China resumes control over Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
All year, we've been highlighting historical news events—and Foreign Affairs articles about those events—as part of our "This Day in History" series. Here are our collected selections for July.
The landmark piece of legislation outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi soon takes power in Egypt. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
The United States adopts the Declaration of Independence. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
The United States fights North Korean forces for the first time during the Korean War. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
The war over the secession of Biafra from Nigeria lasts until January 5, 1970. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North tells Congress that he had "never carried out a single act, not one." Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
Kim Il Sung, who had been North Korea's leader since 1948, dies at age 82. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
South Sudan becomes the world's newest nation after a referendum on independence in January. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
Boris Yeltsin was the first elected president of the Russian Federation. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
A series of bomb blasts on a railway in Mumbai kill over 200 and injure 700. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
The 34-day military conflict between Hezbollah and the Israeli army begins. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
Somalia invades Ethiopia, triggering a war over the disputed Ogaden region. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
The French revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille fortress and prison, which had come to represent the oppression of the Bourbon monarchs. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
The Apollo–Soyuz Test Project was the first joint U.S.-Soviet space mission. Its successful nine-day flight signaled the end of the Space Race. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
The first plutonium-based test nuclear weapon is detonated in New Mexico by the U.S. army as part of the Manhattan Project. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
The UN General Assembly adopts the Rome Statute, which establishes the International Criminal Court. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
A clash between Allied navy patrols and two Italian cruisers that takes pace in the Aegean. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
American astronaut Neil Armstrong takes his first lunar steps. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
China begins conducting missile tests in an area north of Taiwan. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
The Irgun, a Jewish paramilitary organization, bombs the King David Hotel, which was the headquarters of the British Mandatory authorities. The blast kills 91 people. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
Egyptian military officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrow King Farouk I. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
During a televised visit to the American National Exhibition in Moscow, Vice President Richard M. Nixon fell into a debate about communism versus capitalism with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev while in an exhibit of a model kitchen. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
The Italian Grand Council replaces him with Pietro Badoglio. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
It creates the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee undertakes its first vote to impeach U.S. President Richard Nixon. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, marking the start of World War I. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
AT&T President Theodore Vail made a successful test call from San Francisco to New York. But for marketing purposes, the "first" call took place on January 25, 1915. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
Former Bosnian Serb politician Radovan Karadzic is handed over to the war crimes tribunal to face charges that include genocide. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
The U.N. Security Council unanimously agrees to send a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force to Sudan's Darfur region. Read more about it in the Foreign Affairs archive.
