TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY
Today is Saturday, July 1, the 182nd day of 2017. There are 183 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History On July 1, 1867, Canada became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain as the British North America Act took effect.
On this date
• In 1535, Sir Thomas More went on trial in England, charged with high treason for rejecting the Oath of Supremacy. (More was convicted, and executed.)
• In 1916, during World War I, France and Britain launched the Somme Offensive against the German army; the battle resulted in heavy casualties and produced no clear winner.
• In 1934, Hollywood began enforcing its Production Code, also called the Hays Code, subjecting motion pictures to censorship review.
• In 1946, the United States exploded a 20-kiloton atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.
• In 1973, the Drug Enforcement Administration was established.
• In 1997, Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule after 156 years as a British colony. Actor Robert Mitchum died in Santa Barbara at age 79.
• In 2002, the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal, the International Criminal Court, came into existence.
On July 2
• In 1776, the Continental Congress passed a resolution saying that “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States.”
• In 1867, New York’s first elevated rail line, a single track between Battery Place and Greenwich Street, went into operation.
• In 1881, President James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Washington railroad station; Garfield died the following September. (Guiteau was hanged in June 1882.)
• In 1917, rioting erupted in East St. Louis, Illinois, as white mobs attacked black residents; nearly 50 people, mostly black, are believed to have been killed.
• In 1926, the United States Army Air Corps was created.
• In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law a sweeping civil rights bill passed by Congress.
• In 1987, 18 Mexican immigrants were found dead inside a locked boxcar near Sierra Blanca, Texas, in what authorities called a botched smuggling attempt; a 19th man survived.
• In 1997, Academy Award-winning actor James “Jimmy” Stewart died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 89.
On July 3
• In 1775, Gen. George Washington took command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• In 1890, Idaho became the 43rd state of the Union.
• In 1913, during a 50th anniversary reunion at Gettysburg, Civil War veterans re-enacted Pickett’s Charge, which ended with embraces and handshakes between the former enemies.
• In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt marked the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg by dedicating the Eternal Light Peace Memorial.
• In 1944, during World War II, Soviet forces recaptured Minsk from the Germans.
• In 1950, the first carrier strikes of the Korean War took place as the USS Valley Forge and the HMS Triumph sent fighter planes against North Korean targets.
• In 1962, French President Charles de Gaulle signed an agreement recognizing Algeria as an independent state after 132 years of French rule.
• In 1971, singer Jim Morrison of The Doors died in Paris at age 27.
• In 1976, Israel launched its daring mission to rescue 106 passengers and Air France crew members being held in Uganda by pro-Palestinian hijackers; the commandos succeeded in rescuing all but four of the hostages.