Hurricane Dean makes its first landfall in Costa Maya, Mexico with winds at {{convert|165|mph|0|abbr=on}}. Dean is the first storm since Hurricane Andrew to make landfall as a Category 5.

NATO decides to send a peace-keeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The Red Cross announces that a famine is striking Tajikistan, and calls for international financial aid for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

NASA loses contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.

Ruby Ridge Standoff in Idaho

Latvia declares renewal of its full independence after the occupation of Soviet Union.

Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses.

Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometer range.

Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. is assassinated at the Manila International Airport (now renamed ''Ninoy Aquino International Airport'').

Operation Paul Bunyan at Panmunjeom, Korea.

Former McNairy County (Tenn) Sheriff Buford Pusser was killed in an auto accident. Pusser's life was chronicled in the original Walking Tall movie trilogy.

A bomb exploded in the Liberal Party campaign rally in Plaza Miranda, Manila, Philippines with several anti-Marcos political candidates injured.

An Australian, Michael Dennis Rohan, sets the Al-Aqsa Mosque on fire

James Anderson, Jr. posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine.

Soviet Union-dominated Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring; on the same day, Nicolae Ceauşescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemns the Soviet maneuver, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.

Xa Loi Pagoda raids: the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces loyal to Ngo Dinh Nhu, brother of President Ngo Dinh Diem, vandalises Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union. Hawaii's admission is currently commemorated by Hawaii Admission Day

Physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, begins.

World War II: a Nazi flag is installed atop the Mount Elbrus.

World War II: the Guadalcanal campaign: American forces defeat an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru.

WRNY began regularly scheduled television broadcasts in New York City.

World War I: The Second Battle of the Somme begins.

The ''Mona Lisa'' is stolen by a Louvre employee.

The first successful adding machine in the United States is patented by William Seward Burroughs.

The American Bar Association is founded.

Lawrence, Kansas is destroyed by Confederate guerrillas Quantrill's Raiders in the Lawrence Massacre.

First of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in which Lincoln debates Stephen Douglas during a campaign for the U.S. Senate.

Tlingit Indians destroy Fort Selkirk, Yukon Territory.

Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion.

Jarvis Island is discovered by the crew of the ship, ''Eliza Frances''.

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, is elected Crown Prince of Sweden by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates.

Battle of Vimeiro: British and Portuguese forces led by General Arthur Wellesley defeat French force under Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro, Portugal, the first Anglo-Portuguese victory of the Peninsular War.

King Gustav III completes his coup d'état by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden and installing himself as an enlightened despot.

James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.

The church (later cathedral) of "Our Lady of Candlemas of Mayagüez (Puerto Rico)" is founded, establishing the basis for the founding of the city.

The Battle of Dunkeld in Scotland.

Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt.

Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the ''de facto'' ruler of Japan. (Traditional Japanese date: July 12, 1192)