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- 48 BC – Pompey is assassinated by order of King Ptolemy upon arriving in Egypt.
- 235 – Pope Pontian resigns. He is exiled to the mines of Sardinia, along with Hippolytus of Rome.
- 351 – Constantius II defeats the usurper Magnentius.
- 365 – Roman usurper Procopius bribes two legions passing by Constantinople, and proclaims himself emperor.
- 935 – Duke Wenceslaus I of Bohemia is murdered by a group of nobles led by his brother Boleslaus I, who succeeds him.
- 995 – Boleslaus II, Duke of Bohemia, kills most members of the rival Slavník dynasty.
- 1066 – William the Conqueror lands in England, beginning the Norman conquest.
- 1106 – King Henry I of England defeats his brother, Robert Curthose.
- 1238 – King James I of Aragon conquers Valencia from the Moors. Shortly thereafter, he proclaims himself king of Valencia.
- 1322 – Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, defeats Frederick I of Austria in the Battle of Mühldorf.
- 1538 – Ottoman–Venetian War: The Ottoman Navy scores a decisive victory over a Holy League fleet in the Battle of Preveza.
- 1542 – Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo of Portugal arrives at what is now San Diego, California.
- 1779 – American Revolution: Samuel Huntington is elected President of the Continental Congress, succeeding John Jay.
- 1781 – American Revolution: American forces backed by a French fleet begin the siege of Yorktown.
- 1787 – The Congress of the Confederation votes to send the newly-written United States Constitution to the state legislatures for approval.
- 1821 – The Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire is drafted. It will be made public on 13 October.
- 1844 – Oscar I of Sweden–Norway is crowned king of Sweden.
- 1867 – Toronto becomes the capital of Ontario, having also been the capital of Ontario’s predecessors since 1796.
- 1868 – The Battle of Alcolea causes Queen Isabella II of Spain to flee to France.
- 1871 – The Brazilian Parliament passes a law that frees all children thereafter born to slaves, and all government-owned slaves.
- 1889 – The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defines the length of a meter.
- 1892 – The first night game for American football takes place in a contest between Wyoming Seminary and Mansfield State Normal.
- 1893 – Foundation of the Portuguese football club FC Porto.
- 1901 – Philippine–American War: Filipino guerrillas kill more than forty American soldiers while losing 28 of their own.
- 1912 – The Ulster Covenant is signed by some 500,000 Ulster Protestant Unionists in opposition to the Third Irish Home Rule Bill.
- 1912 – Corporal Frank S. Scott of the United States Army becomes the first enlisted man to die in an airplane crash.
- 1918 – World War I: The Fifth Battle of Ypres begins.
- 1919 – Race riots begin in Omaha, Nebraska.
- 1924 – The first aerial circumnavigation is completed by a team from the US Army.
- 1928 – Alexander Fleming notices a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
- 1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland.
- 1939 – World War II: The siege of Warsaw comes to an end.
- 1941 – World War II: The Drama uprising against the Bulgarian occupation in northern Greece begins.
- 1941 – Ted Williams achieves a .406 batting average for the season, and becomes the last major league baseball player to bat .400 or better.
- 1944 – World War II: Soviet Army troops liberate Klooga concentration camp in Estonia.
- 1951 – CBS makes the first color televisions available for sale to the general public, but the product is discontinued less than a month later.
- 1961 – A military coup in Damascus effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria.
- 1970 – Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser dies of a heart attack in Cairo.
- 1971 – The Parliament of the UK passes the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, banning the medicinal use of cannabis.
- 1973 – The ITT Building in New York City is bombed in protest at ITT’s alleged involvement in the coup d’état in Chile.
- 1975 – The Spaghetti House siege, in which nine people are taken hostage, takes place in London.
- 1986 – The Democratic Progressive Party becomes the first opposition party in Taiwan.
- 1991 – The Strategic Air Command stands down from alert all ICBMs scheduled for deactivation under START I, as well as its strategic bomber force.
- 1992 – A Pakistan International Airlines flight crashes into a hill in Nepal, killing all 167 passengers and crew.
- 1994 – The cruise ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.
- 1995 – Bob Denard and a group of mercenaries take the islands of the Comoros in a coup.
- 1995 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat sign the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
- 2000 – Al-Aqsa Intifada: Ariel Sharon visits Al-Aqsa Mosque known to Jews as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
- 2008 – Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid-fuel ground-launched vehicle to put a payload into orbit.
- 2009 – The military junta leading Guinea attacks a protest rally, killing or wounding 1400 people.
- 2012 – Somali and African Union forces launch a coordinated assault on the Somali port of Kismayo to take back the city from al-Shabaab militants.
- 2014 – The 2014 Hong Kong protests begin in response to restrictive political reforms imposed by the NPC in Beijing.
- 2016 – The 2016 South Australian blackout occurs, lasting up to three days in some areas.
- 2018 – The 7.5 Mw 2018 Sulawesi earthquake, which triggered a large tsunami, leaves 4,340 dead and 10,679 injured.
- 2018 – On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, the international project Tree of Peace was established (September, 28). One of the trees was planted personally by Zuzana Čaputová, President of the Slovak Republic.
Births on September 28
- 551 BC – Confucius, Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese history. (d. 479 BC)
- 616 – Javanshir, King of Caucasian Albania (d. 680)
- 1494 – Agnolo Firenzuola, Italian poet and playwright (d. 1545)
- 1555 – Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne, Marshal of France (d. 1623)
- 1573 – Théodore de Mayerne, Swiss physician (d. 1654)
- 1605 – Ismaël Bullialdus, French astronomer and mathematician (d. 1694)
- 1681 – Johann Mattheson, German composer, lexicographer, and diplomat (d. 1764)
- 1705 – Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (d. 1774)
- 1705 – Johann Peter Kellner, German organist and composer (d. 1772)
- 1735 – Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, English academic and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1811)
- 1746 – William Jones, English-Welsh philologist and scholar (d. 1794)
- 1765 – Frederick Christian II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (d. 1814)
- 1803 – Prosper Mérimée, French archaeologist, historian, and author (d. 1870)
- 1809 – Alvan Wentworth Chapman, American physician and botanist (d. 1899)
- 1819 – Narcís Monturiol, Spanish engineer and publisher (d. 1885)
- 1821 – Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs, American minister and politician (d. 1874)
- 1823 – Alexandre Cabanel, French painter and educator (d. 1889)
- 1824 – Francis Turner Palgrave, English poet and critic (d. 1897)
- 1836 – Thomas Crapper, English plumber, invented the ballcock (d. 1910)
- 1838 – Sai Baba of Shirdi, Indian national saint (d. 1918)
- 1841 – Georges Clemenceau, French journalist, physician, and politician, 85th Prime Minister of France (d. 1929)
- 1844 – Robert Stout, Scottish-New Zealand lawyer and politician, 13th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1930)
- 1852 – Henri Moissan, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1907)
- 1852 – Isis Pogson, British astronomer and meteorologist (d. 1945)
- 1856 – Kate Douglas Wiggin, American author and educator (d. 1923)
- 1860 – Paul Ulrich Villard, French chemist and physicist (d. 1934)
- 1861 – Amélie of Orléans, queen consort of Portugal (d. 1951)
- 1867 – Hiranuma Kiichirō, Japanese lawyer and politician, 35th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1952)
- 1867 – James Edwin Campbell, American poet, editor, short story writer and educator (d. 1896)
- 1868 – Evelyn Beatrice Hall, English writer best known for her biography of Voltaire, and wrote under the pseudonym S. G. Tallentyre (d. 1956)
- 1877 – Albert Young, American boxer and promoter (d. 1940)
- 1878 – Joseph Ruddy, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1962)
- 1870 – Florent Schmitt, French composer and critic (d. 1958)
- 1881 – Pedro de Cordoba, American actor (d. 1950)
- 1882 – Mart Saar, Estonian organist and composer (d. 1963)
- 1885 – Emil Väre, Finnish wrestler, coach, and referee (d. 1974)
- 1887 – Avery Brundage, American businessman, 5th President of the International Olympic Committee (d. 1975)
- 1889 – Jack Fournier, American baseball player and coach (d. 1973)
- 1890 – Florence Violet McKenzie, Australian electrical engineer (d. 1982)
- 1892 – Elmer Rice, American playwright (d. 1967)
- 1893 – Hilda Geiringer, Austrian mathematician (d. 1973)
- 1893 – Giannis Skarimpas, Greek author, poet, and playwright (d. 1984)
- 1898 – Carl Clauberg, German Nazi physician (d. 1957)
- 1900 – Isabel Pell, American socialite, fought as part of the French Resistance during WWII (d. 1951)
- 1901 – William S. Paley, American broadcaster, founded CBS (d. 1990)
- 1901 – Ed Sullivan, American television host (d. 1974)
- 1903 – Haywood S. Hansell, American general (d. 1988)
- 1905 – Max Schmeling, German boxer (d. 2005)
- 1907 – Heikki Savolainen, Finnish gymnast and physician (d. 1997)
- 1907 – Bhagat Singh, Indian activist (d. 1931)
- 1909 – Al Capp, American author and illustrator (d. 1979)
- 1910 – Diosdado Macapagal, Filipino lawyer and politician, 9th President of the Philippines (d. 1997)
- 1910 – Wenceslao Vinzons, Filipino lawyer and politician (d. 1942)
- 1913 – Warja Honegger-Lavater, Swiss illustrator (d. 2007)
- 1913 – Alice Marble, American tennis player (d. 1990)
- 1914 – Maria Franziska von Trapp, Austrian-American refugee and singer (d. 2014)
- 1915 – Ethel Rosenberg, American spy (d. 1953)
- 1916 – Peter Finch, English-Australian actor (d. 1977)
- 1916 – Olga Lepeshinskaya, Ukrainian-Russian ballerina and educator (d. 2008)
- 1918 – Ángel Labruna, Argentinian footballer and manager (d. 1983)
- 1918 – Arnold Stang, American actor (d. 2009)
- 1919 – Doris Singleton, American actress (d. 2012)
- 1922 – Larry Munson, American sportscaster (d. 2011)
- 1923 – Tuli Kupferberg, American singer, poet, and writer (d. 2010)
- 1923 – John Scott, 9th Duke of Buccleuch, Scottish captain and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Selkirkshire (d. 2007)
- 1923 – William Windom, American actor (d. 2012)
- 1924 – Rudolf Barshai, Russian-Swiss viola player and conductor (d. 2010)
- 1924 – Marcello Mastroianni, Italian-French actor and singer (d. 1996)
- 1925 – Seymour Cray, American computer scientist, founded the CRAY Computer Company (d. 1996)
- 1925 – Cromwell Everson, South African composer (d. 1991)
- 1925 – Martin David Kruskal, American physicist and mathematician (d. 2006)
- 1926 – Jerry Clower, American soldier, comedian, and author (d. 1998)
- 1928 – Koko Taylor, American singer (d. 2009)
- 1929 – Lata Mangeshkar, Indian playback singer and composer
- 1930 – Tommy Collins, American country music singer-songwriter (d. 2000)
- 1930 – Immanuel Wallerstein, American sociologist, author, and academic (d. 2019)
- 1932 – Jeremy Isaacs, Scottish screenwriter and producer
- 1932 – Víctor Jara, Chilean singer-songwriter, poet, and director (d. 1973)
- 1933 – Joe Benton, English soldier and politician
- 1933 – Miguel Ortiz Berrocal, Spanish sculptor and educator (d. 2006)
- 1933 – Johnny “Country” Mathis, American singer-songwriter (d. 2011)
- 1934 – Brigitte Bardot, French actress
- 1935 – Bruce Crampton, Australian golfer
- 1935 – David Hannay, Baron Hannay of Chiswick, English diplomat, British Permanent Representative to the United Nations
- 1935 – Ronald Lacey, English actor (d. 1991)
- 1936 – Emmett Chapman, American guitarist, invented the Chapman Stick
- 1936 – Eddie Lumsden, Australian rugby league player (d. 2019)
- 1936 – Robert Wolders, Dutch television actor (d. 2018)
- 1937 – Alice Mahon, English trade union leader and politician
- 1937 – Glenn Sutton, American country music songwriter and record producer (d. 2007)
- 1938 – Ben E. King, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2015)
- 1939 – Stuart Kauffman, American biologist and academic
- 1941 – David Lewis, American philosopher and academic (d. 2001)
- 1941 – Edmund Stoiber, German lawyer and politician, Minister President of Bavaria
- 1942 – Pierre Clémenti, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1999)
- 1942 – Edward “Little Buster” Forehand, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2006)
- 1943 – Warren Lieberfarb, American businessman
- 1943 – George W. S. Trow, American novelist, playwright, and critic (d. 2006)
- 1943 – Nick St. Nicholas, German-Canadian bass player
- 1944 – Richie Karl, American golfer
- 1944 – Marcia Muller, American journalist and author
- 1945 – Marielle Goitschel, French skier
- 1945 – Manolis Rasoulis, Greek singer-songwriter and journalist (d. 2011)
- 1945 – Fusako Shigenobu, Japanese activist, founded the Japanese Red Army
- 1946 – Tom Bower, English journalist and author
- 1946 – Majid Khan, Indian-Pakistani cricketer
- 1947 – Bob Carr, Australian journalist and politician, 37th Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1947 – Sheikh Hasina, Bangladeshi politician, 10th Prime Minister of Bangladesh
- 1947 – Jon Snow, English journalist and academic
- 1947 – Rhonda Hughes, American mathematician and academic
- 1949 – Jim Henshaw, Canadian actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1950 – Paul Burgess, English drummer
- 1950 – Christina Hoff Sommers, American author and philosopher
- 1950 – John Sayles, American novelist, director, and screenwriter
- 1951 – Jim Diamond, Scottish singer-songwriter and musician (d. 2015)
- 1952 – Christopher Buckley, American satirical novelist
- 1952 – Efthimis Kioumourtzoglou, Greek basketball player and coach
- 1952 – Sylvia Kristel, Dutch model and actress (d. 2012)
- 1952 – Andy Ward, English drummer
- 1953 – Otmar Hasler, Liechtensteiner educator and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Liechtenstein
- 1954 – Steve Largent, American football player and politician
- 1954 – George Lynch, American guitarist and songwriter
- 1954 – John Scott, English rugby player
- 1954 – Margot Wallström, Swedish politician and diplomat, 42nd Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs
- 1955 – Stéphane Dion, Canadian sociologist and politician, 15th Canadian Minister of the Environment
- 1955 – Mercy Manci, Xhosa sangoma and HIV activist from South Africa
- 1955 – Kenny Kirkland, American pianist (d. 1998)
- 1956 – Martha Isabel Fandiño Pinilla, Colombian-Italian mathematician and author
- 1957 – Bill Cassidy, American politician and physician
- 1959 – Ron Fellows, Canadian race car driver
- 1959 – Laura Bruce, American artist
- 1960 – Gary Ayres, Australian footballer and coach
- 1960 – Tom Byrum, American golfer
- 1960 – Frank Hammerschlag, German footballer and manager
- 1960 – Gus Logie, Trinidadian cricketer
- 1960 – Kamlesh Patel, Baron Patel of Bradford, English politician
- 1960 – Jennifer Rush, American singer-songwriter
- 1960 – Socrates Villegas, Filipino archbishop
- 1961 – Helen Grant, English lawyer and politician, Minister for Sport and the Olympics
- 1961 – Gregory Jbara, American actor and singer
- 1961 – Quentin Kawānanakoa, American lawyer and politician
- 1961 – Anne White, American tennis player
- 1962 – Grant Fuhr, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1962 – Laurie Rinker, American golfer
- 1962 – Dietmar Schacht, German footballer and manager
- 1962 – Chuck Taylor, American journalist
- 1963 – Steve Blackman, American wrestler and martial artist
- 1963 – Érik Comas, French race car driver
- 1963 – Greg Weisman, American voice actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1964 – Claudio Borghi, Argentinian footballer and manager
- 1964 – Gregor Fisken, Scottish race car driver
- 1964 – Janeane Garofalo, American comedian, actress, and screenwriter
- 1964 – Paul Jewell, English footballer and manager
- 1964 – Mārtiņš Roze, Latvian lawyer and politician (d. 2012)
- 1966 – Scott Adams, American football player (d. 2013)
- 1966 – Maria Canals-Barrera, Cuban-American actress
- 1966 – Puri Jagannadh, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1967 – Mira Sorvino, American actress
- 1967 – Moon Zappa, American actress and author
- 1968 – Francois Botha, South African boxer and mixed martial artist
- 1968 – Mika Häkkinen, Finnish race car driver
- 1968 – Trish Keenan, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2011)
- 1968 – Sean Levert, American R&B singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2008)
- 1968 – Rob Moroso, American race car driver (d. 1990)
- 1968 – Naomi Watts, English-Australian actress and producer
- 1969 – Kerri Chandler, electronic music producer and DJ
- 1969 – Marcel Dost, Dutch decathlete
- 1969 – Ben Greenman, American journalist and author
- 1969 – Piper Kerman, American author and memoirist
- 1969 – Éric Lapointe, Canadian singer-songwriter and keyboard player
- 1969 – Sascha Maassen, German race car driver
- 1969 – Angus Robertson, Scottish politician
- 1969 – Nico Vaesen, Belgian footballer
- 1970 – Kimiko Date-Krumm, Japanese tennis player
- 1970 – Mike DeJean, American baseball player
- 1970 – Gualter Salles, Brazilian race car driver
- 1971 – Joseph Arthur, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1971 – George Eustice, English lawyer and politician
- 1971 – Braam van Straaten, South African rugby player
- 1971 – Alan Wright, English footballer and manager
- 1972 – Dita Von Teese, American model and dancer
- 1973 – Brian Rafalski, American ice hockey player
- 1974 – Marco Di Loreto, Italian footballer and manager
- 1974 – Mariya Kiselyova, Russian swimmer
- 1974 – Joonas Kolkka, Finnish footballer and coach
- 1974 – Shane Webcke, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1975 – Stuart Clark, Australian cricketer and manager
- 1975 – Isamu Jordan, American journalist and academic (d. 2013)
- 1975 – Lenny Krayzelburg, Russian-American swimmer
- 1976 – Fedor Emelianenko, Russian mixed martial artist and politician
- 1977 – Ireneusz Marcinkowski, Polish footballer
- 1977 – Pak Se-ri, South Korean golfer
- 1977 – Young Jeezy, American rapper
- 1978 – Ben Edmondson, Australian cricketer
- 1979 – Bam Margera, American skateboarder, actor, and stuntman
- 1979 – Taki Tsan, American-Greek rapper and producer
- 1980 – Marlon Parmer, American basketball player
- 1981 – Greg Anderson, American pianist and composer
- 1981 – Willy Caballero, Argentine footballer
- 1981 – José Calderón, Spanish basketball player
- 1981 – Jorge Guagua, Ecuadorian footballer
- 1981 – Iracema Trevisan, Brazilian bass player
- 1982 – Aleksandr Anyukov, Russian footballer
- 1982 – Abhinav Bindra, Indian target shooter
- 1982 – Ray Emery, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2018)
- 1982 – Ranbir Kapoor, Indian actor and director
- 1982 – Nolwenn Leroy, French singer-songwriter and actress
- 1982 – Emeka Okafor, American basketball player
- 1982 – Dustin Penner, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1982 – Aivar Rehemaa, Estonian skier
- 1982 – Anderson Varejão, Brazilian basketball player
- 1982 – St. Vincent, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1983 – Stefan Moore, English footballer
- 1983 – John Schwalger, New Zealand rugby player
- 1984 – Jenny Omnichord, Canadian singer-songwriter
- 1984 – Luke Pomersbach, Australian cricketer
- 1984 – Naim Terbunja, Kosovan-Swedish boxer
- 1984 – Melody Thornton, American singer-songwriter and dancer
- 1984 – Mathieu Valbuena, French footballer
- 1984 – Ryan Zimmerman, American baseball player
- 1985 – Shindong, South Korean singer-songwriter and dancer
- 1985 – Alina Ibragimova, Russian-English violinist
- 1986 – Andrés Guardado, Mexican footballer
- 1986 – Meskerem Legesse, Ethiopian runner (d. 2013)
- 1986 – Dominic Waters, American basketball player
- 1987 – Pierre Becken, German footballer
- 1987 – Gary Deegan, Irish footballer
- 1987 – Hilary Duff, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1987 – Chloë Hanslip, English violinist
- 1987 – Viktoria Leks, Estonian high jumper
- 1988 – Marin Čilić, Croatian tennis player
- 1988 – Esmée Denters, Dutch singer-songwriter
- 1988 – Aleks Vrteski, Australian footballer
- 1988 – Worakls, French DJ and electronic musician
- 1989 – Çağla Büyükakçay, Turkish tennis player
- 1989 – Darius Johnson-Odom, American basketball player
- 1989 – Mark Randall, English footballer
- 1990 – Phoenix Battye, Australian rugby player
- 1992 – Khem Birch, Canadian professional basketball player
- 1992 – Adam Thompson, English-Northern Irish footballer
- 1992 – Kōko Tsurumi, Japanese gymnast
- 1993 – Jodie Williams, English sprinter
- 1995 – Jason Williams, English footballer
Deaths on September 28
- 48 BC – Pompey, Roman general and politician (b. 106 BC)
- 782 – Leoba, Anglo-Saxon nun
- 935 – Wenceslaus I, duke of Bohemia
- 980 – Minamoto no Hiromasa, Japanese nobleman (b. 918)
- 1197 – Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1165)
- 1213 – Gertrude of Merania, queen consort of Hungaria (b. 1185)
- 1330 – Elizabeth of Bohemia, queen consort of Bohemia (b. 1292)
- 1429 – Cymburgis of Masovia, duchess consort of Austria (b. 1394)
- 1582 – George Buchanan, Scottish historian and scholar (b. 1506)
- 1596 – Margaret Clifford, countess of Derby (b. 1540)
- 1618 – Josuah Sylvester, English poet and translator (b. 1563)
- 1687 – Francis Turretin, Swiss-Italian theologian and academic (b. 1623)
- 1694 – Gabriel Mouton, French mathematician and theologian (b. 1618)
- 1702 – Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland, French-English lawyer and politician, Lord President of the Council (b. 1640)
- 1742 – Jean Baptiste Massillon, French bishop (b. 1663)
- 1829 – Nikolay Raevsky, Russian general and politician (b. 1771)
- 1844 – Pyotr Aleksandrovich Tolstoy, Russian general and politician (b. 1769)
- 1859 – Carl Ritter, German geographer and academic (b. 1779)
- 1873 – Émile Gaboriau, French journalist and author (b. 1832)
- 1891 – Herman Melville, American author and poet (b. 1819)
- 1895 – Louis Pasteur, French chemist and microbiologist (b. 1822)
- 1899 – Giovanni Segantini, Austrian painter (b. 1858)
- 1914 – Richard Warren Sears, American businessman, co-founded Sears (b. 1863)
- 1915 – Saitō Hajime, Japanese samurai (b. 1844)
- 1918 – Georg Simmel, German sociologist and philosopher (b. 1858)
- 1918 – Freddie Stowers, American soldier, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1896)
- 1925 – Paul Vermoyal, French actor (b. 1888)
- 1935 – William Kennedy Dickson, French-Scottish actor, director, and producer, invented the Kinetoscope (b. 1860)
- 1938 – Charles Duryea, American engineer and businessman, founded the Duryea Motor Wagon Company (b. 1861)
- 1943 – Sam Ruben, American chemist and academic (b. 1913)
- 1943 – Filippo Illuminato, Italian partisan, Gold Medal of Military Valour (b. 1930)
- 1949 – Archbishop Chrysanthus of Athens (b. 1881)
- 1953 – Edwin Hubble, American astronomer and scholar (b. 1889)
- 1956 – William Boeing, American businessman, founded the Boeing Company (b. 1881)
- 1957 – Luis Cluzeau Mortet, Uruguayan violinist and composer (b. 1888)
- 1959 – Rudolf Caracciola, German race car driver (b. 1901)
- 1962 – Roger Nimier, French soldier and author (b. 1925)
- 1964 – Harpo Marx, American comedian, actor, and singer (b. 1888)
- 1966 – André Breton, French author and poet (b. 1896)
- 1970 – John Dos Passos, American novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright (b. 1896)
- 1970 – Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egyptian colonel and politician, 2nd President of Egypt (b. 1918)
- 1978 – Pope John Paul I (b. 1912)
- 1979 – John Herbert Chapman, Canadian physicist and engineer (b. 1921)
- 1981 – Rómulo Betancourt, Venezuelan journalist and politician, President of Venezuela (b. 1908)
- 1982 – Mabel Albertson, American actress (b. 1901)
- 1984 – Cihad Baban, Turkish journalist, author, and politician (b. 1911)
- 1989 – Ferdinand Marcos, Filipino lawyer and politician, 10th President of the Philippines (b. 1917)
- 1990 – Larry O’Brien, American businessman and politician, 57th United States Postmaster General (b. 1917)
- 1991 – Miles Davis, American trumpet player, composer, and bandleader (b. 1926)
- 1993 – Peter De Vries, American editor and novelist (b. 1910)
- 1993 – Alexander A. Drabik, American sergeant (b. 1910)
- 1994 – Urmas Alender, Estonian singer (b. 1953)
- 1994 – José Francisco Ruiz Massieu, Mexican lawyer and politician, 6th Governor of Guerrero (b. 1946)
- 1994 – Harry Saltzman, Canadian production manager and producer (b. 1915)
- 1994 – K. A. Thangavelu, Indian film actor and comedian (b. 1917)
- 1999 – Escott Reid, Canadian academic and diplomat (b. 1905)
- 2000 – Pierre Trudeau, Canadian journalist, lawyer, and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1919)
- 2002 – Patsy Mink, American lawyer and politician (b. 1927)
- 2002 – Hartland Molson, Canadian captain and politician (b. 1907)
- 2003 – Althea Gibson, American tennis player and golfer (b. 1927)
- 2003 – Elia Kazan, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1909)
- 2003 – George Odlum, Saint Lucian politician and diplomat (b. 1934)
- 2004 – Geoffrey Beene, American fashion designer (b. 1924)
- 2005 – Constance Baker Motley, American lawyer, judge, and politician (b. 1921)
- 2007 – René Desmaison, French mountaineer (b. 1930)
- 2007 – Wally Parks, American businessman, founded the National Hot Rod Association (b. 1913)
- 2009 – Guillermo Endara, Panamanian lawyer and politician, 32nd President of Panama (b. 1936)
- 2009 – Ulf Larsson, Swedish actor and director (b. 1956)
- 2010 – Kurt Albert, German mountaineer and photographer (b. 1954)
- 2010 – Arthur Penn, American director and producer (b. 1922)
- 2010 – Dolores Wilson, American soprano and actress (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Avraham Adan, Israeli general (b. 1926)
- 2012 – Chris Economaki, American journalist and sportscaster (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Brajesh Mishra, Indian politician and diplomat, 1st Indian National Security Advisor (b. 1928)
- 2013 – James Emanuel, American-French poet and scholar (b. 1921)
- 2013 – Jonathan Fellows-Smith, South African cricketer and rugby player (b. 1932)
- 2013 – George Amon Webster, American singer and pianist (b. 1945)
- 2014 – Dannie Abse, Welsh physician, poet, and author (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Joseph H. Alexander, American colonel and historian (b. 1938)
- 2014 – Sheila Faith, English dentist and politician (b. 1928)
- 2014 – Tim Rawlings, English footballer and manager (b. 1932)
- 2014 – Petr Skoumal, Czech pianist and composer (b. 1938)
- 2015 – Alexander Faris, Irish composer and conductor (b. 1921)
- 2015 – Walter Dale Miller, American rancher and politician, 29th Governor of South Dakota (b. 1925)
- 2015 – Ignacio Zoco, Spanish footballer (b. 1939)
- 2016 – Agnes Nixon, American television writer and director (b. 1922)
- 2016 – Gary Glasberg, American television writer and producer (b. 1966)
- 2016 – Shimon Peres, Polish-Israeli statesman and politician, 9th President of Israel (b. 1923)
- 2016 – Gloria Naylor, American novelist (b. 1950)
- 2017 – Daniel Pe’er, Israeli television host and newsreader (b. 1943)
- 2018 – Predrag Ejdus, Serbian actor (b. 1947)
- 2019 – José José, 71, Mexican singer (El Principe de la Canción or The Prince of Song), pancreas cancer (b. 1948)
Holidays and observances on September 28
- Christian feast day:
- Aaron of Auxerre
- Annemund
- Conval
- Eustochium
- Exuperius
- Faustus of Riez
- John of Dukla
- Leoba
- Lorenzo Ruiz
- Paternus of Auch
- Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton and Margery Kempe (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Simón de Rojas
- Wenceslas
- September 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics).
- Czech Statehood Day (Czech Republic)
- Freedom from Hunger Day
- International Day for Universal Access to Information
- National Day of Awareness and Unity against Child Pornography (Philippines)
- Teachers’ Day (Taiwan and Chinese-Filipino schools in the Philippines), ceremonies dedicated to Confucius are also observed.
- World Rabies Day (International)
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July 31 in History
- 30 BC – Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian’s forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide.
- 781 – The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: 6th day of the 7th month of the 1st year of the Ten’o (天応) era).
- 1009 – Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII.
- 1201 – Attempted usurpation by John Komnenos the Fat for the throne of Alexios III Angelos.
- 1423 – Hundred Years’ War: Battle of Cravant: The French army is defeated by the English at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
- 1451 – Jacques Cœur is arrested by order of Charles VII of France.
- 1492 – The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.
- 1498 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
- 1588 – The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.
- 1618 – Maurice, Prince of Orange disbands the waardgelders militia in Utrecht, a pivotal event in the Remonstrant/Counter-Remonstrant tensions.
- 1655 – Russo-Polish War (1654–67): The Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for six years.
- 1658 – Aurangzeb is proclaimed Mughal emperor of India.
- 1703 – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.
- 1712 – Action of 31 July 1712 (Great Northern War): Danish and Swedish ships clash in the Baltic Sea; the result is inconclusive.
- 1715 – Seven days after a Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships left Havana, Cuba for Spain, 11 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida. A few centuries later, treasure is salvaged from these wrecks.
- 1741 – Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.
- 1763 – Odawa Chief Pontiac’s forces defeat British troops at the Battle of Bloody Run during Pontiac’s War.
- 1777 – The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette “be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States.”
- 1790 – The first U.S. patent is issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.
- 1856 – Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city.
- 1865 – The first narrow-gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia.
- 1874 – Dr. Patrick Francis Healy became the first African-American inaugurated as president of a predominantly white university, Georgetown University.
- 1904 – Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Hsimucheng: Units of the Imperial Japanese Army defeat units of the Imperial Russian Army in a strategic confrontation.
- 1913 – The Balkan States sign an armistice in Bucharest.
- 1917 – World War I: The Battle of Passchendaele begins near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium.
- 1919 – German national assembly adopts the Weimar Constitution, which comes into force on August 14.
- 1932 – The NSDAP (Nazi Party) wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.
- 1938 – Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).
- 1938 – Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great in Persepolis.
- 1941 – The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to “submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question.”
- 1941 – World War II: The Battle of Smolensk concludes with Germany capturing about 300,000 Soviet Red Army prisoners.
- 1945 – Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
- 1948 – At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
- 1948 – USS Nevada is sunk by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs (as part of post-war tests) and being used for target practice by three other ships.
- 1964 – Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
- 1970 – Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
- 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
- 1972 – The Troubles: In Operation Motorman, the British Army re-takes the urban no-go areas of Northern Ireland. It is the biggest British military operation since the Suez Crisis of 1956, and the biggest in Ireland since the Irish War of Independence. Later that day, nine civilians are killed by car bombs in the village of Claudy.
- 1973 – A Delta Air Lines jetliner, flight DL 723 crashes while landing in fog at Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89.
- 1975 – The Troubles: three members of a popular cabaret band and two gunmen are killed during a botched paramilitary attack in Northern Ireland.
- 1987 – A tornado occurs in Edmonton, Canada.
- 1988 – Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.
- 1991 – The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries’ stockpiles.
- 1992 – The nation of Georgia joins the United Nations.
- 1992 – Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board.
- 1999 – Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector: NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the Moon’s surface.
- 2006 – Fidel Castro hands over power to his brother, Raúl.
- 2007 – Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.
- 2012 – Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics.
- 2014 – Gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung kill at least 20 people and injure more than 270.
Births on July 31
- 1143 – Emperor Nijō of Japan (d. 1165)
- 1396 – Philip III, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1467)
- 1526 – Augustus, Elector of Saxony (d. 1586)
- 1527 – Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1576)
- 1595 – Philipp Wolfgang, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (d. 1641)
- 1598 – Alessandro Algardi, Italian sculptor (d. 1654)
- 1686 – Charles of France, Duke of Berry (d. 1714)
- 1702 – Jean Denis Attiret, French missionary and painter (d. 1768)
- 1704 – Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician and physicist (d. 1752)
- 1718 – John Canton, English physicist and academic (d. 1772)
- 1724 – Noël François de Wailly, French lexicographer and author (d. 1801)
- 1759 – Ignaz Anton von Indermauer, Austrian nobleman and government official (d. 1796)
- 1777 – Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Argentinian priest and politician (d. 1849)
- 1796 – Jean-Gaspard Deburau, Czech-French actor and mime (d. 1846)
- 1800 – Friedrich Wöhler, German chemist and academic (d. 1882)
- 1803 – John Ericsson, Swedish-American engineer, co-designed the USS Princeton and the Novelty Locomotive (d. 1889)
- 1816 – George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)
- 1826 – William S. Clark, American colonel and politician (d. 1886)
- 1835 – Henri Brisson, French lawyer and politician, 50th Prime Minister of France (d. 1912)
- 1835 – Paul Du Chaillu, French-American anthropologist and explorer (d. 1903)
- 1836 – Vasily Sleptsov, Russian author and activist (d. 1878)
- 1837 – William Quantrill, American captain (d. 1865)
- 1839 – Ignacio Andrade, Venezuelan general and politician, 25th President of Venezuela (d. 1925)
- 1843 – Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet and author (d. 1918)
- 1847 – Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban pianist and composer (d. 1905)
- 1854 – José Canalejas, Spanish academic and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1912)
- 1858 – Richard Dixon Oldham, English seismologist and geologist (d. 1936)
- 1858 – Marion Talbot, influential American educator (d. 1948)
- 1860 – Mary Vaux Walcott, American painter and illustrator (d. 1940)
- 1867 – S. S. Kresge, American businessman, founded Kmart (d. 1966)
- 1875 – Jacques Villon, French painter (d. 1963)
- 1877 – Louisa Bolus, South African botanist and taxonomist (d. 1970)
- 1880 – Premchand, Indian author and playwright (d. 1936)
- 1883 – Ramón Fonst, Cuban fencer (d. 1959)
- 1884 – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, Polish-German economist and politician (d. 1945)
- 1886 – Salvatore Maranzano, Italian-American mob boss (d. 1931)
- 1886 – Fred Quimby, American animation producer (d. 1965)
- 1887 – Hans Freyer, German sociologist and philosopher (d. 1969)
- 1892 – Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist and publisher, founded Worldwide Church of God (d. 1986)
- 1892 – Joseph Charbonneau, Canadian archbishop (d. 1959)
- 1894 – Fred Keenor, Welsh footballer (d. 1972)
- 1901 – Jean Dubuffet, French painter and sculptor (d. 1985)
- 1902 – Gubby Allen, Australian-English cricketer and soldier (d. 1989)
- 1904 – Brett Halliday, American engineer, surveyor, and author (d. 1977)
- 1909 – Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Austrian theorist and author (d. 1999)
- 1911 – George Liberace, American violinist (d. 1983)
- 1912 – Bill Brown, Australian cricketer (d. 2008)
- 1912 – Milton Friedman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)
- 1912 – Irv Kupcinet, American football player and journalist (d. 2003)
- 1913 – Bryan Hextall, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1984)
- 1914 – Paul J. Christiansen, American conductor and composer (d. 1997)
- 1914 – Louis de Funès, French actor and screenwriter (d. 1983)
- 1916 – Sibte Hassan, Pakistani journalist, scholar, and activist (d. 1986)
- 1916 – Billy Hitchcock, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2006)
- 1916 – Bill Todman, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1979)
- 1918 – Paul D. Boyer, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
- 1918 – Hank Jones, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 2010)
- 1918 – Frank Renouf, New Zealand businessman and financier (d. 1998)
- 1919 – Hemu Adhikari, Indian cricketer (d. 2003)
- 1919 – Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster and actor (d. 2006)
- 1919 – Primo Levi, Italian chemist and author (d. 1987)
- 1920 – James E. Faust, American religious leader, lawyer, and politician (d. 2007)
- 1921 – Peter Benenson, English lawyer and activist, founded Amnesty International (d. 2005)
- 1921 – Donald Malarkey, American sergeant and author (d. 2017)
- 1921 – Whitney Young, American activist (d. 1971)
- 1922 – Hank Bauer, American baseball player and manager (d. 2007)
- 1923 – Ahmet Ertegun, Turkish-American songwriter and producer, founded Atlantic Records (d. 2006)
- 1923 – Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist and engineer, invented Kevlar (d. 2014)
- 1924 – Jimmy Evert, American tennis player and coach (d. 2015)
- 1925 – Carmel Quinn, Irish singer, actress and writer
- 1925 – John Swainson, Canadian-American jurist and politician, 42nd Governor of Michigan (d. 1994)
- 1926 – Bernard Nathanson, American physician and activist (d. 2011)
- 1926 – Hilary Putnam, American mathematician, computer scientist, and philosopher (d. 2016)
- 1927 – Peter Nichols, English author and playwright (d. 2019)
- 1928 – Bill Frenzel, American lieutenant and politician (d. 2014)
- 1929 – Lynne Reid Banks, English author
- 1929 – Gilles Carle, Canadian director and screenwriter (d. 2009)
- 1929 – Don Murray, American actor
- 1929 – José Santamaría, Uruguayan footballer and manager
- 1931 – Nick Bollettieri, American tennis player and coach
- 1931 – Kenny Burrell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1932 – Ted Cassidy, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1979)
- 1932 – John Searle, American philosopher and academic
- 1933 – Cees Nooteboom, Dutch journalist, author, and poet
- 1935 – Yvon Deschamps, Canadian comedian, actor, and producer
- 1935 – Geoffrey Lewis, American actor and screenwriter (d. 2015)
- 1939 – Steuart Bedford, English pianist and conductor
- 1939 – Susan Flannery, American actress
- 1939 – France Nuyen, Vietnamese-French actress
- 1941 – Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician, 8th Chief Minister of Gujarat (d. 2004)
- 1943 – William Bennett, American journalist and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Education
- 1943 – Lobo, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1944 – Geraldine Chaplin, American actress and screenwriter
- 1944 – Jonathan Dimbleby, English journalist and author
- 1944 – Sherry Lansing, American film producer
- 1944 – Robert C. Merton, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1944 – David Norris, Irish scholar and politician
- 1945 – William Weld, American lawyer and politician, 68th Governor of Massachusetts
- 1946 – Gary Lewis, American pop-rock musician
- 1947 – Karl Green, English bass player and songwriter (Herman’s Hermits)
- 1947 – Richard Griffiths, English actor (d. 2013)
- 1947 – Mumtaz, Indian actress
- 1947 – Hubert Védrine, French politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1947 – Ian Beck, English children’s illustrator and author
- 1948 – Russell Morris, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1949 – Mike Jackson, American basketball player
- 1949 – Alan Meale, English journalist and politician
- 1950 – Richard Berry, French actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1951 – Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Australian tennis player
- 1952 – Chris Ahrens, American ice hockey player
- 1952 – Alan Autry, American football player, actor, and politician, 23rd Mayor of Fresno, California
- 1952 – Helmuts Balderis, Latvian ice hockey player and coach
- 1952 – João Barreiros, Portuguese author and critic
- 1952 – Faye Kellerman, American author
- 1953 – Ted Baillieu, Australian architect and politician, 46th Premier of Victoria
- 1953 – Jimmy Cook, South African cricketer and coach
- 1953 – Hugh McDowell, English cellist
- 1954 – Derek Smith, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1956 – Michael Biehn, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1956 – Bill Callahan, American football player and coach
- 1956 – Ron Kuby, American lawyer and radio host
- 1956 – Deval Patrick, American lawyer and politician, 71st Governor of Massachusetts
- 1956 – Lynne Rae Perkins, American author and illustrator
- 1957 – Daniel Ash, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1957 – Mark Thompson, English business executive
- 1958 – Bill Berry, American drummer and songwriter
- 1958 – Mark Cuban, American businessman and television personality
- 1958 – Suzanne Giraud, French music editor and composer
- 1959 – Stanley Jordan, American guitarist, pianist, and songwriter
- 1959 – Andrew Marr, Scottish journalist and author
- 1959 – Kim Newman, English journalist and author
- 1960 – Dale Hunter, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1960 – Malcolm Ross, Scottish guitarist and songwriter
- 1961 – Frank Gardner, English captain and journalist
- 1961 – Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Nigerian banker, royal
- 1962 – John Chiang, American lawyer and politician, 31st California State Controller
- 1962 – Kevin Greene, American football player and coach
- 1962 – Wesley Snipes, American actor and producer
- 1963 – Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), English DJ and musician
- 1963 – Fergus Henderson, English chef and author
- 1963 – Brian Skrudland, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1964 – Jim Corr, Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1964 – Urmas Hepner, Estonian footballer and coach
- 1965 – Scott Brooks, American basketball player and coach
- 1965 – John Laurinaitis, American wrestler and producer
- 1965 – Ian Roberts, English-Australian rugby league player and actor
- 1965 – J. K. Rowling, English author and film producer
- 1966 – Dean Cain, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1967 – Tony Massenburg, American basketball player
- 1967 – Tim Wright, Welsh composer
- 1968 – Saeed-Al-Saffar, Emirati cricketer
- 1968 – Julian Richards, Welsh director and producer
- 1969 – Antonio Conte, Italian footballer and manager
- 1969 – Loren Dean, American actor
- 1969 – Kenneth D. Schisler, American lawyer and politician
- 1970 – Ahmad Akbarpour, Iranian author and poet
- 1970 – Ben Chaplin, English actor
- 1970 – Andrzej Kobylański, Polish footballer and manager
- 1970 – Giorgos Sigalas, Greek basketball player, coach, and sportscaster
- 1971 – Gus Frerotte, American football player and coach
- 1973 – Nathan Brown, Australian rugby league player and coach
- 1974 – Emilia Fox, English actress
- 1974 – Leona Naess, American-English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1974 – Jonathan Ogden, American football player
- 1975 – Randy Flores, American baseball player and coach
- 1975 – Andrew Hall, South African cricketer
- 1975 – Gabe Kapler, American baseball player and manager
- 1976 – Joshua Cain, American guitarist and producer
- 1976 – Paulo Wanchope, Costa Rican footballer and manager
- 1978 – Zac Brown, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1978 – Nick Sorensen, American football player and sportscaster
- 1978 – Justin Wilson, English race car driver (d. 2015)
- 1979 – Jaco Erasmus, South African-Italian rugby player
- 1979 – J.J. Furmaniak, American baseball player
- 1979 – Per Krøldrup, Danish footballer
- 1979 – Carlos Marchena, Spanish footballer
- 1979 – B.J. Novak, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1980 – Mikko Hirvonen, Finnish race car driver
- 1980 – Mils Muliaina, New Zealand rugby player
- 1981 – Titus Bramble, English footballer
- 1981 – Vernon Carey, American football player
- 1981 – Paul Whatuira, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1981 – M. Shadows, American musician, lead singer of Avenged Sevenfold
- 1982 – Anabel Medina Garrigues, Spanish tennis player
- 1982 – DeMarcus Ware, American football player
- 1985 – Daniel Ciofani, Italian footballer
- 1985 – Rémy Di Gregorio, French cyclist
- 1986 – Evgeni Malkin, Russian ice hockey player
- 1986 – Brian Orakpo, American football player
- 1987 – Michael Bradley, American soccer player
- 1988 – Alex Glenn, New Zealand rugby league player
- 1989 – Victoria Azarenka, Belorussian tennis player
- 1991 – Réka Luca Jani, Hungarian tennis player
- 1992 – José Fernández, Cuban baseball player (d. 2016)
- 1992 – Ryan Johansen, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1992 – Kyle Larson, American race car driver
- 1994 – Lil Uzi Vert, American hip hop artist
Deaths on July 31
- 54 BC – Aurelia Cotta, Roman mother of Gaius Julius Caesar (b. 120 BC)
- 450 – Peter Chrysologus, Italian bishop and saint (b. 380)
- 910 – Feng Xingxi, Chinese warlord
- 975 – Fu Yanqing, Chinese general (b. 898)
- 1098 – Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury
- 1358 – Étienne Marcel, French rebel leader (b. 1302)
- 1396 – William Courtenay, English archbishop and politician, Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom (b. 1342)
- 1508 – Na’od, Ethiopian emperor
- 1556 – Ignatius of Loyola, Spanish priest and theologian, founded the Society of Jesus (b. 1491)
- 1616 – Roger Wilbraham, Solicitor-General for Ireland (b. 1553)
- 1638 – Sibylla Schwarz, German poet (b. 1621)
- 1653 – Thomas Dudley, English soldier and politician, 3rd Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1576)
- 1693 – Willem Kalf, Dutch still life painter (b. 1619)
- 1726 – Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician and theorist (b. 1695)
- 1750 – John V, king of Portugal (b. 1689)
- 1762 – Luis Vicente de Velasco e Isla, Spanish sailor and commander (b. 1711)
- 1781 – John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley, British parliamentarian (b. 1719)
- 1784 – Denis Diderot, French philosopher and critic (b. 1713)
- 1805 – Dheeran Chinnamalai, Indian soldier (b. 1756)
- 1864 – Louis Christophe François Hachette, French publisher (b. 1800)
- 1875 – Andrew Johnson, American general and politician, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)
- 1884 – Kiến Phúc, Vietnamese emperor (b. 1869)
- 1886 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1811)
- 1891 – Jean-Baptiste Capronnier, Belgian stained glass painter (b. 1814)
- 1913 – John Milne, British geologist and mining engineer. (b. 1850)
- 1914 – Jean Jaurès, French journalist and politician (b. 1859)
- 1917 – Hedd Wyn, Welsh language poet (b. 1887)
- 1917 – Francis Ledwidge, Irish soldier and poet (b. 1881)
- 1920 – Ion Dragoumis, Greek philosopher and diplomat (b. 1878)
- 1940 – Udham Singh, Indian activist (b. 1899)
- 1943 – Hedley Verity, English cricketer and soldier (b. 1905)
- 1942 – Francis Younghusband, British Army Officer, explorer and spiritual writer (b.1863)
- 1944 – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French pilot and poet (b. 1900)
- 1953 – Robert A. Taft, American soldier and politician (b. 1889)
- 1954 – Onofre Marimón, Argentinian race car driver (b. 1923)
- 1958 – Eino Kaila, Finnish philosopher and psychologist, attendant of the Vienna circle (b. 1890)
- 1964 – Jim Reeves, American singer-songwriter (b. 1923)
- 1966 – Bud Powell, American pianist (b. 1924)
- 1968 – Jack Pizzey, Australian politician, 29th Premier of Queensland (b. 1911)
- 1971 – Walter P. Carter, American soldier and activist (b. 1923)
- 1972 – Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian lawyer and politician, 40th Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1899)
- 1973 – Azumafuji Kin’ichi, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 40th Yokozuna (b. 1921)
- 1979 – Beatrix Lehmann, English actress and director (b. 1903)
- 1980 – Pascual Jordan, German physicist, author, and academic (b. 1902)
- 1980 – Mohammed Rafi, Indian playback singer (b. 1924)
- 1981 – Omar Torrijos, Panamanian general and politician, Military Leader of Panama (b. 1929)
- 1985 – Eugene Carson Blake, American religious leader (b. 1906)
- 1986 – Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat (b. 1900)
- 1987 – Joseph E. Levine, American film producer (b, 1905)
- 1990 – Albert Leduc, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1902)
- 1992 – Leonard Cheshire, English captain and pilot (b. 1917)
- 1992 – Md. Abdul Wajed Chowdhury, Bangladeshi politician.
- 1993 – Baudouin, King of Belgium (b. 1930)
- 2000 – William Keepers Maxwell Jr., American editor, novelist, short story writer, and essayist (b. 1908)
- 2001 – Francisco da Costa Gomes, Portuguese general and politician, 15th President of Portugal (b. 1914)
- 2001 – Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (b. 1910)
- 2003 – Guido Crepax, Italian author and illustrator (b. 1933)
- 2004 – Virginia Grey, American actress (b. 1917)
- 2005 – Wim Duisenberg, Dutch economist and politician, 1st President of the European Central Bank (b. 1935)
- 2009 – Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (b. 1933)
- 2009 – Harry Alan Towers, English-Canadian screenwriter and producer (b. 1920)
- 2012 – Mollie Hunter, Scottish author and playwright (b. 1922)
- 2012 – Alfredo Ramos, Brazilian footballer and coach (b. 1924)
- 2012 – Gore Vidal, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1925)
- 2012 – Tony Sly, American musician, singer-songwriter (b. 1970)
- 2013 – Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Michel Donnet, English-Belgian general and pilot (b. 1917)
- 2013 – John Graves, American captain and author (b. 1920)
- 2013 – Trevor Storer, English businessman, founded Pukka Pies (b. 1930)
- 2014 – Warren Bennis, American scholar, author, and academic (b. 1925)
- 2014 – Nabarun Bhattacharya, Indian journalist and author (b. 1948)
- 2014 – Jeff Bourne, English footballer (b. 1948)
- 2014 – Wilfred Feinberg, American lawyer and judge (b. 1920)
- 2015 – Alan Cheuse, American writer and critic (b. 1940)
- 2015 – Howard W. Jones, American surgeon and academic (b. 1910)
- 2015 – Billy Pierce, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1927)
- 2015 – Roddy Piper, Canadian wrestler and actor (b. 1954)
- 2015 – Richard Schweiker, American soldier and politician, 14th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (b. 1926)
- 2016 – Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 58th Yokozuna (b. 1955)
- 2016 – Seymour Papert, South African mathematician (b. 1928)
- 2017 – Jeanne Moreau, French actress (b. 1928)
- 2018 – Tony Bullimore, British sailor & businessman (b. 1939)
- 2019 – Harold Prince, noted Broadway producer and director, who received more Tony awards than anyone else in history (b. 1928)
Holidays and observances on July 31
- Christian feast day:
- Abanoub
- Germanus of Auxerre
- Ignatius of Loyola
- Neot
- July 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Earliest day on which the Feast of Kamál (Perfection) can fall, while August 1 is the latest; observed on the first day of the eighth month of the Bahá’í calendar. (Bahá’í Faith)
- End of the Trinity term (sitting of the High Court of Justice of England)
- Ka Hae Hawaiʻi Day (Hawaii, United States), and its related observance:
- Sovereignty Restoration Day (Hawaiian sovereignty movement)
- Martyrdom Day of Shahid Udham Singh (Haryana and Punjab, India)
- Treasury Day (Poland)
- Warriors’ Day (Malaysia)
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July 19 in history
- 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.
- 1929 – Gaston Glock, Austrian engineer and businessman, co-founded Glock Ges.m.b.H.
- 1929 – Orville Turnquest, Bahamian politician
- 1932 – Buster Benton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1996)
- 1932 – Jan Lindblad, Swedish biologist and photographer (d. 1987)
- 1934 – Francisco de Sá Carneiro, Portuguese lawyer and politician, 111th Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1980)
- 1935 – Nick Koback, American baseball player and golfer (d. 2015)
- 1936 – David Colquhoun, English pharmacologist and academic
- 1937 – George Hamilton IV, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2014)
- 1938 – Richard Jordan, American actor (d. 1993)
- 1938 – Jayant Narlikar, Indian astrophysicist and astronomer
- 1938 – Tom Raworth, English poet and academic (d. 2017)
- 1941 – Vikki Carr, American singer and actress
- 1941 – Neelie Kroes, Dutch politician and diplomat, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society
- 1943 – Han Sai Por, Singaporean sculptor and academic
- 1944 – Tim McIntire, American actor and singer (d. 1986)
- 1944 – Andres Vooremaa, Estonian chess player
- 1945 – Paule Baillargeon, Canadian actress, director, and screenwriter
- 1946 – Alan Gorrie, Scottish singer-songwriter and musician (Average White Band)
- 1946 – Ilie Năstase, Romanian tennis player and politician
- 1947 – André Forcier, Canadian director and screenwriter
- 1947 – Hans-Jürgen Kreische, German footballer and manager
- 1947 – Bernie Leadon, American guitarist and songwriter
- 1947 – Brian May, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and astrophysicist
- 1948 – Keith Godchaux, American keyboard player and songwriter (d. 1980)
- 1949 – Kgalema Motlanthe, South African politician, 3rd President of South Africa
- 1950 – Per-Kristian Foss, Norwegian politician, Norwegian Minister of Finance
- 1950 – Freddy Moore, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1950 – Adrian Noble, English director and screenwriter
- 1951 – Abel Ferrara, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1952 – Allen Collins, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 1990)
- 1952 – Jayne Anne Phillips American novelist and short story writer
- 1954 – Mark O’Donnell, American playwright (d. 2012)
- 1954 – Steve O’Donnell, American screenwriter and producer
- 1954 – Srđa Trifković, Serbian-American journalist and historian
- 1955 – Roger Binny, Indian cricketer and sportscaster
- 1955 – Dalton McGuinty, Canadian lawyer and politician, 24th Premier of Ontario
- 1956 – Mark Crispin, American computer scientist, designed the IMAP (d. 2012)
- 1958 – Brad Drewett, Australian tennis player and sportscaster (d. 2013)
- 1958 – Robert Gibson, American wrestler
- 1958 – David Robertson, American conductor
- 1959 – Juan J. Campanella, Argentinian director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1960 – Atom Egoyan, Egyptian-Canadian director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1960 – Kevin Haskins, English drummer and songwriter
- 1961 – Harsha Bhogle, Indian journalist and author
- 1961 – Maria Filatova, Russian gymnast
- 1961 – Lisa Lampanelli, American comedian, actress, and author
- 1961 – Benoît Mariage, Belgian director and screenwriter
- 1961 – Hideo Nakata, Japanese director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1961 – Campbell Scott, American actor, director, and producer
- 1962 – Anthony Edwards, American actor and director
- 1963 – Thomas Gabriel Fischer, Swiss musician
- 1963 – Garth Nix, Australian author
- 1964 – Teresa Edwards, American basketball player
- 1964 – Masahiko Kondō, Japanese singer-songwriter and race car driver
- 1965 – Evelyn Glennie, Scottish musician
- 1965 – Claus-Dieter Wollitz, German footballer and manager
- 1967 – Yael Abecassis, Israeli model and actress
- 1967 – Jean-François Mercier, Canadian comedian, screenwriter, and television host
- 1968 – Robb Flynn, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1968 – Pavel Kuka, Czech footballer and manager
- 1968 – Jim Norton, American comedian, actor, and author
- 1969 – Matthew Libatique, American cinematographer
- 1970 – Bill Chen, American poker player and software designer
- 1970 – Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish lawyer and politician, First Minister of Scotland
- 1971 – Rene Busch, Estonian tennis player and coach
- 1971 – Vitali Klitschko, Ukrainian boxer and politician, Mayor of Kiev
- 1971 – Michael Modest, American wrestler
- 1971 – Catriona Rowntree, Australian television host
- 1971 – Lesroy Weekes, Montserratian cricketer
- 1972 – Ebbe Sand, Danish footballer and manager
- 1973 – Martin Powell, English keyboard player and songwriter
- 1973 – Scott Walker, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
- 1974 – Rey Bucanero, Mexican wrestler
- 1974 – Francisco Copado, German footballer and manager
- 1974 – Josée Piché, Canadian ice dancer
- 1974 – Vince Spadea, American tennis player
- 1974 – Preston Wilson, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1975 – Luca Castellazzi, Italian footballer
- 1976 – Benedict Cumberbatch, English actor
- 1976 – Gonzalo de los Santos, Uruguayan footballer and manager
- 1977 – Jean-Sébastien Aubin, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1977 – Tony Mamaluke, American wrestler and manager
- 1977 – Ed Smith, English cricketer and journalist
- 1979 – Rick Ankiel, American baseball player
- 1979 – Josué Anunciado de Oliveira, Brazilian footballer
- 1979 – Dilhara Fernando, Sri Lankan cricketer
- 1979 – Luke Young, English footballer
- 1980 – Xavier Malisse, Belgian tennis player
- 1980 – Giorgio Mondini, Italian race car driver
- 1981 – Nenê, Brazilian footballer
- 1981 – David Bernard, Jamaican cricketer
- 1981 – Mark Gasnier, Australian rugby player and sportscaster
- 1981 – Jimmy Gobble, American baseball player
- 1981 – Grégory Vignal, French footballer
- 1982 – Christopher Bear, American drummer
- 1982 – Phil Coke, American baseball player
- 1982 – Jared Padalecki, American actor
- 1982 – Jess Vanstrattan, Australian footballer
- 1983 – Helen Skelton, English television host and actress
- 1983 – Fedor Tyutin, Russian ice hockey player
- 1984 – Andrea Libman, Canadian voice actress
- 1984 – Adam Morrison, American basketball player
- 1984 – Ryan O’Byrne, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1984 – Lewis Price, Welsh footballer
- 1985 – LaMarcus Aldridge, American basketball player
- 1985 – Zhou Haibin, Chinese footballer
- 1985 – Marina Kuzina, Russian basketball player
- 1985 – Hadi Norouzi, Iranian footballer (d. 2015)
- 1986 – Leandro Greco, Italian footballer
- 1987 – Jon Jones, American mixed martial artist
- 1987 – Marc Murphy, Australian footballer
- 1988 – Shane Dawson, American comedian and actor
- 1988 – Kevin Großkreutz, German footballer
- 1988 – Jakub Kovář, Czech ice hockey player
- 1989 – Sam McKendry, Australian-New Zealand rugby league player
- 1991 – Eray İşcan, Turkish footballer
- 1992 – Jake Nicholson, English footballer
- 1994 – Christian Welch, Australian rugby league player
- 1998 – Erin Cuthbert, footballer
- 1998 – Ronaldo Vieira, Bissau-Guinean footballer
Deaths on July 19
- 514 – Symmachus, pope of the Catholic Church
- 806 – Li Shigu, Chinese general (b. 778)
- 973 – Kyunyeo, Korean monk and poet (b. 917)
- 998 – Damian Dalassenos, Byzantine general (b. 940)
- 1030 – Adalberon, French bishop
- 1234 – Floris IV, Dutch nobleman (b. 1210)
- 1249 – Jacopo Tiepolo, doge of Venice
- 1333 – John Campbell, Scottish nobleman
- 1333 – Alexander Bruce, Scottish nobleman
- 1333 – Sir Archibald Douglas, Scottish nobleman
- 1333 – Maol Choluim II, Scottish nobleman
- 1333 – Kenneth de Moravia, 4th Earl of Sutherland
- 1374 – Petrarch, Italian poet and scholar (b. 1304)
- 1415 – Philippa of Lancaster, Portuguese queen (b. 1360)
- 1543 – Mary Boleyn, English daughter of Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire (b. 1499)
- 1631 – Cesare Cremonini, Italian philosopher and academic (b. 1550)
- 1742 – William Somervile, English poet and author (b. 1675)
- 1810 – Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Prussian queen (b. 1776)
- 1814 – Matthew Flinders, English navigator and cartographer (b. 1774)
- 1824 – Agustín de Iturbide, Mexican general and emperor (b. 1783)
- 1838 – Pierre Louis Dulong, French physicist and chemist (b. 1785)
- 1850 – Margaret Fuller, American journalist and critic (b. 1810)
- 1855 – Konstantin Batyushkov, Russian poet and translator (b. 1787)
- 1857 – Stefano Franscini, Swiss statistician and politician (b. 1796)
- 1878 – Yegor Ivanovich Zolotarev, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1847)
- 1896 – Abraham H. Cannon, American publisher and religious leader (b. 1859)
- 1913 – Clímaco Calderón, Colombian lawyer and politician, 15th President of Colombia (b. 1852)
- 1925 – John Indermaur, British lawyer (b. 1851)
- 1930 – Robert Stout, Scottish-New Zealand politician, 13th Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1844)
- 1933 – Kaarle Krohn, Finnish historian and academic (b. 1863)
- 1939 – Rose Hartwick Thorpe, American poet and author (b. 1850)
- 1943 – Yekaterina Budanova, Russian captain and pilot (b. 1916)
- 1947 – U Razak, Burmese educator and politician (b. 1898)
- 1947 – Aung San, Burmese general and politician (b. 1915)
- 1947 – Lyuh Woon-hyung, South Korean politician (b. 1886)
- 1963 – William Andrew, English priest (b. 1884)
- 1965 – Syngman Rhee, South Korean journalist and politician, 1st President of South Korea (b. 1875)
- 1967 – Odell Shepard, American poet and politician, 66th Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut (b. 1884)
- 1969 – Stratis Myrivilis, Greek soldier and author (b. 1890)
- 1974 – Ernő Schwarz, Hungarian-American soccer player and coach (b. 1904)
- 1975 – Lefty Frizzell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1928)
- 1977 – Karl Ristikivi, Estonian geographer, author, and poet (b. 1912)
- 1980 – Margaret Craven, American journalist and author (b. 1901)
- 1980 – Nihat Erim, Turkish jurist and politician, 13th Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1912)
- 1980 – Hans Morgenthau, German-American political scientist, philosopher, and academic (b. 1904)
- 1981 – Roger Doucet, Canadian tenor (b. 1919)
- 1982 – Hugh Everett III, American physicist and mathematician (b. 1930)
- 1984 – Faina Ranevskaya, Russian actress (b. 1896)
- 1984 – Aziz Sami, Iraqi writer and translator (b. 1895)
- 1985 – Janusz Zajdel, Polish author (b. 1938)
- 1989 – Kazimierz Sabbat, Polish businessman and politician, President of the Republic of Poland (b. 1913)
- 1990 – Eddie Quillan, American actor (b. 1907)
- 1992 – Paolo Borsellino, Italian lawyer and judge (b. 1940)
- 1994 – Victor Barbeau, Canadian author and academic (b. 1896)
- 1998 – Elmer Valo, Polish-American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1921)
- 2002 – Dave Carter, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1952)
- 2002 – Alan Lomax, American historian, scholar, and activist (b. 1915)
- 2003 – Bill Bright, American evangelist and author, founded the Campus Crusade for Christ (b. 1921)
- 2003 – Pierre Graber, Swiss politician, President of the Swiss National Council (b. 1908)
- 2004 – Sylvia Daoust, Canadian sculptor (b. 1902)
- 2004 – J. Gordon Edwards, American entomologist, mountaineer, and DDT advocate (b. 1919)
- 2004 – Francis A. Marzen, American priest, and journalist (b. 1924)
- 2004 – Zenkō Suzuki, Japanese politician, 70th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1911)
- 2005 – Edward Bunker, American author and screenwriter (b. 1933)
- 2006 – Jack Warden, American actor (b. 1920)
- 2007 – A. K. Faezul Huq, Bangladeshi journalist, lawyer, and politician (b. 1945)
- 2007 – Roberto Fontanarrosa, Argentinian cartoonist (b. 1944)
- 2008 – Dercy Gonçalves, Brazilian comedian and actress (b. 1907)
- 2009 – Frank McCourt, American author and educator (b. 1930)
- 2009 – Henry Surtees, English race car driver (b. 1991)
- 2010 – Cécile Aubry, French actress, author, television screenwriter and director (b. 1928)
- 2010 – Jon Cleary, Australian author and playwright (b. 1917)
- 2012 – Humayun Ahmed, Bangladeshi director and playwright (b. 1948)
- 2012 – Tom Davis, American comedian, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1952)
- 2012 – Mohammad Hassan Ganji, Iranian meteorologist and academic (b. 1912)
- 2012 – Omar Suleiman, Egyptian general, and politician, 16th Vice President of Egypt (b. 1935)
- 2012 – Sylvia Woods, American businesswoman, co-founded Sylvia’s Restaurant of Harlem (b. 1926)
- 2012 – Valiulla Yakupov, Islamic cleric (b. 1963)
- 2013 – Mikhail Gorsheniov, Russian singer-songwriter (b. 1973)
- 2013 – Geeto Mongol, Canadian-American wrestler and trainer (b. 1931)
- 2013 – Mel Smith, English actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1952)
- 2013 – Bert Trautmann, German footballer and manager (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Phil Woosnam, Welsh-American soccer player and manager (b. 1932)
- 2013 – Peter Ziegler, Swiss geologist and academic (b. 1928)
- 2013 – Leyla Erbil, Turkish author (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Rubem Alves, Brazilian theologian (b. 1933)
- 2014 – David Easton, Canadian-American political scientist and academic (b. 1917)
- 2014 – Paul M. Fleiss, American pediatrician and author (b. 1933)
- 2014 – James Garner, American actor (b. 1928)
- 2014 – Jerzy Jurka, Polish biologist (b. 1950)
- 2014 – Ray King, English footballer and manager (b. 1924)
- 2014 – Ingemar Odlander, Swedish journalist (b. 1936)
- 2014 – Harry Pougher, English cricketer (b. 1941)
- 2014 – Leen Vleggeert, Dutch politician (b. 1931)
- 2014 – John Winkin, American baseball player, coach, and journalist (b. 1919)
- 2015 – Van Alexander, American composer and conductor (b. 1915)
- 2015 – Galina Prozumenshchikova, Ukrainian-Russian swimmer and journalist (b. 1948)
- 2015 – Carmino Ravosa, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (b. 1930)
- 2015 – Gennadiy Seleznyov, Russian journalist and politician, 2nd Speaker of the Duma (b. 1947)
- 2016 – Garry Marshall, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1934)
- 2018 – Jon Schnepp, American producer, director, voice actor, editor, writer, cartoonist, animator, and cinematographer (b. 1967)
- 2018 – Denis Ten, Kazakhstani figure skater (b. 1993)
- 2019 – Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor, director, and producer (b. 1944)
Holidays and observances on July 19
- Christian feast day:
- Arsenius (Catholic Church)
- Bernold, Bishop of Utrecht
- Justa and Rufina
- Kirdjun (or Abakerazum)
- Macrina the Younger, Sister of St. Basil the Great
- Symmachus
- July 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Martyrs’ Day (Myanmar)
- Sandinista Day or Liberation Day (Nicaragua)
-
July 18 in history
- 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
- 1983 – Mikk Pahapill, Estonian decathlete
- 1983 – Jan Schlaudraff, German footballer
- 1985 – Chace Crawford, American actor
- 1985 – Panagiotis Lagos, Greek footballer
- 1985 – James Norton, English actor
- 1986 – Natalia Mikhailova, Russian ice dancer
- 1987 – Tontowi Ahmad, Indonesian badminton player
- 1988 – Änis Ben-Hatira, German-Tunisian footballer
- 1988 – César Villaluz, Mexican footballer
- 1989 – Jamie Benn, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1989 – Sebastian Mielitz, German footballer
- 1989 – Yohan Mollo, French footballer
- 1993 – Lee Tae-min, South Korean singer and actor
- 1993 – Michael Lichaa, Australian rugby league player
- 1994 – Nilo Soares, East Timorese footballer
- 1997 – Noah Lyles, American sprinter
- 2001 – Agustina Roth, Argentine BMX rider
Deaths on July 18
- 707 – Emperor Monmu of Japan (b. 683)
- 715 – Muhammad bin Qasim, Umayyad general (b. 695)
- 912 – Zhu Wen, Chinese emperor (b. 852)
- 924 – Abu’l-Hasan Ali ibn al-Furat, Abbasid vizier (b. 855)
- 928 – Stephen II, patriarch of Constantinople
- 984 – Dietrich I, bishop of Metz
- 1100 – Godfrey of Bouillon, Frankish knight (b. 1016)
- 1185 – Stefan, first Archbishop of Uppsala (b. before 1143)
- 1194 – Guy of Lusignan, king consort of Jerusalem (b. c. 1150)
- 1232 – John de Braose, Marcher Lord of Bramber and Gower
- 1270 – Boniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury
- 1300 – Gerard Segarelli, Italian religious leader, founded the Apostolic Brethren (b. 1240)
- 1450 – Francis I, Duke of Brittany (b. 1414)
- 1488 – Alvise Cadamosto, Italian explorer (b. 1432)
- 1566 – Bartolomé de las Casas, Spanish bishop and historian (b. 1484)
- 1591 – Jacobus Gallus, Slovenian composer (b. 1550)
- 1608 – Joachim Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1546)
- 1610 – Caravaggio, Italian painter (b. 1571)
- 1639 – Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, German general (b. 1604)
- 1650 – Robert Levinz, English Royalist, hanged in London by Parliamentary forces as a spy (b. 1615)
- 1695 – Johannes Camphuys, Dutch politician, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (b. 1634)
- 1698 – Johann Heinrich Heidegger, Swiss theologian and author (b. 1633)
- 1721 – Jean-Antoine Watteau, French painter (b. 1684)
- 1730 – François de Neufville, duc de Villeroy, French general (b. 1644)
- 1756 – Pieter Langendijk, Dutch poet and playwright (b. 1683)
- 1792 – John Paul Jones, Scottish-American admiral and diplomat (b. 1747)
- 1817 – Jane Austen, English novelist (b. 1775)
- 1837 – Vincenzo Borg, Maltese merchant and rebel leader (b. 1777)
- 1863 – Robert Gould Shaw, American colonel (b. 1837)
- 1872 – Benito Juárez, Mexican lawyer and politician, 26th President of Mexico (b. 1806)
- 1884 – Ferdinand von Hochstetter, Austrian geologist and academic (b. 1829)
- 1887 – Dorothea Dix, American social reformer and activist (b. 1802)
- 1890 – Lydia Becker, English journalist, author, and activist, co-founded the Women’s Suffrage Journal (b. 1827)
- 1892 – Thomas Cook, English travel agent, founded the Thomas Cook Group (b. 1808)
- 1899 – Horatio Alger, American novelist and journalist (b. 1832)
- 1916 – Benjamin C. Truman, American journalist and author (b. 1835)
- 1925 – Louis-Nazaire Bégin, Canadian cardinal (b. 1840)
- 1932 – Jean Jules Jusserand, French author and diplomat, French Ambassador to the United States (b. 1855)
- 1937 – Julian Bell, English poet and academic (b. 1908)
- 1938 – Marie of Romania (b. 1875)
- 1944 – Thomas Sturge Moore, English author, poet, and playwright (b. 1870)
- 1947 – Evald Tipner, Estonian footballer and ice hockey player (b. 1906)
- 1948 – Herman Gummerus, Finnish historian, academic, and politician (b. 1877)
- 1949 – Vítězslav Novák, Czech composer and educator (b. 1870)
- 1949 – Francisco Javier Arana, Guatemalan Army colonel and briefly Guatemalan head of state (b.1905)
- 1950 – Carl Clinton Van Doren, American critic and biographer (b. 1885)
- 1952 – Paul Saintenoy, Belgian architect and historian (b. 1862)
- 1954 – Machine Gun Kelly, American gangster (b. 1895)
- 1966 – Bobby Fuller, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1942)
- 1968 – Corneille Heymans, Belgian physiologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
- 1969 – Mary Jo Kopechne, American educator and secretary (b. 1940)
- 1973 – Jack Hawkins, English actor (b. 1910)
- 1975 – Vaughn Bodē, American illustrator (b. 1941)
- 1981 – Sonja Branting-Westerståhl, Swedish lawyer (b. 1890)
- 1982 – Roman Jakobson, Russian–American linguist and theorist (b. 1896)
- 1984 – Lally Bowers, English actress (b. 1914)
- 1984 – Grigori Kromanov, Estonian director and screenwriter (b. 1926)
- 1987 – Gilberto Freyre, Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian, writer, painter, journalist and congressman (b. 1907)
- 1988 – Nico, German singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and actress (b. 1938)
- 1988 – Joly Braga Santos, Portuguese composer and conductor (b. 1924)
- 1989 – Donnie Moore, American baseball player (b. 1954)
- 1989 – Rebecca Schaeffer, American model and actress (b.1967)
- 1990 – Karl Menninger, American psychiatrist and author (b. 1896)
- 1990 – Yun Posun, South Korean politician, 2nd President of South Korea (b. 1897)
- 2001 – Mimi Fariña, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1945)
- 2002 – Metin Toker, Turkish journalist and author (b. 1924)
- 2004 – André Castelot, Belgian-French historian and author (b. 1911)
- 2004 – Émile Peynaud, French wine maker (b. 1912)
- 2005 – Amy Gillett, Australian cyclist and rower (b. 1976)
- 2005 – William Westmoreland, American general (b. 1914)
- 2006 – Henry Hewes, American theater writer (b. 1917)
- 2007 – Jerry Hadley, American tenor (b. 1952)
- 2007 – Kenji Miyamoto, Japanese politician (b. 1908)
- 2009 – Henry Allingham, English soldier (b. 1896)
- 2009 – Jill Balcon, English actress (b. 1925)
- 2012 – Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, Lithuanian-Israeli rabbi and author (b. 1910)
- 2012 – Jean François-Poncet, French politician and diplomat, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Dawoud Rajiha, Syrian general and politician, Syrian Minister of Defense (b. 1947)
- 2012 – Assef Shawkat, Syrian general and politician (b. 1950)
- 2012 – Hasan Turkmani, Syrian general and politician, Syrian Minister of Defense (b. 1935)
- 2012 – Rajesh Khanna, Indian actor (b. 1942)
- 2013 – Vaali, Indian poet, songwriter, and actor (b. 1931)
- 2013 – Olivier Ameisen, French-American cardiologist and academic (b. 1953)
- 2014 – Andreas Biermann, German footballer (b. 1980)
- 2014 – João Ubaldo Ribeiro, Brazilian journalist, author, and academic (b. 1941)
- 2014 – Dietmar Schönherr, Austrian-Spanish actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1926)
- 2015 – Alex Rocco, American actor (b. 1936)
- 2018 – Jonathan Gold, American food critic (b. 1960)
- 2018 – Adrian Cronauer, American Radio personality (b. 1938)
Holidays and observances on July 18
- Christian feast day:
- Arnulf of Metz
- Bartolomé de las Casas (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Bruno of Segni
- Camillus de Lellis (optional memorial, United States only)
- Eadburh (or Edburga) of Bicester
- Elizabeth Ferard (Church of England)
- Frederick of Utrecht
- Goneri of Brittany
- Gundenis
- Marina of Aguas Santas
- Maternus of Milan
- Minnborinus of Cologne
- Pambo
- Philastrius (or Filaster)
- Symphorosa
- Teneu (or Theneva)
- Theodosia of Constantinople
- July 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Constitution Day (Uruguay)
- Nelson Mandela International Day
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June 26 in History
- 4 AD – Augustus adopts Tiberius.
- 221 – Roman emperor Elagabalus adopts his cousin Alexander Severus as his heir and receives the title of Caesar.
- 363 – Roman emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sasanian Empire.
- 684 – Pope Benedict II is chosen.
- 699 – En no Ozuno, a Japanese mystic and apothecary who will later be regarded as the founder of a folk religion Shugendō, is banished to Izu Ōshima.
- 1243 – Mongols defeat the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Köse Dağ.
- 1295 – Przemysł II crowned king of Poland, following Ducal period. The white eagle is added to the Polish coat of arms.
- 1407 – Ulrich von Jungingen becomes Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.
- 1409 – Western Schism: The Roman Catholic Church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.
- 1460 – Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and Edward, Earl of March, land in England with a rebel army and march on London.
- 1483 – Richard III becomes King of England.
- 1522 – Ottomans begin the second Siege of Rhodes.
- 1541 – Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima by the son of his former companion and later antagonist, Diego de Almagro the younger. Almagro is later caught and executed.
- 1579 – Livonian campaign of Stephen Báthory begins.
- 1718 – Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, Peter the Great’s son, mysteriously dies after being sentenced to death by his father for plotting against him.
- 1723 – After a siege and bombardment by cannon, Baku surrenders to the Russians.
- 1740 – A combined force of Spanish, free blacks and allied Indians defeat a British garrison at the Siege of Fort Mose near St. Augustine during the War of Jenkins’ Ear.
- 1794 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Fleurus marked the first successful military use of aircraft.
- 1830 – William IV becomes king of Britain and Hanover.
- 1843 – Treaty of Nanking comes into effect, Hong Kong Island is ceded to the British “in perpetuity”.
- 1848 – End of the June Days Uprising in Paris.
- 1857 – The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London.
- 1870 – The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.
- 1886 – Henri Moissan isolated elemental Fluorine for the first time.
- 1889 – Bangui is founded by Albert Dolisie and Alfred Uzac in what was then the upper reaches of the French Congo.
- 1906 – The first Grand Prix motor race is held at Le Mans.
- 1909 – The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity.
- 1917 – World War I: The American Expeditionary Forces begin to arrive in France. They will first enter combat four months later.
- 1918 – World War I: Allied forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord defeat Imperial German forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince in the Battle of Belleau Wood.
- 1924 – The American occupation of the Dominican Republic ends after eight years.
- 1927 – The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island.
- 1934 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act, which establishes credit unions.
- 1936 – Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.
- 1940 – World War II: Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.
- 1941 – World War II: Soviet planes bomb Kassa, Hungary (now Košice, Slovakia), giving Hungary the impetus to declare war the next day.
- 1942 – The first flight of the Grumman F6F Hellcat.
- 1944 – World War II: San Marino, a neutral state, is mistakenly bombed by the RAF based on faulty information, leading to 35 civilian deaths.
- 1944 – World War II: The Battle of Osuchy in Osuchy, Poland, one of the largest battles between Nazi Germany and Polish resistance forces, ends with the defeat of the latter.
- 1945 – The United Nations Charter is signed by 50 Allied nations in San Francisco, California.
- 1948 – Cold War: The first supply flights are made in response to the Berlin Blockade.
- 1948 – William Shockley files the original patent for the grown-junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.
- 1948 – Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery is published in The New Yorker magazine.
- 1952 – The Pan-Malayan Labour Party is founded in Malaya, as a union of statewide labour parties.
- 1953 – Lavrentiy Beria, head of MVD, is arrested by Nikita Khrushchev and other members of the Politburo.
- 1955 – The South African Congress Alliance adopts the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown.
- 1959 – Swedish boxer Ingemar Johansson becomes world champion of heavy weight boxing, by defeating American Floyd Patterson on technical knockout after two minutes and three seconds in the third round at Yankee Stadium.
- 1960 – The former British Protectorate of British Somaliland gains its independence as Somaliland.
- 1960 – Madagascar gains its independence from France.
- 1963 – Cold War: U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall.
- 1967 – Karol Wojtyła (later John Paul II) made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI.
- 1974 – The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
- 1975 – Two FBI agents and a member of the American Indian Movement are killed in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; Leonard Peltier is later convicted of the murders in a controversial trial.
- 1977 – Elvis Presley held his final concert in Indianapolis, Indiana at Market Square Arena.
- 1978 – Air Canada Flight 189, flying to Toronto, overruns the runway and crashes into the Etobicoke Creek ravine. Two of the 107 passengers on board perish.
- 1991 – Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav People’s Army begins the Ten-Day War in Slovenia.
- 1995 – Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani deposes his father Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, in a bloodless coup d’état.
- 1997 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
- 2000 – The Human Genome Project announces the completion of a “rough draft” sequence.
- 2003 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional.
- 2006 – Mari Alkatiri, the first Prime Minister of East Timor, resigns after weeks of political unrest.
- 2007 – Pope Benedict XVI reinstates the traditional laws of papal election in which a successful candidate must receive two-thirds of the votes.
- 2008 – A suicide bomber dressed as an Iraqi policeman detonates an explosive vest, killing 25 people.
- 2012 – The Waldo Canyon fire descends into the Mountain Shadows neighborhood in Colorado Springs burning 347 homes in a matter of hours and killing two people.
- 2013 – Riots in China’s Xinjiang region kill at least 36 people and injure 21 others.
- 2013 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
- 2015 – Five different terrorist attacks in France, Tunisia, Somalia, Kuwait, and Syria occurred on what was dubbed Bloody Friday by international media. Upwards of 750 people were either killed or injured in these uncoordinated attacks.
- 2015 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Births on June 26
- 12 BC – Agrippa Postumus, Roman son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia the Elder (d. 14)
- 1399 – John, Count of Angoulême (d. 1467)
- 1575 – Anne Catherine of Brandenburg (d. 1612)
- 1581 – San Pedro Claver, Spanish Jesuit saint (d. 1654)
- 1600 – Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Spanish-born bishop and viceroy of New Spain (d. 1659)
- 1681 – Hedvig Sophia of Sweden (d. 1708)
- 1689 – Edward Holyoke, American pastor and academic (d. 1769)
- 1694 – Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist and mineralogist (d. 1768)
- 1699 – Marie Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin, French businesswoman (d. 1777)
- 1702 – Philip Doddridge, English hymn-writer and educator (d. 1751)
- 1703 – Thomas Clap, American minister and academic (d. 1767)
- 1726 – Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia (d. 1796)
- 1730 – Charles Messier, French astronomer and academic (d. 1817)
- 1764 – Jan Paweł Łuszczewski, Polish politician (d. 1812)
- 1796 – Jan Paweł Lelewel, Polish painter and engineer (d. 1847)
- 1798 – Wolfgang Menzel, German poet and critic (d. 1873)
- 1817 – Branwell Brontë, English painter and poet (d. 1848)
- 1819 – Abner Doubleday, American general (d. 1893)
- 1821 – Bartolomé Mitre, Argentinian soldier, journalist, and politician, 6th President of Argentina (d. 1906)
- 1824 – William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-Scottish physicist and engineer (d. 1907)
- 1835 – Thomas W. Knox, American journalist and author (d. 1896)
- 1839 – Sam Watkins, American soldier and author (d. 1901)
- 1852 – Daoud Corm, Lebanese painter (d. 1930)
- 1854 – Robert Laird Borden, Canadian lawyer and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1937)
- 1865 – Bernard Berenson, Lithuanian-American historian and author (d. 1959)
- 1866 – George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, English archaeologist and banker (d. 1923)
- 1869 – Martin Andersen Nexø, Danish journalist and author (d. 1954)
- 1878 – Leopold Löwenheim, German mathematician and logician (d. 1957)
- 1880 – Mitchell Lewis, American actor (d. 1956)
- 1881 – Ya’akov Cohen, Israeli linguist, poet, and playwright (d. 1960)
- 1892 – Pearl S. Buck, American novelist, essayist, short story writer Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
- 1893 – Dorothy Fuldheim, American journalist and news anchor(d. 1989)
- 1895 – George Hainsworth, Canadian ice hockey player and politician (d. 1950)
- 1898 – Willy Messerschmitt, German engineer and businessman (d. 1978)
- 1898 – Chesty Puller, US general (d. 1971)
- 1899 – Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
- 1901 – Stuart Symington, American lieutenant and politician, 1st United States Secretary of the Air Force (d. 1988)
- 1902 – Hugues Cuénod, Swiss tenor and educator (d. 2010)
- 1903 – Big Bill Broonzy, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1958)
- 1904 – Frank Scott Hogg, Canadian astronomer and academic (d. 1951)
- 1904 – Peter Lorre, Slovak-American actor and singer (d. 1964)
- 1905 – Lynd Ward, American author and illustrator (d. 1985)
- 1906 – Alberto Rabagliati, Italian singer (d. 1974)
- 1906 – Viktor Schreckengost, American sculptor and educator (d. 2008)
- 1907 – Debs Garms, American baseball player (d. 1984)
- 1908 – Salvador Allende, Chilean physician and politician, 29th President of Chile (d. 1973)
- 1909 – Colonel Tom Parker, Dutch-American talent manager (d. 1997)
- 1909 – Wolfgang Reitherman, German-American animator, director, and producer (d. 1985)
- 1911 – Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American golfer and basketball player (d. 1956)
- 1911 – Bronisław Żurakowski, Polish pilot and engineer (d. 2009)
- 1913 – Aimé Césaire, French poet, author, and politician (d. 2008)
- 1913 – Maurice Wilkes, English computer scientist and physicist (d. 2010)
- 1914 – Laurie Lee, English author and poet (d. 1997)
- 1914 – Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark, European royalty (d. 2001)
- 1915 – Paul Castellano, American gangster (d. 1985)
- 1915 – George Haigh, English professional footballer (d. 2019)
- 1915 – Charlotte Zolotow, American author and poet (d. 2013)
- 1916 – Virginia Satir, American psychotherapist and author (d. 1988)
- 1916 – Giuseppe Taddei, Italian actor and singer (d. 2010)
- 1917 – Idriz Ajeti, Albanian albanologist (d. 2019)
- 1918 – Leo Rosner, Polish-born Austrian Jewish musician (d. 2008)
- 1918 – Raleigh Rhodes, American combat fighter pilot (d. 2007)
- 1918 – J. B. Fuqua, American entrepreneur and philanthropist (d. 2006)
- 1919 – Richard Neustadt, American political scientist and academic (d. 2003)
- 1919 – Jimmy Newberry, American pitcher (d. 1983)
- 1919 – George Athan Billias, American historian (d. 2018)
- 1919 – Donald M. Ashton, English art director (d. 2004)
- 1920 – Jean-Pierre Roy, Canadian-American baseball player, manager, and sportscaster (d. 2014)
- 1921 – Violette Szabo, French-British secret agent (d. 1945)
- 1921 – Robert Everett, American computer scientist (d. 2018)
- 1922 – Walter Farley, American author (d. 1989)
- 1922 – Eleanor Parker, American actress (d. 2013)
- 1922 – Enzo Apicella, English artist, cartoonist, designer, and restaurateur (d. 2018)
- 1923 – Franz-Paul Decker, German conductor (d. 2014)
- 1923 – Ed Bearss, American veteran of World War II
- 1924 – Kostas Axelos, Greek-French philosopher and author (d. 2010)
- 1924 – James W. McCord Jr., CIA officer (d. 2017)
- 1925 – Pavel Belyayev, Russian soldier, pilot, and astronaut (d. 1970)
- 1925 – Wolfgang Unzicker, German chess player (d. 2006)
- 1925 – Jean Frydman, French resistant and businessman
- 1926 – Kenny Baker, American fiddler (d.2011)
- 1926 – Mahendra Bhatnagar, Indian poet
- 1926 – Fernando Mönckeberg Barros, Chilean surgeon
- 1926 – Dinu Zamfirescu, Romanian politician
- 1927 – Robert Kroetsch, Canadian author and poet (d. 2011)
- 1928 – Jacob Druckman, American composer and academic (d. 1996)
- 1928 – Yoshiro Nakamatsu, Japanese inventor
- 1928 – Bill Sheffield, American politician; 5th Governor of Alaska
- 1928 – Samuel Belzberg, Canadian businessman and philanthropist (d. 2018)
- 1929 – June Bronhill, Australian soprano and actress (d. 2005)
- 1929 – Fred Bruemmer, Latvian-Canadian photographer and author (d. 2013)
- 1929 – Milton Glaser, American illustrator and graphic designer
- 1930 – Jackie Fargo, American wrestler and trainer (d. 2013)
- 1930 – Wolfgang Schwanitz, East German secret police
- 1931 – Colin Wilson, English philosopher and author (d. 2013)
- 1931 – Robert Colbert, American actor
- 1932 – Dame Marguerite Pindling, Bahamian politician; Governor-General of the Bahamas
- 1932 – Don Valentine, American venture capitalist (d. 2019)
- 1933 – Claudio Abbado, Italian conductor (d. 2014)
- 1933 – Gene Green, American baseball player (d. 1981)
- 1933 – David Winnick, English politician
- 1934 – Dave Grusin, American pianist and composer
- 1934 – Toru Goto, Japanese swimmer
- 1935 – Carlo Facetti, Italian race car driver
- 1935 – Sandro Riminucci, Italian basketball player
- 1935 – Dwight York, American singer
- 1936 – Benjamin Adekunle, Nigerian general (d. 2014)
- 1936 – Hal Greer, American basketball player (d. 2018)
- 1936 – Robert Maclennan, Baron Maclennan of Rogart, Scottish politician (d. 2020)
- 1936 – Edith Pearlman, American short story writer
- 1936 – Jean-Claude Turcotte, Canadian cardinal (d. 2015)
- 1936 – Nancy Willard, American author and poet (d. 2017)
- 1937 – Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
- 1937 – Reggie Workman, American bassist and composer
- 1938 – Neil Abercrombie, American sociologist and politician, 7th Governor of Hawaii
- 1938 – Billy Davis Jr., American pop-soul singer
- 1938 – Gerald North, American climatologist and academic
- 1939 – Chuck Robb, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 64th Governor of Virginia
- 1939 – Zainuddin Maidin, Malaysian politician (d. 2018)
- 1941 – Yves Beauchemin, Canadian author and academic
- 1942 – J.J. Dillon, American wrestler and manager
- 1942 – Gilberto Gil, Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and politician, Brazilian Minister of Culture
- 1943 – Georgie Fame, English singer, pianist, and keyboard player
- 1943 – Warren Farrell, American author and educator
- 1944 – Gennady Zyuganov, Russian colonel and politician
- 1946 – Candace Pert, American neuroscientist and pharmacologist (d. 2013)
- 1949 – Fredric Brandt, American dermatologist and author (d. 2015)
- 1949 – Adrian Gurvitz, English singer-songwriter and producer
- 1949 – Mary Styles Harris, American biologist and geneticist
- 1951 – Gary Gilmour, Australian cricketer and manager (d. 2014)
- 1952 – Gordon McQueen, Scottish footballer and manager
- 1952 – Olive Morris, Jamaican-English civil rights activist (d. 1979)
- 1954 – Luis Arconada, Spanish footballer
- 1955 – Mick Jones, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1955 – Gedde Watanabe, American actor
- 1956 – Chris Isaak, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1956 – Catherine Samba-Panza, interim president of the Central African Republic
- 1956 – Patrick Mercer, English colonel and politician
- 1957 – Al Hunter Ashton, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2007)
- 1957 – Philippe Couillard, Canadian surgeon and politician, 31st Premier of Quebec
- 1957 – Patty Smyth, American singer-songwriter and musician
- 1959 – Mark McKinney, Canadian actor and screenwriter
- 1960 – Mark Durkan, Irish politician
- 1961 – Greg LeMond, American cyclist
- 1961 – Terri Nunn, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1962 – Jerome Kersey, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
- 1963 – Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian-Swiss businessman and philanthropist
- 1963 – Mark McClellan, American economist and politician
- 1963 – Harriet Wheeler, English singer-songwriter
- 1964 – Tommi Mäkinen, Finnish race car driver
- 1966 – Dany Boon, French actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1966 – Kirk McLean, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1966 – Jürgen Reil, American drummer
- 1967 – Inha Babakova, Ukrainian high jumper
- 1967 – Olivier Dahan, French director and screenwriter
- 1968 – Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, Icelandic lecturer and politician, 6th President of Iceland
- 1968 – Paolo Maldini, Italian footballer
- 1968 – Shannon Sharpe, American football player and sportscaster
- 1969 – Colin Greenwood, English bass player and songwriter
- 1969 – Ingrid Lempereur, Belgian swimmer
- 1969 – Geir Moen, Norwegian sprinter
- 1969 – Mike Myers, American baseball player
- 1970 – Paul Thomas Anderson, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1970 – Paul Bitok, Kenyan runner
- 1970 – Irv Gotti, American record producer, co-founded Murder Inc Records
- 1970 – Sean Hayes, American actor
- 1970 – Adam Ndlovu, Zimbabwean footballer
- 1970 – Chris O’Donnell, American actor
- 1970 – Nick Offerman, American actor
- 1971 – Max Biaggi, Italian motorcycle racer
- 1972 – Jai Taurima, Australian long jumper and police officer
- 1973 – Gretchen Wilson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1974 – Derek Jeter, American baseball player
- 1974 – Jason Kendall, American baseball player
- 1975 – Chris Armstrong, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1975 – Terry Skiverton, English footballer and manager
- 1976 – Ed Jovanovski, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1976 – Pommie Mbangwa, Zimbabwean cricketer and sportscaster
- 1976 – Chad Pennington, American football player and sportscaster
- 1976 – Dave Rubin, American political commentator
- 1977 – Quincy Lewis, American basketball player
- 1979 – Ryō Fukuda, Japanese race car driver
- 1979 – Walter Herrmann, Argentinian basketball player
- 1979 – Ryan Tedder, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
- 1980 – Hamílton Hênio Ferreira Calheiros, Togolese footballer
- 1980 – Michael Jackson, English footballer
- 1980 – Jason Schwartzman, American singer-songwriter, drummer, and actor
- 1980 – Chris Shelton, American baseball player
- 1980 – Michael Vick, American football player
- 1981 – Natalya Antyukh, Russian sprinter and hurdler
- 1981 – Paolo Cannavaro, Italian footballer
- 1981 – Kanako Kondō, Japanese voice actress and singer
- 1981 – Takashi Toritani, Japanese baseball player
- 1982 – Zuzana Kučová, Slovak tennis player
- 1983 – Vinícius Rodrigues Almeida, Brazilian footballer
- 1983 – Nick Compton, South African-English cricketer
- 1983 – Toyonoshima Daiki, Japanese sumo wrestler
- 1983 – Felipe Melo, Brazilian footballer
- 1983 – Antonio Rosati, Italian footballer
- 1984 – Indila, French singer
- 1984 – José Juan Barea, Puerto Rican-American basketball player
- 1984 – Yankuba Ceesay, Gambian footballer
- 1984 – Elijah Dukes, American baseball player
- 1984 – Raymond Felton, American basketball player
- 1984 – Priscah Jeptoo, Kenyan runner
- 1984 – Jūlija Tepliha, Latvian figure skater
- 1984 – Deron Williams, American basketball player
- 1984 – Preslava, Bulgarian singer
- 1985 – Ogyen Trinley Dorje, Tibetan spiritual leader, 17th Karmapa Lama
- 1986 – Duvier Riascos, Colombian footballer
- 1987 – Carlos Iaconelli, Brazilian race car driver
- 1987 – Samir Nasri, French footballer
- 1988 – Oliver Stang, German footballer
- 1990 – Belaynesh Oljira, Ethiopian runner
- 1990 – Igor Subbotin, Estonian footballer
- 1991 – Houssem Chemali, French footballer
- 1991 – Diego Falcinelli, Italian footballer
- 1991 – Dustin Martin, Australian rules footballer
- 1992 – Joel Campbell, Costa Rican footballer
- 1992 – Rudy Gobert, French basketball player
- 1992 – Jennette McCurdy, American actress and singer-songwriter
- 1993 – Ariana Grande, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
- 1994 – Hollie Arnold, English javelin thrower
- 1994 – Leonard Carow, German actor
- 1997 – Baek Ye-rin, South Korean singer
- 1997 – Callum Taylor, English cricketer
- 2002 – Chandler Smith, American racing driver
- 2009 – Yesha Camile, Filipino child actress
Deaths on June 26
- 116 BC – Ptolemy VIII, king of Egypt
- 363 – Julian the Apostate, Roman emperor (b. 332)
- 405 – Vigilius, bishop of Trent (b. 353)
- 822 – Saichō, Japanese Buddhist monk (b. 767)
- 969 – George El Mozahem, Egyptian martyr (b. 940)
- 985 – Ramiro III, king of León
- 1090 – Jaromír, bishop of Prague
- 1095 – Robert, bishop of Hereford
- 1265 – Anne of Bohemia, duchess of Silesia (b. 1203 or 1204)
- 1274 – Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Persian scientist and writer (b. 1201)
- 1487 – John Argyropoulos, Byzantine philosopher and scholar (b. 1415)
- 1541 – Francisco Pizarro, Spanish explorer and politician, Governor of New Castile (b. c. 1471)
- 1574 – Gabriel, comte de Montgomery, captain of the Scottish Guard of Henry II of France (b. 1530)
- 1688 – Ralph Cudworth, English philosopher and academic (b. 1617)
- 1752 – Giulio Alberoni, Spanish cardinal (b. 1664)
- 1757 – Maximilian Ulysses Browne, Austrian field marshal (b. 1705)
- 1784 – Caesar Rodney, American lawyer and politician, 4th Governor of Delaware (b. 1728)
- 1793 – James Dickey, Irish revolutionary (b. 1776)
- 1793 – Gilbert White, English ornithologist and ecologist (b. 1720)
- 1795 – Johannes Jährig, German linguist and translator (b. 1747)
- 1808 – Ludwik Tyszkiewicz, Polish poet and politician (b. 1748)
- 1810 – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, French inventor, co-invented the hot air balloon (b. 1740)
- 1830 – George IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1762)
- 1836 – Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, French soldier and composer (b. 1760)
- 1856 – Max Stirner, German philosopher and author (b. 1806)
- 1870 – Armand Barbès, French lawyer and politician (b. 1809)
- 1878 – Mercedes of Orléans (b. 1860)
- 1879 – Richard H. Anderson, American general (b. 1821)
- 1883 – Edward Sabine, Irish-English astronomer, geophysicist, and ornithologist (b. 1788)
- 1918 – Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet and author (b. 1843)
- 1922 – Albert I, Prince of Monaco (b. 1848)
- 1927 – Armand Guillaumin, French painter (b. 1841)
- 1932 – Adelaide Ames, American astronomer and academic (b. 1900)
- 1932 – William Murray McPherson, Australian politician, 31st Premier of Victoria (b. 1865)
- 1938 – James Weldon Johnson, American poet, lawyer and politician (b. 1871)
- 1938 – Daria Pratt, American golfer (b. 1859)
- 1939 – Ford Madox Ford, English novelist, poet, and critic (b. 1873)
- 1943 – Karl Landsteiner, Austrian biologist and physician, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1868)
- 1945 – Emil Hácha, Czech lawyer and politician, 3rd President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1872)
- 1946 – Max Kögel, German SS officer (b. 1895)
- 1946 – Yōsuke Matsuoka, Japanese politician, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1880)
- 1947 – R. B. Bennett, Canadian lawyer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1870)
- 1949 – Kim Koo, South Korean educator and politician, 13th President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (b. 1876)
- 1955 – Engelbert Zaschka, German engineer (b. 1895)
- 1956 – Clifford Brown, American trumpet player and composer (b. 1930)
- 1956 – Richie Powell, American pianist (b. 1931)
- 1957 – Alfred Döblin, Polish-German physician and author (b. 1878)
- 1957 – Malcolm Lowry, English novelist and poet (b. 1909)
- 1958 – George Orton, Canadian runner and hurdler (b. 1873)
- 1958 – Andrija Štampar, Croatian physician and scholar (b. 1888)
- 1964 – Léo Dandurand, American-Canadian businessman (b. 1889)
- 1967 – Françoise Dorléac, French actress and singer (b. 1942)
- 1975 – Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish priest and saint (b. 1902)
- 1979 – Akwasi Afrifa, Ghanaian soldier and politician, 3rd Head of State of Ghana (b. 1936)
- 1989 – Howard Charles Green, Canadian lawyer and politician, 27th Canadian Minister of Public Works (b. 1895)
- 1990 – Anni Blomqvist, Finnish author (b. 1909)
- 1992 – Buddy Rogers, American wrestler (b. 1921)
- 1993 – Roy Campanella, American baseball player and coach (b. 1921)
- 1993 – William H. Riker, American political scientist and academic (b. 1920)
- 1994 – Jahanara Imam, Bangladeshi author and activist (b. 1929)
- 1996 – Veronica Guerin, Irish journalist (b. 1958)
- 1996 – Necmettin Hacıeminoğlu, Turkish linguist and academic (b. 1932)
- 1997 – Don Hutson, American football player and coach (b. 1913)
- 1998 – Hacı Sabancı, Turkish businessman and philanthropist (b. 1935)
- 2002 – Jay Berwanger, American football player (b. 1914)
- 2002 – Arnold Brown, English-Canadian 11th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1913)
- 2003 – Marc-Vivien Foé, Cameroon footballer (b. 1975)
- 2003 – Denis Thatcher, English soldier and businessman (b. 1915)
- 2003 – Strom Thurmond, American general, lawyer, and politician, 103rd Governor of South Carolina (b. 1902)
- 2004 – Ott Arder, Estonian poet and translator (b. 1950)
- 2004 – Yash Johar, Indian film producer, founded Dharma Productions (b. 1929)
- 2004 – Naomi Shemer, Israeli singer-songwriter (b. 1930)
- 2005 – Tõnno Lepmets, Estonian basketball player (b. 1938)
- 2005 – Richard Whiteley, English journalist and game show host (b. 1943)
- 2006 – Tommy Wonder, Dutch magician (b. 1953)
- 2007 – Liz Claiborne, Belgian-American fashion designer, founded Liz Claiborne (b. 1929)
- 2007 – Joey Sadler, New Zealand rugby player (b. 1914)
- 2010 – Algirdas Brazauskas, Lithuanian engineer and politician, 2nd President of Lithuania (b. 1932)
- 2010 – Harald Keres, Estonian physicist and academic (b. 1912)
- 2011 – Edith Fellows, American actress (b. 1923)
- 2011 – Jan van Beveren, Dutch footballer and coach (b. 1948)
- 2012 – Sverker Åström, Swedish diplomat, Swedish Permanent Representative to the United Nations (b. 1915)
- 2012 – Pat Cummings, American basketball player (b. 1956)
- 2012 – Nora Ephron, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1941)
- 2012 – Mario O’Hara, Filipino director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1944)
- 2012 – Doris Singleton, American actress (b. 1919)
- 2012 – Risley C. Triche, American lawyer and politician (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Henrik Otto Donner, Finnish trumpet player and composer (b. 1939)
- 2013 – Edward Huggins Johnstone, Brazilian-American sergeant and judge (b. 1922)
- 2013 – Byron Looper, American politician (b. 1964)
- 2013 – Justin Miller, American baseball player (b. 1977)
- 2013 – Marc Rich, Belgian-American businessman (b. 1934)
- 2014 – Howard Baker, American lawyer, politician, and diplomat, 12th White House Chief of Staff (b. 1925)
- 2014 – Bill Frank, American-Canadian football player (b. 1938)
- 2014 – Rollin King, American businessman, co-founded Southwest Airlines (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Bob Mischak, American football player and coach (b. 1932)
- 2014 – Julius Rudel, Austrian-American conductor (b. 1921)
- 2014 – Mary Rodgers, American composer and author (b. 1931)
- 2015 – Yevgeny Primakov, Ukrainian-Russian journalist and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1929)
- 2015 – Chris Thompson, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1952)
Holidays and observances on June 26
- Day of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan
- Christian feast day:
- Anthelm of Belley
- David the Dendrite
- Hermogius
- Isabel Florence Hapgood (Episcopal Church)
- Jeremiah (Lutheran)
- John and Paul
- José María Robles Hurtado (one of Saints of the Cristero War)
- Josemaría Escrivá
- Mar Abhai (Syriac Orthodox Church)
- Pelagius of Córdoba
- Vigilius of Trent
- June 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Flag Day (Romania)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Madagascar from France in 1960. (Madagascar)
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of British Somaliland from the British in 1960. (Somalia)
- International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (International)
- International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (International)
- Ratcatcher’s Day (Hamelin, Germany)
- Sunthorn Phu Day (Thailand)
- World Refrigeration Day (International)
-
June 19 in History
- 325 – The original Nicene Creed is adopted at the First Council of Nicaea.
- 1179 – The Battle of Kalvskinnet takes place outside Nidaros (now Trondheim), Norway. Earl Erling Skakke is killed, and the battle changes the tide of the civil wars.
- 1306 – The Earl of Pembroke’s army defeats Bruce’s Scottish army at the Battle of Methven.
- 1586 – English colonists leave Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in North America.
- 1770 – New Church Day: Emanuel Swedenborg writes: “The Lord sent forth His twelve disciples, who followed Him in the world into the whole spiritual world to preach the Gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ reign. This took place on the 19th day of June, in the year 1770.”
- 1800 – War of the Second Coalition Battle of Höchstädt results in a French victory over Austria.
- 1816 – Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson’s Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
- 1821 – Decisive defeat of the Filiki Eteria by the Ottomans at Drăgășani (in Wallachia).
- 1846 – The first officially recorded, organized baseball game is played under Alexander Cartwright’s rules on Hoboken, New Jersey’s Elysian Fields with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23–1. Cartwright umpired.
- 1850 – Princess Louise of the Netherlands marries Crown Prince Karl of Sweden–Norway.
- 1862 – The U.S. Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sandford.
- 1865 – Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 41 other contiguous states as Juneteenth.
- 1867 – Maximilian I of the Second Mexican Empire is executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro.
- 1875 – The Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire begins.
- 1903 – Benito Mussolini, at the time a radical Socialist, is arrested by Bern police for advocating a violent general strike.
- 1910 – The first Father’s Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington.
- 1913 – Natives Land Act, 1913 in South Africa implemented.
- 1934 – The Communications Act of 1934 establishes the United States’ Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
- 1943 – The Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL merge for one season due to player shortages caused by World War II.
- 1953 – Cold War: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York.
- 1960 – The first NASCAR race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
- 1961 – Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom.
- 1964 – The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
- 1965 – Nguyễn Cao Kỳ becomes Prime Minister of South Vietnam at the head of a military junta; General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu becomes the figurehead chief of state.
- 1985 – Members of the Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers, dressed as Salvadoran soldiers, attack the Zona Rosa area of San Salvador.
- 1987 – Basque separatist group ETA commits one of its most violent attacks, in which a bomb is set off in a supermarket, Hipercor, killing 21 and injuring 45.
- 1988 – Pope John Paul II canonizes 117 Vietnamese Martyrs.
- 1990 – The current international law defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, is ratified for the first time by Norway.
- 1990 – The Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is founded in Moscow.
- 1991 – The last Soviet army units in Hungary are withdrawn.
- 2007 – The al-Khilani Mosque bombing in Baghdad leaves 78 people dead and another 218 injured.
- 2009 – Mass riots involving over 10,000 people and 10,000 police officers break out in Shishou, China, over the dubious circumstances surrounding the death of a local chef.
- 2009 – War in North-West Pakistan: The Pakistani Armed Forces open Operation Rah-e-Nijat against the Taliban and other Islamist rebels in the South Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
- 2012 – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requested asylum in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the US after publication of previously classified documents including footage of civilian killings by the US army.
- 2018 – The 10,000,000th United States Patent is issued.
Births on June 19
- 1301 – Prince Morikuni, shōgun of Japan (d. 1333)
- 1417 – Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, lord of Rimini (d. 1468)
- 1566 – James VI and I of the United Kingdom (d. 1625)
- 1590 – Philip Bell, British colonial governor (d. 1678)
- 1595 – Hargobind, sixth Sikh guru (d. 1644)
- 1598 – Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1677)
- 1606 – James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, Scottish soldier and politician, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (d. 1649)
- 1623 – Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1662)
- 1633 – Philipp van Limborch, Dutch author and theologian (d. 1712)
- 1701 – François Rebel, French violinist and composer (d. 1775)
- 1731 – Joaquim Machado de Castro, Portuguese sculptor (d. 1822)
- 1764 – José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguayan general and politician (d. 1850)
- 1771 – Joseph Diaz Gergonne, French mathematician and philosopher (d. 1859)
- 1776 – Francis Johnson, American lawyer and politician (d. 1842)
- 1783 – Friedrich Sertürner, German chemist and pharmacist (d. 1841)
- 1793 – Joseph Earl Sheffield, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1882)
- 1795 – James Braid, Scottish-English surgeon (d. 1860)
- 1797 – Hamilton Hume, Australian explorer (d. 1873)
- 1815 – Cornelius Krieghoff, Dutch-Canadian painter (d. 1872)
- 1816 – William H. Webb, American shipbuilder and philanthropist, founded the Webb Institute (d. 1899)
- 1833 – Mary Tenney Gray, American editorial writer, club-woman, philanthropist, and suffragette (d. 1904)
- 1834 – Charles Spurgeon, English pastor and author (d. 1892)
- 1840 – Georg Karl Maria Seidlitz, German entomologist and academic (d. 1917)
- 1843 – Mary Sibbet Copley, American philanthropist (d. 1929)
- 1845 – Cléophas Beausoleil, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 1904)
- 1846 – Antonio Abetti, Italian astronomer and academic (d. 1928)
- 1850 – David Jayne Hill, American historian and politician, 24th United States Assistant Secretary of State (d. 1932)
- 1851 – Billy Midwinter, English-Australian cricketer (d. 1890)
- 1851 – Silvanus P. Thompson, English physicist, engineer, and academic (d. 1916)
- 1854 – Alfredo Catalani, Italian composer and academic (d. 1893)
- 1854 – Hjalmar Mellin, Finnish mathematician and theorist (d. 1933)
- 1855 – George F. Roesch, American lawyer and politician (d. 1917)
- 1858 – Sam Walter Foss, American poet and librarian (d. 1911)
- 1861 – Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, Scottish-English field marshal (d. 1928)
- 1861 – Émile Haug, French geologist and paleontologist (d. 1927)
- 1861 – José Rizal, Filipino journalist, author, and poet (d. 1896)
- 1865 – May Whitty, English actress (d. 1948)
- 1871 – Alajos Szokolyi, Hungarian hurdler, jumper, and physician (d. 1932)
- 1872 – Theodore Payne, English-American gardener and botanist (d. 1963)
- 1874 – Peder Oluf Pedersen, Danish physicist and engineer (d. 1941)
- 1876 – Nigel Gresley, Scottish-English engineer (d. 1941)
- 1877 – Charles Coburn, American actor (d. 1961)
- 1881 – Maginel Wright Enright, American illustrator (d. 1966)
- 1883 – Gladys Mills Phipps, American horse breeder (d. 1970)
- 1884 – Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, French painter and historian (d. 1974)
- 1886 – Finley Hamilton, American lawyer and politician (d. 1940)
- 1888 – Arthur Massey Berry, Canadian soldier and pilot (d. 1970)
- 1891 – John Heartfield, German photographer and activist (d. 1968)
- 1896 – Rajani Palme Dutt, English journalist and politician (d. 1974)
- 1896 – Wallis Simpson, American wife of Edward VIII (d. 1986)
- 1897 – Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
- 1897 – Moe Howard, American comedian (d. 1975)
- 1902 – Guy Lombardo, Canadian-American violinist and bandleader (d. 1977)
- 1903 – Mary Callery, American-French sculptor and academic (d. 1977)
- 1903 – Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (d. 1941)
- 1903 – Wally Hammond, English cricketer and coach (d. 1965)
- 1903 – Hans Litten, German lawyer (d. 1938)
- 1905 – Mildred Natwick, American actress (d. 1994)
- 1906 – Ernst Boris Chain, German-Irish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
- 1906 – Knut Kroon, Swedish footballer (d. 1975)
- 1906 – Walter Rauff, German SS officer (d. 1984)
- 1907 – Clarence Wiseman, Canadian 10th General of the Salvation Army (d. 1985)
- 1909 – Osamu Dazai, Japanese author (d. 1948)
- 1909 – Rūdolfs Jurciņš, Latvian basketball player (d. 1948)
- 1910 – Sydney Allard, English race car driver, founded the Allard Company (d. 1966)
- 1910 – Paul Flory, American chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1985)
- 1910 – Abe Fortas, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1982)
- 1912 – Don Gutteridge, American baseball player and manager (d. 2008)
- 1912 – Virginia MacWatters, American soprano and actress (d. 2005)
- 1913 – Helene Madison, American swimmer (d. 1970)
- 1914 – Alan Cranston, American journalist and politician (d. 2000)
- 1914 – Lester Flatt, American bluegrass singer-songwriter, guitarist, and mandolin player (d. 1979)
- 1915 – Pat Buttram, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1915 – Julius Schwartz, American publisher and agent (d. 2004)
- 1917 – Joshua Nkomo, Zimbabwean guerrilla leader and politician, Vice President of Zimbabwe (d. 1999)
- 1919 – Pauline Kael, American film critic (d. 2001)
- 1920 – Yves Robert, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2002)
- 1921 – Louis Jourdan, French-American actor and singer (d. 2015)
- 1922 – Aage Bohr, Danish physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2009)
- 1922 – Marilyn P. Johnson, American educator and diplomat, 8th United States Ambassador to Togo
- 1923 – Bob Hank, Australian footballer and coach (d. 2012)
- 1926 – Erna Schneider Hoover, American mathematician and inventor
- 1927 – Luciano Benjamín Menéndez, Argentine general and human rights violator (d. 2018)
- 1928 – Tommy DeVito, American singer and guitarist
- 1928 – Nancy Marchand, American actress (d. 2000)
- 1930 – Gena Rowlands, American actress
- 1932 – Pier Angeli, Italian actress (d. 1971)
- 1932 – José Sanchis Grau, Spanish author and illustrator (d. 2011)
- 1932 – Marisa Pavan, Italian actress
- 1933 – Viktor Patsayev, Kazakh engineer and astronaut (d. 1971)
- 1934 – Gérard Latortue, Haitian politician, 12th Prime Minister of Haiti
- 1936 – Marisa Galvany, American soprano and actress
- 1937 – André Glucksmann, French philosopher and author (d. 2015)
- 1938 – Wahoo McDaniel, American football player and wrestler (d. 2002)
- 1939 – Bernd Hoss, German footballer and manager (d. 2016)
- 1939 – John F. MacArthur, American minister and theologian
- 1941 – Václav Klaus, Czech economist and politician, 2nd President of the Czech Republic
- 1942 – Merata Mita, New Zealand director and producer (d. 2010)
- 1944 – Chico Buarque, Brazilian singer, composer, writer and poet
- 1945 – Radovan Karadžić, Serbian-Bosnian politician and convicted war criminal, 1st President of Republika Srpska
- 1945 – Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese politician, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1945 – Tobias Wolff, American short story writer, memoirist, and novelist
- 1946 – Jimmy Greenhoff, English footballer and manager
- 1947 – Salman Rushdie, Indian-English novelist and essayist
- 1947 – John Ralston Saul, Canadian philosopher and author
- 1948 – Nick Drake, English singer-songwriter (d. 1974)
- 1948 – Phylicia Rashad, American actress
- 1950 – Neil Asher Silberman, American archaeologist and historian
- 1950 – Ann Wilson, American singer-songwriter and musician
- 1951 – Ayman al-Zawahiri, Egyptian terrorist
- 1951 – Francesco Moser, Italian cyclist
- 1952 – Bob Ainsworth, English politician, Secretary of State for Defence
- 1954 – Mike O’Brien, English lawyer and politician, Solicitor General for England and Wales
- 1954 – Lou Pearlman, American music producer and fraudster (d. 2016)
- 1954 – Kathleen Turner, American actress
- 1954 – Richard Wilkins, New Zealand-Australian journalist and television presenter
- 1955 – Mary O’Connor, New Zealand runner
- 1955 – Mary Schapiro, American lawyer and politician
- 1957 – Anna Lindh, Swedish politician, 39th Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2003)
- 1957 – Jean Rabe, American journalist and author
- 1958 – Sergei Makarov, Russian-American ice hockey player and coach
- 1959 – Mark DeBarge, American singer-songwriter and trumpet player
- 1959 – Christian Wulff, German lawyer and politician, 10th President of Germany
- 1960 – Andrew Dilnot, English economist and academic
- 1960 – Johnny Gray, American runner and coach
- 1960 – Luke Morley, English guitarist, songwriter, and producer
- 1960 – Patti Rizzo, American golfer
- 1962 – Paula Abdul, American singer-songwriter, dancer, actress, and presenter
- 1962 – Jeremy Bates, English tennis player
- 1962 – Ashish Vidyarthi, Indian actor
- 1963 – Laura Ingraham, American radio host and author
- 1963 – Margarita Ponomaryova, Russian hurdler
- 1963 – Rory Underwood, English rugby player, lieutenant, and pilot
- 1964 – Brent Goulet, American soccer player and manager
- 1964 – Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and former Mayor of London
- 1964 – Brian Vander Ark, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1965 – Sabine Braun, German heptathlete
- 1965 – Sadie Frost, English actress and producer
- 1966 – Michalis Romanidis, Greek basketball player
- 1967 – Bjørn Dæhlie, Norwegian skier and businessman
- 1968 – Alastair Lynch, Australian footballer and sportscaster
- 1968 – Timothy Morton, American philosopher and academic
- 1968 – Kimberly Anne “Kim” Walker, American film and television actress (d. 2001)
- 1970 – Rahul Gandhi, Indian politician
- 1970 – Quincy Watts, American sprinter and football player
- 1970 – Brian Welch, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1971 – José Emilio Amavisca, Spanish footballer
- 1971 – Chris Armstrong, English footballer
- 1972 – Jean Dujardin, French actor
- 1972 – Ilya Markov, Russian race walker
- 1972 – Brian McBride, American soccer player and coach
- 1972 – Poppy Montgomery, Australian-American actress
- 1972 – Robin Tunney, American actress
- 1973 – Jahine Arnold, American football player
- 1973 – Yuko Nakazawa, Japanese singer
- 1973 – Yasuhiko Yabuta, Japanese baseball player
- 1974 – Doug Mientkiewicz, American baseball player, coach, and manager
- 1974 – Mustaque Ahmed Ruhi, Bangladeshi member of parliament
- 1975 – Hugh Dancy, English actor and model
- 1975 – Anthony Parker, American basketball player
- 1976 – Anar Baghirov, Azerbaijani lawyer
- 1976 – Dennis Crowley, American businessman, co-founded Foursquare
- 1976 – Bryan Hughes, English footballer and manager
- 1976 – Anita Wilson, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1978 – Dirk Nowitzki, German basketball player
- 1978 – Zoe Saldana, American actress
- 1978 – Claudio Vargas, Dominican baseball player
- 1979 – José Kléberson, Brazilian footballer
- 1980 – Jean Carroll, Irish cricketer
- 1980 – Dan Ellis, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1980 – Robbie Neilson, Scottish footballer and manager
- 1980 – Nuno Santos, Portuguese footballer
- 1981 – Mohammed Al-Khuwalidi, Saudi Arabian long jumper
- 1981 – Moss Burmester, New Zealand swimmer
- 1982 – Alexander Frolov, Russian ice hockey player
- 1982 – Chris Vermuelen, Australian motorcycle racer
- 1983 – Macklemore, American rapper
- 1983 – Aidan Turner, Irish actor
- 1984 – Paul Dano, American actor
- 1984 – Wieke Dijkstra, Dutch field hockey player
- 1984 – Andri Eleftheriou, Cypriot sport shooter
- 1985 – Ai Miyazato, Japanese golfer
- 1985 – José Ernesto Sosa, Argentinian footballer
- 1985 – Dire Tune, Ethiopian runner
- 1986 – Aoiyama Kōsuke, Bulgarian sumo wrestler
- 1986 – Lázaro Borges, Cuban pole vaulter
- 1986 – Diego Hypólito, Brazilian gymnast
- 1986 – Marvin Williams, American basketball player
- 1987 – Rashard Mendenhall, American football player
- 1988 – Jacob deGrom, American baseball player
- 1990 – Moa Hjelmer, Swedish sprinter
- 1990 – Xavier Rhodes, American football player
- 1992 – Keaton Jennings, South African-English cricketer
- 1992 – C. J. Mosley, American football player
- 1993 – Olajide Olatunji, English YouTuber
Deaths on June 19
- 404 – Huan Xuan, Jin-dynasty warlord and emperor of Huan Chu (b. 369)
- 626 – Soga no Umako, Japanese son of Soga no Iname (b. 551)
- 930 – Xiao Qing, chancellor of Later Liang (b. 862)
- 1027 – Romuald, Italian mystic and saint (b. 951)
- 1185 – Taira no Munemori, Japanese soldier (b. 1147)
- 1282 – Eleanor de Montfort, Welsh princess (b. 1252)
- 1312 – Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall, English politician (b. 1284)
- 1341 – Juliana Falconieri, Italian nun and saint (b. 1270)
- 1364 – Elisenda of Montcada, queen consort and regent of Aragon (b. 1292)
- 1504 – Bernhard Walther, German astronomer and humanist (b. 1430)
- 1542 – Leo Jud, Swiss theologian and reformer (b. 1482)
- 1545 – Abraomas Kulvietis, Lithuanian-Russian lawyer and jurist (b. 1509)
- 1567 – Anna of Brandenburg, Duchess of Mecklenburg (b. 1507)
- 1584 – Francis, Duke of Anjou (b. 1555)
- 1608 – Alberico Gentili, Italian lawyer and jurist (b. 1551)
- 1650 – Matthäus Merian, Swiss-German engraver and publisher (b. 1593)
- 1747 – Alessandro Marcello, Italian composer and educator (b. 1669)
- 1747 – Nader Shah, Persian leader (b. 1688)
- 1762 – Johann Ernst Eberlin, German organist and composer (b. 1702)
- 1768 – Benjamin Tasker Sr., American soldier and politician, 10th Colonial Governor of Maryland (b. 1690)
- 1786 – Nathanael Greene, American general (b. 1742)
- 1805 – Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, French painter and educator (b. 1724)
- 1820 – Joseph Banks, English botanist and author (b. 1743)
- 1844 – Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, French zoologist and biologist (b. 1772)
- 1864 – Richard Heales, English-Australian politician, 4th Premier of Victoria (b. 1822)
- 1864 – Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, American soldier (b. 1843)
- 1865 – Evangelos Zappas, Greek-Romanian businessman and philanthropist (b. 1800)
- 1867 – Miguel Miramón, Unconstitutional president of Mexico, 1859-1860 (b. 1832)
- 1867 – Maximilian I of Mexico (b. 1832)
- 1874 – Ferdinand Stoliczka, Moravian palaeontologist and ornithologist (b. 1838)
- 1884 – Juan Bautista Alberdi, Argentinian-French politician and diplomat (b. 1810)
- 1903 – Herbert Vaughan, English cardinal (b. 1832)
- 1918 – Francesco Baracca, Italian fighter pilot (b. 1888)
- 1921 – Ramón López Velarde, Mexican poet and author (b. 1888)
- 1922 – Hitachiyama Taniemon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 19th Yokozuna (b. 1874)
- 1932 – Sol Plaatje, South African journalist and activist (b. 1876)
- 1937 – J. M. Barrie, Scottish novelist and playwright (b. 1860)
- 1939 – Grace Abbott, American social worker and activist (b. 1878)
- 1940 – Maurice Jaubert, French composer and conductor (b. 1900)
- 1941 – C. V. Hartman, Swiss botanist and anthropologist (b. 1862)
- 1941 – Otto Hirsch, German jurist and politician (b. 1885)
- 1949 – Syed Zafarul Hasan, Indian philosopher and academic (b. 1885)
- 1951 – Angelos Sikelianos, Greek poet and playwright (b. 1884)
- 1953 – Ethel Rosenberg, American spy (b. 1915)
- 1953 – Julius Rosenberg, American spy (b. 1918)
- 1956 – Thomas J. Watson, American businessman (b. 1874)
- 1962 – Frank Borzage, American film director and actor (b. 1894)
- 1966 – Ed Wynn, American actor and comedian (b. 1886)
- 1968 – James Joseph Sweeney, American bishop (b. 1898)
- 1975 – Sam Giancana, American mob boss (b. 1908)
- 1977 – Ali Shariati, Iranian sociologist and philosopher (b. 1933)
- 1979 – Paul Popenoe, American explorer and scholar, founded Relationship counseling (b. 1888)
- 1981 – Anya Phillips, Chinese-American band manager and co-founder of the Mudd Club (b. 1955)
- 1984 – Lee Krasner, American painter and educator (b. 1908)
- 1986 – Len Bias, American basketball player (b. 1963)
- 1987 – Margaret Carver Leighton, American author (b. 1896)
- 1988 – Fernand Seguin, Canadian biochemist and academic (b. 1922)
- 1988 – Gladys Spellman, American lawyer and politician (b. 1918)
- 1989 – Betti Alver, Estonian author and poet (b. 1906)
- 1990 – George Addes, American trade union leader, co-founded United Automobile Workers (b. 1911)
- 1990 – Isabella Smith Andrews, New Zealand writer (b. 1905)
- 1991 – Jean Arthur, American actress (b. 1900)
- 1993 – William Golding, British novelist, playwright, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1911)
- 1995 – Peter Townsend, Burmese-English captain and pilot (b. 1914)
- 2001 – Stanley Mosk, American lawyer, jurist, and politician (b. 1912)
- 2001 – John Heyer, Australian director and producer (b. 1916)
- 2004 – Clayton Kirkpatrick, journalist and newspaper editor (b. 1915)
- 2007 – Antonio Aguilar, Mexican singer-songwriter, actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1919)
- 2007 – Alberto Mijangos, Mexican-American painter and educator (b. 1925)
- 2007 – Terry Hoeppner, American football player and coach (b. 1947)
- 2007 – Ze’ev Schiff, Israeli journalist and author (b. 1932)
- 2008 – Barun Sengupta, Bengali journalist, founded Bartaman (b. 1934)
- 2009 – Tomoji Tanabe, Japanese engineer and surveyor (b. 1895)
- 2010 – Manute Bol, Sudanese-American basketball player and activist (b. 1962)
- 2010 – Anthony Quinton, Baron Quinton, English philosopher and academic (b. 1925)
- 2010 – Carlos Monsiváis, Mexican writer, journalist and political activist (b. 1938)
- 2012 – Norbert Tiemann, American soldier and politician, 32nd Governor of Nebraska (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Vince Flynn, American author (b. 1966)
- 2013 – James Gandolfini, American actor and producer (b. 1961)
- 2013 – Gyula Horn, Hungarian politician, 37th Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1932)
- 2013 – Dave Jennings, American football player and sportscaster (b. 1952)
- 2013 – Filip Topol, Czech singer-songwriter and pianist (b. 1965)
- 2013 – Slim Whitman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1923)
- 2014 – Oskar-Hubert Dennhardt, German general (b. 1915)
- 2014 – Gerry Goffin, American songwriter (b. 1939)
- 2014 – Ibrahim Touré, Ivorian footballer (b. 1985)
- 2015 – James Salter, American novelist and short-story writer (b. 1925)
- 2016 – Anton Yelchin, American actor (b. 1989)
- 2017 – Otto Warmbier, American college student detained in North Korea (b. 1994)
- 2018 – Koko, western lowland gorilla and user of American Sign Language (b. 1971)
- 2019 – Etika, American YouTuber and streamer (b. 1990)
Holidays and observances on June 19
- Christian feast day:
- Deodatus (or Didier) of Nevers (or of Jointures)
- Gervasius and Protasius (Catholic Church)
- Hildegrim of Châlons
- Juliana Falconieri
- Romuald
- Ursicinus of Ravenna
- Zosimus
- June 19 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- New Church feast day
- Day of the Independent Hungary (Hungary)
- Feast of Forest (Palawan)
- Juneteenth (United States, especially African Americans)
- Labour Day (Trinidad and Tobago)
- Laguna Day (Laguna)
- Never Again Day (Uruguay)
- World Sickle Cell Day (International)
-
June 11 in History
- 1184 BC – Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned, according to calculations by Eratosthenes.
- 173 – Marcomannic Wars: The Roman army in Moravia is encircled by the Quadi, who have broken the peace treaty (171). In a violent thunderstorm emperor Marcus Aurelius defeats and subdues them in the so-called “miracle of the rain”.
- 631 – Emperor Taizong of Tang sends envoys to the Xueyantuo bearing gold and silk in order to seek the release of Chinese prisoners captured during the transition from Sui to Tang.
- 786 – A Hasanid Alid uprising in Mecca is crushed by the Abbasids at the Battle of Fakhkh.
- 980 – Vladimir the Great consolidates the Kievan realm from Ukraine to the Baltic Sea. He is proclaimed ruler (knyaz) of all Kievan Rus’.
- 1011 – Lombard Revolt: Greek citizens of Bari rise up against the Lombard rebels led by Melus and deliver the city to Basil Mesardonites, Byzantine governor (catepan) of the Catepanate of Italy.
- 1118 – Roger of Salerno, Prince of Antioch, captures Azaz from the Seljuk Turks.
- 1157 – Albert I of Brandenburg, also called The Bear (Ger: Albrecht der Bär), becomes the founder of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, Germany and the first margrave.
- 1345 – The megas doux Alexios Apokaukos, chief minister of the Byzantine Empire, is lynched by political prisoners.
- 1429 – Hundred Years’ War: Start of the Battle of Jargeau.
- 1488 – Battle of Sauchieburn: Fought between rebel Lords and James III of Scotland, resulting in the death of the king.
- 1509 – Henry VIII of England marries Catherine of Aragon.
- 1594 – Philip II recognizes the rights and privileges of the local nobles and chieftains in the Philippines, which paved way to the stabilization of the rule of the Principalía (an elite ruling class of native nobility in Spanish Philippines).
- 1748 – Denmark adopts the characteristic Nordic Cross flag later taken up by all other Scandinavian countries.
- 1770 – British explorer Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef.
- 1775 – The American Revolutionary War’s first naval engagement, the Battle of Machias, results in the capture of a small British naval vessel.
- 1776 – The Continental Congress appoints Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.
- 1788 – Russian explorer Gerasim Izmailov reaches Alaska.
- 1805 – A fire consumes large portions of Detroit in the Michigan Territory.
- 1825 – The first cornerstone is laid for Fort Hamilton in New York City.
- 1837 – The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston, fueled by ethnic tensions between Yankees and Irish.
- 1865 – The Naval Battle of the Riachuelo is fought on the rivulet Riachuelo (Argentina), between the Paraguayan Navy on one side and the Brazilian Navy on the other. The Brazilian victory was crucial for the later success of the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina) in the Paraguayan War.
- 1892 – The Limelight Department, one of the world’s first film studios, is officially established in Melbourne, Australia.
- 1895 – Paris–Bordeaux–Paris, sometimes called the first automobile race in history or the “first motor race”, takes place.
- 1898 – The Hundred Days’ Reform, a planned movement to reform social, political, and educational institutions in China, is started by the Guangxu Emperor, but is suspended by Empress Dowager Cixi after 104 days. (The failed reform led to the abolition of the Imperial examination in 1905.)
- 1901 – The boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand are extended by the UK to include the Cook Islands.
- 1903 – A group of Serbian officers stormed the royal palace and assassinated King Alexander Obrenović and his wife, Queen Draga.
- 1917 – King Alexander assumes the throne of Greece after his father, Constantine I, abdicates under pressure from allied armies occupying Athens.
- 1919 – Sir Barton wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first horse to win the U.S. Triple Crown.
- 1920 – During the U.S. Republican National Convention in Chicago, U.S. Republican Party leaders gathered in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the U.S. presidential election, leading the Associated Press to coin the political phrase “smoke-filled room”.
- 1935 – Inventor Edwin Armstrong gives the first public demonstration of FM broadcasting in the United States at Alpine, New Jersey.
- 1936 – The London International Surrealist Exhibition opens.
- 1937 – Great Purge: The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin executes eight army leaders.
- 1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Wuhan starts.
- 1940 – World War II: The Siege of Malta begins with a series of Italian air raids.
- 1942 – World War II: The United States agrees to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
- 1942 – Free French Forces retreat from Bir Hakeim after having successfully delayed the Axis advance.
- 1944 – USS Missouri, the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, is commissioned.
- 1955 – Eighty-three spectators are killed and at least 100 are injured after an Austin-Healey and a Mercedes-Benz collide at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the deadliest ever accident in motorsports.
- 1956 – Start of Gal Oya riots, the first reported ethnic riots that target minority Sri Lankan Tamils in the Eastern Province. The total number of deaths is reportedly 150.
- 1962 – Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.
- 1963 – American Civil Rights Movement: Governor of Alabama George Wallace defiantly stands at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalized National Guard troops, they are able to register.
- 1963 – Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức burns himself with gasoline in a busy Saigon intersection to protest the lack of religious freedom in South Vietnam.
- 1963 – John F. Kennedy addresses Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which would revolutionize American society by guaranteeing equal access to public facilities, ending segregation in education, and guaranteeing federal protection for voting rights.
- 1964 – World War II veteran Walter Seifert attacks an elementary school in Cologne, Germany, killing at least eight children and two teachers and seriously injuring several more with a home-made flamethrower and a lance.
- 1968 – Lloyd J. Old identified the first cell surface antigens that could differentiate among different cell types.
- 1970 – After being appointed on May 15, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially receive their ranks as U.S. Army Generals, becoming the first women to do so.
- 1971 – The U.S. Government forcibly removes the last holdouts to the Native American Occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control.
- 1978 – Altaf Hussain founds the student political movement All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation (APMSO) in Karachi University.
- 1981 – A magnitude 6.9 earthquake at Golbaf, Iran, kills at least 2,000.
- 1987 – Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng and Bernie Grant are elected as the first black MPs in Great Britain.
- 1998 – Compaq Computer pays US$9 billion for Digital Equipment Corporation in the largest high-tech acquisition.
- 2001 – Timothy McVeigh is executed for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
- 2002 – Antonio Meucci is acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress.
- 2004 – Cassini–Huygens makes its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe.
- 2007 – Mudslides in Chittagong, Bangladesh, kill 130 people.
- 2008 – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes a historic official apology to Canada’s First Nations in regard to abuses at a Canadian Indian residential school.
- 2008 – The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is launched into orbit.
- 2010 – The first African FIFA World Cup kicks off in South Africa.
- 2012 – More than 80 people die in a landslide triggered by two earthquakes in Afghanistan; an entire village is buried.
- 2013 – Greece’s public broadcaster ERT is shut down by then-prime minister Antonis Samaras. It reopened exactly two years later by then-prime minister Alexis Tsipras.
- 2018 – 3 World Trade Center officially opens.
Births on June 11
- 1403 – John IV, Duke of Brabant (d. 1427)
- 1431 – Edmund Tudor, 1st Earl of Richmond (d. 1456)
- 1456 – Anne Neville, Princess of Wales and Queen of England (d. 1485)
- 1540 – Barnabe Googe, English poet and translator (d. 1594)
- 1555 – Lodovico Zacconi, Italian composer and theorist (d. 1627)
- 1572 – Ben Jonson, English poet, playwright, and critic (d. 1637)
- 1585 – Evert Horn, Swedish soldier (d. 1615)
- 1588 – George Wither, English poet (d. 1667)
- 1620 – John Moore, English businessman and politician, Lord Mayor of London (d. 1702)
- 1655 – Antonio Cifrondi, Italian painter (d. 1730)
- 1662 – Tokugawa Ienobu, Japanese shōgun (d. 1712)
- 1672 – Francesco Antonio Bonporti, Italian priest and composer (d. 1749)
- 1690 – Giovanni Antonio Giay, Italian composer (d. 1764)
- 1696 – James Francis Edward Keith, Scottish-Prussian field marshal (d. 1758)
- 1697 – Francesco Antonio Vallotti, Italian organist and composer (d. 1780)
- 1704 – Carlos Seixas, Portuguese harpsichord player and composer (d. 1742)
- 1709 – Joachim Martin Falbe, German painter (d. 1782)
- 1712 – Benjamin Ingham, American missionary (d. 1772)
- 1723 – Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (d. 1788)
- 1726 – Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain (d. 1746)
- 1741 – Joseph Warren, American physician and general (d. 1775)
- 1776 – John Constable, English painter and academic (d. 1837)
- 1797 – José Trinidad Reyes, Honduran philosopher and theorist (d. 1855)
- 1807 – James F. Schenck, American admiral (d. 1882)
- 1815 – Julia Margaret Cameron, Indian-Sri Lankan photographer (d. 1879)
- 1818 – Alexander Bain, Scottish philosopher and academic (d. 1903)
- 1829 – Edward Braddon, English-Australian politician, 18th Premier of Tasmania (d. 1904)
- 1832 – Lucy Pickens, American wife of Francis Wilkinson Pickens (d. 1899)
- 1842 – Carl von Linde, German engineer and academic (d. 1934)
- 1846 – William Louis Marshall, American general and engineer (d. 1920)
- 1847 – Millicent Fawcett, English academic and activist (d. 1929)
- 1861 – Alexander Peacock, Australian politician, 20th Premier of Victoria (d. 1933)
- 1864 – Richard Strauss, German composer and conductor (d. 1949)
- 1867 – Charles Fabry, French physicist and academic (d. 1945)
- 1871 – Stjepan Radić, Croatian lawyer and politician (d. 1928)
- 1876 – Alfred L. Kroeber, American-French anthropologist and ethnologist (d. 1960)
- 1877 – Renée Vivien, English-French poet and author (d. 1909)
- 1879 – Roger Bresnahan, American baseball player and manager (d. 1944)
- 1880 – Jeannette Rankin, American social worker and politician (d. 1973)
- 1881 – Spiros Xenos, Greek-Swedish painter (d. 1963)
- 1881 – Mordecai Kaplan, Lithuanian rabbi, founded Reconstructionist Judaism (d. 1983)
- 1888 – Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian-American anarchist and convicted criminal (d. 1927)
- 1889 – Hugo Wieslander, Swedish decathlete (d. 1976)
- 1894 – Kiichiro Toyoda, Japanese businessman, founded Toyota (d. 1952)
- 1895 – Nikolai Bulganin, Soviet politician (d. 1975)
- 1897 – Ram Prasad Bismil, Indian activist, founded the Hindustan Republican Association (d. 1927)
- 1897 – Reg Latta, Australian rugby league player (d. 1970)
- 1899 – Yasunari Kawabata, Japanese novelist and short story writer Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
- 1901 – Cap Fear, Canadian football player and rower (d. 1978)
- 1901 – Benny Wearing, Australian rugby league player (d. 1968)
- 1902 – Eric Fraser, British illustrator and graphic designer (d. 1983)
- 1903 – Ernie Nevers, American football player and coach (d. 1976)
- 1908 – Karl Hein, German hammer thrower (d. 1982)
- 1908 – Francisco Marto, Portuguese saint (d. 1919)
- 1909 – Natascha Artin Brunswick, German-American mathematician and photographer (d. 2003)
- 1910 – Carmine Coppola, American flute player and composer (d. 1991)
- 1910 – Jacques Cousteau, French biologist, author, and inventor, co-developed the aqua-lung (d. 1997)
- 1912 – James Algar, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1998)
- 1912 – William Baziotes, American painter and academic (d. 1963)
- 1912 – Mohammad Hassan Ganji, Iranian meteorologist and academic (d. 2012)
- 1913 – Vince Lombardi, American football player, coach, and manager (d. 1970)
- 1913 – Risë Stevens, American soprano and actress (d. 2013)
- 1914 – Jan Hendrik van den Berg, Dutch psychiatrist and academic (d. 2012)
- 1915 – Magda Gabor, Hungarian-American actress (d. 1997)
- 1915 – Nicholas Metropolis, American mathematician and physicist (d. 1999)
- 1917 – Joseph B. Wirthlin, American businessman and religious leader (d. 2008)
- 1918 – Ruth Aarons, American table tennis player and manager (d. 1980)
- 1919 – Suleiman Mousa, Jordanian historian and author (d. 2008)
- 1919 – Richard Todd, Irish-English actor (d. 2009)
- 1920 – Shelly Manne, American drummer, composer, and bandleader (d. 1984)
- 1920 – Hazel Scott, Trinidadian-American singer, actress, and pianist (d. 1981)
- 1920 – Keith Seaman, Australian lawyer and politician, 29th Governor of South Australia (d. 2013)
- 1922 – Jean Sutherland Boggs, Peruvian-Canadian historian, academic, and civil servant (d. 2014)
- 1922 – Michael Cacoyannis, Greek Cypriot director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2011)
- 1925 – Johnny Esaw, Canadian sportscaster (d. 2013)
- 1925 – William Styron, American novelist and essayist (d. 2006)
- 1926 – Carlisle Floyd, American composer and educator
- 1927 – Beryl Grey, English ballerina
- 1927 – John W. O’Malley, American Catholic historian, academic and Jesuit priest
- 1927 – Kit Pedler, English parapsychologist and author (d. 1981)
- 1928 – Queen Fabiola of Belgium (d. 2014)
- 1929 – Ayhan Şahenk, Turkish businessman (d. 2001)
- 1930 – Charles Rangel, American soldier, lawyer, and politician
- 1932 – Athol Fugard, South African-American actor, director, and playwright
- 1932 – Tim Sainsbury, English businessman and politician, Minister of State for Trade
- 1933 – Gene Wilder, American actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2016)
- 1937 – Chad Everett, American actor and director (d. 2012)
- 1937 – Robin Warren, Australian pathologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1939 – Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe Flint, English cricketer and journalist (d. 2017)
- 1939 – Jackie Stewart, Scottish race car driver and sportscaster
- 1942 – Parris Glendening, American politician, 59th Governor of Maryland
- 1943 – Henry Hill, American mobster (d. 2012)
- 1945 – Adrienne Barbeau, American actress
- 1947 – Richard Palmer-James, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1948 – Dave Cash, American baseball player and coach
- 1948 – Lalu Prasad Yadav, Indian politician, 20th Chief Minister of Bihar
- 1949 – Frank Beard, American drummer and songwriter
- 1950 – Lynsey de Paul, English singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, cartoonist and actress (d. 2014)
- 1950 – Graham Russell, English-Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1951 – Matthew Engel, English journalist and author
- 1951 – Yasumasa Morimura, Japanese painter and photographer
- 1952 – Yekaterina Podkopayeva, Russian runner
- 1952 – Donnie Van Zant, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1953 – Steve Bassam, Baron Bassam of Brighton, English politician
- 1953 – José Bové, French farmer and politician
- 1953 – Barbara Minty, American model
- 1954 – John Dyson, Australian cricketer
- 1954 – Johnny Neel, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
- 1955 – Yuriy Sedykh, Ukrainian hammer thrower
- 1955 – Duncan Steel, English-Australian astronomer and author
- 1956 – Joe Montana, American football player and sportscaster
- 1956 – Simon Plouffe, Canadian mathematician and academic
- 1956 – Arthur Porter, Canadian physician and academic (d. 2015)
- 1956 – Jamaaladeen Tacuma, American bass player and bandleader
- 1958 – Barry Adamson, English singer and bass player
- 1959 – Hugh Laurie, English actor and screenwriter
- 1960 – Mehmet Oz, American surgeon, author, and television host
- 1962 – Mano Menezes, Brazilian footballer and coach
- 1963 – Gioia Bruno, American singer-songwriter
- 1963 – Sandra Schmirler, Canadian curler and sportscaster (d. 2000)
- 1964 – Jean Alesi, French race car driver
- 1964 – Kim Gallagher, American runner (d. 2002)
- 1965 – Georgios Bartzokas, Greek former professional basketball player
- 1965 – Gavin Hill, New Zealand rugby player
- 1966 – Bruce Robison, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1967 – Graeme Bachop, New Zealand rugby player
- 1967 – João Garcia, Portuguese mountaineer
- 1968 – Alois, Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein
- 1968 – Manoa Thompson, Fijian rugby player
- 1969 – Peter Dinklage, American actor and producer
- 1969 – Bryan Fogarty, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2002)
- 1969 – Olaf Kapagiannidis, German footballer
- 1971 – Vladimir Gaidamașciuc, Moldovan footballer
- 1971 – Liz Kendall, British politician
- 1971 – Mark Richardson, New Zealand cricketer
- 1971 – Kenjiro Tsuda, Japanese voice actor
- 1972 – Stephen Kearney, New Zealand rugby league player and coach
- 1973 – José Manuel Abundis, Mexican footballer and coach
- 1974 – Fragiskos Alvertis, Greek basketball player, coach, and manager
- 1976 – Reiko Tosa, Japanese runner
- 1977 – Geoff Ogilvy, Australian golfer
- 1978 – Joshua Jackson, Canadian-American actor
- 1978 – Daryl Tuffey, New Zealand cricketer
- 1979 – Ali Boussaboun, Moroccan-Dutch footballer
- 1979 – Amy Duggan, Australian footballer and sportscaster
- 1980 – Yhency Brazoban, Dominican baseball player
- 1981 – Emiliano Moretti, Italian footballer
- 1981 – Kristo Tohver, Estonian footballer and referee
- 1982 – Vanessa Boslak, French pole vaulter
- 1982 – Jacques Freitag, South African high jumper
- 1982 – Joey Graham, American basketball player
- 1982 – Stephen Graham, American basketball player
- 1982 – Reni Maitua, Australian rugby league player
- 1982 – Eldar Rønning, Norwegian skier
- 1982 – Diana Taurasi, American basketball player
- 1983 – Chuck Hayes, American basketball player
- 1983 – José Reyes, Dominican baseball player
- 1984 – Andy Lee, Irish boxer
- 1984 – Vágner Love, Brazilian footballer
- 1985 – Tim Hoogland, German footballer
- 1986 – Sebastian Bayer, German long jumper
- 1986 – Shia LaBeouf, American actor
- 1987 – Marsel İlhan, Turkish tennis player
- 1987 – Didrik Solli-Tangen, Norwegian singer
- 1988 – Jesús Fernández Collado, Spanish footballer
- 1988 – Yui Aragaki, Japanese actress, voice actress, singer-songwriter, model, radio host
- 1989 – Maya Moore, American basketball player
- 1990 – Christophe Lemaitre, French sprinter
- 1991 – Daniel Howell, English internet celebrity
- 1993 – Brittany Boyd, American basketball player
- 1994 – Ivana Baquero, Spanish actress
- 1996 – Ayaka Sasaki, Japanese singer
- 1998 – Charlie Tahan, American actor
- 1999 – Eartha Cumings, Scottish footballer
Deaths on June 11
- 323 BC – Alexander the Great, Macedonian king (b. 356 BC)
- 573 – Emilian of Cogolla, Iberic saint (b. 472)
- 840 – Junna, emperor of Japan (b. 785)
- 884 – Shi Jingsi, general of the Tang Dynasty
- 888 – Rimbert, archbishop of Bremen (b. 830)
- 1183 – Henry the Young King of England (b. 1155)
- 1216 – Henry of Flanders, emperor of the Latin Empire (b. c. 1174)
- 1248 – Adachi Kagemori, Japanese samurai
- 1253 – Amadeus IV, count of Savoy (b. 1197)
- 1298 – Yolanda of Poland (b. 1235)
- 1323 – Bérenger Fredoli, French lawyer and bishop (b. 1250)
- 1345 – Alexios Apokaukos, chief minister of the Byzantine Empire
- 1347 – Bartholomew of San Concordio, Italian Dominican canonist and man of letters (b. 1260)
- 1446 – Henry de Beauchamp, 1st Duke of Warwick (b. 1425)
- 1479 – John of Sahagun, hermit and saint (b. 1419)
- 1488 – James III of Scotland (b. 1451)
- 1557 – John III of Portugal (b. 1502)
- 1560 – Mary of Guise, queen of James V of Scotland (b. 1515)
- 1683 – Nikita Pustosvyat, a leader of the Russian Old Believers, beheaded (b. unknown)
- 1695 – André Félibien, French historian and author (b. 1619)
- 1712 – Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme (b. 1654)
- 1727 – George I of Great Britain (b. 1660)
- 1748 – Felice Torelli, Italian painter (b. 1667)
- 1796 – Samuel Whitbread, English brewer and politician, founded the Whitbread Company (b. 1720)
- 1847 – John Franklin, English admiral and politician (b. 1786)
- 1852 – Karl Bryullov, Russian painter (b. 1799)
- 1859 – Klemens von Metternich, German-Austrian politician, 1st State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire (b. 1773)
- 1879 – William, Prince of Orange (b. 1840)
- 1882 – Louis Désiré Maigret, French bishop (b. 1804)
- 1885 – Matías Ramos Mejía, Argentinian colonel (b. 1810)
- 1897 – Henry Ayers, English-Australian politician, 8th Premier of South Australia (b. 1821)
- 1903 – Nikolai Bugaev, Russian mathematician and philosopher (b. 1837)
- 1903 – Alexander I of Serbia (b. 1876)
- 1903 – Draga Mašin, Serbian wife of Alexander I of Serbia (b. 1864)
- 1911 – James Curtis Hepburn, American physician and missionary (b. 1815)
- 1913 – Mahmud Shevket Pasha, Ottoman general and politician, 279th Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1856)
- 1914 – Adolphus Frederick V, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1848)
- 1920 – William F. Halsey, Sr., American captain (b. 1853)
- 1924 – Théodore Dubois, French organist, composer, and educator (b. 1837)
- 1927 – William Attewell, English cricketer (b. 1861)
- 1934 – Lev Vygotsky, Belarusian-Russian psychologist and theorist (b. 1896)
- 1936 – Robert E. Howard, American author and poet (b. 1906)
- 1937 – R. J. Mitchell, English engineer, designed the Supermarine Spitfire (b. 1895)
- 1941 – Daniel Carter Beard, American author and illustrator, founded the Boy Scouts of America (b. 1850)
- 1955 – Pierre Levegh, French race car driver (b. 1905)
- 1962 – Chhabi Biswas, Indian actor and director (b. 1900)
- 1963 – Thích Quảng Đức, Vietnamese monk and martyr (b. 1897)
- 1965 – Paul B. Coremans, Belgian chemist and academic (b. 1908)
- 1965 – José Mendes Cabeçadas, Portuguese admiral and politician, 9th President of Portugal (b. 1883)
- 1970 – Frank Laubach, American missionary and mystic (b. 1884)
- 1974 – Eurico Gaspar Dutra, Brazilian general and politician, 16th President of Brazil (b. 1883)
- 1974 – Julius Evola, Italian philosopher and author (b. 1898)
- 1976 – Jim Konstanty, American baseball player (b. 1917)
- 1979 – Alice Dalgliesh, Trinidadian-American author and publisher (b. 1893)
- 1979 – John Wayne, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1907)
- 1983 – Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian businessman and politician (b. 1894)
- 1984 – Enrico Berlinguer, Italian politician (b. 1922)
- 1986 – Chesley Bonestell, American painter and illustrator (b. 1888)
- 1991 – Cromwell Everson, South African composer (b. 1925)
- 1993 – Ray Sharkey, American actor (b. 1952)
- 1994 – A. Thurairajah, Sri Lankan engineer and academic (b. 1934)
- 1995 – Rodel Naval, Filipino singer-songwriter and actor (b. 1953)
- 1996 – George Hees, Canadian politician (b. 1910)
- 1996 – Brigitte Helm, German-Swiss actress (b. 1908)
- 1998 – Catherine Cookson, English author (b. 1906)
- 1999 – DeForest Kelley, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1920)
- 2001 – Timothy McVeigh, American terrorist (b. 1968)
- 2001 – Amalia Mendoza, Mexican singer and actress (b. 1923)
- 2003 – David Brinkley, American journalist and author (b. 1920)
- 2004 – Egon von Fürstenberg, Swiss fashion designer (b. 1946)
- 2005 – Vasco Gonçalves, Portuguese general and politician, 103rd Prime Minister of Portugal (b. 1922)
- 2005 – Anne-Marie Alonzo, Canadian playwright, poet, novelist, critic and publisher (b. 1951)
- 2006 – Neroli Fairhall, New Zealand archer (b. 1944)
- 2006 – Bruce Shand, English soldier (b. 1917)
- 2007 – Imre Friedmann, American biologist and academic (b. 1921)
- 2007 – Mala Powers, American actress (b. 1931)
- 2008 – Ove Andersson, Swedish race car driver (b. 1938)
- 2008 – Võ Văn Kiệt, Vietnamese soldier and politician, 5th Prime Minister of Vietnam (b. 1922)
- 2011 – Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Israeli physicist and engineer (b. 1947)
- 2011 – Seth Putnam, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1968)
- 2012 – Ann Rutherford, Canadian-American actress (b. 1917)
- 2012 – Teófilo Stevenson, Cuban boxer and engineer (b. 1952)
- 2013 – Miller Barber, American golfer (b. 1931)
- 2013 – Carl W. Bauer, American lawyer and politician (b. 1933)
- 2013 – Robert Fogel, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1926)
- 2013 – James Grimsley, Jr., American general (b. 1921)
- 2013 – Rory Morrison, English journalist (b. 1964)
- 2013 – Kristiāns Pelšs, Latvian ice hockey player (b. 1992)
- 2013 – Vidya Charan Shukla, Indian politician, Indian Minister of External Affairs (b. 1929)
- 2014 – Ruby Dee, American actress (b. 1922)
- 2014 – Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Spanish conductor and composer (b. 1933)
- 2014 – Susan B. Horwitz, American computer scientist, engineer, and academic (b. 1955)
- 2014 – Mipham Chokyi Lodro, Tibetan lama and educator (b. 1952)
- 2014 – Benjamin Mophatlane, South African businessman (b. 1973)
- 2014 – Carlton Sherwood, American soldier and journalist (b. 1947)
- 2015 – Jim Ed Brown, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1934)
- 2015 – Ornette Coleman, American saxophonist, violinist, trumpet player, and composer (b. 1930)
- 2015 – Ian McKechnie, Scottish footballer and manager (b. 1941)
- 2015 – Ron Moody, English actor and singer (b. 1924)
- 2015 – Dusty Rhodes, American wrestler (b. 1945)
- 2016 – Rudi Altig, German track and road racing cyclist (b. 1937)
- 2020 – Stella Pevsner, children’s author (b. 1921)
Holidays and observances on June 11
- American Evacuation Day (Libya)
- Brazilian Navy commemorative day (Brazil)
- Christian feast day:
- Barnabas the Apostle
- Bartholomew the Apostle (Eastern Christianity)
- Blessed Ignatius Maloyan (Armenian Catholic Church)
- Paula Frassinetti
- Riagail of Bangor
- June 11 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Davis Day (Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada)
- Kamehameha Day (Hawaii, United States)
- Student Day (Honduras)
-
June 7 in History
- 421 – Emperor Theodosius II marries Aelia Eudocia at Constantinople (Byzantine Empire).
- 879 – Pope John VIII recognizes the Duchy of Croatia under Duke Branimir as an independent state.
- 1002 – Henry II, a cousin of Emperor Otto III, is elected and crowned King of Germany.
- 1099 – First Crusade: The Siege of Jerusalem begins.
- 1420 – Troops of the Republic of Venice capture Udine, ending the independence of the Patria del Friuli.
- 1494 – Spain and Portugal sign the Treaty of Tordesillas which divides the New World between the two countries.
- 1628 – The Petition of Right, a major English constitutional document, is granted the Royal Assent by Charles I and becomes law.
- 1654 – Louis XIV is crowned King of France.
- 1692 – Port Royal, Jamaica, is hit by a catastrophic earthquake; in just three minutes, 1,600 people are killed and 3,000 are seriously injured.
- 1776 – Richard Henry Lee presents the “Lee Resolution” to the Continental Congress. The motion is seconded by John Adams and will lead to the United States Declaration of Independence.
- 1788 – French Revolution: Day of the Tiles: Civilians in Grenoble toss roof tiles and various objects down upon royal troops.
- 1800 – David Thompson reaches the mouth of the Saskatchewan River in Manitoba.
- 1810 – The newspaper Gazeta de Buenos Ayres is first published in Argentina.
- 1832 – The Great Reform Act of England and Wales receives royal assent.
- 1832 – Asian cholera reaches Quebec, brought by Irish immigrants, and kills about 6,000 people in Lower Canada.
- 1862 – The United States and the United Kingdom agree in the Lyons–Seward Treaty to suppress the African slave trade.
- 1863 – During the French intervention in Mexico, Mexico City is captured by French troops.
- 1866 – One thousand eight hundred Fenian raiders are repelled back to the United States after looting and plundering the Saint-Armand and Frelighsburg areas of Canada East.
- 1880 – War of the Pacific: The Battle of Arica, the assault and capture of Morro de Arica (Arica Cape), ends the Campaña del Desierto (Desert Campaign).
- 1892 – Homer Plessy is arrested for refusing to leave his seat in the “whites-only” car of a train; he lost the resulting court case, Plessy v. Ferguson.
- 1899 – American Temperance crusader Carrie Nation begins her campaign of vandalizing alcohol-serving establishments by destroying the inventory in a saloon in Kiowa, Kansas.
- 1905 – Norway’s parliament dissolves its union with Sweden. The vote was confirmed by a national plebiscite on August 13 of that year.
- 1906 – Cunard Line’s RMS Lusitania is launched from the John Brown Shipyard, Glasgow (Clydebank), Scotland.
- 1917 – World War I: Battle of Messines: Allied soldiers detonate a series of mines underneath German trenches at Messines Ridge, killing 10,000 German troops.
- 1919 – Sette Giugno: Nationalist riots break out in Valletta, the capital of Malta. British soldiers fire into the crowd, killing four people.
- 1929 – The Lateran Treaty is ratified, bringing Vatican City into existence.
- 1938 – The Douglas DC-4E makes its first test flight.
- 1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Nationalist government creates the 1938 Yellow River flood to halt Japanese forces. Five hundred to nine hundred thousand civilians are killed.
- 1940 – King Haakon VII, Crown Prince Olav and the Norwegian government leave Tromsø and go into exile in London. They return exactly five years later.
- 1942 – World War II: The Battle of Midway ends in American victory.
- 1942 – World War II: Aleutian Islands Campaign: Imperial Japanese soldiers begin occupying the American islands of Attu and Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.
- 1944 – World War II: The steamer Danae, carrying 350 Cretan Jews and 250 Cretan partisans, is sunk without survivors off the shore of Santorini.
- 1944 – World War II: Battle of Normandy: At Ardenne Abbey, members of the SS Division Hitlerjugend massacre 23 Canadian prisoners of war.
- 1945 – King Haakon VII of Norway returns from exactly five years in exile during World War II.
- 1946 – The United Kingdom’s BBC returns to broadcasting its television service, which has been off air for seven years because of the Second World War.
- 1948 – Anti-Jewish riots in Oujda and Jerada take place.
- 1948 – Edvard Beneš resigns as President of Czechoslovakia rather than signing the Ninth-of-May Constitution, making his nation a Communist state.
- 1955 – Lux Radio Theatre signs off the air permanently. The show launched in New York in 1934, and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.
- 1962 – The Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS) sets fire to the University of Algiers library building, destroying about 500,000 books.
- 1965 – The Supreme Court of the United States hands down its decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, prohibiting the states from criminalizing the use of contraception by married couples.
- 1967 – Six-Day War: Israeli soldiers enter Jerusalem.
- 1971 – The United States Supreme Court overturns the conviction of Paul Cohen for disturbing the peace, setting the precedent that vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
- 1971 – The Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service raids the home of Ken Ballew for illegal possession of hand grenades.
- 1977 – Five hundred million people watch the high day of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II begin on television.
- 1981 – The Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq’s Osiraq nuclear reactor during Operation Opera.
- 1982 – Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public; the bathroom where Elvis Presley died five years earlier is kept off-limits.
- 1989 – Surinam Airways Flight 764 crashes on approach to Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport in Suriname because of pilot error, killing 176 of 187 aboard.
- 1991 – Mount Pinatubo erupts, generating an ash column 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) high.
- 2000 – The United Nations defines the Blue Line as the border between Israel and Lebanon.
- 2013 – A bus catches fire in the Chinese city of Xiamen, killing at least 47 people and injuring more than 34 others.
- 2013 – A gunman opens fire at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, after setting a house on fire nearby, killing six people, including the suspect.
- 2014 – At least 37 people are killed in an attack in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s South Kivu province.
Births on June 7
- 1003 – Emperor Jingzong of Western Xia (d. 1048)
- 1402 – Ichijō Kaneyoshi, Japanese noble (d. 1481)
- 1422 – Federico da Montefeltro, Italian condottiero (d. 1482)
- 1502 – John III of Portugal (d. 1557)
- 1529 – Étienne Pasquier, French lawyer and jurist (d. 1615)
- 1687 – Gaetano Berenstadt, Italian actor and singer (d. 1734)
- 1702 – Louis George, Margrave of Baden-Baden (d. 1761)
- 1757 – Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (d. 1806)
- 1761 – John Rennie the Elder, Scottish engineer (d. 1821)
- 1770 – Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1828)
- 1778 – Beau Brummell, English cricketer and fashion designer (d. 1840)
- 1811 – James Young Simpson, Scottish obstetrician (d. 1870)
- 1831 – Amelia Edwards, English journalist and author (d. 1892)
- 1837 – Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant (d. 1903)
- 1840 – Carlota of Mexico (d. 1927)
- 1845 – Leopold Auer, Hungarian violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1930)
- 1847 – George Washington Ball, American legislator from Iowa (d. 1915)
- 1848 – Paul Gauguin, French painter and sculptor (d. 1903)
- 1851 – Ture Malmgren, Swedish journalist and politician (d. 1922)
- 1861 – Robina Nicol, New Zealand photographer and suffragist (d. 1942)
- 1862 – Philipp Lenard, Slovak-German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1947)
- 1863 – Bones Ely, American baseball player and manager (d. 1952)
- 1868 – Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Scottish painter and architect (d. 1928)
- 1877 – Roelof Klein, Dutch-American rower and engineer (d. 1960)
- 1879 – Knud Rasmussen, Danish anthropologist and explorer (d. 1933)
- 1879 – Joan Voûte, Dutch astronomer and academic (d. 1963)
- 1884 – Ester Claesson, Swedish landscape architect (d. 1931)
- 1883 – Sylvanus Morley, American archaeologist and scholar (d. 1948)
- 1886 – Henri Coandă, Romanian engineer, designed the Coandă-1910 (d. 1972)
- 1888 – Clarence DeMar, American runner and educator (d. 1958)
- 1892 – Leo Reise, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1975)
- 1893 – Gillis Grafström, Swedish figure skater and architect (d. 1938)
- 1894 – Alexander P. de Seversky, Georgian-American pilot and engineer, co-designed the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (d. 1974)
- 1896 – Douglas Campbell, American lieutenant and pilot (d. 1990)
- 1896 – Robert S. Mulliken, American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
- 1896 – Imre Nagy, Hungarian soldier and politician, 44th Prime Minister of Hungary (d. 1958)
- 1897 – George Szell, Hungarian-American conductor and composer (d. 1970)
- 1899 – Elizabeth Bowen, Anglo-Irish author and critic (d. 1973)
- 1902 – Georges Van Parys, French composer (d. 1971)
- 1902 – Herman B Wells, American banker, author, and academic (d. 2000)
- 1905 – James J. Braddock, American lieutenant and boxer (d. 1974)
- 1906 – Glen Gray, American saxophonist and bandleader (d. 1963)
- 1907 – Sigvard Bernadotte, Count of Wisborg (d. 2002)
- 1909 – Virginia Apgar, American anesthesiologist and pediatrician, developed the Apgar test (d. 1974)
- 1909 – Peter W. Rodino, American captain, lawyer, and politician (d. 2005)
- 1909 – Jessica Tandy, English-American actress (d. 1994)
- 1910 – Arthur Gardner, American actor and producer (d. 2014)
- 1910 – Mike Sebastian, American football player and coach (d. 1989)
- 1910 – Bradford Washburn, American mountaineer, photographer, and cartographer (d. 2007)
- 1910 – Marion Post Wolcott, American photographer (d. 1990)
- 1911 – Brooks Stevens, American engineer and designer, designed the Wienermobile (d. 1995)
- 1912 – Jacques Hélian, French bandleader (d. 1986)
- 1917 – Gwendolyn Brooks, American poet (d. 2000)
- 1917 – Dean Martin, American singer, actor, and producer (d. 1995)
- 1920 – Georges Marchais, French mechanic and politician (d. 1997)
- 1921 – Myrtle Edwards, Australian cricketer and softball player (d. 2010)
- 1921 – Brian Talboys, New Zealand politician, 7th Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 2012)
- 1922 – Leo Reise, Jr., Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2015)
- 1923 – Jules Deschênes, Canadian lawyer and judge (d. 2000)
- 1925 – Ernestina Herrera de Noble, Argentine publisher and executive (d. 2017)
- 1926 – Jean-Noël Tremblay, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 2020)
- 1927 – Charles de Tornaco, Belgian race car driver (d. 1953)
- 1927 – Paul Salamunovich, American conductor and educator (d. 2014)
- 1928 – Dave Bowen, Welsh footballer and manager (d. 1995)
- 1928 – James Ivory, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1928 – Randolph Turpin, English boxer (d. 1966)
- 1929 – Ernie Roth, American wrestling manager (d. 1983)
- 1929 – John Turner, Canadian lawyer and politician, 17th Prime Minister of Canada
- 1931 – Virginia McKenna, English actress and author
- 1932 – Per Maurseth, Norwegian historian, academic, and politician (d. 2013)
- 1933 – Romeo Galán, Argentine athlete
- 1935 – Harry Crews, American novelist, playwright, short story writer, and essayist (d. 2012)
- 1935 – Shyama, Indian actress (d. 2017)
- 1936 – Bert Sugar, American author and boxing historian (d. 2012)
- 1938 – Ian St John, Scottish international footballer, forward and manager
- 1939 – Yuli Turovsky, Russian-Canadian cellist, conductor and educator (d. 2013)
- 1940 – Tom Jones, Welsh singer and actor
- 1940 – Ronald Pickup, English actor
- 1944 – Annette Lu, Taiwanese lawyer and politician, 8th Vice President of the Republic of China
- 1944 – Clarence White, American guitarist and singer (d. 1973)
- 1945 – Gilles Marotte, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2005)
- 1945 – John Olsen, Australian politician, 42nd Premier of South Australia
- 1945 – Wolfgang Schüssel, Austrian lawyer and politician, 26th Chancellor of Austria
- 1947 – Don Money, American baseball player and coach
- 1947 – Thurman Munson, American baseball player (d. 1979)
- 1948 – Jim Walton, American businessman
- 1952 – Liam Neeson, Irish-American actor
- 1952 – Orhan Pamuk, Turkish-American novelist, screenwriter, and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1953 – Johnny Clegg, English- born South African singer-songwriter, guitarist and anthropologist (d. 2019)
- 1954 – Louise Erdrich, American novelist and poet
- 1955 – William Forsythe, American actor and producer
- 1955 – Tim Richmond, American race car driver (d. 1989)
- 1956 – L.A. Reid, American songwriter and producer, co-founded LaFace Records
- 1957 – Juan Luis Guerra, Dominican singer-songwriter and producer
- 1957 – Paddy McAloon, English singer-songwriter
- 1958 – Prince, American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor (d. 2016)
- 1958 – Surakiart Sathirathai, Thai politician and diplomat
- 1959 – Mike Pence, 48th Vice President of the United States, 50th Governor of Indiana
- 1960 – Hirohiko Araki, Japanese manga artist and creator of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
- 1960 – Bill Prady, American screenwriter and producer
- 1961 – Dave Catching, American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
- 1962 – Thierry Hazard, French singer-songwriter
- 1962 – Takuya Kurosawa, Japanese race car driver
- 1963 – Gordon Gano, American musician
- 1964 – Gia Carides, Australian actress
- 1964 – Graeme Labrooy, Sri Lankan cricketer
- 1965 – Mick Foley, American wrestler, actor, and author
- 1965 – Jean-Pierre François, French footballer and singer
- 1965 – Damien Hirst, English painter and art collector
- 1966 – Eric Kretz, American drummer, songwriter, and producer
- 1966 – Tom McCarthy, American director, screenwriter and actor
- 1966 – Stéphane Richer, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1967 – Dave Navarro, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
- 1970 – Helen Baxendale, English actress
- 1970 – Cafu, Brazilian footballer
- 1970 – Andrei Kovalenko, Russian ice hockey player
- 1970 – Mike Modano, American ice hockey player
- 1972 – Karl Urban, New Zealand actor
- 1974 – Bear Grylls, English adventurer, author, and television host
- 1975 – Allen Iverson, American basketball player
- 1976 – Necro, American rapper, producer, and director
- 1976 – Mirsad Türkcan, Turkish basketball player
- 1977 – Marcin Baszczyński, Polish footballer
- 1978 – Mini Andén, Swedish-American model, actress, and producer
- 1978 – Bill Hader, Two-time Emmy winning American actor, comedian, and screenwriter
- 1979 – Kevin Hofland, Dutch footballer
- 1979 – Anna Torv, Australian actress
- 1980 – Ed Moses, American swimmer
- 1981 – Stephen Bywater, English footballer
- 1981 – Anna Kournikova, Russian tennis player
- 1981 – Kevin Kyle, Scottish footballer
- 1983 – Milan Jurčina, Slovak ice hockey player
- 1983 – Piotr Małachowski, Polish discus thrower
- 1984 – Ari Koivunen, Finnish singer-songwriter
- 1984 – Eri Yanetani, Japanese snowboarder
- 1985 – Arkadiusz Piech, Polish footballer
- 1985 – Charlie Simpson, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1985 – Richard Thompson, Trinidadian sprinter
- 1986 – Keegan Bradley, American golfer
- 1988 – Michael Cera, Canadian actor
- 1988 – Milan Lucic, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1990 – Iggy Azalea, Australian rapper
- 1990 – T. J. Brodie, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1990 – Allison Schmitt, American swimmer
- 1991 – Cenk Tosun, Turkish professional footballer
- 1991 – Fetty Wap, American rapper
- 1992 – Sara Niemietz, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1992 – Mathias Gehrt, Danish professional footballer
- 1992 – Alípio, Brazilian footballer
- 1993 – George Ezra, English singer, songwriter and guitarist
Deaths on June 7
- 555 – Vigilius, Pope of the Catholic Church (b. 500)
- 862 – Al-Muntasir, Abbasid caliph (b. 837)
- 929 – Ælfthryth, Countess of Flanders (b. 877)
- 940 – Qian Hongzun, heir apparent of Wuyue (b. 925)
- 951 – Lu Wenji, Chinese chancellor (b. 876)
- 1329 – Robert the Bruce, Scottish king (b. 1274)
- 1337 – William I, Count of Hainaut (b. 1286)
- 1341 – An-Nasir Muhammad, Egyptian sultan (b. 1285)
- 1358 – Ashikaga Takauji, Japanese shōgun (b. 1305)
- 1394 – Anne of Bohemia, English queen (b. 1366)
- 1492 – Casimir IV Jagiellon, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440 and King of Poland from 1447 (b. 1427)
- 1594 – Rodrigo Lopez, physician of Queen Elizabeth (b. 1525)
- 1618 – Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, English politician, Colonial Governor of Virginia (b. 1577)
- 1660 – George II Rákóczi, Prince of Transylvania (b. 1621)
- 1711 – Henry Dodwell, Irish scholar and theologian (b. 1641)
- 1779 – William Warburton, English bishop and critic (b. 1698)
- 1792 – Benjamin Tupper, American general and surveyor (b. 1738)
- 1810 – Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian engraver and etcher (b. 1765)
- 1826 – Joseph von Fraunhofer, German optician, physicist, and astronomer (b. 1787)
- 1840 – Frederick William III of Prussia (b. 1770)
- 1843 – Friedrich Hölderlin, German lyric poet (b. 1770)
- 1853 – Norbert Provencher, Canadian missionary and bishop (b. 1787)
- 1854 – Charles Baudin, French admiral (b. 1792)
- 1859 – David Cox, English painter (b. 1783)
- 1861 – Patrick Brontë, Anglo-Irish priest and author (b. 1777)
- 1863 – Antonio Valero de Bernabé, Latin American liberator (b. 1790)
- 1866 – Chief Seattle, American tribal chief (b. 1780)
- 1879 – William Tilbury Fox, English dermatologist and academic (b. 1836)
- 1896 – Pavlos Carrer, Greek composer (b. 1829)
- 1911 – Maurice Rouvier, French politician, Prime Minister of France (b. 1842)
- 1915 – Charles Reed Bishop, American banker and politician, founded the First Hawaiian Bank (b. 1822)
- 1916 – Émile Faguet, French author and critic (b. 1847)
- 1927 – Archie Birkin, English motorcycle racer (b. 1905)
- 1927 – Edmund James Flynn, Canadian lawyer and politician, 10th Premier of Quebec (b. 1847)
- 1932 – John Verran, English-Australian politician, 26th Premier of South Australia (b. 1856)
- 1933 – Dragutin Domjanić, Croatian lawyer, judge, and poet (b. 1875)
- 1936 – Stjepan Seljan, Croatian explorer (b. 1875)
- 1937 – Jean Harlow, American actress and singer (b. 1911)
- 1942 – Alan Blumlein, English engineer (b. 1903)
- 1945 – Kitaro Nishida, Japanese philosopher and academic (b. 1870)
- 1954 – Alan Turing, English mathematician and computer scientist (b. 1912)
- 1956 – John Willcock, Australian politician, 15th Premier of Western Australia (b. 1879)
- 1961 – Reginald Fletcher, 1st Baron Winster, English navy officer and politician, Secretary of State for Transport (b. 1885)
- 1963 – ZaSu Pitts, American actress (b. 1894)
- 1965 – Judy Holliday, American actress and singer (b. 1921)
- 1966 – Jean Arp, German-French sculptor, painter, and poet (b. 1886)
- 1967 – Anatoly Maltsev, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1909)
- 1967 – Dorothy Parker, American poet, short story writer, critic, and satirist (b. 1893)
- 1968 – Dan Duryea, American actor and singer (b. 1907)
- 1970 – E. M. Forster, English novelist, short story writer, essayist (b. 1879)
- 1978 – Charles Moran, American race car driver (b. 1906)
- 1978 – Ronald George Wreyford Norrish, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
- 1979 – Asa Earl Carter, American Ku Klux Klan leader (b. 1925)
- 1980 – Elizabeth Craig, Scottish journalist and economist (b. 1883)
- 1980 – Philip Guston, Canadian-American painter and educator (b. 1913)
- 1980 – Henry Miller, American novelist and essayist (b. 1891)
- 1985 – Klaudia Taev, Estonian opera singer and educator (b. 1906)
- 1987 – Cahit Zarifoğlu, Turkish poet and author (b. 1940)
- 1988 – Martin Sommer, German SS officer (b. 1915)
- 1989 – Chico Landi, Brazilian race car driver (b. 1907)
- 1989 – William McLean Hamilton, Canadian politician, Postmaster General of Canada (b. 1919)
- 1992 – Bill France Sr., American race car driver and businessman, co-founded NASCAR (b. 1909)
- 1993 – Dražen Petrović, Croatian basketball player, Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer 2002 (b. 1964)
- 1995 – Hsuan Hua, Chinese monk and educator (b. 1918)
- 1995 – Charles Ritchie, Canadian diplomat, High Commission of Canada to the United Kingdom (b. 1906)
- 1996 – Max Factor, Jr., American businessman (b. 1904)
- 1997 – Jacques Canetti, French music executive and talent agent (b. 1909)
- 2001 – Víctor Paz Estenssoro, Bolivian politician, 52nd President of Bolivia (b. 1907)
- 2001 – Carole Fredericks, French singer (Fredericks Goldman Jones) (b. 1952)
- 2001 – Betty Neels, English nurse and author (b. 1910)
- 2002 – Signe Hasso, Swedish-American actress (b. 1915)
- 2002 – B. D. Jatti, Indian lawyer and politician, 5th Vice President of India (b. 1912)
- 2002 – Lilian, Princess of Réthy (b. 1916)
- 2004 – Quorthon, Swedish musician (b. 1966)
- 2008 – Rudy Fernandez, Filipino actor and producer (b. 1953)
- 2008 – Jim McKay, American journalist and sportscaster (b. 1921)
- 2008 – Dino Risi, Italian director and screenwriter (b. 1916)
- 2009 – Hugh Hopper, English bass player and songwriter (b. 1945)
- 2011 – Paul Dickson, American football player and coach (b. 1937)
- 2012 – Phillip V. Tobias, South African paleontologist and academic (b. 1925)
- 2012 – Bob Welch, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1945)
- 2013 – Pierre Mauroy, French educator and politician, Prime Minister of France (b. 1928)
- 2014 – Fernandão, Brazilian footballer and manager (b. 1978)
- 2014 – Dora Akunyili, Nigerian academic and politician (b. 1954)
- 2014 – Epainette Mbeki, South African activist (b. 1916)
- 2015 – Christopher Lee, English actor (b. 1922)
- 2015 – Sheikh Razzak Ali, Bangladeshi journalist and politician (b. 1928)
Holidays and observances on June 7
- Anniversary of the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation (Slovakia)
- Birthday of Prince Joachim (Denmark)
- Christian feast day:
- Antonio Maria Gianelli
- Colmán of Dromore
- Landulf of Yariglia (Asti)
- Meriasek
- Paul I of Constantinople
- Robert of Newminster
- Chief Seattle (Lutheran Church)
- Blessed Marie-Thérèse de Soubiran La Louvière
- June 7 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Commemoration Day of St John the Forerunner (Armenian Apostolic Church)
- Pioneers of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil (Episcopal Church (USA))
- Battle of Arica Day (Arica y Parinacota Region, Chile)
- Flag Day (Peru)
- Journalist Day (Argentina)
- Sette Giugno (Malta)
- Union Dissolution Day (Independence Day of Norway)
-
May 27 in History
- 1096 – Count Emicho enters Mainz, where his followers massacre Jewish citizens.At least 600 Jews are killed.
- 1120 – Richard III of Capua is anointed as Prince two weeks before his untimely death.
- 1153 – Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland.
- 1199 – John is crowned King of England.
- 1257 – Richard of Cornwall, and his wife, Sanchia of Provence, are crowned King and Queen of the Germans at Aachen Cathedral.
- 1644 – Manchu regent Dorgon defeats rebel leader Li Zicheng of the Shun dynasty at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, allowing the Manchus to enter and conquer the capital city of Beijing.
- 1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg.
- 1798 – The Battle of Oulart Hill takes place in Wexford, Ireland; Irish rebel leaders defeat and kill a detachment of militia.
- 1799 – War of the Second Coalition: Austrian forces defeat the French at Winterthur, Switzerland.
- 1813 – War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George.
- 1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian unification.
- 1863 – American Civil War: First Assault on the Confederate works at the Siege of Port Hudson.
- 1874 – The first group of Dorsland trekkers under the leadership of Gert Alberts leaves Pretoria.
- 1883 – Alexander III is crowned Tsar of Russia.
- 1896 – The F4-strength St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado hits in St. Louis, Missouri, and East St. Louis, Illinois, killing at least 255 people and causing over $10–million in damage.
- 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Battle of Tsushima begins.
- 1917 – Pope Benedict XV promulgates the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the first comprehensive codification of Catholic canon law in the legal history of the Catholic Church.
- 1919 – The NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight.
- 1927 – The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the Ford Model A.
- 1930 – The 1,046 feet (319 m) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public.
- 1933 – New Deal: The U.S. Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
- 1933 – The Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon Three Little Pigs, with its hit song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”
- 1935 – New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495).
- 1937 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California.
- 1940 – World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 99 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops; two survive.
- 1941 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims an “unlimited national emergency”.
- 1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing almost 2,100 men.
- 1942 – World War II: In Operation Anthropoid, Reinhard Heydrich is fatally wounded in Prague; he dies of his injuries eight days later.
- 1958 – First flight of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II.
- 1960 – In Turkey, a military coup removes President Celâl Bayar and the rest of the democratic government from office.
- 1962 – The Centralia mine fire is ignited in the town’s landfill above a coal mine.
- 1965 – Vietnam War: American warships begin the first bombardment of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam.
- 1967 – Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and to count them in the national census.
- 1967 – The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy is launched by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline.
- 1971 – The Dahlerau train disaster, the worst railway accident in West Germany, kills 46 people and injures 25 near Wuppertal.
- 1971 – Pakistani forces massacre over 200 civilians, mostly Bengali Hindus, in the Bagbati massacre.
- 1975 – Dibbles Bridge coach crash near Grassington, in North Yorkshire, England, kills 33 – the highest ever death toll in a road accident in the United Kingdom.
- 1980 – The Gwangju Massacre: Airborne and army troops of South Korea retake the city of Gwangju from civil militias, killing at least 207 and possibly many more.
- 1984 – The Danube-Black Sea canal is opened, in a ceremony attended by the Ceaușescus. It had been under construction since the 1950s.
- 1996 – First Chechen War: the Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire.
- 1997 – The 1997 Central Texas tornado outbreak occurs, spawning multiple tornadoes in Central Texas, including the F5 that killed 27 in Jarrell.
- 1998 – Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
- 2001 – Members of the Islamist separatist group Abu Sayyaf seize twenty hostages from an affluent island resort on Palawan in the Philippines; the hostage crisis would not be resolved until June 2002.
- 2006 – The 6.4 Mw Yogyakarta earthquake shakes central Java with an MSK intensity of VIII (Damaging), leaving more than 5,700 dead and 37,000 injured.
- 2016 – Barack Obama is the first president of United States to visit Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and meet Hibakusha.
- 2017 – Andrew Scheer takes over after Rona Ambrose as the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
- 2018 – Maryland Flood Event: A flood occurs throughout the Patapsco Valley causing one death and destroying the entire first floors of buildings on Main Street in Ellicott City and causing cars to overturn.
Births on May 27
- 742 – Emperor Dezong of Tang (d. 805)
- 1332 – Ibn Khaldun, Tunisian historian and theologian (d. 1406)
- 1378 – Zhu Quan, Chinese military commander, historian and playwright (d. 1448)
- 1519 – Girolamo Mei, Italian historian and theorist (d. 1594)
- 1537 – Louis IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Marburg (d. 1604)
- 1576 – Caspar Schoppe, German author and scholar (d. 1649)
- 1584 – Michael Altenburg, German theologian and composer (d. 1640)
- 1601 – Antoine Daniel, French-Canadian missionary and saint (d. 1648)
- 1626 – William II, Prince of Orange (d. 1650)
- 1627 – Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier (d. 1693)
- 1651 – Louis Antoine de Noailles, French cardinal (d. 1729)
- 1652 – Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine of Germany (d. 1722)
- 1738 – Nathaniel Gorham, American merchant and politician, 14th President of the Continental Congress (d. 1796)
- 1756 – Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria (d. 1825)
- 1774 – Francis Beaufort, Irish hydrographer and officer in the Royal Navy (d. 1857)
- 1794 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1877)
- 1814 – John Rudolph Niernsee, Viennese-born American architect (d.1885)
- 1815 – Henry Parkes, English-Australian politician, 7th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1896)
- 1818 – Amelia Bloomer, American journalist and activist (d. 1894)
- 1819 – Julia Ward Howe, American poet and songwriter (d. 1910)
- 1827 – Samuel F. Miller, American lawyer and politician (d. 1892)
- 1832 – Zenas Ferry Moody, American surveyor and politician, 7th Governor of Oregon (d. 1917)
- 1836 – Jay Gould, American businessman and financier (d. 1892)
- 1837 – Wild Bill Hickok, American police officer (d. 1876)
- 1852 – Billy Barnes, English cricketer (d. 1899)
- 1857 – Theodor Curtius, German chemist (d. 1928)
- 1860 – Manuel Teixeira Gomes, Portuguese politician, 7th President of Portugal (d. 1941)
- 1863 – Arthur Mold, English cricketer (d. 1921)
- 1867 – Arnold Bennett, English author and playwright (d. 1931)
- 1868 – Aleksa Šantić, Bosnian poet and author (d. 1924)
- 1871 – Georges Rouault, French painter and illustrator (d. 1958)
- 1875 – Frederick Cuming, English cricketer (d. 1942)
- 1876 – Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Polish journalist and author (d. 1945)
- 1876 – William Stanier, English engineer (d. 1965)
- 1878 – Anna Cervin, Swedish artist (d. 1972)
- 1879 – Karl Bühler, German-American linguist and psychologist (d. 1963)
- 1879 – Hans Lammers, German judge and politician (d. 1962)
- 1883 – Jessie Arms Botke, American painter (d. 1971)
- 1884 – Max Brod, Czech journalist, author, and composer (d. 1968)
- 1887 – Frank Woolley, English cricketer (d. 1978)
- 1888 – Louis Durey, French composer (d. 1979)
- 1891 – Claude Champagne, Canadian violinist, pianist, and composer (d. 1965)
- 1891 – Jaan Kärner, Estonian poet and author (d. 1958)
- 1894 – Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French physician and author (d. 1961)
- 1894 – Dashiell Hammett, American detective novelist and screenwriter (d. 1961)
- 1895 – Douglas Lloyd Campbell, Canadian educator and politician, 13th Premier of Manitoba (d. 1995)
- 1897 – John Cockcroft, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
- 1897 – Dink Templeton, American rugby player and coach (d. 1962)
- 1898 – David Crosthwait, American engineer, inventor and writer (d. 1976)
- 1899 – Johannes Türn, Estonian chess and draughts player (d. 1993)
- 1900 – Lotte Toberentz, German overseer of the Nazi Uckermark concentration camp (d. 1964)
- 1900 – Uładzimir Žyłka, Belarusian poet and translator (d. 1933)
- 1904 – Chūhei Nambu, Japanese jumper and journalist (d. 1997)
- 1906 – Buddhadasa, Thai monk and philosopher (d. 1993)
- 1906 – Harry Hibbs, English footballer (d. 1984)
- 1906 – Antonio Rosario Mennonna, Italian bishop (d. 2009)
- 1907 – Nicolas Calas, Greek-American poet and critic (d. 1988)
- 1907 – Rachel Carson, American biologist, environmentalist, and author (d. 1964)
- 1909 – Dolores Hope, American singer and philanthropist (d. 2011)
- 1911 – Hubert Humphrey, American journalist and politician, 38th Vice President of the United States (d. 1978)
- 1911 – Teddy Kollek, Hungarian-Israeli politician, Mayor of Jerusalem (d. 2007)
- 1911 – Vincent Price, American actor (d. 1993)
- 1912 – John Cheever, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1982)
- 1912 – Sam Snead, American golfer and sportscaster (d. 2002)
- 1912 – Terry Moore, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1995)
- 1915 – Ester Soré, Chilean singer-songwriter (d. 1996)
- 1915 – Herman Wouk, American novelist (d. 2019)
- 1917 – Harry Webster, English engineer (d. 2007)
- 1918 – Yasuhiro Nakasone, Japanese commander and politician, 45th Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2019)
- 1921 – Bob Godfrey, Australian-English animator, director, and voice actor (d. 2013)
- 1922 – Otto Carius, German lieutenant and pharmacist (d. 2015)
- 1922 – Christopher Lee, English actor (d. 2015)
- 1922 – John D. Vanderhoof, American banker and politician, 37th Governor of Colorado (d. 2013)
- 1923 – Henry Kissinger, German-American political scientist and politician, 56th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1923 – Sumner Redstone, American businessman and philanthropist
- 1924 – Jaime Lusinchi, Venezuelan physician and politician, President of Venezuela (d. 2014)
- 1924 – John Sumner, English-Australian director, founded the Melbourne Theatre Company (d. 2013)
- 1925 – Tony Hillerman, American journalist and author (d. 2008)
- 1927 – Jüri Randviir, Estonian chess player and journalist (d. 1996)
- 1928 – Thea Musgrave, Scottish-American composer and educator
- 1930 – John Barth, American novelist and short story writer
- 1930 – William S. Sessions, American civil servant and judge, 8th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
- 1930 – Eino Tamberg, Estonian composer and educator (d. 2010)
- 1931 – André Barbeau, French-Canadian neurologist (d. 1986)
- 1931 – John Chapple, English field marshal and politician, Governor of Gibraltar
- 1931 – Bernard Fresson, French actor (d. 2002)
- 1931 – Faten Hamama, Egyptian actress and producer (d. 2015)
- 1931 – Philip Kotler, American author and professor
- 1933 – Edward Samuel Rogers, Canadian businessman (d. 2008)
- 1933 – Manfred Sommer, Spanish author and illustrator (d. 2007)
- 1934 – Ray Daviault, Canadian-American baseball player
- 1934 – Harlan Ellison, American author and screenwriter (d. 2018)
- 1935 – Daniel Colchico, American football player and coach (d. 2014)
- 1935 – Mal Evans, British road manager of The Beatles (d. 1976)
- 1935 – Jerry Kindall, American baseball player and coach (d. 2017)
- 1935 – Ramsey Lewis, American jazz pianist and composer
- 1935 – Lee Meriwether, American model and actress, Miss America 1955
- 1936 – Benjamin Bathurst, English admiral
- 1936 – Louis Gossett, Jr., American actor and producer
- 1936 – Marcel Masse, Canadian educator and politician, 29th Canadian Minister of National Defence (d. 2014)
- 1937 – Allan Carr, American playwright and producer (d. 1999)
- 1939 – Simon Cairns, 6th Earl Cairns, English courtier and businessman
- 1939 – Yves Duhaime, Canadian captain and politician
- 1939 – Sokratis Kokkalis, Greek businessman
- 1939 – Gerald Ronson, English businessman and philanthropist
- 1939 – Lionel Sosa, Mexican-American advertising and marketing executive
- 1939 – Don Williams, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2017)
- 1940 – Mike Gibson, Australian journalist and sportscaster (d. 2015)
- 1942 – Lee Baca, American police officer
- 1942 – Piers Courage, English racing driver (d. 1970)
- 1942 – Roger Freeman, Baron Freeman, English accountant and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
- 1942 – Robin Widdows, English racing driver
- 1943 – Cilla Black, English singer and actress (d. 2015)
- 1943 – Bruce Weitz, American actor
- 1944 – Chris Dodd, American lawyer and politician
- 1944 – Ingrid Roscoe, English historian and politician, Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire
- 1944 – Alain Souchon, French singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1945 – Bruce Cockburn, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1946 – Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Danish bassist and composer (d. 2005)
- 1946 – John Williams, English motorcycle racer (d. 1978)
- 1947 – Peter DeFazio, American politician
- 1947 – Marty Kristian, German-Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
- 1947 – Branko Oblak, Slovenian footballer and coach
- 1947 – Riivo Sinijärv, Estonian politician, 19th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs
- 1948 – Wubbo de Boer, Dutch civil servant (d. 2017)
- 1948 – Pete Sears, English bass player
- 1948 – Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart, American occultist and author (d. 2014)
- 1949 – Hugh Lowther, 8th Earl of Lonsdale, English politician
- 1949 – Christa Vahlensieck, German runner
- 1950 – Dee Dee Bridgewater, American singer-songwriter and actress
- 1950 – Makis Dendrinos, Greek basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
- 1951 – John Conteh, English boxer
- 1954 – Pauline Hanson, Australian businesswoman, activist, and politician
- 1954 – Jackie Slater, American football player and coach
- 1955 – Eric Bischoff, American wrestler, manager, and producer
- 1955 – Richard Schiff, American actor, director, and producer
- 1955 – Ian Tracey, English organist and conductor
- 1956 – Cynthia McFadden, American journalist
- 1956 – Rosemary Squire, English producer and manager, co-founded Ambassador Theatre Group
- 1956 – Giuseppe Tornatore, Italian director and screenwriter
- 1957 – Dag Terje Andersen, Norwegian politician, Norwegian Minister of Labour
- 1957 – Nitin Gadkari, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of Transport
- 1957 – Eddie Harsch, Canadian-American keyboard player and bass player (d. 2016)
- 1957 – Siouxsie Sioux, English singer-songwriter, musician, and producer
- 1958 – Nick Anstee, English accountant and politician, 682nd Lord Mayor of London
- 1958 – Neil Finn, New Zealand singer-songwriter and musician
- 1958 – Jesse Robredo, Filipino politician, 23rd Filipino Secretary of the Interior (d. 2012)
- 1960 – Gaston Therrien, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
- 1961 – José Luíz Barbosa, Brazilian runner and coach
- 1961 – Peri Gilpin, American actress
- 1962 – Marcelino Bernal, Mexican footballer
- 1962 – Ray Borner, Australian basketball player
- 1962 – Steven Brill, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1962 – Anthony A. Hyman, Israeli-English biologist and academic
- 1962 – David Mundell, Scottish lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Scotland
- 1962 – Ravi Shastri, Indian cricketer and sportscaster
- 1963 – Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Cuban pianist and composer
- 1963 – Maria Walliser, Swiss skier
- 1964 – Adam Carolla, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
- 1965 – Pat Cash, Australian-English tennis player and sportscaster
- 1966 – Heston Blumenthal, English chef and author
- 1967 – Paul Gascoigne, English international footballer, midfielder, coach, and manager
- 1967 – Eddie McClintock, American actor
- 1968 – Jeff Bagwell, American baseball player and coach
- 1968 – Rebekah Brooks, English journalist
- 1968 – Harun Erdenay, Turkish basketball player and coach
- 1968 – Frank Thomas, American baseball player and sportscaster
- 1969 – Todd Hundley, American baseball player
- 1969 – Jeremy Mayfield, American race car driver
- 1969 – Craig Federighi, American computer scientist and engineer
- 1970 – Michele Bartoli, Italian cyclist
- 1970 – Tim Farron, English educator and politician
- 1970 – Joseph Fiennes, English actor
- 1970 – Alex Archer, American-born Australian musician
- 1971 – Mathew Batsiua, Nauruan politician
- 1971 – Paul Bettany, English actor
- 1971 – Wayne Carey, Australian footballer and coach
- 1971 – Kaur Kender, Estonian author
- 1971 – Lisa Lopes, American rapper and dancer (d. 2002)
- 1971 – Lee Sharpe, English footballer
- 1971 – Grant Stafford, South African tennis player
- 1971 – Sophie Walker, British politician, leader of the Women’s Equality Party
- 1971 – Petroc Trelawny, British radio and television broadcaster
- 1972 – Todd Demsey, American golfer
- 1972 – Antonio Freeman, American football player
- 1972 – Maxim Sokolov, Russian ice hockey player
- 1973 – Jack McBrayer, American actor and comedian
- 1973 – Tana Umaga, New Zealand rugby player and coach
- 1973 – Yorgos Lanthimos, Greek film video, and theatre director, producer and screenwriter
- 1974 – Skye Edwards, British singer-songwriter
- 1974 – Denise van Outen, English actress, singer, and television host
- 1974 – Derek Webb, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
- 1974 – Danny Wuerffel, American football player
- 1975 – André 3000, American rapper
- 1975 – Michael Hussey, Australian cricketer
- 1975 – Jamie Oliver, English chef and author
- 1975 – Feryal Özel, Turkish astrophysicist, astronomer, and academic
- 1976 – Marcel Fässler, Swiss racing driver
- 1977 – Abderrahmane Hammad, Algerian high jumper
- 1977 – Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lankan cricketer
- 1978 – Adin Brown, American soccer player
- 1979 – Michael Buonauro, American author and illustrator (d. 2004)
- 1979 – Mile Sterjovski, Australian footballer
- 1980 – Craig Buntin, Canadian figure skater
- 1981 – Alina Cojocaru, Romanian ballerina
- 1981 – Johan Elmander, Swedish footballer
- 1984 – Blake Ahearn, American basketball player
- 1984 – Miguel González, Mexican baseball pitcher
- 1985 – Chiang Chien-ming, Taiwanese baseball player
- 1985 – Roberto Soldado, Spanish footballer
- 1986 – Conor Cummins, Manx motorcycle racer
- 1986 – Bamba Fall, Senegalese basketball player
- 1986 – Lasse Schöne, Danish footballer
- 1987 – Gervinho, Ivorian footballer
- 1987 – Bella Heathcote, Australian actress
- 1987 – Eric Kolelas, French-English actor and director
- 1987 – Bora Paçun, Turkish basketball player
- 1987 – Matt Prior, Australian rugby league player
- 1987 – Martina Sablikova, Czech speed skater and cyclist
- 1988 – Vontae Davis, American football player
- 1988 – Irina Davydova, Russian hurdler
- 1988 – Garrett Richards, American baseball pitcher
- 1988 – Tyler Sash, American football player (d. 2015)
- 1989 – Igor Morozov, Estonian footballer
- 1990 – Yenew Alamirew, Ethiopian runner
- 1990 – Chris Colfer, American actor and singer
- 1990 – Marcus Kruger, Swedish ice hockey player
- 1991 – Sebastien Dewaest, Belgian footballer
- 1991 – Tim Lafai, Samoan rugby league player
- 1991 – Ksenia Pervak, Russian tennis player
- 1991 – Eneli Vals, Estonian footballer
- 1992 – Aaron Brown, Canadian sprinter
- 1992 – Laurence Vincent-Lapointe, Canadian canoer
Deaths on May 27
- 366 – Procopius, Roman usurper (b. 325)
- 398 – Murong Bao, emperor of the Xianbei state Later Yan (b. 355)
- 475 – Eutropius, bishop of Orange
- 866 – Ordoño I of Asturias (b. 831)
- 927 – Simeon I of Bulgaria first Bulgarian Emperor (b. 864)
- 1039 – Dirk III, Count of Holland (b. 981)
- 1045 – Bruno of Würzburg, imperial chancellor of Italy (b. c. 1005)
- 1178 – Godfrey van Rhenen, bishop of Utrecht
- 1240 – William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey (b. 1166)
- 1444 – John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, English commander (b. 1404)
- 1508 – Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1452)
- 1508 – Lucrezia Crivelli, mistress of Ludovico Sforza (b. 1452)
- 1525 – Thomas Müntzer, German mystic and theologian (b. 1488)
- 1541 – Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (b. 1473)
- 1564 – John Calvin, French pastor and theologian (b. 1509)
- 1610 – François Ravaillac, French assassin of Henry IV of France (b. 1578)
- 1624 – Diego Ramírez de Arellano, Spanish sailor and cosmographer (b. c. 1580)
- 1637 – John Boteler, 1st Baron Boteler of Brantfield, English politician (b. c. 1566)
- 1661 – Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll, Scottish general and politician (b. 1607)
- 1675 – Gaspard Dughet, Italian-French painter (b. 1613)
- 1690 – Giovanni Legrenzi, Italian organist and composer (b. 1626)
- 1702 – Dominique Bouhours, French priest and critic (b. 1628)
- 1707 – Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (b. 1640)
- 1781 – Giovanni Battista Beccaria, Italian physicist and academic (b. 1716)
- 1797 – François-Noël Babeuf, French journalist (b. 1760)
- 1831 – Jedediah Smith, American hunter, explorer, and author (b. 1799)
- 1840 – Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (b. 1782)
- 1867 – Thomas Bulfinch American mythologist (b. 1796)
- 1896 – Aleksandr Stoletov, Russian physicist, engineer, and academic (b. 1839)
- 1910 – Robert Koch, German physician and microbiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1843)
- 1918 – Ōzutsu Man’emon, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 18th Yokozuna (b. 1869)
- 1919 – Kandukuri Veeresalingam, Indian author and activist (b. 1848)
- 1933 – Achille Paroche, French target shooter (b. 1868)
- 1939 – Joseph Roth, Austrian-French journalist and author (b. 1894)
- 1941 – Ernst Lindemann, German captain (b. 1894)
- 1941 – Günther Lütjens, German admiral (b. 1889)
- 1942 – Muhammed Hamdi Yazır, Turkish theologian, logician, and translator (b. 1878)
- 1943 – Gordon Coates, New Zealand soldier and politician, 21st Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1878)
- 1945 – Enno Lolling, German physician (b. 1888)
- 1947 – Ed Konetchy, American baseball player and manager (b. 1885)
- 1949 – Robert Ripley, American cartoonist, publisher, and businessman, founded Ripley’s Believe It or Not! (b. 1890)
- 1953 – Jesse Burkett, American baseball player and manager (b. 1868)
- 1960 – James Montgomery Flagg, American painter and illustrator (b. 1877)
- 1963 – Grigoris Lambrakis, Greek physician and politician (b. 1912)
- 1964 – Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of India (b. 1889)
- 1967 – W. Otto Miessner, American composer and educator (b. 1880)
- 1967 – Ernst Niekisch, German academic and politician (b. 1889)
- 1969 – Jeffrey Hunter, American actor and producer (b. 1926)
- 1971 – Béla Juhos, Hungarian-Austrian philosopher from the Vienna Circle (b. 1901)
- 1971 – Armando Picchi, Italian footballer and coach (b. 1935)
- 1980 – Gün Sazak, Turkish agronomist and politician (b. 1932)
- 1984 – Vasilije Mokranjac, Serbian composer (b. 1923)
- 1986 – Ismail al-Faruqi, Palestinian-American philosopher and academic (b. 1921)
- 1986 – Ajoy Mukherjee, Indian politician, Chief Minister of West Bengal (b. 1901)
- 1986 – Giorgos Tzifos, Greek actor and cinematographer (b. 1918)
- 1987 – John Howard Northrop, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)
- 1988 – Hjördis Petterson, Swedish actress (b. 1908)
- 1988 – Ernst Ruska, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1906)
- 1989 – Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet and translator (b. 1907)
- 1990 – Robert B. Meyner, American lawyer and politician, 44th Governor of New Jersey (b. 1908)
- 1991 – Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist and theorist (b. 1904)
- 1992 – Uncle Charlie Osborne, American fiddler (b. 1890)
- 1998 – Minoo Masani, Indian lawyer and politician (b. 1905)
- 2000 – Kazimierz Leski, Polish engineer and pilot (b. 1912)
- 2000 – Murray MacLehose, Baron MacLehose of Beoch, Scottish politician and diplomat, 25th Governor of Hong Kong (b. 1917)
- 2000 – Maurice Richard, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1921)
- 2003 – Luciano Berio, Italian composer and educator (b. 1925)
- 2006 – Rob Borsellino, American journalist (b. 1949)
- 2006 – Paul Gleason, American actor (b. 1939)
- 2006 – Craig Heyward, American football player (b. 1966)
- 2007 – Izumi Sakai, Japanese singer-songwriter (b. 1967)
- 2007 – Gretchen Wyler, American actress and dancer (b. 1932)
- 2007 – Ed Yost, American inventor, created the hot air balloon (b. 1919)
- 2008 – Franz Künstler, Hungarian soldier (b. 1900)
- 2009 – Thomas M. Franck, American lawyer and academic (b. 1931)
- 2009 – Clive Granger, Welsh-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1934)
- 2009 – Mona Grey, British nursing administrator; Northern Ireland’s first Chief Nursing Officer
- 2009 – Abram Hoffer, Canadian biochemist, physician, and psychiatrist (b. 1917)
- 2009 – Gérard Jean-Juste, Haitian-American priest and theologian (b. 1946)
- 2009 – Carol Anne O’Marie, American nun and author (b. 1933)
- 2009 – William Refshauge, Australian soldier and physician (b. 1913)
- 2009 – Paul Sharratt, English-American television host (b. 1933)
- 2010 – Payut Ngaokrachang, Thai animator and director (b. 1929)
- 2011 – Jeff Conaway, American actor and singer (b. 1950)
- 2011 – Margo Dydek, Polish-American basketball player (b. 1974)
- 2011 – Gil Scott-Heron, American singer-songwriter and poet (b. 1949)
- 2012 – Simeon Daniel, Nevisian educator and politician, 1st Premier of Nevis (b. 1934)
- 2012 – Friedrich Hirzebruch, German mathematician and academic (b. 1927)
- 2012 – Anahit Perikhanian, Russian-born Armenian Iranologist (b. 1928)
- 2012 – David Rimoin, Canadian-American geneticist and academic (b. 1936)
- 2013 – Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri, Indian politician (b. 1917)
- 2013 – Bill Pertwee, English actor (b. 1926)
- 2013 – Abdoulaye Sékou Sow, Malian politician, Prime Minister of Mali (b. 1931)
- 2014 – Robert Genn, Canadian painter and author (b. 1936)
- 2014 – Helma Sanders-Brahms, German director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1940)
- 2014 – Roberto Vargas, Puerto Rican-American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1929)
- 2014 – Massimo Vignelli, Italian-American graphic designer (b. 1931)
- 2015 – Erik Carlsson, Swedish rally driver (b. 1929)
- 2015 – Nils Christie, Norwegian sociologist, criminologist, and author (b. 1928)
- 2015 – Andy King, English footballer and manager (b. 1956)
- 2015 – Michael Martin, American philosopher and academic (b. 1932)
- 2017 – Gregg Allman, American musician, singer and songwriter (b. 1947)
- 2020 – Larry Kramer, American playwright, public health advocate and LGBT rights activist (b. 1935)
Holidays and observances on May 27
- Armed Forces Day (Nicaragua)
- Children’s Day (Nigeria)
- Christian feast day:
- Augustine of Canterbury
- Blessed Lojze Grozde
- Bede (commemoration, Anglican Communion)
- Bruno of Würzburg
- Eutropius of Orange
- Hildebert
- Julius the Veteran
- May 27 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Mother’s Day (Bolivia)
- Navy Day (Japan)
- Slavery Abolition Day (Guadeloupe, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin)
- Start of National Reconciliation Week (Australia)
-
May 22 in History
- 192 – Dong Zhuo is assassinated by his adopted son Lü Bu.
- 760 – Fourteenth recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet.
- 853 – A Byzantine fleet sacks and destroys undefended Damietta in Egypt.
- 1176 – The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempt to assassinate Saladin near Aleppo.
- 1200 – King John of England and King Philip II of France sign the Treaty of Le Goulet.
- 1246 – Henry Raspe is elected anti-king of the Kingdom of Germany in opposition to Conrad IV.
- 1254 – Serbian King Stefan Uroš I and the Republic of Venice sign a peace treaty.
- 1370 – Brussels massacre: Hundreds of Jews are murdered and the rest of the Jewish community is banished from Brussels, Belgium, for allegedly desecrating consecrated Host.
- 1377 – Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.
- 1455 – Start of the Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
- 1520 – The massacre at the festival of Tóxcatl takes place during the Fall of Tenochtitlan, resulting in turning the Aztecs against the Spanish.
- 1629 – Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Danish King Christian IV sign the Treaty of Lübeck ending Danish intervention in the Thirty Years’ War.
- 1762 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Hamburg.
- 1762 – Trevi Fountain is officially completed and inaugurated in Rome.
- 1766 – A large earthquake causes heavy damage and loss of life in Istanbul and the Marmara region.
- 1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.
- 1807 – A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.
- 1809 – On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna, Austria), Napoleon I is repelled by an enemy army for the first time.
- 1816 – A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England, riots over high unemployment and rising grain costs, and the riots spread to Ely the next day.
- 1819 – SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1826 – HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage.
- 1840 – The penal transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
- 1848 – Slavery is abolished in Martinique.
- 1849 – Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is issued a patent for an invention to lift boats, making him the only U.S. president to ever hold a patent.
- 1856 – Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina severely beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made regarding Southerners and slavery.
- 1863 – American Civil War: Union forces begin the Siege of Port Hudson which lasts 48 days, the longest siege in U.S. military history.
- 1864 – American Civil War: After ten weeks, the Union Army’s Red River Campaign ends in failure.
- 1872 – Reconstruction Era: President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Amnesty Act into law, restoring full civil and political rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.
- 1900 – The Associated Press is formed in New York City as a non-profit news cooperative.
- 1906 – The Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their “Flying-Machine”.
- 1915 – Lassen Peak erupts with a powerful force, the only volcano besides Mount St. Helens to erupt in the contiguous U.S. during the 20th century.
- 1915 – Three trains collide in the Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green, Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246.
- 1926 – Chiang Kai-shek replaces the communists in Kuomintang China.
- 1927 – Near Xining, China, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake causes 200,000 deaths in one of the world’s most destructive earthquakes.
- 1939 – World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
- 1941 – During the Anglo-Iraqi War, British troops take Fallujah.
- 1942 – Mexico enters the Second World War on the side of the Allies.
- 1943 – Joseph Stalin disbands the Comintern.
- 1947 – Cold War: The Truman Doctrine goes into effect, aiding Turkey and Greece.
- 1957 – South Africa’s government approves of racial separation in universities.
- 1958 – The 1958 riots in Ceylon become a watershed in the race relations of various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total deaths is estimated at 300, mostly Tamils.
- 1960 – The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile, becoming the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
- 1962 – Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode on board.
- 1963 – Greek left-wing politician Grigoris Lambrakis is shot in an assassination attempt, and dies five days later.
- 1964 – Lyndon B. Johnson launches the Great Society.
- 1967 – Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping.
- 1967 – L’Innovation department store in Brussels, Belgium, burns down, resulting in 323 dead or missing and 150 injured, the most devastating fire in Belgian history.
- 1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores.
- 1969 – Apollo 10’s lunar module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon’s surface.
- 1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution, becoming a republic and changing its name to Sri Lanka, and joins the Commonwealth of Nations.
- 1972 – Over 400 women in Derry, Northern Ireland attack the offices of Sinn Féin following the shooting by the Irish Republican Army of a young British soldier on leave.
- 1987 – Hashimpura massacre occurs in Meerut, India.
- 1987 – First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand.
- 1990 – North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen.
- 1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations.
- 1994 – A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti goes into effect to punish its military rulers for not reinstating the country’s ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
- 1996 – The Burmese military regime jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a pro-democracy meeting.
- 1998 – A U.S. federal judge rules that U.S. Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the Lewinsky scandal involving President Bill Clinton.
- 2000 – In Sri Lanka, over 150 Tamil rebels are killed over two days of fighting for control in Jaffna.
- 2002 – Civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murder of four girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.
- 2010 – Air India Express Boeing 737 crashes over a cliff upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of 166 people on board, becoming the deadliest crash involving a Boeing 737.
- 2010 – Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2–0 in the Uefa Champions League final in Madrid, Spain to become the first, and so far only, Italian team to win the historic treble (Serie A, Coppa Italia, Champions League).
- 2011 – An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and wreaking $2.8 billion in damages, the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history.
- 2012 – Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the world (634 m), and the second tallest man-made structure on Earth after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m).
- 2014 – General Prayut Chan-o-cha becomes interim leader of Thailand in a military coup d’état, following six months of political turmoil.
- 2014 – An explosion occurs in Ürümqi, capital of China’s far-western Xinjiang region, resulting in at least 43 deaths and 91 injuries.
- 2015 – The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to legalize gay marriage in a public referendum.
- 2017 – Twenty-two people are killed at an Ariana Grande concert in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.
- 2017 – United States President Donald Trump visits the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and becomes the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Western Wall.
Births on May 22
- 626 – Itzam K’an Ahk I, Mayan king (d. 686)
- 1009 – Su Xun, Chinese writer (d. 1066)
- 1408 – Annamacharya, Hindu saint (d. 1503)
- 1539 – Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (d. 1621)
- 1622 – Louis de Buade de Frontenac, French soldier and governor (d. 1698)
- 1644 – Gabriël Grupello, Flemish Baroque sculptor (d. 1730)
- 1650 – Richard Brakenburgh, Dutch Golden Age painter (d. 1702)
- 1694 – Daniel Gran, Austrian painter (d. 1757)
- 1715 – François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, French cardinal and diplomat (d. 1794)
- 1733 – Hubert Robert, French painter (d. 1808)
- 1752 – Louis Legendre, French butcher and politician (d. 1797)
- 1762 – Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst, English politician (d. 1834)
- 1770 – Princess Elizabeth of the United Kingdom (d. 1840)
- 1772 – Ram Mohan Roy, Indian philosopher and reformer (d. 1833)
- 1782 – Hirose Tansō, Japanese neo-Confucian scholar, teacher, writer (d. 1856)
- 1783 – William Sturgeon, English physicist and inventor, invented the electromagnet and electric motor (d. 1850)
- 1808 – Gérard de Nerval, French poet and translator (d. 1855)
- 1811 – Giulia Grisi, Italian soprano (d. 1869)
- 1811 – Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle, English politician (d. 1864)
- 1813 – Richard Wagner, German composer (d. 1883)
- 1814 – Amalia Lindegren, Swedish painter (d. 1891)
- 1820 – Worthington Whittredge, American painter (d. 1910)
- 1828 – Albrecht von Graefe, German ophthalmologist and academic (d. 1870)
- 1831 – Henry Vandyke Carter, English anatomist and surgeon (d. 1897)
- 1833 – Félix Bracquemond, French painter and etcher (d. 1914)
- 1833 – Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla, Spanish politician, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1895)
- 1841 – Catulle Mendès, French poet, author, and playwright (d. 1909)
- 1844 – Mary Cassatt, American painter and educator (d. 1926)
- 1846 – Rita Cetina Gutiérrez, Mexican poet, educator, and activist (d. 1908)
- 1848 – Fritz von Uhde, German painter and educator (d. 1911)
- 1849 – Aston Webb, English architect and academic (d. 1930)
- 1858 – Belmiro de Almeida, Brazilian painter, illustrator, sculptor (d. 1935)
- 1859 – Arthur Conan Doyle, British writer (d. 1930)
- 1859 – Tsubouchi Shōyō, Japanese author, playwright, and educator (d. 1935)
- 1864 – Willy Stöwer, German author and illustrator (d. 1931)
- 1868 – Augusto Pestana, Brazilian engineer and politician (d. 1934)
- 1874 – Daniel François Malan, South African clergyman and politician, 5th Prime Minister of South Africa (d. 1959)
- 1876 – Julius Klinger, Austrian painter and illustrator (d. 1942)
- 1879 – Warwick Armstrong, Australian cricketer and journalist (d. 1947)
- 1879 – Jean Cras, French admiral and composer (d. 1932)
- 1879 – Symon Petliura, Ukrainian statesman and independence leader (d. 1926)
- 1880 – Francis de Miomandre, French author and translator (d. 1959)
- 1885 – Giacomo Matteotti, Italian lawyer and politician (d. 1924)
- 1885 – Soemu Toyoda, Japanese admiral (d. 1957)
- 1887 – A. W. Sandberg, Danish film director and screenwriter (d. 1938)
- 1891 – Johannes R. Becher, German politician, novelist, and poet (d. 1958)
- 1894 – Friedrich Pollock, German sociologist and philosopher (d. 1970)
- 1897 – Robert Neumann, German and English-speaking author (d. 1975)
- 1900 – Juan Arvizu, Mexican lyric opera tenor and bolero vocalist (d.1985)
- 1901 – Maurice J. Tobin, American politician, 6th United States Secretary of Labor (d. 1953)
- 1902 – Jack Lambert, English footballer and manager (d. 1940)
- 1902 – Al Simmons, American baseball player and coach (d. 1956)
- 1904 – Uno Lamm, Swedish electrical engineer and inventor (d. 1989)
- 1905 – Bodo von Borries, German physicist and academic, co-invented the electron microscope (d. 1956)
- 1905 – Tom Driberg, British politician (d. 1976)
- 1907 – Hergé, Belgian author and illustrator (d. 1983)
- 1907 – Laurence Olivier, English actor, director, and producer (d. 1989)
- 1908 – Horton Smith, American golfer and captain (d. 1963)
- 1909 – Margaret Mee, English illustrator and educator (d. 1988)
- 1912 – Herbert C. Brown, English-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
- 1913 – Rafael Gil, Spanish director and screenwriter (d. 1986)
- 1913 – Dominique Rolin, Belgian author (d. 2012)
- 1914 – Max Kohnstamm, Dutch historian and diplomat (d. 2010)
- 1914 – Sun Ra, American pianist, composer, bandleader, poet (d. 1993)
- 1917 – George Aratani, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2013)
- 1917 – Jean-Louis Curtis, French author (d. 1995)
- 1919 – Paul Vanden Boeynants, Belgian businessman and politician, 55th Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 2001)
- 1920 – Thomas Gold, Austrian-American astrophysicist and academic (d. 2004)
- 1921 – George S. Hammond, American scientist (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Quinn Martin, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1987)
- 1924 – Charles Aznavour, French-Armenian singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2018)
- 1925 – Jean Tinguely, Swiss painter and sculptor (d. 1991)
- 1927 – Michael Constantine, American actor
- 1927 – Peter Matthiessen, American novelist, short story writer, editor, co-founded The Paris Review (d. 2014)
- 1927 – George Andrew Olah, Hungarian-American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2017)
- 1928 – Serge Doubrovsky, French theorist and author (d. 2017)
- 1928 – John Mackenzie, Scottish director and producer (d. 2011)
- 1928 – T. Boone Pickens, American businessman (d. 2019)
- 1928 – Hiroshi Sano, Japanese novelist (d. 2013)
- 1929 – Ahmed Fouad Negm, Egyptian poet (d. 2013)
- 1930 – Kenny Ball, English jazz trumpet player, vocalist, and bandleader (d. 2013)
- 1930 – Marisol Escobar, French-American sculptor (d. 2016)
- 1930 – Harvey Milk, American lieutenant and politician (d. 1978)
- 1932 – Robert Spitzer, American psychiatrist and academic (d. 2015)
- 1933 – Chen Jingrun, Chinese mathematician and academic (d. 1996)
- 1934 – Peter Nero, American pianist and conductor
- 1936 – George H. Heilmeier, American engineer (d. 2014)
- 1937 – Facundo Cabral, Argentinian singer-songwriter (d. 2011)
- 1938 – Richard Benjamin, American actor and director
- 1938 – Susan Strasberg, American actress (d. 1999)
- 1939 – Paul Winfield, American actor (d. 2004)
- 1940 – Kieth Merrill, American filmmaker
- 1940 – Michael Sarrazin, Canadian actor (d. 2011)
- 1940 – Bernard Shaw, American journalist
- 1940 – Mick Tingelhoff, American Pro Football Hall of Famer
- 1941 – Menzies Campbell, Scottish sprinter and politician
- 1942 – Roger Brown, American basketball player (d. 1997)
- 1942 – Ted Kaczynski, American academic and mathematician turned anarchist and serial murderer (Unabomber)
- 1942 – Barbara Parkins, Canadian actress
- 1942 – Richard Oakes, Native American civil rights activist (d. 1972)
- 1943 – Betty Williams, Northern Irish peace activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2020)
- 1943 – Tommy John, American baseball player
- 1944 – John Flanagan, Australian fantasy author
- 1945 – Bob Katter, Australian politician
- 1946 – George Best, Northern Irish footballer and manager (d. 2005)
- 1946 – Michael Green, English physicist and academic
- 1946 – Howard Kendall, English footballer and manager (d. 2015)
- 1946 – Andrei Marga, Romanian philosopher, political scientist, politician
- 1946 – Lyudmila Zhuravleva, Russian-Ukrainian astronomer
- 1948 – Tomás Sánchez, Cuban painter and engraver
- 1948 – Nedumudi Venu, Indian actor and screenwriter
- 1949 – Cheryl Campbell, English actress
- 1949 – Valentin Inzko, Austrian diplomat
- 1950 – Bernie Taupin, English singer-songwriter and poet
- 1953 – François Bon, French writer
- 1953 – Cha Bum-kun, South Korean footballer and manager
- 1953 – Paul Mariner, English footballer, coach, and manager
- 1954 – Barbara May Cameron, Native American human rights activist (d. 2002)
- 1954 – Shuji Nakamura, Japanese-American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1956 – Lucie Brock-Broido, American poet (d. 2018)
- 1957 – Lisa Murkowski, American lawyer and politician
- 1959 – David Blatt, Israeli-American basketball player and coach
- 1959 – Morrissey, English singer-songwriter and performer
- 1959 – Kwak Jae-yong, South Korean director and screenwriter
- 1959 – Mehbooba Mufti, Indian politician
- 1960 – Hideaki Anno, Japanese animator, director, and screenwriter
- 1962 – Brian Pillman, American football player and wrestler (d. 1997)
- 1963 – Claude Closky, French contemporary artist
- 1965 – Jay Carney, American journalist, 29th White House Press Secretary
- 1966 – Johnny Gill, American singer-songwriter and producer
- 1966 – Wang Xiaoshuai, Chinese director and screenwriter
- 1968 – Graham Linehan, Irish comedian, actor, and author
- 1969 – Cathy McMorris Rodgers, American lawyer and politician
- 1970 – Naomi Campbell, English model
- 1970 – Brody Stevens, American comedian and actor (d. 2019)
- 1972 – Max Brooks, American author and screenwriter
- 1973 – Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Danish actor
- 1974 – Garba Lawal, Nigerian footballer
- 1974 – Henrietta Ónodi, Hungarian Olympic gymnast
- 1974 – Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukrainian politician
- 1975 – Salva Ballesta, Spanish footballer and manager
- 1976 – Christian Vande Velde, American cyclist
- 1978 – Ginnifer Goodwin, American actress
- 1978 – Katie Price, English television personality and glamour model
- 1979 – Maggie Q, American actress
- 1979 – Nazanin Boniadi, Iranian-American actress
- 1980 – Sharice Davids, American politician
- 1980 – Lucy Gordon, British actress and model (d. 2009)
- 1981 – Daniel Bryan, American wrestler
- 1981 – Bassel Khartabil, Syrian computer programmer and engineer (d. 2015)
- 1981 – Jürgen Melzer, Austrian tennis player
- 1982 – Erin McNaught, Australian model and actress
- 1982 – Apolo Ohno, American speed skater
- 1982 – Hong Yong-jo, North Korean footballer
- 1983 – Natasha Kai, American soccer player and Olympic medalist
- 1984 – Karoline Herfurth, German actress
- 1984 – Didier Ya Konan, Ivorian footballer
- 1984 – Dustin Moskovitz, American entrepreneur, co-founder of Facebook
- 1985 – Tranquillo Barnetta, Swiss footballer
- 1985 – Tao Okamoto, Japanese model and actress
- 1986 – Julian Edelman, American football player
- 1986 – Matt Jarvis, English footballer
- 1986 – Tatiana Volosozhar, Russian figure skater
- 1987 – Novak Djokovic, Serbian tennis player
- 1987 – Arturo Vidal, Chilean footballer
- 1988 – Heida Reed, Icelandic-British actress
- 1989 – Corey Dickerson, American baseball player
- 1990 – Wyatt Roy, Australian politician
- 1991 – Joel Obi, Nigerian footballer
- 1991 – Suho, South Korean singer and actor
- 1992 – Anna Baryshnikov, American actress
- 1994 – Florian Luger, Austrian male model
- 1998 – Samile Bermannelli, Brazilian fashion model
- 1999 – Camren Bicondova, American actress
- 1999 – Femke Huijzer, Dutch model
Deaths on May 22
- 192 – Dong Zhuo, Chinese warlord and politician (b. 138)
- 337 – Constantine the Great, Roman emperor (b. 272)
- 748 – Empress Genshō of Japan (b. 683)
- 1067 – Constantine X, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1006)
- 1068 – Emperor Go-Reizei of Japan (b. 1025)
- 1310 – Saint Humility, founder of the Vallumbrosan religious order of nuns (b. c.1226)
- 1409 – Blanche of England, sister of King Henry V (b. 1392)
- 1455 – Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, English commander (b. 1406)
- 1455 – Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron de Clifford, Lancastrian commander (b. 1414)
- 1455 – Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, English commander (b. 1393)
- 1457 – Rita of Cascia, Italian nun and saint (b. 1381)
- 1490 – Edmund Grey, 1st Earl of Kent, English administrator, nobleman and magnate (b. 1416)
- 1538 – John Forest, English friar and martyr (b. 1471)
- 1540 – Francesco Guicciardini, Italian historian and politician (b. 1483)
- 1545 – Sher Shah Suri, Indian ruler (b. 1486)
- 1553 – Giovanni Bernardi, Italian sculptor and engraver (b. 1495)
- 1602 – Renata of Lorraine (b. 1544)
- 1609 – Pieter Willemsz. Verhoeff, Dutch captain (b. 1573)
- 1666 – Gaspar Schott, German physicist and mathematician (b. 1608)
- 1667 – Pope Alexander VII (b. 1599)
- 1745 – François-Marie, 1st duc de Broglie, French general (b. 1671)
- 1760 – Baal Shem Tov, Polish rabbi and author (b. 1700)
- 1772 – Durastante Natalucci, Italian historian and academic (b. 1687)
- 1795 – Ewald Friedrich von Hertzberg, Prussian politician, Foreign Minister of Prussia (b. 1725)
- 1802 – Martha Washington, First, First Lady of the United States (b. 1731)
- 1851 – Mordecai Manuel Noah, American journalist and diplomat (b. 1755)
- 1859 – Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies (b. 1810)
- 1861 – Thornsbury Bailey Brown, American soldier (b. 1829)
- 1868 – Julius Plücker, German mathematician and physicist (b. 1801)
- 1885 – Victor Hugo, French novelist, poet, and playwright (b. 1802)
- 1901 – Gaetano Bresci, Italian-American anarchist, assassin of Umberto I of Italy (b. 1869)
- 1910 – Jules Renard, French author and playwright (b. 1864)
- 1932 – Augusta, Lady Gregory, Anglo-Irish activist, landlord, and playwright, co-founded the Abbey Theatre (b. 1852)
- 1933 – Tsengeltiin Jigjidjav, Mongolian politician, 10th Prime Minister of Mongolia (b. 1894)
- 1938 – William Glackens, American painter and illustrator (b. 1870)
- 1939 – Ernst Toller, German playwright and author (b. 1893)
- 1939 – Jiří Mahen, Czech author and playwright (b. 1882)
- 1954 – Chief Bender, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1884)
- 1965 – Christopher Stone, English radio host (b. 1882)
- 1966 – Tom Goddard, English cricketer (b. 1900)
- 1967 – Langston Hughes, American poet, social activist, novelist, and playwright (b. 1902)
- 1967 – Charlotte Serber, American Librarian of the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos site (b. 1911)
- 1972 – Cecil Day-Lewis, Anglo-Irish poet and author (b. 1904)
- 1972 – Margaret Rutherford, English actress (b. 1892)
- 1974 – Irmgard Flügge-Lotz, German-American mathematician and aerospace engineer (b. 1903)
- 1975 – Lefty Grove, American baseball player (b. 1900)
- 1982 – Cevdet Sunay, Turkish general and politician, 5th President of Turkey (b. 1899)
- 1983 – Albert Claude, Belgian biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
- 1985 – Wolfgang Reitherman, German-American animator, director, and producer (b. 1909)
- 1988 – Giorgio Almirante, Italian journalist and politician (b. 1914)
- 1989 – Steven De Groote, South African pianist and educator (b. 1953)
- 1990 – Rocky Graziano, American boxer (b. 1922)
- 1991 – Shripad Amrit Dange, Indian lawyer and politician (b. 1899)
- 1991 – Stan Mortensen, English footballer and manager (b. 1921)
- 1992 – Zellig Harris, American linguist and academic (b. 1909)
- 1993 – Mieczysław Horszowski, Polish-American pianist and composer (b. 1892)
- 1997 – Alziro Bergonzo, Italian architect and painter (b. 1906)
- 1997 – Alfred Hershey, American biochemist and geneticist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
- 1998 – John Derek, American actor, director, and photographer (b. 1926)
- 1998 – José Enrique Moyal, Israeli physicist and engineer (b. 1910)
- 2000 – Davie Fulton, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician (b. 1916)
- 2004 – Richard Biggs, American actor (b. 1960)
- 2004 – Mikhail Voronin, Russian gymnast (b. 1945)
- 2005 – Charilaos Florakis, Greek politician (b. 1914)
- 2005 – Thurl Ravenscroft, American voice actor and singer (b. 1914)
- 2006 – Lee Jong-wook, South Korean physician and diplomat (b. 1945)
- 2007 – Pemba Doma Sherpa, Nepalese mountaineer (b. 1970)
- 2008 – Robert Asprin, American soldier and author (b. 1946)
- 2010 – Martin Gardner, American mathematician, cryptographer, and author (b. 1914)
- 2011 – Joseph Brooks, American director, producer, screenwriter, and composer (b. 1938)
- 2012 – Muzafar Bhutto, Pakistani politician (b. 1970)
- 2012 – Wesley A. Brown, American lieutenant and engineer (b. 1927)
- 2013 – Sigurd Ottovich Schmidt, Russian historian and ethnographer (b. 1922)
- 2015 – Marques Haynes, American basketball player and coach (b. 1926)
- 2015 – Vladimir Katriuk, Ukrainian-Canadian SS officer (b. 1921)
- 2016 – Velimir “Bata” Živojinović, Serbian actor and politician (b. 1933)
- 2017 – Nicky Hayden, American motorcycle racer (b. 1981)
- 2019 – Judith Kerr, German-born British writer and illustrator (b. 1923)
- 2020 – Denise Cronenberg, Canadian costume designer (b. 1938)
Holidays and observances on May 22
- Abolition Day (Martinique)
- Christian feast day:
- Castus and Emilius
- Fulk
- Humilita
- Michael Hồ Đình Hy (one of Vietnamese Martyrs)
- Quiteria
- Rita of Cascia
- Romanus of Subiaco
- May 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
- Harvey Milk Day (California)
- International Day for Biological Diversity (International)
- United States National Maritime Day
- National Sovereignty Day (Haiti)
- Republic Day (Sri Lanka)
- Translation of the Relics of Saint Nicholas from Myra to Bari (Ukraine)
- Unity Day (Yemen), celebrates the unification of North and South Yemen into the Republic of Yemen in 1990.
- World Goth Day