On This Day — 1 July

2024

At the centennial ceremony of the Dominion of Newfoundland National War Memorial, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission allowed an unprecedented second Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Royal Newfoundland Regiment soldier was entombed in the memorial at this ceremony.

National War Memorial (Newfoundland)

2020

The United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement replaces NAFTA.

United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement

2013

Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.

Croatia

2008

Riots erupt in Mongolia in response to allegations of fraud surrounding the 2008 legislative elections.

2008 riot in Mongolia

2007

Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces.

Smoking bans in the United Kingdom

2006

The first operation of Qinghai–Tibet Railway is conducted in China.

Qinghai–Tibet railway

2004

Saturn orbit insertion of Cassini–Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC.

Saturn

2003

Over 500,000 people protest against efforts to pass anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong.

Article 23

2002

The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.

International Criminal Court

2002

Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, a Tupolev Tu-154, and DHL Flight 611, a Boeing 757, collide in mid-air over Überlingen, southern Germany, killing all 71 on board both planes.

Tupolev Tu-154

1999

The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Elizabeth II on the day that legislative powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh. In Wales, the powers of the Welsh Secretary are transferred to the National Assembly.

Scottish Parliament

1997

China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule. The handover ceremony is attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Charles, Prince of Wales, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Handover of Hong Kong

1997

Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-94, a re-flight of the prematurely-ended STS-83 mission with the same crew.

Space Shuttle program

1991

Cold War: The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.

Cold War

1991

The Finnish operator Radiolinja is launched as the world's first GSM network.

Radiolinja

1990

German reunification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany.

German reunification

1987

The American radio station WFAN in New York City is launched as the world's first all-sports radio station.

WFAN (AM)

1984

The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA.

Motion Picture Association film rating system

1983

A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea crashes into the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.

North Korea

1983

The Ministry of State Security is established as China's principal intelligence agency

Ministry of State Security (China)

1980

"O Canada" officially becomes the national anthem of Canada.

O Canada

1979

Sony introduces the Walkman.

Sony

1978

The Northern Territory in Australia is granted self-government.

Northern Territory

1976

Portugal grants autonomy to Madeira.

Madeira

1972

The first Gay pride march in England takes place.

Pride (LGBTQ culture)

1968

The United States Central Intelligence Agency's Phoenix Program is officially established.

Central Intelligence Agency

1968

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries.

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

1968

Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL–CIO in the United States.

United Auto Workers

1967

Merger Treaty: The European Community is formally created out of a merger between the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission.

Merger Treaty

1966

The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.

Color television

1966

The People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (The known as the 2nd Artillery Corps) is founded.

People's Liberation Army Rocket Force

1963

ZIP codes are introduced for United States mail.

ZIP Code

1963

The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent.

Kim Philby

1962

Independence of Rwanda and Burundi.

Rwanda

1960

The Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) gains its independence from Italy. Concurrently, it unites as scheduled with the five-day-old State of Somaliland (the former British Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic.

Trust Territory of Somaliland

1960

Ghana becomes a republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II ceases to be its head of state.

Ghana

1959

Specific values for the international yard, avoirdupois pound and derived units (e.g. inch, mile and ounce) are adopted after agreement between the US, the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.

Yard

1958

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

1958

Flooding of Canada's Saint Lawrence Seaway begins.

St. Lawrence Seaway

1957

The International Geophysical Year begins.

International Geophysical Year

1949

The merger of two princely states of India, Cochin and Travancore, into the state of Thiru-Kochi (later re-organized as Kerala) in the Indian Union ends more than 1,000 years of princely rule by the Cochin royal family.

Kochi

1948

Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-i-Azam) inaugurates Pakistan's central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah

1947

The Philippine Air Force is established.

Philippine Air Force

1946

Crossroads Able is the first postwar nuclear weapon test.

Operation Crossroads

1943

The City of Tokyo and the Prefecture of Tokyo are both replaced by the Tokyo Metropolis.

Tokyo City

1942

World War II: start of the First Battle of El Alamein.

World War II

1942

The Australian Federal Government becomes the sole collector of income tax in Australia as State Income Tax is abolished.

Australian Government

1935

Regina, Saskatchewan, police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ambush strikers participating in the On-to-Ottawa Trek.

Regina, Saskatchewan

1932

Australia's national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was formed.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

1931

United Airlines begins service (as Boeing Air Transport).

United Airlines

1931

Wiley Post and Harold Gatty become the first people to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engined monoplane aircraft.

Wiley Post

1924

The National War Memorial for the Dominion of Newfoundland was inaugurated by Field Marshall Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig in St. John's, Newfoundland. The date commemorates the first day of the Battle of the Somme, where at Beaumont-Hamel, 86 percent of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was wiped out.

National War Memorial (Newfoundland)

1923

The Parliament of Canada suspends all Chinese immigration.

Parliament of Canada

1922

The Great Railroad Strike of 1922 begins in the United States.

Great Railroad Strike of 1922

1921

The Chinese Communist Party is founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, with the help of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks), who seized power in Russia after the 1917 October Revolution, and the Far Eastern Secretariat of the Communist International.

Chinese Communist Party

1917

World War I: Russia launches an offensive against Austria-Hungary to capture Galicia, its final offensive of the war.

World War I

1917

Chinese General Zhang Xun seizes control of Beijing and restores the monarchy, installing Puyi, last emperor of the Qing dynasty, to the throne. The restoration is reversed just shy of two weeks later, when Republican troops regain control of the capital.

Zhang Xun

1916

World War I: First day on the Somme: On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 19,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded.

World War I

1915

Leutnant Kurt Wintgens of the then-named German Deutsches Heer's Fliegertruppe army air service achieves the first known aerial victory with a synchronized machine-gun armed fighter plane, the Fokker M.5K/MG Eindecker.

Leutnant

1911

Germany dispatches the gunboat SMS Panther to Morocco, sparking the Agadir Crisis.

SMS Panther (1901)

1908

SOS is adopted as the international distress signal.

SOS

1903

Start of first Tour de France bicycle race.

1903 Tour de France

1901

French government enacts its anti-clerical legislation Law of Association prohibiting the formation of new monastic orders without governmental approval.

1898

Spanish–American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.

Spanish–American War

1890

Canada and Bermuda are linked by telegraph cable.

Bermuda

1885

The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada.

Reciprocity (Canadian politics)

1885

The Congo Free State is established by King Leopold II of Belgium.

Congo Free State

1881

The world's first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States.

Telephone call

1881

General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell and Childers reforms of the British Army, comes into effect.

Cardwell Reforms

1879

Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.

Charles Taze Russell

1878

Canada joins the Universal Postal Union.

Universal Postal Union

1874

The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, goes on sale.

Sholes and Glidden typewriter

1873

Prince Edward Island joins into Canadian Confederation.

Prince Edward Island

1870

The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence.

United States Department of Justice

1867

The British North America Act takes effect as the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia join into confederation to create the modern nation of Canada. John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada. This date is commemorated annually in Canada as Canada Day, a national holiday.

Constitution Act, 1867

1863

Slavery was abolished in the Dutch colony of Surinam, a date now celebrated as Ketikoti in independent Suriname.

Surinam (Dutch colony)

1863

American Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg begins.

Battle of Gettysburg

1862

The Russian State Library is founded as the Library of the Moscow Public Museum.

Russian State Library

1862

Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, second daughter of Queen Victoria, marries Prince Louis of Hesse, the future Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse.

Princess Alice of the United Kingdom

1862

American Civil War: The Battle of Malvern Hill takes place. It is the last of the Seven Days Battles, part of George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign.

American Civil War

1858

Joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society of London.

Charles Darwin

1855

Signing of the Quinault Treaty: The Quinault and the Quileute cede their land to the United States.

Quinault Treaty

1841

Thomas Lempriere and James Clark Ross carve a marker on the Isle of the Dead in Van Diemen's Land to measure tidal variations, one of the earliest surviving benchmarks for sea level rise.

Thomas Lempriere

1837

A system of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales.

Civil registration

1823

The five Central American nations of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica declare independence from the First Mexican Empire after being annexed the year prior.

First Mexican Empire

1819

Johann Georg Tralles discovers the Great Comet of 1819, (C/1819 N1). It is the first comet analyzed using polarimetry, by François Arago.

Johann Georg Tralles

1782

Raid on Lunenburg: American privateers attack the British settlement of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Raid on Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (1782)

1770

Lexell's Comet is seen closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 astronomical units (2,180,000 km; 1,360,000 mi).

Lexell's Comet

1766

François-Jean de la Barre, a young French nobleman, is tortured and beheaded before his body is burnt on a pyre along with a copy of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, France.

François-Jean de la Barre

1690

War of the Grand Alliance: Marshal de Luxembourg triumphs over an Anglo-Dutch army at the battle of Fleurus.

Nine Years' War

1690

Glorious Revolution: Battle of the Boyne in Ireland (as reckoned under the Julian calendar).

Glorious Revolution

1569

Union of Lublin: The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania confirm a real union; the united country is called the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth or the Republic of Both Nations.

Union of Lublin

1523

Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos become the first Lutheran martyrs, burned at the stake by Roman Catholic authorities in Brussels.

Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos

1520

Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fight their way out of Tenochtitlan after nightfall.

Conquistador

1431

The Battle of La Higueruela takes place in Granada, leading to a modest advance of the Kingdom of Castile during the Reconquista.

Battle of La Higueruela

1097

Battle of Dorylaeum: Crusaders led by prince Bohemond of Taranto defeat a Seljuk army led by sultan Kilij Arslan I.

Battle of Dorylaeum (1097)

552

Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under Narses defeat the Ostrogoths in Italy, and the Ostrogoth king, Totila, is mortally wounded.

Battle of Taginae

69

Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor.

AD 69