Chile claims its first title in international football by defeating Argentina in the 2015 Copa América Final.
The discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is announced at CERN.
The first of four days of bombings begins on the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao.
A bomb explodes at a concert in Minsk's Independence Square, injuring 50 people.
Space Shuttle program: Discovery launches STS-121 to the International Space Station. The event gained wide media attention as it was the only shuttle launch in the program's history to occur on the United States' Independence Day.
Greece beats Portugal in the UEFA Euro 2004 Final and becomes European Champion for first time in its history.
NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
Three Iranian diplomats and a journalist are kidnapped in Lebanon by Phalange forces, and their fate remains unknown.
Space Shuttle program: Columbia lands at Edwards Air Force Base at the end of the program's final test flight, STS-4. President Ronald Reagan declares the Space Shuttle to be operational.
Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago sign the Treaty of Chaguaramas in Chaguaramas, Trinidad and Tobago establishing the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). It replaces the Caribbean Free Trade Association as another step towards Caribbean r...
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act went into effect the next year.
Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Acts (United States)).
Food rationing in Great Britain ends, with the lifting of restrictions on sale and purchase of meat, 14 years after it began early in World War II, and nearly a decade after the war's end.
William Shockley announces the invention of the junction transistor.
Cold War: Radio Free Europe first broadcasts.
The "Indian Independence Bill" is presented before the British House of Commons, proposing the independence of the Provinces of British India into two sovereign countries: India and Pakistan.
After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States.
World War II: The Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world's largest tank battle, begins in the village of Prokhorovka.
World War II: In Gibraltar, a Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into the sea in an apparent accident moments after takeoff, killing sixteen passengers on board, including general Władysław Sikorski, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Ar...
World War II: The 250-day Siege of Sevastopol in the Crimea ends when the city falls to Axis forces.