July - 1969

• July 1
  • Charles, Prince of Wales, is invested with his title at Caernarfon.
  • David Simonsen, longterm council member of the European Democratic Education Community was born
• July 3 – Brian Jones, musician and founder of The Rolling Stones, drowns in his swimming pool at his home in Sussex, England.
• July 4 – Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin are shot at Blue Rock Springs in California. They are the second (known) victims of the Zodiac Killer. Mageau survives the attack while Ferrin is pronounced dead-on-arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital - Richmond.
• July 5 – Tom Mboya, Kenyan Minister of Development, is assassinated.
• July 6 – Francisco Franco orders the closing of the border and communications between Gibraltar and Spain in response to the 1967 Gibraltar sovereignty referendum.
• July 7 – French is made equal to English throughout the Canadian national government.
• July 8 – Vietnam War: The very first U.S. troop withdrawals are made.
• July 10 – Donald Crowhurst's trimaran Teignmouth Electron is found drifting and unoccupied. It is assumed that Crowhurst might have committed suicide.
• July 14
  • Football War: After Honduras loses a soccer game against El Salvador, rioting breaks out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers. Of the 300,000 Salvadoran workers in Honduras, tens of thousands are expelled, prompting a brief Salvadoran invasion of Honduras. The OAS works out a cease-fire on July 18, which takes effect on July 20.
  • The Act of Free Choice commences in Merauke, West Irian.
  • The United States' $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills are officially withdrawn from circulation.
• July 16 – Apollo program: Apollo 11 (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins) lifts off toward the first landing on the Moon.
• July 18 – Chappaquiddick incident – Edward M. Kennedy drives off a bridge on his way home from a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign aide to his brother, dies in the early morning hours of July 19 in the submerged car.
• July 19
  • John Fairfax lands in Hollywood Beach, Florida near Miami and becomes the first person to row across an ocean solo, after 180 days spent at sea on board 25' ocean rowboat 'Britannia' (left Gran Canaria on January 20, 1969).
• July 20 – Apollo program: The lunar module Eagle/Apollo 11 lands on the lunar surface. An estimated 500 million people worldwide watch in awe as Neil Armstrong takes his historic first steps on the Moon at 10:56 pm ET (02:56 UTC July 21), the largest television audience for a live broadcast at that time.^[2][3]
• July 22 – Spanish dictator and head of state Francisco Franco appoints Prince Juan Carlos his successor.
• July 24
  • The Apollo 11 astronauts return from the first successful Moon landing, and are placed in biological isolation for several days, on the chance they may have brought back lunar germs. The airless lunar environment is later determined to preclude microscopic life.
  • The Soviet Union returns Gerald Brooke to the United Kingdom in exchange for spies Peter and Helen Kroger (Morris and Lona Cohen).
• July 25 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine, stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This starts the "Vietnamization" of the war.
• July 26 – The New York Chapter of the Young Lords is founded.
• July 30 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon makes an unscheduled visit to South Vietnam, meeting with President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and U.S. military commanders.
• July 31 – The halfpenny ceases to be legal tender in the UK.

July – 1968

• July 1
  • The Central Intelligence Agency's Phoenix Program is officially established.
  • The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty opens for signature.
• July 4 – Yachtsman Alec Rose, 59, receives a hero's welcome as he sails into Portsmouth, England after his 354-day round-the-world trip.
• July 15
  • – The soap opera One Life to Live premieres on ABC.
• July 17 – Saddam Hussein becomes Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Council in Iraq after a coup d'état.
• July 18 – The semiconductor company Intel is founded.
• July 20 – The first International Special Olympics Summer Games are held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Ill, with about 1,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities.
• July 23–July 28 – Black militants led by Fred (Ahmed) Evans engage in a fierce gunfight with police in the Glenville Shootout of Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States.
• July 25 – Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical entitled Humanae vitae, condemning birth control.
• July 26 – Vietnam War: South Vietnamese opposition leader Trương Đình Dzu is sentenced to 5 years hard labor, for advocating the formation of a coalition government as a way to move toward an end to the war.
• July 29 – Arenal Volcano erupts in Costa Rica for the first time in centuries.
• July 30 – Thames Television starts transmission in London.

July – 1967

• July 1
  • Canada celebrates its first one hundred years of Confederation.
  • The EEC joins with the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Community, to form the European Communities (from the 1980s usually known as European Community [EC]).
  • Seaboard Air Line Railroad merges with Atlantic Coast Line railroad, to become Seaboard Coast Line railroad, first step to today's CSX Transportation.
  • The first UK colour television broadcasts begin on BBC2. The first one is from the Wimbledon tennis championships. A full colour service begins on BBC2 on December 2.
  • American Samoa's first constitution becomes effective.
• July 3 – A military rebellion led by Belgian mercenary Jean Schramme begins in Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• July 4 – The British Parliament decriminalizes homosexuality.
• July 5 – Troops of Belgian mercenary commander Jean Schramme revolt against Mobutu Sese Seko, and try to take control of Stanleyville, Congo.
• July 6
  • Nigerian Civil War: Nigerian forces invade the secessionist Biafra May 30.
  • A level crossing collision between a train loaded with children and a tanker-truck near Magdeburg, East Germany kills 94 people, mostly children.
• July 7 – All You Need Is Love is released in the UK.
• July 10
  • Heavy massive rains and a landslide at Kobe and Kure, Hiroshima, Japan, kill at least 371.
  • New Zealand decimalises its currency from pound to dollar at £1 to $2 ($1 = 10/-).
• July 12
  • The Greek military regime strips 480 Greeks of their citizenship.
  • 1967 Newark riots: After the arrest of an African-American cab driver for allegedly illegally driving around a police car and gunning it down the road, race riots break out in Newark, New Jersey, lasting 6 days and leaving 26 dead.
• July 14
  • The Bee Gees release their first international album Bee Gees' 1st in the UK.
  • Near Newark, New Jersey, the Plainfield, NJ, riots also occur.
• July 16 – A prison riot in Jay, Florida leaves 37 dead.
• July 18 – The United Kingdom announces the closing of its military bases in Malaysia and Singapore. Australia and the U.S. disapprove.
• July 19
  • A race riot breaks out in the North Side of Minneapolis on Plymouth Street during the Minneapolis Aquatennial Parade; businesses are vandalized and fires break out in the area, although the disturbance is quelled within hours. However, the next day a shooting sets off another incident in the same area that leads to 18 fires, 36 arrests, 3 shootings, 2 dozen people injured, and damages totaling 4.2 million. There will be two more such incidents in the following two weeks.
  • Eighty-two people are killed in a collision between Piedmont Airlines Flight 22 and a Cessna 310 near Hendersonville, North Carolina.
• July 20 – Chilean poet Pablo Neruda receives the first Viareggio-Versile prize.
• July 21 – The town of Winneconne, Wisconsin, announces secession from the United States because it is not included in the official maps and declares war. Secession is repealed the next day.
• July 23 – July 31 – 12th Street Riot: In Detroit, one of the worst riots in United States history begins on 12th Street in the predominantly African American inner city: 43 are killed, 342 injured and 1,400 buildings burned.
• July 24 – During an official state visit to Canada, French President Charles de Gaulle declares to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: Vive le Québec libre! (Long live free Quebec!). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delights many Quebecers but angers the Canadian government and many English Canadians.
• July 29
  • An explosion and fire aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin leaves 134 dead.
  • Georges Bidault moves to Belgium where he receives political asylum.
  • An earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela leaves 240 dead.
• July 30 – The 1967 Milwaukee race riots begin, lasting through August 2 and leading to a ten-day shutdown of the city from August 1.