May 8

July 7

1307 King Edward I of England developed dysentery on his way to another campaign against Scotland, and his condition deteriorated. On July 6, 1307 he encamped at Burgh by Sands, just south of the Scottish border. When his servants came the next morning to lift him up so that he could eat, he died in their arms. Edward's last words to his son, his successor Edward II, were "carry my bones before you on your march, for the rebels will not be able to endure the sight of me alive or dead."

Remains of Edward I when his tomb was opened in 1774

1456 The execution of Joan of Arc for heresy took place in Rouen, France  in 1431. By burning Joan, the English alienated the French public opinion and soon treaties were being made with the Burgundians.  King Charles VII of France appointed three Bishops to hear the evidence of Joan of Arc's case and the defense, including Joan's family, were allowed to produce new material. The court annulled the previous verdict on July 7, 1456 and condemned an atrocious miscarriage of justice.

1559 Scottish religious reformer John Knox was appointed minister of St Giles in Edinburgh on July 7, 1559. Convinced he was personally directed by God, Knox's powerful preaching and writing was a significant influence on the austere, moral Protestant movement in Scotland. In 1560, the Scottish Parliament. influenced by the incendiary fiery sermons of John Knox, overthrew the pope's authority and forbade the saying of Mass, thus giving birth to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

Preaching of Knox in the Parish Church of St. Andrew's, 10 June 1559) by David Wilkie

1718 Alexei Petrovich Romanov, the son of Tsar Peter I and the Tsar's first wife, Eudoxia Lopukhina, was suspected of leading a conspiracy against his father. Peter had his son arrested and the boy received 25 blows of the knout (a whip with a lash of leather thongs), which would have flayed and shredded his back to the bone. Alexi died on July 7, 1718 following the knouting. At Alexei's funeral, Peter was said to have wept and kissed his son's lips in the open coffin.

1806 Bishop John Carroll oversaw the construction of the first Catholic cathedral in the United States, the Basilica of the Assumption in Baltimore. It was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, architect of the United States Capitol. The cornerstone of the cathedral was laid by Carroll on July 7, 1806, but he did not live to see its completion. Work on The Basilica of the Assumption in Baltimore was completed in 1821. It is the oldest cathedral in continuous use in the Unites States.

Carroll lays the cornerstone for the Cathedral of the Assumption

1814 Walter Scott first started work on Waverley, his tale of the last Jacobite rebellion, in the early 19th century, but mislaid the manuscript. When his printing press business became embroiled in difficulties, Scott resurrected the story.  Published on July 7, 1814, Waverley was a huge success and gave Scott by far the biggest literary income of the day. The first historical novel in the western tradition, the work made it respectable to use a historic background to tell a story and changed the way we look at history.

1865 The first woman executed by the federal U.S. government was American boarding house owner Mary Surratt. She was hanged July 7, 1865 along with three men for conspiracy in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Surratt was the mother of John H. Surratt, Jr., who was later tried but was not convicted of involvement in the assassination.


1873 On July 7, 1873 32- year-old Southern Baptist Charlotte Digges "Lottie" Moon of Virginia was appointed as a Baptist missionary to China. A gifted linguist, she quickly picked up the Chinese language and for 40 years "the cookie lady" taught and cared for Chinese children. She also wrote numerous letters back home to America, mobilizing many women to pray, give or to even become missionaries themselves.

1916 The Battle of the Somme was an allied offensive in World War II between July and November 1916 on both sides of the upper reaches of the River Somme in Picardy, France. Pooh Bear author A. A. Milne was injured on July 7, 1916 while serving in the Battle of the Somme and invalided back to England.

1919 French industrialist André-Gustave Citroën (1878–1935) was responsible for the mass production of armaments during World War 1. After the war he applied these techniques to the manufacture of low-priced small cars. Citroën, which he founded in 1919, was the first mass-production car company outside the USA. The first Citroën car was sold on July 7, 1919 - a Citroën 10HP Type A.

Citroen Type A Torpedo 1919 Wikipedia

1924 President Calvin Coolidge had two children - both sons. His younger son Calvin Jr. died at 16 on July 7, 1924 as a result of playing tennis at the White House. He was wearing shoes without socks and died from a toe infection.

1928 In 1928 Otto Frederick Rohwedder, a retired jeweler from Missouri came up with a machine that both wrapped and sliced bread. Frank Bench, a personal friend of Rohwedder's, installed the bread slicing machine at the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri. The first ever pre-sliced loaf of bread using Rohwedder’s machine was sold to a customer on July 7, 1928. It was labeled “Sliced Kleen Maid Bread”. By 1933 80% of all bread sold in the US was sliced and wrapped.

1930 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish creator of Sherlock Holmes was found clutching his chest with a heart attack  in the hall of Windlesham Manor, his house in Crowborough, East Sussex, on July 7, 1930. He had been ill with heart trouble for seven months since returning from a Scandinavian trip where he'd given a series of lectures on spiritualism.  Doyle died later that day. His last words were to his wife Jean Leckie, "You are wonderful." It was the birthday of Dr Watson.

1930 Construction of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River along the Arizona–Nevada border begun on July 7, 1930. Over the next five years, a total of 21,000 men would work to produce what would be the largest dam of its time, as well as one of the largest man-made structures in the world. It was dedicated in September 1935. Hoover Dam’s structural volume surpasses the largest pyramid in Egypt, which took 20 years and 100,000 men to complete.


1932 SK-1 was the first rubber plant in Europe to produce synthetic rubber on an industrial scale. It was established (Russia) by Sergei Lebedev in Yaroslavl under Joseph Stalin's First Five-Year Plan on July 7, 1932. This was a major achievement for the Soviet Union, as it reduced the country's reliance on imported rubber. The SK-1 plant also helped to stimulate the development of the Soviet rubber industry.

1936 The first ever television show was broadcast by NBC/RCA on July 7, 1936. It was seen by only a few hundred people who had access to the new television. The first ever program featured newsreel items, as well as a variety show of sorts, which included female dancers performing a water lily dance, a fashion show and some comic bits.


1945 The Roswell ‘UFO’ incident took place in New Mexico on July 7, 1945. Reports of a crashed U.S. Air Force surveillance balloon was claimed by many to have been a cover up and the downed device was said to be instead an extra-terrestrial spaceship. The incident was later a feature of the hit sci-fi TV series The X-Files.

1946 After a near-fatal aircraft crash on July 7, 1946, Howard Hughes decided he did not like the design of the hospital bed he was laying in. He called in his engineers and had them design a new bed that would allow someone with severe burns to move freely. His device became the prototype for the modern hospital bed.


1946 Jimmy Carter married the former Eleanor Rosalynn Smith married on July 7, 1946 in Plains, Georgia. He was 21, she was 18. The marriage canceled Rosalynn's plans to attend Georgia State College for Women, where she planned to study interior design. The couple had four children: John William "Jack" (born 1947), James Earl "Chip" III (born 1950), Donnel Jeffrey "Jeff" (born 1952), and Amy Lynn (born 1967).

1982 Science fiction author William Gibson notably coined the term "cyberspace" in his short story "Burning Chrome," which was published on July 7, 1982. The word was used in reference to the "mass consensual hallucination" in computer networks. Gibson later popularized the concept in his acclaimed 1984 debut novel Neuromancer.

2006 Syd Barrett and Roger Waters were childhood friends and both were founding members of Pink Floyd in 1965 along with Nick Mason and Richard Wright. Barrett gave the band its name, inspired by his heroes, blues singers Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. He left the group in April 1968 due to deteriorating mental health, which was made worse by heavy drug use. Barrett died on July 7, 2006 in his Cambridge home at the age of 60 as a result of diabetes.


2007 The largest individual chocolate was a chocolate Hershey’s Kiss weighing 30,540 lbs (13,852.71 kg). The chocolate was made to celebrate Hershey's Kisses 100th anniversary and was unveiled at Chocolate World, Hershey, Pennsylvania on July 7, 2007.  It took a team of 50 people to create the Kiss, which took 24 hours to make.

2009 Michael Jackson's memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, 2009 was covered by most TV networks and many celebrities spoke at the service. 17,500 tickets were made available to the public, and more than 1.2 million people signed up for a lottery to get them.


2017 The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons was passed on July 7, 2017. 122 out of 193 member states voted in favor of the proposed agreement.

2022 On July 7, 2022, Boris Johnson, the prime minister at the time, made an announcement revealing his decision to step down from his position. This development came after a period of intense political turbulence and growing pressure from members of his own Conservative Party urging him to resign. 

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