July 14

• July 14, 1420
  Hussite forces under command of Jan Žižka defeat the forces of Emperor Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor at the Battle of Vítkov Hill, a part of the first anti-Hussite crusade, on the edge of the city of Prague
• July 14, 1520
  Hernando Cortes beats the Aztecs at the Battle of Otumba in Mexico
• July 14, 1683
  Turks lay siege to Vienna
• July 14, 1771
  Junípero Serra, a Spanish Franciscan friar, founds the Mission San Antonio de Padua in California
• July 14, 1789
  Citizens of Paris, France, storm the Bastille fortress used as a prison to hold political prisoners, beginning the French Revolution and building foundation to modern political structure
• July 14, 1795
  The Marseillaise, a song written by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle to mobilize all the citizens to fight against the foreign invasion, is officially adopted as the French national anthem
• April 30, 1803
  The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million and doubles the size of the country by Louisiana Purchase Treaty
• July 14, 1853
  Commodore Matthew Perry meets with the chief senior councillor in the Japanese government at ceremony at Kurihama, Japan, and presents a letter from former President Fillmore to Emperor Osahito requesting trade relations
• July 14, 1868
  Tape measure enclosed in a circular case is patented, by AJ Fellows, in Connecticut, United States
• July 14, 1877
  The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the world's first nationwide labor strike, begins in Martinsburg, West Virginia due to wage cuts and poor working conditions
• July 14, 1889
  A Congress of world Socialist parties selected May 1 as International Workers Day to support the United States labor struggle
• July 14, 1897
  Swede Saloman Andrée's and 2 accomplices, Knute Fraenkle and Nils Strindberg, in the Ornen balloon are forced down after 64 hours in the first expedition to fly by balloon across the North Pole
• July 14, 1914
  First patent for liquid-fueled rocket design is granted to American physicist Robert H. Goddard
• July 14, 1946
  American pediatrician Benjamin Spock publishes his book The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, the best-selling book on infant and child care
• July 14, 1958
  King Faisal II, the last King of Iraq, is assassinated during the 14 July Revolution at Baghdad
• July 14, 1960
  Jane Goodall, an English primatologist and anthropologist, begins studying the Kasakela chimpanzee community in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania
• July 14, 2007
  Following a presidential decree, Russia withdraws from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
• July 14, 2008
  The Dark Knight, one of the best superhero films based on the DC Comics character Batman, is released in New York

July 8

• July 8, 810
  Pepin the Hunchback, the eldest son of Charlemagne, king of Italy, dies
• July 8, 1497
  Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer, begins his first voyage from Europe to India via South Africa
• July 8, 1686
  The Austrians take Buda, Hungary, from the Turks and annexed the country
• July 8, 1709
  Charles XII of Sweden flees to Ottoman Empire after Peter I of Russia defeats his army at the Battle of Poltava during Great Northern War and effectively ends the Swedish empire, making Russia major European power
• July 8, 1730
  A magnitude 8.7 earthquake in Valparaíso, Chile, kills at least 3,000 people
• July 8, 1758
  During the French and Indian War a British attack on Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, New York, is foiled by the French when some 3,500 Frenchmen defeat the British army of 15,000, which lost 2,000 men
• July 8, 1776
  Colonel John Nixon gives first public reading of Declaration of Independence
• July 8, 1853
  An expedition led by United States Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Japan on the steam-powered "Black Ships" and threatens the Japanese capital Edo with gunships, demanding that they agree to open trade
• July 8, 1889
  In Mississippi Jake Kilrain fights boxing champion John L. Sullivan in the last world heavyweight championship prizefight decided with bare knuckles under London Prize Ring rules in history
• July 8, 1969
  United States troops begin to withdrawal from Vietnam
• July 8, 1994
  Kim II Sung, the leader of North Korea since 1945, dies at age 82
• July 8, 1997
  NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance in 1999
• July 8, 2014
  Amid growing tensions between Israel and Hamas following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June, Israel launches Operation Protective Edge on the Palestinian Gaza Strip starting with numerous missile strikes