On This Day in History July 31

July 31 – Events:

• 30 BC – Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian’s forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide.
• 781 – The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: July 6, 781).
• 904 – Thessalonica falls to the Arabs, who destroy the city.
• 1423 – Hundred Years’ War: Battle of Cravant – The French army is defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
• 1451 – Jacques Coeur is arrested by order of Charles VII of France.
• 1498 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
• 1588 – The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.
• 1655 – Russo-Polish War (1654-1667): Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for six years.
• 1658 – Aurangzeb is proclaimed Moghul emperor of India.
• 1667 – Second Anglo-Dutch War: Treaty of Breda ends the conflict.
• 1703 – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.
• 1741 – Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.
• 1777 – The United States Congress passes a resolution that the services of Marquis de Lafayette “be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States.”
• 1790 – First U.S. patent is issued; granted to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.
• 1856 – Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city.
• 1865 – The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia.
• 1913 – The Balkan States signs an armistice at Bucarest.
• 1917 – The Third Battle of Ypres starts in Flanders.
• 1919 – German national assembly adopts the Weimar constitution (to come into force on August 14)
• 1930 – The radio mystery program The Shadow is aired for the first time.
• 1932 – The NSDAP wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.
• 1936 – The International Olympic Committee announces that the 1940 Summer Olympics will to be held in Tokyo. However, the games are given back to the IOC after the Second Sino-Japanese War breaks out, and are eventually cancelled altogether because of World War II.
• 1938 – Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanta (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia)
• 1940 – A doodlebug train in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio collides with a multi-car freight train heading the opposite way, killing 43 people.
• 1941 – Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS 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.”
• 1945 – Pierre Laval, fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
• 1945 – John K. Giles attempts to escape from Alcatraz prison.
• 1948 – At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
• 1951 – Japan Airlines is established.
• 1954 – First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio.
• 1956 – Jim Laker sets an extraordinary record at Old Trafford in the fourth Test of taking nineteen wickets in a first- class match (the previous best was seventeen).
• 1961 – At 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 because of rain.
• 1964 – Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
• 1970 – Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
• 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
• 1972 – Northeast Airlines flies its last flight before being integrated into Delta Air Lines the next day.
• 1973 – A Delta Air Lines jetliner crashes while landing in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89.
• 1975 – In Detroit, Michigan, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing.
• 1976 – Viking program: Viking 1 – NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo.
• 1981 – General Omar Torrijos of Panama dies in a plane crash.
• 1981 – 42-day strike of Major League Baseball ends in the United States.
• 1987 – A rare, class F-4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage.
• 1988 – 32 people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Malaysia.
• 1991 – The Medininkai Massacre in Lithuania. Soviet OMON attacks Lithuanian customs post in Medininkai and kills 7 officers, 1 of severely wounded (after a head shot) becomes disabled.
• 1992 – A Thai Airways Airbus A300-310 crashes into mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing 113.
• 1999 – Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector – NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the moon’s surface.
• 2006 – Fidel Castro hands over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro.
• 2007 – Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end at midnight.

July 31 – Birthdays:

• 1143 – Emperor Nijo of Japan (d. 1165)
• 1396 – Philip III, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1467)
• 1527 – Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1576)
• 1598 – Alessandro Algardi, Italian sculptor and architect (d. 1654)
• 1702 – Jean Denis Attiret, French Jesuit missionary and painter (d. 1768)
• 1704 – Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician (d. 1752)
• 1718 – John Canton, English physicist (d. 1772)
• 1724 – Noël François de Wailly, French lexicographer (d. 1801)
• 1737 – Princess Augusta Charlotte of Wales (d. 1813)
• 1803 – John Ericsson, Swedish inventor and engineer (d. 1889)
• 1816 – George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)
• 1825 – William S. Clark, American senator and scholar (d. 1886)
• 1835 – Henri Brisson, French statesman (d. 1912)
• 1835 – Paul du Chaillu, French explorer (d. 1903)
• 1837 – William Quantrill, American Civil War rebel guerrilla leader (d. 1865)
• 1843 – Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet (d. 1918)
• 1858 – Richard Dixon Oldham, British geologist (d. 1936)
• 1860 – Mary Vaux Walcott, American artist and naturalist (d. 1940)
• 1867 – Sebastian S. Kresge, American merchant and philanthropist (d. 1966)
• 1880 – Munshi Premchand, Indian poet
• 1883 – Fred Quimby, American film producer (d. 1965)
• 1884 – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, German politician (d. 1945)
• 1887 – Hans Freyer, German sociologist (d. 1969)
• 1892 – Joseph Charbonneau, French Canadian Roman Catholic archbishop of Montreal (d. 1959)
• 1894 – Fred Keenor, Welsh footballer (d.1972)
• 1901 – Jean Dubuffet, French painter and sculptor (d. 1985)
• 1904 – Brett Halliday, American writer (d. 1977)
• 1911 – George Liberace, American musician (d. 1983)
• 1912 – Bill Brown, Australian cricketer
• 1912 – Milton Friedman, American economist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 2006)
• 1912 – Irv Kupcinet, American newspaper columnist (d. 2003)
• 1913 – Bryan Hextall, Canadian hockey player (d. 1984)
• 1914 – Louis de Funès, French actor and comedian (d. 1983)
• 1916 – Billy Hitchcock, baseball player, coach, and official (d. 2006)
• 1916 – Bill Todman, American game show producer (d. 1979)
• 1916 – Sibte Hassan, Pakistani activist, journalist, and writer
• 1918 – Paul D. Boyer, American chemist, Nobel Prize Laureate
• 1918 – Hank Jones, American pianist
• 1919 – Curt Gowdy, American sports announcer (d. 2006)
• 1919 – Primo Levi, Italian author and chemist (d. 1987)
• 1920 – James Esdras Faust, American religious leader (d. 2007)
• 1921 – Whitney Young, American civil rights activist (d. 1971)
• 1921 – Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International (d. 2005)
• 1923 – Ahmet Ertegün, Turkish-born record company executive (d. 2006)
• 1929 – Don Murray, American actor
• 1929 – José Santamaria, Uruguayan footballer
• 1929 – Lynne Reid Banks, British author
• 1930 – Oleg Popov, Russian clown
• 1931 – Kenny Burrell, American guitarist
• 1931 – Nick Bollettieri, American tennis coach
• 1932 – Ted Cassidy, American actor (d. 1979)
• 1933 – Cees Nooteboom, Dutch writer
• 1935 – Yvon Deschamps, French Canadian author, comedian and humorist
• 1935 – Geoffrey Lewis, American actor
• 1936 – Vic Davalillo, baseball player
• 1939 – France Nuyen, French actress
• 1941 – Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician
• 1943 – William Bennett, 3 United States Secretary of Education
• 1943 – Susan Flannery, American actress
• 1943 – Lobo, American singer and songwriter
• 1943 – Sab Shimono, Japanese American actor
• 1944 – Geraldine Chaplin, American actress
• 1944 – Jonathan Dimbleby, U.K. journalist and television presenter
• 1944 – Robert C. Merton, Leading Scholar and Nobel Prize Winner
• 1945 – Gary Lewis, American drummer and vocalist (Gary Lewis & the Playboys)
• 1945 – William Weld, 68 Governor of Massachusetts
• 1946 – Bob Welch, American musician
• 1946 – Karen Zerby, current leader of Children of God
• 1950 – Lane Davies, American actor
• 1950 – Steve Miller, American writer
• 1951 – Evonne Goolagong, Australian tennis player
• 1951 – Barry Van Dyke, American actor
• 1952 – Chris Ahrens, American ice hockey player
• 1952 – Alan Autry, American football player, actor and politician
• 1952 – Helmuts Balderis, Latvian hockey player
• 1952 – João Barreiros, Portuguese writer
• 1953 – James Read, American actor
• 1954 – Derek Smith, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1956 – Michael Biehn, American actor
• 1956 – Deval Patrick, current (71) Governor of Massachusetts
• 1956 – Bill Callahan, American football coach
• 1957 – Daniel Ash, British musician (Bauhaus)
• 1957 – Leon Durham, American baseball player
• 1957 – Dirk Blocker, American actor
• 1958 – Bill Berry, American drummer (R.E.M.)
• 1958 – Mark Cuban, American businessman, producer, and basketball team owner
• 1959 – Stanley Jordan, American jazz guitarist
• 1960 – Dale Hunter, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1962 – John Chiang, American politician
• 1962 – Kevin Greene, American football player
• 1962 – Wesley Snipes, American actor
• 1963 – Brian Skrudland, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1963 – Fatboy Slim, British musician
• 1964 – Jim Corr, Irish singer and musician (The Corrs)
• 1965 – Scott Brooks, American basketball player
• 1965 – John Laurinaitis, American professional wrestler
• 1965 – J. K. Rowling, British writer
• 1966 – Dean Cain, American actor
• 1967 – Minako Honda, Japanese singer and musical actress (d. 2005)
• 1967 – Mitsuo Iwata, Japanese seiyu
• 1969 – David Cash, American professional wrestler
• 1969 – Loren Dean, American actor
• 1969 – Kenneth D. Schisler, American politician
• 1970 – Ahmad Akbarpour, Iranian writer
• 1971 – Gus Frerotte, American football player
• 1971 – John Lowery (John 5), American guitarist
• 1973 – Chandra North, American supermodel
• 1973 – Nathan Brown, Australian rugby league player. (now coach of the St George Illawarra  Dragons)
• 1974 – Emilia Fox, English actress
• 1974 – Jonathan Ogden, American football player
• 1975 – Bloodshed American rapper (d. 1997)
• 1975 – Randy Flores, American baseball player
• 1975 – Simon Hirst, British radio DJ
• 1975 – Mike Lincoln, American baseball player
• 1975 – Allan von Schenkel, American musician
• 1976 – Joshua Cain, American guitarist (Motion City Soundtrack)
• 1976 – Annie Parisse, American actress
• 1976 – Paulo Wanchope, Costa Rican footballer
• 1977 – Tim Couch, American football player
• 1978 – Will Champion, English drummer (Coldplay)
• 1978 – Zeta Makripoulia, Greek actress, model and TV presenter
• 1978 – Justin Wilson, English race car driver
• 1979 – J. J. Furmaniak, American baseball player
• 1979 – Per Krøldrup, Danish footballer
• 1979 – Jade Kwan, Hong Kong singer
• 1979 – Carlos Marchena, Spanish footballer
• 1979 – B. J. Novak, American actor
• 1980 – Mils Muliaina, New Zealand and Waikato rugby player
• 1981 – Eric Lively, American actor
• 1981 – J.Son Dinant, American Comedian
• 1981 – Ira Losco, Maltese singer
• 1981 – Matthew “M. Shadows” Sanders, American singer (Avenged Sevenfold)
• 1982 – Blessing Mahwire, Zimbabwean cricketer
• 1986 – Evgeni Malkin, Russian hockey player
• 1987 – Michael Bradley, American soccer player
• 1989 – Victoria Azarenka, Belarusian tennis player
• 1990 – Olga Galchenko, Russian juggler

July 31 – Deaths:

• 1396 – William Courtenay, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1342)
• 1508 – Na’od, Emperor of Ethiopia (killed in battle) (b. 1494)
• 1556 – Ignatius Loyola, Spanish priest and founder of the Jesuits
• 1653 – Thomas Dudley, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1576)
• 1726 – Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (b. 1695)
• 1750 – King John V of Portugal (b. 1689)
• 1784 – Denis Diderot, French philosopher and encylopedist (b. 1713)
• 1864 – Louis Hachette, French publisher (b. 1800)
• 1875 – Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)
• 1886 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer (b. 1811)
• 1914 – Jean Jaurès, French politician (d. 1859)
• 1917 – Francis Ledwidge, Irish poet (b. 1881)
• 1917 – Hedd Wyn (Ellis Humphrey Evans), Welsh poet (b. 1887)
• 1944 – Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French pilot and writer (b. 1900)
• 1953 – Robert Taft, U.S. Senator from Ohio and Presidential candidate (b. 1889)
• 1943 – Hedley Verity, English Test cricketer (b. 1905)
• 1954 – Onofre Marimón, Argentine racing driver (b. 1923)
• 1964 – Jim Reeves, American singer (b. 1923)
• 1966 – Bud Powell, American jazz pianist (b. 1924)
• 1972 – Paul-Henri Spaak, Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1899)
• 1980 – Pascual Jordan, German physicist (b. 1902)
• 1980 – Mohd. Rafi, Indian playback singer (b. 1924)
• 1986 – Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat (b. 1900)
• 1986 – Teddy Wilson, American jazz pianist (b. 1912)
• 1988 – Trinidad Silva, American actor (b. 1950)
• 1990 – Albert Leduc, French Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1902)
• 1993 – King Baudouin I of Belgium (b. 1930)
• 2001 – Poul Anderson, American author (b. 1926)
• 2001 – Francisco da Costa Gomes, 16 President of Portugal (b. 1914)
• 2001 – Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (b. 1910)
• 2003 – Guido Crepax, Italian comics artist (b. 1933)
• 2004 – Virginia Grey, American actress (b. 1917)
• 2004 – Laura Betti, Italian actress (b. 1927)
• 2005 – Wim Duisenberg, Dutch banker (b. 1935)
• 2006 – Paul Eells, “Voice of the Arkansas Razorbacks” sportscaster (b. 1935)

July 31 – Holidays:

• Hari Pahlawan – Malaysian warrior’s day.
• Ka Hae Hawai‘i – Hawaiian Flag Day.
• Roman Catholicism:
  • Saint Germanus (d.448), bishop of Auxerre, confessor [Bruges; Paris]
  • Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits

On This Day in History July 30

July 30 – Events:

• 1419 – First Defenestration of Prague.
• 1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.
• 1608 – At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs. This was to set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years.
• 1619 – In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time.
• 1629 – An earthquake in Naples, Italy kills 10,000 people.
• 1729 – Baltimore, Maryland is founded.
• 1733 – First Freemasons lodge opened in what will become the United States.
• 1756 – Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly-built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers.
• 1825 – Malden Island discovered.
• 1863 – Indian Wars: Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the Treaty of Box Elder, promising to stop harassing the emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of the Crater – Union forces attempt to break Confederate lines by exploding a large bomb under their trenches.
• 1866 – New Orleans’s Democratic government ordered police to raid an integrated Republican Party meeting, killing 40 people and injuring 150.
• 1871 – The Staten Island Ferry Westfield’s boiler explodes, killing over 85 people.
• 1930 – In Montevideo, Uruguay win the first Football World Cup.
• 1932 – Olympic Games: The Games of the X Olympiad open in Los Angeles, California.
• 1932 – Walt Disney’s Flowers and Trees, the first Academy Award winning cartoon and first cartoon short to use Technicolor, premieres.
• 1945 – World War II: Japanese submarine I-58 sinks the USS Indianapolis (CA-35), killing 883 seamen.
• 1953 – Rikidozan holds a ceremony announcing the establishment of the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance.
• 1954 – Elvis Presley makes his debut as a public performer.
• 1956 – A Joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing “In God We Trust” as the U.S. national motto.
• 1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.
• 1966 – England national football team win 1966 FIFA World Cup beating West Germany 4-2 in the Final.
• 1969 – Vietnam War: US President Richard M. Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam and meets with President Nguyen Van Thieu and with U.S. military commanders.
• 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 Mission – David Scott and James Irwin on Apollo Lunar Module module, Falcon, land with first Lunar Rover on the moon.
• 1971 – An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 collide over Morioka, Japan killing 162.
• 1974 – Watergate Scandal: US President Richard M. Nixon releases subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the United States Supreme Court.
• 1975 – Jimmy Hoffa disappears from the parking lot of the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, at about 2:30 p.m. He is never seen or heard from again.
• 1980 – Vanuatu gains independence.
• 1990 – The first Saturn automobile rolls off the assembly line.
• 1997 – Eighteen lives are lost in the Thredbo Landslide in New South Wales, Australia.
• 2002 – The law referred to as “The Sarbanes Oxley Act” was signed into law by United States President George W. Bush.
• 2003 – In Mexico, the last ‘old style’ Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line.
• 2006 – World’s longest running music show Top of the Pops broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years.
• 2007 – John Brumby becomes Premier of Victoria following the resignation of Steve Bracks.

July 30 – Birthdays:

• 1511 – Giorgio Vasari, Italian painter and architect (d. 1574)
• 1549 – Ferdinando I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1609)
• 1641 – Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (d. 1673)
• 1751 – Maria Anna Mozart, Austriaan musician (d. 1829)
• 1763 – Samuel Rogers, English author (d. 1855)
• 1818 – Emily Brontë, English novelist (d. 1848)
• 1825 – Chaim Aronson, inventor and academic (d. 1893)
• 1855 – Georg Wilhelm von Siemens, German industrialist (d. 1919)
• 1857 – Thorstein Veblen, American economist (d. 1929)
• 1859 – Henry Simpson Lunn, English humanitarian (d. 1939)
• 1863 – Henry Ford, American industrialist (d. 1947)
• 1872 – Princess Clémentine of Belgium (d. 1955)
• 1881 – Smedley Butler, American Marine general (d. 1940)
• 1889 – Vladimir Zworykin, Russian physicist (d. 1982)
• 1890 – Casey Stengel, American baseball manager (d. 1975)
• 1893 – Fatima Jinnah, Pakistani Mother of the Nation (d. 1967)
• 1895 – Wanda Hawley, American actress (d. 1963)
• 1898 – Henry Moore, English sculptor (d. 1986)
• 1899 – Gerald Moore, English pianist (d. 1987)
• 1901 – Alfred Lépine, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1955)
• 1904 – Salvador Novo, Mexican writer (d. 1974)
• 1909 – C. Northcote Parkinson, English historian (d. 1993)
• 1910 – Edgar de Evia, American photographer (d. 2003)
• 1914 – Lord Killanin, Irish IOC president (d. 1999)
• 1916 – Dick Wilson, American actor (d. 2007)
• 1919 – Berniece Baker Miracle, half-sister of Marilyn Monroe
• 1921 – Grant Johannesen, American pianist (d. 2005)
• 1922 – Henry W. Bloch, American co-founder of H&R Block
• 1925 – Alexander Trocchi, Scottish writer (d. 1984)
• 1925 – Jacques Sernas, French actor
• 1926 – Christine McGuire, American singer (The McGuire Sisters)
• 1927 – Victor Wong, American actor (d. 2001)
• 1928 – Eunice Muñoz, Portuguese actress
• 1928 – Joe Nuxhall, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2007)
• 1929 – Sid Krofft, Canadian children’s television producer
• 1933 – Edd Byrnes, American actor
• 1934 – Bud Selig, American Commissioner of Baseball
• 1935 – Ted Rogers, English comedian and game show host (d. 2001)
• 1936 – Buddy Guy, American blues guitarist and singer
• 1936 – Infanta Pilar of Spain
• 1938 – Hervé de Charette, French politician
• 1939 – Peter Bogdanovich, American film director
• 1939 – Eleanor Smeal, American feminist
• 1940 – Pat Schroeder, American politician
• 1940 – Sir Clive Sinclair, English entrepreneur and inventor
• 1941 – Paul Anka, Canadian singer and composer
• 1943 – Henri-François Gautrin, Quebec politician
• 1945 – David Sanborn, American saxophonist
• 1946 – Neil Bonnett, American race car driver (d. 1994)
• 1947 – William Atherton, American actor
• 1947 – Jonathan Mann, AIDS activist (d. 1998)
• 1947 – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-born American actor, bodybuilder, and 38th Governor of  California
• 1948 – Jean Reno, Moroccan-born French actor
• 1949 – Duck Baker, American guitarist
• 1950 – Frank Stallone, American singer and actor
• 1954 – Ken Olin, American actor
• 1956 – Delta Burke, American actress
• 1956 – Réal Cloutier, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1956 – Anita Hill, American author
• 1957 – Clint Hurdle, American baseball player and manager
• 1957 – Nery Pumpido, Argentine soccer player
• 1957 – Rat Scabies, English drummer (The Damned)
• 1958 – Kate Bush, English singer/songwriter
• 1958 – Daley Thompson, English decathlete
• 1961 – Laurence Fishburne, American actor
• 1961 – Richard Linklater, American filmmaker
• 1962 – Alton Brown, American television host and chef
• 1962 – Jay Feaster, American National Hockey League executive
• 1963 – Lisa Kudrow, American actress
• 1963 – Chris Mullin, American basketball player
• 1964 – Vivica A. Fox, American actress
• 1964 – Jürgen Klinsmann, German soccer player and manager
• 1964 – Alek Keshishian, Lebanese-born American film director
• 1968 – Robert Korzeniowski, Polish athlete
• 1968 – Sean Moore, Welsh drummer (Manic Street Preachers)
• 1969 – Simon Baker, American actor
• 1970 – Christopher Nolan, English film director
• 1971 – Tom Green, Canadian comedian and actor
• 1971 – Christine Taylor, American actress
• 1971 – Sagi Kalev, Bodybuilder
• 1973 – Markus Naslund, Swedish ice hockey player
• 1973 – Sonu Nigam, Indian singer/actor
• 1974 – Hilary Swank, American actress
• 1974 – Radostin Kishishev, Bulgarian soccer player
• 1974 – Jason Robinson, English dual-code rugby player
• 1975 – Graham Nicholls, English artist
• 1975 – Cherie Priest, American writer
• 1977 – Jaime Pressly, American actress
• 1977 – Ian Watkins, Welsh singer (Lostprophets)
• 1978 – James Branaman, American model and reality show contestant
• 1979 – Carlos Arroyo, Puerto Rican basketball player
• 1979 – Graeme McDowell, Northern Irish golfer
• 1980 – James Anderson, English cricketer
• 1980 – Sara Anzanello, Italian volleyball player
• 1980 – Chuck Thomas, British TV producer / presenter
• 1981 – Nicky Hayden, American motorcycle racer
• 1981 – Juan Smith, South African rugby player
• 1982 – Yvonne Strahovski, Australian actress
• 1983 – Sean Dillon, Irish soccer player
• 1984 – Gabrielle Christian, American actress
• 1984 – Kevin Pittsnogle, American basketball player
• 1985 – Daniel Fredheim Holm, Norwegian soccer player
• 1987 – Elise Estrada, Canadian pop Singer
• 1990 – Destin Alexandra Underwood, Master of Disguise
• 2002 – Prince Hridayendra of Nepal, Nepalese royal

July 30 – Deaths:

• 578 – Jacob Baradaeus, Bishop of Edessa
• 579 – Pope Benedict I
• 1540 – Thomas Abel, English priest (martyred)
• 1540 – Robert Barnes, English churchman (martyred) (b. 1495)
• 1550 – Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, English politician (b. 1505)
• 1652 – Charles Amédée de Savoie, 6th Duc de Nemours, French soldier (b. 1624)
• 1680 – Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory, Irish naval commander (b. 1634)
• 1683 – Maria Theresa of Spain, queen of Louis XIV of France (b. 1638)
• 1691 – Daniel Georg Morhof, German writer and scholar (b. 1639)
• 1718 – William Penn, English founder of the Province of Pennsylvania (b. 1644)
• 1771 – Thomas Gray, English poet and letter-writer (b. 1716)
• 1811 – Miguel Hidalgo, Mexican patriot and Independence leader (b. 1753)
• 1875 – George Pickett, American Confederate general (b. 1825)
• 1898 – Otto von Bismarck, 1st Chancellor of the German Empire (b. 1815)
• 1900 – Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1844)
• 1912 – Emperor Meiji, Japanese emperor (b. 1852)
• 1918 – Joyce Kilmer, American poet (b. 1886)
• 1930 – Joan Gamper, Swiss-Catalan businessman and founder of FC Barcelona (b. 1877)
• 1947 – Joseph Cook, 6th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1860)
• 1965 – Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, Japanese author (b. 1886)
• 1970 – George Szell, Hungarian conductor (b. 1897)
• 1971 – Kenneth Slessor, Australian poet (b. 1901)
• 1982 – Roberta Pedon, American glamour model (b. 1954)
• 1983 – Howard Dietz, American lyricist (b. 1896)
• 1983 – Lynn Fontanne, English actress (b. 1887)
• 1985 – Julia Hall Bowman Robinson, American mathematician (b. 1919)
• 1989 – Lane Frost, American bull rider (b. 1963)
• 1992 – Joe Shuster, Canadian comic book artist (b. 1914)
• 1992 – Brenda Marshall, American actress (b. 1915)
• 1996 – Claudette Colbert, American actress (b. 1903)
• 1998 – Buffalo Bob Smith, American television host (Howdy Doody) (b. 1917)
• 2004 – Andre Noble, Canadian actor (b. 1979)
• 2005 – Ray Cunningham, American baseball player (b. 1905)
• 2005 – John Garang, Vice President of Sudan (b. 1945)
• 2005 – Anthony Walker, English hate crime murder victim (b. 1987)
• 2006 – Anthony Galla-Rini, American accordionist (b. 1904)
• 2006 – Al Balding, Canadian golfer (b. 1924)
• 2006 – Murray Bookchin, American libertarian socialist (b. 1921)
• 2007 – Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian film director (b. 1912)
• 2007 – Teoctist, Ex-Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church (b. 1915)
• 2007 – Ingmar Bergman, Swedish stage and film director (b. 1918)
• 2007 – Bill Walsh, American football coach (b. 1931)

July 30 – Holidays:

• Vanuatu – Independence Day (formerly Anglo-French condominium of the New Hebrides).
• Roman Catholicism:
  • Saints Abdon and Sennen
  • Saint Peter Chrysologus, bishop, Doctor of the Church (died 450)
  • Saint Ursus, bishop of Auxerre, confessor

On This Day in History July 29

July 29 – Events:

• 1014 – Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars: Battle of Kleidion: Byzantine emperor Basil II inflicts a decisive defeat on the Bulgarian army, and his subsequent savage treatment of 15,000 prisoners reportedly causes Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria to die of shock.
• 1030 – Ladejarl-Fairhair succession wars: Battle of Stiklestad – King Olaf II fights and dies trying to regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes.
• 1565 – Mary Queen of Scots, widowed, marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, Duke of Albany at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, Scotland.
• 1567 – James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling.
• 1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines – English naval forces under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeats the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France.
• 1693 – War of the Grand Alliance: Battle of Landen – France wins a Pyrrhic victory over Allied forces in the Netherlands.
• 1793 – John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there.
• 1830 – Abdication of Charles X of France.
• 1836 – Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
• 1847 – Cumberland School of Law founded in Lebanon, Tennessee, USA. At the end of 1847 only 15 law schools exist in the United States.
• 1848 – Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt – In Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put down by police.
• 1851 – Annibale de Gasparis discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.
• 1858 – United States and Japan sign the Harris Treaty.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC.
• 1899 – The First Hague Convention is signed.
• 1900 – In Italy, King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated by Italian-born anarchist Gaetano Bresci.
• 1907 – Sir Robert Baden-Powell sets up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour on the south coast of England. The camp ran from August 1-9, 1907, and is regarded as the founding of the Scouting movement.
• 1920 – Construction of the Link River Dam begins as part of the Klamath Reclamation Project.
• 1921 – Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party.
• 1932 – Great Depression: In Washington, DC, U.S. troops disperse the last of the “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans.
• 1937 – Tongzhou Incident
• 1945 – The BBC Light Programme radio station was launched for mainstream light entertainment and music.
• 1948 – Olympic Games: The Games of the XIV Olympiad – After a hiatus of 12 years caused by World War II, the first Summer Olympics to be held since the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, opened in London.
• 1957 – The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.
• 1958 – The U.S. Congress formally creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
• 1959 – First Congressional elections in Hawaii as a state of the Union.
• 1965 – Vietnam War: The first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay.
• 1967 – Vietnam War: Off the coast of North Vietnam the USS Forrestal catches on fire in the worst U.S. naval disaster since World War II, killing 134.
• 1967 – At the fourth day of celebrating its 400th anniversary, the city of Caracas, Venezuela was shaken by an earthquake, leaving approximately 500 dead.
• 1976 – In New York City, the “Son of Sam” kills one person and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of attacks.
• 1986 – Republic of Ireland WonderChild Niall Colgan is born.
• 1987 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build the tunnel under the English Channel (Eurotunnel).
• 1987 – Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President J. R. Jayawardene sign the Indo-Lankan Pact on ethnic issues.
• 1993 – The Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.
• 1996 – The controversial child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act (1996) is struck down as too broad by a U.S. federal court.
• 2005 – Astronomers announce their discovery of Eris.
• 2007 – The ruling coalition of Japan lost its majority in the upper house after the election.

July 29 – Birthdays:

• 1166 – Henry II of Champagne (d. 1197)
• 1605 – Simon Dach, German poet (d. 1659)
• 1763 – Philip Charles Durham, Royal Navy Admiral (d. 1845)
• 1797 – Daniel Drew, American financier (d. 1879)
• 1801 – George Bradshaw, English publisher (d. 1853)
• 1805 – Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and political scientist (d. 1859)
• 1843 – Johannes Schmidt, German linguist (d. 1901)
• 1849 – Max Nordau, Austrian author and Zionist leader (d. 1923)
• 1869 – Booth Tarkington, American author (d. 1946)
• 1872 – Eric Alfred Knudsen, American folklorist (d. 1957)
• 1874 – James Shaver Woodsworth, Canadian politician (d. 1942)
• 1876 – Maria Ouspenskaya, Russian-born actress (d. 1949)
• 1878 – Don Marquis, American author (d. 1937)
• 1883 – Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (d. 1942)
• 1883 – Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator (d. 1945)
• 1884 – Ralph A. Bard, U.S. Navy Undersecretary (d. 1975)
• 1885 – Theda Bara, American film actress (d. 1955)
• 1887 – Sigmund Romberg, Hungarian-born composer (d. 1951)
• 1892 – William Powell, American actor (d. 1984)
• 1897 – Sir Neil Ritchie, British general (d. 1983)
• 1898 – Isidor Isaac Rabi, American physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1988)
• 1900 – Eyvind Johnson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1976)
• 1900 – Don Redman, American musician (d. 1964)
• 1904 – J. R. D. Tata, Indian industrialist (d. 1993)
• 1905 – Clara Bow, American actress (d. 1965)
• 1905 – Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish 2 UN Secretary-General, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1961)
• 1905 – Thelma Todd, American actress (d. 1935)
• 1905 – Stanley Kunitz, American poet (d. 2006)
• 1906 – Diana Vreeland, French-born fashion editor (d. 1989)
• 1907 – Melvin Belli, American lawyer and actor (d. 1996)
• 1911 – Foster Furcolo, 60 Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1995)
• 1911 – Iakovos, Archbishop of America (d. 2005)
• 1913 – Erich Priebke, Nazi war criminal
• 1914 – Irwin Corey, American stand-up comedian
• 1915 – Francis W. Sargent, 64 Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1998)
• 1916 – Charlie Christian, American jazz guitarist (d. 1942)
• 1916 – Budd Boetticher, American film director (d. 2001)
• 1918 – Edwin O’Connor, American novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner (d. 1968)
• 1920 – Rodolfo Acosta, Mexican actor (d. 1974)
• 1920 – Neville Jeffress, Australian founder of Media Monitors Australia (d. 2007)
• 1921 – Richard Egan, American actor (d. 1987)
• 1923 – Jim Marshall, founder of Marshall Amplification
• 1923 – Gordon Mitchell, American actor (d. 2003)
• 1924 – Lloyd Bochner, Canadian actor (d. 2005)
• 1924 – Elizabeth Short, victim in the Black Dahlia case (d. 1947)
• 1925 – Mikis Theodorakis, Greek composer
• 1925 – Ted Lindsay, Canadian hockey player
• 1927 – Harry Mulisch, Dutch author
• 1929 – Jean Baudrillard, French philosopher
• 1930 – Paul Taylor, American dancer and choreographer
• 1932 – Nancy Kassebaum Baker, United States Senator from Kansas
• 1933 – Lou Albano, American pro wrestling manager
• 1933 – Colin Davis, British racing driver
• 1933 – Robert Fuller, American actor
• 1935 – Peter Schreier, German tenor
• 1936 – Elizabeth Dole, U.S. Senator from North Carolina
• 1937 – Daniel McFadden, American economist, Nobel Prize Laureate
• 1938 – Peter Jennings, Canadian-born journalist (d. 2005)
• 1938 – Jean Rochon, Quebec politician
• 1941 – Jennifer Dunn, American politician (d. 2007)
• 1941 – David Warner, English actor
• 1942 – Tony Sirico, American actor
• 1943 – David Taylor, English snooker player
• 1946 – Neal Doughty, American keyboardist (REO Speedwagon)
• 1946 – Diane Keen, English actress
• 1947 – Dick Harmon, American golf instructor (d. 2006)
• 1951 – Dan Driessen, American baseball player
• 1953 – Ken Burns, American producer and director
• 1953 – Geddy Lee, Canadian bassist and singer (Rush)
• 1953 – Patti Scialfa, American singer, guitarist and songwriter
• 1953 – Tim Gunn, American television personality
• 1955 – Dave Stevens, American illustrator
• 1955 – Jean-Hugues Anglade, French actor
• 1956 – Teddy Atlas, American boxing trainer and commentator
• 1956 – Ronnie Musgrove, Former Governor of Mississippi
• 1957 – Nellie Kim, Russian gymnast
• 1957 – Alessandra Marc, American operatic soprano
• 1959 – Sanjay Dutt, Indian actor
• 1959 – Ruud Janssen, Dutch writer and artist
• 1959 – Dave LaPoint, American baseball player
• 1959 – John Sykes, British guitarist (Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, Tygers of Pan Tang)
• 1963 – Graham Poll, English football referee
• 1963 – Jim Beglin, Irish football commentator
• 1963 – Alexandra Paul, American actress
• 1965 – Chang-Rae Lee, Korean-born author
• 1965 – Luis Alicea, baseball coach
• 1965 – Dean Haglund, Canadian actor
• 1966 – Martina McBride, American singer
• 1966 – Richard Steven Horvitz, American comic voiceactor
• 1966 – Scott Steiner, American professional wrestler
• 1969 – Adele Stevens, English model and erotic actress
• 1971 – Monica Calhoun, American actress
• 1972 – Wil Wheaton, American actor
• 1973 – Stephen Dorff, American actor
• 1973 – Wanya Morris, American singer (Boyz II Men)
• 1974 – Josh Radnor, American actor
• 1975 – Corrado Grabbi, Italian footballer
• 1979 – Karim Essediri, Tunisian footballer
• 1979 – Ronald Murray, American basketball player
• 1980 – Ryan Braun, Canadian baseball player
• 1980 – Fernando González, Chilean tennis player
• 1980 – Rachel Miner, American actress
• 1981 – Fernando Alonso, Spanish two time formula 1 world champion
• 1981 – Andrés Madrid, Argentine footballer
• 1982 – Jônatas Domingos, Brazilian footballer
• 1982 – Janez Aljancic, Slovenian footballer
• 1982 – Allison Mack, American actress
• 1983 – Alexei Kaigorodov, Russian hockey player
• 1984 – Chad Billingsley, American baseball player
• 1991 – Miki Ishikawa, American actress

July 29 – Deaths:

• 238 – Pupienus, Roman Emperor
• 238 – Balbinus, Roman Emperor
• 1030 – Olaf II of Norway (b. 995)
• 1099 – Pope Urban II (b. 1042)
• 1108 – Philip I of France (b. 1052)
• 1507 – Martin Behaim, German-born navigator and geographer (b. 1459)
• 1612 – Jacques Bongars, French scholar and diplomat (b. 1554)
• 1644 – Pope Urban VIII (b. 1568)
• 1752 – Peter Warren, British admiral
• 1781 – Johann Kies, German astronomer and mathematician (b. 1713)
• 1792 – René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou, Chancellor of France (b. 1714)
• 1813 – Jean-Andoche Junot, French general (b. 1771)
• 1833 – William Wilberforce, English abolitionist (b. 1759)
• 1839 – Gaspard de Prony, French mathematician (b. 1755)
• 1844 – Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian composer (b. 1791)
• 1856 – Robert Schumann, German composer (b. 1810)
• 1857 – Thomas Dick, Scottish scientific teacher and writer (b. 1774)
• 1887 – Agostino Depretis, Italian statesman (d. 1813)
• 1890 – Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (b. 1853)
• 1900 – King Umberto I of Italy (b. 1844)
• 1913 – Tobias Michael Carel Asser, Dutch jurist, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1838)
• 1918 – Ernest William Christmas, Australian painter (b. 1863)
• 1934 – Didier Pitre, French Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1883)
• 1938 – Nikolai Krylenko, Russian/Soviet jurist and politician (b. 1885)
• 1950 – Joe Fry, British racing driver (b. 1915)
• 1954 – Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater (b. 1879)
• 1964 – Vean Gregg, American baseball player (b. 1885)
• 1970 – John Barbirolli, English conductor (b. 1899)
• 1973 – Roger Williamson, English racing driver (b. 1948)
• 1974 – Cass Elliot, American musician (b. 1941)
• 1974 – Erich Kästner, German author (b. 1899)
• 1976 – Mickey Cohen, American gangster (b. 1913)
• 1979 – Herbert Marcuse, German philosopher (b. 1898)
• 1979 – Bill Todman, American television producer (b. 1916)
• 1981 – Robert Moses, American urban planner (b. 1888)
• 1982 – Harold Sakata, Japanese-American actor (b. 1920)
• 1982 – Vladimir Zworykin, Russian physicist and inventor (b. 1889)
• 1983 – Luis Buñuel, Spanish director (b. 1900)
• 1983 – Raymond Massey, Canadian actor (b. 1896)
• 1983 – David Niven, English actor (b. 1910)
• 1984 – Fred Waring, American band leader and inventor (b. 1900)
• 1990 – Bruno Kreisky, Chancellor of Austria (b. 1911)
• 1992 – Michel Larocque, French-Canadian hockey player (b. 1952)
• 1994 – Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, British chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1910)
• 1996 – Ric Nordman, Canadian politician (b. 1919)
• 1996 – Jason Thirsk, American bassist (Pennywise) (b. 1967)
• 1996 – Marcel-Paul Schützenberger, French mathematician (b. 1920)
• 1998 – Jerome Robbins, American choreographer (b. 1918)
• 2001 – Edward Gierek, Polish politician (b. 1913)
• 2001 – Wau Holland, German computer hacker (b. 1951)
• 2003 – Foday Sankoh, Sierra Leonean rebel leader (b. 1937)
•  2004 – Rena Vlahopoulou, Greek actress and singer (b. 1923)
• 2007 – Mike Reid, English comedian and actor (b. 1940)
• 2007 – Michel Serrault, French actor (b. 1928)
• 2007 – Tom Snyder, American television personality (b. 1936)
• 2007 – Marvin Zindler, American (Houston, TX) television reporter (b. 1921)

July 29-Holidays

• Faroe Islands – Ólavsøka: opening of the Løgting session.
• National Anthem Day in Romania.
• Roman Catholicism:
  • Saint Eugenius, king [Magdeburg]
  • Saint Felix I, pope, and companions (Simplicius, Faustinus and Beatrix, (siblings)), martyrs [common]
  • Saint Ladislas, king, confessor (Deposition) [Hungary]
  • Saint Lupus, bishop of Troyes, confessor [Cologne, Constance, Metz, Paris, France]
  • Saint Olaf II of Norway, king of Norway, martyr, patron of woodcarvers [Sleswig, Scandinavia] – celebrated in Norway as Olsok (St. Olav’s Day)
  • Saint Pantaleon [Paris]
  • Saint Beatrice of Nazareth
  • Saint Martha, host of Christ, sister of Lazarus, patron saint of cooks, domestic staff and dieticians [common] Saint Serafina

 

On This Day in History July 28

July 28 – Events:

• 1540 – Thomas Cromwell is executed on order from Henry VIII of England on charges of treason. Henry marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, on the same day.
• 1586 – First potato arrives in Britain.
• 1609 – Bermuda is first settled, by survivors of the English Sea Venture, en route to Virginia.
• 1794 – Maximilien Robespierre is guillotined in front of a cheering crowd, for sending thousands of others to a similar fate during the French Revolution.
• 1809 – Peninsular War: Battle of Talavera – Sir Arthur Wellesley’s British, Portuguese and Spanish army defeats a French force under Joseph Bonaparte.
• 1821 – Peru: Jose de San Martin declares independence from Spain.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Ezra Church – The battle begins on this day when Confederate troops make a third unsuccessful attempt to drive Union forces from Atlanta, Georgia.
• 1896 – The City of Miami is incorporated.
• 1914 – World War I begins: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia after it failed to meet the conditions of an ultimatum it set on July 23 following the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand by a Serbian assassin. This event leads to the outbreak of war.
• 1932 – US President Herbert Hoover orders the United States Army to forcibly evict the “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans gathered in Washington, DC.
• 1933 – The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Spain were established.
• 1942 – World War II: USSR leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227 in response to alarming German advances into Russia. Under the order all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so will be immediately killed.
• 1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah – The British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians.
• 1945 – A US Army B-25 bomber accidentally crashes into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building killing 14 injuring 26.
• 1955 – The Union Mundial pro Interlingua is founded at the first Interlingua congress in Tours, France.
• 1957 – Heavy rain and mudslide occur at Isahaya, western Kyushu, Japan, 992 killed.
• 1958 – Lord Jellicoe makes his maiden speech in the House of Lords.
• 1965 – Vietnam War: US President Lyndon B. Johnson announces his order to increase the number of United States troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.
• 1976 – The Tangshan earthquake measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 magnitude flattens Tangshan, the People’s Republic of China, killing 242,769 and injuring 164,851.
• 1996 – Kennewick Man, the remains of a prehistoric man, was discovered near Kennewick, Washington.
• 1997 – Guatemala becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
• 2002 – Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, were rescued after 77 hours underground.
• 2005 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army (The PIRA) call an end to their thirty year long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.
• 2005 – A tornado touches down in a residential area in south Birmingham, England, causing £4,000,000 worth of damages and injuring 39 people.

July 28 – Birthdays:

• 1347 – Margherita of Durazzo, queen of Naples (d. 1412)
• 1659 – Charles Ancillon, French Huguenot pastor (d. 1715)
• 1746 – Thomas Heyward, Jr., American patriot, signer of the Declaration of Independence (d.  1809)
• 1750 – Fabre d’Églantine French dramatist and politician, creator of the French Republican calendar (d. 1794)
• 1796 – Ignaz Bösendorfer, Austrian musician (d. 1859)
• 1804 – Ludwig Feuerbach, German philosopher (d. 1872)
• 1815 – Stefan Dunjov, Banat Bulgarian military figure (d. 1889)
• 1844 – Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (d. 1889)
• 1857 – Ballington Booth, co-founder of Volunteers of America (d. 1940)
• 1860 – Elias M. Ammons, governor of Colorado (d. 1925)
• 1860 – Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia (d. 1922)
• 1863 – Hussein Khan Nakhichevanski, Russian general (d. 1919)
• 1866 – Beatrix Potter, English author (d. 1943)
• 1867 – Charles Dillon Perrine, American-born astronomer (d. 1951)
• 1872 – Albert Sarraut, French politician (d. 1962)
• 1874 – Ernst Cassirer, German philosopher (d. 1945)
• 1887 – Marcel Duchamp, French painter (d. 1968)
• 1896 – Barbara La Marr, American actress (d. 1926)
• 1898 – Lawrence Gray, American actor (d. 1970)
• 1900 – Catherine Dale Owen, American actress (d. 1965)
• 1901 – Rudy Vallee, American entertainer (d. 1986)
• 1901 – Freddie Fitzsimmons, American baseball player (d. 1979)
• 1902 – Karl Popper, Austrian-born philosopher (d. 1994)
• 1907 – Earl Tupper, American inventor (d. 1983)
• 1909 – Malcolm Lowry, English novelist (d. 1957)
• 1914 – Carmen Dragon, American composer (d. 1984)
• 1915 – Charles Townes, American physicist, Nobel laureate
• 1916 – David Brown, American film producer
• 1922 – Jacques Piccard, Belgian-born undersea explorer
• 1925 – Baruch S. Blumberg, American scientist, Nobel laureate
• 1927 – John Ashbery, American poet
• 1929 – Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States (d. 1994)
• 1930 – Jean Roba, Belgian comics author (d. 2006)
• 1930 – Junior Kimbrough, American bluesman (d. 1998)
• 1933 – Charlie Hodge, French Canadian ice hockey goaltender
• 1934 – Jacques d’Amboise, American choreographer
• 1935 – Simon Dee, British television broadcaster
• 1936 – Russ Jackson, Canadian football player
• 1936 – Garfield Sobers, Barbadian West Indies cricketer
• 1937 – Francis Veber, French film director and screenwriter
• 1938 – Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru
• 1938 – Chuan Leekpai, Thai politician and Former Prime Minister of Thailand
• 1940 – Philip Proctor, American comedian
• 1941 – Susan Roces, Filipino actress
• 1941 – Riccardo Muti, Italian conductor
• 1942 – Marty Brennaman, American sportscaster
• 1943 – Mike Bloomfield, American musician (d. 1981)
• 1943 – Bill Bradley, American basketball player and politician
• 1943 – Richard Wright English musician (Pink Floyd)
• 1945 – Jim Davis, American cartoonist
• 1946 – Fahmida Riaz, Pakistani writer and feminist
• 1946 – Linda Kelsey, American actress
• 1948 – Georgia Engel, American actress
• 1948 – Sally Struthers, American actress
• 1949 – Steve Peregrin Took, English singer (d. 1980)
• 1949 – Vida Blue, American baseball player
• 1949 – Peter Doyle, Australian singer (The New Seekers) (d. 2001)
• 1950 – Shahyar Ghanbari, Iranian poet
• 1951 – Anthony A. Williams, Mayor of Washington, D.C.
• 1951 – Santiago Calatrava, Spanish architect
• 1952 – Yoshitaka Amano, Japanese artist
• 1952 – Vajiralongkorn, Crown Prince of Thailand
• 1954 – Bruce Abbott, American actor
• 1954 – Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela
• 1954 – Gerd Faltings, German mathematician
• 1954 – Steve Morse, American guitarist
• 1954 – Mikey Sheehy, Gaelic footballer
• 1955 – Nikolay Zimyatov, Russian cross-country skier
• 1958 – Terry Fox, Canadian athlete and activist (d. 1981)
• 1958 – Michael Hitchcock, American actor
• 1961 – Yannick Dalmas, French race car driver
• 1961 – Alexander Kurlovitch, Soviet weightlifter
• 1962 – Rachel Sweet, American singer
• 1964 – Lori Loughlin, American actress
• 1965 – Priscilla Chan, Hong Kong singer
• 1965 – Delfeayo Marsalis, jazz musician
• 1966 – Suga Shikao, Japanese singer/songwriter
• 1969 – Garth Snow, American ice hockey goaltender
• 1969 – Alexis Arquette, American actor
• 1969 – Dana White, UFC President
• 1970 – Michael Amott, Swedish guitarist (Arch Enemy)
• 1970 – Isabelle Brasseur, Canadian figure skater
• 1971 – Stephen Lynch, American musician
• 1971 – Annie Perreault, Canadian short-track speed skater
• 1972 – Elizabeth Berkley, American actress
• 1972 – Ed Templeton, American skateboarder
• 1972 – Yeom Jeong-ah, South Korean actress
• 1973 – Steve Staios, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1973 – Marc Dupré, Quebec humorist and singer
• 1974 – Justin Lee Collins, British comedian
• 1975 – Leonor Watling, Spanish actress and singer
• 1976 – Jacoby Shaddix, American singer (Papa Roach)
• 1977 – Emanuel Ginóbili, Argentine basketball player
• 1977 – Aki Berg, Finnish ice hockey player
• 1978 – Hitomi Yaida, Japanese singer/songwriter
• 1979 – Lee Minwoo, Korean singer (Shinhwa)
• 1979 – Birgitta Haukdal, Icelandic singer
• 1979 – Henrik Hansen, Danish footballer
• 1981 – Michael Carrick, English footballer
• 1981 – Jo In Sung, South Korean actor
• 1982 – Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir, Icelandic singer and actress
• 1982 – Tom Pelphrey, American actor
• 1984 – DeMeco Ryans, American football player
• 1984 – Zach Parise, American ice hockey player
• 1985 – Dustin Milligan, Canadian actor
• 1985 – Tynisha Keli, American singer
• 1986 – Alexandra Chando, American actress
• 1988 – Ayla Brown, American singer
• 1988 – Casper Johansen, Danish footballer
• 1990 – Soulja Boy, American Rapper
• 1993 – Hannah Lochner, Canadian actress

July 28 – Deaths:

• 450 – Theodosius II, Roman Emperor (b. 401)
• 1057 – Pope Victor II
• 1128 – William Clito, Count of Flanders (b. 1102)
• 1230 – Duke Leopold VI of Austria (b. 1176)
• 1285 – Queen Keran of Armenia, consort of Leo III of Armenia
• 1527 – Rodrigo de Bastidas, Spanish conquistador
• 1540 – Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, English statesman
• 1631 – Guillén de Castro y Bellvis, Spanish dramatist (b. 1569)
• 1655 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French poet (b. 1619)
• 1667 – Abraham Cowley, English poet (b. 1618)
• 1675 – Bulstrode Whitelocke, English lawyer (b. 1605)
• 1685 – Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington, English statesman (b. 1618)
• 1718 – Etienne Baluze, French scholar (b. 1630)
• 1741 – Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (b. 1678)
• 1750 – Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (b. 1685)
• 1762 – George Dodington, 1st Baron Melcombe, English politician (b. 1691)
• 1794 – Maximilien Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1758)
• 1794 – Louis de Saint-Just, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1767)
• 1818 – Gaspard Monge, French mathematician (b. 1746)
• 1835 – Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, French marshal (b. 1768)
• 1842 – Clemens Brentano, German poet (b. 1778)
• 1844 – Joseph Bonaparte, older brother of Napoleon I and King of Naples and Spain (b. 1768)
• 1849 – King Charles Albert of Sardinia (b. 1798)
• 1869 – Jan Evangelista Purkyne, Czech anatomist (b. 1787)
• 1878 – George Law Curry, Newspaper publisher and Governor of Oregon (b. 1820)
• 1930 – Allvar Gullstrand, Swedish ophthalmologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1862)
• 1934 – Marie Dressler, Canadian actress (b. 1868)
• 1942 – William Matthew Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (b. 1853)
• 1957 – Edith Abbott, American social worker, educator, and author (b. 1876)
• 1965 – Edogawa Ranpo, Japanese author (b. 1894)
• 1967 – Karl W. Richter, Lieutenant, USAF, American aviator (b. 1942)
• 1968 – Otto Hahn, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1879)
• 1969 – Ramón Grau, Cuban president (b. 1882)
• 1971 – Myril Hoag, American baseball player (b. 1908)
• 1971 – Charles E. Pont, American artist (b. 1898)
• 1972 – Helen Traubel, American soprano (b. 1903)
• 1972 – Charu Majumdar, Indian revolutionary leader (b. 1918)
• 1979 – Charles Shadwell, English conductor and bandleader (b. 1898)
• 1982 – Keith Green, American gospel singer and pianist (b. 1953)
• 1990 – Jill Esmond, British actress (b. 1908)
• 1996 – Roger Tory Peterson, American ornithologist and educator (b. 1908)
• 1997 – Seni Pramoj, Thai politician (b. 1905)
• 1998 – Lenny McLean, English bareknuckle fighter (b. 1949)
• 1999 – Trygve Haavelmo, Norwegian economist, Nobel laureate (b. 1911)
• 2000 – Abraham Pais, Dutch-born American physicist and historian (b. 1918)
• 2002 – Archer John Porter Martin, English chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1910)
• 2003 – Lady Valerie Goulding, Irish politician and activist (b. 1918)
• 2004 – Francis Crick, English molecular biologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1916)
• 2004 – Sam Edwards, American actor (b. 1915)
• 2004 – Eugene Roche, American actor (b. 1928)
• 2004 – Tiziano Terzani, Italian journalist (b. 1938)
• 2006 – David Gemmell, British writer (b. 1948)
• 2007 – Jim LeRoy, Stunt Plane pilot
• 2007 – Karl Gotch, Belgian professional wrestler (b. 1924)

July 28 – Holidays:

• Faroe Islands – Ólavsøka Eve
• Peru – Independence Day
• Roman Catholicism:
  • Saints Nazarius and Celsus
  • Saint Innocent I, pope
  • Saint Pantaleon, martyr

On This Day in History July 27

July 27 – Events:

• 1214 – Battle of Bouvines: In France, Philip II of France defeats John of England.
• 1549 – Jesuit priest Francis Xavier’s ship reached Japan.
• 1663 – The British Parliament passes the second Navigation Act requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies have to be sent in English ships from English ports.
• 1689 – Glorious Revolution: Battle of Killiecrankie ends.
• 1694 – A Royal Charter is granted to the Bank of England.
• 1720 – The second important victory of the Russian Navy – the Battle of Grengam.
• 1778 – American Revolution: First Battle of Ushant – British and French fleets fight to a standoff.
• 1789 – The first U.S. federal government agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs, is established (later renamed Department of State).
• 1794 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre is arrested after encouraging the execution of more than 17,000 “enemies of the Revolution.”
• 1819 – Duitama is named municipality
• 1862 – Sailing from San Franciso to Panama, the SS Golden Gate catches fire and sinks off Manzanillo, Mexico, killing 231.
• 1865 – Welsh settlers arrive in Argentina at Chubut Valley.
• 1866 – The Atlantic Cable is successfully completed, allowing transatlantic telegraph communication for the first time.
• 1880 – Second Anglo-Afghan War: Battle of Maiwand – In a pyrrhic victory, Afghan forces led by Ayub Khan defeat the British Army in battle near Maiwand, Afghanistan.
• 1914 – Felix Manalo registers the Iglesia ni Cristo with the Filipino government.
• 1921 – Researchers at the University of Toronto led by biochemist Frederick Banting announce the discovery of the hormone insulin.
• 1928 – Tich Freeman becomes only bowler ever to take 200 first-class wickets before end of July.
• 1940 – The animated short “A Wild Hare” is released, introducing the character of Bugs Bunny.
• 1941 – Japanese troops occupy French Indo-China.
• 1949 – Initial flight of the de Havilland Comet, the first jet-powered airliner.
• 1953 – Korean War ends: The United States, People’s Republic of China, and North Korea, sign an armistice agreement. Syngman Rhee, president of South Korea, refuses to sign but pledges to observe the armistice.
• 1955 – The Allied occupation of Austria stemming from World War II, ends (started on May 9, 1945).
• 1964 – Vietnam War: 5,000 more American military advisers are sent to South Vietnam bringing the total number of United States forces in Vietnam to 21,000.
• 1972 – The F-15 Eagle flies for the first time.
• 1974 – Watergate Scandal: The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee votes 27 to 11 to recommend the first article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon: obstruction of justice.
• 1976 – Former Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka is arrested on suspicion of violating foreign exchange and foreign trade laws in connection with the Lockheed scandal.
• 1981 – British television: On Coronation Street, Ken Barlow marries Deirdre Langton, which proves to be a national event, with massive viewer numbers earned for the show.
• 1983 – Black July: 18 Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo were massacred by the Sinhalese prisoners, the second such massacre in two days.
• 1987 – First expedited salvaging of Titanic wreckage begins by RMS Titanic, Inc.
• 1990 – The Supreme Soviet of the Belarusian Soviet Republic declares independence of Belarus from the Soviet Union. Until 1996, the day was celebrated as the Independence Day of Belarus; after a referendum held that year the celebration of independence was transferred to June 3.
• 1990 – The Jamaat al Muslimeen stage a coup d’état attempt in Trinidad and Tobago, occupying Parliament and the studios of Trinidad and Tobago Television, holding Prime Minister A. N. R. Robinson and most of his Cabinet, as well as the staff at the television station hostage for 6 days.
• 1995 – In Washington, DC, the Korean War Veterans Memorial is dedicated.
• 1996 – Centennial Olympic Park bombing: In Atlanta, Georgia, a pipe bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympics, killing two and injuring 111.
• 1996 – In Atlanta, Georgia, Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey set the 100m world record of 9.84s +0.7 m/s wind during the 1996 Summer Olympics.
• 1997 – Si Zerrouk massacre in Algeria; about 50 people killed.
• 1997 – The Toronto Transit Commission opens its Spadina light rail transit line.
• 2002 – Ukraine airshow disaster: A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes during an air show at Lviv, Ukraine killing 85 and injuring more than 100 others, the largest air show disaster in history.
• 2005 – STS-114: NASA grounds the Space shuttle, pending an investigation of the external tank’s continued foam-shedding problem. During ascent, the external tank of the Space Shuttle Discovery sheds a piece of foam slightly smaller than the piece that caused the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster; this foam does not strike the spacecraft.
• 2006 – The Federal Republic of Germany is deemed guilty in the loss of Bashkirian 2937 and DHL Flight 611, because it is illegal to outsource flight surveillance.
• 2007 – Phoenix News Helicopter Collision: News helicopters from Phoenix, Arizona television stations KNXV and KTVK collide over Steele Indian School Park in central Phoenix while covering a police chase; there were no survivors. This was the first known incidence of two news helicopters colliding in mid-air, and the worst civil aviation incident in Phoenix history.

July 27 – Birthdays:

• 1452 – Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (d. 1508)
• 1667 – Johann Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (d. 1748)
• 1733 – Jeremiah Dixon, English surveyor and astronomer (d. 1779)
• 1734 – Princess Sophie of France, daughter of king Louis XV (d. 1782)
• 1740 – Jeanne Baré, French explorer (d. 1803)
• 1752 – Samuel Smith, U.S. Senator, 1803-1815.
• 1768 – Charlotte Corday, French aristocrat who killed Jean-Paul Marat (d. 1793)
• 1773 – Jakob Aall, Norwegian journalist and statesman (d. 1844)
• 1781 – Mauro Giuliani, Italian composer (d. 1828)
• 1784 – Denis Davydov, Russian general and poet (d. 1839)
• 1812 – Thomas Clingman, American Confederate general (d. 1897)
• 1824 – Alexandre Dumas, fils, French author (d. 1895)
• 1833 – Thomas George Bonney, English geologist (d. 1923)
• 1835 – Giosuè Carducci, Italian writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1907)
• 1848 – Loránd Eötvös, Hungarian physicist (d. 1919)
• 1853 – Vladimir Korolenko, Russian writer (d. 1921)
• 1857 – José Celso Barbosa, Puerto Rican politician (d. 1921)
• 1866 – António José de Almeida, Portuguese politician and 6 President of Portugal (d. 1929)
• 1867 – Enrique Granados, Spanish composer (d. 1916)
• 1870 – Hilaire Belloc, English writer (d. 1953)
• 1877 – Erno Dohnányi, Hungarian composer and conductor (d. 1960)
• 1879 – Jack Laviolette, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1960)
• 1881 – Hans Fischer, German chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1945)
• 1882 – Geoffrey de Havilland, British aircraft designer (d. 1965)
• 1886 – Ernst May, German architect (d. 1970)
• 1889 – Vera Karalli, Russian ballerina and actress (d. 1972)
• 1896 – Henri Longchambon, French politician (d. 1969)
• 1903 – Nikolai Cherkasov, Russian actor (d. 1966)
• 1903 – Michail Stasinopoulos, Greek politician (d. 2002)
• 1905 – Leo Durocher, American baseball player and manager (d. 1991)
• 1906 – Herbert Jasper, Canadian physiologist and neurologist (d. 1999)
• 1908 – Joseph Mitchell, American writer (d. 1996)
• 1911 – Rayner Heppenstall, British novelist (d. 1981)
• 1913 – George L. Street III American Navy Submariner (d. 2000)
• 1915 – Mario Del Monaco, Italian singer (d. 1982)
• 1915 – Josef “Pips” Priller, German fighter ace (d. 1961)
• 1916 – Elizabeth Hardwick, American literary critic and novelist (d. 2007)
• 1916 – Keenan Wynn, American actor (d. 1986)
• 1917 – Bourvil, French actor (d. 1970)
• 1918 – Leonard Rose, American cellist (d. 1984)
• 1922 – Norman Lear, American television writer and producer
• 1922 – Adolfo Celi, Italian actor (d. 1986)
• 1923 – Masutatsu Oyama, Japanese Kyokushin founder (d. 1994)
• 1924 – Vincent Canby, American film critic (d. 2000)
• 1928 – Karloff Lagarde, Mexican lucha libre wrestler (d. 2007)
• 1927 – Sat Mahajan, Indian politician
• 1929 – Jack Higgins, British novelist
• 1930 – Shirley Williams, British politician
• 1931 – Jerry Van Dyke, American actor
• 1931 – Khieu Samphan, Cambodian politician
• 1933 – Ted Whitten, Australian rules footballer (d. 1995)
• 1933 – Nick Reynolds, American folk singer
• 1935 – Billy McCullough, Northern Irish footballer
• 1936 – J. Robert Hooper, American politician
• 1937 – Don Galloway, American actor
• 1938 – Isabelle Aubret, French singer
• 1938 – Gary Gygax, American role-playing game creator (d. 2008)
• 1939 – Michael Longley, Northern Irish poet
• 1940 – Pina Bausch, German dancer
• 1942 – Dennis Ralston, American tennis player
• 1942 – John Pleshette, American actor
• 1942 – Édith Butler, Canadian singer and songwriter
• 1944 – Tony Capstick, English comedian (d. 2003)
• 1944 – Jean-Marie Leblanc, French cyclist
• 1944 – Bobbie Gentry, American singer and songwriter
• 1946 – Rade Šerbedžija, Croatian-born Serbian actor
• 1948 – Betty Thomas, American actor and film director
• 1948 – Peggy Fleming, American figure skater
• 1949 – Maureen McGovern, American singer
• 1952 – Hannu-Pekka Hänninen, Finnish sports commentator
• 1953 – Yahoo Serious, Australian comedian
• 1954 – G.S. Bali, Indian politician
• 1954 – Philippe Alliot, French racecar driver
• 1955 – Cat Bauer, American novelist
• 1955 – Allan Border, Australian cricketer
• 1956 – Carol Leifer, American actress
• 1957 – Bill Engvall, American comedian
• 1957 – Matt Osborne, American professional wrestler
• 1958 – Christopher Dean, English figure skater
• 1959 – Hugh Green, American football player
• 1959 – Joe DeSa, American baseball player (d. 1986)
• 1962 – Karl Mueller, American bassist (Soul Asylum) (d. 2005)
• 1963 – Donnie Yen, Hong Kong film actor
• 1964 – Rex Brown, American bassist (Pantera)
• 1965 – José Luis Chilavert, Paraguayan footballer
• 1967 – Juliana Hatfield, American musician
• 1967 – Sasha Mitchell, American actor
• 1967 – Kellie Waymire, American actress (d. 2003)
• 1968 – Cliff Curtis, New Zealand actor
• 1968 – Michael Campbell, American artist
• 1968 – Tom Goodwin, American baseball player
• 1968 – Julian McMahon, Australian actor
• 1968 – Ricardo Rosset, Brazilian Formula One driver
• 1969 – Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Italian actress
• 1969 – Triple H, American professional wrestler
• 1969 – Jonty Rhodes, South African cricketer
• 1970 – Nikolaj Coster Waldau, Danish actor
• 1972 – Jill Arrington, American sports reporter
• 1972 – Takako Fuji, Japanese actress
• 1972 – Maya Rudolph, American actress and comedian
• 1973 – Abe Cunningham, American musician (Deftones)
• 1974 – Eason Chan, Hong Kong singer
• 1974 – Pete Yorn, American musician
• 1975 – Shea Hillenbrand, American baseball player
• 1975 – Alex Rodriguez, American baseball player
• 1975 – Alessandro Pistone, Italian footballer
• 1976 – Scott Mason, Australian cricketer (d. 2005)
• 1977 – Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Irish actor
• 1979 – Shannon Moore, American wrestler
• 1979 – Jorge Arce, Mexican boxer
• 1980 – Julia Haworth, English actress
• 1980 – Nick Nemeth, American professional wrestler
• 1980 – Allan Davis, Australian cyclist
• 1981 – Susan King Borchardt, American basketball player
• 1985 – Lou Taylor Pucci, American actor
• 1986 – Courtney Kupets, American gymnast
• 1989 – Charlotte Arnold, Canadian actress
• 1990 – Cheyenne Kimball, American musician
• 1990 – Nick Hogan, American television personality
• 1990 – Indiana Evans, Australian actress
• 1994 – Spencer Achtymichuk, Canadian actor
• 1994 – Princess Mafalda-Ceceilia of Bulgaria
• 2000 – Kali Rodriguez, American actress

July 27 – Deaths:

• 1101 – Conrad, King of Germany and Italy (b. 1074)
• 1276 – King James I of Aragon (b. 1208)
• 1365 – Duke Rudolf IV of Austria (b. 1339)
• 1656 – Salomo Glassius, German theologian (b. 1593)
• 1675 – Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, Marshal of France (b. 1611)
• 1759 – Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician (b. 1698)
• 1770 – Robert Dinwiddie, British colonial governor of Virginia (b. 1693)
• 1841 – Mikhail Lermontov, Russian author (b. 1814)
• 1844 – John Dalton, English physicist and chemist (b. 1776)
• 1863 – William Lowndes Yancey, American Confederate leader (b. 1813)
• 1876 – Albertus van Raalte, Dutch-American religious leader (b. 1811)
• 1883 – Montgomery Blair, American politician (b. 1813)
•  1917 – Emil Theodor Kocher, Swiss surgeon, Nobel laureate (b. 1841)
• 1924 – Ferruccio Busoni, Italian pianist (b. 1866)
• 1931 – Auguste-Henri Forel, Swiss entomologist (b. 1848)
• 1934 – Hubert Lyautey, Frency army general and marshal (b. 1854)
• 1941 – Alfred Henry O’Keeffe, New Zealand artist (b. 1858)
• 1946 – Gertrude Stein, American writer (b. 1874)
• 1948 – Woolf Barnato, British racing driver (b. 1898)
• 1958 – Claire Chennault, American military leader (b. 1893)
• 1962 – Richard Aldington, English poet (b. 1892)
• 1962 – James H. “Dutch” Kindelberger, American aerospace pioneer (b. 1895)
• 1968 – Babe Adams, baseball player (b. 1882)
• 1970 – António de Oliveira Salazar, Portuguese statesman (b. 1889)
• 1971 – Charlie Tully, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1924)
• 1980 – Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (b. 1919)
• 1981 – William Wyler, French-born film director (b. 1902)
• 1984 – James Mason, English actor (b. 1909)
• 1987 – Travis Jackson, baseball player (b. 1903)
• 1988 – Frank Zamboni, American inventor (b. 1901)
• 1990 – Bobby Day, American singer (b. 1928)
• 1992 – Max Dupain, Australian photographer (b. 1911)
• 1993 – Reggie Lewis, American basketball player (b. 1965)
• 1995 – Miklós Rózsa, Hungarian-born composer (b. 1907)
• 1998 – Binnie Barnes, British actress (b. 1903)
• 1999 – Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, Russian mathematician (b. 1912)
• 1999 – Sweets Edison, American jazz trumpet player (b. 1915)
• 2000 – Gordon Solie, American wrestling commentator (b. 1929)
• 2001 – Leon Wilkeson, American guitarist (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (b. 1952)
• 2001 – Rhonda Singh, professional wrestler (b. 1961)
• 2003 – Vance Hartke, American politician (b. 1919)
• 2003 – Bob Hope, English-born entertainer (b. 1903)
• 2005 – Marten Toonder, Dutch comic writer (b. 1912)
• 2006 – Maryann Mahaffey, American politician (b. 1925)
• 2007 – Lucky Grills, Australian actor (b. 1928)

July 27 – Holidays:

• Puerto Rico – José Celso Barbosa Day.
• Finland – National Sleepy Head Day
• Roman Catholicism:
  • Aurelius and Natalia and companions of the Martyrs of Córdoba
  • Saint Pantaleon
  • Seven Sleepers, Septinu Guletaju Diena in Latvia

On This Day in History July 26

July 26 – Events:

• 657 – Battle of Siffin.
• 811 – Battle of Pliska; Byzantine emperor Nicephorus I is slain, his heir Stauracius is seriously wounded.
• 920 – Rout of an alliance of Christian troops from Navarre and Léon against the Muslims at Pamplona.
• 1139 – Afonso, then a count, is proclaimed first king of Portugal and declares independence from Leon.
• 1309 – Henry VII is recognized King of the Romans by Pope Clement V.
• 1469 – Wars of the Roses: Battle of Edgecote Moor – Pitting the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of King Edward IV.
• 1581 – Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Oath of Abjuration). The declaration of independence of the northern Low Countries from the Spanish king, Philip II.
• 1775 – The birth of what would later become the United States Post Office Department was established by the Second Continental Congress.
• 1788 – New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States.
• 1803 – The Surrey Iron Railway, arguably the world’s first public railway, opens in south London.
• 1822 – José de San Martín arrives in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to meet with Simón Bolívar.
• 1847 – Liberia declares independence.
• 1861 – American Civil War: George B. McClellan assumes command of the Army of the Potomac following a disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Morgan’s Raid ends – At Salineville, Ohio, Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and 360 of his volunteers are captured by Union forces.
• 1878 – In California, the poet and American West outlaw calling himself “Black Bart” makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box will be found later with a taunting poem inside.
• 1882 – Premiere of Richard Wagner’s Parsifal at Bayreuth.
• 1891 – France annexes Tahiti.
• 1908 – United States Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte issues an order to immediately staff the Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation).
• 1914 – Serbia and Bulgaria interrupt diplomatic relationship.
• 1934 – Assassination of Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss.
• 1936 – The Axis Powers decide to intervene in the Spanish Civil War.
• 1937 – End of the Battle of Brunete in the Spanish Civil War.
• 1941 – World War II: In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
• 1944 – World War II: Soviet army enters Lviv, major city of western Ukraine, liberating it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jewish survivors left, out of 160,000 Jews in Lviv prior to Nazi occupation.
• 1944 – The first German V-2 rocket hits Great Britain.
• 1945 – The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election of July 5 by a landslide, removing Winston Churchill from power.
• 1945 – The Potsdam Declaration is signed in Potsdam, Germany.
• 1945 – The US Navy cruiser Indianapolis arrives at Tinian with the warhead for the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
• 1947 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
• 1948 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs Executive Order 9981 desegregating the military of the United States.
• 1952 – King Farouk of Egypt abdicates in favor of his son Fuad.
• 1953 – Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution.
• 1953 – Arizona Governor John Howard Pyle orders an anti-polygamy law enforcement crackdown on residents of Short Creek, Arizona, which becomes known as the Short Creek Raid.
• 1956 – Following the World Bank’s decline to fund building the Aswan High Dam, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation.
• 1957 – Carlos Castillo Armas, dictator of Guatemala, is assassinated
• 1958 – Explorer program: Explorer 4 is launched.
• 1962 – Paula Abdul, American singer and choreographer
• 1963 – Syncom 2, the world’s first geosynchronous satellite, is launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta B booster.
• 1963 – Earthquake in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia (formerly part of Yugoslavia) – 1100 dead.
• 1963 – The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development votes to admit Japan.
• 1965 – Full independence was granted to the Maldives.
• 1966 – Lord Gardiner issues the Practice Statement in the House of Lords stating that the House is not bound to follow its own previous precedent.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Truong Dinh Dzu is sentenced to five years hard labor for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.
• 1971 – Apollo Program: Apollo 15 Mission – Launch of Apollo 15.
• 1974 – Greek Prime Minister Constantin Caramanlis forms the country’s first civil government after seven years of military rule.
• 1975 – Formation of a military triumvirate in Portugal.
• 1977 – The National Assembly of Quebec imposes the use of French as the official language of the provincial government.
• 1989 – A federal grand jury indicts Cornell University student Robert T. Morris, Jr. for releasing the Morris worm, thus becoming the first person to be prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
• 1993 – Italian Democrazia Cristian changes its name to People’s Party.
• 1994 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders the removal of Russian troops from Estonia.
• 2005 – Space Shuttle program: STS-114 Mission – Launch of Discovery, NASA’s first scheduled flight mission after the Columbia Disaster in 2003.
• 2005 – Mumbai, India receives 99.5cm of rain within 24 hours, bringing the city to a halt for over 2 days.

July 26 – Birthdays:

• 1030 – Stanislaus of Szczepanów, St. Stanislaw (d. 1079)
• 1678 – Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1711)
• 1782 – John Field, Irish composer (d. 1837)
• 1791 – Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, composer (d. 1844)
• 1802 – Mariano Arista, President of Mexico (d. 1855)
• 1829 – Auguste Marie Francois Beernaert, Belgian statesman, Nobel Laureate (d. 1912)
• 1846 – Texas Jack Omohundro, American frontier scout, actor, and cowboy (d. 1880)
• 1855 – Ferdinand Tönnies, German sociologist (d. 1936)
• 1856 – George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer, Nobel Laureate (d. 1950)
• 1865 – Philipp Scheidemann, 1st Chancellors of the Weimar Republic (d. 1939)
• 1874 – Serge Koussevitsky, Russian conductor (d. 1951)
• 1875 – Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (d. 1961)
• 1875 – Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (d. 1939)
• 1880 – Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Ukrainian statesman (d. 1951)
• 1885 – André Maurois, French author (d. 1967)
• 1886 – Lars Hanson, Swedish actor (d. 1965)
• 1892 – Sam Jones, American baseball player (d. 1966)
• 1894 – Aldous Huxley, English-born author (d. 1963)
• 1895 – Jane Bunford, Britain’s tallest ever person (d. 1922)
• 1895 – Gracie Allen, American actress and comedian (d. 1964)
• 1896 – Henry Birkin, British racing driver (d. 1933)
• 1897 – Paul Gallico, American author (d. 1976)
• 1903 – Estes Kefauver, U.S. Senator from Tennessee (d. 1963)
• 1906 – Irena Illakowicz, Polish agent of Intelligence (d. 1943)
• 1909 – Peter Thorneycroft, British politician (d. 1994)
• 1909 – Vivian Vance, American actress (d. 1979)
• 1914 – Erskine Hawkins, American musician and bandleader (d. 1993)
• 1914 – Ellis Kinder, American baseball player (d. 1968)
• 1918 – Marjorie Lord, American actress
• 1919 – Virginia Gilmore, American actress (d. 1986)
• 1920 – Bob Waterfield, American football player (d. 1983)
• 1921 – Jean Shepherd, American writer (d. 1999)
• 1922 – Blake Edwards, American film director
• 1922 – Jason Robards, American actor (d. 2000)
• 1923 – Jan Berenstain, American author
• 1923 – Hoyt Wilhelm, American baseball player (d. 2002)
• 1925 – Jerzy Einhorn, Polish-Swedish doctor, researcher and politician (d. 2000)
• 1926 – James Best, American actor
• 1926 – Ana María Matute, Spanish author
• 1928 – Don Beauman, British racing driver (d. 1955)
• 1928 – Francesco Cossiga, 8th President of the Italian Republic
• 1928 – Ibn-e-Safi, Pakistani fiction writer and Urdu poet (d. 1980)
• 1928 – Stanley Kubrick, American film director (d. 1999)
• 1928 – Peter Lougheed, Canadian politician
• 1929 – Marc Lalonde, French Canadian politician
• 1929 – Alexis Weissenberg, Bulgarian-born French pianist
• 1931 – Takashi Ono, Japanese gymnast
• 1936 – Mary Millar, English actress (d. 1998)
• 1938 – Bobby Hebb, American musician
• 1938 – Darlene Love, American singer
• 1939 – John Howard, 25th Prime Minister of Australia
• 1939 – Bob Lilly, American football player
• 1940 – Dobie Gray, American singer
• 1940 – Mary Jo Kopechne, American aide to Robert F. Kennedy (d. 1969)
• 1940 – Tolis Voskopoulos, Greek singer
• 1941 – Brenton Wood, American singer-songwriter
• 1942 – Vladimír Meciar, Slovak prime minister
• 1942 – Teddy Pilette, Belgian racing driver
• 1943 – Peter Hyams, American film director
• 1943 – Mick Jagger, English singer (The Rolling Stones)
• 1944 – Kiel Martin, American actor (d. 1990)
• 1945 – Helen Mirren, English actress
• 1949 – Roger Taylor, English musician (Queen)
• 1949 – Thaksin Shinawatra, ex-Prime Minister of Thailand
• 1950 – Susan George, English actress
• 1950 – Nelinho, Brazilian footballer
• 1950 – Rich Vogler, American race car driver (d. 1990)
• 1951 – Rick Martin, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1953 – Robert Phillips, classical guitarist
• 1954 – Vitas Gerulaitis, American tennis player (d. 1994)
• 1956 – Dorothy Hamill, American figure skater
• 1957 – Nana Visitor, American actress
• 1957 – Yuen Biao, Hong Kong actor
• 1959 – Rick Bragg, American writer
• 1959 – Kevin Spacey, American actor
• 1959 – Michael Ross, American serial killer (d. 2005)
• 1961 – Gary Cherone, American musician (Extreme)
• 1961 – Andy Connell, English musician (Swing Out Sister, A Certain Ratio)
• 1961 – Keiko Matsui, Japanese musician and composer
• 1961 – Dimitris Saravakos, Greek footballer
• 1964 – Sandra Bullock, American actress
• 1964 – Danny Woodburn, American actor
• 1964 – Ralf Metzenmacher, German painter and designer
• 1965 – Jeremy Piven, American actor
• 1965 – Jim Lindberg, American musician (Pennywise)
• 1967 – Tim Schafer, American computer game designer
• 1968 – Olivia Williams, English actress
• 1970 – Joan Wasser, American singer/songwriter/violinist
• 1973 – Kate Beckinsale, British actress
• 1973 – Lenka Šarounová, Czech astronomer
• 1974 – Dean Sturridge, English Footballer
• 1974 – Daniel Negreanu, Canadian poker player
• 1974 – Dan Konopka, American Drummer in OK Go
• 1976 – Brad Wilkins, American Architect
• 1977 – Martin Laursen, Danish footballer
• 1977 – Rebecca St. James, Australian-born singer
• 1979 – Peter Sarno, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1979 – Erik Westrum, American ice hockey player
• 1980 – Dave Baksh, Canadian guitarist (Sum 41)
• 1980 – Lee Dong-gun, South Korean actor
• 1981 – Abe Forsythe, Australian actor/director
• 1982 – Chez Starbuck, American actor
• 1983 – Delonte West, American basketball player
• 1983 – Roderick Strong, American professional wrestler
• 1985 – Gaël Clichy, French footballer
• 1985 – Audrey De Montigny, Quebec singer
• 1987 – Miriam McDonald, Canadian actress
• 1988 – Lara Jean Marshall, Australian actress
• 1993 – Taylor Momsen, American actress

July 26 – Deaths:

• 796 – Offa, King of Mercia
• 811 – Nicephorus I, Byzantine Emperor (killed in battle)
• 1380 – Emperor Komyo of Japan (b. 1322)
• 1471 – Pope Paul II (b. 1417)
• 1592 – Armand de Gontaut, baron de Biron, French soldier (b. 1524)
• 1611 – Horio Yoshiharu, Japanese warlord (b. 1542)
• 1680 – John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English writer (b. 1647)
• 1684 – Elena Cornaro Piscopia, Italian mathematician (b. 1646)
• 1712 – Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds, English statesman (b. 1631)
• 1723 – Robert Bertie, 1st Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (b. 1660)
• 1863 – Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas (b. 1793)
• 1867 – King Otto of Greece (b. 1815)
• 1919 – Sir Edward Poynter, British painter (b. 1836)
• 1925 – Gottlob Frege, German mathematician and logician (b. 1848)
• 1925 – William Jennings Bryan, American politician (b. 1860)
• 1925 – Antonio Ascari, Italian racing driver (b. 1888)
• 1932 – Frederick S. Duesenberg automotive pioneer (b. 1876)
• 1935 – Winsor McCay, American cartoonist (b. 1871)
• 1941 – Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician (b. 1875)
• 1942 – Roberto Arlt, Argentinian writer (b. 1900)
• 1952 – Eva Perón, wife of Argentine President Juan Perón (b. 1919)
• 1953 – Nikolaos Plastiras, Greek general and politician (b. 1883)
• 1960 – Maud Menten, Canadian biochemist (b. 1879)
• 1960 – Cedric Gibbons, American art director (b. 1893)
• 1964 – Francis Curzon, 5th Earl Howe, British politician, naval officer and racing driver (b. 1884)
• 1969 – Frank Loesser, American composer (b. 1910)
• 1970 – Robert Taschereau, French Canadian lawyer and Chief Justice of Canada (b. 1896)
• 1971 – Diane Arbus, American photographer (suicide) (b. 1923)
• 1980 – Ibn-e-Safi, Pakistani fiction writer and Urdu poet (b. 1928)
• 1984 – George Gallup, American statistician and opinion pollster (b. 1901)
• 1984 – Ed Gein, American serial killer (b. 1906)
• 1986 – Averell Harriman, American diplomat (b. 1891)
• 1988 – Fazlur Rahman, Pakistani scholar (b. 1919)
• 1990 – Brent Mydland, American keyboardist (Grateful Dead) (b. 1952)
• 1992 – Mary Wells, American singer (b. 1943)
• 1993 – Matthew Ridgeway, American army general (b. 1895)
• 1995 – Laurindo Almeida, Brazilian guitarist (b. 1917)
• 1995 – Raymond Mailloux, Quebec politician (b. 1918)
• 1995 – George Romney, American businessman and politician (b. 1907)
• 2000 – John Tukey, American statistician (b. 1915)
• 2001 – Rex Barber, American WWII aviator (b. 1917)
• 2001 – Peter von Zahn, German journalist (b. 1913)
• 2005 – Betty Astell, British actress (b. 1912)
• 2005 – Alexander Golitzen, American art director (b. 1908)
• 2005 – Jack Hirshleifer, American economist (b. 1925)
• 2005 – Gilles Marotte, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1945)
• 2007 – Lars Forssell, Swedish writer, member of the Swedish Academy (b. 1928)
• 2007 – John Normington, English actor (b. 1937)
• 2007 – Skip Prosser, American basketball coach (b. 1950)

July 26 – Holidays:

• There are no holidays or observances for this date.

On This Day in History July 25

July 25 – Events:

• 306 – Constantine I proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.
• 864 – Edict of Pistres of Charles the Bald orders defensive measures against the Vikings.
• 1139 – Battle of Ourique: The independence of Portugal from the Kingdom of León and Castile declared after the battle against the Almoravids.
• 1261 – The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Michael VIII Palaeologus, thus re-establishing the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines also succeed in capturing Thessalonica and the rest of the Latin Empire.
• 1536 – Sebastián de Belalcázar on his search of El Dorado found the City of Santiago de Cali.
• 1547 – Henry II (France) crowned.
• 1567 – Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela.
• 1593 – Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.
• 1603 – James VI of Scotland is crowned first king of Great Britain.
• 1693 – Ignacio de Maya founds the Real Santiago de las Sabinas, actual Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, México.
• 1722 – Three Years War begins along Maine and Massachusetts border.
• 1755 – The decision to deport the Acadians takes place in Halifax.
• Thousands of Acadians are sent to the British Colonies in America, France and England. Some later moved to Louisiana, while others later resettled in New Brunswick.
• 1758 – Seven Years’ War: The island battery at Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia is silenced and all French warships are destroyed or taken.
• 1759 – French and Indian War: In Western New York, British forces capture Fort Niagara from French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.
• 1792 – The Brunswick Manifesto is issued to the population of Paris promising vengeance if the French Royal Family is harmed.
• 1795 – The first stone of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is laid.
• 1797 – Horatio Nelson loses more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife Island (Spain).
• 1799 – At Aboukir in Egypt, Napoleon I of France defeats 10,000 Ottomans under Mustafa Pasha.
• 1814 – War of 1812: Battle of Lundy’s Lane – Reinforcements arrive near Niagara Falls for General Riall’s British and Canadian forces and a bloody, all-night battle with Jacob Brown’s Americans commences; Americans retreat to Fort Erie.
• 1824 – Costa Rica annexes Guanacaste from Nicaragua.
• 1837 – The first commercial use of an electric telegraph was successfully demonstrated by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone on 25 July 1837 between Euston and Camden Town in London.
• 1853 – Joaquin Murietta, famous Californio bandit known as “Robin Hood of El Dorado,” is killed.
• 1861 – American Civil War: The Crittenden-Johnson Resolution is passed by the U.S. Congress stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.
• 1866 – The U.S. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army (now called “5-star general”). Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to have this rank.
• 1868 – Wyoming becomes a United States territory.
• 1869 – The Japanese daimyo begin returning their land holdings to the emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese Date: June 17, 1869).
• 1894 – The First Sino-Japanese War begins when the Japanese fire upon a Chinese warship.
• 1897 – Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush where he will write his first successful stories.
• 1898 – The United States invasion of Puerto Rico begins with U.S. troops landing at harbor of Guánica, Puerto Rico.
• 1907 – Korea becomes a protectorate of Japan.
• 1908 – Ajinomoto is founded. Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University discovers a key ingredient in Konbu soup stock is monosodium glutamate (MSG), and patents a process for manufacturing it.
• 1909 – Louis Blériot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine (Calais to Dover) in 37 minutes.
• 1917 – Sir Thomas Whyte introduces the first income tax in Canada as a “temporary” measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).
• 1920 – Telecommunications: First transatlantic two-way radio broadcast takes place.
• 1925 – Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) is established.
• 1934 – Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.
• 1940 – General Guisan orders the Swiss Army to resist German invasion and make surrender illegal.
• 1943 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
• 1944 – World War II: Operation Spring – One of the bloodiest days for Canadians during the war: 18,444 casualties, including 5,021 killed.
• 1946 – Operation Crossroads: An atomic bomb is detonated underwater in the lagoon of Bikini atoll.
• 1946 – At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.
• 1952 – The U.S. non-incorporated colonial territory of Puerto Rico adopts a “constitution” of local-limited powers, approved by the United States Congress in contravention of then-current International Law.
• 1956 – 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria collides with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog and sinks the next day, killing 51.
• 1958 – The African Regroupment Party (PRA) holds its first congress in Cotonou.
• 1961 – John F. Kennedy speech emphasizes any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO.
• 1969 – Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This was the start of the “Vietnamization” of the war.
• 1973 – Soviet Mars 5 space probe launched.
• 1978 – The Cerro Maravilla Incident occurs.
• 1983 – Black July: 37 Tamil political prisoners at the Welikada high security prison in Colombo were massacred by the fellow Sinhalese prisoners.
• 1984 – Salyut 7 Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
• 1993 – Israel launches a massive attack against Lebanon in what the Israelis call Operation Accountability, and the Lebanese call Seven-Day War.
• 1993 – The St James Church massacre occurs in Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa.
• 1994 – Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration, which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.
• 1995 – A gas bottle exploded in station Saint Michel of line B of the RER (Paris regional train network). Eight were killed and 80 wounded.
• 1997 – K.R. Narayanan is sworn-in as India’s 10th president and the first Dalit— formerly called “untouchable”— to hold this office.
• 2000 – Air France Flight 4590, a Concorde supersonic passenger jet, FBTSC, crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 4 on the ground.
• 2007 – Pratibha Patil is sworn in as India’s first woman president

July 25 – Birthdays:

• 1016 – Casimir I, Duke of Poland (d. c. 1058)
• 1109 – Afonso I of Portugal (d. 1185)
• 1336 – Albert, Count of Holland (d. 1404)
• 1404 – Philip I, Duke of Brabant (d. 1430)
• 1421 – Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, English politician (d. 1461)
• 1562 – Kiyomasa Kato, Japanese warlord (d. 1611)
• 1653 – Agostino Steffani, Italian diplomat (d. 1728)
• 1658 – Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll, Scottish privy councillor (d. 1703)
• 1750 – Henry Knox, American general (d. 1806)
• 1797 – Princess Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge (d. 1889)
• 1799 – David Douglas, Scottish botanist (d. 1834)
• 1839 – Francis Garnier, French explorer (d. 1873)
• 1844 – Thomas Eakins, American artist (d. 1916)
• 1848 – Arthur Balfour, 33rd Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1930)
• 1860 – Princess Louise Margaret, Duchess of Connaught (d. 1917)
• 1867 – Max Dauthendey, German writer (d. 1918)
• 1867 – Alexander Rummler, American painter (d. 1959)
• 1870 – Maxfield Parrish, American illustrator (d. 1966)
• 1882 – George S. Rentz, Navy Chaplain, Navy Cross (d. 1942)
• 1883 – Alfredo Casella, Italian composer (d. 1947)
• 1886 – Bror von Blixen-Finecke, Swedish big-game hunter (d. 1946)
• 1894 – Walter Brennan, American actor (d. 1974)
• 1894 – Gavrilo Princip, Serbian assassin (d. 1918)
• 1895 – Yvonne Printemps, French actress and singer (d. 1977)
• 1896 – Jack Perrin, American actor (d. 1967)
• 1901 – Lila Lee, American actress (d. 1973)
• 1902 – Eric Hoffer, American philosopher (d. 1983)
• 1905 – Elias Canetti, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1994)
• 1905 – Denys Watkins-Pitchford, writer and illustrator (d. 1990)
• 1907 – Johnny Hodges, American saxophonist (d. 1970)
• 1908 – Bill Bowes, English cricketer (d. 1987)
• 1908 – Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Indian musician (d. 2003)
• 1908 – Jack Gilford, American actor (d. 1990)
• 1914 – Woody Strode, American actor and decathlete (d. 1994)
• 1916 – Lucien Saulnier, Quebec politician (d. 1989)
• 1917 – Whipper Billy Watson, Canadian professional wrestler (d. 1990)
• 1918 – Jane Frank, American artist (d. 1986)
• 1920 – Jean Carmet, French actor (d. 1994)
• 1920 – Rosalind Franklin, English scientist (d. 1958)
• 1923 – Estelle Getty, American actress
• 1923 – Maria Gripe, Swedish writer (d. 2007)
• 1925 – Jerry Paris, American actor (d. 1986)
• 1926 – Whitey Lockman, American baseball player
• 1927 – Daniel Ceccaldi, French actor (d. 2003)
• 1927 – Sadiq Hussain Qureshi, Pakistani politician (d. 2000)
• 1928 – Keter Betts, American jazz bassist (d. 2005)
• 1929 – Somnath Chatterjee, Indian communist leader
• 1929 – Eddie Mazur, Canadian hockey player (d. 1995)
• 1930 – Maureen Forrester, Canadian contralto
• 1930 – Alice Parizeau, Polish-born Quebec writer and essayist (d. 1990)
• 1930 – Annie Ross, British jazz singer
• 1934 – Don Ellis, American jazz trumpeter (d. 1978)
• 1935 – Barbara Harris, American actress
• 1935 – Larry Sherry, American baseball player (d. 2006)
• 1935 – Lars Werner, Swedish communist leader
• 1935 – Adnan Khashoggi, Saudi arms merchant
• 1936 – Gerry Ashmore, British racing driver
• 1936 – Glenn Murcutt, Australian architect
• 1937 – Colin Renfrew, English archeologist
• 1941 – Peter Suschitzky, Polish-British cinematographer
• 1941 – Emmett Till, American murder victim (d. 1955)
• 1942 – Bruce Woodley, Australian singer, guitarist and songwriter (The Seekers)
• 1943 – Jim McCarty, English musician
• 1946 – Rita Marley, Jamaican-Cuban singer
• 1946 – John Gibson, American media host
• 1951 – Verdine White, American bassist
• 1954 – Walter Payton, American football player (d. 1999)
• 1955 – Iman Abdulmajid, Somali model
• 1955 – Kike Elomaa, Finnish bodybuilder
• 1958 – Thurston Moore, American musician (Sonic Youth)
• 1960 – Alain Robidoux, Canadian snooker player
• 1961 – Bobbie Eakes, American actress
• 1961 – Katherine Kelly Lang, American actress
• 1963 – Denis Coderre, French Canadian politician
• 1963 – Julian Hodgson, English chess player
• 1965 – Illeana Douglas, American actress
• 1966 – Maureen Herman, American bassist
• 1966 – Lynda Lemay, French Canadian singer
• 1966 – Christine C. Quinn, American politician
• 1967 – Matt LeBlanc, American actor
• 1967 – Wendy Raquel Robinson, American actress
• 1967 – Tommy Skjerven, Norwegian football referee
• 1969 – Jon Barry, American basketball player
• 1971 – Roger Creager, American country music singer-songwriter
• 1971 – Billy Wagner, American baseball player
• 1973 – Dani Filth, British singer (Cradle of Filth)
• 1973 – David Denman, American actor
• 1973 – Kevin Phillips, English footballer
• 1973 – Mur Lafferty, American podcaster and writer
• 1973 – Michael C. Williams, American actor
• 1974 – Kenzo Suzuki, Japanese professional wrestler
• 1974 – Jay R. Ferguson, American actor
• 1976 – Tera Patrick, American pornographic actress
• 1976 – Jovica Tasevski-Eternijan, Macedonian poet
• 1976 – Javier Vázquez, Puerto Rican baseball player
• 1977 – Kenny Thomas, American basketball player
• 1978 – Louise Brown, World’s first test tube baby
• 1978 – Gerard Warren, American football player
• 1979 – Amy Adams, American singer
• 1979 – Allister Carter, English professional snooker player
• 1980 – Diam’s, French female rapper
• 1980 – Shawn Riggans, American baseball player
• 1980 – Toni Vilander, Finnish racing driver
• 1981 – Jani Rita, Finnish ice hockey player
• 1982 – Brad Renfro, American actor (d. 2008)
• 1984 – Loukas Mavrokefalidis, Greek basketball player
• 1985 – James Lafferty, American actor
• 1985 – Jasmine Lennard, English model
• 1985 – Nelson Angelo Piquet, Brazilian race car driver
• 1987 – Michael Welch, American actor
• 1988 – Heather Marks, Canadian model
• 1988 – Anthony Stokes, Irish footballer
• 1989 – Noel Callahan, Canadian actor

July 25 – Deaths:

• 306 – Constantius Chlorus, Roman Emperor (b. 250)
• 1409 – King Martin I of Sicily
• 1492 – Pope Innocent VIII (b. 1432)
• 1616 – Andreas Libavius, German physician and chemist (b. 1550)
• 1643 – Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull, English statesman (b. 1584)
• 1676 – François Hédelin, abbé d’Aubignac, French writer (b. 1604)
• 1681 – Urian Oakes, English-born President of Harvard University (b. 1631)
• 1790 – Johann Bernhard Basedow, German education reformer (b. 1723)
• 1790 – William Livingston, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1723)
• 1791 – Isaac Low, American Continental Congressman (b. 1735)
• 1794 – André Chénier, French writer (b. 1762)
• 1826 – Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleyev, Russian poet and revolutionary (b. 1795)
• 1834 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet (b. 1772)
• 1842 – Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon (b. 1766)
• 1843 – Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist and inventor (b. 1766)
• 1853 – Joaquin Murieta, California outlaw
• 1861 – Jonas Furrer, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1805)
• 1887 – John Taylor, American religious leader (b. 1808)
• 1934 – François Coty, French perfume manufacturer (b. 1874)
• 1934 – Engelbert Dollfuss, Chancellor of Austria (assassinated) (b. 1892)
• 1934 – Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist (b. 1889)
• 1952 – Herbert Murrill, English composer (b. 1909)
• 1962 – Thibaudeau Rinfret, Canadian jurist and Chief Justice (b. 1879)
• 1963 – Ugo Cerletti, Italian neurologist (b. 1877)
• 1971 – Leroy Robertson, American composer (b. 1896)
• 1973 – Louis Stephen St. Laurent, 12th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1882)
• 1980 – Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian poet, singer, and actor (b. 1938)
• 1982 – Hal Foster, Canadian-American cartoonist (Prince Valiant) (b. 1892)
• 1984 – Bryan Hextall, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1913)
• 1984 – Big Mama Thornton, American singer (b. 1926)
• 1986 – Vincente Minnelli, American film director (b. 1903)
• 1988 – Judith Barsi, American actress (b. 1978)
• 1989 – Steve Rubell, American night club owner (b. 1943)
• 1992 – Alfred Drake, American actor and singer (b. 1914)
• 1995 – Charlie Rich, American rock/soul/country musician (b. 1932)
• 1996 – Howard Vernon, Swiss actor (b. 1914)
• 1997 – Ben Hogan, American golfer (b. 1912)
• 1998 – Tal Farlow, American jazz guitar virtuoso. (b. 1921)
• 2002 – Abdur Rahman Badawi, Egyptian existentialist philosopher (b. 1917)
• 2003 – Ludwig Bölkow, German aeronautical engineer (b. 1912)
• 2003 – Erik Brann, American bass player (b. 1950)
• 2003 – John Schlesinger, British film director (b. 1926)
• 2005 – Albert Mangelsdorff, German jazz trombonist (b. 1928)
• 2006 – Carl Brashear, First African-American U.S Navy Master Diver (b. 1931)
• 2007 – Bernd Jakubowski, German goal keeper (b. 1952)
• 2007 – Jesse Marunde, American strongman competitor (b. 1979)

July 25 – Holidays:

• Inca festival in honor of the thunder god Ilyap’a
• Roman festivals – Furinalia
• Galicia (Spain) – National Day (Día da Pátria Galega).
• Puerto Rico – Constitution Day (1952)
• Ebernoe Horn Fair in Sussex, southern England

On This Day in History July 24

July 24 – Events:

• 1132 – Battle of Nocera between Ranulf II of Alife and Roger II of Sicily.
• 1148 – Louis VII of France lays siege to Damascus during the Second Crusade.
• 1411 – Battle of Harlaw, one of the bloodiest battles on Scottish soil.
• 1487 – Citizens of Leeuwarden, Netherlands strike against ban on foreign beer.
• 1534 – French explorer Jacques Cartier planted a cross on the Gaspé Peninsula and took possession of the territory in the name of the King Francis I of France.
• 1567 – Mary Queen of Scots is deposed and replaced by her 1 year old son James VI.
• 1701 – Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, which later becomes the city of Detroit.
• 1814 – War of 1812: General Phineas Riall advances toward the Niagara River to halt Jacob Brown’s American invaders.
• 1823 – Slavery is abolished in Chile
• 1832 – Benjamin Bonneville leads the first wagon train across the Rocky Mountains by using Wyoming’s South Pass.
• 1847 – After 17 months of travel, Brigham Young leads 148 Mormon pioneers into Salt Lake Valley, resulting in the establishment of Salt Lake City. Celebrations of this event include the Pioneer Day Utah state holiday and the Days of ’47 Parade.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Kernstown – Confederate General Jubal Early defeats Union army troops led by General George Crook in an effort to keep them out of the Shenandoah Valley.
• 1866 – Reconstruction: Tennessee becomes the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War.
• 1901 – O. Henry is released from prison in Austin, Texas after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.
• 1911 – Hiram Bingham III re-discovers Machu Picchu “the Lost City of the Incas.”
• 1915 – Passenger ship Eastland capsizes in central Chicago, with the loss of 845 lives.
• 1923 – The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in the First World War.
• 1924 – The World Chess Federation FIDE is founded in Paris.
• 1927 – The Menin Gate war memorial is unveiled at Ypres.
• 1929 – The Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, goes into effect (it was first signed in Paris on August 27, 1928 by most leading world powers).
• 1931 – A fire at a home for aged people in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania kills 48 people.
• 1935 – The world’s first children’s railway opens in Tbilisi, USSR.
• 1935 – The dust bowl heat wave reaches its peak, sending temperatures to 109°F (44°C) in Chicago and 104°F (40°C) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• 1937 – Alabama drops rape charges against the so-called “Scottsboro Boys.”
• 1943 – World War II: Operation Gomorrah begins: British and Canadian airplanes bomb Hamburg by night, those of the Americans by day. 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.
• 1956 – At New York City’s Copacabana Club, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis perform their last comedy show together which started on July 25, 1946.
• 1956 – Khartoum University College is awarded university status becoming the University of Khartoum.
• 1959 – At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, US vice president Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev have a “Kitchen Debate.”
• 1967 – During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declares to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: Vive le Québec libre! (Long live free Quebec!). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Quebecers but angered the Canadian government and many English Canadians.
• 1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 11 splashes down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
• 1974 – Watergate Scandal: The United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes and they order him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.
• 1974 – After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus the Greek military junta collapses and democracy is restored.
• 1977 – End of a four day long Libyan-Egyptian War.
• 1982 – Heavy massive rain and mudslide occurred, some bridge destroyed at Nagasaki, Japan, 299 killed.
• 1983 – George Brett, batting for the Kansas City Royals against the New York Yankees, has a game-winning home run nullified in the “Pine Tar Incident.”
• 1985 – Gandhi signs peace contract with Sikh leader Harchand Singh Longowai
• 1990 – Iraqi forces start massing on the Kuwait/Iraq border.
• 1991 – Government of India announces the New Industrial Policy, marking the start of India’s economic reforms.
• 1998 – Russell Eugene Weston Jr. bursts into the United States Capitol and opens fire killing two police officers. He is later ruled to be incompetent to stand trial.
• 2001 – Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, was sworn in as Prime Minister of Bulgaria, and became the only monarch in history to regain political power through democratic election to a different office.
• 2001 – The Taiwan Solidarity Union is established.
• 2002 – James Traficant is expelled from the United States House of Representatives on a vote of 420 to 1.
• 2005 – Lance Armstrong wins his seventh consecutive Tour de France.
• 2007 – Libya frees all six of the Medics in the HIV trial in Libya.

July 24 – Birthdays:

• 1660 – Charles Talbot, 1st Duke of Shrewsbury, English politician (d. 1718)
• 1725 – John Newton, English cleric and hymnist (d. 1807)
• 1757 – Vladimir Borovikovsky, Russian painter (d. 1825)
• 1783 – Simón Bolívar, South American liberator (d. 1830)
• 1786 – Joseph Nicollet, French mathematician and explorer (d. 1843)
• 1794 – Johan Georg Forchhammer, Danish geologist (d. 1865)
• 1802 – Alexandre Dumas, père, French writer (d. 1870)
• 1803 – Adolphe Charles Adam, French composer (d. 1856)
• 1821 – William Poole, Infamous member of New York City’s Bowery Boys gang (d. 1855)
• 1826 – Ivan Bloch, military theorist and peace activist (d. 1902)
• 1851 – Friedrich Schottky, German mathematician (d. 1935)
• 1853 – William Gillette, American actor and author (d. 1937)
• 1856 – Charles Émile Picard, French mathematician (d. 1941)
• 1857 – Henrik Pontoppidan, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1943)
• 1860 – Alfons Mucha, Czech artist (d. 1939)
• 1864 – Frank Wedekind, German writer (d. 1918)
• 1867 – Edward Frederic Benson, English writer (d. 1940)
• 1874 – Oswald Chambers, Christian writer (d. 1917)
• 1877 – Calogero Vizzini, Sicilian mafioso (d. 1954)
• 1878 – Lord Dunsany, Irish writer (d. 1957)
• 1880 – Ernest Bloch, Swiss composer (d. 1959)
• 1880 – Kristian Hellström, Swedish athlete (d. 1946)
• 1886 – Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, Japanese novelist (d. 1965)
• 1895 – Robert Graves, English author (d. 1985)
• 1897 – Amelia Earhart, American aviator (disappeared 1937)
• 1899 – Chief Dan George, Meti actor (d. 1981)
• 1900 – Zelda Fitzgerald, American artist, wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (d. 1948)
• 1904 – Leo Arnaud, French-American composer (d. 1991)
• 1908 – Cootie Williams, American trumpeter (d. 1985)
• 1910 – Harry Horner, American art director (d. 1994)
• 1914 – Ed Mirvish, Canadian businessman, philanthropist and theatrical impresario (d. 2007)
• 1916 – John D. MacDonald, American novelist, (d. 1986)
• 1917 – Robert Farnon, Canadian-born conductor, composer, and arranger (d. 2005)
• 1918 – Ruggiero Ricci, American violinist
• 1919 – Ferdinand Kübler, Swiss cyclist
• 1920 – Bella Abzug, U.S. Congresswoman from New York (d. 1998)
• 1922 – Madeleine Ferron, French Canadian writer
• 1931 – Ermanno Olmi, Italian director
• 1931 – Éric Tabarly, French sailor (d. 1998)
• 1933 – Doug Sanders, American golfer
• 1933 – John Aniston, American Actor
• 1935 – Pat Oliphant, Australian political cartoonist
• 1936 – Ruth Buzzi, American actress and comedian
• 1936 – Mark Goddard, American actor
• 1938 – Eugene J. Martin, American painter, artist
• 1940 – Stanley Hauerwas, American theologian
• 1940 – Dan Hedaya, American actor
• 1942 – Chris Sarandon, American actor
• 1945 – Azim Premji, Indian businessman
• 1947 – Robert Hays, American actor
• 1947 – Peter Serkin, American pianist
• 1947 – Zaheer Abbas, Pakistani cricketer
• 1949 – Michael Richards, American comedian
• 1949 – Yves Duteil, French singer and songwriter
• 1951 – Lynda Carter, American actress
• 1951 – Chris Smith, British politician
• 1952 – Gus Van Sant, American film director
• 1956 – Charles Crist, Governor of Florida
• 1956 – Pat Finn, American game show host and producer
• 1957 – Pam Tillis, American singer
• 1961 – Kerry Dixon, former English footballer
• 1962 – Johnny O’Connell, American race car driver
• 1963 – Paul Geary, American musician (Extreme)
• 1963 – Julie Krone, American jockey
• 1963 – Karl Malone, American basketball player
• 1964 – Barry Bonds, American baseball player
• 1964 – PJ Phillips, British musician
• 1964 – Banana Yoshimoto, Japanese author
• 1965 – Kadeem Hardison, American actor
• 1965 – Andrew Gaze, Australian basketball player
• 1966 – Martin Keown, English footballer
• 1968 – Kristin Chenoweth, American singer and actress
• 1968 – Laura Leighton, American actress
• 1969 – Rick Fox, Bahamian basketball player
• 1969 – Jennifer Lopez, American actress and singer
• 1970 – Stephanie Adams, American model and author
• 1970 – Matthew Lillard, American actor
• 1971 – Dino Baggio, Italian footballer
• 1971 – John Partridge, English singer
• 1971 – Oliver Jones, Australian singer, songwriter, musician, producer, and audio engineer
• 1972 – Reverend Jen Miller, American poet, painter, writer and actress
• 1975 – Torrie Wilson, American wrestler
• 1975 – Eric Szmanda, American actor
• 1975 – Jamie Langenbrunner, American ice hockey player
• 1976 – Nate Bump, American baseball player
• 1976 – Rafer Alston, American basketball player
• 1976 – Tiago Monteiro, Portuguese Formula One driver
• 1977 – Mehdi Mahdavikia, Iranian football player
• 1979 – Lee Si-yeon, South Korean actress
• 1979 – Stat Quo, American rapper
• 1979 – Valerio Scassellati, Italian racing driver
• 1979 – Anne-Gaëlle Sidot, French tennis player
• 1979 – José Valverde, American baseball player
• 1979 – Rose Byrne, Australian actress
• 1980 – Gauge, American pornographic actress
• 1980 – Wilfred Bungei, Kenyan middle-distance runner
• 1981 – Summer Glau, American actress
• 1982 – Anna Paquin, Canadian-born actress
• 1982 – Elise Crombez, Belgian supermodel
• 1982 – Thiago Medeiros, Brazilian racing driver
• 1983 – Daniele De Rossi, Italian footballer
• 1984 – John Dhani Lennevald, Swedish singer (former A-Teens member)
• 1985 – Teagan Presley, American pornographic actress
• 1985 – Patrice Bergeron, Canadian hockey player
• 1986 – Justin Berry, American anti-child porn advocate
• 1987 – Mara Wilson, American actress
• 1991 – Daveigh Chase, American actress
• 1998 – Bindi Irwin, Australian entertainer and daughter of the late Steve Irwin

July 24 – Deaths:

• 1115 – Matilda, Countess of Tuscany (b. 1046)
• 1129 – Shirakawa, Emperor of Japan (b. 1053)
• 1240 – Konrad von Thüringen, fifth Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights
• 1568 – Prince Don Carlos of Spain (b. 1545)
• 1594 – John Boste, Catholic saint and martyr (b. 1544)
• 1739 – Benedetto Marcello, Italian composer (b. 1686)
• 1768 – Nathanial Lardner, English theologian (b. 1684)
• 1862 – Martin Van Buren, 8th President of the United States (b. 1782)
• 1910 – Arkhip Kuindzhi, Russian painter (b. 1841)
• 1927 – Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Japanese writer (b. 1892)
• 1957 – Sacha Guitry, French actor, director, screenwriter and playwright (b. 1885)
• 1965 – Constance Bennett, American actress (b. 1904)
• 1966 – Tony Lema, American golfer (b. 1934)
• 1969 – Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (b. 1904)
• 1970 – Peter de Noronha, Indian businessman (b. 1897)
• 1974 – James Chadwick, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)
• 1980 – Peter Sellers, British comedian and actor (b. 1925)
• 1986 – Fritz Albert Lipmann, American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
• 1991 – Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish-born Yiddish author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1904)
• 1992 – Sam Berger, Canadian football owner (b. 1900)
• 1992 – Arletty, French singer and actress (b. 1898)
• 1995 – Jerry Lordan, English composer and singer (b. 1934)
• 1995 – George Rodger, British photojournalist (b. 1908)
• 1997 – William J. Brennan, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1906)
• 1997 – Saw Maung, Burmese dictator (b. 1928)
• 2000 – Ahmad Shamlou, Iranian poet (b. 1925)
• 2001 – Georges Dor, French Canadien author, composer, singer and playwright (b. 1931)
• 2005 – Richard Doll, English epidemiologist (b. 1912)
• 2007 – Albert Ellis, American Cognitive-Behavioral Therapist (b. 1913)

July 24 – Holidays:

• Ecuador – Simón Bolívar Day.
• Utah – Pioneer Day (1847).

On This Day in History July 23

July 23 – Events:

• 1632 – 300 colonists bound for New France depart Dieppe, France.
• 1793 – The Prussians conquer Mayence.
• 1829 – In the United States, William Austin Burt patents the Typographer, a precursor to the  typewriter.
• 1833 – Cornerstones laid for construction of the Kirtland Temple in Ohio.
• 1840 – The Province of Canada is created by the Act of Union.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Henry W. Halleck takes command of the Union Army.
• 1874 – Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos is appointed the Archbishop of the Portuguese colonial enclave of Goa.
• 1881 – The Federation Internationale de Gymnastique, the world’s oldest international sport federation, is founded.
• 1903 – Ford Motor Company sells its first car.
• 1914 – Austria-Hungary issues an ultimatum to Serbia allowing the Austrians to find out who killed  Archduke Franz Ferdinand. When Serbia denies Austria-Hungary their demands World War I is sparked on July 28, 1914
• 1926 – Fox Film buys the patents of the Movietone sound system for recording sound onto film.
• 1929 – Fascist government in Italy bans the use of foreign words.
• 1936 – In Catalonia, Spain, the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia is founded through the merger of socialist and communist parties.
• 1940 – US Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles`s declaration on the US non-recognition policy of the Soviet annexation and incorporation of three Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
• 1942 – The Holocaust: The Treblinka extermination camp is opened.
• 1942 – World War II: Hitler signs the Operation Edelweiss.
• 1952 – Establishment of the European Coal and Steel community.
• 1952 – General Muhammad Naguib leads the Free Officers Movement in the overthrow of King Farouk of Egypt.
• 1956 – The Loi Cadre is passed by the French Republic in order to order French overseas territory affairs.
• 1961 – Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) founded in Nicaragua.
• 1962 – Telstar relays the first live trans-Atlantic television signal.
• 1962 – The International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos was signed.
• 1967 – 12th Street Riot: In Detroit, Michigan, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street (43 killed, 342 injured and ~1,400 buildings burned).
• 1968 – Glenville Shootout: In Cleveland, Ohio, a violent shootout between a Black Militant organization led by Ahmed Evans and the Cleveland Police Department occurred. During the shootout, a riot began that lasted for five days.
• 1968 – The first and only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft took place when a 707 carrying 10 crew and 38 passengers was taken over by three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The aircraft was en route from Rome, Italy, to Lod, Israel.
• 1970 – Qaboos ibn Sa’id, becomes Sultan of Oman after overthrowing his father, Sa’id ibn Taimur.
• 1972 – The United States launches Landsat 1, first Earth-resources satellite.
• 1982 – The International Whaling Commission decides to end commercial whaling by 1985-86.
• 1983 – Around 3,000 Tamils were slaughtered by Shinhalese Buddhist majority in Sri Lanka and some 400,000 Tamils fled to neighboring Tamil Nadu, India. This incident, known as Black July, led directly to beginning of civil war in Sri Lanka.
• 1983 – Gimli Glider: Air Canada flight 143 lands “dead-stick” in Gimli, Manitoba.
• 1984 – Vanessa Williams becomes the first Miss America to resign when she surrenders her crown after nude photos of her appeared in Penthouse magazine.
• 1986 – In London, Prince Andrew, Duke of York marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey.
• 1988 – General Ne Win, effective ruler of Myanmar since 1962 resigns after pro-democracy protests.
• 1995 – Comet Hale-Bopp is discovered and is visibly seen with a naked eye nearly a year later.
• 1997 – Digital Equipment Company files antitrust charges against chipmaker Intel.
• 1997 – Spree killer Andrew Cunanan commits suicide in the upstairs bedroom aboard a Miami houseboat to avoid capture by the police
• 1999 – Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Al-Hassan, is crowned King Mohammed VI of Morroco at the death of his father.
• 1999 – ANA Flight 61 is hijacked in Tokyo.
• 2005 – Three bombs hit the Naama Bay area of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, killing 88 people.

July 23 – Birthdays:

• 645 – Yazid I, Sixth caliph of Islam (d. 683)
• 1301 – Duke Otto of Austria (d. 1339)
• 1339 – King Louis I of Naples (d. 1384)
• 1503 – Anna Jagello, Queen of the Romans (d. 1547)
• 1649 – Pope Clement XI (d. 1721)
• 1705 – Francis Blomefield, English topographer (d. 1752)
• 1775 – Etienne-Louis Malus, French physicist and mathematician (d. 1812)
• 1777 – Philipp Otto Runge, German painter (d. 1810)
• 1796 – Franz Berwald, Swedish composer (d. 1868)
• 1823 – Alexandre-Antonin Taché, Canadian Catholic priest and archbishop (d. 1894)
• 1838 – Edouard Judas Colonne, French violinist (d. 1910)
• 1856 – Lokmanya Tilak, Indian freedom fighter (d. 1920)
• 1865 – Max Heindel, Danish Christian occultist, astrologer, and mystic (d. 1919)
• 1884 – Emil Jannings, Swiss actor (d. 1950)
• 1886 – Salvador de Madariaga, Spanish League of Nations official (d. 1978)
• 1886 – Walter H. Schottky, German physicist (d. 1976)
• 1888 – Raymond Chandler, American-born author (d. 1959)
• 1892 – Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia (d. 1975)
• 1894 – Arthur Treacher, English character actor (d. 1975)
• 1895 – Aileen Pringle, American actress (d. 1989)
• 1898 – Jacob Marschak, American economist (d. 1977)
• 1898 – Red Dutton, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1987)
• 1899 – Gustav Heinemann, 3rd President of the Federal Republic of Germany (d. 1976)
• 1901 – Hank Worden, American actor and rodeo cowboy (d. 1992)
• 1906 – Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
• 1906 – Chandrasekhar Azad, Indian revolutionary (d. 1931)
• 1912 – Michael Wilding, English actor (d. 1979)
• 1913 – Michael Foot, English politician
• 1918 – Bueno de Mesquita Dutch comedian and actor (d. 2005)
• 1918 – Pee Wee Reese, American baseball player (d. 1999)
• 1921 – Calvert DeForest, American actor (d. 2007)
• 1923 – Luis Aloma, Cuban baseball player (d. 1997)
• 1923 – Cyril M. Kornbluth, American writer (d. 1958)
• 1923 – Amalia Mendoza, Mexican singer (d. 2001)
• 1924 – Gavin Lambert, British-born screenwriter (d. 2005)
• 1927 – Gérard Brach, French film director and screenwriter (d. 2006)
• 1928 – Hubert Selby Jr., American author (d. 2004)
• 1931 – Te Atairangi Kaahu, Maori Queen (d. 2006)
• 1931 – Guy Fournier, French Canadian author and screenwriter
• 1931 – Claude Fournier, French Canadian film director and screenwriter
• 1933 – Bert Convy, American game show host and performer (d. 1991)
• 1935 – Jim Hall, American race car driver and constructor (Chaparral Cars)
• 1935 – Hein Heinsen, Danish artist
• 1936 – Shiv Kumar Batalvi, Punjabi revolutionary (d. 1973)
• 1936 – Don Drysdale, American baseball player (d. 1993)
• 1936 – Anthony Kennedy, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• 1937 – Dave Webster, Led his football team to a National Championship in 1958
• 1938 – Juliet Anderson, American pornographic actress
• 1938 – Ronny Cox, American actor
• 1938 – Götz George, German actor
• 1938 – Charles Harrelson, American convicted murderer; father of Woody Harrelson (d. 2007)
• 1938 – Bert Newton, Australian actor and television show host
• 1940 – Don Imus, American talk radio host
• 1942 – Myra Hindley, English murderer (d. 2002)
• 1942 – Sallyanne Atkinson, Australian politician
• 1943 – Dr. Randall Forsberg, American nuclear freeze advocate (d. 2007)
• 1943 – Tony Joe White, American singer and songwriter
• 1947 – Gardner Dozois, American author
• 1947 – David Essex, English singer
• 1948 – John Cushnahan, Northern Irish politician
• 1948 – John Hall, American politician and former rock musician
• 1950 – Alex Kozinski, Romanian-born American judge
• 1951 – Edie McClurg, American actress
• 1952 – Bill Nyrop, American ice hockey player (d. 1995)
• 1953 – Graham Gooch, English cricketer
• 1957 – Theo van Gogh, Dutch film director (d. 2004)
• 1957 – Nick Galis, Greek basketball player
• 1961 – Martin Gore, English musician and songwriter (Depeche Mode)
• 1961 – Woody Harrelson, American actor
• 1961 – André Ducharme, Quebec humorist (Rock et Belles Oreilles) and author
• 1962 – Eriq La Salle, American actor
• 1964 – Ed Forchion, American marijuana activist
• 1965 – Rob Dickinson, English musician
• 1965 – Slash, English guitarist (ex-Guns N’ Roses)
• 1966 – Samantha Beckinsale, English actress
• 1967 – Philip Seymour Hoffman, American actor
• 1968 – Nick Menza, American musician, drummer
• 1968 – Gary Payton, American basketball player
• 1968 – Stephanie Seymour, American supermodel
• 1970 – Charisma Carpenter, American actress
• 1970 – Thea Dorn, German writer
• 1971 – Dalvin DeGrate, American singer
• 1971 – Alison Krauss, American singer and fiddler
• 1971 – Chris Michalek, American musician
• 1972 – Marlon Wayans, American actor
• 1973 – Nomar Garciaparra, American baseball player
• 1973 – Omar Epps, American actor
• 1973 – Francis Healy, Scottish rock musician (Travis)
• 1973 – Monica Lewinsky, American White House intern
• 1974 – Terry Glenn, American football player
• 1974 – Maurice Greene, American athlete
• 1974 – Stephanie March, American actress
• 1974 – Sonny Siaki, Samoan-born professional wrestler
• 1974 – Rik Verbrugghe, Belgian cyclist
• 1974 – Kathryn Hahn, American actress
• 1975 – Seong Hyeon-ah, South Korean actress
• 1975 – Surya Sivakumar, Tamil actor
• 1976 – Judit Polgár, Hungarian chess player
• 1976 – Jonathan Gallant, Canadian musician (Billy Talent)
• 1977 – Neicer Reasco, Ecuadorian footballer
• 1977 – Scott Clemmensen, American ice hockey player
• 1978 – Stuart Elliott, Northern Irish footballer
• 1978 – Stefanie Sun, Singaporean singer
• 1979 – Ricardo Sperafico, Brazilian racing driver
• 1980 – Michelle Williams, American singer (Destiny’s Child)
• 1981 – Steve Jocz, Canadian drummer (Sum 41)
• 1982 – Gerald Wallace, American basketball player
• 1983 – Andrew Eiden, American actor
• 1983 – Bec Hewitt, Australian actress
• 1983 – Aaron Peirsol, American swimmer
• 1984 – Brandon Roy, American professional basketball player
• 1985 – Luis Ángel Landín, Mexican footballer
• 1988 – Pippa Bennett-Warner, English actress
• 1989 – Daniel Radcliffe, English actor
• 1996 – Rachel G. Fox, American actress

July 23 – Deaths:

• 1227 – Qiu Chuji, Chinese Taoist (b. 1148)
• 1373 – Saint Birgitta, Swedish saint (b. 1303)
• 1403 – Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester, English rebel (executed) (b. 1343)
• 1531 – Louis de Brézé, seigneur d’Anet, Marshal of Normandy and husband of Diane de Poitiers
• 1584 – John Day, English printer (b. 1522)
• 1692 – Gilles Ménage, French scholar (b. 1613)
• 1727 – Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain
• 1757 – Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer (b. 1685)
• 1764 – Gilbert Tennent, Irish-born religious leader (b. 1703)
• 1773 – George Edwards, English naturalist (b. 1693)
• 1781 – John Joachim Zubly, Swiss-born Continental Congressman (b. 1724)
• 1793 – Roger Sherman, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1721)
• 1853 – Andries Pretorius, Boer leader (b. 1798)
• 1875 – Isaac Singer, American inventor and entrepreneur (b. 1811)
• 1878 – Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, Bohemian physician (b. 1804)
• 1885 – Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States (b. 1822)
• 1916 – Sir William Ramsay, Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
• 1920 – Conrad Kohrs, German-born rancher (b. 1835)
• 1923 – Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary (b. 1878)
• 1924 – Frank Frost Abbott, American classical scholar (b. 1850)
• 1930 – Glenn Curtiss, American aviation pioneer (b. 1878)
• 1932 – Frederick Charles Davies, ‘Tenby Davies’, Welsh half-mile world champion runner (b.  1884)
• 1942 – Adam Czerniakow, Polish engineer (suicide) (b. 1880)
• 1948 – D. W. Griffith, American film director (b. 1875)
• 1951 – Henri Philippe Pétain, leader of Vichy France (b. 1856)
• 1951 – Robert J. Flaherty, American filmmaker (b. 1884)
• 1955 – Cordell Hull, 47th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1871)
• 1966 – Montgomery Clift, American actor (b. 1920)
• 1968 – Henry Hallett Dale, English scientist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1875)
• 1971 – Van Heflin, American actor (b. 1910)
• 1979 – Joseph Kessel, French journalist and novelist (b. 1898)
• 1980 – Mollie Steimer, anarchist agitator and American political prisoner (b. 1897)
• 1980 – Sarto Fournier, Mayor of Montreal (b. 1908)
• 1980 – Keith Godchaux, American pianist (Grateful Dead) (b. 1948)
• 1982 – Vic Morrow, American actor (b. 1929)
• 1983 – Georges Auric, French composer (b. 1899)
• 1985 – Johnny Wardle, English cricketer (b. 1923)
• 1989 – Donald Barthelme, American author (b. 1931)
• 1990 – Kenjiro Takayanagi, Japanese development of television (b. 1899)
• 1993 – James R. Jordan, Sr., father of Michael Jordan (b. 1936)
• 1996 – Aliki Vougiouklaki, Greek actress (b. 1934)
• 1997 – Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (b. 1904)
• 1999 – King Hassan II of Morocco (b. 1929)
• 2001 – Eudora Welty, American author (b. 1909)
• 2002 – Leo McKern, Australian actor (b. 1920)
• 2002 – William Luther Pierce, American author and activist (b. 1933)
• 2002 – Chaim Potok, American novelist and rabbi (b. 1929)
• 2003 – James E. Davis, New York City councilman (murdered) (b. 1962)
• 2004 – Mehmood, Indian actor (b. 1932)
• 2004 – Carlos Paredes, Portuguese musician and composer (b. 1925)
• 2004 – Piero Piccioni, Italian musician, conductor and composer (b. 1921)
• 2004 – Serge Reggiani, French singer and actor (b. 1922)
• 2005 – Ted Greene, American jazz guitarist and teacher (b. 1946)
• 2006 – Jean-Paul Desbiens, Quebec writer and journalist (b. 1927)
• 2007 – Mohammed Zahir Shah, King of Afghanistan (b. 1914)

July 23 – Holidays:

• Egypt – Revolution Day (1952)
• Roman Empire – Neptunalia held in honor of Neptune
• Rastafari movement – Celebration of the birthday of Haile Selassie

On This Day in History July 22

July 22 – Events:

• 1099 – First Crusade: Godfrey of Bouillon elected first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre of The Kingdom of Jerusalem.
• 1298 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Falkirk – King Edward I of England and his longbowmen defeats William Wallace and his Scottish schiltrons outside the town.
• 1456 – Ottoman Wars in Europe: Siege of Belgrade – John Hunyadi, Regent of Kingdom of Hungary defeats Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire
• 1484 – Battle of Lochmaben Fair – A 500-man raiding party led by Alexander Stewart, Duke of Albany and James Douglas, 9th Earl of Douglas defeated by Scots forces loyal to Albany’s brother James III of Scotland; Douglas captured.
• 1499 – Battle of Dornach – The Swiss decisively defeat the Imperial army of Emperor Maximilian I.
• 1587 – Colony of Roanoke: A second group of English settlers arrive on Roanoke Island off of North Carolina to reestablish the deserted colony.
• 1686 – Albany, New York formally chartered as a municipality by Governor Thomas Dongan
• 1793 – Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first Euro-American to complete a transcontinental crossing north of Mexico.
• 1796 – Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio “Cleveland” after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party.
• 1805 – Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition – Battle of Cape Finisterre – Inconclusive naval action fought between a combined French and Spanish fleets under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve of Spain and a British fleet under Admiral Robert Calder.
• 1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Peninsular War – Battle of Salamanca – British forces led by Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) defeat French troops near what else Spain! Salamanca, Spain.
• 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Atlanta – Outside of Atlanta, Georgia, Confederate General John Bell Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General William T. Sherman on Bald Hill.
• 1916 – In San Francisco, California, a bomb explodes on Market Street during a Preparedness Day parade killing 10 and injuring 40.
• 1933 – Wiley Post becomes first person to fly solo around the world traveling 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes.
• 1934 – Outside Chicago’s Biograph Theatre, “Public Enemy No. 1” John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.
• 1937 – New Deal: The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.
• 1942 – The United States government begins compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to the wartime demands.
• 1942 – Holocaust: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.
• 1943 – Allied forces capture the Italian city of Palermo.
• 1944 – The Polish Committee of National Liberation publishes its manifesto, starting the period of Communist rule in Poland
• 1946 – King David Hotel bombing: Irgun bombs King David Hotel in Jerusalem, headquarters of the British civil and military administration, killing 90.
• 1962 – Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.
• 1977 – Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is restored to power.
• 1983 – Martial law in Poland is officially revoked.
• 1992 – Near Medellín, Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his luxury prison fearing extradition to the United States.
• 1997 – The second Blue Water Bridge opens between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario.
• 1999 – The first version of MSN Messenger was released by Microsoft.
• 2002 – Israel assassinates Salah Shahade, the Commander-in-Chief of Hamas’s military arm, the Izz ad-Din al- Qassam Brigades, along with 14 civilians.
• 2005 – Jean Charles de Menezes is killed by police as the hunt begins for the London Bombers.
• 2007 – Pádraig Harrington is the first Irishman in 60 years (also first European since Paul Lawrie in 1999) to win the oldest of the four major championships in men’s golf, The Open hampionship, which was played this year at Carnoustie.

July 22 – Birthdays:

• 1210 – Joan of England, Queen consort of Scotland, wife of Alexander II of Scotland (d. 1238)
• 1478 – King Philip I of Castile (d. 1506)
• 1510 – Alessandro de’ Medici, Duke of Florence (d. 1537)
• 1535 – Katarina Stenbock, wife of Gustav I of Sweden (d. 1621)
• 1559 – Lawrence of Brindisi, Italian monk (d. 1619)
• 1621 – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, English politician (d. 1683)
• 1711 – Georg Wilhelm Richmann, Russian physicist (d. 1753)
• 1713 – Jacques-Germain Soufflot, French architect (d. 1780)
• 1733 – Mikhail Shcherbatov, Russian philosopher and writer (d. 1790)
• 1755 – Gaspard de Prony, French mathematician (d. 1839)
• 1784 – Friedrich Bessel, German mathematician and astronomer (d. 1846)
• 1844 – William Archibald Spooner, English priest and scholar (d. 1930)
• 1849 – Emma Lazarus, American poet (d. 1887)
• 1882 – Edward Hopper, American painter (d. 1967)
• 1887 – Gustav Ludwig Hertz, German physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1975)
• 1888 – Kirk Bryan, American geologist (d. 1950)
• 1888 – Selman Waksman, Ukrainian-born biochemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1973)
• 1889 – James Whale, English film director (d. 1957)
• 1890 – Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, American Kennedy family matriarch (d. 1995)
• 1893 – Karl Menninger, American psychiatrist (d. 1990)
• 1893 – Jesse Haines, American baseball player (d. 1978)
• 1898 – Stephen Vincent Benét, American author (d. 1943)
• 1898 – Alexander Calder, American artist (d. 1976)
• 1905 – Doc Cramer, American baseball player (d. 1990)
• 1907 – Zubir Said, Singaporean composer who composed Singapore’s national anthem (d. 1987)
• 1908 – Amy Vanderbilt, American author (d. 1974)
• 1913 – Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader (d. 1995)
• 1913 – Licia Albanese, American opera singer
• 1915 – Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, Pakistani politician, diplomat and author. (d. 2000)
• 1916 – Marcel Cerdan, French boxer (d. 1949)
• 1916 – Gino Bianco, Brazilian racing driver (d. 1984)
• 1921 – William Roth, U.S. Senator (d. 2003)
• 1923 – Bob Dole, American politician
• 1923 – Lillian Ellison, American professional wrestler (d. 2007)
• 1923 – Mukesh, Indian singer (d. 1976)
• 1924 – Margaret Whiting, singer
• 1928 – Orson Bean, American film actor
• 1929 – John Barber, British racing driver
• 1932 – Oscar De la Renta, Dominican-born fashion designer
• 1934 – Louise Fletcher, American actress
• 1936 – Tom Robbins, American author
• 1937 – Yasuhiro Kojima, wrestler (d. 1999)
• 1938 – Terence Stamp, English actor
• 1939 – Gila Almagor, Israeli actress
• 1940 – Alex Trebek, Canadian-born game show host
• 1940 – George Clinton, American musician
• 1940 – Judith Walzer Leavitt, American college professor
• 1941 – Ron Turcotte, Canadian jockey
• 1943 – Kay Bailey Hutchison, U.S. Senator from Texas
• 1943 – Bobby Sherman, American singer and actor
• 1944 – Estelle Bennett, American singer (Ronettes)
• 1944 – Rick Davies, British musician (Supertramp)
• 1944 – Sparky Lyle, American baseball player
• 1944 – Dennis Firestone, Australian racing driver
• 1946 – Danny Glover, American actor
• 1946 – Mireille Mathieu, French singer
• 1946 – Stephen M. Wolownik, Russian musician (d. 2000)
• 1946 – Paul Schrader, American film director and screenwriter
• 1947 – Albert Brooks, American comedian
• 1947 – Don Henley, American musician (Eagles)
• 1947 – Gilles Duceppe, Quebec politician
• 1948 – S. E. Hinton, American author
• 1948 – Otto Waalkes, German comedian
• 1949 – Alan Menken, American composer
• 1949 – Lasse Virén, Finnish athlete
• 1951 – J. V. Cain, Football player
• 1953 – Jimmy Bruno, American jazz guitarist
• 1953 – Sylvia Chang, Taiwanese actress
• 1954 – Lonette McKee, American actress
• 1954 – Al Di Meola, American guitarist
• 1954 – Pierre Lebeau, Canadian actor
• 1955 – Willem Dafoe, American actor
• 1957 – Dave Stieb, American baseball player
• 1958 – David Von Erich, American professional wrestler (d. 1984)
• 1960 – Jon Oliva, American musician (Savatage)
• 1961 – Keith Sweat, American singer
• 1961 – Calvin Fish, British racing driver
• 1962 – Steve Albini, writer, recording engineer and musician (Big Black, Rapeman, Shellac)
• 1962 – Martine St. Clair, Quebec singer
• 1963 – Emilio Butragueno, Spanish footballer
• 1963 – Rob Estes, American actor
• 1963 – Emily Saliers, American singer (Indigo Girls)
• 1964 – John Leguizamo, Colombian actor
• 1964 – Don Van Natta, Jr., American journalist
• 1964 – David Spade, American comedian
• 1964 – Adam Godley, British actor
• 1965 – Patrick Labyorteaux, American actor
• 1965 – Shawn Michaels, American professional wrestler
• 1966 – Tim Brown, American football player
• 1967 – Lauren Booth, British journalist
• 1968 – Rhys Ifans, Welsh actor
• 1969 – Despina Vandi, Greek singer
• 1970 – Jason Becker, American musician
• 1970 – Sergei Zubov, Russian ice hockey player
• 1971 – Kristine Lilly, American soccer player
• 1972 – Keyshawn Johnson, American football player
• 1972 – Colin Ferguson, Canadian actor
• 1972 – Seth Fisher, American comic book artist and penciller (d.2006)
• 1973 – Daniel Jones, Australian musician
• 1973 – Mike Sweeney, American baseball player
• 1973 – Rufus Wainwright, Canadian singer
• 1973 – Ronald Ray Howard, American murderer (d. 2005)
• 1974 – Franka Potente, German actress
• 1974 – Sonija Kwok, Hong Kong actress
• 1977 – Gustavo Nery, Brazilian footballer
• 1978 – Dennis Rommedahl, Danish footballer
• 1978 – A. J. Cook, Canadian actress
• 1979 – Yadel Martí, Cuban baseball player
• 1980 – Scott Dixon, New Zealand race car driver
• 1980 – Dirk Kuyt, Dutch footballer
• 1980 – Kate Ryan, Belgian singer
• 1983 – Arsenium, Moldovan singer (O-Zone)
• 1983 – Sharni Vinson, Australian actress and model
• 1983 – Steven Jackson, American football player
• 1984 – Stewart Downing, English footballer
• 1984 – Kinzie Kenner, American pornographic actress
• 1985 – Takudzwa Ngwenya, American rugby player
• 1992 – Selena Gomez, American actress
• 1993 – Brian Murphy, American actor and singer
• 1997 – Field Cate, American child actor
• 1998 – Madison Pettis, American actress
• 2002 – Prince Felix of Denmark

July 22 – Deaths:

• 1362 – Louis of Durazzo, Italian soldier (b. 1324)
• 1387 – Franz Ackerman, Flemish statesman (b. 1330)
• 1461 – Charles VII of France (b. 1403)
• 1525 – Richard Wingfield, English diplomat
• 1540 – John Zápolya, King of Hungary
• 1619 – Lawrence of Brindisi, Italian monk (b. 1559)
• 1645 – Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, Count-Duke of Olivares, Spanish statesman (b. 1587)
• 1676 – Pope Clement X (b. 1590)
• 1734 – Peter King, 1st Baron King, Lord Chancellor of England
• 1789 – Joseph-François Foulon, French administrator (b. 1715)
• 1802 – Marie François Xavier Bichat, French anatomist (b. 1771)
• 1826 – Giuseppe Piazzi, Italian astronomer (b. 1746)
• 1832 – Napoleon II of France (b. 1811)
• 1852 – Auguste Marmont, French marshal (b. 1774)
• 1864 – James B. McPherson, American army general, in the Battle of Atlanta (b. 1828)
• 1869 – John A. Roebling, German-American civil engineer (Brooklyn Bridge), (b. 1806)
• 1902 – Mieczyslaw Halka Ledóchowski, Polish Catholic Cardinal (b. 1822)
• 1903 – Cassius Marcellus Clay, American emancipationist (b. 1810)
• 1904 – Wilson Barrett, English actor (b. 1846)
• 1908 – William Randal Cremer, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (b. 1828)
• 1915 – Sir Sandford Fleming, Canadian engineer and inventor (b. 1827)
• 1916 – James Whitcomb Riley, American author and poet (b. 1849)
• 1918 – Indra Lal Roy, Indian pilot (b. 1898)
• 1920 – William Kissam Vanderbilt, member of the Vanderbilt family (b. 1849)
• 1922 – Jokichi Takamine, Japanese chemist (b. 1854)
• 1932 – Errico Malatesta, Italian anarchist (b. 1853)
• 1932 – Florenz Ziegfeld, theatrical producer (b. 1867)
• 1932 – Reginald Fessenden, Canadian inventor and radio pioneer (b. 1866)
• 1934 – John Dillinger, American bank robber (b. 1903)
• 1950 – William Lyon Mackenzie King, 10th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1874)
• 1958 – Mikhail Zoshchenko, Russian writer (b. 1895)
• 1967 – Carl Sandburg, American poet (b. 1878)
• 1968 – Giovannino Guareschi, Italian journalist (b. 1908)
• 1974 – Wayne Morse, U.S. Senator from Oregon (b. 1900)
• 1979 – Sándor Kocsis, Hungarian footballer (b. 1929)
• 1988 – Duane Jones starred as Ben in The 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead
• 1989 – Martti Talvela, Finnish bass (b. 1935)
• 1990 – Manuel Puig, Argentinian writer (b. 1932)
• 1992 – Wayne McLaren, portrayed the Marlboro Man (b. 1940)
• 1996 – Rob Collins, English musician (The Charlatans) (b. 1956)
• 1998 – Hermann Prey, German bass-baritone (b. 1929)
• 2000 – Eric Christmas, British actor (b. 1916)
• 2000 – Carmen Martín Gaite, Spanish author (b. 1925)
• 2000 – Claude Sautet, French film director (b. 1924)
• 2001 – Indro Montanelli, Italian journalist and historian (b. 1909)
• 2003 – Qusay Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein (b. 1966)
• 2003 – Uday Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein (b. 1964)
• 2003 – Wahome Muthahi, Kenyan humourist (b. 1954)
• 2004 – Sacha Distel, French singer (b. 1933)
• 2004 – George Kidd, Canadian diplomat (b. 1917)
• 2004 – Illinois Jacquet, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1922)
• 2005 – Eugene Record American songwriter and singer (The Chi-Lites) (b. 1940)
• 2005 – Jean Charles de Menezes, Brazilian electrician killed by Scotland Yard (b. 1978)
• 2006 – José Antonio Delgado, Venezuelan mountain climber (b. 1965)
• 2006 – James E. West, mayor of Spokane, Washington (b. 1950)
• 2007 – Jarrod Cunningham New Zealand rugby player (b. 1968)
• 2007 – Mike Coolbaugh former baseball player and coach (b.1972)
• 2007 – Ulrich Mühe, German actor (b. 1953)
• 2007 – Rollie Stiles, American baseball player (b. 1906)

July 22-Holidays

• Pi Approximation Day
• Ratcatcher’s Day, commemorates the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
• Swaziland – Birthday of former King Sobhuza II