1/7- What happened today?

1523: Johann Esch and Heinrich Voes 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 Great Duchy of Lithuania confirm a real union. The united country is called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth or the Republic of Both Nations.

1770: Lexell's Comet passed closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 a.u.

1821: Greek war of Independence. 

1837: A system of the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is eastablished in England and Wales.

1858: Joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society.

1862: American Civil War: the Battle of Malvern Hill takes place. It is the final battle in the Seven Days Campaign, part of George B.McClellan's Peninsula Campaign.

1863: - Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) in Suriname, marking the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands.

            :- American Civil War: the Battle of Gettysburg begins.

1867: The British North America Act of 1867 takes effect as the Constitution of Canada, creating the Canadian Confederation and the federal dominion of Canada. Sir John A.Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada.

1874: The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially succesful typerwriter, goes on sale.

1878: Canada joins the Universal Postal Union.

1881: The world's first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada and Calais, Maine, United States.

1885: The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada.

1898: Spanish-American War: the Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba.

1903: Start of first Tour de France bicycle race.

1908: SOS is adopted as the international distress signal.

1911: Germany despatched the gunship Panther to Morocco, sparking the Agadir Crisis.

1913: B' Balkan War: Greece and Bulgaria pledge truce.

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.

1921: The Communist Party of China is founded.

1943: Tokyo City merges with Tokyo Prefecture and is dissolved. Since then, no city in Japan has had the name "Tokyo" (present-day Tokyo is not officially a city).

1948: Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-i-Azam) inaugrurates 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.

1959: -The Party of the African Federation holds its constituitive conference.

            : -Specific values for the international yard, avoirdupois pound and derived units (e.g. inch, mile and ounce) are adopted after agreement between the U.S.A., the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth countries.

1960: - Independence of Somalia

            : - Ghana becomes a Republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II ceases to be its Head of State.

1962: - Independece of Rwanda and of Burundi.

1963: ZIP Codes are introduced for United States mail.

1966: The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto. 

1967: - 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.

            : - Canada celebrates the 100th anniversary of the British North America Act, 1867, which officially made Canada its own federal dominion.

1968: The Nuclear non-proliferation treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by 62 countries.

1970: President General Yahya Khan abolishes One-Unit of West Pakistan restoring the provinces.

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.

1990: German re-unification: East Germany accepts the Deutche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany.

1991: 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.

1999: The Scotish 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 Ediburgh.

2002: The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.

2003: Over 500.000 people protested 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.

2007: Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces.

2008: Rioting erupted in Mongolia in responce to allegations of fraud surrounding the 2008 legislative elections.