What Happened in July?

The "Scopes Monkey trial", formally The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, starts. The trial publicized the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy, which set Modernists, who said evolution was not inconsistent with religion, against Fundamentalists. The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. On July 21 Scopes was found guilty and was fined $100 (equivalent to $1,700 in 2023), but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. More

Adolf Hitler publishes Volume I of Mein Kampf, (My Struggle) a political and autobiographical manifesto. The book outlines many of Hitler's political beliefs, his political ideology and future plans for Germany and the world. Volume 2 was published in 1926. Hitler began Mein Kampf while imprisoned following his failed coup in Munich in November 1923 and receiving in 1924, a sentence of five years in prison. Book sales were slow but it became a bestseller in Germany following Hitler's rise to power in 1933.

The "Scopes Monkey trial", formally The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, which had started on July 10. comes to an end. The trial publicized the Fundamentalist–Modernist controversy, which set Modernists, who said evolution was not inconsistent with religion, against Fundamentalists. The trial was deliberately staged in order to attract publicity to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee, where it was held. Scopes was found guilty and was fined $100 (equivalent to $1,700 in 2023), but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. More

Construction work for the Hoover Dam begins after the appropriations were approved; it was built during the Great Depression, between 1930 and 1937. The dam was dedicated in 1935, it started  providing electricity to Los Angeles on October 9 1936 and had all the hydroelectric generators online in 1937. Expand +

The Bonus Army, a group of 43,000 demonstrators – 17,000 veterans of U.S. involvement in World War I, their families, and affiliated groups gathered in Washington, D.C., to demand early cash redemption of their service bonus certificates. They were forcibly disbanded by the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C.

American Aviator Wiley Post completes a solo flight around the world in the Lockheed 5C Vega named Winnie Mae. His record breaking flight of 15,596 miles (25,099 km) was completed in 7 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes. More

The Spanish Civil War begins. A well-planned military uprising splits the country in half in just  a few days, with one zone controlled by the government (known as Republicans, Loyalists, or Reds), and the other by the rebels (also referred to as Nationalists, Fascists, or Whites) led by Franco. An estimated half million people perished during the civil war which lasted until 1939. Franco ruled Spain as a dictator for almost 40 years until his death in 1975. More

Amelia Earhart and Navigator Fred Noonan disappear on Round-the-World Flight. Earhart and Noonan never found Howland Island and they were declared lost at sea on July 19, 1937 following a massive sea and air search. More

The second Sino-Chinese war conflict begins with a clash at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. Japan quickly captured major Chinese cities, including Nanjing, where the infamous Nanjing Massacre occurred. Despite Japan's initial successes, Chinese resistance persisted, supported by a united front of Nationalists and Communists. Many others consider the second Sino-Chinese war conflict to have started when Japan invaded Manchuria in September 1931. The conflict ended when Japan's surrender to the WWII Allies in 1945.

The Battle of Britain begins as Nazi Germany launches air attacks on southern England. More

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Executive Order 8832, freezing Japanese assets in the United States and eleven days later, on August 1, declares an embargo on oil and gasoline exports to Japan, bringing commercial relations between the nations to an effective end. On December 7 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. More at: WWII Museum and the The Independent Institute.

A B-25 Mitchell bomber of the United States Army Air Forces crashed into the north side of the Empire State Building in New York City while flying in thick fog. The crash, impacting the 79th floor killed the three crewmen and eleven people in the building and injured twenty-four others including Elevator operator Lou Oliver who plunged 75 stories in the elevator to the basement. She was injured but survived. The damage caused by the crash was estimated at US$1 million (equivalent to about $17 million in 2024), but the building's structural integrity was not compromised. More

George Washington Carver arrives in Dearborn, Michigan at the invitation of Henry Ford to set up a laboratory and collaborate with him to explore the possibilities of using agricultural products in the automotive industry. Ford was particularly interested in finding alternatives to traditional materials like metal and rubber, which were in short supply and expensive during the war years. Henry Ford had previously traveled multiple time to Tuskegee to convince Carver to join him on the project. The laboratory was dedicated in a ceremony on July 21, 1942. The relationship between their two institutions continued to flourish after Carver's death in 1943 and Ford's in 1947.  More 

Stalin Issues Order No. 227: “Not a Step Back” The order, intended to galvanize the morale of the hard-pressed Red Army under German attack. More

American and British forces invade Sicily by air and sea.

Battle of Kursk: Russia's counteroffensive stops the German advance and results in a Soviet victory. The Battle of Kursk is the single largest battle in the history of warfare. It's generally estimated that the Soviet Union suffered around 800,000 casualties, with the German forces suffering around 200,000. These casualties include killed, wounded, and missing in action. More

Approximately 700 United States planes of the USAAF flew over Rome and dropped 9,000 bombs on the city. This raid was intended to only damage the freight yard and the steel factory in the San Lorenzo district of Rome, but it also struck apartments and the Papal Basilica, killing 1500 people. More

U.S. forces, led by General George S. Patton capture Palermo after advancing rapidly through Sicily during the Invasion of Sicily Campaign (Operation Husky). It was a large-scale Allied amphibious operation involving British and American forces in World War II, The capture of Palermo ultimately led to the liberation of Sicily and the collapse of Mussolini's fascist regime in Italy.

Operation Gomorrah begins. 791 British bombers took off under cover of darkness toward Hamburg, Germany. The air fleet was composed of British Lancaster, Stirling, Wellington, and Halifax bombers flying in six waves. Each wave had between 100 to 120 aircraft hoping to concentrate as much destruction as possible. The operation lasted for eight days, until August 1, 1943,. The operation included both nighttime raids by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and daytime raids by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) resulting in 46,000 civilian deaths, one of the worst civilian disasters of World War II.  More

Mussolini is deposed. The Fascist Grand Council ousted Mussolini from office and placed him under arrest two weeks after the Allied attack on Sicily. King Victor Emmanuel of Italy then ordered Marshal Pietro Badoglio to form a new government.