July 1^st is:

Gingersnap 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! Liu Bowen, George Sand and Walter White, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba,
& Sint Maartin – 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 –
Administrative Region Establishment Day

Mexico – Presidential Election Day

Rwanda – Independence Day

Somalia – Republic Day

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

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On This Day in HISTORY

552 – Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under General Narses break the power of the Ostrogoths in Italy, and King Totila of the Ostrogoths is killed; the Eastern Roman Empire gains control of Italy, which will end soon after the death of Justinian I in 565

1311 – Liu Bowen born, Chinese military strategist, philosopher, statesman and poet; a key advisor to Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty

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

1725 – Rhoda Delaval born, Lady Astley by marriage, English portrait painter; died at age 32 just after the birth of her fourth child in three years

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

Detail from the François-Jean de la Barre monument 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’s army takes Alexandria, Egypt

1804 – ‘George Sand’ born as Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin; French author and playwright who scandalized French society by smoking, wearing men’s clothing, and having a series of very public affairs, her lovers included composer  Frédéric Chopin and author Alfred de Musset; Indiana, Consuelo, La Mare au Diable (The Devil’s Pool)

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

1850 – Florence Earle Coates born, American poet whose work appeared regularly in many of the major periodicals of her day; several poems were also set to music by composers Amy Beach, Clayton Johns and Charles Gilbert Spross. Matthew Arnold met her on a lecture tour of America, and encouraged her to write, becoming a long-time friend and mentor. In 1886, she was a founder of the Contemporary Club in Philadelphia, and was twice president of Philadelphia’s Browning Society (1895-1903 and 1907-1908); published several poetry collections, including Lyrics of Life and The Unconquered Air

1858 – Velma Caldwell Melville born, American editor, poet, sketch and serial writer; she was editor of the Home Circle and Youths’ Department of the Practical Farmer, and of the Hearth and Home Department of the Wisconsin Farmer; noted for her intensely patriotic writing, and for her book, White Dandy, Or Master And I; A Horse’s Story, which was a variation on the more famous Black Beauty

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 *

1869 – William Strunk Jr. born, American author of The Elements of Style, later revised and enlarged by his former student E.B. White, which became a highly influential guide to English usage, often called simply ‘Strunk & White’

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

1873 – Alice Guy-Blaché born, French filmmaker, pioneer in early cinema and narrative fiction films, one of the first women directors; founder and director of Solax Studios; her film A Fool and His Money, made in 1912, had an all-black cast

1876 – Susan Glaspell born, American playwright whose play, Alison’s House, won the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, was also an actress, director, novelist, biographer, poet, and journalist; co-founder of the Provincetown Playhouse, where Eugene O’Neill’s  early plays were first produced

1885 – Dorothea Mackellar born, Australian author and poet; best-known for her 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 debutante; wrote four novels and four works of non-fiction with socialist and feminist themes; member of the Labour Party, and edited Womens Leader, a party publication

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

1893 – Walter White born, civil rights activist; joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1918, and became its chief investigator of lynchings, because with his blue eyes and light hair, paired with his Southern accent, he was able to get answers when he questioned politicians and suspected lynchers; the information he uncovered was then broadcast by the NAACP, which influenced public opinion against lynchings. White served as head of NAACP for over 20 years

Walter White circa 1950 and as a college graduate

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

1901 – Irna Phillips born, American scriptwriter, casting agent and actress, dubbed the “Queen of the Soaps” for creating, producing and writing several of the first daytime radio and television soap operas, including radio’s Woman in White, and TV’s Guiding Light, As the World Turns and Another World; mentor to Agnes Nixon and William J. Bell, also pioneers in daytime television

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

1930 – Carol Chomsky born, American linguist and education specialist, noted for her studies of language acquisition in children; married to Noam Chomsky

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

1940 – Ela Gandhi born, South African peace activist; Member of the South African  Parliament (1994-2004) aligned with the ANC (African National Congress); granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi

1941 – Twyla Tharp born, American dancer-choreographer

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

1945 – Deborah Harry, American singer, Blondie

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

1955 – Lisa Scottoline born, American lawyer and author of legal thrillers and nonfiction

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” officially 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 *

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

2013 – Croatia becomes the 28^th member of the European Union

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