Tag: July

Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in July 2025 (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 selected an anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2025, which lists more than 3,600 anniversaries. The Date-A-Base Book 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 are also available. The 2030 edition will be published in April 2025.

1 Jul 1775 – 250 years ago
American Revolution: the New England Restraining Act came into effect. The British Parliament forbade its North American colonies from trading with anyone other than Britain, Ireland and the British West Indies. It also prohibited the colonies from fishing in the Atlantic without authorisation.

2 Jul 1900 – 125 years ago
The Zeppelin LZ 1 made its first flight over Lake Constance in southern Germany. It was the world’s first rigid airship. On this first test flight it flew 3.7 miles before one of its engines failed and it had to make an emergency landing for repairs.

3 Jul 1985 – 40 years ago
The time-travel comedy film Back to the Future was released in the USA. (UK: 4^th December.)

4 Jul 1950 – 75 years ago
Cold War: Radio Free Europe made its first broadcast (to Czechoslovakia). Its aim was to bring about the peaceful demise of the Communists.

5 Jul 1950 – 75 years ago
The Law of Return was passed in Israel. It granted all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel.

6 Jul 1925 – 100 years ago
Birth of Bill Haley, American rock and roll singer (Bill Haley and His Comets). Best known for the songs Rock Around the Clock, See You Later, Alligator and Shake, Rattle and Roll. (Died 1981.)

7 Jul 2005 – 20 years ago
The 7^th July London bombings, UK. A coordinated series of four suicide bomb attacks on London’s transport system during the morning rush hour. 56 people were killed, including the four bombers. More than 700 were injured. It was the worst-ever terrorist attack on Britain, and the country’s first attack by suicide bombers. There was a second attack on 21^st July.

8 Jul 1965 – 60 years ago
British Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs escaped from Wandsworth Prison in London. He lived in Brazil until 2001 when he returned to the UK and was re-imprisoned. Released July 2009. Died December 2013.

9 Jul 1960 – 65 years ago
Cold War: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev traded threats over Cuba. Khrushchev said the Soviet Union was prepared to use nuclear missiles to protect Cuba from U.S. intervention, and said the USA was no longer an unreachable target. Eisenhower said the USA would not countenance the establishment of a communist regime in the West. The two leaders continued to exchange charges and counter-charges in a bitter war of words.

10 – 21 Jul 1925 – 100 years ago
The Scopes Trial, Dayton, Tennessee, USA. High school science teacher John Scopes was charged with teaching the theory of evolution, in violation of a Tennessee state law (the Butler Act). He was found guilty and fined $100, but the conviction was later over-turned by the Court of Appeal and the trial was declared void. Scopes had agreed to be tried for violating the act. The trial was organised as a publicity stunt to gain attention for the town of Dayton, and was funded by the American Civil Liberties Union. The Butler Act was repealed in 1967.

11 Jul 1950 – 75 years ago
The first episode of the BBC children’s television show Andy Pandy was broadcast in the UK.

12 Jul 1960 – 65 years ago
The Etch-A-Sketch children’s toy first went on sale.

13 Jul 1985 – 40 years ago
Live Aid. Two simultaneous concerts in London and Philadelphia, plus other venues including Sydney and Moscow, raised millions of pounds for famine victims in Africa.

14 – 15 Jul 1965 – 60 years ago
NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft flew past Mars and sent back the first close-up photos of another planet.

15 Jul 1955 – 70 years ago
The Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons was signed in Germany by eighteen Nobel Prize laureates. 52 had signed it within a year.

16 Jul 1945 – 80 years ago
The USA detonated the world’s first nuclear weapon (‘Fat Boy’) at the Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

17 Jul 1850 – 175 years ago
The first photo of a star (Vega) was taken by William Bond and John Adams Whipple at Harvard College Observatory in the USA.

18 Jul 1925 – 100 years ago
The first volume of Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf (My Struggle) was published.

19 Jul 1900 – 125 years ago
The Paris Métro in France began operating.

20 Jul 1960 – 65 years ago
The first Polaris missile was successfully test launched from a submerged submarine, the USS George Washington, off Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.

21 Jul 1925 to Jun 1927 – 100 years ago
The Great Syrian Revolt. French victory.

22 Jul 1950 – 75 years ago
King Leopold III of Belgium returned to the throne after more than five years in exile. His return was marked by violent protests and a general strike, and on 1^st August he announced his abdication. He officially abdicated on 16^th July 1951 and was succeeded by his son Baudouin on 17^th July.

23 Jul 1985 – 40 years ago
The Commodore Amiga 1000 personal computer was released. Its advanced graphics and audio capabilities led to it being called ‘the first multimedia computer’.

24 Jul 1950 – 75 years ago
The first rocket to be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA: the Bumper 2. Its first stage was a captured German V-2 rocket, and its upper stage was a U.S. Army WAC Corporal rocket. It reached a height of 25 miles.

25 Jul 1925 – 100 years ago
TASS, the official news agency of the Soviet Union, was established. It was a successor of the Commercial Telegraph Agency, which was established in 1902.

26 Jul 1775 – 250 years ago
American Revolution: the Second Continental Congress established the United States Post Office, headed by Benjamin Franklin. After the American Revolution, the official United States Post Office Department was established in 1792.

27 Jul 1900 – 125 years ago
Birth of Charles Vidor, Hungarian-born American film director (The Tuttles of Tahiti, The Desperadoes, Gilda, Hans Christian Andersen, A Farewell to Arms, and many more).

28 Jul 2005 – 20 years ago
The IRA ended its thirty-year armed campaign in Northern Ireland and ordered all units to dump their weapons. Its leadership stated that they would continue their campaign exclusively through peaceful means.

29 Jul 1945 – 80 years ago
The BBC Light Programme radio station was launched in the UK. It broadcast mainstream light entertainment and music. It became BBC Radio 2 in 1967.

30 Jul 1975 – 50 years ago
American trade union leader Jimmy Hoffa disappeared from a restaurant car park in Detroit, Michigan. He was never seen again. He was declared dead in July 1982.

31 Jul 1875 – 150 years ago
Death of Andrew Johnson, 17^th President of the United States (1865–69). He was Vice-President to Abraham Lincoln and assumed the presidency after Lincoln was assassinated.

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2025.

The 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 editions are also available if you work further ahead.

Each edition is available as a PDF ebook (with a free Excel spreadsheet) or as a printed paperback book.

How to use the anniversaries:

How can you turn the anniversaries listed here and in The Date-A-Base Books into articles for magazines, newspapers and websites? How do you get paid for writing them, and how can you make a great living from it?

Download our free guide Ditch Your Day Job. It tells you everything you need to know!

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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: 30^th July. UK première: 8^th October, released: 22^nd 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 31^st 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 4^th 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.

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Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries in July 2023
(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 films, 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 2023, which lists more than 3,000 anniversaries.

1 Jul 1948 – 75 years ago
New York International Airport (originally Idlewild Airport) was officially opened.
(It was renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1963.)

2 Jul 1973 – 50 years ago
The National Black Network (NBN) launched in the USA. It was the first national radio network wholly owned by African Americans.

3 Jul 1423 – 600 years ago
Birth of Louis XI, King of France (1461–83).

4 Jul 1623 – 400 years ago
Death of William Byrd, English Renaissance composer. Regarded as one of the greatest British composers. Best known for his sacred music.

5 Jul 1948 – 75 years ago
Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) began operating.

6 Jul 1933 – 90 years ago
The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played, at Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

7 Jul 1948 – 75 years ago
The first six enlisted women were sworn into the regular U.S. Navy.

8 Jul 1933 – 90 years ago
Great Depression: the Public Works Administration (PWA) began operating in the USA. Its purpose was to build large-scale public projects including dams, bridges, schools, hospitals and warships to provide employment and stimulate the economy.

9 Jul 1958 – 65 years ago
Lituya Bay megatsunami, Alaska, USA.
An earthquake caused 90 million tons of rock to fall several hundred metres into the bay. The resulting tsunami destroyed vegetation up to 1,722 feet (525 metres) above the bay and sent a 98- foot (30-metre) wave across the bay.
It remains the largest and most significant megatsunami of modern times.

10 Jul 1973 – 50 years ago
John Paul Getty III, the 16-year-old grandson of the American oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, was kidnapped in Rome, Italy.
In November the kidnappers cut off one of his ears and sent it to a newspaper.
He was released in December after a ransom was paid.
(The kidnapping scarred him for life and he became addicted to drugs and alcohol, leading to an overdose, stroke, and severe disability. He died in 2011, aged 54.)

11 Jul 1848 – 175 years ago
Waterloo railway station in London opened.

12 Jul 1963 – 60 years ago
The Moors Murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, killed their first victim, 16-year-old Pauline Reade, on Saddleworth Moor, north-west England.

13 Jul 1923 – 100 years ago
The Hollywood Sign was officially dedicated in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.
(It was originally erected as a temporary advertisement for a housing development, and read ‘Hollywoodland’.)

14 Jul 1983 – 40 years ago
Nintendo released the arcade video game Mario Bros in Japan. (USA: 20^th July.)

15 Jul 1948 – 75 years ago
The British branch of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was founded in London.
(Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in the USA in 1935.)

16 Jul 1723 – 300 years ago
Birth of Sir Joshua Reynolds, English portrait artist.

17 Jul 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of John Cooper, British racing car designer. Co-founder of the Cooper Car Company (with his father, Charles). He also designed the Mini Cooper. (Died 2000.)

18 Jul 1948 – 75 years ago
Argentine racing driver Juan Manuel Fangio made his Formula One debut in the 1948 French Grand Prix.
He went on to win the F1 Driver’s Championship five times (1951, 1954–57).

19 to 20 Jul 1848 – 175 years ago
The Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention in the USA, was held in Seneca Falls, New York.

20 Jul or 20 Jun 1923 – 100 years ago
Death of Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary and guerrilla leader. (Assassinated).

21 Jul 1873 – 150 years ago
American outlaw Jesse James and the James-Younger gang staged their first train robbery. They derailed a Rock Island Line express train near Adair, Iowa, and stole $3,000 (equivalent to $64,000 today).

22 Jul 1933 – 90 years ago
American aviator Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world.
He flew 15,596 miles in 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes.

23 Jul 1773 – 250 years ago
Birth of Thomas Brisbane, British Army officer, colonial administrator, and astronomer. Governor of New South Wales (1821–25).
The city of Brisbane, Australia was named in his honour.

24 Jul 1923 – 100 years ago
The Treaty of Lausanne was signed in Switzerland. It was the final treaty of WWI and defined the boundaries of modern Turkey.

25 Jul 1943 – 80 years ago
World War II: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was forced out of office. He was succeeded by Pietro Badoglio (as Prime Minister).
This marked the end of Italy’s alliance with Germany.

26 Jul 1958 – 65 years ago
Debutantes were presented at the British royal court for the last time.

27 Jul 1953 – 70 years ago
The Korean War ended. The Korean Armistice Treaty was signed at Panmunjom and the 38^th parallel became the official boundary between communist North Korea and anti-communist South Korea. (Tensions continued unabated.)

28 Jul 1933 – 90 years ago
Western Union delivered the first singing telegram – to American singer Rudy Vallee in New York on his 32^nd birthday.

29 Jul 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Jim Marshall, British electrical engineer and businessman. Founder of Marshall Amplification. (Died 2012.)

30 Jul 1898 – 125 years ago
The world’s first advertisement for a motor car appeared in newspapers in the USA.
The ad for the Winton Motor Carriage Company in Cleveland, Ohio invited readers to ‘Dispense with a horse’.

31 Jul 1923 – 100 years ago
Birth of Ahmet Ertegun, Turkish-born American record company executive. Co-founder and President of Atlantic Records.
He was one of the most significant and influential figures in American popular music, and discovered many leading musicians. (Died 2006.)

More anniversaries:

You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2023. The 2024, 2025 and 2026 and 2027 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The 2028 edition will be available from April 2023. Find out more at ideas4writers.com.

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, 301 article-writing ideas and tips, plus a 25 percent discount when you buy two or more editions of The Date-A-Base Book.

Share this: