London, United Kingdom. Several major political, military, cultural and technological events took place on July 3 across different years, including a landmark television broadcast, wartime action and significant political change.
Deaths and commemorations
In 1904, Theodor Herzl, the Hungarian-born Zionist leader, died. In 1897, he became the first president of the World Zionist Organisation.
In 1971, Jim Morrison, lead singer of the American rock group The Doors, died in Paris.
Broadcasting milestone
In 1928, John Logie Baird transmitted the world’s first colour television pictures in London.
Wartime and conflict
In 1940, British ships destroyed the French fleet at Oran and Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. More than 1,000 French sailors died.
In 1988, the American warship Vincennes shot down an Iranian Airbus A300 over the Gulf in the final weeks of the Iran-Iraq war, killing all 290 people on board.
Political developments
In 1962, French President Charles de Gaulle declared Algeria independent.
In 1987, Klaus Barbie, the Nazi known as the “butcher of Lyon”, was sentenced in France to life imprisonment for wartime crimes against humanity.
In 1996, the Stone of Scone was returned to Scotland.
In 2000, Mexican opposition candidate Vicente Fox defeated Francisco Labastida of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, ending the party’s 71-year rule in a presidential election.