The Battle of the Boyne takes place in Ireland, resulting in a victory for Protestant King William III over Catholic King James II and securing Protestant rule in Ireland.
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What Happened Today in History on July 1
Explore the historical events that shaped our world on July 1st. From major milestones to cultural achievements, see what happened on this day in history. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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1863, July 1-3
The Battle of Gettysburg takes place in Pennsylvania. The loss ended Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s ambitious second quest to invade the North and bring the Civil War to a swift end. With more than 50,000 estimated casualties, the three-day engagement was the bloodiest single battle of the conflict. More
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Canada Day, formerly known as Dominion Day, is the National Day of Canada. A federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which occurred on July 1, 1867, when the three separate colonies of the United Canadas, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were united into a single dominion within the British Empire called Canada.
President Grover Cleveland undergoes a secret operation on a friend’s yacht to remove a cancerous growth from his mouth. The entire left side of his jaw was removed along with a small portion of his soft palate. Two weeks later, he was fitted with a rubber prosthesis which he wore until his death in 1908. The secrecy was mostly maintained for 24 years until one of the doctors wrote an article describing what had transpired. More
The WWI Battle of the Somme offensive starts after a week long artillery bombardment. Planned as a joint operation between British and French forces to break the deadlock on the Western Front. But due to the German attack on the French at Verdun, Britain and its Empire took the lead on the Somme. The battle continue until November 13, 1916. It was a costly and largely unsuccessful Allied offensive on the Western front. The horrific bloodshed on the first day of the battle became a metaphor for the loss and apparent futility of the First World War. By the end of the first day of the battle more than 20,000 British soldiers were killed in action and 40,000 wounded marking the heaviest day’s loss that a British army had ever suffered. Four months later the Allies had advanced just five miles.
Photo: Lt Geoffrey Malins filming the preliminary bombardment of the First Day of the Battle of the Somme, July 1st 1916. Malins shots became part of the documentary film The Battle of the Somme. Public Domain.
Source: How I Filmed the War :- A Record of the Extraordinary Experiences of the Man Who Filmed the Great Somme Battles, etc. Jenkins, London 1920
Author Geoffrey H. Malins (1886-1940)
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The July 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs magazine publishes and article written by George F. Kennan and published under the pseudonym "X", titled "The Sources of Soviet Conduct". The article introduced the term "containment" to widespread use and advocated the strategic use of that concept against the Soviet Union.
It expanded on ideas expressed by Kennan in a confidential February 1946 telegram, informally dubbed the "long telegram" for its size. Kennan's role in government precluded him from publishing under his name but his superiors granted him approval to publish the piece provided it was released anonymously. More
The Somali Republic is formed as a unification of the Trust Territory of Italian Somaliland, and British Somaliland. The independence day of Somalia is a national holiday observed annually in Somalia and the diaspora worldwide.
Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi gains its freedom from Belgium. Burundi, a landlocked country in East Africa is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa. It has a population of over 14 million people.
Rwanda gains independence from Belgium. Independence Day in Rwanda is a somewhat muted affair. Kwibohora, (July 4) is celebrated as Rwanda Liberation Day. On this day in 1994 the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) secured the capital of Kigali and ended the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda.
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.
In Hong Kong, the flag of the British Crown Colony was officially lowered at midnight June 30 and the People's Republic of China and the Hong Kong SAR Flag are raised representing China's sovereignty and the official transfer of power after 156 years of British colonial rule. More
The International Criminal Court (ICC) enters into force after 60 countries ratified the treaty, officially establishing the Court as a functional body headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands. It empowered to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression.
It was originally established by the Rome Statute Treaty. which created a permanent international judicial body to investigate and prosecute individuals for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression. The United States does not recognize the International Criminal Court (ICC) because it is not a member and has not ratified the Rome Statute. The U.S. withdrew its signature in 2002 and has a policy of not cooperating with the court, arguing that it lacks jurisdiction over American personnel and has politically motivated actions
The 3I-ATLAS comet is discovered on July 1, 2025 by the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile. This survey is a NASA-funded project that uses a network of robotic telescopes to scan the night sky. Other telescopes helped confirm its interstellar origin.
NASA concluded that 3I/ATLAS is a natural comet, not an alien probe. Evidence for this includes its hyperbolic trajectory, which means it will not orbit the Sun and is just passing through.3I/ATLAS is thought to be at least 7 billion years old, making it likely twice as old as Earth, and the oldest comet we've ever seen. The comet poses no threat to Earth because it will remain at a safe distance. The Hubble Space Telescope estimated the comet's width to be up to 3.5 miles (5.6 km). The object is traveling toward the sun extremely fast, at around 152,000 mph (245,000 km /h), on an extremely flat and straight trajectory with enough momentum to shoot straight through our cosmic neighborhood without slowing down.
By ESA/Hubble, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/...