July 5

On July 11, 1918, while anchored in Tokuyama Bay, the Imperial Japanese Navy dreadnought Kawachi suffered a catastrophic internal magazine explosion that broke her back and sank her in shallow water. The blast killed 621 crewmen, prompted wide‑ranging inquiries into magazine safety and the handling of Shimose explosives, and led the navy to revise storage, firefighting and magazine protections across the fleet.

On July 8, 1980, Aeroflot Flight 4225, a Tupolev Tu‑154B‑2, climbed away from Alma‑Ata Airport into convective summer weather and, seconds later, encountered a violent downdraft and wind shear. The airliner lost airspeed and lift, struck the ground a short distance from the runway, broke apart and burned. All 166 people on board were killed. The accident added to growing evidence of the danger posed by microbursts and helped accelerate changes in training, forecasting, and wind‑shear detection worldwide.

In a rare and catastrophic aviation incident, a mid-air collision occurred between a commercial airliner and a private jet over Lumut, Malaysia, leaving no survivors and prompting sweeping changes in aviation safety protocols.