Reuters historical calendar - July 1

London, June 30 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on July 1 since 1900: 1907 - The world's first air force was established with the formation of the Aeronautical Division of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer of the U S Army.

1916 - British and French forces launched the Somme Offensive in World War One.

1937 - The world's first telephone emergency service came into operation in Britain.

1942 - Sevastopol in Crimea fell to German forces after an eight-month siege.

1944 - The Bretton Woods Conference began to formulate post-war international monetary policy.

1946 - The United States tested an atomic bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

1960 - The former British colony of Ghana became a republic, with Kwame Nkrumah as its first president.

1974 - Juan Peron, Argentine president and founder of the Peronist movement, died.

1980 - ''O Canada'' was proclaimed Canada's national anthem.

1991 - East European leaders meeting in Prague announced the end of the Warsaw Pact.

1993 - Limits on political asylum rights took effect in Germany aimed at stemming an influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees.

1996 - The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said it was suspending its membership in the Palestine Liberation Organisation and urged other groups to work to cancel PLO-Israeli peace deals.

1997 - Robert Mitchum, U S movie star in films including ''Cape Fear'', ''Ryan's Daughter'' and ''Night of the Hunter'', died.

He was 79.

1999 - Germany's parliament held its last session in Bonn before moving to Berlin.

1999 - Scotland opened its first parliament in nearly 300 years.

1999 - Joshua Nkomo died aged 83. He was Zimbabwe's veteran vice-president and a stalwart of its liberation struggle.

2000 - The longest cable-stayed bridge in the world was opened.

The Oresund Bridge links Sweden and Denmark.

2002 - The new International Criminal Court, the first permanent world tribunal set up to prosecute individuals for war crimes, officially came into being.

2003 - Herbie Mann, jazz flutist, pioneer in the world music movement who helped usher in the 1960s Bossa Nova craze, died.

He was 73.

2004 - An Iraqi tribunal charged Saddam Hussein and 11 of his senior associates with crimes against humanity.

**2005 - Grammy-winning soul singer and songwriter Luther Vandross, famed for a silky voice that seduced millions of fans, died aged 54.

REUTERS SRS BST1010