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1878

July 2 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /

This day is the midpoint of a common year because there are 182 days before and 182 days after it in common years, and 183 before and 182 after in leap years. The exact time of the middle of the year is at noon. In countries that use summertime the actual exact time of the midpoint in a common year is at 1:00 p.m for locations in the northern hemisphere or 11:00 a.m for locations in the southern hemisphere; this is when 182 days and 12 hours have elapsed and there are 182 days and 12 hours remaining. In a leap year in those countries, the middle of the year is at midnight. In countries that use summer time, the midpoint occurs at 1:00 a.m. on July 2, or 11:00 p.m. on July 1 in the southern hemisphere. This is due to summertime having advanced the time by one hour. It falls on the same day of the week as New Year’s Day in common years.

  • 437 – Emperor Valentinian III begins his reign over the Western Roman Empire. His mother Galla Placidia ends her regency, but continues to exercise political influence at the court in Rome.
  • 626 – Li Shimin, the future Emperor Taizong of Tang, ambushes and kills his rival brothers Li Yuanji and Li Jiancheng in the Xuanwu Gate Incident.
  • 706 – In China, Emperor Zhongzong of Tang inters the bodies of relatives in the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang outside Chang’an.
  • 866 – Battle of Brissarthe: The Franks led by Robert the Strong are defeated by a joint Breton-Viking army.
  • 936 – King Henry the Fowler dies in his royal palace in Memleben. He is succeeded by his son Otto I, who becomes the ruler of East Francia.
  • 963 – The Byzantine army proclaims Nikephoros II Phokas Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea.
  • 1298 – The Battle of Göllheim is fought between Albert I of Habsburg and Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg.
  • 1494 – The Treaty of Tordesillas is ratified by Spain.
  • 1504 – Bogdan III the One-Eyed becomes Voivode of Moldavia.
  • 1555 – Ottoman Admiral Turgut Reis sacks the Italian city of Paola.
  • 1561 – Menas, emperor of Ethiopia, defeats a revolt in Emfraz.
  • 1582 – Battle of Yamazaki: Toyotomi Hideyoshi defeats Akechi Mitsuhide.
  • 1613 – The first English expedition (from Virginia) against Acadia led by Samuel Argall takes place.
  • 1644 – English Civil War: Battle of Marston Moor.
  • 1645 – Battle of Alford: Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
  • 1698 – Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine.
  • 1776 – American Revolution: The Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with the Kingdom of Great Britain although the wording of the formal Declaration of Independence is not published until July 4.
  • 1816 – The French frigate Méduse strikes the Bank of Arguin and 151 people on board have to be evacuated on an improvised raft, a case immortalised by Géricault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa.
  • 1822 – Thirty-five slaves, including Denmark Vesey, are hanged in South Carolina after being accused of organizing a slave rebellion.
  • 1823 – Bahia Independence Day: The end of Portuguese rule in Brazil, with the final defeat of the Portuguese crown loyalists in the province of Bahia.
  • 1839 – Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 kidnapped Africans led by Joseph Cinqué mutiny and take over the slave ship Amistad.
  • 1853 – The Russian Army crosses the Pruth river into the Danubian Principalities, Moldavia and Wallachia—providing the spark that will set off the Crimean War.
  • 1871 – Victor Emmanuel II of Italy enters Rome after having conquered it from the Papal States.
  • 1881 – Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James A. Garfield (who will die of complications from his wounds on September 19).
  • 1890 – The U.S. Congress passes the Sherman Antitrust Act.
  • 1897 – British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London.
  • 1900 – The first Zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany.
  • 1900 – Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia receives its première performance in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus.
  • 1921 – World War I: U.S. President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States and Germany.
  • 1934 – The Night of the Long Knives ends with the death of Ernst Röhm.
  • 1937 – Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
  • 1940 – Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose is arrested and detained in Calcutta.
  • 1940 – The SS Arandora Star is sunk by U-47 in the North Atlantic with the loss of over 800 lives, mostly civilians.
  • 1962 – The first Walmart store, then known as Wal-Mart, opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
  • 1964 – Civil rights movement: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places.
  • 1966 – France conducts its first nuclear weapon test in the Pacific, on Moruroa Atoll.
  • 1976 – End of South Vietnam; Communist North Vietnam annexes the former South Vietnam to form the unified Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
  • 1986 – Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana are burnt alive during a street demonstration against the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile.
  • 1990 – In the 1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy, 1,400 Muslim pilgrims are suffocated to death and trampled upon in a pedestrian tunnel leading to the holy city of Mecca.
  • 1994 – USAir Flight 1016 crashes near Charlotte Douglas International Airport, killing 37 of the 57 people on board.
  • 1997 – The Bank of Thailand floats the baht, triggering the Asian financial crisis.
  • 2000 – Vicente Fox Quesada is elected the first President of México from an opposition party, the Partido Acción Nacional, after more than 70 years of continuous rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional.
  • 2001 – The AbioCor self-contained artificial heart is first implanted.
  • 2002 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.
  • 2005 – The Live 8 benefit concerts takes place in the G8 states and in South Africa. More than 1,000 musicians perform and are broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks.
  • 2008 – Colombian conflict: Íngrid Betancourt, a member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia, is released from captivity after being held for six and a half years by FARC.
  • 2010 – The South Kivu tank truck explosion in the Democratic Republic of the Congo kills at least 230 people.
  • 2013 – The International Astronomical Union names Pluto’s fourth and fifth moons, Kerberos and Styx.
  • 2013 – A magnitude 6.1 earthquake strikes Aceh, Indonesia, killing at least 42 people and injuring 420 others.

Births on July 2

  • 419 – Valentinian III, Roman emperor (d. 455)
  • 1363 – Maria, Queen of Sicily (d. 1401)
  • 1478 – Louis V, Elector Palatine (d. 1544)
  • 1486 – Jacopo Sansovino, Italian sculptor and architect (d. 1570)
  • 1489 – Thomas Cranmer, English archbishop, theologian, and saint (d. 1556)
  • 1492 – Elizabeth Tudor, English daughter of Henry VII of England (d. 1495)
  • 1500 – Federico Cesi (cardinal), Italian cardinal (d. 1565)
  • 1575 – Elizabeth de Vere, Countess of Derby, English noblewoman and head of state of the Isle of Man (d. 1627)
  • 1597 – Theodoor Rombouts, Flemish painter (d. 1637)
  • 1647 – Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, English politician, Lord President of the Council (d. 1730)
  • 1648 – Arp Schnitger, German organ builder (d. 1719)
  • 1665 – Samuel Penhallow, English-American soldier and historian (d. 1726)
  • 1667 – Pietro Ottoboni, Italian cardinal and art collector (d. 1740)
  • 1714 – Christoph Willibald Gluck, German composer (d. 1787)
  • 1724 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet and author (d. 1803)
  • 1797 – Francisco Javier Echeverría, Mexican businessman and politician. President of Mexico (1841) (d. 1852)
  • 1819 – Charles-Louis Hanon, French pianist and composer (d. 1900)
  • 1820 – George Law Curry, American publisher and politician, 5th Governor of the Oregon Territory (d. 1878)
  • 1820 – Juan N. Méndez, Mexican general and interim president, 1876-1877 (d. 1894)
  • 1821 – Charles Tupper, Canadian physician and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1915)
  • 1825 – Émile Ollivier, French statesman (d. 1913)
  • 1834 – Hendrick Peter Godfried Quack, Dutch economist and historian (d. 1917)
  • 1849 – Maria Theresa of Austria-Este (d. 1919)
  • 1862 – William Henry Bragg, English physicist, chemist, and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1942)
  • 1865 – Lily Braun, German author and publicist (d. 1916)
  • 1869 – Liane de Pougy, French-Swiss dancer and author (d. 1950)
  • 1876 – Harriet Brooks, Canadian physicist and academic (d. 1933)
  • 1876 – Wilhelm Cuno, German businessman and politician, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1933)
  • 1877 – Hermann Hesse, German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)
  • 1877 – Rinaldo Cuneo, American artist (“the painter of San Francisco”) (d. 1939)
  • 1881 – Royal Hurlburt Weller, American lawyer and politician (d. 1929)
  • 1884 – Alfons Maria Jakob, German neurologist and author (d. 1931)
  • 1893 – Ralph Hancock, Welsh gardener and author (d. 1950)
  • 1900 – Tyrone Guthrie, English actor and director (d. 1971)
  • 1900 – Sophie Harris, English costume and scenic designer for theatre and opera (d. 1966)
  • 1902 – K. Kanapathypillai, Sri Lankan author and academic (d. 1968)
  • 1902 – Germaine Thyssens-Valentin, Dutch-French pianist (d. 1987)
  • 1903 – Alec Douglas-Home, English cricketer and politician, 66th Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)
  • 1903 – Olav V of Norway (d. 1991)
  • 1904 – René Lacoste, French tennis player and businessman, created the polo shirt (d. 1996)
  • 1906 – Hans Bethe, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
  • 1906 – Károly Kárpáti, Hungarian Jewish wrestler (d. 1996)
  • 1906 – Séra Martin, French middle-distance runner (d. 1993)
  • 1908 – Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer and jurist, 32nd Solicitor General of the United States (d. 1993)
  • 1911 – Reg Parnell, English race car driver and manager (d. 1964)
  • 1913 – Max Beloff, Baron Beloff, English historian and academic (d. 1999)
  • 1914 – Frederick Fennell, American conductor and educator (d. 2004)
  • 1914 – Ethelreda Leopold, American actress (d. 1988)
  • 1914 – Mário Schenberg, Brazilian physicist and engineer (d. 1990)
  • 1914 – Erich Topp, German admiral (d. 2005)
  • 1915 – Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington, British peer, politician and soldier (d. 2014)
  • 1916 – Ken Curtis, American actor and singer (d. 1991)
  • 1916 – Hans-Ulrich Rudel, German colonel and pilot (d. 1982)
  • 1916 – Reino Kangasmäki, Finnish wrestler (d. 2010)
  • 1916 – Zélia Gattai, Brazilian author and photographer (d. 2008)
  • 1917 – Leonard J. Arrington, American author and academic, founded the Mormon History Association (d. 1999)
  • 1918 – Athos Bulcão, Brazilian painter and sculptor (d. 2008)
  • 1918 – Indumati Bhattacharya, Indian politician
  • 1919 – Jean Craighead George, American author (d. 2012)
  • 1920 – John Kneubuhl, Samoan-American historian, screenwriter, and playwright (d. 1992)
  • 1922 – Pierre Cardin, Italian-French fashion designer
  • 1922 – Paula Valenska, Czech actress
  • 1923 – Cyril M. Kornbluth, American soldier and author (d. 1958)
  • 1923 – Wisława Szymborska, Polish poet and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012)
  • 1925 – Medgar Evers, American soldier and activist (d. 1963)
  • 1925 – Patrice Lumumba, Congolese politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (d. 1961)
  • 1925 – Marvin Rainwater, American singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
  • 1926 – Octavian Paler, Romanian journalist and politician (d. 2007)
  • 1927 – Lee Allen, American saxophone player (d. 1994)
  • 1927 – James Mackay, Baron Mackay of Clashfern, Scottish lawyer and politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
  • 1927 – Brock Peters, American actor (d. 2005)
  • 1929 – Imelda Marcos, Filipino politician; 10th First Lady of the Philippines
  • 1930 – Carlos Menem, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 50th President of Argentina
  • 1931 – Mohammad Yazdi, Iranian cleric
  • 1932 – Dave Thomas, American businessman and philanthropist, founded Wendy’s (d. 2002)
  • 1933 – Peter Desbarats, Canadian journalist, author, and playwright
  • 1933 – Kenny Wharram, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2017)
  • 1934 – Tom Springfield, English musician
  • 1935 – Gilbert Kalish, American pianist and educator
  • 1936 – Omar Suleiman, Egyptian general and politician, 16th Vice President of Egypt (d. 2012)
  • 1937 – Polly Holliday, American actress
  • 1937 – Richard Petty, American race car driver and sportscaster
  • 1938 – David Owen, English physician and politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
  • 1939 – Alexandros Panagoulis, Greek poet and politician (d. 1976)
  • 1939 – John H. Sununu, American engineer and politician, 14th White House Chief of Staff
  • 1939 – Paul Williams, American singer and choreographer (d. 1973)
  • 1940 – Kenneth Clarke, English politician, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
  • 1941 – William Guest, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2015)
  • 1941 – Wendell Mottley, Trinidadian sprinter, economist, and politician
  • 1942 – John Eekelaar, South African-English lawyer and scholar
  • 1942 – Vicente Fox, Mexican businessman and politician, 35th President of Mexico (2000-2006)
  • 1943 – Ivi Eenmaa, Estonian politician, 36th Mayor of Tallinn
  • 1943 – Larry Lake, American-Canadian trumpet player and composer (d. 2013)
  • 1946 – Richard Axel, American neuroscientist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1946 – Ron Silver, American actor, director, and political activist (d. 2009)
  • 1947 – Larry David, American actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1947 – Ann Taylor, Baroness Taylor of Bolton, English politician, Minister for International Security Strategy
  • 1948 – Mutula Kilonzo, Kenyan lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
  • 1949 – Greg Brown, American musician
  • 1949 – Robert Paquette, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1950 – Lynne Brindley, English librarian and academic
  • 1950 – Jon Trickett, English politician
  • 1952 – Sylvia Rivera, American transgender rights activist (d. 2002)
  • 1952 – Anatoliy Solomin, Ukrainian race walker and coach
  • 1954 – Chris Huhne, English journalist and politician, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
  • 1955 – Kim Carr, Australian educator and politician, 31st Australian Minister for Human Services
  • 1956 – Jerry Hall, American model and actress
  • 1957 – Bret Hart, Canadian wrestler
  • 1957 – Jüri Raidla, Estonian lawyer and politician, Estonian Minister of Justice
  • 1957 – Purvis Short, American basketball player
  • 1958 – Pavan Malhotra, Indian actor
  • 1960 – Maria Lourdes Sereno, Filipino lawyer and jurist, 24th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines
  • 1961 – Clark Kellogg, American basketball player and sportscaster
  • 1962 – Neil Williams, English cricketer (d. 2006)
  • 1964 – Jose Canseco, Cuban-American baseball player and mixed martial artist
  • 1964 – Ozzie Canseco, Cuban-American baseball player, coach, and manager
  • 1964 – Joe Magrane, American baseball player and sportscaster
  • 1964 – Alan Tait, English-Scottish rugby player and coach
  • 1965 – Norbert Röttgen, German lawyer and politician
  • 1969 – Tim Rodber, English rugby player
  • 1970 – Derrick Adkins, American hurdler
  • 1970 – Steve Morrow, Northern Irish footballer and manager
  • 1971 – Troy Brown, American football player and actor
  • 1971 – Bryan Redpath, Scottish rugby player and coach
  • 1972 – Darren Shan, English author
  • 1974 – Sean Casey, American baseball player and sportscaster
  • 1975 – Éric Dazé, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1975 – Kristen Michal, Estonian lawyer and politician
  • 1975 – Erik Ohlsson, Swedish singer and guitarist
  • 1975 – Stefan Terblanche, South African rugby player
  • 1976 – Krisztián Lisztes, Hungarian footballer
  • 1976 – Tomáš Vokoun, Czech-American ice hockey player
  • 1977 – Deniz Barış, Turkish footballer
  • 1978 – Jüri Ratas, Estonian politician, 42nd Mayor of Tallinn
  • 1979 – Walter Davis, American triple jumper
  • 1979 – Ahmed al-Ghamdi, Saudi Arabian terrorist, hijacker of United Airlines Flight 175 (d. 2001)
  • 1979 – Sam Hornish Jr., American race car driver
  • 1979 – Joe Thornton, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1980 – Nyjer Morgan, American baseball player
  • 1981 – Nathan Ellington, English footballer
  • 1981 – Carlos Rogers, American football player
  • 1983 – Michelle Branch, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1983 – Kyle Hogg, English cricketer
  • 1984 – Thomas Kortegaard, Danish footballer
  • 1984 – Johnny Weir, American figure skater
  • 1985 – Rhett Bomar, American football player
  • 1985 – Chad Henne, American football player
  • 1985 – Ashley Tisdale, American actress, singer, and producer
  • 1986 – Brett Cecil, American baseball player
  • 1986 – Lindsay Lohan, American actress and singer
  • 1987 – Esteban Granero, Spanish footballer
  • 1988 – Lee Chung-yong, South Korean footballer
  • 1989 – Nadezhda Grishaeva, Russian basketball player
  • 1989 – Alex Morgan, American soccer player
  • 1990 – Kayla Harrison, American judoka
  • 1990 – Merritt Mathias, American soccer player
  • 1990 – Morag McLellan, Scottish field hockey player
  • 1990 – Margot Robbie, Australian actress and producer
  • 1990 – Danny Rose, English footballer
  • 1990 – Bill Tupou, New Zealand rugby league player
  • 1992 – Madison Chock, American ice dancer
  • 1993 – Vince Staples, American rapper and actor
  • 1994 – Henrik Kristoffersen, Norwegian skier
  • 1995 – Ryan Murphy, American swimmer
  • 1996 – Julia Grabher, Austrian tennis player

Deaths on July 2

  • 626 – Li Jiancheng, Chinese prince (b. 589)
  • 626 – Li Yuanji, Chinese prince (b. 603)
  • 649 – Li Jing, Chinese general (b. 571)
  • 862 – Swithun, English bishop and saint (b. 789)
  • 866 – Robert the Strong, Frankish nobleman
  • 936 – Henry the Fowler, German king (b. 876)
  • 1215 – Eisai, Japanese Buddhist priest (b. 1141)
  • 1298 – Adolf of Germany (b. 1220)
  • 1504 – Stephen III of Moldavia (b. 1434)
  • 1566 – Nostradamus, French astrologer and author (b. 1503)
  • 1578 – Thomas Doughty, English explorer
  • 1582 – Akechi Mitsuhide, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1528)
  • 1591 – Vincenzo Galilei, Italian lute player and composer (b. 1520)
  • 1619 – Francis II, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (b. 1547)
  • 1621 – Thomas Harriot, English astronomer, mathematician, and ethnographer (b. 1560)
  • 1656 – François-Marie, comte de Broglie, Italian-French general (b. 1611)
  • 1674 – Eberhard III, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1614)
  • 1743 – Spencer Compton, 1st Earl of Wilmington, English lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1673)
  • 1746 – Thomas Baker, English antiquarian and author (b. 1656)
  • 1778 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher and composer (b. 1712)
  • 1833 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentinian lawyer and politician, 1st Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (b. 1757)
  • 1843 – Samuel Hahnemann, German physician and academic (b. 1755)
  • 1850 – Robert Peel, English lieutenant and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1788)
  • 1857 – Carlo Pisacane, Italian soldier and philosopher (b. 1818)
  • 1903 – Ed Delahanty, American baseball player (b. 1867)
  • 1912 – Tom Richardson, English cricketer (b. 1870)
  • 1914 – Joseph Chamberlain, English businessman and politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (b. 1836)
  • 1915 – Porfirio Díaz, Mexican general and politician, 29th President of Mexico (b. 1830)
  • 1920 – William Louis Marshall, American general and engineer (b. 1846)
  • 1926 – Émile Coué, French psychologist and pharmacist (b. 1857)
  • 1929 – Gladys Brockwell, American actress (b. 1894)
  • 1932 – Manuel II of Portugal (b. 1889)
  • 1950 – Thomas William Burgess, English swimmer and water polo player (b. 1872)
  • 1955 – Edward Lawson, English soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1873)
  • 1961 – Ernest Hemingway, American novelist, short story writer, and journalist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
  • 1963 – Alicia Patterson, American publisher, co-founded Newsday (b. 1906)
  • 1964 – Fireball Roberts, American race car driver (b. 1929)
  • 1966 – Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet and author (b. 1900)
  • 1970 – Jessie Street, Australian suffragette and feminist (b. 1889)
  • 1972 – Joseph Fielding Smith, American religious leader, 10th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1876)
  • 1973 – Betty Grable, American actress, singer, and dancer (b. 1916)
  • 1973 – George McBride, American baseball player and manager (b. 1880)
  • 1973 – Ferdinand Schörner, German field marshal (b. 1892)
  • 1975 – James Robertson Justice, English actor (b. 1907)
  • 1977 – Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born novelist and critic (b. 1899)
  • 1978 – Aris Alexandrou, Greek author and poet (b. 1922)
  • 1986 – Peanuts Lowrey, American baseball player and manager (b. 1917)
  • 1988 – Vibert Douglas, Canadian astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1894)
  • 1989 – Andrei Gromyko, Soviet economist and politician, Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1909)
  • 1990 – Snooky Lanson, American singer (b. 1914)
  • 1991 – Lee Remick, American actress (b. 1935)
  • 1993 – Fred Gwynne, American actor (b. 1926)
  • 1994 – Andrés Escobar, Colombian footballer (b. 1967)
  • 1995 – Lloyd MacPhail, Canadian businessman and politician, 23rd Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island (b. 1920)
  • 1997 – James Stewart, American actor (b. 1908)
  • 1999 – Mario Puzo, American author and screenwriter (b. 1920)
  • 2000 – Joey Dunlop, Northern Irish motorcycle racer (b. 1952)
  • 2002 – Ray Brown, American bassist and composer (b. 1926)
  • 2003 – Briggs Cunningham, American race car driver and businessman (b. 1907)
  • 2004 – Mochtar Lubis, Indonesian journalist and author (b. 1922)
  • 2005 – Ernest Lehman, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1915)
  • 2005 – Norm Prescott, American actor, composer, and producer, co-founded Filmation Studios (b. 1927)
  • 2006 – Jan Murray, American comedian, actor, and game show host (b. 1916)
  • 2007 – Beverly Sills, American operatic soprano and television personality (b. 1929)
  • 2008 – Natasha Shneider, Russian-American singer, keyboard player, and actress (b. 1956)
  • 2008 – Elizabeth Spriggs, English actress and screenwriter (b. 1929)
  • 2010 – Beryl Bainbridge, English screenwriter and author (b. 1932)
  • 2011 – Itamar Franco, Brazilian engineer and politician, 33rd President of Brazil (b. 1930)
  • 2012 – Maurice Chevit, French actor and screenwriter (b. 1923)
  • 2012 – Julian Goodman, American journalist (b. 1922)
  • 2012 – Angelo Mangiarotti, Italian architect and academic (b. 1921)
  • 2012 – Betty Meggers, American archaeologist and academic (b. 1921)
  • 2012 – Ed Stroud, American baseball player (b. 1939)
  • 2013 – Anthony G. Bosco, American bishop (b. 1927)
  • 2013 – Douglas Engelbart, American computer scientist, invented the computer mouse (b. 1925)
  • 2013 – Armand Gaudreault, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1921)
  • 2013 – Anthony Llewellyn, Welsh-American chemist, academic, and astronaut (b. 1933)
  • 2014 – Emilio Álvarez Montalván, Nicaraguan ophthalmologist and politician (b. 1919)
  • 2014 – Manuel Cardona, Spanish physicist and academic (b. 1934)
  • 2014 – Mary Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe (b. 1915)
  • 2014 – Harold W. Kuhn, American mathematician and academic (b. 1925)
  • 2014 – Louis Zamperini, American runner and World War II US Army Air Forces captain (b. 1917)
  • 2015 – Ronald Davison, New Zealand lawyer and judge, 10th Chief Justice of New Zealand (b. 1920)
  • 2015 – Charlie Sanders, American football player and sportscaster (b. 1946)
  • 2015 – Jim Weaver, American football player and coach (b. 1945)
  • 2015 – Jacobo Zabludovsky, Mexican journalist (b. 1928)
  • 2016 – Caroline Aherne, English actress and comedian (b. 1963)
  • 2016 – Michael Cimino, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1939)
  • 2016 – Patrick Manning, 4th & 6th Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (b. 1946)
  • 2016 – Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, activist, and author (b. 1928)
  • 2020 – Ángela Jeria, Chilean archaeologist (b. 1926)
  • 2020 – Byron Bernstein Reckful, gamer, Twitch streamer, investor (b. 1989)

Holidays and observances on July 2

  • Christian feast day:
    • Aberoh and Atom (Coptic Church)
    • Bernardino Realino
    • Feast of the Visitation (Anglicanism; Levoča at Mariánska hora)
    • Monegundis
    • Otto of Bamberg
    • Oudoceus
    • Martinian and Processus
    • Pishoy (Coptic Church)
    • Stephen III of Moldavia
    • July 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Earliest day on which Unity Day can fall, while July 8 is the latest; celebrated on Tuesday following Heroes’ Day. (Zambia)
  • Flag Day (Curaçao)
  • Palio di Provenzano (Siena, Italy)
  • Police Day (Azerbaijan)

July 2 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

July 1 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /

It is the last day of the first half of the year. The end of this day marks the halfway point of a leap year. It also falls on the same day of the week as New Year’s Day in a leap year. The midpoint of the year for southern hemisphere DST countries occurs at 11:00 p.m.

  • AD 69 – Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor.
  • 552 – Battle of Taginae: Byzantine forces under Narses defeat the Ostrogoths in Italy, and the Ostrogoth king, Totila, is mortally wounded.
  • 1097 – Battle of Dorylaeum: Crusaders led by prince Bohemond of Taranto defeat a Seljuk army led by sultan Kilij Arslan I.
  • 1431 – The Battle of La Higueruela takes place in Granada, leading to a modest advance of the Kingdom of Castile during the Reconquista.
  • 1520 – Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés fight their way out of Tenochtitlan after nightfall.
  • 1523 – Jan van Essen and Hendrik Vos become the first Lutheran martyrs, burned at the stake by Roman Catholic authorities in Brussels.
  • 1569 – Union of Lublin: The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania confirm a real union; the united country is called the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth or the Republic of Both Nations.
  • 1643 – First meeting of the Westminster Assembly, a council of theologians (“divines”) and members of the Parliament of England appointed to restructure the Church of England, at Westminster Abbey in London.
  • 1690 – Glorious Revolution: Battle of the Boyne in Ireland (as reckoned under the Julian calendar).
  • 1766 – François-Jean de la Barre, a young French nobleman, is tortured and beheaded before his body is burnt on a pyre along with a copy of Voltaire’s Dictionnaire philosophique nailed to his torso for the crime of not saluting a Roman Catholic religious procession in Abbeville, France.
  • 1770 – Lexell’s Comet is seen closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 astronomical units (2,180,000 km; 1,360,000 mi).
  • 1782 – Raid on Lunenburg: American privateers attack the British settlement of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
  • 1819 – Johann Georg Tralles discovers the Great Comet of 1819, (C/1819 N1). It was the first comet analyzed using polarimetry, by François Arago.
  • 1837 – A system of civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales.
  • 1855 – Signing of the Quinault Treaty: The Quinault and the Quileute cede their land to the United States.
  • 1858 – Joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace’s papers on evolution to the Linnean Society of London.
  • 1862 – The Russian State Library is founded as the Library of the Moscow Public Museum.
  • 1862 – Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, second daughter of Queen Victoria, marries Prince Louis of Hesse, the future Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse.
  • 1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Malvern Hill takes place. It is the last of the Seven Days Battles, part of George B. McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign.
  • 1863 – Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) in Suriname, marking the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands.
  • 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Gettysburg begins.
  • 1867 – The British North America Act takes effect as the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia join into confederation to create the modern nation of Canada. Sir John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada. This date is commemorated annually in Canada as Canada Day, a national holiday.
  • 1870 – The United States Department of Justice formally comes into existence.
  • 1873 – Prince Edward Island joins into Canadian Confederation.
  • 1874 – The Sholes and Glidden typewriter, the first commercially successful typewriter, goes on sale.
  • 1878 – Canada joins the Universal Postal Union.
  • 1879 – Charles Taze Russell publishes the first edition of the religious magazine The Watchtower.
  • 1881 – The world’s first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States.
  • 1881 – General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell and Childers reforms of the British Army, comes into effect.
  • 1885 – The United States terminates reciprocity and fishery agreement with Canada.
  • 1885 – The Congo Free State is established by King Leopold II of Belgium.
  • 1890 – Canada and Bermuda are linked by telegraph cable.
  • 1898 – Spanish–American War: The Battle of San Juan Hill is fought in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.
  • 1903 – Start of first Tour de France bicycle race.
  • 1908 – SOS is adopted as the international distress signal.
  • 1911 – Germany despatches the gunship SMS Panther to Morocco, sparking the Agadir Crisis.
  • 1915 – Leutnant Kurt Wintgens of the then-named German Deutsches Heer’s Fliegertruppe army air service achieves the first known aerial victory with a synchronized machine-gun armed fighter plane, the Fokker M.5K/MG Eindecker.
  • 1916 – World War I: First day on the Somme: On the first day of the Battle of the Somme 19,000 soldiers of the British Army are killed and 40,000 wounded.
  • 1922 – The Great Railroad Strike of 1922 begins in the United States.
  • 1923 – The Parliament of Canada suspends all Chinese immigration.
  • 1931 – United Airlines begins service (as Boeing Air Transport).
  • 1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty become the first people to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engined monoplane aircraft.
  • 1932 – Australia’s national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, was formed.
  • 1935 – Regina, Saskatchewan police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police ambush strikers participating in the On-to-Ottawa Trek.
  • 1942 – World War II: First Battle of El Alamein.
  • 1942 – The Australian Federal Government becomes the sole collector of income tax in Australia as State Income Tax is abolished.
  • 1943 – The City of Tokyo and the Prefecture of Tokyo are both replaced by the Tokyo Metropolis.
  • 1947 – The Philippine Air Force is established.
  • 1948 – Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Quaid-i-Azam) inaugurates Pakistan’s central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan.
  • 1949 – The merger of two princely states of India, Cochin and Travancore, into the state of Thiru-Kochi (later re-organized as Kerala) in the Indian Union ends more than 1,000 years of princely rule by the Cochin royal family.
  • 1957 – The International Geophysical Year begins.
  • 1958 – The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada via microwave.
  • 1958 – Flooding of Canada’s Saint Lawrence Seaway begins.
  • 1959 – Specific values for the international yard, avoirdupois pound and derived units (e.g. inch, mile and ounce) are adopted after agreement between the US, the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.
  • 1960 – Independence of Somalia.
  • 1960 – Ghana becomes a republic and Kwame Nkrumah becomes its first President as Queen Elizabeth II ceases to be its head of state.
  • 1962 – Independence of Rwanda and Burundi.
  • 1963 – ZIP codes are introduced for United States mail.
  • 1963 – The British Government admits that former diplomat Kim Philby had worked as a Soviet agent.
  • 1966 – The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto.
  • 1967 – Merger Treaty: The European Community is formally created out of a merger with the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission.
  • 1968 – The United States Central Intelligence Agency’s Phoenix Program is officially established.
  • 1968 – The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is signed in Washington, D.C., London and Moscow by sixty-two countries.
  • 1968 – Formal separation of the United Auto Workers from the AFL–CIO in the United States.
  • 1972 – The first Gay pride march in England takes place.
  • 1976 – Portugal grants autonomy to Madeira.
  • 1978 – The Northern Territory in Australia is granted self-government.
  • 1979 – Sony introduces the Walkman.
  • 1980 – “O Canada” officially becomes the national anthem of Canada.
  • 1983 – A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea crashes into the Fouta Djallon mountains in Guinea-Bissau, killing all 23 people on board.
  • 1984 – The PG-13 rating is introduced by the MPAA.
  • 1987 – The American radio station WFAN in New York City is launched as the world’s first all-sports radio station.
  • 1990 – German reunification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany.
  • 1991 – Cold War: The Warsaw Pact is officially dissolved at a meeting in Prague.
  • 1997 – China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule. The handover ceremony is attended by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Charles, Prince of Wales, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
  • 1999 – The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Elizabeth II on the day that legislative powers are officially transferred from the old Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh. In Wales, the powers of the Welsh Secretary are transferred to the National Assembly.
  • 2002 – The International Criminal Court is established to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
  • 2002 – Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, a Tupolev Tu-154, and DHL Flight 611, a Boeing 757, collide in mid-air over Überlingen, southern Germany, killing all 71 on board both planes.
  • 2003 – Over 500,000 people protest against efforts to pass anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong.
  • 2004 – Saturn orbit insertion of Cassini–Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC.
  • 2006 – The first operation of Qinghai–Tibet Railway is conducted in China.
  • 2007 – Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces.
  • 2008 – Riots erupt in Mongolia in response to allegations of fraud surrounding the 2008 legislative elections.
  • 2013 – Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union.

Births on July 1

  • 1311 – Liu Bowen, Chinese military strategist, statesman and poet (d. 1375)
  • 1464 – Clara Gonzaga, Italian noble (d. 1503)
  • 1481 – Christian II of Denmark (d. 1559)
  • 1506 – Louis II of Hungary (d. 1526)
  • 1534 – Frederick II of Denmark (d. 1588)
  • 1553 – Peter Street, English carpenter and builder (d. 1609)
  • 1574 – Joseph Hall, English bishop and mystic (d. 1656)
  • 1586 – Claudio Saracini, Italian lute player and composer (d. 1630)
  • 1633 – Johann Heinrich Heidegger, Swiss theologian and author (d. 1698)
  • 1646 – Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, German mathematician and philosopher (d. 1716)
  • 1663 – Franz Xaver Murschhauser, German composer and theorist (d. 1738)
  • 1725 – Rhoda Delaval, English painter and aristrocrat (d. 1757)
  • 1725 – Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, French general (d. 1807)
  • 1731 – Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan, Scottish-English admiral (d. 1804)
  • 1742 – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German physicist and academic (d. 1799)
  • 1771 – Ferdinando Paer, Italian composer and conductor (d. 1839)
  • 1788 – Jean-Victor Poncelet, French mathematician and engineer (d. 1867)
  • 1804 – Charles Gordon Greene, American journalist and politician (d. 1886)
  • 1804 – George Sand, French author and playwright (d. 1876)
  • 1807 – Thomas Green Clemson, American politician and educator, founded Clemson University (d. 1888)
  • 1808 – Ygnacio del Valle, Mexican-American landowner (d. 1880)
  • 1814 – Robert Torrens, Irish-Australian politician, 3rd Premier of South Australia (d. 1884)
  • 1818 – Ignaz Semmelweis, Hungarian-Austrian physician and obstetrician (d. 1865)
  • 1818 – Karl von Vierordt, German physician, psychologist and academic (d. 1884)
  • 1822 – Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Vietnamese poet and activist (d. 1888)
  • 1834 – Jadwiga Łuszczewska, Polish poet and author (d. 1908)
  • 1850 – Florence Earle Coates, American poet (d. 1927)
  • 1858 – Willard Metcalf, American painter (d. 1925)
  • 1858 – Velma Caldwell Melville, American editor and writer of prose and poetry (d. 1924)
  • 1863 – William Grant Stairs, Canadian-English captain and explorer (d. 1892)
  • 1869 – William Strunk Jr., American author and educator (d. 1946)
  • 1872 – Louis Blériot, French pilot and engineer (d. 1936)
  • 1872 – William Duddell, English physicist and engineer (d. 1917)
  • 1873 – Alice Guy-Blaché, French-American film director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1968)
  • 1873 – Andrass Samuelsen, Faroese politician, 1st Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands (d. 1954)
  • 1875 – Joseph Weil, American con man (d. 1976)
  • 1876 – T.J. Ryan, Australian politician, 19th Premier of Queensland (d. 1921)
  • 1878 – Jacques Rosenbaum, Estonian-German architect (d. 1944)
  • 1879 – Léon Jouhaux, French union leader, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
  • 1881 – Edward Battersby Bailey, English geologist (d. 1965)
  • 1882 – Bidhan Chandra Roy, Indian physician and politician, 2nd Chief Minister of West Bengal (d. 1962)
  • 1883 – Arthur Borton, English colonel, Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1933)
  • 1885 – Dorothea Mackellar, Australian author and poet (d. 1968)
  • 1887 – Amber Reeves, New Zealand-English author and scholar (d. 1981)
  • 1892 – James M. Cain, American author and journalist (d. 1977)
  • 1892 – László Lajtha, Hungarian composer and conductor (d. 1963)
  • 1899 – Thomas A. Dorsey, American pianist and composer (d. 1993)
  • 1899 – Charles Laughton, English-American actor and director (d. 1962)
  • 1899 – Konstantinos Tsatsos, Greek scholar and politician, President of Greece (d. 1987)
  • 1901 – Irna Phillips, American screenwriter (d. 1973)
  • 1902 – William Wyler, French-American film director, producer and screenwriter (d. 1981)
  • 1903 – Amy Johnson, English pilot (d. 1941)
  • 1903 – Beatrix Lehmann, English actress (d. 1979)
  • 1906 – Jean Dieudonné, French mathematician and academic (d. 1992)
  • 1906 – Estée Lauder, American businesswoman, co-founded the Estée Lauder Companies (d. 2004)
  • 1907 – Norman Pirie, Scottish-English biochemist and virologist (d. 1997)
  • 1909 – Emmett Toppino, American sprinter (d. 1971)
  • 1910 – Glenn Hardin, American hurdler (d. 1975)
  • 1911 – Arnold Alas, Estonian landscape architect and artist (d. 1990)
  • 1911 – Sergey Sokolov, Russian marshal and politician, Soviet Minister of Defence (d. 2012)
  • 1912 – David Brower, American environmentalist, founded Sierra Club Foundation (d. 2000)
  • 1912 – Sally Kirkland, American journalist (d. 1989)
  • 1913 – Frank Barrett, American baseball player (d. 1998)
  • 1913 – Lee Guttero, American basketball player (d. 2004)
  • 1913 – Vasantrao Naik, Indian politician, 3rd Chief Minister of Maharashtra (d. 1979)
  • 1914 – Thomas Pearson, British Army officer (d. 2019)
  • 1914 – Christl Cranz, German alpine skier (d. 2004)
  • 1914 – Bernard B. Wolfe, American politician (d. 2016)
  • 1915 – Boots Poffenberger, American baseball player (d. 1999)
  • 1915 – Willie Dixon, American singer-songwriter, bass player, guitarist and producer (d. 1992)
  • 1915 – Joseph Ransohoff, American soldier and neurosurgeon (d. 2001)
  • 1915 – Philip Lever, 3rd Viscount Leverhulme, British peer (d. 2000)
  • 1915 – Nguyễn Văn Linh, Vietnamese politician (d. 1998)
  • 1916 – Olivia de Havilland, British-American actress
  • 1916 – Iosif Shklovsky, Ukrainian astronomer and astrophysicist (d. 1985)
  • 1916 – George C. Stoney, American director and producer (d. 2012)
  • 1917 – Humphry Osmond, English-American lieutenant and psychiatrist (d. 2004)
  • 1917 – Álvaro Domecq y Díez, Spanish aristocrat (d. 2005)
  • 1918 – Ralph Young, American singer and actor (d. 2008)
  • 1918 – Ahmed Deedat, South African writer and public speaker (d. 2005)
  • 1918 – Pedro Yap, Filipino lawyer (d. 2003)
  • 1919 – Arnold Meri, Estonian colonel (d. 2009)
  • 1919 – Malik Dohan al-Hassan, Iraqi politician
  • 1919 – Gerald E. Miller, American vice admiral (d. 2014)
  • 1920 – Henri Amouroux, French historian and journalist (d. 2007)
  • 1920 – Harold Sakata, Japanese-American wrestler and actor (d. 1982)
  • 1920 – Joseph G. Williams, American musician
  • 1920 – George I. Fujimoto, American-Japanese chemist
  • 1921 – Seretse Khama, Batswana lawyer and politician, 1st President of Botswana (d. 1980)
  • 1921 – Michalina Wisłocka, Polish gynecologist and sexologist (d. 2005)
  • 1921 – Arthur Johnson, Canadian canoeist (d. 2003)
  • 1922 – Toshi Seeger, German-American activist, co-founded the Clearwater Festival (d. 2013)
  • 1922 – Mordechai Bibi, Israeli politician
  • 1923 – Scotty Bowers, American Marine, author and pimp (d. 2019)
  • 1924 – Antoni Ramallets, Spanish footballer and manager (d. 2013)
  • 1924 – Florence Stanley, American actress (d. 2003)
  • 1924 – Georges Rivière, French actor
  • 1925 – Farley Granger, American actor (d. 2011)
  • 1925 – Art McNally, American football referee
  • 1926 – Robert Fogel, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2013)
  • 1926 – Carl Hahn, German businessman
  • 1926 – Mohamed Abshir Muse, Somali general (d. 2017)
  • 1926 – Hans Werner Henze, German composer and educator (d. 2012)
  • 1927 – Alan J. Charig, English paleontologist and author (d. 1997)
  • 1927 – Joseph Martin Sartoris, American bishop
  • 1927 – Chandra Shekhar, 8th Prime Minister of India (d. 2007)[27]
  • 1929 – Gerald Edelman, American biologist and immunologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2014)
  • 1930 – Moustapha Akkad, Syrian-American director and producer (d. 2005)
  • 1930 – Carol Chomsky, American linguist and academic (d. 2008)
  • 1931 – Leslie Caron, French actress and dancer
  • 1932 – Ze’ev Schiff, French-Israeli journalist and author (d. 2007)
  • 1933 – C. Scott Littleton, American anthropologist and academic (d. 2010)
  • 1934 – Claude Berri, French actor, director and screenwriter (d. 2009)
  • 1934 – Jamie Farr, American actor
  • 1934 – Jean Marsh, English actress and screenwriter
  • 1934 – Sydney Pollack, American actor, director and producer (d. 2008)
  • 1935 – James Cotton, American singer-songwriter and harmonica player (d. 2017)
  • 1935 – David Prowse, English actor
  • 1936 – Wally Amos, American entrepreneur and founder of Famous Amos
  • 1938 – Craig Anderson, American baseball player and coach
  • 1938 – Hariprasad Chaurasia, Indian flute player and composer
  • 1939 – Karen Black, American actress (d. 2013)
  • 1939 – Delaney Bramlett, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer (d. 2008)
  • 1940 – Craig Brown, Scottish footballer and manager
  • 1940 – Ela Gandhi, South African activist and politician
  • 1940 – Cahit Zarifoğlu, Turkish poet and author (d. 1987)
  • 1941 – Rod Gilbert, Canadian-American ice hockey player
  • 1941 – Alfred G. Gilman, American pharmacologist and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015)
  • 1941 – Myron Scholes, Canadian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1941 – Twyla Tharp, American dancer and choreographer
  • 1942 – Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Iraqi field marshal and politician (d. 2015)
  • 1942 – Geneviève Bujold, Canadian actress
  • 1942 – Andraé Crouch, American singer-songwriter, producer and pastor (d. 2015)
  • 1942 – Julia Higgins, English chemist and academic
  • 1943 – Philip Brunelle, American conductor and organist
  • 1943 – Peeter Lepp, Estonian politician, 37th Mayor of Tallinn
  • 1943 – Jeff Wayne, American composer, musician and lyricist
  • 1945 – Mike Burstyn, American actor and singer
  • 1945 – Debbie Harry, American singer-songwriter and actress
  • 1946 – Mick Aston, English archaeologist and academic (d. 2013)
  • 1946 – Erkki Tuomioja, Finnish sergeant and politician, Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs
  • 1947 – Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Japanese race car driver
  • 1947 – Malcolm Wicks, English academic and politician (d. 2012)
  • 1948 – John Ford, English-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1949 – Néjia Ben Mabrouk, Tunisian-Belgian director and screenwriter
  • 1949 – John Farnham, English-Australian singer-songwriter
  • 1949 – David Hogan, American composer and educator (d. 1996)
  • 1949 – Venkaiah Naidu, Indian lawyer and politician
  • 1950 – David Duke, American white supremacist, politician and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard
  • 1951 – Trevor Eve, English actor and producer
  • 1951 – Anne Feeney, American singer-songwriter and activist
  • 1951 – Julia Goodfellow, English physicist and academic
  • 1951 – Klaus-Peter Justus, German runner
  • 1951 – Tom Kozelko, American basketball player
  • 1951 – Terrence Mann, American actor, singer and dancer
  • 1951 – Fred Schneider, American singer-songwriter and keyboard player
  • 1951 – Victor Willis, American singer-songwriter, pianist and actor
  • 1952 – Dan Aykroyd, Canadian actor, producer and screenwriter
  • 1952 – David Arkenstone, American composer and performer
  • 1952 – David Lane, English oncologist and academic
  • 1952 – Steve Shutt, Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster
  • 1952 – Timothy J. Tobias, American pianist and composer (d. 2006)
  • 1953 – Lawrence Gonzi, Maltese lawyer and politician, 12th Prime Minister of Malta
  • 1953 – Jadranka Kosor, Croatian journalist and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Croatia
  • 1954 – Keith Whitley, American singer and guitarist (d. 1989)
  • 1955 – Nikolai Demidenko, Russian pianist and educator
  • 1955 – Li Keqiang, Chinese economist and politician, 7th Premier of the People’s Republic of China
  • 1955 – Lisa Scottoline, American lawyer and author
  • 1957 – Lisa Blount, American actress and producer (d. 2010)
  • 1957 – Hannu Kamppuri, Finnish ice hockey player
  • 1957 – Sean O’Driscoll, English footballer and manager
  • 1958 – Jack Dyer Crouch II, American diplomat, United States Deputy National Security Advisor
  • 1960 – Michael Beattie, Australian rugby league player and coach
  • 1960 – Lynn Jennings, American runner
  • 1960 – Evelyn “Champagne” King, American soul/disco singer
  • 1960 – Kevin Swords, American rugby player
  • 1961 – Malcolm Elliott, English cyclist
  • 1961 – Ivan Kaye, English actor
  • 1961 – Carl Lewis, American long jumper and runner
  • 1961 – Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
  • 1961 – Michelle Wright, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1962 – Andre Braugher, American actor and producer
  • 1962 – Mokhzani Mahathir, Malaysian businessman
  • 1963 – Roddy Bottum, American singer and keyboard player
  • 1963 – Nick Giannopoulos, Australian actor
  • 1963 – David Wood, American lawyer and environmentalist (d. 2006)
  • 1964 – Bernard Laporte, French rugby player and coach
  • 1965 – Carl Fogarty, English motorcycle racer
  • 1965 – Garry Schofield, English rugby player and coach
  • 1965 – Harald Zwart, Norwegian director and producer
  • 1966 – Enrico Annoni, Italian footballer and coach
  • 1966 – Shawn Burr, Canadian-American ice hockey player (d. 2013)
  • 1967 – Pamela Anderson, Canadian-American model and actress
  • 1969 – Séamus Egan, American-Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1971 – Missy Elliott, American rapper, producer, dancer and actress
  • 1971 – Julianne Nicholson, American actress
  • 1974 – Jefferson Pérez, Ecuadorian race walker
  • 1975 – Sean Colson, American basketball player and coach
  • 1975 – Sufjan Stevens, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1976 – Patrick Kluivert, Dutch footballer and coach
  • 1976 – Hannu Tihinen, Finnish footballer
  • 1976 – Albert Torrens, Australian rugby league player
  • 1976 – Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dutch footballer and manager
  • 1976 – Szymon Ziółkowski, Polish hammer thrower
  • 1977 – Tom Frager, Senegalese-French singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1977 – Keigo Hayashi, Japanese musician
  • 1977 – Jarome Iginla, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1979 – Forrest Griffin, American mixed martial artist and actor
  • 1981 – Carlo Del Fava, South African-Italian rugby player
  • 1981 – Tadhg Kennelly, Irish-Australian footballer
  • 1982 – Justin Huber, Australian baseball player
  • 1982 – Joachim Johansson, Swedish tennis player
  • 1982 – Adrian Ward, American football player
  • 1982 – Hilarie Burton, American actress
  • 1984 – Donald Thomas, Bahamian high jumper
  • 1985 – Chris Perez, American baseball player
  • 1986 – Charlie Blackmon, American baseball player
  • 1986 – Andrew Lee, Australian footballer
  • 1986 – Julian Prochnow, German footballer
  • 1987 – Michael Schrader, German decathlete
  • 1988 – Dedé, Brazilian footballer
  • 1988 – Aleksander Lesun, Russian modern pentathlete
  • 1989 – Kent Bazemore, American basketball player
  • 1989 – Daniel Ricciardo, Australian race car driver
  • 1990 – Ben Coker, English footballer
  • 1991 – Michael Wacha, American baseball player
  • 1992 – Aaron Sanchez, American baseball player
  • 1995 – Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo, Belgian footballer
  • 1995 – Savvy Shields, Miss America 2017
  • 1996 – Adelina Sotnikova, Russian figure skater
  • 1998 – Aleksandra Golovkina, Lithuanian figure skater
  • 2000 – Lalu Muhammad Zohri, Indonesian sprinter
  • 2001 – Chosen Jacobs, American entertainer

Deaths on July 1

  • 552 – Totila, Ostrogoth king
  • 992 – Heonjeong, Korean queen (b. 966)
  • 1109 – Alfonso VI, king of León and Castile (b. 1040)
  • 1224 – Hōjō Yoshitoki, regent of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan (b. 1163)
  • 1242 – Chagatai Khan, Mongol ruler (b. 1183)
  • 1277 – Baibars, Egyptian sultan (b. 1223)
  • 1321 – María de Molina, queen of Castile and León
  • 1348 – Joan, English princess
  • 1555 – John Bradford, English reformer, prebendary of St. Paul’s (b. 1510)
  • 1589 – Lady Saigō, Japanese concubine (b. 1552)
  • 1592 – Marc’Antonio Ingegneri, Italian composer and educator (b. 1535)
  • 1614 – Isaac Casaubon, French philologist and scholar (b. 1559)
  • 1622 – William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, English politician (b. 1575)
  • 1681 – Oliver Plunkett, Irish archbishop and saint (b. 1629)
  • 1736 – Ahmed III, Ottoman sultan (b. 1673)
  • 1774 – Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, English politician, Secretary of State for the Southern Department (b. 1705)
  • 1782 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, English admiral and politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (b. 1730)
  • 1784 – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German organist and composer (b. 1710)
  • 1787 – Charles de Rohan, French marshal (b. 1715)
  • 1819 – the Public Universal Friend, American evangelist (b. 1752)
  • 1839 – Mahmud II, Ottoman sultan (b. 1785)
  • 1860 – Charles Goodyear, American chemist and engineer (b. 1800)
  • 1863 – John F. Reynolds, American general (b. 1820)
  • 1884 – Allan Pinkerton, Scottish-American detective and spy (b. 1819)
  • 1896 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author and activist (b. 1811)
  • 1905 – John Hay, American journalist and politician, 37th United States Secretary of State (b. 1838)
  • 1912 – Harriet Quimby, American pilot and screenwriter (b. 1875)
  • 1925 – Erik Satie, French pianist and composer (b. 1866)
  • 1934 – Ernst Röhm, German paramilitary commander (b. 1887)
  • 1942 – Peadar Toner Mac Fhionnlaoich, Irish writer (b. 1857)
  • 1943 – Willem Arondeus, Dutch artist, author, and anti-Nazi resistance fighter (b. 1894)
  • 1944 – Carl Mayer, Austrian-English screenwriter (b. 1894)
  • 1944 – Tanya Savicheva, Russian author (b. 1930)
  • 1948 – Achille Varzi, Italian race car driver (b. 1904)
  • 1950 – Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Swiss composer and educator (b. 1865)
  • 1950 – Eliel Saarinen, Finnish-American architect, co-designed the National Museum of Finland (b. 1873)
  • 1951 – Tadeusz Borowski, Polish poet, novelist and journalist (b. 1922)
  • 1961 – Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French physician and author (b. 1894)
  • 1962 – Purushottam Das Tandon, Indian lawyer and politician (b. 1882)
  • 1962 – Bidhan Chandra Roy, Indian physician and politician, 2nd Chief Minister of West Bengal (b. 1882)
  • 1964 – Pierre Monteux, French-American viola player and conductor (b. 1875)
  • 1965 – Wally Hammond, English cricketer (b. 1903)
  • 1965 – Robert Ruark, American journalist and author (b. 1915)
  • 1966 – Frank Verner, American runner (b. 1883)
  • 1967 – Gerhard Ritter, German historian and academic (b. 1888)
  • 1968 – Fritz Bauer, German judge and politician (b. 1903)
  • 1971 – William Lawrence Bragg, Australian-English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1890)
  • 1971 – Learie Constantine, Trinidadian-English cricketer, lawyer, and politician (b. 1901)
  • 1974 – Juan Perón, Argentinian general and politician, President of Argentina (b. 1895)
  • 1978 – Kurt Student, German general and pilot (b. 1890)
  • 1981 – Carlos de Oliveira, Portuguese author and poet (b. 1921)
  • 1983 – Buckminster Fuller, American architect, designed the Montreal Biosphère (b. 1895)
  • 1984 – Moshé Feldenkrais, Ukrainian-Israeli physicist and academic (b. 1904)
  • 1991 – Michael Landon, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1936)
  • 1992 – Franco Cristaldi, Italian screenwriter and producer (b. 1924)
  • 1994 – Merriam Modell, American author (b. 1908)
  • 1995 – Wolfman Jack, American radio host (b. 1938)
  • 1995 – Ian Parkin, English guitarist (Be-Bop Deluxe) (b. 1950)
  • 1996 – William T. Cahill, American lawyer and politician, 46th Governor of New Jersey (b. 1904)
  • 1996 – Margaux Hemingway, American model and actress (b. 1954)
  • 1996 – Steve Tesich, Serbian-American author and screenwriter (b. 1942)
  • 1997 – Robert Mitchum, American actor (b. 1917)
  • 1997 – Charles Werner, American cartoonist (b. 1909)
  • 1999 – Edward Dmytryk, Canadian-American director and producer (b. 1908)
  • 1999 – Forrest Mars Sr., American businessman, created M&M’s and the Mars bar (b. 1904)
  • 1999 – Sylvia Sidney, American actress (b. 1910)
  • 1999 – Sola Sierra, Chilean human rights activist (b. 1935)
  • 2000 – Walter Matthau, American actor (b. 1920)
  • 2001 – Nikolay Basov, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1922)
  • 2001 – Jean-Louis Rosier, French race car driver (b. 1925)
  • 2003 – Herbie Mann, American flute player and saxophonist (b. 1930)
  • 2004 – Peter Barnes, English playwright and screenwriter (b. 1931)
  • 2004 – Marlon Brando, American actor and director (b. 1924)
  • 2004 – Todor Skalovski, Macedonian composer and conductor (b. 1909)
  • 2005 – Renaldo Benson, American singer-songwriter (Four Tops) (b. 1936)
  • 2005 – Gus Bodnar, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1923)
  • 2005 – Luther Vandross, American singer-songwriter and producer (Change) (b. 1951)
  • 2006 – Ryutaro Hashimoto, Japanese politician, 53rd Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1937)
  • 2006 – Robert Lepikson, Estonian race car driver and politician, Estonian Minister of the Interior (b. 1952)
  • 2006 – Fred Trueman, English cricketer and sportscaster (b. 1931)
  • 2008 – Mel Galley, English guitarist (b. 1948)
  • 2009 – Karl Malden, American actor (b. 1912)
  • 2009 – Onni Palaste, Finnish soldier and author (b. 1917)
  • 2009 – Mollie Sugden, English actress (b. 1922)
  • 2010 – Don Coryell, American football player and coach (b. 1924)
  • 2010 – Arnold Friberg, American painter and illustrator (b. 1913)
  • 2010 – Ilene Woods, American actress and singer (b. 1929)
  • 2012 – Peter E. Gillquist, American priest and author (b. 1938)
  • 2012 – Ossie Hibbert, Jamaican-American keyboard player and producer (b. 1950)
  • 2012 – Evelyn Lear, American operatic soprano (b. 1926)
  • 2012 – Alan G. Poindexter, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (b. 1961)
  • 2012 – Jack Richardson, American author and playwright (b. 1934)
  • 2013 – Sidney Bryan Berry, American general (b. 1926)
  • 2013 – Charles Foley, American game designer, co-created Twister (b. 1930)
  • 2013 – William H. Gray, American minister and politician (b. 1941)
  • 2014 – Jean Garon, Canadian economist, lawyer, and politician (b. 1938)
  • 2014 – Stephen Gaskin, American activist, co-founded The Farm (b. 1935)
  • 2014 – Bob Jones, English lawyer and politician (b. 1955)
  • 2014 – Anatoly Kornukov, Ukrainian-Russian general (b. 1942)
  • 2014 – Walter Dean Myers, American author and poet (b. 1937)
  • 2015 – Val Doonican, Irish singer and television host (b. 1927)
  • 2015 – Czesław Olech, Polish mathematician and academic (b. 1931)
  • 2015 – Nicholas Winton, English lieutenant and humanitarian (b. 1909)
  • 2016 – Robin Hardy, English author and film director (b. 1929)
  • 2020 – Georg Ratzinger, German Roman Catholic priest and musician (b. 1924)

Holidays and observances on July 1

  • Christian feast day:
    • Aaron (Syriac Christianity)
    • Blessed Antonio Rosmini-Serbati
    • Felix of Como
    • Junípero Serra
    • Julius and Aaron
    • Leontius of Autun
    • Servanus
    • Veep
    • July 1 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
    • Feast of the Most Precious Blood (removed from official Roman Catholic calendar since 1969)
  • Earliest day on which Alexanderson Day can fall, celebrated on the Sunday closest to July 2. (Sweden)
  • Earliest day on which CARICOM Day can fall, while July 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in July. (Guyana)
  • Earliest day on which Constitution Day can fall, while July 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in July. (Cayman Islands)
  • Earliest day on which Día del Amigo can fall, celebrated on the first Saturday of July. (Peru)
  • Earliest day on which Fishermen’s Holiday, celebrated on the first Friday of July (Marshall Islands)
  • Earliest day on which Heroes’ Day can fall, while July 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Monday in July. (Zambia)
  • Earliest day on which International Co-operative Day, can fall, celebrated on the first Saturday of July.
  • Earliest day on which International Free Hugs Day, can fall, celebrated on the first Saturday of July.
  • Earliest day on which Navy Day can fall, celebrated on the first Sunday in July. (Ukraine)
  • Earliest day on which Navy Days can fall, celebrated First Saturday and Sunday. (Netherlands)
  • Earliest day on which Youth Day can fall, while July 7 is the latest; celebrated on the first Sunday in July. (Singapore)
  • Armed Forces Day (Singapore)
  • Canada Day, formerly Dominion Day (Canada)
  • Children’s Day (Pakistan)
  • Communist Party of China Founding Day (China)
  • Day of Officials and Civil Servants (Hungary)
  • Doctors’ Day (India)
  • Emancipation Day (Netherlands Antilles)
  • Engineer’s Day (Bahrain, Mexico)
  • Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day (Hong Kong, China)
  • Independence Day (Burundi), celebrates the independence of Burundi from Belgium in 1962.
  • Independence Day (Rwanda)
  • Independence Day (Somalia)
  • International Tartan Day
  • July Morning (Bulgaria)
  • Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) (Suriname)
  • Madeira Day (Madeira, Portugal)
  • Moving Day (Quebec) (Canada)
  • Newfoundland and Labrador Memorial Day
  • Republic Day (Ghana)
  • Sir Seretse Khama Day (Botswana)
  • Territory Day (British Virgin Islands)
  • The first day of Van Mahotsav, celebrated until July 7. (India)

July 1 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

June 29 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /
  • 226 – Cao Rui succeeds his father as emperor of the Kingdom of Wei.
  • 1149 – Raymond of Poitiers is defeated and killed at the Battle of Inab by Nur ad-Din Zangi.
  • 1194 – Sverre is crowned King of Norway, leading to his excommunication by the Catholic Church and civil war.
  • 1444 – Skanderbeg defeats an Ottoman invasion force at Torvioll.
  • 1534 – Jacques Cartier is the first European to reach Prince Edward Island.
  • 1613 – The Globe Theatre in London, built by William Shakespeare‘s playing company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, burns to the ground.
  • 1644 – Charles I of England defeats a Parliamentarian detachment at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge.
  • 1659 – At the Battle of Konotop the Ukrainian armies of Ivan Vyhovsky defeat the Russians led by Prince Trubetskoy.
  • 1786 – Alexander Macdonell and over five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders leave Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario.
  • 1807 – Russo-Turkish War: Admiral Dmitry Senyavin destroys the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Athos.
  • 1850 – Autocephaly officially granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople to the Church of Greece.
  • 1864 – At least 99 people, mostly German and Polish immigrants, are killed in Canada’s worst railway disaster after a train fails to stop for an open drawbridge and plunges into the Rivière Richelieu near St-Hilaire, Quebec.
  • 1874 – Greek politician Charilaos Trikoupis publishes a manifesto in the Athens daily Kairoi entitled “Who’s to Blame?” leveling complaints against King George. Trikoupis is elected Prime Minister of Greece the next year.
  • 1880 – France annexes Tahiti, renaming the independent Kingdom of Tahiti as “Etablissements de français de l’Océanie”.
  • 1881 – In Sudan, Muhammad Ahmad declares himself to be the Mahdi, the messianic redeemer of Islam.
  • 1888 – George Edward Gouraud records Handel’s Israel in Egypt onto a phonograph cylinder, thought for many years to be the oldest known recording of music.
  • 1889 – Hyde Park and several other Illinois townships vote to be annexed by Chicago, forming the largest United States city in area and second largest in population at the time.
  • 1915 – The North Saskatchewan River flood of 1915 is the worst flood in Edmonton history.
  • 1916 – British diplomat turned Irish nationalist Roger Casement is sentenced to death for his part in the Easter Rising.
  • 1922 – France grants 1 km2 at Vimy Ridge “freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes”.
  • 1927 – The Bird of Paradise, a U.S. Army Air Corps Fokker tri-motor, completes the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii.
  • 1945 – The Soviet Union annexes the Czechoslovak province of Carpathian Ruthenia.
  • 1950 – Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman authorizes a sea blockade of Korea.
  • 1956 – The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 is signed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, officially creating the United States Interstate Highway System.
  • 1972 – The United States Supreme Court rules in the case Furman v. Georgia that arbitrary and inconsistent imposition of the death penalty violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
  • 1974 – Vice President Isabel Perón assumes powers and duties as Acting President of Argentina, while her husband President Juan Peron is terminally ill.
  • 1974 – Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with the Kirov Ballet.
  • 1975 – Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of Apple I computer.
  • 1976 – The Seychelles become independent from the United Kingdom.
  • 1976 – The Conference of Communist and Workers Parties of Europe convenes in East Berlin.
  • 1987 – Vincent Van Gogh’s painting, the Le Pont de Trinquetaille, was bought for $20.4 million at an auction in London, England.
  • 1995 – Space Shuttle program: STS-71 Mission (Atlantis) docks with the Russian space station Mir for the first time.
  • 1995 – The Sampoong Department Store collapses in the Seocho District of Seoul, South Korea, killing 501 and injuring 937.
  • 2002 – Naval clashes between South Korea and North Korea lead to the death of six South Korean sailors and sinking of a North Korean vessel.
  • 2006 – Hamdan v. Rumsfeld: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that President George W. Bush’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violates U.S. and international law.
  • 2007 – Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone.
  • 2012 – A derecho sweeps across the eastern United States, leaving at least 22 people dead and millions without power.
  • 2014 – The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant self-declared its caliphate in Syria and northern Iraq.

Births on June 29

  • 1136 – Petronilla of Aragon (d. 1173)
  • 1326 – Murad I, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1389)
  • 1398 – John II of Aragon and Navarre (d. 1479)
  • 1443 – Anthony Browne, English knight (d. 1506)
  • 1482 – Maria of Aragon, Queen of Portugal (d. 1517)
  • 1488 – Pedro Pacheco de Villena, Catholic cardinal (d. 1560)
  • 1517 – Rembert Dodoens, Flemish physician and botanist (d. 1585)
  • 1525 – Peter Agricola, German humanist, theologian, diplomat and statesman (d. 1585)
  • 1528 – Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1589)
  • 1543 – Christine of Hesse, Duchess consort of Holstein-Gottorp (d. 1604)
  • 1596 – Emperor Go-Mizunoo of Japan (d. 1680)
  • 1621 – Willem van der Zaan, Dutch Admiral (d. 1669)
  • 1686 – Pietro Paolo Troisi, Maltese artist (d. 1743)
  • 1746 – Joachim Heinrich Campe, German linguist, author, and educator (d. 1818)
  • 1768 – Vincenzo Dimech, Maltese sculptor (d. 1831)
  • 1787 – Lavinia Stoddard, American poet, school founder (d. 1820)
  • 1793 – Josef Ressel, Czech-Austrian inventor, invented the propeller (d. 1857)
  • 1798 – Willibald Alexis, German author and poet (d. 1871)
  • 1798 – Giacomo Leopardi, Italian poet and philosopher (d. 1837)
  • 1801 – Frédéric Bastiat, French economist and theorist (d. 1850)
  • 1803 – John Newton Brown, American minister and author (d. 1868)
  • 1818 – Angelo Secchi, Italian astronomer and academic (d. 1878)
  • 1819 – Thomas Dunn English, American poet, playwright, and politician (d. 1902)
  • 1833 – Peter Waage, Norwegian chemist and academic (d. 1900)
  • 1835 – Celia Thaxter, American poet and story writer (d. 1894)
  • 1844 – Peter I of Serbia (d. 1921)
  • 1849 – Pedro Montt, Chilean lawyer and politician, 15th President of Chile (d. 1910)
  • 1849 – Sergei Witte, Russian politician, 1st Chairmen of Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire (d. 1915)
  • 1849 – John Hunn, American businessman and politician, 51st Governor of Delaware (d. 1926)
  • 1858 – George Washington Goethals, American general and engineer, co-designed the Panama Canal (d. 1928)
  • 1858 – Julia Lathrop, American activist and politician (d. 1932)
  • 1861 – William James Mayo, American physician and surgeon, co-founded the Mayo Clinic (d. 1939)
  • 1863 – Wilbert Robinson, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1934)
  • 1866 – Bartholomeus Roodenburch, Dutch swimmer (d. 1939)
  • 1868 – George Ellery Hale, American astronomer and journalist (d. 1938)
  • 1870 – Joseph Carl Breil, American tenor, composer, and director (d. 1926)
  • 1873 – Leo Frobenius, German ethnologist and archaeologist (d. 1938)
  • 1879 – Benedetto Aloisi Masella, Italian cardinal (d. 1970)
  • 1880 – Ludwig Beck, German general (d. 1944)
  • 1881 – Harry Frazee, American director, producer, and agent (d. 1929)
  • 1881 – Curt Sachs, German-American composer and musicologist (d. 1959)
  • 1882 – Henry Hawtrey, English runner (d. 1961)
  • 1882 – Franz Seldte, German captain and politician, Reich Minister for Labour (d. 1947)
  • 1886 – Robert Schuman, Luxembourgian-French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1963)
  • 1888 – Squizzy Taylor, Australian gangster (d. 1927)
  • 1889 – Willie Macfarlane, Scottish-American golfer (d. 1961)
  • 1890 – Robert Laurent, American sculptor and academic (d. 1970)
  • 1890 – Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, Dutch supercentenarian (d. 2005)
  • 1893 – Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, Indian economist and statistician (d. 1972)
  • 1893 – Aarre Merikanto, Finnish composer and educator (d. 1958)
  • 1897 – Fulgence Charpentier, Canadian journalist and publisher (d. 2001)
  • 1898 – Yvonne Lefébure, French pianist and educator (d. 1986)
  • 1900 – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French poet and pilot (d. 1944)
  • 1901 – Nelson Eddy, American singer and actor (d. 1967)
  • 1903 – Alan Blumlein, English engineer, developed the H2S radar (d. 1942)
  • 1904 – Witold Hurewicz, Polish mathematician (d. 1956)
  • 1906 – Ivan Chernyakhovsky, Ukrainian general (d. 1945)
  • 1906 – Heinz Harmel, German general (d. 2000)
  • 1908 – Leroy Anderson, American composer and conductor (d. 1975)
  • 1908 – Erik Lundqvist, Swedish javelin thrower (d. 1963)
  • 1910 – Frank Loesser, American composer and conductor (d. 1969)
  • 1910 – Burgess Whitehead, American baseball player (d. 1993)
  • 1911 – Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (d. 2004)
  • 1911 – Katherine DeMille, Canadian-American actress (d. 1995)
  • 1911 – Bernard Herrmann, American composer and conductor (d. 1975)
  • 1912 – José Pablo Moncayo, Mexican pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1958)
  • 1912 – Émile Peynaud, French oenologist and academic (d. 2004)
  • 1912 – John Toland, American historian and author (d. 2004)
  • 1913 – Earle Meadows, American pole vaulter (d. 1992)
  • 1914 – Rafael Kubelík, Czech-American conductor and composer (d. 1996)
  • 1914 – Christos Papakyriakopoulos, Greek-American mathematician and academic (d. 1976)
  • 1916 – Ruth Warrick, American actress and activist (d. 2005)
  • 1917 – Ling Yun, Chinese politician (d. 2018)
  • 1918 – Heini Lohrer, Swiss ice hockey player (d. 2011)
  • 1918 – Gene La Rocque, U.S admiral (d. 2016)
  • 1918 – Francis W. Nye, United States Air Force major general (d. 2019)
  • 1919 – Ernesto Corripio y Ahumada, Mexican cardinal (d. 2008)
  • 1919 – Walter Babington Thomas, Commander of British Far East Land Forces (d. 2017)
  • 1919 – Slim Pickens, American actor and rodeo performer (d. 1983)
  • 1920 – César Rodríguez Álvarez, Spanish footballer and manager (d. 1995)
  • 1920 – Ray Harryhausen, American animator and producer (d. 2013)
  • 1920 – Nicole Russell, Duchess of Bedford (d. 2012)
  • 1921 – Frédéric Dard, French author and screenwriter (d. 2000)
  • 1921 – Jean Kent, English actress (d. 2013)
  • 1921 – Reinhard Mohn, German businessman (d. 2009)
  • 1921 – Harry Schell, French-American race car driver (d. 1960)
  • 1922 – Ralph Burns, American songwriter, bandleader, composer, conductor, arranger and pianist (d. 2001)
  • 1922 – Vasko Popa, Serbian poet and academic (d. 1991)
  • 1922 – John William Vessey, Jr., American general (d. 2016)
  • 1923 – Chou Wen-chung, Chinese-American composer and educator (d. 2019)
  • 1924 – Ezra Laderman, American composer and educator (d. 2015)
  • 1924 – Roy Walford, American pathologist and gerontologist (d. 2004)
  • 1924 – Philip H. Hoff, American politician (d. 2018)
  • 1925 – Francis S. Currey, American World War II Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2019)
  • 1925 – Giorgio Napolitano, Italian journalist and politician, 11th President of Italy
  • 1925 – Chan Parker, American dancer and author (d. 1999)
  • 1925 – Jackie Lynn Taylor, American actress (d. 2014)
  • 1925 – Cara Williams, American actress
  • 1926 – Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti ruler, 3rd Emir of Kuwait (d. 2006)
  • 1926 – Julius W. Becton, Jr., U.S lieutenant general
  • 1926 – Roger Stuart Bacon, Nova Scotia politician
  • 1926 – Bobby Morgan, American professional baseball player
  • 1927 – Pierre Perrault, Canadian director and screenwriter (d. 1999)
  • 1927 – Marie Thérèse Killens, Canadian politician
  • 1928 – Ian Bannen, Scottish actor (d. 1999)
  • 1928 – Jean-Louis Pesch, French author and illustrator
  • 1928 – Radius Prawiro, Indonesian economist and politician (d. 2005)
  • 1929 – Pat Crawford Brown, American actress
  • 1929 – Pete George, American weightlifter
  • 1929 – Oriana Fallaci, Italian journalist and author (d. 2006)
  • 1930 – Ernst Albrecht, German economist and politician, 6th Prime Minister of Lower Saxony (d. 2014)
  • 1930 – Robert Evans, American actor and producer (d. 2019)
  • 1930 – Viola Léger, American-Canadian actress and politician
  • 1930 – Sławomir Mrożek, Polish-French author and playwright (d. 2013)
  • 1931 – Sevim Burak, Turkish author (d. 1983)
  • 1932 – Brian Hutton, Baron Hutton, British jurist; Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland
  • 1933 – Bob Shaw, American baseball player and manager (d. 2010)
  • 1933 – John Bradshaw, American theologian and author (d. 2016)
  • 1934 – Corey Allen, American actor, director, and producer (d. 2010)
  • 1935 – Vassilis C. Constantakopoulos, Greek captain and businessman (d. 2011)
  • 1935 – Katsuya Nomura, Japanese baseball player and manager
  • 1936 – Harmon Killebrew, American baseball player and sportscaster (d. 2011)
  • 1939 – Alan Connolly, Australian cricketer
  • 1939 – Amarildo Tavares da Silveira, Brazilian footballer and coach
  • 1940 – Vyacheslav Artyomov, Russian composer
  • 1940 – John Dawes, Welsh rugby player and coach
  • 1941 – John Boccabella, American baseball player
  • 1941 – Stokely Carmichael, Trinidadian-American activist (d. 1998)
  • 1942 – Charlotte Bingham, English author and screenwriter
  • 1942 – Mike Willesee, Australian journalist and producer (d. 2019)
  • 1943 – Little Eva, American singer (d. 2003)
  • 1943 – Louis Nicollin, French entrepreneur and chairman of Montpellier HSC (d. 2017)
  • 1944 – Gary Busey, American actor
  • 1944 – Andreu Mas-Colell, Spanish economist, academic, and politician
  • 1944 – Seán Patrick O’Malley, American cardinal
  • 1945 – Chandrika Kumaratunga, Sri Lankan journalist and politician, 5th President of Sri Lanka
  • 1946 – Ernesto Pérez Balladares, Panamanian politician, 33rd President of Panama
  • 1946 – Egon von Fürstenberg, Swiss fashion designer (d. 2004)
  • 1947 – Richard Lewis, American actor and screenwriter
  • 1948 – Sean Bergin, South African-Dutch saxophonist and flute player (d. 2012)
  • 1948 – Fred Grandy, American actor and politician
  • 1948 – Ian Paice, English drummer, songwriter, and producer
  • 1948 – Usha Prashar, Baroness Prashar, Kenyan-English politician
  • 1949 – Dan Dierdorf, American football player and sportscaster
  • 1949 – Joan Clos, Spanish anesthesiologist and politician, 116th Mayor of Barcelona
  • 1949 – Ann Veneman, American lawyer and politician, 27th United States Secretary of Agriculture
  • 1950 – Bobby London, American illustrator
  • 1951 – Craig Sager, American sportscaster (d. 2016)
  • 1953 – Don Dokken, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1953 – Colin Hay, Scottish-Australian singer and guitarist
  • 1954 – Rick Honeycutt, American baseball player and coach
  • 1954 – Leovegildo Lins da Gama Júnior, Brazilian footballer, coach, and manager
  • 1955 – Charles J. Precourt, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
  • 1956 – Nick Fry, English economist and businessman
  • 1956 – David Burroughs Mattingly, American illustrator and painter
  • 1956 – Pedro Guerrero, Dominican-American baseball player and manager
  • 1956 – Pedro Santana Lopes, Portuguese lawyer and politician, 118th Prime Minister of Portugal
  • 1956 – Pyotr Vasilevsky, Belarusian footballer and manager (d. 2012)
  • 1957 – Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, Turkmen dentist and politician, 2nd President of Turkmenistan
  • 1957 – María Conchita Alonso, Cuban-Venezuelan singer and actress
  • 1957 – Robert Forster, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1957 – Michael Nutter, American politician, 98th Mayor of Philadelphia
  • 1957 – Terry Wyatt, English physicist and academic
  • 1958 – Dieter Althaus, German politician
  • 1958 – Rosa Mota, Portuguese runner
  • 1961 – Sharon Lawrence, American actress, singer, and dancer
  • 1962 – Amanda Donohoe, English actress
  • 1962 – Joan Laporta, Spanish lawyer and politician
  • 1962 – George D. Zamka, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
  • 1963 – Anne-Sophie Mutter, German violinist
  • 1964 – Stedman Pearson, English singer-songwriter and dancer
  • 1965 – Tripp Eisen, American guitarist
  • 1965 – Paul Jarvis, English cricketer
  • 1966 – Yoko Kamio, Japanese author and comic artist
  • 1967 – Jeff Burton, American race car driver
  • 1967 – Melora Hardin, American actress and singer
  • 1967 – Seamus McGarvey, Northern Irish cinematographer
  • 1968 – Brian d’Arcy James, American actor and musician
  • 1968 – Theoren Fleury, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1968 – Judith Hoag, American actress and educator
  • 1969 – Claude Béchard, Canadian politician (d. 2010)
  • 1969 – Pavlos Dermitzakis, Greek footballer and manager
  • 1969 – Tōru Hashimoto, Japanese lawyer and politician
  • 1970 – Melanie Paschke, German sprinter
  • 1970 – Emily Skinner, American actress and singer
  • 1971 – Matthew Good, Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1973 – George Hincapie, American cyclist
  • 1976 – Daniel Carlsson, Swedish race car driver
  • 1976 – Bret McKenzie, New Zealand comedian, actor, musician, songwriter, and producer
  • 1977 – Sotiris Liberopoulos, Greek footballer
  • 1977 – Zuleikha Robinson, English actress
  • 1978 – Nicole Scherzinger, American singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress
  • 1979 – Matthew Bode, Australian footballer
  • 1979 – Andy O’Brien, English footballer
  • 1979 – Marleen Veldhuis, Dutch swimmer
  • 1980 – Katherine Jenkins, Welsh soprano and actress
  • 1981 – Luke Branighan, Australian rugby league player
  • 1981 – Joe Johnson, American basketball player
  • 1981 – Nicolás Vuyovich, Argentinian race car driver (d. 2005)
  • 1981 – Shmuly Yanklowitz, American rabbi, author, and educator
  • 1982 – Dusty Hughes, American baseball player
  • 1982 – Lily Rabe, American actress
  • 1983 – Aundrea Fimbres, American singer-songwriter and dancer
  • 1983 – Jeremy Powers, American cyclist
  • 1984 – Aleksandr Shustov, Russian high jumper
  • 1985 – Quintin Demps, American football player
  • 1986 – José Manuel Jurado, Spanish footballer
  • 1986 – Edward Maya, Romanian singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1988 – Éver Banega, Argentinian footballer
  • 1990 – Kim Little, Scottish footballer
  • 1990 – Yann M’Vila, French footballer
  • 1991 – Suk Hyun-jun, South Korean footballer
  • 1991 – Kawhi Leonard, American basketball player
  • 1991 – Addison Timlin, American actress
  • 1993 – Harrison Gilbertson, Australian actor
  • 1994 – Camila Mendes, American actress and model
  • 1996 – Joseph Manu, New Zealand rugby league player
  • 1998 – Michael Porter Jr., American basketball player
  • 2006 – Sam Lavagnino, American child voice actor

Deaths on June 29

  • 226 – Cao Pi, Chinese emperor (b. 187)
  • 884 – Yang Shili, general of the Tang Dynasty
  • 976 – Gero, archbishop of Cologne
  • 1059 – Bernard II, Duke of Saxony (b. 995)
  • 1149 – Raymond of Poitiers, Prince of Antioch (b. 1115)
  • 1153 – Óláfr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles
  • 1252 – Abel, King of Denmark (b. 1218)
  • 1293 – Henry of Ghent, philosopher (b. c.1217)
  • 1315 – Ramon Llull, Spanish philosopher (b. 1235)
  • 1344 – Joan of Savoy, duchess consort of Brittany, throne claimant of Savoy (b. 1310)
  • 1374 – Jan Milíč of Kroměříž, Czech priest and reformer
  • 1432 – Janus of Cyprus (b. 1375)
  • 1509 – Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby (b. 1443)
  • 1520 – Moctezuma II, Aztec ruler (b. 1466)
  • 1575 – Baba Nobuharu, Japanese samurai (b. 1515)
  • 1594 – Niels Kaas, Danish politician, Chancellor of Denmark (b. 1535)
  • 1626 – Scipione Cobelluzzi, Italian cardinal and archivist (b. 1564)
  • 1646 – Laughlin Ó Cellaigh, Gaelic-Irish Lord
  • 1725 – Arai Hakuseki, Japanese philosopher, academic, and politician (b. 1657)
  • 1729 – Edward Taylor, American-English poet, pastor, and physician (b. circa 1642)
  • 1744 – André Campra, French composer and conductor (b. 1660)
  • 1764 – Ralph Allen, English businessman and philanthropist (b. 1693)
  • 1779 – Anton Raphael Mengs, German painter (b. 1728)
  • 1831 – Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, Prussian minister and politician (b. 1757)
  • 1840 – Lucien Bonaparte, French prince (b. 1775)
  • 1852 – Henry Clay, American lawyer and politician, 9th United States Secretary of State (b. 1777)
  • 1853 – Adrien-Henri de Jussieu, French botanist and academic (b. 1797)
  • 1855 – John Gorrie, American physician and humanitarian (b. 1803)
  • 1860 – Thomas Addison, English physician and endocrinologist (b. 1793)
  • 1861 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet and translator (b. 1806)
  • 1873 – Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Indian poet and playwright (b. 1824)
  • 1875 – Ferdinand I of Austria (b. 1793)
  • 1895 – Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist (b. 1825)
  • 1900 – Ivan Mikheevich Pervushin, Russian mathematician and academic (b. 1827)
  • 1907 – Konstantinos Volanakis, Greek painter and academic (b. 1837)
  • 1919 – José Gregorio Hernández Venezuelan physician and educator (b. 1864)
  • 1931 – Nérée Beauchemin, Canadian poet and physician (b. 1850)
  • 1933 – Roscoe Arbuckle, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1887)
  • 1935 – Jack O’Neill, Irish-American baseball player and manager (b. 1873)
  • 1936 – János Szlepecz, Slovene priest and missionary (b. 1872)
  • 1940 – Paul Klee, Swiss painter and illustrator (b. 1879)
  • 1941 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Polish pianist, composer, and politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1860)
  • 1942 – Paul Troje, German politician, Mayor of Marburg (b. 1864)
  • 1949 – Themistoklis Sofoulis, Greek politician, 115th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1860)
  • 1955 – Max Pechstein, German painter and academic (b. 1881)
  • 1960 – Frank Patrick, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1885)
  • 1962 – Charles Lyon Chandler, American historian (b. 1883)
  • 1964 – Eric Dolphy, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1928)
  • 1967 – Primo Carnera, Italian boxer and actor (b. 1906)
  • 1967 – Jayne Mansfield, American actress (b. 1933)
  • 1969 – Moise Tshombe, Congolese accountant and politician, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1919)
  • 1971 – Nestor Mesta Chayres, Mexican operatic tenor and bolero vocalist (b. 1908)
  • 1975 – Tim Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1947)
  • 1978 – Bob Crane, American actor (b. 1928)
  • 1979 – Lowell George, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1945)
  • 1980 – Jorge Basadre, Peruvian historian (b. 1903)
  • 1981 – Russell Drysdale, English-Australian painter (b. 1912)
  • 1982 – Pierre Balmain, French fashion designer, founded Balmain (b. 1914)
  • 1982 – Henry King, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1886)
  • 1986 – Frank Wise, Australian politician, 16th Premier of Western Australia (b. 1897)
  • 1990 – Irving Wallace, American author and screenwriter (b. 1916)
  • 1992 – Mohamed Boudiaf, Algerian soldier and politician, President of Algeria (b. 1919)
  • 1993 – Héctor Lavoe, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
  • 1994 – Kurt Eichhorn, German conductor and educator (b. 1908)
  • 1995 – Lana Turner, American actress (b. 1921)
  • 1997 – William Hickey, American actor (b. 1927)
  • 1998 – Horst Jankowski, German pianist and composer (b. 1936)
  • 1999 – Karekin I, Syrian-Armenian patriarch (b. 1950)
  • 1999 – Allan Carr, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1937)
  • 2000 – Vittorio Gassman, Italian actor and director (b. 1922)
  • 2002 – Rosemary Clooney, American singer and actress (b. 1928)
  • 2003 – Katharine Hepburn, American actress (b. 1907)
  • 2004 – Bernard Babior, American physician and biochemist (b. 1935)
  • 2004 – Alvin Hamilton, Canadian lieutenant and politician, 18th Canadian Minister of Agriculture (b. 1912)
  • 2006 – Fabián Bielinsky, Argentinian director and screenwriter (b. 1959)
  • 2006 – Randy Walker, American football player and coach (b. 1954)
  • 2007 – Fred Saberhagen, American soldier and author (b. 1930)
  • 2007 – Joel Siegel, American journalist and critic (b. 1943)
  • 2009 – Joe Bowman, American, target shooter and boot-maker (b. 1925)
  • 2011 – K. D. Sethna, Indian poet, scholar, writer, philosopher, and cultural critic (b. 1904)
  • 2012 – Yong Nyuk Lin, Singaporean politician, Singaporean Minister of Health (b. 1918)
  • 2012 – Vincent Ostrom, American political scientist and academic (b. 1919)
  • 2012 – Juan Reccius, Chilean triple jumper (b. 1911)
  • 2012 – Floyd Temple, American baseball player, coach, and manager (b. 1926)
  • 2013 – Peter Fitzgerald, Irish footballer and manager (b. 1937)
  • 2013 – Jack Gotta, American-Canadian football player, coach, and manager (b. 1929)
  • 2013 – Margherita Hack, Italian astrophysicist and author (b. 1922)
  • 2013 – Gilma Jiménez, Colombian politician (b. 1956)
  • 2014 – Damian D’Oliveira, South African cricketer (b. 1960)
  • 2014 – Dermot Healy, Irish author, poet, and playwright (b. 1947)
  • 2015 – Hisham Barakat, Egyptian lawyer and judge (b. 1950)
  • 2015 – Josef Masopust, Czech footballer and coach (b. 1931)
  • 2015 – Charles Pasqua, French businessman and politician, French Minister of the Interior (b. 1927)
  • 2016 – Jan Hettema, Springbok cyclist and five times South African National Rally Champion (b. 1933)
  • 2017 – Louis Nicollin, French entrepreneur and chairman of Montpellier HSC from 1974 to his death (b. 1943)
  • 2017 – Dave Semenko, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1957)
  • 2018 – Steve Ditko, American comic writer and illustrator (b. 1927)
  • 2020 – Carl Reiner, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1922)

Holidays and observances on June 29

  • Christian feast day:
    • Cassius of Narni
    • Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (Western Christianity), and its related observances:
      • Haro Wine Festival (Haro, La Rioja)
      • l-Imnarja (Malta)
    • June 29 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Engineer’s Day (Ecuador)
  • Independence Day (Seychelles), celebrates the independence of Seychelles from the United Kingdom in 1976.
  • Veterans’ Day (Netherlands)

June 29 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

June 28 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /
  • 1098 – Fighters of the First Crusade defeat Kerbogha of Mosul.
  • 1360 – Muhammed VI becomes the tenth Nasrid king of Granada after killing his brother-in-law Ismail II.
  • 1461 – Edward, Earl of March, is crowned King Edward IV of England.
  • 1519 – Charles V is elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
  • 1575 – Sengoku period of Japan: The combined forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu are victorious in the Battle of Nagashino.
  • 1635 – Guadeloupe becomes a French colony.
  • 1651 – The Battle of Berestechko between Poland and Ukraine starts.
  • 1709 – Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava.
  • 1745 – A New England colonial army captures the French fortifications at Louisbourg (New Style).
  • 1776 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Sullivan’s Island ends with the American victory, leading to the commemoration of Carolina Day.
  • 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Thomas Hickey, Continental Army private and bodyguard to General George Washington, is hanged for mutiny and sedition.
  • 1778 – American Revolutionary War: The American Continentals engage the British in the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse resulting in standstill and British withdrawal under cover of darkness.
  • 1797 – French troops disembark in Corfu, beginning the French rule in the Ionian Islands.
  • 1807 – Second British invasion of the Río de la Plata; John Whitelocke lands at Ensenada on an attempt to recapture Buenos Aires and is defeated by the locals.
  • 1838 – Coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.
  • 1841 – The Paris Opera Ballet premieres Giselle in the Salle Le Peletier.
  • 1846 – Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone.
  • 1855 – Sigma Chi fraternity is founded in North America.
  • 1859 – The first conformation dog show is held in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
  • 1865 – The Army of the Potomac is disbanded.
  • 1880 – Australian bushranger Ned Kelly is captured at Glenrowan.
  • 1881 – The Austro–Serbian Alliance of 1881 is secretly signed.
  • 1882 – The Anglo-French Convention of 1882 marks the territorial boundaries between Guinea and Sierra Leone.
  • 1894 – Labor Day becomes an official US holiday.
  • 1895 – The United States Court of Private Land Claims rules James Reavis’s claim to Barony of Arizona is “wholly fictitious and fraudulent.”
  • 1896 – An explosion in the Newton Coal Company’s Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston, Pennsylvania results in a massive cave-in that kills 58 miners.
  • 1902 – The U.S. Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal.
  • 1904 – The SS Norge runs aground on Hasselwood Rock in the North Atlantic 430 kilometres (270 mi) northwest of Ireland. More than 635 people die during the sinking.
  • 1911 – The Nakhla meteorite, the first one to suggest signs of aqueous processes on Mars, falls to Earth, landing in Egypt.
  • 1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo; this is the casus belli of World War I.
  • 1917 – World War I: Greece joins the Allied powers.
  • 1919 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending the state of war between Germany and the Allies of World War I.
  • 1921 – Serbian King Alexander I proclaims the new constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, known thereafter as the Vidovdan Constitution.
  • 1922 – The Irish Civil War begins with the shelling of the Four Courts in Dublin by Free State forces.
  • 1926 – Mercedes-Benz is formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies.
  • 1936 – The Japanese puppet state of Mengjiang is formed in northern China.
  • 1940 – Romania cedes Bessarabia (current-day Moldova) to the Soviet Union after facing an ultimatum.
  • 1942 – World War II: Nazi Germany starts its strategic summer offensive against the Soviet Union, codenamed Case Blue.
  • 1945 – Poland’s Soviet-allied Provisional Government of National Unity is formed over a month after V-E Day.
  • 1948 – Cold War: The Tito–Stalin Split results in the expulsion of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia from the Cominform.
  • 1948 – Boxer Dick Turpin beats Vince Hawkins at Villa Park in Birmingham to become the first black British boxing champion in the modern era.
  • 1950 – Korean War: Suspected communist sympathizers (between 60,000 to 200,000) are executed in the Bodo League massacre.
  • 1950 – Korean War: Packed with its own refugees fleeing Seoul and leaving their 5th Division stranded, South Korean forces blow up the Hangang Bridge in an attempt to slow North Korea’s offensive. The city falls later that day.
  • 1950 – Korean War: North Korean Army conducts the Seoul National University Hospital massacre.
  • 1956 – in Poznań, workers from HCP factory go to the streets, sparking one of the first major protests against communist government both in Poland and Europe.
  • 1964 – Malcolm X forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity.
  • 1969 – Stonewall riots begin in New York City, marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement.
  • 1973 – Elections are held for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which will lead to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time.
  • 1976 – The Angolan court sentences US and UK mercenaries to death sentences and prison terms in the Luanda Trial.
  • 1978 – The United States Supreme Court, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke bars quota systems in college admissions.
  • 1981 – A powerful bomb explodes in Tehran, killing 73 officials of the Islamic Republican Party.
  • 1987 – For the first time in military history, a civilian population is targeted for chemical attack when Iraqi warplanes bombed the Iranian town of Sardasht.
  • 1989 – On the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević delivers the Gazimestan speech at the site of the historic battle.
  • 1997 – Holyfield–Tyson II: Mike Tyson is disqualified in the third round for biting a piece off Evander Holyfield’s ear.
  • 2001 – Slobodan Milošević is extradited to the ICTY in The Hague to stand trial.
  • 2004 – Iraq War: Sovereign power is handed to the interim government of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority, ending the U.S.-led rule of that nation.
  • 2009 – Honduran president Manuel Zelaya is ousted by a local military coup following a failed request to hold a referendum to rewrite the Honduran Constitution. This was the start of the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis.
  • 2016 – A terrorist attack in Turkey’s Istanbul Atatürk Airport kills 42 people and injures more than 230 others.

Births on June 28

  • 751 – Carloman I, king of the Franks (d. 771)
  • 1243 – Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (d. 1304)
  • 1444 – Charlotte, Queen of Cyprus (d. 1487)
  • 1476 – Pope Paul IV (d. 1559)
  • 1490 – Albert of Brandenburg, German archbishop (d. 1545)
  • 1491 – Henry VIII of England (d. 1547)
  • 1503 – Giovanni della Casa, Italian author and poet (d. 1556)
  • 1547 – Cristofano Malvezzi, Italian organist and composer (d. 1599)
  • 1557 – Philip Howard, 20th Earl of Arundel, English nobleman (d. 1595)
  • 1560 – Giovanni Paolo Lascaris, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller (d. 1657)
  • 1573 – Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby, English noble (d. 1644)
  • 1577 – Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter and diplomat (d. 1640)
  • 1582 – William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele, English politician (d. 1662)
  • 1604 – Heinrich Albert, German composer and poet (d. 1651)
  • 1641 – Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d’Arquien, consort to King John III Sobieski (d. 1716)
  • 1653 – Muhammad Azam Shah, Mughal emperor (d. 1707)
  • 1703 – John Wesley, English cleric and theologian (d. 1791)
  • 1712 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher and polymath (d. 1778)
  • 1719 – Étienne François, duc de Choiseul, French general and politician, Prime Minister of France (d. 1785)
  • 1734 – Jean-Jacques Beauvarlet-Charpentier, French organist and composer (d. 1794)
  • 1742 – William Hooper, American physician, lawyer, and politician (d. 1790)
  • 1824 – Paul Broca, French physician, anatomist, and anthropologist (d. 1880)
  • 1825 – Emil Erlenmeyer, German chemist (d. 1909)
  • 1831 – Joseph Joachim, Austrian violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1907)
  • 1836 – Emmanuel Rhoides, Greek journalist and author (d. 1904)
  • 1844 – John Boyle O’Reilly, Irish-born poet, journalist and fiction writer (d. 1890)
  • 1852 – Charles Cruft, English showman, founded Crufts Dog Show (d. 1938)
  • 1867 – Luigi Pirandello, Italian dramatist, novelist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1936)
  • 1873 – Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1944)
  • 1875 – Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician and academic (d. 1941)
  • 1879 – Wilhelm Steinkopf, German chemist (d. 1949)
  • 1880 – John Meyers, American swimmer and water polo player (d. 1971)
  • 1883 – Pierre Laval, French soldier and politician, 101st Prime Minister of France (d. 1945)
  • 1884 – Lamina Sankoh, Sierra Leonean banker and politician (d. 1964)
  • 1888 – George Challenor, Barbadian cricketer (d. 1947)
  • 1888 – Stefi Geyer, Hungarian violinist and educator (d. 1956)
  • 1891 – Esther Forbes, American historian and author (d. 1968)
  • 1891 – Carl Spaatz, American general (d. 1974)
  • 1892 – Carl Panzram, American serial killer (d. 1930)
  • 1893 – August Zamoyski, Polish-French sculptor (d. 1970)
  • 1894 – Francis Hunter, American tennis player (d. 1981)
  • 1902 – Richard Rodgers, American playwright and composer (d. 1979)
  • 1906 – Maria Goeppert Mayer, Polish-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
  • 1907 – Jimmy Mundy, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1983)
  • 1907 – Yvonne Sylvain, First female Haitian physician (d. 1989)
  • 1909 – Eric Ambler, English author and screenwriter (d. 1998)
  • 1912 – Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, German physicist and philosopher (d. 2007)
  • 1913 – Franz Antel, Austrian director and producer (d. 2007)
  • 1913 – George Lloyd, English soldier and composer (d. 1998)
  • 1913 – Walter Oesau, German colonel and pilot (d. 1944)
  • 1914 – Aribert Heim, Austrian SS physician and Nazi war criminal (d. 1992)
  • 1917 – A. E. Hotchner, American author and playwright (d. 2020)
  • 1918 – William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, Scottish-English politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1999)
  • 1919 – Joseph P. Lordi, American government official (d. 1983)
  • 1920 – Clarissa Eden, Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
  • 1921 – P. V. Narasimha Rao, Indian lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of India (d. 2004)
  • 1922 – Hans Frauenfelder, American physicist and biophysicist
  • 1923 – Pete Candoli, American trumpet player (d. 2008)
  • 1923 – Adolfo Schwelm Cruz, Argentinian racing driver (d. 2012)
  • 1923 – Gaye Stewart, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2010)
  • 1926 – George Booth, American cartoonist
  • 1926 – Mel Brooks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1926 – Robert Ledley, American academic and inventor (d. 2012)
  • 1927 – Correlli Barnett, English historian and author
  • 1927 – Frank Sherwood Rowland, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012)
  • 1928 – Hans Blix, Swedish politician and diplomat, 33rd Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs
  • 1928 – Patrick Hemingway, American writer
  • 1928 – Harold Evans, English-American historian and journalist
  • 1928 – Peter Heine, South African cricketer (d. 2005)
  • 1928 – Cyril Smith, English politician (d. 2010)
  • 1929 – Alfred Miodowicz, Polish politician
  • 1930 – William C. Campbell, Irish-American biologist and parasitologist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1930 – Itamar Franco, Brazilian engineer and politician, 33rd President of Brazil (d. 2011)
  • 1930 – Jack Gold, English director and producer (d. 2015)
  • 1931 – Hans Alfredson, Swedish actor, director, and screenwriter
  • 1931 – Junior Johnson, American race car driver (d. 2019)
  • 1931 – Lucien Victor, Belgian cyclist (d. 1995)
  • 1932 – Pat Morita, American actor (d. 2005)
  • 1933 – Gusty Spence, Northern Irish loyalist and politician (d. 2011)
  • 1934 – Robert Carswell, Baron Carswell, Northern Irish lawyer and judge, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland
  • 1934 – Roy Gilchrist, Jamaican cricketer (d. 2001)
  • 1934 – Bette Greene, American journalist and author
  • 1934 – Carl Levin, American lawyer and politician
  • 1934 – Georges Wolinski, Tunisian-French journalist and cartoonist (d. 2015)
  • 1935 – John Inman, English actor (d. 2007)
  • 1936 – Chuck Howley, American football player
  • 1937 – George Knudson, Canadian golfer (d. 1989)
  • 1937 – Fernand Labrie, Canadian endocrinologist and academic
  • 1937 – Ron Luciano, American baseball player and umpire (d. 1995)
  • 1938 – John Byner, American actor and comedian
  • 1938 – Leon Panetta, American lawyer and politician, 23rd United States Secretary of Defense
  • 1938 – S. Sivamaharajah, Sri Lankan Tamil newspaper publisher and politician (d. 2006)
  • 1938 – Simon Douglas-Pennant, 7th Baron Penrhyn, British baron
  • 1939 – Klaus Schmiegel, German chemist
  • 1940 – Karpal Singh, Malaysian lawyer and politician (d. 2014)
  • 1940 – Muhammad Yunus, Bangladeshi economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1941 – Al Downing, American baseball player and sportscaster
  • 1941 – Joseph Goguen, American computer scientist and academic, developed the OBJ language (d. 2006)
  • 1941 – David Johnston, Canadian academic, lawyer, and politician, 28th Governor General of Canada
  • 1942 – Chris Hani, South African politician (d. 1993)
  • 1942 – Hans-Joachim Walde, German decathlete (d. 2013)
  • 1942 – Frank Zane, American professional bodybuilder and author
  • 1943 – Jens Birkemose, Danish painter
  • 1943 – Donald Johanson, American paleontologist and academic
  • 1943 – Klaus von Klitzing, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1945 – Ken Buchanan, Scottish boxer
  • 1945 – David Knights, English bass player and producer
  • 1945 – Raul Seixas, Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 1989)
  • 1945 – Türkan Şoray, Turkish actress, director, and screenwriter
  • 1946 – Robert Asprin, American soldier and author (d. 2008)
  • 1946 – Bruce Davison, American actor and director
  • 1946 – David Duckham, English rugby player
  • 1946 – Robert Xavier Rodríguez, American classical composer
  • 1946 – Jaime Guzmán, Chilean lawyer and politician (d. 1991)
  • 1946 – Gilda Radner, American actress and comedian (d. 1989)
  • 1947 – Mark Helprin, American novelist and journalist
  • 1947 – Laura Tyson, American economist and academic
  • 1948 – Kathy Bates, American actress
  • 1948 – Sergei Bodrov, Russian-American director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1948 – Deborah Moggach, English author and screenwriter
  • 1948 – Daniel Wegner, Canadian-American psychologist and academic (d. 2013)
  • 1949 – Don Baylor, American baseball player and coach (d. 2017)
  • 1950 – Philip Fowke, English pianist and educator
  • 1950 – Mauricio Rojas, Chilean-Swedish economist and politician
  • 1950 – Chris Speier, American baseball player and coach
  • 1951 – Mick Cronin, Australian rugby league player and coach
  • 1951 – Mark Shand, English conservationist and author (d. 2014)
  • 1951 – Lalla Ward, English actress and author
  • 1952 – Enis Batur, Turkish poet and author
  • 1952 – Pietro Mennea, Italian sprinter and politician (d. 2013)
  • 1952 – Jean-Christophe Rufin, French physician and author
  • 1954 – A. A. Gill, Scottish author and critic (d. 2016)
  • 1954 – Alice Krige, South African actress
  • 1955 – Shirley Cheriton, British actress
  • 1956 – Amira Hass, Israeli journalist and author
  • 1956 – Noel Mugavin, Australian footballer and coach
  • 1957 – Lance Nethery, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1957 – Georgi Parvanov, Bulgarian historian and politician, 4th President of Bulgaria
  • 1957 – Mike Skinner, American race car driver
  • 1957 – Jim Spanarkel, American basketball player and sportscaster
  • 1958 – Donna Edwards, American lawyer and politician
  • 1958 – Félix Gray, Tunisian-French singer-songwriter
  • 1959 – Clint Boon, English singer and keyboard player
  • 1959 – John Shelley, British illustrator
  • 1960 – John Elway, American football player and manager
  • 1960 – Roland Melanson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1961 – Jeff Malone, American basketball player and coach
  • 1962 – Anișoara Cușmir-Stanciu, Romanian long jumper
  • 1962 – Artur Hajzer, Polish mountaineer (d. 2013)
  • 1962 – Ann-Louise Skoglund, Swedish hurdler
  • 1963 – Peter Baynham, Welsh actor, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1963 – Charlie Clouser, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer
  • 1964 – Christina Ashcroft, Canadian sport shooter
  • 1964 – Mark Grace, American baseball player and sportscaster
  • 1964 – Bernie McCahill, New Zealand rugby player
  • 1964 – Dan Stains, Australian rugby league player and coach
  • 1964 – Steve Williamson, English saxophonist and composer
  • 1965 – Jessica Hecht, American actress
  • 1965 – Tiaan Strauss, South African rugby player
  • 1966 – Peeter Allik, Estonian painter and illustrator (d. 2019)
  • 1966 – Bobby Bare Jr., American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1966 – John Cusack, American actor and screenwriter
  • 1966 – Mary Stuart Masterson, American actress
  • 1967 – Leona Aglukkaq, Canadian politician, 7th Canadian Minister of Health
  • 1967 – Gil Bellows, Canadian actor and producer
  • 1967 – Zhong Huandi, Chinese runner
  • 1967 – Lars Riedel, German discus thrower
  • 1968 – Chayanne, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter and actor
  • 1969 – Tichina Arnold, American actress and singer
  • 1969 – Stéphane Chapuisat, Swiss footballer
  • 1969 – Fabrizio Mori, Italian hurdler
  • 1970 – Mushtaq Ahmed, Pakistani cricketer and coach
  • 1970 – Tom Merritt, American journalist
  • 1970 – Mike White, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1971 – Lorenzo Amoruso, Italian footballer
  • 1971 – Fabien Barthez, French footballer
  • 1971 – Bobby Hurley, American basketball player and coach
  • 1971 – Ron Mahay, American baseball player and scout
  • 1971 – Elon Musk, South African-born American businessman
  • 1971 – Aileen Quinn, American actress and singer
  • 1972 – Ngô Bảo Châu, Vietnamese-French mathematician and academic
  • 1972 – Chris Leslie, English politician, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
  • 1972 – Geeta Tripathee, Nepali poet, lyricist and literary critic
  • 1972 – Alessandro Nivola, American actor
  • 1973 – Adrián Annus, Hungarian hammer thrower
  • 1973 – Corey Koskie, Canadian baseball player
  • 1974 – Rob Dyrdek, American skateboarder, entrepreneur, and reality television star
  • 1975 – Jon Nödtveidt, Swedish singer-songwriter, and guitarist (d. 2006)
  • 1976 – Shinobu Asagoe, Japanese tennis player
  • 1976 – Seth Wescott, American snowboarder
  • 1977 – Chris Spurling, American baseball player
  • 1977 – Mark Stoermer, American bass player, songwriter, and producer
  • 1977 – Harun Tekin, Turkish singer and guitarist
  • 1978 – Simon Larose, Canadian tennis player
  • 1979 – Randy McMichael, American football player
  • 1979 – Neil Shanahan, Irish racing driver (d. 1999)
  • 1979 – Florian Zeller, French author and playwright
  • 1980 – Jevgeni Novikov, Estonian footballer
  • 1981 – Savage, New Zealand rapper
  • 1981 – Michael Crafter, Australian singer-songwriter
  • 1981 – Guillermo Martínez, Cuban javelin thrower
  • 1981 – Brandon Phillips, American baseball player
  • 1982 – Ibrahim Camejo, Cuban long jumper
  • 1985 – Phil Bardsley, English footballer
  • 1985 – Colt Hynes, American baseball player
  • 1986 – Kellie Pickler, American singer-songwriter
  • 1987 – Sonata Tamošaitytė, Lithuanian hurdler
  • 1987 – Terrence Williams, American basketball player
  • 1989 – Jason Clark, Australian rugby league player
  • 1989 – Andrew Fifita, Australian rugby league player
  • 1989 – David Fifita, Australian rugby league player
  • 1989 – Julia Zlobina, Russian-Azerbaijani figure skater
  • 1989 – Markiplier, American internet personality
  • 1989 – Nicole Rottmann, Austrian tennis player
  • 1991 – Seohyun, South Korean singer, dancer, and actress
  • 1991 – Kevin De Bruyne, Belgian footballer
  • 1991 – Kang Min-hyuk, South Korean singer, drummer, and actor
  • 1992 – Oscar Hiljemark, Swedish footballer
  • 1992 – Elaine Thompson, Jamaican sprinter
  • 1993 – Bradley Beal, American basketball player
  • 1994 – Hussein, Crown Prince of Jordan
  • 1994 – Emily Blue, American singer-songwriter
  • 1996 – Donna Vekić, Croatian tennis player
  • 1996 – Larissa Werbicki, Canadian rower
  • 1999 – Markéta Vondroušová, Czech tennis player
  • 2002 – Marta Kostyuk, Ukrainian tennis player

Deaths on June 28

  • 202 – Yuan Shao, Chinese warlord
  • 548 – Theodora I, Byzantine empress
  • 572 – Alboin, King of the Lombards
  • 683 – Leo II, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 611)
  • 767 – Paul I, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 700)
  • 928 – Louis the Blind, Holy Roman emperor (b. 880)
  • 975 – Cyneweard, bishop of Wells
  • 1031 – Taira no Tadatsune, Japanese governor
  • 1061 – Floris I, count of Holland
  • 1175 – Andrey Bogolyubsky, Russian Grand Prince (b. 1111)
  • 1189 – Matilda of England, Duchess of Saxony, (b. 1156)
  • 1194 – Xiao Zong, Chinese emperor (b. 1127)
  • 1385 – Andronikos IV, Byzantine emperor (b. 1348)
  • 1497 – James Tuchet, 7th Baron Audley, English rebel leader (b. c. 1463)
  • 1575 – Yonekura Shigetsugu, Japanese samurai
  • 1586 – Primož Trubar, Slovenian author and reformer (b. 1508)
  • 1598 – Abraham Ortelius, Flemish cartographer and geographer (b. 1527)
  • 1607 – Domenico Fontana, Italian architect (b. 1543)
  • 1716 – George FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Northumberland, English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire (b. 1665)
  • 1757 – Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, queen consort of Frederick William I (b. 1687)
  • 1798 – John Henry Colclough, Irish revolutionary (b. c. 1769)
  • 1813 – Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Prussian general and politician, Prussian Minister of War (b. 1755)
  • 1834 – Joseph Bové, Russian architect, designed the Triumphal Arch of Moscow (b. 1784)
  • 1836 – James Madison, American academic and politician, 4th President of the United States (b. 1751)
  • 1880 – Texas Jack Omohundro, American soldier and hunter (b. 1846)
  • 1881 – Jules Armand Dufaure, French politician, 33rd Prime Minister of France (b. 1798)
  • 1889 – Maria Mitchell, American astronomer and academic (b. 1818)
  • 1892 – Alexandros Rizos Rangavis, Greek poet and politician, Greek Foreign Minister (b. 1810)
  • 1913 – Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Brazil (b. 1841)
  • 1914 – Sophie, duchess of Hohenberg (b. 1868)
  • 1914 – Franz Ferdinand, archduke of Austria (b. 1863)
  • 1915 – Victor Trumper, Australian cricketer (b. 1877)
  • 1917 – Ștefan Luchian, Romanian painter and educator (b. 1868)
  • 1922 – Velimir Khlebnikov, Russian poet and playwright (b. 1885)
  • 1929 – Edward Carpenter, English poet and philosopher (b. 1844)
  • 1936 – Alexander Berkman, American author and activist (d. 1870)
  • 1939 – Douglas H. Johnston, governor of the Chickasaw Nation (b. 1856)
  • 1940 – Italo Balbo, Italian air marshal and politician (b. 1896)
  • 1944 – Friedrich Dollmann, German general (b. 1882)
  • 1945 – Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu, Turkish journalist (b. 1879)
  • 1947 – Stanislav Kostka Neumann, Czech writer, poet and journalist (b. 1875)
  • 1960 – Jake Swirbul, American businessman, co-founded the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation (b. 1898)
  • 1962 – Mickey Cochrane, American baseball player and manager (b. 1903)
  • 1962 – Cy Morgan, American baseball player (b. 1878)
  • 1965 – Red Nichols, American cornet player, bandleader, and composer (b. 1905)
  • 1966 – Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, Turkish historian and politician, 21st Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1890)
  • 1971 – Franz Stangl, Austrian SS officer (b. 1908)
  • 1974 – Vannevar Bush, American engineer and academic (b. 1890)
  • 1975 – Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis, Greek architect (b. 1913)
  • 1975 – Rod Serling, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1924)
  • 1978 – Clifford Dupont, English-Rhodesian lawyer and politician, 1st President of Rhodesia (b. 1905)
  • 1980 – José Iturbi, Spanish pianist and conductor (b. 1895)
  • 1981 – Terry Fox, Canadian runner and activist (b. 1958)
  • 1983 – Alf Francis, German-English motor racing mechanic and racing car constructor (b. 1918)
  • 1984 – Yigael Yadin, Israeli archaeologist, general, and politician (b. 1917)
  • 1985 – Lynd Ward, American author and illustrator (b. 1905)
  • 1989 – Joris Ivens, Dutch journalist, director, and producer (b. 1898)
  • 1992 – Guy Nève, Belgian racing driver (b. 1955)
  • 1992 – Mikhail Tal, Latvian chess player (b. 1936)
  • 1995 – Petri Walli, Finnish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (b. 1969)
  • 2000 – Jane Birdwood, Baroness Birdwood, Canadian-English publisher and politician (b. 1913)
  • 2000 – Nils Poppe, Swedish actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1908)
  • 2001 – Mortimer J. Adler, American philosopher and author (b. 1902)
  • 2003 – Joan Lowery Nixon, American journalist and author (b. 1927)
  • 2004 – Anthony Buckeridge, English author (b. 1912)
  • 2005 – Brenda Howard, American activist (b. 1946)
  • 2005 – Michael P. Murphy, American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1976)
  • 2006 – Jim Baen, American publisher, founded Baen Books (b. 1943)
  • 2006 – Peter Rawlinson, Baron Rawlinson of Ewell, English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (b. 1919)
  • 2006 – George Unwin, English pilot and commander (b. 1913)
  • 2007 – Eugene B. Fluckey, American admiral, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1913)
  • 2007 – Kiichi Miyazawa, Japanese lawyer and politician, 78th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1919)
  • 2009 – A. K. Lohithadas, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1955)
  • 2009 – Billy Mays, American TV personality (b. 1958)
  • 2010 – Robert Byrd, American lawyer and politician (b. 1917)
  • 2012 – Richard Isay, American psychiatrist and author (b. 1934)
  • 2012 – Leontine T. Kelly, American bishop (b. 1920)
  • 2012 – Robert Sabatier, French author and poet (b. 1923)
  • 2012 – Doris Sams, American baseball player (b. 1927)
  • 2013 – Ted Hood, American sailor and architect (b. 1927)
  • 2013 – Tamás Katona, Hungarian historian and politician (b. 1932)
  • 2013 – Kenneth Minogue, New Zealand-Australian political scientist and academic (b. 1930)
  • 2013 – F. D. Reeve, American author and academic (b. 1928)
  • 2013 – David Rubitsky, American sergeant (b. 1917)
  • 2014 – Seymour Barab, American cellist and composer (b. 1921)
  • 2014 – Jim Brosnan, American baseball player (b. 1929)
  • 2014 – On Kawara, Japanese painter (b. 1933)
  • 2014 – Meshach Taylor, American actor (b. 1947)
  • 2015 – Jack Carter, American actor and comedian (b. 1922)
  • 2015 – Jope Seniloli, Fijian politician, Vice-President of Fiji (b. 1939)
  • 2015 – Wally Stanowski, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1919)
  • 2016 – Scotty Moore, American guitarist (b. 1931)
  • 2016 – Pat Summitt, American women’s college basketball head coach (b. 1952)
  • 2016 – Buddy Ryan, American football coach (b. 1931)
  • 2018 – Harlan Ellison, American writer (b. 1934)

Holidays and observances on June 28

  • Christian feast day:
    • Basilides and Potamiana
    • Irenaeus of Lyon (Western Christianity)
    • Heimerad
    • Blessed Maria Pia Mastena
    • Paulus I
    • Vincenza Gerosa
    • June 28 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Constitution Day (Ukraine)
  • Earliest day on which Vardavar can fall, while August 1 is the latest; celebrated on the 14th weeks after Easter (Armenia)
  • Family Day (Vietnam)
  • Poznań Remembrance Day (Poland)
  • Vidovdan, celebrating St. Vitus and an important day in Serbian history. (Eastern Orthodox Church)
  • Tau Day, a day similar to Pi Day celebrating the number Tau, which is equivalent to 2*Pi.

June 28 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

June 27 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /
  • 1358 – The Republic of Ragusa is founded.
  • 1497 – Cornish rebels Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank are executed at Tyburn, London, England.
  • 1556 – The thirteen Stratford Martyrs are burned at the stake near London for their Protestant beliefs.
  • 1743 – In the Battle of Dettingen, George II becomes the last reigning British monarch to participate in a battle.
  • 1760 – Anglo-Cherokee War: Cherokee warriors defeat British forces at the Battle of Echoee near present-day Otto, North Carolina.
  • 1806 – British forces take Buenos Aires during the first of the British invasions of the River Plate.
  • 1844 – Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother Hyrum Smith, are killed by a mob at the Carthage, Illinois jail.
  • 1864 – American Civil War: Confederate forces defeat Union forces during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain during the Atlanta Campaign.
  • 1869 – The Republic of Ezo on the island of Hokkaido ends after being defeated by Japanese Imperial troops.
  • 1895 – The inaugural run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.
  • 1898 – The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia.
  • 1905 – During the Russo-Japanese War, sailors start a mutiny aboard the Russian battleship Potemkin.
  • 1908 – A group of Vietnamese tirailleurs conducts a failed attempt to poison the entire French army’s garrison in the Hanoi Citadel with the aim to make way for Hoàng Hoa Thám’s rebel army to capture Hanoi.
  • 1923 – Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter perform the first ever aerial refueling in a DH.4B biplane.
  • 1927 – Prime Minister of Japan Tanaka Giichi convenes an eleven-day conference to discuss Japan’s strategy in China. The Tanaka Memorial, a forged plan for world domination, is later claimed to be a secret report leaked from this conference.
  • 1941 – Romanian authorities launch one of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history in the city of Iași, resulting in the murder of at least 13,266 Jews.
  • 1941 – World War II: German troops capture the city of Białystok during Operation Barbarossa.
  • 1946 – In the Canadian Citizenship Act, the Parliament of Canada establishes the definition of Canadian citizenship.
  • 1950 – The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War.
  • 1954 – The Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, the Soviet Union’s first nuclear power station, opens in Obninsk, near Moscow.
  • 1954 – The FIFA World Cup quarterfinal match between Hungary and Brazil, highly anticipated to be exciting, instead turns violent, with three players ejected and further fighting continuing after the game.
  • 1957 – Hurricane Audrey makes landfall near the Texas–Louisiana border, killing over 400 people, mainly in and around Cameron, Louisiana.
  • 1973 – The President of Uruguay Juan María Bordaberry dissolves Parliament and establishes a dictatorship.
  • 1974 – U.S. president Richard Nixon visits the Soviet Union.
  • 1976 – Air France Flight 139 (Tel Aviv-Athens-Paris) is hijacked en route to Paris by the PLO and redirected to Entebbe, Uganda.
  • 1977 – France grants independence to Djibouti.
  • 1980 – The ‘Ustica massacre’: Itavia Flight 870 crashes in the sea while en route from Bologna to Palermo, Italy, killing all 81 on board.
  • 1981 – The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issues its “Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China”, laying the blame for the Cultural Revolution on Mao Zedong.
  • 1982 – Space Shuttle Columbia launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the final research and development flight mission, STS-4.
  • 1988 – The Gare de Lyon rail accident in Paris, France, kills 56 people.
  • 1991 – Slovenia, after declaring independence two days before is invaded by Yugoslav troops, tanks, and aircraft starting the Ten-Day War.
  • 1994 – Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult release sarin gas in Matsumoto, Japan. Seven people are killed, 660 injured.
  • 2007 – Tony Blair resigns as British Prime Minister, a position he had held since 1997. His Chancellor, Gordon Brown succeeds him.
  • 2007 – The Brazilian Military Police invades the favelas of Complexo do Alemão in an episode which is remembered as the Complexo do Alemão massacre.
  • 2008 – In a highly scrutinized election President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe is re-elected in a landslide after his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai had withdrawn a week earlier, citing violence against his party’s supporters.
  • 2013 – NASA launches the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, a space probe to observe the Sun.
  • 2014 – At least fourteen people are killed when a Gas Authority of India Limited pipeline explodes in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh, India.
  • 2015 – Formosa Fun Coast fire: A dust fire occurs at a recreational water park in Taiwan, killing 15 people and injuring 497 others, 199 critically.
  • 2017 – A series of powerful cyberattacks using the Petya malware target websites of Ukrainian organizations and counterparts with Ukrainian connections around the globe.

Births on June 27

  • 850 – Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya, Aghlabid emir (d. 902)
  • 1350 – Manuel II Palaiologos, Byzantine emperor (d. 1425)
  • 1430 – Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter, Lancastrian leader (d. 1475)
  • 1462 – Louis XII, king of France (d. 1515)
  • 1464 – Ernst II of Saxony, Archbishop of Magdeburg (1476–1513) (d. 1513)
  • 1497 – Ernest I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1546)
  • 1550 – Charles IX, king of France (d. 1574)
  • 1596 – Maximilian, Prince of Dietrichstein (d. 1655)
  • 1696 – William Pepperrell, American merchant and soldier (d. 1759)
  • 1717 – Louis-Guillaume Le Monnier, French botanist and physicist (d. 1799)
  • 1767 – Alexis Bouvard, French astronomer and academic (d. 1843)
  • 1805 – Napoléon Coste, French guitarist and composer (d. 1883)
  • 1806 – Augustus De Morgan, English mathematician and logician (d. 1871)
  • 1812 – Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy Waterston, American writer (d. 1899)
  • 1817 – Louise von François, German author (d. 1893)
  • 1828 – Bryan O’Loghlen, Irish-Australian politician, 13th Premier of Victoria (d. 1905)
  • 1838 – Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Indian journalist, author, and poet (d. 1894)
  • 1838 – Paul Mauser, German weapon designer, designed the Gewehr 98 (d. 1914)
  • 1846 – Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish politician (d. 1891)
  • 1850 – Jørgen Pedersen Gram, Danish mathematician and academic (d. 1919)
  • 1850 – Lafcadio Hearn, Greek-Japanese historian and author (d. 1904)
  • 1862 – May Irwin, Canadian-American actress and singer (d. 1938)
  • 1865 – John Monash, Australian engineer and general (d. 1931)
  • 1869 – Kate Carew, American illustrator and journalist (d. 1961)
  • 1869 – Emma Goldman, Lithuanian-Canadian philosopher and activist (d. 1940)
  • 1869 – Hans Spemann, German embryologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941)
  • 1870 – Frank Rattray Lillie, American zoologist and embryologist (d. 1947)
  • 1872 – Heber Doust Curtis, American astronomer (d. 1942)
  • 1872 – Paul Laurence Dunbar, American author, poet, and playwright (d. 1906)
  • 1880 – Helen Keller, American author, academic, and activist (d. 1968)
  • 1882 – Eduard Spranger, German philosopher and academic (d. 1963)
  • 1884 – Gaston Bachelard, French philosopher and poet (d. 1962)
  • 1885 – Pierre Montet, French historian and academic (d. 1966)
  • 1885 – Guilhermina Suggia, Portuguese cellist (d. 1950)
  • 1886 – Charlie Macartney, Australian cricketer and soldier (d. 1958)
  • 1888 – Lewis Bernstein Namier, Polish-English historian and academic (d. 1960)
  • 1888 – Antoinette Perry, American actress and director (d. 1946)
  • 1892 – Paul Colin, French illustrator (d. 1985)
  • 1899 – Juan Trippe, American businessman, founded Pan American World Airways (d. 1981)
  • 1900 – Dixie Brown, British boxer (d. 1957)
  • 1901 – Merle Tuve, American geophysicist and academic (d. 1982)
  • 1905 – Armand Mondou, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1976)
  • 1906 – Catherine Cookson, English author and philanthropist (d. 1998)
  • 1906 – Vernon Watkins, Welsh-American poet and painter (d. 1967)
  • 1907 – John McIntire, American actor (d. 1991)
  • 1908 – João Guimarães Rosa, Brazilian physician and author (d. 1967)
  • 1911 – Marion M. Magruder, American Marine officer, commander of the VMF(N)-533 squadron. (d. 1997)
  • 1912 – E. R. Braithwaite, Guyanese novelist, writer, teacher, and diplomat (d. 2016)
  • 1913 – Elton Britt, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1972)
  • 1913 – Philip Guston, American painter and academic (d. 1980)
  • 1913 – Willie Mosconi, American pool player (d. 1993)
  • 1914 – Robert Aickman, English author and activist, co-founded the Inland Waterways Association (d. 1981)
  • 1914 – Helena Benitez, Filipina academic and administrator (d. 2016)
  • 1914 – Margaret Ekpo, Nigerian women’s rights activist, social mobilizer and politician (d. 2006)
  • 1914 – Giorgio Almirante, Italian journalist and politician (d. 1988)
  • 1915 – Grace Lee Boggs, American philosopher, author, and activist (d. 2015)
  • 1915 – Aideu Handique, Indian actress (d. 2002)
  • 1915 – John Alexander Moore, American zoologist and academic (d. 2002)
  • 1916 – Robert Normann, Norwegian guitarist (d. 1998)
  • 1918 – Adolph Kiefer, American swimmer (d. 2017)
  • 1919 – M. Carl Holman, American author, educator, poet, and playwright (d. 1988)
  • 1919 – Amala Shankar, Indian danseuse
  • 1920 – Fernando Riera, Chilean football player and manager (d. 2010)
  • 1921 – Muriel Pavlow, English actress (d. 2019)
  • 1922 – George Walker, American composer (d. 2018)
  • 1923 – Jacques Berthier, French organist and composer (d. 1994)
  • 1923 – Elmo Hope, American pianist and composer (d. 1967)
  • 1924 – Bob Appleyard, English cricketer and businessman (d. 2015)
  • 1925 – Leonard Lerman, American geneticist and biologist (d. 2012)
  • 1925 – Doc Pomus, American singer-songwriter (d. 1991)
  • 1925 – Wayne Terwilliger, American second baseman, coach, and manager
  • 1927 – Bob Keeshan, American actor and producer (d. 2004)
  • 1928 – James Lincoln Collier, American journalist and author
  • 1928 – Rudy Perpich, American dentist and politician, 34th Governor of Minnesota (d. 1995)
  • 1929 – Dick the Bruiser, American football player and wrestler (d. 1991)
  • 1929 – Peter Maas, American journalist and author (d. 2001)
  • 1930 – Ross Perot, American businessman and politician (d. 2019)
  • 1931 – Charles Bronfman, Canadian-American businessman and philanthropist
  • 1931 – Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1932 – Eddie Kasko, American baseball player and manager (d. 2020)
  • 1932 – Anna Moffo, American operatic soprano (d. 2006)
  • 1932 – Hugh Wood, English composer
  • 1936 – Lucille Clifton, American author and poet (d. 2010)
  • 1936 – Shirley Anne Field, English actress
  • 1937 – Joseph P. Allen, American physicist and astronaut
  • 1937 – Otto Herrigel, Namibian lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
  • 1937 – Kirkpatrick Sale, American author and scholar
  • 1938 – Bruce Babbitt, American lawyer and politician, 47th United States Secretary of the Interior
  • 1938 – David Hope, Baron Hope of Craighead, Scottish lieutenant and judge
  • 1938 – Konrad Kujau, German illustrator (d. 2000)
  • 1939 – R. D. Burman, Indian singer-songwriter (d. 1994)
  • 1939 – Neil Hawke, Australian cricketer and footballer (d. 2000)
  • 1940 – Ian Lang, Baron Lang of Monkton, Scottish politician, Secretary of State for Scotland
  • 1941 – Bill Baxley, American lawyer and politician, 24th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama
  • 1941 – James P. Hogan, English-Irish author (d. 2010)
  • 1941 – Krzysztof Kieślowski, Polish director and screenwriter (d. 1996)
  • 1942 – Bruce Johnston, American singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1942 – Frank Mills, Canadian pianist and composer
  • 1942 – Danny Schechter, American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2015)
  • 1943 – Ravi Batra, Indian-American economist and academic
  • 1944 – Angela King, English environmentalist and author, co-founded Common Ground
  • 1944 – Patrick Sercu, Belgian cyclist (d. 2019)
  • 1945 – Joey Covington, American drummer, songwriter, and producer (d. 2013)
  • 1945 – Norma Kamali, American fashion designer
  • 1945 – Ragnar Søderlind, Norwegian composer
  • 1948 – Camile Baudoin, American guitarist
  • 1949 – Vera Wang, American fashion designer
  • 1951 – Ulf Andersson, Swedish chess player
  • 1951 – Julia Duffy, American actress
  • 1951 – Gilson Lavis, English drummer and portrait artist
  • 1951 – Mary McAleese, Irish academic and politician, 8th President of Ireland
  • 1952 – Madan Bhandari, Nepalese politician (d. 1993)
  • 1953 – Igor Gräzin, Estonian academic and politician
  • 1953 – Alice McDermott, American novelist
  • 1954 – Richard Ibbotson, English admiral
  • 1955 – Isabelle Adjani, French actress
  • 1956 – Heiner Dopp, German field hockey player and politician
  • 1957 – Gabriella Dorio, Italian runner
  • 1958 – Lisa Germano, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1958 – Jeffrey Lee Pierce, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1996)
  • 1959 – Dan Jurgens, American author and illustrator
  • 1959 – Lorrie Morgan, American singer
  • 1960 – Craig Hodges, American basketball player and coach
  • 1960 – Robert King, English harpsichordist and conductor
  • 1960 – Jeremy Swift, English actor
  • 1962 – Michael Ball, English actor and singer
  • 1962 – Sunanda Pushkar, India-born Canadian businesswoman (d. 2014)
  • 1963 – Wendy Alexander, Scottish politician, Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning
  • 1963 – Johnny Benson Jr., American race car driver
  • 1964 – Stephan Brenninkmeijer, Dutch director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1964 – Chuck Person, American basketball player and coach
  • 1965 – Simon Sebag Montefiore, English journalist, historian, and author
  • 1965 – S. Manikavasagam, Malaysian politician and social activist
  • 1965 – Óscar Vega, Spanish boxer
  • 1966 – J.J. Abrams, American director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1966 – Jörg Bergen, German footballer and manager
  • 1966 – Jeff Conine, American baseball player and sportscaster
  • 1966 – Aigars Kalvītis, Latvian politician, businessman, and former Prime Minister of Latvia
  • 1967 – Sylvie Fréchette, Canadian swimmer and coach
  • 1967 – George Hamilton, Northern Irish police officer
  • 1967 – Vasiliy Kaptyukh, Belarusian discus thrower
  • 1967 – Phil Kearns, Australian rugby player and sportscaster
  • 1968 – Kelly Ayotte, American lawyer and politician, New Hampshire Attorney General
  • 1969 – Viktor Petrenko, Ukrainian figure skater
  • 1970 – Régine Cavagnoud, French skier (d. 2001)
  • 1970 – John Eales, Australian rugby player and businessman
  • 1970 – Jim Edmonds, American baseball player and sportscaster
  • 1971 – Jo Frost, English nanny, television personality, and author
  • 1971 – Serginho, Brazilian footballer
  • 1972 – Dawud Wharnsby, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1973 – Abbath Doom Occulta, Norwegian musician
  • 1973 – Simon Archer, English badminton player
  • 1974 – Christian Kane, American singer-songwriter and actor
  • 1974 – Christopher O’Neill, English-American businessman
  • 1975 – Ace Darling, American wrestler
  • 1975 – Bianca Del Rio, American drag queen & comedian
  • 1975 – Sarah Evanetz, Canadian swimmer
  • 1975 – Tobey Maguire, American actor
  • 1975 – Daryle Ward, American baseball player
  • 1976 – Johnny Estrada, American baseball player
  • 1976 – Leigh Nash, American singer-songwriter
  • 1977 – Arkadiusz Radomski, Polish footballer
  • 1978 – Apparat, German musician
  • 1980 – Hugo Campagnaro, Argentinian footballer
  • 1980 – Jennifer Goodridge, American keyboard player
  • 1980 – Alexander Peya, Austrian tennis player
  • 1980 – Kevin Pietersen, South African-English cricketer
  • 1980 – Craig Terrill, American football player
  • 1981 – Andrew Embley, Australian footballer
  • 1983 – Jim Johnson, American baseball player
  • 1983 – Dale Steyn, South African cricketer
  • 1983 – Nikola Rakočević, Serbian actor
  • 1984 – Khloé Kardashian, American model, businesswoman, and radio host
  • 1984 – D.J. King, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1984 – Jose Holebas, German-Greek footballer
  • 1984 – Gökhan Inler, Swiss footballer
  • 1985 – James Hook, Welsh rugby player
  • 1985 – Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russian tennis player
  • 1985 – Nico Rosberg, German race car driver
  • 1986 – Sam Claflin, British actor
  • 1986 – Drake Bell, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
  • 1986 – Bryan Fletcher, American skier
  • 1986 – LaShawn Merritt, American sprinter
  • 1987 – India de Beaufort, English actress
  • 1987 – Ed Westwick, English actor
  • 1988 – Stefani Bismpikou, Greek gymnast
  • 1988 – Matthew Spiranovic, Australian footballer
  • 1988 – Kate Ziegler, American swimmer
  • 1989 – Hana Birnerová, Czech tennis player
  • 1989 – Matthew Lewis, English actor
  • 1992 – Ahn So-hee, South Korean singer and actress
  • 1992 – Karthika Nair, Indian film actress
  • 1993 – Johanna Talihärm, Estonian biathlete
  • 1993 – Alberto Campbell-Staines, Australian athlete
  • 1994 – Anita Husarić, Bosnian tennis player
  • 1995 – Monté Morris, American basketball player

Deaths on June 27

  • 992 – Conan I of Rennes, Duke of Brittany
  • 1162 – Odo II, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1118)
  • 1194 – King Sancho VI of Navarre (b. 1132)
  • 1296 – Floris V, Count of Holland (b. 1254)
  • 1458 – Alfonso V of Aragon (b. 1396)
  • 1497 – Michael An Gof, rebel leader
  • 1497 – Thomas Flamank, rebel leader
  • 1574 – Giorgio Vasari, Italian historian, painter, and architect (b. 1511)
  • 1601 – Henry Norris, 1st Baron Norreys (b. 1525)
  • 1603 – Jan Dymitr Solikowski, Polish archbishop (b. 1539)
  • 1627 – John Hayward, English historian, journalist, and politician (b. 1564)
  • 1636 – Date Masamune, Japanese strongman (b. 1567)
  • 1654 – Johannes Valentinus Andreae, German theologian (b. 1586)
  • 1655 – Eleonora Gonzaga, Holy Roman Empress (b. 1598)
  • 1672 – Roger Twysden, English historian and politician (b. 1597)
  • 1720 – Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu, French poet and author (b. 1639)
  • 1794 – Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg (b. 1711)
  • 1794 – Philippe de Noailles, French general (b. 1715)
  • 1827 – Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, German theologian and academic (b. 1754)
  • 1829 – James Smithson, English chemist and mineralogist (b. 1765)
  • 1831 – Sophie Germain, French mathematician and physicist (b. 1776)
  • 1839 – Ranjit Singh, founder of the Sikh Empire (b. 1780)
  • 1844 – Hyrum Smith, American religious leader (b. 1800)
  • 1844 – Joseph Smith, American religious leader, founded the Latter Day Saint movement (b. 1805)
  • 1878 – Sidney Breese, American jurist and politician (b. 1800)
  • 1894 – Giorgio Costantino Schinas, Maltese architect and civil engineer (b. 1834)
  • 1896 – John Berryman, English soldier, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1825)
  • 1905 – Harold Mahony, Scottish-Irish tennis player (b. 1867)
  • 1907 – Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz, American educator, co-founded Radcliffe College (b. 1822)
  • 1911 – Victor Surridge, English motorcycle racer (b. 1882)
  • 1912 – George Bonnor, Australian cricketer (b. 1855)
  • 1917 – Karl Allmenröder, German soldier and pilot (b. 1896)
  • 1919 – Peter Sturholdt, American boxer (b. 1885)
  • 1920 – Adolphe-Basile Routhier, Canadian lawyer and judge (b. 1839)
  • 1934 – Francesco Buhagiar, Maltese politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Malta (b. 1876)
  • 1935 – Eugene Augustin Lauste, French-American inventor (b. 1857)
  • 1944 – Milan Hodža, Czech journalist and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia (b. 1878)
  • 1946 – Wanda Gág, American author and illustrator (b. 1893)
  • 1949 – Frank Smythe, English botanist and mountaineer (b. 1900)
  • 1950 – Milada Horáková, Czech politician, victim of judicial murder (b. 1901)
  • 1952 – Max Dehn, German-American mathematician and academic (b. 1878)
  • 1957 – Hermann Buhl, Austrian soldier and mountaineer (b. 1924)
  • 1960 – Lottie Dod, English tennis player, golfer, and archer (b. 1871)
  • 1962 – Paul Viiding, Estonian author, poet, and critic (b. 1904)
  • 1967 – Jaan Lattik, Estonian pastor and politician, 9th Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia (b. 1878)
  • 1970 – Daniel Kinsey, American hurdler and scholar (b. 1902)
  • 1975 – G.I. Taylor, English mathematician and physicist (b. 1886)
  • 1986 – George Nepia, New Zealand rugby player and referee (b. 1905)
  • 1987 – Billy Snedden, Australian lawyer and politician, 17th Attorney-General for Australia (b. 1926)
  • 1989 – A. J. Ayer, English philosopher and academic (b. 1910)
  • 1991 – Milton Subotsky, American-English screenwriter and producer (b. 1921)
  • 1996 – Albert R. Broccoli, American film producer (b. 1909)
  • 1998 – Gilles Rocheleau, Canadian businessman and politician (b. 1935)
  • 1999 – Georgios Papadopoulos, Greek colonel and politician, 169th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1919)
  • 2000 – Pierre Pflimlin, French lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of France (b. 1907)
  • 2001 – Tove Jansson, Finnish author, illustrator, and painter (b. 1914)
  • 2001 – Jack Lemmon, American actor (b. 1925)
  • 2001 – Joan Sims, English actress (b. 1930)
  • 2002 – John Entwistle, English singer-songwriter, bass guitarist, and producer (b. 1944)
  • 2002 – Robert L. J. Long, American admiral (b. 1920)
  • 2003 – David Newman, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1937)
  • 2004 – George Patton IV, American general (b. 1923)
  • 2004 – Darrell Russell, American race car driver (b. 1968)
  • 2005 – Shelby Foote, American historian and author (b. 1917)
  • 2005 – Ray Holmes, English lieutenant and pilot (b. 1914)
  • 2005 – John T. Walton, American businessman, co-founded the Children’s Scholarship Fund (b. 1946)
  • 2006 – Ángel Maturino Reséndiz, Mexican serial killer (b. 1959)
  • 2007 – William Hutt, Canadian actor (b. 1920)
  • 2008 – Sam Manekshaw, Indian field marshal (b. 1914)
  • 2009 – Gale Storm, American actress (b. 1922)
  • 2010 – Corey Allen, American film and television actor, writer, director, and producer (b. 1934)
  • 2011 – Mike Doyle, English footballer (b. 1946)
  • 2012 – Stan Cox, English runner (b. 1918)
  • 2012 – Rosemary Dobson, Australian poet and illustrator (b. 1920)
  • 2013 – Stefano Borgonovo, Italian footballer (b. 1964)
  • 2013 – Ian Scott, English-New Zealand painter (b. 1945)
  • 2014 – Edmond Blanchard, Canadian jurist and politician (b. 1954)
  • 2014 – Allen Grossman, American poet, critic, and academic (b. 1932)
  • 2014 – Leslie Manigat, Haitian educator and politician, 43rd President of Haiti (b. 1930)
  • 2014 – Violet Milstead, Canadian World War II aviator and bush pilot (b. 1919)
  • 2014 – Rachid Solh, Lebanese politician, 48th Prime Minister of Lebanon (b. 1926)
  • 2015 – Zvi Elpeleg, Polish-Israeli diplomat, author, and academic (b. 1926)
  • 2015 – Knut Helle, Norwegian historian and professor (b. 1930)
  • 2015 – Chris Squire, English musician (bass guitarist), singer and songwriter, member of the rock band Yes (b. 1948)
  • 2016 – Bud Spencer, Italian swimmer, actor, and screenwriter (b. 1929)
  • 2017 – Peter L. Berger, Austrian sociologist (b. 1929)
  • 2018 – Joe Jackson, American manager, father of Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson (b. 1928)
  • 2018 – Liz Jackson, Australian journalist and former barrister (b. 1951)
  • 2018 – William McBridge, Australian obstetrician (b. 1927)

Holidays and observances on June 27

  • Christian feast day:
    • Arialdo
    • Crescens, one of the Seventy disciples
    • Cyril of Alexandria (Coptic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion and Lutheran Church)
    • Ladislaus I of Hungary
    • Our Lady of Perpetual Help
    • Sampson the Hospitable
    • Zoilus
    • June 27 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Canadian Multiculturalism Day (Canada)
  • Commemoration Day for the Victims of the Communist Regime (Czech Republic)
  • Day of Turkmen Workers of Culture and Art (Turkmenistan)
  • Helen Keller Day (United States)
  • Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Djibouti from France in 1977.
  • Mixed Race Day (Brazil)
  • National HIV Testing Day (United States)
  • National PTSD Awareness Day (United States)
  • Seven Sleepers’ Day or Siebenschläfertag (Germany)
  • Unity Day (Tajikistan)

June 27 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

June 26 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /
  • 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 26 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

June 24 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /
  • 1312 BC – Mursili II launches a campaign against the Kingdom of Azzi-Hayasa.
  • 217 BC – The Romans, led by Gaius Flaminius, are ambushed and defeated by Hannibal at the Battle of Lake Trasimene.
  • 109 – Roman emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Rome.
  • 474 – Julius Nepos forces Roman usurper Glycerius to abdicate the throne and proclaims himself Emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
  • 637 – The Battle of Moira is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dál Riata. It is claimed to be the largest battle in the history of Ireland.
  • 972 – Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces, takes place.
  • 1128 – Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães: Forces led by Afonso I defeat forces led by his mother Teresa of León and her lover Fernando Pérez de Traba.
  • 1230 – The Siege of Jaén begins, in the context of the Spanish Reconquista.
  • 1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn concludes with a decisive victory by Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce.
  • 1340 – Hundred Years’ War: Battle of Sluys: The French fleet is almost completely destroyed by the English fleet commanded in person by King Edward III.
  • 1374 – A sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
  • 1497 – John Cabot lands in North America at Newfoundland leading the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.
  • 1509 – Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon are crowned King and Queen of England.
  • 1535 – The Dominion of Münster, a radical communal Anabaptist state in the independent German city of Münster, is conquered by Franz von Waldeck, the Catholic Prince-Bishopric of Münster in a night attack.
  • 1571 – Miguel López de Legazpi founds Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
  • 1604 – Samuel de Champlain discovers the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present-day city of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
  • 1622 – Battle of Macau: The Dutch make a failed attempt to capture Macau.
  • 1663 – The Spanish garrison of Évora capitulates, following the Portuguese victory at the Battle of Ameixial.
  • 1717 – The Premier Grand Lodge of England is founded in London, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England).
  • 1762 – Battle of Wilhelmsthal: The British-Hanoverian army of Ferdinand of Brunswick defeats French forces in Westphalia.
  • 1779 – American Revolutionary War: The Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
  • 1793 – The French Constitution of 1793 is formally adopted, although it is effectively suspended by the Committee of Public Safety.
  • 1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon’s Grande Armée crosses the Neman river beginning the invasion of Russia.
  • 1813 – Battle of Beaver Dams: A British and Indian combined force defeats the United States Army.
  • 1821 – The Battle of Carabobo takes place. It is the decisive battle in the war of independence of Venezuela from Spain.
  • 1859 – Battle of Solferino (Battle of the Three Sovereigns): Sardinia and France defeat Austria in Solferino, northern Italy.
  • 1866 – Battle of Custoza: An Austrian army defeats the Italian army during the Austro-Prussian War.
  • 1880 – First performance of O Canada at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français. The song would later become the national anthem of Canada.
  • 1894 – Marie François Sadi Carnot is assassinated by Sante Geronimo Caserio.
  • 1902 – King Edward VII of the United Kingdom develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.
  • 1913 – Greece and Serbia annul their alliance with Bulgaria.
  • 1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million-dollar contract.
  • 1918 – First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.
  • 1922 – The American Professional Football Association is renamed the National Football League.
  • 1932 – A bloodless revolution instigated by the People’s Party ends the absolute power of King Prajadhipok of Siam (now Thailand).
  • 1938 – Pieces of a meteorite land near Chicora, Pennsylvania. The meteorite is estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it hit the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded.
  • 1939 – Siam is renamed Thailand by Plaek Phibunsongkhram, the country’s third prime minister.
  • 1940 – World War II: Operation Collar, the first British Commando raid on occupied France, by No 11 Independent Company.
  • 1943 – US military police attempt to arrest a black soldier in Bamber Bridge, England, sparking the Battle of Bamber Bridge mutiny that leaves one dead and seven wounded.
  • 1947 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington, leading to the coining of the phrase “flying saucer”.
  • 1948 – Cold War: Start of the Berlin Blockade: The Soviet Union makes overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible.
  • 1949 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, starring William Boyd, is aired on NBC.
  • 1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed, formally segregating races.
  • 1954 – First Indochina War: Battle of Mang Yang Pass: Viet Minh troops belonging to the 803rd Regiment ambush G.M. 100 of France in An Khê.
  • 1957 – In Roth v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.
  • 1963 – The United Kingdom grants Zanzibar internal self-government.
  • 1973 – The UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, is attacked by an arsonist during a church service, and 32 people die from smoke inhalation or fire.
  • 1975 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 encounters severe wind shear and crashes on final approach to New York’s JFK Airport killing 113 of the 124 passengers on board, making it the deadliest U.S. plane crash at the time. This accident led to decades of research into downburst and microburst phenomena and their effects on aircraft.
  • 1981 – The Humber Bridge opens to traffic, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It remained the world’s longest bridge span for 17 years.
  • 1982 – British Airways Flight 9 flies into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines.
  • 1989 – Jiang Zemin succeeds Zhao Ziyang to become the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
  • 1995 – Rugby World Cup: South Africa defeats New Zealand and Nelson Mandela presents Francois Pienaar with the Webb Ellis Cup in an iconic post-apartheid moment.
  • 2002 – The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281, the worst train accident in African history.
  • 2004 – In New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional.
  • 2010 – At Wimbledon, John Isner of the United States defeats Nicolas Mahut of France, in the longest match in professional tennis history.
  • 2010 – Julia Gillard assumes office as the first female Prime Minister of Australia.
  • 2012 – Death of Lonesome George, the last known individual of Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise.
  • 2013 – Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is found guilty of abusing his power and engaging in sex with an underage prostitute, and is sentenced to seven years in prison.

Births on June 24

  • 1210 – Count Floris IV of Holland (d. 1234)
  • 1244 – Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse (d. 1308)
  • 1254 – Floris V, Count of Holland (d. 1296)
  • 1257 – Robert de Vere, 6th Earl of Oxford, English nobleman (probable; d. 1331)
  • 1314 – Philippa of Hainault Queen of England (d. 1369)
  • 1322 – Joanna, Duchess of Brabant (d. 1406)
  • 1343 – Joan of Valois, Queen of Navarre (d. 1373)
  • 1360 – Nuno Álvares Pereira, Portuguese general
  • 1386 – John of Capistrano, Italian priest and saint (d. 1456)
  • 1465 – Isabella del Balzo, Queen Consort of Naples (d. 1533)
  • 1485 – Johannes Bugenhagen, Polish-German priest and reformer (d. 1558)
  • 1485 – Elizabeth of Denmark, Electress of Brandenburg (d. 1555)
  • 1499 – Johannes Brenz, German theologian and the Protestant Reformer (d. 1570)
  • 1519 – Theodore Beza, French theologian and scholar (d. 1605)
  • 1532 – Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, English politician (d. 1588)
  • 1532 – William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1573)
  • 1535 – Joanna of Austria, Princess of Portugal (d. 1573)
  • 1546 – Robert Persons, English Jesuit priest, insurrectionist, and author (d. 1610)
  • 1587 – William Arnold, English-American settler (d. 1675)
  • 1591 – Mustafa I, Ottoman sultan (d. 1639)
  • 1614 – John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse
  • 1616 – Ferdinand Bol, Dutch painter, etcher and draftsman, student of Rembrandt (d. 1680)
  • 1661 – Hachisuka Tsunanori, Japanese daimyō (d. 1730)
  • 1663 – Jean Baptiste Massillon, French bishop (d. 1742)
  • 1687 – Johann Albrecht Bengel, German-Lutheran clergyman and scholar (d. 1757)
  • 1694 – Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Swiss author and theorist (d. 1748)
  • 1704 – Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d’Argens, French philosopher and author (d. 1771)
  • 1753 – William Hull, American general and politician, 1st Governor of Michigan Territory (d. 1825)
  • 1755 – Anacharsis Cloots, Prussian-French activist (d. 1794)
  • 1767 – Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès, French geographer and author (d. 1846)
  • 1771 – Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, French chemist and businessman, founded DuPont (d. 1834)
  • 1774 – Antonio González de Balcarce, Argentinian commander and politician, 5th Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (d. 1819)
  • 1774 – François-Nicolas-Benoît Haxo, French general and engineer (d. 1838)
  • 1777 – John Ross, Scottish commander and explorer (d. 1856)
  • 1782 – Juan Larrea, Argentinian captain and politician (d. 1847)
  • 1783 – Johann Heinrich von Thünen, German economist and geographer (d. 1850)
  • 1784 – Juan Antonio Lavalleja, Uruguayan general and politician, President of Uruguay (d. 1853)
  • 1788 – Thomas Blanchard, American inventor (d. 1864)
  • 1795 – Ernst Heinrich Weber, German physician and psychologist (d. 1878)
  • 1797 – John Hughes, Irish-American archbishop (d. 1864)
  • 1797 – Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, Polish geologist and explorer (d. 1873)
  • 1804 – Stephan Endlicher, Austrian botanist, numismatist, and sinologist (d. 1849)
  • 1804 – Willard Richards, American religious leader (d. 1854)
  • 1811 – John Archibald Campbell, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1889)
  • 1813 – Henry Ward Beecher, American minister and reformer (d. 1887)
  • 1813 – Francis Boott, American composer (d. 1904)
  • 1821 – Guillermo Rawson, Argentinian physician and politician (d. 1890)
  • 1826 – George Goyder, English-Australian surveyor (d. 1898)
  • 1835 – Johannes Wislicenus, German chemist and academic (d. 1902)
  • 1838 – Jan Matejko, Polish painter (d. 1893)
  • 1839 – Gustavus Franklin Swift, American businessman (d. 1903)
  • 1842 – Ambrose Bierce, American short story writer, essayist, and journalist (d. 1914)
  • 1846 – Samuel Johnson, Nigerian priest and historian (d. 1901)
  • 1850 – Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, Irish field marshal and politician, Governor-General of Sudan (d. 1916)
  • 1852 – Friedrich Loeffler, German bacteriologist and academic (d. 1915)
  • 1854 – Eleanor Norcross, American painter (d. 1923)
  • 1856 – Henry Chapman Mercer, American archaeologist and author (d. 1930)
  • 1858 – Hastings Rashdall, English historian, philosopher, and theologian (d. 1924)
  • 1865 – Robert Henri, American painter and educator (d. 1929)
  • 1867 – Ruth Randall Edström, American educator and activist (d. 1944)
  • 1869 – Prince George of Greece and Denmark (d. 1957)
  • 1872 – Frank Crowninshield, American journalist and art and theatre critic (d. 1947)
  • 1875 – Forrest Reid, Irish novelist, literary critic and translator (d. 1947)
  • 1880 – Oswald Veblen, American mathematician and academic (g. 1960)
  • 1880 – João Cândido Felisberto, Brazilian revolutionary and sailor (d. 1969)
  • 1881 – George Shiels, Irish-Canadian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1949)
  • 1882 – Athanase David, Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 1953)
  • 1882 – Carl Diem, German businessman (d. 1962)
  • 1883 – Victor Francis Hess, Austrian-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1964)
  • 1883 – Fritz Löhner-Beda, Jewish Austrian librettist, lyricist and writer (d.1942)
  • 1883 – Jean Metzinger, French artist (d. 1956)
  • 1883 – Arthur L. Newton, American runner (d. 1956)
  • 1883 – Frank Verner, American runner (d. 1966)
  • 1884 – Frank Waller, American runner (d. 1941)
  • 1885 – Olaf Holtedahl, Norwegian geologist (d. 1975)
  • 1888 – Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect, designed the Rietveld Schröder House (d. 1964)
  • 1893 – Roy O. Disney, American businessman, co-founded The Walt Disney Company (d. 1971)
  • 1895 – Jack Dempsey, American boxer and soldier (d. 1983)
  • 1898 – Armin Öpik, Estonian-Australian paleontologist and geologist (d. 1983)
  • 1898 – Karl Selter, Estonian politician, 14th Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia (d. 1958)
  • 1900 – Wilhelm Cauer, German mathematician and engineer (d. 1945)
  • 1901 – Marcel Mule, French saxophonist (d. 2001)
  • 1901 – Harry Partch, American composer and theorist (d. 1974)
  • 1901 – Chuck Taylor, American basketball player and salesman (d. 1969)
  • 1904 – Phil Harris, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 1995)
  • 1905 – Fred Alderman, American sprinter (d. 1998)
  • 1906 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist and educator (d. 1986)
  • 1906 – Willard Maas, American poet and educator (d. 1971)
  • 1907 – Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet and translator (d. 1989)
  • 1908 – Hugo Distler, German organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1942)
  • 1908 – Alfons Rebane, Estonian colonel (d. 1976)
  • 1909 – Jean Deslauriers, Canadian violinist, composer, and conductor (d. 1978)
  • 1909 – William Penney, Baron Penney, English mathematician and physicist (d. 1991)
  • 1909 – Betty Cavanna, American author (d. 2001)
  • 1911 – Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentinian race car driver (d. 1995)
  • 1911 – Ernesto Sabato, Argentinian physicist and academic (d. 2011)
  • 1911 – Portia White, Canadian opera singer (d. 1968)
  • 1912 – Brian Johnston, English sportscaster and author (d. 1994)
  • 1912 – Mary Wesley, English author (d. 2002)
  • 1913 – Gustaaf Deloor, Belgian cyclist and soldier (d. 2002)
  • 1914 – Jan Karski, Polish-American activist and academic (d. 2000)
  • 1914 – Pearl Witherington, French secret agent (d. 2008)
  • 1915 – Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and author (d. 2001)
  • 1916 – William B. Saxbe, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 70th United States Attorney General (d. 2010)
  • 1916 – Saloua Raouda Choucair, Lebanese painter and sculptor (d. 2017)
  • 1917 – David Easton, Canadian-American political scientist and academic (d. 2014)
  • 1917 – Lucy Jarvis, American television producer (d. 2020)
  • 1917 – Ramblin’ Tommy Scott, American singer and guitarist (d. 2013)
  • 1917 – Joan Clarke, English cryptanalyst and numismatist (d. 1996)
  • 1918 – Mildred Ladner Thompson, American journalist and author (d. 2013)
  • 1918 – Yong Nyuk Lin, Singaporean businessman and politician, Singaporean Minister for Education (d. 2012)
  • 1919 – Al Molinaro, American actor (d. 2015)
  • 1921 – Gerhard Sommer, German soldier
  • 1922 – Jack Carter, American actor and comedian (d. 2015)
  • 1922 – John Postgate, English microbiologist, author, and academic (d. 2014)
  • 1922 – Richard Timberlake, American economist
  • 1923 – Margaret Olley, Australian painter and philanthropist (d. 2011)
  • 1924 – Kurt Furgler, Swiss politician, 70th President of the Swiss Confederation (d. 2008)
  • 1924 – Archie Roy, Scottish astronomer and academic (d. 2012)
  • 1924 – Yoshito Takamine, American politician (d. 2015)
  • 1925 – Ogden Reid, American politician (d. 2019)
  • 1927 – Fernand Dumont, Canadian sociologist, philosopher, and poet (d. 1997)
  • 1927 – James B. Edwards, American dentist, soldier, and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Energy (d. 2014)
  • 1927 – Martin Lewis Perl, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2014)
  • 1929 – Carolyn S. Shoemaker, American astronomer
  • 1930 – Claude Chabrol, French actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2010)
  • 1930 – Donald Gordon, South African businessman and philanthropist (d. 2019)
  • 1930 – William Bernard Ziff, Jr., American publisher (d. 2006)
  • 1931 – Billy Casper, American golfer and architect (d. 2015)
  • 1932 – David McTaggart, Canadian-Italian environmentalist (d. 2001)
  • 1933 – Sam Jones, American basketball player and coach
  • 1933 – Ngina Kenyatta, 1st First Lady of Kenya
  • 1934 – Ferdinand Biwersi, German footballer and referee (d. 2013)
  • 1934 – Jean-Pierre Ferland, Canadian singer-songwriter
  • 1934 – Gloria Christian, Italian singer
  • 1935 – Terry Riley, American composer and educator
  • 1935 – Jean Milesi, French racing cyclist
  • 1935 – Charlie Dees, American baseball player
  • 1937 – Anita Desai, Indian-American author and academic
  • 1938 – Lawrence Block, American author
  • 1938 – Abulfaz Elchibey, 1st democratically elected Azerbaijani president (d. 2000)
  • 1938 – Ken Gray, New Zealand rugby player (d. 1992)
  • 1939 – Brigitte Fontaine, French singer
  • 1940 – Ian Ross, Australian newsreader (d. 2014)
  • 1940 – Vittorio Storaro, Italian cinematographer
  • 1941 – Erkin Koray, Turkish singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1941 – Julia Kristeva, Bulgarian-French psychoanalyst and author
  • 1941 – Graham McKenzie, Australian cricketer
  • 1942 – Arthur Brown, English rock singer-songwriter
  • 1942 – Michele Lee, American actress and singer
  • 1942 – Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Chilean engineer and politician, 32nd President of Chile
  • 1942 – Colin Groves, Australian academician and educator
  • 1943 – Birgit Grodal, Danish economist and academic (d. 2004)
  • 1944 – Jeff Beck, English guitarist and songwriter
  • 1944 – Kathryn Lasky, American author
  • 1944 – Chris Wood, English saxophonist (d. 1983)
  • 1945 – Colin Blunstone, English singer-songwriter
  • 1945 – Wayne Cashman, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1945 – George Pataki, American lawyer and politician, 53rd Governor of New York
  • 1945 – Betty Stöve, Dutch tennis player
  • 1946 – David Collenette, Canadian civil servant and politician, 32nd Canadian Minister of National Defence
  • 1946 – Ellison Onizuka, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1986)
  • 1946 – Robert Reich, American economist and politician, 22nd United States Secretary of Labor
  • 1947 – Clarissa Dickson Wright, English chef, author, and television personality (d. 2014)
  • 1947 – Peter Weller, American actor and director
  • 1948 – Patrick Moraz, Swiss keyboard player and songwriter
  • 1949 – John Illsley, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
  • 1949 – Betty Jackson, English fashion designer
  • 1950 – Nancy Allen, American actress
  • 1950 – Bob Carlos Clarke, Irish-born English photographer (d. 2006)
  • 1950 – Jan Kulczyk, Polish businessman (d. 2015)
  • 1950 – Mercedes Lackey, American author
  • 1951 – Raelene Boyle, Australian sprinter
  • 1951 – Charles Sturridge, English director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1952 – Dianna Melrose, English diplomat, British High Commissioner to Tanzania
  • 1952 – Bob Neill, English lawyer and politician
  • 1953 – William E. Moerner, American chemist and physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1953 – Michael Tuck, Australian footballer and coach
  • 1955 – Chris Higgins, English geneticist and academic
  • 1955 – Edmund Malura, German footballer and manager
  • 1955 – Loren Roberts, American golfer
  • 1956 – Owen Paterson, English politician, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
  • 1957 – Mark Parkinson, American lawyer and politician, 45th Governor of Kansas
  • 1958 – Jean Charest, Canadian lawyer and politician, 5th Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
  • 1958 – Silvio Mondinelli, Italian mountaineer
  • 1958 – John Tortorella, American ice hockey player and coach
  • 1959 – Andy McCluskey, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer
  • 1960 – Elish Angiolini, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Solicitor General for Scotland
  • 1960 – Siedah Garrett, American singer-songwriter and pianist
  • 1960 – Karin Pilsäter, Swedish accountant and politician
  • 1960 – Erik Poppe, Norwegian director, cinematographer, and screenwriter
  • 1961 – Dennis Danell, American singer and guitarist (d. 2000)
  • 1961 – Iain Glen, Scottish actor
  • 1961 – Bernie Nicholls, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
  • 1961 – Ralph E. Reed, Jr., American journalist and activist
  • 1961 – Curt Smith, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1963 – Yuri Kasparyan, Russian guitarist
  • 1963 – Preki, Serbian-American soccer player and coach
  • 1963 – Mike Wieringo, American author and illustrator (d. 2007)
  • 1964 – Jean-Luc Delarue, French television host and producer (d. 2012)
  • 1964 – Kathryn Parminter, Baroness Parminter, English politician
  • 1964 – Gary Suter, American ice hockey player and scout
  • 1965 – Claude Bourbonnais, Canadian race car driver
  • 1965 – Uwe Krupp, German ice hockey player and coach
  • 1965 – Richard Lumsden, English actor, writer, composer and musician
  • 1966 – Hope Sandoval, American singer-songwriter and musician
  • 1966 – Adrienne Shelly, American actress, director, and screenwriter (d. 2006)
  • 1967 – Janez Lapajne, Slovenian director and producer
  • 1967 – John Limniatis, Greek-Canadian footballer and manager
  • 1968 – Alaa Abdelnaby, Egyptian-American basketball player and sportscaster
  • 1970 – Glenn Medeiros, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1970 – Bernardo Sassetti, Portuguese pianist, composer, and educator (d. 2012)
  • 1972 – Robbie McEwen, Australian cyclist
  • 1972 – Denis Žvegelj, Slovenian rower
  • 1973 – Alexis Gauthier, French chef
  • 1973 – Jere Lehtinen, Finnish ice hockey player
  • 1974 – Dan Byles, English sailor, rower, and politician
  • 1974 – Chris Guccione, American baseball player and umpire
  • 1975 – Marek Malík, Czech ice hockey player
  • 1975 – Federico Pucciariello, Argentinian-Italian rugby player
  • 1976 – Brock Olivo, American football player and coach
  • 1977 – Dimos Dikoudis, Greek basketball player and manager
  • 1977 – Jeff Farmer, Australian footballer
  • 1978 – Luis García, Spanish footballer
  • 1978 – Pantelis Kafes, Greek footballer
  • 1978 – Shunsuke Nakamura, Japanese footballer
  • 1978 – Ariel Pink, American singer-songwriter
  • 1978 – Juan Román Riquelme, Argentinian footballer
  • 1978 – Emppu Vuorinen, Finnish guitarist and songwriter
  • 1979 – Mindy Kaling, American actress and producer
  • 1979 – Petra Němcová, Czech model and philanthropist
  • 1980 – Cicinho, Brazilian footballer
  • 1980 – Nina Dübbers, German tennis player
  • 1980 – Andrew Jones, Australian race car driver
  • 1980 – Minka Kelly, American actress
  • 1982 – Kevin Nolan, English footballer
  • 1982 – Jarret Stoll, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1983 – Rebecca Cooke, English swimmer
  • 1983 – Gianni Munari, Italian footballer
  • 1983 – Gard Nilssen, Norwegian drummer
  • 1983 – David Shillington, Australian rugby league player
  • 1984 – Andrea Raggi, Italian footballer
  • 1984 – J.J. Redick, American basketball player
  • 1984 – Johanna Welin, Swedish-born German wheelchair basketball player
  • 1985 – Diego Alves Carreira, Brazilian footballer
  • 1985 – Tom Kennedy, English footballer
  • 1985 – Ethan Klein, American YouTuber
  • 1985 – Nate Myles, Australian rugby league player
  • 1985 – Vernon Philander, South African cricketer
  • 1985 – Yukina Shirakawa, Japanese model
  • 1986 – Stuart Broad, English cricketer
  • 1986 – Phil Hughes, American baseball player
  • 1986 – Solange Knowles, American singer-songwriter and actress
  • 1987 – Simona Dobrá, Czech tennis player
  • 1987 – Lionel Messi, Argentinian footballer
  • 1987 – Pierre Vaultier, French snowboarder
  • 1988 – Micah Richards, English footballer
  • 1989 – Teklemariam Medhin, Eritrean runner
  • 1990 – Michael Del Zotto, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1990 – Richard Sukuta-Pasu, German footballer
  • 1991 – Yasmin Paige, English actress
  • 1991 – Aidan Sezer, Australian rugby league player
  • 1992 – David Alaba, Austrian footballer
  • 1996 – Duki, Argentinian rapper

Deaths on June 24

  • 994 – Abu Isa al-Warraq, Arab scholar (b. 889)
  • 1046 – Jeongjong II, Korean ruler (b. 1018)
  • 1088 – William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, Norman nobleman
  • 1314 – Gilbert de Clare, 8th Earl of Gloucester, English commander (b. 1291)
  • 1314 – Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford, English soldier and politician, Lord Warden of the Marches (b. 1274)
  • 1398 – Hongwu, Chinese emperor (b. 1328)
  • 1439 – Frederick IV, duke of Austria (b. 1382)
  • 1503 – Reginald Bray, English architect and politician, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (b. 1440)
  • 1519 – Lucrezia Borgia, Italian wife of Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara (b. 1480)
  • 1520 – Hosokawa Sumimoto, Japanese commander (b. 1489)
  • 1604 – Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, English courtier, Lord Great Chamberlain (b. 1550)
  • 1637 – Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer and historian (b. 1580)
  • 1643 – John Hampden, English politician (b. 1595)
  • 1766 – Adrien Maurice de Noailles, French soldier and politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1678)
  • 1778 – Pieter Burman the Younger, Dutch philologist and academic (b. 1714)
  • 1803 – Matthew Thornton, Irish-American judge and politician (b. 1714)
  • 1817 – Thomas McKean, American lawyer and politician, 2nd Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1734)
  • 1835 – Andreas Vokos Miaoulis, Greek admiral and politician (b. 1769)
  • 1902 – George Leake, Australian politician, 2nd Premier of Western Australia (b. 1856)
  • 1908 – Grover Cleveland, American lawyer and politician, 22nd and 24th President of the United States (b. 1837)
  • 1909 – Sarah Orne Jewett, American novelist, short story writer, and poet (b. 1849)
  • 1922 – Walther Rathenau, German businessman and politician, 7th German Minister for Foreign Affairs (b. 1867)
  • 1931 – Otto Mears, Russian-American businessman (b. 1840)
  • 1931 – Xiang Zhongfa, Chinese politician, 2nd General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (b. 1880)
  • 1932 – Ernst Põdder, Estonian general (b. 1879)
  • 1943 – Camille Roy, Canadian priest and critic (b. 1870)
  • 1946 – Louise Whitfield Carnegie, American philanthropist (b. 1857)
  • 1947 – Emil Seidel, American politician, Mayor of Milwaukee (b. 1864)
  • 1962 – Volfgangs Dārziņš, Latvian composer, pianist and music critic (b. 1906)
  • 1964 – Stuart Davis, American painter and academic (b. 1892)
  • 1968 – Tony Hancock, English actor, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1924)
  • 1969 – Frank King, American cartoonist (b. 1883)
  • 1969 – Willy Ley, German-American historian and author (b. 1906)
  • 1976 – Minor White, American photographer, critic, and academic (b. 1908)
  • 1978 – Robert Charroux, French author and critic (b. 1909)
  • 1980 – V. V. Giri, Indian lawyer and politician, 4th President of India (b. 1894)
  • 1984 – Clarence Campbell, Canadian businessman (b. 1905)
  • 1987 – Jackie Gleason, American actor, comedian, and producer (b. 1916)
  • 1988 – Csaba Kesjár, Hungarian race car driver (b. 1962)
  • 1991 – Sumner Locke Elliott, Australian-American author and playwright (b. 1917)
  • 1991 – Rufino Tamayo, Mexican painter and illustrator (b. 1899)
  • 1994 – Jean Vallerand, Canadian violinist, composer, and conductor (b. 1915)
  • 1995 – Andrew J. Transue, American politician and attorney Morissette v. United States (b. 1903)
  • 1997 – Brian Keith, American actor (b. 1921)
  • 2000 – Vera Atkins, British intelligence officer (b. 1908)
  • 2000 – David Tomlinson, English actor and comedian (b. 1917)
  • 2000 – Rodrigo Bueno, Argentine cuarteto singer (b. 1973)
  • 2002 – Pierre Werner, Luxembourgian banker and politician, 21st Prime Minister of Luxembourg (b. 1913)
  • 2004 – Ifigeneia Giannopoulou, Greek songwriter and author (b. 1957)
  • 2005 – Paul Winchell, American actor, voice artist, and ventriloquist (b. 1922)
  • 2007 – Natasja Saad, Danish rapper and reggae singer (b. 1974)
  • 2007 – Chris Benoit, Canadian wrestler (b. 1967)
  • 2007 – Derek Dougan, Northern Irish footballer and manager (b. 1938)
  • 2008 – Gerhard Ringel, Austrian mathematician and academic (b. 1919)
  • 2009 – Roméo LeBlanc, Canadian journalist and politician, 25th Governor General of Canada (b. 1927)
  • 2010 – Fred Anderson, American jazz tenor saxophonist (b. 1929)
  • 2011 – Tomislav Ivić, Croatian football coach and manager (b. 1933)
  • 2012 – Darrel Akerfelds, American baseball player and coach (b. 1962)
  • 2012 – Gad Beck, German author and educator (b. 1923)
  • 2012 – Gu Chaohao, Chinese mathematician and academic (b. 1926)
  • 2012 – Miki Roqué, Spanish footballer (b. 1988)
  • 2012 – Ann C. Scales, American lawyer, educator, and activist (b. 1952)
  • 2013 – Mick Aston, English archaeologist and academic (b. 1946)
  • 2013 – Emilio Colombo, Italian politician, 40th Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1920)
  • 2013 – Joannes Gijsen, Dutch bishop (b. 1932)
  • 2013 – William Hathaway, American lawyer and politician (b. 1924)
  • 2013 – James Martin, English-Bermudian computer scientist and author (b. 1933)
  • 2013 – Alan Myers, American drummer (b. 1955)
  • 2014 – John Clement, Canadian lawyer and politician (b. 1928)
  • 2014 – Olga Kotelko, Canadian runner and softball player (b. 1919)
  • 2014 – Ramón José Velásquez, Venezuelan journalist, lawyer, and politician, President of Venezuela (b. 1916)
  • 2014 – Eli Wallach, American actor (b. 1915)
  • 2015 – Cristiano Araújo, Brazilian singer-songwriter (b. 1986)
  • 2015 – Mario Biaggi, American police officer, politician and criminal (b. 1917)
  • 2015 – Marva Collins, American author and educator (b. 1936)
  • 2015 – Susan Ahn Cuddy, American lieutenant (b. 1915)
  • 2019 – Billy Drago, American actor (b. 1945)

Holidays and observances on June 24

  • Army Day or Battle of Carabobo Day (Venezuela)
  • Bannockburn Day (Scotland)
  • Christian feast day:
    • María Guadalupe García Zavala
    • Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
    • June 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Day of the Caboclo (Amazonas, Brazil)
  • Discovery Day, observed on the nearest Monday to June 24 (Newfoundland and Labrador)
  • Earliest day on which Armed Forces Day can fall, while June 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Saturday in June. (United Kingdom)
  • Earliest day on which Inventors’ and Rationalizers’ Day can fall, while June 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Saturday in June. (Russia)
  • Earliest day on which Mother’s Day can fall, while June 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Sunday in June. (Kenya)
  • Earliest day on which Youth Day can fall, while Jun 30 is the latest; celebrated on the last Sunday in June. (Ukraine, Belarus)
  • Inti Raymi, a winter solstice festival and a New Year in the Andes of the Southern Hemisphere (Sacsayhuamán)
  • St John’s Day and the second day of the Midsummer celebrations (although this is not the astronomical summer solstice, see June 20) (Roman Catholic Church, Europe), and its related observances:
    • Enyovden (Bulgaria)
    • Jaanipäev (Estonia)
    • Jāņi (Latvia)
    • Jónsmessa (Iceland)
    • Midsummer Day (England)
    • Saint Jonas’ Festival or Joninės (Lithuania)
    • Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day (Quebec)
    • Sânziene (western Carpathian Mountains of Romania)
    • Wattah Wattah Festival (Philippines)
  • Fors Fortuna, ancient Roman festival to Fortuna

June 24 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

June 21 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /

This day usually marks the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, which is the day of the year with the most hours of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere and the fewest hours of daylight in the Southern Hemisphere.

June 21 in History

  • 533 – A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarius sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily (approximate date).
  • 1307 – Külüg Khan is enthroned as Khagan of the Mongols and Wuzong of the Yuan.
  • 1529 – French forces are driven out of northern Italy by Spain at the Battle of Landriano during the War of the League of Cognac.
  • 1582 – Sengoku period: Oda Nobunaga, the most powerful of the Japanese daimyōs, is forced to commit suicide by his own general Akechi Mitsuhide.
  • 1621 – Execution of 27 Czech noblemen on the Old Town Square in Prague as a consequence of the Battle of White Mountain.
  • 1734 – In Montreal in New France, a slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique is put to death, having been convicted of setting the fire that destroyed much of the city.
  • 1749 – Halifax, Nova Scotia, is founded.
  • 1768 – James Otis Jr. offends the King and Parliament in a speech to the Massachusetts General Court.
  • 1788 – New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.
  • 1791 – King Louis XVI of France and his immediate family begin the Flight to Varennes during the French Revolution.
  • 1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill.
  • 1813 – Peninsular War: Wellington defeats Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Vitoria.
  • 1824 – Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea.
  • 1826 – Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas.
  • 1848 – In the Wallachian Revolution, Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Christian Tell issue the Proclamation of Islaz and create a new republican government.
  • 1864 – American Civil War: The Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road begins.
  • 1898 – The United States captures Guam from Spain. The few warning shots fired by the U.S. naval vessels are misinterpreted as salutes by the Spanish garrison, which was unaware that the two nations were at war.
  • 1900 – Boxer Rebellion. China formally declares war on the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan, as an edict issued from the Empress Dowager Cixi.
  • 1915 – The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347 1915, striking down Oklahoma grandfather clause legislation which had the effect of denying the right to vote to blacks.
  • 1919 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during the Winnipeg general strike.
  • 1919 – Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet at Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed are the last casualties of World War I.
  • 1929 – An agreement brokered by U.S. Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow ends the Cristero War in Mexico.
  • 1930 – One-year conscription comes into force in France.
  • 1940 – World War II: Italy begins an unsuccessful invasion of France.
  • 1942 – World War II: Tobruk falls to Italian and German forces.
  • 1942 – World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by Japan against the United States mainland.
  • 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ends when the organized resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island.
  • 1952 – The Philippine School of Commerce, through a republic act, is converted to Philippine College of Commerce, later to be the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
  • 1957 – Ellen Fairclough is sworn in as Canada’s first female Cabinet Minister.
  • 1963 – Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini is elected as Pope Paul VI.
  • 1964 – Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
  • 1970 – Penn Central declares Section 77 bankruptcy in what was the largest U.S. corporate bankruptcy to date.
  • 1973 – In its decision in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller test for determining whether something is obscene and not protected speech under the U.S. constitution.
  • 1978 – The original production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Evita, based on the life of Eva Perón, opens at the Prince Edward Theatre, London.
  • 1982 – John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
  • 1989 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, that American flag-burning is a form of political protest protected by the First Amendment.
  • 2000 – Section 28 (of the Local Government Act 1988), outlawing the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, is repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote.
  • 2001 – A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicts 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen.
  • 2004 – SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
  • 2005 – Edgar Ray Killen, who had previously been unsuccessfully tried for the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, is convicted of manslaughter 41 years afterwards (the case had been reopened in 2004).
  • 2006 – Pluto’s newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra.
  • 2009 – Greenland assumes self-rule.
  • 2012 – A boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsizes in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island of Java and Christmas Island, killing 17 people and leaving 70 others missing.

Births on June 21

  • 598 – Pope Martin I (d. 656)
  • 906 – Abu Ja’far Ahmad ibn Muhammad, Saffarid emir (d. 963)
  • 1002 – Pope Leo IX (d. 1054)
  • 1226 – Bolesław V the Chaste of Poland (d. 1279)
  • 1521 – John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Haderslev (d. 1580)
  • 1528 – Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1603)
  • 1535 – Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (d. 1596)
  • 1630 – Samuel Oppenheimer, German Jewish banker and diplomat (d. 1703)
  • 1636 – Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d’Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon, French noble (d. 1721)
  • 1639 – Increase Mather, American minister and author (d. 1723)
  • 1676 – Anthony Collins, English philosopher and author (d. 1729)
  • 1706 – John Dollond, English optician and astronomer (d. 1761)
  • 1710 – James Short, Scottish-English mathematician and optician (d. 1768)
  • 1712 – Luc Urbain de Bouëxic, comte de Guichen, French admiral (d. 1790)
  • 1730 – Motoori Norinaga, Japanese poet and scholar (d. 1801)
  • 1732 – Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German pianist and composer (d. 1791)
  • 1736 – Enoch Poor, American general (d. 1780)
  • 1741 – Prince Benedetto, Duke of Chablais (d. 1808)
  • 1750 – Pierre-Nicolas Beauvallet, French sculptor and illustrator (d. 1818)
  • 1759 – Alexander J. Dallas, American lawyer and politician, 6th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1817)
  • 1763 – Pierre Paul Royer-Collard, French philosopher and academic (d. 1845)
  • 1764 – Sidney Smith, English admiral and politician (d. 1840)
  • 1774 – Daniel D. Tompkins, American lawyer and politician, 6th Vice President of the United States (d. 1825)
  • 1781 – Siméon Denis Poisson, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1840)
  • 1786 – Charles Edward Horn, English singer-songwriter (d. 1849)
  • 1792 – Ferdinand Christian Baur, German theologian and scholar (d. 1860)
  • 1797 – Wilhelm Küchelbecker, Russian poet and author (d. 1846)
  • 1802 – Karl Zittel, German theologian (d. 1871)
  • 1805 – Karl Friedrich Curschmann, German composer and singer (d. 1841)
  • 1805 – Charles Thomas Jackson, American physician and geologist (d. 1880)
  • 1811 – Carlo Matteucci, Italian physicist and neurophysiologist (d. 1868)
  • 1814 – Anton Nuhn, German anatomist and academic (d. 1889)
  • 1823 – Jean Chacornac, French astronomer (d. 1873)
  • 1825 – Thomas Edward Cliffe Leslie, Irish economist and jurist (d. 1882)
  • 1825 – William Stubbs, English bishop and historian (d. 1901)
  • 1828 – Ferdinand André Fouqué, French geologist and academic (d. 1904)
  • 1828 – Nikolaus Nilles, German Catholic writer and teacher (d. 1907)
  • 1834 – Frans de Cort, Flemish poet and author (d. 1878)
  • 1836 – Luigi Tripepi, Italian theologian (d. 1906)
  • 1839 – Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian author, poet, and playwright (d. 1908)
  • 1845 – Samuel Griffith, Welsh-Australian politician, 9th Premier of Queensland (d. 1920)
  • 1845 – Arthur Cowper Ranyard, English astrophysicist and astronomer (d. 1894)
  • 1846 – Marion Adams-Acton, Scottish-English author and playwright (d. 1928)
  • 1846 – Enrico Coleman, Italian painter (d. 1911)
  • 1850 – Daniel Carter Beard, American author and illustrator, co-founded the Boy Scouts of America (d. 1941)
  • 1858 – Giuseppe De Sanctis, Italian painter (d. 1924)
  • 1858 – Medardo Rosso, Italian sculptor and educator (d. 1928)
  • 1859 – Henry Ossawa Tanner, American-French painter and illustrator (d. 1937)
  • 1862 – Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai historian and author (d. 1943)
  • 1863 – Max Wolf, German astronomer and academic (d. 1932)
  • 1864 – Heinrich Wölfflin, Swiss historian and critic (d. 1945)
  • 1867 – Oscar Florianus Bluemner, German-American painter and illustrator (d. 1938)
  • 1867 – William Brede Kristensen, Norwegian historian of religion (d. 1953)
  • 1868 – Edwin Stephen Goodrich, English zoologist and anatomist (d. 1946)
  • 1870 – Clara Immerwahr, Jewish-German chemist and academic (d. 1915)
  • 1870 – Anthony Michell, English-Australian engineer (d. 1959)
  • 1870 – Julio Ruelas, Mexican painter (d. 1907)
  • 1876 – Swami Kalyan Dev, philosopher  (d. 2004)
  • 1876 – Willem Hendrik Keesom, Dutch physicist and academic (d. 1956)
  • 1880 – Arnold Gesell, American psychologist and pediatrician (d. 1961)
  • 1880 – Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, English economist and civil servant (d. 1941)
  • 1881 – (O.S.) Natalia Goncharova, Russian painter, costume designer, and illustrator (d. 1962)
  • 1882 – Lluís Companys, Spanish lawyer and politician, 123rd President of Catalonia (d. 1940)
  • 1882 – Adrianus de Jong, Dutch fencer and soldier (d. 1966)
  • 1882 – Rockwell Kent, American painter and illustrator (d. 1971)
  • 1883 – Feodor Gladkov, Russian author and educator (d. 1958)
  • 1884 – Claude Auchinleck, English field marshal (d. 1981)
  • 1887 – Norman L. Bowen, Canadian geologist and petrologist (d. 1956)
  • 1889 – Ralph Craig, American sprinter and sailor (d. 1972)
  • 1891 – Pier Luigi Nervi, Italian architect and engineer, co-designed the Pirelli Tower and Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption (d. 1979)
  • 1891 – Hermann Scherchen, German-Swiss viola player and conductor (d. 1966)
  • 1892 – Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian and academic (d. 1971)
  • 1893 – Alois Hába, Czech composer and educator (d. 1973)
  • 1894 – Milward Kennedy, English journalist and civil servant (d. 1968)
  • 1896 – Charles Momsen, American admiral, invented the Momsen lung (d. 1967)
  • 1898 – Donald C. Peattie, American botanist and author (d. 1964)
  • 1899 – Pavel Haas, Czech composer (d. 1944)
  • 1903 – Hermann Engelhard, German runner and coach (d. 1984)
  • 1903 – Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist, painter and illustrator (d. 2003)
  • 1905 – Jacques Goddet, French journalist (d. 2000)
  • 1905 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and author (d. 1980)
  • 1908 – William Frankena, American philosopher and academic (d. 1994)
  • 1910 – Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Russian poet and author (d. 1971)
  • 1911 – Irving Fein, American producer and manager (d. 2012)
  • 1912 – Kazimierz Leski, Polish pilot and engineer (d. 2000)
  • 1912 – Mary McCarthy, American novelist and critic (d. 1989)
  • 1912 – Vishnu Prabhakar, Indian author and playwright (d. 2009)
  • 1913 – Madihe Pannaseeha Thero, Sri Lankan monk and scholar (d. 2003)
  • 1913 – Luis Taruc, Filipino political activist (d. 2005)
  • 1914 – William Vickrey, Canadian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
  • 1915 – Wilhelm Gliese, German soldier and astronomer (d. 1993)
  • 1916 – Joseph Cyril Bamford, English businessman, founded J. C. Bamford (d. 2001)
  • 1916 – Tchan Fou-li, Chinese photographer (d. 2018)
  • 1916 – Herbert Friedman, American physicist and astronomer (d. 2000)
  • 1916 – Buddy O’Connor, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1977)
  • 1918 – Robert A. Boyd, Canadian engineer (d. 2006)
  • 1918 – James Joll, English historian, author, and academic (d. 1994)
  • 1918 – Eddie Lopat, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 1992)
  • 1918 – Dee Molenaar, American mountaineer (d. 2020)
  • 1918 – Robert Roosa, American economist and banker (d. 1993)
  • 1918 – Tibor Szele, Hungarian mathematician and academic (d. 1955)
  • 1918 – Josephine Webb, American engineer
  • 1919 – Antonia Mesina, Italian martyr and saint (d. 1935)
  • 1919 – Gérard Pelletier, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 1997)
  • 1919 – Vladimir Simagin, Russian chess player and coach (d. 1968)
  • 1919 – Paolo Soleri, Italian-American architect, designed the Cosanti (d. 2013)
  • 1920 – Hans Gerschwiler, Swiss figure skater (d. 2017)
  • 1921 – Judy Holliday, American actress and singer (d. 1965)
  • 1921 – Jane Russell, American actress and singer (d. 2011)
  • 1921 – William Edwin Self, American actor, producer, and production manager (d. 2010)
  • 1922 – Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Burkinabé historian, politician and writer (d. 2006)
  • 1923 – Jacques Hébert, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 2007)
  • 1924 – Pontus Hultén, Swedish art collector and historian (d. 2006)
  • 1924 – Ezzatolah Entezami, Iranian actor (d. 2018)
  • 1924 – Wally Fawkes, British-Canadian jazz clarinetist and a satirical cartoonist
  • 1924 – Jean Laplanche, French psychoanalyst and academic (d. 2012)
  • 1925 – Larisa Avdeyeva, Russian mezzo-soprano (d. 2013)
  • 1925 – Stanley Moss, American poet, publisher, and art dealer
  • 1925 – Giovanni Spadolini, Italian journalist and politician, 45th Prime Minister of Italy (d. 1994)
  • 1925 – Maureen Stapleton, American actress (d. 2006)
  • 1926 – Fred Cone, American football player
  • 1926 – Conrad Hall, French-American cinematographer (d. 2003)
  • 1927 – Carl Stokes, American lawyer, politician, and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Seychelles (d. 1996)
  • 1928 – Wolfgang Haken, German-American mathematician and academic
  • 1928 – Fiorella Mari, Brazilian-Italian actress
  • 1928 – Margit Bara, Hungarian actress (d. 2016)
  • 1929 – Alexandre Lagoya, Egyptian-Greek guitarist and composer (d. 1999)
  • 1930 – Gerald Kaufman, English journalist and politician, Shadow Foreign Secretary (d. 2017)
  • 1930 – Mike McCormack, American football player and coach (d. 2013)
  • 1931 – Zlatko Grgić, Croatian-Canadian animator, director, and screenwriter (d. 1988)
  • 1931 – Margaret Heckler, American journalist, lawyer, and politician, 15th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services
  • 1931 – David Kushnir, Israeli Olympic long-jumper
  • 1932 – Bernard Ingham, English journalist and civil servant
  • 1932 – Lalo Schifrin, Argentinian pianist, composer, and conductor
  • 1932 – O.C. Smith, American R&B/jazz singer (d. 2001)
  • 1933 – Bernie Kopell, American actor and comedian
  • 1935 – Françoise Sagan, French author and playwright (d. 2004)
  • 1937 – John Edrich, English cricketer and coach
  • 1938 – Don Black, English songwriter
  • 1938 – John W. Dower, American historian and author
  • 1938 – Michael M. Richter, German mathematician and computer scientist
  • 1940 – Mariette Hartley, American actress and television personality
  • 1940 – Michael Ruse, Canadian philosopher and academic
  • 1941 – Aloysius Paul D’Souza, Indian bishop
  • 1941 – Joe Flaherty, American-Canadian actor, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1941 – Lyman Ward, Canadian actor
  • 1942 – Clive Brooke, Baron Brooke of Alverthorpe, English businessman and politician
  • 1942 – Marjorie Margolies, American journalist and politician
  • 1942 – Henry S. Taylor, American author and poet
  • 1942 – Togo D. West, Jr., American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs
  • 1943 – Eumir Deodato, Brazilian pianist, composer, and producer
  • 1943 – Diane Marleau, Canadian accountant and politician, Canadian Minister of Health (d. 2013)
  • 1943 – Brian Sternberg, American pole vaulter (d. 2013)
  • 1944 – Ray Davies, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1944 – Tony Scott, English-American director and producer (d. 2012)
  • 1945 – Robert Dewar, English-American computer scientist and academic (d. 2015)
  • 1945 – Adam Zagajewski, Polish author and poet
  • 1946 – Per Eklund, Swedish race car driver
  • 1946 – Kate Hoey, Northern Irish-British academic and politician, Minister for Sport and the Olympics
  • 1946 – Brenda Holloway, American singer-songwriter
  • 1946 – Trond Kirkvaag, Norwegian actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2007)
  • 1946 – Malcolm Rifkind, Scottish lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Scotland
  • 1946 – Maurice Saatchi, Baron Saatchi, Iraqi-British businessman, founded M&C Saatchi and Saatchi & Saatchi
  • 1947 – Meredith Baxter, American actress
  • 1947 – Shirin Ebadi, Iranian lawyer, judge, and activist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 1947 – Michael Gross, American actor
  • 1947 – Joey Molland, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1947 – Wade Phillips, American football coach
  • 1947 – Fernando Savater, Spanish philosopher and author
  • 1948 – Jovan Aćimović, Serbian footballer and manager
  • 1948 – Ian McEwan, British novelist and screenwriter
  • 1948 – Andrzej Sapkowski, Polish author and translator
  • 1948 – Philippe Sarde, French composer and conductor
  • 1949 – John Agard, Guyanese-English author, poet, and playwright
  • 1949 – Derek Emslie, Lord Kingarth, Scottish lawyer and judge
  • 1950 – Anne Carson, Canadian poet and academic
  • 1950 – Joey Kramer, American rock drummer and songwriter (Aerosmith)
  • 1950 – Enn Reitel, Scottish actor and screenwriter
  • 1950 – Trygve Thue, Norwegian guitarist and record producer
  • 1950 – John Paul Young, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter
  • 1951 – Jim Douglas, American academic and politician, 80th Governor of Vermont
  • 1951 – Terence Etherton, English lawyer and judge
  • 1951 – Alan Hudson, English footballer
  • 1951 – Nils Lofgren, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1951 – Lenore Manderson, Australian anthropologist and academic
  • 1951 – Mona-Lisa Pursiainen, Finnish sprinter (d. 2000)
  • 1952 – Judith Bingham, English singer-songwriter
  • 1952 – Jeremy Coney, New Zealand cricketer and sportscaster
  • 1952 – Patrick Dunleavy, English political scientist and academic
  • 1952 – Kōichi Mashimo, Japanese director and screenwriter
  • 1953 – Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani financier and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 2007)
  • 1954 – Már Guðmundsson, Icelandic economist, former Governor of Central Bank of Iceland
  • 1954 – Mark Kimmitt, American general and politician, 16th Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
  • 1954 – Robert Menasse, Austrian author and academic
  • 1955 – Tim Bray, Canadian software developer and businessman
  • 1955 – Michel Platini, French footballer and manager
  • 1956 – Rick Sutcliffe, American baseball player and broadcaster
  • 1957 – Berkeley Breathed, American author and illustrator
  • 1957 – Luis Antonio Tagle, Filipino cardinal
  • 1958 – Víctor Montoya, Bolivian journalist and author
  • 1958 – Gennady Padalka, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut
  • 1959 – John Baron, English captain and politician
  • 1959 – Tom Chambers, American basketball player and sportscaster
  • 1959 – Marcella Detroit, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1959 – Kathy Mattea, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
  • 1960 – Kate Brown, American politician, 38th Governor of Oregon
  • 1960 – Karl Erjavec, Slovenian politician
  • 1961 – Manu Chao, French singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
  • 1961 – Sascha Konietzko, German keyboard player and producer
  • 1961 – Joko Widodo, Indonesian businessman and politician, 7th President of Indonesia
  • 1961 – Kip Winger, American rock singer-songwriter and musician
  • 1961 – Iztok Mlakar, Slovenian actor and singer-songwriter
  • 1962 – Shōhei Takada, Japanese shogi player and theoretician
  • 1962 – Viktor Tsoi, Russian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1990)
  • 1963 – Dario Marianelli, Italian pianist and composer
  • 1963 – Mike Sherrard, American football player
  • 1964 – David Morrissey, English actor and director
  • 1964 – Dimitris Papaioannou, Greek director and choreographer
  • 1964 – Dean Saunders, Welsh footballer and manager
  • 1964 – Doug Savant, American actor
  • 1965 – David Beerling, English biologist and academic
  • 1965 – Yang Liwei, Chinese general, pilot, and astronaut
  • 1965 – Ewen McKenzie, Australian rugby player and coach
  • 1965 – Lana Wachowski, American director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1966 – Gretchen Carlson, American model and television journalist, Miss America 1989
  • 1967 – Jim Breuer, American comedian, actor, and producer
  • 1967 – Derrick Coleman, American basketball player and sportscaster
  • 1967 – Pierre Omidyar, French-American businessman, founded eBay
  • 1967 – Carrie Preston, American actress, director, and producer
  • 1967 – Yingluck Shinawatra, Thai businesswoman and politician, 28th Prime Minister of Thailand
  • 1968 – Sonique, English singer-songwriter and DJ
  • 1970 – Eric Reed, American pianist and composer
  • 1971 – Tyronne Drakeford, American football player
  • 1972 – Nobuharu Asahara, Japanese sprinter and long jumper
  • 1972 – Neil Doak, Northern Irish cricketer and rugby player
  • 1972 – Irene van Dyk, South African-New Zealand netball player
  • 1973 – Juliette Lewis, American actress and singer-songwriter
  • 1973 – John Mitchell, English guitarist, vocalist and songwriter
  • 1974 – Rob Kelly, American football player
  • 1974 – Craig Lowndes, Australian race car driver
  • 1974 – Flavio Roma, Italian footballer
  • 1975 – Brian Simmons, American football player
  • 1976 – Shelley Craft, Australian television host
  • 1976 – Mike Einziger, American guitarist and songwriter
  • 1976 – Nigel Lappin, Australian footballer and coach
  • 1977 – Michael Gomez, Irish boxer
  • 1977 – Al Wilson, American football player
  • 1978 – Thomas Blondeau, Flemish writer (d. 2013)
  • 1978 – Matt Kuchar, American golfer
  • 1978 – Cristiano Lupatelli, Italian footballer
  • 1978 – Gervase Markham, British software engineer (d. 2018)
  • 1978 – Dejan Ognjanović, Montenegrin footballer
  • 1978 – Rim’K, French rapper
  • 1979 – Kostas Katsouranis, Greek footballer
  • 1979 – Chris Pratt, American actor
  • 1980 – Michael Crocker, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
  • 1980 – Łukasz Cyborowski, Polish chess player
  • 1980 – Richard Jefferson, American basketball player
  • 1980 – Sendy Rleal, Dominican baseball player
  • 1981 – Yann Danis, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1981 – Garrett Jones, American baseball player
  • 1981 – Brandon Flowers, American singer-songwriter
  • 1981 – Brad Walker, American pole vaulter
  • 1982 – Lee Dae-ho, South Korean baseball player
  • 1982 – Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
  • 1982 – Jussie Smollett, American actor and singer
  • 1983 – Edward Snowden, American activist and academic
  • 1985 – Lana Del Rey, American singer-songwriter
  • 1985 – Sentayehu Ejigu, Ethiopian runner
  • 1985 – Byron Schammer, Australian footballer
  • 1986 – Kathleen O’Kelly-Kennedy, Australian wheelchair basketball player
  • 1986 – Hideaki Wakui, Japanese baseball player
  • 1987 – Pablo Barrera, Mexican footballer
  • 1987 – Sebastian Prödl, Austrian footballer
  • 1987 – Dale Thomas, Australian footballer
  • 1988 – Allyssa DeHaan, American basketball and volleyball player
  • 1988 – Paolo Tornaghi, Italian footballer
  • 1988 – Thaddeus Young, American basketball player
  • 1989 – Abubaker Kaki, Sudanese runner
  • 1990 – Ričardas Berankis, Lithuanian tennis player
  • 1990 – Lunar C, English rapper
  • 1990 – François Moubandje, Swiss footballer
  • 1990 – Håvard Nordtveit, Norwegian footballer
  • 1991 – Gaël Kakuta, French footballer
  • 1992 – MAX, American singer, songwriter, actor, dancer and model
  • 1994 – Başak Eraydın, Turkish tennis player
  • 1996 – Tyrone May, Australian rugby league player
  • 1997 – Rebecca Black, American singer-songwriter
  • 1997 – Derrius Guice, American football player
  • 2011 – Lil Bub, American celebrity cat

Deaths on June 21

  • 532 – Emperor Jiemin of Northern Wei, former Northern Wei emperor
  • 866 – Rodulf, Frankish archbishop
  • 868 – Ali al-Hadi, the tenth Imam of Shia Islam (b. 829)
  • 870 – Al-Muhtadi, Muslim caliph
  • 947 – Zhang Li, official of the Liao Dynasty
  • 1040 – Fulk III, Count of Anjou (b. 972)
  • 1171 – Walter de Luci, French-English monk (b. 1103)
  • 1208 – Philip of Swabia (b. 1177)
  • 1305 – Wenceslaus II of Bohemia (b. 1271)
  • 1359 – Erik Magnusson, king of Sweden (b. 1339)
  • 1377 – Edward III of England (b. 1312)
  • 1421 – Jean Le Maingre, French general (b. 1366)
  • 1527 – Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and author (b. 1469)
  • 1529 – John Skelton, English poet and educator (b. 1460)
  • 1547 – Sebastiano del Piombo, Italian painter and educator (b. 1485)
  • 1558 – Piero Strozzi, Italian general (b. 1510)
  • 1582 – Oda Nobunaga, Japanese warlord (b. 1534)
  • 1585 – Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland (b. 1532)
  • 1591 – Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian saint (b. 1568)
  • 1596 – Jean Liebault, French agronomist and physician (b. 1535)
  • 1621 – Louis III, Cardinal of Guise (b. 1575)
  • 1621 – Kryštof Harant, Czech soldier and composer (b. 1564)
  • 1622 – Salomon Schweigger, German theologian (b. 1551)
  • 1631 – John Smith, English admiral and explorer (b. 1580)
  • 1652 – Inigo Jones, English architect, designed the Queen’s House and Wilton House (b. 1573)
  • 1661 – Andrea Sacchi, Italian painter (b. 1599)
  • 1737 – Matthieu Marais, French author, critic, and jurist (b. 1664)
  • 1738 – Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1674)
  • 1796 – Richard Gridley, American soldier and engineer (b. 1710)
  • 1824 – Étienne Aignan, French playwright and translator (b. 1773)
  • 1865 – Frances Adeline Seward, American wife of William H. Seward (b. 1824)
  • 1874 – Anders Jonas Ångström, Swedish physicist and astronomer (b. 1814)
  • 1876 – Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican general and politician 8th President of Mexico (b. 1794)
  • 1880 – Theophilus H. Holmes, American general (b. 1804)
  • 1893 – Leland Stanford, American businessman and politician, 8th Governor of California (b. 1824)
  • 1908 – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer and educator (b. 1844)
  • 1914 – Bertha von Suttner, Austrian journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1843)
  • 1929 – Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse, English sociologist, journalist, and academic (b. 1864)
  • 1934 – Thorne Smith, American author (b. 1892)
  • 1940 – Smedley Butler, American general, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1881)
  • 1940 – Édouard Vuillard, French painter (b. 1868)
  • 1951 – Charles Dillon Perrine, American astronomer (b. 1867)
  • 1951 – Gustave Sandras, French gymnast (b. 1872)
  • 1952 – Wop May, Canadian captain and pilot (b. 1896)
  • 1954 – Gideon Sundback, Swedish-American engineer, developed the zipper (b. 1880)
  • 1957 – Claude Farrère, French captain and author (b. 1876)
  • 1957 – Johannes Stark, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
  • 1964 – James Chaney, American civil rights activist (b. 1943)
  • 1964 – Andrew Goodman, American civil rights activist (b. 1943)
  • 1964 – Michael Schwerner, American civil rights activist (b. 1939)
  • 1967 – Theodore Sizer, American professor of the history of art (b. 1892)
  • 1969 – Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (b. 1934)
  • 1970 – Sukarno, Indonesian engineer and politician, 1st President of Indonesia (b. 1901)
  • 1970 – Piers Courage, English race car driver (b. 1942)
  • 1976 – Margaret Herrick, American librarian (b. 1902)
  • 1980 – Bert Kaempfert, German conductor and composer (b. 1923)
  • 1981 – Don Figlozzi, American illustrator and animator (b. 1909)
  • 1985 – Hector Boyardee, Italian-American chef and businessman, founded Chef Boyardee (b. 1897)
  • 1985 – Tage Erlander, Swedish lieutenant and politician, 25th Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1901)
  • 1986 – Assi Rahbani, Lebanese singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1923)
  • 1987 – Madman Muntz, American engineer and businessman, founded the Muntz Car Company (b. 1914)
  • 1988 – Bobby Dodd, American football coach (b. 1908)
  • 1990 – Cedric Belfrage, English journalist and author, co-founded the National Guardian (b. 1904)
  • 1990 – June Christy, American singer (b. 1925)
  • 1992 – Ben Alexander, Australian rugby league player (b. 1971)
  • 1992 – Arthur Gorrie, Australian hobby shop proprietor (b. 1922)
  • 1992 – Rudra Mohammad Shahidullah, Bangladeshi poet, author, and playwright (b. 1956)
  • 1992 – Li Xiannian, Chinese captain and politician, 3rd President of the People’s Republic of China (b. 1909)
  • 1994 – William Wilson Morgan, American astronomer and astrophysicist (b. 1906)
  • 1997 – Shintaro Katsu, Japanese actor, singer, director, and producer (b. 1931)
  • 1997 – Fidel Velázquez Sánchez, Mexican trade union leader (b. 1900)
  • 1998 – Harry Cranbrook Allen, English historian (b. 1917)
  • 1998 – Anastasio Ballestrero, Italian cardinal (b. 1913)
  • 1998 – Al Campanis, American baseball player and manager (b. 1916)
  • 1999 – Kami, Japanese drummer (b. 1973)
  • 2000 – Alan Hovhaness, Armenian-American pianist and composer (b. 1911)
  • 2001 – John Lee Hooker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1917)
  • 2001 – Soad Hosny, Egyptian actress and singer (b. 1942)
  • 2001 – Carroll O’Connor, American actor and producer (b. 1924)
  • 2002 – Timothy Findley, Canadian author and playwright (b. 1930)
  • 2003 – Roger Neilson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (b. 1934)
  • 2003 – Leon Uris, American soldier and author (b. 1924)
  • 2004 – Leonel Brizola, Brazilian engineer and politician, Governor of Rio de Janeiro (b. 1922)
  • 2004 – Ruth Leach Amonette, American businesswoman (b. 1916)
  • 2005 – Jaime Sin, Filipino cardinal (b. 1928)
  • 2006 – Jared C. Monti, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (b. 1975)
  • 2007 – Bob Evans, American businessman, founded Bob Evans Restaurants (b. 1918)
  • 2008 – Scott Kalitta, American race car driver (b. 1962)
  • 2010 – Russell Ash, English author (b. 1946)
  • 2010 – Irwin Barker, Canadian actor and screenwriter (b. 1956)
  • 2010 – İlhan Selçuk, Turkish lawyer, journalist, and author (b. 1925)
  • 2011 – Robert Kroetsch, Canadian author and poet (b. 1927)
  • 2012 – Richard Adler, American composer and producer (b. 1921)
  • 2012 – Abid Hussain, Indian economist and diplomat, Indian Ambassador to the United States (b. 1926)
  • 2012 – Sunil Janah, Indian photographer and journalist (b. 1918)
  • 2012 – Anna Schwartz, American economist and author (b. 1915)
  • 2013 – James P. Gordon, American physicist and academic (b. 1928)
  • 2013 – Elliott Reid, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1920)
  • 2014 – Yozo Ishikawa, Japanese politician, Japanese Minister of Defense (b. 1925)
  • 2014 – Walter Kieber, Austrian-Liechtenstein politician, 7th Prime Minister of Liechtenstein (b. 1931)
  • 2014 – Wong Ho Leng, Malaysian lawyer and politician (b. 1959)
  • 2015 – Darryl Hamilton, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1964)
  • 2015 – Veijo Meri, Finnish author and poet (b. 1928)
  • 2015 – Remo Remotti, Italian actor, playwright, and poet (b. 1924)
  • 2015 – Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, German soldier and politician (b. 1932)
  • 2015 – Gunther Schuller, American horn player, composer, and conductor (b. 1925)
  • 2016 – Pierre Lalonde, Canadian television host and singer (b. 1941)
  • 2018 – Charles Krauthammer, American columnist and conservative political commentator (b.1950)

Holidays and observances on June 21

  • Christian feast day:
    • Alban of Mainz
    • Aloysius Gonzaga
    • Engelmund of Velsen
    • Martin of Tongres
    • Onesimos Nesib (Lutheran)
    • June 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Day of the Martyrs (Togo)
  • Father’s Day (Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Uganda, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates)
  • Go Skateboarding Day
  • International Yoga Day (international)
  • National Aboriginal Day (Canada)
  • Solstice-related observances (see also June 20):
    • Day of Private Reflection
    • International Surfing Day
    • National Day (Greenland)
    • We Tripantu, a winter solstice festival in the southern hemisphere. (Mapuche, southern Chile)
    • Willkakuti, an Andean-Amazonic New Year (Aymara)
    • Fête de la Musique
  • World Humanist Day (Humanism)
  • World Hydrography Day (international)

June 21 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

June 20 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Summer solstice sometimes occurs on this date, while the Winter solstice occurs in the Southern Hemisphere.

  • 451 – Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius’ battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory.
  • 1180 – First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan.
  • 1620 – The Battle of Höchst takes place during the Thirty Years’ War.
  • 1631 – The Sack of Baltimore: The Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.
  • 1652 – Tarhoncu Ahmed Pasha is appointed Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
  • 1685 – Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth declares himself King of England at Bridgwater.
  • 1756 – A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
  • 1782 – The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.
  • 1787 – Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention to call the government the ‘United States’.
  • 1789 – Deputies of the French Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath.
  • 1819 – The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. It is the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey is made under sail.
  • 1837 – Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.
  • 1840 – Samuel Morse receives the patent for the telegraph.
  • 1862 – Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, is assassinated.
  • 1863 – American Civil War: West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.
  • 1877 – Alexander Graham Bell installs the world’s first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
  • 1893 – Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother.
  • 1895 – The Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, is officially opened.
  • 1900 – Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army begins a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China.
  • 1900 – Baron Eduard Toll, leader of the Russian Polar Expedition of 1900, departs Saint Petersburg in Russia on the explorer ship Zarya, never to return.
  • 1921 – Workers of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Chennai, India, begin a four-month strike.
  • 1942 – The Holocaust: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, steal an SS staff car and escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp.
  • 1943 – The Detroit race riot breaks out and continues for three more days.
  • 1943 – World War II: The Royal Air Force launches Operation Bellicose, the first shuttle bombing raid of the war. Lancaster bombers damage the V-2 rocket production facilities at the Zeppelin Works while en route to an air base in Algeria.
  • 1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”.
  • 1944 – Continuation War: The Soviet Union demands an unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. The Finnish government refuses.
  • 1944 – The experimental MW 18014 V-2 rocket reaches an altitude of 176 km, becoming the first man-made object to reach outer space.
  • 1945 – The United States Secretary of State approves the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip.
  • 1948 – The Deutsche Mark is introduced in Western Allied-occupied Germany. The Soviet Military Administration in Germany responded by imposing the Berlin Blockade four days later.
  • 1956 – A Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashes in the Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey, killing 74 people.
  • 1959 – A rare June hurricane strikes Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35.
  • 1960 – The Mali Federation gains independence from France (it later splits into Mali and Senegal).
  • 1963 – Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union and the United States sign an agreement to establish the so-called “red telephone” link between Washington and Moscow.
  • 1972 – Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex.
  • 1973 – Snipers fire upon left-wing Peronists in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in what is known as the Ezeiza massacre. At least 13 are killed and more than 300 are injured.
  • 1973 – Aeroméxico Flight 229 crashes on approach to Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport, killing all 27 people on board.
  • 1975 – The film Jaws is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of that time and starting the trend of films known as “summer blockbusters”.
  • 1979 – ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart is shot dead by a Nicaraguan soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The murder is caught on tape and sparks an international outcry against the regime.
  • 1982 – The Argentine Corbeta Uruguay base on Southern Thule surrenders to Royal Marine commandos in the final action of the Falklands War.
  • 1990 – Asteroid Eureka is discovered.
  • 1990 – The 7.4 Mw  Manjil–Rudbar earthquake affects northern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 35,000–50,000, and injuring 60,000–105,000.
  • 1991 – German Bundestag votes to move seat of government from the former West German capital of Bonn to the present capital Berlin.
  • 1994 – The 1994 Imam Reza shrine bomb explosion in Iran leaves at least 25 dead and 70 to 300 injured.
  • 2003 – The Wikimedia Foundation is founded in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Births on June 20

  • 1005 – Ali az-Zahir, Fatimid caliph of Egypt (d. 1036)
  • 1389 – John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, English statesman (d. 1435)
  • 1469 – Gian Galeazzo Sforza, duke of Milan (d. 1494)
  • 1566 – Sigismund III Vasa, Polish and Swedish king (d. 1632)
  • 1583 – Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and politician, Lord High Constable of Sweden (d. 1652)
  • 1634 – Charles Emmanuel II, duke of Savoy (d. 1675)
  • 1642 – George Hickes, English minister and scholar (d. 1715)
  • 1647 – John George III, Elector of Saxony (d. 1691)
  • 1717 – Jacques Saly, French sculptor and painter (d. 1776)
  • 1723 – Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (d. 1816)
  • 1737 – Tokugawa Ieharu, Japanese shōgun (d. 1786)
  • 1754 – Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt, princess of Baden (d. 1832)
  • 1756 – Joseph Martin Kraus, German-Swedish composer and educator (d. 1792)
  • 1761 – Jacob Hübner, German entomologist and author (d. 1826)
  • 1763 – Wolfe Tone, Irish rebel leader (d. 1798)
  • 1770 – Moses Waddel, American minister and academic (d. 1840)
  • 1771 – Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, Scottish philanthropist, and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Kirkcudbright (d. 1820)
  • 1771 – Hermann von Boyen, Prussian general and politician, Prussian Minister of War (d. 1848)
  • 1777 – Jean-Jacques Lartigue, Canadian bishop (d. 1840)
  • 1778 – Jean Baptiste Gay, vicomte de Martignac, French politician, 7th Prime Minister of France (d. 1832)
  • 1786 – Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, French poet and author (d. 1859)
  • 1796 – Luigi Amat di San Filippo e Sorso, Italian cardinal (d. 1878)
  • 1808 – Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi and scholar (d. 1888)
  • 1809 – Isaak August Dorner, German theologian and academic (d. 1884)
  • 1813 – Joseph Autran, French poet and author (d. 1877)
  • 1819 – Jacques Offenbach, German-French cellist and composer (d. 1880)
  • 1847 – Gina Krog, Norwegian suffragist and women’s rights activist (d. 1916)
  • 1855 – Richard Lodge, English historian and academic (d. 1936)
  • 1858 – Charles W. Chesnutt, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1932)
  • 1860 – Alexander Winton, Scottish-American race car driver and engineer (d. 1932)
  • 1860 – Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer, footballer, and coach (d. 1937)
  • 1861 – Frederick Gowland Hopkins, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1947)
  • 1865 – George Redmayne Murray, English biologist and physician (d. 1939)
  • 1866 – James Burns, English cricketer (d. 1957)
  • 1869 – Laxmanrao Kirloskar, Indian businessman, founded the Kirloskar Group (d. 1956)
  • 1870 – Georges Dufrénoy, French painter and academic (d. 1943)
  • 1872 – George Carpenter, American 5th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1948)
  • 1875 – Reginald Punnett, English geneticist, statistician, and academic (d. 1967)
  • 1882 – Daniel Sawyer, American golfer (d. 1937)
  • 1884 – Mary R. Calvert, American astronomer and author (d. 1974)
  • 1884 – Johannes Heinrich Schultz, German psychiatrist and psychotherapist (d. 1970)
  • 1885 – Andrzej Gawroński, Polish linguist and academic (d. 1927)
  • 1887 – Kurt Schwitters, German painter and illustrator (d. 1948)
  • 1889 – John S. Paraskevopoulos, Greek-South African astronomer and academic (d. 1951)
  • 1891 – Giannina Arangi-Lombardi, Italian soprano (d. 1951)
  • 1891 – John A. Costello, Irish lawyer and politician, 3rd Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 1976)
  • 1893 – Wilhelm Zaisser, German soldier and politician (d. 1958)
  • 1894 – Lloyd Hall, American chemist and academic (d. 1971)
  • 1896 – Wilfrid Pelletier, Canadian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1982)
  • 1897 – Elisabeth Hauptmann, German author and playwright (d. 1973)
  • 1899 – Jean Moulin, French soldier and engineer (d. 1943)
  • 1903 – Sam Rabin, English wrestler, sculptor, and singer (d. 1991)
  • 1905 – Lillian Hellman, American playwright and screenwriter (d. 1984)
  • 1906 – Bob King, American high jumper and obstetrician (d. 1965)
  • 1907 – Jimmy Driftwood, American singer-songwriter and banjo player (d. 1998)
  • 1908 – Billy Werber, American baseball player (d. 2009)
  • 1908 – Gus Schilling, American actor (d. 1957)
  • 1909 – Errol Flynn, Australian-American actor (d. 1959)
  • 1910 – Josephine Johnson, American author and poet (d. 1990)
  • 1911 – Gail Patrick, American actress (d. 1980)
  • 1912 – Anthony Buckeridge, English author (d. 2004)
  • 1912 – Jack Torrance, American shot putter and football player (d. 1969)
  • 1914 – Gordon Juckes, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1994)
  • 1914 – Muazzez İlmiye Çığ, Turkish archaeologist and academic
  • 1915 – Dick Reynolds, Australian footballer and coach (d. 2002)
  • 1915 – Terence Young, Chinese-English director and screenwriter (d. 1994)
  • 1916 – Jean-Jacques Bertrand, Canadian lawyer and politician, 21st Premier of Quebec (d. 1973)
  • 1916 – T. Texas Tyler, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1972)
  • 1917 – Helena Rasiowa, Austrian-Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1994)
  • 1918 – George Lynch, American race car driver (d. 1997)
  • 1918 – Zoltán Sztáray, Hungarian-American author (d. 2011)
  • 1920 – Geoffrey Baker, English Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the British Army (d. 1980)
  • 1920 – Danny Cedrone, American guitarist and bandleader (d. 1954)
  • 1920 – Thomas Jefferson, American trumpet player (d. 1986)
  • 1921 – Byron Farwell, American historian and author (d. 1999)
  • 1921 – Pancho Segura, Ecuadorian tennis player (d. 2017)
  • 1923 – Peter Gay, German-American historian, author, and academic (d. 2015)
  • 1923 – Jerzy Nowak, Polish actor and educator (d. 2013)
  • 1924 – Chet Atkins, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2001)
  • 1924 – Fritz Koenig, German sculptor and academic, designed The Sphere (d. 2017)
  • 1925 – Doris Hart, American tennis player and educator (d. 2015)
  • 1925 – Audie Murphy, American lieutenant and actor, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1971)
  • 1926 – Rehavam Ze’evi, Israeli general and politician, 9th Israeli Minister of Tourism (d. 2001)
  • 1927 – Simin Behbahani, Iranian poet and activist (d. 2014)
  • 1928 – Eric Dolphy, American saxophonist, flute player, and composer (d. 1964)
  • 1928 – Martin Landau, American actor and producer (d. 2017)
  • 1928 – Jean-Marie Le Pen, French intelligence officer and politician
  • 1928 – Asrat Woldeyes, Ethiopian surgeon and educator (d. 1999)
  • 1929 – Edgar Bronfman, Sr., Canadian-American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2013)
  • 1929 – Anne Weale, English journalist and author (d. 2007)
  • 1929 – Edith Windsor, American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights activist (d. 2017)
  • 1930 – Magdalena Abakanowicz, Polish sculptor and academic (d. 2017)
  • 1930 – John Waine, English bishop
  • 1931 – Olympia Dukakis, American actress
  • 1931 – James Tolkan, American actor and director
  • 1932 – Robert Rozhdestvensky, Russian poet and author (d. 1994)
  • 1933 – Danny Aiello, American actor (d. 2019)
  • 1933 – Claire Tomalin, English journalist and author
  • 1934 – Wendy Craig, English actress
  • 1935 – Jim Barker, American politician (d. 2005)
  • 1935 – Len Dawson, American football player and sportscaster
  • 1935 – Armando Picchi, Italian footballer and coach (d. 1971)
  • 1936 – Billy Guy, American singer (d. 2002)
  • 1936 – Enn Vetemaa, Estonian author and screenwriter (d. 2017)
  • 1937 – Stafford Dean, English actor and singer
  • 1937 – Jerry Keller, American singer-songwriter
  • 1938 – Joan Kirner, Australian educator and politician, 42nd Premier of Victoria (d. 2015)
  • 1938 – Mickie Most, English music producer (d. 2003)
  • 1939 – Ramakant Desai, Indian cricketer (d. 1998)
  • 1939 – Budge Rogers, English rugby player and manager
  • 1940 – Eugen Drewermann, German priest and theologian
  • 1940 – John Mahoney, English actor (d. 2018)
  • 1941 – Stephen Frears, English actor, director, and producer
  • 1941 – Ulf Merbold, German physicist and astronaut
  • 1942 – Neil Trudinger, Australian mathematician and theorist
  • 1942 – Brian Wilson, American singer-songwriter and producer
  • 1945 – Anne Murray, Canadian singer and guitarist
  • 1946 – Xanana Gusmão, Timorese soldier and politician, 1st President of East Timor
  • 1946 – David Kazhdan, Russian-Israeli mathematician and academic
  • 1946 – Bob Vila, American television host
  • 1946 – André Watts, American pianist and educator
  • 1947 – Dolores “LaLa” Brooks, American pop singer (The Crystals)
  • 1948 – Cirilo Flores, American bishop (d. 2014)
  • 1948 – Ludwig Scotty, Nauruan politician, 10th President of Nauru
  • 1949 – Alan Longmuir, Scottish bass player and songwriter (d. 2018)
  • 1949 – Lionel Richie, American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor
  • 1949 – Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 8th president of Sri Lanka
  • 1950 – Nouri al-Maliki, Iraqi politician, 76th Prime Minister of Iraq
  • 1951 – Tress MacNeille, American actress and voice artist
  • 1951 – Sheila McLean, Scottish scholar and academic
  • 1951 – Paul Muldoon, Irish poet and academic
  • 1952 – John Goodman, American actor
  • 1952 – Vikram Seth, Indian author and poet
  • 1953 – Robert Crais, American author and screenwriter
  • 1953 – Raúl Ramírez, Mexican tennis player
  • 1953 – Willy Rampf, German engineer
  • 1954 – Allan Lamb, South African-English cricketer and sportscaster
  • 1954 – Ilan Ramon, Israeli colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2003)
  • 1955 – E. Lynn Harris, American author (d. 2009)
  • 1956 – Peter Reid, English footballer and manager
  • 1956 – Sohn Suk-hee, South Korean newscaster
  • 1958 – Kelly Johnson, English hard rock guitarist and songwriter (d. 2007)
  • 1960 – Philip M. Parker, American economist and author
  • 1960 – John Taylor, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and actor
  • 1963 – Kirk Baptiste, American sprinter
  • 1963 – Mark Ovenden, British author and broadcaster
  • 1964 – Pierfrancesco Chili, Italian motorcycle racer
  • 1964 – Silke Möller, German runner
  • 1966 – Boaz Yakin, American director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1967 – Nicole Kidman, American-Australian actress
  • 1967 – Dan Tyminski, American singer-songwriter
  • 1968 – Robert Rodriguez, American director, producer, and screenwriter
  • 1969 – Paulo Bento, Portuguese footballer and manager
  • 1969 – Misha Verbitsky, Russian mathematician and academic
  • 1969 – MaliVai Washington, American tennis player and sportscaster
  • 1970 – Andrea Nahles, German politician, German Minister of Labour and Social Affairs
  • 1970 – Athol Williams, South African poet and social philosopher
  • 1971 – Rodney Rogers, American basketball player and coach
  • 1971 – Jeordie White, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and bass player
  • 1972 – Alexis Alexoudis, Greek footballer
  • 1973 – Chino Moreno, American singer-songwriter
  • 1975 – Joan Balcells, Spanish tennis player
  • 1975 – Daniel Zítka, Czech footballer
  • 1976 – Juliano Belletti, Brazilian footballer
  • 1976 – Carlos Lee, Panamanian baseball player
  • 1977 – Gordan Giriček, Croatian basketball player
  • 1977 – Amos Lee, American singer-songwriter
  • 1978 – Frank Lampard, English footballer
  • 1978 – Jan-Paul Saeijs, Dutch footballer
  • 1979 – Charles Howell III, American golfer
  • 1980 – Franco Semioli, Italian footballer
  • 1980 – Tika Sumpter, American actress
  • 1980 – Fabian Wegmann, German cyclist
  • 1981 – Brede Hangeland, Norwegian footballer
  • 1982 – Aleksei Berezutski, Russian footballer
  • 1982 – Vasili Berezutski, Russian footballer
  • 1982 – Example, English singer/rapper
  • 1983 – Josh Childress, American basketball player
  • 1983 – Darren Sproles, American football player
  • 1984 – Hassan Adams, American basketball player
  • 1985 – Saki Aibu, Japanese actress
  • 1985 – Aurélien Chedjou, Cameroonian footballer
  • 1985 – Matt Flynn, American football player
  • 1986 – Dreama Walker, American actress
  • 1987 – A-fu, Taiwanese singer and songwriter
  • 1987 – Carsten Ball, Australian tennis player
  • 1987 – Asmir Begović, Bosnian footballer
  • 1987 – Joseph Ebuya, Kenyan runner
  • 1987 – Kierra Sheard, American gospel singer
  • 1989 – Christopher Mintz-Plasse, American actor
  • 1989 – Javier Pastore, Argentinian footballer
  • 1989 – Terrelle Pryor, American football player
  • 1990 – DeQuan Jones, American basketball player
  • 1991 – Kalidou Koulibaly, Senegalese footballer
  • 1991 – Rick ten Voorde, Dutch footballer
  • 1993 – Sead Kolašinac, Bosnian footballer
  • 1994 – Leonard Williams, American football player
  • 1995 – Caroline Weir, Scottish footballer
  • 1996 – Sam Bennett, Canadian ice hockey player
  • 1997 – Bálint Kopasz, Hungarian sprint canoeist

Deaths on June 20

  • 465 – Emperor Wencheng of Northern Wei (b. 440)
  • 656 – Uthman ibn Affan, Rashidun caliph (b. 577)
  • 840 – Louis the Pious, Carolingian emperor (b. 778)
  • 930 – Hucbald, Frankish monk and music theorist
  • 981 – Adalbert, archbishop of Magdeburg
  • 1176 – Mikhail of Vladimir, Russian prince
  • 1351 – Margareta Ebner, German nun and mystic (b. 1291)
  • 1405 – Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, fourth son of King Robert II of Scotland (b. 1343)
  • 1597 – Willem Barentsz, Dutch cartographer and explorer (b. 1550)
  • 1605 – Feodor II of Russia (b. 1589)
  • 1668 – Heinrich Roth, German missionary and scholar (b. 1620)
  • 1776 – Benjamin Huntsman, English businessman (b. 1704)
  • 1787 – Carl Friedrich Abel, German viol player and composer (b. 1723)
  • 1800 – Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, German mathematician and academic (b. 1719)
  • 1810 – Axel von Fersen the Younger, Swedish general and politician (b. 1755)
  • 1815 – Guillaume Philibert Duhesme, French general (b. 1766)
  • 1820 – Manuel Belgrano, Argentinian general, economist, and politician (b. 1770)
  • 1837 – William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1765)
  • 1840 – Pierre Claude François Daunou, French historian and politician (b. 1761)
  • 1847 – Juan Larrea, Argentinian captain and politician (b. 1782)
  • 1869 – Hijikata Toshizō, Japanese commander (b. 1835)
  • 1870 – Jules de Goncourt, French historian and author (b. 1830)
  • 1872 – Élie Frédéric Forey, French general (b. 1804)
  • 1875 – Joseph Meek, American police officer and politician (b. 1810)
  • 1888 – Johannes Zukertort, Polish-English chess player (b. 1842)
  • 1906 – John Clayton Adams, English painter (b. 1840)
  • 1909 – Friedrich Martens, Estonian-Russian historian, lawyer, and diplomat (b. 1845)
  • 1925 – Josef Breuer, Austrian physician and psychologist (b. 1842)
  • 1929 – Emmanouil Benakis, Greek merchant and politician, 35th Mayor of Athens (b. 1843)
  • 1945 – Bruno Frank, German author, poet, and playwright (b. 1878)
  • 1947 – Bugsy Siegel, American mobster (b. 1906)
  • 1952 – Luigi Fagioli, Italian race car driver (b. 1898)
  • 1958 – Kurt Alder, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
  • 1963 – Raphaël Salem, Greek-French mathematician and academic (b. 1898)
  • 1965 – Bernard Baruch, American financier and politician (b. 1870)
  • 1966 – Georges Lemaître, Belgian priest, physicist, and astronomer (b. 1894)
  • 1974 – Horace Lindrum, Australian snooker player (b. 1912)
  • 1975 – Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Hatian anthropologist (b. 1898)
  • 1978 – Mark Robson, Canadian-American director and producer (b. 1913)
  • 1984 – Estelle Winwood, English actress (b. 1883)
  • 1995 – Emil Cioran, Romanian-French philosopher and educator (b. 1911)
  • 1997 – Cahit Külebi, Turkish poet and author (b. 1917)
  • 1999 – Clifton Fadiman, American game show host, author, and critic (b. 1902)
  • 2001 – Gina Cigna, French-Italian soprano (b. 1900)
  • 2002 – Erwin Chargaff, Austrian-American biochemist and academic (b. 1905)
  • 2002 – Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (b. 1916)
  • 2004 – Jim Bacon, Australian politician, 41st Premier of Tasmania (b. 1950)
  • 2005 – Larry Collins, American journalist, historian, and author (b. 1929)
  • 2005 – Jack Kilby, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1923)
  • 2010 – Roberto Rosato, Italian footballer (b. 1943)
  • 2010 – Harry B. Whittington, English palaeontologist and academic (b. 1916)
  • 2011 – Ryan Dunn, American television personality (b. 1977)
  • 2012 – Judy Agnew, Second Lady of the United States. (b. 1921)
  • 2012 – LeRoy Neiman, American painter (b. 1921)
  • 2012 – Heinrich IV, Prince Reuss of Köstritz (b. 1919)
  • 2012 – Andrew Sarris, American critic (b. 1928)
  • 2013 – Ingvar Rydell, Swedish footballer (b. 1922)
  • 2015 – Angelo Niculescu, Romanian footballer and manager (b. 1921)
  • 2015 – Miriam Schapiro, Canadian-American painter and sculptor (b. 1923)
  • 2017 – Prodigy, American music artist (b. 1974)

Holidays and observances on June 20

  • Christian feast day:
    • Adalbert of Magdeburg
    • Florentina
    • John of Matera
    • Blessed Margareta Ebner
    • Methodius of Olympus
    • Pope Silverius
    • June 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
  • Day of the National Flag (Argentina)
  • The earliest date for the summer solstice in the Northern hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Southern hemisphere, and its related observance:
    • Earliest day on which Day of the Finnish Flag can fall, while June 26 is the latest; celebrated on Saturday of Midsummer’s Day (Finland)
    • International Surfing Day (on or near Summer solstice)
    • Litha / Midsummer celebrations in the northern hemisphere, Yule in the southern hemisphere.
  • Gas Sector Day (Azerbaijan)
  • Martyrs’ Day (Eritrea)
  • West Virginia Day (West Virginia)
  • World Refugee Day (International)

June 20 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

June 19 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day /
  • 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
    • New Church 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)

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On This Day