Historical Events
- Jul 1 Bashkirian Airlines (flight 2937) Tupolev TU-154 and a DHL (German cargo) Boeing 757 collide in mid-air over Ueberlingen, southern Germany, killing 71
- Jul 1 The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression
- Jul 2 Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.
- Jul 4 Early morning house fire claims lives of 3 children and 3 firefighters in Gloucester City, New Jersey; careless cigarette smoking the likely cause
Wimbledon Women's Tennis
Jul 6 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Serena Williams beats older sister Venus 7-6, 6-3 for her first Wimbledon singles title
- Jul 7 A scandal breaks out in the United Kingdom when news reports accuse MI6 of sheltering Abu Qatada, supposed European Al Qaeda leader
US Women's Golf Open
Jul 7 US Open Women's Golf, Prairie Dunes CC: Juli Inkster wins her second US title, 2 strokes ahead of runner-up Annika Sörenstam; Inkster's 7th and final major victory
- Jul 7 Wimbledon Men's Tennis: Lleyton Hewitt of Australia wins his only Wimbledon singles title beating David Nalbandian of Argentina 6-1, 6-3, 6-2
- Jul 9 73rd All Star Baseball Game: 7-7 tie when both teams ran out of available pitchers at Miller Park, Milwaukee
Event of Interest
Jul 9 The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The first chairman is Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa.
ESPY Awards
Jul 10 10th ESPY Awards: Tiger Woods, Venus Williams win
- Jul 10 At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens' painting The Massacre of the Innocents is sold for £49.5million (US$76.2 million) to Kenneth, Lord Thomson
Devdas
Jul 12 Hindi film "Devdas" premieres directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and starring Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit (Best Film Filmfare Awards)
Assassination Attempt
Jul 14 French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations
- Jul 14 Senior Players Championship Men's Golf, TPC of Michigan: Australian Stewart Ginn wins his lone career major title by 1 stroke from American trio Hubert Green, Mike McCullough & Jim Thorpe
- Jul 15 "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and to possession of explosives during the commission of a felony
- Jul 15 A. P. J. Abdul Kalam is elected 11th President of India (results announced 18th July)
- Jul 15 Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan hands down the death sentence to British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life terms to three others suspected of murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl
- Jul 20 Bartenders doing tricks with fire start a major fire in a night club in Lima, Peru that kills 25 and injures 100
British Golf Open
Jul 21 British Open Men's Golf, Muirfield: Ernie Els of South Africa wins first of 2 Open titles in a playoff from Australians Stuart Appleby & Steve Elkington, and Frenchman Thomas Levet
- Jul 21 Telecom giant WorldCom files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the then largest such filing in United States history
F1 World Champion
Jul 21 With a record 6 races remaining, German Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher clinches his 5th F1 World Drivers Championship with victory in the French Grand Prix at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours; 3rd straight title win
Film & TV History
Jul 24 On 200th anniversary of his birth French author Alexandre Dumas' ('The Three Musketeers') ashes are interred in the Panthéon in Paris in a televised ceremony
- Jul 25 17th Commonwealth Games open in Manchester, England
Music History
Jul 25 Revival of Herb Gardner's stage comedy "I'm Not Rappaport", starring Judd Hirsch and Ben Vereen, opens at the Booth Theatre, NYC; runs for 53 performances
- Jul 27 A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes during an airshow at Lviv, Ukraine, killing 85 and injuring more than 100 in the largest airshow disaster in history
Tour de France
Jul 28 89th Tour de France: no winner (Lance Armstrong disqualified)
- Jul 28 British Senior Open Men's Golf, Royal County Down: Noboru Sugai of Japan wins by 2 shots from John irwin of Canada
- Jul 28 Nine coal miners trapped in the flooded Quecreek Mine in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, are rescued after 77 hours underground.
The Rising
Jul 30 Columbia Records releases Bruce Springsteen's 12th studio album "The Rising", his first new record with the E Street Band since 1985 tops the charts in 7 countries
Event of Interest
Jul 30 The accounting law referred to as "The Sarbanes Oxley Act" signed into law by President George W. Bush
- Jul 31 Polaroid Corporation is purchased by One Equity Partners, continuing to operate under the Polaroid Corporation name
Famous Birthdays
Famous Weddings
Julia Roberts
Jul 4 American Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts (34) weds American movie cameraman Danny Moder (33) at her 82-acre ranch in Taos, New Mexico
Famous Deaths
- Jul 2 Earle Brown, American composer (open form), dies at 75
- Jul 2 Ray Brown, American jazz double bassist (Oscar Peterson; Ella Fitzgerald), dies in his sleep at 75
- Jul 4 Benjamin O. Davis Jr., American general (b. 1912)
- Jul 4 Mansoor Hekmat, Iranian politician (b. 1951)
- Jul 4 Winnifred Quick, American Titanic survivor (b. 1904)
- Jul 5 Grant Beglarian, Armenian-American composer (Of Fables, Foibles, and Fancies), educator (University of Southern California, 1969-86), and arts administrator,dies at 74
- Jul 5 Harold "Duke" Dejan, Creole-American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader (Olympia Brass Band), dies at 93
- Jul 5 Katy Jurado, Mexican actress, 1st Latin actress to win a Golden Globe (High Noon, Broken Lance), dies at 78
Ted Williams (1918-2002)
Jul 5 American Baseball HOF outfielder (last player to bat over .400 in single season; 19 x MLB All Star; AL MVP 1946, 49; Triple Crown 1942, 47 Boston Red Sox), dies at 84
- Jul 6 Dhirubhai Ambani, Indian businessman (b. 1932)
- Jul 6 István Sárközy, Hungarian composer, dies at 81
- Jul 6 John Frankenheimer, American film director (The Birdman of Alcatraz; The Manchurian Candidate), dies at 72
- Jul 7 Bison Dele, American basketball player (b. 1969)
- Jul 7 Dhirubhai Ambani, Indian business tycoon (b. 1933)
- Jul 8 Ward Kimball, American animator (one of Disney's Nine Old Men), dies at 88
- Jul 9 Kenneth Snowman, British jeweller and antiquarian, dies at 82
- Jul 9 Laurence Janifer, American writer (b. 1933)
Rod Steiger (1925-2002)
Jul 9 American actor (Illustrated Man, Pawnbroker), dies of pneumonia at 77
Edward Lee Howard (1951-2002)
Jul 12 American CIA Case Officer and alleged Soviet spy who defected to the Soviet Union in 1985, dies at 50 after breaking his neck during a fall
- Jul 13 Yousuf Karsh, Turkish-born Armenian photographer (b. 1908)
- Jul 14 Carlos Fariñas, Cuban avant-garde composer, dies at 67
- Jul 14 Joaquín Balaguer, Dominican politician (President Dominican Republic 1960-62, 1966-78, 1986-96), dies at 95
- Jul 16 John Cocke, American computer scientist (b. 1925)
- Jul 18 Victor Emery, British theoretical physicist (b. 1933)
- Jul 19 Alan Lomax, American ethnomusicologist, and folklorist (Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song), dies at 87
- Jul 19 Spec Shea, American baseball pitcher (MLB All Star, World Series 1947; NY Yankees, Washington Sens), dies after heart surgery at 81
- Jul 20 Michalis Kritikopoulos, Greek soccer striker (28 caps; Olympiacos), dies from cardiac arrest at 56
- Jul 21 Gus Dudgeon [Angus Boyd Dudgeon], British pop record producer (Elton John, early David Bowie), dies in a car crash at 59
- Jul 21 John Cunningham, British Royal Air Force night fighter ace (WW II), dies at 84
- Jul 22 Marion Montgomery [Marian Runnells], American-British jazz singer ("Maybe the Morning"), dies of lung cancer at 67
- Jul 23 Arnold Weinstock, English industrialist (GEC managing director), dies at 77
- Jul 23 Chaim Potok [Herman Potok], American novelist (The Promise; The Chosen), and rabbi, dies at 73
- Jul 23 Reginald "Leo" McKern, Australian actor (Blue Lagoon, Help, Mouse that Roared), dies of health complications at 82
- Jul 23 William Luther Pierce, American author and activist, dies at 68
- Jul 24 Gus Tinsley, American College Football Hall of Fame end and coach (All-American 1935, 36; coach LSU 1948-55; NFL: Chicago Cardinals), dies at 87
- Jul 24 Maurice Denham, British actor (Mr Love, Damn the Defiant), dies at 92
- Jul 25 Abdur Rahman Badawi, Egyptian existentialist philosopher (b. 1917)
- Jul 26 Jutta Hecker, German writer, dies at 97
Archer John Porter Martin (1910-2002)
Jul 28 English chemist and Nobel laureate, dies at 92
