July is the seventh month in the Julian calendar and it has 31 days. The name ‘July’ dates back to 46 B.C. during Roman times when the Senate chose the name in honor of emperor Julius Caesar. As the 182nd day, 2 July is exactly in the middle of the year. July is also high summer in the northern hemisphere, where temperatures are often at their hottest, while it is deep winter in the southern hemisphere, where temperatures are at their coldest.
There are two zodiac signs associated with July: Cancer (21 June – 20 July), symbolized by a crab, and Leo (23 July – 22 August). These are also star constellations that can be seen in the night skies of the northern hemisphere at this time of year.
For many countries around the world, July is a month of celebration. In Canada, Canada Day is observed on 1 July; in the US, the 4th of July is Independence Day; and in France, Bastille Day is observed on 14 July to mark the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution in 1789.
Starting in the 18th century, America was in the grips of the Revolutionary War (1775-83). Having been unsuccessful with the reconciliatory Olive Branch Petition (1775), the colonies found themselves at war with Britain. General George Washington took command of the Continental Army and in 1776, the Continental Congress adopted a resolution that the United Colonies were free and independent states and absolved of any allegiance to the Crown in Britain, also known as the Declaration of Independence. Two years later, in 1788, the United States Constitution was ratified and a new American government was formed.
In the late 19th century, Abraham Lincoln introduced the first income tax bill (1862), which would see those earning $600 per year or more ($15,000+ in 2019) levied a 3% tax. As a result, the Bureau of Internal Revenue was also established on the same day. A year later, America would witness one of the most devastating battles in the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, which began on 1 July 1863. This battle alone sustained over 50,000 casualties. In the same year, General Grant defeated the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River, which effectively split the Confederacy in two.
In later years, women’s suffrage arrived in the US with the famous Seneca Falls Convention taking place between 19-20 July 1848. Here topics discussed included voting rights, property rights, and divorce. It would take another 72 years of struggle before women were granted the vote.
Moving into the 20th century, the early Civil Rights Movement was going through a period of tension with race riots taking place in St. Louis, Missouri. Around 75 African Americans were killed and hundreds injured. It sparked W.E.B DuBois and associates to lead a silent march in New York. It would be decades more of struggle, violence, protest, and discrimination, but finally, on 2 July 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race. One of the largest battles of the First World War (1914-1918), was the Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive.
Looking to Europe and WWII, in July 1943, the Battle of Kursk took place. It was the largest tank battle in history wherein around 900 Russian tanks were equaled by German tanks fighting at close range. By the time Hitler called a cease-fire, only 300 German tanks remained. As WWII waged on, Italy’s fascist dictator Mussolini was deposed (1943), and America tested an atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert on 16 July 1945. Scarcely a month later, two atomic bombs would be dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Held near Berlin from July 17- August 2, 1945, the Potsdam Conference was the last of the World War II meetings held by the “Big Three” heads of state.
After the Second World War, the new world order saw a new conflict arise between superpowers America and the USSR – the Cold War. Part of this display of economic, industrial, and technological supremacy was the space race. With JFK having announced the nation’s intentions to put a man on the moon, on 16 July 1969, the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center. Four days later, millions of people around the world watched astronaut Neil Armstrong take his first steps on the moon.
Notable days in July include: Tanabata Star Festival (7 July)
Notable figures born in July include: Alexander the Great (356 B.C.), Alexandre Dumas (1802), Beatrix Potter (1866), Carl Jung (1875), Emily Bronte (1818), Franz Kafka (1883), Ernest Hemingway (1899), Frida Kahlo (1907), George W. Bush (1946), Henry Ford (1863), J.K. Rowling (1965), Nelson Mandela (1918), Princess Diana (1961), Rembrandt (1606), Simon Bolivar (1783), Thurgood Marshall (1908), Kalpana Chawla (1961), Vladimir Zworykin (1889), Calvin Coolidge (1872), Nancy Reagan (1921), John Quincy Adams (1767), Gerald Ford (1913), Emmeline Pankhurst (1858)
Notable deaths in July include: Amelia Earhart (1937), Thomas Jefferson (1826), John Adams (1826), James Monroe (1831), Zachary Taylor (1850)