What Happened in July?

The Niagara Movement, a group of 59 well know African American businessmen begin their three day meeting on the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls. W. E. B. Du Bois was named general secretary and the group split into various committees. They renounced Booker T. Washington's accommodation policies set forth in his famed "Atlanta Compromise" speech ten years earlier. The Niagara Movement's manifesto is, in the words of Du Bois, "We want full manhood suffrage and we want it now.... We are men! We want to be treated as men. And we shall win." The movement became a forerunner of the NAACP. More

The secret Taft-Katsura Agreement is signed in which the United States acknowledged Japanese rule over Korea and condoned the Anglo-Japanese alliance of 1902. At the same time, Japan recognized U.S. control of the Philippines. More

The Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of the FBI, is established. More

French Aviator Louis Blériot, makes the first successful flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air airplane on July 25, 1909.

William C. Durant, CEO  of the relatively new General Motors Corporation purchases Cadillac from the Lelands for $4.5 million in General Motors stock, and keeps the Lelands in their management position and still responsible for production. Durant positioned Cadillac as GM's luxury brand and Cadillac flourished. More

American archeologist Hiram Bingham reaches the ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru. Although widely credited with being the first westerner to reach the site, other reports indicate other Europeans had seen it before Bingham, but he was the one who revealed it to the world at large. Local Peruvians, including the expedition's guide, Melchor Arteaga knew of the site. Nine years before Bingham's expedition, Agustin Lizárraga, a local farmer searching for new land for agriculture with some family members came upon Machu Pichu and carved an inscription on a wall in the Temple of the Three Windows that said: "Agustín Lizárraga, July 14th 1902". More

Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia following the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke and Crown Prince of Austria in Sarajevo, marking the beginning of World War I. More

Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo closes the New York Stock Exchange to stop the European liquidation of American securities caused by the outbreak of WWI. After several days of selloffs, about $3 billion (equivalent to $90 billion in 2023) of foreign portfolio investments had been sold. All of the world’s financial markets also closed. The Sock market remained closed for four months opening again on December 12, 1914. Bond trading had restarted on November 28, 1914. The liquidation of European-held securities transformed the United States from a debtor nation to a creditor nation for the first time in its history. More

The excursion boat S.S. Eastland, known as the "Speed Queen of the Great Lakes rolles over into the Chicago river at the wharf's edge. More than 2,500 passengers and crew members were on board that day – and 844 people lost their lives, including 22 entire families. More

The WWI Battle of the Somme offensive starts after a week long artillery bombardment. Planned as a joint operation between British and French forces to break the deadlock on the Western Front. But due to the German attack on the French at Verdun, Britain and its Empire took the lead on the Somme. The battle continue until November 13, 1916. It was a costly and largely unsuccessful Allied offensive on the Western front. The horrific bloodshed on the first day of the battle became a metaphor for the loss and apparent futility of the First World War. By the end of the first day of the battle more than 20,000 British soldiers were killed in action and 40,000 wounded marking the heaviest day’s loss that a British army had ever suffered. Four months later the Allies had advanced just five miles.

British King, George V, declares that he and all his descendants would be going by Windsor. Both in a “House of Windsor” capacity and as an official last name. Before George V picked Windsor, the royals were going by the “House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.” Expand +

The Battle of Passchendaele begins. It was a major WWI campaign lasting four months in the Ypres Salient in Belgium; a brutal and costly offensive with the goal of capturing Passchendaele Ridge and advancing towards the Belgian coast. It was primarily launched by the British including  Canadian and Australian troops and the French army, against the German army. The battle was fought under horrific conditions, including heavy rain, mud, and shell-churned terrain, which significantly hampered troop movements and contributed to the estimated 300,000 to 500,000 casualties on both sides.

The Second Battle of the Marne starts during the First World War.  It was the last major German offensive on the Western Front lasting a year and ending on August 6, 1919.

Bolshevik troops executed Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Feodorovna, and their five children: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei. Bringing the Russian Romanov dynasty to an end.  Expand +

The Chicago race riot of 1919 begins. It was ignited after a young Black man was stoned and drowned in Lake Michigan for swimming in an area reserved for whites. it was a violent racial conflict between white Americans and black Americans that lasted eight days. During the riot, 38 people died, 537 were injured and between 1,000 and 2,000 residents, most of them black, lost their homes. The riot is considered the worst of the scores of riots and civil disturbances across the United States during the "Red Summer" of 1919. More

The independent republic of Lithuania, successfully expels invading Soviet troops and gains full recognition as an independent country from Soviet Russia.

The Insulin hormone is successfully isolated by Canadian doctor Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best, a Biochemist. The scientific work continued and two additional contributors entered the scene; Dr James R. Mcleod and James Bertram Collip, also a biochemist. The four participants had a difficult relationship.  Expand +

Hitler becomes Party Chairman and leader of the Nazis.

The Hollywood Sign is officially dedicated in the hills above Hollywood, Los Angeles. It originally read "Hollywoodland," the name of the Real Estate company which was developing the now Hollywood Hills. The last four letters of the sign were were dropped after its second renovation in 1949. More

The German psychiatrist Hans Berger records the first EEG (Electroencephalogram) reading from a human by placing electrodes on the brain of a 17-year-old boy to capture its electrical activity. This marked the advent of a new era for neuroscience. More