/year

July 31 in history

225 sourced entries recorded on July 31, from 54 BCE to 2024 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 30 BCEBattle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide.source
  • 626The Avars and Persian allies under Shahrbaraz launch an attack along the entire length of the Theodosian Walls (about 5.7 kilometres); the main effort is concentrated against the central section, particularly the low-lying mesoteichion. After a fierce infantry battle on the walls, the Byzantine army holds off many assaults on the city. Emperor Heraclius makes arrangements for a new army under his brother Theodore to operate against the Persians in western Anatolia, while he returns to his own army in Pontus.source
  • 781The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji occurs (Traditional Japanese date: July 6, 781).source
  • 1001Emperor Otto III confirms the possessions of Ulric Manfred II of Turin, and grants him privileges.source
  • 1191Philip II, accompanied by Conrad of Montferrat, departs to Tyre and returns to France. He leaves behind a French army (some 10,000 men) under the command of Hugh III, duke of Burgundy. Richard I is left in sole command of the Crusader forces in the Levant. Back in France, Philip schemes with Richard's brother, Prince John, to dispossess Richard of his French lands while he is still away, but the intervention of John's mother, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, foils the plan. Meanwhile, Richard rebuilds and strengthens the walls of Acre.source
  • 1201John Komnenos the Fat, a Byzantine aristocrat, attempts to usurp the imperial throne; he is proclaimed emperor and crowned by Patriarch John X Kamateros, at Constantinople. Meanwhile, Emperor Alexios III Angelos, who resides in the Palace of Blachernae, dispatches a small force under Alexios Palaiologos, Alexios' son-in-law, who is regarded as his heir-apparent. With support of the Varangian Guard, John is overthrown and decapitated by the end of the day. His head is displayed at the Forum of Constantine, while John's supporters are captured and tortured to extract the names of all the conspirators.source
  • 1299Pisa and Genoa agree to a thirty-year truce. Part of the treaty includes the end of the Pisan military support to Genoa's enemies in Corsica.source
  • 1315King Louis X of France mobilizes an army along the Flemish border. He prohibits the export of grain and other goods to Flanders – which proves challenging to enforce. Louis pressures officers of the Church at the borderlands, as well as King Edward II, to support his effort to prevent Spanish merchant vessels from trading with the embargoed Flemish cities.source
  • 1415King Henry V of England is informed of the Southampton Plot against him; he has the leaders arrested and executed, before invading France.source
  • 1423Hundred Years' War – Battle of Cravant: The French army is defeated at Cravant, on the banks of the River Yonne near Auxerre, by the English and their Burgundian allies.source
  • 1448The Siege of Svetigrad ends after 10 weeks as the defenders surrender to the Ottomans. The reason for giving up is the lack of a safe water supply, either because it was contaminated from a dead animal in the castle well, or because the Ottomans were able to locate and cut off the castles source of water.source
  • 1451Jacques Coeur, accused of poisoning Agnes Sorel, mistress of King Charles VII of France, is arrested on the orders of the king and his large fortune is confiscated.source
  • 1498Columbus becomes the first European to visit the island of Trinidad.source
  • 1508The Emperor of Ethiopia, Na'od, dies in battle. His son Lebna Dengel takes on the regnal name of Dawit II, and becomes the new emperor starting on August 11.source
  • 1559Pope Paul IV authorizes the creation of the University of Douai (which will later become the University of Lille).source
  • 1566King Philip II of Spain sends a final letter to the administrators and Catholic bishops of the Spanish Netherlands, rejecting a request to abolish ordinances treating Protestants as heretics. The decision leads to an uprising against Spain by Calvinists and ultimately to the Eighty Years War.source
  • 1572July 29–August 2 – Battle of Molodi: A large Crimean–Ottoman army which invaded Russia is routed.source
  • 1578At the Battle of Rijmenam, fought near Antwerp in what is now Belgium, a combined Dutch and English force under the command of the Count of Boussu and England's John Norreys defeats Spanish troops commanded by Don Juan de Austria.source
  • 1578According to some accounts, Englishman Martin Frobisher holds the first Thanksgiving celebration by Europeans in Canada, on Newfoundland, after he and his fleet encounter two ships that they feared had been lost. However, the celebration involves no feast and is limited to a sermon by the expedition's minister and Frobisher's men giving praise.source
  • 1588The first engagement between the English and Spanish fleets (off Plymouth) results in a victory for the English, under command of Lord Howard of Effingham and Sir Francis Drake.source
  • 1593Three-month truce was signed at la Villette between the king and the League. One by one, towns rally to the king.source
  • 1606Playwright John Marston presents his own original play to King James and King Christian during the Danish monarch's visit to London.source
  • 1615Cú Chonnacht Ó Cianáin (having been racked) and five others are sentenced to hanging for their part in the insurrection.source
  • 1618Lenaert Jacobszoon and the crew of the Dutch East India Company ship Mauritius become the first Europeans to sight what is now the Australian state of Western Australia, landing at the North Cape.source
  • 1628Royal proclamation regulating the size and weight of butter tubs in the County of Flanderssource
  • 1635The Royal Mail service is made available to the public by Charles I of England.source
  • 1649Ukrainian Cossack troops under the command of Mykhailo Krychevsky and Stepan Pobodailo are overwhelmed in the Battle of Loyew (in what is now Belarus) by a smaller force of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth soldiers led by Lithuania's Janusz Radziwiłł, with the Cossacks losing more than 3,000 fighters. Krychevsky is mortally wounded and dies on August 3.source
  • 1655Russo-Polish War (1654–67): The Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for 6 years.source
  • 1658After Shah Jahan completes the Taj Mahal, his son Aurangzeb deposes him as ruler of the Mughal Empire.source
  • 1659Dodda Kempadevaraja (Devaraja Wodeyar I) becomes the new maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore (part of modern-day India's Karnataka state) upon the death of his cousin, Kanthirava Narasaraja I. He is crowned on August 19.source
  • 1666The Agreement of Legonice is signed, with Poland restoring the titles of Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski and Lubomirski's officers, granting amnesty to all the rebels, and King Jan II Kazimierz abandoning further reform plans.source
  • 1667Second Anglo-Dutch War – The Treaty of Breda ends the war by England against the Dutch Republic, France and Denmark and Norway. In the Americas, the Dutch retain control of Surinam, the English retain New Netherland and the French Acadia.source
  • 1667Denmark-Norway signs an agreement with England as part of the Treaty of Breda (1667), ending the Second Anglo-Dutch War.source
  • 1667The Treaty of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War and recognizes Acadia as a French possession.source
  • 1676the title Viscount Lanesborough is first created in the Peerage of Ireland in favour of George Lane, 2nd Baronet, of Tulsk.source
  • 1684the village of Churchill, Oxfordshire, is largely destroyed by fire.source
  • 1703July 29–31 – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory in London, then imprisoned until mid-November for the crime of seditious libel after publishing his satirical political pamphlet The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702).source
  • 1705The Battle of Warsaw is fought near Warsaw, Poland, in the Great Northern War.source
  • 1721The Spanish expedition led by Coahuila Governor José de Azlor y Virto de Vera, sent to recapture Texas from the French, encounters Neches River the smaller French force of Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, who had led the French expansion westward from the Louisiana territory. Realizing that his forces are badly outnumbered, St. Denis abandons hope of colonizing the east Texas territory and Azlor retakes the area.source
  • 1722Property law case of Armory v Delamirie decided in the Court of King's Bench (England), determining that a finder has better title to lost property that they find over everyone except the true owner.source
  • 1724The Hyderabad State is created in India, as Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah rewards his associate Mir Qamar-ud-din Khan. Qamar-ud-din becomes the first Nizam of Hyderabad. The princely state exists for more than 220 years, coming to an end after India's independence from Britain.source
  • 1743At a summit in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the British colonies of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania conclude a treaty with the Six Nations, conceding that the member tribes are entitled to the territory west of the Appalachian mountains and north of the Ohio River.source
  • 1750José I takes over the throne of Portugal from his deceased father, João V. King José Manuel appoints the Marquis of Pombal as his Chief Minister, who then strips the Inquisition of its power.source
  • 1751Fire destroys 1,000 houses in Stockholm.source
  • 1760Seven Years' War: Battle of Warburg – The Anglo-Hanoverian army of Ferdinand of Brunswick storms Warburg, with a heroic role being played by the English commander Lord Granby.source
  • 1764Johnson arrives at the Niagara River site to meet with the representatives of the Indian nations.source
  • 1786The 'Kilmarnock volume' of Robert Burns' Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect is published in Scotland.source
  • 1786Robert Burns' Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect is published by John Wilson in Kilmarnock (the text having been submitted to him on 13 July). The volume proves so popular that Burns abandons his plans to emigrate to Jamaica on 1 September for a post as a bookkeeper on a slave plantation and on 27–28 November journeys on a borrowed pony from Mossgiel Farm for his first visit to Edinburgh. Two weeks later he extemporises his "Address to a Haggis" which is first published on 19 December in the Caledonian Mercury.source
  • 1790Inventor Samuel Hopkins becomes the first to be issued a U.S. patent (for an improved method of making potash).source
  • 1793Oulu Castle in Finland is destroyed in an explosion following the burning of a powder cellar.source
  • 1798A second round of elections are held in the Netherlands (Batavian Republic); no general elections this time.source
  • 1802William Wordsworth, leaving London for Dover and Calais with his sister Dorothy, witnesses the early morning scene which he captures in his sonnet "Composed upon Westminster Bridge".source
  • 1815The 1815 Philadelphia train accident, a boiler explosion, kills at least 13 people in County Durham.source
  • 1815The anointment of King Frederick VI of Denmark takes place at Frederiksborg Chapel.source
  • 1818The first newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio is issued by publisher Andrew Logan. Using the original name of the small settlement (population 172), Logan names the weekly paper The Cleaveland Gazette & Commercial Register.source
  • 1820A fire breaks out in the wine depot at the Bercy section of Paris. It is reported later that "In the absence of water to supply the engines, an attempt was made to extinguish the flames with wine— of which a lake of 50 ft. square and more than a foot deep was formed; but the fire continued to rage, as well it might, being supplied by alcohol, and great destruction of property resulted.source
  • 1821Opening of the Eau Brink Cut, improving the outfall of the River Great Ouse at King's Lynn in Norfolk. Engineers working on the project included John Rennie the Elder, Thomas Telford and Thomas Hyde Page.source
  • 1822The last public whipping is carried out in Edinburgh.source
  • 1830King Charles X of France flees to the Château de Rambouillet.source
  • 1830William Yate returns from 6 months 'training' in printing at Sydney with a printing press. His attempts at printing are not particularly successful. (see also 1834 & 1835)source
  • 1841Scottish missionary David Livingstone arrives at Kuruman in the Northern Cape, his first posting in Africa.source
  • 1845Aberdeen Railway Bill receives Royal Assentsource
  • 1849Hungarian Revolution of 1848 – Battle of Segesvár: The Russian troops in Transylvania, led by Alexander von Lüders, crush the Hungarian forces, under the lead of Józef Bem. Hungarian poet and revolutionary Sándor Petőfi is killed in the battle by the Russians.source
  • 1849July 31–August 1 – Joven Daniel wrecks at the coast of Araucanía, Chile, leading to allegations that local Mapuche tribes murdered survivors and kidnapped Elisa Bravo.source
  • 1855Limited Liability Act protects investors in the event of corporate collapse.source
  • 1856By Royal Charter, Christchurch is proclaimed New Zealand's first city.source
  • 1856Christchurch, New Zealand, is chartered as a city.source
  • 1861Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act codifies company law.source
  • 1865The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia.source
  • 1865Queensland Railways opens the first section of track from Ipswich to Bigge's Camp, the first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world.source
  • 1868Pharmacy Act 1868 regulates the profession of pharmacist and restricts sale of poisons and dangerous drugs.source
  • 1874Patrick Francis Healy, S.J., the first Black man to receive a PhD, is inaugurated as president of Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic University in America, and becomes the first Black person to head a predominantly White university.source
  • 1875Public Health Act 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 55) establishes a code of practice for sanitation across the country.source
  • 1882The Hebrew Moshava of Rishon LeZion in Palestine is founded.source
  • 1882Désiré-Joseph Mercier appointed to the new chair in Thomist philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain.source
  • 1889Louise, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom, marries Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, at Buckingham Palace in London.source
  • 1893A peasant conference at Corleone drafted model agrarian contracts for labourers, sharecroppers and tenants and presented them to the landowners. When those refused to negotiate, a strike against landowners and against state taxes broke out over a large part of western Sicily. The so-called Patti di Corleone (Corleone Covenants), are considered by historians to be the first trade union collective contract in capitalist Italy.source
  • 1895The Basque Nationalist Party (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Partido Nacionalista Vasco) is founded by Sabino Arana.source
  • 1897July 26–August 2 – Siege of Malakand: British troops are besieged by Pashtun tribesmen in Malakand, on the Northwest frontier of British India (modern-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan).source
  • 1897Mount Saint Elias, the second highest peak in the United States and Canada, is first ascended.source
  • 1899Duke of York Island, off Antarctica, is discovered by the Southern Cross Expedition.source
  • 1901US Philippine Commission Act 183 is enacted, incorporating Manila as the country's first city; it would take effect on August 7.source
  • 1902A coal gas explosion kills 96 in the Mount Kembla mining disastersource
  • 1903Start of the Papal conclave after the death of Pope Leo XIII. Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was elected on August 4 as Pope Pius X. Pius X's papacy would feature vigorous condemnation of what he termed 'modernists' and 'relativists' whom he regarded as dangers to the Catholic faith (see for example his Oath Against Modernism).source
  • 1909July 25–August 2 – "Tragic Week" (La Semana Trágica/la Setmana Tràgica): The city of Barcelona experiences a workers' uprising.source
  • 1910British murderer Dr. Crippen is caught in Quebec Citysource
  • 1914London Stock Exchange closes until 4 January 1915.source
  • 1914Swiss Air Force established.source
  • 1916Free State – Vierfontein to Bothaville, 23 mi 6 ch.source
  • 1917WWI: Battle of Passchendaele ("Third Battle of Ypres") – Allied offensive operations commence in Flanders.source
  • 1919British police strikes in London and Liverpool for recognition of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers; over 2,000 strikers are dismissed.source
  • 1920Representatives of British revolutionary socialist groups meet at the Cannon Street Hotel in London and agree to form the Communist Party of Great Britain.source
  • 1920Irish-born Australian Catholic Archbishop Daniel Mannix is detained on board ship by British authorities off Queenstown and prevented from landing in Ireland or from speaking in the main Irish Catholic communities elsewhere in the United Kingdom.source
  • 1920France prohibits the sale or prescription of contraceptives.source
  • 1920France prohibits the sale or prescription of contraceptives.source
  • 1920July 30–August 8 – The 1st World Scout Jamboree is held at Olympia, London.source
  • 1929Free State – Arlington to Lindley, 12 mi 26 ch.source
  • 1932July 1932 German federal election sees the Nazis become the largest party in the Reichstag, winning 37% of the vote.source
  • 1936Public Health Act empowers local authorities to make byelaws regulating building construction.source
  • 1937July 25–31 – Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Beiping–Tianjin, a series of actions fought around Beiping and Tianjin, result in Japanese victory.source
  • 1937NKVD Order No. 00447 "Об операции по репрессированию бывших кулаков, уголовников и других антисоветских элементов" ("The operation for repression of former kulaks, criminals and other anti-Soviet elements") is approved by the decision of the Politbureau of the CC of the VKP(b) of the Soviet Union, initially as a 4-month plan for 75,950 people to be executed and an additional 193,000 to be sent to the Gulag.source
  • 1938Tour de France ends, won by Gino Bartali of Italy.source
  • 1941WWII: The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring orders S.S. General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question."source
  • 1942The Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (Oxfam) is founded in England.source
  • 1943The Brazilian passenger ship and freighter Bage, largest commercial ship in Brazil's fleet, is torpedoed and sunk off the coast of the Sergipe state. The Bage, carrying 129 passengers and 102 crew, was en route from Belém to Rio de Janeiro when it was struck by a German U-boat. Seventy-eight people (41 passengers and 37 crew) are lost.source
  • 1948American defector Elizabeth Bentley, previously working on behalf of the Soviet Union, appears under subpoena before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of the United States House of Representatives regarding Communist espionage; she implicates Whittaker Chambers.source
  • 1948At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.source
  • 1949Captain Kerans of HMS Amethyst decides to make a break after nightfall, under heavy fire from the Chinese People's Liberation Army on both sides of the Yangtze River, and successfully rejoins the fleet at Woosung the next day.source
  • 1950The austerity program is broadened to include rationing of clothing and shoes.source
  • 1950Warwickshire's Eric Hollies beats Nobby Clark's record of 65 innings without reaching double figures when dismissed for 7 against Worcestershire. Hollies will eventually make it 71 before scoring 14 against Nottinghamshire on 16 August.source
  • 19541954 Italian expedition to K2: Italian mountaineers Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni become the first to reach the summit of the second highest mountain in the world, in the Karakoram range.source
  • 1955July 25-August 4: Bishops from all over Latin America meet in Rio de Janeiro for the first Episcopal Conference of Latin America.source
  • 1956Cricket: Jim Laker sets an extraordinary record at Old Trafford in the fourth Test between England and Australia, taking 19 wickets in a first class match (the previous best was 17).source
  • 1956Luzhniki Stadium, well known sports venue of Russia and the Soviet Union, officially opens in Moscow.source
  • 1959The EMS ministry, an elected communist government in Kerala brought down through President's rule following Vimochana Samaram.source
  • 1960The House of Representatives was elected, with a victory for the Patriotic Front, which gained 30 seats. Of the 50 seats, Greek Cypriots won 35 and Turkish Cypriots won 15.source
  • 1960The second Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah of Selangor declared the state of emergency ended. A victory parade was held in Kuala Lumpur.source
  • 1961At Fenway Park in Boston, the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game tie occurs, when the game is stopped in the 9th inning due to rain (the only tie until 2002).source
  • 1961Ireland submits the first application from a non-founding country to join the European Economic Community.source
  • 1961At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs, when the game is stopped in the 9th inning due to rain (the only tie until 2002 in MLB All-Star Game history).source
  • 1962Algeria proclaims independence; Ahmed Ben Bella is the first President.source
  • 1962Solar eclipse of July 31, 1962: An annular solar eclipse is visible in South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa and the Indian Ocean, and is the 36th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 135.source
  • 1963July 31 – August 2 – A Summit Conference on the proposed Confederation of Malaysia, involving leaders of the Philippines, Malaya and Indonesia, is held.source
  • 1964Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the Moon (images are 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from Earth-bound telescopes).source
  • 1966Loss of MV Darlwyne: a pleasure cruiser disappears off the Cornwall coast of England with the loss of all 31 aboard.source
  • 1969Pope Paul VI arrives in Entebbe, Uganda for the first visit by a reigning Pope to Africa.source
  • 1970Black Tot Day, the last daily distribution of one-eighth of an imperial pint of rum to sailors of the British Royal Navy, an amount that had been dispensed since 1866.source
  • 1971Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin become the first to ride in the Lunar Roving Vehicle, a day after landing on the Moon.source
  • 1972Claudy bombing ("Bloody Monday"), 10:00 AM : Three car bombs in Claudy, County Londonderry, kill nine. It becomes public knowledge only in 2010 that a local Catholic priest was an IRA officer believed to be involved in the bombings but his role was covered up by the authorities.source
  • 1972Operation Motorman 4:00 AM : The British Army begins to regain control of the "no-go areas" established by Irish republican paramilitaries in Belfast, Derry ("Free Derry") and Newry.source
  • 1972Claudy bombing ("Bloody Monday"), 10:00 AM : Three car bombs in Claudy, County Londonderry, kill six immediately with three dying later in hospital. It becomes public knowledge only in 2010 that a local Catholic priest was an IRA officer believed to be involved in the bombings but his role was covered up by the authorities.source
  • 1973A Delta Air Lines DC-9 aircraft flying as Delta Air Lines Flight 723 lands short of Logan Airport runway at Boston, United States, in poor visibility, striking a sea wall about 165 feet (50 m) to the right of the runway centerline and about 3000 feet (914 m) short. All 6 crew members and 83 passengers are killed; one of the passengers died several months after the accident.source
  • 1976NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, taken by Viking 1.source
  • 1976The Big Thompson River in northern Colorado floods, destroying more than 400 cars and houses and killing 143 people.source
  • 1977the Caricuao Zoo Park opens to the public.source
  • 1980July 31–August 11: Hurricane Allen.source
  • 1981A Belgian fighter jet collides with the 285 m Dudelange Radio Tower, destroying the tower and killing a couple in a nearby house.source
  • 1982Beaune coach crash: In Beaune, France, 53 persons, 46 of them children, die in a highway accident (France's worst).source
  • 1983A heavy massive torrential rain and flood swept hit in Ankang, Shaanxi Province, at least 870 persons were perished, according to China Red Cross official confirmed report.source
  • 1987Docklands Light Railway in London, the first driverless railway in Great Britain, is formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II.source
  • 1988Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal bridge collapse in Butterworth, Penang killed 32 and injured 1,674 people.source
  • 1989Nintendo releases the Game Boy portable video game system in North America.source
  • 1989In Lebanon, Hezbollah announces that it has hanged U.S. Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins in retaliation for Israel's July 28 kidnapping of Hezbollah leader Abdel Karim Obeid. The same day, the United Nations Security Council passes United Nations Security Council Resolution 638, condemning the taking of hostages by both sides in the conflict.source
  • 1991The United States and the Soviet Union sign the START I treaty in Moscow limiting strategic nuclear weapons.source
  • 1991Singing Revolution: Soviet Special Purpose Police Unit forces (OMON) kill seven Lithuanian customs officials in Medininkai, the deadliest of the Soviet OMON assaults on Lithuanian border posts.source
  • 1992Georgia becomes the 179th member of the United Nations after seceding from the Soviet Union the previous year.source
  • 1992China General Aviation Flight 7552 bound for Xiamen crashes soon after taking off from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport, killing 108 of the 116 people on board.source
  • 1992Thai Airways International Flight 311, an Airbus A310-300, crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board.source
  • 1992Thai Airways International Flight 311source
  • 1999NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the lunar surface.source
  • 2002July 25–August 4 – The 2002 Commonwealth Games are held in Manchester, England.source
  • 2003Milomir Stakić receives the first life sentence issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.source
  • 2006The humanitarian assistance rendered by the Armenian government has been delivered to Lebanon via Syria. The 7.5-ton humanitarian cargo includes 52 types of medical products and first-aid means.source
  • 2007Operation Banner comes to an end, thus ending the longest continuous deployment in British military history.source
  • 20102010 Johan Cruijff Schaalsource
  • 2011In Thailand over 12.8 million people are affected by severe flooding. The World Bank estimates damages at 1,440 billion baht (US$45 billion). Some areas are still six feet under water, and many factory areas remain closed at the end of the year. 815 people are killed, with 58 of the country's 77 provinces affected.source
  • 2012Iryna Kalynets, Ukrainian poet;source
  • 2012The wife of the Finance Minister Hector Guillén is arrested in Tegucigalpa with one million Lempiras (about $50.000).source
  • 2012July 30–31 – In the worst power outage in world history, the 2012 India blackouts leave 620 million people without power.source
  • 2014July 23–August 3 – The 2014 Commonwealth Games takes place in Glasgow, Scotland.source
  • 2015The International Olympic Committee awards Beijing the right to host the 2022 Winter Olympics.source
  • 2018Mars makes its closest approach to Earth since 2003, four days after reaching opposition.source
  • 2018Aeroméxico Connect Flight 2431 crashed on takeoff from Durango International Airport. Shortly after becoming airborne, the plane encountered sudden wind shear caused by a microburst. The plane rapidly lost speed and altitude and impacted the runway, detaching the engines and skidding to a halt about 1,000 feet (300 m) beyond the runway. The plane caught fire and was destroyed. All 103 people on board survived, but 39 passengers and crew members were injured.source
  • 2022July 28–August 8 – The 2022 Commonwealth Games is held in Birmingham, England.source
  • 2022July 29 – August 8: Guyana at the 2022 Commonwealth Gamessource
  • 2024Moussa Dadis Camara, the former military ruler of Guinea, is found guilty of crimes against humanity in the massacres that occurred in 2009 and is sentenced to twenty years in prison by a Guinean court.source
  • 2024A court in Conakry convicts former military leader Moussa Dadis Camara of crimes against humanity over the killings of 157 people in the 2009 Guinean protests and sentences him to 20 years' imprisonment.source

Births

  • 1143Nijō, emperor of Japan (died 1165)source
  • 1391Cyriacus of Ancona, Italian merchant, "father of archaeology" (died 1453/5)source
  • 1396Philip theGood, Duke of Burgundy (died 1467)source
  • 1471Jan Feliks "Szram" Tarnowski, Polish nobleman (died 1507)source
  • 1526Augustus, Elector of Saxony (died 1586)source
  • 1527Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (died 1576)source
  • 1595Philipp Wolfgang, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (died 1641)source
  • 1598Alessandro Algardi, Italian high-Baroque sculptor active in Rome (died 1654)source
  • 1636Josias II, Count of Waldeck-Wildungen, major general in Brunswick and co-ruler of Waldeck-Wildungen (died 1669)source
  • 1686Charles, Duke of Berry, grandson of Louis XIV of France (died 1714)source
  • 1696Dumont de Montigny, colonial officer (died 1760)source
  • 1800Friedrich Wöhler, German chemist (died 1882)source
  • 1803John Ericsson, Swedish inventor, engineer (died 1889)source
  • 1812Amélie of Leuchtenberg, Empress consort of Brazil (died 1873)source
  • 1816George Henry Thomas, American general (died 1870)source
  • 181631 July (in Ireland): Trevor Chute, leader of British forces in the Second Taranaki War.source
  • 1826William S. Clark, American chemist, 3rd President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College (died 1886)source
  • 1852Hans Renold, engineer (died 1943)source
  • 1873Domingos Oliveira, politician, military officer (died 1957)source
  • 1902Gubby Allen, Australian-born English cricketer, cricket administrator (died 1989)source
  • 1912Milton Friedman, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2006)source
  • 1958Mark Cuban, American entrepreneur and basketball team ownersource
  • 1965J. K. Rowling, English authorsource

Deaths

  • 54 BCEAurelia Cotta, mother of Julius Caesar (born 120 BC)source
  • 30 BCEJuly 31 or August 1 – Imhotep-Pedubast, high priest of Ptah in Memphis (b.46 BC)source
  • 450Peter Chrysologus, bishop of Ravennasource
  • 910Feng Xingxi, Chinese warlordsource
  • 975Fu Yanqing, Chinese general (born 898)source
  • 1098Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsburysource
  • 1147Hugh of Crécy, French noblemansource
  • 1162Fujiwara no Tadazane, Japanese nobleman (born 1078)source
  • 1201John Komnenos the Fat, Byzantine noblemansource
  • 1321Ibn al-Banna' al-Marrakushi, Almohad mathematiciansource
  • 1358Étienne Marcel, Provost of the merchants of Parissource
  • 1396William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterburysource
  • 1454In France, the rebel Pierre II de Montferrand, former Governor of Baye, is beheaded, drawn and quartered after his July 14 conviction for treason. Shortly afterward, Montferrand is beheaded, then drawn and quartered.source
  • 1549Thomas Eustace, 1st Viscount Baltinglass, landowner (born c.1480)source
  • 1556Ignatius of Loyola, Spanish founder of the Jesuit order and saint (born 1491)source
  • 1602Charles de Gontaut, 1st Duke of Biron, French noble and military commander (born 1562)source
  • 1602Charles de Gontaut, duc de Biron, soldier (born 1562)source
  • 1624Henry II, Duke of Lorraine, "the Good" (born 1563)source
  • 1653Thomas Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (born 1576)source
  • 1693Willem Kalf, painter from the Northern Netherlands (born 1619)source
  • 1750King John V of Portugal (born 1689)source
  • 1784Denis Diderot, French philosopher, encyclopedist (born 1713)source
  • 1875Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (born 1808)source
  • 1886Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist, composer (born 1811)source
  • 1912Allan Octavian Hume, British civil servant (born 1829)source
  • 1943Hedley Verity, British cricketer (born 1905)source
  • 1954Antoinette, Crown Princess of Bavariasource
  • 1967July 23–31 – 12th Street Riot: In Detroit, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city: 43 are killed, 342 injured and 1,400 buildings burned.source
  • 1987An F4-rated tornado devastates eastern Edmonton, Alberta; hardest hit are an industrial park and a trailer park. 27 people are killed and hundreds injured, with hundreds more left homeless and jobless.source
  • 1987Four hundred pilgrims are killed in clashes between demonstrating Iranian pilgrims and Saudi Arabian security forces in Mecca.source
  • 1988Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim Ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.source
  • 2015Roddy Piper, 61, Canadian professional wrestler (WWE, WCW) and actor (They Live), complications from hypertension.source
  • 2022Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian terrorist who became the 2nd Emir of al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden's death in 2011, is killed in an airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan conducted by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency.source
  • 2024Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, is assassinated at his residence in Tehran, Iran.source
  • 2024Assassination of Ismail Haniyeh: Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh is assassinated in a missile strike in Tehran, Iran, after attending the inauguration ceremony of the Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel admits responsibility for the killing on 23 December.source