Reuters Historical Calendar - July 12

London, July 11 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on July 12 since 1900.

1906 - French artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus, who was falsely accused of treason, was finally pardoned and restored to his rank and regiment.

1910 - Charles Stewart Rolls, aviator and co-founder of Rolls-Royce, became Britain's first aviation victim when he crashed his Wright biplane near Bournemouth.

1920 - The Panama Canal was formally opened, six years after the first ship sailed through it.

1970 - China agreed to make an extensive loan to Tanzania and Zambia to build the Tanzam railway linking the two countries.

1996 - Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana agreed the terms of their divorce, ending their 15-year marriage.

1997 - The Cuban government confirmed that remains found in a remote Bolivian village were those of legendary guerrilla Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara.

1999 - Taiwan abandoned the ''one China'' policy that helped underpin East Asian security for decades.

1999 - World Trade Organisation arbitrators awarded the United States damages worth 116.8 million dollars from the European Union over the EU's ban on hormone-treated beef.

2000 - Japan's Snow Brand Milk Products Co Ltd closed all its 21 plants after more than 14,555 people fell ill with food poisoning after drinking tainted milk from its Osaka plant.

2002 - A court in the powerful province of Ontario made Canadian history by ruling that the provincial government must register gay and lesbian marriages.

2003 - Benny Carter, legendary US alto sax player and jazz composer died, aged 95.

2005 - Mei Mei, the world's oldest panda raised in captivity, died at a Chinese zoo aged 36.

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