On this day thread

[Muteswan]

24th June
1314 Robert the Bruce defeated Edward II at Bannockburn and so completed his expulsion of the English from Scotland, although England did not recognize Scottish independence until 1328 with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh - Northampton.
1441 Eton College founded in England by Henry VI.
1509 Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon were crowned King and Queen Consort of England by the Archbishop of Canterbury at a lavish ceremony at Westminster Abbey.
1717 The Grand Lodge of the English Freemasons was founded in London.
1812 Napoleon Bonaparte's Grand Armée numbering half a million begin their invasion of Russia by crossing the Nieman River.
1825 W.H. Smith, English news agent and bookseller, was born.
1850 The birth of Horatio Herbert, Earl Kitchener, British field marshal, born in County Kerry. ‘Your country needs you!’
1878 Formation of the St. John Ambulance - originally called the St. John Ambulance Association.
1912 Brian Johnston, British cricket commentator (BBC radio commentator & cake connoisseur), born in Little Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire (d. 1994).
1922 Adolf Hitler begins a month long prison sentence for paramilitary operations; he rails against the 'Jewish sell-out' of Germany to the Bolsheviks.
1930 1st detection of airplane using reflected radio waves, a precursor to radar, by US Naval Research Laboratory engineers, Anacostia, Washington, D.C.
1939 Pan Am's 1st US to England flight.
1942 Arthur Brown, British rock singer and songwriter (The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - "Fire"), born in Whitby, Yorkshire.
1944 Jeff Beck, British rock guitarist (Yardbirds, Jeff Beck Group), born in Wallington, Surrey.
1947 Mick Fleetwood, rock drummer (Fleetwood Mac-Go Your Own Way), born in London, England.
1948 Patrick Moraz, Swiss progressive rock keyboard player (Yes, The Moody Blues), born in Morges, Switzerland.
1958 Nina Simone releases her debut jazz album "Little Girl Blue".
1963 1st demonstration of home video recorder, at BBC Studios, London.
1967 Procol Harum's ’A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ entered the Billboard chart, where it would peak at No 5.
1968 Start of the first Open Wimbledon lawn tennis championships - open to both professional and amateur players.
1979 Mindy Kaling, American actress and TV producer (The Office, The Mindy Project), born in Cambridge Massachusetts.
1981 "For Your Eyes Only", 12th James Bond, starring Roger Moore premieres in London.
1981 The Humber Bridge was opened to traffic. It connected Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and would be the world's longest single-span suspension bridge for the next 17 years.
1987 Lionel Messi, Argentine soccer striker (6 x FIFA Ballon d’Or; 6 x European Golden Shoes; 10 x La Liga titles; 4 x UEFA Champions League; 6 x Copas del Rey; FC Barcelona), born in Rosario, Argentina.
1995 3rd Rugby World Cup, Ellis Park, Johannesburg: Springboks fly-half Joel Stransky lands the winning drop goal in extra time as South Africa beats New Zealand, 15-12.
1997 USAF reports Roswell 'space aliens' were dummies.
2010 Julia Gillard (born in Barry) was sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Australia.
2010 In the longest match in tennis history, American John Isner defeats Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon after 11 hours, 5 minutes of play over 3 days.
2012 Lonesome George, Pinta giant tortoise and rarest creature in the world, dies at c. 100.
2016 British Prime Minister David Cameron resigns after the UK votes to leave the EU.
2018 Women drive for the first time in Saudi Arabia after ban is lifted.

 

[Muteswan]

25th June
1348 Records indicate that the Black Death plague, which originated in Asia, arrived on a ship moored at Melcombe Regis today.
1483 The House of Lords and Commons declares King Edward V of England as illegitimate based on his parent's alleged bigamous marriage.
1646 The surrender of Oxford to the Roundheads virtually signified the end of the English Civil War.
1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn: US 7th Cavalry under Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull in what has become famously known as "Custer's Last Stand".
1891 The first episode of an Arthur Conan Doyle novel involving the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes was printed in the Strand Magazine in London.
1900 Louis Mountbatten, British naval officer and statesman, last Viceroy of India (1947), born in Windsor, England (d. 1979), he was assassinated in 1979 by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who planted a bomb in his fishing boat.
1903 George Orwell [Eric Arthur Blair], British author (Animal Farm, 1984), born in Motihari, British India (d. 1950).
1910 US Mann Act passed (no women across state lines for immoral purposes).
1910 Igor Stravinsky's ballet "The Firebird" premieres at the Opéra de Paris, Paris.
1920 League of Nations places Internationall Court of Justice in Hague.
1932 Commencement of India's 1st cricket Test v England at Lord's, London.
1945 Carly Simon, American singer-songwriter ("Anticipation"; "You're So Vain"), born in NYC, New York.
1947 1st version of Anne Frank's diary "Het Achterhuis" published in The Netherlands.
1950 North Korea invades South Korea, beginning the Korean War.
1961 Ricky Gervais, English actor and comedian (The Office), born in Reading, England.
1961 Iraq announces that Kuwait is a part of Iraq (Kuwait disagrees).
1963 George Michael [Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou], English singer-songwriter and pop superstar (Wham! - "Careless Whisper"; "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"; "Faith"), born in London, England (d. 2016).
1964 Roy Orbison was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'It's Over', his second UK No.1.
1966 The Beatles started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Paperback Writer'.
1967 First global satellite television program: "Our World" broadcast features 19 acts representing 19 nations including The Beatles singing "All You Need Is Love".
1968 Tony Hancock, English comedian and actor (Hancock's Half Hour), commits suicide at 44.
1976 Johnny Mercer, American lyricist ("And The Angels Sing"; That Old Black Magic"; "Satin Doll"; "Moon River"), dies at 66.
1976 Supernatural horror film "The Omen" starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick premieres in the US.
1978 First use of the rainbow flag, symbol of gay pride, made by Gilbert Baker at a march in San Francisco.
1984 Prince releases his "Purple Rain" album.
1991 Slovenia and Croatia declare independence from Yugoslavia.
2009 Michael Jackson, American recording artist, entertainer and King of Pop music (The Jackson 5, Thriller, Dangerous) dies of cardiac arrest at 50.
2014 Luis Suárez is charged with biting at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
2021 New type of ancient human announced "Nesher Ramla Homo" 140,000-120,000 years ago, possible Neanderthal ancestors uncovered in Ramla, Israel.

 

[Muteswan]

26th June
1284 According to the Lüneburg manuscript, a piper leads 130 children of Hamelin away.
1498 Toothbrush invented in China using boar bristles.
1843 Hong Kong proclaimed a British Crown Colony.
1857 The first 62 recipients are awarded the Victoria Cross for valour in the Crimean war by Queen Victoria.
1894 Karl Benz of Germany receives US patent for gasoline-driven auto.
1909 Victoria & Albert Museum opens in London.
1909 Colonel Tom Parker [Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk], Dutch-born talent manager (Elvis Presley), born in Breda, Netherlands (d. 1997).
1925 "The Gold Rush", directed, starring and written by Charlie Chaplin, is released.
1939 Britain's first National Serviceman, Private Rupert Alexander, signed up for the Middlesex Regiment. His service number was 10000001.
1943 Georgie Fame [Clive Powell], English R&B and jazz singer and keyboard player (Get Away; Ballad of Bonnie & Clyde), born in Lancashire, England.
1945 United Nations Charter signed by 50 nations in San Francisco.
1945 Dwight York, Nuwaubian leader (Nuwaubian Nation), born in Boston, Massachusetts. No,not that one, or the other one.
1963 US President John F. Kennedy gives his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" (intended to mean "I am a Berliner", but may actually mean "I am a doughnut") speech in West Berlin.
1970 Two young girls die in a premature explosion in Derry after their father, a member of the Irish Republican Army, was making an incendiary device, presumably for use against the British Army.
1974 British actor Richard Burton divorced his wife, actress Elizabeth Taylor for the first time. They remarried on 10th October 1975 and divorced for the second time on 29th July 1976.
1977 Elvis Presley sings in Indianapolis, the last performance of his career when he appeared at the Market Square Arena. Presley would die less than two months later.
1977 The Yorkshire Ripper kills 16 year old shop assistant Jayne MacDonald in Leeds, changing public perception of the killer as she was the first victim who was not a prostitute.
1992 UEFA European Championship Final, Ullevi, Gothenburg, Sweden: In a huge upset Denmark beats Germany, 2-0.
1993 The U.S. launches a cruise missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for a thwarted assassination attempt against former President George H. W. Bush in April in Kuwait.
1997 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1st book in J. K. Rowling's best-selling series, is published.
1999 The National Stadium of Wales ( also known as the Millennium Stadium and Principality Stadium) held its first major event, an international rugby union match, when Wales beat South Africa in a friendly by 29–19 before a test crowd of 29,000.
2014 Luis Suárez is expelled from the 2014 FIFA World Cup following his biting incident.
2015 US Supreme Court rules 5-4 same-sex marriage is a legal right across all US states.
2018 Polio outbreak confirmed in New Guinea by WHO, 18 years after it was declared free of the disease.
2021 Wales lose 4-0 to Denmark in European Championships.

 

[Muteswan]

27th June
1693 The first women's magazine, The Ladies' Mercury, was published by John Dunton in London. It contained a question-and-answer column which became known as a 'problem page'.
1743 War of the Austrian Succession: Battle of Dettingen: in Bavaria, King George II of Britain personally leads troops into battle. The last time a British monarch commanded troops in the field.
1746 Flora MacDonald helps Bonnie Prince Charlie, disguised as Betty Burke an Irish maid, evade capture by landing him on the Isle of Skye.
1906 Vernon Watkins, Welsh poet (Ballad of Mari Lwyd), born in Maesteg, Wales (d. 1967).
1923 Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter perform the first ever aerial refueling in a DH-4B biplane.
1950 North Korean troops reach Seoul, UN asks members to aid South Korea, Harry Truman orders US Air Force & Navy into Korean conflict.
1956 The film Moby Dick, starring Gregory Peck, was released today. It was filmed in part at Fishguard and Ceibwr Bay in Pembrokeshire.
1957 The British Medical Research Council publishes a report suggesting a direct link between smoking and lung cancer.
1966 The Mothers of Invention released their debut studio album Freak Out! on Verve Records.
1967 Barclays Bank (Enfield branch) opened Britain's first cash dispenser.
1970 Following the arrest of Bernadette Devlin, intense riots erupt in Derry and Belfast leading to a prolonged gun battle between Irish republicans and loyalists.
1970 The newly formed Queen featuring Freddie Mercury (possibly still known as Freddie Bulsara) on vocals, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and Mike Grose on bass played their first gig at Truro City Hall, Cornwall, England.
1972 Legendary video game and home computer Atari, Inc. founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in Sunnyvale, California.
1973 "Live & Let Die", 8th James Bond Film, 1st to star Roger Moore, also starring Jane Seymour, 1st released in the US.
1980 Kevin Pietersen, English cricketer, born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
1985 James Hook, Welsh rugby player, born in Port Talbot, Wales.
1986 In referendum, Irish uphold ban on divorce.
1987 "The Living Daylights", 15th James Bond film, 1st film to star Timothy Dalton premieres in London.
1990 Salman Rushdie, condemned to death by Iran, contributes $8600 to help their earthquake victims.
1994 Aerosmith become first major band to let fans download a full new track free from the internet.
2001 Jack Lemmon, American actor, dies of colon cancer and metastatic cancer of the bladder at 76.
2002 John Entwistle, English rock bassist (The Who - "Boris The Spider"), dies in his sleep of a cocaine fueled heart attack in his Las Vegas hotel room at 57.
2007 Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
2008 Bill Gates steps down as Chairman of Microsoft Corporation to work full time for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
2009 The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was inscribed as a World Heritage Site. The aqueduct carries the Llangollen Canal over the valley of the River Dee in Wrexham in north east Wales. It is the longest and highest aqueduct in Britain.
2014 The mummified body of Anne Leitrim, who was in her 70s, was discovered in her flat in Bournemouth, where she had lain undiscovered for six years. Her remains were finally found when bailiffs visited the property to collect unpaid debts.
2015 Chris Squire, British progressive rock bassist, founding and longest serving member of Yes, 1969-2014 ("The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)"), dies of acute erythroid leukemia at 67.

 

[Muteswan]

28th June
1491 The birth of Henry VIII, King of England (1509-47) and second son of Henry VII. He married six times, beheaded two wives, broke away from the Catholic church to form the Church of England, executed Catholics who failed to recognize the church and executed Protestants who complained that he should execute more Catholics! Yet he still managed to remain a popular king.
1703 John Wesley, English Christian theologian and co-founder of the Methodist movement, born in Epworth, England (d. 1791).
1820 Tomato is proven to be non-poisonous by Colonel Robert Gibbon eating a tomato on steps of courthouse in Salem, New Jersey.
1829 The first policeman to be murdered in Britain was Constable Joseph Grantham in Somers Town. He went to the aid of a woman involved in a fight between drunken men and when he fell, all three proceeded to kick him to death.
1838 Coronation of Queen Victoria in Westminster Abbey, London. She was just 19 years old.
1846 Saxophone is patented by Antoine-Joseph "Adolfe" Sax.
1859 1st dog show held, in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
1880 Australian bushranger Ned Kelly captured at Glenrowan.
1902 Richard Rodgers, American composer (Rodgers & Hammerstein), born in NYC, New York (d. 1979).
1904 SS Norge runs aground and sinks off Rockall, North Atlantic, more than 635 die, largest maritime loss of life until Titanic.
1914 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo by young Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, leads to declarations of war in WWI.
1919 Treaty of Versailles, ending WWI and establishing the League of Nations, is signed in France.
1922 The Irish Civil War starts when Irish Free State forces attack anti-treaty republicans in Dublin.
1935 FDR orders a federal gold vault to be built at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
1950 North Korean forces capture Seoul, South Korea in opening phase of the Korean War.
1950 A novice U.S. team beat the highly fancied England players 1-0 in the first round of the World Cup in Brazil. The English team included Billy Wright and Tom Finney.
1960 45 men were killed in a gas explosion at Six Bells coal mine at Aberbeeg near Abertillery, Wales.
1962 Thalidomide drug banned in Netherlands.
1965 1st US ground combat forces in Vietnam authorized by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
1968 Pink Floyd released their second album A Saucerful Of Secrets in the UK. It is the last Pink Floyd album on which Syd Barrett would appear.
1969 Police carry out an early morning raid on gay bar Stonewall Inn, Greenwich Village, NY; about 400 to 1,000 patrons riot against police, it lasts 3 days. Beginning of the modern LGBT rights movement.
1970 Around 500 Catholic workers at the Harland and Wolff shipyard are forced to leave their work by Protestant employees as serious rioting continues in Belfast.
1971 Elon Musk, American entrepreneur and inventor (SpaceX, Tesla, Paypal), born in Pretoria, South Africa.
1971 US Supreme Court (8-0) overturns draft evasion conviction of Muhammad Ali.
1974 Wings release singles "Band on the Run" and "Zoo Gang" in UK.
1976 Stanley Baker, Welsh actor and producer (Concrete Jungle, Zorro, Zulu), dies of pneumonia at 49.
1977 Elton John achieved a life long ambition when he became the Chairman of Watford Football Club.
1991 Margaret Thatcher announced that she was to retire from the House of Commons at the next general election.
1994 Jonah Lomu becomes the youngest-ever All Black at 19 yrs 45 days playing rugby for New Zealand against France in Christchurch.
1997 The Pink Floyd album, The Dark Side Of The Moon spent its 1056th week on the US album chart.
2019 Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne ordered Donald Trump not to use the star’s music for his political campaign.
2020 Global death toll from COVID-19 passes 500,000, doubling in less than two months (Johns Hopkins).
2020 50th anniversary of 1st Gay Pride march in New York City marked around the world.

 

[Muteswan]

29th June
1540 Former Lord Privy Seal and Chancellor of the Exchequer of England Thomas Cromwell indicted as a heretic.
1613 The original Globe Theatre in London burned down after a cannon was fired during a performance of a Shakespearean play and set fire to the straw roof.
1620 After denouncing smoking as a health hazard, King James I of England banned the growing of tobacco in Britain.
1850 British ex-Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel falls off his horse; dies three days later.
1855 Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper was first published, a result of the publisher's anger over the Crimean War and a desire to express it.
1871 The Trade Union Act was passed, giving trade unions legal status for the first time.
1888 First (known) recording of classical music made, Handel's Israel in Egypt on wax cylinder.
1905 The Automobile Association was set up by motorists angered by police harassment and to warn drivers of speed traps.
1940 Batman Comics, mobsters rubbed out a circus highwire team known as the Flying Graysons, leaving their son Dick (Robin) an orphan.
1940 John Dawes OBE, Welsh rugby union centre (22 caps Wales, 4 caps British & Irish Lions; London Welsh; Barbarians), born in Abercarn, Wales (d. 2021).
1948 Ian Paice, British hard rock drummer (White Snake; Deep Purple - "Smoke On The Water"), born in Nottingham, England.
1961 Del Shannon was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Runaway.'
1964 1st draft of Star Trek's pilot "Cage" released.
1966 Barclays Bank introduced the Barclaycard - the UK's first credit card.
1967 Israel removes barricades, re-unifying Jerusalem.
1967 Jayne Mansfield [Vera Jane Palmer], American actress (The Girl Can't Help It), dies in a car crash at 34.
1974 Charles Aznavour was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'She', the French singers only UK No.1.
1980 Katherine Jenkins, Welsh soprano singer and songwriter, born in Neath, Wales.
1996 Superman's Action Comic #1 (1938) auctioned at Sotheby at $61,900.
2001 The government announced that a memorial fountain in honour of Diana, Princess of Wales, was to be built in London's Hyde Park.
2003 Katharine Hepburn, American actress (Adam's Rib, On Golden Pond), dies of natural causes at 96.
2021 England football team won a game and apparently are now going to win the European Championships, the World Cup, the Universe Cup and everything else, oh, and football is coming home. . .

 

[Muteswan]

30th June
1665 The number of deaths in London from the Great Plague during June is recorded as 6,137 people.
1859 French acrobat Charles Blondin is 1st to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
1893 Excelsior diamond (blue-white 995 carats) then world's largest, discovered in Jagersfontein Mine, South Africa.
1894 London's Tower Bridge was officially opened to traffic by the Prince of Wales. After the ceremony the bascules were raised to allow a flotilla of ships and boats to sail down the Thames.
1899 Spin bowler Jack Hearne takes England cricket's first Test hat-trick vs Australia in drawn 3rd Test at Headingley.
1908 A giant fireball, most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet flattens 80 million trees near the Stony Tunguska River in Yeniseysk Governorate, Russia, in the largest impact event in recorded history.
1916 British General Douglas Haig reports "The men are in splendid spirits" the day before the Battle of the Somme began.
1930 Australian cricket maestro Don Bradman sets up a 7 wicket victory with a patient 254 in 2nd Test v England at Lord's; 'The Don' hits 25 fours off 376 balls.
1936 Margaret Mitchell's novel "Gone with the Wind" published.
1937 The world's first emergency telephone number, 999, was introduced in London. 999 was chosen was because it could be dialled on the old rotary dial telephones by placing a finger against the dial stop and rotating the dial to the full extent three times, even in the dark or in dense smoke. This enabled all users, including the visually impaired, to easily dial the emergency number.
1938 Superman 1st appears in DC Comics' Action Comics Series issue #1.
1940 German troops begin the invasion of the undefended Channel Islands.
1942 U-boats sink and damage 146 allied ships this month (700,227 tons).
1948 Transistor as a substitute for valves announced (Bell Labs).
1949 Born on this day in Wrexham, Andy Scott, best known as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist in the glam rock band The Sweet, who rose to worldwide fame in the 1970s.
1951 Born this day in Swansea, Geoff Wheel, former Wales rugby international.Wheel was a tough uncompromising second-row forward who was a cornerstone of the successful 1970's Welsh team. In 1977, he and Willie Duggan of Ireland were sent off following an altercation. In so doing, they became the first players sent off during a Five Nations international. Wheel was also the organist at All Saint's Church, Kilvey in Swansea.
1956 ‘I’m Walking Backwards For Christmas’, written and performed by arch-Goon Spike Milligan, entered the British singles chart ..... six months after Christmas.
1957 The British Egg Marketing Board stamped a crowned lion on British eggs as a sign of freshness. In the first week 80% of all eggs sold carried the stamp.
1966 Mike Tyson, American boxer (youngest ever heavyweight champion 1986-90, 20 years, 4 months, 22 days), born in Brooklyn, New York.
1971 Crew of Russian space mission Soyuz 11 found dead upon arrival on earth (only people to die in space).
1977 Marvel Comics launched a comic book based on the rock group Kiss. Blood from each band member was drawn by a registered nurse, witnessed by a notary public, and poured into the vats of red ink used for printing the comic at Marvel's Borden Ink plant in Depew, New York.
1980 British sixpence demonetised after being in used since 1551 and 12 years after introduction of decimal currency.
1983 Born today in Newcastle upon Tyne, Cheryl Cole, from English-Irish pop girl group Girls Aloud.
1985 Michael Phelps, American swimmer (record 23 Olympic gold medals), born in Baltimore, Maryland.
1986 Maerdy Colliery in the Rhondda Valley produced its last truck of coal today.
1990 East and West Germany merge their economies.
1992 Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher joins the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.
1994 Pre-trial hearings open in LA against O.J. Simpson.
1997 Britain handed Hong Kong back to China at midnight, when the 99 year lease expired.
1998 Violence erupted at the inquiry into the 1993 murder of the 18 year old, black teenager Stephen Lawrence when the five suspects left the courtroom. It was suggested that the murder was racially motivated and that the handling of the case by the police and Crown Prosecution Service was affected by issues of race.
2007 A blazing vehicle, packed with gas canisters, was driven into the front of the Glasgow airport's Terminal One building in a suspected terror attack.
2014 Australian entertainer Rolf Harris is convicted of indecent assault in London, England.
2018 Two members of the public confirmed poisoned by Novichok nerve, a women later dies, in Wiltshire, England.
2019 President Donald Trump becomes first sitting US president to set foot in North Korea in the Korean Demilitarized Zone meeting Kim Jong Un.

 

[Muteswan]

1st July
1200 In China, sunglasses are invented.
1646 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, German mathematician and philosopher (differential and integral calculus), born in Leipzig, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1716).
1837 Compulsory registration of births, marriages and deaths came into effect in England and Wales.
1879 Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.
1899 Gideon Society established to place bibles in hotels.
1903 Tour de France: Inaugural race begins in Montgeron, a south-eastern suburb of Paris.
1903 Amy Johnson, British pilot, first female pilot to fly alone Britain to Australia, born in Kingston upon Hull, England (d. 1941).
1905 Albert Einstein introduces his theory of special relativity.
1908 "SOS" (· · · – – – · · ·) distress signal becomes the worldwide standard for help.
1911 The introduction of the British Copyright Act - protecting an author's works for 50 years after their death.
1916 Coca-Cola brings current coke formula to the market.
1916 First day of the Battle of the Somme: the British Army suffers its worst day, losing 19,240 men (WWI).
1931 Ice vending machines introduced in Los Angeles 25 lbs, 15 cents.
1934 1st x-ray photo of entire body, Rochester, NY.
1935 Dave Prowse, English actor (Darth Vader) and the Green Cross Code Man, born in Bristol. England (d. 2020).
1944 2,500+ killed in London/SE England by German flying bombs.
1945 Deborah Harry, American singer (Blondie - "Heart of Glass"; " The Tide Is High"; "Call Me"), and actress (Hairspray), born in Miami, Florida.
1961 Diana Spencer, English Princess of Wales, born in Sandringham, England (d. 1997).
1961 Carl Lewis, American sprinter and long jumper (9 Olympic gold 1984, 88, 92, 96), born in Birmingham, Alabama.
1963 ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan) Codes are introduced for United States mail.
1963 The Beatles recorded their next single ‘She Loves You’ / ‘I'll Get You’, at EMI Studios, London.
1967 Colour television came to Europe with a seven hour transmission on BBC 2 from the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships.
1967 The Beatles' album "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" goes #1 in the United States, where it would stay for 15 weeks.
1967 Pamela Anderson, Canadian-American actress (Baywatch) and Playboy playmate (Feb 1990), born in Ladysmith, British Columbia.
1968 US, Britain, USSR & 58 nations sign Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
1969 Prince Charles was invested Prince of Wales by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at Caernarfon Castle in north Wales.
1971 Britain and Argentina sign accord about Falkland Islands.
1972 The first Gay Pride march in England takes place.
1974 Monmouthshire renamed Gwent and becomes part of Wales.
1975 10cc were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'I'm Not In Love'.
1977 British tennis player Virginia Wade won the Women's Singles Championship at Wimbledon in its Centenary Year and during Queen Elizabeth II's Jubilee year.
1979 Sony introduces the Walkman, first popular portable cassette player.
1980 British runner Steve Ovett breaks countryman Sebastian Coe's world record for the mile in 3:48.8 in Oslo, Norway.
1993 1 second is added to the clock. 🕰
1996 In addition to a practical exam, learner drivers in Britain had to pass a written exam for the first time.
1997 United Kingdom returns Hong Kong and the New Territories to the People's Republic of China.
1998 The first meeting of the historic Northern Ireland Assembly in Belfast, following the signing of the Good Friday Peace Agreement.
1999 The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on the day powers are transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.
2002 The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
2004 Marlon Brando, American actor (The Godfather, A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront), dies at 80.
2006 Fred Trueman, England cricket fast bowler (England 67 Tests, 307 wickets), dies of small cell carcinoma at 75.
2007 England bans smoking in all public indoor spaces: with the ban already in force in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, this means it is illegal to smoke in indoor public places anywhere in the UK. Australia implements a similar ban.
2018 Nationwide protests over Trump administration immigration policies in the US.
2019 Japan resumes commercial whaling after a break of more than 30 years.

 

[Muteswan]

2nd July
1566 Nostradamus [Michel de Nostre-Dam], French astrologist and prophet (Les Propheties), dies at 62.
1698 English engineer Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine. He described it as a ''A new invention for raiseing of water and occasioning motion to all sorts of mill work by the impellent force of fire, which will be of great use and advantage for drayning mines, serveing townes with water, and for the working of all sorts of mills where they have not the benefitt of water nor constant windes."
1819 The first Factory Act was passed in Britain. This banned the employment of children younger than 9 from working in textile factories, whilst those under 16 were allowed to work for 'only' 12 hours a day!
1850 Robert "Bobbie" Peel, British PM/founder London Police, dies at 62.
1865 One-time Methodist Reform Church minister William Booth and his wife Catherine found the East London Christian Mission, now known as the Salvation Army.
1900 First flight LZ-1, of a dirigible airship designed by Graf Ferdinand von Zeppelin, at Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
1901 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid rob train of $40,000 at Wagner, Montana.
1928 British parliament reduces the age at women can vote to 21 - the same as men (Representation of the People Act 1928).
1954 The results of an official ballot of the members of the Welsh local authorities were announced, confirming that Cardiff was to be the capital city of Wales. Before this, Wales did not have an official capital city and the position was officially confirmed in a written statement by the Minister for Welsh Affairs Gwilym Lloyd George to the House of Commons on Tuesday 20th December 1955. The results of the ballot gave Cardiff 136 votes, Caernarfon 11 and Aberystwyth 4. .
1956 Jerry Hall, American model, married to Mick Jagger and Rupert Murdoch (Batman, Freejack), born in Mesquite, Texas.
1956 Elvis Presley recorded 'Hound Dog' at RCA Studios, New York.
1961 Ernest Hemingway, American author and Nobel laureate (The Old Man and the Sea), dies from suicide at 61.
1962 Sam Walton opens his first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas.
1966 Frank Sinatra went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Strangers In The Night'.
1969 American guitarist Leslie West and producer, bassist Felix Pappalardi form rock group Mountain.
1971 Queen appeared at Surrey College, England. This was the group's first gig with the line-up of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon.
1980 Comedy film "Airplane!" written and directed by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and starring Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty premieres.
1990 1,426 pilgrims trampled to death after a panic in a tunnel in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
1994 Middlesex cricket seam bowler Richard Johnson takes all 10 Derbyshire wickets for 45 runs at the County Ground in Derby.
1997 Jimmy Stewart, American actor (The Philadelphia Story and It's a Wonderful Life), dies of a pulmonary embolism at 89.
1998 "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" the second book in the series is published by Bloomsbury in the UK.
2001 Liverpool Airport at Speke was renamed John Lennon Airport.
2005 10 Live 8 concerts held around the world organised by Bob Geldof to raise awareness of poverty.
2012 GlaxoSmithKline settles the largest healthcare fraud case in history for US$3 Billion.
2013 Wales became the first country in the United Kingdom to bring into law an opt-out organ donation system. Previously, people across the UK had to a voluntary scheme and carry a card if they wish to donate organs. People in Wales will now be presumed to have agreed for their organs to be donated after death unless they have opted out of the scheme.
2014 Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is criminally charged with corruption by French prosecutors.
2016 Caroline Aherne, British comedienne, writer and actress (The Royale Family), dies of cancer at 52.
2018 British divers discover 12 boys and their coach alive in Tham Luang Nang Non cave, Thailand after being trapped for 9 days by monsoon flooding.
2019 Germany's Ursula von der Leyen is the first woman nominated to lead the European Commission with France's Christine Lagarde 1st woman nominated to lead the European Central Bank.
2019 Newly rediscovered Lewis chess piece sells at auction for £735,000 in London.
2020 British Darts Organisation’s commercial arm – BDO Enterprises Ltd, goes into liquidation due to lack of sponsorship; oversaw original professional, semi-pro and amateur competitions in Britain.

 

[Muteswan]

3rd July
1767 Pitcairn Island was discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret. The islands are best known as home of the descendants of the Bounty mutineers.
1778 British forces massacre 360 men, women and children in Wyoming, Pennsylvania.
1806 Michael Keens exhibits 1st large-scale cultivated strawberry—a large fruit strawberry, called the Keen Seedling.
1844 The last pair of Great Auks is killed.
1886 In Germany, Karl Benz drives 1st automobile.
1899 Ludwig Guttmann, German-British neurologist, founder of the Stoke Mandeville Games (now the Paralympics), born in Tost, Prussia, German Empire (now Toszek, Poland) (d. 1980).
1920 The first RAF air display took place at Hendon, near London.
1925 Michael Oliver, British cardiologist (linked cholesterol with coronary artery disease), born in Borth, Wales (d. 2015).
1928 John Logie Baird demonstrates the first colour television transmission in London.
1936 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Home favourite Fred Perry beats Gottfried von Cramm of Germany 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 for his third straight Wimbledon singles title.
1938 LNER locomotive No.4468 'Mallard' achieved the world speed record for steam traction. A maximum speed 126 mph was reached between Grantham and Peterborough.
1951 Sir Richard Hadlee, New Zealand cricket all-rounder (NZ 86 Tests, 3,124 runs, 431 wickets), born in Christchurch, Canterbury
1954 The end of food rationing in Britain - almost 9 years after the end of World War II.
1958 Siân Lloyd, Welsh meteorologist and TV presenter, born in Maesteg, Glamorgan, Wales.
1962 Tom Cruise, American actor (Risky Business, Jerry MaGuire, Rainman), born in Syracuse, New York.
1965 Trigger, horse (Roy Rogers), dies at 25.
1967 "News at 10" premieres on British TV.
1969 78,000 attend Newport Jazz Festival, Newport, Rhode Island. NIICE
1969 Brian Jones (Rolling Stones) drowned while under the influence of drugs and alcohol after taking a midnight swim in his pool, aged 27.
1971 American singer, songwriter and poet, Jim Morrison of The Doors was found dead in a bathtub in Paris, France, the cause of death was given as a heart attack.
1971 Julian Assange, Australian founder of Wikileaks, born in Townsville, Queensland.
1973 Laurens Hammond the inventor of the Hammond organ died aged 73.
1976 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Sweden's Björn Borg beats Ilie Năstase of Romania 6-4, 6-2, 9-7 for the first of 5 straight Wimbledon titles.
1976 Brian Wilson performs with the Beach Boys after 12 years apart.
1984 After 22 years, England Test cricket spinner Derek Underwood hits a maiden 1st class century (111) for Kent v Sussex.
1985 "Back to the Future" directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd is released.
1987 Sebastian Vettel, German auto racer (World Formula 1 Drivers Champion 2010-13), born in Heppenheim, Hesse, Germany.
1994 The deadliest day in Texas traffic history, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Forty six people killed in crashes.
1996 UK House of Commons announces that the Stone of Scone, aka the Stone of Destiny, used in the coronation of Scottish (and subsequently English and British monarchs), will be returned to Scotland after 700 years in Westminster Abbey.
2001 Delia Derbyshire, English musician and composer (Doctor Who theme, White Noise), dies of renal failure at 64.
2008 Kylie Minogue received an OBE for services to music from the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace, England.
2019 US produces the most waste per head globally and recycles the least at 35% according to new research by Verisk Maplecroft, Germany recycles the most at 68%.

 

[Muteswan]

4th July
1776 US Congress proclaims the Declaration of Independence and independence from Great Britain.
1790 Born on this day in Crickhowell, Colonel Sir George Everest,the man that Mount Everest is named after.
1796 1st Independence Day celebration is held.
1826 Past presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both die on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, President John Quincy Adams calls "visible and palpable remarks of Divine Favor".
1829 Britain's first regular scheduled bus service began running, between Marylebone Road and the Bank of England, in London.
1847 James Anthony Bailey, American circus ringmaster and showman (Barnum & Bailey), born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 1906).
1879 In the Anglo-Zulu War, the Zululand capital of Ulundi was captured by British troops and burnt to the ground, thus, ending the war.
1884 Statue of Liberty presented to US in Paris.
1926 Alfredo Di Stéfano, Argentine-Spanish soccer forward, coach (Spain 31 caps, Real Madrid), born in Buenos Aires, Argentina (d. 2014).
1934 Marie Curie, Polish-French scientist who discovered radium and the 1st woman to win a Nobel Prize (1903, 1911), dies at 66.
1944 1st Japanese kamikaze attack, US fleet near Iwo Jima.
1948 Jeremy Spencer, British rock guitarist (Fleetwood Mac - "Oh Well"), born in Hartlepool, County Durham, England.
1959 America's new 49-star flag honoring Alaska statehood unfurled.
1960 America's new 50-star flag honoring Hawaiian statehood unfurled.
1964 The Beach Boys started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'I Get Around', the group's first No.1.
1970 Chartered Dan-Air Comet crashes into mountains north of Barcelona, Spain killing 112 holidaying Britons.
1973 Slade drummer Don Powell was badly injured in a car crash in which his girlfriend was killed.
1996 Clay [David] Jones, Welsh gardener (BBC Gardener's Question Time), dies at 72.
1996 Prince Charles, Prince of Wales delivered his terms for a divorce from Diana, Princess of Wales - an offer of £15m reportedly backed by the Queen.
1999 Victoria 'Posh Spice' Adams married footballer David Beckham at Luttrellstown Castle, Ireland.
2003 American record producer and singer-songwriter and five-time Grammy Award-winner Barry White died from Kidney failure aged 58.
2004 The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City. (This was largely a symbolic event; actual construction would not start for several weeks).
2006 Sri Lanka sets new ODI cricket record score 443-9 in a World Cup win over Netherlands in Amstelveen (Jayasuriya 157, Dilshan 117no).
2009 The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after 8 years, due to security reasons following the World Trade Center attacks.
2012 Eric Sykes, British radio, stage and television comedy writer, actor and director (Goon Show, Sykes and A...), dies at 89.
2014 The 84 year old TV entertainer Rolf Harris was sentenced to 5 years and 9 months in prison after being found guilty of indecently assaulting four girls (including one who was aged 7 or 8) in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
2014 Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson (who went on to become director of communications for Prime Minister David Cameron) was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he was found guilty of conspiracy to hack phones.
2019 US President Donald Trump holds a “Salute to America” Fourth of July celebration in Washington, D.C., controversial for its emphasis on the military and presence of tanks.
2020 Record rain in over island of Kyushu in Japan causes flooding killing a least 37 people with evacuation of more than 200,000.

 

[Muteswan]

5th July
1321 Joan of The Tower, Queen consort of Scotland, born in Tower of London, London (d. 1362).
1687 Isaac Newton who was born at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire published his 'Principia', stating Newton's laws of motion, Newton's law of gravitation, and a derivation of Kepler's laws of the motion of the planets. The Principia is regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science.
1810 P. T. [Phineas Taylor] Barnum, American circus promoter and showman (Barnum & Bailey), born in Bethel, Connecticut (d. 1891).
1817 The first gold coin sovereigns were issued in Britain.
1826 Stamford Raffles, British statesman and founder of Singapore dies at 44 of apoplexy.
1841 Thomas Cook, a Baptist cabinet maker, founded the first travel agency.
1865 The Locomotives and Highways Act in Britain introduced a speed limit for road vehicles of 4 mph in rural areas and 2 mph in urban areas.
1891 Hail kills 16 horses in Rapid City, South Dakota.
1934 Philip Madoc, Welsh actor (The Life and Times of David Lloyd George), born in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales (d. 2012).
1935 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Fred Perry successfully defends his title against German Gottfried von Cramm 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
1937 Spam, the luncheon meat is first introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.
1942 Ian Fleming graduates from a training school for spies in Canada.
1946 Louis Reard's design for a bikini swimsuit debuts at the Paris fashion show.
1948 Britain's National Health Service came into operation when Aneurin Bevan, the health secretary, launched the NHS at Park Hospital in Davyhulme (today known as Trafford General Hospital). It was the climax of a hugely ambitious plan to bring good healthcare to all. Doctors immediately announced the setting-up of a fighting fund to oppose the legislation, fearing a loss of earnings.
1948 The birth of Aneira Reece at Amman Valley Hospital in Carmarthenshire. She was the first baby born to be born under the National Health Service, just after the clocks chimed midnight. She was named Aneira, after the founding father of the NHS, Aneurin Bevan.
1950 US forces enter combat in the Korean War for the first time, in the Battle of Osan.
1954 Singer Elvis Presley's 1st professional recording session (with guitarist Scotty Moore & bass player Bill Black) takes place at Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service in Memphis, Tennessee.
1954 The BBC broadcasts its first television news bulletin.
1957 England cricket batsman Tom Graveney scores a brilliant 258 in the drawn 3rd Test v West Indies at Trent Bridge.
1966 Saturn I rocket launched at Cape Kennedy.
1966 Gianfranco Zola, Italian footballer and coach (Chelsea), born in Oliena, Italy.
1969 The Rolling Stones gave a free concert in Hyde Park, London, two days after the death of guitarist Brian Jones. It was attended by 250,000 people.
1973 Isle of Man begins issuing its own postage stamps.
1973 Test cricket debut of English umpire Harold "Dickie" Bird v NZ at Leeds (66 Tests, 69 ODI).
1975 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Arthur Ashe becomes first African-American to win Wimbledon, beats countryman Jimmy Connors 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.
1975 At Knebworth Festival in England, Pink Floyd debut their album "Wish You Were Here".
1983 Woman gives birth to baby 84 days after brain death (Roanoke, Virginia).
1986 Nancy Reagan cuts a red, white and blue ribbon to reopen Statue of Liberty after refurbishment.
1994 Amazon.com founded in Bellevue, Washington by Jeff Bezos.
1996 Dolly the Sheep, first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, born in Scotland.
2003 SARS is declared "contained" by the WHO after affecting 26 countries and resulting in 774 deaths.
2003 The Daily Star ran a front-page story claiming that the body of Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards had been found. Fishermen in an angling contest discovered bones half buried in mud on the riverbank near Avonmouth. Edwards disappeared in Feb 1995, his car was found at a service station at the Seven Bridge a well-known suicide spot.
2006 Emergency United Nations Security Council meeting at the U.N in New York City because of North Korean missile tests that day.
2007 English jazz and blues singer and film critic George Melly died at his London home at the age of 80 of lung cancer and vascular dementia.
2012 The Shard, the tallest building in Europe, is opened in London, at 309.6 metres (1,016 ft).
2014 The Tour de France cycle race made its first visit to the north of England.
2016 FBI releases report stating Hillary Clinton was "extremely careless" handling classified emails but doesn't recommend prosecution.
2019 John McCririck, English horse racing broadcaster, dies at 79.

 

[Muteswan]

6th July
1189 Richard the Lionheart is crowned King of England, upon the death of King Henry II.
1348 Papal bull of Pope Clement VI issued during the Black Death stating Jews not to blame and urging their protection.
1483 Richard III is crowned King of England after deposing Edward V.
1553 Mary I acceded to the throne, becoming the first queen to rule England in her own right.
1785 US Congress unanimously resolves the name of US currency to the "dollar" and adopts decimal coinage.
1885 Louis Pasteur successfully gives an anti-rabies vaccine to 9-year-old Joseph Meister, saving his life.
1888 Glamorgan CCC was formed on at a meeting in the Angel Hotel, Cardiff.Cricket was probably first played in Wales by the end of the 17th century. The earliest known occurrence of the game of cricket in the county of Glamorgan is found in a reference to a match at Swansea in 1780.
1892 Britain's first non-white MP was elected when Dadabhai Naoraji won the Central Finsbury seat.
1907 Tom Reece takes 5 weeks to compile the highest recorded billiards break in a match (499,135) in London, his 'cradle' cannon method is soon banned.
1907 The opening of Brooklands - the world's first purpose-built motor racing circuit.
1925 Bill Haley, American rock vocalist known as the father of Rock 'n' Roll (Rock Around the Clock), born in Highland Park, Michigan (d. 1981).
1936 Dave Allen, Irish comedian (Dave Allen Show), born in Firhouse, Dublin (d. 2005).
1938 Tony Lewis, Welsh cricket batsman and broadcaster (England 9 Tests, captain 1972-73; president MCC; BBC cricket coverage), born in Swansea, Wales.
1944 World's largest circus tent catches fire at Ringling Brother's - Barnum & Bailey 2nd performance, 168 die (Hartford, Connecticut).
1946 George W. Bush Jr, 43rd President of the United States (2001-09) and 46th Governor of Texas (1995-2000) (R-TX), born in New Haven, Connecticut.
1946 Sylvester Stallone, American actor and director (Rocky, Rambo, Cobra), born in NYC, New York.
1947 The Ak-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union.
1957 John Lennon (16) & Paul McCartney (15) meet for 1st time as Lennon's rock group Quarrymen perform at a church dinner.
1960 The death of Aneurin Bevan, often known as Nye Bevan. He was a Welsh Labour Party politician and Minister for Health in the post-war Attlee ministry from 1945-51. Bevan spearheaded the establishment of the National Health Service, to provide medical care free at point-of-need to all Britons.
1964 The Beatles film A Hard Day's Night premiered at The Pavilion in London.
1968 The Rolling Stones scored their fifth US No.1 single when 'Jumpin Jack Flash' hit the top of the charts.
1968 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Billie Jean King beats Judy Tegart 9-7, 7-5 to earn first ever prize money (£750) offered at Wimbledon.
1971 Louis Armstrong, American jazz trumpeter and singer (Hello Dolly; What A Wonderful World), dies of a heart attack at 69.
1988 An explosion aboard the North Sea oil rig Piper Alpha, off the coast of Aberdeen, resulted in the loss of 167 lives. It is the world's deadliest ever oil rig accident.
1994 "Forrest Gump", directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, and Gary Sinise, is released.
1998 England cricket spin bowler Robert Croft saves England from defeat with a famous unbeaten 37 in 190 minutes on day 5 of 2nd Test v South Africa at Old Trafford, Manchester.
2003 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Roger Federer beats Australian Mark Philippoussis 7-6, 6-2, 7-6 for his first Grand Slam title.
2005 IOC awards London the right to host the Games of the XXX Olympiad in 2012 with a vote of 54 to 50 over Paris on the fourth and final ballot.
2013 British & Irish Lions Rugby Union team thrash Australia, 41-16 in Sydney for a 2-1 series win, their first against the Wallabies since 1997.
2014 From 4:30am cash could no longer be used on any of London's 24,500 buses, in a move that Transport for London (TfL) said would save £24m a year. A prepaid or concessionary ticket, Oyster card or a contactless payment card would be needed to travel.
2016 South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is sentenced to 6 years in jail for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2013.
2016 Chilcot Report, UK's Iraqi War Inquiry released; concludes Tony Blair overstated case for war and was unprepared.
2016 African American Alton Sterling is shot by Louisiana police in Baton Rouge, while being restrained on the ground, the killing is filmed.
2016 African American Philando Castile is shot by police in St Paul, Minnesota after being pulled over for a broken rear light, killing is filmed.
2020 America officially begins withdrawing from the World Health Organization.

 

[Muteswan]

7th July
1307 Edward I, King of England (1272-1307), dies at 68.
1456 A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death.
1550 Traditional date Chocolate thought to have been introduced to Europe.
1668 Isaac Newton receives MA from Trinity College, Cambridge.
1890 Henri Nestlé, German-Swiss industrialist (founder of Nestlé), dies from heart attack at 75.
1916 Today, during the First Battle of the Somme, the 38th (Welsh) Division were given the order to of attack Mametz Wood. This turned out to be one of the most brutal battles of the First World War and they were forced to retreat due to the intensity of German machine gun fire from the wood. The Division were ordered to regroup and attack for a second time on the 10th July. This time they succeeded in reaching the wood and by the 12th July, had cleared the Germans from the woods. The Welsh Division, however, had lost more than 4,000 men during the course of the attack.
1919 Jon Pertwee, English actor and entertainer (third Doctor in Doctor Who, Worzel Gummidge), born in London (d. 1996).
1928 Sliced bread sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company, Missouri, using a machine invented by Otto Frederick Rohwedder. Described as the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped.
1930 Construction begins on Boulder (Hoover) Dam.
1930 The death of Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, best known for his detective fiction featuring the character Sherlock Holmes.
1940 Ringo Starr [Richard Starkey], British drummer, vocalist (The Beatles - "Yellow Submarine"), songwriter ("Early 1970"; "Photograph"), actor (Caveman), and knight, born in Dingle, Liverpool, England.
1941 Bill Oddie, English comedian and ornithologist born today in Rochdale.
1941 Nazis execute 5,000 Jews in Kovono, Lithuania.
1941 Born in Gorseinon, near Swansea, Michael Howard, politician. Howard is widely remembered for not answering the same question 12 times by Jeremy Paxman during a 1997 edition of Newsnight, and for Ann Widdecombe's claim that "there is something of the night about him." ;
1944 Tony Jacklin, English golfer (British Open 1969, US Open 1970), born in Scunthorpe, England.
1947 Alleged and disputed Roswell UFO incident.
1950 1st Farnborough airshow held.
1954 Born on this in Mochdre, Mickey Thomas, former Wales football international who played club football notably for Wrexham, Manchester United and Stoke City. In 1992 was the winner of BBC's Goal of the Season award for his goal from a 25-yard free kick to help Wrexham then in the Football League's Fourth Division defeat Arsenal of the First Division in what has been described as one of the greatest FA Cup 'giant-killings' of all time.
1956 "Hancock's Half Hour" premieres as a TV show starring Tony Hancock and Sid James.
1957 Elvis Presley scored his first UK No.1 with 'All Shook Up', (his tenth UK single release).
1966 The Kinks were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Sunny Afternoon', the group's third and last UK No.1.
1972 Secret Talks Between IRA and British Government: Gerry Adams is part of a delegation to London for talks with the British Government.
1977 "The Spy Who Loved Me", 10th James Bond film starring Roger Moore and Barbara Bach, premieres in London.
1978 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Martina Navratilova wins her first Grand Slam singles title beating Chris Evert 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.
1980 Led Zeppelin played their last-ever concert with drummer John Bonham when they appeared at Eissporthalle, West Berlin at the end of a European tour.
1981 MS Dhoni [Mahendra Singh Dhoni], Indian cricketer, wicket-keeper batsman and captain of India (ODI: 2007-16, Test: 2008-14), born in Ranchi, Bihar, India.
1984 Bruce Springsteen went to No.1 on the US album chart with 'Born In The USA'.
1985 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Boris Becker beats South African Kevin Curren 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 to become the youngest man (17) to win a Wimbledon singles title.
1996 Nelson Mandela steps down as President of South Africa.
2005 A series of bomb attacks on London's transport network killed 52 people and injured 700 others. It was the largest and deadliest terrorist attack in London's history.
2006 Syd Barrett, English guitarist and early vocalist of the band Pink Floyd, dies of pancreatic cancer at 60.
2011 "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2", the last Harry Potter film, premieres in London.
2013 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Andy Murray beats Novak Đoković 6-4. 7-5. 6-4 to become the first British man to win a Wimbledon singles title since 1936.
2014 Alfredo Di Stéfano, Argentine-Spanish soccer forward, coach (Spain 31 caps, Real Madrid), dies of a heart attack at 88.
2017 Tesla Motors produces its first mass-market car, the Model 3.

 

[Muteswan]

8th July
1099 First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders look on.
1497 Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama departs on his first voyage, becoming the 1st European to reach India by sea.
1831 John Pemberton, American pharmacist (inventor of Coca-Cola), born in Knoxville, Georgia (d. 1888).
1839 John D. Rockefeller, American industrialist and founder of Standard Oil, born in Richford, New York (d. 1937).
1884 The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) was founded in London.
1889 Wall Street Journal begins publishing.
1908 Nelson Rockefeller, American politician (Vice President: 1974-1977; Governor of New York (R), 1959-73), born in Bar Harbor, Maine (d. 1979).
1918 National Savings stamps were introduced in Britain.
1957 William Adlington Cadbury, English chocolate maker, dies at 89.
1961 Fred Trueman takes 5-0 in 24 balls to rip through Aussies.
1965 Ronald Biggs, who was serving a 30-year prison sentence for his part in the Great Train Robbery, escaped from Wandsworth prison.
1967 The Monkees began a 29-date tour with The Jimi Hendrix Experience as support act.
1969 US troop withdrawal begins in Vietnam.
1979 Voyager 2 takes 1st ever photo of Jupiter's satellite Adrastea (J14).
1986 British Steel made a profit for the first time in 17 years.
1990 12:34:56 on 7/8/90 (1234567890) Sequential time in USA.
1991 Devon Conway, New Zealand cricket batsman (7th batsman in history to score a double century on Test debut; 200 v England 2021), born in Johannesburg, South Africa.
1994 Preliminary trial rules there is enough evidence to try O.J. Simpson.
1996 British girls group the Spice Girls release their debut single "Wannabe" in the UK.
1999 "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" the 3rd book of the series by J. K. Rowling is published by Bloomsbury in the UK.
2000 "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", the 4th book in the series by J. K. Rowling is published in the UK (Bloomsbury) and the US (Scholastic).
2006 The death of the actor and voice artist Peter Hawkins. He voiced Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men, Big Ears & Mr. Plod from The Adventures of Noddy, all the voices for the animated series Captain Pugwash, The Adventures of Tintin and many more.
2009 The first ever cricket Test Match played in Wales took place at the SWALEC stadium in Cardiff today, between England and Australia.
2011 Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program.
2014 FIFA World Cup: Germany defeat Brazil by a record 7-1 in the semi-finals to make it to the final; Miroslav Klose of Germany breaks the World Cup goal scoring record with 16 goals.
2017 British Lions tie 15-15 with New Zealand All Blacks in their 3rd rugby match to tie the series.
2018 Four boys are the first to be rescued after 16 days, from Tham Luang cave, Thailand, by Thai and international rescue team.
2019 US financier Jeffrey Epstein indicted on further charges of sex trafficking of minors.