Today in History

All toiletries are banned from commercial airplanes after Scotland Yard disrupts a a major terrorist plot involving liquid explosives. After a few weeks, the toiletries ban was modified.

For the first time ever, temperatures exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit when thermometers hit 101.3 F (38.5 Celsius)  at Kent.

The last British troops leave Hong Kong. After 156 years of British rule, the island is returned to China.

US and Panama sign Panama Canal Zone accord, guaranteeing Panama would have control of the canal after 1999.

David Frost purchases the exclusive rights to interview Richard Nixon.

Rocker Jim Morrison tried in Miami on “lewd & lascivious behavior.” Although convicted and sentenced to jail, he was free on bond while his case was being appealed when he dies in Paris, July 3, 1971.

NASA launches Discoverer 13 satellite; it would become the first object ever recovered from orbit.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the St. Lawrence Seaway is held at Massena, New York.

Daniel Hugh Kelly, film and TV actor (The Good Son).

President Harry S. Truman calls the National Guard to active duty to fight in the Korean War.

National Military Establishment renamed Department of Defense.

Patti Austin, Grammy Award-winning singer and actress (“Real Me”).

Harriet Miers, White House counsel.

Great Britain and the Soviet Union promise aid to Turkey if it is attacked by the Axis Powers.

Keith Duckworth, English mechanical engineer whose Cosworth DFV (Double Four Valve) engine revolutionized Formula One racing.

Jimmy Dean, singer, actor, TV host and businessman.

The Treaty of Bucharest ends the Second Balkan War.

The House of Lords in Great Britain gives up its veto power, making the House of Commons the more powerful House.

Leo Fender, inventor of the first mass-produced electric guitar.

Herbert Hoover, 31st president of the United States (1929-1933).

Confederate Commander John Bell Hood sends his cavalry north of Atlanta to cut off Union General William Sherman‘s supply lines.

The Smithsonian Institution is established in Washington through the bequest of James Smithson.

William Driver of Salem, Massachusetts, is the first to use the term “Old Glory” in connection with the American flag, when he gives that name to a large flag aboard his ship, the Charles Daggett.

Camillo di Cavour, helped bring about the unification of Italy under the House of Saxony.

Louis XVI of France frees the last remaining serfs on royal land.

Edmund Jennings Randolph, governor of Virginia and first U.S. attorney general.

The Swedish warship Vasa capsizes and sinks in Stockholm harbor on her maiden voyage.

Russia ends its 25-year war with Poland.

French troops are defeated by Emmanuel Philibert’s Spanish army at St. Quentin, France.

King Francis of France declares that all official documents are to be written in French, not Latin.

Otto organizes his nobles and defeats the invading Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in Germany.