Guam was ceded to the United States by Spain.
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What Happened in July?
During the Spanish-American War, the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico, which was then a Spanish colony. In 1917, Puerto Rico became an unincorporated Territory of the U.S. and Puerto Ricans became American citizens. Partial self-government was granted in 1947 allowing citizens to elect their own governor. In 1951, Puerto Ricans wrote their own constitution and elected a non-voting commissioner to represent them in Washington. More
Italian King Umberto I, is assassinated in Monza by Italian-American anarchist Gaetano Bresci. During his time as king since 1878 Italy expanded his control of Eritrea and Somalia. However, he was unable to defeat the Abyssinians.
In 1882, King Umberto I approved the Triple Alliance, which formed a military pact between Italy, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. He faced opposition from anarchists and other groups due to his conservative policies and his support for the military's actions including the Bava Beccaris massacre in Milan. He was succeeded by his son, Victor Emmanuel III. More
American mechanical engineer Willis Carrier, completes the design drawings for the first modern air conditioner while working for the Buffalo Forge Company. Carrier's system involved passing air through coils filled with cold water to cool the air and remove excess moisture, a significant advancement over previous methods. It was the first system to control both temperature and humidity, making it a groundbreaking innovation.
On February 3, 1914, Patent 1,085,971 External was issued for a “Method of humidifying air and controlling the humidity and temperature thereof.” Realizing the potential that humidity control could have in homes, Carrier and several associates left in 1915 and founded the Carrier Engineering Corporation. humidifying air and controlling the humidity and temperature thereof.” More
Ernest Pfennig, a Chicago dentist, orders the first Original Model A Ford car. The car is delivered a week later on July 23, 1903. A total of 1,750 cars were made from 1903 through 1904 and sold at an average price of $850. More
The Summer Olympics are held in St. Louis, Missouri, starting on July 1, 1904. They were the first Olympics hosted in the United States and the first at which gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded.
The event was originally awarded to the city of Chicago but was changed to St. Louis, where the World’s Fair called the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was to be taking place, in order to avoid the possibility of conflicting athletic competitions. Due to the cost and difficulty in traveling, only 12 countries participated across the 95 events with over half of the events being contested only by U.S. athletes which accounted for 523 of the 630 total athletes. The Games completed on November 23, 1904. More
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 on July 11, 1905. 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.
Photo: Lt Geoffrey Malins filming the preliminary bombardment of the First Day of the Battle of the Somme, July 1st 1916. Malins shots became part of the documentary film The Battle of the Somme. Public Domain.
Source: How I Filmed the War :- A Record of the Extraordinary Experiences of the Man Who Filmed the Great Somme Battles, etc. Jenkins, London 1920
Author Geoffrey H. Malins (1886-1940)
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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.”
The change came about because of the strong anti-German sentiment following World War I. In 1960, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip announced the creation of a brand-new last name for their untitled descendants which honored both their families: Mountbatten-Windsor. But did not change the name of the House, which is still the House of Windsor.
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.
Also killed that night were members of the imperial entourage who had accompanied them. The details of the execution and the location of their final resting place remained a Soviet secret for more than six decades. In 1926 the Soviet regime acknowledged the murders of the entire family. In 1979, amateur detective Alexander Avdonin located a burial site near Yekaterinburg, Russia, that contained the remains of the Tsar, Tsarina, and three of their daughters. The bodies were not exhumed at that time due to political sensitivities within the Soviet Union. In 1991, following the fall of the Soviet Union, a state-sponsored team of investigators exhumed the remains. In 1993 DNA analysis confirmed the remains were those of the Romanov family. A separate grave containing the remains of the two missing children, Alexei and Maria, was found in 2007.