July 21
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," final volume of the wizard series, goes on sale.
David Beckham debuts with the Los Angeles Galaxy in front of a sold-out, star-studded crowd.
July 24
The minimum wage rises 70 cents to $5.85 an hour, the first increase in a decade.
Senators question Alberto Gonzales' honesty during a blistering hearing where the attorney general repeatedly apologizes but refuses to answer many questions.
July 26
Dow Jones industrial average closes down more than 310 points.
July 30
Filmmaker Ingmar Bergman dies.
AUGUST
Aug. 1
Minneapolis bridge collapses into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour; 13 people are killed.
Aug. 2
Two Russian submarines complete a voyage below the North Pole where they planted the country's flag on the Arctic Ocean floor.
Aug. 6
Crandall Canyon Mine in central Utah collapses, trapping six miners.
Aug. 7
Barry Bonds hits record-breaking 756th career home run.
Aug. 8
Space shuttle Endeavour launches with teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan on board.
Aug. 12
Tiger Woods wins the PGA Championship, his 13th major.
Aug. 13
Bush's political strategist Karl Rove says he is resigning.
Aug. 14
Suicide bombings target the Yazidis sect in northern Iraq; 500 are thought to have died.
Mattel recalls 9 million Chinese-made toys because of lead paint or tiny magnets that could be swallowed.
Aug. 15
Magnitude-8 earthquake strikes Peru, causing more than 500 fatalities.
Dow Jones industrial average dips below 13,000 on investors' credit and housing fears.
A former NBA referee pleads guilty to tipping off gamblers and betting on games he officiated.
Aug. 16
Jose Padilla is convicted of supporting terrorism after being held 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant.
A cave-in kills three rescuers in Crandall Canyon Mine; search for the six trapped miners is later suspended.
Aug. 21
Category 5 Hurricane Dean strikes Mexico's coast.
Aug. 22
A U.S. helicopter crashes in Iraq, killing 14 soldiers.
Aug. 23
Nicole Richie spends 82 minutes in jail to complete a four-day sentence for driving under the influence of drugs.
Aug. 24
The NFL suspends Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick after he agrees to plead guilty to running a dogfighting operation.
Aug. 27
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigns.
Aug. 28
Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho denies any wrongdoing despite his guilty plea from an airport restroom police sting, and he emphatically adds, "I am not gay. I never have been gay."
Aug. 30
A B-52 bomber armed with six nuclear warheads flies cross-country unnoticed, in serious breach of nuclear security; Air Force later punishes 70 people.
SEPTEMBER
Sept. 3
Plane piloted by adventurer Steve Fossett disappears in western Nevada.
Sept. 4
Hurricane Felix slams into Nicaragua's coast, the first time two Category 5 Atlantic hurricanes hit land in the same year.
Sept. 6
Famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti dies.
Sept. 7
Osama bin Laden appears in a video for the first time in three years, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end.
A husband and wife are acquitted of negligent homicide for not evacuating the nursing home they owned where 35 patients died during Hurricane Katrina.
The Labor Department says payrolls shrank in August, the first decline in four years.
Sept. 9
Britney Spears appears lethargic in much-hyped performance at MTV Video Music Awards.
Sept. 12
Oil prices reach $80 a barrel.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, hospitalized for a stress-related illness, says he will resign just a year after taking office.
Sept. 13
President Bush orders gradual reductions in U.S. forces in Iraq but rejects calls to end the war.
The NFL fines New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick $500,000 and the team $250,000 for spying on the New York Jets during a game.
Sept. 16
O.J. Simpson is arrested in an alleged armed robbery of sports memorabilia collectors in Las Vegas.
Sept. 17
Iraqi government revokes license of Blackwater USA security firm after civilians are shot.
Sept. 20
The U.S. dollar reaches parity with the Canadian dollar and falls to record lows against the euro.
Sept. 24
United Auto Workers walk off the job at GM plants in the first nationwide strike during auto contract negotiations since 1976; tentative pact ends walkout two days later.
Sept. 25
Myanmar bans large assemblies after escalating protests by Buddhist monks and sympathizers.
Japan's lower house of parliament elects Yasuo Fukuda prime minister.
Sept. 26
Judge declares a mistrial in Phil Spector's murder trial because the jury was deadlocked 10-2 in favor of convicting the music producer of killing actress Lana Clarkson.
Myanmar starts violent crackdown on protests, beating and dragging away dozens of monks.
OCTOBER
Oct. 1
Dow Jones industrial average rises 191 points, surpassing mid-July closing record of 14,000.
Oct. 3
President Bush vetoes expansion of a children's health insurance program.
Oct. 5
Track star Marion Jones pleads guilty to lying to federal investigators when she denied using steroids; she later returns her five Olympic medals.
Oct. 6
Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf wins presidential election boycotted by most opponents.
Oct. 8
Michael Devlin is sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping one of two boys he held captive in his suburban St. Louis apartment.
Oct. 10
United Auto Workers tentatively agree on a contract with Chrysler.
Oct. 11
U.S. budget deficit falls to $162.8 billion, the lowest shortfall in five years.
Cold medicines for babies and toddlers are pulled off shelves amid concerns about unintentional overdoses.
Oct. 12
Al Gore and U.N. climate scientists win Nobel Peace Prize.
Oct. 17
Comedian Joey Bishop, last of Sinatra's Rat Pack, dies.
Oct. 18
Bombers strike near former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on her return to Pakistan after eight years in exile; more than 140 people are killed but Bhutto escapes unhurt.
Joe Torre rejects a pay cut and leaves the New York Yankees; he later becomes manager of Los Angeles Dodgers.
Oct. 20
U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal wins the Louisiana governor's election, first nonwhite to hold the job since Reconstruction.
Oct. 21
Wildfires driven by powerful Santa Ana winds burn several homes near San Diego and in Malibu, Calif.
Oct. 23
Evacuations due to out-of-control wildfires in Southern California top 500,000; more than 2,000 homes burn and 14 people die before fires are tamed.
Oct. 26
Georgia Supreme Court frees Genarlow Wilson, saying his 10-year sentence for consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl was cruel and unusual punishment.
Oct. 28
Fire burns North Carolina beach house, killing seven college students.
Boston Red Sox sweep the Colorado Rockies to win the World Series.
Oct. 31
Gold trades above $800 for the first time since 1980.
NOVEMBER
Nov. 1
A week after workers ratified a new contract, Chrysler announces 12,000 job cuts.
Nov. 3
Gen. Pervez Musharraf declares state of emergency in Pakistan.
United Auto Workers agree on tentative contract with Ford Motor Co.
Two astronauts conduct a spacewalk to save a ripped solar wing on the space station.
Nov. 4
Citigroup Inc. CEO Charles Prince resigns as company loses billions in debt crisis.
Nov. 5
Hollywood writers strike, sending television shows into reruns.
Nov. 6
2007 becomes deadliest year for U.S. troops in Iraq, with at least 853 military deaths.
Suicide bombing kills six parliament members in Afghanistan; a U.N. report later says some of the 77 total victims were killed by gunfire from panicked bodyguards, not the bomb.
Nov. 8
Senate hands President Bush his first veto override, enacting a bill that pays for water projects he deemed too costly.
Nov. 10
Six U.S. troops die in an insurgent ambush, making 2007 the deadliest year for American forces in Afghanistan since 2001.
Stagehands strike shuts down most Broadway shows, with curtains rising again 19 days later.
Author Norman Mailer dies.
Nov. 12
Dow Jones industrial average closes below 13,000 for first time since August.
Nov. 15
Cyclone Sidr strikes Bangladesh with 150 mph winds, killing more than 3,200 and leaving millions homeless.
Barry Bonds is indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges for testimony in which he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.
Lindsay Lohan completes her jail sentence for drunken driving in a swift 84 minutes.
Nov. 21
Oil prices peak at $99.29 a barrel.
Nov. 27
Israel, Palestinians agree to formally restart Mideast peace talks.
Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor is shot to death in his Florida home, apparently by burglars.
Nov. 29
A British teacher in Sudan is convicted of insulting Islam for letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad; she's sentenced to 15 days in prison but later pardoned.
Government data shows U.S. home prices marked a quarterly decline for the first time in 13 years in the third quarter.
Nov. 30
Man takes hostages at a Hillary Clinton campaign office in New Hampshire, surrenders about six hours later.
Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel dies.
DECEMBER
Dec. 2
President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party wins election that gives it control of 70 percent of seats in parliament; opponents say the election wasn't fair.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez narrowly loses a constitutional referendum that would have enabled him to remain in power for life.
Dec. 3
U.S. intelligence report concludes Iran halted nuclear weapons development in 2003
- a stark contrast to the conclusions U.S. spy agencies drew just two years ago.
Dec. 5
Teenage gunman kills eight people, then himself, at Omaha, Neb., shopping mall.
Dec. 6
CIA director says interrogations of two top terror suspects in 2002 were videotaped but the tapes were destroyed later to prevent leaks; lawmakers and courts investigate whether evidence was destroyed.
Dec. 9
A young man once affiliated with a missionary school shoots nine people at the school near Denver and a megachurch in Colorado Springs; four victims died and the gunman killed himself.
Dec. 10
Suspended NFL star Michael Vick is sentenced to 23 months in prison for bankrolling a dogfighting operation and killing dogs that underperformed.
Dec. 11
Two truck bombings strike the U.N. offices and a government building in Algeria's capital, killing at least 37 people, 17 of them U.N. employees.
Dec. 13
Shareholders of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, approve takeover by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
Dec. 15
President Pervez Musharraf lifts a six-week state of emergency he says was imposed to save Pakistan from destruction from an unspecified conspiracy.
U.N. climate conference adopts plan to negotiate a new global warming pact.
Dec. 17
Iran receives its first nuclear fuel from Russia, paving the way for the startup of its reactor in 2008.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine signs law making New Jersey the first state to abolish the death penalty in more than 40 years.
NBC says Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien plan to return to their late-night shows early next year, even as the writers' strike continues.
Dec. 18
Jamie Lynn Spears, the 16-year-old "Zoey 101" star and sister of Britney, says she's pregnant.
Dec. 19
President Bush signs legislation that increases fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles and requires wider use of ethanol.
Dec. 20
Police use chemical spray and stun guns on protesters outside a City Council meeting where members unanimously support demolition of 4,500 public housing units for redevelopment.
Dec. 23
Allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra win the first election since he was ousted in a military coup a year ago, but the prospect of his return from exile raises fear of another coup.
Dec. 25
A tiger at the San Francisco Zoo escapes her enclosure and kills a park visitor; two brothers also are mauled but survive.
Dec. 27
Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in Pakistan by an attacker who shot her after a campaign rally and then blew himself up. The attack and rioting after her death claim at least 29 more lives.
