.
- 1815 – Aboard HMS Bellerophon, French emperor Napoleon surrendered to Royal Navy captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, concluding the Napoleonic Wars.
- 1983 – Sega's first home video game console, the SG-1000 (pictured), was released in Japan.
- 2009 – A Mw 7.8 earthquake struck a remote region of Fiordland, New Zealand, the country's largest earthquake magnitude since the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.
- 2018 – Croatian Mario Mandžukić scored the first own goal in a FIFA World Cup final in their defeat to France.
- Rembrandt (b. 1606)
- Nina Bari (d. 1961)
- Cherry (b. 1975)
- Celeste Holm (d. 2012)
- 1232 – Muhammad ibn Yusuf, who later established the Emirate of Granada, the last Muslim state in Spain, was elected the ruler of Arjona.
- 1916 – Max Reger's Hebbel Requiem was first performed in a memorial concert for the composer, conducted by Philipp Wolfrum.
- 1950 – Uruguay won the decisive match of the fourth FIFA World Cup, defeating Brazil 2–1 at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
- 1951 – The Catcher in the Rye (cover pictured), an American coming-of-age novel by J. D. Salinger, was published by Little, Brown.
- 2007 – A magnitude-6.6 earthquake struck off the coast of Niigata Prefecture, Japan, causing a leak of radioactive gases from the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant.
- Yasuo Fukuda (b. 1936)
- Sergio Busquets (b. 1988)
- Evelyn Ebsworth (d. 2015)
- Connie Francis (d. 2025)
July 17: Constitution Day in South Korea (1948); World Emoji Day
- 1771 – Dene men who were acting as guides to Samuel Hearne on his exploration of the Coppermine River in present-day Nunavut, Canada, massacred a group of about twenty Copper Inuit.
- 1863 – The New Zealand Wars resumed as British forces led by General Duncan Cameron began the invasion of the Waikato.
- 1968 – Led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (pictured), the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party overthrew Iraqi president Abdul Rahman Arif in a bloodless coup.
- 1994 – Brazil won the FIFA World Cup final against Italy 3–2 on penalties, following a 0–0 draw after extra time.
- 2007 – TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overran the runway at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo, Brazil, killing 199 people.
- Eunice Newton Foote (b. 1819)
- Wong Kar-wai (b. 1958)
- Jules Bianchi (d. 2015)
- Felix Baumgartner (d. 2025)
- 1290 – King Edward I issued an edict to expel all Jews from England.
- 1723 – Johann Sebastian Bach directed the first performance of his cantata Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz in Leipzig.
- 1976 – At the Olympic Games in Montreal, Nadia Comăneci (pictured) became the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 for her routine on the uneven bars.
- 1989 – American actress Rebecca Schaeffer was shot and killed by Robert John Bardo, eventually prompting the passage of anti-stalking laws in California.
- 1995 – Selena's album Dreaming of You, instrumental in popularizing Tejano music, was posthumously released.
- Benito Juárez (d. 1872)
- Richard Branson (b. 1950)
- M.I.A. (b. 1975)
- Amy Gillett (d. 2005)
- 1845 – A fire in Manhattan, New York City, destroyed 345 buildings, killed 30 people, and caused at least $5 million in damage.
- 1903 – French cyclist Maurice Garin won the first edition of the Tour de France.
- 1919 – Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of the First World War, English ex-servicemen unhappy with unemployment and other grievances rioted and burned down Luton Town Hall.
- 1976 – Environmental activists bombed the port facilities in Bunbury, Western Australia, in an attempt to disrupt the woodchipping industry.
- 2013 – The NASA spacecraft Cassini took a photograph of Saturn with Earth in the distance (detail pictured), for which people were invited to "wave at Saturn".
- Marie Goldsmith (b. 1871)
- Chetana Nagavajara (b. 1937)
- Karl Jacobs (b. 1998)
- Denis Ten (d. 2018)
- 1807 – French brothers Claude and Nicéphore Niépce received a patent for their Pyréolophore, one of the world's first internal combustion engines.
- 1951 – Abdullah I of Jordan was assassinated while visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
- 1976 – The Viking 1 lander became the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars and perform its mission.
- 1997 – USS Constitution, one of the United States Navy's original six frigates, sailed for the first time in 116 years after a full restoration.
- 2015 – A suicide attack (aftermath pictured) in Suruç, Turkey, for which Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility, killed 34 people and injured 104 others.
- Alexander the Great (b. 356 BC)
- Amanda Clement (d. 1971)
- Bruce Lee (d. 1973)
- Gisele Bündchen (b. 1980)
July 21: Belgian National Day (1831)
- 625 – Paulinus was consecrated as the first bishop of York by Justus, the archbishop of Canterbury.
- 1925 – American high-school biology teacher John T. Scopes was found guilty of violating Tennessee's Butler Act which forbade teaching evolution in class.
- 1946 – After weeks of unrest, rioters lynched Bolivian president Gualberto Villarroel, desecrating and hanging his corpse in the streets of La Paz.
- 1972 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated twenty-two bombs throughout Belfast, Northern Ireland.
- 2019 – People returning from anti–extradition bill protests in Hong Kong were attacked (pictured) by suspected triad members in Yuen Long, leaving 45 people injured.
- George Brian Sinclair (b. 1928)
- Claus von Stauffenberg (d. 1944)
- Charlotte Gainsbourg (b. 1971)
- Endrick (b. 2006)
July 22: Feast day of Saint Mary Magdalene (Christianity)
- 1209 – A crusading army captured Béziers, France, and massacred the city's inhabitants in the first major military action of the Albigensian Crusade.
- 1691 – Williamite forces defeated the Jacobites at the Battle of Aughrim, the decisive battle of the Williamite War in Ireland.
- 1951 – Soviet space dogs: Dezik and Tsygan were launched into a sub-orbital spaceflight from Kapustin Yar and became the first dogs to fly in space and the first to safely return.
- 1963 – The United Kingdom granted self-government to Sarawak (first flag pictured); the day would be celebrated as Sarawak Day.
- 1976 – Japan completed its last reparation to the Philippines for war crimes committed during imperial Japan's conquest of the country in the Second World War.
- Adam Malik (b. 1917)
- Nadja Stefanoff (b. 1976)
- Ursula Franklin (d. 2016)
- Ozzy Osbourne (d. 2025)
July 23: Tisha B'Av (Judaism, 2026); Birthday of Haile Selassie (Rastafari)
- 1891 – During a visit of the French Navy to Kronstadt in Russia, the two nations reached a secret agreement on a joint response to any future war in Europe.
- 1942 – Bulgarian poet and communist activist Nikola Vaptsarov was executed by firing squad.
- 1995 – Hale–Bopp, one of the most widely observed comets of the 20th century, was independently discovered by astronomers Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp.
- 1999 – Forty-seven people were arrested in Tulia, Texas, for dealing cocaine; 35 of them were pardoned by the governor of Texas years later.
- 2010 – The English-Irish boy band One Direction (pictured) were formed while auditioning for the 2010 series of the British singing competition The X Factor.
- Thomas Brisbane (b. 1773)
- Mollie Steimer (d. 1980)
- David Dobrik (b. 1996)
- Arnold Palacios (d. 2025)
July 24: Pioneer Day in Utah, United States (1847)
- 1920 – Franco-Syrian War: At the Battle of Maysalun, forces of the Arab Kingdom of Syria were defeated by a French army moving to occupy the territory allocated to them by the San Remo conference.
- 1948 – Australia set a world record for the highest successful run-chase in Test cricket history during the Fourth Test of the Ashes series against England.
- 1974 – The Metapolitefsi period began with Konstantinos Karamanlis (pictured) taking office as Prime Minister of Greece after the collapse of the military junta.
- 1987 – Iran–Iraq War: In opposition to the American plan to protect Kuwaiti tankers, Iran laid mines and damaged the SS Bridgeton, resulting in a propaganda victory for Iran.
- 2014 – Air Algérie Flight 5017 disappeared from radar shortly after take-off from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; its wreckage was found the following day in Mali with no survivors.
- Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid (d. 946)
- Matooskie (d. 1851)
- Eko Yuli Irawan (b. 1989)
- Bindi Irwin (b. 1998)
July 25: Saint James's Day (Western Christianity); Tenjin Matsuri in Japan; National Day of Galicia; Puerto Rico Constitution Day
- 1261 – Struggle for Constantinople: Alexios Strategopoulos led Nicaean forces to recapture Constantinople, leading to the reestablishment of the Byzantine Empire and the end of the Latin Empire.
- 1591 – Eighty Years' War: Dutch and English forces relieved the siege of Knodsenburg in the Spanish Netherlands, having defeated the Duke of Parma's army in the field.
- 1950 – Korean War: After American troops withdrew, North Korean forces captured the village of Yongdong in South Korea.
- 2001 – Phoolan Devi, a serving Indian member of Parliament, was shot outside her house in New Delhi, India.
- 2022 – The Duffield Memorial (central medallion pictured) in Great Baddow, an "unusual example of Art Nouveau design in metal work", was designated a listed building by Historic England.
- Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem (d. 1190)
- Hulk (b. 1986)
- Chawarin Perdpiriyawong (b. 2001)
- David Trimble (d. 2022)
July 26: Independence Day in the Maldives (1965), Kargil Vijay Diwas in India
- 1759 – French and Indian War: Troops led by French brigadier general François-Charles de Bourlamaque attempted to blow up Fort Carillon, near present-day Ticonderoga, New York, rather than defending it against approaching British forces.
- 1882 – Boer mercenaries established the Republic of Stellaland (later flag pictured) in land claimed by the United Kingdom as part of British Bechuanaland.
- 1953 – The Battle of the Samichon River, the last engagement of the Korean War, ended a few hours before the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement.
- 1968 – After coming second to Nguyễn Văn Thiệu in a rigged presidential election, Trương Đình Dzu was jailed by a South Vietnamese military court for illicit currency transactions.
- 2012 – The New Irish Republican Army was formed from a merger of a number of dissident republican militant groups.
- George Bernard Shaw (b. 1856)
- Robert Todd Lincoln (d. 1926)
- Jason Statham (b. 1967)
- Mike Enzi (d. 2021)
- 1302 – Byzantine–Ottoman wars: The Ottoman sultanate gained its first major victory against the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Bapheus in Bithynia.
- 1953 – An armistice was signed to end hostilities in the Korean War, officially making the division of Korea indefinite by creating a 4 km wide (2.5 mi) demilitarized zone across the Korean Peninsula.
- 1990 – Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Islamic group, began a coup attempt against the government of Trinidad and Tobago by taking hostages, including Prime Minister A. N. R. Robinson, before surrendering five days later.
- 2016 – The last nine Aston Martin DB9 (example pictured) units rolled off the production line, marking the end of a twelve-year manufacturing period.
- Frances Stewart, Duchess of Lennox (b. 1578)
- Benjamin Miessner (b. 1890)
- Dacian Cioloș (b. 1969)
- Owen Arthur (d. 2020)
- 1899 – A Category 1 hurricane (map pictured) made landfall in Azua Province in the Dominican Republic, destroying three large schooners at Santo Domingo; only one crew member on the three vessels survived.
- 1915 – U.S. Marines landed at Port-au-Prince to begin a nineteen-year occupation of Haiti.
- 1911 – The Australasian Antarctic Expedition began with the departure of SY Aurora from London.
- 1945 – A B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State Building in New York City, killing 14 people and causing an estimated $1 million in damage.
- 2010 – In the deadliest air accident in Pakistan's history, Airblue Flight 202 crashed into the Margalla Hills north of Islamabad, killing all 152 aboard.
- R. A. B. Mynors (b. 1903)
- James Shigeta (d. 2014)
- Harry Kane (b. 1993)
- Martin Walser (d. 2023)
- 904 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Thessalonica, the Byzantine Empire's second-largest city, was sacked by Saracen raiders.
- 1567 – The infant James VI was crowned King of Scotland at Stirling.
- 1911 – In a case later termed a "legal lynching", Will P. Brady obtained a guilty verdict and death sentence against 15-year-old León Martínez Jr., five days after his arrest for killing a white woman.
- 1950 – Korean War: Over fears that North Korean soldiers were infiltrating refugee columns, U.S. forces concluded a four-day massacre of hundreds of civilians through shootings and air attacks near the village of Nogeun-ri.
- 1981 – An estimated worldwide television audience of 750 million watched the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer (combined coat of arms pictured) at St Paul's Cathedral in London.
- Ladislaus I of Hungary (d. 1095)
- Dag Hammarskjöld (b. 1905)
- Mikis Theodorakis (b. 1925)
- Dorothy Hodgkin (d. 1994)
- 1916 – World War I: German agents sabotaged U.S.-made munitions in New York Harbor that were to be supplied to the Allies.
- 1966 – In London, the England national football team won the FIFA World Cup, winning the final against West Germany 4–2 after extra time.
- 1981 – Amid a widespread economic crisis and food shortages in Poland, up to 50,000 people, mostly women and children, took part in the largest of nationwide hunger demonstrations in Łódź.
- 2012 – A train fire killed 32 passengers and injured 27 on the Tamil Nadu Express in Andhra Pradesh, India.
- 2018 – Emmerson Mnangagwa (pictured) was elected to his first full term as president, having served as leader since the 2017 Zimbabwean coup d'état.
- Michael Morris, 3rd Baron Killanin (b. 1914)
- Kate Bush (b. 1958)
- Claudette Colbert (d. 1996)
- Lee Teng-hui (d. 2020)
July 31: Lā Hae Hawaiʻi (Flag Day) and Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea (Sovereignty Restoration Day) in Hawaii (1843)
- 1009 – Sergius IV became the 142nd pope, succeeding John XVIII.
- 1777 – The Second Continental Congress passed a resolution commissioning the Marquis de Lafayette (pictured) as a major general in the American revolutionary forces.
- 1941 – The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring authorised SS officer Reinhard Heydrich to handle preparations for "the Final Solution of the Jewish question".
- 1975 – The Troubles: In a botched paramilitary attack, three members of the popular Miami Showband and two Ulster Volunteer Force gunmen were killed in County Down, Northern Ireland.
- 2002 – Hamas detonated a bomb at the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, killing nine students and injuring about 100 more.
- Marion Talbot (b. 1858)
- Charles Inglis (b. 1875)
- Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd (d. 1948)
- Bảo Đại (d. 1997)
Selected anniversaries / On this day archive
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