On This Day — 7 July
2000s
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.
Boris Johnson
2021
Haitian crisis: Haitian President Jovenel Moïse is assassinated in his residence in the capital of Port-au-Prince.
Haitian crisis (2018–present)
2019
The United States defeated the Netherlands 2–0 at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup final in Lyon, France.
United States women's national soccer team
2017
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted with 122 countries voting in favour.
Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
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.
2016 shooting of Dallas police officers
2013
A De Havilland Otter air taxi crashes in Soldotna, Alaska, killing ten people.
De Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter
2012
At least 172 people are killed in a flash flood in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia.
2012 Krasnodar Krai floods
2011
A man goes on a killing spree in Grand Rapids, Michigan, killing 7 and wounding 2 before killing himself.
2011 Grand Rapids shootings
2007
The first Live Earth benefit concert was held in 11 locations around the world.
Live Earth (2007 concert)
2006
A shootout happens in Spiritwood, Canada, killing 2 Royal Canadian Mounted Police and wounding a 3rd officer.
Spiritwood Incident
2005
A series of four explosions occurs on London's transport system, killing 56 people, including four suicide bombers, and injuring over 700 others.
7 July 2005 London bombings
2003
NASA Opportunity rover, MER-B or Mars Exploration Rover–B, was launched into space aboard a Delta II rocket.
NASA
1900s
1997
The Turkish Armed Forces withdraw from northern Iraq after assisting the Kurdistan Democratic Party in the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War.
Turkish Armed Forces
1992
The New York Court of Appeals rules that women have the same right as men to go topless in public.
New York Court of Appeals
1991
Yugoslav Wars: The Brioni Agreement ends the ten-day independence war in Slovenia against the rest of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Yugoslav Wars
1985
Boris Becker becomes the youngest male player ever to win Wimbledon at age 17.
Boris Becker
1983
Cold War: Samantha Smith, a US schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov.
Cold War
1981
US President Ronald Reagan nominates Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States.
President of the United States
1980
Institution of sharia law in Iran.
Sharia
1980
During the Lebanese Civil War, 83 Tiger militants are killed during what will be known as the Safra massacre.
Lebanese Civil War
1978
The Solomon Islands becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
Solomon Islands
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.
Buddhist crisis
1962
Alitalia Flight 771 crashes in Junnar, Maharashtra, India, killing 94 people.
Alitalia Flight 771
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
1958
US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into law.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
1953
Ernesto "Che" Guevara sets out on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador.
Che Guevara
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.
Ocean liner
1946
Mother Francesca S. Cabrini becomes the first American to be canonized.
Frances Xavier Cabrini
1946
Howard Hughes nearly dies when his XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft prototype crashes in a Beverly Hills neighborhood.
Howard Hughes
1944
World War II: Largest Banzai charge of the Pacific War at the Battle of Saipan.
World War II
1941
The US occupation of Iceland replaces the UK's occupation.
Allied occupation of Iceland
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).
Marco Polo Bridge incident
1937
The Peel Commission Report recommends the partition of Palestine, which was the first formal recommendation for partition in the history of Palestine.
Peel Commission
1930
Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser begins construction of Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam).
Henry J. Kaiser
1930
The Finnish far-right Lapua Movement organises the Peasant March demonstration in Helsinki to put pressure on the government to prohibit communist activities.
Lapua Movement
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
1916
The New Zealand Labour Party was founded in Wellington.
New Zealand Labour Party
1915
The First Battle of the Isonzo comes to an end.
First Battle of the Isonzo
1915
Colombo Town Guard officer Henry Pedris is executed in British Ceylon for allegedly inciting persecution of Muslims.
Colombo Town Guard
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.
North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911
1907
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. staged his first Follies on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.
Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.
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).
Idler (yacht)
1800s
1898
US president William McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution, annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.
President of the United States
1892
The Katipunan is established, the discovery of which by Spanish authorities initiated the Philippine Revolution.
Katipunan
1865
Four conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln are hanged.
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
1863
The United States begins its first military draft; exemptions cost $300.
Conscription
1846
US troops occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the US conquest of California.
Monterey, California
1834
In New York City, four nights of rioting against abolitionists began.
New York anti-abolitionist riots (1834)
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.
Treaties of Tilsit
Before 1800
1798
As a result of the XYZ Affair, the US Congress rescinds the Treaty of Alliance with France sparking the "Quasi-War".
XYZ Affair
1777
American forces retreating from Fort Ticonderoga are defeated in the Battle of Hubbardton.
Continental Army
1770
The Battle of Larga between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire takes place.
Battle of Larga
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, Martinique
1585
The Treaty of Nemours abolishes tolerance to Protestants in France.
Treaty of Nemours
1575
The Raid of the Redeswire is the last major battle between England and Scotland.
Raid of the Redeswire
1534
Jacques Cartier makes his first contact with aboriginal peoples in what is now Canada.
Jacques Cartier
1520
Spanish conquistadores defeat a larger Aztec army at the Battle of Otumba.
Conquistador
1456
A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her execution.
Rehabilitation trial of Joan of Arc
1124
The city of Tyre falls to the Venetian Crusade after a siege of nineteen weeks.
Tyre, Lebanon