July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 183 days remaining until the end of the year. The end of this day marks the halfway point of a leap year. It also falls on the same day of the week as New Year's Day in a leap year.
Today in history
1097 – Battle of Dorylaeum: Crusaders under Bohemond of Taranto defeat a Seljuk army under Qilich Arslan I.
1520 – La Noche Triste: Joint Mexican Indian force led by Aztecs under Cuitláhuac defeat Spanish Conquistadors under Hernán Cortés.
1569 – Union of Lublin: The Kingdom of Poland (Polish Crown) and Great Duchy of Lithuania confirm a real union, the united country is called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth or the Republic of Both Nations.
1690 – Glorious Revolution: Battle of the Boyne as reckoned under Julian calendar.
1782 – American privateers attack Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
1837 – A system of the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales.
1858 – The joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society.
1862 – The Russian State Library is founded.
1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Malvern Hill takes place, the final battle in the Seven Days Campaign, part of the George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign.
1863 – Keti Koti, Emancipation Day in Suriname, marking the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands.
1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg begins.
1867 – The British North America Act, 1867 takes effect as the Constitution of Canada, creating the Canadian Confederation; John A. Macdonald is sworn in as first Prime Minister.
1870 – The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence.
1873 – Prince Edward Island joins the Canadian Confederation.
1878 – Canada joins the Universal Postal Union.
1879 – Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.
1881 – The world's first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States.
1881 – General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell-Childers reforms of the British Army, comes into effect.
1885 – The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada.
1890 – Canada and Bermuda are linked by telegraph cable.
1892 – The Homestead Strike, a strike by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers against the Carnegie Steel Company, begins.
1898 – Spanish-American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba.
1908 – SOS is adopted as the international Distress signal.
1916 – World War I: First day on the Somme – On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 20,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded.
1921 – The Communist Party of China is founded.
1931 – United Airlines begins service (as Boeing Air Transport).
1933 – The Canadian Parliament suspends all Chinese immigration.
1935 – Regina, Saskatchewan police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ambush strikers participating in On-to-Ottawa-Trek.
1941 – The first television commercial in the U.S. is broadcast.
1942 – World War II: First Battle of El Alamein.
1942 – Australian Federal Government becomes sole collector of Income Tax (State Income Tax Abolished).
1943 – Tokyo City merges with Tokyo Prefecture and is dissolved. Since then, no city in Japan has had the name "Tokyo". (Present-day Tokyo is not a city.)
1947 – The Philippine Air Force is established.
1948 – Quaid-i-Azam inaugurates Pakistan's central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan.
1949 – Merger of two princely states of India, Cochin and Travancore to become the state of Thiru-Kochi (later re-organized as Kerala) in Indian Union.
1957 – The International Geophysical Year begins.
1958 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.
1958 – Flooding of the St. Lawrence Seaway begins.
1959 – The Party of the African Federation holds its constitutive conference.
1959 – Specific values for the international yard, avoirdupois pound and derived units (e.g. inch, mile and ounce) are adopted after agreement between the U.S., U.K. and other commonwealth countries.
1960 – Independence of Somalia.
1960 – Ghana becomes a Republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom ceases to be the Head of state.
1962 – Independence of Rwanda.
1962 – Independence of Burundi.
1963 – ZIP Codes are introduced for United States mail.
1963 – The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent.
1966 – The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.
1967 – The European Community is formally created out of a merger with the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission.
1967 – Canada celebrates the 100th anniversary of the British North America Act, 1867.
1968 – The CIA's Phoenix Program is officially established.
1968 – The Nuclear non-proliferation treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries.
1968 – Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL-CIO.
1970 – President General Yahya Khan abolishes One-Unit of West Pakistan restoring the provinces.
1972 – Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe and Holger Meins of the Red Army Faction are captured in Frankfurt after a shootout with the police.
1972 – The first Gay Pride march in England takes place.
1976 – Portugal grants autonomy to Madeira.
1978 – The Northern Territory in Australia is granted Self-Government.
1979 – Sony introduces the Walkman.
1980 – O Canada officially becomes the national anthem of Canada.
1983 – A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea crashes into the Fouta Djall Mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.
1984 – The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA.
1987 – American radio station WFAN in New York City is launched as the world's first all-sports radio station.
1990 – German re-unification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany.
1991 – The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.
1997 – The People's Republic of China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule.
1999 – The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on the day that legislative powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.
2000 – Vermont's civil unions law goes into effect.
2000 – The Oresund Bridge, connecting Sweden and Denmark, opens for traffic.
2002 – The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
2002 – A Bashkirian Airlines (flight 2937) Tupolev TU-154 and a DHL (German cargo) Boeing 757 collide in mid-air over Ueberlingen, southern Germany, killing 71.
2004 – Saturn Orbit insertion of Cassini-Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC.
2006 – The first operation of Qinghai-Tibet Railway in the People's Republic of China.
2007 – Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces. With the ban already in force in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, this means it is illegal to smoke in indoor public places anywhere in the UK. The ban is also put into effect in Australia.
Births
1481 – Christian II of Denmark, Sweden and Norway (d. 1559)
1506 – Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia (d. 1526)
1534 – Frederick II of Denmark (d. 1588)
1574 – Joseph Hall, English bishop and writer (d. 1656)
1586 – Claudio Saracini, Italian composer (d. 1630)
1633 – Johann Heinrich Heidegger, Swiss theologian (d. 1698)
1646 – Gottfried Leibniz, German mathematician (d. 1716)
1676 – Anthony Collins, English philosopher (d. 1729)
1723 – Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes, Spanish statesman (d. 1802)
1725 – Comte de Rochambeau, French soldier (d. 1807)
1742 – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German physicist (d. 1799)
1788 – Jean-Victor Poncelet, French mathematician (d. 1867)
1804 – George Sand, French writer (d. 1876)
1807 – Thomas Green Clemson, American university founder (d. 1888)
1818 – Ignaz Semmelweis, Hungarian physician (d. 1865)
1834 – Jadwiga Łuszczewska, Polish poet (d. 1908)
1863 – William Grant Stairs, Canadian explorer (d. 1892)
1869 – William Strunk Jr., American grammarian (d. 1946)
1872 – Louis Blériot, French aviator (d. 1936)
1873 – Alice Guy-Blaché, American film director (d. 1968)
1879 – Léon Jouhaux, French labor leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1954)
1883 – Arthur Borton, English soldier (d. 1933)
1899 – Thomas A. Dorsey, American composer (d. 1993)
1899 – Charles Laughton, English actor (d. 1962)
1899 – Konstantinos Tsatsos, 2nd President of Greece (d. 1987)
1902 – William Wyler, French-born film director (d. 1981)
1903 – Amy Johnson, English pilot (d. 1941)
1906 – Estée Lauder, American entrepreneur (d. 2004)
1906 – Jean Dieudonné, French mathematician (d. 1992)
1907 – Bill Stern, American sportscaster (d. 1971)
1911 – Sergei Sokolov, Soviet marshal
1912 – David R. Brower, American environmentalist (d. 2000)
1912 – Sally Kirkland, American fashion editor (d. 1989)
1913 – Frank Barrett, baseball player (d. 1998)
1915 – Willie Dixon, American musician (d. 1992)
1915 – Joseph Ransohoff, American neurosurgeon (d. 2001)
1916 – Olivia de Havilland, British-born actress
1917 – Humphry Osmond, British psychiatrist (d. 2004)
1920 – Harold Sakata, American actor (d. 1982)
1921 – Seretse Khama, first President of Botswana (d. 1980)
1925 – Farley Granger, American actor
1926 – Robert Fogel, Nobel laureate
1926 – Hans Werner Henze, German composer
1926 – Carl Hahn, German automotive executive
1927 – Alan J. Charig, British palaeontologist (d. 1997)
1929 – Gerald Edelman, American biologist, Nobel laureate
1930 – Bobby Day, American singer (d. 1990)
1930 – Moustapha Akkad, Syrian-American filmmaker (d. 2005)
1930 – Carol Chomsky, American linguist, (d. 2008)
1931 – Leslie Caron, French actress
1932 – Ze'ev Schiff, Israeli journalist (d. 2007)
1934 – Jamie Farr, American actor
1934 – Jean Marsh, English actress
1934 – Sydney Pollack, American film director (d. 2008)
1934 – Claude Berri, French actor, director and screenwriter (d. 2009)
1938 – Craig Anderson, baseball player
1939 – Karen Black, American actress
1941 – Alfred G. Gilman, American scientist, Nobel laureate
1941 – Myron Scholes, American economist, Nobel laureate
1941 – Twyla Tharp, American choreographer
1941 – Rod Gilbert, Canadian hockey player
1942 – Geneviève Bujold, Canadian actress
1942 – Andraé Crouch, American singer
1942 – Mike Malloy, American talk radio host
1943 – Jeff Wayne, musician
1945 – Deborah Harry, American musician (Blondie)
1945 – Mike Burstyn, Israeli-American actor
1947 – Shirley Hemphill, American actress (d. 1999)
1947 – Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Japanese racing driver
1949 – John Farnham, Australian singer
1950 – David Duke, American politician, K.K.K. member
1951 – Fred Schneider, American singer (The B-52's)
1951 – Anne Feeney, American protest singer
1951 – Terrence Mann, American actor and dancer
1952 – Dan Aykroyd, Canadian actor
1952 – Steve Shutt, Canadian ice hockey player
1952 – Timothy J. Tobias, American composer and musician (d. 2006)
1955 – Keith Whitley, American singer (d. 1989)
1956 – Alan Ruck, American actor
1957 – Hannu Kamppuri, Finnish ice hockey player
1960 – Evelyn King, American singer
1961 – Kalpana Chawla, Indian-American astronaut (d. 2003)
1961 – Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
1961 – Malcolm Elliott, British cyclist
1961 – Carl Lewis, American athlete
1961 – Michelle Wright, Canadian musician
1962 – Andre Braugher, American actor
1963 – Roddy Bottum, American musician (Faith No More and Imperial Teen)
1964 – Bernard Laporte, French rugby player & coach
1965 – Harald Zwart, Norwegian film director
1966 – Enrico Annoni, Italian footballer
1967 – Pamela Anderson, Canadian model
1968 – Tim Abell, American actor
1970 – Henry Simmons, American actor
1970 – Melissa Peterman, American actress
1971 – Steven W. Bailey, American actor
1971 – Amira Casar, French actress
1971 – Missy Elliott, American rapper and singer
1971 – Julianne Nicholson, American actress
1971 – Jamie Walker, American baseball player
1972 – Claire Forlani, English actress
1972 – Alex Machacek, Austrian musician
1975 – Sufjan Stevens, American musician
1976 – Patrick Kluivert, Dutch footballer
1976 – Plies, American rapper
1976 – Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dutch footballer
1976 – Justin Lo, Hong Kong singer and songwriter
1976 – Hannu Tihinen, Finnish footballer
1977 – Jarome Iginla, Canadian hockey player
1977 – Liv Tyler, American actress
1977 – Keigo Hayashi, Japanese music artist
1977 – Birgit Schuurman, Dutch musician
1979 – Forrest Griffin, American mixed martial artist
1980 – Patrick Aufiero, American hockey player
1981 – Tadhg Kennelly, Irish-born Australian rules footballer
1981 – Demetria McKinney, American Actress
1982 – Hilarie Burton, American actress
1982 – Carmella DeCesare, American model
1982 – Romola Garai, English actress
1982 – Justin Huber, Australian baseball player
1982 – Joachim Johansson, Swedish tennis player
1982 – Adrian Ward, American football player
1983 – Marit Larsen, Norwegian musician (M2M)
1983 – Leeteuk, Korean singer
1986 – Andrew Lee, Australian rules footballer
1988 – Evan Ellingson, American actor
1989 – Mitch Hewer, English actor
1989 – Hannah Murray, English actress
Deaths
552 – Totila, king of the Ostrogoths
868 – Ali al-Hadi, Shia Imam (b. 828)
1109 – King Alfonso VI of Castile (b. 1040)
1277 – Baibars, Mameluk sultan of Egypt (b. 1223)
1592 – Marc'Antonio Ingegneri, Italian composer
1614 – Isaac Casaubon, French-born classical scholar (b. 1559)
1622 – William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, British politician (b. 1575)
1681 – Oliver Plunkett, Irish saint (b. 1629)
1708 – Emperor Tekle Haymanot I of Ethiopia (b. 1706)
1774 – Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, English statesman (b. 1705)
1782 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1730)
1784 – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German composer (b. 1710)
1819 – Jemima Wilkinson, American preacher (b. 1752)
1839 – Mahmud II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1785)
1860 – Charles Goodyear, American inventor (b. 1800)
1863 – John Fulton Reynolds, American Civil War general (b. 1820)
1894 – Allan Pinkerton, American private detective (b. 1819)
1896 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author (b. 1811)
1925 – Erik Satie, French composer (b. 1866)
1942 – Peadar Mac Fhionnlaoich, Irish language writer (b. 1857)
1944 – Tanya Savicheva, Russian diarist (b. 1930)
1948 – Achille Varzi, Italian race car driver (b. 1904)
1950 – Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, Swiss musician (b. 1865)
1950 – Eliel Saarinen, Finnish architect (b. 1873)
1961 – Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (b. 1894)
1964 – Pierre Monteux, French conductor (b. 1875)
1965 – Wally Hammond, English cricketer (b. 1903)
1968 – Fritz Bauer, German judge and prosecutor (b. 1903)
1971 – William Lawrence Bragg, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1890)
1974 – Juan Perón, President of Argentina (b. 1895)
1976 – Anneliese Michel, German woman said to be possessed by demons (b. 1952)
1978 – Kurt Student, German Luftwaffe general (b. 1890)
1981 – Carlos de Oliveira, Portuguese writer (b. 1921)
1981 – Rushton Moreve, American bass player (b. 1948)
1983 – R. Buckminster Fuller, American architect and philosopher (b. 1903)
1984 – Moshe Feldenkrais, Ukrainian-born educator (b. 1904)
1987 – Snakefinger, British-born musician (b. 1949)
1991 – Michael Landon, American actor (b. 1936)
1992 – Franco Cristaldi, Italian film producer (b. 1924)
1992 – Francisco Mendes, Guinea-Bissauan politician (b. 1933)
1995 – Wolfman Jack, American radio personality (b. 1938)
1996 – William T. Cahill, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1904)
1996 – Steve Tesich, Serbian screenwriter (b. 1942)
1996 – Margaux Hemingway, American actress and model (b. 1954)
1997 – Robert Mitchum, American actor (b. 1917)
1999 – Edward Dmytryk, Canadian-born film director (b. 1908)
1999 – Guy Mitchell, American popular singer (b. 1927)
1999 – Forrest Mars Sr., American candy magnate (b. 1904)
1999 – Sylvia Sidney, American actress (b. 1910)
2000 – Sarah Payne, British murder victim (b. 1992)
2000 – Walter Matthau, American actor (b. 1920)
2001 – Nikolay Basov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1922)
2003 – Herbie Mann, American jazz flutist (b. 1930)
2003 – Wesley Mouzon, American boxer (b. 1927)
2003 – N!xau, Namibian actor (b. 1944)
2004 – Peter Barnes, English writer (b. 1931)
2004 – Todor Skalovski, Macedonian composer (b. 1909)
2004 – Marlon Brando, American actor (b. 1924)
2005 – Luther Vandross, American singer (b. 1951)
2005 – Obie Benson, American musician (b. 1936)
2006 – Fred Trueman, English cricketer (b. 1931)
2008 – Mel Galley, English guitarist (b. 1948)
Holidays and observances
Australia, New Zealand: Tartan Day
Botswana: Sir Seretse Khama Day
Bulgaria: July Morning tradition.
Burundi: Independence Day
Canada: Canada Day (formerly Dominion Day)
o Newfoundland and Labrador: Memorial Day
o Quebec: Moving Day
Ghana: Republic Day
Hong Kong: Hong Kong SAR Establishment Day
Madeira: Madeira Day
Netherlands Antilles, Suriname: Emancipation Day
Rwanda: Independence Day
Somalia: Republic Day
