Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.

Fidel Castro hands over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro.

Hebrew University of Jerusalem is attacked when a bomb explodes in a cafeteria, killing 9.

Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector

Georgia joins the United Nations.

A Thai Airways Airbus A300-310 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing 113.

The United States and Soviet Union both sign the Start I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries' stockpiles.

32 people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Malaysia.

A rare, class F4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage.

A 42 day-long strike of Major League Baseball ends.

Viking program: Viking 1

A Delta Air Lines jetliner crashes while landing in fog at Logan Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89.

Three car bombs are detonated in Claudy, Northern Ireland, killing nine in what is believed to be a Provisional Irish Republican Army attack.

Operation Motorman: British troops move into the no-go areas of Belfast and Derry, Northern Ireland. End of Free Derry.

Northeast Airlines flies its last flight before being integrated into Delta Air Lines the next day.

Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.

Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.

Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.

At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning because of rain.

The Basque separatist organisation ETA is founded.

First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio.

Japan Airlines is established.

At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.

Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.

John K. Giles attempts to escape from Alcatraz prison.

Holocaust: under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question."

A doodlebug train in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio collides with a multi-car freight train heading in the opposite direction, killing 43 people.

Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius in Persepolis.

Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).

The NSDAP wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.

The radio mystery program ''The Shadow'' is aired for the first time.

German national assembly adopts the Weimar constitution, which comes into force on August 14.

The Balkan States signs an armistice at Bucharest.

The Basque Nationalist Party (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea-Partido Nacionalista Vasco) is founded by Basque nationalist leader Sabino Arana.

The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia.

Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city.

First U.S. patent is issued to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.

The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Marquis de Lafayette "be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States."

Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.

Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.

Second Anglo-Dutch War: Treaty of Breda ends the conflict.

Aurangzeb is proclaimed Moghul emperor of India.

Russo-Polish War (1654-1667): the Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for six years.

The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.

On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.

The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.

Jacques Cœur is arrested by order of Charles VII of France.

Hundred Years' War: Battle of Cravant

Attempted usurpation of John Komnenos the Fat.

Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII.

Thessalonica falls to the Arabs, who destroy the city.

The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: July 6, 781).