On July 7th...

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1304 Pope Benedict XI died.

1307 King Edward I of England died.

1520 Hernán Cortés and the Tlaxacalans defeated a numerically superior Aztec force at Otumba.

1537 Madeleine de Valois, wife of King James V of Scotland, died.

1543 French troops invaded Luxembourg.

1572 King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland died.

1585 The Treaty of Nemours abolished tolerance to Protestants in France.

1647 Preacher Thomas Hooker died.

1656 Composer Michelangelo Rossi died.

1663 Violinist Thomas Baltzar died.

1752 Joseph-Marie Jacquard, inventor of an improved textile loom, was born.

1753 The British Museum was established by an Act of Parliament.

1754 Kings College (now Columbia University) opened.

1801 Toussaint L'Ouverture declared Haiti independent.

1838 The Central American Federation was dissolved.

1846 The United States annexed California.

1860 Composer Gustav Mahler was born.

1862 The Land Grant Act, endowing state colleges with federal land, was enacted.

1863 The first U. S. military draft was implemented.

1865 Four persons convicted of conspiracy in the assassination of U. S. President Abraham Lincoln were hanged.

1879 Painter George Caleb Bingham died.

1887 Lottie Dod and Herbert Lawford won their respective singles championships at Wimbledon.
1887 Artist Marc Chagall was born.

1890 Willoughby Hamilton and Lena Rice won their respective singles championships at Wimbledon.
1890 Industrialist Henri Nestlé died.

1891 American Express employee Marcellus F. Berry was granted four copyrights for "the travelers cheque."

1892 Lottie Dod and Wilfred Baddeley won their respective singles championships at Wimbledon.

1894 Federal troops fired into a crowd of striking railroad workers in Chicago, killing at least a dozen.

1898 President William McKinley signed a resolution annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States.

1901 Author Johanna Spyri died.

1907 Author Robert A. Heinlein was born.

1911 Opera composer Gian Carlo Menotti was born.

1914 Robert Goddard received a patent for a multi-stage rocket.

1915 A Great Gorge and International Railway trolley crashed near Queenston, Ontario, Canada, killing 15 of the 157 passengers aboard.

1919 Suzanne Lenglen and Gerald Patterson won their respective singles championship at Wimbledon.

1923 Suzanne Lenglen and Bill Johnston won their respective singles championship at Wimbledon.

1927 Band leader Doc Severinsen was born.

1928 Sliced bread, created with a machine invented by Otto Frederick Rhowedder, was sold for the first time by the Chillicothe (Missouri) Baking Company.
1928 Actor Vince Edwards was born.

1930 Author Arthur Conan Doyle died.

1931 Author David Eddings was born.

1933 Helen Wills Moody and Jack Crawford won their respective singles championship at Wimbledon.

1937 Japan invaded China.

1939 Alice Marble and Bobby Riggs won their respective singles championship at Wimbledon.
1939 Dick Burton won the British Open.

1940 Beatles drummer Ringo Starr was born.

1941 U. S. forces landed in Iceland to forestall a German invasion.
1941 Beirut, Lebanon, was occupied by Free French and British troops.

1946 Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini became the first American to be canonized.

1947 An unidentified flying object crashed near Roswell, New Mexico.

1948 Six female reservists became the first women to be sworn into the regular U. S.Navy.
1948 Satchel Paige became the first Negro pitcher in the American League when he was signed by the Cleveland Indians.

1949 "Dragnet" premiered on NBC Radio.
1949 Actress Shelley Duvall was born.

1950 The United Nations Security Council established the United Nations Command to combat North Korean forces.
1950 Budge Patty and Louise Brough won their respective singles championships at Wimbledon.
1950 Bobby Locke won the British Open.

1953 Walter Burkemo won the PGA Championship.

1958 U. S. President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill offering statehood to Alaska.

1960 Hugh Hammond Bennett, the "father of soil conservation," died.

1965 A Russian-manned AN-12 crashed near Cairo, United Arab Republic, killing 29 persons.
1965 Moshe Sharett, the second Prime Minister of Israel, died.
1965 John Newcombe won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1967 Bille Jean King won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon.
1967 Actress Vivian Leigh died.
1967 Race car driver Jo Schlesser died.

1968 Susie Maxwell Berning won the U. S. Women's Open.
1968 Actress Jorja Fox was born.

1969 The Canadian House of Commons approved a bill making French, along with English, an official language of Canada.
1969 Charles Evers was sworn in as Mayor of Fayette, Mississippi.

1972 Athenagoras, Patriarch of Constantinople, died.
1972 Actress Kirsten Vangsness was born.

1973 Billie Jean King won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon.
1973 Actress Veronica Lake died.

1974 West Germany defeated the Netherlands for the FIFA World Cup.

1976 119 women joined the Corps of Cadets to establish the first class of women in the U. S. Military Academy at West Point.
1976 Gustav Heinemann, former President of West Germany, died.

1978 The discovery of Charon, a moon of Pluto, was announced.
1978 The Solomon Islands became a fully independent nation.
1978 Morris the Cat, commercial "spokesman" for 9 Lives cat food, died.
1978 Martina Navratilova won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1979 The United States and China signed a trade agreement that gave China "most-favored nation" status.
1979 Björn Borg won the men's championship at Wimbledon.

1980 Shawn Weatherly, Miss USA, was crowned Miss Universe.
1980 Figure skater Michelle Kwan was born.

1981 The solar-powered aircraft Solar Challenger completed a 163-mile flight across the English Channel.

1983 A Learjet Model 55 set a sustained altitude record of 52,000 feet.

1984 A train crash at Williston, Vermont, killed 5 persons.
1984 Martina Navratilova won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1985 Boris Becker won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1987 The Kiwanis Club voted to admit women.

1990 Martina Navratilova won the women's singles championship at Wimbledon.
1990 TV game show host Bill Cullen died.

1991 Michael Stich won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.

1995 The Space Shuttle Atlantis completed its joint mission with the Russian Space Station Mir.

1996 Richard Krajicek won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.
1996 Dave Stockton won the U. S. Senior Open.

2000 Racecar driver Kenny Irwin, Jr., died.

2002 Lleyton Hewitt won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.

2005 A series of bomb attacks on London, England's public transport system killed 52 persons and injured 700 others.

2006 Musician Syd Barrett died.

2013 An air taxi crashed in Soldotna, Alaska, killing 10 persons.
2013 Andy Murray won the men's singles championship at Wimbledon.

2014 Actor Richard Jones died.

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This page was last updated on July 07, 2018.