Michael Phelps won the 100-meter butterfly swim in a record 50:58 at the Beijing Olympic finals.
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Georgian heavyweight-lifting champion Lasha Talakhadze smashed a world record by lifting an incredible 473 kg.
Cyprus gained its independence from the United Kingdom.
NASA launched its Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers mission (AMPTE) from the Cape Canaveral launch pad.
Julian Assange, who founded WikiLeaks, was given political asylum by Ecuador.
Over 566 wildfires swept through British Columbia in Canada, which led to a State of Emergency, and 3,000 people were evacuated.