110 Fun Facts About July

July was renamed in 44 BC in honour of which Roman?

Julius Caesar: Quintilis was the month of his birth, which is why it was the month renamed in his honour.

Before it was renamed, July was called Quintilis, Latin for what?

Fifth: the early Roman year began in March, so the month we now call July was counted fifth.

Which tennis Grand Slam finishes in July?

Wimbledon: its matches must end by 11 p.m., a curfew the local council imposed when it granted planning permission for the Centre Court roof.

What is July's birthstone?

Ruby: yet the 'Black Prince's Ruby' set in the Imperial State Crown is really a spinel, a red gem long confused with ruby.

Which territory returned to Chinese rule at midnight on July 1, 1997?

Hong Kong: the 1898 agreement granting its New Territories for 99 years ran out, and China pledged to keep the city's capitalist system under 'one country, two systems'.

Someone born on July 25 falls under which zodiac sign?

Leo: yet the zodiac was laid out by Babylonian astronomers, and the Sun's position against the constellations has shifted since, so the signs no longer match the stars.

In the Southern Hemisphere, July is the seasonal equivalent of which Northern Hemisphere month?

January: with July in midwinter, Australians hold 'Christmas in July' events to enjoy a Christmas with a winter feel.

What is the name for Earth's farthest point from the Sun, which it reaches in early July?

Aphelion: northern summer arrives while Earth is at its farthest, because the seasons come from the tilt of its axis, not its distance from the Sun.

The 'dog days' of summer, said to begin in early July, are named after the rising of which star?

Sirius: its return to the dawn sky came during the hottest weeks of summer, so the Greeks and Romans blamed the Dog Star for the heat.

Which meteor shower, linked to comet Swift-Tuttle, becomes visible from mid-July?

Perseids: in 1993 NASA delayed a space shuttle launch because of concerns about this meteor shower.

Which king did the July 4, 1776, Declaration accuse of 'repeated injuries and usurpations'?

George III: in August 1775 he had already proclaimed the colonies to be in 'open and avowed rebellion'.

Which two Founding Fathers both died on July 4, 1826, the Declaration's 50th anniversary?

Jefferson and Adams: once political rivals, they had rebuilt their friendship through years of letters in retirement.

The Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest is held every July 4 in which New York neighbourhood?

Coney Island: organisers barred star eater Joey Chestnut from the 2024 contest after he signed an endorsement deal with plant-based rival Impossible Foods.

Until 1982, what was Canada Day, the July 1 holiday, officially called?

Dominion Day: several bills to rename it failed in the decades after the Second World War, before a private member's bill passed the Commons quickly in 1982.

In Quebec, July 1 is also traditionally what?

Moving Day, when leases turn over: Quebec fixed it on July 1 in 1973 so children would not have to switch schools in the middle of the year.

When Parisians stormed the Bastille, which held only seven prisoners, what were they mainly after?

Gunpowder: royal authorities had moved 250 barrels of it into the fortress only days before, so the crowd went there to demand it.

Belgium's National Day, July 21, marks the day in 1831 when which new king swore his oath?

Leopold I: yet the holiday was first held on September 27, marking the Dutch retreat from Brussels, and moved to July 21 only in 1890.

The Twelfth of July Orange Order parades celebrate William of Orange's 1690 victory at which river?

The Boyne: beaten there, James II fled to France and never returned, even though the war in Ireland went on for another year.

In July 1947, which town's army air field announced it had recovered a 'flying disc'?

Roswell: the military soon withdrew the 'flying disc' claim and said the debris came from a weather balloon, a switch that fed decades of cover-up theories.

Who led the Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, commemorated on Utah's Pioneer Day?

Brigham Young: on first seeing the valley he is said to have declared 'This is the right place', words now honoured by a monument at the canyon mouth.

What did Black New Yorkers once celebrate on July 5?

The end of slavery in the state: it took full effect on July 4, 1827, and a parade the next day became a yearly custom that a Black convention later voted to discourage.

Japan's Tanabata festival marks the yearly meeting of lovers represented by which two stars?

Vega and Altair: in the legend, the Milky Way keeps the two lovers apart, and they may meet only on the seventh day of the seventh month.

On July 28, 1914, a month after the Sarajevo assassination, Austria-Hungary declared war on which country?

Serbia: Russia, Serbia's powerful backer, had already begun preparing to mobilise its army, so the conflict quickly grew into the First World War.

What happens to the last person asleep on Finland's National Sleepy Head Day?

They are thrown into a lake, or the sea: in the town of Naantali, a celebrity is chosen every year to be thrown into the sea.

On Tynwald Day, July 5, the parliament of which island meets outdoors on an artificial hill?

Isle of Man: every new law must be proclaimed from Tynwald Hill within 18 months of passing, or it ceases to have effect.

Which mountain do Irish pilgrims climb, some barefoot, on Reek Sunday?

Croagh Patrick: pilgrims climb it in honour of Saint Patrick, who is said to have fasted and prayed on the summit.

World Population Day, July 11, was inspired by which 1987 milestone?

Five billion people on Earth: just 12 years later, the UN hailed a baby born in Sarajevo as the symbolic six-billionth.

July became National Ice Cream Month in the US in the 1980s, proclaimed by which president?

Ronald Reagan: Congress asked him to, and his 1984 proclamation called on Americans to observe the month 'with appropriate ceremonies and activities'.

What happened at Bikini Atoll four days before the bikini was unveiled in Paris on July 5, 1946?

A nuclear bomb test: Réard named his two-piece after the atoll and hired Paris showgirl Micheline Bernardini to model it.

The Trinity test, the first nuclear detonation, took place on July 16, 1945, in which US state?

New Mexico: the test's name, Trinity, is said to have come from Oppenheimer's love of the poetry of John Donne.

Apollo 11's landing on July 20, 1969, met which president's goal of reaching the Moon before the decade was out?

Kennedy: he set the goal before Congress in May 1961, but was assassinated in 1963 and never saw it met.

Disneyland opened in July 1955 in which California city?

Anaheim: so many guests arrived on opening day with counterfeit tickets that the crowds overwhelmed the park.

Live Aid on July 13, 1985, was staged at Wembley Stadium and a stadium in which US city?

Philadelphia: Phil Collins played Wembley, then flew Concorde across the Atlantic to play the Philadelphia show the same day.

The Tour de France, raced every July, was first organised in 1903 to boost sales of what?

A newspaper: L'Auto launched the race to beat its rival Le Vélo, and the leader's yellow jersey is said to match the yellow paper L'Auto was printed on.

Which sheep, born in Scotland on July 5, 1996, was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell?

Dolly: she was cloned from a mammary gland cell, so the scientists named her after the singer Dolly Parton.

Louise Brown, born July 25, 1978, in Oldham, England, was the first person born as a result of what?

In vitro fertilisation: the press called her a 'test-tube baby', but she was conceived in a lab dish, and Robert Edwards won the 2010 Nobel Prize for the method.

Amazon was founded on July 5, 1994, by Jeff Bezos under what original name?

Cadabra: within months Bezos renamed it Amazon, after the world's largest river, to match the size of his ambitions.

Which failed Confederate assault on Cemetery Ridge ended the Battle of Gettysburg?

Pickett's Charge: about 12,500 Confederates marched a mile across open ground under artillery fire, and its failure ended Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania.

The first day of the Somme, 1 July 1916, is the worst single day of casualties for which nation's military?

Britain: many attackers were 'Pals' who had enlisted with friends and workmates from the same towns, so single communities lost hundreds of men that morning.

Which champion of alternating current was born on July 10, 1856?

Nikola Tesla: soon after arriving in New York in 1884 he went to work for Thomas Edison, the champion of rival direct current.

Which Nobel-winning author was born on July 21, 1899, and died on July 2, 1961?

Ernest Hemingway: still recovering from two plane crashes in Africa, he skipped the 1954 Nobel ceremony, and the US ambassador read his speech in Stockholm.

Which Mexican painter was born on July 6, 1907, and died on July 13, 1954, in the same house?

Frida Kahlo: she took up painting while bedridden after a bus accident at 18, which left her in pain for the rest of her life.

Which Dutch Golden Age master was born on July 15, 1606?

Rembrandt: despite his fame, he went bankrupt in 1656, and his house and art collection were sold off to pay his creditors.

Simón Bolívar, born July 24, 1783, led which of these countries to independence?

Venezuela: in 1828 his companion Manuela Sáenz saved him from would-be assassins by helping him escape through a window.

Amelia Earhart vanished over the Pacific in July 1937 while attempting what?

Round-the-world flight: she and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared while trying to reach small Howland Island, where they planned to refuel.

J. K. Rowling, born July 31, 1965, gave her own birthday to which of her characters?

Harry Potter: the idea for him came to Rowling on a delayed train journey in 1990, after which she started writing the series.

Which discount chain opened its first store in Rogers, Arkansas, on July 2, 1962?

Walmart: Sam Walton opened it on his own after Ben Franklin, the variety-store chain he franchised from, turned down his discounting plans.

Sandra Day O'Connor, nominated in July 1981, became the first woman to do what?

Sit on the US Supreme Court: yet after she graduated from Stanford Law School, law firms would not hire her because she was a woman.

Which music genre's records were blown up at Chicago's Comiskey Park on July 12, 1979?

Disco: thousands of fans stormed the field after the blast, and the White Sox had to forfeit the second game of their doubleheader.

Which portable cassette player did Sony put on sale in Japan on July 1, 1979?

Walkman: Sony first sold it in the US under another name, the Soundabout, before the Walkman name stuck everywhere.

World Chocolate Day, July 7, is said to mark chocolate's arrival in Europe, through which country?

Spain: accounts of its arrival differ, but one early record has Maya nobles, brought over by friars, presenting cacao at the Spanish court in 1544.

Machu Picchu was brought to world attention in July 1911 by which American explorer?

Hiram Bingham: he later shipped thousands of artifacts from the site to Yale, which returned them to Peru only after a long custody battle.

The ice cream cone is often said to have been popularised at a 1904 World's Fair in which city?

St. Louis: one story credits a waffle seller who rolled a cone for a neighbouring ice cream stand that had run out of containers, though Italo Marchiony had patented a mould for edible ice cream cups in New York the year before.

During July's San Fermín festival, bulls run through the streets of which Spanish city?

Pamplona: the run grew out of the medieval practice of driving bulls on foot from the countryside into the city's bullring.

At the Montreal Olympics in July 1976, which 14-year-old gymnast scored the first perfect 10?

Nadia Comăneci's perfect 10 on the uneven bars flashed up as 1.00, because the scoreboard had never been built to show a 10.

In Catholic tradition, July is dedicated as the Month of what?

July is the Month of the Most Precious Blood because Pius IX extended its feast to the whole Church in 1849, setting it in July; the feast left the calendar in 1969.

Matariki, a public holiday that can fall in late June or July, is the New Year of which people?

Matariki marks the Māori New Year, when its star cluster rises before dawn and Māori read the stars as a forecast: clear and bright promised a warm, abundant winter.

Which country celebrates its Independence Day on July 20?

Colombia marks the 1810 Bogotá revolt that, in patriotic tradition, began when a Spanish merchant refused to lend a flower vase.

Which African country marks its Independence Day on July 26?

Liberia began in 1822 as an American Colonization Society settlement for freed Black Americans, and in 1847 the colony declared itself a republic.

Which Pacific nation, once called the New Hebrides, celebrates its Independence Day on July 30?

Vanuatu's independence in 1980 came amid the Coconut War, a secessionist revolt on the island of Espiritu Santo that Papua New Guinean troops put down.

Which kitchen staple first went on sale on July 7, 1928, thanks to a bakery in Chillicothe, Missouri?

Sliced bread came from a machine Otto Rohwedder finally got working in 1928, years after a fire destroyed his first prototype. The Chillicothe Baking Company was the first to use it.

Which New York skyscraper was struck by a B-25 bomber lost in thick fog on July 28, 1945?

The Empire State Building was hit on its north side, killing fourteen people. One of the bomber's engines fell down an elevator shaft and severed its cables.

Which Paris avenue stages both the Bastille Day military parade and the Tour de France's usual finish?

The Champs-Élysées became the Tour's finishing straight in 1975. The July 14 parade, held since 1880, is one of the oldest regular military parades in the world.

Which observance falls on July 17 because that is the date shown on Apple's calendar symbol?

World Emoji Day was created in 2014 by Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge. Apple's calendar emoji shows July 17 because the company premiered its iCal app on that day in 2002.

Which dwarf planet did the New Horizons probe fly past on July 14, 2015, after a nine-year journey?

Pluto got its first visitor that day, and the probe carried about an ounce of the ashes of Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered it in 1930.

Which Old West outlaw was shot dead by Sheriff Pat Garrett in a darkened bedroom on July 14, 1881?

Billy the Kid was only 21 when he walked into a friend's unlit room at Fort Sumner around midnight and found Garrett waiting. He had broken out of jail less than three months earlier.

Which teenage diarist went into hiding with her family behind a bookcase in Amsterdam in July 1942?

Anne Frank and her family moved ten days sooner than planned, after her sister Margot was ordered to report for a work camp. Anne had turned thirteen only weeks before.

In which London church did Prince Charles marry Lady Diana Spencer on July 29, 1981, before 3,500 guests?

St Paul's Cathedral was picked over Westminster Abbey, the traditional site of royal weddings, because it offered more seating and allowed a longer procession through London.

Which California desert basin hit 134°F on July 10, 1913, long listed as Earth's hottest air temperature?

Death Valley dips below sea level, which compresses the air and heats it further between steep mountain walls. Some meteorologists now dispute how accurate the 1913 reading was.

Which sitting US vice president fatally shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel at Weehawken on July 11, 1804?

Aaron Burr shot his rival close to the spot where Hamilton's son Philip had been fatally wounded in a duel of his own in 1801.

Which slab, found by a French army officer in Egypt in July 1799, unlocked the reading of hieroglyphs?

The Rosetta Stone repeats a single decree of 196 BC in three versions, which gave scholars their way in. It has been on public display in London almost continuously since 1802.

A July 1925 trial in Dayton, Tennessee, fined teacher John Scopes $100 for teaching what?

Evolution was barred from Tennessee's public schools by the Butler Act. Scopes was unsure he had ever actually taught it, but incriminated himself on purpose so the case could have a defendant.

Which two future Beatles first met at a church fete in Woolton, Liverpool, on July 6, 1957?

Lennon and McCartney were introduced on the day Lennon's skiffle group, the Quarrymen, played the fete. Two weeks later a bandmate passed on a casual invitation to join.

Which rock band played its first ever show at London's Marquee Club on July 12, 1962?

The Rolling Stones were billed that night as "the Rollin' Stones", and the spelling changed soon afterwards. Drummer Charlie Watts did not join the line-up until the following year.

Which novel of race and justice in small-town Alabama was published on July 11, 1960, and won a Pulitzer?

To Kill a Mockingbird was expected by its own publisher to sell only several thousand copies. It stayed Harper Lee's only published book for 55 years.

The armistice signed at Panmunjom on July 27, 1953, halted the fighting in which war?

The Korean War has never formally ended, because no final peace settlement followed the armistice. South Korea's president refused even to sign the ceasefire.

Which sport's All-Star Game, nicknamed the Midsummer Classic, was first played in July 1933?

Baseball's showcase was the idea of Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward, who pitched it as an attraction for the city's 1933 World's Fair.

Which creature represents Cancer, the zodiac sign that covers the first three weeks of July?

Crab is simply what the word cancer means in Latin. In Greek myth, Hera set the animal among the stars after Heracles crushed it underfoot.

Which animal gives July's full moon its traditional name in North American almanacs?

Buck Moon fits because male deer shed their antlers every year and are regrowing a bigger set in July. The same full moon is also called the Thunder Moon and the Salmon Moon.

Which July birth flower, sharing its common name with delphiniums, is a notorious cause of cattle poisoning?

Larkspur shares July's birth-flower honours with the water lily. Ranchers in the western United States often keep cattle off high ranges until late summer, when the plant is less toxic.

Which country hosted and won the first FIFA World Cup, beating Argentina 4–2 in the final on July 30, 1930?

Uruguay won only after a row over the match ball ended in a compromise: Argentina supplied the ball for the first half and the hosts supplied it for the second.

Which England striker scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final at Wembley on July 30, 1966?

Geoff Hurst was the only man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final until Kylian Mbappé did so in 2022. His second goal, in extra time, was hotly disputed.

Which satellite, launched on July 10, 1962, beamed the first live TV pictures between the US and Europe?

Telstar was paid for by the phone company AT&T, which covered the launch costs itself. The satellite stayed active for only seven months before failing early.

Which space station scattered debris across Western Australia when it fell from orbit on July 11, 1979?

Skylab broke up lower than expected, despite efforts to steer it into the Indian Ocean. The Shire of Esperance light-heartedly fined its American owners A$400 for littering.

Fragments of comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 slammed into which planet over six days in July 1994?

Jupiter had captured the comet into orbit decades earlier and pulled it apart in 1992. The impacts were the first collision between Solar System objects ever directly observed.

Which US agency was created by an act President Eisenhower signed on July 29, 1958, soon after Sputnik?

NASA inherited the staff and laboratories of an older aviation research body, NACA, which the same act abolished. The handover took effect on October 1, 1958.

Which Apollo 11 astronaut circled the Moon alone in Columbia in July 1969 while two crewmates walked on it?

Michael Collins orbited the Moon thirty times during the mission. He was only the second person to circle it alone, after an Apollo 10 crewman two months earlier.

Viking 1 missed its planned Bicentennial landing on July 4, 1976, and touched down on which world on July 20?

Mars looked too rough at the first-choice site, so the landing slipped to the seventh anniversary of Apollo 11. Viking 1 became the first successful lander there.

Who replaced Winston Churchill as UK prime minister after Labour's landslide election win in July 1945?

Clement Attlee had been Churchill's own deputy in the wartime coalition. The landslide gave Labour the first outright majority it had ever won.

Which waterway did Egypt's President Nasser nationalise in a speech in Alexandria on July 26, 1956?

The Suez Canal was seized a week after the United States pulled its funding for the Aswan Dam. Israel invaded Egypt on October 29, and Britain and France joined the attack two days later.

Whose revolutionary movement took its name from a failed July 26, 1953, attack on Cuba's Moncada Barracks?

Fidel Castro came back in 1956 with 82 men aboard the boat Granma. Most were killed or captured within days, and the survivors regrouped in the Sierra Maestra mountains.

Which US health programme became law on July 30, 1965, with ex-president Truman as its first recipient?

Medicare was signed by Lyndon Johnson at the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri. The former first lady, Bess Truman, was enrolled alongside her husband.

Which city did the knights of the First Crusade capture on July 15, 1099, after a five-week siege?

Jerusalem had been out of Christian control since 637. Godfrey of Bouillon, one of the crusade's leaders, was elected as its first ruler.

Which German officer planted the briefcase bomb at the Wolf's Lair in the July 20, 1944, plot to kill Hitler?

Claus von Stauffenberg's bomb went off, but another officer had unwittingly nudged the briefcase behind a table leg, which saved Hitler. Stauffenberg was shot by firing squad that same night.

Which Italian liner sank off Nantucket in July 1956 after colliding with the Swedish ship Stockholm in fog?

Andrea Doria stayed afloat for about eleven hours, long enough for 1,660 passengers and crew to be rescued. Forty-six people on board died as a direct result of the collision.

In which capital did Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky begin their Cold War chess showdown in July 1972?

Reykjavik nearly lost its star turn: Fischer agreed to play only after a banker doubled the prize fund and Henry Kissinger phoned to persuade him.

Which disease was nine-year-old Joseph Meister famously vaccinated against by Louis Pasteur on July 6, 1885?

Rabies never developed in the boy, who had been badly mauled by a dog. As an adult, Meister worked as a caretaker at the Pasteur Institute until his death.

Which particle did CERN scientists announce they had found on July 4, 2012, after a 40-year search?

Higgs boson theorists Peter Higgs and François Englert were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics the very next year for predicting it back in the 1960s.

Naadam, a July festival of wrestling, horse racing and archery, is the national celebration of which country?

Mongolia stages the biggest Naadam in its capital, Ulaanbaatar, from July 11 to 13. The same three sports are recorded in a 13th-century book, The Secret History of the Mongols.

Gion Matsuri, a festival of towering floats that runs through July, takes place in which Japanese city?

Kyoto's festival began in 869 as a purification ritual during a plague, when the emperor ordered prayers to the god of what is now Yasaka Shrine.

Which London concert venue is the main home of the BBC Proms, the eight-week season that opens each mid-July?

Royal Albert Hall was not the first venue: the Proms began in 1895 at the Queen's Hall in Langham Place, with the 26-year-old Henry Wood conducting.

Which Swiss town on the shore of Lake Geneva has been home to a famous July jazz festival since 1967?

Montreux first held the festival in its casino, which burned down in 1971 during a Frank Zappa performance. Deep Purple turned that fire into one of rock's best-known songs.

Which prize goes to the winner of golf's Open Championship, the sport's oldest tournament, played in mid-July?

The Claret Jug replaced the Open's first prize, a red leather Challenge Belt with a silver buckle. Young Tom Morris got to keep the belt after winning three years running.

Rain on which saint's feast day, July 15, is said in English weather lore to bring forty more days of rain?

St Swithun asked to be buried outdoors, where raindrops from the eaves could fall on his grave. His body was moved into a new basilica on July 15, 971.

Which painting in the Louvre commemorates the July Revolution of 1830 that toppled France's King Charles X?

Liberty Leading the People was bought by the French government for 3,000 francs, as a reminder to the new king, Louis-Philippe, of the uprising that had brought him to power.

Which African country became independent on July 9, 2011, after almost 99% of voters backed a split?

South Sudan broke away after two civil wars with the north, the second of which lasted more than twenty years, from 1983 to 2005.

Who stabbed the French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat in his medicinal bath on July 13, 1793?

Charlotte Corday went to the guillotine four days later. A poet afterwards nicknamed her the Angel of Assassination, while her victim was hailed as a martyr.

Which teenage noblewoman was proclaimed Queen of England on July 10, 1553, and deposed just nine days later?

Lady Jane Grey was named heir by the dying Edward VI because she was a committed Protestant. His Catholic half-sister Mary took the crown instead.

Which president, Warren Harding's successor in 1923, is the only one born on the Fourth of July?

Calvin Coolidge was born in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, on July 4, 1872. His first name was actually John, after his father, but he was called by his middle name from early childhood.

Fiestas Patrias on July 28 and 29 mark the independence José de San Martín proclaimed in 1821 for which country?

Peru remembers General San Martín as its liberator and opens July 28 with a 21-cannon salute at dawn. The second day honours the armed forces and the national police.