This Day in History - July 1st

1997: Hong Kong returned to China

Hong Kong reverts back to Chinese rule in a midnight ceremony attended by a host of British and Chinese dignitaries. Few on the island city protested the turnover. Britain gained control of Hong Kong at the end of the First Opium War in 1841. The colony flourished as an East-West trading centre and in 1898, Britain was granted an additional 99 years of rule. In 1984, after years of negotiations, the British and Chinese communists approved the 1997 turnover of the island. The chief executive under the new Hong Kong government, Tung Chee Hwa, formulated a policy based upon the concept of one country, two systems, thus preserving Hong Kong’s role as a principal capitalist centre in Asia.

Also On This Day

2004

Cassini-Huygens, the international mission to Saturn, goes into orbit around the planet beaming back pictures of Saturn’s rings.

2002

The International Criminal Court is established.

2002

Two planes collide in midair whilst flying over southern Germany killing 71 people.

1994

PLO leader Yasser Arafat enters Gaza for the first time since his exile 27 years earlier.

1991

In Prague, the formal ending of the Warsaw Pact, the defence agreement between countries under Soviet influence in Eastern Europe.

1963

British Foreign Office official Kim Philby admits to being a Soviet Spy.

1960

The Republic of Somalia is established.

1942

The Second World War: In North Africa, the first Battle of El Alamein begins.

1921

The Communist Party of China is founded.

1916

The First World War: At least 20,000 British soldiers are killed and a further 40,000 are injured on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. It is the greatest number of British casualties in a single day’s fighting in modern history.

1867

The Dominion of Canada is established by the British North American Act, with this day celebrated as Canada’s National Day.

1863

American Civil War: Start of the three day Battle of Gettysburg with Confederate troops, led by General Robert E. Lee, launching the first attack.

1858

Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace theories on evolution and natural selection are presented to the Linnaean Society in London.

1097

The crusaders defeat the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Dorylaeum in western Turkey.

251 AD

The Goths defeat the Romans at the Battle of Abrittus in Bulgaria.