On This Day: July

During the Second Crusade, Louis VII of France lays siege to Damascus		1148
Edward I takes Stirling Castle, using what is believed to be believed to be the largest trebuchet ever made – built to his order for this purpose, and known as the War Wolf		1304
Battle of Harlaw, one of the bloodiest battles in Scottish history – part of the feud between the Clan MacDonald and the Stewart royal family – ends with neither side claiming victory		1411
Citizens of Leeuwarden, in Friesland (the Netherlands) strike against a ban on foreign beer		1487
Jacques Cartier lands on the Gaspé Peninsula in Canada (on the southern flanks of the St. Lawrence estuary – modern Quebec) and plants a cross to claim possession of the territory in the name of Francis I of France		1534
Mary Queen of Scots is forced to abdicate, in favour of her son, James VI		1567
Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founds the trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, which would later become the city of Detroit		1701
Admiral Sir George Rooke wins Gibraltar from Spain		1704
British General Phineas Riall advances towards the Niagara River, to halt Jacob Brown's American invaders		1814
Admiral José Prudencio Padilla defeats the Spanish Navy in the Battle of Lake Maracaibo, ensuring independence for the Gran Colombia (including present–day Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela, and parts of northern Peru and northwestern Brazil)		1823
The first ever public opinion poll, in Delaware, shows Andrew Jackson leading John Quincy Adams		1824
Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers, driven by mobs from their homes in Illinois, into Salt Lake Valley after 17 months of travel, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City		1847
American inventor Richard March Hoe patents the rotary–type printing press		1847
End of the Window Tax (which started in 1696)		1851
During the American Civil War, Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union troops led by General George Crook in the Battle of Kernstown, in an effort to keep them out of the Shenandoah Valley		1864
Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War		1866
Captain Matthew Webb dies, attempting to swim the rapids below Niagara Falls to win a £12,000 prize		1883
American short story writer O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) is released from prison in Columbus, Ohio, after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank		1901
American academic, explorer and politician Hiram Bingham III rediscovers Machu Picchu, the "Lost City of the Incas"		1911
844 lives are lost when a passenger ship, SS Eastland, capsizes while tied to a dock in the Chicago River – the largest loss of life from a single shipwreck on the Great Lakes		1915
The draft of the British Mandate of Palestine is formally confirmed by the Council of the League of Nations; it would come into effect on 26 September in the following year		1922
The Treaty of Lausanne – setting the boundaries of modern Turkey, and officially settling the conflict that had originally existed between the Ottoman Empire and the Allied French Republic, British Empire, Kingdom of Italy, Empire of Japan, Kingdom of Greece, and the Kingdom of Romania since the onset of World War I – is signed		1923
Tennessee schoolteacher John Thomas Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution		1925
A six–year–old girl in Guy's Hospital, London, undergoes the first successful insulin treatment		1925
The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres, in West Flanders (Belgium)		1927
The Kellogg–Briand Pact – signed in Paris on 27 August the previous year, by most leading world powers, and renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy – comes into effect		1929
The first greetings telegram is sent in Britain		1935
The Dust Bowl heat wave reaches its peak, as temperatures reach 109 °F (43 °C) in Chicago and 104 °F (40 °C) in Milwaukee		1935
Britain's Speaking Clock service begins – receives 250,000 calls in its first week; General Mola sets up a Falangist government in Spain		1936
In a landmark case, the State of Alabama drops rape charges against the 'Scottsboro Boys' (nine African American teenagers, accused of raping two white women		1937
The bombing of Hamburg by British and Canadian aeroplanes by night, and American planes by day (Operation Gomorrah) begins. By the end of the operation in November, 9,000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings		1943
Operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station begin with the launch of a Bumper sounding rocket (investigating launch techniques for a two–stage missile and separation of the two stages at high velocity)		1950
The first fourteen life peers are named		1958
At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, US Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev conduct an impromptu exchange through interpreters – arising from Kruschev's assertion, after they pause in front of a mocked–up American kitchen, displaying the latest gadgets – that "You Americans expect that the Soviet people will be amazed. It is not so. We have all these things in our new flats."		1959
Freddie Mills, former British champion boxer and nightclub owner, shot dead in his car in Soho		1965
Michael Pelkey and Brian Schubert make the first BASE jump from El Capitan in the Yosemite Valley, California. Both come out with broken bones; BASE jumping has now been banned from El Capitan		1966
During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle angers the Canadian government and many Anglophone Canadians by declaring to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: "Vive le QuÃ©bec libre!" (Long live free Quebec!)		1967
A petition in The Times, signed by (among others) The Beatles, Brian Epstein, Jonathan Aitken, David Dimbleby, Graham Greene, and Dr. Francis Crick, demands legalisation of marijuana		1967
Apollo 11 capsule returns to Earth, splashing down safely in the Pacific Ocean		1969
British lecturer Gerald Brooke, aged 31, returns to London after four years in a Soviet jail, having been was arrested by the KGB for smuggling anti–Soviet leaflets. Harold Wilson's Labour Government is criticised by the Opposition for jeopardising British security by agreeing to release Soviet agents Peter and Helen Kroger in exchange for Brooke		1969
Jigme Singyi Wangchuk becomes King of Bhutan		1973
The US Supreme Court unanimously rules that President Richard Nixon does not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes, and orders him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor		1974
The border dispute between Libya and Egypt ends after four days of hostilities		1977
299 lives are lost when a bridge at Nagasaki, Japan, is destroyed by a mudslide after heavy rain		1982
'Black July' – anti–Tamil riots, which would cost between 400 and 3,000 lives – begins in Sri Lanka. This is generally regarded as the beginning of the Sri Lankan Civil War		1983
Jeffrey Archer wins a record £500,000 damages against the Daily Star, which alleged that he'd paid to have sex with a prostitute		1987
Japanese prime minister Sosuki Uno resigns after the Liberal Democrats first election defeat for 30 years		1989
A gunman bursts into the Capitol building in Washington DC, killing two policemen		1998
Ulster Freedom Fighters hitman Michael Stone, sentenced to 684 years' imprisonment in 1989 for six murders and five attempted murders, is released under the terms of the Good Friday agreement		2000
House of Lords defeats the government's latest attempt to repeal clause 28 (banning local authorities from promoting homosexuality) by 270 votes to 228		2000
Simeon Saxe–Coburg–Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, is sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria – becoming the first monarch in history to regain political power through democratic election to a different office		2001
Eleven civilian and military aircraft are destroyed and 15 are damaged when Tamil Tiger rebels attack Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka. All 14 Tamil Tiger commandos are shot dead; seven soldiers from the Sri Lanka Air Force, three civilians and an engineer also lose their lives, in an incident that would have a profound effect on the Sri Lankan economy		2001
78 passengers lose their lives when a high–speed train derails in Spain, as it rounds a curve with an 80 km/h (50 mph) speed limit at 190 km/h (120 mph)		2013
An Air Algérie flight from Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) to Algiers loses contact with air traffic controllers, 50 minutes after takeoff. The wreckage is later found in Mali; none of the 116 people on board survive		2014

You are here:

On This Day: July