What Happened in July?

The Thresher (SSN-593) the first of a class of U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarines, is launched at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.  Expand +

The novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by American author Harper Lee is published and becomes an immediate bestseller. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961 and it is now widely recognized as a classic of modern American literature. The story is told from the perspective of a young girl and is set in the 1930's South. It explores themes of racial injustice and moral growth with its characters loosely based on Lee's observations of her family, her neighbors and an event that occurred in 1936 near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, when she was ten. Harper Lee died on February 2016 when she was 89 years old.

Rwanda gains independence from Belgium. Independence Day in Rwanda is a somewhat muted affair. Kwibohora, (July 4) is celebrated as Rwanda Liberation Day. On this day in 1994 the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) secured the capital of Kigali and ended the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi gains its freedom from Belgium. Burundi, a landlocked country in East Africa is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa. It has a population of over 14 million people.

The Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test is conducted by the United States as part of Operation Fishbowl. It involved detonating a 1.4 megaton nuclear warhead at an altitude of 250 miles (400 km) above Johnston Island in the Pacific. The test was designed in part to study the effects of nuclear explosions in the upper atmosphere and space, including the impact of the resulting electromagnetic pulse (EMP). The detonation created a large electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and radiation belts that damaged or destroyed approximately one-third of satellites in low Earth orbit, including AT&T's Telstar satellite. The EMP also caused electrical damage in Hawaii, disrupting streetlights, telephone networks, and burglar alarms. More

The U.S. Patent Office issued Patent No. 3,043,625 to “Nils Ivar Bohlin, Goteborg, (Volvo) for the three-point seatbelt. Volvo was so convinced of its safety potential safety that it made the patent available for other manufacturers, and motorists, to benefit from.

Telstar 1, a 171 pounds (78 kg) communications satellite is launched. One of the earliest communications satellites, it was the first to achieve live transmission of broadcast television images and telephone conversations  between the United States and Europe.  Telstar 1 remained active for only 7 months before it prematurely failed due to Starfish Prime, a high-altitude nuclear test conducted by the United States. The satellite remains in Earth orbit but is no longer operational. More 

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act into law, outlawing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. More

Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, becomes a fully independent member of the Commonwealth (formerly the British Commonwealth). July 6 is celebrated annually as Independence Day. Malawi is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa; bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi has an estimated population of over 21 Million people.

President de Gaulle proposes at a news conference in the Salle des Fetes of the Elysee Palace, that the United States, the Soviet Union, Communist China and France agree to get out and stay out of the Indochinese peninsula as a means of ending the fighting in Laos and South Vietnam.  Expand +

Ranger 7, an unmanned U.S. lunar probe reaches the Moon and takes the first close-up images of earths' satellite. During its final 17 minutes of flight, it sent back 4,316 images of the lunar surface. The last image taken 2.3 seconds before impact had a resolution of just half-a-meter. More

Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives and historically known as the Maldive Islands Independence Day.

The 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, arrives in Vietnam Cam Ranh Bay. The 101st fought in 45 operations spanning seven years. Seventeen members of the 101st Airborne received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their conduct in combat in this conflict.  Expand +

Medicare is signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. The occasion drew attention to the 20 years it had taken Congress to enact government health insurance for senior citizens after Harry Truman had proposed it. In fact, Medicare’s history dated back even further. More

The start of the 1967 Detroit Riots, also known as the Detroit Rebellion or the 12th Street Riot They were a series of violent confrontations between African American residents and law enforcement that lasted from July 23 to July 28. Sparked by a police raid on an unlicensed bar it resulted in 43 deaths, over 1,100 injuries, and widespread property damage. It was the largest civil disturbance in 20th-century America. The riots were the culmination of years of racial injustice, police brutality, poor housing, lack of jobs, and poverty among Detroit's African American population. The riots had a lasting impact on Detroit, exacerbating racial tensions and contributing to urban decline. More

The music album "Music from Big Pink" by "The Ba"nd is released on July 1, 1968 by Capital Records influencing the Americana music genre. It featured the iconic track "The Weight" and blending  folk, rock, country, and soul.

Apollo 11 American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin land the Apollo 11 mission Lunar Module “Eagle” in the Sea of Tranquility and become the first humans to walk on the moon, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit. Expand +

Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe (or Portuguese Central Africa) gains independance from Portugal. It had been a colony of the Portuguese Empire since 1470 when the Islands were discovered. São Tomé and Príncipe became a major global cocoa production area for several generations, and in the first decades of the 20th century it was frequently the world's annual number one cocoa producer.

The Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.

Japanese Air Force Fighter F-86F Sabre Jet collides with a passenger plane, Boeing 727 operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA). causing both aircraft to crash. All 162 people aboard the airliner were killed. The Sabre pilot, a trainee with the JASDF, freed himself from his airplane after the collision and parachuted to safety. More