Title: July 1 Content: It is the last day of the first half 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 and April Fools' Day in a leap year. It is also the first day of the third quarter, and the second half of the year. The midpoint of the year for southern hemisphere DST countries occurs at 11:00 p.m. == Events == === Up to 1900 === * 69 - Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor. * 552 - Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under Narses defeat the Ostrogoths in present-day Italy. * 1097 – Battle of Dorylaeum: Crusaders under Bohemond of Taranto defeat a Turkish army under Qilich Arslan I. * 1431 - The Battle of La Higueruela takes place in Granada, leading to a modest advance of Castile * 1502 - A hurricane off the Caribbean island of Hispaniola sinks 20 ships, with no survivors. * 1690 – Battle of the Boyne as reckoned under Julian calendar. * 1770 - Lexell's Comet passes closer to Earth than any other comet in recorded history. * 1782 - American privateers attack Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. * 1858 – The joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society. * 1862 – Russian State Library is founded. * 1863 – American Civil War: the Battle of Gettysburg begins. * 1863 - The Netherlands ends slavery in Suriname, on a day now celebrated there as Keti Koti. * 1867 – The British North America Act 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. * 1874 - The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, goes on sale. * 1878 – Canada joins the Universal Postal Union. * 1879 - Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses, publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower. * 1881 – World's first international telephone call, 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's organisation, came into effect. * 1885 – United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada. * 1890 – Canada and Bermuda linked by telegraph cable. * 1898 - Spanish-American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought near Santiago de Cuba. === 1901 1950 === * 1903 - The first Tour de France cycling race starts. * 1904 – Games of the III Olympiad open in Saint Louis, Missouri. * 1908 - SOS is first adopted as a distress signal. * 1916 – 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. * 1923 – The Canadian Parliament suspends all Chinese immigration. * 1931 - Official opening of Milan Central Station. * 1935 – Regina, Saskatchewan police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ambush strikers participating in On-to-Ottawa- Trek. * 1937 - The first 999 emergency telephone number goes into effect in the UK. * 1942 - A US submarine sinks Japanese ship Montevideo Maru, killing 1,053 people, including Australian POWs. * 1943 - Tokyo City merges with Tokyo Prefecture and is dissolved, meaning that Tokyo is not a city. * 1947 - The Philippine Air Force is founded. * 1947 – The Australian real estate franchise L. J. Hooker lists on the Australian Stock Exchange * 1948 – Official opening of New York International Airport (now known as John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild. * 1949 - 1,000 years of the princely family of Cochin's rule comes to an end in Southern India, when the states of Cochin and Travancore merge into the state of Thiru-Kochi, which later becomes known as Kerala. === 1951 1975 === * 1957 – The International Geophysical Year begins (until December 31, 1958). * 1958 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave. * 1958 – Flooding of the St. Lawrence Seaway begins. * 1960 – Independence of Somalia. * 1960 – Ghana becomes a Republic. * 1962 – Independence of Rwanda. * 1962 – Independence of Burundi. * 1963 – ZIP Code introduced for United States mail. * 1963 – The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent. * 1963 – U.S President John F. Kennedy arrives in Rome. * 1966 – First colour television transmission in Canada, 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. * 1968 – The CIA's Phoenix Program is officially established. * 1968 – Nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed by about sixty countries in Geneva, Switzerland. * 1968 – Formal separation of the United Auto Workers with the AFL-CIO. * 1969 – Rock group The Band release their influential debut Music From Big Pink. * 1972 – Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe and Holger Meins of the Red Army Faction are captured in Frankfurt am Main after a shootout with the police. === 1976 2000 === * 1976 – Portugal gives Miaaa to Madeira. * 1978 – Australia's Northern Territory is given 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 crashed into the Fouta Djall Mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board. * 1984 - Liechtenstein allows women the right to vote, as the last then-independent European country to do so. * 1985 - At a Wimbledon Doubles match, the record is set for the longest-ever tie break (after a set is tied 6-6), which ends 26-24. * 1984 - Richard von Weizsaecker becomes President of Germany. * 1986 – In an interview with Playboy magazine, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke comes out as a bisexual. * 1987 – Excavation begins on the Channel Tunnel. * 1988 – Bologna, Italy: Quartetto Cetra's last concert after over forty years' musical career. * 1990 – 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. * 1994 - Roman Herzog becomes President of Germany. * 1997 – The United Kingdom hands sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. * 1999 – At the first meeting of the Scottish Parliament in nearly three centuries, Winnie Ewing opened with the famous words, "The Scottish Parliament, adjourned on the 25th day of March in the year 1707, is hereby reconvened." * 1999 - Johannes Rau becomes President of Germany. * 2000 - The Oresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden is opened. * 2000 – Vermont's civil unions law goes into effect. === From 2001 === * 2002 - The International Criminal Court is created, to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. * 2002 – A Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev TU-154 and a DHL (German cargo) Boeing 757 collide in mid-air over southern Germany, killing 71. * 2003 – 500,000 people take part in a march in Hong Kong to protest, amongst other things, the government's handling of the plans to implement a new anti-subversion law required under Article 23 of Hong Kong's Basic Law. * 2004 – 530,000 people take part in a march in Hong Kong to urge for faster pace of democratisation and universal suffrage, according to Article 45 and Article 68 of Hong Kong's Basic Law. * 2004 – Saturn Orbit Insertion of Cassini-Huygens begins at 01:12 UT and ends at 02:48 UT. * 2004 - Horst Koehler becomes President of Germany. * 2005 – Microsoft plans to end official support of Windows 2000 * 2005 – Make Poverty History's White Band Day. * 2005 – Revaluation of the Romanian Leu. * 2006 - First operation of the Qinghai-Tibet railway. * 2007 – On the same day as each other, England and Australia ban smoking in public places. * 2009 – Ivo Sanader resigns as Prime Minister of Croatia. Jadranka Kosor succeeds him. * 2012 – The Spain national football team wins UEFA Euro 2012, defeating the Italy national football team 4-0 in the final in Kiev, Ukraine. * 2013 – Croatia joins the European Union. * 2013 - Neptune's moon S/2004 N1 is discovered. * 2015 - Greece becomes the first advanced economy to miss a payment to the International Monetary Fund. * 2016 - Austria's highest court orders a re-run of the May 22 Presidential election, in which Alexander Van der Bellen had narrowly defeated Norbert Hofer. * 2018 – Andrés Manuel López Obrador is elected President of Mexico. == Births == === Up to 1900 === * 1336 Philip, Duke of Orléans (d. 1375) * 1368 Bracco da Montone, Italian mercenary (d. 1424) * 1381 Lorenzo Giustiniani, Italian bishop (d. 1456) * 1481 King Christian II of Denmark, Sweden and Norway (d. 1559) * 1506 King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia (d. 1526) * 1534 King Frederick II of Denmark (d. 1583) * 1627 Anna Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (d. 1669) * 1633 Johann Heinrich Heidegger, Swiss theologian (d. 1698) * 1646 Gottfried Leibniz, German mathematician and philosopher (d. 1716) * 1723 Pedro Rodriguez, Conde de Campomanes, Spanish statesman (d. 1802) * 1725 Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, French nobleman and soldier (d. 1807) * 1742 Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German physicist (d. 1799) * 1771 Ferdinando Paer, Italian composer (d. 1839) * 1780 Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian general (d. 1831) * 1788 Jean-Victor Poncelet, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1867) * 1804 George Sand, French writer (d. 1876) * 1812 Abbas I of Egypt (d. 1854) * 1814 Robert Torrens, Irish-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of South Australia (d. 1884) * 1818 Ignaz Semmelweis, Hungarian physician (d. 1865) * 1822 Nguyen Dinh Chieu, Vietnamese poet (d. 1888) * 1834 Jadwiga Luszczewska, Polish poet (d. 1908) * 1863 William Grant Stairs, Canadian explorer (d. 1892) * 1872 Louis Blériot, French aviator (d. 1936) * 1873 Andrass Samuelsen, 1st Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1954) * 1878 Jacques Rosenbaum, Baltic German architect (d. 1944) * 1879 Léon Jouhaux, French labor figure (d. 1954) * 1882 B. C. Roy, Indian doctor and politician (d. 1962) * 1889 Vera Mukhina, Russian sculptor (d. 1962) * 1893 Walter White, Head of the NAACP (d. 1955) * 1899 Konstantinos Tsatsos, President of Greece (d. 1987) * 1899 Charles Laughton, British actor (d. 1962) * 1899 Thomas A. Dorsey, American composer (d. 1993) === 1901 1950 === * 1902 William Wyler, French-American director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1981) * 1903 Amy Johnson, British pilot (d. 1941) * 1906 Estée Lauder, American entrepreneur (d. 2004) * 1906 Jean Dieudonné, French mathematician (d. 1992) * 1906 Peter Ritchie Calder, Scottish author, journalist and academic (d. 1982) * 1907 Fabian von Schlabrendorff, German jurist and resistance activist (d. 1980) * 1908 Peter Anders, German tenor (d. 1954) * 1909 Emmett Toppino, American sprinter (d. 1971) * 1910 Glenn Hardin, American hurdler (d. 1975) * 1911 Sergey Leonidovich Sokolov, Soviet marshal (d. 2012) * 1913 Vasantrao Naik, Indian politician, 3rd Chief Minister of Maharashtra (d. 1979) * 1915 Nguyen Van Linh, Vietnamese politician (d. 1998) * 1915 Willie Dixon, American blues singer (d. 1992) * 1916 Olivia de Havilland, British-born actress * 1917 Humphry Osmond, English psychiatrist (d. 2004) * 1920 Lucidio Sentimenti, Italian footballer (d. 2014) * 1921 Seretse Khama, first President of Botswana (d. 1980) * 1922 Riccardo Carapellese, Italian footballer (d. 1995) * 1924 Antoni Ramallets, Spanish footballer (d. 2013) * 1925 Farley Granger, American actor (d. 2011) * 1926 Hans Werner Henze, German composer (d. 2012) * 1926 Robert Fogel, American economist (d. 2013) * 1927 Chandra Shekhar, Prime Minister of India (d. 2007) * 1929 Gerald Edelman, American biologist (d. 2014) * 1930 Carol Chomsky, American linguist (d. 2008) * 1930 Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, former President of Bolivia * 1931 Leslie Caron, French actress and dancer * 1931 Seyni Kountché, President of Niger (d. 1987) * 1934 Jamie Farr, American actor * 1934 Sidney Pollack, American actor (d. 2008) * 1934 Claude Berri, French movie director and screenwriter (d. 2009) * 1934 Jean Marsh, English actress and writer * 1935 James Cotton, American singer (d. 2017) * 1935 David Prowse, English actor * 1937 Lydia Makhubu, Swazi chemist * 1939 Karen Black, American actress (d. 2013) * 1940 Craig Brown, Scottish footballer and manager * 1941 Rod Gilbert, Canadian ice hockey player * 1941 Alfred G. Gilman, Canadian-American pharmacologist * 1941 Myron Scholes, American economist * 1941 Twyla Tharp, American dancer, choreographer and writer * 1942 Geneviève Bujold, Canadian actress * 1942 Andraé Crouch, American singer-songwriter, producer and writer (d. 2015) * 1942 Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Iraqi politician * 1945 Debbie Harry, American singer (Blondie) * 1946 Mireya Moscoso, former President of Panama * 1946 Mick Aston, British archaeologist (d. 2013) * 1946 Erkki Tuomioja, Finnish politician * 1947 Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Japanese racing driver * 1950 Ben Roberts, British actor (d. 2021) === 1951 1975 === * 1951 Trevor Eve, British actor * 1952 Dan Aykroyd, Canadian actor and entertainer * 1953 Jadranka Kosor, former Prime Minister of Croatia * 1953 Lawrence Gonzi, former Prime Minister of Malta * 1955 Li Keqiang, Premier of the People's Republic of China * 1955 Keith Whitley, American country musician * 1960 Dave Thompson, English stand-up comedian * 1961 Carl Lewis, American athlete, 9 Olympic gold medals * 1961 Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997) * 1961 Michelle Wright, Canadian country music singer * 1962 Andre Braugher, American actor * 1964 Bernard Laporte, French rugby player and coach * 1966 Frank De Bleeckere, Belgian football referee * 1966 Enrico Annoni, Italian footballer * 1967 Pamela Anderson, Canadian-American actress, novelist, activist and model * 1967 Marisa Monte, Brazilian singer * 1971 Missy Elliott, American singer and rapper * 1971 Julianne Nicholson, American actress * 1972 Claire Forlani, British actress * 1974 Jefferson Pérez, Ecuadorean race walker, Olympic gold medallist === From 1976 === * 1976 Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dutch footballer * 1976 Patrick Kluivert, Dutch footballer * 1976 Hannu Tihinen, Finnish footballer * 1976 Rigobert Song, Cameroonian footballer * 1976 Thomas Sadoski, American actor * 1976 Kellie Bright, English actress * 1977 Jarome Iginla, Canadian ice hockey player * 1977 Liv Tyler, American actress * 1977 Veronica Sanchez, Spanish actress * 1980 Patrick Aufiero, American ice hockey player * 1982 Hilarie Burton, American actress * 1982 Joachim Johansson, Swedish tennis player * 1983 Marit Larsen, Norwegian singer * 1984 Morgane Dubled, French model * 1984 Tanya Chisholm, American actress * 1986 Giovanni Moreno, Colombian footballer * 1986 Agnes Monica, Indonesian singer-songwriter and actress * 1989 Mitch Hewer, English actor * 1989 Hannah Murray, English actress * 1989 Daniel Ricciardo, Australian Formula One racing driver * 1989 Leah McFall, Northern Irish singer * 1989 Kent Bazemore, American basketball player * 1990 Natsuki Sato, Japanese singer (AKB48) * 1993 Raini Rodriguez, American actress and singer * 1994 Anri Okamoto, Japanese model and actress * 1996 Adelina Sotnikova, Russian gymnast * 1998 Hollie Steel, English singer == Deaths == === Up to 1900 === * 552 Totila, Ostrogoth King * 1109 Alfonso VI of Castile (b. 1040) * 1681 Oliver Plunkett, Irish archbishop and saint (b. 1629) * 1736 Ahmed III, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1673) * 1782 Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Prime Minister of Great Britain (b. 1730) * 1784 Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German composer (b. 1710) * 1824 Lachlan Macquarie, Scottish Governor of New South Wales (b. 1762) * 1839 Mahmud II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1785) * 1846 Pope Gregory XVI (b. 1765) * 1860 Charles Goodyear, American inventor (b. 1800) * 1863 John Fulton Reynolds, American Civil War general (b. 1820) * 1876 Mikhail Bakunin, Russian anarchist and social revolutionary (b. 1814) * 1891 Mihail Kogalniceanu, Romanian politician (b. 1817) * 1896 Harriet Beecher Stowe, American writer (b. 1811) * 1898 Siegfried Marcus, German inventor (b. 1831) === 1901 2000 === * 1905 John Hay, 37th United States Secretary of State (b. 1838) * 1912 Harriet Quimby, American pilot (b. 1875) * 1925 Erik Satie, French composer (b. 1866) * 1927 Pedro Nel Ospina Vazquez, 35th President of Colombia (b. 1858) * 1944 Carl Mayer, Austrian screenwriter (b. 1894) * 1944 Tanya Savicheva, Russian writer (b. 1930) * 1948 Achille Varzi, Italian racing driver (b. 1904) * 1950 Eliel Saarinen, Finnish architect (b. 1873) * 1954 Thea von Harbou, German actress and writer (b. 1888) * 1962 B. C. Roy, Indian doctor and politician (b. 1882) * 1964 Pierre Monteux, French-American conductor (b. 1875) * 1964 Sigurd Islandsmoen, Norwegian poet (b. 1881) * 1965 Wally Hammond, English cricketer (b. 1903) * 1971 Learie Constantine, Trinidadian cricketer (b. 1901) * 1971 William Lawrence Bragg, American physicist (b. 1890) * 1974 Juan Domingo Perón, President of Argentina (b. 1895) * 1976 Anneliese Michel, German exorcism victim (b. 1952) * 1981 Rushton Moreve, American musician (b. 1948) * 1983 Buckminster Fuller, American architect (b. 1895) * 1987 Snakefinger, British musician (b. 1949) * 1991 Joachim Kroll, German serial killer (b. 1933) * 1991 Michael Landon, American actor (b. 1936) * 1992 Francisco Mendes, Guinea-Bissau politician (b. 1933) * 1996 William T. Cahill, American politician, 46th Governor of New Jersey (b. 1904) * 1996 Margaux Hemingway, granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway (b. 1954) * 1997 Robert Mitchum, American actor (b. 1917) * 1999 Edward Dmytryk, Canadian-American movie director (b. 1908) * 1999 Joshua Nkomo, Zimbabwean politician (b. 1919) * 2000 Walter Matthau, American actor (b. 1920) === From 2001 === * 2001 Nikolay Basov, Russian physicist (b. 1922) * 2003 N!xau, Namibian actor (b. 1944) * 2003 Herbie Mann, American jazz flutist (b. 1930) * 2004 Marlon Brando, American actor (b. 1924) * 2005 Luther Vandross, American singer (b. 1951) * 2006 Ryutaro Hashimoto, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1937) * 2009 Alexis Argüello, Nicaraguan boxer and politician (b. 1952) * 2009 Karl Malden, American actor (b. 1912) * 2009 Molly Sugden, British actress (b. 1922) * 2012 Alan G. Poindexter, American astronaut (b. 1961) * 2013 Charles Foley, American game designer (Twister) (b. 1930) * 2013 Maureen Waaka, New Zealand model and politician (b. 1943) * 2013 Paul Jenkins, American actor (b. 1938) * 2014 Anatoly Kornukov, Russian general (b. 1942) * 2014 Stephen Gaskin, American counter-culture hippie figure (b. 1935) * 2014 Bob Jones, English police officer (b. 1955) * 2014 Umaru Dikko, Nigerian politician (b. 1936) * 2014 Walter Dean Myers, American author (b. 1937) * 2014 Jean Garon, Canadian politician (b. 1938) * 2014 Frederick I. Ordway III, American space scientist (b. 1927) * 2014 Graeme McMahon, Australian AFL executive (b. 1940) * 2015 Nicholas Winton, English humanitarian (b. 1909) * 2015 Val Doonican, Irish singer and television host (b. 1927) * 2016 Yves Bonnefoy, French poet (b. 1923) * 2016 Robin Hardy, English movie director (b. 1929) * 2017 Norman Dorsen, American activist (b. 1930) * 2017 Paul Hardin III, American academic administrator (b. 1931) * 2017 Ayan Sadakov, Bulgarian footballer (b. 1961) * 2017 Richard Gilbert Scott, British architect (b. 1923) * 2018 Armando, Dutch artist and writer (b. 1929) * 2018 François Corbier, French songwriter and television presenter (b. 1944) * 2018 Bozhidar Dimitrov, Bulgarian historian (b. 1945) * 2018 Peter Firmin, British television producer (b. 1928) * 2018 Gillian Lynne, British dancer and choreographer (b. 1926) * 2018 Julian Tudor Hart, British physician and politician (b. 1927) == Holidays == * Canada Day * Memorial Day (Newfoundland and Labrador) * Moving Day (Quebec) * Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) (Suriname) * Doctors' Day in India * Republic Day in Ghana * Independence Day in Somalia, Burundi and Rwanda * Madeira Day July 01