July 16

The Hijrah, Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina, begins, an event that later marks the start of the Islamic calendar.

According to Islamic tradition, the Prophet Muhammad and his followers departed Mecca for the city of Medina to escape persecution, an event known as the Hijrah. The migration marked a pivotal turning point in early Islamic history and was later chosen as the starting point of the Islamic lunar calendar.

A papal legate places a bull of excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia, an act that formally triggers the East-West Schism dividing Christianity.

A papal representative placed a decree of excommunication against the Patriarch of Constantinople on the altar of Hagia Sophia during a dispute over church authority and doctrine, an act reciprocated by the patriarch days later. The mutual excommunications formalized the East-West Schism, dividing Christianity into the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox branches.

Christian forces from Castile, Aragon, and Navarre decisively defeat the Almohad Caliphate at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, a turning point in the Reconquista.

A coalition of Christian kingdoms from Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Portugal won a decisive victory over Almohad forces at Las Navas de Tolosa in southern Spain, significantly weakening Muslim power on the Iberian Peninsula. The battle is regarded as a major turning point in the centuries-long Reconquista.

Richard II is crowned King of England at age ten.

Sweden's central bank precursor, Stockholms Banco, issued the first banknotes in European history, intended to address a shortage of usable coinage caused by heavy, low-value copper currency. Though the bank later collapsed from over-issuance, the innovation laid conceptual groundwork for modern paper currency systems.

Stockholms Banco issues Europe's first banknotes, an early milestone in the development of paper currency.

Spanish Franciscan missionary Junipero Serra established the first in a chain of California missions near present-day San Diego, aiming to convert local Indigenous populations to Christianity. The mission system profoundly and often violently reshaped Indigenous life along the California coast over the following decades of Spanish colonization.

Father Junipero Serra establishes Mission San Diego de Alcala, California's first Spanish mission.

Congress passed legislation establishing a federal district along the Potomac River to serve as the permanent seat of the United States government, resolving earlier debates over locating the capital in an existing state. The city that developed there was later named Washington in honor of the first president.

The District of Columbia is established as the permanent capital of the United States.

In the New Mexico desert, American scientists working on the Manhattan Project detonated the world's first nuclear weapon, code-named Trinity, producing an explosion far more powerful than most researchers had anticipated. The successful test paved the way for the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki weeks later, ushering in the nuclear age.

The United States conducts the Trinity nuclear test in New Mexico, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, ushering in the atomic age.

The Saturn V rocket carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins lifted off from Florida, beginning the historic mission that would achieve humanity's first crewed lunar landing four days later. Millions watched the launch in person and on television, marking a defining moment of the Space Race.

Apollo 11 launches from Cape Kennedy, Florida, beginning the mission that would land the first humans on the Moon.

Fragments of a comet that had broken apart under Jupiter's gravity began slamming into the planet's atmosphere over the course of about a week, producing massive dark scars visible even through amateur telescopes. It was the first time astronomers directly observed a collision between two solar system bodies.

Fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 begin colliding with Jupiter, providing astronomers with an unprecedented direct observation of a cosmic impact event.

Crowned at Westminster Abbey following the deposition of Richard II, the young king began a reign that would later be dominated by his famous military campaigns in France during the Hundred Years' War, including the celebrated victory at Agincourt, though that triumph came years after his coronation.