JULY
Then came hot July, boyling like to fire
Spenser
Hailstones from a storm at Northampton, July 20, 1900
July 1
1770 Lexell's Comet came within one and a half million miles (2,000,000 km.) of the Earth. The apparent diameter of the comet was five times that of the Moon.
July 2
1907 After an explosion, a burning torpedo-shaped body was seen during a storm at Burlington, Vermont, about 50 feet above the ground.
July 3
AD 875 Aschenbrunn in Saxony, a place remote from all water, was washed away with all its inhabitants by a cloudburst of great violence.
July 4
1808 Lewis and Clark heard strange sounds resembling the reports of cannons coming from the Rocky Mountains.
July 5
1054 The supernova which formed the Crab Nebula was near the crescent Moon and at maximum brightness.
July 6
AD 46 A new island appeared near the volcano Thera in the Aegean Sea on the night of a total lunar eclipse.
July 7
1868 The thermometer reached 100.5° F. (38° C.) at Tonbridge in Kent, in a box thermometer screen with louvred sides
July 8
1927 The classic photograph of a tornado was taken by Lucille Handberg near Jasper, Minnesota. See here.
July 9
AD 800 A monk of Metz in France recorded 'freezes' on July 6 and 9
July 10
1923 Twenty-three people were killed by hailstones weighing up to two pounds at Rostov in Russia
July 11
1809 Nine persons were killed when a lightning ball exploded inside a church at Chateauneuf-les-Moustiers, France.
July 12
1926 The night temperature in Manchester (England) did not fall below 70° F. (21° C.)
July 13
1788 A devastating hailstorm swept France from the Bay of Biscay to Holland. The stones were 'as large as a quart bottle'.
July 14
1920 Buenos Aires was visited by its second recorded snowstorm in 300 years.
July 15
AD 718 A Saracen fleet, after raising its siege of Constantinople, encountered a 'hailstorm mixed with fire'. Only five ships escaped.
July 16
1918 A mile-wide hailstorm moved in a straight line from Holmwood, Surrey, to Bromley, Kent.
July 17
1939 A mirage of the Icelandic volcano Snaefells Jokill was seen 350 miles (563 km.) out to sea.
July 18
1785 An earthquake at Clausemberg. The evening before, a Dr. König suspected the probability of shocks from observing considerable magnetic disturbances.
July 19
1515 Six weeks of continual rain began in Central Europe. Disastrous floods followed.
July 20
1859 A 'waterspout' fell on Mauchline Hill, Ayr, Scotland, completely flooding the locality. Two lives were lost.
July 21
AD 365 A great earthquake shook the Roman world. 50,000 persons were killed in Alexandria by the shock and a seismic sea wave.
July 22
1841 A typhoon drowned 1,000 fishermen and junk inhabitants in Hong Kong harbour.
July 23
1733 A village in the Auvergne of France was lost in an earth subsidence.
July 24
1930 Treviso in Italy was devastated by a tornado with a track 80 km. (50 miles) long. 23 persons were killed. The tornado's winds approached 500 kph. (311 m.p.h.)
July 25
1790 At 10.30 pm a globe of fire larger and brighter than the full Moon burst over south-west France. A huge shower of meteorites followed.
July 26
1264 One of the greatest comets ever recorded. When the head of the comet was about to rise the tail extended past the zenith.
July 27
1943 J. B. Duckworth made the first flight through a hurricane in a single-engined AT-6 trainer near Galveston, Texas.
July 28
1298 The Chronicle of Bury St. Edmunds recorded that the Sun and Moon were blood-coloured and shed only blood-coloured light.
July 29
1875 A shower of wet hay fell from a dark cloud over an area a mile in diameter at Monkstown near Dublin. It lasted five minutes. No rain fell.
July 30
1883 Six reports like gunfire were heard in the Arctic Ocean from the SS Resolute. They were attributed to electricity.
July 31
1944 A temperature of 111.4° F. (44.1° C.) was recorded at Coimbra in Portugal.
