On July 4

Keir Starmer leads the Labour Party to a landslide victory in the United Kingdom general election, ending fourteen years of Conservative rule.

The monster movie Pulgasari, the most-widely-seen North Korean film ever made, premiered in Tokyo, Japan.

Kylie Minogue's first album, Kylie, was released, and went on to top the charts in the UK and New Zealand.

Four Iranian diplomats were kidnapped after they were stopped at a checkpoint in northern Lebanon by Lebanese Phalange forces; their fates remain unknown.

Israeli forces raided Uganda's Entebbe International Airport to free hostages taken by hijackers on Air France Flight 139.

In what is known as "The Miracle of Bern", West Germany defeated Hungary 3–2 to win the FIFA World Cup.

William Shockley announced the invention of the junction transistor, for which he, John Bardeen, and Walter Houser Brattain later won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

The Brazilian cruiser Bahia (pictured) was accidentally sunk by one of its own crewmen, killing more than 300 people.

The aircraft carrying Władysław Sikorski, prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile, crashed off Gibraltar, killing him and fifteen others and leading to several conspiracy theories.

German AB-Aktion in Poland: After capturing Lwów, the Nazis executed professors of the University of Lwów along with their families.

The Holocaust: During the German occupation of Latvia, a number of synagogues in Riga were set on fire, killing many Jews who were confined within.

World War I: Allied forces led by the Australian general John Monash won the Battle of Hamel, demonstrating the effectiveness of combined-arms techniques in trench warfare.

American Civil War: Confederate forces failed in an attempt to recapture the Union-occupied Helena, Arkansas.

In a boat on the River Thames from Oxford to Godstow, author Lewis Carroll told Alice Liddell (pictured) and her sisters a story that later formed the basis for his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

The Grand Junction Railway, the world's first long-distance railway with steam traction, opened between Birmingham and Newton Junction.

In Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence (signing pictured), announcing that the thirteen American colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire.

First English Civil War: Royalist forces defeated the Parliamentarians at the Battle of Burton Bridge, securing a crossing of the River Trent for a convoy of supplies travelling with Queen Henrietta Maria.

Chinese astronomers recorded the sudden appearance of a "guest star", later identified as the supernova that created the Crab Nebula (pictured).

Byzantine emperor Theodosius II proclaimed his elder sister Aelia Pulcheria as Augusta.