July 1^st is:

Gingersnap Day

Hop-a-Park-Day

International Joke Day

U.S. Postage Stamp Day

U.S. Zip Code Day *

National Postal Worker Day *

Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day

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MORE! George Sand, James M. Cain and Amy Johnson, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Bonaire – Emancipation Day

Botswana – Sir Seretse Khama Day
(first President of Botswana 1966-1980)

Burundi – Independence Day

Canada – Canada/Dominion Day *

China – Communist Party of China
Founding Day

Ghana – Republic Day

Hong Kong – Special Administrative
Region Establishment Day

India – Jamat Ul-Vida

Rwanda – Independence Day

Sint Maartin – Emancipation Day

Somalia – Republic Day

Suriname – Keti Koti/Emancipation Day
(slavery abolished 1863)

United States – Eau Claire, MI:
International Cherry Pit-Spitting Championship

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On This Day in HISTORY

1523 – Augustinian monks Johann Esch and Heinrich Voes, after publicly professing Lutheran doctrine, become the first Lutheran martyrs, burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Council of Brabant in Brussels. Martin Luther wrote his hymn “Ein neues Lied wir heben an” (“A new song we raise,” usually called “Fling to the Heedless Winds” in English) after hearing of their deaths

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

1766 – François-Jean de la Barre, a 20-year-old French chevalier (knight), is tortured and beheaded before his body is burnt on a pyre, with a copy of Voltaire’s Dictionnaire  philosophique nailed to his torso, for not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession, singing impious songs, mocking the sacraments and possessing prohibited books,  in Abbeville, France

1770 – Lexell’s Comet passes closer to the Earth than any other recorded comet, approaching to a distance of 1,400,000 miles (0.0146 a.u.)

1798 – Napoleon Bonaparte takes Alexandria, Egypt

1804 – French author George Sand (Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin) is born; scandalized French society by smoking, wearing men’s clothing, and having a series of very public affairs; Indiana, Consuelo

1837 – Mandatory civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths in England and Wales is established. Initially the onus lies on registrars to discover and record events, so parents only had to supply information if and when asked. In 1875, the Births and Deaths Act came into force, whereby those present at a birth or death were required to report the event

1858 – Joint reading of papers on evolution through natural selection by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace at the Linnean Society of London

1858 – Alice Barber Stephens born, American painter, engraver and illustrator

Christmas on Fifth Avenue, by Alice Barber Stephens

1862 – Moscow’s first free public library, originally The Library of the Moscow Public Museum (now The Russian State Library) is founded

1862 – U.S. Bureau of Internal Revenue established

1863 – First day of the Battle of Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, the largest military conflict in U.S soil; the day’s end the Union holds the heights, and reinforcements begin arriving

1867 – Canada becomes a self-governing dominion of Great Britain – Canada Day *

1872 – Louis Bleriot born, French aviator, first to fly across the English Channel

1873 – Alice Guy-Blaché, French filmmaker, one of the first women directors

1876 – Susan Glaspell born, American Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, as well as actress, director, novelist, biographer, poet, and journalist

1885 – Dorothea Mackellar born, Australian author and poet; best-known for poem “My Country”

1887 – Amber Reeves born, New Zealand- born British author, socialist and feminist; chose getting an education at Cambridge over a Court Presentation as a débutante

1892 – James M. Cain born, American crime fiction author; The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity

1893 – Walter White born, civil rights activist; head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for over 20 years

1898 – Theodore Roosevelt and his “Rough Riders” wage a successful assault on San Juan Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American War

1903 – Amy Johnson born, British pilot, sets numerous long-distance records; Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) member during WWII; killed during a ferry flight in 1941

1904 – Mary Steichen Calderone born, American physician and public health advocate for sexual education, medical director for Planned Parenthood

1906 – Estée Lauder born, American businesswoman, co-founder of Estée Lauder Companies; one of Time magazine’s 20 most influential business geniuses of 1998; honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom

1934 – Jean Marsh born, British actor and writer; co-creator and star of the BBC television series Upstairs, Downstairs (1971-1975)

1941 – Twyla Tharp born, American dancer-choreographer

1943 – “Pay-as-you-go” income tax withholding from paychecks begins

1945 – Deborah Harry, American singer, Blondie

1946 – Mireya Moscoso born, first woman elected President of Panama

1959 – The U.N. World Refugee Year begins

1963 – The Beatles record “She Loves You”

1963 – U.S. Post Office introduces ZIP (Zoning Improvement Plan) Codes – U.S. Zip Code Day *

1969 – Britain’s Prince Charles invested as the Prince of Wales

1971 – The $35 million state bond passed in 1928 to pay for building the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is paid in full by bridge tolls

1980 – “O Canada” proclaimed the national anthem of Canada

1984 – The Motion Picture Association of America adds the “PG-13” rating

1987 – President Ronald Reagan nominates federal appeals court judge Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court, but he is rejected by the Senate; Anthony Kennedy is eventually approved to take the vacant seat

1987 – The Grateful Dead release their album In The Dark

1991 – President George H.W. Bush nominates federal appeals court judge and accused sexual harasser Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court; he is confirmed by 52-48 vote, the narrowest approval margin in more than a century

1997 – A Seattle postal worker initiates National Postal Worker Day *

1997 – Hong Kong reverts to Chinese rule after 156 years as a British colony

2000 – Vermont’s civil unions law goes into effect, granting same-sex couples most of the rights, benefits and responsibilities of marriage

2006 – China opens Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the world’s highest railway

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