2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake: an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 and 6.6 aftershock occurs off the Niigata coast of Japan killing 8 people, injuring at least 800 and damaging a nuclear power plant.

Millennium Park, considered Chicago's first and most ambitious early 21st century architectural project, is opened to the public by Mayor Richard M. Daley.

John F. Kennedy, Jr., piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, dies when his plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. His wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette are also killed.

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides with Jupiter. Impacts continue until July 22.

The Slackware operating system is first released.

The Parliament of the Ukrainian SSR declares state sovereignty over the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.

Luzon Earthquake stroke in Benguet, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, La Union, Aurora, Bataan, Zambales and Tarlac, Philippines, with an intensity of 7.7.

Sikorsky S-61 disaster: a helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.

Mahathir bin Mohamad becomes Malaysia's 4th Prime Minister; his 22 years in office, ending with retirement on 31 October 2003, made him Asia's longest-serving political leader.

Iraqi President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein.

Watergate Scandal: former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield informs the United States Senate that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.

Apollo program: ''Apollo 11'', the first manned space mission to land on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens.

{{USS|George Washington|SSBN-598|6}} a modified Skipjack class submarine successfully test fires the first ballistic missile while submerged.

United States Marine major John Glenn flies a F8U Crusader supersonic jet from California to New York in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8 seconds, setting a new transcontinental speed record.

''The Catcher in the Rye'' by J.D. Salinger is published for the first time by Little, Brown and Company.

King Léopold III of Belgium abdicates in favor of his son, Baudouin I of Belgium.

The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marks the first aircraft hijacking of a commercial plane.

Following token resistance, the city of Nazareth, revered by Christians as the hometown of Jesus, capitulates to Israeli troops during Operation Dekel in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

World War II: the leaders of the three Allied nations, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill, President of the United States Harry S Truman and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.

Manhattan Project: the Atomic Age begins when the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Holocaust: Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (''Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv''): the government of Vichy France orders the mass arrest of 13,152 Jews who are held at the Winter Velodrome in Paris before deportation to Auschwitz.

Joe DiMaggio hits safely for the 56th consecutive game, a streak that still stands as a MLB record.

The world's first parking meter is installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.

Henry James becomes a British citizen, to highlight his commitment to England during the first World War.

Emily Stowe becomes the first female physician licensed to practice medicine in Canada.

American Civil War: David Farragut is promoted to rear admiral, becoming the first officer in United States Navy to hold an admiral rank.

American Civil War: at the order of President Abraham Lincoln, Union troops begin a 25 mile march into Virginia for what will become The First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the war.

The city of La Paz, in what is today Bolivia, declares its independence from the Spanish Crown during the La Paz revolution and forms the Junta Tuitiva, the first independent government in Spanish America, led by Pedro Domingo Murillo.

The District of Columbia is established as the capital of the United States after signature of the Residence Act.

First performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera ''Die Entführung aus dem Serail''.

American Revolutionary War: light infantry of the Continental Army seize a fortified British Army position in a midnight bayonet attack at the Battle of Stony Point.

Father Junipero Serra founds California's first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Over the following decades, it evolves into the city of San Diego.

Manchu Qing Dynasty naval forces under traitorous commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands.

The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.

Coronation of Richard II of England.

Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa: after Pope Innocent III calls European knights to a crusade, forces of Kings Alfonso VIII of Castile, Sancho VII of Navarre, Pedro II of Aragon and Afonso II of Portugal defeat those of the Berber Muslim leader Almohad, thus marking a significant turning point in the ''Reconquista'' and in the medieval history of Spain.

Three Roman legates break relations between Western and Eastern Christian Churches through the act of placing an invalidly-issued Papal Bull of Excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Historians frequently describe the event as the start of the East-West Schism.

The beginning of the Islamic calendar.