Today is the feast day of  Saint Euddogwy. 

Saint Euddogwy (also referred to as Oudoceus)  Died c.700 -  Euddogwy came to Wales as a young man and trained in theology at Llandeilo Abbey, eventually becoming ‘Bishop of Teilo’, the diocese which was based in Llandeilo Fawr, before travelling to Canterbury for his official consecration.  He was, in all probability, the founder of the monastery at Llandaff.  A contemporary legend relates that once when he wished to remove certain relics of St. Teilo and his disciples from Llandeilo to Llandaff, the people of Llandeilo were antagonised and ambushed Euddogwy and his entourage  in a remote pass at Penallt.  Euddogwy’s prayers miraculously caused the attackers to become temporarily  blind and unable to move. Another story relates that, once, when he was thirsty, Euddogwy asked some nearby women, who were busy preparing butter, for a drink of water. They laughed at him, claiming to have no cup or container in which he could collect the water. The saint picked up some of their butter and moulded it into the shape of a bell. As he drank, the butter miraculously turned to gold.

The Book of Llandaff records a number of grants of land to Euddogwy by various princes of South Wales, including King Cadwgon ap Cathen of Dyfed, King Awst of Brycheiniog and King Meurig ap Tewdrig of Glywysing & Gwent. It was during Euddogwy’s time that  the region between the Wye, the Dore, and the Worm (Herefordshire) was seized by Mercia,  an event generally supposed to have been made under King Penda of Mercia in 649.  Euddogwy resigned as Bishop to retreat to Llaneinion, near Tintern, where he died in solitude.

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On 2nd July 1940, 800 people were drowned when the Arandora Star was torpedoed off the Irish coast by a German U-Boat.   Among the 1200 internees aboard, being deported to Canada, were over 100 Welsh-Italians. These were predominantly cafe owners and small businessmen who had settled in Wales decades earlier. 

In early June 1940, immediately Italy entered the Second World War, all Italian males in Britain who held a passport  and were aged between 18 and 70 years were arrested and forced to leave their homes or workplaces with immediate effect. They were to be indefinitely interned under orders from the British War Cabinet.  Subsequent reports from the Red Cross and other organisations reveal that these internees were badly treated by the British authorities. They were imprisoned in inhumane surroundings, without  access to sufficient food, without  adequate sanitation or medical care. more than 700 Italian internees were transported to Liverpool, where they were herded aboard the former cruise liner, the Arandora Star, along with some 450 German and Austrian internees and Prisoners of War who were all to be shipped to  Newfoundland in Canada. 

The first Welsh national memorial to the victims of the Arandora Star debacle was unveiled at a ceremony in Cardiff’s Metropolitan Cathedral of St David in Charles Street, Cardiff on 2nd July 2010. The memorial a collaboration between the Welsh-Italian artist, Susanna Ciccotti, from Swansea and the world-renowned  stone carver from Ammanford, Ieuan Rees.

Born this day 1893 in Penarth. 

Ralph Hancock , who was widely known as  'Landscape Gardener to HRH Princess Victoria of England'

Ralph's first means of employment was as a Marine and General Insurance Broker in Cardiff, but in in 1926, he undertook a complete change of direction and became a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society.  He moved to Surrey with his family, where he embarked on the first of his  garden projects, which involved the design and construction of a rock and water garden for Princess Victoria at her estate 'Coppins', in Iver, Buckinghamshire.

Then in 1931 he  travelled to New York,  to promote his work in the United States and between 1933 and 1935 he was presented with the ambitious task of creating the “Gardens of the Nations” roof gardens at the Rockefeller Centre in New York.  In doing so, he echoed the styles of gardens from Holland, France, Italy, and England, where each garden had a hostess dressed in appropriately relevant costume. Via elevator and block and tackle he managed to haul 3,000 tons of earth, 500 tons of bricks, 20,000 bulbs, 100 tons of natural stone, and 2,000 trees and shrubs up the side of the eleven floors of the building. The garden was nourished by 96,000 gallons of water which was lifted by an electric pump.

On 2nd July 2013, Wales became the first country in the United Kingdom to bring into law an opt-out organ donation system. 

Previously, people across the UK had to a voluntary scheme and carry a card if they wish to donate organs. People in Wales will now be presumed to have agreed for their organs to be donated after death unless they have opted out of the scheme. 

First Minister Carwyn Jones said: "The Human Transplantation (Wales) Act 2013 is arguably the most significant piece of legislation passed by the National Assembly for Wales since it acquired full lawmaking powers in 2011, with Roy Thomas of Kidney Wales Foundation adding "It gives hope to all those waiting for a transplant, not only those on the list but those who fear chronic organ failure and who may need a transplant”  

July 1866 saw the launch of Yr Australydd, a Welsh language Calvinistic Methodist newspaper, in Victoria (Australia), edited by William Meirion Evans and Theophilus Williams.

Yr Australydd was an Australian monthly newspaper in the Welsh language published in Victoria between 1866 and 1872. Its name translates as The Australian. Its intended readership were, obviously, Welsh Australians, but it was more specifically linked to the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist community. The newspaper's aim was also to encourage a sense of Welshness among its readers, by maintaining the language and promoting Welsh culture and literature.

The newspaper printed news from Wales and requested and printed literary contributions from readers, which included, poetry, short stories, as well as a serialised novel, entitled Cymro yn Awstralia (A Welshman in Australia, 1870). Publication ceased in 1872, for reasons which remain unclear and in 1874, it was replaced by Yr Ymwelydd, a similar newspaper edited by Rev. Evans.