July 5
Events
Pre-1600
- 328 - The official opening of Constantine's Bridge built over the Danube between Sucidava and Oescus by the Roman architect Theophilus Patricius.
- 1316 - The Burgundian and Majorcan claimants of the Principality of Achaea meet in the Battle of Manolada.
- 1584 - The Maronite College is established in Rome.
- 1594 - Portuguese forces under the command of Pedro Lopes de Sousa begin an unsuccessful invasion of the Kingdom of Kandy during the Campaign of Danture in Sri Lanka.
1601–1900
- 1610 - John Guy sets sail from Bristol with 39 other colonists for Newfoundland.
- 1687 - Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
- 1770 - The Battle of Chesma between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire begins.
- 1775 - The Second Continental Congress adopts the Olive Branch Petition.
- 1803 - The Convention of Artlenburg is signed, leading to the French occupation of the Electorate of Hanover.
- 1807 - In Buenos Aires the local militias repel the British soldiers within the Second English Invasion.
- 1809 - The Battle of Wagram between the French and Austrian Empires begins.
- 1811 - The Venezuelan Declaration of Independence is adopted by a congress of the provinces.
- 1813 - War of 1812: Three weeks of British raids on Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Plattsburgh, New York commence.
- 1814 - War of 1812: Battle of Chippawa: American Major General Jacob Brown defeats British General Phineas Riall at Chippawa, Ontario.
- 1833 - Lê Văn Khôi along with 27 soldiers stage a mutiny taking over the Phiên An citadel, developing into the Lê Văn Khôi revolt against Emperor Minh Mạng.
- 1833 - Admiral Charles Napier vanquishes the navy of the Portuguese usurper Dom Miguel at the third Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
- 1841 - Thomas Cook organises the first package excursion, from Leicester to Loughborough.
- 1852 - Frederick Douglass delivers his "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" speech in Rochester, New York.
- 1859 - The United States discovers and claims Midway Atoll.
- 1865 - The United States Secret Service begins operation.
- 1884 - Germany takes possession of Cameroon.
1901–present
- 1915 - The Liberty Bell leaves Philadelphia by special train on its way to the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. This is the last trip outside Philadelphia that the custodians of the bell intend to permit.
- 1934 - "Bloody Thursday": The police open fire on striking longshoremen in San Francisco.
- 1935 - The National Labor Relations Act, which governs labor relations in the United States, is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- 1937 - Spam, the luncheon meat, is introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.
- 1940 - World War II: Foreign relations of Vichy France are severed with the United Kingdom.
- 1941 - World War II: Operation Barbarossa: German troops reach the Dnieper river.
- 1943 - World War II: An Allied invasion fleet sails for Sicily.
- 1943 - World War II: German forces begin a massive offensive against the Soviet Union at the Battle of Kursk, also known as Operation Citadel.
- 1945 - The United Kingdom holds its first general election in 10 years, which would be won by Clement Attlee's Labour Party.
- 1946 - Micheline Bernardini models the first modern bikini at a swimming pool in Paris.
- 1948 - National Health Service Acts create the national public health system in the United Kingdom.
- 1950 - Korean War: Task Force Smith: American and North Korean forces first clash, in the Battle of Osan.
- 1950 - The Knesset of Israel passes the Law of Return which grants all Jews the right to immigrate to the Land of Israel.
- 1954 - The BBC broadcasts its first daily television news bulletin.
- 1954 - Elvis Presley records his first single, "That's All Right", at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee.
- 1962 - The official independence of Algeria is proclaimed after an eight-year-long war with France.
- 1970 - Air Canada Flight 621 crashes in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, killing all 109 people on board.
- 1971 - The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years, is formally certified by President Richard Nixon.
- 1973 - A boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion in Kingman, Arizona, following a fire that broke out as propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank, kills eleven firefighters.
- 1973 - Juvénal Habyarimana seizes power over Rwanda in a coup d'état.
- 1975 - Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles title.
- 1975 - Cape Verde gains its independence from Portugal.
- 1977 - The Pakistan Armed Forces under Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq seize power in Operation Fair Play and begin 11 years of martial law. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, is overthrown.
- 1980 - Swedish tennis player Björn Borg wins his fifth Wimbledon final and becomes the first male tennis player to win the championships five times in a row.
- 1984 - The United States Supreme Court gives its United States v. Leon decision providing a good-faith exception from the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule against use of evidence obtained through defective warrants in criminal trials.
- 1987 - Sri Lankan Civil War: The LTTE uses suicide attacks on the Sri Lankan Army for the first time. The Black Tigers are born and, in the following years, will continue to kill with the tactic.
- 1989 - Iran–Contra affair: Oliver North is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell to a three-year suspended prison term, two years probation, $150,000 in fines and 1,200 hours community service. His convictions are later overturned.
- 1994 - Jeff Bezos founds Amazon.
- 1995 - Armenia adopts its constitution, four years after its independence from the Soviet Union.
- 1996 - Dolly the sheep becomes the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.
- 1997 - Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil MP A. Thangathurai is shot dead at Sri Shanmuga Hindu Ladies College in Trincomalee.
- 1999 - U.S. President Bill Clinton imposes trade and economic sanctions against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
- 2003 - The World Health Organization announces that the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak has been contained.
- 2004 - The first direct Indonesian presidential election is held.
- 2006 - North Korea tests four short-range missiles, one medium-range missile and a long-range Taepodong-2. The long-range Taepodong-2 reportedly fails in mid-air over the Sea of Japan.
- 2009 - A series of violent riots break out in Ürümqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China.
- 2009 - The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered in Britain, consisting of more than 1,500 items, is found near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, Staffordshire.
- 2012 - The Shard in London is inaugurated as the tallest building in Europe, with a height of 310 metres.
- 2016 - The Juno space probe arrives at Jupiter and begins a 20-month survey of the planet.
- 2022 - British government ministers Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak resign from the second Johnson ministry, beginning the July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis.
- 2023 - The last Ariane 5 rocket is launched, carrying the Heinrich Hertz and Syracuse 4B satellites.
- 2024 - Keir Starmer is appointed Prime Minister by Charles III, becoming the first Labour prime minister since Gordon Brown in 2010 and the first one to win a general election since Tony Blair at the 2005 general election
Births
Pre-1600
- 465 - Ahkal Moʼ Nahb I, Mayan ruler
- 980 - Mokjong of Goryeo, Korean king
- 1029 - Al-Mustansir Billah, Fatimid caliph
- 1321 - Joan of the Tower, English consort of David II of Scotland
- 1466 - Giovanni Sforza, Italian nobleman
- 1547 - Garzia de' Medici, Tuscan son of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
- 1549 - Francesco Maria del Monte, Italian cardinal and art collector
- 1554 - Elisabeth of Austria, French queen
- 1580 - Carlo Contarini, doge of Venice
- 1586 - Thomas Hooker, English-born founder of the Colony of Connecticut
- 1593 - Achille d'Étampes de Valençay, French military leader
1601–1900
- 1653 - Thomas Pitt, English businessman and politician
- 1670 - Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg, countess palatine
- 1675 - Mary Walcott, American accuser and witness at the Salem witch trials
- 1709 - Étienne de Silhouette, French translator and politician, Controller-General of Finances
- 1717 - Peter III, Portuguese king
- 1718 - Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
- 1745 - Carl Arnold Kortum, German physician and poet
- 1755 - Sarah Siddons, English actress
- 1780 - François Carlo Antommarchi, French physician
- 1781 - Stamford Raffles, English politician, founded Singapore
- 1793 - Pavel Pestel, Russian officer
- 1794 - Sylvester Graham, American minister and activist
- 1801 - David Farragut, American admiral
- 1802 - Pavel Nakhimov, Russian admiral
- 1803 - George Borrow, British writer
- 1805 - Robert FitzRoy, English captain, meteorologist, and politician, 2nd Governor of New Zealand
- 1810 - P. T. Barnum, American businessman, co-founded Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
- 1820 - William John Macquorn Rankine, Scottish physicist, mathematician, and engineer
- 1829 - Ignacio Mariscal, Mexican politician and diplomat, Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Mexico
- 1832 - Pavel Chistyakov, Russian painter and educator
- 1841 - William Collins Whitney, American financier and politician, 31st United States Secretary of the Navy
- 1849 - William Thomas Stead, English journalist
- 1853 - Cecil Rhodes, English-South African businessman and politician, 6th Prime Minister of the Cape Colony
- 1857 - Clara Zetkin, German theorist and activist
- 1857 - Julien Tiersot, French musicologist and composer
- 1860 - Robert Bacon, American colonel and politician, 39th United States Secretary of State
- 1860 - Mathieu Jaboulay, French surgeon
- 1862 - George Nuttall, American-British bacteriologist
- 1862 - Horatio Caro, English chess master
- 1864 - Stephan Krehl, German composer
- 1867 - A. E. Douglass, American astronomer
- 1872 - Édouard Herriot, French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France
- 1874 - Eugen Fischer, German physician and academic
- 1879 - Dwight F. Davis, American tennis player and politician, 49th United States Secretary of War
- 1879 - Wanda Landowska, Polish-French harpsichord player and educator
- 1880 - Jan Kubelík, Czech violinist and composer
- 1880 - Constantin Tănase, Romanian actor and playwright
- 1882 - Inayat Khan, Indian mystic and educator
- 1883 - Gustave Lanctot, Canadian historian, author, and academic
- 1884 - Enrico Dante, Italian cardinal
- 1885 - Blas Infante, Spanish historian and politician
- 1885 - André Lhote, French sculptor and painter
- 1886 - Willem Drees, Dutch politician and historian, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
- 1886 - Prince John Konstantinovich of Russia
- 1888 - Herbert Spencer Gasser, American physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1888 - Louise Freeland Jenkins, American astronomer and academic
- 1889 - Jean Cocteau, French novelist, poet, and playwright
- 1890 - Frederick Lewis Allen, American historian and journalist
- 1891 - John Howard Northrop, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1891 - Tin Ujević, Croatian poet and translator
- 1893 - Anthony Berkeley Cox, English writer
- 1893 - Giuseppe Caselli, Italian painter
- 1894 - Ants Lauter, Estonian actor and director
- 1896 - Thomas Playford IV, Australian politician, 33rd Premier of South Australia
- 1898 - Georgios Grivas, Greek general
- 1899 - Marcel Achard, French playwright, screenwriter, and author
- 1900 - Yoshimaro Yamashina, Japanese ornithologist, founded the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology
- 1900 - Bernardus Johannes Alfrink, Dutch cardinal