On this day

1613 - The original Globe Theatre in London burned down after a cannon was fired during a performance of a Shakespearean play and set fire to the straw roof.

1620 - After denouncing smoking as a health hazard, King James I of England banned the growing of tobacco in Britain.

1855 - Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper was first published.

1966 - In Britain, Barclays Bank introduced the Barclaycard - the UK's first credit card.

1974 - With Argentine President Juan Perón on his deathbed, Isabela Martinez de Perón, his wife and vice president, was sworn in as the leader of the South American country.

1976 – The Seychelles become independent from the United Kingdom.

1995 – The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937.

2007 – Two car bombs are found at Piccadilly Circus, in the heart of London.

1985: Beirut ordeal ends for US hostages
All 39 Americans being held captive by the Shia Muslim Amal militia in Lebanon have been released, after almost three weeks in captivity.
Their freedom was secured after intervention by the Syrian President Hafiz al-Assad. The White House said no deal had been done with the captors.

The hostages were driven in a Red Cross convoy from Beirut to Syrian capital Damascus, 17 days after the plane they were on was hijacked by two members of the extremist Islamic Jihad group.

Most of the passengers were freed hours after the Lebanese gunmen diverted the TWA Rome - Athens flight to Beirut on 14 June, demanding the release of 766 Shia Muslims imprisoned in Israel.

But 40 Americans were forced to remain on the plane. One of their number - US Navy diver Robert Stethem - was killed on the first day of the crisis and his body dumped on the airport tarmac.

Thirty-five of the Americans were imprisoned in various Beirut safe-houses by the Amal militia for most of their ordeal, but four were being held by the radical Hezbollah group.

The freedom of these men is reported to have been obtained by President Assad, who contacted two of the most extreme Shia leaders to order their release.


We thank you from the bottom of our hearts

Hostage Allyn Conwell

The group finally left for Damascus at 1545 (1245 GMT) after 24 hours of confusion and uncertainty about whether they would be freed.

Some of the hostages praised their treatment by the Amal militia, saying it had guaranteed the group's safety and looked after their welfare.

The hostages' spokesman, Allyn Conwell, told reporters at a news conference they were all very relieved to be free.

"For anyone and everyone who has prayed for us, talked for us, waited for us or hoped for us - we thank you from the bottom of our hearts," he said.


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The hostages are all relieved to be free


Interviews with hostages and terrorists






In Context
The hostages were safely transferred to Frankfurt and then to the US after their release.
The White House said it knew the identity of the two original hijackers, but the men have never been brought to justice.

The American Diplomatic Security Service is still offering a reward of $5m (£3.17m) for information leading to their capture.

The US Navy named the warship USS Stethem after the sailor killed by the gunmen during the hijack.


Stories From 30 Jun
1985: Beirut ordeal ends for US hostages
1971: Space mission ends in tragedy
1969: Nigeria bans Red Cross aid to Biafra
1954: Three continents see eclipse of sun
1992: Thatcher takes her place in Lords

1520 – Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fight their way out of Tenochtitlan.

1859 – French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

1894 - London's Tower Bridge was officially opened to traffic by the Prince of Wales. After the ceremony the bascules were raised to allow a flotilla of ships and boats to sail down the Thames.

1905 – Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", in which he introduces special relativity.

1908 - One of the most powerful, natural explosions in recorded history occurred, in Central Siberia, devastating 70 miles in diameter. It was called the Tunguska event.

1954 - A total eclipse of the sun spread from America, through Europe and on to Asia.

1960 – Congo gains independence from Belgium.

1971 – The crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply escapes through a faulty valve.

1991 – 32 miners are killed when a coal mine catches fire in the Donbass region of Ukraine releases toxic gas.

1997 – The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.

2007 - A blazing vehicle, packed with gas canisters, was driven into the front of the Glasgow airport's Terminal One building in a suspected terror attack. The failed terror attacks were to prove a serious first test for new Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who had taken over at Number 10 and unveiled his first Cabinet revamp only the day before.

1963: Philby confirmed as 'third man'
Former Foreign Office official Harold Philby has admitted he was the "third man" in the case of British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean.
Security services are now aware that using information he gained while working for the MI6 in Washington, Mr Philby warned the pair that intelligence services were on their trail. This information enabled them to escape to the Soviet Union.

It is now apparent Mr Philby was a double agent working for the Soviet authorities during his time with the foreign office.

The news was announced in the House of Commons by the Lord Privy Seal Edward Heath.

"This information, coupled with the latest message received by Mrs Philby, suggests that when he left Beirut he may have gone to one of the countries of the Soviet Block" he said.

British authorities had always suspected there was a "third man" and asked if this new evidence confirmed it to be Mr Philby the reply from Mr Heath was, "yes".

Mr Philby, often known as Kim, had been working as a journalist in Beirut when he disappeared four months ago.

When Mr Burgess and Mr Maclean defected to the Soviet Union in 1951 Harold Philby was singled out as someone who could have warned them.

As a result of this he was forced to resign from his post at the Foreign Office by the then Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden.

The investigation into the case was never closed.

Today's revelations have been ridiculed by Mr Burgess, speaking from Moscow he maintained that Mr Maclean had been alerted when "over-eager MI5 sleuths" bumped into his car.

Mr Maclean refused to comment.

Your Memories?
Write your account of the events.


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Harold Philby was better known as Kim





In Context
Harold Philby was recruited by the Soviets during his time at Cambridge University.
He was a member of a group called Communist International.

Once in Moscow Mr Philby became a Russian citizen and re-married.

He worked as a general for the KGB and was awarded the Order of Lenin for services to the country.

He died in Russia in 1988 and was buried with full military honours.

Mr Philby was nicknamed Kim after a spy character in a Rudyard Kipling book.


Stories From 1 Jul
1997: Hong Kong handed over to Chinese control
1963: Philby confirmed as 'third man'
1994: Yasser Arafat ends 27-year exile
2004: Cassini captures Saturn's rings
1987: Stock-broker guilty of corruption
2000: Ex-Blair ally attacks prime minister

1838 - Charles Darwin presented a paper on his theory of evolution to the Linnean Society in London.

1847 - The United States Post Office issued its first stamps, a five-cent stamp honoring Benjamin Franklin and a ten-cent stamp for George Washington.

1862 – The Russian State Library is founded.

1908 – SOS is adopted as the international distress signal.

1911 - The British Copyright Act is introduced, protecting an author's works for 50 years after their death.

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).

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.

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

1972 – The first Gay Pride march in England takes place.

1979 - The Sony Walkman was introduced.

1990 – East Germany accepts the Deutsche 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.

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

1964: President Johnson signs Civil Rights Bill
The Civil Rights Bill - one of the most important piece of legislation in American history - has become law.
US President Lyndon B Johnson signed the bill creating equal rights in voting, education, public accommodations, union membership and in federally assisted programmes - regardless of race, colour, religion or national origin.

The bill has caused much controversy since it was introduced last year by President John F Kennedy.

It was signed tonight in the White House five hours after the House of Representatives passed it by 289 to 126 votes.

After the signing, President Johnson shook hands with civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King.

In a television address to the nation he called on US citizens to "eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in America".

"Let us close the springs of racial poison," he said.

'Monstrous oppression'

Parts of the bill take immediate effect, including the "public accommodations" element which means black people can no longer be excluded from restaurants, hotels, bars, cinemas, sports stadia and other public facilities.

Sections on voting rights and desegregation of schools are also enforceable from now and give the Attorney General more power to intervene where necessary.

The section on equal opportunity in employment will not begin to operate for another year and will not be fully effective for five years.

During the debate on the bill, segregationist politicians from America's deep south expressed their disappointment and anger.

Congressman Howard Smith of Virginia called it a "monstrous oppression of the people".

Civil rights activists have welcomed the new law. Roy Wilkins, secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People described it as "the Magna Carta of human rights".

He applauded the appointment of former governor of Florida Leroy Collins as director of the new Community Relations Service, set up to deal with issues arising from the desegregation of public facilities and institutions.

The Civil Rights Commission has announced a campaign to implement the law.

And Dr King said he would be seeking commitments from businesses and community leaders all over the south to respect the new law under a campaign called Operation Dialogue.


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President Johnson: "Let us close the springs of racial poison"


President Johnson addresses the nation: "Let us set aside irrelevant differences"






In Context
Extra civil rights measures were introduced in the following years.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 aimed at removing the rights of states to introduce restrictions to stop certain people voting.

The 1968 Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.

Many states acted quickly to circumvent the law which led to a great feeling of injustice and resentment in the inner cities and the rest of the decade was marred by race riots and assassinations.

Black leader Malcolm X was shot in 1965 and Martin Luther King was killed in 1968.

The black ghetto riots between 1964 and 1968 marked the most prolonged period of unrest in the United States since the American Civil War. They were finally suppressed when tens of thousands of National Guardsmen were sent in to quell them.

Black people continued to remain at a disadvantage when looking for work, and programmes of "affirmative action" were introduced during the 1970s under President Nixon.

The Civil Rights Act of 1991 encouraged positive discrimation and allowed lawsuits against employers if their hiring had a "disparate impact" on women or minorities, even if there was no proof of discriminatory intent.


Stories From 2 Jul
1964: President Johnson signs Civil Rights Bill
2005: Millions rock to Live8 message
2001: Dando killer jailed for life
1987: Brady to help search for Moors victims
1992: IRA murders 'informers'
1970: Police snatch London gun cache

1819 - The first Factory Act was passed in Britain. This banned the employment of children younger than 9 from working in textile factories, whilst those under 16 were allowed to work for only 12 hours a day!

1839 - Africans on the Cuban schooner Amistad rose up against their captors, killing two crewmembers and seizing control of the ship, which had been transporting them to a life of slavery on a sugar plantation at Puerto Príncipe, Cuba.

1850 - The gas mask was patented by B.J. Lane of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1900 – The first Zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.

1937 - Aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first round-the-world flight at the equator.

1947 - A purported Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. This report has been the subject of controversy ever since.

1966 – The French military explodes a nuclear test bomb codenamed Aldébaran in Mururoa, their first nuclear test in the Pacific.

1996 - Weather experts predicted that global warming would have the effect of moving Britain 100 miles south in the next 25 years, bringing summer droughts and winter rainstorms.

2002 - American Steve Fossett became the first person to fly a balloon solo around the world.

1971: Doors' singer Jim Morrison found dead
Jim Morrison, the lead singer of American rock group The Doors has died in Paris aged 27.
He was found in a bathtub at his apartment at 17 Rue Beautraillis by his girlfriend, Pamela Courson.

A doctor's report stated the cause of death was heart failure aggravated by heavy drinking.

The rest of the band - keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robbie Krieger and drummer John Densmore - are currently in the United States.

Morrison, also known as the Lizard King, was born in Florida in 1943, his father Stephen was in the US Navy and rose to the rank of admiral.

He formed The Doors with Ray Manzarek in 1965 in Los Angeles.

Morrison had come up with the name after reading Aldous Huxley's account of drug experiences, The Doors Of Perception.

The group became the first popular "new wave" band. Their first album, The Doors, released by Elektra Records in 1967, was a number one hit in the US, though only just scraped into the British charts.

Their following albums, Strange Days and Waiting For The Sun, provided further American hits and, in Hello I love You, a British number 15.

Arrested for lewd behaviour

But with its ever growing fame, the band lost some of its credibility in the rock underground.

Morrison's behaviour, fuelled by drink and drugs, became more outrageous and in 1969 he was arrested for "indecent exposure, lewd conduct and public intoxication" after a concert in Miami's Dinner Key auditorium.

Though some of the charges were later dropped, the scandal made it hard for the band to perform live for some time.

Morrison used the crisis as a spur to creativity and produced one of the group's most critically acclaimed albums, Morrison Hotel, in 1970.

Over the past year he has made clear he wanted to drop music altogether to become a writer.

He has already published two volumes of poetry, The Lords and The New Creatures, and planned to begin a literary career once his contractual obligations to Elektra were fulfilled.


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Jim Morrison was found dead in a bath in an apartment in Paris


Jim Morrison talks of "rebellion, chaos, disorder"




In Context
Jim Morrison is buried at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, where his grave has become a shrine for successive generations of fans.
In 1991, the 20th anniversary of his death, the cemetery had to hire extra security after police used tear gas to disperse rowdy fans.

Since Morrison's death his records have never been out of print and Hollywood, too, has found The Doors music attractive.

The End was used in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, and in 1991 Oliver Stone helped cement the Morrison legend with his film biography The Doors, starring Val Kilmer. The film created a whole new generation of fans.

The three surviving members of the group released a new album, Doors Box Set, in 1997. It included three CDs of previously unreleased songs.




Stories From 3 Jul
1988: US warship shoots down Iranian airliner
1987: Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie gets life
1970: Holiday jet goes missing over Spain
1951: Ridgway agrees to ceasefire talks
1971: Doors' singer Jim Morrison found dead
1966: Arrests in London after Vietnam rally
2000: Livingstone to take on government
1956: Commonwealth heads honoured

321 - Sunday was designated a day of rest by Roman Emperor Constantine I.

1884 – Dow Jones and Company publishes its first stock average.

1886 – Karl Benz officially unveils the Benz Patent Motorwagen – the first purpose-built automobile.

1928 - A policeman's helmet and a bunch of roses were among the pictures shown on John Logie Baird's first colour television test transmission at Baird Studios, in London.

1938 - LNER locomotive No.4468 (Mallard) achieved the world speed record for steam traction - 126 mph.

1954 - Nearly nine years after the end of the World War II, food rationing in Britain finally ended.

1969 - Brian Jones, a founding member of the British rock group Rolling Stones, drowned in his swimming pool from a drug overdose.

1969 – The biggest explosion in the history of rocketry occurs when the Soviet N-1 rocket explodes and subsequently destroys its launchpad.

1996 - It was announced that the Stone of Scone, the symbol of Scottish nationalism, stolen by Edward I of England in 1296, was to be returned to Scotland from Westminster Abbey where it has been used in the coronation of 30 British monarchs.

2005 - A NASA space probe, Deep Impact, hit Tempel 1 as planned, its comet target.

2005 – Same-sex marriage in Spain becomes legal.

2006 - A near-earth asteroid labeled 2004 XP14 passes within 432,308 km of Earth.

1954: Housewives celebrate end of rationing
Fourteen years of food rationing in Britain ended at midnight when restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat and bacon were lifted.
Members of the London Housewives' Association held a special ceremony in London's Trafalgar Square to mark Derationing Day.

The Minister of Fuel and Power, Geoffrey Lloyd, burned a large replica of a ration book at an open meeting in his constituency.

But the Minister of Food, Major Gwilym Lloyd-George, told a meeting at Bebington in Cheshire he would keep his as a souvenir and praised all those traders and organisations that had co-operated with the rationing system.

For the first time since the war began in 1939 London's Smithfield Market opened at midnight instead of 0600 and meat sellers were doing a roaring trade.

High prices

Although the final step in dismantling the whole wartime system of food distribution comes into effect, it's not all good news.

Butchers are predicting meat prices will soar for the next couple of weeks until the effect of supply and demand cools the situation down.

In February the Ministry of Food stopped controlling the sale of pork and announced it would end all food rationing this summer.

Food rationing began on 8 January 1940, four months after the outbreak of war.

Limits were imposed on the sale of bacon, butter and sugar.

Then on 11 March 1940 all meat was rationed. Clothes coupons were introduced and a black market soon developed while queueing outside shops and bartering for extra food became a way of life.

There were allowances made for pregnant women who used special green ration books to get extra food rations, and breastfeeding mothers had extra milk.

Restrictions were gradually lifted three years after war had ended, starting with flour on 25 July 1948, followed by clothes on 15 March 1949.

On 19 May 1950 rationing ended for canned and dried fruit, chocolate biscuits, treacle, syrup, jellies and mincemeat.

Petrol rationing, imposed in 1939, ended in May 1950 followed by soap in September 1950.

Three years later sales of sugar were off ration and last May butter rationing ended.


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British citizens are tearing up their rations books in celebration



In Context
Rationing was introduced because of difficulties importing food to Britain by boat during the war, to ensure everyone had their fair share and to prevent people stockpiling foodstuffs.
Various essential and non-essential foods were rationed, such as clothes, furniture and fuel. Rationing of sweets and chocolate began on 26 July 1942.

During the war, health experts from the Ministry of Food ensured that the British people had a balanced diet.

Householders were told they were on the "Kitchen Front" and that they had a duty to use foods to their greatest advantage.

The Ministry devised characters such as Potato Pete and Dr Carrot to put their message across.

The process of de-rationing began in 1948, but made slow progress until 1953. Then Food Minister Gwilym Lloyd-George made it a priority for his department.


Stories From 4 Jul
1976: Israelis rescue Entebbe hostages
1954: Housewives celebrate end of rationing
1995: Major wins Conservative leadership
1985: Teenage genius gets a first
1968: Alec Rose sails home
1977: Manchester United sack manager