July 21

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is destroyed by arson.

According to ancient accounts, a man seeking lasting fame deliberately set fire to the elaborately constructed temple, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, on the same night as the birth of Alexander the Great. Rebuilt afterward, the temple was later destroyed for good by Gothic raiders in the third century.

Napoleon's forces defeat an Ottoman-Mamluk army at the Battle of the Pyramids near Cairo.

Napoleon Bonaparte's French expeditionary force decisively defeated Egypt's ruling Mamluk cavalry near the Great Pyramids of Giza, employing disciplined infantry squares against the Mamluks' traditional cavalry charges. The victory, part of Napoleon's campaign to disrupt British trade routes to India, gave France temporary control of Egypt.

Confederate forces win the First Battle of Bull Run, the first major land battle of the American Civil War.

Union and Confederate forces clashed near a creek in northern Virginia in the first major land battle of the American Civil War, initially expected by many spectators, including Washington civilians who traveled out to watch, to be a quick affair. Confederate forces routed the inexperienced Union army, dispelling illusions of a short war.

The Jesse James gang carries out the first successful train robbery in the American Old West near Adair, Iowa.

In one of the American West's earliest train robberies, Jesse James and his gang derailed and looted a Rock Island train near Adair, Iowa, escaping with a substantial sum of cash and valuables. The heist added to the outlaw mythology surrounding James, who continued a lengthy career of robbery before his eventual assassination.

John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in his Tennessee classroom in the widely publicized "Scopes Monkey Trial."

A Tennessee jury found high school teacher John Scopes guilty of violating state law by teaching evolution in a widely publicized trial that pitted famed attorneys Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan against each other. Though Scopes was fined a nominal sum, the trial became a cultural touchstone in the ongoing debate over science and religion in education.

American troops land on Guam, beginning a major World War II battle that lasted until mid-August.

American Marines and Army troops landed on the Japanese-held island of Guam as part of a broader Pacific campaign to reclaim territory lost earlier in the war. The subsequent battle, which lasted roughly three weeks, resulted in the island's recapture and its transformation into a crucial forward base for later operations against Japan.

Astronaut Gus Grissom becomes the second American in space, piloting the suborbital Liberty Bell 7 mission.

Hours after the lunar module touched down, astronaut Neil Armstrong descended the ladder and became the first human to set foot on the Moon, followed shortly by Buzz Aldrin. Armstrong's words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," were broadcast live to an estimated worldwide television audience of over 600 million people.

Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the Moon, followed shortly by Buzz Aldrin.

The Provisional IRA detonated a coordinated series of car and parcel bombs across central Belfast within a roughly 80-minute span, killing nine people and injuring well over a hundred in one of the deadliest single days of violence during the Troubles, an event that became known as Bloody Friday.

The Provisional IRA detonates 22 bombs across central Belfast within 80 minutes, killing nine people on what became known as Bloody Friday.

Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center, completing the final mission of NASA's 30-year Space Shuttle program. The landing closed out an era that had included the construction of the International Space Station and the deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope, while NASA shifted focus toward future deep-space exploration goals.

NASA's Space Shuttle program concludes as Space Shuttle Atlantis lands at Kennedy Space Center.

Astronaut Gus Grissom piloted the Liberty Bell 7 capsule on a roughly fifteen-minute suborbital flight, becoming the second American in space. The mission ended in a scare when the capsule's hatch blew prematurely after splashdown, nearly causing Grissom to drown before he was rescued, though the capsule itself sank and was not recovered for decades.