What Happened in July?

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

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

Apollo 15 becomes the first mission to use the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), also known as the "Moon buggy," As astronauts David Scott and James Irwin took the first ride in the LRV, a lightweight, electric vehicle designed to operate in the low-gravity vacuum of the Moon. It was capable of traversing the lunar surface, allowing Apollo astronauts to extend the range of their extravehicular activities. More

The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas gains its independence by the United Kingdom Government, Order in Council. This date is now celebrated as the country's Independence Day.  Expand +

Delta Air Lines DC-9 Flight 723, on approach to Boston, Massachusetts slams into a seawall at the foot of the runway, killing 88 of the 89 people on board. The lone survivor was Leopold Chouinard, who clung to life despite severe injuries but, tragically, died in the hospital four months after the crash. More

Cape Verde Independence Day from Portugal - Effective date of the Agreement Between Portugal and Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC) signed on 18 December 1974.

Comoros, officially the Union of the Comoros, proclaims its independence from France, following the 1974 Comorian independence referendum. The day is celebrated annually as Comoros National day. Cpmoros is an archipelagic country made up of three islands in Southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean; its capital and largest city is Moroni. The Comoros is the only country of the Arab League which is entirely in the Southern Hemisphere.

Former labor leader and Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa disappears under mysterious circumstances in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He was declared "presumed dead on July 30, 1982. His disappearance remains one of the most mysterious disappearances of the 20th century. More

The United States celebrates its bicentennial with a day of parades, concerts, and fireworks.

Romanian gymnast Nadia Elena Comăneci becomes the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the Olympic Games. Her great achievement took place at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal where she received six more perfect 10s for other events and ended winning three gold medals becoming the youngest all-around gold medalist and one of the world's best-known gymnasts in the history of Olympic gymnastics. More

Viking 1 Lands on Mars' on the western slope of Chryse Planitia (the Plains of Gold). Viking 1 found a place in history when it became the first U.S. mission to land a spacecraft safely on the surface of Mars and return images of the surface. More