356 BC – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is destroyed by arson.
365 – A tsunami devastates the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The tsunami was caused by the Crete earthquake estimated to be 8.0 on the Richter scale. 5,000 people perished in Alexandria, and 45,000 more died outside the city.
1403 – Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England.
1645 – Qing Dynasty regent Dorgon issues an edict ordering all Han Chinese men to shave their forehead and braid the rest of their hair into a queue identical to those of the Manchus.
1816 – Paul Reuter, German-English journalist, founded Reuters (d. 1899) was born.
1861 – American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run – at Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins and ends in a victory for the Confederate army.
1865 – In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first western showdown.
1873 – At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American Old West.
1877 – After rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of nine rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stage a sympathy strike that is met with an assault by the state militia.
1899 – Ernest Hemingway, Oak Park Illinois, author (‘for whom the bell tolled… ‘, Nobel 1954), (d. 1961) born
1902 – Willis Carrier creates the first air conditioner in Buffalo, New York
1904 – Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the 100 mph (161 km/h) barrier on land. He drove a 15-liter Gobron-Brille in Ostend, Belgium.
1919 – The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, Illinois, killing 12 people.
1924 – Don Knotts, Morgantown WV, actor (Amdy Griffth Show, 3′s Company)Born
1925 – Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.
1925 – Sir Malcolm Campbell, father of Donald Campbell, becomes the first man to break the 150 mph (241 km/h) land barrier at Pendine Sands in Wales. He drove a Sunbeam at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph (242 km/h).
1938 – Janet Reno, US attorney general (1993- ) Birthed
1939 – John Negroponte, 1st United States Director of National Intelligence… War Criminal! Birthed
1942 – Kim Fowley, Philippines/US rock vocalist/producer/songwriter(He is best known for his role behind a string of novelty and cult pop rock singles in the 1960s, and for managing The Runaways in the 1970s) Born
1944 – World War II: Claus von Stauffenberg and fellow conspirators are executed in Berlin, Germany for the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
1944 – Paul Wellstone, (Sen-D-Minnesota) Born (assassinated October 25, 2002)
1946 – Ken Starr, American lawyer and judge, 39th Solicitor General of the United States was born.
1948 – Cat Stevens [Steven Demetre Georgiou; Yusaf Islam], London, rock vocalist (Peace Train)Born
1948 – Garry Trudeau, political cartoonist (Doonesbury) Born
1949 – The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty.
1951 – Slick Watts, NBA (Seattle SuperSonic)Born
1951 – Robin Williams, American comedian, actor, and singer was born.
1954 – First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
1957 – Jon Lovitz, Tarzana California, actor (SNL, League of their Own, Critic)
1959 – NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, is launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” initiative.
1961 – Jim Martin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Faith No More, EZ-Street, Spastik Children, and Voodoocult) was born.
1969 – Space Race: Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission (July 20 in North America).
1972 – The Troubles: Bloody Friday – the Provisional IRA detonate 22 bombs in central Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom in the space of 80 minutes, killing 9 and injuring 130.
1973 – In the Lillehammer affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they “mistakenly” thought was involved in the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre.
1976 – Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland, is “Allegedly” assassinated by the Provisional IRA.
2005 – Four terrorist bombings, occurring exactly two weeks after the similar July 7 bombings, target London’s public transportation system. All four bombs fail to detonate and all four suspected suicide bombers are captured and later convicted and imprisoned for long terms.
2012 – Alexander Cockburn, Scottish-born American journalist, dies from cancer at 72