Did you know
Surinam was a Dutch plantation colony in the Guianas from the 17th century until its dissolution in 1954.
July 1 in History
1863 — Slavery was abolished in the Dutch colony of Surinam, a date now celebrated as Ketikoti in independent Suriname
July 1 spans 100 recorded events across recorded history, from 69 to 2024. Below is a curated digest of the most significant moments tied to this date.
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Historical Events
100 events
69 – 2024
Today in history
More major events on July 1
The featured story and these ranked highlights form a quick summary. Every recorded event remains available in the chronology below.
- 1924 The National War Memorial for the Dominion of Newfoundland was inaugurated by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig in St. John's, Newfoundland. The date commemorates the first day of the Battle of the Somme, where at Beaumont-Hamel, 86 percent of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was wiped out. Source
- 1942 The Australian Federal Government becomes the sole collector of income tax in Australia as State Income Tax is abolished. Source
- 1921 The Chinese Communist Party is founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, with the help of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks), who seized power in Russia after the 1917 October Revolution, and the Far Eastern Secretariat of the Communist International. Source
Did you know
The colony was bordered by the fellow Dutch colony of Berbice to the west and the French colony of Cayenne to the east.
Did you know
In 1831, the British colony of British Guiana became a neighboring territory, a status that lasted until 1966.
Did you know
The capital of Surinam was Paramaribo, which remains the capital of the modern country of Suriname.
Did you know
Surinam was a major producer of sugar, coffee, and cotton, with the colony's economy heavily reliant on slave labor before its abolition in 1863.
69
Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor.
Calendar year
552
Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under Narses defeat the Ostrogoths in Italy, and the Ostrogoth king, Totila, is mortally wounded.
Battle of the Gothic War in 552 AD
1097
Battle of Dorylaeum: Crusaders led by prince Bohemond of Taranto defeat a Seljuk army led by sultan Kilij Arslan I.
Early battle during the First Crusade
1431
The Battle of La Higueruela takes place in Granada, leading to a modest advance of the Kingdom of Castile during the Reconquista.
1431 battle of the Reconquista
1520
Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fight their way out of Tenochtitlan after nightfall.
Spanish and Portuguese colonizers of the Age of Discovery
1523
Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos become the first Lutheran martyrs, burned at the stake by Roman Catholic authorities in Brussels.
Dutch Augustinian monks and the first Lutheran martyrs, executed in 1523
1543
Having been defeated in the Battle of Solway Moss in the previous year, the Scots conclude the peace Treaty of Greenwich with the Kingdom of England.
In it, they also agree to a marriage between the infant Queen Mary and Prince Edward, son of Henry VIII.
1569
Union of Lublin: The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania confirm a real union; the united country is called the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth or the Republic of Both Nations.
1569 union of Poland and Lithuania
1643
First meeting of the Westminster Assembly, a council of theologians ("divines") and members of the Parliament of England appointed to restructure the Church of England, at Westminster Abbey in London.
1643–1653 English church reform council
1690
War of the Grand Alliance: Marshal de Luxembourg triumphs over an Anglo-Dutch army at the battle of Fleurus.
War between France and a European coalition (1688–1697)
1690
Glorious Revolution: Battle of the Boyne in Ireland (as reckoned under the Julian calendar).
British revolution of 1688
1766
François-Jean de la Barre, a young French nobleman, is tortured and beheaded before his body is burnt on a pyre along with a copy of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, France.
Frenchman executed for blasphemy and sacrilege
1770
Lexell's Comet is seen closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 astronomical units (2,180,000 km; 1,360,000 mi).
Closest observed comet approach to Earth
1782
Raid on Lunenburg: American privateers attack the British settlement of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
Battle of the American Revolutionary War
1819
Johann Georg Tralles discovers the Great Comet of 1819, (C/1819 N1).
It is the first comet analyzed using polarimetry, by François Arago.
1823
The five Central American nations of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica declare independence from the First Mexican Empire after being annexed the year prior.
Mexican government from 1821 to 1823
1837
A system of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales.
System by which a government records the vital events of its citizens and residents
1841
Thomas Lempriere and James Clark Ross carve a marker on the Isle of the Dead in Van Diemen's Land to measure tidal variations, one of the earliest surviving benchmarks for sea level rise.
British public official, author and artist (1796–1852)
1855
Signing of the Quinault Treaty: The Quinault and the Quileute cede their land to the United States.
1855 land acquisition treaty between the U.S. and the Quinault and Quileute tribes
1858
Joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society of London.
English naturalist and biologist (1809–1882)
1862
The Russian State Library is founded as the Library of the Moscow Public Museum.
National public library in Moscow, Russia
1862
Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, second daughter of Queen Victoria, marries Prince Louis of Hesse, the future Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse.
British princess (1843–1878)
1862
American Civil War: The Battle of Malvern Hill takes place.
It is the last of the Seven Days Battles, part of George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign.
1863
American Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg begins.
1863 battle of the American Civil War
1867
The British North America Act takes effect as the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia join into confederation to create the modern nation of Canada.
John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada. This date is commemorated annually in Canada as Canada Day, a national holiday.
1870
The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence.
U.S. federal executive department
1874
The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, goes on sale.
First commercially successful typewriter
1878
1879
Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.
Founder of the Bible Student movement (1852–1916)
1881
The world's first international telephone call is made between St.
Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States.
1881
General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell and Childers reforms of the British Army, comes into effect.
Reforms of the British Army
1885
The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada.
Term in Canadian politics for free trade with the United States
1885
The Congo Free State is established by King Leopold II of Belgium.
Territory in Central Africa (1885–1908)
1890
Canada and Bermuda are linked by telegraph cable.
British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic
1898
Spanish–American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.
1898 conflict between Spain and the United States
1901
French government enacts its anti-clerical legislation Law of Association prohibiting the formation of new monastic orders without governmental approval.
1908
SOS is adopted as the international distress signal.
International Morse code distress signal for help
1911
Germany dispatches the gunboat SMS Panther to Morocco, sparking the Agadir Crisis.
German gunboat
1915
World War I: Leutnant Kurt Wintgens of the then-named German Deutsches Heer's Fliegertruppe army air service achieves the first known aerial victory with a synchronized machine-gun armed fighter plane, the Fokker M.5K/MG Eindecker.
Global conflict from 1914 to 1918
1916
World War I: First day on the Somme: On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 19,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded.
Start of the Battle of Albert
1917
World War I: Russia launches an offensive against Austria-Hungary to capture Galicia, its final offensive of the war.
1917 – Last Russian offensive of World War I
1917
Chinese General Zhang Xun seizes control of Beijing and restores the monarchy, installing Puyi, last emperor of the Qing dynasty, to the throne.
The restoration is reversed just shy of two weeks later, when Republican troops regain control of the capital.
1921
The Chinese Communist Party is founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, with the help of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks), who seized power in Russia after the 1917 October Revolution, and the Far Eastern Secretariat of the Communist International.
Ruling party of the People's Republic of China
1922
The Great Railroad Strike of 1922 begins in the United States.
1922 nationwide railroad workers' strike in the US
1923
The Parliament of Canada suspends all Chinese immigration.
Federal bicameral legislature of Canada
1924
The National War Memorial for the Dominion of Newfoundland was inaugurated by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig in St.
John's, Newfoundland. The date commemorates the first day of the Battle of the Somme, where at Beaumont-Hamel, 86 percent of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was wiped out.
1931
United Airlines begins service (as Boeing Air Transport).
Airline of the United States
1931
Wiley Post and Harold Gatty become the first people to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engined monoplane aircraft.
20th-century American aviator
1932
Australia's national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was formed.
Public broadcaster
1935
In Regina, Saskatchewan, police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ambush strikers participating in the On-to-Ottawa Trek.
Capital city of Saskatchewan, Canada
1942
1942
The Australian Federal Government becomes the sole collector of income tax in Australia as State Income Tax is abolished.
Federal executive government of Australia
1943
The City of Tokyo and the Prefecture of Tokyo are both replaced by the Tokyo Metropolis.
1889–1943 municipality in Japan
1946
Crossroads Able is the first postwar nuclear weapon test.
1946 nuclear weapon tests at Bikini Atoll
1947
The Philippine Air Force is established.
Air warfare branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
1948
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-i-Azam) inaugurates Pakistan's central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan.
Founder and 1st Governor-General of Pakistan (1876–1948)
1949
The merger of two princely states of India, Cochin and Travancore, into the state of Thiru-Kochi (later re-organized as Kerala) in the Indian Union ends more than 1,000 years of princely rule by the Cochin royal family.
Metropolis in Kerala, India
1957
The International Geophysical Year begins.
18-month collaboration in Earth sciences (1957–1958)
1958
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.
Canadian public broadcaster
1958
Flooding of Canada's Saint Lawrence Seaway begins.
System of waterways in Canada and the US
1959
Specific values for the international yard, avoirdupois pound and derived units (e.g.
inch, mile and ounce) are adopted after agreement between the US, the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.
1960
The Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) gains its independence from Italy.
Concurrently, it unites as scheduled with the five-day-old State of Somaliland (the former British Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic.
1960
Ghana becomes a republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II ceases to be its head of state.
Country in West Africa
1963
ZIP codes are introduced for United States mail.
Numeric postal code used in the US and its territories
1963
The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent.
British intelligence officer and Soviet double agent (1912–1988)
1966
The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.
Television transmission technology
1966
The People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (The known as the 2nd Artillery Corps) is founded.
Strategic and tactical missile force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army
1967
Merger Treaty: The European Community is formally created out of a merger between the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission.
1965 unification of the three economic communities of Europe
1968
The United States Central Intelligence Agency's Phoenix Program is officially established.
U.S. intelligence and covert action agency
1968
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries.
International treaty
1968
Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL–CIO in the United States.
American labor union
1972
The first Gay pride march in England takes place.
Positive stance toward LGBTQ people
1976
1978
The Northern Territory in Australia is granted self-government.
Internal territory of Australia
1980
"O Canada" officially becomes the national anthem of Canada.
National anthem of Canada
1983
A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea crashes into the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.
Country in East Asia
1983
The Ministry of State Security is established as China's principal intelligence agency
Civilian intelligence agency of China
1984
1987
The American radio station WFAN in New York City is launched as the world's first all-sports radio station.
Clear-channel sports radio station in New York City
1990
German reunification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany.
1989–1991 unification process of Germany
1991
Cold War: The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.
1947–1991 geopolitical rivalry between US and USSR
1991
The Finnish operator Radiolinja is launched as the world's first GSM network.
Finnish GSM operator
1997
China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule.
The handover ceremony is attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Charles, Prince of Wales, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
1997
Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Columbia is launched on STS-94, a re-flight of the prematurely-ended STS-83 mission with the same crew.
1972–2011 United States human spaceflight program
1999
The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Elizabeth II on the day that legislative powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh.
In Wales, the powers of the Welsh Secretary are transferred to the National Assembly.
2002
The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
International tribunal organisation
2002
Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, a Tupolev Tu-154, and DHL Flight 611, a Boeing 757, collide in mid-air over Überlingen, southern Germany, killing all 71 on board both planes.
Soviet and Russian medium-range trijet airliner
2003
Over 500,000 people protest against efforts to pass anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong.
Clause of the Hong Kong Basic Law
2004
Saturn orbit insertion of Cassini–Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC.
Sixth planet from the Sun
2006
The first operation of Qinghai–Tibet Railway is conducted in China.
Railway line in Tibet, China
2007
Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces.
Laws restricting cigarettes in the UK
2008
Riots erupt in Mongolia in response to allegations of fraud surrounding the 2008 legislative elections.
Rioting in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia
2013
Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.
Country in Central and Southeast Europe
2020
2024
At the centennial ceremony of the Dominion of Newfoundland National War Memorial, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission allowed an unprecedented second Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The Royal Newfoundland Regiment soldier was entombed in the memorial at this ceremony.