09 July - Guru Dutt birth anniversary

Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone (9 July 1925 – 10 October 1964), better known as Guru Dutt, was an Indian film director, producer and actor. He made 1950s and 1960s classics such as Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and Chaudhvin Ka Chand. In particular, Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool have been included among the greatest films of all time, Pyaasa by Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies list and by the 2002 Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll,where Dutt himself is included among the greatest film directors of all time.

In 2010, he was included among CNN's "top 25 Asian actors of all time".

He is most famous for making lyrical and artistic films within the context of popular Hindi cinema of the 1950s, and expanding its commercial conventions, starting with his 1957 film Pyaasa. Several of his later works have a cult following. His movies attract full houses when re-released; especially in Germany, France and Japan.

A postage stamp featuring Dutt was released by India Post on 10 October 2004.

08 July - Chandra Shekhar Singh death anniversary

Chandra Shekhar Singh (17 April 1927 – 8 July 2007) was an Indian politician who served as the eighth Prime Minister of India, between 10 November 1990 and 21 June 1991. He headed a minority government of a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal with outside support from the Indian National Congress as a stop gap arrangement to delay elections.He is the first Indian Prime Minister who has never held any Government office.His government was largely seen as a "puppet"and "lame duck" and the government was formed with the fewest party MPs in the Lok Sabha.His government could not pass the budget at a crucial time when Moody had downgraded India and it further went down after the budget was not passed and global credit-rating agencies further downgraded India from investment grade making it impossible to even get short-term loans and in no position to give any commitment to reform, the World Bank and IMF stopped their assistance. Chandrasekhar had to authorise mortgaging of gold to avoid default of payment and this action came in for particular criticism as it was done secretly in the midst of the election.The Indian economic crisis, 1991, and the Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi plunged his government into crisis.

Chandra Shekhar died on 8 July 2007, a week after his 80th birthday. He had been suffering with multiple myeloma for some time and had been in the Apollo Hospital at New Delhi since May.

08 July - Umaid Singh born in 1903

Umaid Singh (8 July 1903 – 9 June 1947), was Maharaja of Jodhpur from 1918 to his death.

The second son of Maharaja Sir Sardar Singh, he succeeded his elder brother Maharaja Sir Sumair Singh upon his death in 1918; in 1922 he served as the aide-de-camp to the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII). Ruling under the regency of his granduncle until 1923, he was then formally invested as Maharaja by Lord Reading. During his reign, Sir Umaid Singh reformed and reorganised the Jodhpur State Forces and the judicial department, introduced a scheme for extending primary education, revised the land revenue settlement and established state pensions and a Provident Fund for state employees. Enjoying a distinguished military career, he died at his estate on Mount Abu on 9 June 1947 after a reign of 29 years, aged but 43.

07 July - World Chocolate Day

World Chocolate Day seeks to promote the consumption of chocolate. Chocolate contains antioxidants and can improve your cardiovascular health. The neccessary main ingredient of chocolate is Cacoa which comes from beans from the cacao tree. It takes roughly 400 cocoa beans to make one pound of Chocolate. Chocolate is the most popular sweet treat in the world.

07 July - American forces retreating from Fort Ticonderoga in 1777

The Battle of Hubbardton was an engagement in the Saratoga campaign of the American Revolutionary War fought in the village of Hubbardton, Vermont. Vermont was then a disputed territory sometimes called the New Hampshire Grants, claimed by New York, New Hampshire, and the newly organized and not yet recognized but de facto independent government of Vermont. On the morning of July 7, 1777, British forces, under General Simon Fraser, caught up with the American rear guard of the forces retreating after the withdrawal from Fort Ticonderoga. It was the only battle in Vermont during the revolution. (The Battle of Bennington was fought in what is now Walloomsac, New York.)

07 July - Tanabata Japanese festival

Tanabata (meaning "Evening of the seventh"), also known as the Star Festival , is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. It celebrates the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi (represented by the stars Vega and Altair respectively). According to legend, the Milky Way separates these lovers, and they are allowed to meet only once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the lunisolar calendar. The date of Tanabata varies by region of the country, but the first festivities begin on 7 July of the Gregorian calendar. The celebration is held at various days between July and August.

07 July - SS United States transatlantic speed record in 1952

The ocean liner SS United States passes Bishop Rock on her maiden voyage on 07 July 1952 , breaking the transatlantic speed record to become the fastest passenger ship in the world

SS United States is a retired ocean liner built in 1950–51 for the United States Lines at a cost of $79.4 million. The ship is the largest ocean liner constructed entirely in the United States and the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction, retaining the Blue Riband for the highest average speed since her maiden voyage in 1952. She was designed by American naval architect William Francis Gibbs and could be converted into a troopship if required by the Navy in time of war. The United States maintained an uninterrupted schedule of transatlantic passenger service until 1969 and was never used as a troopship.

The ship has been sold several times since the 1970s, with each new owner trying unsuccessfully to make the liner profitable. Eventually, the ship's fittings were sold at auction, and hazardous wastes, including asbestos panels throughout the ship, were removed, leaving her almost completely stripped by 1994. Two years later, she was towed to Pier 82 on the Delaware River, in Philadelphia, where she remains today.

Since 2009, a preservation group called the SS United States Conservancy has been raising funds to save the ship. The group purchased her in 2011 and has drawn up several unrealized plans to restore the ship, one of which included turning the ship into a multi-purpose waterfront complex. In 2015, as its funds dwindled, the group began accepting bids to scrap the ship; however, sufficient donations came in via extended fundraising. Large donations have kept the ship berthed at its Philadelphia dock while the group continues to further investigate restoration plans

06 July - Richard III Coronation in 1483

Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battle of Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of the Middle Ages in England. He is the protagonist of Richard III, one of William Shakespeare's history plays.

His Coronation was done on 6 July 1483

06 July - Syama Prasad Mukherjee born in 1901

Syama Prasad Mukherjee(6 July 1901 – 23 June 1953) was an Indian politician, barrister and academician, who served as the Minister for Industry and Supply in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinet. After falling out with Nehru,protesting against the Nehru-Liaquat pact, Mukherjee resigned from the Nehru' 's cabinet.With the help of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the predecessor to the Bharatiya Janata Party, in 1951.

He was also the president of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha from 1943 to 1946. He died in the custody of Jammu and Kashmir Police in 1953.He was provisionally diagnosed of a heart attack and shifted to a hospital but died a day later.In 2004, Atal Bihari Vajpayee had claimed that he was murdered in a "Nehru conspiracy".Since the Bharatiya Janata Party is the successor to the Bhartiya Jana Sangh, Mukherjee is also regarded as the founder of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

06 July - Pope Clement VI issues a papal bull in 1348

Pope Clement VI (Latin: Clemens VI; 1291 – 6 December 1352), born Pierre Roger,was head of the Catholic Church from 7 May 1342 to his death in 1352. He was the fourth Avignon pope. Clement reigned during the first visitation of the Black Death (1348–1350), during which he granted remission of sins to all who died of the plague.

Roger steadfastly resisted temporal encroachments on the Church's ecclesiastical jurisdiction and, as Clement VI, entrenched French dominance of the Church and opened its coffers to enhance the regal splendour of the Papacy. He recruited composers and music theorists for his court, including figures associated with the then-innovative Ars Nova style of France and the Low Countries. His nepotism was ultimately reflected in the 44 statues of relatives which surrounded his sarcophagus.

Clement issued two papal bulls (A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by a pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden seal (bulla) that was traditionally appended to the end in order to authenticate it.) in 1348 (6 July and 26 September), the latter named Quamvis Perfidiam, which condemned the violence and said those who blamed the plague on the Jews had been "seduced by that liar, the Devil."He went on to emphasise that “It cannot be true that the Jews, by such a heinous crime, are the cause or occasion of the plague, because through many parts of the world the same plague, by the hidden judgment of God, has afflicted and afflicts the Jews themselves and many other races who have never lived alongside them.” He urged clergy to take action to protect Jews as he had done.