ON THIS DAY JULY 1
1200 In China, sunglasses are invented.
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.
1869 The treaty establishing the border between South Africa and Mozambique is signed with Portugal.
1874 The first commercially successful typewriter goes on sale.
1903 The first Tour de France begins. 1905 Albert Einstein introduces his theory of special relativity.
1907 The Orient, laden with wheat, strands at East London. The beach where it ran aground bears its name.
1908 SOS is adopted as the international distress signal.
1915 German Lieutenant Kurt Wintgens scores the first known aerial victory.
1916 The bloody Battle of the Somme begins – a staggering 19 240 men died on Day 1 – one every five seconds.
1916 Coca-Cola brings the current coke formula to the market.
1933 Germany’s Nazi regime declares that married women shouldn’t work.
1938 The South African Press Association is established by major newspapers to facilitate the sharing of news. Now defunct, its archives are owned by Independent Media’s African News Agency (ANA).
1939 Recruitment of Indians into the South African Defence Force under Colonel Morris.
1970 British Home Secretary Reginald Maudling visits Northern Ireland and is reported as saying: “For God’s sake bring me a large Scotch. What a bloody awful country!”
1974 Isabel Peron succeeds husband Juan as president of Argentina. 1979 Sony introduces the Walkman. 1997 The Nevada Athletic Commission suspends Mike Tyson indefinitely for biting off parts of Evander Holyfield’s ear during the “Bite Fight”.
1999 Eighteen mineworkers die in a methane gas explosion near Carletonville.
2002 The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.