Reuters historical calendar - July 2

London, July 1 (Reuters) Following are some of the major events to have occurred on July 2 since 1900: 1900 - Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flew his first airship in Germany.

1915 - Porfirio Diaz, Mexican soldier and president from 1877-1911, died in Paris.

1932 - Portugal's last king, Manuel II, died. He succeeded to the throne in 1908 but was overthrown in a revolution 2 years later.

1937 - Amelia Earhart and co-pilot Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific while trying to fly around the world.

1940 - The liner Arandora Star was torpedoed by a German submarine while transporting German and Italian prisoners to Canada in World War Two. More than 750 prisoners and crew died.

1961 - Ernest Hemingway, the American novelist best known for ''A Farewell to Arms'' and ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', shot himself.

1964 - U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, prohibiting racial discrimination.

1976 - North and South Vietnam were reunited as one country with Hanoi as the capital following the Vietnam War. Vietnam had been divided since 1954.

1973 - The American actress, singer and World War Two pin-up girl Betty Grable died.

1990 - More than 1,000 Muslim pilgrims died in a stampede in a tunnel at the annual Haj pilgrimage to Mecca.

1997 - The American movie star James Stewart died. He won an Oscar for his role in ''The Philadelphia Story'' in 1940 and a special Academy Award in 1984 after 50 years in films.

1998 - Pakistan's Mohammad Alam Channa, the world's tallest man at 7 feet, 7.25 inches (2.317 metres), died aged 42.

2001 - The world's first self-contained mechanical heart was implanted into a patient in a seven-hour operation by University of Louisville surgeons Laman Gray and Robert Dowling.

2002 - The millionaire Steve Fossett became the first solo balloonist to circle the globe non-stop, sailing into the record books off Australia's southern coast. He had flown nearly 19,500 miles (31,400 km) around the southern hemisphere. He finally landed on July 4.

2003 - The United States ended military aid to 35 countries for backing the International Criminal Court and not exempting Americans from prosecution.

2004 - Marlon Brando, the reclusive Oscar-winning star of ''The Godfather'' and ''On the Waterfront'' who was hailed as one of the most influential actors of his generation, died aged 80.

2005 - Singers Paul McCartney and U2's Bono fired up a huge London crowd at Hyde Park for the anti-poverty crusade, Live 8, the biggest music event ever staged.

**2006 - The leftist party led by Bolivian President Evo Morales won elections to the a national assembly to rewrite the country's constitution, but failed to gain absolute control.

REUTERS SG RN1044