EVENTS:
- 356 BC – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is destroyed by arson.
- 365 – A tsunami devastates the city of Alexandria, Egypt. The tsunami was caused by the Crete earthquake estimated to be 8.0 on the Richter scale. 5,000 people perished in Alexandria, and 45,000 more died outside the city.
- 1902 – Willis Carrier creates the first air conditioner in Buffalo, New York
- 1959 – NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, is launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” initiative.
- 1961 – Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission – Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).
- 1969 – Space Race: Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin become the first humans to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission (July 20 in North America).
- 2007 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the fastest-selling novel ever is published. It sold 15 million copies in the first 24 hours of its release.
- 2012 – Erden Eruç completes the first solo human-powered circumnavigation of the world.
- 2019 – Yuen Long attack or “721 incident” in Hong Kong. Triad members indiscriminately beat civilians returning from protests while police failed to take action.
- 2023 – The Barbenheimer phenomenon begins as two major motion pictures, Greta Gerwig‘s fantasy comedy Barbie and Christopher Nolan‘s epic biographical thriller Oppenheimer, are released in theaters on the same day and audiences, instead of creating a rivalry between the extremely dissimilar films, instead attend and praise both as an informal, surreal double feature.
- 2024 – US President Joe Biden announces he will no longer seek a second term and withdraws from the 2024 election.
BIRTHS:
- 1863 – Aubrey Smith, English cricketer and actor (d. 1948)
- 1899 – Ernest Hemingway, American author and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)
- 1923 – Rudolph A. Marcus, Canadian-American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1930 – Anand Bakshi, Indian poet and songwriter (d. 2002)
- 1934 – Chandu Borde, Indian cricketer
- 1945 – Geoff Dymock, Australian cricketer
- 1945 – Barry Richards, South African cricketer
- 1947 – Chetan Chauhan, Indian cricketer and politician
- 1968 – Aditya Shrivastava, Indian actor
- 1974 – Bharath, Indian actor
- 1979 – David Carr, American football player
- 1984 – Liam Ridgewell, English footballer
- 1990 – Chris Martin, English footballer
- 2006 – Endrick, Brazilian footballer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
