July 1: The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference begins at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.

July 3: Soviet troops liberate Minsk. - Battle of Imphal: Japanese forces call off their advance, ending the battle with a British victory.

July 6: Hartford circus fire: More than 100 children die in one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States. - At Camp Hood, Texas, future baseball star and 1st Lt. Jackie Robinson is arrested and later court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of a segregated U.S. Army bus. He is eventually acquitted.

July 9: British and Canadian forces capture Caen.

July 10: Soviet troops begin operations to occupy the Baltic countries.

July 12: Laurence Olivier's film Henry V, based on Shakespeare's play, opens in London. It is the most acclaimed and the most successful movie version of a Shakespeare play made up to that time, and the first in Technicolor. Olivier both stars and directs.

July 13: Vilnius is occupied by USSR.

July 16: The first contingent of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force arrives in Italy.

July 17: The largest convoy of the war embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia, under Royal Canadian Navy protection. - The SS E. A. Bryan, loaded with ammunition, explodes at the Port Chicago naval base; 320 are killed.

July 18: American forces push back the Germans in St. Lo, capturing the city. - British forces launch Operation Goodwood, an armoured offensive aimed at driving the Germans from the high ground to the south of Caen. The offensive ends 2 days later with only minimal gains. - Hideki To-jo- resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort and is succeeded (on July 22) by Kuniaki Koiso.

July 20: Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt by Claus von Stauffenberg.

July 21: Battle of Guam: American troops land on Guam (the battle ends August 10). - The Polish Committee of National Liberation is created.

July 22: The Bretton Woods Conference ends with agreements signed to set up the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and International Monetary Fund. - United States v. Masaaki Kuwabara, the only Japanese American draft avoidance case to be dismissed on a due process violation of the U.S. Constitution.

July 25: Operation Spring: One of the bloodiest days for Canadian forces during the war results in 1,550 casualties, including 450 killed, during the Normandy Campaign.

July 26: A Messerschmitt Me 262 becomes the first jet fighter aircraft to have an operational victory. (source: Wikipedia)