7 July - Definition and Overview

July 7 is the 188th day of the year (189th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 177 days remaining.

Events

• 1456 - Joan of Arc is acquitted of heresy (but she had already been executed).
• 1534 - European colonization of the Americas: First known exchange between Europeans and natives of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in New Brunswick.
• 1798 - Quasi-War: The U.S. Congress rescinds treaties with France sparking the 'war.'
• 1799 - Ranjit Singh's men had taken their positions outside Lahore.
• 1807 - Napoleonic Wars: Peace of Tilsit between France, Kingdom of Prussia and Russia ends the Fourth Coalition.
• 1846 - Mexican War: Acting on instructions from Washington, DC, Commodore John Drake Sloat orders his troops to occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the United States annexation of California.
• 1865 - Civil War: 4 conspirators in the assassination of President Lincoln are hanged; Mary E. Surratt, Lewis T. Powell, David E. Herold, and George A. Atzerodt.
• 1898 - History of United States imperialism: President of the United States William McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States.
• 1917 - Russian Revolution: Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov forms Provisional Government in Russia after the deposing of the tsar.
• 1930 - Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser begins construction of the Boulder Dam (now known as Hoover Dam).
• 1937 - Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Lugou Bridge - Japanese forces invade Beijing, China.
• 1941 - World War II: American forces land in Iceland to forestall an invasion by the Nazis.
• 1946 - Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes the first American saint to be canonized.
• 1954 - In Memphis, Tennessee, WHBQ becomes the first radio station to air an Elvis Presley record.
• 1958 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into United States law.
• 1959 - 14:28 UT Venus occulted the star Regulus. The rare event which will next occur on October 1, 2044 was used for determining the Venus diametre and the structure of Venus' atmospherer.
• 1969 - French is made equal to English throughout the Canadian national government.
• 1978 - The Solomon Islands become independent from the United Kingdom.
• 1983 - Cold War: Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Premier Yuri Andropov
• 1991 - Yugoslav Wars: Brioni Agreement ended ten-day independence war in Slovenia against the rest of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
• 1994 - Aden is occupied by troops from North Yemen, completing the reunification of Yemen.
• 2004 - The last patent on the LZW compression algorithm (in Canada) expires.

Births

• 1752 - Joseph-Marie Jacquard, inventor of the programmable Jacquard loom (d. 1834)
• 1855 - Ludwig Ganghofer, writer (d. 1920)
• 1860 - Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer (d. 1911)
• 1884 - Lion Feuchtwanger, dramatist and narrator (d. 1958)
• 1887 - Marc Chagall, painter (d. 1985)
• 1893 - Miroslav Krleža,Croat writer (d. 1981)
• 1899 - George Cukor, director (d. 1983)
• 1901 - Vittorio De Sica, director (d. 1974)
• 1901 - Gustav Knuth, actor (d. 1978)
• 1906 - William Feller, Croat mathematician (d.1970)
• 1906 - Leroy Satchel Paige, baseball player (d. 1982)
• 1907 - Robert Heinlein, science fiction writer (d. 1988)
• 1911 - Gian Carlo Menotti, composer
• 1915 - Yul Brynner, actor (d. 1985)
• 1922 - Pierre Cardin, fashion designer
• 1927 - Doc Severinsen (Carl H. Severinsen), composer, musician
• 1933 - Murray Halberg, New Zealand runner
• 1937 - Tung Chee-Hwa, first Chief executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
• 1940 - Ringo Starr (born "Richard Starkey"), drummer and singer (The Beatles)
• 1941 - Bill Oddie, comedian and ornithologist (The Goodies)
• 1942 - Carmen Duncan, actress (character actress on Australian soap operas; Iris Cory Wheeler on the American soap Another World)
• 1945 - Michael Ancram (Michael Kerr, Earl of Ancram), British politician
• 1949 - Shelley Duvall, actress: Nashville, The Shining, McCabe and Mrs. Miller
• 1959 - Ben Linder, American engineer murdered in Nicaragua (d. 1987)
• 1966 - Gundula Krause, folk violinist
• 1969 - Joe Sakic, NHL hockey player
• 1974 - Karlis Skrastins, NHL hockey player
• 1980 - Michelle Kwan, figure skater

Deaths

• 1129 - Emperor Shirakawa of Japan
• 1304 - Pope Benedict XI, (possibly poisoned)
• 1307 - King Edward I of England
• 1572 - Sigismund II Augustus, king of Poland
• 1816 - Richard Brinsley Sheridan, playwright and politician (b. 1751)
• 1880 - Lydia Child, novelist and abolitionist (b. 1802)
• 1901 - Johanna Spyri, author (Heidi)
• 1930 - Arthur Conan Doyle, writer (Sherlock Holmes)
• 1949 - Bunk Johnson, jazz musician (b. 1879 or 1889)
• 1964 - Lillian Copeland, American athlete
• 1965 - Moshe Sharett, second Prime Minister of Israel
• 1967 - Vivien Leigh, actress (Gone with the Wind)
• 1971 - Claude Gauvreau, Quebec playwright, poet and polemist
• 1971 - Ub Iwerks, artist, director, cartoonist (drew first Mickey Mouse cartoon)
• 1972 - King Talal, King of Jordan
• 1972 - Athenagoras, Patriarch of Constantinople
• 1973 - Veronica Lake, actress
• 1973 - Max Horkheimer, philosopher and sociologist (b. 1895)
• 1980 - Dore Schary, film producer, writer
• 1990 - Bill Cullen, game show host
• 2003 - Izhak Graziani, conductor

Holidays and observances

• Bhutan - Guru Rinpoche
• China - Chih Nu (Feast of the Milky way)
• Japan - Tanabata
• Roman Empire - Nonae Caprotinae festival in honor of Juno
• San Fermín festival or running of the bulls in Pamplona, Navarre, Spain.
• Solomon Islands - Independence Day (1978)
• Tanzania - Saba Saba Day (or Peasants' Day, founding of the TANU party, 1954)
• Yemen - Unity Factory Day

July 6 - July 8 - June 7 - August 7 -- listing of all days