Unix Timestamp: 1088640000
Thursday, July 1. 2004, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Officials in Comoros confirm that one passenger from Yemenia Flight 626, a 14-year-old girl, has been found alive. //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8127812.stm (BBC)

The Qingzang railway launches a trial operation, making Tibet the last province-level entity of China to have a conventional railway.

After many years of controversy, the United Kingdom House of Commons, the lower house of parliament, again votes in favour of legislation to ban fox hunting.

In Hong Kong, 500,000 people march to protest the rush into legislation of Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23, the anti-subversion law. Critics say the law is both too broad and too vague.

500,000 Hong Kong people march to protest Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23, which controversially redefines treason.

A Russian Tupolev Tu-154 airliner and a Boeing 757 operated by DHL collide at 35,000 ft over Uberlingen, due to failure of correct communication from ground-to-air. The 69 people aboard the Tupolev (mainly Russian schoolchildren) and the two pilots of the Boeing are all killed.

The United Kingdom hands sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. This event and its ramifications are often referred to as '1997'.

The Northern Territory in Australia legalises voluntary euthanasia.

Iraq disarmament crisis: In response to UNSCOM's evidence, Iraq admits for first time the existence of an offensive biological weapons program, but denies weaponization.

Telephone service goes down in the cities of Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and San Francisco due to a software bug. About twelve million customers are affected.

The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.

A stede in a pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca kills 1,426.

German reunification: East Germany and West Germany merge their economies.

A U.S. District Court acquits Imelda Marcos on racketeering and fraud charges.

CSX Transportation is established.

The Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons enters into force.

The Postmaster-General\\\'s Department is disaggregated into the Australian Telecommunications Commission (trading as Telecom Australia) and the Australian Postal Commission (trading as Australia Post).

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration is founded.

Charles, Prince of Wales, is invested with his title at Caernarfon.

Joaquin Balaguer becomes president of the Dominican Republic.

The Roman Catholic Church accepts cremation as a funeral practice.

Diplomatic relations between the Israeli and the Japanese governments are raised to embassy level.

ZIP Codes are introduced in the U.S.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India was established

Nuclear testing: Operation Crossroads, a series of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in Micronesia, is initiated by detonation of "Able" at an altitude of 520 feet (158 m).

After over 381 years of Western dominance, the Philippines attains full independence.

Ankara University is founded in Turkey.

WWII: Germany is divided between the Allied occupation forces.

The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference begins at Bretton Woods, New Hshire.

Women's Army Corps (WAC) converted to full status.

July 27 ndash WWII: The First Battle of El Alamein.

The first Tacoma Narrows Bridge opens for business, built with an above the water, as the third longest suspension bridge in the world.

The London Passenger Transport Board is founded.

Milan Central Station officially opens in Italy.

The Food, Drug, and Insecticide Administration (FDIA) is established.

The Kuomingtang begins a military unification caign in northern China.

Germany declares its neutrality in the war between Poland and Soviet Russia.

July 12: At least one shark mauls 5 swimmers along of New Jersey coastline during the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, resulting in 4 deaths and the survival of one youth who requires limb utation. This event is the inspiration for author Peter Benchley, over half a century later, to write "Jaws".

November 18 ndash WWI ndash More than 1 million soldiers die during the Battle of the Somme, including 60,000 casualties for the British Commonwealth on the first day.

The presence of the German warship "Panther" in the Moroccan port of Agadir triggers the Agadir Crisis.

The third Modern Olympic Games opens in St. Louis, Missouri, United States as part of the World's Fair.

July 19 ndash First Tour de Francebicycle race, won by Maurice Garin.

U.S. President Grover Cleveland is operated on in secret.

Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty is signed by Great Britain and Germany.

Construction of the iron structure of the Eiffel Tower starts in Paris, France

General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell-Childers reforms of the British Army's organization, comes into effect.

Serbiadeclares war on the Ottoman Empire.

Battle of Treviño-(Third Carlist War)-Advancing on the key city of Vitoria, in Navarre, the Spanish Republican commander General Jenardo de Quesada sent General Tello to attack the Carlist lines just to the southwest at Treviño. The newly-appointed Carlist commander General José Pérula was heavily defeated and withdrew and soon afterwards Quesada entered Victoria in triumph.

General Postal Union established.

Universal Postal Union is established.

Philadelphia Zoo opens, the first public zoo in the U.S.

Prince Edward Island joins the Canadian Confederation.

The cable-operated West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway in Manhattan becomes the first elevated railway in the United States.

The first Constitution of Romania is issued.

3 ndash American Civil War: Union forces under George G. Meade turn back a Confederate invasion by Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg, the largest battle of the war (28,000 Confederate casualties, 23,000 Union).

Taiping Rebellion: French and Imperial Chinese troops defeat Taiping forces at the Battle of Shanghai.

The first issue of the Vatican's newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano" is published.

Charles XV succeeds his father Oscar I of Sweden and Norway (as Charles IV).

The first intercollegiate baseball game is played, between Amherst and Williams Colleges.

An armistice is declared between Austria and others.

Papers by Darwin and Wallace announcing a theory of evolution by natural selection are read at London's Linnean Society.

November 19 ndash Indian rebellion of 1857: Siege of Lucknow.

Quinault Treaty signed, Quinault and Quileute cede their land to the United States.

United States statesman Henry Clay is the first to receive the honor of lying in state in the United States Capitol rotunda.

The United States issues its first postage sts.

The congress of Central America declares absolute independence from Spain, Mexico, and any other foreign nation, including North America, and a Republican system of government is established.

July ndash Robert Peel ensures the passage of five Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, effectively abolishing the death penalty for over one hundred offencesref name=CBH

Napoleon's troops land in Egypt.

The Theater War officially ends.

In Versailles, the National Assembly reconstitutes itself as the National Constituent Assembly and begins preparations for a French constitution.

The comic ballet "La fille mal gardée" choreographed by Jean Dauberval is first presented under the title "Le ballet de la paille" at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, in Bordeaux, France.

Americanprivateers attack Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Lexell\'s Comet (D/1770 L1) passes the Earth at a distance of 2184129 km, the closest approach by a comet in recorded history.

Tewoflos becomes Emperor of Ethiopia.

Russo-Swedish War (1656–1658) ndash Treaty of Cardis: Russia surrenders to Sweden all captured territories.

The Union of Lublin unites the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into a single state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

JulyndashSeptember ndash Huguenot forces under Coligny and 15 year-old Prince Henry of Navarre besiege Poitiers.

La Noche Triste (Night of Sorrow): The forces of Cuitláhuac, Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan, gain a major victory against the forces of conquistador Hernán Cortés. This results in the death of about 400 conquistadors and some 2,000 of their Native American allies. However, Cortés and the most skilled of his men manage to escape and later regroup.

Charles IV of Luxembourg is elected Holy Roman Emperor.ref name = charlesJeep, John. "Medieval Germany." New York: Garland Pub, 2001. p. 108 ISBN 0-8240-7644-3

Roger II of Sicily takes Corfu from the Byzantine Empire, and pillages Corinth, Athens and Thebes.

October 25 ndash with the support of English and Flemish Crusaders, Afonso I of Portugal besieges and conquers Lisbon (Siege of Lisbon)."King John" by Warren. Published by University of California Press in 1961. p. 67 The same year, the troops of the young Portuguese kingdom take Sintra and Santarém and sack Palmela.ref name=picard2000

Battle of Wilton in England.

In Rome, Hostilian, son of Decius, succeeds his father, while Trebonianus Gallus is proclaimed Emperor by the troops. Gallus accepts him as co-emperor, but an outbreak of plague strikes the city and kills the young Hostilian.

The prosperity of Roman Britain declines during this period as the Germanic tribes of the Franks and Saxons, whose homelands are in Friesland and the Low Countries, make raids around the southeast coast.

A fifteen-year plague begins in the Roman Empire.

March ndash Pope Cornelius succeeds Pope Fabian as the 21st pope.

Gallus makes peace with the Goths, he permits them to keep their plunder, and offers them a bribe not to return.

The Sassanid king, Shapur I, orders an invasion of the Roman East with the intent of finally capturing the jewel of Syria, Antioch (251–254).

In the Battle of Abrittus, the Goths defeat emperor Decius and his son Herennius Etruscus on swy ground in the Dobrudja (Moesia).

Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as emperor.