July 1, 1980: Author-scientist C.P. Snow dies

1980: Lord Snow, the novelist Charles Percy Snow, knows as C.P. Snow, died at his London home aged 74. The scientist-turned-writer and public administrator, Lord Snow gained a world-wide readership for his novels, which were best-sellers in the West and also popular in the Soviet Union. Lord Snow was politically on the left and was made a life peer in 1964 by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, in whose Ministry of Technology he served. He published his first book, a thriller, in 1932, but was best known in Britain for his 1964 novel Corridors of Power, a study of political and administrative life. In his books Lord Snow dealt with such themes as the conflict between public life and private conscience. He married novelist Pamela Hansford-Johnson in 1950.

July 1

1847 - US Post Office issues the first adhesive-backed stamps.

1867 - Canada becomes Britain’s self-governing dominion.

1890 - The Heligoland–Zanzibar Treaty is signed by Britain and Germany.

1903 - The first Tour de France bicycle race begins.

1926 - British and Portuguese reach agreement on boundary between what is now Angola and Namibia.

1948 - New York International Airport is officially opened.

1960 - British Somaliland becomes Somalia.

1961 - Algerians vote overwhelmingly for independence from France.

1962 - Rwanda and Burundi become independent.

1969 - Britain’s Prince Charles is invested as the Prince of Wales.

1974 - President Juan Peron of Argentina dies during third term in office.

1994 - Yasser Arafat returns to the Gaza Strip to address Palestinians in the new self-rule area.

1996 - The world’s first voluntary euthanasia law takes effect in Australia’s Northern Territory.

1999 - Queen Elizabeth II opens Scotland’s first parliament in nearly 300 years.

2000 - Actor Walter Matthau dies of a heart attack at the age of 79.

2002 - The International Criminal Court opens in The Hague.

2007 - The first Salik toll system at Al Garhoud Bridge and on Shaikh Zayed Road begins in Dubai.

2010 - Al Maktoum International Airport is officially inaugurated in Jebel Ali, Dubai.

2014 - Israel bombs dozens of sites on the Gaza Strip, striking at Hamas after finding the bodies of three missing teenagers.