JULY

30 - 80yrs since Uruguay wins the first Football World Cup
30 - Christopher Nolan, film director (40)
30 - Frank Stallone, singer and actor (60)
30 - Richard Linklater, filmmaker (50)
30 - Sir Clive Sinclair, entrepreneur and inventor (70)
31 - Carol J Clover, academic (70)
31 - Oleg Popov, Russian clown (80)

AUGUST

1 - Yorkshire Day (England)
1 - Swiss National Day (Switzerland)

Week 31

2 – 20yrs Gulf War begins
2 - Kevin Smith, director and screenwriter (40)
2-8 - Tampere International Theatre Festival
3 - John Landis, film director (60)
3 - Martin Sheen, actor (70)
3 - P D James, novelist (90)
4 - Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States (49)
4 - Hedda Sterne, painter and printmaker (100)
5 - Neil Armstrong, astronaut (80)
5 -International Beer Day
5-7 - Sauna World Championships
6 – 65yrs since Hiroshima is bombed
6 – 80yrs Judge Joseph Force Crater disappears
6 - M Night Shyamalan, film director (40)
6 - World Scout Day
7 - David Duchovny, actor (50)
8 - Ken Kutaragi, Founder of PlayStation (60)

Week 32

9 – 45yrs Singapore becomes independent
9 – 65yrs since Nagasaki is bombed
9 - Frank Zappa Day (Baltimore)
9 - International Day of the World's Indigenous People
10 - Antonio Banderas, actor (50)
11 - Ramadan begins
11 - Steve Wozniak, computer pioneer (60)
12 – 10yrs K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks
12 – 25yrs Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes becoming the worst single-plane air disaster
12 - George Soros, financier and political activist (80)
12 - International Youth Day
12 - UN's Youth Day
12-20 - Turku Music Festival
13 – 100yrs since Florence Nightingale died
13 - Alan Shearer, English footballer (40)
13 - International Lefthanders Day
13 –Annie Oakley (150+)
13-5 Sept - Edinburgh Festival
14 - Gary Larson, cartoonist (The Far Side) (60)
14 - Helsinki City Marathon
15 – 65yrs Korea became an independent country
15 - Ageeda Paavel, Estonian freedom fighter (80)
15 - VJ Day/VP Day

Week 33

16 – 80yrs first colour sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks
16 - Bruce Beresford, film director (70)
17 – 30yrs Azaria Chamberlain disappears, probably taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicised trial in Australian history
17 - Maureen O'Hara, actress (90)
17 - Sean Penn, actor and director (50)
18 – 90yrs since 19th Amendment to the US Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage
19 – 70yrs since first flight of the B-25 Mitchell medium bomber
19 - Jill St John, actress (70)
19 - Johnny Nash, singer-songwriter (70)
19 - National Aviation Day (United States)
19 - World Humanitarian Day
19-28 - Art Goes Kapakka
20 - Eero Saarinen, Finnish architect (100+)
20 - Fred Durst, American singer (Limp Bizkit) (40)
20 - World Union Day
20-29 - Espoo Ciné International Film Festival
20-5 Sept - Helsinki Festival
21 – 70yrs since Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded
21 - Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships
22 - Gilmar, Brazilian football player (80)
22 - Ray Bradbury, writer (90)

Week 34

23 - European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism (European Union)
23 - International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
24 – 10yrs Argon fluorohydride, the first Argon compound ever known, is discovered at the University of Helsinki by Finnish scientists
25 - Claudia Schiffer, model (40)
25 - Dorothea Tanning, painter (100)
25 - Sean Connery, actor (80)
25-28 - Oulu Music Video Festival & Air Guitar World Championships
26 - Macaulay Culkin, American actor (30)
26 - Mother Teresa, Nobel Peace Prize winning Christian missionary (100+)
26 - Women's Equality Day (United States)
27 - Night of the Arts in Helsinki
28 - Ben Gazzara, actor (80)
28 - Celebration of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 which ended the slavery in the British Empire

Week 35

30 - International Day of the Disappeared
30 - Warren Buffett, entrepreneur (80)
31 - Jack Thompson, actor (70)
31 - Old Geezer Carting World Championships