July 2026: five Fridays and a final
July 2026 opened on Wednesday 1 July and closed on Friday 31 July, and in between it kept five Wednesdays, five Thursdays and five Fridays. The month's centre of gravity sat on Sunday 19 July, when Spain beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time to lift the World Cup. Thirty-one days in all, 23 of them business days, across ISO weeks 27 to 31. Eight weekend days had to stretch a long way. They managed, with help from the football.
Fridays forward, Saturdays short
Saturdays were scarce, four of them: the 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th. Sundays matched that exactly. The working week absorbed the difference, which left 23 business days and eight weekend days across weeks 27 to 31. Anyone building a summer rota felt the tilt: long midweeks, short weekends, one very large Sunday at the end.
Three lunar phases took Tuesdays this month. Last quarter fell on Tuesday 7 July, the new moon on Tuesday 14 July and first quarter on Tuesday 21 July. The full moon arrived late in the month, on Wednesday 29 July.
Football first, tennis second
The tournament that shaped the month had begun at the Azteca on 11 June, 104 matches earlier. It ended at MetLife Stadium on Sunday 19 July, Ferran Torres scoring in extra time and Rodri taking the Golden Ball. England had already beaten France 6-4 in the third-place match, their best result since 1966. Mayo ended a seventy-five-year wait in the All-Ireland football final.
Wimbledon filled the first fortnight. Linda Noskova beat Karolina Muchova in an all-Czech ladies' final on Saturday 11 July for her first major title. Jannik Sinner retained the gentlemen's title against Alexander Zverev on Sunday 12 July, his fifth Grand Slam.
Away from the fields, the United States marked two hundred and fifty years of independence on Saturday 4 July. Japan's Hayabusa2 probe swung past a near-Earth asteroid on Sunday 5 July. In Westminster, a Labour leadership challenge ended Keir Starmer's tenure in Downing Street, and Andy Burnham became prime minister.
July's heavier news
On Thursday 2 July a missile and drone attack on Kyiv killed at least 30 people. More than 50,000 took shelter. On Thursday 30 July an avalanche on Broad Peak in Pakistan killed ten climbers, among them the record-holding mountaineer Nirm Purja.
The same Thursday brought a harder story to Europe's edge. Tens of thousands of people surged into Spain's enclave of Ceuta from Morocco within two days. Dozens drowned in the attempt, and the recriminations across Europe outlasted the month itself.
August 2026 opened on a Saturday and kept ten weekend days. After a month of shared evenings, the weekends went back to being yours.