Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
July 2, 1964: Johnson signs Civil Rights Act
On this day in 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law the historic Civil Rights Act in a nationally televised ceremony at the White House.
In the landmark 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional. The 10 years that followed saw great strides for the African-American civil rights movement, as non-violent demonstrations won thousands of supporters to the cause. Memorable landmarks in the struggle included the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955--sparked by the refusal of Alabama resident Rosa Parks to give up her seat on a city bus to a white woman--and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech at a rally of hundreds of thousands in Washington, D.C., in 1963.
As the strength of the civil rights movement grew, John F. Kennedy made passage of a new civil rights bill one of the platforms of his successful 1960 presidential campaign. As Kennedy's vice president, Johnson served as chairman of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities. After Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, Johnson vowed to carry out his proposals for civil rights reform.
The Civil Rights Act fought tough opposition in the House and a lengthy, heated debate in the Senate before being approved in July 1964. For the signing of the historic legislation, Johnson invited hundreds of guests to a televised ceremony in the White House's East Room. After using more than 75 pens to sign the bill, he gave them away as mementoes of the historic occasion, according to tradition. One of the first pens went to King, leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), who called it one of his most cherished possessions. Johnson gave two more to Senators Hubert Humphrey and Everett McKinley Dirksen, the Democratic and Republican managers of the bill in the Senate.
The most sweeping civil rights legislation passed by Congress since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, the Civil Rights Act prohibited racial discrimination in employment and education and outlawed racial segregation in public places such as schools, buses, parks and swimming pools. In addition, the bill laid important groundwork for a number of other pieces of legislation--including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which set strict rules for protecting the right of African Americans to vote--that have since been used to enforce equal rights for women as well as all minorities.
This seemed worthy of mentioning, as well: today also marks the date that the Second Continental Congress voted in favor of independence (same link as above):
July 2, 1776: Congress votes for independence
On this day in 1776, the Second Continental Congress, assembled in Philadelphia, formally adopts Richard Henry Lee's resolution for independence from Great Britain. The vote is unanimous, with only New York abstaining.
The resolution had originally been presented to Congress on June 7, but it soon became clear that New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and South Carolina were as yet unwilling to declare independence, though they would likely be ready to vote in favor of a break with England in due course. Thus, Congress agreed to delay the vote on Lees Resolution until July 1. In the intervening period, Congress appointed a committee to draft a formal declaration of independence. Its members were John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert R. Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson, well-known to be the best writer of the group, was selected to be the primary author of the document, which was presented to Congress for review on June 28, 1776.
On July 1, 1776, debate on the Lee Resolution resumed as planned, with a majority of the delegates favoring the resolution. Congress thought it of the utmost importance that independence be unanimously proclaimed. To ensure this, they delayed the final vote until July 2, when 12 colonial delegations voted in favor of it, with the New York delegates abstaining, unsure of how their constituents would wish them to vote. John Adams wrote that July 2 would be celebrated as the most memorable epoch in the history of America. Instead, the day has been largely forgotten in favor of July 4, when Jeffersons edited Declaration of Independence was adopted.
Jul 2, 1863: Fighting continues at the Battle of Gettysburg
On this day in 1863, during the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia attacks General George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac at both Culp's Hill and Little Round Top, but fails to move the Yankees from their positions.
On the north end of the line, or the Union's right flank, Confederates from General Richard Ewell's corps struggled up Culp's Hill, which was steep and heavily wooded, before being turned back by heavy Union fire. But the most significant action was on the south end of the Union line. General James Longstreet's corps launched an attack against the Yankees, but only after a delay that allowed additional Union troops to arrive and position themselves along Cemetery Ridge. Many people later blamed Longstreet for the Confederates' eventual defeat. Still, the Confederates had a chance to destroy the Union left flank when General Daniel Sickles moved his corps, against Meade's orders, from their position on the ridge to open ground around the Peach Orchard. This move separated Sickles' force from the rest of the Union army, and Longstreet attacked. Although the Confederates were able to take the Peach Orchard, they were repulsed by Yankee opposition at Little Round Top. Some of the fiercest fighting took place on this day, and both armies suffered heavy casualties.
Lee's army regrouped that evening and planned for one last assault against the Union center on July 3: the infamous Pickett's Charge.
Jul 2, 1947: Soviet Union rejects Marshall Plan assistance
Soviet Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov walks out of a meeting with representatives of the British and French governments, signaling the Soviet Union's rejection of the Marshall Plan. Molotov's action indicated that Cold War frictions between the United States and Russia were intensifying.
On June 4, 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech in which he announced that the United States was willing to offer economic assistance to the war-torn nations of Europe to help in their recovery. The Marshall Plan, as this program came to be known, eventually provided billions of dollars to European nations and helped stave off economic disaster in many of them. The Soviet reaction to Marshall's speech was a stony silence. However, Foreign Minister Molotov agreed to a meeting on June 27 with his British and French counterparts to discuss the European reaction to the American offer.
Molotov immediately made clear the Soviet objections to the Marshall Plan. First, it would include economic assistance to Germany, and the Russians could not tolerate such aid to the enemy that had so recently devastated the Soviet Union. Second, Molotov was adamant in demanding that the Soviet Union have complete control and freedom of action over any Marshall Plan funds Germany might receive. Finally, the Foreign Minister wanted to know precisely how much money the United States would give to each nation. When it became clear that the French and British representatives did not share his objections, Molotov stormed out of the meeting on July 2. In the following weeks, the Soviet Union pressured its Eastern European allies to reject all Marshall Plan assistance. That pressure was successful and none of the Soviet satellites participated in the Marshall Plan. The Soviet press claimed that the American program was "a plan for interference in the domestic affairs of other countries." The United States ignored the Soviet action and, in 1948, officially established the Marshall Plan and began providing funds to other European nations.
Publicly, U.S. officials argued that the Soviet stance was another indication that Russia intended to isolate Eastern Europe from the West and enforce its communist and totalitarian doctrines in that region. From the Soviet perspective, however, its refusal to participate in the Marshall Plan indicated its desire to remain free from American "economic imperialism" and domination.
Jul 2, 1809: Chief Tecumseh urges Indians to unite against whites
Alarmed by the growing encroachment of whites squatting on Native American lands, the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh calls on all Indians to unite and resist.
Born around 1768 near Springfield, Ohio, Tecumseh early won notice as a brave warrior. He fought in battles between the Shawnee and the white Kentuckians, who were invading the Ohio River Valley territory. After the Americans won several important battles in the mid-1790s, Tecumseh reluctantly relocated westward but remained an implacable foe of the white men and their ways.
By the early 19th century, many Shawnee and other Ohio Valley Indians were becoming increasingly dependent on trading with the Americans for guns, cloth, and metal goods. Tecumseh spoke out against such dependence and called for a return to traditional Indian ways. He was even more alarmed by the continuing encroachment of white settlers illegally settling on the already diminished government-recognized land holdings of the Shawnee and other tribes. The American government, however, was reluctant to take action against its own citizens to protect the rights of the Ohio Valley Indians.
On this day in 1809, Tecumseh began a concerted campaign to persuade the Indians of the Old Northwest and Deep South to unite and resist. Together, Tecumseh argued, the various tribes had enough strength to stop the whites from taking further land. Heartened by this message of hope, Indians from as far away as Florida and Minnesota heeded Tecumseh's call. By 1810, he had organized the Ohio Valley Confederacy, which united Indians from the Shawnee, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Winnebago, Menominee, Ottawa, and Wyandot nations.
For several years, Tecumseh's Indian Confederacy successfully delayed further white settlement in the region. In 1811, however, the future president William Henry Harrison led an attack on the confederacy's base on the Tippecanoe River. At the time, Tecumseh was in the South attempting to convince more tribes to join his movement. Although the battle of Tippecanoe was close, Harrison finally won out and destroyed much of Tecumseh's army.
When the War of 1812 began the following year, Tecumseh immediately marshaled what remained of his army to aid the British. Commissioned a brigadier general, he proved an effective ally and played a key role in the British capture of Detroit and other battles. When the tide of war turned in the American favor, Tecumseh's fortunes went down with those of the British. On October 5, 1813, he was killed during Battle of the Thames. His Ohio Valley Confederacy and vision of Indian unity died with him.
Jul 2, 1881: President Garfield is shot
On this day in 1881, President James A. Garfield, who had been in office just under four months, is shot by an assassin. Garfield lingered for 80 days before dying of complications from the shooting.
Garfield's assassin was an attorney and political office-seeker named Charles Guiteau. He was a relative stranger to the president and his administration in an era when federal positions were doled out on a "who you know" basis. When his requests for an appointment were ignored, a furious Guiteau stalked the president, vowing revenge.
On the morning of July 2, 1881, Garfield headed for the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station on his way to a short vacation. As he walked through the station toward the waiting train, Guiteau stepped behind the president and fired two shots. The first bullet grazed Garfield's arm; the second lodged below his pancreas. Doctors made several unsuccessful attempts to remove the bullet while Garfield lay in his White House bedroom, awake and in pain. Alexander Graham Bell, who was one of Garfield's physicians, tried to use an early version of a metal detector to find the second bullet, but also failed.
Historical accounts vary as to the exact cause of Garfield's death. Some believe that the physicians' treatments—which included the administration of quinine, morphine, brandy and calomel and feeding him through the rectum--may have hastened his demise. Others insist Garfield died from an already advanced case of heart disease. By early September, Garfield, who was recuperating at a seaside retreat in New Jersey, appeared to be recovering. He died on September 19. Autopsy reports at the time said that pressure from the festering internal wound had created an aneurism that was the likely cause of death. Upon Garfield's demise, Vice President Chester A. Arthur became the nation's 20th president. Guiteau was deemed sane by a jury, convicted of murder and hung on June 30, 1882.
Garfield's spine is kept as a historical artifact by the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C.
Jul 2, 1917: Greece declares war on Central Powers
On this day in 1917, several weeks after King Constantine I abdicates his throne in Athens under pressure from the Allies, Greece declares war on the Central Powers, ending three years of neutrality by entering World War I alongside Britain, France, Russia and Italy.
Constantine, educated in Germany and married to a sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II, was naturally sympathetic to the Germans when World War I broke out in the summer of 1914, refusing to honor Greece's obligation to support Serbia, its ally during the two Balkan Wars in 1912-13. Despite pressure from his own pro-Allied government, including Prime Minister Eleutherios Venizelos, and British and French promises of territorial gains in Turkey, Constantine maintained Greece's neutrality for the first three years of the war, although he did allow British and French forces to disembark at Salonika in late 1914 in a plan to aid Serbia against Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian forces.
By the end of 1915, with Allied operations bogged down in Salonika and failing spectacularly in the Dardanelles, Constantine was even less inclined to support the Entente, believing Germany clearly had the upper hand in the war. He dismissed Venizelos in October 1915, substituting him with a series of premiers who basically served as royal puppets. Meanwhile, civil war threatened in Greece, as Constantine desperately sought promises of naval, military and financial assistance from Germany, which he did not receive. After losing their patience with Constantine, the Allies finally sent an ultimatum demanding his abdication on June 11, 1917; the same day, British forces blockaded Greece and the French landed their troops at Piraeus, on the Isthmus of Corinth, in blatant disregard of Greek neutrality. The following day, Constantine abdicated in favor of his second son, Alexander.
On June 26, Alexander reinstated Venizelos, who returned from exile in Crete, where he had established a provisional Greek government with Allied support. With a pro-Allied prime minister firmly in place, Greece moved to the brink of entering World War I. On July 1, Alexander Kerensky, the Russian commander in chief and leader of the provisional Russian government after the fall of Czar Nicholas II the previous March, ordered a major offensive on the Eastern Front, despite the turmoil within Russia and the exhausted state of Kerensky's army. The offensive would end in disastrous losses for the Russians, but at the time it seemed like a fortuitous turn of events for the Allies, in that it would help to sap German resources. The following day, Greece declared war on the Central Powers.
The new king, Alexander, stated the case for war dramatically in his official coronation address on August 4: "Greece has to defend her territory against barbarous aggressors. But if in the trials of the past Greece has been able, thanks to the civilizing strength of the morale of the race, to have overcome the conquerors and to rise free amidst the ruins, today it is quite a different matter. The present cataclysm will decide the definite fate of Hellenism, which, if lost, will never be restored." Over the next 18 months, some 5,000 Greek soldiers would die on the battlefields of World War I.
Jul 2, 1944: American bombers deluge Budapest, in more ways than one
On this day in 1944, as part of Operation Gardening, the British and American strategy to lay mines in the Danube River by dropping them from the air, American aircraft also drop bombs and leaflets on German-occupied Budapest.
Hungarian oil refineries and storage tanks, important to the German war machine, were destroyed by the American air raid. Along with this fire from the sky, leaflets threatening "punishment" for those responsible for the deportation of Hungarian Jews to the gas chambers at Auschwitz were also dropped on Budapest. The U.S. government wanted the SS and Hitler to know it was watching. Admiral Miklas Horthy, regent and virtual dictator of Hungary, vehemently anticommunist and afraid of Russian domination, had aligned his country with Hitler, despite the fact that he little admired him. But he, too, demanded that the deportations cease, especially since special pleas had begun pouring in from around the world upon the testimonies of four escaped Auschwitz prisoners about the atrocities there. Hitler, fearing a Hungarian rebellion, stopped the deportations on July 8. Horthy would eventually try to extricate himself from the war altogether—only to be kidnapped by Hitler's agents and consequently forced to abdicate.
One day after the deportations stopped, a Swedish businessman, Raoul Wallenberg, having convinced the Swedish Foreign Ministry to send him to the Hungarian capital on a diplomatic passport, arrived in Budapest with 630 visas for Hungarian Jews, prepared to take them to Sweden to save them from further deportations.
Very interesting day in history, filled with significant dates sprinkled throughout history, particularly American history.
Nostradamus died on this date. Cromwell's Parliamentary army won an important and very convincing victory. King James II disbanded Parliament. De Sade (the man from whom we get the term "sadist") shouted from the Bastille that prisoners were being slaughtered. The Second Continental Congress approved independence. The Battle of Gettysburg was decided in favor of the Union, and turned the tide of that war. A century later, the spirit of civil rights that Abraham Lincoln advocated during the Civil War was finally legally fulfilled, when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, ending legalized Jim Crow segregation in the United States (particularly in the South). President Garfield was fatally shot. The Sherman Anti Trust Act was passed. In Germany, the first successful flight of a zeppelin was on this date. Amelia Earhardt disappeared on this date, while trying to fly around the world. Hitler ordered the invasion of England (Operation Sealion). This was the dater of the infamous crash in Roswell, New Mexico. North and South Vietnam were formally reunited. Elvis Presly recorded "Hound Dog". The Castros (Fidel and Raul) visited Moscow. The US Supreme Court reversed a former decision, and proclaimed that the death penalty was not "cruel and unusual". Susan B. Anthony coins became the first American coins to honor a woman. There was a stampede at Mecca that killed over 1,400 people. Vincente Fox Quesada of the opposition party was elected President of Mexico, ending seventy years of rule by the PRI. An oil tanker explosion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo killed well over two hundred.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
311 - St Militiades begins his reign as Catholic Pope
626 - In fear of assassination, Li Shimin ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Incident at Xuanwu Gate. On September 4, Shimin's father abdicates in his favour and Shimin becomes Emperor Taizong of Tang, Emperor of China.
706 - In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang has the remains of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, his wife and recently-deceased ruling empress Wu Zetian, her son Li Xian, her grandson Li Chongrun, and granddaughter Li Xianhui all interred in a new tomb complex outside Chang'an known as the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang.
963 - The imperial army proclaims Nicephorus Phocas to be Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea.
1140 - Hartbert becomes bishop of Utrecht
1214 - Battle of La Roche-aux-Moines (Angers), part of King John of England attempt to reclaim Normandy from France
1298 - Battle on Hasenbuhl (Gollheim) between German kings Adolf of Nassau and Albrecht I of Austria Albrecht I defeated and killed Adolf of Nassua near Worms, Germany.
1555 - Turgut Reis sacks the Italian city of Paola.
1561 - Menas, Emperor of Ethiopia, defeats a revolt in Emfraz.
1566 - French astrologer, physician, and prophet Nostradamus died.
1576 - Muitende Spanish soldiers conquer Zierik Sea
1578 - Martin Frobisher sights Baffin Island.
1582 - Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats Akechi Mitsuhide.
1600 - Battle at Newport: Earl Mauritius van Nassau beats Spanish Army
1613 - The first English expedition from Massachusetts against Acadia led by Samuel Argall.
1625 - The Spanish army took Breda, Spain, after nearly a year of siege.
1644 - Lord Cromwell's Parliamentary forces crushed the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor near York, England.
1679 - Europeans first visit Minnesota and see headwaters of Mississippi in an expedition led by Daniel Greysolon de Du Luth.
1681 - Earl of Shaftesbury arrested for high-treason
1687 - King James II disbands English parliament
1698 - Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine
1747 - Marshall Saxe led the French forces to victory over an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Lauffeld.
1776 - NJ gave all adults who could show a net worth of 50 pounds right to vote
1776 - Richard Henry Lee’s resolution that the American colonies "are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States" was adopted by the Continental Congress.
1777 - Vermont becomes first American colony to abolish slavery
1787 - De Sade shouts from Bastille that prisoners are being slaughtered
1794 - Second Battle of Seneffe: France-Austria
1808 - Simon Fraser completes his trip down Fraser R, BC, lands at Musqueam
1823 - Bahia Independence Day: the end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia.
1843 - An alligator falls from sky during a Charleston SC thunderstorm
1847 - Envelope bearing 1st US 10 cent stamps, still exists today
1849 - Garibaldi in Rome begins hunger strike
1850 - Benjamin J. Lane patents gas mask with a breathing apparatus
1850 - Prussia agreed to pull out of Schlewig and Holstein, Germany.
1857 - New York City’s first elevated railroad officially opened for business.
1858 - Czar Alexander II partially emancipated the serfs working on Russian imperial lands.
1861 - Battle of Hoke's Run, WV - small Union victory
1862 - Lincoln signs act granting land for state agricultural colleges
1863 - Battle of Gettysburg (2nd day)
1863 - R Morgan's: Burksville, KY to Salineville, OH [->JUL 26]
1864 - Gen Early and Confederate forces reach Winchester en route to Wash DC
1864 - Statuary Hall in US Capitol forms
1865 - William Booth founds Salvation Army (Army of the Salvation)
1867 - First US elevated railroad begins service, NYC
1870 - Jules Joseph d'Anethan is elected the tenth Prime Minister of Belgium.
1881 - Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office-seeker, shot and fatally wounded American President James A. Garfield in Washington, DC. Garfield died on Sept. 19.
1885 - Canada's North-west Insurrection ends with surrender of Big Bear
1890 - The U.S. Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act.
1894 - Government obtains injunction against striking Pullman Workers
1900 - Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin 1st airship LZ-1, flies
1900 - Sibelius' "Finlandia," premieres in Helsinki
1900 - First zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
1901 - Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid rob train of $40,000 at Wagner Montana
1902 - John J McGraw becomes manager of NY Giants (stays for 30 years)
1903 - AL/NL batting champ Ed Delahanty, disappears, found dead days later
1903 - Pitcher Jack Doscher, 1 son of a major leaguer debuts with Cubs
1906 - Yanks win by forfeit, for their 1st time
1916 - Lenin says Imperialism is caused by capitalism
1916 - Russian offensive in Armenia
1917 - Riots in East St Louis Mo
1921 - 41st Wimbledon Mens Tennis: B Tilden beats B Norton (46 26 61 60 75)
1921 - Jack Dempsey KOs George S Carpentier in 4 for heavyweight boxing title 1st million dollar gate ($1.7m) boxing match (Dempsey KOs Carpentier)
1926 - The U.S. Congress established the US Army Air Corps; Distinguish Flying Cross authorized
1927 - 40th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Helen Moody beats L de Alvarez (62 64)
1927 - Earthquake hits Palestine
1928 - British parliament accept female sufferage
1932 - 52nd Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Ellsworth Vines beats H Austin (64 62 60)
1932 - FDR makes first presidential nominating conventional acceptance speech
1933 - Carl Hubbell shuts-out Cards 1-0 in 18 innings without a walk
1934 - General Lazaro Cardenas elected president of Mexico
1935 - Great Britain boxers beat US team in 1st intl Golden Gloves
1937 - American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Central Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world at the equator.
1937 - 57th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Don Budge beats G von Cramm (63 64 62)
1938 - 51st Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Helen Moody beats Helen Jacobs (64 60)
1939 - At Mount Rushmore, Theodore Roosevelt's face was dedicated.
1940 - Dutch PM Colijn publishes "Borders of 2 Worlds" (German victory)
1940 - Hitler ordered the invasion of England (Operation Sealion)
1940 - Lake Washington (Seattle) Floating bridge dedicated
1940 - PM Churchill meets gen-mjr B Montgomery
1940 - Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose is arrested and detained in Calcutta.
1941 - DiMaggio breaks Willie Keeler's 44 game hitting streak (45th of 56)
1941 - Earthquake hits Palestine
1941 - Nazi mass murder in Lvov/Lemberg (7,000 dead)
1941 - Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit," premieres in London 1943 - Gulf of Biskaje: Liberator bombers sinks U-126
1943 - Indians score 12 runs in 4th inning & beat Yankees 12-0
1943 - Lt Charles Hall, becomes first black pilot to shoot down Nazi plane
1944 - Marshal von Kluge replaces General von Rundstedt
1944 - American bombers, as part of Operation Gardening, dropped land mines, leaflets and bombs on German-occupied Budapest.
1946 - Dutch Beel government forms
1946 - Harbor workers end strike at Rotterdam & Amsterdam
1947 - Military coup discovered in France
1947 - An object crashed near Roswell, NM. The U.S. Army Air Force insisted it was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts led to speculation that it might have been an alien spacecraft.
1948 - 62nd Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Falkenburg beats Bromwich (75 06 62 36 75)
1949 - "High Button Shoes" closes at Century Theater NYC after 727 perfs
1949 - "Red Barber's Clubhouse" sports show premieres on CBS (later NBC) TV
1949 - 56th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: L Brough beats M duPont (10-8 16 10-8)
1950 - Indian Bob Feller, wins his 200th game, 5-3 over Detroit
1950 - Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, Japan burns down.
1950 - Henri Queuille is elected the seventh Prime Minister of the Fourth French Republic.
1951 - Bill Veeck buys St Louis Browns from Bill & Charlie DeWitt
1951 - Bob and Ray show premieres on NBC radio
1951 - Hugo Yarnold stumps 6 at Dundee, Worcester v Scotland
1951 - Island advisor of Curacao installed
1951 - Leidse astronomers discover radio signal out of Milky Way system
1952 - Princess Beatrice opens miniature city of Madurodam
1954 - 68th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: J Drobny beats K Rosewall (13-11 46 62 97)
1954 - Denis Compton scores 278 in 290 minutes v Pakistan
1955 - "7th Heaven" closes at ANTA Theater NYC after 44 performances
1955 - "Almost Crazy" closes at Longacre Theater NYC after 16 performances
1955 - "Lawrence Welk Show" premieres on ABC
1955 - 62nd Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Louise Brough beats B Fleitz (75 86)
1956 - Elvis Presley records "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel"
1956 - US performs nuclear test at Enwetak (atmospheric tests)
1957 - First submarine designed to fire guided missiles launched, Grayback
1957 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Le pelerinage De Lourdes
1958 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island
1959 - "Plan 9 From Outer Space," one of the worse films ever, premieres
1960 - "Once Upon a Mattress" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 460 perfs
1961 - Maris hits 29th and 30th en route to 61 homers
1962 - Cubans minister of Foreign affairs Raul Castro arrives in Moscow
1962 - Fidel Castro visits Moscow
1963 - Giant Willie Mays' HR in 16th inning gives them a 1-0 win over Braves
1963 - Juan Marichal (Giants) beats Warren Spahn (Braves), 1-0 in 16 innings
1964 - Cilla Black records Beatle's "Its For You," McCartney plays piano
1964 - Grand jury indicts Beckwith in murder of Medger Evers
1964 - U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the "Civil Rights Act of 1964" and Voting Rights Act into law. The act made it illegal in the U.S. to discriminate against others because of their race.
1965 - 79th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Roy Emerson beats Fred Stolle (62 64 64)
1966 - First France nuclear explosion on Mururoa atoll
1966 - 73rd Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Billie J King beats Frasier (63 36 61)
1966 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
1967 - The U.S. Marine Corps launched Operation Buffalo in response to the North Vietnamese Army's efforts to seize the Marine base at Con Thien.
1967 - 22nd US Women's Open Golf Championship won by Catherine Lacoste
1967 - Catherine Lacoste becomes youngest (22), 1st foreigner (France) & 1st amateur to US Women's open golf tournament
1969 - Ireland bowl out WI for 25 at Londonderry, win by 9 wkts
1969 - Leslie West & Felix Pappalardi form rock group Mountain
1970 - First Boeing 747 to land in Amsterdam & Brussels
1970 - NY Yankees Horace Clarke breaks up a no-hitter in the 9th for 3rd time in 28 days
1971 - 78th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Evonne Goolagong beats M Smith (64 61)
1971 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
1972 - "Fiddler on the Roof" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 3242 perfs
1972 - 27th US Women's Open Golf Championship won by Susie Maxwell Berning
1972 - Bob Seagren pole vaults world record 5.63m
1972 - India and Pakistan sign peace accord
1973 - James R Schlesinger, ends term as 9th director of CIA
1973 - Nation Black Network begins operation on radio
1974 - Fernando Mameda of Portugal sets record for 10,000 m (27:13.81)
1976 - 83rd Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Chris Evert beats E Goolagong (63 46 86)
1976 - In Gregg v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.
1976 - North Vietnam and South Vietnam were formally reunited.
1977 - 91st Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Bjorn Borg beats Connors (36 62 61 57 64)
1978 - Pitcher Ron Guidry sets Yankee record of 13-0 start
1979 - Susan B Anthony dollar is issued, became the first US coin to honor a woman
1979 - The U.S. Mint officially released the Susan B. Anthony coin in Rochester, NY.
1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter reinstated draft registration for males 18 years of age.
1980 - Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and Mickey Hart are arrested for incitement
1980 - Julie Marie Bryan, 18, of Georgia, crowned America's Young Woman of Yr
1981 - Soyuz T-6 returned to Earth.
1982 - Larry Walters using lawn chair & 42 helium balloons, rose to 16,000'
1982 - Soyuz T-6 returns to Earth
1983 - 90th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: M Navratilova beats A Jaeger (60 63)
1985 - Andrei Gromyko appointed president of USSR
1985 - European Space Agency launches Giotto (Halley's Comet Flyby)
1985 - General Motors announced that it was installing electronic road maps as an option in some of its higher-priced cars.
1986 - After 14 wins, Roger Clemens suffer his first loss of year
1986 - General strike against Pinochet regime in Chile
1986 - Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in 2 rulings
1987 - Jim Eisenreich, comeback after nervous disorder in 1984
1987 - Nilde Iotti is named as the first female President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies.
1988 - 95th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Steffi Graf beats Navratilova (57 62 61)
1990 - Imelda Marcos & Adnan Khashoggi found not guilty of racketeering
1990 - Panic in tunnel of Mecca: 1,426 pilgrims trampled to death
1991 - Riot at Guns N' Roses concert in St Louis
1991 - Donald Trump proposes to Marla Maples and gives her a 7½ karat diamond ring
1992 - Braniff Airlines goes out of business
1993 - Boat sinks at Bocaue Philippines, 325 die
1993 - F-28 crashes at Sorong Irian Barat, 41 die
1993 - Kansas Royals rename stadium Ewing Kaufman Stadium after founder
1993 - Moslem fundamentalists in Sivas Turkey, set hotel on fire, kill 36
1993 - NY Met Anthony Young loses a record 25th straight game (goes to 27)
1993 - Pope John Paul II hospitalized for Cat Scan test
1994 - 101st Wimbledon Womens Tennis: C Martinez beats Navratilova (64 36 63)
1994 - 37 dies in US Air DC-9 crash in NC
1994 - John Wayne Bobbitt & Kristina Elliot arrested for domestic battery
1994 - Richard Johnson takes 10-45 for Middlesex against Derbyshire
1994 - US Air DC-9 crash in NC, 37 killed
1995 - "Rose Tattoo" closes at Circle in the Square NYC after 80 perfs
1995 - Thailand: Banharn Silpa-Archa's party wins election
1995 - "Forbes" magazine reported that Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates, was the worth $12.9 billion, making him the world's richest man. In 1999, he was worth about $77 billion.
1997 - Actor James Stewart died in Beverly Hills, Calif. 2002 Steve Fossett became the first to circumnavigate the globe solo in a balloon.
1998 - Cable News Network (CNN) retracted a story that alleged that U.S. commandos had used nerve gas to kill American defectors during the Vietnam War.
2000 - In Mexico, Vicente Fox Quesada of the Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party, or PAN) defeated Francisco Labastida Ochoa of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.(Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI) in the presidential election. The PRI had controlled the presidency in Mexico since the party was founded in 1929, or over seventy years.
2001 - AbioCor self contained artificial heart created.
2002 - Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.
2003 - Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy, insults German MP Martin Schulz by calling him a "kapo" during a session of the European Parliament.
2004 - ASEAN Regional Forum accepts Pakistan as its 24th member.¨
2008 - Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other FARC hostages are rescued by the Colombian armed forces.
2010 - Oil tanker truck explosion in South Kivu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at least 230 people
2012 - GlaxoSmithKline settle the largest healthcare fraud case in history for US$3 Billion \
2012 - Monsoon rain in East India kills at least 79 people and leaves 2.2 million homeless
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jul02.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
The Most Shocking Moments in World Cup History
I happened on this earlier while surfing Youtube, and thought it was an entertaining program, and worth sharing the link here on this blog.
It features the 50 most shocking moments in World Cup history, with a heavy emphasis on England and Scotland (it is an English program).
For the most part, I happen to agree with most of the top ones, particularly number three and number one, although I will not reveal what those are, just in case you actually are interested enough to spend nearly a couple of hours watching the program.
It is entertaining, and if you are a fan of the World Cup, it probably will be informative and fun to watch!
Here's the link:
50 Most shocking moments in World Cup history
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5AbVK-bpwU
It features the 50 most shocking moments in World Cup history, with a heavy emphasis on England and Scotland (it is an English program).
For the most part, I happen to agree with most of the top ones, particularly number three and number one, although I will not reveal what those are, just in case you actually are interested enough to spend nearly a couple of hours watching the program.
It is entertaining, and if you are a fan of the World Cup, it probably will be informative and fun to watch!
Here's the link:
50 Most shocking moments in World Cup history
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5AbVK-bpwU
World Cup Review: France vs. Nigeria & Germany vs. Algeria
So, my predictions from yesterday have thus far come through, more or less.
France struggled a bit with their victory against Nigeria, and Germany struggled a lot in their victory over Algeria.
Still, they both won, as expected (and, ahem, predicted by...um, me).
But things did not go exactly according to plan in either match. Let's take a look.
France 2, Nigeria 0
This game remained scoreless for the vast majority of the match, with missed opportunities on both sides, but no scoring, as time was winding down.
For the most part, though, Nigeria was frustrating the French side, who were favored. The dangerous offense that France had shown throughout the tournament was being kept in check by a tough Nigerian defense.
Then, late in the second half, France finally broke through in the 79th minute, when Paul Pogba scored on a header to the corner of a goal, ending the scoreless draw and providing a 1-0 lead for the favorite, France.
With little time, and needing some small miracle to tie the game back up, Nigeria pressed for the equalizer, but were unsuccessful, as the ninety minutes expired, and with very little time left in the extra time.
Unfortunately, Nigeria did not help itself in extra time, as Joseph Yobo scored against his own goalie accidentally, providing France with a 2-0 lead against Nigeria.
That proved to be the final margin, as France moved on to the quarterfinal. They would learn who their next opponents would be in the next match, with the winner of Germany-Algeria moving on to meet France.
Germany 2, Algeria 1
Much like with the France-Nigeria match, this game featured a German side that was considered the heavy favorites, and the far more talented team.
But for much of the match, Germany did not look like the superior team. In fact, through perhaps the first half, it seemed like Algeria might be the better team.
The Germans dominated the time of possession, although that statistic may be misleading, since their usually prolific offense was not producing quality opportunities early on in the game.
Germany began to assert itself in the second half, and produced some quality shots on goal, although still, through the brilliance of Algerian keeper Rais M'Bolhi, Germany was unable to break through and score before regulation time ended.
But it did not take long in the extra session for Germany to finally produce, as André Schürrle nailed one past M'Bolhi to the corner of the goal to end the scoreless tie in the 92nd minute.
Then, Germany's Mesut Özil was able to provide even more cushion in the 119th minute with yet another goal, as Germany's offensive machine, which had been a sleeping giant until late in the game, suddenly came roaring to life!
Algeria was able to score a goal in the extra time of the extra time session, when Abdelmoumene Djabou got the ball to the corner of the goal, assisted by a nice pass from Sofiane Feghouli.
But, it was too little, too late. Algeria had an opportunity in the closing seconds to produce what would have been an astonishing, miracle goal, but it was ultimately no good, and Germany preserved the victory.
The Germans reached the quarterfinal for the 16th consecutive time (although I provided a link below that suggests otherwise), and will play France next.
http://ciskie.blogspot.com/2010/05/2010-fifa-world-cup-germany.html
France struggled a bit with their victory against Nigeria, and Germany struggled a lot in their victory over Algeria.
Still, they both won, as expected (and, ahem, predicted by...um, me).
But things did not go exactly according to plan in either match. Let's take a look.
France 2, Nigeria 0
This game remained scoreless for the vast majority of the match, with missed opportunities on both sides, but no scoring, as time was winding down.
For the most part, though, Nigeria was frustrating the French side, who were favored. The dangerous offense that France had shown throughout the tournament was being kept in check by a tough Nigerian defense.
Then, late in the second half, France finally broke through in the 79th minute, when Paul Pogba scored on a header to the corner of a goal, ending the scoreless draw and providing a 1-0 lead for the favorite, France.
With little time, and needing some small miracle to tie the game back up, Nigeria pressed for the equalizer, but were unsuccessful, as the ninety minutes expired, and with very little time left in the extra time.
Unfortunately, Nigeria did not help itself in extra time, as Joseph Yobo scored against his own goalie accidentally, providing France with a 2-0 lead against Nigeria.
That proved to be the final margin, as France moved on to the quarterfinal. They would learn who their next opponents would be in the next match, with the winner of Germany-Algeria moving on to meet France.
Germany 2, Algeria 1
Much like with the France-Nigeria match, this game featured a German side that was considered the heavy favorites, and the far more talented team.
But for much of the match, Germany did not look like the superior team. In fact, through perhaps the first half, it seemed like Algeria might be the better team.
The Germans dominated the time of possession, although that statistic may be misleading, since their usually prolific offense was not producing quality opportunities early on in the game.
Germany began to assert itself in the second half, and produced some quality shots on goal, although still, through the brilliance of Algerian keeper Rais M'Bolhi, Germany was unable to break through and score before regulation time ended.
But it did not take long in the extra session for Germany to finally produce, as André Schürrle nailed one past M'Bolhi to the corner of the goal to end the scoreless tie in the 92nd minute.
Then, Germany's Mesut Özil was able to provide even more cushion in the 119th minute with yet another goal, as Germany's offensive machine, which had been a sleeping giant until late in the game, suddenly came roaring to life!
Algeria was able to score a goal in the extra time of the extra time session, when Abdelmoumene Djabou got the ball to the corner of the goal, assisted by a nice pass from Sofiane Feghouli.
But, it was too little, too late. Algeria had an opportunity in the closing seconds to produce what would have been an astonishing, miracle goal, but it was ultimately no good, and Germany preserved the victory.
The Germans reached the quarterfinal for the 16th consecutive time (although I provided a link below that suggests otherwise), and will play France next.
http://ciskie.blogspot.com/2010/05/2010-fifa-world-cup-germany.html
On This Day in History - July 1 Canada Day
Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Today is Canada Day.
So, here is another short spot by History.com (same website as above) about our neighbors to the North:
July 1, 1867: Canadian Independence Day
The autonomous Dominion of Canada, a confederation of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the future provinces of Ontario and Quebec, is officially recognized by Great Britain with the passage of the British North America Act.
During the 19th century, colonial dependence gave way to increasing autonomy for a growing Canada. In 1841, Upper and Lower Canada--now known as Ontario and Quebec--were made a single province by the Act of Union. In the 1860s, a movement for a greater Canadian federation grew out of the need for a common defense, the desire for a national railroad system, and the necessity of finding a solution to the problem of French and British conflict. When the Maritime provinces, which sought union among themselves, called a conference in 1864, delegates from the other provinces of Canada attended. Later in the year, another conference was held in Quebec, and in 1866 Canadian representatives traveled to London to meet with the British government.
On July 1, 1867, with passage of the British North America Act, the Dominion of Canada was officially established as a self-governing entity within the British Empire. Two years later, Canada acquired the vast possessions of the Hudson's Bay Company, and within a decade the provinces of Manitoba and Prince Edward Island had joined the Canadian federation. In 1885, the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed, making mass settlement across the vast territory of Canada possible.
This was an important date in Canadian history. Mostly because this was when the Confederation of Canada was created in 1867, but it was also important for some other reasons as well. American privateers attacked Lunenburg, in Nova Scotia. Nine years before Canada became a Union, it minted it's own coins (i, 5, 10, and 20 cent coins). The decimal currency system was incorporated in Canada, and Canada and the United States ended a fishery agreement. The first international telephone conversation took place on this day, with a call between Calais, Maine, and St Stephen, New Brunswick. Prince Edward Island officially became a province of Canada. Wilfred Laurier became the first French-speaking Prime Minister of Canada. Less happy history - it was on this date in 1933 that Canada suspended all Chinese immigration into the country. Eventually on this date, O Canada! became the official national anthem for Canada.
But most importantly, of course, it was on this day in 1867 that the Dominion of Canada came into existence. I have spent Canada Day inside of Canada a few times. Usually, in Quebec City, where they traditionally have free outdoor concerts and other celebratory events during the time of the end of June until early July. That is because June 24th in St. Jean Baptiiste Day in Quebec province, and then Canada Day a week later. So, it's a good time to take a trip there. Plus, there's a good chance that you can catch a good band or two. I think it was 2005 that I saw Tea Party up there (no, not the ridiculous American pseudo-political movement, but rather the pretty cool band).
There were other things that happened on this date elsewhere than Canada, of course. Sunglasses were invented over eight hundred years ago on this date, in China. The first Quakers arrived in Boston. It was on this day that the first vote on the Declaration of Independence came. Napoleon's fleet reached Alexandria, Egypt. Louis Napoleon resigned as the king of the Netherlands. The United Provinces of Central America gained their independence from Mexico. The first US postage stamps went on sale on this date. The Battle of Gettysburg began. The IRS imposed the first federal taxes on inheritance, tobacco, and incomes over $600. Slavery was outlawed in in the Netherlands Antilles and Suriname. The first zoo in the United States opened on this date. The Treaty of Berlin divided Africa up to be colonized. FDR was nominated to be President by the Democrats. It was on this date in 1933, not long after they first took power, that Nazis proclaimed that women should not work. The first US troops were flown into the Korean conflict. Castro nationalized gas in Cuba. British Somaliland became Somalia. Ghana became a republic. The Benelux nations (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg) made it unnecessary to use passports when crossing each other's borders. The United States instituted zip codes to make mail more easy and sensible. Algeria voted for independence. The Beatles had some significant events on this date, but none as significant as their landmark album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, reaching number one and staying there for fifteen weeks. Pinochet became President of Chile, while Isobel Peron replaced her husband as President of Argentina. Bork was nominated for the Supreme Court, although he would later ultimately be rejected. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, as well as 58 other nations, signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Act. East Germany accepted the West German currency, as the economies of the two nations were joined. Britain handed over Hong Kong to China. Civil unions went into effect in Vermont, and the confederate flag was taken down from the statehouse in South Carolina.
July 1, 1997: Hong Kong returned to China
At midnight on July 1, 1997, Hong Kong reverts back to Chinese rule in a ceremony attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Charles of Wales, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. A few thousand Hong Kongers protested the turnover, which was otherwise celebratory and peaceful.
In 1839, Britain invaded China to crush opposition to its interference in the country's economic, social, and political affairs. One of Britain's first acts of the war was to occupy Hong Kong, a sparsely inhabited island off the coast of southeast China. In 1841, China ceded the island to the British with the signing of the Convention of Chuenpi, and in 1842 the Treaty of Nanking was signed, formally ending the First Opium War.
Britain's new colony flourished as an East-West trading center and as the commercial gateway and distribution center for southern China. In 1898, Britain was granted an additional 99 years of rule over Hong Kong under the Second Convention of Peking. In September 1984, after years of negotiations, the British and the Chinese signed a formal agreement approving the 1997 turnover of the island in exchange for a Chinese pledge to preserve Hong Kong's capitalist system. On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong was peaceably handed over to China in a ceremony attended by numerous Chinese, British, and international dignitaries. The chief executive under the new Hong Kong government, Tung Chee Hwa, formulated a policy based on the concept of "one country, two systems," thus preserving Hong Kong's role as a principal capitalist center in Asia.
Jul 1, 1775: Congress resolves to forge Indian alliances
On this day in 1775, the Continental Congress resolves to recruit Indian nations to the American side in their dispute with the British, should the British take native allies of their own. The motion read: “That in case any Agent of the ministry, shall induce the Indian tribes, or any of them to commit actual hostilities against these colonies, or to enter into an offensive Alliance with the British troops, thereupon the colonies ought to avail themselves of an Alliance with such Indian Nations as will enter into the same, to oppose such British troops and their Indian Allies.”
Few “such Indians Nations” saw any advantage to joining the Patriot cause. Rather, they saw Great Britain as their last defense against the encroaching land-hungry European settlers into their ancestral territory. Racist settlers managed to undermine any residual trust remaining in the Native American population during the revolution by committing atrocities such as the massacre of neutral, Christian Indian women and children at prayer in Gnaddenhutten, Pennsylvania, in 1778. In another example, a Continental officer undermined his own cause with the murder of Cornplanter, a Shawnee leader and Patriot ally, in 1777.
At the close of the War for Independence, the Patriots’ few Indian allies received worse treatment at the hands of their supposed allies than natives who had sided with Britain. Having promised Continental soldiers land in return for their service, Congress seized land from its Indian allies in order to cede it to officers on the verge of mutiny in 1783.
Jul 1, 1916: Battle of the Somme begins
At 7:30 a.m., the British launch a massive offensive against German forces in the Somme River region of France. During the preceding week, 250,000 Allied shells had pounded German positions near the Somme, and 100,000 British soldiers poured out of their trenches and into no-man's-land on July 1, expecting to find the way cleared for them. However, scores of heavy German machine guns had survived the artillery onslaught, and the infantry were massacred. By the end of the day, 20,000 British soldiers were dead and 40,000 wounded. It was the single heaviest day of casualties in British military history. The disastrous Battle of the Somme stretched on for more than four months, with the Allies advancing a total of just five miles.
When World War I broke out in August 1914, great throngs of British men lined up to enlist in the war effort. At the time, it was generally thought that the war would be over within six months. However, by the end of 1914 well over a million soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and a final victory was not in sight for either the Allies or the Central Powers. On the Western Front--the battle line that stretched across northern France and Belgium--the combatants had settled down in the trenches for a terrible war of attrition. Maimed and shell-shocked troops returning to Britain with tales of machine guns, artillery barrages, and poison gas seriously dampened the enthusiasm of potential new volunteers.
With the aim of raising enough men to launch a decisive offensive against Germany, Britain replaced voluntary service with conscription in January 1916, when it passed an act calling for the enlistment of all unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 41. After Germany launched a massive offensive of its own against Verdun in February, Britain expanded the Military Service Act, calling for the conscription of all men, married and unmarried, between the ages of 18 and 41. Near the end of June, with the Battle of Verdun still raging, Britain prepared for its major offensive along a 21-mile stretch of the Western Front north of the Somme River.
For a week, the British bombarded the German trenches as a prelude to the attack. British Field Marshal Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, thought the artillery would decimate the German defenses and allow a British breakthrough; in fact, it served primarily to remove the element of surprise. When the bombardment died down on the morning of July 1, the German machine crews emerged from their fortified trenches and set up their weapons. At 7:30 a.m., 11 British divisions attacked at once, and the majority of them were gunned down. The soldiers optimistically carried heavy supplies for a long march, but few made it more than a couple of hundred yards. Five French divisions that attacked south of the Somme at the same time fared a little better, but without British success little could be done to exploit their gains.
After the initial disaster, Haig resigned himself to smaller but equally ineffectual advances, and more than 1,000 Allied lives were extinguished for every 100 yards gained on the Germans. Even Britain's September 15 introduction of tanks into warfare for the first time in history failed to break the deadlock in the Battle of the Somme. In October, heavy rains turned the battlefield into a sea of mud, and on November 18 Haig called off the Somme offensive after more than four months of mass slaughter.
Except for its effect of diverting German troops from the Battle of Verdun, the offensive was a miserable disaster. It amounted to a total gain of just 125 square miles for the Allies, with more than 600,000 British and French soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in the action. German casualties were more than 650,000. Although Haig was severely criticized for the costly battle, his willingness to commit massive amounts of men and resources to the stalemate along the Western Front did eventually contribute to the collapse of an exhausted Germany in 1918.
Jul 1, 1965: Ball recommends compromise in Vietnam
Undersecretary of State George Ball submits a memo to President Lyndon B. Johnson titled "A Compromise Solution for South Vietnam." It began bluntly: "The South Vietnamese are losing the war to the Viet Cong. No one can assure you that we can beat the Viet Cong, or even force them to the conference table on our terms, no matter how many hundred thousand white, foreign (U.S.) troops we deploy." Ball advised that the United States not commit any more troops, restrict the combat role of those already in place, and seek to negotiate a way out of the war.
As Ball was submitting his memo, the U.S. air base at Da Nang came under attack by the Viet Cong for the first time. An enemy demolition team infiltrated the airfield and destroyed three planes and damaged three others. One U.S. airman was killed and three U.S. Marines were wounded.
The attack on Da Nang, the increased aggressiveness of the Viet Cong, and the weakness of the Saigon regime convinced Johnson that he had to do something to stop the communists or they would soon take over South Vietnam. While Ball recommended a negotiated settlement, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara urged the president to "expand promptly and substantially" the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam. Johnson, not wanting to lose South Vietnam to the communists, ultimately accepted McNamara's recommendation. On July 22, he authorized a total of 44 U.S. battalions for commitment in South Vietnam, a decision that led to a massive escalation of the war. There were less than ten U.S. Army and Marine battalions in South Vietnam at this time. Eventually there would be more than 540,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
69 - Bataafs nobleman Gaius Julius Civilis proclaimed emperor of Syria
70 - Titus sets up batterig rams to assault the walls of Jerusalem
96 - Vespasian, a Roman Army leader, was hailed as a Roman Emperor by the Egyptian legions.
251 - The Battle of Abrittus is won by the Goths against the Romans. Roman Emperors Decius and Herennius Etruscus are killed.
649 - Pope Martinus I elected to succeed Theodore I
1097 - First Crusaders defeat Sultan Kilidj Arslan of Nicea
1200 - In China, sunglasses are invented
1233 - Earl Otto II van Gelre grants Arnhem state justice
1252 - King Alfonso X "el Sabio" of Castile/Leon crowned
1253 - Battle at Westkapelle-Floris the Guardian beats Gwijde van Dampierre
1347 - Engagement of Count Louis of Male to Margaretha to daughter of Jan III
1390 - French and Genuese armada sails out against barbarian pirates
1517 - First burning of Protestants at stake in Netherlands
1517 - Inquisitor Adrian Boeyens (pope Adrianus VI) becomes cardinal
1535 - Sir Thomas More goes on trial in England charged with treason
1543 - England and Scotland sign Peace treaty of Greenwich
1569 - Latvia Parliament accept Union of Lublin, incorporate into Poland
1596 - An English fleet under the Earl of Essex, Lord Howard of Effingham and Francis Vere captured and sacked Cadiz, Spain.
1600 - Prince Maurits' army occupies Newport Flanders Neth
1656 - First Quakers (Mary Fisher/Ann Austin) arrived in Boston (arrested)
1674 - Spain, France & Netherlands form Triple Alliance
1689 - Matsuo Basho, zen poet, leaves for 150 days journey on Honshu Japan
1690 - Battle of Colors: The French defeated the forces of the Grand Alliance at Fleurus in the Netherlands.
1690 - Army of England's Protestant King William III defeats Roman Catholic King James II in Battle of Boyne in Ireland
1745 - Warship Elisabeth joins Bonnie Prince Charlies frigate Doutelle [OS]
1747 - Battle at Lafeld: France beat English/Dutch army
1776 - First vote on Declaration of Independence
1782 - American privateers attack Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
1795 - John Rutledge becomes 2nd chief justice of Supreme Court
1798 - Napoleon's fleet reached Alexandria, Egypt
1810 - Louis Napoleon resigns as king of the Netherlands
1816 - French frigate Medusa wrecked; basis of Géricault's "Raft of the Medusa"
1820 - 1st edition of newspaper "Courrier de la Meuse" published"
1823 - 9th Postmaster General: John McLean of Ohio takes office
1823 - United Provinces of Central America gained independence from Mexico
1831 - Admiral James C Ross reaches magnetic North Pole
1839 - Abdul-Medjid succeeds Mahmud II as Sultan of Turkey
1847 - First US adhesive postage stamps go on sale, 5 cent Franklin and 10 cent Washington, NYC
1850 - At least 626 ships lie at anchor around SF Bay
1858 - 1st Canadian coins minted (1, 5, 10 and 20 cent)
1858 - The joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society.
1859 - First intercollegiate baseball game, Amherst beats Williams 66-32
1859 - Balloon covers a record 809 miles over St Louis
1861 - 1st public schoolhouse opens at Washington & Mason St, SF
1861 - War Dept decrees the KA & TN are to be canvassed for volunteers
1862 - Battle at Booneville Mississippi: Confed superior power driven out
1862 - Congress outlaws polygamy (1st time); bad news for Utah
1862 - US Civil War: Day 7 of 7 Days-Battle of Malvern Hill (Poindexter's Farm) Union forces repel Confederate attack
1862 - Emperor Alexander II grants Jews right to publish books
1862 - Battle of Holly Spring, MS
1862 - The U.S. Congress established the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and the Internal Revenue Law imposes first federal taxes on inheritance, tobacco and; on incomes over $600 (progressive rate)
1862 - The Russian State Library is founded.
1863 - The Battle of Gettysburg, which marked the turning point in the Civil War, began.
1863 - -2] Battle at Baltimore: Crump's Crossroads Virginia
1863 - Battle of Gettysburg, Pa; Lee's northward advance halted
1863 - Free city delivery of mail begins in 49 US cities; postage 3 cents per oz
1863 - Slavery abolished in Suriname and Netherlands Antilles
1864 - Battle of Petersburg, VA [->JUL 31] -front US3695 CS---
1867 - Dominion of Canada forms (New Bruns, Nova Scotia, Ontario and; Quebec) Canada became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain under the British North America Act.
1869 - Dutch newspaper stamp tax repealed
1869 - US mint at Carson City, Nevada opens
1870 - James W Smith of SC is one of 1st African Americans to enter West Point
1871 - The decimal currency system is made uniform in Canada
1873 - Henry Ossian Flipper of Georgia one of the first African Americans enters West Point Military Academy
1873 - Prince Edward Island becomes 7th Canadian province
1874 - 1st Chamber accept law against child labor
1874 - 1st US kidnapping for ransom, 4-year-old Charles Ross, $20,000
1874 - The Philadelphia Zoological Society zoo opened as the first zoo in the United States.
1875 - Universal Postal Union established
1876 - Montenegro declared war on the Turks.
1877 - 1st edition of "Amsterdammer" published
1878 - Treaty of Berlin divide Africa up for colonization
1878 - Canada joins the Universal Postal Union.
1879 - Ex-khedive Ismael Pasha sails from Alexandria to Naples
1879 - Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.
1881 - First international telephone conversation, Calais, ME-St Stephen, NB
1881 - US Assay Office in St Louis, Missouri opens
1881 - General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell-Childers reforms of the British Army's organisation, comes into effect.
1883 - ANWB forms in Utrecht
1885 - The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada.
1889 - Frederick Douglass named Minister to Haiti
1889 - US mint at Carson City, Nevada reopens
1890 - Great-Britain & Germany sign Zanzibar-Helgoland Treaty
1890 - Canada and Bermuda are linked by telegraph cable.
1893 - SF Bay City Club opens 1st US bicycle race track, made of wood
1893 - The first bicycle race track in America to be made out of wood was opened in San Francisco, CA.
1896 - Harbor of Ymuiden opens
1896 - Wilfrid Laurel sworn in as first French speaking premier
1897 - Bronx acquires Hutton Square
1897 - Three years after the first issue of "Billboard Advertising" was published, the publication was renamed, "The Billboard".
1898 - During the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" waged a victorious assault on San Juan Hill in Cuba.
1899 - Gideon Society established to place bibles in hotels
1899 - SF City Hall turned over to city, after 29 years of building
1902 - Ranji (230) & Newham (153) add 344 for 7th wkt, Sussex v Essex
1902 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" (BG)
1903 - 1st Tour de France bicycle race begins
1904 - 3rd modern Olympic games opens in St Louis
1905 - The USDA Forest Service was created within the Department of Agriculture. The agency was given the mission to sustain healthy, diverse, and productive forests and grasslands for present and future generations.
1907 - World's 1st air force established (US Army)
1909 - Thomas Edison began commercially manufacturing his new "A" type alkaline storage batteries.
1910 - Chicago's Comiskey Park opens - St Louis Browns beat White Sox 2-0
1910 - Union of South Africa becomes a dominion
1910 - White Sox Park (Comiskey Park) opens with 2-0 loss to Browns
1911 - German boat Panther nears for Agadir Morocco
1911 - Proclamation removes "Dei Gratia" from Canada's coins
1913 - Serbia and; Greece declare war on Bulgaria
1915 - Australia begins Commonwealth Lighthouse Service
1915 - Australian Survey Corps becomes part of Military Forces
1916 - The massive Allied offensive known as the Battle of the Somme began in France. The battle was the first to use tanks. British 4th Army walks to German lines
1916 - Coca-Cola brings current coke formula to the market
1916 - Honus Wagner, 42, is oldest to hit an inside-the-park HR
1917 - 257cm-mirror for Mount Wilson Observatory mounted
1917 - Race riots in East St Louis Illinois (40 to 200 reported killed)
1917 - Reds Fred Toney pitches completes doubleheader victories over Pirates
1917 - Robins (Dodgers) play their 1st Sunday game in Brooklyn
1919 - 1st class postage drops from 3 cents to 2 cents
1919 - Scheveningen soccer team forms in Scheveningen
1920 - Wash Senator Walter Johnson no-hits Boston Red Sox, 1-0
1921 - The Communist Party of China is founded.
1923 - 1st permanent radio network-AT&T (WEAF NY & WMAF Mass)
1924 - Light Brigade forms
1924 - Through regular transcontinental airmail service forms, NYC-SF
1925 - NY Giant Hack Wilson hits 2 HRs in 3rd inning beating Phillies, 16-7
1925 - SDAP wins 4 chairs in Second-Parliamentary election
1925 - Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs created in UK
1926 - Canada restores gold standard
1929 - US Immigration law of 1924 in effect
1929 - US cartoonist Elzie Segar creates "Popeye"
1930 - Great-Britain signs accord for Independence of Iraq
1931 - Cleveland Municipal Stadium is completed
1931 - Ice vending machines introduced in LA 25 lbs, 15 cents
1931 - Phillies Chuck Klein hits for cycle vs Chicago Cubs
1931 - Trans African Railway in use (Benguela, Angola-Jadotville, Congo)
1932 - 45th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Helen Moody beats Helen Jacobs (63 61)
1932 - NY Gov FDR nominated for president at Dem Convention in Chicago
1932 - NY newspaper Evening Standard goes bankrupt
1933 - German Nazi regime declared that married women shouldn't work
1933 - Strauss and von Hofmannsthal's opera "Arabella," premieres in Dresden
1933 - The Canadian Parliament suspended all Chinese immigration.
1934 - The Federal Communications Commission replaced the Federal Radio Commission as the regulator of broadcasting in the United States.
1934 - 1st x-ray photo of entire body, Rochester, NY
1935 - General Neth Persbureau (ANP) forms in Amsterdam
1936 - AVRO radio broadcast studios in Hilversum opens
1936 - Watchfulness Committee forms in Amsterdam
1937 - Britain begins using an emergency phone number (999)
1937 - Rev Martin Niemöller (Bekennende Kirche) arrested in Germany
1937 - Spanish bishops support Franco and fascists
1938 - 58th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Don Budge beats Henry Austin (61 60 63)
1940 - Australia refuses entry to Dutch Jewish refugees
1940 - In Washington, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was opened to traffic. The bridge collapsed during a wind storm on November 7, 1940.
1941 - First coml TV licenses granted-W2XBS-WNBT (NBC) & WCBW (CBS), NYC
1941 - Bulova Watch Co pays $9 for first ever network TV commercial in New York, NY
1941 - Joe Dimaggio on way to 56, ties Willie Keeler's 44 game hit streak
1941 - WCBW (now WCBS) TV channel 2 in NY, NY (CBS) begins broadcasting
1941 - WNBT TV (W2XBS, Now WNBC) channel 4 in NYC (NBC) begins broadcasting
1942 - German troops conquered Sebastopol in Crimea, in the Soviet Union.
1943 - The U.S. Government began automatically withholding federal income tax from paychecks.
1943 - "Pay-as-you-go" - first withholding tax from paychecks
1944 - 2500+ killed in London/SE England by German flying bombs
1944 - Bretton Woods Conference starts, establishing IMF & World Bank
1944 - Earl Claus von Stauffenberg promoted to colonel
1944 - General Eisenhower visited front in Normandy
1944 - US headquarter moves to Colombières Normandy
1944 - Von Rundstedt against Keitel: "Signs peace, idiots!"
1945 - First of the superstars returns from the WW II, Hank Greenberg homers
1945 - New York established the New York State Commission Against Discrimination to prevent discrimination in employment because of race, creed or natural origin. It was the first such agency in the U.S.
1945 - 55th Postmaster General: Robert E Hannegan of Mo takes office
1945 - Allies troop land on Balikpapan
1946 - Rajah cedes Sarawak to British crown
1946 - US drops atom bomb on Bikini atoll (4th atomic explosion)
1946 - U.S. President Harry Truman signed Public Law 476 that incorporated the Civil Air Patrol as a benevolent, nonprofit organization. The Civil Air Patrol was created on December 1, 1941.
1946 - The U.S. exploded a 20-kiloton atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
1947 - 192m long passenger ship Willem Ruys (Achille Lauro) launched
1947 - Brit Dominion Affairs office becomes Commonwealth Relations office
1948 - Bradman scores 128 Australia v Surrey, 141 mins, 15 fours
1948 - Brooklyn's Roy Campanella debuts as catcher
1948 - NYC subway fare goes from 5 to 10 cents, bus fare to 7 cents and combo fare at 12 cents
1949 - 63rd Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Ted Schroeder beat Drobny (36 60 63 46 64)
1949 - Bao Dai's Republic of Vietnam gains independence from France
1949 - WBRC TV channel 6 in Birmingham, AL (ABC) begins broadcasting
1949 - WCCO TV channel 4 in Minneapolis-St Paul, MN (CBS) begins broadcasting
1950 - "Lost in the Stars" closes at Music Box Theater NYC after 281 perfs
1950 - 1st 407 US ground troops arrived in South Korea to stem the tide of the advancing North Korean army.
1950 - NYC bus fare rises to 10 cents equal to subway fare, combo fare at 15 cents
1950 - WHBF TV channel 4 in Rock Island, IL (CBS) begins broadcasting
1951 - Bob Feller set a major league baseball record as he pitched his third no-hitter for the Cleveland Indians. They beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-1.
1953 - KLAS TV channel 8 in Las Vegas, NV (CBS) begins broadcasting
1953 - KTVH (now KWCH) TV channel 12 in Hutchinson-Wichita, KS (CBS) begins
1954 - Cards' Joe Cunningham hits 2 HRs for record 3 HRs in his 1st 2 days
1954 - Test Cricket debut of Khalid Hassan, 16 yrs 352, then world record
1954 - WDBO (now WCPX) TV channel 6 in Orlando, FL (CBS) begins broadcasting
1955 - 69th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Tony Trabert beats Kurt Nielsen (63 75 61)
1955 - KOTA TV channel 3 in Rapid City, SD (ABC/NBC) begins broadcasting
1956 - Elvis Presley wearing a tuxedo appears on Steve Allen Show
1956 - Ibrahim Hashiroe succeeds Said el-Moefti as premier of Jordan
1957 - International Geophysical Year begins (until Dec 31, 1958)
1957 - WRLP TV channel 32 in Greenfield/Keene/Brat, MA (IND) 1st broadcast
1958 - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.
1959 - Heinrich Lubke elected pres of West-Germany
1959 - Israeli Knesset agrees to weapon sales to West-Germany
1959 - WVTV TV channel 18 in Milwaukee, WI (IND) begins broadcasting
1959 - World Refugee Year begins
1959 - The Party of the African Federation (PFA) holds its constitutive conference.
1960 - Benjamin Britten's cantate "Carmen Baseliense," premieres in Basel
1960 - Italian Somaliland gained independence, unites with Somali Republic
1960 - British Somaliland becomes Somalia, and gained its independence from Britain through the unification of Somaliland with Italian Somalia.
1960 - Fidel Castro nationalizes Esso, Shell and Texaco in Cuba
1960 - Ghana becomes a republic
1960 - No passports needed inside Benelux
1960 - USSR shoots down US RB-47 reconnaissance plane
1961 - British troops landed in Kuwait to aid against Iraqi threats.
1961 - The first community air-raid shelter was built. The shelter in Boise, ID had a capacity of 1,000 people and family memberships sold for $100.
1961 - Haleakala National Park forms in Hawaii
1961 - KNDU TV channel 25 in Richland-Pasco-Kennew, WA (NBC) 1st broadcast
1962 - Algeria votes for independence
1962 - Burundi and Rwanda gained independence from Belgium (National Days)
1963 - Beatles record "She Loves You" and "I'll Get You"
1963 - Pres Kennedy arrives in Rome
1963 - The U.S. postmaster introduced the five-digit ZIP (Zoning Improvement Plan) code.
1965 - FC Twente '65 Enschede soccer team forms in Enschede
1965 - KUID TV channel 12 in Moscow, ID (PBS) begins broadcasting
1965 - Kinderstraf trial starts
1966 - 80th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: M Santana beats D Ralston (64 11-9 64)
1966 - Construction crews begin tearing up Market St to build BART 1966 - Explorer 33 launched
1966 - VVV soccer team forms in Venlo
1966 - The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.
1966 - The Medicare federal insurance program went into effect.
1967 - "Funny Girl" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 1348 perfs
1967 - 1st British color TV broadcast, on BBC 2
1967 - BBC starts their World Radio Club
1967 - Beatles' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," goes #1 for 15 weeks
1967 - Canada celebrates the 100th anniversary of the British North America Act, 1867.
1968 - Bob Gibson's streak of 47 2/3 inn scoreless streak ends on wild pitch
1968 - Fortuna Sittard soccer team forms in Sittard
1968 - John Lennon's 1st full art exhibition (You are Here)
1968 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
1968 - The CIA's Phoenix Program is officially established.
1968 - Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL-CIO.
1968 - The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was signed by 60 countries. It limited the spreading of nuclear material for military purposes. On May 11, 1995, the treaty was extended indefinitely.
1969 - Britain's Charles Philip Arthur George invested as Prince of Wales
1969 - John and Yoko are hospitalized after a car crash
1969 - Shelby Singleton buys Sun Records from Sam Phillips
1970 - Denny McLain returns, (leaves trailiing) Tigers beat Yankees in 11
1970 - FC Utrecht soccer team forms in Utrecht 1970 - Jimi Hendrix 1st recording session (NYC)
1971 - British & Argentina sign accord about Falkland Islands
1971 - Debt raised to build San Franisco's Golden Gate Bridge paid off
1971 - State of Washington becomes 1st state to ban sex discrimination
1972 - "Follies" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 524 performances
1972 - "Hair" closes at Biltmore Theater NYC after 1750 performances
1972 - Ms. magazine begins publishing
1972 - The first Gay Pride march in England takes place.
1973 - "Jesus Christ Superstar" closes at Mark Hellinger NYC after 711 perfs
1973 - First US-China basketball game, US collegiates beats Shanghai 96-61
1974 - General Pinochet becomes president of Chile
1974 - Isabel Peron succeeds husband Juan as pres of Argentina
1974 - Monmouthshire renamed Gwent and becomes part of Wales
1974 - Isavel Peron became the president of Argentina upon the death of her husband, Juan.
1975 - Muhammad Ali beats Joe Bugner in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1975 - WEDway People Mover inaugurated
1976 - Kenneth Gibson, is first black president of US Conference of Mayors
1976 - Portugal grants autonomy to Madeira.
1977 - 84th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Virginia Wade beats B Stove (46 63 61)
1977 - FC Volendam soccer team forms in Volendam Neth
1977 - Marlies Gohr runs Europen record 100m (10.88 sec)
1978 - "Act" closes at Majestic Theater NYC after 233 performances
1978 - Former Pres Nixon makes 1st public speech since resigning in 1974
1978 - Northern Territory of Australia becomes self-governing
1979 - Stampede Pass, Washington is covered with 6" of snow
1979 - Sony introduced the Walkman.
1979 - Susan B. Anthony was commemorated on a U.S. coin, the Susan B. Anthony dollar.
1980 - Steve Overt runs world record 3:48.8 mile in Oslo
1980 - O Canada officially becomes the national anthem of Canada.
1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed legislation that provided for 2 acres of land near the Lincoln Memorial for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1981 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that candidates for federal office had an "affirmative right" to go on national television.
1981 - Laurel Canyon California murders (4 die, 1 wounded)
1981 - NEC soccer team forms in Nijmegen
1981 - Nell Dunn's "Steaming," premieres in London
1981 - Prince Willem Alexander opens Willems Bridge in Rotterdam
1981 - Radio Shack 3rd release of Model III TRSDOS 1.3
1982 - 2,100 Unification church couples wed in NYC
1982 - ABC national music radio network scheduled premiere (never happened)
1982 - Challenger moves overland to Dryden
1982 - General Reynaldo Bignone sworn in as president of Argentina
1982 - Kosmos 1383, 1st search & rescue satellite, launched
1982 - PEC Swells '82 soccer team forms in Swells
1983 - Arbitrator Raymond Goetz rules 43 players who are on Disabled List during 1981 players' strike not entitled to salaries for that period
1984 - "Baby" closes at Barrymore Theater NYC after 241 performances
1984 - Royals pitcher Paul Splittorff, retires
1984 - The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA.
1985 - Robin Yount (Milwaukee Brewers) got the 1,800th hit of his career.
1987 - John Kevin Hill, at age 11, became the youngest to fly across the U.S. when he landed at National Airport in Washington, DC.
1987 - Bork nominated to Supreme Court, rejected in Oct by senate
1987 - NYC radio station WFAN-AM becomes 1st 24 hour all sports radio
1987 - WHN-AM in NY City changes call letters to WFAN (now WEVD) replacing WHN's country music, WYNY-FM adopts country music format
1989 - NFL owners vote unanimously to form WLAF
1989 - The Montreal Protocol, an international treaty, went into effect. It limited the production of ozone-destroying chemicals.
1989 - Yanks beat Milwaukee Brewers 4-1, score is changed to 5-1 after game is over. Umpire rules Roberto Kelly scored before a double-play
1990 - 11th US Seniors Golf Open: Lee Trevino
1990 - 1st Zen winter session in Sydney Zen Center's Gorrick's Run Zendo
1990 - Despite Andy Hawkins no-hitting White Sox, Yankees lose 4-0
1990 - Dordrecht '90 soccer team forms in Dordrecht
1990 - FC Swells soccer team forms in Swells
1990 - German Democratic Republic accepts Deutsche Mark as its currency
1990 - In Victoria, Australia, helmetless bike riding becomes illegal
1990 - NY Yankee Andy Hawkins throws no-hitter in Comiskey Park, losing 4-0
1991 - Court TV began airing.
1991 - The Warsaw Pact dissolved.
1992 - 6.6 earthquake in Big Bear Valley of Los Angeles
1992 - Ali Kafi becomes president of Algeria
1992 - Fox broadcasting adds Wednesday night TV programming
1993 - 1 second is added to the clock
1993 - Russian manned space craft TM-17, launches into orbit
1993 - STS-57 (Endeavour) lands
1994 - Fokker's-28 crashes at Tidjikja, Mauritania (94 killed)
1994 - Roman Herzog sworn in as German president
1994 - Soyuz TM-19 launches
1994 - Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Liberation Organization returned the Gaza Strip.
1995 - "Kiss of the Spider Woman" closes at Broadhurst NYC after 906 perfs
1995 - Kiersten Rickenbach, of NJ, crowned America's Junior Miss
1996 - Kevan James scores 103 & takes 4 wkts in 4 balls, Hants v Ind
1996 - NHL Winnipeg Jets officially become the Phoenix Coyotes
1996 - Placido Domingo becomes art director of Washington Opera
1996 - WBSI TV replaces WNYC on channel 31 in NYC
1997 - Nevada Athletic Commission suspends Mike Tyson for biting Holyfield
1997 - STS 94 (Columbia 23) launches into orbit
1997 - The sovereignty over Hong Kong was transferred from Great Britain to China. Britain had controlled Hong Kong as a colony for 156 years.
1999 - The U.S. Justice Department released new regulations that granted the attorney general sole power to appoint and oversee special counsels. The 1978 independent-counsel statute expired on June 30. .
1999 - The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on the day powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.
2000 - The Oresund Bridge, connecting Sweden and Denmark, opens for traffic.
2000 - Vermont's civil unions law goes into effect.
2000 - The Confederate flag was removed from the South Carolina statehouse.
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.
2003 - In Hong Kong, thousands of protesters marched to show their opposition to anti-subversion legislation
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.
2012 - 17 people are killed and 45 injured in an attack on two churches in Garissa, Kenya
2012 - Spain's football team crush Italy 4-0 to win the 2012 UEFA Euro Cup
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jul01.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Today is Canada Day.
So, here is another short spot by History.com (same website as above) about our neighbors to the North:
July 1, 1867: Canadian Independence Day
The autonomous Dominion of Canada, a confederation of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the future provinces of Ontario and Quebec, is officially recognized by Great Britain with the passage of the British North America Act.
During the 19th century, colonial dependence gave way to increasing autonomy for a growing Canada. In 1841, Upper and Lower Canada--now known as Ontario and Quebec--were made a single province by the Act of Union. In the 1860s, a movement for a greater Canadian federation grew out of the need for a common defense, the desire for a national railroad system, and the necessity of finding a solution to the problem of French and British conflict. When the Maritime provinces, which sought union among themselves, called a conference in 1864, delegates from the other provinces of Canada attended. Later in the year, another conference was held in Quebec, and in 1866 Canadian representatives traveled to London to meet with the British government.
On July 1, 1867, with passage of the British North America Act, the Dominion of Canada was officially established as a self-governing entity within the British Empire. Two years later, Canada acquired the vast possessions of the Hudson's Bay Company, and within a decade the provinces of Manitoba and Prince Edward Island had joined the Canadian federation. In 1885, the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed, making mass settlement across the vast territory of Canada possible.
This was an important date in Canadian history. Mostly because this was when the Confederation of Canada was created in 1867, but it was also important for some other reasons as well. American privateers attacked Lunenburg, in Nova Scotia. Nine years before Canada became a Union, it minted it's own coins (i, 5, 10, and 20 cent coins). The decimal currency system was incorporated in Canada, and Canada and the United States ended a fishery agreement. The first international telephone conversation took place on this day, with a call between Calais, Maine, and St Stephen, New Brunswick. Prince Edward Island officially became a province of Canada. Wilfred Laurier became the first French-speaking Prime Minister of Canada. Less happy history - it was on this date in 1933 that Canada suspended all Chinese immigration into the country. Eventually on this date, O Canada! became the official national anthem for Canada.
But most importantly, of course, it was on this day in 1867 that the Dominion of Canada came into existence. I have spent Canada Day inside of Canada a few times. Usually, in Quebec City, where they traditionally have free outdoor concerts and other celebratory events during the time of the end of June until early July. That is because June 24th in St. Jean Baptiiste Day in Quebec province, and then Canada Day a week later. So, it's a good time to take a trip there. Plus, there's a good chance that you can catch a good band or two. I think it was 2005 that I saw Tea Party up there (no, not the ridiculous American pseudo-political movement, but rather the pretty cool band).
There were other things that happened on this date elsewhere than Canada, of course. Sunglasses were invented over eight hundred years ago on this date, in China. The first Quakers arrived in Boston. It was on this day that the first vote on the Declaration of Independence came. Napoleon's fleet reached Alexandria, Egypt. Louis Napoleon resigned as the king of the Netherlands. The United Provinces of Central America gained their independence from Mexico. The first US postage stamps went on sale on this date. The Battle of Gettysburg began. The IRS imposed the first federal taxes on inheritance, tobacco, and incomes over $600. Slavery was outlawed in in the Netherlands Antilles and Suriname. The first zoo in the United States opened on this date. The Treaty of Berlin divided Africa up to be colonized. FDR was nominated to be President by the Democrats. It was on this date in 1933, not long after they first took power, that Nazis proclaimed that women should not work. The first US troops were flown into the Korean conflict. Castro nationalized gas in Cuba. British Somaliland became Somalia. Ghana became a republic. The Benelux nations (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg) made it unnecessary to use passports when crossing each other's borders. The United States instituted zip codes to make mail more easy and sensible. Algeria voted for independence. The Beatles had some significant events on this date, but none as significant as their landmark album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, reaching number one and staying there for fifteen weeks. Pinochet became President of Chile, while Isobel Peron replaced her husband as President of Argentina. Bork was nominated for the Supreme Court, although he would later ultimately be rejected. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, as well as 58 other nations, signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Act. East Germany accepted the West German currency, as the economies of the two nations were joined. Britain handed over Hong Kong to China. Civil unions went into effect in Vermont, and the confederate flag was taken down from the statehouse in South Carolina.
July 1, 1997: Hong Kong returned to China
At midnight on July 1, 1997, Hong Kong reverts back to Chinese rule in a ceremony attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prince Charles of Wales, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. A few thousand Hong Kongers protested the turnover, which was otherwise celebratory and peaceful.
In 1839, Britain invaded China to crush opposition to its interference in the country's economic, social, and political affairs. One of Britain's first acts of the war was to occupy Hong Kong, a sparsely inhabited island off the coast of southeast China. In 1841, China ceded the island to the British with the signing of the Convention of Chuenpi, and in 1842 the Treaty of Nanking was signed, formally ending the First Opium War.
Britain's new colony flourished as an East-West trading center and as the commercial gateway and distribution center for southern China. In 1898, Britain was granted an additional 99 years of rule over Hong Kong under the Second Convention of Peking. In September 1984, after years of negotiations, the British and the Chinese signed a formal agreement approving the 1997 turnover of the island in exchange for a Chinese pledge to preserve Hong Kong's capitalist system. On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong was peaceably handed over to China in a ceremony attended by numerous Chinese, British, and international dignitaries. The chief executive under the new Hong Kong government, Tung Chee Hwa, formulated a policy based on the concept of "one country, two systems," thus preserving Hong Kong's role as a principal capitalist center in Asia.
Jul 1, 1775: Congress resolves to forge Indian alliances
On this day in 1775, the Continental Congress resolves to recruit Indian nations to the American side in their dispute with the British, should the British take native allies of their own. The motion read: “That in case any Agent of the ministry, shall induce the Indian tribes, or any of them to commit actual hostilities against these colonies, or to enter into an offensive Alliance with the British troops, thereupon the colonies ought to avail themselves of an Alliance with such Indian Nations as will enter into the same, to oppose such British troops and their Indian Allies.”
Few “such Indians Nations” saw any advantage to joining the Patriot cause. Rather, they saw Great Britain as their last defense against the encroaching land-hungry European settlers into their ancestral territory. Racist settlers managed to undermine any residual trust remaining in the Native American population during the revolution by committing atrocities such as the massacre of neutral, Christian Indian women and children at prayer in Gnaddenhutten, Pennsylvania, in 1778. In another example, a Continental officer undermined his own cause with the murder of Cornplanter, a Shawnee leader and Patriot ally, in 1777.
At the close of the War for Independence, the Patriots’ few Indian allies received worse treatment at the hands of their supposed allies than natives who had sided with Britain. Having promised Continental soldiers land in return for their service, Congress seized land from its Indian allies in order to cede it to officers on the verge of mutiny in 1783.
Jul 1, 1916: Battle of the Somme begins
At 7:30 a.m., the British launch a massive offensive against German forces in the Somme River region of France. During the preceding week, 250,000 Allied shells had pounded German positions near the Somme, and 100,000 British soldiers poured out of their trenches and into no-man's-land on July 1, expecting to find the way cleared for them. However, scores of heavy German machine guns had survived the artillery onslaught, and the infantry were massacred. By the end of the day, 20,000 British soldiers were dead and 40,000 wounded. It was the single heaviest day of casualties in British military history. The disastrous Battle of the Somme stretched on for more than four months, with the Allies advancing a total of just five miles.
When World War I broke out in August 1914, great throngs of British men lined up to enlist in the war effort. At the time, it was generally thought that the war would be over within six months. However, by the end of 1914 well over a million soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and a final victory was not in sight for either the Allies or the Central Powers. On the Western Front--the battle line that stretched across northern France and Belgium--the combatants had settled down in the trenches for a terrible war of attrition. Maimed and shell-shocked troops returning to Britain with tales of machine guns, artillery barrages, and poison gas seriously dampened the enthusiasm of potential new volunteers.
With the aim of raising enough men to launch a decisive offensive against Germany, Britain replaced voluntary service with conscription in January 1916, when it passed an act calling for the enlistment of all unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 41. After Germany launched a massive offensive of its own against Verdun in February, Britain expanded the Military Service Act, calling for the conscription of all men, married and unmarried, between the ages of 18 and 41. Near the end of June, with the Battle of Verdun still raging, Britain prepared for its major offensive along a 21-mile stretch of the Western Front north of the Somme River.
For a week, the British bombarded the German trenches as a prelude to the attack. British Field Marshal Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, thought the artillery would decimate the German defenses and allow a British breakthrough; in fact, it served primarily to remove the element of surprise. When the bombardment died down on the morning of July 1, the German machine crews emerged from their fortified trenches and set up their weapons. At 7:30 a.m., 11 British divisions attacked at once, and the majority of them were gunned down. The soldiers optimistically carried heavy supplies for a long march, but few made it more than a couple of hundred yards. Five French divisions that attacked south of the Somme at the same time fared a little better, but without British success little could be done to exploit their gains.
After the initial disaster, Haig resigned himself to smaller but equally ineffectual advances, and more than 1,000 Allied lives were extinguished for every 100 yards gained on the Germans. Even Britain's September 15 introduction of tanks into warfare for the first time in history failed to break the deadlock in the Battle of the Somme. In October, heavy rains turned the battlefield into a sea of mud, and on November 18 Haig called off the Somme offensive after more than four months of mass slaughter.
Except for its effect of diverting German troops from the Battle of Verdun, the offensive was a miserable disaster. It amounted to a total gain of just 125 square miles for the Allies, with more than 600,000 British and French soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in the action. German casualties were more than 650,000. Although Haig was severely criticized for the costly battle, his willingness to commit massive amounts of men and resources to the stalemate along the Western Front did eventually contribute to the collapse of an exhausted Germany in 1918.
Jul 1, 1965: Ball recommends compromise in Vietnam
Undersecretary of State George Ball submits a memo to President Lyndon B. Johnson titled "A Compromise Solution for South Vietnam." It began bluntly: "The South Vietnamese are losing the war to the Viet Cong. No one can assure you that we can beat the Viet Cong, or even force them to the conference table on our terms, no matter how many hundred thousand white, foreign (U.S.) troops we deploy." Ball advised that the United States not commit any more troops, restrict the combat role of those already in place, and seek to negotiate a way out of the war.
As Ball was submitting his memo, the U.S. air base at Da Nang came under attack by the Viet Cong for the first time. An enemy demolition team infiltrated the airfield and destroyed three planes and damaged three others. One U.S. airman was killed and three U.S. Marines were wounded.
The attack on Da Nang, the increased aggressiveness of the Viet Cong, and the weakness of the Saigon regime convinced Johnson that he had to do something to stop the communists or they would soon take over South Vietnam. While Ball recommended a negotiated settlement, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara urged the president to "expand promptly and substantially" the U.S. military presence in South Vietnam. Johnson, not wanting to lose South Vietnam to the communists, ultimately accepted McNamara's recommendation. On July 22, he authorized a total of 44 U.S. battalions for commitment in South Vietnam, a decision that led to a massive escalation of the war. There were less than ten U.S. Army and Marine battalions in South Vietnam at this time. Eventually there would be more than 540,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
69 - Bataafs nobleman Gaius Julius Civilis proclaimed emperor of Syria
70 - Titus sets up batterig rams to assault the walls of Jerusalem
96 - Vespasian, a Roman Army leader, was hailed as a Roman Emperor by the Egyptian legions.
251 - The Battle of Abrittus is won by the Goths against the Romans. Roman Emperors Decius and Herennius Etruscus are killed.
649 - Pope Martinus I elected to succeed Theodore I
1097 - First Crusaders defeat Sultan Kilidj Arslan of Nicea
1200 - In China, sunglasses are invented
1233 - Earl Otto II van Gelre grants Arnhem state justice
1252 - King Alfonso X "el Sabio" of Castile/Leon crowned
1253 - Battle at Westkapelle-Floris the Guardian beats Gwijde van Dampierre
1347 - Engagement of Count Louis of Male to Margaretha to daughter of Jan III
1390 - French and Genuese armada sails out against barbarian pirates
1517 - First burning of Protestants at stake in Netherlands
1517 - Inquisitor Adrian Boeyens (pope Adrianus VI) becomes cardinal
1535 - Sir Thomas More goes on trial in England charged with treason
1543 - England and Scotland sign Peace treaty of Greenwich
1569 - Latvia Parliament accept Union of Lublin, incorporate into Poland
1596 - An English fleet under the Earl of Essex, Lord Howard of Effingham and Francis Vere captured and sacked Cadiz, Spain.
1600 - Prince Maurits' army occupies Newport Flanders Neth
1656 - First Quakers (Mary Fisher/Ann Austin) arrived in Boston (arrested)
1674 - Spain, France & Netherlands form Triple Alliance
1689 - Matsuo Basho, zen poet, leaves for 150 days journey on Honshu Japan
1690 - Battle of Colors: The French defeated the forces of the Grand Alliance at Fleurus in the Netherlands.
1690 - Army of England's Protestant King William III defeats Roman Catholic King James II in Battle of Boyne in Ireland
1745 - Warship Elisabeth joins Bonnie Prince Charlies frigate Doutelle [OS]
1747 - Battle at Lafeld: France beat English/Dutch army
1776 - First vote on Declaration of Independence
1782 - American privateers attack Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
1795 - John Rutledge becomes 2nd chief justice of Supreme Court
1798 - Napoleon's fleet reached Alexandria, Egypt
1810 - Louis Napoleon resigns as king of the Netherlands
1816 - French frigate Medusa wrecked; basis of Géricault's "Raft of the Medusa"
1820 - 1st edition of newspaper "Courrier de la Meuse" published"
1823 - 9th Postmaster General: John McLean of Ohio takes office
1823 - United Provinces of Central America gained independence from Mexico
1831 - Admiral James C Ross reaches magnetic North Pole
1839 - Abdul-Medjid succeeds Mahmud II as Sultan of Turkey
1847 - First US adhesive postage stamps go on sale, 5 cent Franklin and 10 cent Washington, NYC
1850 - At least 626 ships lie at anchor around SF Bay
1858 - 1st Canadian coins minted (1, 5, 10 and 20 cent)
1858 - The joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society.
1859 - First intercollegiate baseball game, Amherst beats Williams 66-32
1859 - Balloon covers a record 809 miles over St Louis
1861 - 1st public schoolhouse opens at Washington & Mason St, SF
1861 - War Dept decrees the KA & TN are to be canvassed for volunteers
1862 - Battle at Booneville Mississippi: Confed superior power driven out
1862 - Congress outlaws polygamy (1st time); bad news for Utah
1862 - US Civil War: Day 7 of 7 Days-Battle of Malvern Hill (Poindexter's Farm) Union forces repel Confederate attack
1862 - Emperor Alexander II grants Jews right to publish books
1862 - Battle of Holly Spring, MS
1862 - The U.S. Congress established the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and the Internal Revenue Law imposes first federal taxes on inheritance, tobacco and; on incomes over $600 (progressive rate)
1862 - The Russian State Library is founded.
1863 - The Battle of Gettysburg, which marked the turning point in the Civil War, began.
1863 - -2] Battle at Baltimore: Crump's Crossroads Virginia
1863 - Battle of Gettysburg, Pa; Lee's northward advance halted
1863 - Free city delivery of mail begins in 49 US cities; postage 3 cents per oz
1863 - Slavery abolished in Suriname and Netherlands Antilles
1864 - Battle of Petersburg, VA [->JUL 31] -front US3695 CS---
1867 - Dominion of Canada forms (New Bruns, Nova Scotia, Ontario and; Quebec) Canada became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain under the British North America Act.
1869 - Dutch newspaper stamp tax repealed
1869 - US mint at Carson City, Nevada opens
1870 - James W Smith of SC is one of 1st African Americans to enter West Point
1871 - The decimal currency system is made uniform in Canada
1873 - Henry Ossian Flipper of Georgia one of the first African Americans enters West Point Military Academy
1873 - Prince Edward Island becomes 7th Canadian province
1874 - 1st Chamber accept law against child labor
1874 - 1st US kidnapping for ransom, 4-year-old Charles Ross, $20,000
1874 - The Philadelphia Zoological Society zoo opened as the first zoo in the United States.
1875 - Universal Postal Union established
1876 - Montenegro declared war on the Turks.
1877 - 1st edition of "Amsterdammer" published
1878 - Treaty of Berlin divide Africa up for colonization
1878 - Canada joins the Universal Postal Union.
1879 - Ex-khedive Ismael Pasha sails from Alexandria to Naples
1879 - Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.
1881 - First international telephone conversation, Calais, ME-St Stephen, NB
1881 - US Assay Office in St Louis, Missouri opens
1881 - General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell-Childers reforms of the British Army's organisation, comes into effect.
1883 - ANWB forms in Utrecht
1885 - The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada.
1889 - Frederick Douglass named Minister to Haiti
1889 - US mint at Carson City, Nevada reopens
1890 - Great-Britain & Germany sign Zanzibar-Helgoland Treaty
1890 - Canada and Bermuda are linked by telegraph cable.
1893 - SF Bay City Club opens 1st US bicycle race track, made of wood
1893 - The first bicycle race track in America to be made out of wood was opened in San Francisco, CA.
1896 - Harbor of Ymuiden opens
1896 - Wilfrid Laurel sworn in as first French speaking premier
1897 - Bronx acquires Hutton Square
1897 - Three years after the first issue of "Billboard Advertising" was published, the publication was renamed, "The Billboard".
1898 - During the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt and his "Rough Riders" waged a victorious assault on San Juan Hill in Cuba.
1899 - Gideon Society established to place bibles in hotels
1899 - SF City Hall turned over to city, after 29 years of building
1902 - Ranji (230) & Newham (153) add 344 for 7th wkt, Sussex v Essex
1902 - Start of Sherlock Holmes "Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" (BG)
1903 - 1st Tour de France bicycle race begins
1904 - 3rd modern Olympic games opens in St Louis
1905 - The USDA Forest Service was created within the Department of Agriculture. The agency was given the mission to sustain healthy, diverse, and productive forests and grasslands for present and future generations.
1907 - World's 1st air force established (US Army)
1909 - Thomas Edison began commercially manufacturing his new "A" type alkaline storage batteries.
1910 - Chicago's Comiskey Park opens - St Louis Browns beat White Sox 2-0
1910 - Union of South Africa becomes a dominion
1910 - White Sox Park (Comiskey Park) opens with 2-0 loss to Browns
1911 - German boat Panther nears for Agadir Morocco
1911 - Proclamation removes "Dei Gratia" from Canada's coins
1913 - Serbia and; Greece declare war on Bulgaria
1915 - Australia begins Commonwealth Lighthouse Service
1915 - Australian Survey Corps becomes part of Military Forces
1916 - The massive Allied offensive known as the Battle of the Somme began in France. The battle was the first to use tanks. British 4th Army walks to German lines
1916 - Coca-Cola brings current coke formula to the market
1916 - Honus Wagner, 42, is oldest to hit an inside-the-park HR
1917 - 257cm-mirror for Mount Wilson Observatory mounted
1917 - Race riots in East St Louis Illinois (40 to 200 reported killed)
1917 - Reds Fred Toney pitches completes doubleheader victories over Pirates
1917 - Robins (Dodgers) play their 1st Sunday game in Brooklyn
1919 - 1st class postage drops from 3 cents to 2 cents
1919 - Scheveningen soccer team forms in Scheveningen
1920 - Wash Senator Walter Johnson no-hits Boston Red Sox, 1-0
1921 - The Communist Party of China is founded.
1923 - 1st permanent radio network-AT&T (WEAF NY & WMAF Mass)
1924 - Light Brigade forms
1924 - Through regular transcontinental airmail service forms, NYC-SF
1925 - NY Giant Hack Wilson hits 2 HRs in 3rd inning beating Phillies, 16-7
1925 - SDAP wins 4 chairs in Second-Parliamentary election
1925 - Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs created in UK
1926 - Canada restores gold standard
1929 - US Immigration law of 1924 in effect
1929 - US cartoonist Elzie Segar creates "Popeye"
1930 - Great-Britain signs accord for Independence of Iraq
1931 - Cleveland Municipal Stadium is completed
1931 - Ice vending machines introduced in LA 25 lbs, 15 cents
1931 - Phillies Chuck Klein hits for cycle vs Chicago Cubs
1931 - Trans African Railway in use (Benguela, Angola-Jadotville, Congo)
1932 - 45th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Helen Moody beats Helen Jacobs (63 61)
1932 - NY Gov FDR nominated for president at Dem Convention in Chicago
1932 - NY newspaper Evening Standard goes bankrupt
1933 - German Nazi regime declared that married women shouldn't work
1933 - Strauss and von Hofmannsthal's opera "Arabella," premieres in Dresden
1933 - The Canadian Parliament suspended all Chinese immigration.
1934 - The Federal Communications Commission replaced the Federal Radio Commission as the regulator of broadcasting in the United States.
1934 - 1st x-ray photo of entire body, Rochester, NY
1935 - General Neth Persbureau (ANP) forms in Amsterdam
1936 - AVRO radio broadcast studios in Hilversum opens
1936 - Watchfulness Committee forms in Amsterdam
1937 - Britain begins using an emergency phone number (999)
1937 - Rev Martin Niemöller (Bekennende Kirche) arrested in Germany
1937 - Spanish bishops support Franco and fascists
1938 - 58th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Don Budge beats Henry Austin (61 60 63)
1940 - Australia refuses entry to Dutch Jewish refugees
1940 - In Washington, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was opened to traffic. The bridge collapsed during a wind storm on November 7, 1940.
1941 - First coml TV licenses granted-W2XBS-WNBT (NBC) & WCBW (CBS), NYC
1941 - Bulova Watch Co pays $9 for first ever network TV commercial in New York, NY
1941 - Joe Dimaggio on way to 56, ties Willie Keeler's 44 game hit streak
1941 - WCBW (now WCBS) TV channel 2 in NY, NY (CBS) begins broadcasting
1941 - WNBT TV (W2XBS, Now WNBC) channel 4 in NYC (NBC) begins broadcasting
1942 - German troops conquered Sebastopol in Crimea, in the Soviet Union.
1943 - The U.S. Government began automatically withholding federal income tax from paychecks.
1943 - "Pay-as-you-go" - first withholding tax from paychecks
1944 - 2500+ killed in London/SE England by German flying bombs
1944 - Bretton Woods Conference starts, establishing IMF & World Bank
1944 - Earl Claus von Stauffenberg promoted to colonel
1944 - General Eisenhower visited front in Normandy
1944 - US headquarter moves to Colombières Normandy
1944 - Von Rundstedt against Keitel: "Signs peace, idiots!"
1945 - First of the superstars returns from the WW II, Hank Greenberg homers
1945 - New York established the New York State Commission Against Discrimination to prevent discrimination in employment because of race, creed or natural origin. It was the first such agency in the U.S.
1945 - 55th Postmaster General: Robert E Hannegan of Mo takes office
1945 - Allies troop land on Balikpapan
1946 - Rajah cedes Sarawak to British crown
1946 - US drops atom bomb on Bikini atoll (4th atomic explosion)
1946 - U.S. President Harry Truman signed Public Law 476 that incorporated the Civil Air Patrol as a benevolent, nonprofit organization. The Civil Air Patrol was created on December 1, 1941.
1946 - The U.S. exploded a 20-kiloton atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
1947 - 192m long passenger ship Willem Ruys (Achille Lauro) launched
1947 - Brit Dominion Affairs office becomes Commonwealth Relations office
1948 - Bradman scores 128 Australia v Surrey, 141 mins, 15 fours
1948 - Brooklyn's Roy Campanella debuts as catcher
1948 - NYC subway fare goes from 5 to 10 cents, bus fare to 7 cents and combo fare at 12 cents
1949 - 63rd Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Ted Schroeder beat Drobny (36 60 63 46 64)
1949 - Bao Dai's Republic of Vietnam gains independence from France
1949 - WBRC TV channel 6 in Birmingham, AL (ABC) begins broadcasting
1949 - WCCO TV channel 4 in Minneapolis-St Paul, MN (CBS) begins broadcasting
1950 - "Lost in the Stars" closes at Music Box Theater NYC after 281 perfs
1950 - 1st 407 US ground troops arrived in South Korea to stem the tide of the advancing North Korean army.
1950 - NYC bus fare rises to 10 cents equal to subway fare, combo fare at 15 cents
1950 - WHBF TV channel 4 in Rock Island, IL (CBS) begins broadcasting
1951 - Bob Feller set a major league baseball record as he pitched his third no-hitter for the Cleveland Indians. They beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-1.
1953 - KLAS TV channel 8 in Las Vegas, NV (CBS) begins broadcasting
1953 - KTVH (now KWCH) TV channel 12 in Hutchinson-Wichita, KS (CBS) begins
1954 - Cards' Joe Cunningham hits 2 HRs for record 3 HRs in his 1st 2 days
1954 - Test Cricket debut of Khalid Hassan, 16 yrs 352, then world record
1954 - WDBO (now WCPX) TV channel 6 in Orlando, FL (CBS) begins broadcasting
1955 - 69th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Tony Trabert beats Kurt Nielsen (63 75 61)
1955 - KOTA TV channel 3 in Rapid City, SD (ABC/NBC) begins broadcasting
1956 - Elvis Presley wearing a tuxedo appears on Steve Allen Show
1956 - Ibrahim Hashiroe succeeds Said el-Moefti as premier of Jordan
1957 - International Geophysical Year begins (until Dec 31, 1958)
1957 - WRLP TV channel 32 in Greenfield/Keene/Brat, MA (IND) 1st broadcast
1958 - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.
1959 - Heinrich Lubke elected pres of West-Germany
1959 - Israeli Knesset agrees to weapon sales to West-Germany
1959 - WVTV TV channel 18 in Milwaukee, WI (IND) begins broadcasting
1959 - World Refugee Year begins
1959 - The Party of the African Federation (PFA) holds its constitutive conference.
1960 - Benjamin Britten's cantate "Carmen Baseliense," premieres in Basel
1960 - Italian Somaliland gained independence, unites with Somali Republic
1960 - British Somaliland becomes Somalia, and gained its independence from Britain through the unification of Somaliland with Italian Somalia.
1960 - Fidel Castro nationalizes Esso, Shell and Texaco in Cuba
1960 - Ghana becomes a republic
1960 - No passports needed inside Benelux
1960 - USSR shoots down US RB-47 reconnaissance plane
1961 - British troops landed in Kuwait to aid against Iraqi threats.
1961 - The first community air-raid shelter was built. The shelter in Boise, ID had a capacity of 1,000 people and family memberships sold for $100.
1961 - Haleakala National Park forms in Hawaii
1961 - KNDU TV channel 25 in Richland-Pasco-Kennew, WA (NBC) 1st broadcast
1962 - Algeria votes for independence
1962 - Burundi and Rwanda gained independence from Belgium (National Days)
1963 - Beatles record "She Loves You" and "I'll Get You"
1963 - Pres Kennedy arrives in Rome
1963 - The U.S. postmaster introduced the five-digit ZIP (Zoning Improvement Plan) code.
1965 - FC Twente '65 Enschede soccer team forms in Enschede
1965 - KUID TV channel 12 in Moscow, ID (PBS) begins broadcasting
1965 - Kinderstraf trial starts
1966 - 80th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: M Santana beats D Ralston (64 11-9 64)
1966 - Construction crews begin tearing up Market St to build BART 1966 - Explorer 33 launched
1966 - VVV soccer team forms in Venlo
1966 - The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.
1966 - The Medicare federal insurance program went into effect.
1967 - "Funny Girl" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 1348 perfs
1967 - 1st British color TV broadcast, on BBC 2
1967 - BBC starts their World Radio Club
1967 - Beatles' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," goes #1 for 15 weeks
1967 - Canada celebrates the 100th anniversary of the British North America Act, 1867.
1968 - Bob Gibson's streak of 47 2/3 inn scoreless streak ends on wild pitch
1968 - Fortuna Sittard soccer team forms in Sittard
1968 - John Lennon's 1st full art exhibition (You are Here)
1968 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
1968 - The CIA's Phoenix Program is officially established.
1968 - Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL-CIO.
1968 - The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty was signed by 60 countries. It limited the spreading of nuclear material for military purposes. On May 11, 1995, the treaty was extended indefinitely.
1969 - Britain's Charles Philip Arthur George invested as Prince of Wales
1969 - John and Yoko are hospitalized after a car crash
1969 - Shelby Singleton buys Sun Records from Sam Phillips
1970 - Denny McLain returns, (leaves trailiing) Tigers beat Yankees in 11
1970 - FC Utrecht soccer team forms in Utrecht 1970 - Jimi Hendrix 1st recording session (NYC)
1971 - British & Argentina sign accord about Falkland Islands
1971 - Debt raised to build San Franisco's Golden Gate Bridge paid off
1971 - State of Washington becomes 1st state to ban sex discrimination
1972 - "Follies" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 524 performances
1972 - "Hair" closes at Biltmore Theater NYC after 1750 performances
1972 - Ms. magazine begins publishing
1972 - The first Gay Pride march in England takes place.
1973 - "Jesus Christ Superstar" closes at Mark Hellinger NYC after 711 perfs
1973 - First US-China basketball game, US collegiates beats Shanghai 96-61
1974 - General Pinochet becomes president of Chile
1974 - Isabel Peron succeeds husband Juan as pres of Argentina
1974 - Monmouthshire renamed Gwent and becomes part of Wales
1974 - Isavel Peron became the president of Argentina upon the death of her husband, Juan.
1975 - Muhammad Ali beats Joe Bugner in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1975 - WEDway People Mover inaugurated
1976 - Kenneth Gibson, is first black president of US Conference of Mayors
1976 - Portugal grants autonomy to Madeira.
1977 - 84th Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Virginia Wade beats B Stove (46 63 61)
1977 - FC Volendam soccer team forms in Volendam Neth
1977 - Marlies Gohr runs Europen record 100m (10.88 sec)
1978 - "Act" closes at Majestic Theater NYC after 233 performances
1978 - Former Pres Nixon makes 1st public speech since resigning in 1974
1978 - Northern Territory of Australia becomes self-governing
1979 - Stampede Pass, Washington is covered with 6" of snow
1979 - Sony introduced the Walkman.
1979 - Susan B. Anthony was commemorated on a U.S. coin, the Susan B. Anthony dollar.
1980 - Steve Overt runs world record 3:48.8 mile in Oslo
1980 - O Canada officially becomes the national anthem of Canada.
1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed legislation that provided for 2 acres of land near the Lincoln Memorial for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1981 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that candidates for federal office had an "affirmative right" to go on national television.
1981 - Laurel Canyon California murders (4 die, 1 wounded)
1981 - NEC soccer team forms in Nijmegen
1981 - Nell Dunn's "Steaming," premieres in London
1981 - Prince Willem Alexander opens Willems Bridge in Rotterdam
1981 - Radio Shack 3rd release of Model III TRSDOS 1.3
1982 - 2,100 Unification church couples wed in NYC
1982 - ABC national music radio network scheduled premiere (never happened)
1982 - Challenger moves overland to Dryden
1982 - General Reynaldo Bignone sworn in as president of Argentina
1982 - Kosmos 1383, 1st search & rescue satellite, launched
1982 - PEC Swells '82 soccer team forms in Swells
1983 - Arbitrator Raymond Goetz rules 43 players who are on Disabled List during 1981 players' strike not entitled to salaries for that period
1984 - "Baby" closes at Barrymore Theater NYC after 241 performances
1984 - Royals pitcher Paul Splittorff, retires
1984 - The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA.
1985 - Robin Yount (Milwaukee Brewers) got the 1,800th hit of his career.
1987 - John Kevin Hill, at age 11, became the youngest to fly across the U.S. when he landed at National Airport in Washington, DC.
1987 - Bork nominated to Supreme Court, rejected in Oct by senate
1987 - NYC radio station WFAN-AM becomes 1st 24 hour all sports radio
1987 - WHN-AM in NY City changes call letters to WFAN (now WEVD) replacing WHN's country music, WYNY-FM adopts country music format
1989 - NFL owners vote unanimously to form WLAF
1989 - The Montreal Protocol, an international treaty, went into effect. It limited the production of ozone-destroying chemicals.
1989 - Yanks beat Milwaukee Brewers 4-1, score is changed to 5-1 after game is over. Umpire rules Roberto Kelly scored before a double-play
1990 - 11th US Seniors Golf Open: Lee Trevino
1990 - 1st Zen winter session in Sydney Zen Center's Gorrick's Run Zendo
1990 - Despite Andy Hawkins no-hitting White Sox, Yankees lose 4-0
1990 - Dordrecht '90 soccer team forms in Dordrecht
1990 - FC Swells soccer team forms in Swells
1990 - German Democratic Republic accepts Deutsche Mark as its currency
1990 - In Victoria, Australia, helmetless bike riding becomes illegal
1990 - NY Yankee Andy Hawkins throws no-hitter in Comiskey Park, losing 4-0
1991 - Court TV began airing.
1991 - The Warsaw Pact dissolved.
1992 - 6.6 earthquake in Big Bear Valley of Los Angeles
1992 - Ali Kafi becomes president of Algeria
1992 - Fox broadcasting adds Wednesday night TV programming
1993 - 1 second is added to the clock
1993 - Russian manned space craft TM-17, launches into orbit
1993 - STS-57 (Endeavour) lands
1994 - Fokker's-28 crashes at Tidjikja, Mauritania (94 killed)
1994 - Roman Herzog sworn in as German president
1994 - Soyuz TM-19 launches
1994 - Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Liberation Organization returned the Gaza Strip.
1995 - "Kiss of the Spider Woman" closes at Broadhurst NYC after 906 perfs
1995 - Kiersten Rickenbach, of NJ, crowned America's Junior Miss
1996 - Kevan James scores 103 & takes 4 wkts in 4 balls, Hants v Ind
1996 - NHL Winnipeg Jets officially become the Phoenix Coyotes
1996 - Placido Domingo becomes art director of Washington Opera
1996 - WBSI TV replaces WNYC on channel 31 in NYC
1997 - Nevada Athletic Commission suspends Mike Tyson for biting Holyfield
1997 - STS 94 (Columbia 23) launches into orbit
1997 - The sovereignty over Hong Kong was transferred from Great Britain to China. Britain had controlled Hong Kong as a colony for 156 years.
1999 - The U.S. Justice Department released new regulations that granted the attorney general sole power to appoint and oversee special counsels. The 1978 independent-counsel statute expired on June 30. .
1999 - The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth on the day powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.
2000 - The Oresund Bridge, connecting Sweden and Denmark, opens for traffic.
2000 - Vermont's civil unions law goes into effect.
2000 - The Confederate flag was removed from the South Carolina statehouse.
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.
2003 - In Hong Kong, thousands of protesters marched to show their opposition to anti-subversion legislation
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.
2012 - 17 people are killed and 45 injured in an attack on two churches in Garissa, Kenya
2012 - Spain's football team crush Italy 4-0 to win the 2012 UEFA Euro Cup
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jul01.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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