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An archive of historical anniversaries that appeared on the Main Page 2022 day arrangement |
July 1: Canada Day (1867); Republic Day in Ghana (1960); Independence Day in Rwanda (1962)
- 1690 – Williamite forces defeated the Jacobites at the Battle of the Boyne near Drogheda, marking a turning point in the Williamite War in Ireland.
- 1922 – Seven of the sixteen American railroad labor organizations staged a nationwide strike (striking workers pictured) that lasted two months.
- 1979 – Sony introduced the Walkman, a portable audio player that changed listening habits by offering users the ability to play one's own choice of music.
- 2002 – Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 and DHL Flight 611 collided in mid-air over Überlingen, Germany, killing all 71 people aboard both aircraft.
- Alfonso VI of León and Castile (d. 1109)
- Nguyễn Đình Chiểu (b. 1822)
- Julia Higgins (b. 1942)
July 2: Feast day of Saints Martinian and Processus (Catholicism)
- 626 – During the Xuanwu Gate Incident, Prince Li Shimin led his forces to assassinate his rival brothers in a coup for the imperial throne of the Tang dynasty.
- 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 (pictured).
- 1890 – The U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, the first United States government action to limit monopolies.
- 1917 – Amidst weeks of race riots in East St. Louis, Illinois, white residents burned sections of the city and shot black inhabitants as they escaped the flames.
- 2013 – A Mw 6.1 strike-slip earthquake killed at least 35 people and injured 276 others in the Indonesian province of Aceh on the northern end of Sumatra.
- Theodoor Rombouts (b. 1597)
- Denmark Vesey (d. 1822)
- Maria Lourdes Sereno (b. 1960)
July 3: Independence Day in Belarus (1944)
- 324 – Civil wars of the Tetrarchy: Roman emperor Constantine the Great defeated his former colleague Licinius at the Battle of Adrianople.
- 1754 – French and Indian War: George Washington surrendered Fort Necessity in Pennsylvania, the only military surrender in his career.
- 1952 – SS United States (pictured) departed New York Harbor on her maiden voyage, on which completion she became the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic.
- 1970 – Dan-Air Flight 1903 crashed into the slopes of the Montseny Massif in Catalonia, Spain, killing all 112 people aboard.
- 2005 – Same-sex marriage became legal in Spain with the coming into effect of a law passed by the Cortes Generales.
- Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet (b. 1685)
- Hasan Tahsini (d. 1881)
- Tom Cruise (b. 1962)
July 4: Feast day of Saint Ulrich of Augsburg (Catholicism); Republic Day in the Philippines (1946); Independence Day in the United States (1776)
- 414 – Byzantine emperor Theodosius II proclaimed his older sister Aelia Pulcheria as Augusta.
- 1054 – Chinese astronomers recorded the sudden appearance of a "guest star", later identified as the supernova that created the Crab Nebula.
- 1862 – In a boat on the River Thames from Oxford to Godstow, author Lewis Carroll told Alice Liddell (pictured) and her sisters a story that later formed the basis for his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- 1918 – World War I: Allied forces led by the Australian general John Monash won the Battle of Hamel, demonstrating the effectiveness of combined-arms techniques in trench warfare.
- 1982 – Four Iranian diplomats were kidnapped after they were stopped at a checkpoint in northern Lebanon by Lebanese Phalange forces; their fates remain unknown.
- Usama ibn Munqidh (b. 1095)
- Poundmaker (d. 1886)
- Andre Spitzer (b. 1945)
July 5: Fifth of July in New York
- 1841 – Thomas Cook, the founder of the British travel company Thomas Cook & Son, organised his first excursion, escorting about 500 people from Leicester to Loughborough.
- 1852 – Frederick Douglass gave his speech known as "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?", arguing that positive statements about liberty, citizenship, and freedom, were an offense to the enslaved population of the United States because of their lack of those things.
- 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.
- 2012 – The Shard (pictured) in London was inaugurated as the tallest building in Europe, with a height of 310 m (1,020 ft), but was surpassed by Moscow's Mercury City Tower four months later.
- Nicéphore Niépce (d. 1833)
- Sophie Wyss (b. 1897)
- Kenneth Lay (d. 2006)
July 6: Independence Day in Malawi (1964)
- 1253 – Mindaugas, the first known grand duke of Lithuania, was crowned, becoming the only person to hold the title of King of Lithuania.
- 1483 – The last monarch of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty, Richard III (pictured), 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.
- 1962 – The United States conducted the Sedan nuclear test as part of Project Plowshare, a program to investigate the use of nuclear explosions for civilian purposes.
- 1997 – The Troubles: In response to the Drumcree conflict, five days of unrest began in nationalist districts of Northern Ireland.
- Maria Luisa, Duchess of Lucca (b. 1782)
- Ethel Sands (b. 1873)
- Frida Kahlo (b. 1907)
- 1456 – Joan of Arc was declared innocent of heresy in a retrial twenty-five years after her death.
- 1798 – Outraged by the XYZ Affair, the United States rescinded its treaties with France, resulting in the undeclared Quasi-War, fought entirely at sea.
- 1954 – After the culmination of the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, Carlos Castillo Armas (pictured) was sworn in as president of Guatemala.
- 1963 – The secret police of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother and chief political adviser of South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm, attacked a group of American journalists who were covering a protest during the Buddhist crisis.
- 1983 – After writing a letter to Soviet premier Yuri Andropov, American schoolgirl Samantha Smith visited the Soviet Union as Andropov's personal guest, becoming known as "America's Youngest Ambassador".
- Gustav Mahler (b. 1860)
- Teresa Hsu (b. 1898)
- Syd Barrett (d. 2006)
- 1663 – Charles II of England granted Baptist minister John Clarke the Rhode Island Royal Charter, described by one historian as "the grandest instrument of human liberty ever constructed".
- 1709 – Great Northern War: Swedish forces under Charles XII were defeated by Russian troops led by Peter the Great at the Battle of Poltava (pictured), effectively ending Sweden's role as a major European power.
- 1758 – French and Indian War: French forces defeated the British at Fort Carillon on the shore of Lake Champlain in the British colony of New York.
- 1947 – Following reports of the capture of a "flying disc" by U.S. Army Air Force personnel near Roswell, New Mexico, the military said that the crashed object was a conventional weather balloon.
- 1962 – Following student protests at Rangoon University, Burmese general Ne Win ordered the demolition of the historic students' union building.
- Eli Lilly (b. 1838)
- Percy Grainger (b. 1882)
- Sky Ferreira (b. 1992)
July 9: Day of Arafah (Islam, 2022)
- 1763 – The Mozart family grand tour of Europe began, lifting the profile of prodigal son Wolfgang Amadeus (pictured).
- 1877 – The inaugural Wimbledon Championship, the world's oldest tennis tournament, began in London.
- 1896 – Politician William Jennings Bryan made his Cross of Gold speech advocating bimetallism, considered one of the greatest political speeches in American history.
- 1937 – Nitrate film being stored in a 20th Century Fox facility spontaneously combusted, destroying more than 40,000 reels of negatives and film prints.
- 1962 – In a seminal moment for pop art, Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans exhibition opened at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.
- Ariwara no Narihira (d. 880)
- Elizabeth of Austria (b. 1526)
- John Archibald Wheeler (b. 1911)
July 10: First day of Eid al-Adha (Islam, 2022); Independence Day in the Bahamas (1973)
- 1553 – Lady Jane Grey (pictured) was proclaimed the successor to King Edward VI of England, beginning her de facto reign as the "Nine Days' Queen".
- 1806 – Indian sepoys mutinied against the East India Company at Vellore Fort.
- 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 340 Jewish residents of Jedwabne in German-occupied Poland.
- 2018 – The last members of a junior football team and their coach were rescued from a flooded cave in northern Thailand.
- Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham (d. 1460)
- Camille Pissarro (b. 1830)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver (b. 1921)
- 1405 – Marking the start of Ming China's treasure voyages, Admiral Zheng He's expeditionary fleet set sail towards foreign regions on the South China Sea and Indian Ocean.
- 1801 – French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons co-discovered the first of his 37 comets, more than any other person in history.
- 1943 – The bloodiest day of a massive ethnic cleansing operation took place, where units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army attacked and burned various Polish villages in the Volhynia region of present-day Ukraine.
- 1991 – Shortly after taking off from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 caught fire and crashed, killing all 261 people on board.
- 2011 – An explosion at the Evangelos Florakis Naval Base killed 13 people, including the head of the Cyprus Navy.
- Nicole Oresme (d. 1382)
- Gough Whitlam (b. 1916)
- Alessia Cara (b. 1996)
- 927 – King Æthelstan of England secured the submission of four northern rulers: Constantine II of Scotland, Hywel Dda of Deheubarth, Ealdred I of Bamburgh, and Owain ap Dyfnwal of Strathclyde.
- 1561 – Saint Basil's Cathedral, located in Red Square, Moscow, was consecrated.
- 1801 – French Revolutionary Wars: A squadron of British ships of the line defeated a larger squadron of Spanish and French vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar.
- 1918 – An explosion in the ammunition magazine of the Japanese battleship Kawachi (pictured) resulted in the deaths of more than 600 officers and crewmen.
- 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.
- Bahlul Lodi (d. 1489)
- Josiah Wedgwood (b. 1730)
- Elsie de Wolfe (d. 1950)
- 1643 – English Civil War: Royalist forces defeated the Parliamentarians at the Battle of Roundway Down near Devizes, Wiltshire.
- 1793 – Charlotte Corday assassinated the French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat in his bathtub (depicted); his death became a pretext for the subsequent Reign of Terror.
- 1878 – At the conclusion of the Congress of Berlin, the great powers of Europe signed the Treaty of Berlin to redraw the map of the Balkans.
- 1973 – Watergate scandal: Under questioning by Senate investigators, White House deputy chief of staff Alexander Butterfield revealed the existence of a secret taping system in the Oval Office.
- 2008 – War in Afghanistan: Taliban guerrillas attacked U.S. troops at the Battle of Wanat in Nuristan Province.
- Hubert Walter (d. 1205)
- Nathan Bedford Forrest (b. 1821)
- Liu Xiaobo (d. 2017)
July 14: Bastille Day in France (1789); Festino di Santa Rosalia begins in Palermo, Italy
- 1789 – The fortress of the Bastille in Paris was stormed by a crowd in the flashpoint of the French Revolution.
- 1874 – A fire destroyed 812 structures and killed 20 people in Chicago, leading to reforms in the city's fire-prevention and firefighting efforts.
- 1902 – The mediaeval St Mark's Campanile in Venice collapsed (ruins pictured), also demolishing the Loggetta del Sansovino.
- 1987 – More than 100 mm (3.9 in) of rain fell in a two-and-a-half-hour period in Montreal, causing severe flooding and more than C$220 million in damage.
- 2003 – In an effort to discredit U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had written an op-ed criticizing the invasion of Iraq, his wife Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative was leaked to and published by journalist Robert Novak.
- Sixto Durán Ballén (b. 1921)
- Howard Webb (b. 1971)
- Constance Stokes (d. 1991)
- 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.
- 1910 – Emil Kraepelin (pictured) published a new edition of his Textbook of Psychiatry, including for the first time Alzheimer's disease, named after his colleague Alois Alzheimer.
- 1966 – Vietnam War: United States and South Vietnamese troops began Operation Hastings to push North Vietnamese forces out of the Demilitarized Zone.
- 2014 – A Moscow Metro train derailed, killing 24 people and injuring 160 others in the deadliest accident in the metro system's history.
- Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps (b. 1793; d. 1884)
- Manuel Torres (d. 1822)
- Nina Bari (d. 1961)
- 1232 – Muhammad ibn Yusuf, who later established the last Muslim state in Spain, was elected the ruler of Arjona.
- 1782 – Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail premiered in Vienna, after which Emperor Joseph II anecdotally remarked that it had "too many notes".
- 1931 – Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie (pictured) promulgated the nation's first constitution, replacing the Fetha Negest, which had been the supreme law since the Middle Ages.
- 1951 – The Catcher in the Rye, an American coming-of-age novel by J. D. Salinger, was first published.
- 1983 – A Sikorsky S-61 helicopter operated by British Airways crashed in thick fog in the Celtic Sea, killing 20 of the 26 people on board.
- Meinhardt Schomberg (d. 1719)
- Ellen G. White (d. 1915)
- Evelyn Ebsworth (d. 2015)
July 17: Eid al-Ghadir (Shia Islam, 2022); Seventeenth of Tammuz (Judaism, 2022); Constitution Day in South Korea (1948); World Emoji Day
- 1048 – Damasus II began his 23-day-long papacy, one of the shortest in history.
- 1771 – Dene men, acting as guides to Samuel Hearne on his exploration of the Coppermine River in present-day Nunavut, Canada, massacred a group of about 20 Copper Inuit.
- 1968 – Led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party overthrew Iraqi president Abdul Rahman Arif.
- 1981 – A structural failure caused a walkway at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S., to collapse (damage pictured), killing 114 people and injuring 216 others.
- Maurycy Gottlieb (d. 1879)
- Mary Osborne (b. 1921)
- Florence Fuller (d. 1946)
July 18: Marine Day in Japan (2022)
- 1806 – A gunpowder magazine explosion in Birgu, Malta, killed an estimated 200 people.
- 1841 – Pedro II, the last Emperor of Brazil, having reigned in minority since 1831, was acclaimed, crowned and consecrated.
- 1949 – Francisco Javier Arana, Chief of the Armed Forces of Guatemala, was killed in a shootout with supporters of President Juan José Arévalo.
- 1976 – At the Olympic Games in Montreal, Nadia Comăneci (pictured) became the first person to score a perfect 10 in a modern Olympics gymnastics event.
- 1989 – American actress Rebecca Schaeffer was shot and killed by Robert John Bardo, eventually prompting the passage of anti-stalking laws in California.
- Lucy Smith Millikin (b. 1821)
- Maria von Linden (b. 1869)
- John Glenn (b. 1921)
- 998 – Arab–Byzantine wars: After initial Byzantine gains at the Battle of Apamea, a lone Kurdish rider managed to kill Byzantine commander Damian Dalassenos, allowing Fatimid troops to turn the tide of the battle.
- 1702 – Great Northern War: Polish–Saxon forces were defeated by a Swedish army half their size at the Battle of Kliszów.
- 1848 – The two-day Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's-rights and feminist convention held in the United States, opened in Seneca Falls, New York.
- 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".
- Thomas Talbot (b. 1771)
- David Hillhouse Buel (b. 1862)
- Yekaterina Budanova (d. 1943)
- 1793 – Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie reached the Pacific coast at Bella Coola, British Columbia, completing the first recorded transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico.
- 1969 – The Apollo 11 lunar module landed on the Sea of Tranquillity, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the moon six-and-a-half hours later.
- 1982 – Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated two bombs in Hyde Park and Regent's Park in London, killing eleven British Army personnel and seven horses.
- 1997 – After being fully restored, USS Constitution (pictured), one of the original six frigates of the United States Navy, sailed for the first time in 116 years.
- 2001 – Twenty-three-year-old Italian anti-globalist Carlo Giuliani was shot dead by a police officer while protesting outside the 27th G8 summit held in Genoa, Italy.
- Robert Wallop (b. 1601)
- Patriarch Miron of Romania (b. 1868)
- Amanda Clement (d. 1971)
July 21: Belgian National Day (1831)
- 365 – A large earthquake occurred near Crete and triggered a subsequent tsunami that caused widespread destruction around the eastern Mediterranean region.
- 1378 – Unrepresented labourers in Florence revolted and violently took over the city's government (depicted) to grant them political office.
- 1877 – Much of central Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was burned and looted during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
- 1977 – Libyan forces carried out a raid at Sallum, sparking a four-day war with Egypt.
- 2013 – Nour Ahmad Nikbakht, an Iranian diplomat in Yemen, was kidnapped by al-Qaeda militants and held hostage for the next two years.
- Simion Bărnuțiu (b. 1808)
- Sophie Bledsoe Aberle (b. 1896)
- Louis Vauxcelles (d. 1943)
- 1298 – English forces led by Edward I defeated William Wallace's Scottish troops at the Battle of Falkirk.
- 1802 – Gia Long conquered Hanoi and unified modern-day Vietnam, which had experienced centuries of feudal warfare.
- 1894 – Jules-Albert de Dion (pictured) finished first in the world's first motor race, but did not win as his steam-powered car was against the rules.
- 1975 – Stanley Forman took the Pulitzer Prize–winning photo Fire Escape Collapse, which spurred action to improve the safety of fire escapes across the United States.
- 1991 – American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after police discovered human remains in his apartment.
- Josefa de Óbidos (d. 1684)
- James Whale (b. 1889)
- Ursula Franklin (d. 2016)
July 23: Birthday of Haile Selassie (Rastafari)
- 1319 – A fleet led by the Knights Hospitaller sank 22 of 28 ships of the Turkish Aydınid emirate.
- 1860 – The trial of the Eastbourne manslaughter, which later became an important legal precedent in the United Kingdom for discussions of corporal punishment in schools, began in Lewes.
- 1921 – The first National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party opened in a house in Shanghai.
- 1984 – Vanessa Williams, the first African-American Miss America, was forced to resign after the magazine Penthouse published nude photos of her without consent.
- 2001 – Megawati Sukarnoputri (pictured) became the first female president of Indonesia after her predecessor Abdurrahman Wahid was removed from office.
- Bridget of Sweden (d. 1373)
- Louis T. Wright (b. 1891)
- Amy Winehouse (d. 2011)
July 24: Pioneer Day in Utah, United States (1847)
- 1411 – Scottish clansmen led by Donald of Islay, Lord of the Isles, and Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar, fought the Battle of Harlaw near Inverurie, Scotland.
- 1910 – Ottoman forces captured the city of Shkodër, ending the Albanian revolt of 1910.
- 1959 – Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and U.S. vice president Richard Nixon held an impromptu debate (pictured) at the opening of the American National Exhibition at Sokolniki Park in Moscow.
- 1980 – At the Moscow Olympics, the Australian swimming team, nicknamed the Quietly Confident Quartet, won the men's 4 × 100 metre medley relay.
- Muhammad ibn Tughj al-Ikhshid (d. 946)
- Robert Graves (b. 1895)
- Torrie Wilson (b. 1975)
July 25: Republic Day in Tunisia (1957)
- 306 – Constantine the Great (sculpture pictured) was proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops after the death of Constantius Chlorus.
- 1139 – Prince Afonso Henriques led Portuguese troops to victory over the Almoravid Moors at the Battle of Ourique, which soon resulted in Portuguese independence from the Kingdom of León.
- 1978 – Two Puerto Rican independence activists were killed in a police ambush at Cerro Maravilla in Ponce.
- 2007 – Pratibha Patil was sworn in as the first female president of India.
- Isaac Luria (d. 1572)
- Rosalind Franklin (b. 1920)
- Randy Pausch (d. 2008)
July 26: Independence Day in Liberia (1847)
- 1759 – French and Indian War: Rather than defend Fort Carillon near present-day Ticonderoga, New York, from an approaching 11,300-man British force, French Brigadier General François-Charles de Bourlamaque withdrew his some 400 troops and attempted to blow up the fort.
- 1887 – L. L. Zamenhof (pictured) published Unua Libro, the first publication to describe Esperanto, a constructed international language.
- 1936 – The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, dedicated to the Canadian Expeditionary Force members killed during the First World War, was unveiled near Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, France.
- 2007 – After widespread controversy throughout Wales, Shambo, a black Friesian bull that had been adopted by the local Hindu community, was slaughtered due to concerns about bovine tuberculosis.
- Carl Jung (b. 1875)
- Howard Vernon (d. 1921)
- Mick Jagger (b. 1943)
July 27: José Celso Barbosa Day in Puerto Rico
- 678 – Unable to penetrate the city's defences, the Sclaveni were forced to give up their siege of the Byzantine city of Thessalonica.
- 1302 – Byzantine–Ottoman wars: The Ottoman sultanate gained its first major victory against the Byzantine Empire at the Battle of Bapheus in Bithynia.
- 1955 – The Austrian State Treaty came into effect, ending the Allied occupation of Austria, although the country was not free of Allied troops until October.
- 1983 – Madonna (pictured) released her self-titled debut album, which set the standard for the genre of dance-pop for decades.
- 2007 – While covering a police pursuit in Phoenix, Arizona, two news helicopters collided in mid-air, killing both crews.
- Jeanne Baret (b. 1740)
- Elizabeth Plankinton (b. 1853)
- Elizabeth Rona (d. 1981)
- 1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, architects of the Reign of Terror, were executed after their arrest on the previous day.
- 1821 – Peruvian War of Independence: Argentine general José de San Martín declared the independence of Peru from the Spanish Empire.
- 1915 – U.S. Marines landed at Port-au-Prince to begin a twenty-year occupation of Haiti.
- 1976 – An earthquake registering 7.6 Mw, one of the deadliest in history, devastated Tangshan, China, and killed at least 240,000 people.
- 2001 – At the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Australian Ian Thorpe (pictured) became the first swimmer to win six gold medals at a single FINA world championship.
- Judith Leyster (bapt. 1609)
- Ray Kennedy (b. 1951)
- Ahmed Sofa (d. 2001)
- 1693 – Nine Years' War: French troops defeated the forces of the Grand Alliance led by William III of England at the Battle of Landen in present-day Neerwinden, Belgium.
- 1914 – The Cape Cod Canal (pictured), connecting Cape Cod Bay and Buzzards Bay in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, opened on a limited basis.
- 1954 – The first part of J. R. R. Tolkien's high-fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings was published by Allen & Unwin.
- 1981 – An estimated worldwide television audience of 750 million people watched the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London.
- Ladislaus I of Hungary (d. 1095)
- Isabel, Princess Imperial of Brazil (b. 1846)
- Edward Gierek (d. 2001)
July 30: International Day of Friendship
- 1865 – Off the coast of Crescent City, California, the steamer Brother Jonathan (depicted) struck an uncharted rock and sank, killing 225 people; its cargo of gold coins was not retrieved until 1996.
- 1916 – World War I: German agents sabotaged U.S.-made munitions in New York Harbor that were to be supplied to the Allies.
- 1930 – Uruguay defeated Argentina at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo to win the inaugural FIFA World Cup.
- 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.
- 2014 – At least 151 people were killed when heavy rains triggered a landslide in the village of Malin in Maharashtra, India.
- Giorgio Vasari (b. 1511)
- Lê Văn Duyệt (d. 1832)
- Claudette Colbert (d. 1996)
July 31: Lā Hae Hawaiʻi (Flag Day) and Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea (Sovereignty Restoration Day) in Hawaii (1843)
- 781 – The first recorded eruption of Japan's Mount Fuji (pictured) took place.
- 1423 – Hundred Years' War: The English and their Burgundian allies were victorious over the French at the Battle of Cravant near Auxerre, France.
- 1777 – The Second Continental Congress passed a resolution commissioning the Marquis de Lafayette as a major general in the American revolutionary forces.
- 1941 – The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring authorised SS General Reinhard Heydrich to handle preparations for "the Final Solution of the Jewish question".
- 1991 – Soviet Special Purpose Police Unit troops killed seven Lithuanian customs officials in Medininkai in the most serious attack of their campaign against Lithuanian border posts.
- William Courtenay (d. 1396)
- Jean-Gaspard Deburau (b. 1796)
- J. K. Rowling (b. 1965)