july 2

It is the last day of the first half of the year. The end of this day marks the halfway point of a leap year. It also falls on the same day of the week as New Year’s Day in a leap year. The midpoint of the year for southern hemisphere DST countries occurs at 11:00 p.m.

• AD 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 Italy, and the Ostrogoth king, Totila, is mortally wounded.
• 1097 – Battle of Dorylaeum: Crusaders led by prince Bohemond of Taranto defeat a Seljuk army led by sultan Kilij Arslan I.
• 1431 – The Battle of La Higueruela takes place in Granada, leading to a modest advance of the Kingdom of Castile during the Reconquista.
• 1520 – Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fight their way out of Tenochtitlan after nightfall.
• 1523 – Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos become the first Lutheran martyrs, burned at the stake by Roman Catholic authorities in Brussels.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1690 – Glorious Revolution: Battle of the Boyne in Ireland (as reckoned under the Julian calendar).
• 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.
• 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).
• 1782 – Raid on Lunenburg: American privateers attack the British settlement of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
• 1819 – Johann Georg Tralles discovers the Great Comet of 1819, (C/1819 N1). It was the first comet analyzed using polarimetry, by François Arago.
• 1837 – A system of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales.
• 1855 – Signing of the Quinault Treaty: The Quinault and the Quileute cede their land to the United States.
• 1858 – Joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace’s papers on evolution to the Linnean Society of London.
• 1862 – The Russian State Library is founded as the Library of the Moscow Public Museum.
• 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.
• 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 – Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) in Suriname, marking the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands.
• 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg begins.
• 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. Sir 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.
• 1873 – Prince Edward Island joins into 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 publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.
• 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.
• 1885 – The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada.
• 1885 – The Congo Free State is established by King Leopold II of Belgium.
• 1890 – Canada and Bermuda are linked by telegraph cable.
• 1898 – Spanish–American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.
• 1903 – Start of first Tour de France bicycle race.
• 1908 – SOS is adopted as the international distress signal.
• 1911 – Germany despatches the gunship SMS Panther to Morocco, sparking the Agadir Crisis.
• 1915 – Leutnant Kurt Wintgens of the then-named German Deutsches Heer’s Fliegertruppe army air service achieves the first known aerial victory with a synchronized machine-gun armed fighter plane, the Fokker M.5K/MG Eindecker.
• 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.
• 1922 – The Great Railroad Strike of 1922 begins in the United States.
• 1923 – The Parliament of Canada suspends all Chinese immigration.
• 1931 – United Airlines begins service (as Boeing Air Transport).
• 1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty become the first people to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engined monoplane aircraft.
• 1932 – Australia’s national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was formed.
• 1935 – Regina, Saskatchewan police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ambush strikers participating in the On-to-Ottawa Trek.
• 1942 – World War II: First Battle of El Alamein.
• 1942 – The Australian Federal Government becomes the sole collector of income tax in Australia as State Income Tax is abolished.
• 1943 – The City of Tokyo and the Prefecture of Tokyo are both replaced by the Tokyo Metropolis.
• 1947 – The Philippine Air Force is established.
• 1948 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-i-Azam) inaugurates Pakistan’s central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan.
• 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.
• 1957 – The International Geophysical Year begins.
• 1958 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.
• 1958 – Flooding of Canada’s Saint Lawrence Seaway begins.
• 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 – Independence of Somalia.
• 1960 – Ghana becomes a republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II ceases to be its head of state.
• 1962 – Independence of Rwanda and Burundi.
• 1963 – ZIP codes are introduced for United States mail.
• 1963 – The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent.
• 1966 – The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.
• 1967 – Merger Treaty: 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 United States Central Intelligence Agency’s Phoenix Program is officially established.
• 1968 – The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries.
• 1968 – Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL–CIO in the United States.
• 1972 – The first Gay pride march in England takes place.
• 1976 – Portugal grants autonomy to Madeira.
• 1978 – The Northern Territory in Australia is granted 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 crashes into the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.
• 1984 – The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA.
• 1987 – The American radio station WFAN in New York City is launched as the world’s first all-sports radio station.
• 1990 – German reunification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany.
• 1991 – Cold War: The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 2003 – Over 500,000 people protest against efforts to pass anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong.
• 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 is conducted in China.
• 2007 – Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces.
• 2008 – Riots erupt in Mongolia in response to allegations of fraud surrounding the 2008 legislative elections.
• 2013 – Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.

Births on July 1

• 1311 – Liu Bowen, Chinese military strategist, statesman and poet (d. 1375)
• 1464 – Clara Gonzaga, Italian noble (d. 1503)
• 1481 – Christian II of Denmark (d. 1559)
• 1506 – Louis II of Hungary (d. 1526)
• 1534 – Frederick II of Denmark (d. 1588)
• 1553 – Peter Street, English carpenter and builder (d. 1609)
• 1574 – Joseph Hall, English bishop and mystic (d. 1656)
• 1586 – Claudio Saracini, Italian lute player and composer (d. 1630)
• 1633 – Johann Heinrich Heidegger, Swiss theologian and author (d. 1698)
• 1646 – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, German mathematician and philosopher (d. 1716)
• 1663 – Franz Xaver Murschhauser, German composer and theorist (d. 1738)
• 1725 – Rhoda Delaval, English painter and aristrocrat (d. 1757)
• 1725 – Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, French general (d. 1807)
• 1731 – Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, Scottish-English admiral (d. 1804)
• 1742 – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German physicist and academic (d. 1799)
• 1771 – Ferdinando Paer, Italian composer and conductor (d. 1839)
• 1788 – Jean-Victor Poncelet, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1867)
• 1804 – Charles Gordon Greene, American journalist and politician (d. 1886)
• 1804 – George Sand, French author and playwright (d. 1876)
• 1807 – Thomas Green Clemson, American politician and educator, founded Clemson University (d. 1888)
• 1808 – Ygnacio del Valle, Mexican-American landowner (d. 1880)
• 1814 – Robert Torrens, Irish-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of South Australia (d. 1884)
• 1818 – Ignaz Semmelweis, Hungarian-Austrian physician and obstetrician (d. 1865)
• 1818 – Karl von Vierordt, German physician, psychologist and academic (d. 1884)
• 1822 – Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Vietnamese poet and activist (d. 1888)
• 1834 – Jadwiga Łuszczewska, Polish poet and author (d. 1908)
• 1850 – Florence Earle Coates, American poet (d. 1927)
• 1858 – Willard Metcalf, American painter (d. 1925)
• 1858 – Velma Caldwell Melville, American editor and writer of prose and poetry (d. 1924)
• 1863 – William Grant Stairs, Canadian-English captain and explorer (d. 1892)
• 1869 – William Strunk Jr., American author and educator (d. 1946)
• 1872 – Louis Blériot, French pilot and engineer (d. 1936)
• 1872 – William Duddell, English physicist and engineer (d. 1917)
• 1873 – Alice Guy-Blaché, French-American film director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1968)
• 1873 – Andrass Samuelsen, Faroese politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1954)
• 1875 – Joseph Weil, American con man (d. 1976)
• 1876 – T.J. Ryan, Australian politician, 19th Premier of Queensland (d. 1921)
• 1878 – Jacques Rosenbaum, Estonian-German architect (d. 1944)
• 1879 – Léon Jouhaux, French union leader, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
• 1881 – Edward Battersby Bailey, English geologist (d. 1965)
• 1882 – Bidhan Chandra Roy, Indian physician and politician, 2nd Chief Minister of West Bengal (d. 1962)
• 1883 – Arthur Borton, English colonel, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1933)
• 1885 – Dorothea Mackellar, Australian author and poet (d. 1968)
• 1887 – Amber Reeves, New Zealand-English author and scholar (d. 1981)
• 1892 – James M. Cain, American author and journalist (d. 1977)
• 1892 – László Lajtha, Hungarian composer and conductor (d. 1963)
• 1899 – Thomas A. Dorsey, American pianist and composer (d. 1993)
• 1899 – Charles Laughton, English-American actor and director (d. 1962)
• 1899 – Konstantinos Tsatsos, Greek scholar and politician, President of Greece (d. 1987)
• 1901 – Irna Phillips, American screenwriter (d. 1973)
• 1902 – William Wyler, French-American film director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1981)
• 1903 – Amy Johnson, English pilot (d. 1941)
• 1903 – Beatrix Lehmann, English actress (d. 1979)
• 1906 – Jean Dieudonné, French mathematician and academic (d. 1992)
• 1906 – Estée Lauder, American businesswoman, co-founded the Estée Lauder Companies (d. 2004)
• 1907 – Norman Pirie, Scottish-English biochemist and virologist (d. 1997)
• 1909 – Emmett Toppino, American sprinter (d. 1971)
• 1910 – Glenn Hardin, American hurdler (d. 1975)
• 1911 – Arnold Alas, Estonian landscape architect and artist (d. 1990)
• 1911 – Sergey Sokolov, Russian marshal and politician, Soviet Minister of Defence (d. 2012)
• 1912 – David Brower, American environmentalist, founded Sierra Club Foundation (d. 2000)
• 1912 – Sally Kirkland, American journalist (d. 1989)
• 1913 – Frank Barrett, American baseball player (d. 1998)
• 1913 – Lee Guttero, American basketball player (d. 2004)
• 1913 – Vasantrao Naik, Indian politician, 3rd Chief Minister of Maharashtra (d. 1979)
• 1914 – Thomas Pearson, British Army officer (d. 2019)
• 1914 – Christl Cranz, German alpine skier (d. 2004)
• 1914 – Bernard B. Wolfe, American politician (d. 2016)
• 1915 – Boots Poffenberger, American baseball player (d. 1999)
• 1915 – Willie Dixon, American singer-songwriter, bass player, guitarist and producer (d. 1992)
• 1915 – Joseph Ransohoff, American soldier and neurosurgeon (d. 2001)
• 1915 – Philip Lever, 3rd Viscount Leverhulme, British peer (d. 2000)
• 1915 – Nguyễn Văn Linh, Vietnamese politician (d. 1998)
• 1916 – Olivia de Havilland, British-American actress
• 1916 – Iosif Shklovsky, Ukrainian astronomer and astrophysicist (d. 1985)
• 1916 – George C. Stoney, American director and producer (d. 2012)
• 1917 – Humphry Osmond, English-American lieutenant and psychiatrist (d. 2004)
• 1917 – Álvaro Domecq y Díez, Spanish aristocrat (d. 2005)
• 1918 – Ralph Young, American singer and actor (d. 2008)
• 1918 – Ahmed Deedat, South African writer and public speaker (d. 2005)
• 1918 – Pedro Yap, Filipino lawyer (d. 2003)
• 1919 – Arnold Meri, Estonian colonel (d. 2009)
• 1919 – Malik Dohan al-Hassan, Iraqi politician
• 1919 – Gerald E. Miller, American vice admiral (d. 2014)
• 1920 – Henri Amouroux, French historian and journalist (d. 2007)
• 1920 – Harold Sakata, Japanese-American wrestler and actor (d. 1982)
• 1920 – Joseph G. Williams, American musician
• 1920 – George I. Fujimoto, American-Japanese chemist
• 1921 – Seretse Khama, Batswana lawyer and politician, 1st President of Botswana (d. 1980)
• 1921 – Michalina Wisłocka, Polish gynecologist and sexologist (d. 2005)
• 1921 – Arthur Johnson, Canadian canoeist (d. 2003)
• 1922 – Toshi Seeger, German-American activist, co-founded the Clearwater Festival (d. 2013)
• 1922 – Mordechai Bibi, Israeli politician
• 1923 – Scotty Bowers, American Marine, author and pimp (d. 2019)
• 1924 – Antoni Ramallets, Spanish footballer and manager (d. 2013)
• 1924 – Florence Stanley, American actress (d. 2003)
• 1924 – Georges Rivière, French actor
• 1925 – Farley Granger, American actor (d. 2011)
• 1925 – Art McNally, American football referee
• 1926 – Robert Fogel, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
• 1926 – Carl Hahn, German businessman
• 1926 – Mohamed Abshir Muse, Somali general (d. 2017)
• 1926 – Hans Werner Henze, German composer and educator (d. 2012)
• 1927 – Alan J. Charig, English paleontologist and author (d. 1997)
• 1927 – Joseph Martin Sartoris, American bishop
• 1927 – Chandra Shekhar, 8th Prime Minister of India (d. 2007)^[27]
• 1929 – Gerald Edelman, American biologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2014)
• 1930 – Moustapha Akkad, Syrian-American director and producer (d. 2005)
• 1930 – Carol Chomsky, American linguist and academic (d. 2008)
• 1931 – Leslie Caron, French actress and dancer
• 1932 – Ze’ev Schiff, French-Israeli journalist and author (d. 2007)
• 1933 – C. Scott Littleton, American anthropologist and academic (d. 2010)
• 1934 – Claude Berri, French actor, director and screenwriter (d. 2009)
• 1934 – Jamie Farr, American actor
• 1934 – Jean Marsh, English actress and screenwriter
• 1934 – Sydney Pollack, American actor, director and producer (d. 2008)
• 1935 – James Cotton, American singer-songwriter and harmonica player (d. 2017)
• 1935 – David Prowse, English actor
• 1936 – Wally Amos, American entrepreneur and founder of Famous Amos
• 1938 – Craig Anderson, American baseball player and coach
• 1938 – Hariprasad Chaurasia, Indian flute player and composer
• 1939 – Karen Black, American actress (d. 2013)
• 1939 – Delaney Bramlett, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer (d. 2008)
• 1940 – Craig Brown, Scottish footballer and manager
• 1940 – Ela Gandhi, South African activist and politician
• 1940 – Cahit Zarifoğlu, Turkish poet and author (d. 1987)
• 1941 – Rod Gilbert, Canadian-American ice hockey player
• 1941 – Alfred G. Gilman, American pharmacologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)
• 1941 – Myron Scholes, Canadian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1941 – Twyla Tharp, American dancer and choreographer
• 1942 – Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Iraqi field marshal and politician (d. 2015)
• 1942 – Geneviève Bujold, Canadian actress
• 1942 – Andraé Crouch, American singer-songwriter, producer and pastor (d. 2015)
• 1942 – Julia Higgins, English chemist and academic
• 1943 – Philip Brunelle, American conductor and organist
• 1943 – Peeter Lepp, Estonian politician, 37th Mayor of Tallinn
• 1943 – Jeff Wayne, American composer, musician and lyricist
• 1945 – Mike Burstyn, American actor and singer
• 1945 – Debbie Harry, American singer-songwriter and actress
• 1946 – Mick Aston, English archaeologist and academic (d. 2013)
• 1946 – Erkki Tuomioja, Finnish sergeant and politician, Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs
• 1947 – Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Japanese race car driver
• 1947 – Malcolm Wicks, English academic and politician (d. 2012)
• 1948 – John Ford, English-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1949 – Néjia Ben Mabrouk, Tunisian-Belgian director and screenwriter
• 1949 – John Farnham, English-Australian singer-songwriter
• 1949 – David Hogan, American composer and educator (d. 1996)
• 1949 – Venkaiah Naidu, Indian lawyer and politician
• 1950 – David Duke, American white supremacist, politician and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard
• 1951 – Trevor Eve, English actor and producer
• 1951 – Anne Feeney, American singer-songwriter and activist
• 1951 – Julia Goodfellow, English physicist and academic
• 1951 – Klaus-Peter Justus, German runner
• 1951 – Tom Kozelko, American basketball player
• 1951 – Terrence Mann, American actor, singer and dancer
• 1951 – Fred Schneider, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
• 1951 – Victor Willis, American singer-songwriter, pianist and actor
• 1952 – Dan Aykroyd, Canadian actor, producer and screenwriter
• 1952 – David Arkenstone, American composer and performer
• 1952 – David Lane, English oncologist and academic
• 1952 – Steve Shutt, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
• 1952 – Timothy J. Tobias, American pianist and composer (d. 2006)
• 1953 – Lawrence Gonzi, Maltese lawyer and politician, 12th Prime Minister of Malta
• 1953 – Jadranka Kosor, Croatian journalist and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Croatia
• 1954 – Keith Whitley, American singer and guitarist (d. 1989)
• 1955 – Nikolai Demidenko, Russian pianist and educator
• 1955 – Li Keqiang, Chinese economist and politician, 7th Premier of the People’s Republic of China
• 1955 – Lisa Scottoline, American lawyer and author
• 1957 – Lisa Blount, American actress and producer (d. 2010)
• 1957 – Hannu Kamppuri, Finnish ice hockey player
• 1957 – Sean O’Driscoll, English footballer and manager
• 1958 – Jack Dyer Crouch II, American diplomat, United States Deputy National Security Advisor
• 1960 – Michael Beattie, Australian rugby league player and coach
• 1960 – Lynn Jennings, American runner
• 1960 – Evelyn “Champagne” King, American soul/disco singer
• 1960 – Kevin Swords, American rugby player
• 1961 – Malcolm Elliott, English cyclist
• 1961 – Ivan Kaye, English actor
• 1961 – Carl Lewis, American long jumper and runner
• 1961 – Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
• 1961 – Michelle Wright, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1962 – Andre Braugher, American actor and producer
• 1962 – Mokhzani Mahathir, Malaysian businessman
• 1963 – Roddy Bottum, American singer and keyboard player
• 1963 – Nick Giannopoulos, Australian actor
• 1963 – David Wood, American lawyer and environmentalist (d. 2006)
• 1964 – Bernard Laporte, French rugby player and coach
• 1965 – Carl Fogarty, English motorcycle racer
• 1965 – Garry Schofield, English rugby player and coach
• 1965 – Harald Zwart, Norwegian director and producer
• 1966 – Enrico Annoni, Italian footballer and coach
• 1966 – Shawn Burr, Canadian-American ice hockey player (d. 2013)
• 1967 – Pamela Anderson, Canadian-American model and actress
• 1969 – Séamus Egan, American-Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1971 – Missy Elliott, American rapper, producer, dancer and actress
• 1971 – Julianne Nicholson, American actress
• 1974 – Jefferson Pérez, Ecuadorian race walker
• 1975 – Sean Colson, American basketball player and coach
• 1975 – Sufjan Stevens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1976 – Patrick Kluivert, Dutch footballer and coach
• 1976 – Hannu Tihinen, Finnish footballer
• 1976 – Albert Torrens, Australian rugby league player
• 1976 – Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dutch footballer and manager
• 1976 – Szymon Ziółkowski, Polish hammer thrower
• 1977 – Tom Frager, Senegalese-French singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1977 – Keigo Hayashi, Japanese musician
• 1977 – Jarome Iginla, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1979 – Forrest Griffin, American mixed martial artist and actor
• 1981 – Carlo Del Fava, South African-Italian rugby player
• 1981 – Tadhg Kennelly, Irish-Australian footballer
• 1982 – Justin Huber, Australian baseball player
• 1982 – Joachim Johansson, Swedish tennis player
• 1982 – Adrian Ward, American football player
• 1982 – Hilarie Burton, American actress
• 1984 – Donald Thomas, Bahamian high jumper
• 1985 – Chris Perez, American baseball player
• 1986 – Charlie Blackmon, American baseball player
• 1986 – Andrew Lee, Australian footballer
• 1986 – Julian Prochnow, German footballer
• 1987 – Michael Schrader, German decathlete
• 1988 – Dedé, Brazilian footballer
• 1988 – Aleksander Lesun, Russian modern pentathlete
• 1989 – Kent Bazemore, American basketball player
• 1989 – Daniel Ricciardo, Australian race car driver
• 1990 – Ben Coker, English footballer
• 1991 – Michael Wacha, American baseball player
• 1992 – Aaron Sanchez, American baseball player
• 1995 – Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo, Belgian footballer
• 1995 – Savvy Shields, Miss America 2017
• 1996 – Adelina Sotnikova, Russian figure skater
• 1998 – Aleksandra Golovkina, Lithuanian figure skater
• 2000 – Lalu Muhammad Zohri, Indonesian sprinter
• 2001 – Chosen Jacobs, American entertainer

Deaths on July 1

• 552 – Totila, Ostrogoth king
• 992 – Heonjeong, Korean queen (b. 966)
• 1109 – Alfonso VI, king of León and Castile (b. 1040)
• 1224 – Hōjō Yoshitoki, regent of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan (b. 1163)
• 1242 – Chagatai Khan, Mongol ruler (b. 1183)
• 1277 – Baibars, Egyptian sultan (b. 1223)
• 1321 – María de Molina, queen of Castile and León
• 1348 – Joan, English princess
• 1555 – John Bradford, English reformer, prebendary of St. Paul’s (b. 1510)
• 1589 – Lady Saigō, Japanese concubine (b. 1552)
• 1592 – Marc’Antonio Ingegneri, Italian composer and educator (b. 1535)
• 1614 – Isaac Casaubon, French philologist and scholar (b. 1559)
• 1622 – William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, English politician (b. 1575)
• 1681 – Oliver Plunkett, Irish archbishop and saint (b. 1629)
• 1736 – Ahmed III, Ottoman sultan (b. 1673)
• 1774 – Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (b. 1705)
• 1782 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, English admiral and politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (b. 1730)
• 1784 – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German organist and composer (b. 1710)
• 1787 – Charles de Rohan, French marshal (b. 1715)
• 1819 – the Public Universal Friend, American evangelist (b. 1752)
• 1839 – Mahmud II, Ottoman sultan (b. 1785)
• 1860 – Charles Goodyear, American chemist and engineer (b. 1800)
• 1863 – John F. Reynolds, American general (b. 1820)
• 1884 – Allan Pinkerton, Scottish-American detective and spy (b. 1819)
• 1896 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author and activist (b. 1811)
• 1905 – John Hay, American journalist and politician, 37th United States Secretary of State (b. 1838)
• 1912 – Harriet Quimby, American pilot and screenwriter (b. 1875)
• 1925 – Erik Satie, French pianist and composer (b. 1866)
• 1934 – Ernst Röhm, German paramilitary commander (b. 1887)
• 1942 – Peadar Toner Mac Fhionnlaoich, Irish writer (b. 1857)
• 1943 – Willem Arondeus, Dutch artist, author, and anti-Nazi resistance fighter (b. 1894)
• 1944 – Carl Mayer, Austrian-English screenwriter (b. 1894)
• 1944 – Tanya Savicheva, Russian author (b. 1930)
• 1948 – Achille Varzi, Italian race car driver (b. 1904)
• 1950 – Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Swiss composer and educator (b. 1865)
• 1950 – Eliel Saarinen, Finnish-American architect, co-designed the National Museum of Finland (b. 1873)
• 1951 – Tadeusz Borowski, Polish poet, novelist and journalist (b. 1922)
• 1961 – Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French physician and author (b. 1894)
• 1962 – Purushottam Das Tandon, Indian lawyer and politician (b. 1882)
• 1962 – Bidhan Chandra Roy, Indian physician and politician, 2nd Chief Minister of West Bengal (b. 1882)
• 1964 – Pierre Monteux, French-American viola player and conductor (b. 1875)
• 1965 – Wally Hammond, English cricketer (b. 1903)
• 1965 – Robert Ruark, American journalist and author (b. 1915)
• 1966 – Frank Verner, American runner (b. 1883)
• 1967 – Gerhard Ritter, German historian and academic (b. 1888)
• 1968 – Fritz Bauer, German judge and politician (b. 1903)
• 1971 – William Lawrence Bragg, Australian-English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1890)
• 1971 – Learie Constantine, Trinidadian-English cricketer, lawyer, and politician (b. 1901)
• 1974 – Juan Perón, Argentinian general and politician, President of Argentina (b. 1895)
• 1978 – Kurt Student, German general and pilot (b. 1890)
• 1981 – Carlos de Oliveira, Portuguese author and poet (b. 1921)
• 1983 – Buckminster Fuller, American architect, designed the Montreal Biosphère (b. 1895)
• 1984 – Moshé Feldenkrais, Ukrainian-Israeli physicist and academic (b. 1904)
• 1991 – Michael Landon, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1936)
• 1992 – Franco Cristaldi, Italian screenwriter and producer (b. 1924)
• 1994 – Merriam Modell, American author (b. 1908)
• 1995 – Wolfman Jack, American radio host (b. 1938)
• 1995 – Ian Parkin, English guitarist (Be-Bop Deluxe) (b. 1950)
• 1996 – William T. Cahill, American lawyer and politician, 46th Governor of New Jersey (b. 1904)
• 1996 – Margaux Hemingway, American model and actress (b. 1954)
• 1996 – Steve Tesich, Serbian-American author and screenwriter (b. 1942)
• 1997 – Robert Mitchum, American actor (b. 1917)
• 1997 – Charles Werner, American cartoonist (b. 1909)
• 1999 – Edward Dmytryk, Canadian-American director and producer (b. 1908)
• 1999 – Forrest Mars Sr., American businessman, created M&M’s and the Mars bar (b. 1904)
• 1999 – Sylvia Sidney, American actress (b. 1910)
• 1999 – Sola Sierra, Chilean human rights activist (b. 1935)
• 2000 – Walter Matthau, American actor (b. 1920)
• 2001 – Nikolay Basov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1922)
• 2001 – Jean-Louis Rosier, French race car driver (b. 1925)
• 2003 – Herbie Mann, American flute player and saxophonist (b. 1930)
• 2004 – Peter Barnes, English playwright and screenwriter (b. 1931)
• 2004 – Marlon Brando, American actor and director (b. 1924)
• 2004 – Todor Skalovski, Macedonian composer and conductor (b. 1909)
• 2005 – Renaldo Benson, American singer-songwriter (Four Tops) (b. 1936)
• 2005 – Gus Bodnar, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1923)
• 2005 – Luther Vandross, American singer-songwriter and producer (Change) (b. 1951)
• 2006 – Ryutaro Hashimoto, Japanese politician, 53rd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1937)
• 2006 – Robert Lepikson, Estonian race car driver and politician, Estonian Minister of the Interior (b. 1952)
• 2006 – Fred Trueman, English cricketer and sportscaster (b. 1931)
• 2008 – Mel Galley, English guitarist (b. 1948)
• 2009 – Karl Malden, American actor (b. 1912)
• 2009 – Onni Palaste, Finnish soldier and author (b. 1917)
• 2009 – Mollie Sugden, English actress (b. 1922)
• 2010 – Don Coryell, American football player and coach (b. 1924)
• 2010 – Arnold Friberg, American painter and illustrator (b. 1913)
• 2010 – Ilene Woods, American actress and singer (b. 1929)
• 2012 – Peter E. Gillquist, American priest and author (b. 1938)
• 2012 – Ossie Hibbert, Jamaican-American keyboard player and producer (b. 1950)
• 2012 – Evelyn Lear, American operatic soprano (b. 1926)
• 2012 – Alan G. Poindexter, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1961)
• 2012 – Jack Richardson, American author and playwright (b. 1934)
• 2013 – Sidney Bryan Berry, American general (b. 1926)
• 2013 – Charles Foley, American game designer, co-created Twister (b. 1930)
• 2013 – William H. Gray, American minister and politician (b. 1941)
• 2014 – Jean Garon, Canadian economist, lawyer, and politician (b. 1938)
• 2014 – Stephen Gaskin, American activist, co-founded The Farm (b. 1935)
• 2014 – Bob Jones, English lawyer and politician (b. 1955)
• 2014 – Anatoly Kornukov, Ukrainian-Russian general (b. 1942)
• 2014 – Walter Dean Myers, American author and poet (b. 1937)
• 2015 – Val Doonican, Irish singer and television host (b. 1927)
• 2015 – Czesław Olech, Polish mathematician and academic (b. 1931)
• 2015 – Nicholas Winton, English lieutenant and humanitarian (b. 1909)
• 2016 – Robin Hardy, English author and film director (b. 1929)
• 2020 – Georg Ratzinger, German Roman Catholic priest and musician (b. 1924)

Holidays and observances on July 1

• Christian feast day:
  • Aaron (Syriac Christianity)
  • Blessed Antonio Rosmini-Serbati
  • Felix of Como
  • Junípero Serra
  • Julius and Aaron
  • Leontius of Autun
  • Servanus
  • Veep
  • July 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Feast of the Most Precious Blood (removed from official Roman Catholic calendar since 1969)
• Earliest day on which Alexanderson Day can fall, celebrated on the Sunday closest to July 2. (Sweden)
• Earliest day on which CARICOM Day can fall, while July 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in July. (Guyana)
• Earliest day on which Constitution Day can fall, while July 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in July. (Cayman Islands)
• Earliest day on which Día del Amigo can fall, celebrated on the first Saturday of July. (Peru)
• Earliest day on which Fishermen’s Holiday, celebrated on the first Friday of July (Marshall Islands)
• Earliest day on which Heroes’ Day can fall, while July 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in July. (Zambia)
• Earliest day on which International Co-operative Day, can fall, celebrated on the first Saturday of July.
• Earliest day on which International Free Hugs Day, can fall, celebrated on the first Saturday of July.
• Earliest day on which Navy Day can fall, celebrated on the first Sunday in July. (Ukraine)
• Earliest day on which Navy Days can fall, celebrated First Saturday and Sunday. (Netherlands)
• Earliest day on which Youth Day can fall, while July 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday in July. (Singapore)
• Armed Forces Day (Singapore)
• Canada Day, formerly Dominion Day (Canada)
• Children’s Day (Pakistan)
• Communist Party of China Founding Day (China)
• Day of Officials and Civil Servants (Hungary)
• Doctors’ Day (India)
• Emancipation Day (Netherlands Antilles)
• Engineer’s Day (Bahrain, Mexico)
• Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day (Hong Kong, China)
• Independence Day (Burundi), celebrates the independence of Burundi from Belgium in 1962.
• Independence Day (Rwanda)
• Independence Day (Somalia)
• International Tartan Day
• July Morning (Bulgaria)
• Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) (Suriname)
• Madeira Day (Madeira, Portugal)
• Moving Day (Quebec) (Canada)
• Newfoundland and Labrador Memorial Day
• Republic Day (Ghana)
• Sir Seretse Khama Day (Botswana)
• Territory Day (British Virgin Islands)
• The first day of Van Mahotsav, celebrated until July 7. (India)