EVENTS:
- 1899 – A. E. J. Collins scores 628 runs not out, the highest-ever recorded score in cricket.
- 1954 – The world’s first nuclear power station opens in Obninsk, near Moscow.
- 1954 – The 1954 FIFA World Cup quarterfinal match between Hungary and Brazil, highly anticipated to be exciting, instead turns violent, with three players ejected and further fighting continuing after the game.
- 1977 – France grants independence to Djibouti.
- 1980 – Italian Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870 mysteriously explodes in mid air while in route from Bologna to Palermo, killing all 81 on board. Also known in Italy as the Ustica disaster.
- 2013 – NASA launches the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, a space probe to observe the Sun.
- 2014 – At least fourteen people are killed when a Gas Authority of India Limited pipeline explodes in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India.
- 2015 – A midair explosion from flammable powder at a recreational water park in Taiwan injures at least 510 people with about 183 in serious condition in intensive care.
- 2017 – A series of powerful cyberattacks using the Petya malware begins that swamped websites of Ukrainian organizations and counterparts with Ukrainian connections around the globe.
- 2024 – U.S. president Joe Biden debates former U.S president Donald Trump. The debate leads to Biden’s withdrawal from the election on July 21.
BIRTHS:
- 1838 – Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Indian journalist, author, and poet (d. 1894)
- 1869 – Hans Spemann, German embryologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)
- 1886 – Charlie Macartney, Australian cricketer (d. 1958)
- 1924 – Bob Appleyard, English cricketer
- 1931 – Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1939 – R.D. Burman, Indian composer (d. 1994)
- 1956 – Brad Childress, American football player and coach
- 1962 – Sunanda Pushkar, Indian-Canadian businesswoman (d. 2014)
- 1980 – Kevin Pietersen, South African-English cricketer
- 1983 – Dale Steyn, South African cricketer
- 1988 – Matthew Spiranovic, Australian footballer
- 1996 – Tanay Chheda, Indian actor and author
- 2000 – Chris Olave, American football player
- 2002 – Kelee Ringo, American football player
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
- Armed Forces Day, formerly Veterans’ Day (United Kingdom)
- Canadian Multiculturalism Day (Canada)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Djibouti from France in 1977
- National HIV Testing Day (United States)
- National Unity Day (Tajikistan)
