July |
July |
1 |
In 1997, Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule after 156 years as a British colony. |
July |
2 |
In 1937, aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight at the equator. |
July |
3 |
In 1863, the Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania ended after three days in a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated. |
July |
4 |
In 1976, the United States celebrated its Bicentential. In 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. |
July |
5 |
In 1975, Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win a Wimbledon singles title as he defeated Jimmy Connors. |
July |
6 |
In 1957, Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title, defeating fellow American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2. |
July |
7 |
In 1981, President Reagan announced he was nominating Arizona Judge Sandra Day O’Connor to become the first female justice on the United States Supreme Court. |
July |
8 |
In 1950, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was named commander-in-chief of United Nations forces in Korea. |
July |
9 |
In 1896, William Jennings Bryan caused a sensation at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with his “cross of gold” speech denouncing supporters of the gold standard. Bryan went on to win the party’s nomination. |
July |
10 |
In 1940, during World War II, the 114-day Battle of Britain began as Nazi forces began attacking southern England by air. By late October, Britain managed to repel the Luftwaffe, which suffered heavy losses. |
July |
11 |
In 1979, the abandoned United States space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia. |
July |
12 |
In 1984, Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale announced he had chosen U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York to be his running mate; Ferraro was the first woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket. |
July |
13 |
In 1977, a 25-hour blackout hit the New York City area after lightning struck upstate power lines. |
July |
14 |
In 1965, the American space probe Mariner 4 flew by Mars, sending back photographs of the planet. |
July |
15 |
In 1918, the Second Battle of the Marne began during World War I. |
July |
16 |
In 1918, Russia’s Czar Nicholas II, his empress and their five children were executed by the Bolsheviks. |
July |
17 |
In 1975, an Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower linkup of its kind. |
July |
18 |
In 1936, the Spanish Civil War began as Gen. Francisco Franco led an uprising of army troops based in Spanish North Africa. |
July |
19 |
In 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill launched his “V for Victory” campaign in Europe. |
July |
20 |
In 1969, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon when he stepped out of the lunar module. |
July |
21 |
In 1925, the so-called “Monkey Trial” ended in Dayton, Tenn., with John T. Scopes convicted of violating state law for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. The conviction was later overturned. |
July |
22 |
In 1934, a man identified as bank robber John Dillinger was shot to death by federal agents outside Chicago’s Biograph Theater. |
July |
23 |
In 1914, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serb assassin; the dispute led to World War I. |
July |
24 |
In 1959, during a visit to the Soviet Union, Vice President Richard M. Nixon got into a “kitchen debate” with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev at a United States |
July |
25 |
In 1956, the Italian liner Andrea Doria sank after colliding with the Swedish ship Stockholm off the New England coast, killing 51 people. |
July |
26 |
In 1947, President Truman signed the National Security Act, creating the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. |
July |
27 |
In 1953, the Korean War armistice was signed at Panmunjom, ending three years of fighting. |
July |
28 |
In 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. World War I began as declarations of war by other European nations quickly followed. |
July |
29 |
In 1981, Britain’s Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. |
July |
30 |
In 1945, the USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Only 316 out of 1,196 men survived the sinking and shark-infested waters. |
July |
31 |
In 1964, the American space probe Ranger 7 transmitted pictures of the moon’s surface. |