July 2

Hoko spears and dōtaku ritual bells excavated at the Kōjindani Site in Hikawa, Shimane
Hoko spears and dōtaku ritual bells excavated at the Kōjindani Site in Hikawa, Shimane

Forty-eight archaeological materials or sets of materials from ancient to feudal Japan have been classified as National Treasures of Japan. The term has been used in the country to denote cultural properties since 1897; the definition and the criteria have changed since the introduction of the term. The listed archaeological materials adhere to the current definition, and have been designated National Treasures since the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties came into effect on June 9, 1951. The materials, spanning a period from about 4500 BC to 1361 AD, were selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology based on their "especially high historical or artistic value". The actual number of items is more than forty-eight because groups of related objects have been combined into single entries. Most of the items have been excavated from tombs, kofun, sutra mounds or other archaeological sites. (Full list...)


July 5

Smiley
Smiley

During the 2010s, around 100 singles each were listed by Media Forest as the most-broadcast tracks on Romanian radio and television respectively. The first were "I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas (radio) and "Chica Bomb" by Dan Balan (television). Israeli broadcast monitoring service Media Forest has been publishing four rankings which list the top ten most-broadcast Romanian and foreign songs on Romanian radio stations and television channels separately on a weekly basis. The charts consider data from eight radio stations and five television channels. Media Forest also releases year-end charts in regards to the radio airplay, listing the most-broadcast songs of Romanian origin of the respective year. "Shoulda" by Jamie Woon spent an unprecedented 20 weeks as the most-broadcast single on radio stations, while in terms of television airplay, this feat was achieved by "Luna" by Carla's Dreams with a total of 15 weeks. Carla's Dreams and Smiley (pictured) had eight songs listed as the most-broadcast on radio and television during the 2010s, more than any other act. (Full list...)


July 9

Track map of all storms during the season
Track map of all storms during the season

The 1996 Atlantic hurricane season had thirteen named storms, of which nine became hurricanes and six became major hurricanes (hurricanes that are classified as Category 3 or higher). These major hurricanes were Bertha, Edouard, Fran, Hortense, Isidore, and Lili. The season's most destructive storms were Hurricanes Cesar, Fran, and Hortense. Hurricane Cesar (later known as Hurricane Douglas in the Eastern Pacific basin) was the deadliest storm of the season; it killed at least 51 people and caused severe damage in northern Colombia and southern Central America. Hurricane Fran caused $3.2 billion (1996 USD) worth of damage in the United States, mostly in North Carolina, and killed 26 people. Hurricane Hortense dropped torrential rainfall on southwestern Puerto Rico and the eastern Dominican Republic, killing 21 people and leaving behind $127 million (1996 USD) in damage. (Full list...)


July 12

Yuzuru Hanyu
Yuzuru Hanyu

Throughout his career, Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu has won at the Olympics twice (2014 and 2018) and achieved a Super Slam for having won all major competitions in his senior and junior career. He is the first skater in history to successfully land a quadruple loop jump in competition and has broken world records nineteen times—the most times amongst singles skaters since the introduction of the ISU Judging System in 2004. Hanyu is the current world record holder for the men's short program, in addition to the historical world records for the short program, free skating and combined total score. In recognition of his achievements, Hanyu has been awarded numerous accolades. He is the youngest recipient of the People's Honour Award (in 2018) by the prime minister of Japan. (Full list...)


July 16

Zapopan
Zapopan

The Mexican state of Jalisco is divided into 125 municipalities. According to the 2020 Mexican Census, it is the third-most-populous state, with 8,348,151 inhabitants, and the seventh-largest by land area, spanning 78,595.9 square kilometres (30,346.0 sq mi). Municipalities in Jalisco are administratively autonomous of the state, in accordance with the 115th article of the 1917 Constitution of Mexico. Their legal framework derives from the state constitution. Every three years, citizens elect a municipal president (Spanish: presidente municipal) by a plurality-voting system who heads a concurrently elected municipal council (ayuntamiento) responsible for providing all the public services for their constituents. The largest municipality by population is Zapopan (pictured), with 1,476,491 residents (17.68 percent of the state's total), while the smallest is Santa María del Oro, with 1,815 residents. The largest municipality by land area is Mezquitic, which spans 3,363.60 km2 (1,298.69 sq mi), and the smallest is Techaluta, with 79.20 km2 (30.58 sq mi). (Full list...)


July 19

Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel

The MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year is the most prestigious competitive award of and the final award presented at the annual MTV Video Music Awards. The award was created by the US network MTV to honor artists with the best music videos. At the first MTV Video Music Awards ceremony in 1984, the Video of the Year honor was presented to the Cars for the video "You Might Think". Eminem holds the record for the most nominations, with seven as a lead artist. Beyoncé has the second-most nominations, with five as a lead artist. David Lee Roth (1985), U2 (1988), and Lady Gaga (2010) are the only artists to have two Video of the Year nominations as a lead artist in a single ceremony. Among them, Gaga was the only to win, with "Bad Romance". Two artists have won Video of the Year and been honored with the Video Vanguard Award—an honorary award for artists who had "profound impact" on music videos and popular culture—in the same night: Peter Gabriel (pictured) in 1987 with "Sledgehammer", and Justin Timberlake (2013) with "Mirrors". (Full list...)


July 23

M. Night Shyamalan
M. Night Shyamalan

Indian-American filmmaker and actor M. Night Shyamalan has directed fourteen feature-length narrative films to date. He rose to prominence after writing and directing The Sixth Sense in 1999, a film that earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. The filmmaker would later go on to write and direct Unbreakable (2000) in his second collaboration with actor Bruce Willis, which spawned two sequels, known as the Eastrail 177 Trilogy. In 2002 and 2004, respectively, Shyamalan created Signs and The Village, films that further established him as a filmmaker known for his original surprise endings. However, the negative reception of Lady in the Water (2006), The Happening (2008), The Last Airbender (2010), and After Earth (2013) earned him eight nominations at the Golden Raspberry Awards, with The Last Airbender being considered one of the worst films ever made. After the box office success of the horror film The Visit in 2015, which earned him the Razzie Redeemer Award, his latest project, Old, was released on July 23, 2021. (Full list...)


July 26

Wild boar
Wild boar

Suines are members of the clade Suina, also known as Suiformes, a suborder of omnivorous, non-ruminant hoofed mammals in the order Artiodactyla. The clade includes the family Suidae, termed suids or colloquially pigs or swine, as well as the family Tayassuidae, termed tayassuids or peccaries. Suines are largely native to Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia, with the exception of the wild boar (example pictured), which is additionally native to Europe and Asia and introduced to North America and Australasia, including widespread use in farming of the domestic pig subspecies. Suines range in size from the 55 cm (22 in) long pygmy hog to the 210 cm (83 in) long giant forest hog, and are primarily found in forest, shrubland, and grassland biomes, though some can be found in deserts, wetlands, or coastal regions. The 21 extant species of Suina are split between the Suidae family, containing 18 extant species belonging to six genera, and the Tayassuidae family, containing three species in three genera. (Full list...)


July 30

Regine Velasquez
Regine Velasquez

Filipino singer and actress Regine Velasquez has received numerous awards and nominations for her work in music, film, and television. She is the recipient of two Asian Television Awards, two MTV Asia Awards, twenty-one Awit Awards, twenty-two Box Office Entertainment Awards, fifteen Aliw Awards, and ten Star Awards for Music. In film, she earned the Box Office Queen award for the romantic drama Pangako Ikaw Lang (2001) and won the Golden Screen Award for Best Actress for the comedy Of All the Things (2013). Velasquez has also accrued television honours in acting and hosting categories. For playing a mentally challenged woman in the drama series Maalaala Mo Kaya (2002), she received a Star Award for Television for Best Actress – Drama. She also won for Best Female TV Host and Best Talent Search Program Host for the television musicals SOP (2005) and Pinoy Pop Superstar (2006), respectively. Velasquez has been the recipient of many honorary awards, including the Golden Artist Award by the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences in 2006 and the Dangal Ng Musikang Pilipino Award by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry in 2012. (Full list...)