Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in July 2024 (listed six months in advance so you have time to write about them)
Historical anniversaries are great for ‘On This Day in History’ features, articles, biographies and other anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with newspaper and magazine readers and radio stations, and editors, producers and presenters love them. They’re easy to research too. You can also turn them into movies, documentaries, novels, use them to plan events and exhibitions, and much more. (Find out more at the end of this article.)
We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2024, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries (an average of eight newsworthy anniversaries for every day of the year).
1 Jul 1874 – 150 years ago
The first kidnapping for ransom in the USA.
Charley Ross, aged 4 and his brother Walter, aged 6, were kidnapped outside their home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by two men in a horse-drawn carriage. They went to a store and Walter was sent inside to buy fireworks. The carriage drove away while he was inside, taking Charley, who was never seen again. His father received several ransom demands for $20,000, but whenever it was offered the kidnappers failed to collect it.
2 Jul 1964 – 60 years ago
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 came into effect in the USA. The landmark act outlawed racial and sexual discrimination.
3 Jul 1924 – 100 years ago
The General Seafoods Company was founded by American inventor and entrepreneur Clarence Birdseye.
It specialised in frozen foods and the equipment for producing, transporting, storing and displaying it. The company was later renamed General Foods. It was acquired by the Postum Cereal Company in 1929, which adopted the name General Foods for its own business. It merged with Kraft in 1990.
4 Jul 1774 – 250 years ago
American Revolution: the Orangetown Resolutions were adopted in New York. The resolutions called for the Intolerable Acts (also called the Coercive Acts) passed by the British Parliament to be repealed. This led to the First Continental Congress in September 1774, the American Revolutionary War in April 1775, and the American Declaration of Independence in July 1776.
5 to 27 Jul 1924 – 100 years ago
The 1924 Summer Olympic Games were held in Paris, France.
6 Jul 1974 – 50 years ago
The BBC broadcast its first experimental quadraphonic radio programme BBC in Quad.
Listeners required two stereo radios: the sound for the front speakers was broadcast on Radio 2 and the rear speakers on Radio 3.
7 Jul 1954 – 70 years ago
Elvis Presley’s radio debut. Disc jockey Dewey Phillips played Presley’s first single That’s All Right on WHBQ in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. It proved popular, and Phillips called Presley into the studio for an interview later that day.
8 Jul 1949 – 75 years ago
The first piece of apartheid legislation came into effect in South Africa: the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, 1949.
It was repealed in 1985.
9 Jul 1984 – 40 years ago
York Minster in England was struck by lightning, which set fire to the roof and destroyed the south transept.
10 Jul 1949 – 75 years ago
The first television with a rectangular screen was introduced in Ohio, USA. The screen measured 16 x 12 inches.
11 Jul 1274 – 750 years ago
Birth of Robert I (‘Robert the Bruce’), King of Scotland (1306–29).
12 Jul 1984 – 40 years ago
Czech-born British media magnate Robert Maxwell bought the Daily Mirror newspaper.
(He died in 1991. Subsequent investigations found that he had misappropriated the company’s pension fund.)
13 Jul 1024 – 1000 years ago
Death of Henry II, (‘Saint Henry the Exuberant’), Holy Roman Emperor (1014–24). (Urinary infection, aged 51.)
Succeeded by Conrad II (from March 1027).
14 Jul 1999 – 25 years ago
U.S. limited release of the supernatural horror film The Blair Witch Project.
(Full release: 30th July. UK première: 8th October, released: 22nd October.)
15 Jul 1274 – 750 years ago
Death of Saint Bonaventure, Italian Franciscan theologian, philosopher and Doctor of the Church. (Canonised in 1482.)
16 to 22 Jul 1994 – 30 years ago
21 fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter.
17 Jul 1984 – 40 years ago
The national minimum drinking age in the USA was raised from 18 to 21.
18 Jul 1994 – 30 years ago
The Rwandan Civil War ended. Rwandan Patriotic Front victory.
19 Jul 1954 – 70 years ago
Elvis Presley’s first single That’s All Right was released.
20 Jul 1944 – 80 years ago
World War II: the 20th July plot.
The German Resistance movement attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in Berlin and remove the Nazi Party from power in a coup. The attempt failed. The movement’s central figure, Claus von Stauffenberg, and his fellow conspirators were executed the following day. The Gestapo also arrested at least 7,000 members of the resistance movement, of whom 4,980 are known to have been executed. This effectively ended the German Resistance movement.
21 Jul 1899 – 125 years ago
Birth of Ernest Hemingway, American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His best-known novels include The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, To Have and Have Not, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea. Winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.
22 Jul 1959 – 65 years ago
The science fiction horror film Plan 9 From Outer Space was released in the USA. It has been named the worst film ever made, and has gained a huge cult following. (U.S. preview: March 1957 as Grave Robbers From Outer Space. UK release: March 1960).
23 Jul 1984 – 40 years ago
Vanessa Williams became the first Miss America to resign her title, after nude photographs of her were published in Penthouse magazine. Suzette Charles replaced her.
24 Jul 1824 – 200 years ago
The results of the world’s first public opinion poll were published in the Harrisburg Pennsylvanian newspaper in the USA. The poll asked voters in Wilmington, Delaware how they would vote in the 1824 U.S. presidential election. 70 percent favoured Andrew Jackson. (Jackson narrowly won the popular vote, but John Quincy Adams was elected president.)
25 Jul 1959 – 65 years ago
The first hovercraft to cross the English Channel: the SRN-1, designed by British inventor Christopher Cockerell.
26 Jul 1984 – 40 years ago
Death of George Gallup, American statistician and public-opinion surveyor who established the Gallup Poll.
27 Jul 1824 – 200 years ago
Birth of Alexandre Dumas fils, French novelist and playwright. Best known for his romantic novel La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camellias). It was adapted by Giuseppe Verdi into his opera La Traviata, and into numerous plays and films called Camille.
Son of Alexandre Dumas père, who wrote The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
28 Jul 1964 – 60 years ago
NASA launched its Ranger 7 space probe on a mission to the Moon.
On 31st July it sent back the first close-up images of the lunar surface.
29 Jul 1949 – 75 years ago
The BBC began broadcasting regular weather forecasts on television.
30 Jul 1954 – 70 years ago
The Television Act was passed in the UK. This led to the establishment of the commercial TV network.
The Independent Television Authority (ITA) began operating on 4th August.
ITV began broadcasting in the London area in September 1955 and was available nationally by September 1962.
31 Jul 1954 – 70 years ago
The first successful ascent of K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, by Italian mountaineers Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli. (Ardito Desio, who is often credited with the first ascent, led the expedition but did not go to the summit.)
More anniversaries:
You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2024. The 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The anniversaries are available as PDF ebooks, Excel spreadsheets, and printed paperback books.
How to use the anniversaries:
If you’d like to know more about how to turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines and newspapers, take a look at our free 68-page guide, Ditch Your Day Job: the easiest way to make a living (or earn some extra cash) as a writer.
It has some terrific bonuses too, including a complete month of anniversaries from The Date-A-Base Book 2023, hundreds of article-writing tips and ideas, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.