July  

1996  Maria Haddad, Air Jamaica's first woman Captain, takes charge of the Miami flight.

3rd
1941 The first group of 39 Jamaican volunteers arrive in England to join the British Army in the fight against Hitler.

1947  Rachel is born to Michael Manley and his wife Jacqueline (Verity).

4th
1893  Norman Washington Manley is born at Roxborough in Manchester to Thomas Manley, planter, and his wife, Margaret Ann nee Shearer.

1959  The Cayman Islands separates from Jamaica.

1962  Island Records is formed by Chris Blackwell.

5th
2004  Hugh Shearer, former Prime Minister and trade unionist dies.

8th
1943  The Jamaica Labour Party is founded.

9th
1938  Thousands of handbills are distributed in downtown Kingston by the Jamaica United Clerks Association to protest the anticipated defiance of the new Shop Assistants Law which requires retail businesses to now close at 6:00pm . Merchants say they intend to stay open until their usual 8:00pm. Before the passing of this new law, shop clerks were required to work 12 hours a day with only a 20 minute break for lunch. Trade Unions have come to existence.

1969  A bill to establish local honours is passed in the House of Representatives. This new bill was the proposed by Prime Minister Hugh Shearer and will consist of The Order of National Hero, The Order of Merit, The Order of Distinction and The Order of Jamaica.

10th
1922 Herb McKenley is born in Pleasant Valley, Clarendon.

11th
1792  Captain William Bligh sets sail again from Tahiti on his way to Jamaica with breadfruit, jackfruit, otaheite apples and other saplings.

1944  The Jamaican Federation of Women is officially inaugurated "to unite and co-ordinate every kind of women's work, regardless of colour, class, race or creed".

1974  Fr Samuel Carter is appointed as the first Jamaican born rector of St George's College.

14th
1941  Almost 200 policemen raid "Pinnacle", a property near Sligoville in St Catherine. This property is reputed to be occupied by a new religious cult led by Leonard Howell. Seventy individuals are apprehended  and are are taken to the Spanish Town Police Station where they are charged with assaulting their neighbours and growing and smoking ganga. However the leader of this new cult, which calls themselves Rastafarians, makes good his escape.

15th
1943  An earthquake occurs which does severe damage to Kingston and other parts of the Island. It is reported to be the worst earthquake since 1907.

1957  The University of the West Indies announces that the new women's hall of residence will be named Mary Seacole Hall in honour of the great heroine of the Crimean War. The residence will house 200 women.

16th
1942  Desmond Dacres (Dekker) is born in St. Andrew.

1945  A shipment of whiskey arrives in Kingston signally an end to the shortage of imported liquor caused by World War II.

17th
1964  The engagement is announced of Minister of Development and Welfare, Edward Seaga to reigning Miss Jamaica, Mitsy Constantine.

18th
1938  Jamaican born dentist Gerald Brandon is invited to go to Stockholm, Sweden to read a paper on a new method of porcelain he has developed which reproduces the natural contour of the gum, an entirely new concept in the field of dentistry.

1941  The US Air Force has acquired Sandy Gully in south Clarendon for use as an air field. It is named Vernamfield in honour of World War I flying hero, Remington Vernam.

1971  The Jamaica Bureau of Standards is officially declared open by Prime Minister Hugh Shearer.

21st
1938  The proposal to form a National or People's Political Party is accepted in principle at a conference convened by the National Reform Association. At the Conference were the Kingston and St Andrew Federation of Citizens Association, the Jamaica Progressive League, the National Reform Association and several Citizens Associations from Kingston and St Andrew. Officers of the National Reform Association are mandated to contact various Federations and Associations throughout the Island so as to put together the basis of the Party's platform.

22nd 
1692  The Assembly  passes the resolution to create a new town on 200 acres of land bought from Sir William Beeston at Hog Crawle, across the harbour from Port Royal, which was recently destroyed by earthquake. The new town will be called Kingston.

1939  Howard Cooke, elementary school teacher of Portland is married to Ivy Tyce, a teacher at Mico College in the College's chapel.

24th
1824  Dr Christopher Lipscombe is consecrated as the first Bishop of Jamaica.

26th
1972  A Bill proposing the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 is tabled in the House of Representatives by Florizel Glasspole, the Minister with responsibility for electoral matters. This follows a Bill tabled the previous day by Opposition Leader, Hugh Shearer, to lower the age of majority from 21 to 18 years of age.

28th
1941  The speed limit for motorists within the Kingston and St Andrew Corporate Area is set at 20 miles per hour.

1942  A Bill is passed at a specially convened meeting of the Legislative Council which will allow flogging as punishment for men who commit crimes of violence against women and children.

31st
1838  Thousands pack Chapels all over Jamaica from as early as 10:00pm to sing & pray until dawn tomorrow when they will no longer be slaves. Rev. William Knibb raises a banner inscribed "Freedom Brilliantly Illuminated" over the gate of the Baptist Chapel in Falmouth and commences singing the Dirge written for the occasion.

1918  Desnoes and Geddes is incorporated in Jamaica and acquires the businesses formerly operated by Eugene Peter Desnoes and Thomas Hargreaves Geddes. They go on to develop and brew Red Stripe Beer.

1919 Samuel Emmanuel Carter is born in St Andrew to William and Eugenia (Williams).

1938  a ten coach train carrying 300 passengers from Kingston to Montego Bay is derailed and completely destroyed one and a half miles from the Balaclava Station. Thirty-two bodies, some beyond recognition, are found. This is the worst railway tragedy in Jamaica's history up to that time.