Historical anniversaries are great for “On This Day in History” features and anniversary tie-ins. They’re popular with readers and viewers, editors and producers love them, they’re easy to research, and you can easily turn them into newspaper and magazine articles, films, TV/radio/theatre shows, and more.
Here are 31 newsworthy and notable historical anniversaries coming up in July 2022 (so you have time to write about them!)
We’ve randomly picked one anniversary for each day of the month from The Date-A-Base Book 2022. You’ll find hundreds more in the book. The 2023 and 2024 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The 2025 edition will also be available in a week or two.
1 Jul 1872 – 150 years ago
Birth of Louis Blériot, French inventor and aviation pioneer. He developed the first practical headlamp for cars, used the money to build the first successful powered monoplane, developed the modern aircraft control system, and became the first person to fly across the English Channel.
2 Jul 1922 – 100 years ago
Water skiing was invented by Ralph Samuelson at Lake Pepin, Minnesota, USA.
3 Jul 1997 – 25 years ago
The U.S. state of Mississippi settled a landmark $3.4 billion health care lawsuit against the tobacco industry. It was the first state to do so.
4 Jul 1872 – 150 years ago
Birth of Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States (1923–29).
5 Jul 1962 – 60 years ago
Algeria gained its independence from France
6 Jul 1942 – 80 years ago
Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in a secret annex at her father’s workplace in Amsterdam.
7 Jul 1952 – 70 years ago
The U.S. ocean liner SS United States became the fastest passenger ship to cross the Atlantic. The record of 3 days, 10 hours, 40 minutes still stands.
8 Jul 1822 – 200 years ago
Death of Percy Bysshe Shelley, British poet. (Drowned, aged 29.)
9 Jul 1947 – 75 years ago
Florence Blanchfield was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, becoming the first woman in the USA to hold a permanent military rank.
10 Jul 1962 – 60 years ago
The American communications satellite Telstar was launched. It transmitted the first transatlantic TV signal to Europe later that day. The first official broadcast was on 23rd July. It could only relay a signal for 20 minutes per orbit.
11 Jul 1922 – 100 years ago
The Hollywood Bowl amphitheatre/music venue opened in Los Angeles, California, USA.
12 Jul 1962 – 60 years ago
The British rock band the Rolling Stones played their first live performance, at the Marquee Club in London.
13 Jul 1897 – 125 years ago
Italian inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi was granted a U.S. patent for his wireless telegraph system. (He was also granted a UK patent on 2nd July.)
14 Jul 1992 – 30 years ago
The Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! museum in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, USA was destroyed by fire.
15 Jul 1897 – 125 years ago
The Klondike gold rush began when prospectors from San Francisco, California, USA set off en masse for the Yukon in north-western Canada.
16 Jul 622 – 1400 years ago
The beginning of the Islamic calendar. Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina to escape religious persecution (an event known as the Hegira), and established the first Muslim community.
17 Jul 1997 – 25 years ago
The internet broke down when a system operator at Network Solutions in Virginia, USA accidentally uploaded a corrupt database to the root domain servers. On the same day, a construction company sliced through a fibre optic cable, affecting millions of users in the eastern states. These incidents proved that the internet was not as robust as had been claimed.
18 Jul 1947 – 75 years ago
U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act into law. It defined the line of succession in the event that neither the President nor the Vice-President could fulfill their duties. Next in line would be the Speaker of the House, then the President pro tempore, followed by the Presidential Cabinet Secretaries and Officers in the order in which their respective departments were created.
19 Jul 1947 – 75 years ago
Death of Aung San, Burmese nationalist leader. Considered the father of modern Burma (now Myanmar). Father of politician Aung San Suu Kyi. (Assassinated along with six of his cabinet ministers.)
20 Jul 1822 – 200 years ago
Birth of Gregor Mendel, Austrian/Czech friar, botanist and geneticist who discovered the laws of heredity and created the science of genetics.
21 Jul 1897 – 125 years ago
The Tate Britain art museum opened in London, England.
22 Jul 1932 – 90 years ago
Death of Florenz (‘Flo’) Ziegfeld, American theatrical producer and impresario. Best known for his Ziegfeld Follies revue shows, and stage shows such as Show Boat.
23 Jul 1962 – 60 years ago
The first live transatlantic television broadcast. It was hosted by Walter Cronkite in the USA and broadcast to the UK and France via the Telstar 1 satellite.
24 Jul 1847 – 175 years ago
Salt Lake City in Utah, USA was founded. Mormon pioneers led by Brigham Young arrived there after a 17-month journey and established a settlement where they would be free from religious persecution. At the time, the area was part of Mexico.
25 Jul 1952 – 70 years ago
The current Constitution of Puerto Rico came into effect. It established Puerto Rico as a commonwealth in union with the United States.
26 Jul 1947 – 75 years ago
U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act into law. It led to the creation of the Department of Defense, the National Military Establishment, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It also separated the Army Air Forces into its own service – the Department of the Air Force. (Effective from 18th September 1947.)
27 Jul 2002 – 20 years ago
Ukraine air show disaster. A military jet crashed into the crowd at an air show in Lviv, western Ukraine, killing more than 80 people and injuring over 100. It was the world’s worst air show disaster.
28 Jul 1922 – 100 years ago
Birth of Jacques Piccard, Belgian-born Swiss oceanographer and engineer. Best known for developing deep-sea submarines including the Challenger Deep in which he and Don Walsh became the first people to reach the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth. (Died 2008.)
29 Jul 1957 – 65 years ago
The International Atomic Energy Agency was established. It promotes the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
30 Jul 1942 – 80 years ago
The song White Christmas by Bing Crosby was released. It became the bestselling single of all time, selling more than 50 million copies worldwide.
31 Jul 1942 – 80 years ago
The charity Oxfam was founded in the UK (as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief).
More anniversaries:
You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for this month in The Date-A-Base Book 2022. The 2023 and 2024 editions are also available if you work further ahead. The 2025 edition will be released in the next week or two, with the 2026 and 2027 editions following in March and June 2022. Find out more at ideas4writers.com.