1694 – The Bank of England was founded by act of Parliament. 

1866 – The Great Eastern arrived at Heart’s Content in Newfoundland, having successfully laid the transatlantic telegraph cable.

1914 – British troops invaded the streets of Dublin, Ireland, and began to disarm Irish rebels.

1928 – Alfred ‘Tich’ Freeman, English cricketer and leg spin bowler for Kent and England, became the only bowler ever to take 200 first-class wickets before the end of July. He was the only man to take 300 wickets in an English season, and is the second most prolific wicket taker in first class cricket history, the record holder being the Yorkshire born Wilfred Rhodes.

1942 – The Battle of El Alamein ended after 17 days, with the British having prevented the German and Italian advance into Egypt.

1949 – The British De Havilland Comet, the first jet-propelled airliner, made its maiden flight. It was a 40-passenger airliner.

1958 – The birth of Christopher Dean, British ice skater and Olympic gold and bronze medal winner.

1965 – Shadow Chancellor Edward Heath beat off his rivals to become the new leader of the Conservative Party.

1969 – English rower Tom McLean arrived off the Irish coast to become the first man to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean – from west to east – a distance of 2000 miles. His voyage took 72 days.

1974 – At Ascot, English champion jockey Lester Piggott had 3 wins, bring his total to 3,001. By the time that he retired in 1985–86 he had 5,300 winners in the UK & abroad, including nine Epsom Derby victories.

1976 – John Lennon is granted a green card for permanent residence in the US. He celebrates by going to a New York Ice cream parlour with Yoko Ono.

1978 – Two British balloonists battling to be the first to cross the Atlantic got into difficulties half way across the ocean. Their balloon finally collapsed into the sea, just 110 miles from land.

1985 – English athlete Steve Cram set a new world record for the mile at 3 minutes 46.32 seconds in Oslo.

1988 – British pole vault record holder Jeff Gutteridge was banned for life by the British Amateur Athletic Board for taking steroids.

1999 – Tony Hawk landed the first “900” on a skateboard at the 5th annual X Games in San Francisco.

2003 – The death of Bob Hope, the English-born American comedian and actor.

2012 – Queen Elizabeth declared the 30th Olympics opened in London, UK.
To the audience’s surprise, a stand-in for the Queen made an entrance by skydiving from a helicopter with James Bond’s assistance.