Chronology of the important local and global events in July, 2016
Compiled by: Engr Asif Khan Shinwari
1. On 1st July, 2016 Gunmen storm a restaurant, exchange fire with security, and take at least twenty hostages in the Gulshan neighborhood of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Two policemen are killed. The Islamic State claims responsibility. Aneesa Rasool nominated as the first women judge of Afghanistan Supreme Court. British–American Academy Award–winning film actress Olivia de Havilland, one of the last leading movie stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, celebrates her 100th birthday. The European Union extends economic sanctions on Russia until 31 January 2017 over Moscow's continued support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
2. On 2nd July, 2016 Australians vote to elect a government for the next three years. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, leader of the conservative Liberal Party-led Coalition, dissolved both houses of Parliament in May in a bid for a Senate more friendly to his agenda. The latest News Corp Australia poll shows the coalition at 50.5 percent, one point ahead of Labor.
3. On 3rd July, 2016 Twin bombings in a pair of crowded commercial areas in Baghdad kill at least 125 people. ISIL claims responsibility. At least 31 people are killed and several more remain missing after flash floods ravage the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy resigns as leader of The Republicans party and announces his candidacy for President again.
4. On 4th July, 2016 A suicide bomber detonates a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia, killing four security guards. Flooding caused by torrential rain in China kills at least 180 people, mostly along the Yangtze river.
5. On 5th July, 2016 At least seven people are killed and eight are injured after a helicopter carrying Turkish Armed Forces personnel crashes in Turkey's northern Giresun Province, on theBlack Sea coast. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announces that the country will hold a referendum on October 2 where voters will get to choose whether or not to acceptEuropean Union-imposed quotas on the distribution of migrants. Home Secretary Theresa May gets 165 votes after the first ballot of Conservative members of parliament to select a new Leader and the next Prime Minister. Her nearest rival, Minister of State for Energy Andrea Leadsom, picked up 66 votes. NASA's Juno spacecraft reaches Jupiter and enters into its orbit after a five-year flight.
6. On 6th July, 2016 A suicide car bomb, that targeted the Central Security headquarters in the port city of Aden, Yemen, kills at least 26 people. Business magnate and former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi sells leading football club A.C. Milan to a Chinese consortium for an eventual €400 million. A report about the United Kingdom's involvement in the Iraq War is released. The chairman of the inquiry, Sir John Chilcot, said that the invasion was not a "last resort" and was based on "flawed intelligence and assessments". The inquiry was announced on 15 June 2009 by then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The final hearing was held on 2 February 2011.
7. On 7th July, 2016 At least 35 people are killed and 60 others injured in an attack on a Shiite mausoleum located in north of Baghdad. Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant have claimed responsibility. French food company Danone agrees to buy American company WhiteWave Foods for $10 billion. Conservative Party members of parliament vote in a second ballot to choose the next leader of the party to replace outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron. The Home Secretary Theresa May secured the highest number votes with 199, while Department of Energy and Climate Change minister Andrea Leadsom received the second highest amount, with 84.
8. On 8th July, 2016: Abdul Sattar Edhi, Pakistani philanthropist and Chairman of the Edhi Foundation, passes away in Karachi at Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation. Indian forces killed popular and young rebel leader Burhan Wani belonging to one of the largest separatists group Hizbul Mujahideen.
9. On 9th July, 2016 Abdul Sattar Edhi laid to rest. He is the third person who has been given state funeral by the Government of Pakistan after Quaid Azam and General Zia Ul Haq. NATO members in Warsaw, Poland, agree to extend their mission in Afghanistan into 2017 and announced that they will continue to fund the Afghan Armed Forces to 2020. In tennis, American defending champion Serena Williams defeats Angelique Kerber of Germany in straight sets to win her seventh Wimbledon Championships title and her 22nd Grand Slam title, tying the Open era record held by Steffi Graf.
10. On 10th July, 2016 Voters in Japan go to the polls with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its Komeito partners looking for a two-thirds majority that will allow them to put forward a referendum to change the constitution. The governing parties won 70 of the 121 seats. In football, host nation France plays against Portugal for the 2016 UEFA European Championship at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. Portugal wins 1–0 with an Édergoal in extra time.
11. On 11th July, 2016 World Population Day Celebrated. At least 30 civilians have been killed by Indian Army soldiers as anti-government protests and violence spread across the state. Prime Minister David Cameron announces he will step down on Wednesday, July 13.
12. On 12th July, 2016 AMC Theatres is purchasing London-based Odeon & UCI Cinemas Group in a deal valued at about £921 million ($1.21 billion). AMC has 385 theaters with 5,380 screens, most in the United States. Odeon & UCI has 242 theaters and 2,236 screens in the U.K. and Ireland.
13. On 13th July, 2016 Theresa May becomes the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Dr. Carla Hayden is confirmed to be the 14th Librarian of Congress, becoming the first woman and African-American to lead the Library of Congress.
14. On 14th July, 2016 A truck rammed into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in the French Riviera city of Nice night, killing at least 84 people.
15. On 15th July, 2016 At least 161 people were killed and 2,389 soldiers detained in a night of violence across Turkey sparked when few elements in the military staged an attempted coup. The federal cabinet in its meeting increased the upper age limit for appearing in the CSS Exams from 28 to 30.
16. On 16th July, 2016 Pakistani social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch is killed by her brother in an honour killing.
17. On 17th July, 2016 In golf, Henrik Stenson wins the 2016 Open Championship defeating Phil Mickelson after a closely fought battle in the final round at the Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland. Stenson's total of 264, 20 under par, is the lowest stroke total ever recorded in any major championship and ties Jason Day's performance at last year's PGA Championship for the lowest score in relation to par at a major. It is also Stenson's first victory in a major tournament.
18. On 18th July, 2016 Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank agrees to buy British IT company ARM Holdings for more than $32 billion. The World Anti-Doping Agency finds that the Government of Russia was involved in an intensive doping program including at the 2014 Winter Olympics at Sochi.
19. On 19th July, 2016 The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports U.S.-led coalition airstrikes on the Islamic State-held city of Manbij in northern Syria kill at least 56 civilians, including 11 children, and injure dozens more. Donald Trump is nominated as the Republican Party candidate for this year's presidential election.
20. On 20th July, 2016 Black Day against Indian atrocities celebrated in Pakistan. Unilever buys Dollar Shave Club for US$1 billion.
21. On 21st July, General Elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir were held 2016
22. On 22nd July, 2016 At least nine people died and 21 were injured when a teenage gunman of German Iranian nationality opened fire on a McDonald’s and a shopping center in Munich. Russia's track and field athletes will not be allowed to compete in the Rio Olympic Games, even if they did not fail drug tests, after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport is rejected.. Presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton selects Senator Tim Kaine (Virginia) as her vice-presidential running mate. An Indian Air Force AN32 carrying 29 people on board has gone missing over the Bay of Bengal while en route to Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
23. On 23rd July, 2016 Afghan officials report at least 80 people are killed and more than 230 injured as twin suicide blasts hit a large demonstration of the Shiite Hazara community over a power route line at Dehmazang Circle, Kabul, Afghanistan. The Islamic State claims responsibility. Russian balloonist Fyodor Konyukhov breaks the world record of American Steve Fossett for the fastest hot air balloon ride to circumnavigate the globe.
24. On 24th July, 2016 At least 21 are killed and more than 35 people injured in a suicide attack at one of the residential entrances to district Kadhimiyah, in northern Baghdad, Iraq. ISIL claims responsibility, as published in its official media.
25. On 25th July, 2016 A suicide car bomb kills at least 21 people and wounds more than 32 at the entrance to Al Khalis, northeast of Baghdad. Most died inside their vehicles while waiting to enter the town. Verizon Communications buys Yahoo! for $4.83 billion in cash, ending the latter's over 20-year run as an independent corporation.
26. On 26th July, 2016 Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to travel around the world without fuel after it returns to Abu Dhabi.
27. On 27th July, 2016 At least 44 people are killed in a twin bombing in the Kurdish-controlled city of Al-Qamishli on the Syria–Turkey border. ISIL claims responsibility for the attack. Scientists have discovered that the region directly above the Great Red Spot on the planet Jupiter is about 700° F (370° C) warmer than the surrounding upper atmosphere. Biologists have determined that the only 'true' species of wolf in North America is the gray wolf while the red wolf is a wolf hybridized with a coyote.
28. On 28th July, 2016 Hillary Clinton accepts her party's nomination as the candidate for this year's presidential election. Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the leader of Al-Nusra Front, announces that the group is splitting from Al-Qaeda with their approval and that new operations will be carried out under the name Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.
29. On 29th July, 2016 Murad Ali Shah was elected as the Chief Minister of Sindh. The Senate approved the cyber crime bill. The United States military says it will shortly return 4,000 hectares of its Okinawa military installation, 17 percent of the area it controls, to the Japanese government.
30. On 30th July, 2016 In skydiving, American Luke Aikins sets a world record for jumping from a height of 25,000 feet (7,620 meters) without a parachute or wing suit.
31. On 31st July, 2016 PML N’s Raja Farooq Haidar was elected as the the Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.