1 July

1999: On 1 July 1999, ESA's de-activated Giotto spacecraft performed its second Earth fly-by, 14 years since its launch on 2 July 1985 and five years after its previous return to Earth's vicinity on 2 July 1990. It flew past Earth at a distance of 220 000 kilometres (just over half the Earth-Moon distance).

Giotto operations were officially terminated on 23 July 1992, after completion of final orbit adjustments and configuration of the spacecraft for its third hibernation. The spacecraft had about 15 kilograms of propellant left, barely enough to adjust the orbit for one last Earth fly-by.

The fly-by coincided with a press briefing in London about ESA's next cometary mission, Rosetta.

1770: On 1 July 1770, Lexell's comet passed a mere 2.3 million kilometres from Earth, less than nine times the distance to the Moon. This is one of Earth’s closest known near-misses by a comet.