7th July — World Chocolate Day & Global Forgiveness Day
Welcome to 7th July! It's World Chocolate Day and Global Forgiveness Day. Explore 59 historical events, birthdays, deaths, and milestones that shaped this day. From remarkable moments in local and world history to the people who left their mark — find out what makes today special. Tonight's moon is in its waning crescent phase, and the zodiac sign of the day is Cancer. If you're curious about the history of a day — this page brings together everything worth knowing about this 7th July.
Monday, 7 July falls under the zodiac sign of Cancer, characterised by emotional depth and intuition. The moon is in its waning crescent phase, a time traditionally associated with reflection and release.
On this day
On 7 July 1937, the Peel Commission published a report that would reshape the political landscape of the Middle East. The Commission concluded that the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine had become unworkable and recommended partitioning British-administered Mandatory Palestine into two separate states, a proposal that would generate decades of conflict and diplomatic tension.
The Yugoslav Wars saw significant progress on this date in 1991 when the Brioni Agreement was signed, effectively ending the Ten-Day War between the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Slovenia. The agreement marked the beginning of the end for Yugoslavia's immediate military crisis, though broader conflicts would continue across the region for years to come.
In 1974, West Germany achieved a major sporting triumph when the national football team defeated the Netherlands in the FIFA World Cup final at the Munich Olympiastadion, capturing the trophy and cementing the country's status as a football powerhouse during the Cold War era.
World Chocolate Day
World Chocolate Day falls on 7 July each year to commemorate the date chocolate was first brought to Europe in 1550. The day celebrates the cultural and economic significance of chocolate across the globe, recognising its role in both culinary traditions and industrial production. The observance has gained international recognition over the past two decades, with chocolate manufacturers and enthusiasts marking the occasion through events and promotions worldwide.
Global Forgiveness Day
Global Forgiveness Day is observed on 7 July to encourage individuals and communities to practise forgiveness and reconciliation. The day promotes the idea that letting go of grudges and resentment can lead to personal healing and stronger relationships. It has been recognised internationally as an opportunity to address conflicts and foster peace at both personal and collective levels.
DayAtlas provides comprehensive information for any date and location, including historical events, weather conditions, and notable births and deaths. Users can explore what happened on specific days throughout history alongside meteorological data and astrological details.
Explore everything about today 2nd June.
A cook's taste memory holds more truth than any recipe's precision.
Fortune of the Day
7th July in the Stars – Star Sign Cancer
Personality Profile
Personality Those born on 7 July are deeply feeling, intuitive individuals with a strong family orientation. Ruled by the Moon, they possess remarkable emotional sensitivity and protective instincts. Numerology 5 adds a surprising craving for adventure and change beneath their nurturing exterior.
Strengths & Weaknesses Their emotional intelligence, loyalty, and capacity to support others are formidable strengths. However, they tend toward moodiness and can become overwhelmed by worry. Finding equilibrium between heart and mind remains their central life lesson.
Love These natives crave deep emotional bonds and domestic security in relationships. Their tenderness and devotion make them devoted partners. They thrive with someone who honors their feelings and shares their love of home.
Caree & Finance Careers using their empathy flourish—counseling, caregiving, social work, or creative fields suit them well. Financially cautious yet occasionally impulsive, they prioritize emotional fulfillment over wealth. Security and meaning matter more than high earnings.
Health Emotional sensitivity requires attention to mental and physical wellness. Regular rest, nature time, and close relationships nourish them deeply. Their digestion is stress-reactive—mindfulness and emotional expression support their vitality.
That night, the moon was in its waning crescent phase.
Chinese year of the Snake (Wood).
Fun Facts About 7th July
Name Days in Your Language: Ralph, Randall, Randi, Randolph, Randy, Raoul, Raul, Rogelio, Roger
Someone born on this day would be just 330 days old today — roughly 7,940 hours, 476,427 minutes, or 28,585,648 seconds spent on Earth so far.
It's the 188. day of the year. In 2025, 7th July falls on a Monday.
There are 177 days still to come.
We’re currently in Week 28 — the year marches on.
Famous Birthdays on 7th July
On this day, 187 notable people were born on 7th July — spanning from 611 to 1999. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.
07/07/1999
Moussa Diaby, French footballer
Moussa Diaby is a French professional footballer who plays as a winger or wide midfielder for Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad and the France national team.
07/07/1997
Mizuho Habu, Japanese idol and model
Mizuho Habu is a Japanese model. She is a former member of Japanese idol group Sakurazaka46 & was formerly represented by Sony Music Records.
James Marriott, English musician and online content creator
James William Marriott is a Swiss-born English musician and YouTuber. He is best known for his 2025 No. 1 UK-charting album Don't Tell the Dog and 2026 Top 40 single “California Rain”. Earlier, he charted at No. 17 on the UK Albums Chart with Are We There Yet? and No. 67 on the UK singles chart with "I Don't Want to Live Like This".
07/07/1996
Yoon Chae-kyung, South Korean singer and actress
Yoon Chae-kyung, is a South Korean actress and singer. Yoon began her career with debuted as a member of Puretty under DSP in Japan during 2012 and the group later disbanded in January 2014. Following the disbandment, Yoon appeared as a contestant in the 2014 Kara's reality show for searching a new member Kara Project. She also appeared in the reality show Produce 101 and later in the mockumentary series The God of Music 2 which she became a member of project group C.I.V.A and also joined the fan-made group of Produce 101, I.B.I both respectively in 2016. Yoon later was added as a member of the DSP girl group April in 2016 and participated in group activities until their disbandment in 2022.
07/07/1994
Nigina Abduraimova, Uzbekistani tennis player
Nigina Abduraimova is an Uzbeki professional tennis player.
Timothy Cathcart, Northern Irish race car driver (died 2014)
Timothy Cathcart was a Northern Irish rally driver from Enniskillen who was killed at the Todds Leap Ulster Rally, a round of the 2014 British Rally Championship season, after his Citroën DS3 R3T vehicle left the road and crashed near Fivemiletown.
Ashton Irwin, Australian musician
Ashton Fletcher Irwin is an Australian musician, best known as the drummer of the pop rock band 5 Seconds of Summer. Since 2014, 5 Seconds of Summer have sold more than 10 million albums, sold over 2 million concert tickets worldwide, and the band's songs streams surpass 7 billion, making them one of the most successful Australian musical exports in history.
07/07/1992
Ellina Anissimova, Estonian hammer thrower
Ellina Anissimova is an Estonian hammer thrower.
Dominik Furman, Polish footballer
Dominik Grzegorz Furman is a Polish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
07/07/1991
Alesso, Swedish DJ, record producer and musician
Alessandro Renato Rodolfo Lindblad, better known by his stage name Alesso, is a Swedish DJ and record producer.
07/07/1990
Lee Addy, Ghanaian footballer
Lee Addy is a Ghanaian former professional footballer who played as a defender. He played for the Ghana national team at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Pascal Stöger, Austrian footballer
Pascal Stöger is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Union Dietach. He is the brother of Kevin Stöger.
07/07/1989
Landon Cassill, American race car driver
Landon Douglas Cassill is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He last competed full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 10 Chevrolet Camaro for Kaulig Racing.
Miina Kallas, Estonian footballer
This is a complete list of Estonia women's international footballers – women's association football players who have played for the Estonia women's national football team.
Karl-August Tiirmaa, Estonian skier
Karl-August Tiirmaa is an Estonian Nordic combined skier.
07/07/1988
Kaci Brown, American singer-songwriter
Kaci Deanne Brown is an American singer and songwriter. Born in Sulphur Springs, Texas, she began performing at an early age, performing across Texas and winning the title of "Little Miss Texas Overall Grand Talent" at ten years old. At age 11, she moved with her family to Nashville, Tennessee in 2001, where she quickly established herself in the country scene. She soon signed a music publishing deal as a staff songwriter with Roy and Barbara Orbison's Still Working Music, initially with the intention of developing a career in country music. She eventually chose to pursue a pop career and toured with the Backstreet Boys. At age 17, she released her debut album Instigator via Interscope Records in 2005. She co-wrote all but one of the album's songs with producer Toby Gad.
Lukas Rosenthal, German rugby player
Lukas Rosenthal is a German international rugby union player, playing for the TSV Handschuhsheim in the Rugby-Bundesliga and the German national rugby union team.
07/07/1986
Ana Kasparian, American journalist and producer
Anahit Misak "Ana" Kasparian is an American political commentator, journalist, producer, and media host. She is best known as the co-host and executive producer of The Young Turks (TYT), one of the largest online progressive news networks. She is also known for hosting TYT programs including The Point and NoFilter, as well as co-hosting a Jacobin YouTube show Weekends, alongside political commentators including Michael Brooks and Nando Vila.
Udo Schwarz, German rugby player
Udo Schwarz is a German international rugby union player, playing for the SC Neuenheim in the Rugby-Bundesliga and the German national rugby union team.
Sevyn Streeter, American singer-songwriter
Amber Denise "Sevyn" Streeter is an American singer, best known for being a member of the girl groups TG4 and RichGirl where she was known as Se7en. She signed to Atlantic Records and released her debut single "I Like It" in 2012.
07/07/1985
Marc Stein, German footballer
Marc Stein is a German former professional footballer who played as a full-back.
07/07/1984
Minas Alozidis, Greek hurdler
Minás Alozídis is a Greek and Cypriot hurdler. He competes in the 200m and 400m hurdles events. Representing Greece, he finished 7th in the 400m hurdles final at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg. At the 2009 Games of the Small States of Europe, he won gold medals in the 400 metres hurdles and 4 x 400 metres relay, while representing Cyprus.
Alberto Aquilani, Italian footballer
Alberto Aquilani is an Italian football manager and former player who is the manager of Serie B club Catanzaro. Mainly a central midfielder, he usually operated as a deep-lying playmaker but was also capable of playing as an attacking midfielder.
Mohammad Ashraful, Bangladeshi cricketer
Mohammad Ashraful is a Bangladeshi cricketer, who has represented the Bangladesh men's national team.
07/07/1983
Justin Davies, Australian footballer
Justin Davies is a former Australian rules footballer who played in the Australian Football League (AFL).
07/07/1982
Jan Laštůvka, Czech footballer
Jan Laštůvka is a Czech former professional footballer who last played as a goalkeeper for Baník Ostrava.
George Owu, Ghanaian footballer
George Owu is a Ghanaian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
Asia O'Hara, American drag performer
Antwan Mason Lee, better known by the stage name Asia O'Hara, is an American drag queen, reality television personality, and costume designer. She is most well known for competing on the tenth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, in which she placed fourth. Since her season aired in 2018, O'Hara has been a staple of several domestic and international tours that feature Drag Race contestants, including Werq the World, Christmas Queens and Drive 'N Drag. She has also appeared on a number of web series produced by World of Wonder, including Can Do Queens, which she co-hosts with Kameron Michaels. In June 2018, she released "Queen for Tonight", her debut single. Her second single, "Crown Up", was released on May 20, 2019, along with an accompanying music video. Since January 2020, she has been a staple cast member of RuPaul's Drag Race Live!, a residency show in Las Vegas, and also stars in the accompanying VH1 miniseries RuPaul's Drag Race: Vegas Revue.
07/07/1981
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Indian cricketer
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is an Indian professional cricketer who plays as a right-handed batter and a wicket-keeper. Widely regarded as one of the most prolific wicket-keeper batsmen and captains, he represented the Indian cricket team and was the captain of the team in limited overs formats from 2007 to 2017 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. Dhoni has captained the most international matches and is the most successful Indian captain. He has led India to victory in the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, the 2011 Cricket World Cup, and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy, being the only captain to win three different limited overs ICC tournaments. He also led the teams that won the Asia Cup in 2010 and 2016, and he was a member of the title winning squad in 2018.
Synyster Gates, American guitarist
Brian Elwin Haner Jr., better known by his stage name Synyster Gates or simply Syn, is an American guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist of heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. He ranks No. 9 on Guitar World's best metal guitarists of all time. Gates was voted as Best Metal Guitarist in the World by Total Guitar in 2016 and once again in 2017.
07/07/1980
John Buck, American baseball player
Johnathan Richard Buck is an American former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals, Toronto Blue Jays, Florida/Miami Marlins, New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He went to high school in Taylorsville, Utah.
Serdar Kulbilge, Turkish footballer
Serdar Kulbilge is a Turkish former footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
Michelle Kwan, American figure skater
Michelle Wingshan Kwan is an American retired competitive figure skater and diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to Belize from 2022 to 2025. In figure skating Kwan is a two-time Olympic medalist, a five-time world champion and a nine-time U.S. champion. She is tied with Maribel Vinson for the all-time National Championship record.
07/07/1979
Ibrahim Sulayman Muhammad Arbaysh, Saudi Arabian terrorist (died 2015)
Ibrahim Sulayman Muhammad al-Rubaish was a militant and a senior leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. He was released into the custody of Saudi Arabian authorities and then escaped in 2006. He became AQAP's mufti.
Anastasios Gousis, Greek sprinter
Anastasios "Tasos" Gousis is a Greek sprint athlete.
Douglas Hondo, Zimbabwean cricketer
Douglas Tafadzwa Hondo is a former Zimbabwean cricketer, who played nine Test matches and 56 One Day Internationals as a right-arm medium-fast swing bowler, and is distinctive for his dreadlocks.
07/07/1978
Chris Andersen, American basketball player
Christopher Claus Andersen is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "Birdman" for his wingspan and blocking prowess, Andersen was born in Long Beach, California, grew up in Iola, Texas, and played one year at Blinn College. Andersen began his professional career in the Chinese Basketball Association and the American minor leagues.
Davor Kraljević, Croatian footballer
Davor Kraljević is a Croatian retired footballer.
07/07/1976
Bérénice Bejo, Argentinian-French actress
Bérénice Bejo is a French-Argentine actress best known for playing Christiana in A Knight's Tale (2001) and Peppy Miller in The Artist (2011). Her work in the latter earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won her the César Award for Best Actress. For her performance in The Past, she won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013 and was nominated for a César.
Dominic Foley, Irish footballer
Dominic Joseph Foley is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a forward.
Ercüment Olgundeniz, Turkish discus thrower and shot putter
Ercüment Olgundeniz is a Turkish track and field athlete competing in the discus and occasionally shot put. The 198 cm tall athlete at 146 kg (322 lb) is a member of Enkaspor, where he is coached by Teodoru Agachi.
Vasily Petrenko, Russian conductor
Vasily Eduardovich Petrenko is a Russian-British conductor. He is currently music director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
07/07/1975
Tony Benshoof, American luger
Antony Lee "Tony" Benshoof is an American luger from White Bear Lake, Minnesota who has been competing since 1990. He won three medals in the mixed team event at the FIL World Luge Championships with two silvers and one bronze (2001).
Louis Koen, South African rugby player
Louis Johannes Koen is a South-African rugby union player who played for the Springboks, until 2003, when he moved abroad following the World Cup.
Adam Nelson, American shot putter
Adam McCright Nelson is a retired American shot putter and Olympic gold medalist. Nelson competed in three consecutive Olympic Games in 2000, 2004 and 2008. In addition to his gold medal at the 2004 Olympics, Nelson won a silver medal at the 2000 Olympics.
07/07/1974
Patrick Lalime, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
Patrick Lalime is a Canadian ice hockey commentator and former professional ice hockey player who played twelve seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators, St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks and Buffalo Sabres. Lalime retired from playing in 2011 to join the Réseau des sports (RDS) television network covering the Ottawa Senators, but has since left RDS to cover the Montreal Canadiens and the NHL for TVA Sports.
07/07/1973
José Jiménez, Dominican baseball player
José Jiménez is a Dominican former professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB). He appeared in seven seasons from 1998 to 2004 for the St. Louis Cardinals, Colorado Rockies, and Cleveland Indians. The Cardinals signed him as an amateur free agent in his native Dominican Republic in 1991. Jiménez' career in MLB commenced as a starting pitcher with the Cardinals and he converted to relief pitching with the Rockies, saving more than 100 games.
07/07/1972
Lisa Leslie, American basketball player and actress
Lisa Deshaun Leslie is an American former professional basketball player. She is formerly the head coach for Triplets in the BIG3 professional basketball league, as well as a studio analyst for Orlando Magic broadcasts on FanDuel Sports Network Florida. In 2002, Leslie made history as the first player to dunk during a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) game. Leslie was ranked 5th on ESPN.com's 2021 list of the WNBA's greatest players of all time.
Manfred Stohl, Austrian race car driver
Manfred Stohl is an Austrian rally driver who debuted in the World Rally Championship in 1991. Stohl's co-driver is fellow Austrian Ilka Minor.
Kirsten Vangsness, American actress and writer
Kirsten Vangsness is an American actress and writer best known for her role as FBI technical analyst Penelope Garcia on CBS's Criminal Minds, as well as the spin-offs Suspect Behavior and Beyond Borders.
07/07/1971
Christian Camargo, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
Christian Camargo is an American actor, director, producer, and writer. He is best known for his role as Brian Moser in the Showtime drama Dexter and army officer John Cambridge in the Academy Award-winning film The Hurt Locker. Camargo's other roles include Michael Corrigan in the Netflix drama House of Cards, Count Dracula in the third season of Penny Dreadful, Eleazar in the films The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Parts 1 and 2, and Tamacti Jun in See.
07/07/1970
Wayne McCullough, Northern Irish boxer
Wayne Pocket Rocket McCullough is a former professional boxer from Northern Ireland who competed from 1993 to 2008. He held the WBC bantamweight title from 1995 to 1997, becoming the first boxer from Northern Ireland to win a WBC championship.
Min Patel, Indian-English cricketer
Minal Mahesh Patel is a retired Indian-born English cricketer who made two appearances in Test cricket for the England cricket team. He was a right-handed batsman and a slow left arm bowler, who primarily played for Kent County Cricket Club. As of 2018 he is the Second XI coach at Kent.
Erik Zabel, German cyclist and coach
Erik Zabel is a German former professional road bicycle racer who raced for most of his career with Team Telekom. With 152 professional wins and 211 wins in his career, he is considered by some to be one of the greatest German cyclists and cycling sprinters of all time. Zabel won a record nine points classifications in grands tours including the points classification in the Tour de France six consecutive years between 1996 and 2001 and the points classification in the Vuelta a España in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Zabel won the Milan–San Remo four times and numerous six-day track events. He was one of the few road cyclists of recent times who raced all year, including track cycling in winter. For season 2012 he joined Team Katusha as sprint coach. He previously held that same position with the HTC–Highroad team until their dissolution. Zabel admitted to doping from 1996 to 2003. He is the father of cyclist Rick Zabel.
07/07/1969
Sylke Otto, German luger
Sylke Otto is a German former luger who competed from 1991 to 2007. She was born in Karl-Marx-Stadt. Competing in three Winter Olympics, she won the gold medal in the women's singles event in 2002 and 2006.
Joe Sakic, Canadian ice hockey player
Joseph Steven Sakic is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. He spent his entire 21-year National Hockey League (NHL) career, which lasted from 1988 to 2009, with the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche franchise. Named captain of the team in 1992, Sakic is regarded as one of the greatest team leaders in league history and was able to consistently motivate his team to play at a winning level. Nicknamed "Burnaby Joe", Sakic was named to 13 NHL All-Star Games and selected to the NHL First All-Star Team at centre three times. Sakic led the Avalanche to two first-place regular season finishes in 1997 and 2001, and two Stanley Cup titles in 1996 and 2001, earning the most valuable player (MVP) in the 1996 playoffs. In 2001, Sakic earned both the Hart Memorial Trophy and Lester B. Pearson Award as MVP of the NHL. He is one of six players to participate in the first two of the team's Stanley Cup victories. He won the Stanley Cup a third time with the Avalanche in 2022 while serving as the team's general manager. Sakic became the third person, after Milt Schmidt and Serge Savard, to win the Stanley Cup with the same franchise as a player and general manager.
Cree Summer, American-Canadian actress
Cree Summer Francks is a Canadian-American actress and singer. In animation, she has voiced characters such as Elmyra Duff in Tiny Toon Adventures and related media, Susie Carmichael in Rugrats and Lizard in Spirit Rangers. The latter two respectively won her an NAACP Image Award and two nominations at the Children's and Family Emmy Awards.
07/07/1968
Jorja Fox, American actress
Jorja Fox is an American actress. She first came to prominence with a recurring role in the NBC medical drama ER as Dr. Maggie Doyle from 1996 to 1999. This was followed by another critical success in the recurring role of Secret Service Agent Gina Toscano in the NBC political drama The West Wing in 2000. She portrayed Sara Sidle in the CBS police procedural crime-drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, both as a regular and recurring (2008–2010) cast member. She reprised the role in the sequel CSI: Vegas, which premiered on October 6, 2021.
07/07/1967
Tom Kristensen, Danish race car driver
Tom Kristensen is a Danish former racing driver. He holds the record for the most wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with nine, six of which were consecutive. In 1997, he won the race with the Joest Racing team, driving a Tom Walkinshaw Racing-designed Porsche WSC-95, after being a late inclusion in the team following Davy Jones' accident that eventually ruled him out of the race. All of his subsequent wins came driving an Audi prototype, except in 2003, when he drove a Bentley prototype. In both 1999 and 2007 Kristensen's team crashed out of comfortable leads in the closing hours of the race. He is considered by many to be the greatest driver ever to have raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
07/07/1966
Jim Gaffigan, American comedian, actor, producer, and screenwriter
James Christopher Gaffigan is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. His material often addresses fatherhood, laziness, food, religion, and general observations. He is regarded as a "clean" comic, using little profanity in his routines, although he does use it from time to time. He has released several successful comedy specials, including Mr. Universe, Obsessed, Cinco, and Quality Time, all of which have received Grammy nominations.
07/07/1965
Mo Collins, American actress, comedian and screenwriter
Maureen Ann Collins is an American actress and comedian who was a member of the ensemble on FOX's sketch comedy series Mad TV. Collins became well known for several characters during her tenure on the show.
Jeremy Kyle, English talk show host
Jeremy Neil Kyle is an English broadcaster and writer. He is best known for hosting the tabloid talk show The Jeremy Kyle Show on ITV from 2005 to 2019. He also hosted an American version of his eponymous show, which ran for two seasons beginning in 2011. Since 2022, Kyle has been a presenter for Talk.
07/07/1964
Dominik Henzel, Czech-Swedish actor and comedian
Dominik Henzel is a Czech-born Swedish actor and comedian. He has starred in at least 18 Swedish films and television series during a career that began in 1979. Henzel has also appeared in a number of television commercials and works as a stand-up comedian.
07/07/1963
Vonda Shepard, American singer-songwriter and actress
Vonda Shepard is an American singer, songwriter, music director, and actress. She is best known for her supporting role as a fictionalized version of herself on the television series Ally McBeal (1997–2002), for which she recorded five soundtrack albums as well as the series' theme song "Searchin' My Soul", which saw international commercial success. Shepard has otherwise released nine studio albums and three live albums. She received a Screen Actors Guild Award as a cast member of Ally McBeal in 1999 among two additional nominations, and received a Billboard award for selling the most television soundtrack albums in history.
07/07/1960
Kevin A. Ford, American colonel and astronaut
Kevin Anthony Ford is a retired United States Air Force Colonel and NASA astronaut. Ford has received a number of special honors and awards, some of which are the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, Aerial Achievement Medal and the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. Ford has also logged more than 6,100 flying hours and also holds FAA certificates for airplanes, helicopters, gliders, and balloons. Ford has served in many roles at NASA since his selection in July 2000. The roles include as a Capsule Communicator or CAPCOM. He was also the Director Of Operations at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia from January 2004 to January 2005. He was pilot of STS-128 and flight engineer 2 of Soyuz TMA-06M from October 23, 2012, to March 16, 2013. He served as ISS flight engineer for Expedition 33, and commander of Expedition 34.
Ralph Sampson, American basketball player and coach
Ralph Lee Sampson Jr. is an American former professional basketball player. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. A 7-foot-4-inch (2.24 m) phenom, three-time college national player of the year, and first overall selection in the 1983 NBA draft, Sampson brought heavy expectations with him to the National Basketball Association (NBA).
07/07/1959
Billy Campbell, American actor
William Oliver Campbell is an American film and television actor. He first gained recognition for his recurring role as Luke Fuller on the television series Dynasty, and as the titular character Cliff Secord / The Rocketeer in the superhero film The Rocketeer (1991). He then starred as Rick Sammler on Once and Again (1999–2002), earning a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor – Television Series Drama.
07/07/1958
Alexander Svinin, Russian figure skater and coach
Alexander Vasilyevich Svinin is a Russian ice dancing coach and former competitor for the Soviet Union. With Olga Volozhinskaya, he is the 1983 European silver medalist, 1985 Skate Canada International champion, and competed at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.
07/07/1957
Jonathan Dayton, American director and producer
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are two American directors and producers for films and music videos. They started their career directing videos for such artists as Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M. and the Smashing Pumpkins. Together they directed the films Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Ruby Sparks (2012), and Battle of the Sexes (2017). They also directed the Netflix comedy series Living with Yourself (2019) and episodes of the Hulu series Fleishman Is In Trouble (2022).
Berry Sakharof, Turkish-Israeli singer-songwriter and guitarist
Berry Sakharof is an Israeli rock guitarist, singer-songwriter, and producer. He is often referred to as the prince of Israeli rock.
07/07/1955
Len Barker, American baseball player and coach
Leonard Harold Barker III is an American former Major League Baseball right-handed starting pitcher. He pitched the tenth perfect game in baseball history. Barker pitched with the Texas Rangers (1976–78), Cleveland Indians (1979–83), Atlanta Braves (1983–85) and Milwaukee Brewers (1987). During an 11-year baseball career, Barker compiled 74 wins, 975 strikeouts, and a 4.34 earned run average.
07/07/1954
Simon Anderson, Australian surfer
Simon Anderson is an Australian competitive surfer, surfboard shaper, and writer. He is credited with the 1980 invention of a three-fin surfboard design, called the "thruster".
07/07/1949
Shelley Duvall, American actress, writer, and producer (died 2024)
Shelley Alexis Duvall was an American actress and producer. Known for her distinctive screen presence, portrayals of eccentric characters, and later productions in children's programming, her accolades include a Cannes Award and a Peabody Award, in addition to nominations for a British Academy Film Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Four of Duvall's films have been preserved in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" as of 2025.
07/07/1947
Gyanendra, King of Nepal
Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev is the former King of Nepal. He reigned twice: first as a child monarch from 1950 to 1951, installed by the Rana regime during the flight of his grandfather Tribhuvan to India; and later as the last sovereign king from 2001 until the abolition of the monarchy in 2008. His second reign followed the Nepalese royal massacre, in which his elder brother King Birendra and ten other members of the royal family were killed. Gyanendra’s tenure saw a protracted Maoist insurgency, deepening political instability, and a controversial period of direct rule in 2005 that ended after mass pro‑democracy protests in 2006. He was formally deposed by the Constituent Assembly on 28 May 2008, which declared Nepal a federal democratic republic.
Howard Rheingold, American author and critic
Howard Rheingold is an American critic, writer, and teacher, known for his specialties on the cultural, social and political implications of modern communication media such as the Internet, mobile telephony and virtual communities.
07/07/1945
Michael Ancram, English lawyer and politician (died 2024)
Michael Andrew Foster Jude Kerr, 13th Marquess of Lothian, Baron Kerr of Monteviot,, commonly known as Michael Ancram, was a British politician and peer who served as Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party from 2001 to 2005. He was formerly styled Earl of Ancram until he inherited the marquessate in 2004, upon the death of his father.
Adele Goldberg, American computer scientist and academic
Adele J. Goldberg is an American computer scientist. She was a co-developer of the programming language Smalltalk-80, an early object-oriented programming language that influenced the design of languages such as Python, Objective-C, and Java, and developed many concepts related to object-oriented programming, while a researcher at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 1970s.
Helô Pinheiro, inspiration for the song "The Girl from Ipanema"
Heloísa Eneida Paes Pinto Mendes Pinheiro, better known as Helô Pinheiro, is a Brazilian businesswoman and former model.
07/07/1944
Tony Jacklin, English golfer and sportscaster
Anthony Jacklin is an English golfer. He was the most successful British player of his generation, winning two major championships, the 1969 Open Championship and the 1970 U.S. Open. He was also Ryder Cup captain from 1983 to 1989, Europe winning two and tying another of these four events.
Glenys Kinnock, English educator and politician (died 2023)
Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead, Baroness Kinnock, was a British politician and teacher who served as Minister of State for Europe from June to October 2009 and Minister of State for Africa and the United Nations from 2009 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, she was previously a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Wales, formerly South Wales East, from 1994 to 2009.
Feleti Sevele, Tongan politician; Prime Minister of Tonga
Feleti Vakaʻuta Sevele, Lord Sevele of Vailahi is a Tongan politician who served as the prime minister of Tonga from 30 March 2006 to 22 December 2010.
Emanuel Steward, American boxer and trainer (died 2012)
Emanuel "Manny" Steward was an American boxer, trainer, and commentator for HBO Boxing. Known as "the godfather of Detroit boxing," Steward trained 41 world champion fighters throughout his career, most notably Thomas Hearns, through the famous Kronk Gym and later heavyweights Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko. Emanuel trained over two dozen boxers who turned out to be champions in the course of his career. He is arguably the greatest boxing trainer of all time. His heavyweight fighters had a combined record of 34–2–1 in title fights. He was an inductee of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame, and the World Boxing Hall of Fame. Steward was also known for his charity work in Detroit, Michigan, helping youth to attain an education.
Ian Wilmut, English-Scottish embryologist and academic (died 2023)
Sir Ian Wilmut was an English embryologist and the chair of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He was the leader of the research group that in 1996 first cloned a mammal from an adult somatic cell, a Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly.
07/07/1943
Joel Siegel, American journalist and critic (died 2007)
Joel Steven Siegel was an American film critic for the ABC morning news show Good Morning America for over 25 years. The winner of multiple Emmy Awards, Siegel also worked as a radio disc jockey and an advertising copywriter.
07/07/1942
Carmen Duncan, Australian actress (died 2019)
Carmen Joan Duncan was an Australian actress and activist, with a career locally and internationally that spanned over 50 years. She was nominated for an AFI/AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in the film Harlequin (1980), and was also known for her role as Iris Wheeler on the American soap opera Another World from 1988 to 1994.
07/07/1941
Marco Bollesan, Italian rugby player and coach (died 2021)
Marco Bollesan was an Italian rugby union player, coach and manager.
Michael Howard, Welsh lawyer and politician
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne is a British politician who was Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He previously held cabinet positions in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Secretary of State for Employment, Secretary of State for the Environment and Home Secretary.
John Fru Ndi, Cameroonian politician (died 2023)
Ni John Fru Ndi was a Cameroonian politician who served as first and founding Chairman of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the main opposition party in Cameroon, from party foundation in 1990 to his death in 2023. He failed to be elected as a senator in 2013.
Bill Oddie, English comedian, actor, and singer
William Edgar Oddie is an English actor, artist, birder, comedian, conservationist, musician, songwriter, television presenter and writer. He was a member of comedy trio The Goodies.
Jim Rodford, English bass player (died 2018)
James Walter Rodford was an English musician, who played bass for several British rock bands. He was a founding member of Argent, which was led by his cousin Rod Argent, and performed with them from their formation in 1969 until they disbanded in 1976. He was the bassist for the Kinks from 1978 until they disbanded in 1997. In 2004, he joined the reunited Zombies, whom he had been closely associated with since the early 1960s, and remained a member until his death in 2018. He was also a member of the Swinging Blue Jeans and the Kast Off Kinks.
07/07/1940
Ringo Starr, English singer-songwriter, drummer, and actor
Sir Richard Starkey, known as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the group, usually for one song on each album, including "Yellow Submarine" and "With a Little Help from My Friends". He also wrote and sang the Beatles songs "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden", and is credited as a co-writer of three others.
07/07/1939
Elena Obraztsova, Russian soprano and actress (died 2015)
Elena Vasilyevna Obraztsova was a Soviet and Russian mezzo-soprano. She was awarded the People's Artist of the USSR in 1976 and Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990.
07/07/1938
James Montgomery Boice, American pastor and theologian (died 2000)
James Montgomery Boice was an American Reformed Christian theologian, Bible teacher, author, and speaker known for his writing on the authority of Scripture and the defense of Biblical inerrancy. He was also the Senior Minister of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1968 until his death.
07/07/1937
Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong businessman and politician, 1st Chief Executive of Hong Kong
Tung Chee-hwa is a Hong Kong businessman and retired politician who served as the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong between 1997 and 2005, upon the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July. He served as a vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) between 2005 and 2023.
07/07/1936
Egbert Brieskorn, German mathematician and academic (died 2013)
Egbert Valentin Brieskorn was a German mathematician who introduced Brieskorn spheres and the Brieskorn–Grothendieck resolution.
Jo Siffert, Swiss race car driver (died 1971)
Joseph "Jo" Siffert was a Swiss racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1962 to 1971. Siffert won two Formula One Grands Prix across 10 seasons.
Nikos Xilouris, Greek singer-songwriter (died 1980)
Nikos Xylouris, also known as Psaronikos (Ψαρονίκος), was a Greek singer, Cretan lyra player, and songwriter who performed both Cretan rural traditional and urban orchestral music arrangements.
07/07/1935
Gian Carlo Michelini, Italian-Taiwanese Roman Catholic priest
Gian Carlo Michelini, M.I. was an Italian-Taiwanese Roman Catholic priest. He moved to Taiwan in 1964, where he founded the Lanyang Dance Troupe. In 1996, Michelini helped establish the Yilan International Children's Folklore and Folkgame Festival.
07/07/1934
Robert McNeill Alexander, British zoologist (died 2016)
Robert McNeill (Neill) Alexander, CBE FRS was a British zoologist and a leading authority in the field of biomechanics. For thirty years he was Professor of Zoology at the University of Leeds.
07/07/1933
David McCullough, American historian and author (died 2022)
David Gaub McCullough was an American popular historian and author. He was a two-time winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award.
07/07/1932
T. J. Bass, American physician and author (died 2011)
Thomas J. Bassler was an American science fiction author and physician.
Joe Zawinul, Austrian jazz keyboardist and composer (died 2007)
Josef Erich Zawinul was an Austrian jazz and jazz fusion keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with Miles Davis and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, a musical genre that combined jazz with rock. He co-founded the groups Weather Report and The Zawinul Syndicate. He pioneered the use of electric piano and synthesizer, and was named "Best Electric Keyboardist" twenty-eight times by the readers of DownBeat magazine.
07/07/1931
David Eddings, American author and academic (died 2009)
David Carroll Eddings was an American fantasy writer. With his wife Leigh, he authored several best-selling epic fantasy novel series, including The Belgariad (1982–84), The Malloreon (1987–91), The Elenium (1989–91), The Tamuli (1992–94), and The Dreamers (2003–06). Whether credited as the sole author or with Leigh, David Eddings wrote over two dozen novels.
07/07/1930
Hamish MacInnes, Scottish mountaineer and author (died 2020)
Hamish MacInnes was a Scottish mountaineer, explorer, mountain search and rescuer, and author. He has been described as the "father of modern mountain rescue in Scotland". He is credited with inventing the first all-metal ice-axe and an eponymous lightweight foldable alloy stretcher called MacInnes stretcher, widely used in mountain and helicopter rescue. He was a mountain safety advisor to a number of major films, including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Eiger Sanction and The Mission. His 1972 International Mountain Rescue Handbook is considered a manual in the mountain search and rescue discipline.
Theodore McCarrick, American former cardinal (died 2025)
Theodore Edgar McCarrick was an American former Catholic prelate who was dismissed and laicized by Pope Francis in 2019 after being convicted of sexual misconduct in a canonical trial. Prior to his dismissal, he served as a bishop and cardinal, holding the positions of Archbishop of Newark from 1986 to 2000 and Archbishop of Washington from 2001 to 2006.
Hank Mobley, American saxophonist and composer (died 1986)
Henry Mobley was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. Mobley was described by Leonard Feather as the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone", a metaphor used to describe his tone, that was neither as aggressive as John Coltrane nor as mellow as Lester Young, and his style that was laid-back, subtle and melodic, especially in contrast with players such as Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. The critic Stacia Proefrock claimed him "one of the most underrated musicians of the bop era." Mobley's compositions include "Double Exposure", "Soul Station", and "Dig Dis".
Biljana Plavšić, 2nd President of Republika Srpska
Biljana Plavšić is a Bosnian Serb former politician, university professor and scientist who served as President of Republika Srpska and was later convicted of crimes against humanity for her role in the Bosnian War. Before entering politics, she taught biology at the University of Sarajevo.
07/07/1929
Hasan Abidi, Pakistani journalist and poet (died 2005)
Hasan Abidi was a Pakistani journalist, writer, political activist and an Urdu language poet.
Sergio Romano, Italian writer, journalist, and historian
Sergio Romano is an Italian diplomat, writer, journalist, and historian. He is a columnist for the newspaper Corriere della Sera. Romano is also a former Italian ambassador to Moscow.
07/07/1928
Patricia Hitchcock, English actress (died 2021)
Patricia Alma Hitchcock O'Connell was a British-American actress and producer. She was the only child of English director Alfred Hitchcock and film editor Alma Reville, and had small roles in several of her father's films, with her most substantial appearance being in Strangers on a Train (1951).
Kapelwa Sikota Zambian nurse and health official (died 2006)
Kapelwa Sikota (1928–2006) was the first Zambian registered nurse, in the 1950s when her country was still the British protectorate of Northern Rhodesia. She trained and qualified in South Africa where nursing education was available before it was developed in Zambia. Her qualifications were not fully recognised at home until independence in 1964 when she was appointed to senior nursing posts. By 1970 she was Chief Nursing Officer in the Ministry of Health. In 2011 she was honoured posthumously by the Zambian Association of University Women.
07/07/1927
Alan J. Dixon, American lawyer and politician, 34th Illinois Secretary of State (died 2014)
Alan John Dixon was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served in the Illinois General Assembly from 1951 to 1971, as the Illinois Treasurer from 1971 to 1977, as the Illinois Secretary of State from 1977 to 1981 and as a member of the United States Senate from 1981 to 1993.
Charlie Louvin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2011)
Charles Elzer Loudermilk, known professionally as Charlie Louvin, was an American country music singer and songwriter. He is best known as one of the Louvin Brothers, and was a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1955.
Doc Severinsen, American trumpet player and conductor
Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen is an American retired jazz trumpeter who led the NBC Orchestra on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
07/07/1926
Nuon Chea, Cambodian politician (died 2019)
Nuon Chea, also known as Long Bunruot or Rungloet Laodi, was a Cambodian politician and revolutionary who was the chief ideologist of the Khmer Rouge. He also briefly served as acting Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea. He was commonly known as "Brother Number Two" (បងធំទី២), as he was second-in-command to Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, General Secretary of the Party, during the Cambodian genocide of 1975–1979. In 2014, Nuon Chea received a life sentence for crimes against humanity, alongside another top-tier Khmer Rouge leader, Khieu Samphan, and a further trial convicted him of genocide in 2018. These life sentences were merged into a single life sentence by the Trial Chamber on 16 November 2018. He died while serving his sentence in 2019.
Anand Mohan Zutshi Gulzar Dehlvi, Urdu poet (died 2020)
Anand Mohan Zutshi Gulzar Dehlavi was an Indian Urdu poet, scholar, and journalist. Born in Old Delhi's Gali Kashmirian.
07/07/1925
Geliy Korzhev, Russian painter (died 2012)
Geliy Mikhailovich Korzhev-Chuvelyov was a Soviet and Russian painter.
Wally Phillips, American radio host (died 2008)
Walter Phillips was an American radio personality best known for hosting WGN's morning radio show from Chicago for 21 years from January 1965 until July 1986, and was number one in the morning slot from 1968 until he left for an afternoon radio slot in 1986.
07/07/1924
Natalia Bekhtereva, Russian neuroscientist and psychologist (died 2008)
Natalia Petrovna Bekhtereva was a Soviet and Russian neuroscientist and psychologist who developed neurophysiological approaches to psychology, such as measuring the impulse activity of human neurons. She was a participant in the documentaries The Call of the Abyss and Storm of Consciousness, which aroused wide public interest.
Mary Ford, American singer and guitarist (died 1977)
Mary Ford was an American guitarist and vocalist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits, including "How High the Moon" and "Vaya con Dios", which were number one hits on the Billboard charts. In 1951 alone they sold six million records. With Paul, Ford became one of the early practitioners of multi-tracking.
Karim Olowu, Nigerian sprinter and long jumper (died 2019)
Alhaji Karim Ayinla Babalola "KAB" Olowu was a Nigerian sprinter and long jumper who was part of Nigeria's first delegation to the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games.
Eddie Romero, Filipino director, producer, screenwriter, and National Artist for Cinema and Broadcast Arts (died 2013)
Edgar Sinco Romero,, commonly known as Eddie Romero, was a Filipino film director, film producer and screenwriter.
07/07/1923
Liviu Ciulei, Romanian actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2011)
Liviu Ciulei was a Romanian theater and film director, film writer, actor, architect, educator, costume and set designer. During a career spanning over 50 years, he was described by Newsweek as "one of the boldest and most challenging figures on the international scene".
Whitney North Seymour Jr., American politician (died 2019)
Whitney North Seymour Jr., known to friends as Mike Seymour, was an American politician and attorney from New York City. Born to a prominent family, Seymour graduated from Princeton University and Yale Law School and served in the United States Army during World War II. He served in the New York State Senate from 1966 to 1968 and as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1970 to 1973.
Eduardo Falú, Argentinian guitarist and composer (died 2013)
Eduardo Falú was an Argentine folk music guitarist and composer.
07/07/1922
Alan Armer, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 2010)
Alan A. Armer was an American television producer, best known for his Emmy Award winning tenure as the producer of The Fugitive. He also produced The Invaders, The Untouchables and the first year of Cannon.
James D. Hughes, American Air Force lieutenant general (died 2024)
James Donald Hughes was a lieutenant general in the United States Air Force (USAF) who was commander in chief, Pacific Air Forces, with headquarters at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. He commanded the air component of the unified Pacific Command with an overall mission of planning, conducting, controlling and coordinating offensive and defensive air operations.
07/07/1921
Ezzard Charles, American boxer (died 1975)
Ezzard Mack Charles, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1940 to 1959. Known as "the Cincinnati Cobra", Charles was respected for his slick defense and precision, and is often regarded as the greatest light heavyweight of all time, and one of the greatest fighters pound for pound, having defeated numerous Hall of Fame fighters in three different weight classes. Charles was the world heavyweight champion from 1949 to 1951, and made eight successful title defenses in under two years.
Adolf von Thadden, German lieutenant and politician (died 1996)
Adolf von Thadden was a German far-right politician who led the National Democratic Party.
07/07/1919
Jon Pertwee, English actor (died 1996)
John Devon Roland Pertwee, known professionally as Jon Pertwee, was an English actor. Born into a theatrical family, he became known as a comedy actor, playing Chief Petty Officer Pertwee in the BBC Radio sitcom The Navy Lark (1959–1977) and appearing in four films in the Carry On series (1964–1992).
07/07/1918
Bob Vanatta, American head basketball coach (died 2016)
Bob Vanatta was an American basketball coach and college athletics administrator. He was the head basketball coach for Central Methodist, Missouri State University, Army, Bradley, Memphis State, Missouri, and Delta State University. At Missouri State, he won the 1952 and 1953 NAIA Championships. He compiled a 109–34 record at Memphis State, including making it to the 1957 NIT Championship game. After coaching, he later served as athletic director at Oral Roberts University, commissioner of the Ohio Valley Conference, commissioner of the Atlantic Sun Conference, executive director of the Independence Bowl, athletic director at Louisiana Tech University, commissioner of the Sunshine State Conference, president of the NCAA Division II Conference Commissioner's Association, and associate athletic director at Florida Atlantic University. He was a Palm Beach County Sports Commission member, which presents the Lou Groza Award to the nation's top placekicker.
Jing Shuping, Chinese businessman (died 2009)
Jing Shuping was a Chinese businessman who founded the Minsheng Bank, the first privately owned bank to open in the Communist People's Republic of China, in 1996.
07/07/1917
Fidel Sánchez Hernández, Salvadoran general and politician, President of El Salvador (died 2003)
Fidel Sánchez Hernández was a Salvadoran military officer, military attaché, and politician who served as President of El Salvador from 1967 to 1972 as a member of the National Conciliation Party.
Iva Withers, Canadian-American actress and singer (died 2014)
Pearl Iva Edith Withers was a Canadian-born American actress and singer, best remembered as a replacement player who had long runs in some of Rodgers and Hammerstein's biggest musical theatre hits. From 1945 to 1970, she worked almost continuously on Broadway or in national tours, generally as a replacement.
07/07/1915
Margaret Walker, American novelist and poet (died 1998)
Margaret Walker was an American poet and writer. She was part of the African-American literary movement in Chicago, known as the Chicago Black Renaissance. Her notable works include For My People (1942) which won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition, and the novel Jubilee (1966), set in the South during the American Civil War.
07/07/1913
Pinetop Perkins, American singer and pianist (died 2011)
Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins was an American blues pianist. He played with some of the most influential blues and rock-and-roll performers of his time and received numerous honors, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Blues Hall of Fame.
07/07/1911
Gian Carlo Menotti, Italian-American composer (died 2007)
Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship and never officially became an American citizen. One of the most frequently performed opera composers of the 20th century, he wrote his most successful works in the 1940s and 1950s. Highly influenced by Giacomo Puccini and Modest Mussorgsky, Menotti further developed the verismo tradition of opera in the post-World War II era. Rejecting atonality and the aesthetic of the Second Viennese School, Menotti's music is characterized by expressive lyricism which carefully sets language to natural rhythms in ways that highlight textual meaning and underscore dramatic intent.
07/07/1910
Doris McCarthy, Canadian painter and author (died 2010)
Doris McCarthy, LL. D. was a Canadian artist known for her semi-abstracted landscapes. In a 2004 interview with Harold Klunder, the artist remarked:I was influenced very strongly by the tradition of going out into nature and painting what was there. I bought it. And I still buy it.
07/07/1909
Gottfried von Cramm, German tennis player (died 1976)
Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr[A] von Cramm was a German tennis player who won the French Championships twice and reached the final of a Grand Slam singles tournament on five other occasions. He was ranked number 2 in the world in 1934 and 1936, and number 1 in the world in 1937. He was the first German to win a singles title at a Grand Slam tournament. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1977, which states that he is "most remembered for a gallant effort in defeat against Don Budge in the 1937 Interzone Final at Wimbledon".
07/07/1908
Revilo P. Oliver, American author and academic (died 1994)
Revilo Pendleton Oliver was an American professor of Classical philology, Spanish, and Italian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a founding member of the John Birch Society in 1958, where he published in its magazine, American Opinion, before resigning in 1966. He was a polemicist for right-wing, white supremacist and antisemitic causes. He later advised the Holocaust denial group the Institute for Historical Review.
07/07/1907
Robert A. Heinlein, American science fiction writer and screenwriter (died 1988)
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction author, engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accuracy in his fiction and was thus a pioneer of the subgenre of hard science fiction. His published works, both fiction and non-fiction, express admiration for competence and emphasize the value of critical thinking. His plots often presented provocative situations which challenged conventional social mores. His work continues to have an influence on the science fiction genre and on modern culture more generally.
07/07/1906
William Feller, Croatian-American mathematician and academic (died 1970)
William "Vilim" Feller, born Vilibald Srećko Feller, was a Croatian–American mathematician specializing in probability theory.
Anton Karas, Austrian zither player and composer (died 1985)
Anton Karl Karas was an Austrian zither player and composer, best known for his internationally famous 1948 soundtrack to Carol Reed's The Third Man. His association with the film came about as a result of a chance meeting with its director. The success of the film and the enduring popularity of its theme song changed Karas' life.
Satchel Paige, American baseball player and coach (died 1982)
Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Negro league baseball and Major League Baseball (MLB). His career spanned five decades and culminated with his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
07/07/1905
Marie-Louise Dubreil-Jacotin, French mathematician (died 1972)
Marie-Louise Dubreil-Jacotin was a French mathematician, the second woman to obtain a doctorate in pure mathematics in France, the first woman to become a full professor of mathematics in France, the president of the French Mathematical Society, and an expert on fluid mechanics and abstract algebra.
07/07/1904
Simone Beck, French chef and author (died 1991)
Simone "Simca" Beck was a French cookbook writer and cooking teacher who, along with colleagues Julia Child and Louisette Bertholle, played a significant role in the introduction of French cooking technique and recipes into American kitchens.
07/07/1902
Ted Radcliffe, American baseball player and manager (died 2005)
Theodore Roosevelt "Double Duty" Radcliffe was an American professional baseball player in the Negro leagues. An accomplished two-way player, he played as a pitcher and a catcher, became a manager, and in his old age became a popular ambassador for the game. He is one of only a handful of professional baseball players who lived past their 100th birthdays, next to Red Hoff and fellow Negro leaguer Silas Simmons.
07/07/1901
Sam Katzman, American director and producer (died 1973)
Sam Katzman was an American film producer and director. Katzman's specialty was producing low-budget genre films, including serials, which had disproportionately high returns for the studios and his financial backers. In the 1930s, he produced numerous Western films for Victory Pictures and Puritan Pictures, and in the 1940s, he produced 22 East Side Kids features for Monogram Pictures. As well as producing the Jungle Jim series, in the 1950s, Katzman and his studio Clover Productions made science fiction, horror, and teen films for Columbia Pictures, including Creature with the Atom Brain (1955), Rock Around the Clock, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The Werewolf, and The Giant Claw (1957). Katzman also produced two musicals starring Elvis Presley for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM): Kissin' Cousins (1964) and Harum Scarum (1965).
Vittorio De Sica, Italian actor and director (died 1974)
Vittorio De Sica was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.
Eiji Tsuburaya, Japanese cinematographer and producer (died 1970)
Eiji Tsuburaya was a Japanese special effects director, filmmaker, and cinematographer. A co-creator of the Godzilla and Ultraman franchises, he is considered one of the most important and influential figures in the history of cinema. Tsuburaya is known as the "Father of Tokusatsu", having pioneered Japan's special effects industry and introduced several technological developments in film productions. In a career spanning five decades, Tsuburaya worked on approximately 250 films—including globally renowned features directed by Ishirō Honda, Hiroshi Inagaki, and Akira Kurosawa—and earned six Japan Technical Awards.
07/07/1900
Maria Bard, German stage and silent film actress (died 1944)
Maria Bard was a German stage actress, who made several films in the silent era for Rimax, her first husband Wilhelm Graaff's company.
Earle E. Partridge, American general (died 1990)
Earle Everard "Pat" Partridge was a four-star general in the United States Air Force and a Command Pilot.
07/07/1899
George Cukor, American director and producer (died 1983)
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director and producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's head of production, assigned Cukor to direct several of RKO's major films, including What Price Hollywood? (1932), A Bill of Divorcement (1932), Our Betters (1933), and Little Women (1933). When Selznick moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933, Cukor followed and directed Dinner at Eight (1933) and David Copperfield (1935) for Selznick, and Romeo and Juliet (1936) and Camille (1936) for Irving Thalberg.
07/07/1898
Arnold Horween, American football player and coach (died 1985)
Arnold Horween was an American football player and coach. He played and coached both collegiately for Harvard University and professionally in the National Football League (NFL).
07/07/1893
Herbert Feis, American historian and author (died 1972)
Herbert Feis was an American historian, author, and economist who was the Advisor on International Economic Affairs in the US Department of State during the Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt administrations.
Miroslav Krleža, Croatian author, poet, and playwright (died 1981)
Miroslav Krleža was a Croatian writer who is widely considered to be the greatest of the 20th century. He wrote notable works in all the literary genres, including poetry, theater, short stories, novels, and an intimate diary. His works often include themes of bourgeois hypocrisy and conformism in Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Krleža wrote numerous essays on problems of art, history, politics, literature, philosophy, and military strategy, and was known as one of the great polemicists of the century. His style combines visionary poetic language and sarcasm.
07/07/1891
Tadamichi Kuribayashi, Japanese general and poet (died 1945)
Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Japanese: 栗林 忠道; 7 July 1891 – c. 26 March 1945) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, diplomat, and commanding officer of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff. He is best known for having been the commander of the Japanese garrison at the battle of Iwo Jima.
Virginia Rappe, American model and actress (died 1921)
Zelliene Virginia Rappe was an American model and silent film actress. Working mostly in bit parts, Rappe died after attending a party with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, who was tried for manslaughter and rape in connection with her death, though he was ultimately acquitted of both charges three different times.
07/07/1884
Lion Feuchtwanger, German author and playwright (died 1958)
Lion Feuchtwanger was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht.
07/07/1883
Toivo Kuula, Finnish conductor and composer (died 1918)
Toivo Timoteus Kuula was a Finnish composer and conductor of the late-Romantic and early-modern periods, who emerged in the wake of Jean Sibelius, under whom he studied privately from 1906 to 1908. The core of Kuula's oeuvre are his many works for voice and orchestra, in particular the Stabat mater, The Sea-Bathing Maidens (1910), Son of a Slave (1910), and The Maiden and the Boyar's Son (1912). In addition he also composed two Ostrobothnian Suites for orchestra and left an unfinished symphony at the time of his murder in 1918 in a drunken quarrel.
07/07/1882
Yanka Kupala, Belarusian poet and writer (died 1941)
Ivan Daminikavich Lutsevich, better known by his pen name Yanka Kupala, was a Belarusian poet and writer.
07/07/1880
Otto Frederick Rohwedder, American engineer, invented sliced bread (died 1960)
Otto Frederick Rohwedder was an American inventor and engineer who created the first automatic bread-slicing machine for commercial use. It was first used by the Chillicothe Missouri Baking Company.
07/07/1874
Erwin Bumke, German lawyer and jurist (died 1945)
Erwin Konrad Eduard Bumke was the last president of the Reichsgericht, the supreme civil and criminal court of the German Reich, serving from 1929 to 1945. As such, according to the Weimar Constitution, he should have become acting President of Germany upon the death of Paul von Hindenburg in August 1934, and thus the acting Head of State of Nazi Germany. The Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich, passed by the Hitler cabinet, unconstitutionally prevented that by combining the presidency with the chancellorship, making Adolf Hitler the undisputed ruler of Germany. Following the Nazi takeover, Bumke extensively cooperated with the Party in establishing a Verbrecherstaat.
07/07/1869
Rachel Caroline Eaton, American academic (died 1938)
Rachel Caroline Eaton was believed to be the first Native American woman from Oklahoma to be awarded a Ph.D.
Fernande Sadler, French painter and mayor (died 1949)
Fernande Sadler was a French painter and engraver. She established the art collection at Grez-sur-Loing and became the mayor of that town in 1945.
07/07/1861
Nettie Stevens, American geneticist (died 1912)
Nettie Maria Stevens was an American geneticist who discovered sex chromosomes. In 1905, soon after the rediscovery of Mendel's paper on genetics in 1900, she observed that male mealworms produced two kinds of sperm, one with a large chromosome and one with a small chromosome. When the sperm with the large chromosome fertilized eggs, they produced female offspring, and when the sperm with the small chromosome fertilized eggs, they produced male offspring. The pair of sex chromosomes that she studied later became known as the X and Y chromosomes.
07/07/1860
Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer and conductor (died 1911)
Gustav Mahler was a Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect, which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 his compositions were rediscovered by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.
07/07/1859
Rettamalai Srinivasan, Indian politician (died 1945)
Diwan Bahadur Rettamalai Srinivasan, commonly known as R. Srinivasan, was a scheduled caste activist and politician from then Madras Presidency of British India. He is a Paraiyar icon and was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and was also an associate of B. R. Ambedkar. He is remembered today as one of the pioneers of the Scheduled caste movement in India. He founded the Adi dravida mahajana sabha in 1893.
07/07/1855
Ludwig Ganghofer, German author and playwright (died 1920)
Ludwig Ganghofer was a German writer. He has been called the "most-adapted author in the history of German cinema", as many of his novels were turned into films.
07/07/1851
Charles Albert Tindley, American minister and composer (died 1933)
Charles Albert Tindley was an African-American Methodist minister and gospel music composer. His composition "I'll Overcome Someday" is credited as the basis for the U.S. Civil Rights anthem "We Shall Overcome". Another of his hymns is "Take Your Burden to the Lord and Leave It There" (1916), as well as "What Are They Doing in Heaven?" (1901).
07/07/1848
Rodrigues Alves, Brazilian politician, 5th President of Brazil (died 1919)
Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves was a Brazilian politician and statesman who served as the fifth president of Brazil, from 1902 to 1906. Alves was elected in 1902, becoming the third consecutive São Paulo native to hold the presidency. Before his presidency, he served as president of the province of São Paulo during the Empire of Brazil (1887) and as finance minister under Floriano Peixoto and Prudente de Morais in the 1890s.
07/07/1846
Heinrich Rosenthal, Estonian physician and author (died 1916)
Heinrich Rosenthal was an activist of the Estonian national movement, doctor and author.
07/07/1843
Camillo Golgi, Italian physician and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1926)
Camillo Golgi was an Italian biologist and pathologist who was awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his works on the central nervous system. He studied medicine at the University of Pavia between 1860 and 1868 under the tutelage of Cesare Lombroso. Inspired by pathologist Giulio Bizzozero, he pursued research in the nervous system. His discovery of a staining technique called black reaction in 1873 was a major breakthrough in neuroscience. Several structures and phenomena in anatomy and physiology are named for him, including the Golgi apparatus, the Golgi tendon organ and the Golgi tendon reflex.
07/07/1833
Félicien Rops, Belgian painter and illustrator (died 1898)
Félicien Victor Joseph Rops was a Belgian artist associated with Symbolism, Decadence, and the Parisian fin de siècle, a member of the Les XX group. He was a painter, illustrator, caricaturist and a prolific and innovative print maker, particularly in intaglio. Although not well known to the general public and initially sought after as a pornographer, Rops was greatly respected by his bohemian peers and actively pursued and celebrated as an illustrator by the publishers, authors, and poets of his time. He provided frontispieces and illustrations for works by Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, Charles Baudelaire, Charles De Coster, Théophile Gautier, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Stéphane Mallarmé, Joséphin Péladan, Paul Verlaine, Voltaire, and many others. Best known today for his prints and drawings illustrating erotic and occult literature of the period, he also produced oil paintings including landscapes, seascapes, and occasional genre paintings. Rops is recognized as a pioneer of Belgian comics.
07/07/1831
Jane Elizabeth Conklin, American poet and religious writer (died 1914)
Jane Elizabeth Conklin was an American poet and religious writer of the long nineteenth century from New York. For three years, she served as president of the Woman's Relief Corps of the Grand Army of the Republic. She enjoyed a reputation as an elocutionist; and was the author of three volumes of poetry. She was born and died in Utica, New York.
07/07/1766
Guillaume Philibert Duhesme, French general (died 1815)
Guillaume Philibert, 1st Count Duhesme was a French Army officer, politician and writer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was a commander of the Imperial Guard, Governor of Catalonia and a Peer of France. Napoleon wrote that "he was a fearless soldier, covered with wounds and of the greatest bravery, an accomplished general, who always stood firm in good and bad fortune". Duhesme is regarded as one of the most able French infantry generals of the Napoleonic Wars.
07/07/1752
Joseph Marie Jacquard, French merchant, invented the Jacquard loom (died 1834)
Joseph Marie Charles dit Jacquard was a French weaver and merchant. He played an important role in the development of the earliest programmable loom, which in turn played an important role in the development of other programmable machines, such as an early version of digital compiler used by IBM to develop the modern day computer.
07/07/1616
John Leverett, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (died 1679)
John Leverett was an English colonial magistrate, merchant, soldier and the penultimate governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Born in England, he migrated to Massachusetts as a teenager. He was a leading merchant in the colony, and served in its military. In the 1640s he went back to England to fight in the English Civil War.
07/07/1588
Wolrad IV, Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg (died 1640)
Count Wolrad IV 'the Pious' of Waldeck-Eisenberg, German: Wolrad IV. 'der Fromme' Graf von Waldeck-Eisenberg, official titles: Graf zu Waldeck und Pyrmont, was since 1588 Count of Waldeck-Eisenberg. He founded of the new line of Waldeck-Eisenberg.
07/07/1585
Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, English courtier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland (died 1646)
Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel KG, was an English magistrate, diplomat and courtier during the reigns of James I and Charles I. He made his name as a Grand Tourist and art collector rather than as a politician. When he died he possessed 700 paintings, along with large collections of sculptures, books, prints, drawings, and antique jewellery. Most of his collection of marble carvings, known as the Arundel marbles, was eventually left to the University of Oxford.
07/07/1540
John Sigismund Zápolya, King of Hungary (died 1571)
John Sigismund Zápolya or Szapolyai was King of Hungary as John II from 1540 to 1551 and from 1556 to 1570, and the first Prince of Transylvania, from 1570 to his death. He was the only son of John I, King of Hungary, and Isabella of Poland. John I ruled parts of the Kingdom of Hungary with the support of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman; the remaining areas were ruled by Ferdinand I of Habsburg, who also ruled Austria and Bohemia. The two kings concluded a peace treaty in 1538 acknowledging Ferdinand's right to reunite Hungary after John I's death, though shortly after John Sigismund's birth, and on his deathbed, John I bequeathed his realm to his son. The late king's staunchest supporters elected the infant John Sigismund king, but he was not crowned with the Holy Crown of Hungary.
07/07/1528
Archduchess Anna of Austria (died 1590)
Anna of Austria, a member of the Imperial House of Habsburg, was Duchess of Bavaria from 1550 until 1579, by her marriage with Duke Albert V.
07/07/1482
Andrzej Krzycki, Polish archbishop (died 1537)
Andrzej Krzycki of the Kotwicz coat of arms was a Renaissance Polish writer and archbishop. Krzycki wrote in prose in Latin and poetry in Polish. He is often considered one of Poland's greatest humanist writers.
07/07/1207
Elizabeth of Hungary (died 1231)
Elizabeth of Hungary, also known as Elisabeth of Thuringia, was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary and the landgravine of Thuringia.
07/07/1119
Emperor Sutoku of Japan (died 1164)
Emperor Sutoku was the 75th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Along with Sugawara no Michizane and Taira no Masakado, he is known as one of the "Three Great Onryō of Japan".
07/07/1053
Emperor Shirakawa of Japan (died 1129)
Emperor Shirakawa was the 72nd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.
07/07/0611
Eudoxia Epiphania, daughter of Byzantine emperor Heraclius
Eudoxia Epiphania was the only daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius and his first wife Eudokia.
Lives Remembered on 7th July
On 7th July, 98 remarkable people passed away — from 984 to 2025. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.
07/07/2025
Wayne Dobson, English magician (born 1957)
Wayne Dobson was an English magician, who became well known through various television appearances in the late 1980s and 1990s. At the height of his fame, he had his own television series Wayne Dobson – A Kind of Magic. He became known as a campaigner for multiple sclerosis charities.
Roman Starovoyt, Russian politician (born 1972)
Roman Vladimirovich Starovoyt was a Russian politician who served as Minister of Transport from May 2024 to July 2025. He had previously served as Governor of Kursk Oblast from 2019 to 2024, Deputy Minister of Transport, and the head of the Federal Road Agency in that ministry. He was a member of the United Russia party.
Norman Tebbit, English journalist and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (born 1931)
Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit, was a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment (1981–1983), Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1983–1985), and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–1987). He was a member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1992, representing the constituencies of Epping (1970–1974) and Chingford (1974–1992).
07/07/2024
Jane McAlevey, American labor organizer and author (born 1964)
Jane F. McAlevey was an American union organizer, author, and political commentator. She was a Senior Policy Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, and a columnist at The Nation.
07/07/2021
Robert Downey Sr., American actor and director (born 1936)
Robert John Downey Sr. was an American film director, screenwriter, and actor. He was known for writing and directing the underground films Putney Swope (1969), a satire on the New York Madison Avenue advertising world, and Greaser's Palace (1972), a surrealist Western. According to film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon, Downey's films during the 1960s were "strictly take-no-prisoners affairs, with minimal budgets and outrageous satire, effectively pushing forward the countercultural agenda of the day." He was the father of actor Robert Downey Jr..
Dilip Kumar, Indian film actor (born 1922)
Muhammad Yusuf Khan, known professionally as Dilip Kumar, was an Indian actor, writer and film producer best known for his work in Hindi cinema. Credited with pioneering method acting in cinema, he dominated Hindi cinema from the 1950s throughout the 1960s and is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors in the history of Indian Cinema.
Jovenel Moïse, Haitian entrepreneur and politician, President of Haiti (born 1968)
Jovenel Moïse was a Haitian politician and businessman who served as the 48th president of Haiti from 2017 until his assassination in 2021. He assumed the presidency in February 2017 following his victory in the November 2016 Haitian presidential election.
07/07/2015
Maria Barroso, Portuguese actress and politician (born 1925)
Maria de Jesus Simões Barroso Soares, was a Portuguese actress, teacher and political and social activist, having been one of the founders of the Socialist Party (PS), in Germany, in 1973. As the wife of the 17th President of Portugal, Mário Soares, she was the first-lady of the country between 1986 and 1996.
Bob MacKinnon, American basketball player and coach (born 1927)
Robert MacKinnon was an American college and professional basketball coach. He coached three different professional teams in his career; the American Basketball Association's Spirits of St. Louis, and the NBA's Buffalo Braves and New Jersey Nets. MacKinnon also served as the Nets' general manager.
07/07/2014
Alfredo Di Stéfano, Argentinian-Spanish footballer and coach (born 1926)
Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé was an Argentine and naturalised Spanish professional footballer and manager who played as a forward, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the greatest Real Madrid player ever. Nicknamed "Saeta Rubia", he is best known for his achievements with the club, where he was instrumental in the club's domination of the European Cup and La Liga during the 1950s and 1960s. Along with Francisco Gento and José María Zárraga, he was one of only three players to play a part in all five European Cup victories, scoring goals in each of the five finals. Di Stéfano played international football mostly for Spain after moving to Madrid and becoming a naturalised citizen, but he also played for Argentina.
Eduard Shevardnadze, Georgian general and politician, 2nd President of Georgia (born 1928)
Eduard Ambrosis dze Shevardnadze was a Soviet and Georgian politician and diplomat who governed Georgia for several non-consecutive periods from 1972 until his resignation in 2003 and also served as the final Soviet minister of foreign affairs from 1985 to 1991.
Peter Underwood, Australian lawyer and politician, 27th Governor of Tasmania (born 1937)
Peter George Underwood, was an Australian jurist and the Governor of Tasmania from 2008 until his death in 2014. He was the Chief Justice of Tasmania from 2004 to 2008, having been a judge of the Supreme Court of Tasmania from 1984.
07/07/2013
Artur Hajzer, Polish mountaineer (born 1962)
Artur Henryk "Słon” Hajzer was a Polish mountaineer. Hajzer summitted seven eight-thousanders, several via new routes and made the first winter climb of Annapurna on February 3, 1987.
Robert Hamerton-Kelly, South African-American pastor, theologian, and author (born 1938)
Robert Gerald Hamerton-Kelly was a Christian theologian, ordained United Methodist pastor, ethics scholar, and author and editor of several books on religion and violence. He served as Dean of the Chapel at Stanford Memorial Church at Stanford University for 14 years and was on the faculty of the university for more than 30 years. A leading advocate of the work of René Girard's theory of mimetic desire, Hamerton-Kelly co-founded several organizations dedicated to the study of the theory and edited several important texts about it.
Donald J. Irwin, American lawyer and politician, 32nd Mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut (born 1926)
Donald Jay Irwin was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Connecticut's 4th district, Connecticut State Treasurer and mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut.
Ben Pucci, American football player and sportscaster (born 1925)
Benito Modesto "Ben" Pucci was an American professional football tackle who played three seasons for the Buffalo Bisons, Chicago Rockets and Cleveland Browns in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) between 1946 and 1948.
07/07/2012
Dennis Flemion, American drummer (born 1955)
Dennis Flemion was a founding member, with his younger brother Jimmy, of the controversial independent rock band the Frogs. He was the primary percussionist for the band and was also a temporary member of the Smashing Pumpkins from 1996 to 1997, filling in on live keyboards following the death of Jonathan Melvoin. The Flemion brothers also appeared on "Medellia of the Gray Skies" on the band's single for "Tonight, Tonight". On Adore, the brothers backed vocals for "To Sheila" and "Behold! The Night-Mare".
Ronaldo Cunha Lima, Brazilian poet and politician (born 1936)
Ronaldo Cunha Lima was a Brazilian poet and politician. He served as the governor of Paraíba from 1991 to 1994.
Doris Neal, American baseball player (born 1928)
Doris M. Neal was an infielder and outfielder who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5' 4", 128 lb., she batted and threw right handed.
Jerry Norman, American sinologist and linguist (born 1936)
Jerry Lee Norman was an American sinologist and linguist known for his studies of varieties of Chinese, particularly Min varieties, and also of the Manchu language. Norman had a large impact on Chinese linguistics, and was largely responsible for establishing the importance of Min varieties in the reconstruction of Old Chinese.
Leon Schlumpf, Swiss politician (born 1927)
Leon Schlumpf was a Swiss politician and a member of the Swiss Federal Council (1979–1987).
07/07/2011
Allan W. Eckert, American historian and author (born 1931)
Allan Wesley Eckert was an American novelist and playwright who specialized in historical novels for adults and children, and was also a naturalist. His novel Incident at Hawk's Hill (1971) was initially marketed to adults and selected by Reader's Digest Condensed Books. A runner-up for the Newbery Medal, it was afterward marketed as a children's novel and adapted by Disney for a television movie known as The Boy Who Talked to Badgers (1975).
Dick Williams, American baseball player, coach, and manager (born 1929)
Richard Hirschfeld Williams was an American left fielder, third baseman, manager, coach and front-office consultant in Major League Baseball (MLB). Known especially as a hard-driving, sharp-tongued manager from 1967 to 1969 and from 1971 to 1988, he led teams to three American League pennants, one National League pennant, and two World Series triumphs. He is one of nine managers to win pennants in both major leagues, and joined Bill McKechnie in becoming only the second manager to lead three franchises to the Series. He and Lou Piniella are the only managers in history to lead four teams to seasons of 90 or more wins. Williams was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008 following his election by the Veterans Committee.
07/07/2008
Bruce Conner, American sculptor, painter, and photographer (born 1933)
Bruce Conner was an American artist who worked with assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography.
Dorian Leigh, American model (born 1917)
Dorian Elizabeth Leigh Parker, known professionally as Dorian Leigh, was an American model and one of the earliest modeling icons of the fashion industry. She is considered one of the first supermodels, and was well known in the United States and Europe.
07/07/2007
Anne McLaren, British scientist (born 1927)
Dame Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren, was a British scientist who was a leading figure in developmental biology. She paved the way for women in science and her work helped lead to human in vitro fertilisation (IVF). She left an enduring legacy marked by her research and ethical contributions to the field. She received many honors for her contributions to science, including election as fellow of the Royal Society.
Donald Michie, British scientist (born 1923)
Donald Michie was a British researcher in artificial intelligence. During World War II, Michie worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, contributing to the effort to solve "Tunny", a German teleprinter cipher.
07/07/2006
Syd Barrett, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1946)
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett was an English singer, guitarist and songwriter who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Until his departure in 1968, he was Pink Floyd's frontman and primary songwriter, known for his whimsical style of psychedelia and stream-of-consciousness writing. As a guitarist, he was influential for his free-form playing and for employing effects such as dissonance, distortion, echo and feedback.
Juan de Ávalos, Spanish sculptor (born 1911)
Juan de Ávalos y García-Taborda was a Spanish sculptor.
John Money, New Zealand-American psychologist and author (born 1921)
John William Money was a New Zealand American psychologist, sexologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University known for his research on human sexual behavior and gender.
07/07/2003
Izhak Graziani, Bulgarian trumpet player and conductor (born 1924)
Izhak Graziani was an Israeli music conductor.
07/07/2001
Fred Neil, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1936)
Fred Neil was an American folk singer-songwriter active in the 1960s and early 1970s. He is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material, particularly "Everybody's Talkin'", which became a hit for Harry Nilsson after it was used in the film Midnight Cowboy in 1969. Though highly regarded by contemporary folk singers, he was reluctant to tour and spent much of the last 30 years of his life assisting with the preservation of dolphins.
07/07/2000
Kenny Irwin Jr., American race car driver (born 1969)
Kenneth Dale Irwin Jr. was an American stock car racing driver. He had driven in all three NASCAR national touring series, and had two total victories, both in the Craftsman Truck Series. Before that, he raced in the United States Auto Club against Tony Stewart, who was one of his fiercest rivals. He died as a result of injuries suffered in a crash during a practice session at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
07/07/1999
Vikram Batra, Param Vir Chakra, Indian Army personnel (born 1974)
Captain Vikram Batra PVC was an Indian Army officer. He was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India’s highest military decoration, for his actions during the Kargil War. On 7 July 1999, Batra was killed while fighting Pakistani troops at Point 4875 in the Kargil district of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir.
Julie Campbell Tatham, American author (born 1908)
Julie Campbell Tatham was an American writer of children's novels, who also wrote for adults, especially on Christian Science. As Julie Campbell she was the creator of the Trixie Belden series and the Ginny Gordon series. As Julie Tatham she also took over the Cherry Ames series and Vicki Barr series from Helen Wells.
07/07/1998
Moshood Abiola, Nigerian businessman and politician (born 1937)
Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, also known as M. K. O. Abiola, was a Nigerian business magnate, publisher, and politician. He was the honorary supreme military commander of the Oyo Empire and an aristocrat of the Egba clan.
07/07/1994
Carlo Chiti, Italian engineer (born 1924)
Carlo Chiti was an Italian racing car and engine designer best known for his long association with Alfa Romeo's racing department. He also worked for Ferrari and was involved in the design of the Ferrari 156 Sharknose car, with which Phil Hill won the 1961 championship.
Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte, German general (born 1907)
Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte was a German paratroop officer during World War II who later served in the armed forces of West Germany, achieving the rank of General. Following the war, Heydte pursued academic, political and military careers, as a Catholic-conservative professor of political science, a member of the Christian Social Union political party, and as a Bundeswehr reservist. In 1962, Heydte was involved in the Spiegel affair.
07/07/1993
Rıfat Ilgaz, Turkish author, poet, and educator (born 1911)
Rıfat Ilgaz was a Turkish teacher, writer and poet. He became especially known for his novel "Hababam Sınıfı". He maintained a socialist line both in his writings and in his personal life. His magazine work, which continued Turkey's most turbulent political flow, caused him to spend time in courthouse corridors and prison, like many writers of the same period.[8] In his very productive literary life, he wrote works in many different fields, from poetry to humorous stories, from novels to children's books. His work "Karartma Geceleri", which was once confiscated, was included in the list of 100 Essential Works in 2004.[9] The author's works are now protected by Çınar Publications, which he founded together with his son Aydın Ilgaz. These books are printed by Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları.[10]
Mia Zapata, American singer (born 1965)
Mia Katherine Zapata was an American musician who was the lead vocalist and lyricist of the punk rock band the Gits. As part of the burgeoning Seattle music scene, she was noted for her powerful vocals and fiery stage presence.
07/07/1990
Bill Cullen, American television panelist and game show host (born 1920)
William Lawrence Frances Cullen was an American radio and television personality whose career spanned five decades. Known for appearing on game shows and later as a prolific game show host, he hosted 23 shows, earning the nickname "Dean of Game Show Hosts". Aside from his hosting duties, he appeared as a panelist/celebrity guest on many other game shows, including regular appearances on I've Got a Secret and To Tell the Truth.
Cazuza, Brazilian singer and songwriter (born 1958)
Agenor de Miranda Araújo Neto, better known as Cazuza, was a Brazilian singer-songwriter, born in Rio de Janeiro. Along with Raul Seixas, Renato Russo and Os Mutantes, Cazuza, both while fronting Barão Vermelho and at solo career, is considered one of the best exponents of Brazilian rock music. In his 9-year career, he sold more than 5 million albums and achieved 11 number one singles and 18 Top 10 singles in Brazil.
07/07/1987
Germaine Thyssens-Valentin, Dutch-French pianist (born 1902)
Germaine Thyssens-Valentin was a Dutch-born classical pianist of Franco-Dutch parentage, noted for her performances of French music. She studied under Gabriel Fauré at the Paris Conservatoire, and in the 1950s, after a long absence from performing while she raised a family of five children, she recorded a series of discs of Fauré's music that have been reissued on compact disc to considerable acclaim.
07/07/1984
George Oppen, American poet and author (born 1908)
George Oppen was an American poet, best known as one of the members of the Objectivist group of poets. He abandoned poetry in the 1930s for political activism and moved to Mexico in 1950 to avoid the attentions of the House Un-American Activities Committee. He returned to poetry—and to the United States—in 1958, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1969.
07/07/1982
Bon Maharaja, Indian guru and religious writer (born 1901)
Bhakti Hridaya Bon, also known as Swami Bon, was a disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and a guru in the Gaudiya Math following the philosophy of bhakti, specifically that of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Gaudiya Vaishnava theology. At the time of his death, he left behind thousands of Bengali disciples in India.
07/07/1980
Dore Schary, American director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1905)
Isadore "Dore" Schary was an American playwright, director, and producer for the stage and a prolific screenwriter and producer of motion pictures. He directed one feature film, Act One, the film biography of his friend, playwright and theatre director Moss Hart. He became head of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and replaced Louis B. Mayer as president of the studio in 1951.
07/07/1978
Francisco Mendes, Guinea-Bissau lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau (born 1933)
Francisco Mendes, popularly known by his nom de guerre as Chico Té, was a Bissau-Guinean politician and revolutionary. He was the country's first Prime Minister and held that position from September 24, 1973, until he died in a suspicious car accident on July 7, 1978.
07/07/1973
Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (born 1895)
Max Horkheimer was a German philosopher and sociologist best known for his role in developing critical theory as director of the Institute for Social Research, commonly associated with the Frankfurt School.
Veronica Lake, American actress (born 1922)
Constance Frances Marie Ockelman, known professionally as Veronica Lake, was an American film, stage, and television actress. Lake was best known for her femme fatale roles in films noir with Alan Ladd during the 1940s, her peek-a-boo hairstyle, and films such as Sullivan's Travels (1941) and I Married a Witch (1942). By the late 1940s, Lake's career began to decline, in part because of alcoholism. She made only one film in the 1950s, but had several guest appearances on television. She returned to the big screen in the film Footsteps in the Snow (1966), but the role failed to revitalize her career.
07/07/1972
Athenagoras I of Constantinople (born 1886)
Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I, born Aristocles Matthaiou Spyrou, was the 268th Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from November 1948, until his death in July 1972, serving as the primus inter pares and spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christianity worldwide.
07/07/1971
Claude Gauvreau, Canadian poet and playwright (born 1925)
Claude Gauvreau was a playwright, poet, sound poet, and polemicist. He was a member of the radical Automatist movement and a contributor to the revolutionary Refus Global Manifesto.
07/07/1970
Dame Laura Knight, English artist (born 1877)
Dame Laura Knight was an English artist who worked in oils, watercolours, etching, engraving and drypoint. Knight was a painter in the figurative, realist tradition, who embraced English Impressionism. In her long career, Knight was among the most successful and popular painters in Britain. Her success in the male-dominated British art establishment paved the way for greater status and recognition for female artists.
07/07/1968
Jo Schlesser, French race car driver (born 1928)
Joseph Théodule Marie Schlesser was a French Formula One and sports car racing driver. He participated in three World Championship Grands Prix, including the 1968 French Grand Prix in which he was killed. He scored no championship points. He was the uncle of Jean-Louis Schlesser who himself became a Formula One driver in the 1980s.
07/07/1965
Moshe Sharett, Ukrainian-Israeli lieutenant and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Israel (born 1894)
Moshe Sharett was an Israeli politician who was Prime Minister of Israel from 1954 to 1955 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1948 to 1956. He signed the Israeli Declaration of Independence and was a principal negotiator in the cease-fire agreements that concluded the 1948 Palestine war. Beginning in 1933, he headed the political department of the Jewish Agency. He also founded the Jewish Brigade, which fought with the British Army against Nazi Germany during World War II.
07/07/1964
Lillian Copeland, American discus thrower and shot putter (born 1904)
Lillian Copeland, née Lillian Drossin, was an American track and field Olympic champion athlete, who excelled in discus, javelin throwing, and shot put, setting multiple world records. She has been called "the most successful female discus thrower in U.S. history". She also held multiple titles in shot put and javelin throwing. She won a silver medal in discus at the 1928 Summer Olympics, a gold medal in discus at the 1932 Summer Olympics, and gold medals in discus, javelin, and shot put at the 1935 Maccabiah Games in Mandatory Palestine.
07/07/1960
Francis Browne, Irish priest and photographer (born 1880)
Francis Patrick Mary Browne, was a distinguished Irish Jesuit and a prolific photographer. His best-known photographs are those of the RMS Titanic and its passengers and crew which he took while a passenger on the ship; he disembarked in Queenstown, four days before the ship sank. He was decorated as a military chaplain during the First World War.
07/07/1956
Gottfried Benn, German author and poet (born 1886)
Gottfried Benn was a German poet, essayist, and physician. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1951.
07/07/1955
Ali Naci Karacan, Turkish journalist and publisher (born 1896)
Ali Naci Karacan was a Turkish journalist and publisher. He was involved in founding the Turkish daily newspapers Akşam (1918) and Milliyet (1955), and his family, including grandson Ali Naci Karacan, built up a publishing group around Milliyet. He was the President of Fenerbahçe S.K. (1926–1927), and the editor of the newly founded Tan from 1935. Born Ali Naci, he later took the additional surname Karacan.
07/07/1950
Fats Navarro, American trumpet player and composer (born 1923)
Theodore "Fats" Navarro was an American jazz trumpet player and a pioneer of the bebop style of jazz improvisation in the 1940s. A native of Key West, Florida, he toured with big bands before achieving fame as a bebop trumpeter in New York. Following a series of studio sessions with leading bebop figures including Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, and Kenny Clarke, he became ill with tuberculosis and died at the age of 26. Despite the short duration of his career, he had a strong stylistic influence on trumpet players who rose to fame in later decades, including Miles Davis, Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan.
07/07/1939
Deacon White, American baseball player and manager (born 1847)
James Laurie "Deacon" White was an American baseball player who was one of the principal stars during the first two decades of the sport's professional era. The outstanding catcher of the 1870s during baseball's barehanded period, he caught more games than any other player during the decade, and was a major figure on five consecutive championship teams from 1873 to 1877 – three in the National Association (NA), in which he played throughout its five-year existence from 1871 to 1875, and two in the National League (NL), which was formed as the first fully recognized major league in 1876, partially as a result of White and three other stars moving from the powerhouse Boston Red Stockings to the Chicago White Stockings. Although he was already 28 when the NL was established, White played 15 seasons in the major leagues, completing a 23-year career at the top levels of the sport.
07/07/1932
Alexander Grin, Russian author (born 1880)
Aleksandr Stepanovich Grinevsky, better known by his pen name Alexander Green or Grin, was a Russian writer, notable for his romantic novels and short stories, mostly set in an unnamed fantasy land with a European or Latin American flavor. Most of his writings deal with the sea, adventures, and love.
Henry Eyster Jacobs, American theologian and educator (born 1844)
Henry Eyster Jacobs was an American religious educator, Biblical commentator and Lutheran theologian.
07/07/1930
Arthur Conan Doyle, British writer, creator of Sherlock Holmes (born 1859)
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was a British writer and physician. He is best known for his four novels and fifty-six short stories about the fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson, which are milestones in crime fiction, and for his first work featuring Professor Challenger, The Lost World (1912), which gave its name to a subgenre of speculative fiction. He was a prolific writer who produced over 200 stories and articles, four volumes of poetry, and a number of works for the stage. He was knighted by King Edward VII in the 1902 Coronation Honours.
07/07/1927
Gösta Mittag-Leffler, Swedish mathematician and academic (born 1846)
Magnus Gustaf "Gösta" Mittag-Leffler was a Swedish mathematician. His mathematical contributions are connected chiefly with the theory of functions that today is called complex analysis. He founded the prestigious mathematical periodical Acta Mathematica and was its editor for 40 years.
07/07/1925
Clarence Hudson White, American photographer and educator (born 1871)
Clarence Hudson White was an American photographer, teacher and a founding member of the Photo-Secession movement. He grew up in small towns in Ohio, where his primary influences were his family and the social life of rural America. After visiting the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, he took up photography. Although he was completely self-taught in the medium, within a few years he was internationally known for his pictorial photographs that captured the spirit and sentimentality of America in the early twentieth century. As he became well known for his images, White was sought out by other photographers who often traveled to Ohio to learn from him. He became friends with Alfred Stieglitz and helped advance the cause of photography as a true art form. In 1906 White and his family moved to New York City in order to be closer to Stieglitz and his circle and to further promote his own work. While there he became interested in teaching photography and in 1914 he established the Clarence H. White School of Photography, the first educational institution in America to teach photography as art. Due to the demands of his teaching duties, his own photography declined and White produced little new work during the last decade of his life. In 1925 he suffered a heart attack and died while teaching students in Mexico City.
07/07/1922
Cathal Brugha, Irish revolutionary and politician, active in the Easter Rising, Irish War of Independence; first Ceann Comhairle and first President of Dáil Éireann (born 1874)
Cathal Brugha was an Irish republican politician who served as Minister for Defence from 1919 to 1922, Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann in January 1919, the first president of Dáil Éireann from January 1919 to April 1919 and Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army from 1917 to 1918. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1922.
07/07/1913
Edward Burd Grubb Jr., American general and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Spain (born 1841)
Edward Burd Grubb Jr. was a Union Army colonel and regimental commander in the American Civil War. He served in three regiments and commanded two of them. In recognition of his service, in 1866, he was nominated and confirmed for appointment to the grade of brevet brigadier general of volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865. He was later appointed by President Benjamin Harrison as United States Ambassador to Spain. He was also a noted foundryman, business owner and New Jersey politician who was close to Woodrow Wilson.
07/07/1901
Johanna Spyri, Swiss author (born 1827)
Johanna Spyri was a Swiss author of novels, notably children's stories. She wrote the popular book Heidi. Born in Hirzel, a rural area in the canton of Zürich, as a child she spent several summers near Chur in Graubünden, the setting she later would use in her novels.
07/07/1890
Henri Nestlé, German businessman, founded Nestlé (born 1814)
Henri Nestlé was a German-born Swiss confectioner and the founder of Nestlé, the world's largest food and beverage company.
07/07/1865
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: execution of convicted conspirators
George Andrew Atzerodt was a German American repairman, Confederate sympathizer, and conspirator in the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. He was assigned to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson, but lost his nerve and made no attempt. Atzerodt was tried by a military tribunal, sentenced to death for conspiracy, and hanged along with three other conspirators.
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: execution of convicted conspirators
David Edgar Herold was an American pharmacist's assistant and accomplice of John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. After the shooting, Herold accompanied Booth to the home of Samuel Mudd, who set Booth's injured leg. The two men then continued their escape through Maryland and into Virginia, and Herold remained with Booth until the authorities cornered them in a barn. Herold surrendered, but Booth was shot to death by Sergeant Boston Corbett. Herold was tried by a military tribunal, sentenced to death for conspiracy, and hanged with three other conspirators at the Washington Arsenal, now known as Fort Lesley J. McNair.
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: execution of convicted conspirators
Lewis Thornton Powell was an American Confederate soldier who attempted to assassinate William Henry Seward as part of the Lincoln assassination plot. Wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, he later served in Mosby's Rangers before working with the Confederate Secret Service in Maryland. John Wilkes Booth recruited him into a plot to kidnap Lincoln and turn the president over to the Confederacy, but then decided to assassinate Lincoln, Seward, and Vice President Andrew Johnson instead, and assigned Powell the task to kill Seward.
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: execution of convicted conspirators
Mary Elizabeth Surratt was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Sentenced to death, she was hanged and became the first woman executed by the U.S. federal government. She maintained her innocence until her death, and the case against her was and remains controversial. Surratt was the mother of John Surratt, who was later tried in the conspiracy, but was not convicted.
07/07/1863
William Mulready, Irish genre painter (born 1786)
William Mulready was an Irish genre painter living in London. He is best known for his romanticising depictions of rural scenes, and for creating Mulready stationery letter sheets, issued at the same time as the Penny Black postage stamp.
07/07/1816
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish playwright and poet (born 1751)
Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Anglo-Irish playwright, writer and Whig politician who sat in the British House of Commons from 1780 to 1812, representing the constituencies of Stafford, Westminster and Ilchester. The owner of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in London, he wrote several prominent plays such as The Rivals (1775), The Duenna (1775), The School for Scandal (1777) and A Trip to Scarborough (1777). He served as Treasurer of the Navy from 1806 to 1807. Sheridan died in 1816 and was buried at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. His plays remain a central part of the Western canon and are frequently performed around the world.
07/07/1790
François Hemsterhuis, Dutch philosopher and author (born 1721)
François Hemsterhuis was a Dutch writer on aesthetics and moral philosophy.
07/07/1776
Jeremiah Markland, English scholar and academic (born 1693)
Jeremiah Markland was an English classical scholar.
07/07/1764
William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, English politician, Secretary at War (born 1683)
William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, was an English Whig politician and peer who sat in the British House of Commons from 1707 to 1742 when he was raised to the peerage as the Earl of Bath by George II of Great Britain. He is sometimes represented as having served as First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister of Great Britain as part of the short-lived ministry in 1746, although most modern sources do not consider him to have held the office.
07/07/1758
Marthanda Varma, Raja of Attingal (born 1706)
Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma was the founding monarch of the southern Indian Kingdom of Travancore from 1729 until his death in 1758. He was succeeded by Rama Varma (1758–98).
07/07/1730
Olivier Levasseur, French pirate (born 1690)
Olivier Levasseur, was a French pirate, nicknamed La Buse or La Bouche or in his early days for the speed and ruthlessness with which he always attacked his enemies as well as his ability to verbally attack his opponents. He is known for his involvement in the Nossa Senhora Do Cabo heist, among the richest plunders in the Golden Age of Piracy, and for a myth concerning buried treasure and a cryptogram.
07/07/1718
Alexei Petrovich, Russian tsarevich (born 1690)
Alexei Petrovich Romanov, was the Tsarevich of Russia, the eldest son of Tsar Peter I and his first wife, Eudoxia Lopukhina.
07/07/1713
Henry Compton, English bishop (born 1632)
Henry Compton was an Anglican clergyman who served as the Bishop of London from 1675 to 1713.
07/07/1701
William Stoughton, American judge and politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (born 1631)
William Stoughton was a New England magistrate and colonial administrator in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He was in charge of what have come to be known as the Salem Witch Trials, first as the chief justice of the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692, and then as the chief justice of the Superior Court of Judicature in 1693. In these trials he controversially accepted spectral evidence. Unlike some of the other magistrates, he never admitted to the possibility that his acceptance of such evidence was in error.
07/07/1647
Thomas Hooker, English minister, founded the Colony of Connecticut (born 1586)
Thomas Hooker was a prominent English colonial leader and Congregational minister, who founded the Connecticut Colony after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. He was known as an outstanding speaker and an advocate of universal Christian suffrage.
07/07/1607
Penelope Blount, Countess of Devonshire, English noblewoman (born 1563)
Penelope Rich, Lady Rich, later styled Penelope Blount was an English court office holder. She served as lady-in-waiting to the English queen Anne of Denmark. She was the sister of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and is traditionally thought to be the inspiration for "Stella" of Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella sonnet sequence. She was married to Robert Rich, 3rd Baron Rich, and had a public liaison with Charles Blount, Baron Mountjoy, whom she married in an unlicensed ceremony following her divorce from Rich. She died in 1607.
07/07/1600
Thomas Lucy, English politician (born 1532)
Sir Thomas Lucy was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1571 and 1585. He was a magistrate in Warwickshire, but is best known for his links to William Shakespeare. As a Protestant activist, he came into conflict with Shakespeare's Catholic relatives, and there are stories that the young Shakespeare himself had clashes with him.
07/07/1593
Mohammed Bagayogo, Malian scholar and academic (born 1523)
Mohammed Bagayogo Es Sudane Al Wangari Al Timbukti (1523-1593) was a scholar from Timbuktu, Songhai Empire. Baghayogho originated from among the Juula people, who are a Mande ethnic group composed of merchants and scholars.
07/07/1573
Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, Italian architect, designed the Church of the Gesù and Villa Farnese (born 1507)
Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, often simply called Vignola, was one of the great Italian architects of 16th-century Mannerism. His two great masterpieces are the Villa Farnese at Caprarola and the Jesuits' Church of the Gesù in Rome. The three architects who spread the Italian Renaissance style throughout Western Europe are Vignola, Serlio and Palladio. He is often considered the most important architect in Rome in the Mannerist era.
07/07/1572
Sigismund II Augustus, Polish king (born 1520)
Sigismund II Augustus was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. He was the first ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the last male monarch from the Jagiellonian dynasty.
07/07/1568
William Turner, British ornithologist and botanist (born 1508)
William Turner was an English divine and reformer, a physician and a natural historian. He has been called "the father of English botany". He studied medicine in Italy, and was a friend of the great Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner. He was an early herbalist and ornithologist, and it is in these fields that the most interest lies today. He is known as being one of the first "parson-naturalists" in England.
07/07/1531
Tilman Riemenschneider, German sculptor (born 1460)
Tilman Riemenschneider was a German woodcarver and sculptor active in Würzburg from 1483. A master in limewood and stone, he was one of the most prolific and versatile sculptors of the transition period between the Late Gothic, to which he essentially belonged, and Northern Renaissance art. He was also a local politician in the council of Würzburg.
07/07/1345
Momchil, Bulgarian brigand and ruler
Momchil was a 14th-century Bulgarian brigand and local ruler. Initially a member of a bandit gang in the borderlands of Bulgaria, Byzantium and Serbia, Momchil was recruited by the Byzantines as a mercenary. Through his opportunistic involvement in the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347, where he played the various sides against each other, he became ruler of a large area in the Rhodopes and western Thrace.
07/07/1307
Edward I, king of England (born 1239)
Edward I, also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 1254 to 1306 ruled Gascony as Duke of Aquitaine in his capacity as a vassal of the French king. Before his accession to the throne, he was commonly referred to as the Lord Edward.
07/07/1304
Benedict XI, pope of the Catholic Church (born 1240)
Pope Benedict XI, born Nicola Boccasini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 October 1303 to his death on 7 July 1304.
07/07/1285
Tile Kolup, German impostor claiming to be Frederick II
Tile Kolup, also known as Dietrich Holzschuh, was an impostor who in 1284 began to pretend to be Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.
07/07/1162
Haakon II Sigurdsson, king of Norway (born 1147)
Haakon II Sigurdsson, also known as Haakon Herdebrei meaning Haakon Broadshoulder, was King of Norway from 1157 until 1162 during the civil war era in Norway.
07/07/1021
Fujiwara no Akimitsu, Japanese bureaucrat (born 944)
Fujiwara no Akimitsu
07/07/0984
Crescentius the Elder, Italian politician and aristocrat
Crescentius the Elder, also known as Crescenzio de Theodora, was a politician and aristocrat in Rome who played a part in the papal appointments of Pope Benedict VI and Pope Boniface VII.
Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 7th July
Christian feast day: Æthelburh of Faremoutiers
Æthelburh, known as Ethelburga, was an Anglo-Saxon princess, abbess and saint.
Christian feast day: Felix of Nantes
Felix of Nantes (514-584) was a 6th-century Bishop of Nantes, France. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Christian feast day: Illidius
Saint Illidius was a 4th-century bishop of Clermont, France. To Illidius is attributed the rise of Clermont-Ferrand as a center of religious teaching and culture.
Christian feast day: Job of Manyava (Ukrainian Orthodox Church)
Job of Maniava, born Ivan Knyahynytskyi and named as a monk Ezekiel, was a Ukrainian Orthodox saint and an Orthodox clerical activist. He was a founder of Manyava Skete, a famous cell monastery in Ukraine.
Christian feast day: Blesseds Józef and Wiktoria Ulma with seven children (Catholic Church)
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. Beati is the plural form, referring to those who have undergone the process of beatification; they possess the title of "Blessed" before their names and are often referred to in English as "a Blessed" or, plurally, "Blesseds".
Christian feast day: Willibald (Catholic Church)
Willibald was an 8th-century bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria.
Christian feast day: July 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
July 6 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - July 8
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Solomon Islands from the United Kingdom in 1978.
An Independence Day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or after the end of a military occupation, or after a major change in government. Many countries commemorate their independence from a colonial empire.
Ivan Kupala Day (Belarus, Poland, Russia, Ukraine)
Kupala Night is one of the major folk holidays in some of the Slavic countries that coincides with the West Christian feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist and the East Christian feast of Saint John's Eve. In folk tradition, it was revered as the day of the summer solstice and was originally celebrated on the shortest night of the year, which is on 21-22 or 23-24 of June in Czechia, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and was adopted in Ukraine since 2023. Following the Julian calendar, it is celebrated on the night between 6 and 7 July in Belarus, Russia, and parts of Ukraine. The name of the holiday is ultimately derived from the Proto-Slavic word *kǫpati, meaning "to bathe".
Saba Saba Day (Tanzania)
Saba Saba Day on 7 July celebrates various historic holidays in East Africa, particularly in Tanzania and Kenya. The name Saba Saba is symbolic and is Swahili for seven seven, which translates to the 7th day of the 7th month of the year.
Tanabata (Japan)
Tanabata , also known as the Star Festival , is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi. According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. The date of Tanabata varies by region of the country, but the first festivities begin on 7 July of the Gregorian calendar. The celebration is held at various days between July and August.
World Chocolate Day
World Chocolate Day, or just Chocolate Day, is an annual celebration of chocolate, occurring globally on 7 July, which some suggest to be the anniversary of the introduction of chocolate to Europe in 1550. The observance of World Chocolate Day dates back to 2009 and is not to be confused with International Chocolate Day.
What Happened on 7th July?
59 significant events took place on Friday, 7th July — stretching from 1124 to 2022. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.
07/07/2022
Boris Johnson announces his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party following days of pressure from the Members of Parliament (MPs) during the July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis.
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He was previously Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley from 2001 to 2008 and for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023.
07/07/2021
Haitian crisis: Haitian President Jovenel Moïse is assassinated in his residence in the capital of Port-au-Prince.
The existing political, economic, and social crisis began with protests across cities in Haiti on 7 July 2018 in response to rising fuel prices. These protests gradually evolved into demands for the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse. Led by opposition politician Jean-Charles Moïse, protesters demanded a transitional government, provision of social programs, and the prosecution of corrupt officials. From 2019 to 2021, massive protests called for the Jovenel Moïse government to resign. Moïse had come to power in the 2016 presidential election, which had voter turnout of only 21%. Previously, the 2015 elections had been annulled due to fraud. On 7 February 2021, supporters of the opposition allegedly attempted a coup d'état, leading to 23 arrests, as well as clashes between protestors and police.
07/07/2019
The United States defeated the Netherlands 2–0 at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup final in Lyon, France.
The United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) represents the United States in international women's soccer. The team is governed by the United States Soccer Federation and competes in CONCACAF, the FIFA confederation for North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The U.S. team is the most successful team in international women's soccer, winning four Women's World Cup titles, five Olympic gold medals, nine CONCACAF W Championship titles, and one CONCACAF W Gold Cup title. It has medaled in every Women's World Cup and Olympic women's soccer tournament except for the 2016 Olympic tournament and the 2023 Women's World Cup; on both occasions, the U.S. was eliminated by Sweden after a penalty shootout in the first round of the knockout stage.
07/07/2017
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted with 122 countries voting in favour.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), or the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty, is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons, with the ultimate goal being their total elimination. It was adopted on 7 July 2017, opened for signature on 20 September 2017, and entered into force on 22 January 2021.
07/07/2016
Ex-US Army soldier Micah Xavier Johnson shoots fourteen policemen, killing five of them, in downtown Dallas, Texas at the end of a protest of recent police killings of Black men. He is subsequently killed by a robot-delivered bomb.
On July 7, 2016, Micah Xavier Johnson ambushed and shot police officers in Dallas, Texas, killing five, injuring nine others, and wounding two civilians. Johnson, a 25-year-old Army Reserve Afghan War veteran, was angry over white police shootings of black men. He shot the officers at the end of a protest against the recent killings by police of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.
07/07/2013
A De Havilland Otter air taxi crashes in Soldotna, Alaska, killing ten people.
The de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter is a single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada. It was conceived to be capable of performing the same roles as the earlier and highly successful Beaver, including as a bush plane, while also being a larger aircraft. The type certificate of the aircraft is now owned by the De Havilland Canada founded in 2019.
07/07/2012
At least 172 people are killed in a flash flood in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia.
The 2012 Krasnodar Krai floods were floods in southwest Russia in early July 2012, mainly in Krasnodar Krai near the coast of the Black Sea. The equivalent of five months of rain fell overnight in some southern parts of the country according to the Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia. One hundred seventy-one people died during the floods. According to the governor of Krasnodar Krai, Aleksandr Tkachyov, "there was nothing of the kind for the last 70 years". The flood was part of the aftermath of an intense storm that hit Krasnodar, dropping almost half a year's worth of rainfall on the region over two days. Close to 30,000 people were affected by the floods.
07/07/2011
A man goes on a killing spree in Grand Rapids, Michigan, killing 7 and wounding 2 before killing himself.
On July 7, 2011, 34-year-old Rodrick Shonte Dantzler killed seven people and wounded two others in a spree shooting in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The killings occurred in two homes, with the two non-fatal gunshot injuries taking place on the road. Dantzler was pursued by police on a lengthy car chase which eventually left his vehicle disabled in a highway woodline and after holding hostages in a nearby house for several hours, took his own life. Those killed included Dantzler's estranged wife, their daughter, his former girlfriend, and members of the other victims' families. One of the non-fatal victims was also acquainted with Dantzler.
07/07/2007
The first Live Earth benefit concert was held in 11 locations around the world.
Live Earth was a one-off event developed to combat climate change. The first series of benefit concerts were held on July 7, 2007. The concerts brought together more than 150 musical acts in twelve locations around the world which were broadcast to a mass global audience through televisions, radio, and streamed via the Internet. It was "unclear" where ticket proceeds from ticket sales went towards.
07/07/2006
A shootout happens in Spiritwood, Canada, killing 2 Royal Canadian Mounted Police and wounding a 3rd officer.
The Spiritwood Incident was a shooting that occurred on July 7, 2006, during a police pursuit in Saskatchewan, Canada, killing two of the three RCMP officers involved.
07/07/2005
A series of four explosions occurs on London's transport system, killing 56 people, including four suicide bombers, and injuring over 700 others.
On 7 July 2005, Islamist terrorists carried out four coordinated suicide bombings targeting commuters travelling on London's public transport during the morning rush hour. The attacks are sometimes known as the 7/7 bombings or simply 7/7.
07/07/2003
NASA Opportunity rover, MER-B or Mars Exploration Rover–B, was launched into space aboard a Delta II rocket.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the United States' civil space program and for research in aeronautics and space. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NASA operates ten field centers across the U.S. and is organized into three mission directorates: Human Spaceflight, Research and Technology, and Science. Established in 1958, NASA succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the U.S. space program a distinct civilian orientation focused on peaceful applications. Since then, it has led most American spaceflight programs, including Project Mercury, Project Gemini, the Apollo program, Skylab, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS) and the ongoing multi-national Artemis program.
07/07/1997
The Turkish Armed Forces withdraw from northern Iraq after assisting the Kurdistan Democratic Party in the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War.
The Turkish Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of Turkey. The TAF consist of the Land Forces, the Naval Forces and the Air Forces. The Chief of the General Staff is the Commander of the Armed Forces. In wartime, the Chief of the General Staff acts as the Commander-in-Chief on behalf of the President, who represents the Supreme Military Command of the TAF on behalf of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Coordinating the military relations of the TAF with other NATO member states and friendly states is the responsibility of the General Staff.
07/07/1992
The New York Court of Appeals rules that women have the same right as men to go topless in public.
The New York Court of Appeals is the highest court in the Unified Court System of the State of New York. It consists of seven judges: the chief judge and six associate judges, who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state senate to 14-year terms. The chief judge of the Court of Appeals also heads administration of the state's court system, and thus is also known as the chief judge of the State of New York. The Court of Appeals was founded in 1847 and is located in the New York Court of Appeals Building in Albany, New York.
07/07/1991
Yugoslav Wars: The Brioni Agreement ends the ten-day independence war in Slovenia against the rest of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from the breakup of Yugoslavia, which began in mid-1991, into six independent countries matching the six republics that had previously constituted Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and Macedonia, which was later renamed to North Macedonia. The breakup of Yugoslavia and the accompanying Yugoslav Wars are commonly attributed to increasing nationalism and unresolved ethnic tensions in Yugoslavia. While most of the conflicts ended through peace accords that involved full international recognition of the new states, they resulted in the deaths of many as well as severe economic damage to the region.
07/07/1985
Boris Becker becomes the youngest male player ever to win Wimbledon at age 17.
Boris Franz Becker is a German former professional tennis player, tennis coach and a commentator. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Becker is considered to be one of the greatest players of all time, winning 49 career singles and 15 doubles titles, including six singles majors: three Wimbledon Championships, two Australian Opens and one US Open. He also won 13 Masters titles, three year-end championships, an Olympic gold medal in men's doubles in 1992, and led Germany to two Davis Cup titles in 1988 and 1989. Becker is the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles Wimbledon title, a feat he accomplished aged 17 years, 7 months and 15 days in 1985.
07/07/1983
Cold War: Samantha Smith, a US schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov.
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc. It began in the aftermath of the Second World War and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term cold war is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, embargoes, and sports diplomacy.
07/07/1981
US President Ronald Reagan nominates Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States.
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.
07/07/1980
Institution of sharia law in Iran.
Sharia, also transliterated as Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah, is a body of religious law that form the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology sharīʿah refers to immutable, intangible divine law, in contrast to fiqh, which refers to its interpretations by Islamic scholars. Sharia, or fiqh as traditionally known, has always been used alongside customary law from the very beginning in Islamic history; it has been elaborated and developed over the centuries by legal opinions issued by qualified jurists – reflecting the tendencies of different schools – and integrated and with various economic, penal and administrative laws issued by Muslim rulers; and implemented for centuries by judges in the courts until recent times, when secularism was widely adopted in Islamic societies.
During the Lebanese Civil War, 83 Tiger militants are killed during what will be known as the Safra massacre.
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.
07/07/1978
The Solomon Islands becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons, is an archipelagic country consisting of six major islands and over 1,000 smaller islands in Melanesia, Oceania, to the north-east of Australia. It is adjacent to Bougainville to the west, New Caledonia and Vanuatu to the south-east, Fiji, Tuvalu, and Wallis and Futuna to the east, and the Federated States of Micronesia and Nauru to the north. It has a total area of 28,896 square kilometres, and a population of 828,857 according to official estimates from 2025. Its capital and largest city, Honiara, is located on the largest island, Guadalcanal. The country takes its name from the wider area of the Solomon Islands archipelago, which is a collection of Melanesian islands that also includes the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, but excludes the Santa Cruz Islands.
07/07/1963
Buddhist crisis: Police commanded by Ngô Đình Nhu, brother and chief political adviser of South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem, attacked a group of American journalists who were covering a protest.
The Buddhist crisis was a period of political and religious tension in South Vietnam between May and November 1963, characterized by a series of repressive acts by the South Vietnamese government and a campaign of civil resistance, led mainly by Buddhist activists.
07/07/1962
Alitalia Flight 771 crashes in Junnar, Maharashtra, India, killing 94 people.
Alitalia Flight 771 was a multi-leg Douglas DC-8-43 international scheduled flight from Sydney via Darwin, Bangkok, Bombay, Karachi, and Tehran to Rome with 94 on board. On 7 July 1962 18:40 UTC it crashed into a hill about 84 kilometres (52 mi) north-east of Bombay while on approach.
07/07/1959
Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere.
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. Similar in size and mass to Earth, Venus has no liquid water, and its atmosphere is far thicker and denser than that of any other rocky body in the Solar System. The atmosphere is composed mostly of carbon dioxide and has a thick cloud layer of sulfuric acid that spans the whole planet. At the mean surface level, the atmosphere reaches a temperature of 737 K and a pressure 92 times greater than Earth's at sea level, turning the lowest layer of the atmosphere into a supercritical fluid. From Earth, Venus is visible as a star-like point of light, appearing brighter than any other natural point of light in the sky, as either the brightest "morning star" or "evening star".
07/07/1958
US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into law.
Dwight David Eisenhower, also known as Ike, was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. A General of the Army, Eisenhower was the supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. His successful leadership in Operation Torch (1942–1943) and Operation Overlord was pivotal to the Allied victory in World War II.
07/07/1953
Ernesto "Che" Guevara sets out on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, politician, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.
07/07/1952
The ocean liner SS United States passes Bishop Rock on her maiden voyage, breaking the transatlantic speed record to become the fastest passenger ship in the world.
An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship that was primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes. The Queen Mary 2 is the only active ocean liner in 2026, serving with Cunard Line.
07/07/1946
Mother Francesca S. Cabrini becomes the first American to be canonized.
Frances Xavier Cabrini, also known as Mother Cabrini, was a prominent Italian-American religious sister in the Catholic Church. She was the first American to be recognized by the Catholic Church as a Saint.
Howard Hughes nearly dies when his XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft prototype crashes in a Beverly Hills neighborhood.
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. was an American aviator, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was one of the richest and most influential people in the world during his lifetime. He first became prominent as a film producer, and then as an important figure in the aviation industry. Later in life, he became known for his eccentric behavior and reclusive lifestyle—oddities that were caused in part by his worsening obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), chronic pain from a near-fatal plane crash, and increasing deafness.
07/07/1944
World War II: Largest Banzai charge of the Pacific War at the Battle of Saipan.
World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.
07/07/1941
The US occupation of Iceland replaces the UK's occupation.
The Occupation of Iceland during World War II began with a British invasion in order to occupy the island and deny it to Germany. The military operation, codenamed Operation Fork, was conducted by the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. The British forces were later replaced by Canadian and then American forces, even though the United States was not yet in the war.
07/07/1937
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident (Lugou Bridge) provides the Imperial Japanese Army with a pretext for starting the Second Sino-Japanese War (China-Japan War).
The Marco Polo Bridge incident, also known as the Lugou Bridge incident or the July 7 incident, was a three-day battle that began on 7 July 1937 in the district of Beijing between the 29th Army of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China and the Imperial Japanese Army.
The Peel Commission Report recommends the partition of Palestine, which was the first formal recommendation for partition in the history of Palestine.
The Peel Commission, formally known as the Palestine Royal Commission, was a British Royal Commission of Inquiry, headed by Lord Peel, appointed in 1936 to investigate the causes of conflict in Mandatory Palestine, which was administered by the United Kingdom, following a six-month-long Arab general strike.
07/07/1930
Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser begins construction of Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam).
Henry John Kaiser was an American industrialist who became known for his shipbuilding and construction projects, then later for his involvement in fostering modern American health care. Prior to World War II, Kaiser was involved in the construction industry; his company was one of those that built the Hoover Dam. He established the Kaiser Shipyards, which built Liberty ships during World War II, after which he formed Kaiser Aluminum and Kaiser Steel. Kaiser organized Kaiser Permanente health care for his workers and their families. He led Kaiser-Frazer followed by Kaiser Motors, automobile companies known for the safety of their designs. Kaiser was involved in large construction projects such as civic centers and dams, and invested in real estate, later moving into television broadcasting with Kaiser Broadcasting.
The Finnish far-right Lapua Movement organises the Peasant March demonstration in Helsinki to put pressure on the government to prohibit communist activities.
The Lapua Movement was a radical Finnish nationalist, fascist, pro-Nazi and anti-communist political movement founded in and named after the town of Lapua. Led by Vihtori Kosola, it turned towards far-right politics after its founding and was banned after a failed coup d'etat attempt in 1932. The movement's anti-communist activities continued in the parliamentarian Patriotic People's Movement.
07/07/1928
Sliced bread is sold for the first time (on the inventor's 48th birthday) by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri.
Sliced bread is a loaf of bread, sliced with a machine and packaged for convenience, as opposed to the consumer cutting it with a knife. It was first sold in 1928, advertised as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped". By 1933, around 80% of bread sold in the US was pre-sliced, leading to the popular idiom "greatest thing since sliced bread".
07/07/1916
The New Zealand Labour Party was founded in Wellington.
The New Zealand Labour Party, also known simply as Labour, is a centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers describe Labour as social democratic and pragmatic in practice. The party participates in the international Progressive Alliance. It is one of two major political parties in New Zealand, alongside its traditional rival, the National Party.
07/07/1915
The First Battle of the Isonzo comes to an end.
The First Battle of the Isonzo was fought between the armies of Italy and Austria-Hungary on the northeastern Italian Front in World War I, between 23 June and 7 July 1915.
Colombo Town Guard officer Henry Pedris is executed in British Ceylon for allegedly inciting persecution of Muslims.
Colombo Town Guard was a regiment attached to the Ceylon Defence Force which was the predecessor to the Sri Lanka Army prior to 1949 when the Ceylon Army was formed. It was a volunteer (reserve) regiment was based in Colombo.
07/07/1911
The United States, UK, Japan, and Russia sign the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911 banning open-water seal hunting, the first international treaty to address wildlife preservation issues.
The North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911, formally known as the Convention between the United States and Other Powers Providing for the Preservation and Protection of Fur Seals, was a treaty signed on July 7, 1911, designed to manage the commercial harvest of fur-bearing mammals in the Pribilof Islands of the Bering Sea. The treaty, signed by the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and Russia, outlawed open-water seal hunting and acknowledged the United States' jurisdiction in managing the on-shore hunting of seals for commercial purposes. It was the first international treaty to address wildlife preservation issues.
07/07/1907
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. staged his first Follies on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.
Florenz Edward Ziegfeld Jr. was an American Broadway impresario, notable for his series of theatrical revues, the Ziegfeld Follies (1907–1931), inspired by the Folies Bergère of Paris. He also produced the musical Show Boat. He was known as the "glorifier of the American girl". Ziegfeld is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.
07/07/1900
The luxury raching yacht Idler capsizes and sinks on Lake Erie during a storm, drowning six of its seven passengers (all members of the family of Cleveland businessman James C. Corrigan).
The Idler was a schooner-yacht built in 1864 by Samuel Hartt Pook of Fairhaven, Connecticut. She was one of the fastest yachts in the New York yachting fleet. Idler came in second place in the America’s Cup in 1870. She was sold times before she capsized and sank in 1900.
07/07/1898
US president William McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution, annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.
07/07/1892
The Katipunan is established, the discovery of which by Spanish authorities initiated the Philippine Revolution.
The Katipunan, officially known as the Kataastaasan Kagalanggalang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan and abbreviated as the KKK, was a revolutionary organization founded in 1892 by a group of Filipino nationalists Deodato Arellano, Andrés Bonifacio, Valentin Diaz, Ladislao Diwa, José Dizon, and Teodoro Plata. Its primary objective was achieving independence from the Spanish Empire through an armed revolution. It was formed as a secret society before its eventual discovery by Spanish authorities in August 1896. This discovery led to the start of the Philippine Revolution.
07/07/1865
Four conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln are hanged.
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., one month into his second term and towards the conclusion of the American Civil War. Lincoln was watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd, Major Henry Rathbone, and Rathbone's fiancé Clara Harris when John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, shot him in the head. Lincoln was taken to the Petersen House across the street, where he was pronounced dead the following morning.
07/07/1863
The United States begins its first military draft; exemptions cost $300.
Conscription, also known as the draft in American English, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day under various names. The modern system of near-universal national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s, where it became the basis of a very large and powerful military. Most European nations later copied the system in peacetime, so that men at a certain age would serve 1 to 8 years on active duty and then transfer to the reserve force. In the early 2000s, Norway and Sweden became the first nations to conscript women on the same legal terms as men. In 2025, Denmark ruled to implement a similar system.
07/07/1846
US troops occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the US conquest of California.
Monterey is a city on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of 8.645 sq mi (22.39 km2) and recorded a population of 30,218 in the 2020 census.
07/07/1834
In New York City, four nights of rioting against abolitionists began.
Beginning on July 7, 1834, New York City was torn by a huge anti-abolitionist riot that lasted for nearly a week until it was put down by military force. "At times the rioters controlled whole sections of the city while they attacked the homes, businesses, and churches of abolitionist leaders and ransacked black neighborhoods."
07/07/1807
The first Treaty of Tilsit between France and Russia is signed, ending hostilities between the two countries in the War of the Fourth Coalition.
The Treaties of Tilsit, also collectively known as the Peace of Tilsit, were two peace treaties signed by French Emperor Napoleon in the town of Tilsit in July 1807 in the aftermath of his victory at Friedland, at the end of the War of the Fourth Coalition. The first was signed on 7 July, between Napoleon and Russian Emperor Alexander I, when they met on a raft in the middle of the Neman river. The second was signed with Prussia on 9 July. The treaties were made at the expense of King Frederick William III of Prussia, who had already agreed to a truce on 25 June after the Grande Armée had captured Berlin and pursued him to the easternmost frontier of his realm.
07/07/1798
As a result of the XYZ Affair, the US Congress rescinds the Treaty of Alliance with France sparking the "Quasi-War".
The XYZ Affair was a political and diplomatic episode in 1797 and 1798, early in the presidency of John Adams, involving a confrontation between the United States and Republican France which led to the Quasi-War. The name derives from the substitution of the letters X, Y, and Z for the names of French diplomats Jean-Conrad Hottinguer (X), Pierre Bellamy (Y), and Lucien Hauteval (Z) in documents released by the Adams administration.
07/07/1777
American forces retreating from Fort Ticonderoga are defeated in the Battle of Hubbardton.
The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia after the war's outbreak at the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. As a result, the U.S. Army Birthday is celebrated on June 14.
07/07/1770
The Battle of Larga between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire takes place.
The Battle of (the) Larga was fought between 65,000 Crimean Tatars and 15,000 Ottomans under Qaplan II Giray against 38,000 Russians under Field-Marshal Rumyantsev on the banks of the Larga River, a tributary of the Prut River, in Moldavia, for eight hours on 18 July 1770.
07/07/1667
An English fleet completes the destruction of a French merchant fleet off Fort St Pierre, Martinique during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
Saint-Pierre is a town and commune of France's Caribbean overseas department of Martinique, founded in 1635 by Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc. Before the total destruction of Saint-Pierre by a volcanic eruption in 1902, it was the most important city of Martinique culturally and economically, being known as "the Paris of the Caribbean". While Fort-de-France was the official administrative capital, Saint-Pierre was the cultural capital of Martinique. After the disaster, Fort-de-France grew in economic importance.
07/07/1585
The Treaty of Nemours abolishes tolerance to Protestants in France.
The Treaty of Nemours were articles that were agreed upon in writing and signed in Nemours on 7 July 1585 between the Queen Mother, Catherine de' Medici, acting for the King, and representatives of the House of Guise, including the Duke of Lorraine. Catherine hastened to Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, where on 13 July the treaty was signed between King Henry III of France and the leaders of the Catholic League, including Henri, duc de Guise. The King was pressured by members of the Catholic League to sign the accord which was recognized by contemporaries as a renewal of the old French Wars of Religion.
07/07/1575
The Raid of the Redeswire is the last major battle between England and Scotland.
The Raid of the Redeswire, also known as the Redeswire Fray, was a border skirmish between England and Scotland on 7 July 1575 which took place at Carter Bar, the Cheviot pass which enters Redesdale. The skirmish was between the English Warden of the Middle Marches, Sir John Forster, with George Heron, Keeper of Redesdale, Keeper of Liddesdale and Scottish Warden and Sir John Carmichael, the Lord Warden of the Marches, with George Douglas of Bonjedworth. It was the last battle between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland.
07/07/1534
Jacques Cartier makes his first contact with aboriginal peoples in what is now Canada.
Jacques Cartier was a French maritime explorer from Brittany. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "Canada" after the Iroquoian names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona and at Hochelaga.
07/07/1520
Spanish conquistadores defeat a larger Aztec army at the Battle of Otumba.
Conquistadors or conquistadores were Spanish and Portuguese colonizers who explored, traded with, and conquered many parts of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania during the Age of Discovery. Sailing beyond the Iberian Peninsula, they established numerous colonies and trade routes, and brought much of the New World under the dominion of Spain and Portugal.
07/07/1456
A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her execution.
The conviction of Joan of Arc in 1431 was posthumously investigated on appeal in the 1450s by Inquisitor-General Jean Bréhal at the request of Joan's surviving family—her mother Isabelle Romée and two of her brothers, Jean and Pierre. The appeal was authorized by Pope Callixtus III.
07/07/1124
The city of Tyre falls to the Venetian Crusade after a siege of nineteen weeks.
Tyre is a city in Lebanon, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It was one of the earliest Phoenician metropolises and the legendary birthplace of Europa, her brothers Cadmus and Phoenix, and Carthage's founder Dido (Elissa). The city has many ancient sites, including the Tyre Hippodrome, and was added as a whole to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1984. The historian Ernest Renan described it as "a city of ruins, built out of ruins".