AD 64 – The Great Fire of Rome causes widespread devastation and rages on for six days, destroying half of the city.
484 – Leontius, Roman usurper, is crowned Eastern emperor at Tarsus (modern Turkey). He is recognized in Antioch and makes it his capital.
711 – Umayyad conquest of Hispania: Battle of Guadalete: Umayyad forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeat the Visigoths led by King Roderic.
939 – Battle of Simancas: King Ramiro II of León defeats the Moorish army under Caliph Abd-al-Rahman III near the city of Simancas.
998 – Arab–Byzantine wars: Battle of Apamea: Fatimids defeat a Byzantine army near Apamea.
1333 – Wars of Scottish Independence: Battle of Halidon Hill: The English win a decisive victory over the Scots.
1544 – Italian War of 1542–46: The first Siege of Boulogne begins.
1545 – The Tudor warship Mary Rose sinks off Portsmouth; in 1982 the wreck is salvaged in one of the most complex and expensive projects in the history of maritime archaeology.
1553 – Lady Jane Grey is replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England after only nine days on the throne.
1588 – Anglo-Spanish War: Battle of Gravelines: The Spanish Armada is sighted in the English Channel.
1701 – Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty, ceding a large territory north of the Ohio River to England.
1702 – Great Northern War: A numerically superior Polish-Saxon army of Augustus II the Strong, operating from an advantageous defensive position, is defeated by a Swedish army half its size under the command of King Charles XII in the Battle of Klissow.
1817 – Unsuccessful in his attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Hawaii for the Russian-American Company, Georg Anton Schäffer is forced to admit defeat and leave Kauai.
1821 – Coronation of George IV of the United Kingdom.
1832 – The British Medical Association is founded as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association by Sir Charles Hastings at a meeting in the Board Room of the Worcester Infirmary.
1843 – Brunel’s steamship the SS Great Britain is launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull and screw propeller, becoming the largest vessel afloat in the world.
1845 – Great New York City Fire of 1845: The last great fire to affect Manhattan began early in the morning and was subdued that afternoon. The fire killed four firefighters, 26 civilians, and destroyed 345 buildings.
1848 – Women’s rights: A two-day Women’s Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York.
1863 – American Civil War: Morgan’s Raid: At Buffington Island in Ohio, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan’s raid into the north is mostly thwarted when a large group of his men are captured while trying to escape across the Ohio River.
1864 – Taiping Rebellion: Third Battle of Nanking: The Qing dynasty finally defeats the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
1870 – Franco-Prussian War: France declares war on Prussia.
1900 – The first line of the Paris Métro opens for operation.
1903 – Maurice Garin wins the first Tour de France.
1916 – World War I: Battle of Fromelles: British and Australian troops attack German trenches as part of the Battle of the Somme.
1936 – Spanish Civil War: The CNT and UGT call a general strike in Spain – mobilizing workers’ militias against the Nationalist forces.
1940 – World War II: Battle of Cape Spada: The Royal Navy and the Regia Marina clash; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualties.
1940 – Field Marshal Ceremony: First occasion in World War II, that Hitler appointed field marshals due to military achievements.
1940 – World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army.
1942 – World War II: The Second Happy Time of Hitler’s submarines comes to an end, as the increasingly effective American convoy system compels them to return to the central Atlantic.
1943 – World War II: Rome is heavily bombed by more than 500 Allied aircraft, inflicting thousands of casualties.
1947 – Prime Minister of the shadow Burmese government, Bogyoke Aung San and eight others are assassinated.
1947 – Korean politician Lyuh Woon-hyung is assassinated.
1952 – Opening of the Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland.
1961 – Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte; the French would capture the entire town four days later.
1963 – Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 meters (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention.
1964 – Vietnam War: At a rally in Saigon, South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Khánh calls for expanding the war into North Vietnam.
1969 – Chappaquiddick incident: U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy crashes his car into a tidal pond at Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.
1972 – Dhofar Rebellion: British SAS units help the Omani government against Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman rebels in the Battle of Mirbat.
1976 – Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is created.
1977 – The world’s first Global Positioning System (GPS) signal was transmitted from Navigation Technology Satellite 2 (NTS-2) and received at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at 12:41 a.m. Eastern time (ET).
1979 – The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua.
1979 – The oil tanker SS Atlantic Empress collides with another oil tanker, causing the largest ever ship-borne oil spill.
1980 – Opening of the Summer Olympics in Moscow.
1981 – In a private meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan, French President François Mitterrand reveals the existence of the Farewell Dossier, a collection of documents showing the Soviet Union had been stealing American technological research and development.
1982 – In one of the first militant attacks by Hezbollah, David S. Dodge, president of the American University of Beirut, is kidnapped.
1983 – The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published.
1985 – The Val di Stava dam collapses killing 268 people in Val di Stava, Italy.
1989 – United Airlines Flight 232 crashes in Sioux City, Iowa killing 111.
1992 – A car bomb kills Judge Paolo Borsellino and five members of his escort.
1997 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army resumes a ceasefire to end their 25-year paramilitary campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland.
2014 – Gunmen in Egypt’s western desert province of New Valley Governorate attack a military checkpoint, killing at least 21 soldiers. Egypt reportedly declares a state of emergency on its border with Sudan.
Births on July 19
810 – Muhammad al-Bukhari, Persian scholar (d. 870)
1223 – Baibars, sultan of Egypt (d. 1277)
1420 – William VIII, Marquess of Montferrat (d. 1483)
1569 – Conrad Vorstius, Dutch theologian (d. 1622)
1670 – Richard Leveridge, English singer-songwriter (d. 1758)
1688 – Giuseppe Castiglione, Italian missionary and painter (d. 1766)
1744 – Heinrich Christian Boie, German author and poet (d. 1806)
1759 – Marianna Auenbrugger, Austrian pianist and composer (d. 1782)
1759 – Seraphim of Sarov, Russian monk and saint (d. 1833)
1771 – Thomas Talbot, Irish-Canadian colonel and politician (d. 1853)
1794 – José Justo Corro, Mexican politician and president, (1836-1837) (d. 1864)
1789 – John Martin, English painter, engraver, and illustrator (d. 1854)
1800 – Juan José Flores, Venezuelan general and politician, 1st President of Ecuador (d. 1864)
1814 – Samuel Colt, American businessman, founded the Colt’s Manufacturing Company (d. 1862)
1819 – Gottfried Keller, Swiss author, poet, and playwright (d. 1890)
1822 – Princess Augusta of Cambridge (d. 1916)
1827 – Mangal Pandey, Indian soldier (d. 1857)
1834 – Edgar Degas, French painter, sculptor, and illustrator (d. 1917)
1835 – Justo Rufino Barrios, Guatemalan president (d. 1885)
1842 – Frederic T. Greenhalge, English-American lawyer and politician, 38th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1896)
1846 – Edward Charles Pickering, American astronomer and physicist (d. 1919)
1849 – Ferdinand Brunetière, French scholar and critic (d. 1906)
1865 – Georges Friedel, French mineralogist and crystallographer (d. 1933)
1865 – Charles Horace Mayo, American surgeon, founded the Mayo Clinic (d. 1939)
1860 – Lizzie Borden, American woman, tried and acquitted for the murders of her parents in 1892 (d. 1927)
1868 – Florence Foster Jenkins, American soprano and educator (d. 1944)
1869 – Xenophon Stratigos, Greek general and politician, Greek Minister of Transport (d. 1927)
1875 – Alice Dunbar Nelson, African-American poet and activist (d. 1935)
1876 – Joseph Fielding Smith, American religious leader, 10th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1972)
1877 – Arthur Fielder, English cricketer (d. 1949)
1881 – Friedrich Dessauer, German physicist and philosopher (d. 1963)
1883 – Max Fleischer, Austrian-American animator and producer (d. 1972)
1886 – Michael Fekete, Hungarian-Israeli mathematician and academic (d. 1957)
1888 – Enno Lolling, German physician (d. 1945)
1890 – George II of Greece (d. 1947)
1892 – Dick Irvin, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1957)
1893 – Vladimir Mayakovsky, Russian actor, playwright, and poet (d. 1930)
1894 – Aleksandr Khinchin, Russian mathematician and academic (d. 1959)
1894 – Khawaja Nazimuddin, Bangladeshi-Pakistani politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 1965)
1894 – Percy Spencer, American physicist and inventor of the microwave oven (d. 1969)
1895 – Xu Beihong, Chinese painter and academic (d. 1953)
1896 – Reginald Baker, English film producer (d. 1985)
1896 – A. J. Cronin, Scottish physician and novelist (d. 1981)
1896 – Bob Meusel, American baseball player and sailor (d. 1977)
1898 – Herbert Marcuse, German-American sociologist and philosopher (d. 1979)
1899 – Balai Chand Mukhopadhyay, Indian physician, author, poet, and playwright (d. 1979)
1902 – Samudrala Raghavacharya, Indian singer, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1968)
1904 – Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, American lawyer and farmer (d. 1985)
1907 – Isabel Jewell, American actress (d. 1972)
1908 – Daniel Fry, American contactee (d. 1992)
1909 – Balamani Amma, Indian poet and author (d. 2004)
1912 – Peter Leo Gerety, American prelate (d. 2016)
1914 – Marius Russo, American baseball player (d. 2005)
1915 – Åke Hellman, Finnish painter (d. 2017)
1916 – Phil Cavarretta, American baseball player and manager (d. 2010)
1917 – William Scranton, American captain and politician, 13th United States Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 2013)
1919 – Patricia Medina, English-American actress (d. 2012)
1919 – Miltos Sachtouris, Greek poet and author (d. 2005)
1919 – Ron Searle, English-Canadian soldier, publisher, and politician, 4th Mayor of Mississauga (d. 2015)
1920 – Robert Mann, American violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 2018)
1920 – Richard Oriani, Salvadoran-American metallurgist and engineer (d. 2015)
1921 – Harold Camping, American evangelist, author, radio host (d. 2013)
1921 – André Moynet, French soldier, race car driver, and politician (d. 1993)
1921 – Elizabeth Spencer, American novelist, short story writer, and playwright (d. 2019)
1921 – Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011)
1922 – George McGovern, American lieutenant, historian, and politician (d. 2012)
1922 – Rachel Robinson, American professor, registered nurse, and the widow of baseball player Jackie Robinson
1923 – Theo Barker, English historian (d. 2001)
1923 – Alex Hannum, American basketball player and coach (d. 2002)
1923 – Joseph Hansen, American author and poet (d. 2004)
1923 – William A. Rusher, American lawyer and journalist (d. 2011)
1923 – Lon Simmons, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2015)
1924 – Stanley K. Hathaway, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 40th United States Secretary of the Interior (d. 2005)
1924 – Pat Hingle, American actor and producer (d. 2009)
1924 – Arthur Rankin Jr., American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
1925 – Sue Thompson, American singer
1926 – Helen Gallagher, American actress, singer, and dancer
1928 – Samuel John Hazo, American author
1928 – Choi Yun-chil, South Korean long-distance runner and a two-time national champion in the marathon.
477 BC – Battle of the Cremera as part of the Roman–Etruscan Wars. Veii ambushes and defeats the Roman army.
387 BC– Roman-Gaulish Wars: Battle of the Allia: A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome.
362 – Roman–Persian Wars: Emperor Julian arrives at Antioch with a Roman expeditionary force (60,000 men) and stays there for nine months to launch a campaign against the Persian Empire.
452 – Sack of Aquileia: After an earlier defeat on the Catalaunian Plains, Attila lays siege to the metropolis of Aquileia and eventually destroys it.
645 – Chinese forces under general Li Shiji besiege the strategic fortress city of Anshi (Liaoning) during the Goguryeo–Tang War.
1195 – Battle of Alarcos: Almohad forces defeat the Castilian army of Alfonso VIII and force its retreat to Toledo.
1290 – King Edward I of England issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews (numbering about 16,000) from England; this was Tisha B’Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day that commemorates many Jewish calamities.
1334 – The bishop of Florence blesses the first foundation stone for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by the artist Giotto di Bondone.
1389 – France and England agree to the Truce of Leulinghem, inaugurating a 13-year peace, the longest period of sustained peace during the Hundred Years’ War.
1391 – Tokhtamysh–Timur war: Battle of the Kondurcha River: Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde in present-day southeast Russia.
1507 – In Brussels, Prince Charles I, is crowned Duke of Burgundy and Count of Flanders, a year after inheriting the title.
1555 – The College of Arms is reincorporated by Royal charter signed by Queen Mary I of England and King Philip II of Spain.
1806 – A gunpowder magazine explosion in Birgu, Malta, kills around 200 people.
1812 – The Treaties of Orebro end both the Anglo-Russian and Anglo-Swedish Wars.
1841 – Coronation of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil.
1857 – Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall’s war against the French.
1862 – First ascent of Dent Blanche, one of the highest summits in the Alps.
1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Fort Wagner: One of the first formal African American military units, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, supported by several white regiments, attempts an unsuccessful assault on Confederate-held Battery Wagner.
1870 – The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility.
1872 – The Ballot Act 1872 in the United Kingdom introduced the requirement that parliamentary and local government elections be held by secret ballot.
1914 – The U.S. Congress forms the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, giving official status to aircraft within the U.S. Army for the first time.
1925 – Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf.
1936 – On the Spanish mainland, a faction of the army supported by fascists, rises up against the Second Spanish Republic in a coup d’etat starting the 3-year-long Civil War, resulting in the longest dictatorship in modern European history.
1942 – World War II: During the Beisfjord massacre in Norway, 15 Norwegian paramilitary guards help members of the SS to kill 288 political prisoners from Yugoslavia.
1942 – The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 using its jet engines for the first time.
1944 – World War II: Hideki Tōjō resigns as Prime Minister of Japan because of numerous setbacks in the war effort.
1966 – Human spaceflight: Gemini 10 is launched from Cape Kennedy on a 70-hour mission that includes docking with an orbiting Agena target vehicle.
1966 – A racially charged incident in a bar sparks the six-day Hough riots in Cleveland, Ohio; 1,700 Ohio National Guard troops intervene to restore order.
1968 – Intel is founded in Mountain View, California.
1976 – Nadia Comăneci becomes the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
1982 – Two hundred sixty-eight Guatemalan campesinos (“peasants” or “country people”) are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre.
1984 – McDonald’s massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty opens fire, killing 21 people and injuring 19 others before being shot dead by police.
1992 – A picture of Les Horribles Cernettes was taken, which became the first ever photo posted to the World Wide Web.
1994 – The bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Jewish Community Center) in Buenos Aires kills 85 people (mostly Jewish) and injures 300.
1994 – Rwandan genocide: The Rwandan Patriotic Front takes control of Gisenyi and north western Rwanda, forcing the interim government into Zaire and ending the genocide.
1995 – On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufrière Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital, forcing most of the population to flee.
1996 – Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec’s costliest natural disasters ever.
1996 – Battle of Mullaitivu: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam capture the Sri Lanka Army’s base, killing over 1200 soldiers.
2012 – At least seven people are killed and 32 others are injured after a bomb explodes on an Israeli tour bus at Burgas Airport, Bulgaria.
2013 – The Government of Detroit, with up to $20 billion in debt, files for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
2019 – A man sets fire to an anime studio in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan, killing at 35 people and injuring dozens of others.
Births on July 18
1013 – Hermann of Reichenau, German composer, mathematician, and astronomer (b. 1013)
1501 – Isabella of Austria, queen of Denmark (d. 1526)
1504 – Heinrich Bullinger, Swiss pastor and reformer (d. 1575)
1534 – Zacharius Ursinus, German theologian (d. 1583)
1552 – Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1612)
1634 – Johannes Camphuys, Dutch politician, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1695)
1659 – Hyacinthe Rigaud, French painter (d. 1743)
1670 – Giovanni Bononcini, Italian cellist and composer (d. 1747)
1702 – Maria Clementina Sobieska, Polish noble (d. 1735)
1718 – Saverio Bettinelli, Italian poet, playwright, and critic (d. 1808)
1720 – Gilbert White, English ornithologist and ecologist (d. 1793)
1724 – Maria Antonia of Bavaria, Electress of Saxony (d. 1780)
1750 – Frederick Adolf, duke of Östergötland (d. 1803)
1796 – Immanuel Hermann Fichte, German philosopher and academic (d. 1879)
1811 – William Makepeace Thackeray, English author and poet (d. 1863)
1818 – Louis Gerhard De Geer, Swedish lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1896)
1821 – Pauline Viardot, French soprano and composer (d. 1910)
1837 – Vasil Levski, Bulgarian priest and activist (d. 1873)
1843 – Virgil Earp, American marshal (d. 1905)
1845 – Tristan Corbière, French poet (d. 1875)
1848 – W. G. Grace, English cricketer and physician (d. 1915)
1853 – Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
1861 – Kadambini Ganguly, Indian physician, one of the first Indian women to obtain a degree (d. 1923)
1864 – Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden, English politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer (d. 1937)
1867 – Margaret Brown, American philanthropist and activist (d. 1932)
1871 – Giacomo Balla, Italian painter (d.1958)
1871 – Sada Yacco, Japanese actress and dancer (d. 1946)
1881 – Larry McLean, Canadian-American baseball player (d. 1921)
1884 – Alberto di Jorio, Italian cardinal (d. 1979)
1886 – Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., American general (d. 1945)
1887 – Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian military officer and politician, Minister President of Norway (d. 1945)
1889 – Kōichi Kido, Japanese politician, 13th Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan (d. 1977)
1890 – Frank Forde, Australian educator and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1983)
1892 – Arthur Friedenreich, Brazilian footballer (d. 1969)
1893 – David Ogilvy, 12th Earl of Airlie, Scottish peer, soldier and courtier (d. 1968)
1895 – Olga Spessivtseva, Russian-American ballerina (d. 1991)
1895 – Machine Gun Kelly, American gangster (d. 1954)
1897 – Ernest Eldridge, English race car driver and engineer (d. 1935)
1898 – John Stuart, Scottish-English actor (d. 1979)
1899 – Ernst Scheller, German soldier and politician, 8th Mayor of Marburg (d. 1942)
1900 – Nathalie Sarraute, French lawyer and author (d. 1999)
1902 – Jessamyn West, American author (d. 1984)
1902 – Chill Wills, American actor (d. 1978)
1905 – Robert Elton Brooker, American business executive (d. 2000)
1906 – S. I. Hayakawa, Canadian-American academic and politician (d. 1992)
1906 – Clifford Odets, American director, playwright, and screenwriter (d. 1963)
1908 – Peace Pilgrim, American mystic and activist (d. 1981)
1908 – Lupe Vélez, Mexican-American actress and dancer (d. 1944)
1908 – Beatrice Aitchison, American mathematician, statistician, and transportation economist (d. 1997)
1909 – Bishnu Dey, Indian poet, critic, and academic (d. 1982)
1909 – Andrei Gromyko, Belarusian-Russian economist and politician, Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 1989)
1909 – Mohammed Daoud Khan, Afghan commander and politician, 1st President of Afghanistan (d. 1978)
1909 – Harriet Nelson, American singer and actress (d. 1994)
1910 – Diptendu Pramanick, Indian businessman (d. 1989)
1910 – Mamadou Dia, Senegalese politician; 1st Prime Minister of Senegal (d. 2009)
1911 – Hume Cronyn, Canadian-American actor, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2003)
1913 – Red Skelton, American actor and comedian (d. 1997)
1914 – Gino Bartali, Italian cyclist (d. 2000)
1914 – Oscar Heisserer, French footballer (d. 2004)
1915 – Carequinha, Brazilian clown and actor (d. 2006)
1915 – Roxana Cannon Arsht, American judge (d. 2003)
1915 – Louis Le Bailly, British Royal Navy officer (d. 2010)
1916 – Charles Kittel, American physicist (d. 2019)
1917 – Henri Salvador, French singer and guitarist (d. 2008)
1917 – Paul Streeten, Austrian-born British economics professor (d. 2019)
1918 – Nelson Mandela, South African lawyer and politician, 1st President of South Africa, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
1919 – Lilia Dale, Italian actress
1920 – Eric Brandon, English race car driver and businessman (d. 1982)
1921 – Peter Austin, English brewer, founded Ringwood Brewery (d. 2014)
1921 – Aaron T. Beck, American psychiatrist and academic
1921 – John Glenn, American colonel, astronaut, and politician (d. 2016)
1921 – Richard Leacock, English-French director and producer (d. 2011)
1921 – Heinz Bennent, German actor (d. 2011)
1922 – Thomas Kuhn, American physicist, historian, and philosopher (d. 1996)
1923 – Jerome H. Lemelson, American engineer and businessman (d. 1997)
1923 – Michael Medwin, English actor (d. 2020)
1924 – Inge Sørensen, Danish swimmer (d. 2011)
1924 – Tullio Altamura, Italian actor
1925 – Shirley Strickland, Australian runner and hurdler (d. 2004)
1925 – Friedrich Zimmermann, German lawyer and politician, German Federal Minister of the Interior (d. 2012)
1925 – Raymond Jones, Australian Modernist architect
1925 – Windy McCall, American baseball relief pitcher (d. 2015)
1926 – Margaret Laurence, Canadian author and academic (d. 1987)
1926 – Nita Bieber, American actress (d. 2019)
1926 – Bernard Pons, French politician and medical doctor
1926 – Maunu Kurkvaara, Finnish film director and screenwriter
1927 – Mehdi Hassan, Pakistani ghazal singer and playback singer (d. 2012)
1927 – Kurt Masur, German conductor and educator (d. 2015)
1927 – Antonio García-Trevijano, Spanish republican, political activist, and author (d. 2018)
1927 – Keith MacDonald, Canadian politician
1927 – Anthony Mirra, American gangster, member of the Bonanno Crime Family (d. 1982)
1928 – Andrea Gallo, Italian priest and author (d. 2013)
1928 – Baddiewinkle, American internet personality
1929 – Dick Button, American figure skater and actor
1929 – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, American R&B singer-songwriter, musician, and actor (d. 2000)
1932 – Robert Ellis Miller, American director and screenwriter (d. 2017)
1933 – Jean Yanne, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2003)
1933 – Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet and playwright (d. 2017)
1934 – Edward Bond, English director, playwright, and screenwriter
1934 – Darlene Conley, American actress (d. 2007)
1935 – Tenley Albright, American figure skater and physician
1935 – Jayendra Saraswathi, Indian guru, 69th Shankaracharya
1937 – Roald Hoffmann, Polish chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1937 – Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (d. 2005)
1938 – John Connelly, English footballer (d. 2012)
1938 – Ian Stewart, Scottish keyboard player and manager (d. 1985)
1938 – Paul Verhoeven, Dutch director, producer, and screenwriter
1939 – Brian Auger, English rock and jazz keyboard player
1939 – Dion DiMucci, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1939 – Jerry Moore, American football player and coach
1940 – James Brolin, American actor
1940 – Joe Torre, American baseball player and manager
1941 – Frank Farian, German songwriter and producer
1941 – Lonnie Mack, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2016)
1941 – Martha Reeves, American singer and politician
1942 – Giacinto Facchetti, Italian footballer (d. 2006)
1942 – Adolf Ogi, Swiss politician, 84th President of the Swiss Confederation
1943 – Joseph J. Ellis, American historian and author
1944 – David Hemery, English hurdler and author
1945 – Pat Doherty, Irish Republican politician
1946 – Kalpana Mohan, Indian actress
1946 – John Naughton, Scottish-Irish journalist, author, and academic
1947 – Steve Forbes, American publisher and politician
1948 – Carlos Colón Sr., Puerto Rican-American wrestler and promoter
1948 – Jeanne Córdova, American journalist and activist (d. 2016)
1948 – Graham Spanier, 16th President of Pennsylvania State University
1948 – Hartmut Michel, German biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1949 – Dennis Lillee, Australian cricketer and coach
1950 – Richard Branson, English businessman, founded Virgin Group
1950 – Jack Dongarra, American computer scientist and academic
1950 – Kostas Eleftherakis, Greek footballer
1950 – Glenn Hughes, American disco singer (Village People) and actor (d. 2001)
1950 – Jack Layton, Canadian political scientist, academic, and politician (d. 2011)
1950 – Mark Udall, American educator and politician
1951 – Elio Di Rupo, Belgian chemist, academic, and politician, 68th Prime Minister of Belgium
1951 – Margo Martindale, American actress
1954 – Ricky Skaggs, American singer-songwriter, mandolin player, and producer
1955 – Bernd Fasching, Austrian painter and sculptor
1957 – Nick Faldo, English golfer and sportscaster
1957 – Keith Levene, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1960 – Simon Heffer, English journalist and author
1961 – Elizabeth McGovern, American actress
1961 – Alan Pardew, English footballer and manager
1961 – Pasi Rautiainen, Finnish footballer, coach, and manager
1962 – Shaun Micallef, Australian comedian, producer, and screenwriter
1963 – Marc Girardelli, Austrian-Luxembourgian skier
1963 – Martín Torrijos, Panamanian economist and politician, 35th President of Panama
1964 – Wendy Williams, American talk show host
1965 – Vesselina Kasarova, Bulgarian soprano
1966 – Dan O’Brien, American decathlete and coach
1967 – Vin Diesel, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter1968 – Grant Bowler, New Zealand-Australian actor
1968 – Scott Gourley, Australian rugby player
1969 – Elizabeth Gilbert, American author
1969 – The Great Sasuke, Japanese wrestler and politician
1971 – Penny Hardaway, American basketball player and coach
1971 – Sukhwinder Singh, Indian singer-songwriter and actor
1974 – Alan Morrison, British poet
1975 – Torii Hunter, American baseball player
1975 – Daron Malakian, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1975 – M.I.A., English rapper and producer5
1976 – Elsa Pataky, Spanish actress
1976 – Go Soo-hee, South Korean actress
1977 – Alexander Morozevich, Russian chess player and author
1978 – Adabel Guerrero, Argentinian actress, singer, and dancer
1978 – Shane Horgan, Irish rugby player and sportscaster
1978 – Crystal Mangum, American murderer responsible for making false rape allegations in the Duke lacrosse case
1978 – Joo Sang-wook, South Korean actor
1978 – Ben Sheets, American baseball player and coach
1978 – Mélissa Theuriau, French journalist
1979 – Deion Branch, American football player
1979 – Joey Mercury, American wrestler and producer
1980 – Kristen Bell, American actress
1981 – Dennis Seidenberg, German ice hockey player
1982 – Ryan Cabrera, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1982 – Priyanka Chopra, Indian actress, singer, and film producer
1982 – Carlo Costly, Honduran footballer
1983 – Carlos Diogo, Uruguayan footballer
1983 – Aaron Gillespie, American singer-songwriter and drummer
756 – An Lushan Rebellion: Emperor Xuanzong flees the capital Chang’an as An Lushan’s forces advance toward the city.
1223 – Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Philip II.
1420 – Battle of Vítkov Hill, decisive victory of Czech Hussite forces commanded by Jan Žižka against Crusade army led by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor.
1769 – An expedition led by Gaspar de Portolá leaves its base in California and sets out to find the Port of Monterey (now Monterey, California).
1771 – Foundation of the Mission San Antonio de Padua in modern California by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra.
1789 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris storm the Bastille.
1789 – Alexander Mackenzie finally completes his journey to the mouth of the great river he hoped would take him to the Pacific, but which turns out to flow into the Arctic Ocean. Later named after him, the Mackenzie is the second-longest river system in North America.
1790 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris celebrate the unity of the French people and the national reconciliation in the Fête de la Fédération.
1791 – The Priestley Riots drive Joseph Priestley, a supporter of the French Revolution, out of Birmingham, England.
1798 – The Sedition Act becomes law in the United States making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government.
1853 – Opening of the first major US world’s fair, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City.
1865 – The first ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper and party, four of whom die on the descent.
1874 – The Chicago Fire of 1874 burns down 47 acres of the city, destroying 812 buildings, killing 20, and resulting in the fire insurance industry demanding municipal reforms from Chicago’s city council.
1877 – The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began in Martinsburg, West Virginia when wages of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers were cut for the third time in a year. The strike was ended on Sept 4 by local and state militias and federal troops.
1881 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner.
1900 – Armies of the Eight-Nation Alliance capture Tientsin during the Boxer Rebellion.
1902 – The Campanile in St Mark’s Square, Venice collapses, also demolishing the loggetta.
1911 – Harry Atwood, an exhibition pilot for the Wright brothers, lands his airplane at the South Lawn of the White House. He is later awarded a Gold medal from U.S. President William Howard Taft for this feat.
1915 – World War I: The McMahon–Hussein Correspondence between Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca and the British official Henry McMahon concerning the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire begins.
1916 – World War I: Start of the Battle of Delville Wood as an action within the Battle of the Somme, which was to last until 3 September 1916.
1928 – New Vietnam Revolutionary Party is founded in Huế, providing some of the communist party’s most important leaders in its early years.
1933 – Gleichschaltung: In Germany, all political parties are outlawed except the Nazi Party.
1933 – The Nazi eugenics begins with the proclamation of the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring that calls for the compulsory sterilization of any citizen who suffers from alleged genetic disorders.
1938 – Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91-hour airplane flight around the world.
1940 – People’s Seimas held parliamentary elections, and the Union of Labor Lithuania (ULL) won, paving the way for Lithuania to become Lithuanian SSR; Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, consolidating into the Soviet Union on July 21, 1940.
1943 – In Diamond, Missouri, the George Washington Carver National Monument becomes the first United States National Monument in honor of an African American.
1948 – Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party, is shot and wounded near the Italian Parliament.
1950 – Korean War: North Korean troops initiate the Battle of Taejon.
1957 – Rawya Ateya takes her seat in the National Assembly of Egypt, thereby becoming the first female parliamentarian in the Arab world.
1958 – Iraqi Revolution: In Iraq the monarchy is overthrown by popular forces led by Abd al-Karim Qasim, who becomes the nation’s new leader.
1960 – Jane Goodall arrives at the Gombe Stream Reserve in present-day Tanzania to begin her famous study of chimpanzees in the wild.
1965 – The Mariner 4 flyby of Mars takes the first close-up photos of another planet.
1969 – Football War: After Honduras loses a soccer match against El Salvador, riots break out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers.
1969 – The Federal Reserve Banks begins removing large denominations of United States currency from circulation.
1976 – Capital punishment is abolished in Canada.
1992 – 386BSD is released by Lynne Jolitz and William Jolitz beginning the Open Source operating system revolution. Linus Torvalds releases his Linux soon afterwards.
2002 – French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations.
2003 – Hurricane Claudette gathers strength over the Gulf of Mexico and heads for the Texas coast, killing two people.
2013 – The dedication of statue of Rachel Carson, a sculpture named for the environmentalist, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
2015 – NASA’s New Horizons probe performs the first flyby of Pluto, and thus completes the initial survey of the Solar System.
2016 – A terrorist vehicular attack in Nice, France kills 86 civilians and injures over 400 others.
Births on July 14
926 – Murakami, emperor of Japan (d. 967)
1410 – Arnold, Duke of Guelders, (d. 1473)
1448 – Philip, Elector Palatine (d. 1508)
1454 – Poliziano, Italian poet and scholar (d. 1494)
1515 – Philip I, Duke of Pomerania (d. 1560)
1602 – Cardinal Mazarin, Italian-French cardinal and politician, 2nd Chief Minister of the French Monarch (d. 1661)
1608 – George Goring, Lord Goring, English general (d. 1657)
1610 – Ferdinando II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1670)
1634 – Pasquier Quesnel, French priest and theologian (d. 1719)
1671 – Jacques d’Allonville, French astronomer and mathematician (d. 1732)
1675 – Claude Alexandre de Bonneval, French general (d. 1747)
1676 – Caspar Abel, German historian, poet, and theologian (d. 1763)
1696 – William Oldys, English historian and author (d. 17610
1721 – John Douglas, Scottish bishop and scholar (d. 1807)
1743 – Gavrila Derzhavin, Russian poet and politician (d. 1816)
1755 – Michel de Beaupuy, French general (d. 1796)
1785 – Mordecai Manuel Noah, American journalist, playwright, and diplomat (d. 1851)
1795 – Eleanor Anne Porden, British Romantic poet; wife of the explorer, John Franklin (d. 1825)
1801 – Johannes Peter Müller, German physiologist and anatomist (d. 1858)
1816 – Arthur de Gobineau, French author and diplomat (d. 1882)
1829 – Edward Benson, English archbishop (d. 1896)
1859 – Willy Hess, German violinist and educator (d. 1928)
1861 – Kate M. Gordon, American activist (d. 1931)
1862 – Florence Bascom, American geologist and educator (d. 1945)
1862 – Gustav Klimt, Austrian painter and illustrator (d. 1918)
1863 – Arthur Coningham, Australian cricketer (d. 1939)
1865 – Arthur Capper, American journalist and politician, 20th Governor of Kansas (d. 1951)
1866 – Juliette Wytsman, Belgian painter (d. 1925)
1868 – Gertrude Bell, English archaeologist and spy (d. 1926)
1872 – Albert Marque, French sculptor and doll maker (d. 1939)
1874 – Abbas II of Egypt (d. 1944)
1874 – Crawford Vaughan, Australian politician, 27th Premier of South Australia (d. 1947)
1878 – Donald Meek, Scottish actor (d. 1946)
1885 – Sisavang Vong, Laotian king (d. 1959)
1888 – Scipio Slataper, Italian author and critic (d. 1915)
1889 – Marco de Gastyne, French painter and illustrator (d. 1982)
1889 – Ante Pavelić, Croatian fascist dictator during World War II (d. 1959)
1893 – Clarence J. Brown, American publisher and politician, 36th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (d. 1965)
1893 – Garimella Satyanarayana, Indian poet and author (d. 1952)
1894 – Dave Fleischer, American animator, director, and producer (d. 1979)
1896 – Buenaventura Durruti, Spanish soldier and anarchist (d. 1936)
1898 – Happy Chandler, American lawyer and politician, 49th Governor of Kentucky, second Commissioner of Baseball (d. 1991)
1901 – Gerald Finzi, English composer and academic (d. 1956)
1901 – George Tobias, American actor (d. 1980)
1903 – Irving Stone, American author and educator (d. 1989)
1906 – Tom Carvel, Greek-American businessman, founded Carvel (d. 1990)
1906 – William H. Tunner, American general (d. 1983)
1907 – Chico Landi, Brazilian race car driver (d. 1989)
1910 – William Hanna, American animator, director, producer, and actor, co-founded Hanna-Barbera (d. 2001)
1911 – Pavel Prudnikau, Belarusian poet and author (d. 2000)
1912 – Woody Guthrie, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1967)
1912 – Buddy Moreno, American musician (d. 2015)
1913 – Gerald Ford, American commander, lawyer, and politician, 38th President of the United States (d. 2006)
1914 – Fred Fox, French musician (d. 2019)
1918 – Ingmar Bergman, Swedish director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2007)
1918 – Arthur Laurents, American director, screenwriter, and playwright (d. 20110
1918 – Jay Wright Forrester, American computer engineer and systems scientist (d. 2016)
1920 – Shankarrao Chavan, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of Finance (d. 2004)
1920 – Marijohn Wilkin, American country and gospel songwriter (d. 2006)
1921 – Sixto Durán Ballén, American-Ecuadorian architect and politician, 48th President of Ecuador (d. 2016)
1921 – Leon Garfield, English author (d. 1996)
1921 – Armand Gaudreault, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2013)
1921 – Geoffrey Wilkinson, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
1922 – Robin Olds, American general and pilot (d. 2007)
1922 – Elfriede Rinkel, German SS officer (d. 2018)
1922 – Käbi Laretei, Estonian-Swedish concert pianist (d. 2014)
1923 – René Favaloro, Argentine surgeon and cardiologist (d. 2000)
1923 – Dale Robertson, American actor (d. 2013)
1923 – Robert Zildjian, American businessman, founded Sabian (d. 2013)
1924 – Warren Giese, American football player, coach, and politician (d. 2013)
1925 – Bruce L. Douglas, American politician
1926 – Wallace Jones, American basketball player and coach (d. 2014)
1926 – Harry Dean Stanton, American actor, musician, and singer (d. 2017)
1926 – Himayat Ali Shair, Urdu poet (d. 2019)
1927 – John Chancellor, American journalist (d. 1996)
1927 – Mike Esposito, American author and illustrator (d. 2010)
1928 – Nancy Olson, American actress
1928 – William Rees-Mogg, English journalist and public servant (d. 2012)
1930 – Polly Bergen, American actress and singer (d. 2014)
1930 – Benoît Sinzogan, Beninese military officer and politician
1931 – Jacqueline de Ribes, French fashion designer and philanthropist
1931 – E. V. Thompson, English police officer and author (d. 2012)
1932 – Rosey Grier, American football player and actor
1932 – Del Reeves, American country singer-songwriter (d. 2007)
1933 – Robert Bourassa, Canadian lawyer and politician, 22nd Premier of Quebec (d. 1996)
1933 – Dumaagiin Sodnom, Mongolian politician; 13th Prime Minister of Mongolia
1933 – Franz, Duke of Bavaria, head of the House of Wittelsbach
1936 – Robert F. Overmyer, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 1996)
1937 – Yoshirō Mori, Japanese journalist and politician, 55th Prime Minister of Japan
1938 – Jerry Rubin, American activist, author, and businessman (d. 1994)
1938 – Tommy Vig, Hungarian vibraphone player, drummer, and composer
1939 – Karel Gott, Czech singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2019)
1939 – George Edgar Slusser, American scholar and author (d. 2014)
1940 – Susan Howatch, English author and academic
1941 – Maulana Karenga, American philosopher, author, and activist, created Kwanzaa
1941 – Andreas Khol, German-Austrian lawyer and politician
1942 – Javier Solana, Spanish physicist and politician, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs
1945 – Jim Gordon, American drummer and songwriter
1946 – Sue Lawley, English journalist
1946 – John Wood, Australian actor and screenwriter
1947 – John Blackman, Australian radio and television presenter
1947 – Claudia J. Kennedy, American general
1947 – Salih Neftçi, Turkish economist and author (d. 2009)
1947 – Navin Ramgoolam, Mauritius physician and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Mauritius
1948 – Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu, Zulu king
1948 – Tom Latham, American politician
1948 – Earl Williams, American baseball player (d. 2013)
1949 – Tommy Mottola, American businessman and music publisher
1950 – Bruce Oldfield, English fashion designer
1952 – Bob Casale, American guitarist, keyboard player, and producer (d. 2014)
1952 – Franklin Graham, American evangelist and missionary
1952 – George Lewis, American musician and composer
1952 – Joel Silver, American actor and producer, co-founded Dark Castle Entertainment
1953 – Martha Coakley, American lawyer and politician, 58th Attorney General of Massachusetts
1955 – L. Brent Bozell III, American journalist and activist, founded the Media Research Center
1958 – Mircea Geoană, Romanian politician and diplomat, 97th Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1959 – Aubrey McClendon, American businessman (d. 2016)
1960 – Anna Bligh, Australian politician, 37th Premier of Queensland
1960 – Kyle Gass, American singer-songwriter, musician, and actor
1960 – Angélique Kidjo, Beninese singer-songwriter, activist, and actor
1960 – Jane Lynch, American actress and game show host
1960 – Mike McPhee, Canadian ice hockey player
1961 – Jackie Earle Haley, American actor
1962 – Vanessa Lawrence, English geographer and civil servant
1963 – Jacques Lacombe, Canadian organist and conductor
1964 – Brett Ogle, Australian golfer
1964 – Igor Shpilband, Russian-American ice dancer and coach
1965 – Urmas Kruuse, Estonian lawyer and politician, 41st Mayor of Tartu
1965 – Collins Nweke, Belgian politician of Nigerian origin, 1st foreign born person elected to political office in West Flanders
1966 – Matthew Fox, American actor
1966 – Matt Hume, American mixed martial artist and trainer
1966 – Brian Selznick, American author and illustrator
1967 – Marios Constantinou, Cypriot footballer and manager
1967 – Jeff Jarrett, American wrestler and promoter, co-founder of Impact Wrestling
1967 – Patrick J. Kennedy, American politician
1967 – Hashan Tillakaratne, Sri Lankan cricketer
1967 – Robin Ventura, American baseball player and manager
1968 – Michael Palmer, Singaporean lawyer and politician, 8th Speaker of the Parliament of Singapore
1969 – José Hernández, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and coach
1969 – Sven Sester, Estonian politician
1970 – Jacob Young, Norwegian guitarist
1971 – Howard Webb, English footballer and referee
1973 – Tani Fuga, Samoan rugby player
1973 – Paul Methric, American rapper and producer
1974 – Erick Dampier, American basketball player
1974 – David Mitchell, British comedian
1975 – Derlei, Brazilian footballer
1975 – Tim Hudson, American baseball player
1975 – Jamey Johnson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1977 – Gordon Cree, Scottish singer-songwriter and pianist
1977 – Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden
1978 – Mattias Ekström, Swedish race car driver
1979 – Bernie Castro, Dominican baseball player
1979 – Axel Teichmann, German skier
1980 – George Smith, Australian rugby player
1981 – Matti Hautamäki, Finnish ski jumper
1981 – Robbie Maddison, Australian motorcycle racer
1982 – Dmitry Chaplin, Russian-American dancer and choreographer
1982 – Achille Coser, Italian footballer
1983 – Igor Andreev, Russian tennis player
1983 – Thomas Howard, American football player (d. 2013)
1983 – Tito Muñoz, American conductor and academic
1984 – Renaldo Balkman, American basketball player
1984 – Erica Blasberg, American golfer (d. 2010)
1984 – Lenka Dlhopolcová, Slovak tennis player
1984 – Mounir El Hamdaoui, Moroccan footballer
1984 – Samir Handanović, Slovenian footballer
1984 – Nilmar, Brazilian footballer
1985 – Billy Celeski, Australian footballer
1985 – Darrelle Revis, American football player
1985 – Chris Wright, English cricketer
1986 – Alexander Gerndt, Swedish footballer
1986 – Nikolay Kulemin, Russian ice hockey player
1986 – Dan Smith, English singer-songwriter
1987 – Aqeel Ahmed, English director, producer, and screenwriter
1987 – Margus Hunt, Estonian-American football player, discus thrower, and shot putter
1987 – Adam Johnson, English footballer
1987 – Dan Reynolds, American singer-songwriter
1987 – Sean Smith, American football player
1987 – Ryan Sweeting, Bahamian-American tennis player
1988 – Conor McGregor, Irish mixed martial artist
1988 – Jérémy Stravius, French swimmer
1988 – James Vaughan, English footballer
1989 – Sakari Mattila, Finnish footballer
1989 – Rolando McClain, American football player
1989 – Cyril Rioli, Australian rules footballer
1991 – Shabazz Napier, American basketball player
1993 – Sayaka Yamamoto, Japanese singer
1995 – Megan Cunningham, Scottish footballer
1995 – Serge Gnabry, German footballer
1995 – Kim Hyo-joo, South Korean golfer
1995 – Federico Mattiello, Italian footballer
1997 – Cengiz Ünder, Turkish footballer
Deaths on July 14
664 – Eorcenberht, king of Kent
809 – Ōtomo no Otomaro, Japanese general and Shōgun (b. 731)
850 – Wei Fu, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty
937 – Arnulf I, duke of Bavaria
1223 – Philip II, king of France (b. 1165)
1242 – Hōjō Yasutoki, regent of Japan (b. 1183)
1262 – Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester, English soldier (b. 1222)
1486 – Margaret of Denmark, daughter of Christian I of Denmark (b. 1456)
1526 – John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford, English peer, landowner, and Lord Great Chamberlain of England (b. 1499)
1575 – Richard Taverner, English translator (b. 1505)
1614 – Camillus de Lellis, Italian priest and saint (b. 1550)
1723 – Claude Fleury, French historian and author (b. 1640)
1742 – Richard Bentley, English scholar and theologian (b. 1662)
1766 – František Maxmilián Kaňka, Czech architect (b. 1674)
1774 – James O’Hara, 2nd Baron Tyrawley, Irish field marshal (b. 1682)
1780 – Charles Batteux, French philosopher and academic (b. 1713)
1789 – Jacques de Flesselles, French politician (b. 1721)
1789 – Bernard-René de Launay, French politician (b. 1740)
1790 – Ernst Gideon von Laudon, Austrian field marshal (b. 1717)
1809 – Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Greek monk and saint (b. 1749)
1816 – Francisco de Miranda, Venezuelan general (b. 1750)
1817 – Germaine de Staël, French philosopher and author (b. 1766)
1827 – Augustin-Jean Fresnel, French physicist and engineer, reviver of a wave theory of light, inventor of catadioptric lighthouse lens (b. 1788)
491 – Odoacer makes a night assault with his Heruli guardsmen, engaging Theoderic the Great in Ad Pinetam. Both sides suffer heavy losses, but in the end Theodoric forces Odoacer back into Ravenna.
551 – A major earthquake strikes Beirut, triggering a devastating tsunami that affected the coastal towns of Byzantine Phoenicia, causing thousands of deaths.
660 – Korean forces under general Kim Yu-sin of Silla defeat the army of Baekje in the Battle of Hwangsanbeol.
869 – The 8.4–9.0 Mw Sanriku earthquake strikes the area around Sendai in northern Honshu, Japan. Inundation from the tsunami extended several kilometers inland.
969 – The Fatimid general Jawhar leads the Friday prayer in Fustat in the name of Caliph al-Mu’izz li-Din Allah, thereby symbolically completing the Fatimid conquest of Egypt.
1357 – Emperor Charles IV assists in laying the foundation stone of Charles Bridge in Prague.
1386 – The Old Swiss Confederacy makes great strides in establishing control over its territory by soundly defeating the Archduchy of Austria in the Battle of Sempach.
1401 – Timur attacks the Jalairid Sultanate and destroys Baghdad.
1540 – King Henry VIII of England annuls his marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.
1572 – Nineteen Catholics suffer martyrdom for their beliefs in the Dutch town of Gorkum.
1609 – Bohemia is granted freedom of religion through the Letter of Majesty by the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II.
1701 – A Bourbon force under Nicolas Catinat withdraws from a smaller Habsburg force under Prince Eugene of Savoy in the Battle of Carpi.
1745 – French victory in the Battle of Melle allows them to capture Ghent in the days after.
1755 – The Braddock Expedition is soundly defeated by a smaller French and Native American force in its attempt to capture Fort Duquesne in what is now downtown Pittsburgh.
1762 – Catherine the Great becomes Empress of Russia following the coup against her husband, Peter III.
1776 – George Washington orders the Declaration of Independence to be read out to members of the Continental Army in Manhattan, while thousands of British troops on Staten Island prepare for the Battle of Long Island.
1789 – In Versailles, the National Assembly reconstitutes itself as the National Constituent Assembly and begins preparations for a French constitution.
1790 – The Swedish Navy captures one third of the Russian Baltic fleet.
1793 – The Act Against Slavery in Upper Canada bans the importation of slaves and will free those who are born into slavery after the passage of the Act at 25 years of age.
1807 – The Treaties of Tilsit are signed by Napoleon I of France and Alexander I of Russia.
1810 – Napoleon annexes the Kingdom of Holland as part of the First French Empire.
1811 – Explorer David Thompson posts a sign near what is now Sacajawea State Park in Washington state, claiming the Columbia District for the United Kingdom.
1815 – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord becomes the first Prime Minister of France.
1816 – Argentina declares independence from Spain.
1821 – Four hundred and seventy prominent Cypriots including Archbishop Kyprianos are executed in response to Cypriot aid to the Greek War of Independence.
1850 – U.S. President Zachary Taylor dies after eating raw fruit and iced milk; he is succeeded in office by Vice President Millard Fillmore.
1850 – Persian prophet Báb is executed in Tabriz, Persia.
1863 – American Civil War: The Siege of Port Hudson ends, giving the Union complete control of the Mississippi River.
1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law.
1875 – The Herzegovina Uprising against Ottoman rule begins, which would last until 1878 and have far-reaching implications throughout the Balkans.
1877 – The inaugural Wimbledon Championships begins.
1893 – Daniel Hale Williams, American heart surgeon, performs the first successful open-heart surgery in United States without anesthesia.
1896 – William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech advocating bimetallism at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
1900 – The Federation of Australia is given royal assent.
1900 – The Governor of Shanxi province in North China orders the execution of 45 foreign Christian missionaries and local church members, including children.
1918 – In Nashville, Tennessee, an inbound local train collides with an outbound express, killing 101 and injuring 171 people, making it the deadliest rail accident in United States history.
1922 – Johnny Weissmuller swims the 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds breaking the world swimming record and the ‘minute barrier’.
1932 – The state of São Paulo revolts against the Brazilian Federal Government, starting the Constitutionalist Revolution.
1937 – The silent film archives of Fox Film Corporation are destroyed by the 1937 Fox vault fire.
1943 – World War II: The Allied invasion of Sicily soon causes the downfall of Mussolini and forces Hitler to break off the Battle of Kursk.
1944 – World War II: American forces take Saipan, bringing the Japanese archipelago within range of B-29 raids, and causing the downfall of the Tojo government.
1944 – World War II: Continuation War: Finland wins the Battle of Tali-Ihantala, the largest battle ever fought in northern Europe. The Red Army withdraws its troops from Ihantala and digs into a defensive position, thus ending the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive.
1955 – The Russell–Einstein Manifesto calls for a reduction of the risk of nuclear warfare.
1956 – The 7.7 Mw Amorgos earthquake shakes the Cyclades island group in the Aegean Sea with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The shaking and the destructive tsunami that followed left fifty-three people dead. A damaging M7.2 aftershock occurred minutes after the mainshock.
1958 – A 7.8 Mw strike-slip earthquake in Alaska causes a landslide that produces a megatsunami. The runup from the waves reached 525 m (1,722 ft) on the rim of Lituya Bay; five people were killed.
1962 – Starfish Prime tests the effects of a nuclear test at orbital altitudes.
1979 – A car bomb destroys a Renault motor car owned by “Nazi hunters” Serge and Beate Klarsfeld outside their home in France in an unsuccessful assassination attempt.
1982 – Pan Am Flight 759 crashes in Kenner, Louisiana, killing all 145 people on board and eight others on the ground.
1986 – The New Zealand Parliament passes the Homosexual Law Reform Act legalising homosexuality in New Zealand.
1993 – The Parliament of Canada passes the Nunavut Act leading to the 1999 creation of Nunavut, dividing the Northwest Territories into arctic (Inuit) and sub-arctic (Dene) lands based on a plebiscite.
1995 – The Navaly church bombing is carried out by the Sri Lanka Air Force killing 125 Tamil civilian refugees.
1999 – Days of student protests begin after Iranian police and hardliners attack a student dormitory at the University of Tehran.
2002 – The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, replacing the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The organization’s first chairman is Thabo Mbeki, President of South Africa.
2006 – One hundred and twenty-five people are killed when S7 Airlines Flight 778, an Airbus A310 passenger jet, veers off the runway while landing in wet conditions at Irkutsk Airport in Siberia.
2011 – South Sudan gains independence and secedes from Sudan.
Births on July 9
1249 – Emperor Kameyama of Japan (d. 1305)
1455 – Frederick IV of Baden, Dutch bishop (d. 1517)
1511 – Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg (d. 1571)
1526 – Elizabeth of Austria, Polish noble (d. 1545)
1577 – Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, English-American soldier and politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia (d. 1618)
1578 – Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1637)
1654 – Emperor Reigen of Japan (d. 1732)
1686 – Philip Livingston, American merchant and politician (d. 1749)
1689 – Alexis Piron, French epigrammatist and playwright (d. 1773)
1721 – Johann Nikolaus Götz, German poet and author (d. 1781)
1753 – William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock, English admiral and politician, 34th Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland (d. 1825)
1764 – Ann Ward, English author and poet (d. 1823)
1775 – Matthew Lewis, English author and playwright (d. 1818)
1800 – Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle, German physician, pathologist, and anatomist (d. 1885)
1808 – Alexander William Doniphan, American lawyer and colonel (d. 1887)
1819 – Elias Howe, American inventor, invented the sewing machine (d. 1867)
1825 – A. C. Gibbs, American lawyer and politician, 2nd Governor of Oregon (d. 1886)
1828 – Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano, Italian cardinal (d. 1913)
1834 – Jan Neruda, Czech journalist and poet (d. 1891)
1836 – Camille of Renesse-Breidbach (d. 1904)
1848 – Robert I, Duke of Parma (d. 1907)
1853 – William Turner Dannat, American painter (d. 1929)
1856 – John Verran, English-Australian politician, 26th Premier of South Australia (d. 1932)
1858 – Franz Boas, German-American anthropologist and linguist (d. 1942)
1867 – Georges Lecomte, French author and playwright (d. 1958)
1879 – Carlos Chagas, Brazilian physician and parasitologist (d. 1934)
1879 – Ottorino Respighi, Italian composer and conductor (d. 1936)
1887 – James Ormsbee Chapin, American-Canadian painter and illustrator (d. 1975)
1887 – Saturnino Herrán, Mexican painter (d. 1918)
1887 – Samuel Eliot Morison, American admiral and historian (d. 1976)
1889 – Léo Dandurand, American-Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and referee (d. 1964)
1893 – George Geary, English cricketer and coach (d. 1981)
1901 – Barbara Cartland, prolific English author (d. 2000)
1902 – Peter Acland, English soldier (d. 1993)
1905 – Clarence Campbell, Canadian ice hockey player and referee (d. 1984)
1907 – Eddie Dean, American singer-songwriter (d. 1999)
1908 – Allamah Rasheed Turabi, Pakistani philosopher and scholar (d. 1973)
1908 – Minor White, American photographer, critic, and educator (d. 1976)
1909 – Basil Wolverton, American author and illustrator (d. 1978)
1910 – Govan Mbeki, South African anti-apartheid and ANC leader and activist (d. 2001)
1911 – Mervyn Peake, English author and illustrator (d. 1968)
1911 – John Archibald Wheeler, American physicist and author (d. 2008)
1914 – Willi Stoph, German engineer and politician, 4th Prime Minister of East Germany (d. 1999)
1914 – Mac Wilson, Australian rules footballer (d. 2017)
1915 – David Diamond, American composer and educator (d. 2005)
1915 – Lee Embree, American sergeant and photographer (d. 2008)
1916 – Dean Goffin, New Zealand composer (d. 1984)
1916 – Edward Heath, English colonel and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005)
1917 – Krystyna Dańko, Polish orphan, survivor of Holocaust (d. 2019)
1918 – Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn, Dutch mathematician and academic (d. 2012)
1918 – Jarl Wahlström, Finnish 12th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1999)
1921 – David C. Jones, American general (d. 2013)
1922 – Angelines Fernández, Spanish-Mexican actress (d. 1994)
1922 – Jim Pollard, American basketball player and coach (d. 1993)
1924 – Pierre Cochereau, French organist and composer (d. 1984)
1925 – Guru Dutt, Indian actor, director, and producer (d. 1964)
1925 – Charles E. Wicks, American engineer, author, and academic (d. 2010)
1925 – Ronald I. Spiers, American ambassador
1926 – Murphy Anderson, American illustrator (d. 2015)
1926 – Ben Roy Mottelson, American-Danish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1926 – Pedro Dellacha, Argentine football defender and coach (d. 2010)
1926 – Mathilde Krim, Italian-American medical researcher and health educator (d. 2018)
1927 – Ed Ames, American singer and actor
1927 – Red Kelly, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and politician (d. 2019)
1928 – Federico Bahamontes, Spanish cyclist
1928 – Vince Edwards, American actor, singer, and director (d. 1996)
1929 – Lee Hazlewood, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2007)
1929 – Jesse McReynolds, American singer and mandolin player
1929 – Chi Haotian, Chinese general
1929 – Hassan II of Morocco (d. 1999)
1930 – K. Balachander, Indian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2014)
1930 – Buddy Bregman, American composer and conductor (d. 2017)
1930 – Janice Lourie, American computer scientist and graphic artist
1930 – Elsa Lystad, Norwegian actress
1930 – Roy McLean, South African cricketer and rugby player (d. 2007)
1931 – Haynes Johnson, American journalist and author (d. 2013)
1931 – Sylvia Bacon, American judge
1932 – Donald Rumsfeld, American captain and politician, 13th United States Secretary of Defense
1932 – Amitzur Shapira, Israeli sprinter and long jumper (d. 1972)
1933 – Oliver Sacks, English-American neurologist, author, and academic (d. 2015)
1934 – Michael Graves, American architect, designed the Portland Building and the Humana Building (d. 2015)
1935 – Wim Duisenberg, Dutch economist and politician, Dutch Minister of Finance (d. 2005)
1935 – Mercedes Sosa, Argentinian singer and activist (d. 2009)
1935 – Michael Williams, English actor (d. 2001)
1936 – June Jordan, American poet and educator (d. 2002)
1936 – David Zinman, American violinist and conductor
1937 – David Hockney, English painter and photographer
1938 – Brian Dennehy, American actor (d. 2020)
1938 – Sanjeev Kumar, Indian film actor (d. 1985)
1940 – David B. Frohnmayer, American lawyer and politician, 12th Oregon Attorney General (d. 2015)
1940 – Eugene Victor Wolfenstein, American psychoanalyst and theorist (d. 2010)
1941 – Mac MacLeod, English musician
1942 – David Chidgey, Baron Chidgey, English engineer and politician
1942 – Richard Roundtree, American actor
1943 – John Casper, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
1944 – Judith M. Brown, Indian-English historian and academic
1944 – John Cunniff, American ice hockey player and coach (d. 2002)
1945 – Dean Koontz, American author and screenwriter
1945 – Root Boy Slim, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1993)
1946 – Bon Scott, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter (d. 1980)
1947 – Haruomi Hosono, Japanese singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
1947 – Mitch Mitchell, English drummer (d. 2008)
1947 – O. J. Simpson, American football player and actor
1947 – Patrick Wormald, English historian (d. 2004)
1948 – Hassan Wirajuda, Indonesian lawyer and politician, 15th Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1949 – Raoul Cédras, Haitian military officer and politician
1950 – Amal ibn Idris al-Alami, Moroccan physician and neurosurgeon
1950 – Adriano Panatta, Italian tennis player and sailor
1950 – Viktor Yanukovych, Ukrainian engineer and politician, 4th President of Ukraine
1951 – Chris Cooper, American actor
1951 – Māris Gailis, Latvian politician, businessman, and former Prime Minister of Latvia
1952 – John Tesh, American pianist, composer, and radio and television host
1953 – Margie Gillis, Canadian dancer and choreographer
1953 – Thomas Ligotti, American author
1954 – Théophile Abega, Cameroonian footballer and politician (d. 2012)
1954 – Kevin O’Leary, Canadian journalist and businessman
1955 – Steve Coppell, English footballer and manager
1955 – Lindsey Graham, American colonel, lawyer, and politician
1955 – Jimmy Smits, American actor and producer
1955 – Willie Wilson, American baseball player and manager
1956 – Tom Hanks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1956 – Michael Lederer, American author, poet, and playwright
1957 – Marc Almond, English singer-songwriter
1957 – Tim Kring, American screenwriter and producer
1957 – Kelly McGillis, American actress
1957 – Paul Merton, English comedian, actor, and screenwriter
1958 – Abdul Latiff Ahmad, Malaysian politician
1958 – Jacob Joseph, Malaysian football coach
1959 – Jim Kerr, Scottish singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1959 – Kevin Nash, American wrestler
1959 – Clive Stafford Smith, English lawyer and author
1960 – Yūko Asano, Japanese actress and singer
1960 – Wally Fullerton Smith, Australian rugby league player
1960 – Eduardo Montes-Bradley, Argentinian journalist, photographer, and author
1963 – Klaus Theiss, German footballer
1964 – Courtney Love, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress
1964 – Gianluca Vialli, Italian footballer and coach
1965 – Frank Bello, American bass player
1965 – Thomas Jahn, German director and screenwriter
1965 – Jason Rhoades, American sculptor (d. 2006)
1966 – Pamela Adlon, American actress and voice artist
1966 – Zheng Cao, Chinese-American soprano and actress (d. 2013)
1966 – Gary Glasberg, American television writer and producer (d. 2016)
1966 – Marco Pennette, American screenwriter and producer
1967 – Gunnar Axén, Swedish politician
1967 – Yordan Letchkov, Bulgarian footballer
1967 – Mark Stoops, American football player and coach
1968 – Paolo Di Canio, Italian footballer and manager
1968 – Lars Gyllenhaal, Swedish historian and author
1969 – Nicklas Barker, Swedish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1969 – Jason Kearton, Australian footballer and coach
1970 – Trent Green, American football player and sportscaster
1970 – Masami Tsuda, Japanese author and illustrator
1971 – Marc Andreessen, American software developer, co-founded Netscape
1972 – Ara Babajian, American drummer and songwriter
1973 – Kelly Holcomb, American football player and sportscaster
1974 – Siân Berry, English environmentalist and politician
1974 – Ian Bradshaw, Barbadian cricketer
1974 – Gary Kelly, Irish footballer
1974 – Nikola Šarčević, Swedish singer-songwriter and bass player
1975 – Shelton Benjamin, American wrestler
1975 – Isaac Brock, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1975 – Robert Koenig, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1975 – Craig Quinnell, Welsh rugby player
1975 – Jack White, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1976 – Thomas Cichon, Polish-German footballer and manager
1976 – Fred Savage, American actor, director, and producer
1976 – Radike Samo, Fijian-Australian rugby player
1978 – Kara Goucher, American runner
1978 – Nuno Santos, Portuguese footballer
1979 – Gary Chaw, Malaysian Chinese singer-songwriter
1981 – Lee Chun-soo, South Korean footballer
1981 – Junauda Petrus, American author and performance artist
1982 – Alecko Eskandarian, American soccer player and manager
1982 – Sakon Yamamoto, Japanese race car driver
1984 – Chris Campoli, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Gianni Fabiano, Italian footballer
1984 – Jacob Hoggard, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1984 – Ave Pajo, Estonian footballer
1984 – Piia Suomalainen, Finnish tennis player
1984 – LA Tenorio, Filipino basketball player
1985 – Paweł Korzeniowski, Polish swimmer
1985 – Ashley Young, English footballer
1986 – Sébastien Bassong, Cameroonian footballer
1986 – Simon Dumont, American skier
1986 – Kiely Williams, American singer-songwriter and dancer
1987 – Gert Jõeäär, Estonian cyclist
1987 – Rebecca Sugar, American animator, composer, and screenwriter
1988 – Raul Rusescu, Romanian footballer
1990 – Earl Bamber, New Zealand race car driver
1990 – Fábio, Brazilian footballer
1990 – Rafael, Brazilian footballer
1991 – Mitchel Musso, American actor and singer
1993 – Mitch Larkin, Australian swimmer
1993 – DeAndre Yedlin, American footballer
1999 – Claire Corlett, American voice actress
Deaths on July 9
230 – Empress Dowager Bian, Cao Cao’s wife (b. 159)
518 – Anastasius I Dicorus, Byzantine emperor (b. 430)
715 – Naga, Japanese prince
880 – Ariwara no Narihira, Japanese poet (b. 825)
981 – Ramiro Garcés, king of Viguera
1169 – Guido of Ravenna, Italian cartographer, entomologist and historian
1228 – Stephen Langton, English cardinal and theologian (b. 1150)
1270 – Stephen Báncsa, Hungarian cardinal (b. c. 1205)
1386 – Leopold III, Duke of Austria (b. 1351)
1441 – Jan van Eyck, Dutch painter
1546 – Robert Maxwell, 5th Lord Maxwell, Scottish statesman (b. c. 1493)
1553 – Maurice, Elector of Saxony (b. 1521)
1654 – Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans (b. 1633)
1706 – Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, Canadian captain and explorer (b. 1661)
1737 – Gian Gastone de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1671)
1742 – John Oldmixon, English historian, poet, and playwright (b. 1673)
1746 – Philip V of Spain (b. 1683)
1747 – Giovanni Bononcini, Italian cellist and composer (b. 1670)
1766 – Jonathan Mayhew, American minister (b. 1720)
1795 – Henry Seymour Conway, English general and politician, Secretary of State for the Northern Department (b. 1721)
1797 – Edmund Burke, Irish-English philosopher, academic, and politician (b. 1729)
1828 – Cathinka Buchwieser, German operatic singer and actress (b. 1789)
1850 – Báb, Persian religious leader, founded Bábism (b. 1819)
1850 – Zachary Taylor, American general and politician, 12th President of the United States (b. 1784)
1852 – Thomas McKean Thompson McKennan, American lawyer and politician, 2nd United States Secretary of the Interior (b. 1794)
1856 – Amedeo Avogadro, Italian chemist and academic (b. 1776)
1856 – James Strang, American religious leader and politician (b. 1813)
1880 – Paul Broca, French physician and anatomist (b. 1824)
1882 – Ignacio Carrera Pinto, Chilean captain (b. 1848)
1903 – Alphonse François Renard, Belgian geologist and photographer (b. 1842)
1927 – John Drew, Jr., American actor (b. 1853)
1932 – King Camp Gillette, American businessman, founded the Gillette Company (b. 1855)
1937 – Oliver Law, American commander (b. 1899)
1938 – Benjamin N. Cardozo, American lawyer and jurist (b. 1870)
1947 – Lucjan Żeligowski, Polish-Lithuanian general and politician (b. 1865)
1949 – Fritz Hart, English-Australian composer and conductor (b. 1874)
1951 – Harry Heilmann, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1894)
1955 – Don Beauman, English race car driver (b. 1928)
1955 – Adolfo de la Huerta, Mexican politician and provisional president, 1920 (b. 1881)
1959 – Ferenc Talányi, Slovene journalist and painter (b. 1883)
1962 – Georges Bataille, French philosopher, novelist, and poet (b. 1897)
1961 – Whittaker Chambers, American spy and witness in Hiss case(b. 1901)
1967 – Eugen Fischer, German physician and academic (b. 1874)
1967 – Fatima Jinnah, Pakistani dentist and politician (b. 1893)
1970 – Sigrid Holmquist, Swedish actress (b. 1899)
1971 – Karl Ast, Estonian author and politician (b. 1886)
1972 – Robert Weede, American opera singer (b. 1903)
1974 – Earl Warren, American jurist and politician, 14th Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1891)
1977 – Alice Paul, American activist (b. 1885)
1979 – Cornelia Otis Skinner, American actress and author (b. 1899)
1980 – Vinicius de Moraes, Brazilian poet, playwright, and composer (b. 1913)
1984 – Edna Ernestine Kramer, American mathematician (b. 1902)
1985 – Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (b. 1896)
1985 – Jimmy Kinnon, Scottish-American activist, founded Narcotics Anonymous (b. 1911)
1986 – Patriarch Nicholas VI of Alexandria (b. 1915)
1992 – Kelvin Coe, Australian ballet dancer (b. 1946)
1992 – Eric Sevareid, American journalist (b. 1912)
1993 – Metin Altıok, Turkish poet and educator (b. 1940)
1994 – Bill Mosienko, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1921)
1996 – Melvin Belli, American lawyer (b. 1907)
1999 – Robert de Cotret, Canadian politician, 56th Secretary of State for Canada (b. 1944)
2000 – Doug Fisher, English actor (b. 1941)
2002 – Mayo Kaan, American bodybuilder (b. 1914)
2002 – Rod Steiger, American actor (b. 1925)
2004 – Paul Klebnikov, American journalist and historian (b. 1963)
2004 – Isabel Sanford, American actress (b. 1917)
2005 – Chuck Cadman, Canadian engineer and politician (b. 1948)
328 – The official opening of Constantine’s Bridge built over the Danube between Sucidava (Corabia, Romania) and Oescus (Gigen, Bulgaria) by the Roman architect Theophilus Patricius.
1316 – The Burgundian and Majorcan claimants of the Principality of Achaea meet in the Battle of Manolada.
1594 – Portuguese forces under the command of Pedro Lopes de Sousa begin an unsuccessful invasion of the Kingdom of Kandy during the Campaign of Danture in Sri Lanka.
1610 – John Guy sets sail from Bristol with 39 other colonists for Newfoundland.
1687 – Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
1770 – The Battle of Chesma between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire begins.
1775 – The Second Continental Congress adopts the Olive Branch Petition.
1803 – The Convention of Artlenburg is signed, leading to the French occupation of the Electorate of Hanover (which had been ruled by the British king).
1807 – In Buenos Aires the local militias repel the British soldiers within the Second English Invasion.
1809 – The largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, the Battle of Wagram is fought between the French and Austrian Empires.
1811 – The Venezuelan Declaration of Independence is adopted by a congress of the provinces.
1813 – War of 1812: Three weeks of British raids on Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Plattsburgh, New York commence.
1814 – War of 1812: Battle of Chippawa: American Major General Jacob Brown defeats British General Phineas Riall at Chippawa, Ontario.
1833 – Lê Văn Khôi along with 27 soldiers stage a mutiny taking over the Phiên An citadel, developing into the Lê Văn Khôi revolt against Emperor Minh Mạng.
1833 – Admiral Charles Napier vanquishes the navy of the Portuguese usurper Dom Miguel at the third Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
1841 – Thomas Cook organises the first package excursion, from Leicester to Loughborough.
1884 – Germany takes possession of Cameroon.
1915 – The Liberty Bell leaves Philadelphia by special train on its way to the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. This is the last trip outside Philadelphia that the custodians of the bell intend to permit.
1934 – “Bloody Thursday”: Police open fire on striking longshoremen in San Francisco.
1935 – The National Labor Relations Act, which governs labor relations in the United States, is signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1937 – Spam, the luncheon meat, is introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.
1940 – World War II: Foreign relations of Vichy France are severed with the United Kingdom.
1941 – World War II: Operation Barbarossa: German troops reach the Dnieper river.
1943 – World War II: An Allied invasion fleet sails for Sicily (Operation Husky, July 10, 1943).
1943 – World War II: German forces begin a massive offensive against the Soviet Union at the Battle of Kursk, also known as Operation Citadel.
1946 – Micheline Bernardini models the first modern bikini at a swimming pool in Paris.
1948 – National Health Service Acts create the national public health system in the United Kingdom.
1950 – Korean War: Task Force Smith: American and North Korean forces first clash, in the Battle of Osan.
1950 – Zionism: The Knesset passes the Law of Return which grants all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel.
1954 – The BBC broadcasts its first television news bulletin.
1954 – Elvis Presley records his first single, “That’s All Right”, at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee.
1962 – The official independence of Algeria is proclaimed after an 8-year-long war with France.
1971 – The Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years, is formally certified by President Richard Nixon.
1973 – A boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) in Kingman, Arizona, following a fire that broke out as propane was being transferred from a railroad car to a storage tank, kills eleven firefighters.
1975 – Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles title.
1975 – Cape Verde gains its independence from Portugal.
1977 – Military coup in Pakistan: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the first elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, is overthrown.
1980 – Swedish tennis player Björn Borg wins his fifth Wimbledon final and becomes the first male tennis player to win the championships five times in a row (1976–1980).
1987 – Sri Lankan Civil War: The LTTE uses suicide attacks on the Sri Lankan Army for the first time. The Black Tigers are born and, in the following years, will continue to kill with the tactic.
1989 – Iran–Contra affair: Oliver North is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell to a three-year suspended prison term, two years probation, $150,000 in fines and 1,200 hours community service. His convictions are later overturned.
1995 – Armenia adopts its constitution, four years after its independence from the Soviet Union.
1996 – Dolly the sheep becomes the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.
1997 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Tamil MP A. Thangathurai is shot dead at Sri Shanmuga Hindu Ladies College in Trincomalee.
1999 – U.S. President Bill Clinton imposes trade and economic sanctions against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
2004 – The first direct Indonesian presidential election is held.
2006 – North Korea tests four short-range missiles, one medium-range missile and a long-range Taepodong-2. The long-range Taepodong-2 reportedly fails in mid-air over the Sea of Japan.
2009 – A series of violent riots break out in Ürümqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China.
2009 – The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered in England, consisting of more than 1,500 items, is found near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, Staffordshire.
2012 – The Shard in London is inaugurated as the tallest building in Europe, with a height of 310 metres (1,020 ft).
2016 – The Juno space probe arrives at Jupiter and begins a 20-month survey of the planet.
Births on July 5
465 – Ahkal Mo’ Naab’ I, Mayan ruler (d. 524)
980 – Mokjong of Goryeo, Korean king (d. 1009)
1029 – Al-Mustansir Billah, Fatimid caliph (d. 1094)
1057 – Al-Ghazali, Iranian jurist, philosopher, and mystic (d. 1111)
1321 – Joan of the Tower, English consort of David II of Scotland (d. 1362)
1466 – Giovanni Sforza, Italian nobleman (d. 1510)
1547 – Garzia de’ Medici, Tuscan son of Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1562)
1549 – Francesco Maria del Monte, Italian cardinal and art collector (d. 1627)
1554 – Elisabeth of Austria, French queen (d. 1592)
1580 – Carlo Contarini, doge of Venice (d. 1656)
1586 – Thomas Hooker, English-born founder of the Colony of Connecticut (d. 1647)
1593 – Achille d’Étampes de Valençay, French military leader (d. 1646)
1653 – Thomas Pitt, English businessman and politician (d. 1726)
1670 – Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg, countess palatine (d. 1748)
1675 – Mary Walcott, American accuser and witness at the Salem witch trials (d. 1719)
1709 – Étienne de Silhouette, French translator and politician, Controller-General of Finances (d. 1767)
1717 – Peter III, Portuguese king (d. 1786)
1718 – Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1794)
1745 – Carl Arnold Kortum, German physician and poet (d. 1824)
1755 – Sarah Siddons, English actress (d. 1831)
1780 – François Carlo Antommarchi, French physician (d. 1838)
1793 – Pavel Pestel, Russian officer (d. 1826)
1794 – Sylvester Graham, American minister and activist (d. 1851)
1801 – David Farragut, American admiral (d. 1870)
1802 – Pavel Nakhimov, Russian admiral (d. 1855)
1803 – George Borrow, British writer (d. 1881)
1805 – Robert FitzRoy, English captain, meteorologist, and politician, 2nd Governor of New Zealand (d. 1865)
1810 – P. T. Barnum, American businessman, co-founded Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (d. 1891)
1820 – William John Macquorn Rankine, Scottish physicist, mathematician, and engineer (d. 1872)
1829 – Ignacio Mariscal, Mexican politician and diplomat, Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Mexico (d. 1910)
1832 – Pavel Chistyakov, Russian painter and educator (d. 1919)
1841 – William Collins Whitney, American financier and politician, 31st United States Secretary of the Navy (d. 1904)
1849 – William Thomas Stead, English journalist (d. 1912)
1853 – Cecil Rhodes, English-South African businessman and politician, 6th Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (d. 1902)
1857 – Clara Zetkin, German theorist and activist (d. 1933)
1857 – Julien Tiersot, French musicologist and composer (d. 1936)
1860 – Robert Bacon, American colonel and politician, 39th United States Secretary of State (d. 1919)
1860 – Mathieu Jaboulay, French surgeon (d. 1913)
1862 – George Nuttall, American-British bacteriologist (d. 1937)
1862 – Horatio Caro, English chess master (d. 1920)
1864 – Stephan Krehl, German composer (d. 1924)
1867 – A. E. Douglass, American astronomer (d. 1962)
1872 – Édouard Herriot, French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1957)
1874 – Eugen Fischer, German physician and academic (d. 1967)
1879 – Dwight F. Davis, American tennis player and politician, 49th United States Secretary of War (d. 1945)
1879 – Wanda Landowska, Polish-French harpsichord player and educator (d. 1959)
1880 – Jan Kubelík, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1940)
1880 – Constantin Tănase, Romanian actor and playwright (d. 1945)
1882 – Inayat Khan, Indian mystic and educator (d. 1927)
1883 – Gustave Lanctot, Canadian historian, author, and academic (d. 1975)
1884 – Enrico Dante, Italian cardinal (d. 1967)
1885 – Blas Infante, Spanish historian and politician (d. 1936)
1885 – André Lhote, French sculptor and painter (d. 1962)
1886 – Willem Drees, Dutch politician and historian, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (1948–1958) (d. 1988)
1886 – Prince John Konstantinovich of Russia (d. 1918)
1888 – Herbert Spencer Gasser, American physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1963)
1888 – Louise Freeland Jenkins, American astronomer and academic (d. 1970)
1889 – Jean Cocteau, French novelist, poet, and playwright (d. 1963)
1890 – Frederick Lewis Allen, American historian and journalist (d. 1954)
1891 – John Howard Northrop, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
1891 – Tin Ujević, Croatian poet and translator (d. 1955)
1893 – Anthony Berkeley Cox, English writer (d. 1971)
1893 – Giuseppe Caselli, Italian painter (d. 1976)
1894 – Ants Lauter, Estonian actor and director (d. 1973)
1896 – Thomas Playford IV, Australian politician, 33rd Premier of South Australia (d. 1981)
1898 – Georgios Grivas, Greek general (d. 1974)
1899 – Marcel Achard, French playwright, screenwriter, and author (d. 1974)
1900 – Yoshimaro Yamashina, Japanese ornithologist, founded the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology (d. 1989)
1900 – Bernardus Johannes Alfrink, Dutch cardinal (d. 1987)
1901 – Julio Libonatti, Italian-Argentinian footballer (d. 1981)
1902 – Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., American colonel and politician, 3rd United States Ambassador to the United Nations (d. 1985)
1904 – Harold Acton, English scholar and author (d. 1994)
1904 – Ernst Mayr, German-American biologist and ornithologist (d. 2005)
1904 – Milburn Stone, American actor (d. 1980)
1905 – Madeleine Sylvain-Bouchereau, Haitian sociologist and educator (d. 1970)
1908 – Henri of Orléans, (d. 1999)
1908 – Lyman S. Ayres II, American businessman (d. 1996)
1910 – Georges Vedel, French lawyer and academic (d. 2002)
1911 – Endel Aruja, Estonian-Canadian physicist and academic (d. 2008)
1911 – Haydn Bunton, Sr., Australian footballer and coach (d. 1955)
1911 – Giorgio Borġ Olivier, Maltese lawyer and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Malta (d. 1980)
1911 – Georges Pompidou, French banker and politician, 19th President of France (d. 1974)
1913 – George Costakis, Russian art collector (d. 1990)
1913 – Smiley Lewis, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1966)
1914 – John Thomas Dunlop, American administrator and labor scholar (d. 2003)
1914 – Annie Fischer, Hungarian pianist and composer (d. 1995)
1915 – Babe Paley, American socialite (d. 1978)
1915 – John Woodruff, American runner and commander (d. 2007)
1915 – Al Timothy, Trinidadian musician and songwriter (d. 2000)
1916 – Lívia Rév, Hungarian classical pianist (d. 2018)
1916 – Ivor Powell, Welsh footballer (d. 2012)
1918 – K. Karunakaran, Indian lawyer and politician, 7th Chief Minister of Kerala (d. 2010)
1918 – Brian James, Australian actor (d. 2009)
1918 – Zakaria Mohieddin, Egyptian general and politician, 33rd Prime Minister of Egypt (d. 2012)
1918 – George Rochberg, American composer and educator (d. 2005)
1921 – Viktor Kulikov, Russian marshal (d. 2013)
1921 – Nanos Valaoritis, Greek author, poet, and playwright (d. 2019)
1923 – George Moore, Australian jockey (d. 2008)
1923 – Mitsuye Yamada, Japanese American activist
1924 – János Starker, Hungarian-American cellist and educator (d. 2013)
1924 – Edward Cassidy, Australian Roman Catholic cardinal priest
1925 – Fernando de Szyszlo, Peruvian painter and sculptor (d. 2017)
1925 – Jean Raspail, French author and explorer (d. 2020)
1926 – Diana Lynn, American actress (d. 1971)
1928 – Pierre Mauroy, French educator and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 2013)
1928 – Warren Oates, American actor (d. 1982)
1929 – Jimmy Carruthers, Australian boxer (d. 1990)
1929 – Katherine Helmond, American actress and director (d. 2019)
1929 – Tony Lock, English cricketer (d. 1995)
1929 – Jovan Rašković, Serbian psychiatrist, academic, and politician (d. 1992)
1929 – Jiří Reynek, Czech poet and graphic artist (d. 2014)
1929 – Chikao Ohtsuka, Japanese voice actor (d. 2015)
1931 – Ismail Mahomed, South African lawyer and politician, 17th Chief Justice of South Africa (d. 2000)
1932 – Gyula Horn, Hungarian politician, 37th Prime Minister of Hungary (d. 2013)
1933 – Paul-Gilbert Langevin, French musicologist, critic and physicist (d. 1986)
1936 – Shirley Knight, American actress (d. 2020)
1936 – James Mirrlees, Scottish economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
1938 – Ronnie Self, American singer-songwriter (d. 1981)
1940 – Chuck Close, American painter and photographer
1941 – Terry Cashman, American singer-songwriter and record producer
1941 – Epeli Nailatikau, Fijian chief, President of Fiji
1942 – Matthias Bamert, Swiss composer and conductor
1942 – Hannes Löhr, German footballer, coach, and manager (d. 2016)
1943 – Curt Blefary, American baseball player and coach (d. 2001)
1943 – Mark Cox, English tennis player, coach and sportscaster
1943 – Robbie Robertson, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor
1943 – Pierre Villepreux, French rugby player and coach
1944 – Leni Björklund, Swedish politician, 28th Swedish Minister of Defence for Sweden
1945 – Michael Blake, American author and screenwriter (d. 2015)
1945 – Humberto Benítez Treviño, Mexican lawyer and politician, Attorney General of Mexico
1946 – Pierre-Marc Johnson, Canadian lawyer, physician, and politician, 24th Premier of Quebec
1946 – Paul Smith, English fashion designer
1946 – Gerard ‘t Hooft, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1946 – Vladimir Mikhailovich Zakharov, Russian dancer and choreographer (d. 2013)
1947 – Todd Akin, American politician
1949 – Ludwig G. Strauss, German physician and academic (d. 2013)
1950 – Carlos Caszely, Chilean footballer
1950 – Huey Lewis, American singer-songwriter and actor
1950 – Michael Monarch, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1951 – Goose Gossage, American baseball player
1951 – Roger Wicker, American colonel, lawyer, and politician
1953 – Caryn Navy, American mathematician and computer scientist
1954 – Jimmy Crespo, American guitarist and songwriter
1954 – John Wright, New Zealand cricketer and coach
1955 – Tony Hadley, English footballer
1955 – Peter McNamara, Australian tennis player and coach (d. 2019)
1956 – Horacio Cartes, Paraguayan businessman and politician, President of Paraguay
1956 – James Lofton, American football player and coach
1957 – Carlo Thränhardt, German high jumper
1957 – Doug Wilson, Canadian-American ice hockey player and manager
1958 – Veronica Guerin, Irish journalist (d. 1996)
1958 – Bill Watterson, American author and illustrator
1959 – Marc Cohn, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1960 – Pruitt Taylor Vince, American actor and director
1962 – Sarina Hülsenbeck, German swimmer
1963 – Edie Falco, American actress
1964 – Ronald D. Moore, American screenwriter and producer
1965 – Kathryn Erbe, American actress
1965 – Eyran Katsenelenbogen, Israeli-American pianist and educator
1966 – Susannah Doyle, English actress, director, and playwright
1966 – Gianfranco Zola, Italian footballer and coach
1968 – Ken Akamatsu, Japanese illustrator
1968 – Kenji Ito, Japanese pianist and composer
1968 – Nardwuar the Human Serviette, Canadian singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1968 – Hedi Slimane, French fashion designer and photographer
1968 – Alex Zülle, Swiss cyclist
1968 – Susan Wojcicki, Polish-American technology executive, CEO of YouTube
1969 – Jenji Kohan, American screenwriter and producer
1969 – Armin Kõomägi, Estonian author and screenwriter
1969 – John LeClair, American ice hockey player
1969 – RZA, American rapper, producer, actor, and director
1970 – Mac Dre, American rapper and producer, founded Thizz Entertainment (d. 2004)
1970 – Valentí Massana, Spanish race walker
1971 – Derek McInnes, Scottish footballer and manager
1972 – Matthew Birir, Kenyan runner
1972 – Robert Esmie, Canadian sprinter
1972 – Gary Shteyngart, American writer
1973 – Marcus Allbäck, Swedish footballer and coach
1973 – Bengt Lagerberg, Swedish drummer
1973 – Róisín Murphy, Irish singer-songwriter and producer
1974 – Márcio Amoroso, Brazilian footballer
1975 – Hernán Crespo, Argentinian footballer and coach
1975 – Ai Sugiyama, Japanese tennis player
1976 – Bizarre, American rapper
1976 – Nuno Gomes, Portuguese footballer
1977 – Nicolas Kiefer, German tennis player
1977 – Steven Sharp Nelson, American cellist
1978 – Britta Oppelt, German rower
1978 – Allan Simonsen, Danish race car driver (d. 2013)
1978 – İsmail YK, German-Turkish singer-songwriter
1979 – Shane Filan, Irish singer-songwriter
1979 – Amélie Mauresmo, French-Swiss tennis player
1979 – Stiliyan Petrov, Bulgarian footballer and manager
1980 – David Rozehnal, Czech footballer
1980 – Mads Tolling, Danish-American violinist and composer
1980 – Jason Wade, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1982 – Fabrício de Souza, Brazilian footballer
1982 – Alexander Dimitrenko, Ukrainian-German boxer
1982 – Alberto Gilardino, Italian footballer
1982 – Philippe Gilbert, Belgian cyclist
1982 – Kate Gynther, Australian water polo player
1982 – Dave Haywood, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
763 – The Byzantine army of emperor Constantine V defeats the Bulgarian forces in the Battle of Anchialus.
1422 – Battle of Arbedo between the duke of Milan and the Swiss cantons.
1521 – Spanish forces defeat a combined French and Navarrese army at the Battle of Noáin during the Spanish conquest of Iberian Navarre.
1559 – King Henry II of France is mortally wounded in a jousting match against Gabriel, comte de Montgomery.
1651 – The Deluge: Khmelnytsky Uprising: The Battle of Berestechko ends with a Polish victory.
1688 – The Immortal Seven issue the Invitation to William, which would culminate in the Glorious Revolution.
1758 – Seven Years’ War: Habsburg Austrian forces destroy a Prussian reinforcement and supply convoy in the Battle of Domstadtl, helping to expel Prussian King Frederick the Great from Moravia.
1794 – Northwest Indian War: Native American forces under Blue Jacket attack Fort Recovery.
1805 – Under An act to divide the Indiana Territory into two separate governments, adopted by the U.S. Congress on January 11, 1805, the Michigan Territory is organized.
1859 – French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
1860 – The 1860 Oxford evolution debate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History takes place.
1864 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln grants Yosemite Valley to California for “public use, resort and recreation”.
1882 – Charles J. Guiteau is hanged in Washington, D.C. for the assassination of U.S. President James Garfield.
1886 – The first transcontinental train trip across Canada departs from Montreal, Quebec. It arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia on July 4.
1892 – The Homestead Strike begins near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1905 – Albert Einstein sends the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in which he introduces special relativity, for publication in Annalen der Physik.
1906 – The United States Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act.
1908 – The Tunguska Event, the largest impact event on Earth in human recorded history, resulting in a massive explosion over Eastern Siberia.
1912 – The Regina Cyclone, Canada’s deadliest tornado event, kills 28 people in Regina, Saskatchewan.
1916 – World War I: In “the day Sussex died”, elements of the Royal Sussex Regiment take heavy casualties in the Battle of the Boar’s Head at Richebourg-l’Avoué in France.
1921 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding appoints former President William Howard Taft as Chief Justice of the United States.
1922 – In Washington D.C., U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes and Dominican Ambassador Francisco J. Peynado sign the Hughes–Peynado agreement, which ends the United States occupation of the Dominican Republic.
1934 – The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler’s violent purge of his political rivals in Germany, takes place.
1936 – Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia appeals for aid to the League of Nations against Italy’s invasion of his country.
1937 – The world’s first emergency telephone number, 999, is introduced in London.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces.
1953 – The first Chevrolet Corvette rolls off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan.
1956 – A TWA Super Constellation and a United Airlines DC-7 collide above the Grand Canyon in Arizona and crash, killing all 128 on board both airliners.
1959 – A United States Air Force F-100 Super Sabre from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, crashes into a nearby elementary school, killing 11 students plus six residents from the local neighborhood.
1960 – Belgian Congo gains independence as Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville).
1963 – Ciaculli bombing: a car bomb, intended for Mafia boss Salvatore Greco, kills seven police officers and military personnel near Palermo.
1966 – The National Organization for Women, the United States’ largest feminist organization, is founded.
1968 – Pope Paul VI issues the Credo of the People of God.
1971 – The crew of the Soviet Soyuz 11 spacecraft are killed when their air supply escapes through a faulty valve.
1972 – The first leap second is added to the UTC time system.
1974 – The Baltimore municipal strike of 1974 begins.
1977 – The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands.
1985 – Thirty-nine American hostages from the hijacked TWA Flight 847 are freed in Beirut after being held for 17 days.
1986 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Bowers v. Hardwick that states can outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults.
1990 – East Germany and West Germany merge their economies.
1994 – During a test flight of an Airbus A330-300 at Toulouse–Blagnac Airport, the aircraft crashes killing all seven people on board.
1997 – The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to China.
2005 – MTV Canada is rebranded as Razer
2007 – A Jeep Cherokee filled with propane canisters drives into the entrance of Glasgow Airport, Scotland in a failed terrorist attack. This was linked to the 2007 London car bombs that had taken place the day before.
2009 – Yemenia Flight 626, an Airbus A310-300, crashes into the Indian Ocean near Comoros, killing 152 of the 153 people on board. A 14-year-old girl named Bahia Bakari survives the crash.
2013 – Nineteen firefighters die controlling a wildfire in Yarnell, Arizona.
2013 – Protests begin around Egypt against President Mohamed Morsi and the ruling Freedom and Justice Party, leading to their overthrow during the 2013 Egyptian coup d’état.
2015 – A Hercules C-130 military aircraft with 113 people on board crashes in a residential area in Medan, Indonesia, resulting in at least 116 deaths.
2019 – Donald Trump becomes the first sitting US President to visit the Democratic Republic of Korea.
Births on June 30
1286 – John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey, English magnate (d. 1347)
1468 – John, Elector of Saxony (d. 1532)
1470 – Charles VIII of France (d. 1498)
1478 – John, Prince of Asturias, Son of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile (d. 1497)
1503 – John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony (d. 1554)
1533 – Martín de Rada, Spanish missionary (d. 1578)
1588 – Giovanni Maria Sabino, Italian organist, composer, and educator (d. 1649)
1641 – Meinhardt Schomberg, 3rd Duke of Schomberg, German-English general (d. 1719)
1685 – John Gay, English poet and playwright (d. 1732)
1688 – Abu l-Hasan Ali I, ruler of Tunisia (d. 1756)
1722 – Jiří Antonín Benda, Czech composer, violinist and Kapellmeister (d. 1795)
1755 – Paul Barras, French soldier and politician (d. 1829)
1789 – Horace Vernet, French painter and academic (d. 1863)
1791 – Félix Savart, French physicist and psychologist (d. 1841)
1803 – Thomas Lovell Beddoes, English poet, playwright, and physician (d. 1849)
1807 – Friedrich Theodor Vischer, German author, poet, and playwright (d.1887)
1817 – Joseph Dalton Hooker, English botanist and explorer (d. 1911)
1843 – Ernest Mason Satow, English orientalist and diplomat (d. 1929)
1864 – Frederick Bligh Bond, English architect and archaeologist (d. 1945)
1884 – Georges Duhamel, French author and critic (d. 1966)
1889 – Archibald Frazer-Nash, English motor car designer, engineer and founder of Frazer Nash (d. 1965)
1890 – Paul Boffa, Maltese physician and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Malta (d. 1962)
1891 – Man Mountain Dean, American wrestler and sergeant (d. 1953)
1891 – Ed Lewis, American wrestler and manager (d. 1966)
1891 – Stanley Spencer, English painter (d. 1959)
1892 – Pierre Blanchar, Algerian-French actor and director (d. 1963)
1893 – Walter Ulbricht, German soldier and politician (d. 1973)
1895 – Heinz Warneke, German-American sculptor and educator (d. 1983)
1899 – Madge Bellamy, American actress (d. 1990)
1905 – John Van Ryn, American tennis player (d. 1999)
1906 – Anthony Mann, American actor and director (d. 1967)
1907 – Roman Shukhevych, Ukrainian general and politician (d. 1950)
1908 – Winston Graham, English author (d. 2003)
1908 – Luigi Rovere, Italian film producer (d. 1996)
1908 – Rob Nieuwenhuys, Dutch writer (d. 1999)
1909 – Juan Bosch, 43rd President of the Dominican Republic (d. 2001)
1911 – Czesław Miłosz, Polish novelist, essayist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
1911 – Nagarjun, Indian poet (d. 1998)
1912 – Ludwig Bölkow, German engineer (d. 2003)
1912 – Dan Reeves, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1971)
1912 – María Luisa Dehesa Gómez Farías, Mexican architect (d. 2009)
1913 – Alfonso López Michelsen, Colombian lawyer and politician, 24th President of Colombia (d. 2007)
1913 – Harry Wismer, American sportscaster (d. 1967)
1914 – Francisco da Costa Gomes, Portuguese general and politician, 15th President of Portugal (d. 2001)
1914 – Allan Houser, American sculptor and painter (d. 1994)
1917 – Susan Hayward, American actress (d. 1975)
1917 – Lena Horne, American actress, singer, and activist (d. 2010)
1917 – Willa Kim, American costume designer (d. 2016)
1919 – Ed Yost, American inventor of the modern hot air balloon (d. 2007)
1920 – Eleanor Ross Taylor, American poet and educator (d. 2011)
1921 – Washington SyCip, American-Filipino accountant (d. 2017)
1922 – Al Besselink, American professional golfer
1923 – Andy Jack, English footballer
1924 – Max Trepp, Swiss sprinter
1925 – Fred Schaus, American basketball player and coach (d. 2010)
1925 – Ebrahim Amini, Iranian politician (d. 2020)
1926 – Paul Berg, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1926 – David Berglas, American magician and mentalist
1927 – Shirley Fry Irvin, American tennis player
1927 – James Goldman, American screenwriter and playwright (d. 1998)
1927 – Mario Lanfranchi, Italian director, screenwriter, producer, collector and actor
618 – Li Yuan becomes Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of Tang dynasty rule over China.
656 – Ali becomes Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate.
860 – Byzantine–Rus’ War: A fleet of about 200 Rus’ vessels sails into the Bosphorus and starts pillaging the suburbs of the Byzantine capital Constantinople.
1053 – Battle of Civitate: Three thousand horsemen of Norman Count Humphrey rout the troops of Pope Leo IX.
1178 – Five Canterbury monks see what is possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the Moon’s distance from the Earth (on the order of meters) are a result of this collision.
1264 – The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature.
1265 – A draft Byzantine–Venetian treaty is concluded between Venetian envoys and Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, but is not ratified by Doge Reniero Zeno.
1429 – French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay. This turns the tide of the Hundred Years’ War.
1633 – Charles I is crowned King of Scots at St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh.
1684 – The charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is revoked via a scire facias writ issued by an English court.
1757 – Battle of Kolín between Prussian forces under Frederick the Great and an Austrian army under the command of Field Marshal Count Leopold Joseph von Daun in the Seven Years’ War.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: British troops abandon Philadelphia.
1799 – Action of 18 June 1799: A frigate squadron under Rear-admiral Perrée is captured by the British fleet under Lord Keith.
1812 – The United States declaration of war upon the United Kingdom is signed by President James Madison, beginning the War of 1812.
1815 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher forcing him to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time.
1822 – Constantine Kanaris blows up the Ottoman navy’s flagship at Chios, killing the Kapudan Pasha Nasuhzade Ali Pasha.
1858 – Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin’s own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory.
1859 – First ascent of Aletschhorn, second summit of the Bernese Alps.
1873 – Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election.
1887 – The Reinsurance Treaty between Germany and Russia is signed.
1900 – Empress Dowager Cixi of China orders all foreigners killed, including foreign diplomats and their families.
1908 – Japanese immigration to Brazil begins when 781 people arrive in Santos aboard the ship Kasato-Maru.
1908 – The University of the Philippines is established.
1923 – Checker Taxi puts its first taxi on the streets.
1928 – Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she is a passenger; Wilmer Stultz is the pilot and Lou Gordon the mechanic).
1935 – Police in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, clash with striking longshoremen, resulting in a total of 60 injuries and 24 arrests.
1940 – Appeal of 18 June by Charles de Gaulle.
1940 – The “Finest Hour” speech is delivered by Winston Churchill.
1945 – William Joyce (“Lord Haw-Haw”) is charged with treason for his pro-German propaganda broadcasting during World War II.
1946 – Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, a Socialist, calls for a Direct Action Day against the Portuguese in Goa.
1948 – Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
1953 – The Egyptian revolution of 1952 ends with the overthrow of the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the declaration of the Republic of Egypt.
1953 – A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns near Tachikawa, Japan, killing 129.
1954 – Carlos Castillo Armas leads an invasion force across the Guatemalan border, setting in motion the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état.
1965 – Vietnam War: The United States uses B-52 bombers to attack National Liberation Front guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam.
1972 – Staines air disaster: One hundred eighteen people are killed when a BEA H.S. Trident crashes two minutes after take off from London’s Heathrow Airport.
1979 – SALT II is signed by the United States and the Soviet Union.
1981 – The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational aircraft initially designed around stealth technology, makes its first flight.
1982 – Italian banker Roberto Calvi’s body is discovered hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London, England.
1983 – Space Shuttle program: STS-7, Astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.
1983 – Mona Mahmudnizhad, together with nine other Bahá’í women, is sentenced to death and hanged in Shiraz, Iran over her religious beliefs.
1984 – A major clash between about 5,000 police and a similar number of miners takes place at Orgreave, South Yorkshire, during the 1984–85 UK miners’ strike.
1994 – The Troubles: Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) attack a crowded pub with assault rifles in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland. Six Catholic civilians are killed and five wounded. It was crowded with people watching the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
2006 – The first Kazakh space satellite, KazSat-1 is launched.
2007 – The Charleston Sofa Super Store fire happened in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine firefighters.
2009 – The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a NASA robotic spacecraft is launched.
2018 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 strikes northern Osaka.
Births on June 18
1269 – Eleanor of England, Countess of Bar (d. 1298)
1318 – Eleanor of Woodstock (d. 1355)
1332 – John V Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor (d. 1391)
1466 – Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (d. 1539)
1511 – Bartolomeo Ammannati, Italian architect and sculptor, designed the Ponte Santa Trinita (d. 1592)
1517 – Emperor Ōgimachi of Japan (d. 1593)
1521 – Maria of Portugal, Duchess of Viseu (d. 1577)
1667 – Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshal (d. 1750)
1673 – Antonio de Literes, Spanish composer (d. 1747)
1677 – Antonio Maria Bononcini, Italian cellist and composer (d. 1726)
1716 – Joseph-Marie Vien, French painter and educator (d. 1809)
1717 – Johann Stamitz, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1757)
1757 – Ignaz Pleyel, Austrian-French pianist and composer (d. 1831)
1757 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentinian lawyer and politician 1st Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (d. 1833)
1769 – Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Irish-English politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (d. 1822)
1799 – William Lassell, English astronomer and merchant (d. 1880)
1812 – Ivan Goncharov, Russian journalist and author (d. 1891)
1815 – Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, German general (d. 1881)
1816 – Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte, French daughter of Napoleon (d. 1907)
1816 – Jung Bahadur Rana, Nepali ruler (d. 1877)
1833 – Manuel González Flores, Mexican general and President (1880-1884) (d. 1893)
1834 – Auguste-Théodore-Paul de Broglie, French philosopher and academic (d. 1895)
1839 – William H. Seward Jr., American general and banker (d. 1920)
1845 – Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, French physician and parasitologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1922)
1850 – Richard Heuberger, Austrian composer and critic (d. 1914)
1854 – E. W. Scripps, American publisher, founded the E. W. Scripps Company (d. 1926)
1857 – Henry Clay Folger, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Folger Shakespeare Library (d. 1930)
1858 – Andrew Forsyth, Scottish-English mathematician and academic (d. 1942)
1858 – Hector Rason, English-Australian politician, 7th Premier of Western Australia (d. 1927)
1862 – Carolyn Wells, American novelist and poet (d. 1942)
1863 – George Essex Evans, English-Australian poet and author (d. 1909)
1868 – Miklós Horthy, Hungarian admiral and politician, Regent of Hungary (d. 1957)
1870 – Édouard Le Roy, French mathematician and philosopher (d. 1954)
1877 – James Montgomery Flagg, American painter and illustrator (d. 1960)
1881 – Zoltán Halmay, Hungarian swimmer (d. 1956)
1882 – Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgarian compositor and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Bulgaria (d. 1949)
1884 – Édouard Daladier, French captain and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1970)
1886 – George Mallory, English lieutenant and mountaineer (d. 1924)
1886 – Alexander Wetmore, American ornithologist and paleontologist (d. 1978)
1887 – Tancrède Labbé, Canadian businessman and politician (d. 1956)
1896 – Blanche Sweet, American actress (d. 1986)
1897 – Martti Marttelin, Finnish runner (d. 1940)
1900 – Vlasta Vraz, Czech-American relief worker, editor, and fundraiser (d. 1989)
1901 – Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
1901 – Llewellyn Rees, English actor (d. 1994)
1902 – Louis Alter, American musician (d. 1980)
1902 – Paavo Yrjölä, Finnish decathlete (d. 1980)
1903 – Jeanette MacDonald, American actress and singer (d. 1965)
1903 – Raymond Radiguet, French author and poet (d. 1923)
1904 – Keye Luke, Chinese-American actor (d. 1991)
1904 – Manuel Rosenthal, French conductor and composer (d. 2003)
1905 – Eduard Tubin, Estonian composer and conductor (d. 1982)
1907 – Frithjof Schuon, Swiss-American metaphysicist, philosopher, and author (d. 1998)
1908 – Bud Collyer, American actor and game show host (d. 1969)
1908 – Stanley Knowles, American-Canadian academic and politician (d. 1997)
1908 – Nedra Volz, American actress (d. 2003)
1910 – Dick Foran, American actor and singer (d. 1979)
1910 – Avon Long, American actor and singer (d. 1984)
1910 – Ray McKinley, American singer, drummer, and bandleader (d. 1995)
1912 – Glenn Morris, American decathlete (d. 1974)
1913 – Wilfred Gordon Bigelow, Canadian soldier and surgeon (d. 2005)
1913 – Sammy Cahn, American pianist and composer (d. 1993)
1913 – Sylvia Porter, American economist and journalist (d. 1991)
1913 – Françoise Loranger, Canadian playwright and producer (d. 1995)
1913 – Robert Mondavi, American winemaker and philanthropist (d. 2008)
1913 – Oswald Teichmüller, German mathematician (d. 1943)
1914 – E. G. Marshall, American actor (d. 1998)
1914 – Efraín Huerta, Mexican poet (d.1982)
1915 – Red Adair, American firefighter (d. 2004)
1915 – Robert Kanigher, American author (d. 2002)
1915 – Alice T. Schafer, American mathematician (d. 2009)
1916 – Julio César Turbay Ayala, Colombian lawyer and politician, 25th President of Colombia (d. 2005)
1917 – Richard Boone, American actor, singer, and director (d. 1981)
1917 – Jack Karnehm, English snooker player and sportscaster (d. 2002)
1917 – Erik Ortvad, Danish painter and illustrator (d. 2008)
1918 – Alf Francis, West Prussia-born, English motor racing mechanic and race car constructor (d. 1983)
1918 – Jerome Karle, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
1918 – Franco Modigliani, Italian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2003)
1919 – Jüri Järvet, Estonian actor and screenwriter (d. 1995)
1920 – Ian Carmichael, English actor and singer (d. 2010)
1920 – Lode Van Den Bergh, Belgian author and academic
1922 – Claude Helffer, French pianist and educator (d. 2004)
1924 – George Mikan, American basketball player and coach (d. 2005)
1925 – Robert Beadell, American composer and educator (d. 1994)
1926 – Philip B. Crosby, American businessman and author (d. 2001)
1926 – Allan Sandage, American astronomer and cosmologist (d. 2010)
1926 – Tom Wicker, American journalist and author (d. 2011)
1927 – Eva Bartok, Hungarian-English actress (d. 1998)
1927 – Paul Eddington, English actor (d. 1995)
1928 – Michael Blakemore, Australian actor, director, and screenwriter
1928 – David T. Lykken, American geneticist and academic (d. 2006)
1929 – Jürgen Habermas, German sociologist and philosopher
1929 – Tibor Rubin, Hungarian-American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2015)
1931 – Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Brazilian sociologist, academic, and politician, 34th President of Brazil
1932 – Dudley R. Herschbach, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1932 – Geoffrey Hill, English poet and academic (d. 2016)
1933 – Colin Brumby, Australian composer and conductor (d. 2018)
1933 – Tommy Hunt, American singer
1934 – Brian Kenny, English general (d. 2017)
1934 – Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Japanese author and illustrator (d. 2004)
1936 – Denny Hulme, New Zealand race car driver (d. 1992)
1936 – Barack Obama Sr., Kenyan economist (d. 1982)
1936 – Ronald Venetiaan, Surinamese politician, 6th President of Suriname
1937 – Del Harris, American basketball player and coach
1937 – Jay Rockefeller, American lawyer and politician, 29th Governor of West Virginia
1937 – Bruce Trigger, Canadian archaeologist, anthropologist and historian (d. 2006)
1937 – Vitaly Zholobov, Ukrainian colonel, engineer, and astronaut
1938 – Kevin Murray, Australian footballer and coach
1939 – Lou Brock, American baseball player and sportscaster
1939 – Jean-Claude Germain, Canadian historian, author, and journalist
1939 – Brooks Firestone, American businessman and politician
1941 – Roger Lemerre, French footballer and manager
1941 – Paul Mayersberg, English director and screenwriter
1941 – Delia Smith, English chef and author
1942 – John Bellany, Scottish painter and academic (d. 2013)
1942 – Roger Ebert, American journalist, critic, and screenwriter (d. 2013)
1942 – Pat Hutchins, English author and illustrator
1942 – Thabo Mbeki, South African politician, 23rd President of South Africa
1942 – Paul McCartney, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1942 – Richard Perry, American record producer
1942 – Carl Radle, American bass player and producer (d. 1980)
1942 – Nick Tate, Australian actor and director
1942 – Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor (d. 2004)
1943 – Barry Evans, English actor (d. 1997)
1943 – Raffaella Carrà, Italian singer, dancer, and actress
1944 – Bruce DuMont, American broadcaster and political analyst
1944 – Sandy Posey, American pop/country singer
1946 – Russell Ash, English journalist and author (d. 2010)
1946 – Bruiser Brody, American wrestler (d. 1988)
1946 – Fabio Capello, Italian footballer and manager
1946 – Maria Bethânia, Brazilian singer
1947 – Ivonne Coll, Puerto Rican-American model and actress, Miss Puerto Rico 1967
1947 – Bernard Giraudeau, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
1947 – Linda Thorson, Canadian actress
1948 – Philip Jackson, English actor
1948 – Éva Marton, Hungarian soprano and actress
1948 – Sherry Turkle, American academic, psychologist, and sociologist
1949 – Chris Van Allsburg, American author and illustrator
1949 – Jarosław Kaczyński, Polish lawyer and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Poland
1949 – Lech Kaczyński, Polish lawyer and politician, 4th President of Poland (d. 2010)
1949 – Lincoln Thompson, Jamaican singer-songwriter (d. 1999)
1950 – Rod de’Ath, Welsh drummer and producer (d. 2014)
1950 – Annelie Ehrhardt, German hurdler
1950 – Mike Johanns, American lawyer and politician, 28th United States Secretary of Agriculture
1950 – Jackie Leven, Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2011)
1951 – Mohammed Al-Sager, Kuwaiti journalist and politician
1951 – Miriam Flynn, American actress and comedian
1951 – Ian Hargreaves, English-Welsh journalist and academic
1951 – Stephen Hopper, Australian botanist and academic
1951 – Gyula Sax, Hungarian chess player (d. 2014)
1952 – Tiiu Aro, Estonian physician and politician, Estonian Minister of Social Affairs
1952 – Denis Herron, Canadian ice hockey player
1952 – Carol Kane, American actress
1952 – Isabella Rossellini, Italian actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
1952 – Lee Soo-man, South Korean singer and businessman, founded S.M. Entertainment
1953 – Peter Donohoe, English pianist and educator
1955 – Ed Fast, Canadian lawyer and politician
1956 – Brian Benben, American actor and producer
1956 – John Scott, English organist and conductor (d. 2015)
1957 – Miguel Ángel Lotina, Spanish footballer and manager
1957 – Richard Powers, American novelist
1958 – Peter Altmaier, German jurist and politician, Federal Minister for Special Affairs of Germany
1958 – Gary Martin, British voice actor and actor
1959 – Joe Ansolabehere, American animation screenwriter and producer
1960 – Barbara Broccoli, American director and producer
1960 – Steve Murphy, Canadian journalist
1961 – Oz Fox, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1961 – Andrés Galarraga, Venezuelan-American baseball player
1961 – Angela Johnson, American novelist and poet
1961 – Alison Moyet, English singer-songwriter
1962 – Lisa Randall, American physicist and academic
1963 – Dizzy Reed, American keyboard player and songwriter
1963 – Bruce Smith, American football player
1964 – Uday Hussein, Iraqi commander (d. 2003)
1964 – Patti Webster, American publicist and author (d. 2013)
1966 – Kurt Browning, Canadian figure skater, choreographer, and sportscaster
1966 – Troy Kemp, Bahamian high jumper
1968 – Frank Müller, German decathlete
1969 – Haki Doku, Albanian cyclist
1969 – Christopher Largen, American journalist and author (d. 2012)
1970 – Katie Derham, English journalist
1970 – Ivan Kozák, Slovak footballer
1970 – Greg Yaitanes, American director and producer
1971 – Kerry Butler, American actress and singer
1971 – Jason McAteer, English-Irish footballer and manager
1971 – Nathan Morris, American soul singer
1972 – Anu Tali, Estonian pianist and conductor
1972 – Wikus du Toit, South African actor, director, and composer
1973 – Julie Depardieu, French actress
1973 – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, American author and music critic
1973 – Ray LaMontagne, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1973 – Alexandra Meissnitzer, Austrian skier
1973 – Matt Parsons, Australian rugby league player
1973 – Gavin Wanganeen Australian footballer and coach
1974 – Vincenzo Montella, Italian footballer and manager
1974 – Sergey Sharikov, Russian fencer and coach (d. 2015)
1975 – Marie Gillain, Belgian actress
1975 – Aleksandrs Koļinko, Latvian footballer
1975 – Martin St. Louis, Canadian ice hockey player
1976 – Blake Shelton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1978 – Wang Liqin, Chinese table tennis player
1979 – Yumiko Kobayashi, Japanese voice actress and singer
1979 – Ivana Wong, Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actress
1980 – Antonio Gates, American football player
1980 – Sergey Kirdyapkin, Russian race walker
1980 – Craig Mottram, Australian runner
1980 – Antero Niittymäki, Finnish ice hockey player
1980 – Tara Platt, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
1981 – Clint Newton, American-Australian rugby league player
1981 – Marco Streller, Swiss footballer
1982 – Nadir Belhadj, French-Algerian footballer
1982 – Marco Borriello, Italian footballer
1982 – Nathan Cavaleri, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1983 – Billy Slater, Australian rugby league player
1983 – Cameron Smith, Australian rugby league player
1984 – Nanyak Dala, Canadian rugby player
1985 – Chris Coghlan, American baseball player
1985 – Alex Hirsch, American animator and television producer
363 – Emperor Julian marches back up the Tigris and burns his fleet of supply ships. During the withdrawal, Roman forces suffer several attacks from the Persians.
632 – Yazdegerd III ascends the throne as king (shah) of the Persian Empire. He becomes the last ruler of the Sasanian dynasty (modern Iran).
1407 – Ming–Hồ War: Retired King Hồ Quý Ly and his son King Hồ Hán Thương of Hồ dynasty are captured by the Ming armies.
1487 – Battle of Stoke Field: King Henry VII of England defeats the leaders of a Yorkist rebellion in the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses.
1586 – Mary, Queen of Scots, recognizes Philip II of Spain as her heir and successor.
1745 – War of the Austrian Succession: New England colonial troops under the command of William Pepperrell capture the Fortress of Louisbourg in Louisbourg, New France (Old Style date).
1746 – War of the Austrian Succession: Austria and Sardinia defeat a Franco-Spanish army at the Battle of Piacenza.
1755 – French and Indian War: The French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians.
1779 – Spain declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
1795 – French Revolutionary Wars: In what became known as Cornwallis’s Retreat, a British Royal Navy squadron led by Vice Admiral William Cornwallis strongly resists a much larger French Navy force and withdraws largely intact, setting up the French Navy defeat at the Battle of Groix six days later.
1811 – Survivors of an attack the previous day by Tla-o-qui-aht on board the Pacific Fur Company’s ship Tonquin, intentionally detonate a powder magazine on the ship, destroying it and killing about 100 attackers.
1815 – Battle of Ligny and Battle of Quatre Bras, two days before the Battle of Waterloo.
1819 – A major earthquake strikes the Kutch district of western India, killing over 1,543 people and raising a 6 m high, 6 km wide, ridge, extending for at least 80 km, that was known as the Allah Bund (“Dam of God”).
1836 – The formation of the London Working Men’s Association gives rise to the Chartist Movement.
1846 – The Papal conclave of 1846 elects Pope Pius IX, beginning the longest reign in the history of the papacy.
1858 – Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.
1871 – The Universities Tests Act 1871 allows students to enter the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham without religious tests (except for those intending to study theology).
1883 – The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland, England, kills 183 children.
1884 – The first purpose-built roller coaster, LaMarcus Adna Thompson’s “Switchback Railway”, opens in New York’s Coney Island amusement park.
1897 – A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed; the Republic would not be dissolved until a year later.
1903 – The Ford Motor Company is incorporated.
1903 – Roald Amundsen leaves Oslo, Norway, to commence the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage.
1904 – Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolay Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.
1904 – Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called “Bloomsday”.
1911 – IBM founded as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in Endicott, New York.
1922 – General election in the Irish Free State: The pro-Treaty Sinn Féin party wins a large majority.
1925 – The most famous Young Pioneer camp of the Soviet Union, Artek, is established.
1930 – Sovnarkom establishes decree time in the USSR.
1933 – The National Industrial Recovery Act is passed in the United States, allowing businesses to avoid antitrust prosecution if they establish voluntary wage, price, and working condition regulations on an industry-wide basis.
1940 – World War II: Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Chief of State of Vichy France (Chef de l’État Français).
1940 – A Communist government is installed in Lithuania.
1944 – In a gross miscarriage of justice, George Junius Stinney Jr., age 14, becomes the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century after being convicted in a two-hour trial for the rape and murder of two teenage white girls.
1948 – Members of the Malayan Communist Party kill three British plantation managers in Sungai Siput; in response, British Malaya declares a state of emergency.
1955 – In a futile effort to topple Argentine President Juan Perón, rogue aircraft pilots of the Argentine Navy drop several bombs upon an unarmed crowd demonstrating in favor of Perón in Buenos Aires, killing 364 and injuring at least 800. At the same time on the ground, some soldiers attempt to stage a coup but are suppressed by loyal forces.
1958 – Imre Nagy, Pál Maléter and other leaders of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising are executed.
1961 – While on tour with the Kirov Ballet in Paris, Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union.
1963 – Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 mission: Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
1972 – The largest single-site hydroelectric power project in Canada is inaugurated at Churchill Falls Generating Station.
1976 – Soweto uprising: A non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa, turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd.
1977 – Oracle Corporation is incorporated in Redwood Shores, California, as Software Development Laboratories (SDL), by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates.
1981 – US President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada’s former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979–81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honor.
1989 – Revolutions of 1989: Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian prime minister, is reburied in Budapest following the collapse of Communism in Hungary.
1997 – Fifty people are killed in the Daïat Labguer (M’sila) massacre in Algeria.
2000 – The Secretary-General of the UN reports that Israel has complied with United Nations Security Council Resolution 425, 22 years after its issuance, and completely withdrew from Lebanon. The Resolution does not encompass the Shebaa farms, which is claimed by Israel, Syria and Lebanon.
2010 – Bhutan becomes the first country to institute a total ban on tobacco.
2012 – China successfully launches its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, carrying three astronauts, including the first female Chinese astronaut Liu Yang, to the Tiangong-1 orbital module.
2012 – The United States Air Force’s robotic Boeing X-37B spaceplane returns to Earth after a classified 469-day orbital mission
2013 – A multi-day cloudburst, centered on the North Indian state of Uttarakhand, causes devastating floods and landslides, becoming the country’s worst natural disaster since the 2004 tsunami.
2016 – Shanghai Disneyland Park, the first Disney Park in Mainland China, opens to the public.
2019 – Upwards of 2,000,000 people participate in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, the largest in Hong Kong’s history.
Births on June 16
1139 – Emperor Konoe of Japan (d. 1155)
1332 – Isabella de Coucy, English daughter of Edward III of England (d. 1379)
1454 – Joanna of Aragon, Queen of Naples (d. 1517)
1514 – John Cheke, English academic and politician, English Secretary of State (d. 1557)
1516 – Yang Jisheng, Ming dynasty official and Confucian martyr (d. 1555)
1583 – Axel Oxenstierna, Swedish politician, Lord High Chancellor of Sweden (d. 1654)
1591 – Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, Greek-Italian physician, mathematician, and theorist (d. 1655)
1606 – Arthur Chichester, 1st Earl of Donegall, Irish soldier and politician (d. 1675)
1613 – John Cleveland, English poet and educator (d. 1658)
1625 – Samuel Chappuzeau, French scholar (d. 1701)
1633 – Jean de Thévenot, French linguist and botanist (d. 1667)
1644 – Henrietta Anne Stuart, Princess of Scotland, England and Ireland (d. 1670)
1653 – James Bertie, 1st Earl of Abingdon, English nobleman (d. 1699)
1713 – Meshech Weare, American farmer, lawyer, and politician, 1st Governor of New Hampshire (d. 1786)
1723 – Adam Smith, Scottish philosopher and economist (d. 1790)
1738 – Mary Katherine Goddard, American publisher (d. 1816)
1754 – Salawat Yulayev, Russian poet (d. 1800)
1792 – John Linnell, English painter and engraver (d. 1882)
1801 – Julius Plücker, German mathematician and physicist (d. 1868)
1806 – Edward Davy, English physician and chemist (d. 1885)
1813 – Otto Jahn, German archaeologist and philologist (d. 1869)
1820 – Athanase Josué Coquerel, Dutch-French preacher and theologian (d. 1875)
1821 – Old Tom Morris, Scottish golfer and architect (d. 1908)
1826 – Constantin von Ettingshausen, Austrian geologist and botanist (d. 1897)
1829 – Geronimo, American tribal leader (d. 1909)
1836 – Wesley Merritt, American general and politician, Military Governor of the Philippines (d. 1910)
1837 – Ernst Laas, German philosopher and academic (d. 1885)
1838 – Frederic Archer, English organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1901)
1838 – Cushman Kellogg Davis, American lieutenant and politician, 7th Governor of Minnesota (d. 1900)
1840 – Ernst Otto Schlick, German engineer and author (d. 1913)
1850 – Max Delbrück, German chemist and academic (d. 1919)
1857 – Arthur Arz von Straußenburg, Austrian-Hungarian general (d. 1935)
1858 – Gustaf V of Sweden (d. 1950)
1863 – Francisco León de la Barra, Mexican politician and diplomat (d. 1939)
1866 – Germanos Karavangelis, Greek-Austrian metropolitan (d. 1935)
1874 – Arthur Meighen, Canadian lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1960)
1880 – Otto Eisenschiml, Austrian-American chemist and author (d. 1963)
1882 – Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iranian educator and politician, 60th Prime Minister of Iran (d. 1967)
1885 – Erich Jacoby, Estonian-Polish architect (d. 1941)
1888 – Alexander Friedmann, Russian physicist and mathematician (d. 1925)
1888 – Peter Stoner, American mathematician and astronomer (d. 1980)
1890 – Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (d. 1965)
1896 – Murray Leinster, American author and screenwriter (d. 1976)
1897 – Georg Wittig, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
1899 – Helen Traubel, American operatic soprano (d. 1972)
1902 – Barbara McClintock, American geneticist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1992)
1902 – George Gaylord Simpson, American paleontologist and author (d. 1984)
1906 – Alan Fairfax, Australian cricketer (d. 1955)
1907 – Jack Albertson, American actor (d. 1981)
1909 – Archie Carr, American ecologist and zoologist (d. 1987)
1910 – Juan Velasco Alvarado, Peruvian general and politician, 1st President of Peru (d. 1977)
1912 – Albert Chartier, Canadian illustrator (d. 2004)
1912 – Enoch Powell, English soldier and politician, Secretary of State for Health (d. 1998)
1914 – Eleanor Sokoloff, American pianist and teacher
1915 – John Tukey, American mathematician and academic (d. 2000)
1915 – Marga Faulstich, German glass chemist (d. 1998)
1917 – Phaedon Gizikis, Greek general and politician, President of Greece (d. 1999)
1917 – Katharine Graham, American publisher (d. 2001)
1917 – Aurelio Lampredi, Italian automobile and aircraft engine designer (d. 1989)
1917 – Irving Penn, American photographer (d. 2009)
1920 – Isabelle Holland, Swiss-American author (d. 2002)
1920 – Raymond Lemieux, Canadian chemist and academic (d. 2002)
1920 – José López Portillo, Mexican lawyer and politician, 31st President of Mexico (d. 2004)
1920 – Hemanta Mukharjee, Indian singer and music director
1922 – Ilmar Kullam, Estonian basketball player and coach (d. 2011)
1923 – Ron Flockhart, Scottish race car driver (d. 1962)
1924 – Faith Domergue, American actress (d. 1999)
1925 – Jean d’Ormesson, French journalist and author (d. 2017)
1925 – Otto Muehl, Austrian-Portuguese painter and director (d. 2013)
1926 – Efraín Ríos Montt, Guatemalan general and politician, 26th President of Guatemala (d. 2018)
1927 – Tom Graveney, English cricketer and sportscaster (d. 2015)
1927 – Herbert Lichtenfeld, German author and screenwriter (d. 2001)
1927 – Ariano Suassuna, Brazilian author and playwright (d. 2014)
1929 – Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait
1930 – Vilmos Zsigmond, Hungarian-American cinematographer and producer (d. 2016)
1934 – Eileen Atkins, English actress and screenwriter
1934 – Roger Neilson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2003)
1935 – Jim Dine, American painter and illustrator
1937 – Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Bulgarian politician, 48th Prime Minister of Bulgaria
1937 – Erich Segal, American author and screenwriter (d. 2010)
1938 – Thomas Boyd-Carpenter, English general
1938 – Torgny Lindgren, Swedish author and poet (d. 2017)
1938 – Joyce Carol Oates, American novelist, short story writer, critic, and poet
1939 – Billy “Crash” Craddock, American singer-songwriter
1940 – Māris Čaklais, Latvian poet, writer, and journalist (d. 2003)
1940 – Neil Goldschmidt, American lawyer and politician, 33rd Governor of Oregon
1941 – Rosalind Baker, Australian author
1941 – Lamont Dozier, American songwriter and producer
1941 – Tommy Horton, English golfer (d. 2017)
1941 – Mumtaz Hamid Rao, Pakistani journalist (d. 2011)
1942 – Giacomo Agostini, Italian motorcycle racer and manager
1942 – Eddie Levert, American R&B/soul singer-songwriter, musician, and actor
1944 – Henri Richelet, French painter and etcher
1945 – Claire Alexander, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1945 – Lucienne Robillard, Canadian social worker and politician, 59th Secretary of State for Canada
1946 – Rick Adelman, American basketball player and coach
1946 – John Astor, 3rd Baron Astor of Hever, English businessman and politician
1946 – Karen Dunnell, English statistician and academic
1946 – Tom Harrell, American trumpet player and composer
1946 – Neil MacGregor, Scottish historian and curator
1946 – Iain Matthews, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1946 – Jodi Rell, American politician, 87th Governor of Connecticut
1946 – Mark Ritts, American actor, puppeteer, and producer (d. 2009)
1946 – Derek Sanderson, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
1946 – Simon Williams, English actor and playwright
1947 – Tom Malone, American trombonist, composer, and producer
1947 – Buddy Roberts, American wrestler (d. 2012)
1947 – Al Cowlings, American ex-NFL player and close friend of O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson
1947 – Tom Wyner, English-American voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1948 – Ron LeFlore, American baseball player and manager
1949 – Paulo Cézar Caju, Brazilian footballer
1949 – Ralph Mann, American hurdler and author
1950 – Mithun Chakraborty, Indian actor and politician
1950 – Michel Clair, Canadian lawyer and politician
1950 – Jerry Petrowski, American politician and farmer
1951 – Charlie Dominici, American singer and guitarist
1951 – Roberto Durán, Panamanian boxer
1952 – George Papandreou, Greek sociologist and politician, 182nd Prime Minister of Greece
1952 – Gino Vannelli, Canadian singer-songwriter
1953 – Valerie Mahaffey, American actress
1953 – Ian Mosley, English drummer
1954 – Matthew Saad Muhammad, American boxer and trainer (d. 2014)
1954 – Garry Roberts, Irish guitarist
1955 – Grete Faremo, Norwegian politician, Norwegian Minister of Defence
1955 – Laurie Metcalf, American actress
1955 – Artemy Troitsky, Russian journalist and critic
1957 – Ian Buchanan, Scottish-American actor
1957 – Leeona Dorrian, Lady Dorrian, Scottish lawyer and judge
1958 – Darrell Griffith, American basketball player
1958 – Ulrike Tauber, German swimmer
1958 – Warren Rodwell, Australian soldier, educator and musician
1959 – The Ultimate Warrior, American wrestler (d. 2014)
1960 – Peter Sterling, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
1961 – Can Dündar, Turkish journalist and author
1961 – Robbie Kerr, Australian cricketer
1961 – Steve Larmer, Canadian ice hockey player
1961 – Margus Metstak, Estonian basketball player and coach
1962 – Wally Joyner, American baseball player and coach
1962 – Arnold Vosloo, South African-American actor
1962 – Anthony Wong, Hong Kong singer
1963 – The Sandman, American wrestler
1964 – Danny Burstein, American actor and singer
1965 – Michael Richard Lynch, Irish computer scientist and entrepreneur; co-founded HP Autonomy
1965 – Richard Madaleno, American politician
1966 – Mark Occhilupo, Australian surfer
1966 – Olivier Roumat, French rugby player
1966 – Phil Vischer, American voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, co-created VeggieTales
1966 – Jan Železný, Czech javelin thrower and coach
1967 – Charalambos Andreou, Cypriot footballer
1967 – Jürgen Klopp, German footballer and manager
1968 – Adam Schmitt, American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer
1969 – Shami Chakrabarti, English lawyer and academic
1969 – Mark Crossley, English-Welsh footballer and manager
1970 – Younus AlGohar, Pakistani poet and academic, co-founded Messiah Foundation International
1970 – Clifton Collins Jr., American actor
1970 – Cobi Jones, American soccer player and manager
1970 – Phil Mickelson, American golfer
1971 – Tupac Shakur, American rapper and producer (d. 1996)
1972 – Kiko Loureiro, Brazilian guitarist
1973 – Eddie Cibrian, American actor
1974 – Glenicia James, Saint Lucian cricketer
1975 – Anthony Carter, American basketball player and coach
1977 – Craig Fitzgibbon, Australian rugby league player and coach
1977 – Duncan Hames, English accountant and politician
1977 – Kerry Wood, American baseball player
1978 – Daniel Brühl, Spanish-German actor
1978 – Dainius Zubrus, Lithuanian ice hockey player
1978 – Fish Leong, Malaysian singer
1980 – Brandon Armstrong, American basketball player
1980 – Phil Christophers, German-English rugby player
1980 – Henry Perenara, New Zealand rugby league player and referee
1980 – Martin Stranzl, Austrian footballer
1980 – Joey Yung, Hong Kong singer
1981 – Benjamin Becker, German tennis player
1981 – Kevin Bieksa, Canadian ice hockey player
1981 – Alexandre Giroux, Canadian ice hockey player
1981 – Ola Kvernberg, Norwegian violinist
1981 – Miguel Villalta, Peruvian footballer
1982 – May Andersen, Danish model and actress
1982 – Missy Peregrym, Canadian model and actress
1983 – Armend Dallku, Albanian footballer
1984 – Rick Nash, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Dan Ryckert, American writer and entertainer
1984 – Steven Whittaker, Scottish footballer
1986 – Rodrigo Defendi, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Urby Emanuelson, Dutch footballer
1986 – Fernando Muslera, Uruguayan footballer
1987 – Diana DeGarmo, American singer-songwriter and actress
1987 – Per Ciljan Skjelbred, Norwegian footballer
1987 – Christian Tshimanga Kabeya, Belgian footballer
1988 – Keshia Chante, Canadian singer
1988 – Jermaine Gresham, American football player
1990 – John Newman, English musician, singer, songwriter and record producer
1991 – Joe McElderry, English singer-songwriter
1991 – Siya Kolisi, South African rugby player
1991 – Matt Moylan, Australian rugby league player
1992 – Vladimir Morozov, Russian swimmer
1993 – Park Bo-gum, South Korean actor
1993 – Gnash, American singer, songwriter, rapper, DJ and record producer
1994 – Grete-Lilijane Küppas, Estonian footballer
1994 – Rezar, Albanian professional wrestler
1995 – Euan Aitken, Australian rugby league player
1995 – Joseph Schooling, Singaporean swimmer
1995 – Akira Ioane, New Zealand rugby Union player
2000 – Bianca Andreescu, Canadian tennis player
Deaths on June 16
840 – Rorgon I, Frankish nobleman (or 839)
924 – Li Cunshen, general of Later Tang (b. 862)
956 – Hugh the Great, Frankish nobleman (b. 898)
1185 – Richeza of Poland, queen of León (b. c. 1140)
1286 – Hugh de Balsham, English bishop
1332 – Adam de Brome, founder of Oriel College, Oxford
1361 – Johannes Tauler, German mystic theologian
1397 – Philip of Artois, Count of Eu, French soldier (b. 1358)
1424 – Johannes Ambundii, archbishop of Riga
1468 – Jean Le Fèvre de Saint-Remy, Burgundian historian and author (b. 1395)
1487 – John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln (b. c. 1463)
1540 – Konrad von Thüngen, German nobleman (b. c. 1466)
1622 – Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (b. 1555)
1626 – Christian, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel, German Protestant military leader (b. 1599)
1666 – Sir Richard Fanshawe, 1st Baronet, English poet and diplomat, English Ambassador to Spain (b. 1608)
1722 – John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire (b. 1650)
1743 – Louise-Françoise de Bourbon, eldest daughter of King Louis XIV of France (b. 1673)
1752 – Joseph Butler, English bishop and philosopher (b. 1692)
1762 – Anne Russell, Countess of Jersey (formerly Duchess of Bedford) (b. c.1705)
1777 – Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset, French poet and playwright (b. 1709)
1779 – Sir Francis Bernard, 1st Baronet, English lawyer and politician, Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (b. 1712)
1804 – Johann Adam Hiller, German composer and conductor (b. 1728)
1824 – Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance, French lawyer and politician (b. 1739)
1849 – Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette, German theologian and scholar (b. 1780)
1850 – William Lawson, English-Australian explorer and politician (b. 1774)
1858 – John Snow, English epidemiologist and physician (b. 1813)
1862 – Hidenoyama Raigorō, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 9th Yokozuna (b. 1808)
1869 – Charles Sturt, Indian-English botanist and explorer (b. 1795)
1872 – Norman MacLeod, Scottish minister and author (b. 1812)
1878 – Crawford Long, American surgeon and pharmacist (b. 1815)
1878 – Kikuchi Yōsai, Japanese painter (b. 1781)
1881 – Josiah Mason, English businessman and philanthropist (b. 1795)
1885 – Wilhelm Camphausen, German painter and academic (b. 1818)
1886 – Alexander Stuart, Scottish-Australian politician, 9th Premier of New South Wales (b. 1824)
1902 – Ernst Schröder, German mathematician and academic (b. 1841)
1918 – Bazil Assan, Romanian engineer and explorer (b. 1860)
1925 – Chittaranjan Das, Indian lawyer and politician (b. 1870)
1929 – Bramwell Booth, English 2nd General of The Salvation Army (b. 1856)
1929 – Vernon Louis Parrington, American historian and scholar (b. 1871)
1930 – Ezra Fitch, American lawyer and businessman, co-founded Abercrombie & Fitch (b. 1866)
1930 – Elmer Ambrose Sperry, American inventor, co-invented the gyrocompass (b. 1860)
1939 – Chick Webb, American drummer and bandleader (b. 1905)
1940 – DuBose Heyward, American author (b. 1885)
1944 – Marc Bloch, French historian and academic (b. 1886)
1945 – Aris Velouchiotis, Greek general (b. 1905)
1946 – Gordon Brewster, Irish cartoonist (b 1889)
1952 – Andrew Lawson, Scottish-American geologist and academic (b. 1861)
1953 – Margaret Bondfield, English politician, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (b. 1873)
1955 – Ozias Leduc, Canadian painter (b. 1864)
1958 – Pál Maléter, Hungarian general and politician, Minister of Defence of Hungary (b. 1917)
1958 – Imre Nagy, Hungarian politician, 3rd Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1895)
1959 – George Reeves, American actor and director (b. 1914)
1961 – Marcel Junod, Swiss physician and anesthesiologist (b. 1904)
1967 – Reginald Denny, English actor (b. 1891)
1969 – Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, English field marshal and politician, 17th Governor General of Canada (b. 1891)
1970 – Sydney Chapman, English mathematician and geophysicist (b. 1888)
1970 – Brian Piccolo, American football player (b. 1943)
1971 – John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, Scottish broadcaster, co-founded BBC (b. 1889)
1974 – Amalie Sara Colquhoun, Australian landscape and portrait painter (b. 1894)
1977 – Wernher von Braun, German-American physicist and engineer (b. 1912)
1979 – Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, Ghanaian general and politician, 6th Head of state of Ghana (b. 1931)
1979 – Nicholas Ray, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1911)
1981 – Thomas Playford IV, Australian politician, 33rd Premier of South Australia (b. 1896)
1982 – James Honeyman-Scott, English guitarist and songwriter (b. 1956)
1984 – Lew Andreas, American football player and coach (b. 1895)
1984 – Erni Krusten, Estonian author and poet (b. 1900)
1986 – Maurice Duruflé, French organist and composer (b. 1902)
1987 – Marguerite de Angeli, American author and illustrator (b. 1889)
1988 – Miguel Piñero, Puerto Rican-American actor and playwright (b. 1946)
1993 – Lindsay Hassett, Australian cricketer and soldier (b. 1913)
1994 – Kristen Pfaff, American bass player and songwriter (b. 1967)
1996 – Mel Allen, American sportscaster and game show host (b. 1913)
1997 – Dal Stivens, Australian soldier and author (b. 1911)
1998 – Fred Wacker, American race car driver and engineer (b. 1918)
1999 – Screaming Lord Sutch, English singer and activist (b. 1940)
2003 – Pierre Bourgault, Canadian journalist and politician (b. 1934)
2003 – Georg Henrik von Wright, Finnish–Swedish philosopher and author (b. 1916)
2004 – Thanom Kittikachorn, Thai field marshal and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Thailand (b. 1911)
2004 – Jacques Miquelon, Canadian lawyer and judge (b. 1911)
2005 – Enrique Laguerre, Puerto Rican-American author and critic (b. 1906)
2008 – Mario Rigoni Stern, Italian soldier and author (b. 1921)
2010 – Marc Bazin, Haitian lawyer and politician, 49th President of Haiti (b. 1932)
2010 – Maureen Forrester, Canadian singer and academic (b. 1930)
2010 – Ronald Neame, English director, producer, cinematographer, and screenwriter (b. 1911)
2011 – Östen Mäkitalo, Swedish engineer and academic (b. 1938)
2012 – Nils Karlsson, Swedish skier (b. 1917)
2012 – Jorge Lankenau, Mexican banker and businessman (b. 1944)
2012 – Sławomir Petelicki, Polish general (b. 1946)
2012 – Susan Tyrrell, American actress (b. 1945)
2013 – Sam Farber, American businessman, co-founded OXO (b. 1924)
2013 – Hans Hass, Austrian biologist and diver (b. 1919)
763 BC – Assyrians record a solar eclipse that is later used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history.
844 – Louis II is crowned as king of Italy at Rome by pope Sergius II.
923 – Battle of Soissons: King Robert I of France is killed and King Charles the Simple is arrested by the supporters of Duke Rudolph of Burgundy.
1184 – The naval Battle of Fimreite is won by the Birkebeiner pretender Sverre Sigurdsson. Sigurdsson takes the Norwegian throne and King Magnus V of Norway is killed.
1215 – King John of England puts his seal to Magna Carta.
1219 – Northern Crusades: Danish victory at the Battle of Lindanise (modern-day Tallinn) establishes the Danish Duchy of Estonia.
1246 – With the death of Frederick II, Duke of Austria, the Babenberg dynasty ends in Austria.
1300 – The city of Bilbao is founded.
1312 – At the Battle of Rozgony, King Charles I of Hungary wins a decisive victory over the family of Palatine Amade Aba.
1389 – Battle of Kosovo: The Ottoman Empire defeats Serbs and Bosnians.
1410 – In a decisive battle at Onon River, the Mongol forces of Oljei Temur were decimated by the Chinese armies of the Yongle Emperor.
1502 – Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Martinique on his fourth voyage.
1520 – Pope Leo X threatens to excommunicate Martin Luther in Exsurge Domine.
1648 – Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1667 – The first human blood transfusion is administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys.
1670 – The first stone of Fort Ricasoli is laid down in Malta.
1752 – Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity (traditional date, the exact date is unknown).
1776 – Delaware Separation Day: Delaware votes to suspend government under the British Crown and separate officially from Pennsylvania.
1800 – The Provisional Army of the United States is dissolved.
1804 – New Hampshire approves the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratifying the document.
1808 – Joseph Bonaparte becomes King of Spain.
1836 – Arkansas is admitted as the 25th U.S. state.
1844 – Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
1846 – The Oregon Treaty extends the border between the United States and British North America, established by the Treaty of 1818, westward to the Pacific Ocean.
1859 – Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the “Northwestern Boundary Dispute” between American and British/Canadian settlers.
1864 – American Civil War: The Second Battle of Petersburg begins.
1864 – Arlington National Cemetery is established when 200 acres (0.81 km2) of the Arlington estate (formerly owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee) are officially set aside as a military cemetery by U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
1877 – Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.
1878 – Eadweard Muybridge takes a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs; the study becomes the basis of motion pictures.
1888 – Crown Prince Wilhelm becomes Kaiser Wilhelm II; he will be the last Emperor of the German Empire. Due to the death of his predecessors Wilhelm I and Frederick III, 1888 is the Year of the Three Emperors.
1896 – The deadliest tsunami in Japan’s history kills more than 22,000 people.
1904 – A fire aboard the steamboat SS General Slocum in New York City’s East River kills 1,000.
1916 – United States President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America, making them the only American youth organization with a federal charter.
1919 – John Alcock and Arthur Brown complete the first nonstop transatlantic flight when they reach Clifden, County Galway, Ireland.
1920 – Following the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites, Northern Schleswig is transferred from Germany to Denmark.
1921 – Bessie Coleman earns her pilot’s license, becoming the first female pilot of African-American descent.
1934 – The United States Great Smoky Mountains National Park is founded.
1936 – First flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber.
1937 – A German expedition led by Karl Wien loses sixteen members in an avalanche on Nanga Parbat. It is the worst single disaster to occur on an 8000m peak.
1940 – World War II: Operation Ariel begins: Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany’s takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
1944 – World War II: The United States invades Saipan, capital of Japan’s South Seas Mandate.
1944 – In the Saskatchewan general election, the CCF, led by Tommy Douglas, is elected and forms the first socialist government in North America.
1970 – Charles Manson goes on trial for the Sharon Tate murders.
1972 – Red Army Faction co-founder Ulrike Meinhof is captured by police in Langenhagen.
1977 – After the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, the first democratic elections took place in Spain.
1978 – King Hussein of Jordan marries American Lisa Halaby, who takes the name Queen Noor.
1985 – Rembrandt’s painting Danaë is attacked by a man (later judged insane) who throws sulfuric acid on the canvas and cuts it twice with a knife.
1991 – In the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo erupts in the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, killing over 800 people.
1992 – The United States Supreme Court rules in United States v. Álvarez-Machaín that it is permissible for the United States to forcibly extradite suspects in foreign countries and bring them to the United States for trial, without approval from those other countries.
1994 – Israel and Vatican City establish full diplomatic relations.
1996 – The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonates a powerful truck bomb in the middle of Manchester, England, devastating the city centre and injuring 200 people.
2001 – Leaders of the People’s Republic of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan formed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
2012 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first person to successfully tightrope walk directly over Niagara Falls.
2013 – A bomb explodes on a bus in the Pakistani city of Quetta, killing at least 25 people and wounding 22 others.
Births on June 15
1330 – Edward, the Black Prince of England (d. 1376)
1479 – Lisa del Giocondo, Italian model, subject of the Mona Lisa (d. 1542)
1519 – Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Richmond and Somerset, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1536)
1542 – Richard Grenville, English captain and explorer (d. 1591)
1549 – Elizabeth Knollys, English noblewoman (d. 1605)
1553 – Archduke Ernest of Austria (d. 1595)
1605 – Thomas Randolph, English poet and playwright (d. 1635)
1618 – François Blondel, French architect (d. 1686)
1623 – Cornelis de Witt, Dutch politician (d. 1672)
1624 – Hiob Ludolf, German orientalist and philologist (d. 1704)
1640 – Bernard Lamy, French mathematician and theologian (d. 1715)
1645 – Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin, English politician (d. 1712)
1749 – Georg Joseph Vogler, German organist, composer, and theorist (d. 1814)
1754 – Juan José Elhuyar, Spanish chemist and mineralogist (d. 1796)
1755 – Antoine François, comte de Fourcroy, French chemist and entomologist (d. 1809)
1763 – Franz Danzi, German cellist, composer, and conductor (d. 1826)
1763 – Kobayashi Issa, Japanese priest and poet (d. 1827)
1765 – Martin Baum, American businessman and politician, Mayor of Cincinnati (d. 1831)
1765 – Johann Gottlieb Friedrich von Bohnenberger, German astronomer and mathematician (d. 1831)
1767 – Rachel Jackson, American wife of Andrew Jackson (d. 1828)
1777 – David Daniel Davis, Welsh physician and academic (d. 1841)
1789 – Josiah Henson, American minister, author, and activist (d. 1883)
1792 – Thomas Mitchell, Scottish-Australian colonel and explorer (d. 1855)
1801 – Benjamin Wright Raymond, American merchant and politician, 3rd Mayor of Chicago (d. 1883)
1805 – William B. Ogden, American businessman and politician, 1st Mayor of Chicago (d. 1877)
1809 – François-Xavier Garneau, Canadian poet and historian (d. 1866)
1835 – Adah Isaacs Menken, American actress, painter, and poet (d. 1868)
1843 – Edvard Grieg, Norwegian pianist and composer (d. 1907)
1848 – Gheevarghese Mar Gregorios of Parumala, Indian bishop and saint (d. 1902)
1872 – Thomas William Burgess, English swimmer and water polo player (d. 1950)
1875 – Herman Smith-Johannsen, Norwegian-Canadian skier (d. 1987)
1878 – Margaret Abbott, Indian-American golfer (d. 1955)
1881 – Kesago Nakajima, Japanese lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army (d. 1945)
1884 – Harry Langdon, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1944)
1886 – Frank Clement, British racing driver (d. 1970)
1888 – Ramón López Velarde, Mexican poet and author (d. 1921)
1890 – Georg Wüst, German oceanographer and academic (d. 1977)
1894 – Robert Russell Bennett, American composer and conductor (d. 1981)
1894 – Nikolai Chebotaryov, Ukrainian-Russian mathematician and theorist (d. 1947)
1898 – Hubertus Strughold, German-American physiologist and academic (d. 1986)
1900 – Gotthard Günther, German philosopher and academic (d. 1984)
1900 – Otto Luening, German-American composer and conductor (d. 1996)
1901 – Elmar Lohk, Russian-Estonian architect (d. 1963)
1902 – Erik Erikson, German-American psychologist and psychoanalyst (d. 1994)
1906 – Gordon Welchman, English-American mathematician and author (d. 1985)
1906 – Léon Degrelle, Belgian SS officer (d. 1994)
1907 – James Robertson Justice, English actor and educator (d. 1975)
1909 – Elena Nikolaidi, Greek-American soprano and educator (d. 2002)
1910 – David Rose, English-American pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1990)
1911 – Wilbert Awdry, English author, co-created Thomas the Tank Engine (d. 1997)
1913 – Tom Adair, American songwriter, composer, and screenwriter (d. 1988)
1914 – Yuri Andropov, Russian politician (d. 1984)
1914 – Saul Steinberg, Romanian-American cartoonist (d. 1999)
1914 – Hilda Terry, American cartoonist (d. 2006)
1915 – Nini Theilade, Danish ballet dancer, choreographer, and educator (d. 2018)
1915 – Thomas Huckle Weller, American biologist and virologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2008)
1916 – Olga Erteszek, Polish-American fashion designer (d. 1989)
1916 – Horacio Salgán, Argentinian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 2016)
1916 – Herbert A. Simon, American political scientist and economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001)
1917 – John Fenn, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2010)
1917 – Michalis Genitsaris, Greek singer-songwriter (d. 2005)
1917 – Lash LaRue, American actor and producer (d. 1996)
1918 – François Tombalbaye, Chadian politician, 1st President of Chad (d. 1975)
1920 – Keith Andrews, American race car driver (d. 1957)
1920 – Alla Kazanskaya, Russian actress (d. 2008)
1920 – Sam Sniderman, Canadian businessman, founded Sam the Record Man (d. 2012)
1920 – Alberto Sordi, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2003)
1921 – Erroll Garner, American pianist and composer (d. 1977)
1922 – Jaki Byard, American pianist and composer (d. 1999)
1923 – Erland Josephson, Swedish actor and director (d. 2012)
1923 – Ninian Stephen, English-Australian lieutenant, judge, and politician, 20th Governor-General of Australia (d. 2017)
1924 – Hédi Fried, Swedish author and psychologist
1924 – Ezer Weizman, Israeli general and politician, 7th President of Israel (d. 2005)
1925 – Richard Baker, English journalist and author (d. 2018)
1925 – Attilâ İlhan, Turkish poet, author, and critic (d. 2005)
1926 – Alfred Duraiappah, Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer and politician (d. 1975)
1927 – Ross Andru, American illustrator (d. 1993)
1927 – Ibn-e-Insha, Indian-Pakistani poet and author (d. 1978)
1927 – Hugo Pratt, Italian author and illustrator (d. 1995)
1930 – Miguel Méndez, American author and academic (d. 2013)
1930 – Marcel Pronovost, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2015)
1931 – Joseph Gilbert, English air marshal
1931 – Brian Sewell, English art dealer and critic (d. 2015)
1932 – David Alliance, Baron Alliance, Iranian-English businessman and politician
1932 – Mario Cuomo, American lawyer and politician, 52nd Governor of New York (d. 2015)
1932 – Zia Fariduddin Dagar, Indian singer (d. 2013)
1932 – Bernie Faloney, American-Canadian football player and sportscaster (d. 1999)
1933 – Mohammad-Ali Rajai, Iranian politician, 2nd President of Iran (d. 1981)
1933 – Predrag Koraksić Corax, Serbian political caricaturist
1934 – Ruby Nash Garnett, American R&B singer
1936 – William Levada, American cardinal
1937 – Pierre Billon, Swiss-Canadian author and screenwriter
1937 – Waylon Jennings, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2002)
1938 – Billy Williams, American baseball player and coach
1939 – Ward Connerly, American activist and businessman, founded the American Civil Rights Institute
1941 – Neal Adams, American illustrator
1941 – Harry Nilsson, American singer-songwriter (d. 1994)
1942 – Ian Greenberg, Canadian broadcaster, founded Astral Media
1942 – John E. McLaughlin, American diplomat
1942 – Peter Norman, Australian sprinter (d. 2006)
1943 – Johnny Hallyday, French singer and actor (d. 2017)
1943 – Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Danish politician, 38th Prime Minister of Denmark
1944 – Robert D. Keppel, American police officer and academic
1945 – Miriam Defensor Santiago, Filipino judge and politician (d. 2016)
1945 – Robert Sarah, Guinean cardinal
1945 – Lawrence Wilkerson, American colonel
1946 – Noddy Holder, English rock singer-songwriter, musician, and actor
1946 – John Horner, American paleontologist and academic
1946 – Demis Roussos, Egyptian-Greek singer-songwriter and bass player (d. 2015)
1947 – John Hoagland, American photographer and journalist (d. 1984)
1948 – Mike Holmgren, American football player and coach
1948 – Alan Huckle, English politician and diplomat, Governor of Anguilla
1948 – Henry McLeish, Scottish footballer, academic, and politician, 2nd First Minister of Scotland
1949 – Dusty Baker, American baseball player and manager
1949 – Simon Callow, English actor and director
1949 – Russell Hitchcock, Australian singer-songwriter
1949 – Jim Varney, American actor, comedian, and screenwriter (d. 2000)
1950 – Uğur Erdener, Turkish ophthalmologist and professor
1950 – Juliana Azumah-Mensah, Ghanaian nurse and politician
1950 – Deney Terrio, American choreographer and host of the television musical variety series Dance Fever
1950 – Lakshmi Mittal, Indian-English businessman
1951 – Jane Amsterdam, American magazine and newspaper editor (Manhattan, inc., New York Post)
1951 – Vance A. Larson, American painter (d. 2000)
1951 – John Redwood, English politician, Secretary of State for Wales
1951 – Steve Walsh, American rock singer-songwriter and musician
1952 – Satya Pal Jain, Indian lawyer and politician, Additional Solicitor General of India
1953 – Vilma Bardauskienė, Lithuanian long jumper
1953 – Marc Brickman, American lighting and production designer
1953 – Eje Elgh, Swedish racing driver and sportscaster
1953 – Xi Jinping, Chinese engineer and politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party and President of China
1953 – Raphael Wallfisch, English cellist and educator
1954 – Jim Belushi, American actor
1954 – Terri Gibbs, American country music singer and keyboard player
1954 – Paul Rusesabagina, Rwandan humanitarian
1954 – Zdeňka Šilhavá, Czech discus thrower and shot putter
1954 – Beverley Whitfield, Australian swimmer (d. 1996)
1955 – Polly Draper, American actress, producer, and screenwriter
2015 – Kirk Kerkorian, American businessman, founded the Tracinda Corporation (b. 1917)
2016 – Lois Duncan, American author (b. 1934)
2018 – Matt “Guitar” Murphy, American Blues guitarist (The Blues Brothers) (b. 1929)
2019 – Franco Zeffirelli, Italian film director (b. 1923)
Holidays and observances on June 15
Arbor Day (Costa Rica)
Christian feast day:
Abraham of Clermont (or of St Cyriacus)
Alice (or Adelaide) of Schaerbeek
Augustine of Hippo (Eastern Orthodox Church)
Blessed Albertina Berkenbrock
Blessed Clement Vismara
Edburga of Winchester
Evelyn Underhill (Church of England and The Episcopal Church)
Germaine Cousin
Landelin (of Crespin or of Lobbes)
Trillo
Vitus (Guy), Modestus and Crescentia
June 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Day of Valdemar and Reunion Day (Flag Day) (Denmark)
Earliest day on which Father’s Day can fall, while June 21 is the latest; celebrated on the third Sunday in June. (United States, and most other countries.)
910 – Battle of Augsburg: The Hungarians defeat the East Frankish army under King Louis the Child, using the famous feigned retreat tactic of the nomadic warriors.
1240 – At the instigation of Louis IX of France, an inter-faith debate, known as the Disputation of Paris, starts between a Christian monk and four rabbis.
1381 – Peasants’ Revolt: In England, rebels assemble at Blackheath, just outside London.
1418 – Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War: Parisians slaughter Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac and his suspected sympathizers, along with all prisoners, foreign bankers, and students and faculty of the College of Navarre.
1429 – Hundred Years’ War: On the second day of the Battle of Jargeau, Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk.
1550 – The city of Helsinki, Finland (belonging to Sweden at the time) is founded by King Gustav I of Sweden.
1653 – First Anglo-Dutch War: The Battle of the Gabbard begins, lasting until the following day.
1665 – Thomas Willett is appointed the first mayor of New York City.
1758 – French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg: James Wolfe’s attack at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, commences
1772 – French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne and 25 of his men killed by Māori in New Zealand.
1775 – American Revolution: British general Thomas Gage declares martial law in Massachusetts. The British offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms. There would be only two exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged.
1776 – The Virginia Declaration of Rights is adopted.
1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: Battle of Ballynahinch.
1817 – The earliest form of bicycle, the dandy horse, is driven by Karl von Drais.
1821 – Badi VII, king of Sennar, surrenders his throne and realm to Isma’il Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom.
1830 – Beginning of the Invasion of Algiers: Thiry-four thousand French soldiers land 27 kilometers west of Algiers, at Sidi Ferruch.
1864 – American Civil War, Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor: Ulysses S. Grant gives the Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee a victory when he pulls his Union troops from their position at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south.
1898 – Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines’ independence from Spain.
1899 – New Richmond tornado: The eighth deadliest tornado in U.S. history kills 117 people and injures around 200.
1914 – Massacre of Phocaea: Turkish irregulars slaughter 50 to 100 Greeks and expel thousands of others in an ethnic cleansing operation in the Ottoman Empire.
1921 – Mikhail Tukhachevsky orders the use of chemical weapons against the Tambov Rebellion, bringing an end to the peasant uprising.
1935 – A ceasefire is negotiated between Bolivia and Paraguay, ending the Chaco War.
1939 – Shooting begins on Paramount Pictures’ Dr. Cyclops, the first horror film photographed in three-strip Technicolor.
1939 – The Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, New York.
1940 – World War II: Thirteen thousand British and French troops surrender to Major General Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.
1942 – Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
1943 – The Holocaust: Germany liquidates the Jewish Ghetto in Brzeżany, Poland (now Berezhany, Ukraine). Around 1,180 Jews are led to the city’s old Jewish graveyard and shot.
1944 – World War II: Operation Overlord: American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division secure the town of Carentan, Normandy, France.
1954 – Pope Pius XII canonises Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at the time of his death, as a saint, making him at the time the youngest unmartyred saint in the Roman Catholic Church. In 2017, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged ten and nine at the time of their deaths, are declared saints.
1963 – NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith during the civil rights movement.
1964 – Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.
1967 – The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.
1975 – India, Judge Jagmohanlal Sinha of the city of Allahabad ruled that India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had used corrupt practices to win her seat in the Indian Parliament, and that she should be banned from holding any public office. Mrs. Gandhi sent word that she refused to resign.
1979 – Bryan Allen wins the second Kremer prize for a man powered flight across the English Channel in the Gossamer Albatross.
1987 – The Central African Republic’s former emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule.
1987 – Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate, U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
1988 – Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 46, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81, crashes short of the runway at Libertador General José de San Martín Airport, killing all 22 people on board.
1990 – Russia Day: The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.
1991 – Russians first democratically elected Boris Yeltsin as the President of Russia.
1991 – Kokkadichcholai massacre: The Sri Lankan Army massacres 152 minority Tamil civilians in the village of Kokkadichcholai near the eastern province town of Batticaloa.
1993 – An election takes place in Nigeria and is won by Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. Its results are later annulled by the military Government of Ibrahim Babangida.
1994 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman are murdered outside Simpson’s home in Los Angeles. Her estranged husband, O.J. Simpson is later charged with the murders, but is acquitted by a jury.
1997 – Queen Elizabeth II reopens the Globe Theatre in London.
1999 – Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins when a NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force (KFor) enters the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
2009 – Analog television stations (excluding low-powered stations) switch to digital television following the DTV Delay Act.
2009 – A disputed presidential election in Iran leads to wide-ranging local and international protests.
2016 – Forty-nine civilians are killed and 58 others injured in an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida; the gunman, Omar Mateen, is killed in a gunfight with police.
2017 – American student Otto Warmbier returns home in a coma after spending 17 months in a North Korean prison and dies a week later.
2018 – United States President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un of North Korea held the first meeting between leaders of their two countries in Singapore.
Births on June 12
950 – Reizei, Japanese emperor (d. 1011)
1107 – Gao Zong, Chinese emperor (d. 1187)
1161 – Constance, Duchess of Brittany (d. 1201)
1519 – Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1574)
1561 – Anna of Württemberg, German princess (d. 1616)
1564 – John Casimir, Duke of Saxe-Coburg (d. 1633)
1573 – Robert Radclyffe, 5th Earl of Sussex, soldier (d. 1629)
1577 – Paul Guldin, Swiss astronomer and mathematician (d. 1643)
1580 – Adriaen van Stalbemt, Flemish painter (d. 1662)
1653 – Maria Amalia of Courland, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1711)
1686 – Marie-Catherine Homassel Hecquet, French writer (d. 1764)
1711 – Louis Legrand, French priest and theologian (d. 1780)
1760 – Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai, French author, playwright, journalist, and politician (d. 1797)
1771 – Patrick Gass, American sergeant (Lewis and Clark Expedition) and author (d. 1870)
1775 – Karl Freiherr von Müffling, Prussian field marshal (d. 1851)
1777 – Robert Clark, American physician and politician (d. 1837)
1795 – John Marston, American sailor (d. 1885)
1798 – Samuel Cooper, American general (d. 1876)
1800 – Samuel Wright Mardis, American politician (d. 1836)
1802 – Harriet Martineau, English sociologist and author (d. 1876)
1806 – John A. Roebling, German-American engineer, designed the Brooklyn Bridge (d. 1869)
1807 – Ante Kuzmanić, Croatian physician and journalist (d. 1879)
1812 – Edmond Hébert, French geologist and academic (d. 1890)
1819 – Charles Kingsley, English priest, historian, and author (d. 1875)
1827 – Johanna Spyri, Swiss author, best known for Heidi (d. 1901)
1831 – Robert Herbert, English-Australian politician, 1st Premier of Queensland (d. 1905)
1841 – Watson Fothergill, English architect, designed the Woodborough Road Baptist Church (d. 1928)
1843 – David Gill, Scottish-English astronomer and author (d. 1914)
1851 – Oliver Lodge, English physicist and academic (d. 1940)
1857 – Maurice Perrault, Canadian architect, engineer, and politician, 15th Mayor of Longueuil (d. 1909)
1858 – Harry Johnston, English botanist and explorer (d. 1927)
1858 – Henry Scott Tuke, English painter and photographer (d. 1929)
1861 – William Attewell, English cricketer and umpire (d. 1927)
1864 – Frank Chapman, American ornithologist, photographer, and author (d. 1945)
1877 – Thomas C. Hart, American admiral and politician (d. 1971)
1883 – Fernand Gonder, French pole vaulter (d. 1969)
1883 – Robert Lowie, Austrian-American anthropologist and academic (d. 1957)
1888 – Zygmunt Janiszewski, Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1920)
1890 – Egon Schiele, Austrian soldier and painter (d. 1918)
1892 – Djuna Barnes, American novelist, journalist, and playwright (d. 1982)
1895 – Eugénie Brazier, French chef (d. 1977)
1897 – Anthony Eden, English soldier and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1977)
1899 – Fritz Albert Lipmann, German-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
1899 – Weegee, Ukrainian-American photographer and journalist (d. 1968)
1902 – Hendrik Elias, Belgian lawyer and politician, Mayor of Ghent (d. 1973)
1905 – Ray Barbuti, American sprinter and football player (d. 1988)
1906 – Sandro Penna, Italian poet (d. 1977)
1908 – Alphonse Ouimet, Canadian broadcaster (d. 1988)
1908 – Marina Semyonova, Russian ballerina and educator (d. 2010)
1908 – Otto Skorzeny, German SS officer (d. 1975)
1910 – Bill Naughton, Irish-English playwright and author (d. 1992)
1912 – Bill Cowley, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1993)
1912 – Carl Hovland, American psychologist and academic (d. 1961)
1913 – Jean Victor Allard, Canadian general (d. 1996)
1913 – Desmond Piers, Canadian admiral (d. 2005)
1914 – William Lundigan, American actor (d. 1975)
1914 – Go Seigen, Chinese-Japanese Go player (d. 2014)
1915 – Priscilla Lane, American actress (d. 1995)
1915 – Christopher Mayhew, English soldier and politician (d. 1997)
1915 – David Rockefeller, American banker and businessman (d. 2017)
1916 – Irwin Allen, American director and producer (d. 1991)
1916 – Raúl Héctor Castro, Mexican-American politician and diplomat, 14th Governor of Arizona (d. 2015)
1918 – Samuel Z. Arkoff, American film producer (d. 2001)
1918 – Georgia Louise Harris Brown, American architect (d. 1999)
1918 – Christie Jayaratnam Eliezer, Sri Lankan-Australian mathematician and academic (d. 2001)
1919 – Uta Hagen, German-American actress and educator (d. 2004)
1920 – Dave Berg, American soldier and cartoonist (d. 2002)
1920 – Peter Jones, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2000)
1921 – Luis García Berlanga, Spanish director and screenwriter (d. 2010)
1921 – Christopher Derrick, English author, critic, and academic (d. 2007)
1921 – James Archibald Houston, Canadian author and illustrator (d. 2005)
1922 – Margherita Hack, Italian astrophysicist and author (d. 2013)
1924 – George H. W. Bush, American lieutenant and politician, 41st President of the United States (d. 2018)
1924 – Grete Dollitz, German-American guitarist and radio host (d. 2013)
1928 – Vic Damone, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2018)
1928 – Petros Molyviatis, Greek politician and diplomat, Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs
1928 – Richard M. Sherman, American composer and director
1929 – Brigid Brophy, English author and critic (d. 1995)
1929 – Anne Frank, German-Dutch diarist; victim of the Holocaust (d. 1945)
1929 – Jameel Jalibi, Pakistani linguist and academic
1929 – John McCluskey, Baron McCluskey, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Solicitor General for Scotland (d. 2017)
1930 – Jim Burke, Australian cricketer (d. 1979)
1930 – Donald Byrne, American chess player (d. 1976)
1930 – Innes Ireland, Scottish race car driver and engineer (d. 1993)
1930 – Jim Nabors, American actor and singer (d. 2017)
1931 – Trevanian, American author and scholar (d. 2005)
1931 – Rona Jaffe, American novelist (d. 2005)
1932 – Mimi Coertse, South African soprano and producer
1932 – Mamo Wolde, Ethiopian runner (d. 2002)
1933 – Eddie Adams, American photographer and journalist (d. 2004)
1934 – John A. Alonzo, American actor and cinematographer (d. 2001)
1934 – Kevin Billington, English director and producer
1935 – Ian Craig, Australian cricketer (d. 2014)
1935 – Paul Kennedy, English lawyer and judge
1937 – Vladimir Arnold, Russian-French mathematician and academic (d. 2010)
1937 – Klaus Basikow, German footballer and manager (d. 2015)
1937 – Antal Festetics, Hungarian-Austrian biologist and zoologist
1937 – Chips Moman, American record producer, guitarist, and songwriter (d. 2016)
1938 – Jean-Marie Doré, Guinean lawyer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Guinea (d. 2016)
1938 – Tom Oliver, English-Australian actor
1939 – Ron Lynch, Australian rugby league player and coach
1939 – Frank McCloskey, American sergeant and politician (d. 2003)
1940 – Jacques Brassard, Canadian educator and politician
1941 – Marv Albert, American sportscaster
1941 – Chick Corea, American pianist and composer
1941 – Roy Harper, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1941 – Reg Presley, English singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
1941 – Lucille Roybal-Allard, American politician
1942 – Len Barry, American singer-songwriter and producer
1942 – Bert Sakmann, German physiologist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
1945 – Pat Jennings, Irish footballer and coach
1946 – Michel Bergeron, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1946 – Bobby Gould, English footballer and manager
1946 – Catherine Bréchignac, French physicist and academic
1948 – Hans Binder, Austrian race car driver
1948 – Herbert Meyer, German footballer
1948 – Len Wein, American comic book writer and editor (d. 2017)
1949 – Jens Böhrnsen, German judge and politician
1949 – Marc Tardif, Canadian ice hockey player
1949 – John Wetton, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (d. 2017)
1950 – Oğuz Abadan, Turkish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1950 – Michael Fabricant, English politician
1950 – Sonia Manzano, American actress of Puerto Rican descent, noted for playing Maria on Sesame Street
1950 – Bun E. Carlos, American drummer
1951 – Brad Delp, American musician and singer (d. 2007)
1951 – Andranik Margaryan, Armenian engineer and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Armenia (d. 2007)
1952 – Spencer Abraham, American academic and politician, 10th United States Secretary of Energy
1952 – Junior Brown, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist
1952 – Pete Farndon, English bass player and songwriter (d. 1983)
1953 – Rocky Burnette, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1954 – Tim Razzall, Baron Razzall, English lawyer and politician
1956 – Terry Alderman, Australian cricketer and sportscaster
1957 – Timothy Busfield, American actor, director, and producer
1957 – Javed Miandad, Pakistani cricketer and coach
1958 – Meredith Brooks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1959 – John Linnell, American singer-songwriter and musician
1959 – Scott Thompson, Canadian actor and comedian
1960 – Joe Kopicki, American basketball player and coach
1962 – Jordan Peterson, Canadian psychologist, professor and cultural critic
1963 – Philippe Bugalski, French race car driver (d. 2012)
1963 – Warwick Capper, Australian footballer, coach, and actor
1963 – Tim DeKay, American actor
1963 – Jerry Lynn, American wrestler
1964 – Derek Higgins, Irish race car driver
1964 – Kent Jones, American journalist
1964 – Paula Marshall, American actress
1964 – Peter Such, Scottish-born, English cricketer
1965 – Adrian Toole, Australian rugby league player
1965 – Gwen Torrence, American sprinter
1965 – Cathy Tyson, English actress
1966 – Marc Glanville, Australian rugby league player
1966 – Tom Misteli, Swiss cell biologist
1967 – Aivar Kuusmaa, Estonian basketball player and coach
