What Happened in July?

The Battle of Vedrosha is fought between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

Christian II is crowned King of Denmark and Norway.

Atahualpa, the last Inca, is executed by Spanish conquistadors in Cajamarca, Peru. Atahualpa  was initially sentenced to be burned at the stake, but this was commuted to strangulation after he agreed to be baptized. The Spanish had forced him to pay a large ransom of tons of gold and silver. Although Atahualpa produced the ransom, the Spanish went ahead and executed him anyway.  Expand +

Henry VIII marries his Fifth wife, Catherine Howard at Oatlands Palace in Surrey on the same day that Thomas Cromwell, his once all-powerful minister was executed. On August 8 , Catherine was formally acknowledged as Queen at Hampton Court Palace. Catherine was the first cousin of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII second wife. The marriage was terminated on November 23, 1541 and Catherine was charged with adultery and she was executed on February 13, 1542.  More

Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr, his sixth and final wife. She was known for her intellect and strong Protestant faith, becoming the first woman to publish an original work under her own name in England. Expand +

Abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots. After failing to quash a rebellion of Scottish peers, Mary was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle and forced to abdicate in favor of her one-year-old son. Her abdication was forced as a consequence of having taken as her third husband the man who allegedly murdered her second husband. More

The States-General of the Netherlands declare independence from Spain with the Act of Abjuration.

The Spanish Armada is defeated. The Spanish fleet was led by the Duke of Medina Sidonia and its purpose was to overthrow Elizabeth I, to reinstate Catholicism in England and to end England's support for the Dutch Republic to prevent attacks by English and Dutch privateers against Spanish interests in the Americas. The English fleet was under the command of Charles Howard, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham. His second in command was Sir Francis Drake. The Spanish Armada defeat is considered one of England's greatest military achievements. More

The first representative assembly in America, the House of Burgesses, meets in Jamestown, Virginia.

The Battle of Adwalton Moor takes place during the English Civil War, resulting in a decisive victoy for the Parliamentarian forces.

The Battle of Plymouth takes place during the First Anglo-Dutch War, with the English fleet under Admiral Robert Blake repelling a Dutch attack on Plymouth.

King Charles II of England grants a charter establishing the Carolina Colony, named in honor of his father, Charles I.

The Siege of New Amsterdam ends when the Dutch surrender to the English, who then rename the settlement New York.

The Hudson's Bay Company receives a royal charter from King Charles II, granting it exclusive trading rights in the Hudson Bay region of North America.

The Greenwich Observatory is completed by Sir Christopher Wren. The observatory, now named after the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed, was completed and established on the site of a former castle on July  10, 1676

The Battle of the Boyne takes place in Ireland, resulting in a victory for Protestant King William III over Catholic King James II and securing Protestant rule in Ireland.

Spain and Britain signed one of the treaties of Utrecht, this one giving Gibraltar and Minorca to Britain. The Treaty of Utrecht refers to a series of peace treaties signed in Utrecht, Netherlands, between 1713 and 1715, that concluded the War of the Spanish Succession. The treaties between France and other European powers and another series between Spain and other powers, concluding the War of the Spanish Succession, reshaped the European political landscape and had significant colonial consequences, particularly in North America.

The Urca de Lima and 9 other treasure ships on their way back to Spain from Havana were all lost in a hurricane off the Atlantic coast. More than 700 seamen, including the Spanish commander, drowned. More than $15 million worth of treasure sank to the bottom of the ocean. Spain managed to recover about $4 million of the treasure. The rest remained on the ocean floor for more than 250 years. More

The Spanish ship San Jose y las Animas sinks off the coast of Florida, becoming a subject of treasure hunting.The wreck was located by treasure hunters in 1968, lying in about twenty-eight feet of water. The ship was carrying a substantial amount of treasure, estimated to be worth millions of pesos.  Expand +

The Battle of Dettingen takes place during the War of the Austrian Succession, marking the last time a reigning British monarch, King George II, personally leads his troops in battle.