July 10 is the 191st day of the year (192nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 174 days remaining until the end of the year.
- 48 BC - Battle of Dyrrhachium, Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia.
- 988 - The city of Dublin is founded on the banks of the river Liffey.
- 1212 - The most severe of several early fires of London burns most of the city to the ground.
- 1460 - Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick defeats the king's Lancastrian forces and takes King Henry VI prisoner in the Battle of Northampton.
- 1553 - Lady Jane Grey takes the throne of England.
- 1584 - William I of Orange is assassinated in his home in Delft, Holland by Balthasar Gérard.
- 1645 - English Civil War: The Battle of Langport takes place.
- 1778 - American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.
- 1789 - Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Mackenzie River delta.
- 1796 - Carl Friedrich Gauss discovers that every positive integer is representable as a sum of at most three triangular numbers.
- 1800 - The Government of British India establishes the Fort William College to promote Urdu, Hindi and other vernaculars of sub continent.
- 1806 - The Vellore Mutiny is the first instance of a mutiny by Indian sepoys against the British East India Company.
- 1821 - The United States takes possession of its newly bought territory of Florida from Spain.
- 1832 - U.S.President Andrew Jackson vetoes a bill that would re-charter the Second Bank of the United States.
- 1850 - Millard Fillmore is inaugurated as the 13th President of the United States upon the death of President Zachary Taylor, 16 months into his term.
- 1877 - The then-villa of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, formally receives its city charter from the Royal Crown of Spain.
- 1890 - Wyoming is admitted as the 44th U.S. state.
- 1913 - Death Valley, California hits 134 °F (~56.7 °C), which is the highest temperature recorded in the United States.
- 1925 - Meher Baba begins his silence of 44 years. His followers still observe Silence Day on this date in commemoration.
- 1925 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher, is accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.
- 1938 - Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world.
- 1940 - World War II: Vichy France government is established.
- 1940 - World War II: Battle of Britain - The German Luftwaffe begin to hit British convoys in the English Channel thus starting the battle (this start date is contested, though).
- 1941 - Jedwabne Pogrom is a massacre of Jewish people living in and near the village of Jedwabne in Poland.
- 1942 - The diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and the Soviet Union are established.
- 1943 - World War II: The launching of Operation Husky begins the Italian Campaign.
- 1947 - Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah is recommended as the first Governor General of Pakistan by then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Clement Attlee.
- 1951 - Korean War: At Kaesong, armistice negotiations begin.
- 1958 - Highest tsunami wave ever recorded at Lituya Bay, Alaska, at 524m high.
- 1962 - Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit.
- 1966 - The Chicago Freedom Movement, lead by Martin Luther King, held a rally at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. As many as 60,000 people came to hear Dr. King as well as Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Peter Paul and Mary.
- 1967 - Uruguay becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
- 1968 - Maurice Couve de Murville becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1973 - The Bahamas gain full independence within the Commonwealth of Nations.
- 1973 - National Assembly of Pakistan passes a resolution on Bangladesh recognition.
- 1976 - The Seveso disaster occurs in Italy.
- 1976 - One American and three British mercenaries are executed in Angola following the Luanda Trial.
- 1978 - World News Tonight premieres on ABC.
- 1978 - President Moktar Ould Daddah of Mauritania is ousted in a bloodless coup d'état.
- 1980 - Alexandra Palace is burned down for a second time.
- 1985 - Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk in Auckland, New Zealand Harbor by French DGSE agents.
- 1991 - Boris Yeltsin begins his 5-year term as the first elected President of Russia.
- 1991 - The South African cricket team is readmitted into the International Cricket Council (ICC) following the end of Apartheid.
- 1992 - In Miami, Florida, former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug and racketeering violations.
- 1997 - London, scientists report their DNA analysis findings from a Neandertal skeleton which support the out of Africa theory of human evolution placing an "African Eve" at 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
- 1997 - Partido Popular (Spain) member Miguel Ángel Blanco is kidnapped in the Basque city of Ermua by ETA members, sparking widespread protests.
- 1998 - Roman Catholic sex abuse cases: The Diocese of Dallas agrees to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who claimed they were sexually abused by former priest Rudolph Kos.
- 2000 - A leaking southern Nigerian petroleum pipeline explodes, killing about 250 villagers scavenging gasoline.
- 2000 - EADS, the world's second-largest aerospace group is formed by the merger of Aérospatiale-Matra, DASA, and CASA.
- 2002 - At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens' painting The Massacre of the Innocents is sold for £49.5million (US$76.2 million) to Kenneth, Lord Thomson.
- 2003 - A Neoplan bus, owned by Kowloon Motor Bus, collides with a truck, falls off a bridge on Tuen Mun Road, Hong Kong, and plunges into the underlying valley, killing 21 people. This is the deadliest traffic accident to date in Hong Kong.
- 2005 - Hurricane Dennis slams into the Florida Panhandle, causing billions of dollars in damage.
- 2006 - Pakistan International Flight PK-688 crashes in Multan, Pakistan, shortly after takeoff, killing all 45 people on board.
- 2008 - Former Macedonian Interior Minister Ljube Boškoski is acquitted of all charges by a UN Tribunal accusing him of war crimes.
- 1419 - Emperor Go-Hanazono of Japan (d. 1471)
- 1452 - King James III of Scotland (d. 1488)
- 1509 - John Calvin, French religious reformer (d. 1564)
- 1517 - Odet de Coligny, French cardinal and Protestant (d. 1571)
- 1592 - Pierre d'Hozier, French historian (d. 1660)
- 1614 - Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey, English royalist statesman (d. 1686)
- 1625 - Jean Herauld Gourville, French adventurer (d. 1703)
- 1638 - David Teniers III, Flemish painter (d. 1685)
- 1666 - John Ernest Grabe, German-born Anglican theologian (d. 1711)
- 1682 - Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg, German Lutheran missionary to India (d. 1719)
- 1682 - Roger Cotes, English mathematician (d. 1716)
- 1711 - Princess Amelia Sophia of Great Britain (d. 1783)
- 1723 - William Blackstone, English jurist (d. 1780)
- 1736 - Maria, Duchess of Gloucester and Edinburgh (d. 1807)
- 1792 - George Mifflin Dallas, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and the 11th Vice President of the United States (d. 1864)
- 1804 - Emma Smith Inaugural President of the Women's Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1879)
- 1809 - Friedrich August von Quenstedt, German geologist (d. 1889)
- 1830 - Camille Pissarro, French painter (d. 1903)
- 1832 - Alvan Graham Clark, American telescope maker and astronomer (d. 1897)
- 1835 - Henryk Wieniawski, Polish composer (d. 1880)
- 1839 - Adolphus Busch, German-born brewer (d. 1913)
- 1856 - Nikola Tesla, Serb-American inventor (d. 1943)
- 1867 - Prince Maximilian of Baden, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1929)
- 1871 - Marcel Proust, French writer (d. 1922)
- 1874 - Sergey Konenkov, Russian sculptor (d. 1971)
- 1875 - Mary McLeod Bethune, American educator (d. 1955)
- 1883 - Johannes Blaskowitz, German general (d. 1948)
- 1888 - Giorgio de Chirico, Italian painter (d. 1978)
- 1895 - Carl Orff, German composer (d. 1982)
- 1896 - Thérèse Casgrain, French Canadian politician and senator (d. 1981)
- 1897 - Karl Plagge, German officer (d. 1957)
- 1897 - Jack "Legs" Diamond", American bootlegger (d. 1931)
- 1899 - John Gilbert, American actor (d. 1936)
- 1899 - Heiri Suter, Swiss cyclist (d. 1978)
- 1900 - Sampson Sievers, Russian Orthodox Christian monk, priest and wonder-worker (d. 1979)
- 1900 - Mitchell Parish, American lyricist (d. 1993)
- 1902 - Kurt Alder, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
- 1903 - John Wyndham, British author (d. 1969)
- 1903 - Werner Best, German jurist and nazi leader (d. 1989)
- 1905 - Thomas Gomez, American actor (d. 1971)
- 1905 - Wolfram Sievers, Nazi physician (d. 1948)
- 1913 - Salvador Espriu, Spanish poet (d. 1985)
- 1914 - Joe Shuster, Canadian-born cartoonist (d. 1992)
- 1917 - Don Herbert, American television host (d. 2007)
- 1917 - Hugh Alexander, American baseball player (d. 2000)
- 1920 - David Brinkley, American television reporter (d. 2003)
- 1920 - Owen Chamberlain, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)
- 1921 - Harvey Ball, American inventor (d. 2001)
- 1921 - Jake LaMotta, American boxer
- 1921 - Eunice Kennedy Shriver, American activist
- 1923 - Earl Hamner Jr., American author and television producer
- 1923 - Jean Kerr, American author (d. 2003)
- 1923 - G. A. Kulkarni, Indian (Marathi) writer (d. 1987)
- 1923 - John Bradley, United States Navy corpsman, one of six who raised flag on top of Mt. Suribachi(see Iwo Jima) (d. 1994)
- 1924 - Bobo Brazil, American professional wrestler (d. 1998)
- 1924 - Johnny Bach, American basketball coach
- 1926 - Fred Gwynne, American actor (d. 1993)
- 1927 - Grigory Barenblatt, Russian mathematician
- 1927 - Suzanne Cloutier, Canadian film actor (d. 2003)
- 1928 - Moshe Greenberg, American-Israeli Bible scholar
- 1928 - Alejandro de Tomaso, Argentine-Italian racing driver and car manufacturer (d. 2003)
- 1928 - Bernard Buffet, French painter (d. 1999)
- 1929 - Winnie Ewing, Scottish politician
- 1931 - Nick Adams, American actor (d. 1968)
- 1931 - Alice Munro, Canadian writer
- 1932 - Carlo Mario Abate, Italian racing driver
- 1934 - Jerry Nelson, American puppeteer
- 1935 - Tura Satana, American actress
- 1938 - Paul Andreu, French architect
- 1938 - Lee Morgan, American hard-bop trumpeter
- 1939 - Ahmet Taner Kışlalı, Turkish politician, journalist, and educator (d. 1999)
- 1940 - Meghnad Desai, Baron Desai, British economist
- 1940 - Helen Donath, American soprano
- 1940 - Tom Farmer, Scottish entrepreneur
- 1941 - David G. Hartwell, American editor and anthologist
- 1941 - Ian Whitcomb, English songwriter, entertainer and producer
- 1942 - Ronnie James Dio, American musician
- 1942 - Pyotr Klimuk, Soviet cosmonaut
- 1943 - Arthur Ashe, American tennis player (d. 1993)
- 1945 - John Motson, British sports (football) commentator
- 1945 - Jean-Marie Poiré, French film director
- 1945 - Virginia Wade, British tennis player
- 1945 - Ron Glass, American actor
- 1945 - Peter Michalica, Slovak violinist
- 1946 - Sue Lyon, American actress
- 1947 - Arlo Guthrie, American musician
- 1949 - Sunil Gavaskar, Indian cricketer
- 1949 - Greg Kihn U.S. pop musician & radio personality.
- 1949 - John Whitehead, American singer and record producer
- 1950 - Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Greek politician
- 1951 - Phyllis Smith, American actress
- 1951 - Cheryl Wheeler, American singer and songwriter
- 1952 - Ludmilla Tourischeva, Russian gymnast
- 1952 - Kim Mitchell, Canadian guitarist/singer
- 1952 - Peter van Heemst, Dutch politician
- 1953 - Zoogz Rift, singer/songwriter and wrestling booker
- 1953 - Rik Emmett, Canadian musician (Triumph)
- 1954 - Neil Tennant, British musician (Pet Shop Boys)
- 1954 - Andre Dawson, American baseball player
- 1956 - Tom McClintock, American politician
- 1957 - Cindy Sheehan, American anti-war/political activist
- 1958 - Béla Fleck, American musician
- 1958 - Fiona Shaw, Irish actress
- 1959 - Ellen Kuras, American cinematographer
- 1961 - Jacky Cheung, Hong Kong singer and actor
- 1964 - Urban Meyer, American football coach
- 1964 - Wilfried Peeters, Belgian cyclist
- 1965 - Alec Mapa, Filipino-American actor and comedian
- 1965 - Ken Mellons, American singer
- 1965 - Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark
- 1966 - Johnny Grunge, wrestler (d. 2006)
- 1967 - Tom Meents, American monster truck driver
- 1968 - Hassiba Boulmerka, Algerian athlete
- 1968 - Jonathan Gilbert, American actor
- 1969 - Gale Harold, American actor
- 1969 - Alexandra Hedison, American actress
- 1970 - Helen Sjöholm, Swedish singer and actress
- 1970 - Adam Hills, Australian comedian
- 1970 - Gary LeVox, American singer (Rascal Flatts)
- 1970 - Jason Orange, UK pop singer and dancer (Take That)
- 1970 - John Simm, British actor
- 1971 - Adam Foote, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1971 - Gregory Goodridge, Barbadian footballer
- 1972 - Peter Serafinowicz, British comedian and actor
- 1972 - Sofia Vergara, Colombian actress
- 1972 - Tilo Wolff, German musician (Lacrimosa)
- 1974 - Chiwetel Ejiofor, English actor
- 1975 - Alain Nasreddine, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1975 - Stefán Karl Stefánsson, Icelandic actor
- 1976 - Elijah Blue Allman, American musician (Deadsy)
- 1976 - Adrian Grenier, American actor
- 1976 - Ludovic Giuly, French footballer
- 1976 - Brendon Lade, Australian rules footballer
- 1976 - Edmílson Gomes, Brazilian footballer
- 1977 - Schapelle Corby, Australian convicted drug smuggler
- 1977 - Gwendoline Yeo, American actress
- 1978 - Jesse Lacey, American musician (Brand New)
- 1979 - Mvondo Atangana, Cameroon footballer
- 1980 - Thomas Ian Nicholas, American actor
- 1980 - Alejandro Millán, Mexican singer and songwriter
- 1980 - Adam Petty, American race car driver (d. 2000)
- 1980 - Jessica Simpson, American singer
- 1980 - Orlando Jordan, American wrestler
- 1982 - Alex Arrowsmith, American musician
- 1983 - Kim Heechul, Korean Singer
- 1982 - Sebastian Mila, Polish footballer
- 1984 - Maria Julia Mantilla Garcia, Miss World 2004
- 1985 - B.J. Crombeen, American ice hockey player
- 1985 - Mario Gómez, German footballer
- 138 - Hadrian, Roman Emperor (b. 76)
- 649 - Li Shimin, Emperor of China (b. 599)
- 1099 - El Cid, of Castile (b. 1044)
- 1103 - King Eric I of Denmark
- 1290 - King Ladislaus IV of Hungary (b. 1262)
- 1460 - Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, English military leader (b. 1402)
- 1480 - King René I of Naples (b. 1410)
- 1559 - King Henry II of France (b. 1519)
- 1584 - William I of Orange (b. 1533)
- 1590 - Archduke Charles II of Austria (b. 1540)
- 1594 - Paolo Bellasio, Italian composer (b. 1554)
- 1621 - Karel Bonaventura Buquoy, French soldier (b. 1571)
- 1653 - Gabriel Naudé, French librarian and scholar (b. 1600)
- 1680 - Louis Moréri, French encyclopedist (b. 1643)
- 1683 - François-Eudes de Mézeray, French historian (b. 1610)
- 1686 - John Fell, English churchman (b. 1625)
- 1776 - Richard Peters, English-born clergyman (b. 1704)
- 1806 - George Stubbs, British painter (b. 1724)
- 1848 - Karoline Jagemann, German actor (b. 1777)
- 1851 - Louis-Jacques Daguerre, French inventor and photographer (b. 1787)
- 1881 - Georg Hermann Nicolai, German architect (b. 1812)
- 1884 - Paul Morphy, American chess player (b. 1837)
- 1908 - Phoebe Knapp, American hymn writer (b. 1839)
- 1920 - Jackie Fisher, British admiral (b. 1841)
- 1941 - Jelly Roll Morton, American musician (b. 1890)
- 1954 - Calogero Vizzini, Sicilian mafioso (b. 1877)
- 1956 - Joe Giard, American baseball player (b. 1898)
- 1963 - Teddy Wakelam, English sports broadcaster and rugby union player (b. 1893)
- 1970 - Bjarni Benediktsson, Icelandic foreign and later prime minister (b. 1908)
- 1972 - Lovie Austin, American jazz pianist (b. 1887)
- 1978 - John D Rockefeller III, American businessman (b. 1906)
- 1978 - Joe Davis, English snooker player (b. 1901)
- 1979 - Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (b. 1894)
- 1980 - Joseph Krumgold, American writer (b. 1908)
- 1981 - Ken Rex McElroy, American hog rustler (b. 1936)
- 1987 - John H. Hammond, American record producer (b. 1910)
- 1989 - Mel Blanc, American voice actor (b. 1908)
- 1993 - Sam Rolfe, American screenwriter (b. 1924)
- 2000 - Vakkom Majeed, Indian Freedom fighter, Travancore-Cochin Legislative member (b. 1909)
- 2000 - Justin Pierce, English-American actor and skateboarder (b. 1975)
- 2002 - Jean-Pierre Côté, French Canadian politician and Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (b. 1926)
- 2003 - Winston Graham, English writer (b. 1908)
- 2003 - Hartley Shawcross, British prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials (b. 1902)
- 2003 - Bishnu Maden, Nepalese politician
- 2005 - A.J. Quinnell, English writer (b. 1940)
- 2005 - Freda Wright-Sorce, American radio performer (b. 1955)
- 2005 - Freddy Soto, American comedian and actor (b. 1970)
- 2005- Jimmy Franklin and Bobby Younkin, airshow performers
- 2006 - Shamil Basayev, Chechen rebel (b. 1965)
- 2007 - Abdul Rashid Ghazi, radical Pakistani cleric (b. 1951)
- 2007 - Doug Marlette, American cartoonist (b. 1949)
- 2007 - Zheng Xiaoyu, director of the State Food and Drug Administration of the People's Republic of China (b. 1944)
- 2008 - Hiroaki Aoki, founder of Benihana (b. 1938)
- 2008 - Mike Souchak, professional golfer (b. 1927)
- Bahamas - Independence Day.
- Silence Day - celebrated by followers of Meher Baba.
- Mauritania - Armed Forces Day.
- Ancient Latvia - Septinu Bralu Diena observed.
- Saint Kanute IV, King of Denmark, martyr
- Translation of Saint Maclovius, bishop of Saint-Malo, confessor
- The Seven Brothers (Januarius, Felix, Philip, Silvanus, Alexander, Vitalis, and Martialis), martyrs
- Saint Amalberga, virgin (d. 690)
- Saint Felicitas of Rome, martyr
- Saints Rufina and Secunda, martyrs
