On This Day - 3rd July

1608 - Quebec founded by French explorer Samuel Champlain
1844 – The last pair of Great Auks are killed
1878 - George M Kohan born.
1883 - Franz Kafka born.
1884 – Dow Jones and Company publishes its first stock average.
1927 - Ken Russell born.
1937 - Tom Stoppard born.

1951 - It is announced that talks to end the Korean war will begin later in July after terms were accepted by General Matthew Ridgway, supreme commander to the UN in the Far-East.
1952 - Alan Autry born.
1956 - Montel Williams born.
1962 – The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends. Also Tom Cruise born.
1966 - Demonstrators in London are arrested after their protest against the Vietnam War turns violent.
1970 - A Dan-Air charter flight from Manchester has goes missing over Spain with 105 holiday-makers and seven crew on board, they wreckage was found the folloing day.

1971 - Jim Morrison, lead singer of American rock group The Doors dies of heart failure in Paris, aged 27.
1987 - The former chief of Gestapo in Lyon, Klaus Barbie, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a Lyon court.
1988 - An American naval warship patrolling in the Persian Gulf shoots down an Iranian passenger jet after apparently mistaking it for a fighter plane, killing almost 300 passengers and crew.
1990 - The day Italy crashed out of their own World Cup in Naples as they went down to Argentina on penalties at the semi-final stage
1994 - A Gheorghe Hagi-inspired upset saw Romania down Argentina in front of 90,469 spectators at the Los Angeles Rose Bowl
2000 - In his first speech as Mayor of London Ken Livingstone announces that he will stand up to the government.

On This Day - 2nd July

1877 - Hermann Hesse born
1881 - US President Garfield is shot but survives
1908 - Thurgood Marshall born
1922 - Dan Rowan born
1930 - Carlos Saul Menem born
1937 - Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight. Also Richard Petty born.
1942 - Vincente Fox born
1964 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act. Also José Canseco born
1970 - Police seize a large cache of arms in west London in one of the biggest raids in Britain for years.
1976 - North and South Vietnam reunite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
1983 - Michelle Branch born
1986 - Lindsay Lohan born

1987 - Moors murderer Ian Brady offers to assist police searches of Saddleworth Moor for the first time since his conviction.
1992 - The IRA admits killing three men found by the army at different roadsides in south Armagh.
1994 - Colombia were knocked out of the World Cup after a 2-1 defeat to the hosts USA - courtesy of Andres Escobar's 34th minute own goal. July 2 saw Escobar murdered outside a Medellin nightclub, allegedly at the behest of the powerful gambling syndicates which lost money as a consequence of Colombia's early exit. 120,000 people went to the defender's funeral, and a statue has since been built in his honour.
2001 - Barry George is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of television presenter Jill Dando. During an appeal hearing on 1 August 2008 Mr George was found not guilty of murder and set free.
2005 - Live 8 concerts take place in London and around the world.

On This Day - 1st July

1841 - Thomas Cook runs his first 'tour' - a train trip to a temperence meeting
1851 - The Australian Colony of Victoria is created from the southern part of New South- Wales
1899 - Charles Laughton born
1916 - Olivia DeHavilland born
1931 - Leslie Caron born
1934 - Jamie Farr and Jean Marsh born
1940 - Germans invade the Channel Islands
1941 - Twyla Tharp born
1942 - Karen Black and Genevieve Bujold born
1945 - Deborah Harry born
1952 - Dan Aykroyd born
1956 - Alan Ruck born
1960 - Ghana become a republic following the removal of British sovereignty.
1961 - Carl Lewis and Michelle Wright and Princess Diana born
1963 - Former Foreign Office official Harold Philby is confirmed as the "third man" in the Burgess and Maclean case.
1967 - The first colour television broadcast in Britain also Pamela Anderson born
1971 - Missy Elliott born
1976 - Ruud Van Nistelrooy born
1977 - Liv Tyler born
1979 – Long before Apple introduced the iPod, Sony’s Walkman became the first portable music player to hit stores.

1987 - One of the City's top investment bankers has received the first conviction for insider dealing since it became illegal in 1980.
Geoffrey Collier, former head of securities at Morgan Grenfell, was given a 12-month suspended sentence and was fined £25,000 with £7,000 costs at the High Court in London.
1990 – Cameroon’s surprising run at Italia ’90 finally came to an end. After becoming the first African nation in World Cup history to reach the quarter-finals. England won the match through two Gary Lineker penalties.
1994 - The chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Yasser Arafat, returns to the Gaza Strip after 27 years in exile.

1997 - Hong Kong is handed back to the Chinese authorities - ending more than 150 years of British control.
2000 - Millionaire novelist Ken Follett levels scathing personal criticism at Prime Minister Tony Blair.
2004 - International space probe Cassini-Huygens reaches Saturn and sends back the closest photographs yet of the planet's rings.

2006 - England are knocked out of the World Cup by Portugal at the quarter final stage. This was their third exit through penalties out of the previous four finals they had reached.