July 1
July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 183 days remaining until the end of the year.
It is not only the last day of the first half of the year. The end of this day marks the halfway point of a leap year. It also falls on the same day of the week as New Year's Day and April Fools' Day in a leap year. It is also the first day of the third quarter and the second half of the year. The midpoint of the year for southern hemisphere DST countries occurs at 11:00 p.m.
Events
Up to 1900
- 69 - Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor.
- 552 - Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under Narses defeat the Ostrogoths in present-day Italy.
- 1097 – Battle of Dorylaeum: Crusaders under Bohemond of Taranto defeat a Turkish army under Qilich Arslan I.
- 1431 - The Battle of La Higueruela takes place in Granada, leading to a modest advance of Castile
- 1502 - A hurricane off the Caribbean island of Hispaniola sinks 20 ships, with no survivors.
- 1690 – Battle of the Boyne as reckoned under Julian calendar.
- 1770 - Lexell's Comet passes closer to Earth than any other comet in recorded history.
- 1782 - American privateers attack Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
- 1858 – The joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society.
- 1862 – Russian State Library is founded.
- 1863 – American Civil War: the Battle of Gettysburg begins.
- 1863 - The Netherlands ends slavery in Suriname, on a day now celebrated there as Keti Koti.
- 1867 – The British North America Act takes effect as the constitution of Canada, creating the Canadian Confederation; John A. Macdonald is sworn in as first Prime Minister.
- 1870 – The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence.
- 1873 – Prince Edward Island joins the Canadian Confederation.
- 1874 - The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, goes on sale.
- 1878 – Canada joins the Universal Postal Union.
- 1879 - Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses, publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.
- 1881 – World's first international telephone call, between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States.
- 1881 – General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell-Childers reforms of the British Army's organisation, came into effect.
- 1885 – United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada.
- 1890 – Canada and Bermuda linked by telegraph cable.
- 1898 - Spanish-American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought near Santiago de Cuba.
1901 – 1950
- 1903 - The first Tour de France cycling race starts.
- 1904 – Games of the III Olympiad open in Saint Louis, Missouri.
- 1908 - SOS is first adopted as a distress signal.
- 1916 – First day on the Somme: On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 20,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed, and 40,000 wounded.
- 1921 – The Communist Party of China is founded.
- 1923 – The Canadian Parliament suspends all Chinese immigration.
- 1931 - Official opening of Milan Central Station.
- 1935 – Regina, Saskatchewan police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ambush strikers participating in On-to-Ottawa-Trek.
- 1937 - The first 999 emergency telephone number goes into effect in the UK.
- 1942 - A US submarine sinks Japanese ship Montevideo Maru, killing 1,053 people, including Australian POWs.
- 1943 - Tokyo City merges with Tokyo Prefecture and is dissolved, meaning that Tokyo is not a city.
- 1947 - The Philippine Air Force is founded.
- 1947 – The Australian real estate franchise L. J. Hooker lists on the Australian Stock Exchange
- 1948 – Official opening of New York International Airport (now known as John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild.
- 1949 - 1,000 years of the princely family of Cochin's rule comes to an end in Southern India, when the states of Cochin and Travancore merge into the state of Thiru-Kochi, which later becomes known as Kerala.
1951 – 1975
- 1957 – The International Geophysical Year begins (until December 31, 1958).
- 1958 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.
- 1958 – Flooding of the St. Lawrence Seaway begins.
- 1960 – Independence of Somalia.
- 1960 – Ghana becomes a Republic.
- 1962 – Independence of Rwanda.
- 1962 – Independence of Burundi.
- 1963 – ZIP Code introduced for United States mail.
- 1963 – The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent.
- 1963 – U.S President John F. Kennedy arrives in Rome.
- 1966 – First colour television transmission in Canada, from Toronto.
- 1967 – The European Community is formally created out of a merger with the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission.
- 1968 – The CIA's Phoenix Program is officially established.
- 1968 – Nuclear non-proliferation treaty signed by about sixty countries in Geneva, Switzerland.
- 1968 – Formal separation of the United Auto Workers with the AFL-CIO.
- 1969 – Rock group The Band release their influential debut Music From Big Pink.
- 1972 – Andreas Baader, Jan-Carl Raspe and Holger Meins of the Red Army Faction are captured in Frankfurt am Main after a shootout with the police.
1976 – 2000
- 1976 – Portugal gives Miaaa to Madeira.
- 1978 – Australia's Northern Territory is given self-government.
- 1979 – Sony introduces the Walkman.
- 1980 – O Canada officially becomes the national anthem of Canada.
- 1983 – A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea crashed into the Fouta Djall Mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.
- 1984 - Liechtenstein allows women the right to vote, as the last then-independent European country to do so.
- 1985 - At a Wimbledon Doubles match, the record is set for the longest-ever tie break (after a set is tied 6-6), which ends 26-24.
- 1984 - Richard von Weizsaecker becomes President of Germany.
- 1986 – In an interview with Playboy magazine, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke comes out as a bisexual.
- 1987 – Excavation begins on the Channel Tunnel.
- 1988 – Bologna, Italy: Quartetto Cetra's last concert after over forty years' musical career.
- 1990 – East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany.
- 1991 – The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved.
- 1994 - Roman Herzog becomes President of Germany.
- 1997 – The United Kingdom hands sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.
- 1999 – At the first meeting of the Scottish Parliament in nearly three centuries, Winnie Ewing opened with the famous words, "The Scottish Parliament, adjourned on the 25th day of March in the year 1707, is hereby reconvened."
- 1999 - Johannes Rau becomes President of Germany.
- 2000 - The Oresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden is opened.
- 2000 – Vermont's civil unions law goes into effect.
From 2001
- 2002 - The International Criminal Court is created, to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
- 2002 – A Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev TU-154 and a DHL (German cargo) Boeing 757 collide in mid-air over southern Germany, killing 71.
- 2003 – 500,000 people take part in a march in Hong Kong to protest, amongst other things, the government's handling of the plans to implement a new anti-subversion law required under Article 23 of Hong Kong's Basic Law.
- 2004 – 530,000 people take part in a march in Hong Kong to urge for faster pace of democratisation and universal suffrage, according to Article 45 and Article 68 of Hong Kong's Basic Law.
- 2004 – Saturn Orbit Insertion of Cassini-Huygens begins at 01:12 UT and ends at 02:48 UT.
- 2004 - Horst Koehler becomes President of Germany.
- 2005 – Microsoft plans to end official support of Windows 2000
- 2005 – Make Poverty History's White Band Day.
- 2005 – Revaluation of the Romanian Leu.
- 2006 - First operation of the Qinghai-Tibet railway.
- 2007 – On the same day as each other, England and Australia ban smoking in public places.
- 2009 – Ivo Sanader resigns as Prime Minister of Croatia. Jadranka Kosor succeeds him.
- 2012 – The Spain national football team wins UEFA Euro 2012, defeating the Italy national football team 4-0 in the final in Kiev, Ukraine.
- 2013 – Croatia joins the European Union.
- 2013 - Neptune's moon S/2004 N1 is discovered.
- 2015 - Greece becomes the first advanced economy to miss a payment to the International Monetary Fund.
- 2016 - Austria's highest court orders a re-run of the May 22 Presidential election, in which Alexander Van der Bellen had narrowly defeated Norbert Hofer.
- 2018 – Andrés Manuel López Obrador is elected President of Mexico.
Births
Up to 1900
- 1336 – Philip, Duke of Orléans (d. 1375)
- 1368 – Bracco da Montone, Italian mercenary (d. 1424)
- 1381 – Lorenzo Giustiniani, Italian bishop (d. 1456)
- 1481 – King Christian II of Denmark, Sweden and Norway (d. 1559)
- 1506 – King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia (d. 1526)
- 1534 – King Frederick II of Denmark (d. 1583)
- 1627 – Anna Maria of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (d. 1669)
- 1633 – Johann Heinrich Heidegger, Swiss theologian (d. 1698)
- 1646 – Gottfried Leibniz, German mathematician and philosopher (d. 1716)
- 1723 – Pedro Rodriguez, Conde de Campomanes, Spanish statesman (d. 1802)
- 1725 – Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, French nobleman and soldier (d. 1807)
- 1742 – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German physicist (d. 1799)
- 1771 – Ferdinando Paer, Italian composer (d. 1839)
- 1780 – Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian general (d. 1831)
- 1788 – Jean-Victor Poncelet, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1867)
- 1804 – George Sand, French writer (d. 1876)
- 1812 – Abbas I of Egypt (d. 1854)
- 1814 – Robert Torrens, Irish-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of South Australia (d. 1884)
- 1818 – Ignaz Semmelweis, Hungarian physician (d. 1865)
- 1822 – Nguyen Dinh Chieu, Vietnamese poet (d. 1888)
- 1834 – Jadwiga Luszczewska, Polish poet (d. 1908)
- 1863 – William Grant Stairs, Canadian explorer (d. 1892)
- 1872 – Louis Blériot, French aviator (d. 1936)
- 1873 – Andrass Samuelsen, 1st Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1954)
- 1878 – Jacques Rosenbaum, Baltic German architect (d. 1944)
- 1879 – Léon Jouhaux, French labor figure (d. 1954)
- 1882 – B. C. Roy, Indian doctor and politician (d. 1962)
- 1889 – Vera Mukhina, Russian sculptor (d. 1962)
- 1893 – Walter White, Head of the NAACP (d. 1955)
- 1899 – Konstantinos Tsatsos, President of Greece (d. 1987)
- 1899 – Charles Laughton, British actor (d. 1962)
- 1899 – Thomas A. Dorsey, American composer (d. 1993)
1901 – 1950
- 1902 – William Wyler, French-American director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1981)
- 1903 – Amy Johnson, British pilot (d. 1941)
- 1906 – Estée Lauder, American entrepreneur (d. 2004)
- 1906 – Jean Dieudonné, French mathematician (d. 1992)
- 1906 – Peter Ritchie Calder, Scottish author, journalist and academic (d. 1982)
- 1907 – Fabian von Schlabrendorff, German jurist and resistance activist (d. 1980)
- 1908 – Peter Anders, German tenor (d. 1954)
- 1909 – Emmett Toppino, American sprinter (d. 1971)
- 1910 – Glenn Hardin, American hurdler (d. 1975)
- 1911 – Sergey Leonidovich Sokolov, Soviet marshal (d. 2012)
- 1913 – Vasantrao Naik, Indian politician, 3rd Chief Minister of Maharashtra (d. 1979)
- 1915 – Nguyen Van Linh, Vietnamese politician (d. 1998)
- 1915 – Willie Dixon, American blues singer (d. 1992)
- 1916 – Olivia de Havilland, British-born actress
- 1917 – Humphry Osmond, English psychiatrist (d. 2004)
- 1920 – Lucidio Sentimenti, Italian footballer (d. 2014)
- 1921 – Seretse Khama, first President of Botswana (d. 1980)
- 1922 – Riccardo Carapellese, Italian footballer (d. 1995)
- 1924 – Antoni Ramallets, Spanish footballer (d. 2013)
- 1925 – Farley Granger, American actor (d. 2011)
- 1926 – Hans Werner Henze, German composer (d. 2012)
- 1926 – Robert Fogel, American economist (d. 2013)
- 1927 – Chandra Shekhar, Prime Minister of India (d. 2007)
- 1929 – Gerald Edelman, American biologist (d. 2014)
- 1930 – Carol Chomsky, American linguist (d. 2008)
- 1930 – Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, former President of Bolivia
- 1931 – Leslie Caron, French actress and dancer
- 1931 – Seyni Kountché, President of Niger (d. 1987)
- 1934 – Jamie Farr, American actor
- 1934 – Sidney Pollack, American actor (d. 2008)
- 1934 – Claude Berri, French movie director and screenwriter (d. 2009)
- 1934 – Jean Marsh, English actress and writer
- 1935 – James Cotton, American singer (d. 2017)
- 1935 – David Prowse, English actor
- 1937 – Lydia Makhubu, Swazi chemist
- 1939 – Karen Black, American actress (d. 2013)
- 1940 – Craig Brown, Scottish footballer and manager
- 1941 – Rod Gilbert, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1941 – Alfred G. Gilman, Canadian-American pharmacologist
- 1941 – Myron Scholes, American economist
- 1941 – Twyla Tharp, American dancer, choreographer and writer
- 1942 – Geneviève Bujold, Canadian actress
- 1942 – Andraé Crouch, American singer-songwriter, producer and writer (d. 2015)
- 1942 – Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Iraqi politician
- 1945 – Debbie Harry, American singer (Blondie)
- 1946 – Mireya Moscoso, former President of Panama
- 1946 – Mick Aston, British archaeologist (d. 2013)
- 1946 – Erkki Tuomioja, Finnish politician
- 1947 – Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Japanese racing driver
- 1950 – Ben Roberts, British actor (d. 2021)
1951 – 1975
- 1951 – Trevor Eve, British actor
- 1952 – Dan Aykroyd, Canadian actor and entertainer
- 1953 – Jadranka Kosor, former Prime Minister of Croatia
- 1953 – Lawrence Gonzi, former Prime Minister of Malta
- 1955 – Li Keqiang, Premier of the People's Republic of China
- 1955 – Keith Whitley, American country musician
- 1960 – Dave Thompson, English stand-up comedian
- 1961 – Carl Lewis, American athlete, 9 Olympic gold medals
- 1961 – Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
- 1961 – Michelle Wright, Canadian country music singer
- 1962 – Andre Braugher, American actor
- 1964 – Bernard Laporte, French rugby player and coach
- 1966 – Frank De Bleeckere, Belgian football referee
- 1966 – Enrico Annoni, Italian footballer
- 1967 – Pamela Anderson, Canadian-American actress, novelist, activist and model
- 1967 – Marisa Monte, Brazilian singer
- 1971 – Missy Elliott, American singer and rapper
- 1971 – Julianne Nicholson, American actress
- 1972 – Claire Forlani, British actress
- 1974 – Jefferson Pérez, Ecuadorean race walker, Olympic gold medallist
From 1976
- 1976 – Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dutch footballer
- 1976 – Patrick Kluivert, Dutch footballer
- 1976 – Hannu Tihinen, Finnish footballer
- 1976 – Rigobert Song, Cameroonian footballer
- 1976 – Thomas Sadoski, American actor
- 1976 – Kellie Bright, English actress
- 1977 – Jarome Iginla, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1977 – Liv Tyler, American actress
- 1977 – Veronica Sanchez, Spanish actress
- 1980 – Patrick Aufiero, American ice hockey player
- 1982 – Hilarie Burton, American actress
- 1982 – Joachim Johansson, Swedish tennis player
- 1983 – Marit Larsen, Norwegian singer
- 1984 – Morgane Dubled, French model
- 1984 – Tanya Chisholm, American actress
- 1986 – Giovanni Moreno, Colombian footballer
- 1986 – Agnes Monica, Indonesian singer-songwriter and actress
- 1989 – Mitch Hewer, English actor
- 1989 – Hannah Murray, English actress
- 1989 – Daniel Ricciardo, Australian Formula One racing driver
- 1989 – Leah McFall, Northern Irish singer
- 1989 – Kent Bazemore, American basketball player
- 1990 – Natsuki Sato, Japanese singer (AKB48)
- 1993 – Raini Rodriguez, American actress and singer
- 1994 – Anri Okamoto, Japanese model and actress
- 1996 – Adelina Sotnikova, Russian gymnast
- 1998 – Hollie Steel, English singer
Deaths
Up to 1900
- 552 – Totila, Ostrogoth King
- 1109 – Alfonso VI of Castile (b. 1040)
- 1681 – Oliver Plunkett, Irish archbishop and saint (b. 1629)
- 1736 – Ahmed III, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1673)
- 1782 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Prime Minister of Great Britain (b. 1730)
- 1784 – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German composer (b. 1710)
- 1824 – Lachlan Macquarie, Scottish Governor of New South Wales (b. 1762)
- 1839 – Mahmud II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1785)
- 1846 – Pope Gregory XVI (b. 1765)
- 1860 – Charles Goodyear, American inventor (b. 1800)
- 1863 – John Fulton Reynolds, American Civil War general (b. 1820)
- 1876 – Mikhail Bakunin, Russian anarchist and social revolutionary (b. 1814)
- 1891 – Mihail Kogalniceanu, Romanian politician (b. 1817)
- 1896 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, American writer (b. 1811)
- 1898 – Siegfried Marcus, German inventor (b. 1831)
1901 – 2000
- 1905 – John Hay, 37th United States Secretary of State (b. 1838)
- 1912 – Harriet Quimby, American pilot (b. 1875)
- 1925 – Erik Satie, French composer (b. 1866)
- 1927 – Pedro Nel Ospina Vazquez, 35th President of Colombia (b. 1858)
- 1944 – Carl Mayer, Austrian screenwriter (b. 1894)
- 1944 – Tanya Savicheva, Russian writer (b. 1930)
- 1948 – Achille Varzi, Italian racing driver (b. 1904)
- 1950 – Eliel Saarinen, Finnish architect (b. 1873)
- 1954 – Thea von Harbou, German actress and writer (b. 1888)
- 1962 – B. C. Roy, Indian doctor and politician (b. 1882)
- 1964 – Pierre Monteux, French-American conductor (b. 1875)
- 1964 – Sigurd Islandsmoen, Norwegian poet (b. 1881)
- 1965 – Wally Hammond, English cricketer (b. 1903)
- 1971 – Learie Constantine, Trinidadian cricketer (b. 1901)
- 1971 – William Lawrence Bragg, American physicist (b. 1890)
- 1974 – Juan Domingo Perón, President of Argentina (b. 1895)
- 1976 – Anneliese Michel, German exorcism victim (b. 1952)
- 1981 – Rushton Moreve, American musician (b. 1948)
- 1983 – Buckminster Fuller, American architect (b. 1895)
- 1987 – Snakefinger, British musician (b. 1949)
- 1991 – Joachim Kroll, German serial killer (b. 1933)
- 1991 – Michael Landon, American actor (b. 1936)
- 1992 – Francisco Mendes, Guinea-Bissau politician (b. 1933)
- 1996 – William T. Cahill, American politician, 46th Governor of New Jersey (b. 1904)
- 1996 – Margaux Hemingway, granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway (b. 1954)
- 1997 – Robert Mitchum, American actor (b. 1917)
- 1999 – Edward Dmytryk, Canadian-American movie director (b. 1908)
- 1999 – Joshua Nkomo, Zimbabwean politician (b. 1919)
- 2000 – Walter Matthau, American actor (b. 1920)
From 2001
- 2001 – Nikolay Basov, Russian physicist (b. 1922)
- 2003 – N!xau, Namibian actor (b. 1944)
- 2003 – Herbie Mann, American jazz flutist (b. 1930)
- 2004 – Marlon Brando, American actor (b. 1924)
- 2005 – Luther Vandross, American singer (b. 1951)
- 2006 – Ryutaro Hashimoto, Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1937)
- 2009 – Alexis Argüello, Nicaraguan boxer and politician (b. 1952)
- 2009 – Karl Malden, American actor (b. 1912)
- 2009 – Molly Sugden, British actress (b. 1922)
- 2012 – Alan G. Poindexter, American astronaut (b. 1961)
- 2013 – Charles Foley, American game designer (Twister) (b. 1930)
- 2013 – Maureen Waaka, New Zealand model and politician (b. 1943)
- 2013 – Paul Jenkins, American actor (b. 1938)
- 2014 – Anatoly Kornukov, Russian general (b. 1942)
- 2014 – Stephen Gaskin, American counter-culture hippie figure (b. 1935)
- 2014 – Bob Jones, English police officer (b. 1955)
- 2014 – Umaru Dikko, Nigerian politician (b. 1936)
- 2014 – Walter Dean Myers, American author (b. 1937)
- 2014 – Jean Garon, Canadian politician (b. 1938)
- 2014 – Frederick I. Ordway III, American space scientist (b. 1927)
- 2014 – Graeme McMahon, Australian AFL executive (b. 1940)
- 2015 – Nicholas Winton, English humanitarian (b. 1909)
- 2015 – Val Doonican, Irish singer and television host (b. 1927)
- 2016 – Yves Bonnefoy, French poet (b. 1923)
- 2016 – Robin Hardy, English movie director (b. 1929)
- 2017 – Norman Dorsen, American activist (b. 1930)
- 2017 – Paul Hardin III, American academic administrator (b. 1931)
- 2017 – Ayan Sadakov, Bulgarian footballer (b. 1961)
- 2017 – Richard Gilbert Scott, British architect (b. 1923)
- 2018 – Armando, Dutch artist and writer (b. 1929)
- 2018 – François Corbier, French songwriter and television presenter (b. 1944)
- 2018 – Bozhidar Dimitrov, Bulgarian historian (b. 1945)
- 2018 – Peter Firmin, British television producer (b. 1928)
- 2018 – Gillian Lynne, British dancer and choreographer (b. 1926)
- 2018 – Julian Tudor Hart, British physician and politician (b. 1927)
Holidays
- Canada Day
- Memorial Day (Newfoundland and Labrador)
- Moving Day (Quebec)
- Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) (Suriname)
- Doctors' Day in India
- Republic Day in Ghana
- Independence Day in Somalia, Burundi and Rwanda
- Madeira Day