Today in News History

On July 1, several notable moments in the history of News stand out. In 1766, François-Jean de la Barre, a young French nobleman, is tortured and beheaded before his body is burnt on a pyre along with a copy of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, France. In 1885, The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada. In 1890, Canada and Bermuda are linked by telegraph cable. In 1908, SOS is adopted as the international distress signal. In 1911, Germany dispatches the gunboat SMS Panther to Morocco, sparking the Agadir Crisis. In 1920, Henri Amouroux, French historian and journalist (died 2007) was born. In 1957, The International Geophysical Year begins. In 1961, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French physician and author (born 1894) passed away. In 1968, The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries. In 1971, William Lawrence Bragg, Australian-English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1890) passed away. Together, these milestones provide historical context for today's news news and ongoing narratives.