• 356 BC - A young man called Herostratus set fire to the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
• 285 - Diocletian appoints Maximian as Caesar, co-ruler.
• 1403 - Battle of Shrewsbury: King Henry IV of England defeats rebels to the north of the county town of Shropshire, England
• 1545 - The first landing of French troops onto the coast of the Isle of Wight during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight occurs.
• 1568 - Eighty Years' War: Battle of Jemmingen - Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alva defeats Louis of Nassau
• 1718 - Treaty of Passarowitz between the Ottoman Empire, Austria and the Republic of Venice is signed.
• 1774 - Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774: Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji ending the war.
• 1831 - Inauguration of Léopold I of Belgium, first king of the Belgians.
• 1861 - American Civil War: First Battle of Bull Run - At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the war begins (Confederate victory).
• 1865 - In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots Dave Tutt dead in what is regarded as the first true western showdown.
• 1873 - At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American West.
• 1877 - After rioting by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers and the deaths of nine rail workers at the hands of the Maryland militia, workers in Pittsburgh stage a sympathy strike that's met with an assault by the state militia.
• 1919 The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashed into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 12 people.
• 1925 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.
• 1931 - CBS's New York City station begins broadcasting the first regular seven days a week television schedule in the U.S.
• 1944 - World War II: Battle of Guam - American troops land on Guam starting the battle (ends on August 10).
• 1954 - First Indochina War: The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
• 1960 - Sirimavo Bandaranaike becomes the first woman prime minister in the world, making her the first elected female national leader in the world (Sri Lanka).
• 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 - Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon, during the Apollo 11 mission.
• 1970 - After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.
• 1972 - Bloody Friday bombing by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) around Belfast, Northern Ireland - 22 bomb explosions, 9 people killed and 130 people seriously injured.
• 1973 - In the Lillehammer affair in Norway, Israeli Mossad agents kill a waiter whom they mistakenly thought was involved in 1972's Munich Olympics Massacre.
• 1976 - Christopher Ewart-Biggs British ambassador to the Republic of Ireland is assassinated by the Provisional IRA.
• 1977 - Start of a four day long Libyan-Egyptian War.
• 1983 - The world's lowest temperature is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −89.2°C (−129°F).
• 1994 - Tony Blair is declared the winner of the leadership election of the British Labour Party, paving the way to him becoming Prime Minister in 1997.
• 1995 - Third Taiwan Strait Crisis: The People's Liberation Army begins firing missiles into the waters north of Taiwan.
• 1997 - The fully restored USS Constitution (aka "Old Ironsides") celebrates her 200th birthday by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.
• 2002 - Telecom giant WorldCom files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the largest such filing in United States history.
• 2004 - The United Kingdom government publishes Delivering Security in a Changing World, a paper detailing wide-ranging reform of the country's armed forces.
• 2005 - Four terrorist bombings, occurring exactly two weeks after the similar July 7 bombings, target London's public transportation system. All four bombs fail to detonate and all four suspected suicide bombers were captured, convicted and imprisoned for long terms.

Births