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July 31 – History, Events, Births, Deaths Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

30 BC – Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian’s forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide.
781 – The oldest recorded eruption of Mount Fuji (Traditional Japanese date: 6th day of the 7th month of the 1st year of the Ten’o (天応) era).
1009 – Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII.
1201 – Attempted usurpation by John Komnenos the Fat for the throne of Alexios III Angelos.
1423 – Hundred Years’ War: Battle of Cravant: The French army is defeated by the English at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
1451 – Jacques Cœur is arrested by order of Charles VII of France.
1492 – The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.
1498 – On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.
1588 – The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.
1618 – Maurice, Prince of Orange disbands the waardgelders militia in Utrecht, a pivotal event in the Remonstrant/Counter-Remonstrant tensions.
1655 – Russo-Polish War (1654–67): The Russian army enters the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vilnius, which it holds for six years.
1658 – Aurangzeb is proclaimed Mughal emperor of India.
1703 – Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers.
1712 – Action of 31 July 1712 (Great Northern War): Danish and Swedish ships clash in the Baltic Sea; the result is inconclusive.
1715 – Seven days after a Spanish treasure fleet of 12 ships left Havana, Cuba for Spain, 11 of them sink in a storm off the coast of Florida. A few centuries later, treasure is salvaged from these wrecks.
1741 – Charles Albert of Bavaria invades Upper Austria and Bohemia.
1763 – Odawa Chief Pontiac’s forces defeat British troops at the Battle of Bloody Run during Pontiac’s War.
1777 – The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette “be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States.”
1790 – The first U.S. patent is issued, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process.
1856 – Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city.
1865 – The first narrow-gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Queensland, Australia.
1874 – Dr. Patrick Francis Healy became the first African-American inaugurated as president of a predominantly white university, Georgetown University.
1904 – Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Hsimucheng: Units of the Imperial Japanese Army defeat units of the Imperial Russian Army in a strategic confrontation.
1913 – The Balkan States sign an armistice in Bucharest.
1917 – World War I: The Battle of Passchendaele begins near Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium.
1919 – German national assembly adopts the Weimar Constitution, which comes into force on August 14.
1932 – The NSDAP (Nazi Party) wins more than 38% of the vote in German elections.
1938 – Bulgaria signs a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).
1938 – Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great in Persepolis.
1941 – The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS General Reinhard Heydrich to “submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question.”
1941 – World War II: The Battle of Smolensk concludes with Germany capturing about 300,000 Soviet Red Army prisoners.
1945 – Pierre Laval, the fugitive former leader of Vichy France, surrenders to Allied soldiers in Austria.
1948 – At Idlewild Field in New York, New York International Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport) is dedicated.
1948 – USS Nevada is sunk by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs (as part of post-war tests) and being used for target practice by three other ships.
1964 – Ranger program: Ranger 7 sends back the first close-up photographs of the moon, with images 1,000 times clearer than anything ever seen from earth-bound telescopes.
1970 – Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.
1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover.
1972 – The Troubles: In Operation Motorman, the British Army re-takes the urban no-go areas of Northern Ireland. It is the biggest British military operation since the Suez Crisis of 1956, and the biggest in Ireland since the Irish War of Independence. Later that day, nine civilians are killed by car bombs in the village of Claudy.
1973 – A Delta Air Lines jetliner, flight DL 723 crashes while landing in fog at Logan International Airport, Boston, Massachusetts killing 89.
1975 – The Troubles: three members of a popular cabaret band and two gunmen are killed during a botched paramilitary attack in Northern Ireland.
1987 – A tornado occurs in Edmonton, Canada.
1988 – Thirty-two people are killed and 1,674 injured when a bridge at the Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal collapses in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia.
1991 – The United States and Soviet Union both sign the START I Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, the first to reduce (with verification) both countries’ stockpiles.
1992 – The nation of Georgia joins the United Nations.
1992 – Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board.
1999 – Discovery Program: Lunar Prospector: NASA intentionally crashes the spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the Moon’s surface.
2006 – Fidel Castro hands over power to his brother, Raúl.
2007 – Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end.
2012 – Michael Phelps breaks the record set in 1964 by Larisa Latynina for the most medals won at the Olympics.
2014 – Gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung kill at least 20 people and injure more than 270.

Births on July 31

1143 – Emperor Nijō of Japan (d. 1165)
1396 – Philip III, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1467)
1526 – Augustus, Elector of Saxony (d. 1586)
1527 – Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1576)
1595 – Philipp Wolfgang, Count of Hanau-Lichtenberg (d. 1641)
1598 – Alessandro Algardi, Italian sculptor (d. 1654)
1686 – Charles of France, Duke of Berry (d. 1714)
1702 – Jean Denis Attiret, French missionary and painter (d. 1768)
1704 – Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician and physicist (d. 1752)
1718 – John Canton, English physicist and academic (d. 1772)
1724 – Noël François de Wailly, French lexicographer and author (d. 1801)
1759 – Ignaz Anton von Indermauer, Austrian nobleman and government official (d. 1796)
1777 – Pedro Ignacio de Castro Barros, Argentinian priest and politician (d. 1849)
1796 – Jean-Gaspard Deburau, Czech-French actor and mime (d. 1846)
1800 – Friedrich Wöhler, German chemist and academic (d. 1882)
1803 – John Ericsson, Swedish-American engineer, co-designed the USS Princeton and the Novelty Locomotive (d. 1889)
1816 – George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)
1826 – William S. Clark, American colonel and politician (d. 1886)
1835 – Henri Brisson, French lawyer and politician, 50th Prime Minister of France (d. 1912)
1835 – Paul Du Chaillu, French-American anthropologist and explorer (d. 1903)
1836 – Vasily Sleptsov, Russian author and activist (d. 1878)
1837 – William Quantrill, American captain (d. 1865)
1839 – Ignacio Andrade, Venezuelan general and politician, 25th President of Venezuela (d. 1925)
1843 – Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet and author (d. 1918)
1847 – Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban pianist and composer (d. 1905)
1854 – José Canalejas, Spanish academic and politician, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1912)
1858 – Richard Dixon Oldham, English seismologist and geologist (d. 1936)
1858 – Marion Talbot, influential American educator (d. 1948)
1860 – Mary Vaux Walcott, American painter and illustrator (d. 1940)
1867 – S. S. Kresge, American businessman, founded Kmart (d. 1966)
1875 – Jacques Villon, French painter (d. 1963)
1877 – Louisa Bolus, South African botanist and taxonomist (d. 1970)
1880 – Premchand, Indian author and playwright (d. 1936)
1883 – Ramón Fonst, Cuban fencer (d. 1959)
1884 – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, Polish-German economist and politician (d. 1945)
1886 – Salvatore Maranzano, Italian-American mob boss (d. 1931)
1886 – Fred Quimby, American animation producer (d. 1965)
1887 – Hans Freyer, German sociologist and philosopher (d. 1969)
1892 – Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist and publisher, founded Worldwide Church of God (d. 1986)
1892 – Joseph Charbonneau, Canadian archbishop (d. 1959)
1894 – Fred Keenor, Welsh footballer (d. 1972)
1901 – Jean Dubuffet, French painter and sculptor (d. 1985)
1902 – Gubby Allen, Australian-English cricketer and soldier (d. 1989)
1904 – Brett Halliday, American engineer, surveyor, and author (d. 1977)
1909 – Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Austrian theorist and author (d. 1999)
1911 – George Liberace, American violinist (d. 1983)
1912 – Bill Brown, Australian cricketer (d. 2008)
1912 – Milton Friedman, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2006)
1912 – Irv Kupcinet, American football player and journalist (d. 2003)
1913 – Bryan Hextall, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1984)
1914 – Paul J. Christiansen, American conductor and composer (d. 1997)
1914 – Louis de Funès, French actor and screenwriter (d. 1983)
1916 – Sibte Hassan, Pakistani journalist, scholar, and activist (d. 1986)
1916 – Billy Hitchcock, American baseball player, coach, and manager (d. 2006)
1916 – Bill Todman, American screenwriter and producer (d. 1979)
1918 – Paul D. Boyer, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2018)
1918 – Hank Jones, American pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 2010)
1918 – Frank Renouf, New Zealand businessman and financier (d. 1998)
1919 – Hemu Adhikari, Indian cricketer (d. 2003)
1919 – Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster and actor (d. 2006)
1919 – Primo Levi, Italian chemist and author (d. 1987)
1920 – James E. Faust, American religious leader, lawyer, and politician (d. 2007)
1921 – Peter Benenson, English lawyer and activist, founded Amnesty International (d. 2005)
1921 – Donald Malarkey, American sergeant and author (d. 2017)
1921 – Whitney Young, American activist (d. 1971)
1922 – Hank Bauer, American baseball player and manager (d. 2007)
1923 – Ahmet Ertegun, Turkish-American songwriter and producer, founded Atlantic Records (d. 2006)
1923 – Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist and engineer, invented Kevlar (d. 2014)
1924 – Jimmy Evert, American tennis player and coach (d. 2015)
1925 – Carmel Quinn, Irish singer, actress and writer
1925 – John Swainson, Canadian-American jurist and politician, 42nd Governor of Michigan (d. 1994)
1926 – Bernard Nathanson, American physician and activist (d. 2011)
1926 – Hilary Putnam, American mathematician, computer scientist, and philosopher (d. 2016)
1927 – Peter Nichols, English author and playwright (d. 2019)
1928 – Bill Frenzel, American lieutenant and politician (d. 2014)
1929 – Lynne Reid Banks, English author
1929 – Gilles Carle, Canadian director and screenwriter (d. 2009)
1929 – Don Murray, American actor
1929 – José Santamaría, Uruguayan footballer and manager
1931 – Nick Bollettieri, American tennis player and coach
1931 – Kenny Burrell, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1932 – Ted Cassidy, American actor and screenwriter (d. 1979)
1932 – John Searle, American philosopher and academic
1933 – Cees Nooteboom, Dutch journalist, author, and poet
1935 – Yvon Deschamps, Canadian comedian, actor, and producer
1935 – Geoffrey Lewis, American actor and screenwriter (d. 2015)
1939 – Steuart Bedford, English pianist and conductor
1939 – Susan Flannery, American actress
1939 – France Nuyen, Vietnamese-French actress
1941 – Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician, 8th Chief Minister of Gujarat (d. 2004)
1943 – William Bennett, American journalist and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Education
1943 – Lobo, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1944 – Geraldine Chaplin, American actress and screenwriter
1944 – Jonathan Dimbleby, English journalist and author
1944 – Sherry Lansing, American film producer
1944 – Robert C. Merton, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1944 – David Norris, Irish scholar and politician
1945 – William Weld, American lawyer and politician, 68th Governor of Massachusetts
1946 – Gary Lewis, American pop-rock musician
1947 – Karl Green, English bass player and songwriter (Herman’s Hermits)
1947 – Richard Griffiths, English actor (d. 2013)
1947 – Mumtaz, Indian actress
1947 – Hubert Védrine, French politician, French Minister of Foreign Affairs
1947 – Ian Beck, English children’s illustrator and author
1948 – Russell Morris, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1949 – Mike Jackson, American basketball player
1949 – Alan Meale, English journalist and politician
1950 – Richard Berry, French actor, director, and screenwriter
1951 – Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Australian tennis player
1952 – Chris Ahrens, American ice hockey player
1952 – Alan Autry, American football player, actor, and politician, 23rd Mayor of Fresno, California
1952 – Helmuts Balderis, Latvian ice hockey player and coach
1952 – João Barreiros, Portuguese author and critic
1952 – Faye Kellerman, American author
1953 – Ted Baillieu, Australian architect and politician, 46th Premier of Victoria
1953 – Jimmy Cook, South African cricketer and coach
1953 – Hugh McDowell, English cellist
1954 – Derek Smith, Canadian ice hockey player
1956 – Michael Biehn, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1956 – Bill Callahan, American football player and coach
1956 – Ron Kuby, American lawyer and radio host
1956 – Deval Patrick, American lawyer and politician, 71st Governor of Massachusetts
1956 – Lynne Rae Perkins, American author and illustrator
1957 – Daniel Ash, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1957 – Mark Thompson, English business executive
1958 – Bill Berry, American drummer and songwriter
1958 – Mark Cuban, American businessman and television personality
1958 – Suzanne Giraud, French music editor and composer
1959 – Stanley Jordan, American guitarist, pianist, and songwriter
1959 – Andrew Marr, Scottish journalist and author
1959 – Kim Newman, English journalist and author
1960 – Dale Hunter, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1960 – Malcolm Ross, Scottish guitarist and songwriter
1961 – Frank Gardner, English captain and journalist
1961 – Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Nigerian banker, royal
1962 – John Chiang, American lawyer and politician, 31st California State Controller
1962 – Kevin Greene, American football player and coach
1962 – Wesley Snipes, American actor and producer
1963 – Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), English DJ and musician
1963 – Fergus Henderson, English chef and author
1963 – Brian Skrudland, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1964 – Jim Corr, Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1964 – Urmas Hepner, Estonian footballer and coach
1965 – Scott Brooks, American basketball player and coach
1965 – John Laurinaitis, American wrestler and producer
1965 – Ian Roberts, English-Australian rugby league player and actor
1965 – J. K. Rowling, English author and film producer
1966 – Dean Cain, American actor, producer, and screenwriter
1967 – Tony Massenburg, American basketball player
1967 – Tim Wright, Welsh composer
1968 – Saeed-Al-Saffar, Emirati cricketer
1968 – Julian Richards, Welsh director and producer
1969 – Antonio Conte, Italian footballer and manager
1969 – Loren Dean, American actor
1969 – Kenneth D. Schisler, American lawyer and politician
1970 – Ahmad Akbarpour, Iranian author and poet
1970 – Ben Chaplin, English actor
1970 – Andrzej Kobylański, Polish footballer and manager
1970 – Giorgos Sigalas, Greek basketball player, coach, and sportscaster
1971 – Gus Frerotte, American football player and coach
1973 – Nathan Brown, Australian rugby league player and coach
1974 – Emilia Fox, English actress
1974 – Leona Naess, American-English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1974 – Jonathan Ogden, American football player
1975 – Randy Flores, American baseball player and coach
1975 – Andrew Hall, South African cricketer
1975 – Gabe Kapler, American baseball player and manager
1976 – Joshua Cain, American guitarist and producer
1976 – Paulo Wanchope, Costa Rican footballer and manager
1978 – Zac Brown, American country singer-songwriter and guitarist
1978 – Nick Sorensen, American football player and sportscaster
1978 – Justin Wilson, English race car driver (d. 2015)
1979 – Jaco Erasmus, South African-Italian rugby player
1979 – J.J. Furmaniak, American baseball player
1979 – Per Krøldrup, Danish footballer
1979 – Carlos Marchena, Spanish footballer
1979 – B.J. Novak, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1980 – Mikko Hirvonen, Finnish race car driver
1980 – Mils Muliaina, New Zealand rugby player
1981 – Titus Bramble, English footballer
1981 – Vernon Carey, American football player
1981 – Paul Whatuira, New Zealand rugby league player
1981 – M. Shadows, American musician, lead singer of Avenged Sevenfold
1982 – Anabel Medina Garrigues, Spanish tennis player
1982 – DeMarcus Ware, American football player
1985 – Daniel Ciofani, Italian footballer
1985 – Rémy Di Gregorio, French cyclist
1986 – Evgeni Malkin, Russian ice hockey player
1986 – Brian Orakpo, American football player
1987 – Michael Bradley, American soccer player
1988 – Alex Glenn, New Zealand rugby league player
1989 – Victoria Azarenka, Belorussian tennis player
1991 – Réka Luca Jani, Hungarian tennis player
1992 – José Fernández, Cuban baseball player (d. 2016)
1992 – Ryan Johansen, Canadian ice hockey player
1992 – Kyle Larson, American race car driver
1994 – Lil Uzi Vert, American hip hop artist

Deaths on July 31

54 BC – Aurelia Cotta, Roman mother of Gaius Julius Caesar (b. 120 BC)
450 – Peter Chrysologus, Italian bishop and saint (b. 380)
910 – Feng Xingxi, Chinese warlord
975 – Fu Yanqing, Chinese general (b. 898)
1098 – Hugh of Montgomery, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury
1358 – Étienne Marcel, French rebel leader (b. 1302)
1396 – William Courtenay, English archbishop and politician, Lord Chancellor of the United Kingdom (b. 1342)
1508 – Na’od, Ethiopian emperor
1556 – Ignatius of Loyola, Spanish priest and theologian, founded the Society of Jesus (b. 1491)
1616 – Roger Wilbraham, Solicitor-General for Ireland (b. 1553)
1638 – Sibylla Schwarz, German poet (b. 1621)
1653 – Thomas Dudley, English soldier and politician, 3rd Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony (b. 1576)
1693 – Willem Kalf, Dutch still life painter (b. 1619)
1726 – Nicolaus II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician and theorist (b. 1695)
1750 – John V, king of Portugal (b. 1689)
1762 – Luis Vicente de Velasco e Isla, Spanish sailor and commander (b. 1711)
1781 – John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley, British parliamentarian (b. 1719)
1784 – Denis Diderot, French philosopher and critic (b. 1713)
1805 – Dheeran Chinnamalai, Indian soldier (b. 1756)
1864 – Louis Christophe François Hachette, French publisher (b. 1800)
1875 – Andrew Johnson, American general and politician, 17th President of the United States (b. 1808)
1884 – Kiến Phúc, Vietnamese emperor (b. 1869)
1886 – Franz Liszt, Hungarian pianist, composer, and conductor (b. 1811)
1891 – Jean-Baptiste Capronnier, Belgian stained glass painter (b. 1814)
1913 – John Milne, British geologist and mining engineer. (b. 1850)
1914 – Jean Jaurès, French journalist and politician (b. 1859)
1917 – Hedd Wyn, Welsh language poet (b. 1887)
1917 – Francis Ledwidge, Irish soldier and poet (b. 1881)
1920 – Ion Dragoumis, Greek philosopher and diplomat (b. 1878)
1940 – Udham Singh, Indian activist (b. 1899)
1943 – Hedley Verity, English cricketer and soldier (b. 1905)
1942 – Francis Younghusband, British Army Officer, explorer and spiritual writer (b.1863)
1944 – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French pilot and poet (b. 1900)
1953 – Robert A. Taft, American soldier and politician (b. 1889)
1954 – Onofre Marimón, Argentinian race car driver (b. 1923)
1958 – Eino Kaila, Finnish philosopher and psychologist, attendant of the Vienna circle (b. 1890)
1964 – Jim Reeves, American singer-songwriter (b. 1923)
1966 – Bud Powell, American pianist (b. 1924)
1968 – Jack Pizzey, Australian politician, 29th Premier of Queensland (b. 1911)
1971 – Walter P. Carter, American soldier and activist (b. 1923)
1972 – Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian lawyer and politician, 40th Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1899)
1973 – Azumafuji Kin’ichi, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 40th Yokozuna (b. 1921)
1979 – Beatrix Lehmann, English actress and director (b. 1903)
1980 – Pascual Jordan, German physicist, author, and academic (b. 1902)
1980 – Mohammed Rafi, Indian playback singer (b. 1924)
1981 – Omar Torrijos, Panamanian general and politician, Military Leader of Panama (b. 1929)
1985 – Eugene Carson Blake, American religious leader (b. 1906)
1986 – Chiune Sugihara, Japanese diplomat (b. 1900)
1987 – Joseph E. Levine, American film producer (b, 1905)
1990 – Albert Leduc, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1902)
1992 – Leonard Cheshire, English captain and pilot (b. 1917)
1992 – Md. Abdul Wajed Chowdhury, Bangladeshi politician.
1993 – Baudouin, King of Belgium (b. 1930)
2000 – William Keepers Maxwell Jr., American editor, novelist, short story writer, and essayist (b. 1908)
2001 – Francisco da Costa Gomes, Portuguese general and politician, 15th President of Portugal (b. 1914)
2001 – Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (b. 1910)
2003 – Guido Crepax, Italian author and illustrator (b. 1933)
2004 – Virginia Grey, American actress (b. 1917)
2005 – Wim Duisenberg, Dutch economist and politician, 1st President of the European Central Bank (b. 1935)
2009 – Bobby Robson, English footballer and manager (b. 1933)
2009 – Harry Alan Towers, English-Canadian screenwriter and producer (b. 1920)
2012 – Mollie Hunter, Scottish author and playwright (b. 1922)
2012 – Alfredo Ramos, Brazilian footballer and coach (b. 1924)
2012 – Gore Vidal, American novelist, screenwriter, and critic (b. 1925)
2012 – Tony Sly, American musician, singer-songwriter (b. 1970)
2013 – Michael Ansara, Syrian-American actor (b. 1922)
2013 – Michel Donnet, English-Belgian general and pilot (b. 1917)
2013 – John Graves, American captain and author (b. 1920)
2013 – Trevor Storer, English businessman, founded Pukka Pies (b. 1930)
2014 – Warren Bennis, American scholar, author, and academic (b. 1925)
2014 – Nabarun Bhattacharya, Indian journalist and author (b. 1948)
2014 – Jeff Bourne, English footballer (b. 1948)
2014 – Wilfred Feinberg, American lawyer and judge (b. 1920)
2015 – Alan Cheuse, American writer and critic (b. 1940)
2015 – Howard W. Jones, American surgeon and academic (b. 1910)
2015 – Billy Pierce, American baseball player and sportscaster (b. 1927)
2015 – Roddy Piper, Canadian wrestler and actor (b. 1954)
2015 – Richard Schweiker, American soldier and politician, 14th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (b. 1926)
2016 – Chiyonofuji Mitsugu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 58th Yokozuna (b. 1955)
2016 – Seymour Papert, South African mathematician (b. 1928)
2017 – Jeanne Moreau, French actress (b. 1928)
2018 – Tony Bullimore, British sailor & businessman (b. 1939)
2019 – Harold Prince, noted Broadway producer and director, who received more Tony awards than anyone else in history (b. 1928)

Holidays and observances on July 31

Christian feast day:
- Abanoub
- Germanus of Auxerre
- Ignatius of Loyola
- Neot
- July 31 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Earliest day on which the Feast of Kamál (Perfection) can fall, while August 1 is the latest; observed on the first day of the eighth month of the Bahá’í calendar. (Bahá’í Faith)
End of the Trinity term (sitting of the High Court of Justice of England)
Ka Hae Hawaiʻi Day (Hawaii, United States), and its related observance:
- Sovereignty Restoration Day (Hawaiian sovereignty movement)
Martyrdom Day of Shahid Udham Singh (Haryana and Punjab, India)
Treasury Day (Poland)
Warriors’ Day (Malaysia)

July 31 – History, Events, Births, Deaths Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

July 4 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

The Aphelion, the point in the year when the Earth is farthest from the Sun, occurs around this date.

July 4 in History

362 BC – Battle of Mantinea: The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans.
414 – Emperor Theodosius II, age 13, yields power to his older sister Aelia Pulcheria, who reigned as regent and proclaimed herself empress (Augusta) of the Eastern Roman Empire.
836 – Pactum Sicardi, a peace treaty between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples, is signed.
993 – Ulrich of Augsburg is canonized as a saint.
1054 – A supernova, called SN 1054, is seen by Chinese Song dynasty, Arab, and possibly Amerindian observers near the star Zeta Tauri. For several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day. Its remnants form the Crab Nebula.
1120 – Jordan II of Capua is anointed as prince after his infant nephew’s death.
1187 – The Crusades: Battle of Hattin: Saladin defeats Guy of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem.
1253 – Battle of West-Capelle: John I of Avesnes defeats Guy of Dampierre.
1359 – Francesco II Ordelaffi of Forlì surrenders to the Papal commander Gil de Albornoz.
1456 – Ottoman–Hungarian wars: The Siege of Nándorfehérvár (Belgrade) begins.
1534 – Christian III is elected King of Denmark and Norway in the town of Rye.
1584 – Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe arrive at Roanoke Island
1610 – The Battle of Klushino is fought between forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia during the Polish–Muscovite War.
1634 – The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (now Quebec, Canada).
1744 – The Treaty of Lancaster, in which the Iroquois cede lands between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River to the British colonies, was signed in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
1774 – Orangetown Resolutions are adopted in the Province of New York, one of many protests against the British Parliament’s Coercive Acts.
1776 – American Revolution: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: U.S. forces under George Clark capture Kaskaskia during the Illinois campaign.
1802 – At West Point, New York, the United States Military Academy opens.
1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
1817 – In Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
1826 – John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, respectively the second and third presidents of the United States, die the same day, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence. Adams’ last words were, “Thomas Jefferson survives.”
1827 – Slavery is abolished in the State of New York.
1831 – Samuel Francis Smith writes “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” for the Boston, Massachusetts July 4 festivities.
1837 – Grand Junction Railway, the world’s first long-distance railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool.
1838 – The Iowa Territory is organized.
1845 – Henry David Thoreau moves into a small cabin on Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau’s account of his two years there, Walden, will become a touchstone of the environmental movement.
1855 – The first edition of Walt Whitman’s book of poems, Leaves of Grass, is published In Brooklyn.
1862 – Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell a story that would grow into Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequels.
1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg: Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to U.S. forces under Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege. One hundred fifty miles up the Mississippi River, a Confederate army is repulsed at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas.
1863 – American Civil War: The Army of Northern Virginia withdraws from the battlefield after losing the Battle of Gettysburg, signalling an end to the Confederate invasion of U.S. territory.
1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: The Zululand capital of Ulundi is captured by British troops and burned to the ground, ending the war and forcing King Cetshwayo to flee.
1881 – In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
1886 – The Canadian Pacific Railway’s first scheduled train from Montreal arrives in Port Moody on the Pacific coast, after six days of travel.
1887 – The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, joins Sindh-Madrasa-tul-Islam, Karachi.
1892 – Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, causing Monday (July 4) to occur twice, resulting in a year with 367 days.
1894 – The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.
1898 – En route from New York to Le Havre, the SS La Bourgogne collides with another ship and sinks off the coast of Sable Island, with the loss of 549 lives.
1901 – William Howard Taft becomes American governor of the Philippines.
1903 – The Philippine–American War is officially concluded.
1910 – The Johnson–Jeffries riots occur after African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in the 15th round. Between 11 and 26 people are killed and hundreds more injured.
1911 – A massive heat wave strikes the northeastern United States, killing 380 people in eleven days and breaking temperature records in several cities.
1913 – President Woodrow Wilson addresses American Civil War veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913.
1914 – The funeral of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie takes place in Vienna, six days after their assassinations in Sarajevo.
1918 – Mehmed V died at the age of 73 and Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascends to the throne.
1918 – World War I: The Battle of Hamel, a successful attack by the Australian Corps against German positions near the town of Le Hamel on the Western Front.
1918 – Bolsheviks kill Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family (Julian calendar date).
1927 – First flight of the Lockheed Vega.
1939 – Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, informs a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself “The luckiest man on the face of the earth”, then announces his retirement from major league baseball.
1941 – Nazi crimes against the Polish nation: Nazi troops massacre Polish scientists and writers in the captured Ukrainian city of Lviv.
1941 – World War II: The Burning of the Riga synagogues: The Great Choral Synagogue in German occupied Riga is burnt with 300 Jews locked in the basement.
1942 – World War II: The 250-day Siege of Sevastopol in the Crimea ends when the city falls to Axis forces.
1943 – World War II: The Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world’s largest tank battle, begins in the village of Prokhorovka.
1943 – World War II: In Gibraltar, a Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into the sea in an apparent accident moments after takeoff, killing sixteen passengers on board, including general Władysław Sikorski, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and the Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile; only the pilot survives.
1946 – The Kielce pogrom against Jewish Holocaust survivors in Poland.
1946 – After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States.
1947 – The “Indian Independence Bill” is presented before the British House of Commons, proposing the independence of the Provinces of British India into two sovereign countries: India and Pakistan.
1950 – Cold War: Radio Free Europe first broadcasts.
1951 – Cold War: A court in Czechoslovakia sentences American journalist William N. Oatis to ten years in prison on charges of espionage.
1951 – William Shockley announces the invention of the junction transistor.
1954 – Rationing ends in the United Kingdom.
1960 – Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Acts (United States)).
1961 – On its maiden voyage, the Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K-19 suffers a complete loss of coolant to its reactor. The crew are able to effect repairs, but 22 of them die of radiation poisoning over the following two years.
1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act went into effect the next year.
1976 – Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all but four of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by Palestinian terrorists.
1976 – The U.S. celebrates its Bicentennial.
1977 – The George Jackson Brigade plants a bomb at the main power substation for the Washington state capitol in Olympia, in solidarity with a prison strike at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary Intensive Security Unit.
1982 – Three Iranian diplomats and a journalist are kidnapped in Lebanon by Phalange forces, and their fate remains unknown.
1987 – In France, former Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (a.k.a. the “Butcher of Lyon”) is convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment.
1994 – Rwandan genocide: Kigali, the Rwandan capital, is captured by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, ending the genocide in the city.
1997 – NASA’s Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.
1998 – Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation.
2001 – Vladivostock Air Flight 352 crashes on approach to Irkutsk Airport killing all 145 people on board.
2004 – The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the World Trade Center site in New York City.
2004 – Greece beats Portugal in the UEFA Euro 2004 Final and becomes European Champion for first time in its history.
2005 – The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.
2006 – Space Shuttle program: Discovery launches STS-121 to the International Space Station. The event gained wide media attention as it was the only shuttle launch in the program’s history to occur on the United States’ Independence Day.
2009 – The Statue of Liberty’s crown reopens to the public after eight years of closure due to security concerns following the September 11 attacks.
2009 – The first of four days of bombings begins on the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao.
2012 – The discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is announced at CERN.
2015 – Chile claims its first title in international soccer by defeating Argentina in the 2015 Copa América Final.

Births on July 4

AD 68 – Salonina Matidia, Roman daughter of Ulpia Marciana (d. 119)
1095 – Usama ibn Munqidh, Muslim poet, author and faris (Knight) (d. 1188)
1330 – Ashikaga Yoshiakira, Japanese shōgun (d. 1367)
1477 – Johannes Aventinus, Bavarian historian and philologist (d. 1534)
1546 – Murad III, Ottoman sultan (d. 1595)
1656 – John Leake, Royal Navy admiral (d. 1720)
1694 – Louis-Claude Daquin, French organist and composer (d. 1772)
1715 – Christian Fürchtegott Gellert, German poet and academic (d. 1769)
1719 – Michel-Jean Sedaine, French playwright (d. 1797)
1729 – George Leonard, American lawyer, jurist and politician (d. 1819)
1753 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard, French inventor, best known as a pioneer in balloon flight (d. 1809)
1790 – George Everest, Welsh geographer and surveyor (d. 1866)
1799 – Oscar I of Sweden (d. 1859)
1804 – Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1864)
1807 – Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian general and politician (d. 1882)
1816 – Hiram Walker, American businessman, founded Canadian Club whisky (d. 1899)
1826 – Stephen Foster, American songwriter and composer (d. 1864)
1842 – Hermann Cohen, German philosopher (d. 1918)
1845 – Thomas John Barnardo, Irish philanthropist and humanitarian (d. 1905)
1847 – James Anthony Bailey, American circus ringmaster, co-founded Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (d. 1906)
1854 – Victor Babeș, Romanian physician and biologist (d. 1926)
1868 – Henrietta Swan Leavitt, American astronomer and academic (d. 1921)
1871 – Hubert Cecil Booth, English engineer (d. 1955)
1872 – Calvin Coolidge, American lawyer and politician, 30th President of the United States (d. 1933)
1874 – John McPhee, Australian journalist and politician, 27th Premier of Tasmania (d. 1952)
1880 – Victor Kraft, Austrian philosopher from the Vienna Circle (d. 1975)
1881 – Ulysses S. Grant III, American general (d. 1968)
1883 – Rube Goldberg, American sculptor, cartoonist, and engineer (d. 1970)
1887 – Pio Pion, Italian engineer and businessman (d. 1965)
1888 – Henry Armetta, Italian-American actor and singer (d. 1945)
1895 – Irving Caesar, American songwriter and composer (d. 1996)
1896 – Mao Dun, Chinese journalist, author, and critic (d. 1981)
1897 – Alluri Sitarama Raju, Indian activist (d. 1924)
1898 – Pilar Barbosa, Puerto Rican-American historian and activist (d. 1997)
1898 – Gertrude Lawrence, British actress, singer, and dancer (d. 1952)
1898 – Gulzarilal Nanda, Indian politician (d. 1998)
1898 – Gertrude Weaver, American supercentenarian (d. 2015)
1900 – Belinda Dann, Indigenous Australian who was one of the Stolen Generation, reunited with family aged 107 (d. 2007)
1900 – Nellie Mae Rowe, American folk artist (d. 1982)
1902 – Meyer Lansky, American gangster (d. 1983)
1902 – George Murphy, American actor and politician (d. 1992)
1903 – Flor Peeters, Belgian organist, composer, and educator (d. 1986)
1904 – Angela Baddeley, English actress (d. 1976)
1905 – Irving Johnson, American sailor and author (d. 1991)
1905 – Robert Hankey, 2nd Baron Hankey, British diplomat and public servant (d. 1996)
1905 – Lionel Trilling, American critic, essayist, short story writer, and educator (d. 1975)
1906 – Vincent Schaefer, American chemist and meteorologist (d. 1993)
1907 – John Anderson, American discus thrower (d. 1948)
1907 – Howard Taubman, American author and critic (d. 1996)
1909 – Alec Templeton, Welsh composer, pianist and satirist (d. 1963)
1910 – Robert K. Merton, American sociologist and scholar (d. 2003)
1910 – Gloria Stuart, American actress (d. 2010)
1911 – Bruce Hamilton, Australian public servant (d. 1989)
1911 – Mitch Miller, American singer and producer (d. 2010)
1914 – Nuccio Bertone, Italian automobile designer (d. 1997)
1915 – Timmie Rogers, American actor and singer-songwriter (d. 2006)
1916 – Iva Toguri D’Aquino, American typist and broadcaster (d. 2006)
1918 – Eppie Lederer, American journalist and radio host (d. 2002)
1918 – Johnnie Parsons, American race car driver (d. 1984)
1918 – King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV of Tonga, (d. 2006)
1918 – Alec Bedser, English cricketer (d. 2010)
1918 – Eric Bedser, English cricketer (d. 2006)
1918 – Pauline Phillips, American journalist and radio host, created Dear Abby (d. 2013)
1920 – Norm Drucker, American basketball player and referee (d. 2015)
1920 – Leona Helmsley, American businesswoman (d. 2007)
1920 – Fritz Wilde, German footballer and manager (d. 1977)
1920 – Paul Bannai, American politician (d. 2019)
1921 – Gérard Debreu, French economist and mathematician, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
1921 – Nasser Sharifi, Iranian sports shooter
1921 – Metropolitan Mikhail of Asyut (d. 2014)
1921 – Philip Rose, American actor, playwright, and producer (d. 2011)
1921 – Tibor Varga, Hungarian violinist and conductor (d. 2003)
1922 – R. James Harvey, American politician (d. 2019)
1923 – Rudolf Friedrich, Swiss lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
1924 – Eva Marie Saint, American actress
1924 – Delia Fiallo, Cuban author and screenwriter
1925 – Ciril Zlobec, Slovene poet, writer, translator, journalist and politician (d. 2018)
1925 – Dorothy Head Knode, American tennis player (d. 2015)
1926 – Alfredo Di Stéfano, Argentinian-Spanish footballer and coach (d. 2014)
1926 – Lake Underwood, American race car driver and businessman (d. 2008)
1927 – Gina Lollobrigida, Italian actress and photographer
1927 – Neil Simon, American playwright and screenwriter (d. 2018)
1928 – Giampiero Boniperti, Italian footballer and politician
1928 – Teofisto Guingona Jr., Filipino politician; 11th Vice President of the Philippines
1928 – Jassem Alwan, Syrian Army Officer (d. 2018)
1928 – Shan Ratnam, Sri Lankan physician and academic (d. 2001)
1928 – Chuck Tanner, American baseball player and manager (d. 2011)
1929 – Ron Casey, Australian journalist and sportscaster (d. 2018)
1929 – Al Davis, American football player, coach, and manager (d. 2011)
1929 – Bill Tuttle, American baseball player (d. 1998)
1930 – George Steinbrenner, American businessman (d. 2010)
1931 – Stephen Boyd, Northern Ireland-born American actor (d. 1977)
1931 – Rick Casares, American football player and soldier (d. 2013)
1931 – Sébastien Japrisot, French author, director, and screenwriter (d. 2003)
1931 – Peter Richardson, English cricketer (d. 2017)
1932 – Aurèle Vandendriessche, Belgian runner
1934 – Yvonne B. Miller, American academic and politician (d. 2012)
1934 – Colin Welland, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2015)
1935 – Paul Scoon, Grenadian politician, 2nd Governor-General of Grenada (d. 2013)
1936 – Zdzisława Donat, Polish soprano and actress
1937 – Thomas Nagel, American philosopher and academic
1937 – Queen Sonja of Norway
1937 – Richard Rhodes, American journalist and historian
1937 – Eric Walters, Australian journalist (d. 2010)
1938 – Steven Rose, English biologist and academic
1938 – Bill Withers, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2020)
1940 – Pat Stapleton, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2020)
1941 – Sam Farr, American politician
1941 – Tomaž Šalamun, Croatian-Slovenian poet and academic (d. 2014)
1941 – Pavel Sedláček, Czech singer-songwriter and guitarist
1941 – Brian Willson, American soldier, lawyer, and activist
1942 – Hal Lanier, American baseball player, coach, and manager
1942 – Floyd Little, American football player and coach
1942 – Stefan Meller, French-Polish academic and politician, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs (d. 2008)
1942 – Prince Michael of Kent
1942 – Peter Rowan, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1943 – Conny Bauer, German trombonist
1943 – Emerson Boozer, American football player and sportscaster
1943 – Adam Hart-Davis, English historian, author, and photographer
1943 – Geraldo Rivera, American lawyer, journalist, and author
1943 – Fred Wesley, American jazz and funk trombonist
1943 – Alan Wilson, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1970)
1945 – Andre Spitzer, Romanian-Israeli fencer and coach (d. 1972)
1946 – Ron Kovic, American author and activist
1946 – Michael Milken, American businessman and philanthropist
1947 – Lembit Ulfsak, Estonian actor and director (d. 2017)
1948 – René Arnoux, French race car driver
1948 – Tommy Körberg, Swedish singer and actor
1948 – Jeremy Spencer, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1950 – Philip Craven, English basketball player and swimmer
1950 – David Jensen, Canadian-English radio and television host
1951 – John Alexander, Australian tennis player and politician
1951 – Ralph Johnson, American R&B drummer and percussionist
1951 – Vladimir Tismăneanu, Romanian-American political scientist, sociologist, and academic
1951 – Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, American lawyer and politician, 6th Lieutenant Governor of Maryland
1952 – Álvaro Uribe, Colombian lawyer and politician, 39th President of Colombia
1952 – Carol MacReady, English actress
1952 – John Waite, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1952 – Paul Rogat Loeb, American author and activist
1953 – Francis Maude, English lawyer and politician, Minister for the Cabinet Office
1954 – Jim Beattie, American baseball player, coach, and manager
1954 – Morganna, American model, actress, and dancer
1954 – Devendra Kumar Joshi, 21st Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy
1955 – Kevin Nichols, Australian cyclist
1956 – Robert Sinclair MacKay, British academic and educator
1957 – Rein Lang, Estonian politician and diplomat, 25th Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs
1958 – Vera Leth, Greenlandic Ombudsman
1958 – Kirk Pengilly, Australian guitarist, saxophonist, and songwriter
1958 – Carl Valentine, English-Canadian footballer, coach, and manager
1959 – Victoria Abril, Spanish actress and singer
1960 – Roland Ratzenberger, Austrian race car driver (d. 1994)
1961 – Richard Garriott, English-American video game designer, created the Ultima series
1962 – Pam Shriver, American tennis player and sportscaster
1963 – Henri Leconte, French tennis player and sportscaster
1963 – Laureano Márquez, Spanish-Venezuelan political scientist and journalist
1963 – José Oquendo, Puerto Rican-American baseball player and coach
1963 – Sonia Pierre, Hatian-Dominican human rights activist (d. 2011)
1964 – Cle Kooiman, American soccer player and manager
1964 – Elie Saab, Lebanese fashion designer
1964 – Edi Rama, Albanian politician
1964 – Mark Slaughter, American singer-songwriter and producer
1964 – Mark Whiting, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1965 – Harvey Grant, American basketball player and coach
1965 – Horace Grant, American basketball player and coach
1965 – Kiriakos Karataidis, Greek footballer and manager
1965 – Gérard Watkins, English actor and playwright
1966 – Ronni Ancona, Scottish actress and screenwriter
1966 – Minas Hantzidis, German-Greek footballer
1966 – Lee Reherman, American actor (d. 2016)
1967 – Vinny Castilla, Mexican baseball player and manager
1967 – Sébastien Deleigne, French athlete
1969 – Al Golden, American football player and coach
1969 – Todd Marinovich, American football player and coach
1969 – Wilfred Mugeyi, Zimbabwean footballer and coach
1972 – Stephen Giles, Canadian canoe racer and engineer
1972 – Mike Knuble, Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach
1973 – Keiko Ihara, Japanese race car driver
1973 – Gackt, Japanese musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor
1973 – Michael Johnson, English-Jamaican footballer and manager
1973 – Anjelika Krylova, Russian ice dancer and coach
1973 – Jan Magnussen, Danish race car driver
1973 – Tony Popovic, Australian footballer and manager
1974 – Jill Craybas, American tennis player
1974 – La’Roi Glover, American football player and sportscaster
1974 – Adrian Griffin, American basketball player and coach
1976 – Daijiro Kato, Japanese motorcycle racer (d. 2003)
1976 – Yevgeniya Medvedeva, Russian skier
1978 – Marcos Daniel, Brazilian tennis player
1978 – Émile Mpenza, Belgian footballer
1979 – Siim Kabrits, Estonian politician
1979 – Josh McCown, American football player
1979 – Renny Vega, Venezuelan footballer
1980 – Kwame Steede, Bermudan footballer
1981 – Dedé, Angolan footballer
1981 – Brock Berlin, American football player
1981 – Christoph Preuß, German footballer
1981 – Francisco Cruceta, Dominican baseball player
1981 – Will Smith, American football player (d. 2016)
1982 – Vladimir Boisa, Georgian basketball player
1982 – Vladimir Gusev, Russian cyclist
1982 – Jeff Lima, New Zealand rugby league player
1982 – Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino, American model, author and television personality
1983 – Melanie Fiona, Canadian singer-songwriter
1983 – Amantle Montsho, Botswanan sprinter
1983 – Miguel Pinto, Chilean footballer
1983 – Amol Rajan, Indian-English journalist
1983 – Mattia Serafini, Italian footballer
1984 – Jin Akanishi, Japanese singer-songwriter
1984 – Miguel Santos Soares, Timorese footballer
1985 – Kane Tenace, Australian footballer
1985 – Dimitrios Mavroeidis, Greek basketball player
1985 – Wason Rentería, Colombian footballer
1986 – Ömer Aşık, Turkish basketball player
1986 – Nguyen Ngoc Duy, Vietnamese footballer
1986 – Rafael Arévalo, Salvadoran tennis player
1986 – Willem Janssen, Dutch footballer
1986 – Terrance Knighton, American football player
1986 – Marte Elden, Norwegian skier
1987 – Wude Ayalew, Ethiopian runner
1987 – Guram Kashia, Georgian footballer
1988 – Angelique Boyer, French-Mexican actress
1989 – Benjamin Büchel, Liechtensteiner footballer
1990 – Jake Gardiner, American ice hockey player
1990 – Richard Mpong, Ghanaian footballer
1990 – Naoki Yamada, Japanese footballer
1990 – Ihar Yasinski, Belarusian footballer
1992 – Ángel Romero, Paraguayan footballer
1992 – Óscar Romero, Paraguayan footballer
1993 – Tom Barkhuizen, English footballer
1995 – Post Malone, American singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer
1999 – Moa Kikuchi, Japanese musician
2003 – Polina Bogusevich, Russian singer

Deaths on July 4

673 – Ecgberht, king of Kent
907 – Luitpold, margrave of Bavaria
907 – Dietmar I, archbishop of Salzburg
910 – Luo Shaowei, Chinese warlord (b. 877)
940 – Wang Jianli, Chinese general (b. 871)
943 – Taejo of Goryeo, Korean king (b. 877)
945 – Zhuo Yanming, Chinese Buddhist monk and emperor
965 – Benedict V, pope of the Catholic Church
973 – Ulrich of Augsburg, German bishop and saint (b. 890)
975 – Gwangjong of Goryeo, Korean king (b. 925)
1187 – Raynald of Châtillon, French knight (b. 1125)
1307 – Rudolf I of Bohemia (b. 1281)
1336 – Saint Elizabeth of Portugal (b. 1271)
1429 – Carlo I Tocco, ruler of Epirus (b. 1372)
1533 – John Frith, English priest, writer, and martyr (b. 1503)
1541 – Pedro de Alvarado, Spanish general and explorer (b. 1495)
1546 – Hayreddin Barbarossa, Ottoman admiral (b. 1478)
1551 – Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell, English politician (b. 1514)
1603 – Philippe de Monte, Flemish composer and educator (b. 1521)
1623 – William Byrd, English composer (b. c. 1540)
1644 – Brian Twyne, English academic, antiquarian and archivist (b. 1581)
1648 – Antoine Daniel, French missionary and saint, one of the eight Canadian Martyrs (b. 1601)
1742 – Luigi Guido Grandi, Italian monk, mathematician, and engineer (b. 1671)
1754 – Philippe Néricault Destouches, French playwright and author (b. 1680)
1761 – Samuel Richardson, English author and painter (b. 1689)
1780 – Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine (b. 1712)
1787 – Charles, Prince of Soubise, Marshal of France (b. 1715)
1821 – Richard Cosway, English painter and academic (b. 1742)
1826 – John Adams, American lawyer and politician, 2nd President of the United States (b. 1735)
1826 – Thomas Jefferson, American architect, lawyer, and politician, 3rd President of the United States (b. 1743)
1831 – James Monroe, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 5th President of the United States (b. 1758)
1848 – François-René de Chateaubriand, French historian and politician (b. 1768)
1850 – William Kirby, English entomologist and author (b. 1759)
1854 – Karl Friedrich Eichhorn, German academic and jurist (b. 1781)
1857 – William L. Marcy, American lawyer, judge, and politician, 21st United States Secretary of State (b. 1786)
1881 – Johan Vilhelm Snellman, Finnish philosopher and politician (b. 1806)
1882 – Joseph Brackett, American composer and author (b. 1797)
1886 – Poundmaker, Canadian tribal chief (b. 1797)
1891 – Hannibal Hamlin, American lawyer and politician, 15th Vice President of the United States (b. 1809)
1901 – Johannes Schmidt, German linguist and academic (b. 1843)
1902 – Vivekananda, Indian monk and saint (b. 1863)
1905 – Élisée Reclus, French geographer and author (b. 1830)
1910 – Melville Fuller, American lawyer and jurist, Chief Justice of the United States (b. 1833)
1910 – Giovanni Schiaparelli, Italian astronomer and historian (b. 1835)
1916 – Alan Seeger, American soldier and poet (b. 1888)
1922 – Lothar von Richthofen, German lieutenant and pilot (b. 1894)
1926 – Pier Giorgio Frassati, Italian activist and saint (b. 1901)
1934 – Marie Curie, French-Polish physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1867)
1938 – Otto Bauer, Austrian philosopher and politician, Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1881)
1938 – Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player (b. 1899)
1941 – Antoni Łomnicki, Polish mathematician and academic (b. 1881)
1943 – Władysław Sikorski, Polish general and politician, 9th Prime Minister of the Second Republic of Poland (b. 1881)
1946 – Taffy O’Callaghan, Welsh footballer and coach (b. 1906)
1948 – Monteiro Lobato, Brazilian journalist and author (b. 1882)
1949 – François Brandt, Dutch rower and engineer (b. 1874)
1963 – Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg, New Zealand general and politician, 7th Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1889)
1963 – Clyde Kennard, American activist and martyr (b. 1927)
1963 – Pingali Venkayya, Indian activist, designed the Flag of India (b. 1876)
1964 – Gaby Morlay, French actress and singer (b. 1893)
1969 – Henri Decoin, French director and screenwriter (b. 1890)
1970 – Barnett Newman, American painter and illustrator (b. 1905)
1970 – Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, American sailor and businessman (b. 1884)
1971 – August Derleth, American anthologist and author (b. 1909)
1971 – Thomas C. Hart, American admiral and politician (b. 1877)
1974 – Georgette Heyer, English author (b. 1902)
1974 – André Randall, French actor (b. 1892)
1976 – Yonatan Netanyahu, Israeli colonel (b. 1946)
1976 – Antoni Słonimski, Polish poet and playwright (b. 1895)
1977 – Gersh Budker, Ukrainian physicist and academic (b. 1918)
1979 – Lee Wai Tong, Chinese footballer and manager (b. 1905)
1980 – Maurice Grevisse, Belgian linguist and author (b. 1895)
1984 – Jimmie Spheeris, American singer-songwriter (b. 1949)
1986 – Paul-Gilbert Langevin, French musicologist, critique musical and physicist (b. 1933)
1986 – Flor Peeters, Belgian organist and composer (b. 1903)
1986 – Oscar Zariski, Belarusian-American mathematician and academic (b. 1899)
1988 – Adrian Adonis, American wrestler (b. 1954)
1990 – Olive Ann Burns, American journalist and author (b. 1924)
1991 – Victor Chang, Chinese-Australian surgeon and physician (b. 1936)
1991 – Art Sansom, American cartoonist (b. 1920)
1992 – Astor Piazzolla, Argentinian bandoneon player and composer (b. 1921)
1993 – Bona Arsenault, Canadian historian, genealogist, and politician (b. 1903)
1994 – Joey Marella, American wrestling referee (b. 1964)
1995 – Eva Gabor, Hungarian-American actress and singer (b. 1919)
1995 – Bob Ross, American painter and television host (b. 1942)
1997 – Charles Kuralt, American journalist (b. 1934)
1997 – John Zachary Young, English zoologist and neurophysiologist (b. 1907)
1999 – Leo Garel, American illustrator and educator (b. 1917)
2000 – Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, Polish journalist and author (b. 1919)
2002 – Gerald Bales, Canadian organist and composer (b. 1919)
2002 – Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American general (b. 1912)
2003 – Larry Burkett, American author and radio host (b. 1939)
2003 – André Claveau, French singer (b. 1915)
2003 – Barry White, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer (b. 1944)
2004 – Jean-Marie Auberson, Swiss violinist and conductor (b. 1920)
2005 – Cliff Goupille, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1915)
2005 – Hank Stram, American football player and coach (b. 1923)
2007 – Bill Pinkney, American singer (b. 1925)
2008 – Thomas M. Disch, American author and poet (b. 1940)
2008 – Jesse Helms, American politician (b. 1921)
2008 – Evelyn Keyes, American actress (b. 1916)
2008 – Terrence Kiel, American football player (b. 1980)
2008 – Charles Wheeler, German-English soldier and journalist (b. 1923)
2009 – Brenda Joyce, American actress (b. 1917)
2009 – Allen Klein, American businessman and talent agent, founded ABKCO Records (b. 1931)
2009 – Drake Levin, American guitarist (b. 1946)
2009 – Steve McNair, American football player (b. 1973)
2009 – Lasse Strömstedt, Swedish author and actor (b. 1935)
2009 – Jean-Baptiste Tati Loutard, Congolese poet and politician (b. 1938)
2010 – Robert Neil Butler, American physician and author (b. 1927)
2012 – Hiren Bhattacharyya, Indian poet and author (b. 1932)
2012 – Jimmy Bivins, American boxer (b. 1919)
2012 – Jeong Min-hyeong, South Korean footballer (b. 1987)
2012 – Eric Sykes, English actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1923)
2013 – Onllwyn Brace, Welsh rugby player and sportscaster (b. 1932)
2013 – Jack Crompton, English footballer and manager (b. 1921)
2013 – James Fulton, American dermatologist and academic (b. 1940)
2013 – Charles A. Hines, American general (b. 1935)
2013 – Bernie Nolan, Irish singer (b. 1960)
2014 – Giorgio Faletti, Italian author, screenwriter, and actor (b. 1950)
2014 – C. J. Henderson, American author and critic (b. 1951)
2014 – Earl Robinson, American baseball player (b. 1936)
2014 – Richard Mellon Scaife, American businessman (b. 1932)
2015 – Nedelcho Beronov, Bulgarian judge and politician (b. 1928)
2015 – William Conrad Gibbons, American historian, author, and academic (b. 1926)
2016 – Abbas Kiarostami, Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, and photographer (b. 1940)
2017 – John Blackwell, American R&B, funk, and jazz drummer (b. 1973)
2017 – Daniil Granin, Soviet and Russian author (b. 1919)
2018 – Henri Dirickx, Belgian footballer (b. 1927)
2018 – Robby Müller, Dutch cinematographer (b. 1940)

Holidays and observances on July 4

Christian feast day:
- Andrew of Crete
- Bertha of Artois
- Blessed Catherine Jarrige
- Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati
- Elizabeth of Aragon (or of Portugal)
- Oda of Canterbury
- Ulrich of Augsburg
- July 4 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Birthday of Queen Sonja (Norway)
The first evening of Dree Festival, celebrated until July 7 (Apatani people, Arunachal Pradesh, India)
Independence Day, celebrates the Declaration of Independence of the United States from Great Britain in 1776. (United States and its dependencies)
Liberation Day (Northern Mariana Islands)
Liberation Day (Rwanda)
Republic Day (Philippines)

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On This Day

June 22 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

On this day the Summer solstice may occur in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Winter solstice may occur in the Southern Hemisphere.

June 22 in History

217 BC – Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom.
168 BC – Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeat Macedonian King Perseus who surrenders after the battle, ending the Third Macedonian War.
813 – Battle of Versinikia: The Bulgars led by Krum defeat the Byzantine army near Edirne. Emperor Michael I is forced to abdicate in favor of Leo V the Armenian.
910 – The Hungarians defeat the East Frankish army near the Rednitz River, killing its leader Gebhard, Duke of Lotharingia (Lorraine).
1527 – Fatahillah expels Portuguese forces from Sunda Kelapa, now regarded as the foundation of Jakarta.
1593 – Battle of Sisak: Allied Christian troops defeat the Ottomans.
1633 – The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe in the form he presented it in, after heated controversy.
1774 – The British pass the Quebec Act, setting out rules of governance for the colony of Quebec in British North America.
1783 – A poisonous cloud caused by the eruption of the Laki volcano in Iceland reaches Le Havre in France.
1807 – In the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair, the British warship HMS Leopard attacks and boards the American frigate USS Chesapeake.
1813 – War of 1812: After learning of American plans for a surprise attack on Beaver Dams in Ontario, Laura Secord sets out on a 30 kilometer journey on foot to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon.
1839 – Cherokee leaders Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot are assassinated for signing the Treaty of New Echota, which had resulted in the Trail of Tears.
1870 – The United States Department of Justice is created by the U.S. Congress.
1893 – The Royal Navy battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally rams the British Mediterranean Fleet flagship HMS Victoria which sinks taking 358 crew with her, including the fleet’s commander, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.
1897 – British colonial officers Charles Walter Rand and Lt. Charles Egerton Ayerst are assassinated in Pune, Maharashtra, India by the Chapekar brothers and Mahadeo Vinayak Ranade, who are later caught and hanged.
1898 – Spanish–American War: In a chaotic operation, 6,000 men of the U.S. Fifth Army Corps begins landing at Daiquirí, Cuba, about 16 miles (26 km) east of Santiago de Cuba. Lt. Gen. Arsenio Linares y Pombo of the Spanish Army outnumbers them two-to-one, but does not oppose the landings.
1907 – The London Underground’s Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway opens.
1911 – George V and Mary of Teck are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1911 – Mexican Revolution: Government forces bring an end to the Magonista rebellion of 1911 in the Second Battle of Tijuana.
1918 – The Hammond Circus Train Wreck kills 86 and injures 127 near Hammond, Indiana.
1940 – World War II: France is forced to sign the Second Compiègne armistice with Germany, in the same railroad car in which the Germans signed the Armistice in 1918.
1941 – World War II: Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.
1942 – World War II: Erwin Rommel is promoted to Field Marshal after the Axis capture of Tobruk.
1942 – The Pledge of Allegiance is formally adopted by US Congress.
1944 – World War II: Opening day of the Soviet Union’s Operation Bagration against the Army Group Centre.
1944 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill.
1945 – World War II: The Battle of Okinawa comes to an end.
1948 – The ship HMT Empire Windrush brought the first group of 802 West Indian immigrants to Tilbury, marking the start of modern immigration to the United Kingdom.
1948 – King George VI formally gives up the title “Emperor of India”, half a year after Britain actually gave up its rule of India.
1965 – The Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea is signed.
1969 – The Cuyahoga River catches fire in Cleveland, Ohio, drawing national attention to water pollution, and spurring the passing of the Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
1978 – Charon, the first of Pluto’s satellites to be discovered, was first seen at the United States Naval Observatory by James W. Christy.
1984 – Virgin Atlantic Airways launches with its first flight from London Gatwick Airport.
1986 – The famous Hand of God goal, scored by Diego Maradona in the quarter-finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup match between Argentina and England, ignites controversy. This was later followed by the Goal of the Century. Argentina wins 2–1 and later goes on to win the World Cup.
1990 – Cold War: Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled in Berlin.
2000 – Wuhan Airlines Flight 343 is struck by lightning and crashes into Wuhan’s Hanyang District, killing 49 people.
2002 – An earthquake measuring 6.5 M_w strikes a region of northwestern Iran killing at least 261 people and injuring 1,300 others and eventually causing widespread public anger due to the slow official response.
2009 – A Washington D.C Metro train traveling southbound near Fort Totten station collides into another train waiting to enter the station. Nine people are killed in the collision (eight passengers and the train operator) and at least 80 others are injured.
2012 – Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo is removed from office by impeachment and succeeded by Federico Franco.
2012 – A Turkish Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter plane is shot down by the Syrian Armed Forces, killing both of the plane’s pilots and worsening already-strained relations between Turkey and Syria.
2015 – The Afghan National Assembly building is attacked by gunmen after a suicide bombing. All six of the gunmen are killed and 18 people are injured.

Births on June 22

662 – Rui Zong, emperor of the Tang Dynasty (d. 716)
916 – Sayf al-Dawla, founder of the Emirate of Aleppo (d. 967)
1000 – Robert I, duke of Normandy (d. 1035)
1373 – Elizabeth Bonifacia, heiress of Poland (d. 1399)
1427 – Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Italian writer and wife of Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici (d. 1482)
1450 – Eleanor of Naples, duchess of Ferrara (d. 1493)
1477 – Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, English nobleman (d. 1530)
1593 – Sir John Gell, 1st Baronet, English politician and militarian (d. 1671)
1680 – Ebenezer Erskine, Scottish minister and theologian (d. 1754)
1684 – Francesco Manfredini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1762)
1704 – John Taylor, English author and scholar (d. 1766)
1713 – John Sackville, English cricketer and politician (d. 1765)
1738 – Jacques Delille, French poet and translator (d. 1813)
1757 – George Vancouver, English lieutenant and explorer (d. 1798)
1763 – Étienne Méhul, French pianist and composer (d. 1817)
1767 – Wilhelm von Humboldt, German philosopher, academic, and politician, Interior Minister of Prussia (d. 1835)
1792 – James Beaumont Neilson, Scottish engineer and businessman (d. 1865)
1805 – Giuseppe Mazzini, Italian journalist and politician (d. 1872)
1820 – James Hutchison Stirling, Scottish physician and philosopher (d. 1909)
1834 – William Chester Minor, American surgeon and linguist (d. 1920)
1837 – Paul Morphy, American chess player (d. 1884)
1837 – Ernst Ziller, German-Greek architect, designed the Presidential Mansion (d. 1923)
1844 – Oscar von Gebhardt, German theologian and academic (d. 1906)
1845 – Tom Dula, American soldier (d. 1868)
1845 – Richard Seddon, English-New Zealand politician, 15th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1906)
1855 – Samuel Morris, Australian cricketer (d. 1931)
1856 – Henry Rider Haggard, English novelist (d. 1925)
1861 – Maximilian von Spee, Danish-German admiral (d. 1914)
1864 – Hermann Minkowski, German mathematician and academic (d. 1909)
1871 – William McDougall, English psychologist and polymath (d. 1938)
1873 – Filippo Silvestri, Italian entomologist and academic (d. 1949)
1874 – Walter Friedrich Otto, German philologist and scholar (d. 1958)
1876 – Pascual Díaz y Barreto, Mexican archbishop (d. 1936)
1879 – Thibaudeau Rinfret, Canadian lawyer and jurist, 9th Chief Justice of Canada (d. 1962)
1880 – Johannes Drost, Dutch swimmer (d. 1954)
1884 – James Rector, American sprinter and lawyer (d. 1949)
1885 – Milan Vidmar, Slovenian engineer and chess player (d. 1962)
1887 – Julian Huxley, English biologist and academic (d. 1975)
1888 – Harold Hitz Burton, American lawyer and politician, 45th Mayor of Cleveland (d. 1964)
1890 – Aleksander Warma, Estonian commander and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Estonia in exile (d. 1970)
1891 – Franz Alexander, Hungarian psychoanalyst and physician (d. 1964)
1892 – Robert Ritter von Greim, German general and pilot (d. 1945)
1894 – Bernard Ashmole, English archaeologist and art historian (d. 1988)
1896 – Leonard W. Murray, Canadian admiral (d. 1971)
1897 – Edmund A. Chester, American journalist and broadcaster (d. 1973)
1897 – Norbert Elias, German-Dutch sociologist and philosopher (d. 1990)
1898 – Erich Maria Remarque, German-Swiss soldier and author (d. 1970)
1899 – Richard Gurley Drew, American engineer, invented Masking tape (d. 1980)
1899 – Michał Kalecki, Polish economist and academic (d. 1970)
1900 – Oskar Fischinger, German-American abstract artist, filmmaker, and painter (d. 1967)
1901 – Elias Katz, Finnish runner and coach (d. 1947)
1902 – Marguerite De La Motte, American actress (d. 1950)
1903 – John Dillinger, American criminal (d. 1934)
1903 – Carl Hubbell, American baseball player (d. 1988)
1906 – William Kneale, English logician and philosopher (d. 1990)
1906 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American pilot and author (d. 2001)
1906 – Billy Wilder, Austrian-born American director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2002)
1907 – Eriks Ādamsons, Latvian writer, poet, and novelist (d. 1946)
1909 – Katherine Dunham, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2006)
1909 – Infanta Beatriz of Spain, Spanish aristocratic (d. 2002)
1909 – Mike Todd, American producer and manager (d. 1958)
1910 – John Hunt, Baron Hunt, Indian-English lieutenant and mountaineer (d. 1998)
1910 – Anne Ziegler, English singer (d. 2003)
1910 – Konrad Zuse, German computer scientist and engineer, invented the Z3 computer (d. 1995)
1911 – Vernon Kirby, South African tennis player (d. 1994)
1912 – Princess Caroline Mathilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1983)
1912 – Raymonde Allain, French model and actress (d. 2008)
1913 – Sándor Weöres, Hungarian poet and author (d. 1989)
1914 – Mei Zhi, Chinese author and essayist (d. 2004)
1915 – Dolf van der Linden, Dutch conductor and composer (d. 1999)
1915 – Cornelius Warmerdam, American pole vaulter and coach (d. 2001)
1915 – Randolph Hokanson, American pianist (d. 2018)
1915 – Thomas Quinn Curtiss, American writer, and film and theatre critic (d. 2000)
1916 – Johnny Jacobs, American television announcer (d. 1982)
1916 – Richard Eastham, American actor (d. 2005)
1916 – Emil Fackenheim, Jewish philosopher and Reform rabbi (d. 2003)
1918 – Cicely Saunders, English Anglican nurse, social worker, physician and writer (d. 2005)
1919 – Gower Champion, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1980)
1919 – Henri Tajfel, Polish social psychologist (d. 1982)
1919 – Clifton McNeely, American basketball player and coach (d. 2003)
1920 – James H. Pomerene, American computer scientist and engineer (d. 2008)
1920 – Jovito Salonga, Filipino lawyer and politician, 14th President of the Senate of the Philippines (d. 2016)
1921 – Joseph Papp, American director and producer (d. 1991)
1921 – Barbara Vucanovich, American lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
1921 – Radovan Ivšić, Croatian writer (d. 2009)
1921 – Barbara Perry, American actress (d. 2019)
1922 – Bill Blass, American fashion designer, founded Bill Blass Group (d. 2002)
1922 – Clair Cameron Patterson, American scientist (d. 1995)
1923 – José Giovanni, French-Swiss director and screenwriter (d. 2004)
1924 – Christopher Booth, English clinician and historian (d. 2012)
1924 – Larkin Kerwin, Canadian physicist and academic (d. 2004)
1926 – George Englund, American film editor, director, producer and actor (d. 2017)
1926 – Rachid Solh, Lebanese politician, 48th Prime Minister of Lebanon (d. 2014)
1926 – Doreen Mantle, South African-English actress
1927 – Anthony Low, Indian-English historian and academic (d. 2015)
1928 – Ralph Waite, American actor and director (d. 2014)
1929 – Bruce Kent, English activist and laicised Roman Catholic priest
1930 – Yuri Artyukhin, Russian colonel, engineer, and astronaut (d. 1998)
1930 – Walter Bonatti, Italian journalist and mountaineer (d. 2011)
1931 – Ruby Garrard Woodson, American educator and cultural historian (d. 2008)
1932 – Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari, Princess of Iran (d. 2001)
1932 – Yevgeny Kychanov, Russian orientalist, historian, and academic (d. 2013)
1932 – Amrish Puri, Indian actor (d. 2005)
1932 – June Salter, Australian actress (d. 2001)
1932 – Prunella Scales, English actress
1932 – John Wakeham, Baron Wakeham, English businessman and politician, Leader of the House of Lords
1933 – Dianne Feinstein, American politician
1934 – James Bjorken, American physicist, author, and academic
1936 – Kris Kristofferson, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1936 – Ferran Olivella, Spanish footballer
1936 – Hermeto Pascoal, Brazilian accordion player and composer
1937 – Chris Blackwell, English record producer, co-founded Island Records
1937 – Bernie McGann, Australian saxophonist and composer (d. 2013)
1939 – Don Matthews, American-Canadian football player and coach (d. 2017)
1939 – Ed Paschke, Polish-American painter and academic (d. 2004)
1940 – Joan Busfield, English sociologist, psychologist, and academic
1940 – Hubert Chesshyre, English historian and author
1940 – Abbas Kiarostami, Iranian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2016)
1940 – Esther Rantzen, English journalist
1941 – Ed Bradley, American journalist (d. 2006)
1941 – Terttu Savola, Finnish journalist and politician
1943 – Brit Hume, American journalist and author
1943 – Klaus Maria Brandauer, Austrian actor and director
1944 – Peter Asher, English singer, guitarist, and producer
1944 – Helmut Dietl, German director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2015)
1945 – Rainer Brüderle, German economist and politician, German Minister of Economics and Technology
1946 – Linda Bond, Canadian 19th General of The Salvation Army
1946 – Sheila Hollins, Baroness Hollins, English psychiatrist and academic
1946 – Eliades Ochoa, Cuban singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1946 – Józef Oleksy, Polish economist and politician, 7th Prime Minister of Poland (d. 2015)
1946 – Stephen Waley-Cohen, English journalist and businessman
1947 – Octavia E. Butler, American author (d. 2006)
1947 – Howard Kaylan, American pop-rock singer-songwriter and musician
1947 – Pete Maravich, American basketball player (d. 1988)
1947 – Jerry Rawlings, Ghanaian lieutenant and politician, President of Ghana
1948 – James Charteris, 13th Earl of Wemyss, Scottish businessman
1948 – Todd Rundgren, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1949 – Larry Junstrom, American bass player
1949 – Brian Leveson, English lawyer and judge
1949 – Alan Osmond, American singer and producer
1949 – Meryl Streep, American actress and singer
1949 – Luís Filipe Vieira, Portuguese businessman
1949 – Lindsay Wagner, American actress
1949 – Elizabeth Warren, American academic and politician
1950 – Sharon Maughan, English actress
1950 – Adrian Năstase, Romanian lawyer and politician, 59th Prime Minister of Romania
1950 – Greg Oliphant, Australian rugby league player
1950 – Zenonas Petrauskas, Lithuanian lawyer and politician (d. 2009)
1950 – Tom Alter, Indian actor (d. 2017)
1951 – Brian Cookson, British cyclist and sports administrator
1951 – Craig Gruber, American bass player (d. 2015)
1951 – Humphrey Ocean, English painter and academic
1952 – Graham Greene, Canadian actor
1952 – Santokh Singh, Malaysian football player
1953 – Wim Eijk, Dutch cardinal
1953 – Mauro Francaviglia, Italian mathematician and academic (d. 2013)
1953 – Cyndi Lauper, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1953 – Bruce McAvaney, Australian journalist and sportscaster
1954 – Freddie Prinze, American comedian and actor (d. 1977)
1955 – Green Gartside, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist
1955 – Christine Orengo, British academic and educator
1956 – Darryl Brohman, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster
1956 – Alfons De Wolf, Belgian cyclist
1956 – Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistani agriculturist and politician, 25th Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs
1956 – Tim Russ, American actor, director, and screenwriter
1956 – Markus Schatte, German footballer, manager, and coach
1956 – Derek Forbes, Scottish bass player and guitarist
1957 – Danny Baker, English journalist and screenwriter
1957 – Garry Gary Beers, Australian bass player, songwriter, and producer
1957 – Kevin Bond, English footballer and manager
1957 – Michael Stratton, English geneticist and academic
1958 – Rocío Banquells, Mexican pop singer and actress
1958 – Bruce Campbell, American actor, director, producer and writer
1959 – Michael Kinane, Irish jockey
1959 – Nicola Sirkis, French singer-songwriter and guitarist
1959 – Daniel Xuereb, French footballer
1960 – Erin Brockovich, American lawyer and environmentalist
1960 – Margrit Klinger, German runner
1960 – Tracy Pollan, American actress
1961 – Jimmy Somerville, Scottish singer-songwriter
1962 – Stephen Chow, Hong Kong actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1962 – Bobby Gillespie, Scottish musician and singer-songwriter
1962 – Clyde Drexler, American basketball player and coach
1962 – Gerald Hillringhaus, German footballer
1963 – Hokutoumi Nobuyoshi, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 61st Yokozuna
1963 – John Tenta, Canadian-American wrestler (d. 2006)
1964 – Cadillac Anderson, American basketball player
1964 – Amy Brenneman, American actress
1964 – Dan Brown, American author and academic
1964 – Miroslav Kadlec, Czech footballer
1965 – Uwe Boll, German director, producer, and screenwriter
1965 – Ľubomír Moravčík, Czech footballer and manager
1966 – Michael Park, English racing driver (d. 2005)
1966 – Emmanuelle Seigner, French actress
1966 – Dean Woods, Australian cyclist
1968 – Darrell Armstrong, American basketball player and coach
1968 – Miri Yu, Zainichi, Korean novelist
1971 – Gary Connolly, English rugby player
1971 – Mary Lynn Rajskub, American actress and comedian
1971 – Kurt Warner, American football player and sportscaster
1972 – Damien Oliver, Australian jockey
1973 – Carson Daly, American radio and television host
1974 – Jo Cox, British MP (d. 2016)
1974 – Vijay, Indian film actor in Tamil cinema
1975 – Urmas Reinsalu, Estonian academic and politician, 28th Estonian Minister of Defence
1978 – Champ Bailey, American football player
1978 – Dan Wheldon, English racing driver (d. 2011)
1979 – Joey Cheek, American speed skater
1979 – Thomas Voeckler, French cyclist
1980 – Ilya Bryzgalov, Russian ice hockey player
1980 – Stephanie Jacobsen, Hong Kong-Australian actress
1981 – Sione Lauaki, New Zealand rugby player
1981 – Aquivaldo Mosquera, Colombian footballer
1982 – Andoni Iraola, Spanish footballer
1982 – Ian Kinsler, American baseball player
1982 – Soraia Chaves, Portuguese actress and model
1983 – Allar Raja, Estonian rower
1984 – Dustin Johnson, American golfer
1984 – Rubén Iván Martínez, Spanish footballer
1984 – Jerome Taylor, Jamaican cricketer
1984 – Janko Tipsarević, Serbian tennis player
1985 – Thomas Leuluai, New Zealand rugby league player
1987 – Danny Green, American basketball player
1987 – Nikita Rukavytsya, Ukrainian-Australian footballer
1988 – Omri Casspi, Israeli basketball player
1989 – Cédric Mongongu, Congolese footballer
1989 – Jung Yong-hwa, South Korean singer-songwriter and actor
1990 – Sebastian Jung, German footballer
1991 – Hugo Mallo, Spanish footballer
1992 – Ura Kazuki, Japanese sumo wrestler
1992 – Harry Reid, British actor
1993 – Loris Karius, German footballer
1994 – Sebastien Haller, French footballer
1994 – Carlos Vinícius Santos de Jesus, Brazilian footballer
1996 – Mikel Merino, Spanish footballer
1999 – Sam Retford, Australian-English actor

Deaths on June 22

431 – Paulinus of Nola, Christian bishop and poet (b. 354)
910 – Gebhard, Frankish nobleman
910 – Gerhard I, Frankish nobleman
947 – Qian Hongzuo, king of Wuyue (b. 928)
1017 – Leo Passianos, Byzantine general
1101 – Roger I of Sicily, Norman nobleman (b. 1031)
1276 – Innocent V, pope of the Catholic Church (b. 1225)
1343 – Aimone, Count of Savoy (b. 1291)
1429 – Jamshīd al-Kāshī, Persian astronomer and mathematician (b. 1380)
1521 – Leonardo Loredan, Italian politician, 76th Doge of Venice (b. 1436)
1535 – John Fisher, English bishop and saint (b. 1469)
1632 – James Whitelocke, English judge and politician, Chief Justice of Chester (b. 1570)
1634 – Johann von Aldringen, Austrian field marshal (b. 1588)
1664 – Katherine Philips, Anglo-Welsh poet (b. 1631)
1699 – Josiah Child, English merchant, economist, and politician (b. 1630)
1714 – Matthew Henry, Welsh minister and author (b. 1662)
1766 – Carlo Zimech, Maltese priest and painter (b. 1696)
1868 – Heber C. Kimball, American religious leader (b. 1801)
1872 – Rudecindo Alvarado, Argentinian general (b. 1792)
1874 – Howard Staunton, English chess player (b. 1810)
1892 – Pierre Ossian Bonnet, French mathematician and academic (b. 1819)
1894 – Alexandre-Antonin Taché, Canadian archbishop and missionary (b. 1823)
1905 – Francis Lubbock, American colonel and politician, 9th Governor of Texas (b. 1815)
1913 – Ștefan Octavian Iosif, Romanian poet and translator (b. 1875)
1925 – Felix Klein, German mathematician and academic (b. 1849)
1928 – A. B. Frost, American illustrator and painter (b. 1851)
1931 – Armand Fallières, French politician, 9th President of France (b. 1841)
1933 – Tim Birkin, English racing driver and lieutenant (b. 1896)
1935 – Szymon Askenazy, Polish historian and diplomat (b. 1866)
1936 – Moritz Schlick, German-Austrian physicist and philosopher (b. 1882)
1938 – C. J. Dennis, Australian poet and author (b. 1876)
1940 – Monty Noble, Australian cricketer and sportscaster (b. 1873)
1942 – August Froehlich, German priest and activist (b. 1891)
1945 – Isamu Chō, Japanese general (b. 1895)
1945 – Mitsuru Ushijima, Japanese general (b. 1887)
1956 – Walter de la Mare, English poet, short story writer and novelist (b. 1873)
1959 – Hermann Brill, German educator and politician, 8th Minister-President of Thuringia (b. 1895)
1964 – Havank, Dutch journalist and author (b. 1904)
1965 – David O. Selznick, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1902)
1966 – Thaddeus Shideler, American hurdler (b. 1883)
1969 – Judy Garland, American actress and singer (b. 1922)
1970 – Đặng Thùy Trâm, Vietnamese surgeon and author (b. 1942)
1974 – Darius Milhaud, French composer and educator (b. 1892)
1977 – Jacqueline Audry, French director and screenwriter (b. 1908)
1977 – Peter Laughner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Rocket From the Tombs and Pere Ubu) (b. 1952)
1979 – Louis Chiron, Monégasque race car driver (b. 1899)
1984 – Joseph Losey, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1909)
1987 – Fred Astaire, American actor and dancer (b. 1899)
1988 – Dennis Day, American singer and actor (b. 1916)
1990 – Ilya Frank, Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1908)
1993 – Pat Nixon, American educator, 37th First Lady of the United States (b. 1912)
1995 – Leonid Derbenyov, Russian poet and songwriter (b. 1931)
1995 – Al Hansen, American sculptor and author (b. 1927)
1997 – Ted Gärdestad, Swedish singer-songwriter (b. 1956)
1997 – Gérard Pelletier, Canadian journalist and politician (b. 1919)
2003 – Vasil Bykaŭ, Belarusian war novelist (b. 1924)
2004 – Bob Bemer, American computer scientist and engineer (b. 1920)
2004 – Mattie Stepanek, American poet and author (b. 1990)
2007 – Erik Parlevliet, Dutch field hockey player (b. 1964)
2008 – Natalia Bekhtereva, Russian neuroscientist and psychologist (b. 1924)
2008 – George Carlin, American comedian, actor, and author (b. 1937)
2008 – Dody Goodman, American actress and dancer (b. 1914)
2011 – Coşkun Özarı, Turkish footballer and coach (b. 1931)
2012 – Juan Luis Galiardo, Spanish actor and producer (b. 1922)
2013 – Henning Larsen, Danish architect, designed the Copenhagen Opera House (b. 1925)
2013 – Allan Simonsen, Danish race car driver (b. 1978)
2014 – Fouad Ajami, Lebanese-American author and academic (b. 1945)
2014 – Rama Narayanan, Indian director and producer (b. 1949)
2015 – James Horner, American composer and conductor (b. 1953)
2017 – Mao Kobayashi, Japanese newscaster and actress (b. 1982)
2017 – Quett Masire, Botswanan politician (b. 1926)
2018 – Vinnie Paul, American musician (b. 1964)

Holidays and observances on June 22

Christian feast day:
- Aaron of Aleth
- Alban, first recorded Martyr in Britain (commemoration, Anglicanism)
- Blessed Pope Innocent V
- Eusebius of Samosata (Orthodox Church)
- John Fisher (Catholic Church)
- Nicetas of Remesiana
- Paulinus of Nola
- Thomas More (Catholic Church)
- June 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Anti-Fascist Struggle Day (Croatia)
Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Great Patriotic War (Belarus)
Father’s Day (Guernsey, Isle of Man, and Jersey)
Teachers’ Day (El Salvador)

June 22 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

June 12 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day

On This Day / admin

910 – Battle of Augsburg: The Hungarians defeat the East Frankish army under King Louis the Child, using the famous feigned retreat tactic of the nomadic warriors.
1240 – At the instigation of Louis IX of France, an inter-faith debate, known as the Disputation of Paris, starts between a Christian monk and four rabbis.
1381 – Peasants’ Revolt: In England, rebels assemble at Blackheath, just outside London.
1418 – Armagnac–Burgundian Civil War: Parisians slaughter Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac and his suspected sympathizers, along with all prisoners, foreign bankers, and students and faculty of the College of Navarre.
1429 – Hundred Years’ War: On the second day of the Battle of Jargeau, Joan of Arc leads the French army in their capture of the city and the English commander, William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk.
1550 – The city of Helsinki, Finland (belonging to Sweden at the time) is founded by King Gustav I of Sweden.
1653 – First Anglo-Dutch War: The Battle of the Gabbard begins, lasting until the following day.
1665 – Thomas Willett is appointed the first mayor of New York City.
1758 – French and Indian War: Siege of Louisbourg: James Wolfe’s attack at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, commences
1772 – French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne and 25 of his men killed by Māori in New Zealand.
1775 – American Revolution: British general Thomas Gage declares martial law in Massachusetts. The British offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms. There would be only two exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged.
1776 – The Virginia Declaration of Rights is adopted.
1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: Battle of Ballynahinch.
1817 – The earliest form of bicycle, the dandy horse, is driven by Karl von Drais.
1821 – Badi VII, king of Sennar, surrenders his throne and realm to Isma’il Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom.
1830 – Beginning of the Invasion of Algiers: Thiry-four thousand French soldiers land 27 kilometers west of Algiers, at Sidi Ferruch.
1864 – American Civil War, Overland Campaign: Battle of Cold Harbor: Ulysses S. Grant gives the Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee a victory when he pulls his Union troops from their position at Cold Harbor, Virginia and moves south.
1898 – Philippine Declaration of Independence: General Emilio Aguinaldo declares the Philippines’ independence from Spain.
1899 – New Richmond tornado: The eighth deadliest tornado in U.S. history kills 117 people and injures around 200.
1914 – Massacre of Phocaea: Turkish irregulars slaughter 50 to 100 Greeks and expel thousands of others in an ethnic cleansing operation in the Ottoman Empire.
1921 – Mikhail Tukhachevsky orders the use of chemical weapons against the Tambov Rebellion, bringing an end to the peasant uprising.
1935 – A ceasefire is negotiated between Bolivia and Paraguay, ending the Chaco War.
1939 – Shooting begins on Paramount Pictures’ Dr. Cyclops, the first horror film photographed in three-strip Technicolor.
1939 – The Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, New York.
1940 – World War II: Thirteen thousand British and French troops surrender to Major General Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.
1942 – Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
1943 – The Holocaust: Germany liquidates the Jewish Ghetto in Brzeżany, Poland (now Berezhany, Ukraine). Around 1,180 Jews are led to the city’s old Jewish graveyard and shot.
1944 – World War II: Operation Overlord: American paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division secure the town of Carentan, Normandy, France.
1954 – Pope Pius XII canonises Dominic Savio, who was 14 years old at the time of his death, as a saint, making him at the time the youngest unmartyred saint in the Roman Catholic Church. In 2017, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged ten and nine at the time of their deaths, are declared saints.
1963 – NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers is murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith during the civil rights movement.
1964 – Anti-apartheid activist and ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for sabotage in South Africa.
1967 – The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all U.S. state laws which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional.
1975 – India, Judge Jagmohanlal Sinha of the city of Allahabad ruled that India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had used corrupt practices to win her seat in the Indian Parliament, and that she should be banned from holding any public office. Mrs. Gandhi sent word that she refused to resign.
1979 – Bryan Allen wins the second Kremer prize for a man powered flight across the English Channel in the Gossamer Albatross.
1987 – The Central African Republic’s former emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa is sentenced to death for crimes he had committed during his 13-year rule.
1987 – Cold War: At the Brandenburg Gate, U.S. President Ronald Reagan publicly challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
1988 – Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 46, a McDonnell Douglas MD-81, crashes short of the runway at Libertador General José de San Martín Airport, killing all 22 people on board.
1990 – Russia Day: The parliament of the Russian Federation formally declares its sovereignty.
1991 – Russians first democratically elected Boris Yeltsin as the President of Russia.
1991 – Kokkadichcholai massacre: The Sri Lankan Army massacres 152 minority Tamil civilians in the village of Kokkadichcholai near the eastern province town of Batticaloa.
1993 – An election takes place in Nigeria and is won by Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. Its results are later annulled by the military Government of Ibrahim Babangida.
1994 – Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman are murdered outside Simpson’s home in Los Angeles. Her estranged husband, O.J. Simpson is later charged with the murders, but is acquitted by a jury.
1997 – Queen Elizabeth II reopens the Globe Theatre in London.
1999 – Kosovo War: Operation Joint Guardian begins when a NATO-led United Nations peacekeeping force (KFor) enters the province of Kosovo in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
2009 – Analog television stations (excluding low-powered stations) switch to digital television following the DTV Delay Act.
2009 – A disputed presidential election in Iran leads to wide-ranging local and international protests.
2016 – Forty-nine civilians are killed and 58 others injured in an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida; the gunman, Omar Mateen, is killed in a gunfight with police.
2017 – American student Otto Warmbier returns home in a coma after spending 17 months in a North Korean prison and dies a week later.
2018 – United States President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un of North Korea held the first meeting between leaders of their two countries in Singapore.

Births on June 12

950 – Reizei, Japanese emperor (d. 1011)
1107 – Gao Zong, Chinese emperor (d. 1187)
1161 – Constance, Duchess of Brittany (d. 1201)
1519 – Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1574)
1561 – Anna of Württemberg, German princess (d. 1616)
1564 – John Casimir, Duke of Saxe-Coburg (d. 1633)
1573 – Robert Radclyffe, 5th Earl of Sussex, soldier (d. 1629)
1577 – Paul Guldin, Swiss astronomer and mathematician (d. 1643)
1580 – Adriaen van Stalbemt, Flemish painter (d. 1662)
1653 – Maria Amalia of Courland, Landgravine of Hesse-Kassel (d. 1711)
1686 – Marie-Catherine Homassel Hecquet, French writer (d. 1764)
1711 – Louis Legrand, French priest and theologian (d. 1780)
1760 – Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai, French author, playwright, journalist, and politician (d. 1797)
1771 – Patrick Gass, American sergeant (Lewis and Clark Expedition) and author (d. 1870)
1775 – Karl Freiherr von Müffling, Prussian field marshal (d. 1851)
1777 – Robert Clark, American physician and politician (d. 1837)
1795 – John Marston, American sailor (d. 1885)
1798 – Samuel Cooper, American general (d. 1876)
1800 – Samuel Wright Mardis, American politician (d. 1836)
1802 – Harriet Martineau, English sociologist and author (d. 1876)
1806 – John A. Roebling, German-American engineer, designed the Brooklyn Bridge (d. 1869)
1807 – Ante Kuzmanić, Croatian physician and journalist (d. 1879)
1812 – Edmond Hébert, French geologist and academic (d. 1890)
1819 – Charles Kingsley, English priest, historian, and author (d. 1875)
1827 – Johanna Spyri, Swiss author, best known for Heidi (d. 1901)
1831 – Robert Herbert, English-Australian politician, 1st Premier of Queensland (d. 1905)
1841 – Watson Fothergill, English architect, designed the Woodborough Road Baptist Church (d. 1928)
1843 – David Gill, Scottish-English astronomer and author (d. 1914)
1851 – Oliver Lodge, English physicist and academic (d. 1940)
1857 – Maurice Perrault, Canadian architect, engineer, and politician, 15th Mayor of Longueuil (d. 1909)
1858 – Harry Johnston, English botanist and explorer (d. 1927)
1858 – Henry Scott Tuke, English painter and photographer (d. 1929)
1861 – William Attewell, English cricketer and umpire (d. 1927)
1864 – Frank Chapman, American ornithologist, photographer, and author (d. 1945)
1877 – Thomas C. Hart, American admiral and politician (d. 1971)
1883 – Fernand Gonder, French pole vaulter (d. 1969)
1883 – Robert Lowie, Austrian-American anthropologist and academic (d. 1957)
1888 – Zygmunt Janiszewski, Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1920)
1890 – Egon Schiele, Austrian soldier and painter (d. 1918)
1892 – Djuna Barnes, American novelist, journalist, and playwright (d. 1982)
1895 – Eugénie Brazier, French chef (d. 1977)
1897 – Anthony Eden, English soldier and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1977)
1899 – Fritz Albert Lipmann, German-American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
1899 – Weegee, Ukrainian-American photographer and journalist (d. 1968)
1902 – Hendrik Elias, Belgian lawyer and politician, Mayor of Ghent (d. 1973)
1905 – Ray Barbuti, American sprinter and football player (d. 1988)
1906 – Sandro Penna, Italian poet (d. 1977)
1908 – Alphonse Ouimet, Canadian broadcaster (d. 1988)
1908 – Marina Semyonova, Russian ballerina and educator (d. 2010)
1908 – Otto Skorzeny, German SS officer (d. 1975)
1910 – Bill Naughton, Irish-English playwright and author (d. 1992)
1912 – Bill Cowley, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1993)
1912 – Carl Hovland, American psychologist and academic (d. 1961)
1913 – Jean Victor Allard, Canadian general (d. 1996)
1913 – Desmond Piers, Canadian admiral (d. 2005)
1914 – William Lundigan, American actor (d. 1975)
1914 – Go Seigen, Chinese-Japanese Go player (d. 2014)
1915 – Priscilla Lane, American actress (d. 1995)
1915 – Christopher Mayhew, English soldier and politician (d. 1997)
1915 – David Rockefeller, American banker and businessman (d. 2017)
1916 – Irwin Allen, American director and producer (d. 1991)
1916 – Raúl Héctor Castro, Mexican-American politician and diplomat, 14th Governor of Arizona (d. 2015)
1918 – Samuel Z. Arkoff, American film producer (d. 2001)
1918 – Georgia Louise Harris Brown, American architect (d. 1999)
1918 – Christie Jayaratnam Eliezer, Sri Lankan-Australian mathematician and academic (d. 2001)
1919 – Uta Hagen, German-American actress and educator (d. 2004)
1920 – Dave Berg, American soldier and cartoonist (d. 2002)
1920 – Peter Jones, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2000)
1921 – Luis García Berlanga, Spanish director and screenwriter (d. 2010)
1921 – Christopher Derrick, English author, critic, and academic (d. 2007)
1921 – James Archibald Houston, Canadian author and illustrator (d. 2005)
1922 – Margherita Hack, Italian astrophysicist and author (d. 2013)
1924 – George H. W. Bush, American lieutenant and politician, 41st President of the United States (d. 2018)
1924 – Grete Dollitz, German-American guitarist and radio host (d. 2013)
1928 – Vic Damone, American singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2018)
1928 – Petros Molyviatis, Greek politician and diplomat, Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs
1928 – Richard M. Sherman, American composer and director
1929 – Brigid Brophy, English author and critic (d. 1995)
1929 – Anne Frank, German-Dutch diarist; victim of the Holocaust (d. 1945)
1929 – Jameel Jalibi, Pakistani linguist and academic
1929 – John McCluskey, Baron McCluskey, Scottish lawyer, judge, and politician, Solicitor General for Scotland (d. 2017)
1930 – Jim Burke, Australian cricketer (d. 1979)
1930 – Donald Byrne, American chess player (d. 1976)
1930 – Innes Ireland, Scottish race car driver and engineer (d. 1993)
1930 – Jim Nabors, American actor and singer (d. 2017)
1931 – Trevanian, American author and scholar (d. 2005)
1931 – Rona Jaffe, American novelist (d. 2005)
1932 – Mimi Coertse, South African soprano and producer
1932 – Mamo Wolde, Ethiopian runner (d. 2002)
1933 – Eddie Adams, American photographer and journalist (d. 2004)
1934 – John A. Alonzo, American actor and cinematographer (d. 2001)
1934 – Kevin Billington, English director and producer
1935 – Ian Craig, Australian cricketer (d. 2014)
1935 – Paul Kennedy, English lawyer and judge
1937 – Vladimir Arnold, Russian-French mathematician and academic (d. 2010)
1937 – Klaus Basikow, German footballer and manager (d. 2015)
1937 – Antal Festetics, Hungarian-Austrian biologist and zoologist
1937 – Chips Moman, American record producer, guitarist, and songwriter (d. 2016)
1938 – Jean-Marie Doré, Guinean lawyer and politician, 11th Prime Minister of Guinea (d. 2016)
1938 – Tom Oliver, English-Australian actor
1939 – Ron Lynch, Australian rugby league player and coach
1939 – Frank McCloskey, American sergeant and politician (d. 2003)
1940 – Jacques Brassard, Canadian educator and politician
1941 – Marv Albert, American sportscaster
1941 – Chick Corea, American pianist and composer
1941 – Roy Harper, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1941 – Reg Presley, English singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
1941 – Lucille Roybal-Allard, American politician
1942 – Len Barry, American singer-songwriter and producer
1942 – Bert Sakmann, German physiologist and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
1945 – Pat Jennings, Irish footballer and coach
1946 – Michel Bergeron, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1946 – Bobby Gould, English footballer and manager
1946 – Catherine Bréchignac, French physicist and academic
1948 – Hans Binder, Austrian race car driver
1948 – Herbert Meyer, German footballer
1948 – Len Wein, American comic book writer and editor (d. 2017)
1949 – Jens Böhrnsen, German judge and politician
1949 – Marc Tardif, Canadian ice hockey player
1949 – John Wetton, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and producer (d. 2017)
1950 – Oğuz Abadan, Turkish singer-songwriter and guitarist
1950 – Michael Fabricant, English politician
1950 – Sonia Manzano, American actress of Puerto Rican descent, noted for playing Maria on Sesame Street
1950 – Bun E. Carlos, American drummer
1951 – Brad Delp, American musician and singer (d. 2007)
1951 – Andranik Margaryan, Armenian engineer and politician, 10th Prime Minister of Armenia (d. 2007)
1952 – Spencer Abraham, American academic and politician, 10th United States Secretary of Energy
1952 – Junior Brown, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist
1952 – Pete Farndon, English bass player and songwriter (d. 1983)
1953 – Rocky Burnette, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1954 – Tim Razzall, Baron Razzall, English lawyer and politician
1956 – Terry Alderman, Australian cricketer and sportscaster
1957 – Timothy Busfield, American actor, director, and producer
1957 – Javed Miandad, Pakistani cricketer and coach
1958 – Meredith Brooks, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1959 – John Linnell, American singer-songwriter and musician
1959 – Scott Thompson, Canadian actor and comedian
1960 – Joe Kopicki, American basketball player and coach
1962 – Jordan Peterson, Canadian psychologist, professor and cultural critic
1963 – Philippe Bugalski, French race car driver (d. 2012)
1963 – Warwick Capper, Australian footballer, coach, and actor
1963 – Tim DeKay, American actor
1963 – Jerry Lynn, American wrestler
1964 – Derek Higgins, Irish race car driver
1964 – Kent Jones, American journalist
1964 – Paula Marshall, American actress
1964 – Peter Such, Scottish-born, English cricketer
1965 – Adrian Toole, Australian rugby league player
1965 – Gwen Torrence, American sprinter
1965 – Cathy Tyson, English actress
1966 – Marc Glanville, Australian rugby league player
1966 – Tom Misteli, Swiss cell biologist
1967 – Aivar Kuusmaa, Estonian basketball player and coach
1967 – Frances O’Connor, English-Australian actress
1968 – Scott Aldred, American baseball player and coach
1968 – Htay Kywe, Burmese activist
1968 – Bobby Sheehan, American bass player and songwriter (d. 1999)
1969 – Zsolt Daczi, Hungarian guitarist (d. 2007)
1969 – Héctor Garza, Mexican wrestler (d. 2013)
1969 – Mathieu Schneider, American ice hockey player
1969 – Heinz-Christian Strache, Austrian politician
1971 – Mark Henry, American weightlifter and wrestler
1971 – Ryan Klesko, American baseball player
1971 – Jérôme Romain, Caribbean-Dominican triple jumper and coach
1973 – Jason Caffey, American basketball player and coach
1973 – Darryl White, Australian footballer
1974 – Flávio Conceição, Brazilian footballer
1974 – Hideki Matsui, Japanese baseball player
1974 – Jason Mewes, American actor and producer
1974 – Kerry Kittles, American basketball player
1975 – Bryan Alvarez, American wrestler and journalist
1975 – Stéphanie Szostak, French-American actress
1976 – Antawn Jamison, American basketball player and sportscaster
1976 – Ray Price, Zimbabwean cricketer
1976 – Thomas Sørensen, Danish footballer
1977 – Wade Redden, Canadian ice hockey player
1977 – Kenny Wayne Shepherd, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1978 – Lewis Moody, English rugby player
1979 – Dallas Clark, American football player
1979 – Martine Dugrenier, Canadian wrestler
1979 – Diego Milito, Argentine footballer
1979 – Robyn, Swedish singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer
1979 – Earl Watson, American basketball player and coach
1980 – Marco Bortolami, Italian rugby player
1980 – Larry Foote, American football player
1980 – Ifet Taljević, German footballer
1981 – Raitis Grafs, Latvian basketball player
1981 – Paul Hasleby, Australian footballer
1981 – Adriana Lima, Brazilian model and actress
1982 – Ben Blackwell, American drummer
1982 – Diem Brown, German-American journalist and activist (d. 2014)
1982 – Jason David, American football player
1982 – Shailaja Pujari, Indian weightlifter
1982 – James Tomlinson, English cricketer
1983 – Bryan Habana, South African rugby player
1983 – Alexander Pipa, German rugby player
1983 – Christine Sinclair, Canadian soccer player
1984 – James Kwalia, Kenyan-Qatari runner
1984 – Bruno Soriano, Spanish footballer
1985 – Blake Ross, American computer programmer, co-created Mozilla Firefox
1985 – Sam Thaiday, Australian rugby league player
1985 – Kendra Wilkinson, American model, actress, and author
1985 – Chris Young, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1986 – Salim Mehajer, Australian politician
1986 – Harry Taylor, Australian footballer
1987 – Seyi Ajirotutu, American football player
1987 – Antonio Barragán, Spanish footballer
1988 – Artūrs Bērziņš, Latvian basketball player
1988 – Eren Derdiyok, Swiss footballer
1988 – Mauricio Isla, Chilean footballer
1988 – Dave Melillo, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1988 – Dakota Morton, Canadian actor and radio host
1989 – Emma Eliasson, Swedish ice hockey player
1989 – Ibrahim Jeilan, Ethiopian runner
1990 – Jrue Holiday, American basketball player
1990 – Kevin López, Spanish runner
1990 – David Worrall, English footballer
1991 – Avisail García, Venezuelan baseball player
1992 – Philippe Coutinho, Brazilian footballer

Deaths on June 12

796 – Hisham I, Muslim emir (b. 757)
816 – Pope Leo III (b. 750)
918 – Æthelflæd, Mercian daughter of Alfred the Great (b. 870)
1020 – Lyfing, English archbishop (b. 999)
1036 – Tedald, Italian bishop (b. 990)
1144 – Al-Zamakhshari, Persian theologian (b. 1075)
1152 – Henry of Scotland, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon (b. 1114)
1266 – Henry II, Prince of Anhalt-Aschersleben (b. 1215)
1294 – John I of Brienne, Count of Eu
1418 – Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac (b. 1360)
1435 – John FitzAlan, 14th Earl of Arundel, English commander (b. 1408)
1478 – Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua (b. 1412)
1524 – Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, Spanish conquistador (b. 1465)
1560 – Ii Naomori, Japanese warrior (b. 1506)
1560 – Imagawa Yoshimoto, Japanese daimyō (b. 1519)
1565 – Adrianus Turnebus, French philologist and scholar (b. 1512)
1567 – Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich, English politician, Lord Chancellor of England (b. 1490)
1647 – Thomas Farnaby, English scholar and educator (b. 1575)
1668 – Charles Berkeley, 2nd Viscount Fitzhardinge, English politician (b. 1599)
1675 – Charles Emmanuel II, Duke of Savoy (b. 1634)
1734 – James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, French-English general and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire (b. 1670)
1758 – Prince Augustus William of Prussia (b. 1722)
1772 – Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, French explorer (b. 1724)
1778 – Philip Livingston, American merchant and politician (b. 1716)
1816 – Pierre Augereau, French general (b. 1757)
1818 – Egwale Seyon, Ethiopian emperor
1841 – Konstantinos Nikolopoulos, Greek composer, archaeologist, and philologist (b. 1786)
1900 – Lucretia Peabody Hale, American journalist and author (b. 1820)
1904 – Camille of Renesse-Breidbach (b. 1836)
1912 – Frédéric Passy, French economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1822)
1917 – Teresa Carreño, Venezuelan-American singer-songwriter, pianist, and conductor (b. 1853)
1932 – Theo Heemskerk, Dutch lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (b. 1852)
1937 – Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Russian general (b. 1893)
1944 – Erich Marcks, German general (b. 1891)
1946 – Médéric Martin, Canadian politician, mayor of Montreal (b. 1869)
1952 – Harry Lawson, Australian politician, 27th Premier of Victoria (b. 1875)
1957 – Jimmy Dorsey, American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader (The Dorsey Brothers and The California Ramblers) (b. 1904)
1962 – John Ireland, English composer and educator (b. 1879)
1963 – Medgar Evers, American soldier and activist (b. 1925)
1966 – Hermann Scherchen, German viola player and conductor (b. 1891)
1968 – Herbert Read, English poet and critic (b. 1893)
1969 – Aleksandr Deyneka, Ukrainian-Russian painter and sculptor (b. 1899)
1972 – Edmund Wilson, American critic, essayist, and editor (b. 1895)
1972 – Dinanath Gopal Tendulkar, Indian writer and documentary filmmaker (b. 1909)
1976 – Gopinath Kaviraj, Indian philosopher and scholar (b. 1887)
1978 – Guo Moruo, Chinese historian, author, and poet (b. 1892)
1978 – Georg Siimenson, Estonian footballer (b. 1912)
1980 – Billy Butlin, South African-English businessman, founded the Butlins Company (b. 1899)
1980 – Masayoshi Ōhira, Japanese politician, 68th Prime minister of Japan (b. 1910)
1980 – Milburn Stone, American actor (b. 1904)
1982 – Ian McKay, English sergeant, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1953)
1982 – Karl von Frisch, Austrian-German ethologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1886)
1983 – Norma Shearer, Canadian-American actress (b. 1902)
1989 – Bruce Hamilton, Australian public servant (b. 1911)
1990 – Terence O’Neill, Baron O’Neill of the Maine, English captain and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (b. 1914)
1994 – Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Russian-French rabbi and author (b. 1902)
1995 – Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Italian pianist (b. 1920)
1995 – Pierre Russell, American basketball player (b. 1949)
1997 – Bulat Okudzhava, Russian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1924)
1998 – Leo Buscaglia, American author and educator (b. 1924)
1998 – Theresa Merritt, American actress and singer (b. 1922)
1999 – J. F. Powers, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1917)
2000 – Purushottam Laxman Deshpande, Indian actor, director, and producer (b. 1919)
2000 – Sandro Rosa do Nascimento, Brazilian criminal (b. 1978)
2002 – Bill Blass, American fashion designer, founded Bill Blass Limited (b. 1922)
2002 – Zena Sutherland, American reviewer of children’s literature (b. 1915)
2003 – Gregory Peck, American actor and political activist (b. 1916)
2005 – Scott Young, Canadian journalist and author (b. 1918)
2006 – Nicky Barr, Australian rugby player and fighter pilot (b. 1915)
2006 – György Ligeti, Romanian-Hungarian composer and educator (b. 1923)
2006 – Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet, Canadian businessman and art collector (b. 1923)
2008 – Miroslav Dvořák, Czech ice hockey player (b. 1951)
2008 – Derek Tapscott, Welsh footballer and manager (b. 1932)
2010 – Al Williamson, American illustrator (b. 1931)
2011 – René Audet, Canadian bishop (b. 1920)
2011 – Carl Gardner, American singer (The Coasters) (b. 1928)
2012 – Hector Bianciotti, Argentinian-French journalist and author (b. 1930)
2012 – Henry Hill, American mobster (b. 1943)
2012 – Margarete Mitscherlich-Nielsen, Danish-German psychoanalyst and author (b. 1917)
2012 – Medin Zhega, Albanian footballer and manager (b. 1946)
2012 – Elinor Ostrom, American political scientist and economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1933)
2012 – Pahiño, Spanish footballer (b. 1923)
2012 – Frank Walker, Australian judge and politician, 41st Attorney General of New South Wales (b. 1942)
2013 – Teresita Barajuen, Spanish nun (b. 1908)
2013 – Jason Leffler, American race car driver (b. 1975)
2013 – Joseph A. Unanue, American sergeant and businessman (b. 1925)
2014 – Nabil Hemani, Algerian footballer (b. 1979)
2014 – Dan Jacobson, South African-English author and critic (b. 1929)
2014 – Frank Schirrmacher, German journalist (b. 1959)
2015 – Fernando Brant, Brazilian journalist, poet, and composer (b. 1946)
2015 – Frederick Pei Li, Chinese-American physician and academic (b. 1940)
2015 – Patrick Lennox Tierney, American historian and academic (b. 1914)
2016 – Omar Mateen, American mass murderer (b. 1986)
2016 – George Voinovich, American politician (b. 1936)
2016 – Janet Waldo, American actress and voice artist (b. 1920)

Holidays and observances on June 12

Chaco Armistice Day (Paraguay)
Christian feast day:
- 108 Martyrs of World War II
- Basilides, Cyrinus, Nabor and Nazarius
- Blessed Hildegard Burjan
- Enmegahbowh (Episcopal Church)
- Eskil
- First Ecumenical Council (Lutheran)
- Gaspar Bertoni
- John of Sahagún
- Onuphrius
- Pope Leo III
- Ternan
- June 12 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Dia dos Namorados (Brazil)
Helsinki Day (Finland)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Philippines from Spain in 1898.
June 12 Commemoration (Lagos State)
Loving Day (United States)
Russia Day (Russia)
World Day Against Child Labour, and its related observances:
- Children’s Day (Haiti)

June 12 – History, Events, Births, Deaths, Holidays and Observances On This Day Read More »

On This Day

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

On This Day / admin

455 – Sack of Rome: Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks.
1098 – First Crusade: The first Siege of Antioch ends as Crusader forces take the city; the second siege began five days later.
1615 – The first Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.
1676 – Franco-Dutch War: France ensured the supremacy of its naval fleet for the remainder of the war with its victory in the Battle of Palermo.
1692 – Bridget Bishop is the first person to be tried for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts; she was found guilty and later hanged.
1763 – Pontiac’s Rebellion: At what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas capture Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison’s attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort.
1774 – Intolerable Acts: The Quartering Act is enacted, allowing a governor in colonial America to house British soldiers in uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings if suitable quarters are not provided.
1793 – French Revolution: François Hanriot, leader of the Parisian National Guard, arrests 22 Girondists selected by Jean-Paul Marat, setting the stage for the Reign of Terror.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: A Franco-Spanish fleet recaptures Diamond Rock, an uninhabited island at the entrance to the bay leading to Fort-de-France, from the British.
1835 – P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the United States.
1848 – The Slavic congress in Prague begins.
1866 – The Fenians defeat Canadian forces at Ridgeway and Fort Erie, but the raids end soon after.
1896 – Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his wireless telegraph.
1909 – Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
1910 – Charles Rolls, a co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited, becomes the first man to make a non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane.
1919 – Anarchists simultaneously set off bombs in eight separate U.S. cities.
1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
1941 – World War II: German paratroopers murder Greek civilians in the villages of Kondomari and Alikianos.
1946 – Birth of the Italian Republic: In a referendum, Italians vote to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After the referendum, King Umberto II of Italy is exiled.
1953 – The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, who is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Her Other Realms and Territories & Head of the Commonwealth, the first major international event to be televised.
1955 – The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between both countries, discontinued since 1948.
1962 – During the FIFA World Cup, police had to intervene multiple times in fights between Chilean and Italian players in one of the most violent games in football history.
1964 – The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is formed.
1966 – Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft-land on another world.
1967 – Luis Monge is executed in Colorado’s gas chamber, in the last pre-Furman execution in the United States.
1967 – Protests in West Berlin against the arrival of the Shah of Iran turn into riots, during which Benno Ohnesorg is killed by a police officer. His death results in the founding of the terrorist group Movement 2 June.
1979 – Pope John Paul II starts his first official visit to his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.
1983 – After an emergency landing because of an in-flight fire, twenty-three passengers aboard Air Canada Flight 797 are killed when a flashover occurs as the plane’s doors open. Because of this incident, numerous new safety regulations are put in place.
1990 – The Lower Ohio Valley tornado outbreak spawns 66 confirmed tornadoes in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, killing 12.
1997 – In Denver, Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, in which 168 people died. He was executed four years later.
2003 – Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars. The European Space Agency’s Mars Express probe launches from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
2012 – Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the killing of demonstrators during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.
2014 – Telangana officially becomes the 29th state of India, formed from ten districts of northwestern Andhra Pradesh.

Births on June 2

1305 – Abu Sa’id Bahadur Khan, ruler of Ilkhanate (d. 1335)
1423 – Ferdinand I of Naples (d. 1494)
1489 – Charles, Duke of Vendôme (d. 1537)
1535 – Pope Leo XI (d. 1605)
1602 – Rudolf Christian, Count of East Frisia, Ruler of East Frisia (d. 1628)
1621 – Rutger von Ascheberg, Courland-born soldier in Swedish service (d. 1693)
1621 – (baptized) Isaac van Ostade, Dutch painter (d. 1649)
1638 – Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon (d. 1709)
1644 – William Salmon, English medical writer (d. 1713)
1739 – Jabez Bowen, American colonel and politician, 45th Deputy Governor of Rhode Island (d. 1815)
1740 – Marquis de Sade, French philosopher and politician (d. 1814)
1743 – Alessandro Cagliostro, Italian occultist and explorer (d. 1795)
1773 – John Randolph of Roanoke, American planter and politician, 8th United States Ambassador to Russia (d. 1833)
1774 – William Lawson, English-Australian explorer and politician (d. 1850)
1813 – Daniel Pollen, Irish-New Zealand politician, 9th Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1896)
1823 – Gédéon Ouimet, Canadian lawyer and politician, 2nd Premier of Quebec (d. 1905)
1835 – Pope Pius X (d. 1914)
1838 – Duchess Alexandra Petrovna of Oldenburg (d. 1900)
1840 – Thomas Hardy, English novelist and poet (d. 1928)
1840 – Émile Munier, French artist (d. 1895)
1857 – Edward Elgar, English composer and educator (d. 1934)
1857 – Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Danish author and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1919)
1861 – Concordia Selander, Swedish actress and manager (d. 1935)
1863 – Felix Weingartner, Croatian-Austrian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1942)
1865 – George Lohmann, English cricketer (d. 1901)
1865 – Adelaide Casely-Hayford, Sierra Leone Creole advocate and activist for cultural nationalism (d. 1960)
1869 – Jack O’Connor, American baseball player and manager (d. 1937)
1875 – Charles Stewart Mott, American businessman and politician, 50th Mayor of Flint, Michigan (d. 1973)
1878 – Wallace Hartley, English violinist and bandleader (d. 1912)
1881 – Walter Egan, American golfer (d. 1971)
1891 – Thurman Arnold, American lawyer and judge (d. 1969)
1891 – Takijirō Ōnishi, Japanese admiral and pilot (d. 1945)
1899 – Lotte Reiniger, German animator and director (d. 1981)
1899 – Edwin Way Teale, American environmentalist and photographer (d. 1980)
1904 – Frank Runacres, English painter and educator (d. 1974)
1904 – Johnny Weissmuller, Hungarian-American swimmer and actor (d. 1984)
1907 – Dorothy West, American journalist and author (d. 1998)
1907 – John Lehmann, English poet and publisher (d. 1987)
1910 – Hector Dyer, American sprinter (d. 1990)
1911 – Joe McCluskey, American runner (d. 2002)
1913 – Barbara Pym, English author (d. 1980)
1913 – Elsie Tu, English-Hong Kong educator and politician (d. 2015)
1914 – Johnny Bulla, American golfer (d. 2003)
1915 – Alexandru Nicolschi, Romanian spy (d. 1992)
1917 – Heinz Sielmann, German photographer and director (d. 2006)
1918 – Ruth Atkinson, Canadian-American illustrator (d. 1997)
1918 – Kathryn Tucker Windham, American journalist and author (d. 2011)
1919 – Nat Mayer Shapiro, American painter (d. 2005)
1920 – Frank G. Clement, American lawyer and politician, 41st Governor of Tennessee (d. 1969)
1920 – Yolande Donlan, American-English actress (d. 2014)
1920 – Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Polish-German author and critic (d. 2013)
1920 – Tex Schramm, American businessman (d. 2003)
1920 – Johnny Speight, English screenwriter and producer (d. 1998)
1921 – Betty Freeman, American photographer and philanthropist (d. 2009)
1921 – Ernie Royal, American trumpet player (d. 1983)
1921 – Sigmund Sternberg, Hungarian-English businessman and philanthropist (d. 2016)
1921 – András Szennay, Hungarian priest (d. 2012)
1922 – Juan Antonio Bardem, Spanish director and screenwriter (d. 2002)
1922 – Carmen Silvera, Canadian-English actress (d. 2002)
1923 – Lloyd Shapley, American mathematician and economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2016)
1924 – June Callwood, Canadian journalist, author, and activist (d. 2007)
1926 – Chiyonoyama Masanobu, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 41st Yokozuna (d. 1977)
1926 – Milo O’Shea, Irish-American actor (d. 2013)
1927 – W. Watts Biggers, American author, screenwriter, and animator (d. 2013)
1927 – Colin Brittan, English footballer (d. 2013)
1927 – Christopher Slade, English lawyer and judge
1928 – Erzsi Kovács, Hungarian singer (d. 2014)
1928 – Rafael A. Lecuona, Cuban-American gymnast and academic (d. 2014)
1928 – Ron Reynolds, English footballer (d. 1999)
1929 – Norton Juster, American architect, author, and academic
1929 – Ken McGregor, Australian tennis player (d. 2007)
1930 – Pete Conrad, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 1999)
1933 – Jerry Lumpe, American baseball player and coach (d. 2014)
1933 – Lew “Sneaky Pete” Robinson, drag racer (d. 1971)
1934 – Johnny Carter, American singer (d. 2009)
1935 – Carol Shields, American-Canadian novelist and short story writer (d. 2003)
1935 – Dimitri Kitsikis, Greek poet and educator
1936 – Volodymyr Holubnychy, Ukrainian race walker
1937 – Rosalyn Higgins, English lawyer and judge
1937 – Sally Kellerman, American actress
1937 – Jimmy Jones, American singer-songwriter (d. 2012)
1937 – Robert Paul, Canadian figure skater and choreographer
1937 – Deric Washburn, American screenwriter and playwright
1938 – Kevin Brownlow, English historian and author
1938 – George William Penrose, Lord Penrose, Scottish lawyer and judge
1939 – Charles Miller, American musician (d. 1980)
1939 – John Schlee, American golfer (d. 2000)
1940 – Constantine II of Greece
1941 – Ünal Aysal, Turkish businessman
1941 – Stacy Keach, American actor
1941 – Lou Nanne, Canadian-American ice hockey player and manager
1941 – Charlie Watts, English drummer, songwriter, and producer
1942 – Mike Ahern, Australian politician, 32nd Premier of Queensland
1943 – Charles Haid, American actor and director
1943 – Crescenzio Sepe, Italian cardinal
1944 – Robert Elliott, American actor (d. 2004)
1944 – Marvin Hamlisch, American composer and conductor (d. 2012)
1945 – Richard Long, English painter, sculptor, and photographer
1945 – Bonnie Newman, American businesswoman and politician
1946 – Lasse Hallström, Swedish director, producer, and screenwriter
1946 – Peter Sutcliffe, UK serial killer
1948 – Jerry Mathers, American actor
1949 – Heather Couper, English astronomer and physicist (d. 2020)
1949 – Frank Rich, American journalist and critic
1950 – Jonathan Evans, Welsh lawyer and politician
1950 – Joanna Gleason, Canadian actress and singer
1950 – Anne Phillips, English theorist and academic
1950 – Momčilo Vukotić, Serbian footballer and manager
1951 – Gilbert Baker, American artist, gay rights activist, and designer of the rainbow flag (d. 2017)
1951 – Arnold Mühren, Dutch footballer and manager
1951 – Larry Robinson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1951 – Alexander Wylie, Lord Kinclaven, Scottish lawyer, judge, and educator
1952 – Gary Bettman, American commissioner of the National Hockey League
1953 – Vidar Johansen, Norwegian saxophonist
1953 – Craig Stadler, American golfer
1953 – Cornel West, American philosopher, author, and academic
1954 – Dennis Haysbert, American actor and producer
1955 – Dana Carvey, American comedian and actor
1955 – Nandan Nilekani, Indian businessman, co-founded Infosys
1955 – Mani Ratnam, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter
1955 – Michael Steele, American singer-songwriter and bass player
1956 – Jan Lammers, Dutch race car driver
1957 – Mark Lawrenson, English footballer and manager
1958 – Lex Luger, American wrestler and football player
1959 – Rineke Dijkstra, Dutch photographer
1959 – Lydia Lunch, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actress
1959 – Erwin Olaf, Dutch photographer
1960 – Olga Bondarenko, Russian runner
1960 – Tony Hadley, English singer-songwriter and actor
1960 – Kyle Petty, American race car driver and sportscaster
1961 – Dez Cadena, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1962 – Mark Plaatjes, South African-American runner and coach
1963 – Anand Abhyankar, Indian actor (d. 2012)
1964 – Caroline Link, German director and screenwriter
1965 – Russ Courtnall, Canadian ice hockey player
1965 – Mark Waugh, Australian cricketer and journalist
1965 – Steve Waugh, Australian cricketer
1966 – Dayana Cadeau, Haitian born Canadian-American professional bodybuilder
1966 – Candace Gingrich, American activist
1966 – Pedro Guerra, Spanish singer-songwriter
1966 – Petra van Staveren, Dutch swimmer
1967 – Remigija Nazarovienė, Lithuanian heptathlete and coach
1967 – Mike Stanton, American baseball player
1968 – Merril Bainbridge, Australian singer-songwriter
1968 – Andy Cohen, American television host
1969 – Kurt Abbott, American baseball player
1969 – Paulo Sérgio, Brazilian footballer
1969 – David Wheaton, American tennis player, radio host, and author
1970 – B Real, American rapper and actor
1971 – Kateřina Jacques, Czech translator and politician
1972 – Wayne Brady, American actor, comedian, game show host, and singer
1972 – Raúl Ibañez, American baseball player
1972 – Wentworth Miller, American actor and screenwriter
1973 – Marko Kristal, Estonian footballer and manager
1973 – Neifi Pérez, Dominican-American baseball player
1974 – Gata Kamsky, Russian-American chess player
1974 – Matt Serra, American mixed martial artist
1975 – Salvatore Scibona, American author
1976 – Earl Boykins, American basketball player
1976 – Martin Čech, Czech ice hockey player (d. 2007)
1976 – Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Brazilian mixed martial artist and boxer
1976 – Tim Rice-Oxley, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1977 – Teet Allas, Estonian footballer
1977 – A.J. Styles, American wrestler
1977 – Zachary Quinto, American actor and producer
1978 – Dominic Cooper, English actor
1978 – Nikki Cox, American actress
1978 – Justin Long, American actor
1978 – Yi So-yeon, biotechnologist and astronaut, the first Korean in space
1978 – Luke Williamson, Australian rugby league player
1979 – Morena Baccarin, Brazilian-American actress
1979 – Butterfly Boucher, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1979 – Natalia Rodríguez, Spanish runner
1980 – Fabrizio Moretti, Brazilian-American drummer
1980 – Bobby Simmons, American basketball player
1980 – Richard Skuse, English rugby player
1980 – Abby Wambach, American soccer player and coach
1980 – Tomasz Wróblewski, Polish bass player and songwriter
1981 – Nikolay Davydenko, Russian tennis player
1981 – Chin-hui Tsao, Taiwanese baseball player
1982 – Jewel Staite, Canadian actress
1983 – Chris Higgins, American ice hockey player
1983 – Leela James, American singer-songwriter
1983 – Toni Livers, Swiss skier
1983 – Brooke White, American singer-songwriter and actress
1984 – Jack Afamasaga, New Zealand rugby league player
1984 – Max Boyer, Canadian wrestler
1984 – Feleti Mateo, Australian-Tongan rugby league player
1985 – Miyuki Sawashiro, Japanese voice actress and singer
1985 – Maggie Thrash, American graphic novelist and writer
1986 – Todd Carney, Australian rugby league player
1987 – Maryka Holtzhausen, South African netball player
1987 – Yoann Huget, French rugby player
1987 – Matthew Koma, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1987 – Angelo Mathews, Sri Lankan cricketer
1987 – Darin Zanyar, Swedish singer-songwriter
1987 – Sonakshi Sinha, Indian actress
1988 – Sergio Agüero, Argentinian footballer
1988 – Patrik Berglund, Swedish ice hockey player
1988 – Staniliya Stamenova, Bulgarian canoeist
1989 – Freddy Adu, Ghanaian-American footballer
1989 – Steve Smith, Australian cricketer
1990 – Jack Lowden, Scottish actor
1992 – Pajtim Kasami, Swiss footballer
1993 – Adam Taggart, Australian footballer
1994 – Mike Grzesiek, Esports player and streamer
1999 – Campbell Graham, Australian rugby league player
2000 – Lilimar Hernandez, Venezuelan actress

Deaths on June 2

657 – Pope Eugene I
891 – Al-Muwaffaq, Abbasid general (b. 842)
910 – Richilde of Provence (b. 845)
1200 – Bishop John of Oxford
1258 – Peter I, Count of Urgell
1292 – Rhys ap Maredudd, Welsh nobleman and rebel leader
1418 – Katherine of Lancaster, queen of Henry III of Castile
1453 – Álvaro de Luna, Duke of Trujillo, Constable of Castile
1567 – Shane O’Neill, head of the O’Neill dynasty in Ireland (b. 1530)
1572 – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk (b. 1536)
1581 – James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, Scottish soldier and politician, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (b. 1525)
1603 – Bernard of Wąbrzeźno, Roman Catholic priest (b. 1575)
1693 – John Wildman, English soldier and politician, Postmaster General of the United Kingdom (b. 1621)
1701 – Madeleine de Scudéry, French author (b. 1607)
1716 – Ogata Kōrin, Japanese painter and educator (b. 1658)
1754 – Ebenezer Erskine, Scottish minister and theologian (b. 1680)
1761 – Jonas Alströmer, Swedish businessman (b. 1685)
1785 – Jean Paul de Gua de Malves, French mathematician and academic (b. 1713)
1806 – William Tate, English painter (b. 1747)
1853 – Henry Trevor, 21st Baron Dacre, English general (b. 1777)
1865 – Ner Middleswarth, American judge and politician (b. 1783)
1875 – Józef Kremer, Polish psychologist, historian, and philosopher (b. 1806)
1881 – Émile Littré, French lexicographer and philosopher (b. 1801)
1882 – Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian general and politician (b. 1807)
1901 – George Leslie Mackay, Canadian missionary and author (b. 1844)
1927 – Hüseyin Avni Lifij, Turkish painter (b. 1886)
1929 – Enrique Gorostieta, Mexican general (b. 1889)
1933 – Frank Jarvis, American runner and triple jumper (b. 1878)
1937 – Louis Vierne, French organist and composer (b. 1870)
1941 – Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (b. 1903)
1942 – Bunny Berigan, American singer and trumpet player (b. 1908)
1947 – John Gretton, 1st Baron Gretton, English sailor and politician (b. 1867)
1948 – Viktor Brack, German physician (b. 1904)
1948 – Karl Brandt, German SS officer (b. 1904)
1948 – Karl Gebhardt, German physician (b. 1897)
1948 – Waldemar Hoven, German physician (b. 1903)
1948 – Wolfram Sievers, German SS officer (b. 1905)
1952 – Naum Torbov, Bulgarian architect, designed the Central Sofia Market Hall (b. 1880)
1956 – Jean Hersholt, Danish-American actor and director (b. 1886)
1959 – Lyda Borelli, Italian actress (b. 1884)
1961 – George S. Kaufman, American director, producer, and playwright (b. 1889)
1962 – Vita Sackville-West, English author and poet (b. 1892)
1967 – Benno Ohnesorg, German student and activist (b. 1940)
1968 – André Mathieu, Canadian pianist and composer (b. 1929)
1969 – Leo Gorcey, American actor (b. 1917)
1970 – Orhan Kemal, Turkish author (b. 1914)
1970 – Albert Lamorisse, French director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1922)
1970 – Bruce McLaren, New Zealand race car driver and engineer, founded the McLaren racing team (b. 1937)
1970 – Giuseppe Ungaretti, Italian soldier, journalist, and academic (b. 1888)
1974 – Hiroshi Kazato, Japanese race car driver (b. 1949)
1976 – Kenneth Mason, English soldier and geographer (b. 1887)
1976 – Juan José Torres, Bolivian general and politician, 61st President of Bolivia (b. 1920)
1977 – Albert Bittlmayer, German footballer (b. 1952)
1977 – Stephen Boyd, Northern Irish-born American actor (b. 1931)
1978 – Santiago Bernabéu Yeste, Spanish footballer and coach (b. 1895)
1979 – Jim Hutton, American actor (b. 1934)
1982 – Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani lawyer and politician, 5th President of Pakistan (b. 1904)
1983 – Stan Rogers, Canadian singer-songwriter (b. 1949)
1983 – Ray Stehr, Australian rugby league player and coach (b. 1913)
1986 – Aurèle Joliat, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1901)
1987 – Anthony de Mello, Indian-American priest and psychotherapist (b. 1931)
1987 – Sammy Kaye, American bandleader and songwriter (b. 1910)
1987 – Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (b. 1893)
1988 – Raj Kapoor, Indian actor, director, and producer (b. 1924)
1989 – Ted a’Beckett, Australian cricketer and footballer (b. 1907)
1990 – Jack Gilford, American actor and comedian (b. 1908)
1990 – Rex Harrison, English actor (b. 1908)
1991 – Ahmed Arif, Turkish poet and author (b. 1927)
1992 – Philip Dunne, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1908)
1993 – Johnny Mize, American baseball player, coach, and sportscaster (b. 1913)
1993 – Tahar Djaout, Algerian journalist, writer and poet (b. 1954)
1994 – David Stove, Australian philosopher, author, and academic (b. 1927)
1996 – John Alton, Hungarian-American cinematographer and director (b. 1901)
1996 – Leon Garfield, English author (b. 1921)
1996 – Ray Combs, American game show host (b. 1956)
1997 – Doc Cheatham, American trumpet player, singer, and bandleader (b. 1905)
1999 – Junior Braithwaite, Jamaican singer (b. 1949)
2000 – Svyatoslav Fyodorov, Russian ophthalmologist, academic, and politician (b. 1927)
2000 – John Schlee, American golfer (b. 1939)
2000 – Gerald James Whitrow, English mathematician, cosmologist, and historian (b. 1912)
2001 – Imogene Coca, American actress and comedian (b. 1908)
2001 – Joey Maxim, American boxer (b. 1922)
2002 – Hugo van Lawick, Dutch director and photographer (b. 1937)
2003 – Freddie Blassie, American wrestler and manager (b. 1918)
2003 – Alma Ricard, Canadian broadcaster and philanthropist (b. 1906)
2005 – Lucien Cliche, Canadian lawyer and politician (b. 1916)
2005 – Gunder Gundersen, Norwegian skier (b. 1930)
2005 – Samir Kassir, Lebanese journalist and educator (b. 1950)
2005 – Melita Norwood, English civil servant and spy (b. 1912)
2006 – Keith Smith, English rugby player and coach (b. 1952)
2007 – Kentarō Haneda, Japanese pianist and composer (b. 1949)
2007 – Huang Ju, Chinese engineer and politician, 1st Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China (b. 1938)
2008 – Bo Diddley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1928)
2008 – Mel Ferrer, American actor (b. 1917)
2008 – Cevher Özden, Turkish banker and businessman (b. 1933)
2009 – David Eddings, American author (b. 1931)
2012 – Avraham Botzer, Polish-Israeli commander (b. 1929)
2012 – Adolfo Calero, Nicaraguan businessman and political activist (b. 1931)
2012 – Richard Dawson, English-American soldier, actor, television personality, and game show host (b. 1932)
2012 – LeRoy Ellis, American basketball player (b. 1940)
2012 – Kathryn Joosten, American actress (b. 1939)
2012 – Jan Gmelich Meijling, Dutch commander and politician (b. 1943)
2013 – Mario Bernardi, Canadian pianist and conductor (b. 1930)
2013 – Chen Xitong, Chinese politician, 8th Mayor of Beijing (b. 1930)
2013 – Mandawuy Yunupingu, Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1956)
2014 – Ivica Brzić, Serbian footballer and manager (b. 1941)
2014 – Anjan Das, Indian director and producer (b. 1951)
2014 – Gennadi Gusarov, Russian footballer and manager (b. 1937)
2014 – Nikolay Khrenkov, Russian bobsledder (b. 1984)
2014 – Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy, Indian cardinal (b. 1924)
2014 – Kuaima Riruako, Namibian politician (b. 1935)
2014 – Alexander Shulgin, American pharmacologist and chemist (b. 1925)
2015 – Fernando de Araújo, East Timorese politician, President of East Timor (b. 1963)
2015 – Irwin Rose, American biologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1926)
2017 – Peter Sallis, English actor (b. 1921)

Holidays and observances on June 2

Children’s Day (North Korea)
Christian feast day:
- Alexander (martyr)
- Elmo
- Felix of Nicosia
- Marcellinus and Peter
- Martyrs of Lyon, including Blandina
- Pope Eugene I
- Pothinus
- June 2 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Civil Aviation Day (Azerbaijan)
Coronation of King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, also Social Forestry Day (Bhutan)
Day of Hristo Botev (Bulgaria)
Decoration Day (Canada)
Festa della Repubblica (Italy)
International Sex Workers Day
Telangana Day (Telangana, India)

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

On This Day

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

On This Day / admin

661 – The Rashidun Caliphate is effectively ended with the assassination of Ali, the last caliph.
945 – The co-emperors Stephen and Constantine are overthrown and forced to become monks by Constantine VII, who becomes the sole emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1500 – Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to set foot on Brazil.
1531 – The 6.4–7.1 M_w Lisbon earthquake kills about thirty thousand people.
1564 – The Council of Trent establishes an official distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
1564 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Tsardom of Russia in the Battle of Ula during the Livonian War.
1565 – Battle of Talikota, fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and the Deccan sultanates, leads to the subjugation, and eventual destruction of the last Hindu kingdom in India, and the consolidation of Islamic rule over much of the Indian subcontinent.
1699 – For the first time, the Ottoman Empire permanently cedes territory to the Christian powers.
1700 – The 8.7–9.2 M_w Cascadia earthquake takes place off the west coast of North America, as evidenced by Japanese records.
1736 – Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.
1788 – The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sails into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on Australia. Commemorated as Australia Day.
1808 – The Rum Rebellion is the only successful (albeit short-lived) armed takeover of the government in New South Wales.
1837 – Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.
1838 – Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States.
1841 – James Bremer takes formal possession of Hong Kong Island at what is now Possession Point, establishing British Hong Kong.
1855 – Point No Point Treaty is signed in Washington Territory.
1856 – First Battle of Seattle. Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after all day battle with settlers.
1861 – American Civil War: The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.
1863 – American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker.
1863 – American Civil War: Governor of Massachusetts John Albion Andrew receives permission from the Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.
1870 – Reconstruction Era: Virginia rejoins the Union.
1885 – Troops loyal to The Mahdi conquer Khartoum, killing the Governor-General Charles George Gordon.
1905 – The world’s largest diamond ever, the Cullinan weighing 3,106.75 carats (0.621350 kg), is found at the Premier Mine near Pretoria in South Africa.
1911 – Glenn Curtiss flies the first successful American seaplane.
1915 – The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.
1918 – Finnish Civil War: A group of Red Guards hangs a red lantern atop the tower of Helsinki Workers’ Hall to symbolically mark the start of the war.
1920 – Former Ford Motor Company executive Henry Leland launches the Lincoln Motor Company which he later sold to his former employer.
1926 – The first demonstration of the television by John Logie Baird.
1930 – The Indian National Congress declares 26 January as Independence Day or as the day for Poorna Swaraj (“Complete Independence”) which occurred 17 years later.
1934 – The Apollo Theater reopens in Harlem, New York City.
1934 – German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact is signed.
1939 – Spanish Civil War: Catalonia Offensive: Troops loyal to nationalist General Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.
1942 – World War II: The first United States forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
1945 – World War II: The Red Army begins encircling the German Fourth Army near Heiligenbeil in East Prussia, which will end in destruction of the 4th Army two months later.
1945 – World War II: Audie Murphy displays valor and bravery in action for which he will later be awarded the Medal of Honor.
1949 – The Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory sees first light under the direction of Edwin Hubble, becoming the largest aperture optical telescope (until BTA-6 is built in 1976).
1950 – The Constitution of India comes into force, forming a republic. Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first President of India. Observed as Republic Day in India.
1952 – Black Saturday in Egypt: rioters burn Cairo’s central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
1956 – the Soviet Union cedes Porkkala back to Finland.
1961 – John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be the first woman Physician to the President.
1962 – Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. The space probe later misses the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
1965 – Hindi becomes the official language of India.
1972 – JAT Fight 367 is destroyed by a terrorist bomb, killing 27 of the 28 people on board the DC-9. Flight attendant Vesna Vulović survives with critical injuries.
1980 – Egypt–Israel relations are formally established.
1986 – The Ugandan government of Tito Okello is overthrown by the National Resistance Army, led by Yoweri Museveni.
1991 – Mohamed Siad Barre is removed from power in Somalia, ending centralized government, and is succeeded by Ali Mahdi.
1992 – Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.
1998 – Lewinsky scandal: On American television, U.S. President Bill Clinton denies having had “sexual relations” with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
2001 – The 7.7 M_w Gujarat earthquake shakes Western India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 13,805–20,023 dead and about 166,800 injured.
2009 – Rioting breaks out in Antananarivo, Madagascar, sparking a political crisis that will result in the replacement of President Marc Ravalomanana with Andry Rajoelina.
2015 – An aircraft crashes at Los Llanos Air Base in Albacete, Spain, killing 11 people and injuring 21 others.
2020 – A Sikorsky S-76B flying from John Wayne Airport to Camarillo Airport crashes in Calabasas, 30 miles west of Los Angeles, killing all nine people on board including former five time NBA champion Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant.

Births on January 26

183 – Lady Zhen, wife of Cao Pi (d. 221)
1436 – Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, Lancastrian military commander (d. 1464)
1467 – Guillaume Budé, French scholar (d. 1540)
1495 – Emperor Go-Nara of Japan (d. 1557)
1541 – Florent Chrestien, French poet and translator (d. 1596)
1549 – Jakob Ebert, German theologian (d. 1614)
1582 – Giovanni Lanfranco, Italian painter (d. 1647)
1595 – Antonio Maria Abbatini, Italian composer (d. 1679)
1624 – George William, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1705)
1657 – William Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1737)
1708 – William Hayes, English organist, composer, and conductor (d. 1777)
1714 – Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor and educator (d. 1785)
1715 – Claude Adrien Helvétius, French philosopher (d. 1771)
1716 – George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, English general and politician, Secretary of State for the Colonies (d. 1785)
1722 – Alexander Carlyle, Scottish minister and author (d. 1805)
1763 – Charles XIV John of Sweden (d. 1844)
1781 – Ludwig Achim von Arnim, German poet and author (d. 1831)
1813 – Juan Pablo Duarte, Dominican philosopher and poet (d. 1876)
1824 – Emil Czyrniański, Polish chemist (d. 1888)
1832 – George Shiras, Jr., American lawyer and jurist (d. 1924)
1842 – François Coppée, French poet and author (d. 1908)
1852 – Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, Italian-French explorer (d. 1905)
1857 – 12th Dalai Lama (d. 1875)
1861 – Louis Anquetin, French painter (d. 1932)
1864 – József Pusztai, Slovene-Hungarian poet and journalist (d. 1934)
1866 – John Cady, American golfer (d. 1933)
1877 – Kees van Dongen, Dutch painter (d. 1968)
1878 – Dave Nourse, English-South African cricketer and coach (d. 1948)
1880 – Douglas MacArthur, American general, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1964)
1885 – Michael Considine, Irish-Australian politician (d. 1959)
1885 – Harry Ricardo, English engineer and academic (d. 1974)
1885 – Per Thorén, Swedish figure skater (d. 1962)
1887 – François Faber, French-Luxembourgian cyclist (d. 1915)
1887 – Marc Mitscher, American admiral and pilot (d. 1947)
1887 – Dimitris Pikionis, Greek architect and academic (d. 1968)
1891 – Frank Costello, Italian-American mob boss (d. 1973)
1891 – August Froehlich, German priest and martyr (d. 1942)
1891 – Wilder Penfield, American-Canadian neurosurgeon and academic (d. 1976)
1892 – Bessie Coleman, American pilot (d. 1926)
1893 – Giuseppe Genco Russo, Italian mob boss (d. 1976)
1899 – Günther Reindorff, Russian-Estonian graphic designer and illustrator (d. 1974)
1900 – Karl Ristenpart, German conductor (d. 1967)
1902 – Menno ter Braak, Dutch author (d. 1940)
1904 – Ancel Keys, American physiologist and nutritionist (d. 2004)
1904 – Seán MacBride, Irish lawyer and politician, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)
1905 – Charles Lane, American actor and singer (d. 2007)
1905 – Maria von Trapp, Austrian-American singer (d. 1987)
1907 – Henry Cotton, English golfer (d. 1987)
1907 – Dimitrios Holevas, Greek priest and philologist (d. 2001)
1908 – Jill Esmond, English actress (d. 1990)
1908 – Rupprecht Geiger, German painter and sculptor (d. 2009)
1908 – Stéphane Grappelli, French violinist (d. 1997)
1910 – Jean Image, Hungarian-French animator, director, and screenwriter (d. 1989)
1911 – Polykarp Kusch, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
1911 – Norbert Schultze, German composer and conductor (d. 2002)
1913 – Jimmy Van Heusen, American pianist and composer (d. 1990)
1914 – Dürrüşehvar Sultan, Imperial Princess of the Ottoman Empire (d. 2006)
1915 – William Hopper, American actor (d. 1970)
1917 – Louis Zamperini, American runner and captain (d. 2014)
1918 – Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romanian dictator, 1st President of Romania (d. 1989)
1918 – Philip José Farmer, American author (d. 2009)
1919 – Valentino Mazzola, Italian footballer (d. 1949)
1919 – Bill Nicholson, English footballer and manager (d. 2004)
1919 – Hyun Soong-jong, South Korean politician, 24th Prime Minister of South Korea (d. 2020)
1920 – Hans Holzer, Austrian-American paranormal researcher and author (d. 2009)
1921 – Eddie Barclay, French record producer, founded Barclay Records (d. 2005)
1921 – Akio Morita, Japanese businessman, co-founded Sony (d. 1999)
1922 – Michael Bentine, English actor and screenwriter (d. 1996)
1922 – Seán Flanagan, Irish footballer and politician, 7th Irish Minister for Health (d. 1993)
1922 – Gil Merrick, English footballer (d. 2010)
1923 – Patrick J. Hannifin, American admiral (d. 2014)
1923 – Anne Jeffreys, American actress and singer (d. 2017)
1924 – Alice Babs, Swedish singer and actress (b. 1924)
1924 – Annette Strauss, American philanthropist and politician, Mayor of Dallas (d. 1998)
1925 – David Jenkins, English bishop and theologian (d. 2016)
1925 – Joan Leslie, American actress (d. 2015)
1925 – Paul Newman, American actor, activist, director, race car driver, and businessman, co-founded Newman’s Own (d. 2008)
1925 – Ben Pucci, American football player and sportscaster (d. 2013)
1925 – Claude Ryan, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 2004)
1926 – Farman Fatehpuri, Pakistani linguist and scholar (d. 2013)
1926 – Joseph Bacon Fraser, Jr., American architect and businessman, co-founded the Sea Pines Company (d. 2014)
1927 – José Azcona del Hoyo, Honduran businessman and politician, President of Honduras (d. 2005)
1927 – Bob Nieman, American baseball player and scout (d. 1985)
1927 – Hubert Schieth, German footballer and manager (d. 2013)
1928 – Roger Vadim, French actor and director (d. 2000)
1929 – Jules Feiffer, American cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter, and educator
1934 – Roger Landry, Canadian businessman and publisher (d. 2020)
1934 – Charles Marowitz, American director, playwright, and critic (d. 2014)
1934 – Huey “Piano” Smith, American pianist and songwriter
1934 – Bob Uecker, American baseball player, sportscaster and actor
1935 – Corrado Augias, Italian journalist and politician
1935 – Henry Jordan, American football player (d. 1977)
1935 – Paula Rego, Portuguese-born British visual artist
1936 – Sal Buscema, American illustrator
1937 – Joseph Saidu Momoh, Sierra Leonean soldier and politician, 2nd President of Sierra Leone (d. 2003)
1937 – Francisco Gonzales, former 1960 Summer Olympics yachting team member and murderer
1938 – Henry Jaglom, English-American director and screenwriter
1940 – Séamus Hegarty, Irish bishop
1940 – Frank Large, English footballer, centre forward and cricketer (d. 2003)
1943 – César Gutiérrez, Venezuelan baseball player and manager (d. 2005)
1943 – Jack Warner, Trinidadian businessman and politician
1944 – Angela Davis, American activist, academic, and author
1944 – Jerry Sandusky, American football coach and criminal
1945 – Jacqueline du Pré, English cellist (d. 1987)
1945 – David Purley, English race car driver (d. 1985)
1946 – Christopher Hampton, Portuguese-English director, screenwriter, and playwright
1946 – Gene Siskel, American journalist and film critic (d. 1999)
1946 – Susan Friedlander, American mathematician
1947 – Patrick Dewaere, French actor and composer (d. 1982)
1947 – Les Ebdon, English chemist and academic
1947 – Redmond Morris, 4th Baron Killanin, Irish director, producer, and production manager
1947 – Michel Sardou, French singer-songwriter and actor
1948 – Alda Facio, Costa Rican jurist, writer and teacher
1949 – Jonathan Carroll, American author
1949 – David Strathairn, American actor
1950 – Jörg Haider, Austrian lawyer and politician, Governor of Carinthia (d. 2008)
1951 – David Briggs, Australian guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1951 – Andy Hummel, American singer-songwriter and bass player (d. 2010)
1951 – Anne Mills, English economist and academic
1953 – Alik L. Alik, Micronesian politician, 7th Vice President of the Federated States of Micronesia
1953 – Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Danish politician and diplomat, 39th Prime Minister of Denmark
1953 – Lucinda Williams, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1954 – Kim Hughes, Australian cricketer
1955 – Eddie Van Halen, Dutch-American guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1957 – Road Warrior Hawk, American wrestler (d. 2003)
1958 – Anita Baker, American singer-songwriter
1958 – Ellen DeGeneres, American comedian, actress, and talk show host
1961 – Wayne Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1961 – Tom Keifer, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1962 – Guo Jian, Chinese-Australian painter, sculptor, and photographer
1962 – Tim May, Australian cricketer
1962 – Oscar Ruggeri, Argentinian footballer and manager
1963 – José Mourinho, Portuguese footballer and manager
1963 – Simon O’Donnell, Australian footballer, cricketer, and sportscaster
1963 – Tony Parks, English footballer and manager
1963 – Andrew Ridgeley, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1964 – Adam Crozier, Scottish businessman
1965 – Thomas Östros, Swedish businessman and politician
1965 – Natalia Yurchenko, Russian gymnast and coach
1966 – Kazushige Nagashima, Japanese baseball player and sportscaster
1967 – Anatoly Komm, Russian chef and businessman
1967 – Col Needham, English businessman, co-founded Internet Movie Database
1968 – Jupiter Apple, Brazilian singer-songwriter, film director, and actor (d. 2015)
1969 – George Dikeoulakos, Greek-Romanian basketball player and coach
1970 – Kirk Franklin, American singer-songwriter and producer
1973 – Larissa Lowing, Canadian artistic gymnast
1973 – Melvil Poupaud, French actor, director, and screenwriter
1973 – Brendan Rodgers, Northern Irish footballer and manager
1973 – Mayu Shinjo, Japanese author and illustrator
1977 – Vince Carter, American basketball player
1977 – Justin Gimelstob, American tennis player and coach
1978 – Corina Morariu, American tennis player and sportscaster
1981 – José de Jesús Corona, Mexican footballer
1981 – Gustavo Dudamel, Venezuelan violinist, composer, and conductor
1981 – Juan José Haedo, Argentinian cyclist
1981 – Colin O’Donoghue, Irish actor
1982 – Reggie Hodges, American football player
1983 – Petri Oravainen, Finnish footballer
1983 – Eric Werner, American ice hockey player
1984 – Ryan Hoffman, Australian rugby league player
1984 – Iain Turner, Scottish footballer
1984 – Luo Xuejuan, Chinese swimmer
1985 – Heather Stanning, English rower
1986 – Gerald Green, American basketball player
1986 – Kim Jae-joong, South Korean singer, songwriter, actor, director and designer.
1986 – Mustapha Yatabaré, French-Malian footballer
1987 – Sebastian Giovinco, Italian footballer
1988 – Dimitrios Chondrokoukis, Greek high jumper
1989 – MarShon Brooks, American basketball player
1989 – Emily Hughes, American figure skater
1990 – Sergio Pérez, Mexican race car driver
1990 – Peter Sagan, Slovak professional cyclist
1990 – Nina Zander, German tennis player
1991 – Tom Meechan, English footballer
1992 – Sasha Banks, American professional wrestler
1993 – Lana Clelland, Scottish footballer
1993 – Florian Thauvin, French footballer
1995 – Sione Katoa, New Zealand rugby league player
1997 – Gedion Zelalem, German-born American soccer player
2001 – Latalia Bevan, Welsh artistic gymnast

Deaths on January 26

724 – Yazid II, Umayyad caliph (b. 687)
738 – John of Dailam, Syrian monk and saint (b. 660)
910 – Luo Yin, Chinese statesman and poet
946 – Eadgyth, Queen consort of Germany (b.c 910)
1186 – Ismat ad-Din Khatun, wife of Saladin
1390 – Adolph IX, Count of Holstein-Kiel (b.c 1327)
1567 – Nicholas Wotton, English courtier and diplomat (b. 1497)
1568 – Lady Catherine Grey, Countess of Hertford (b. 1540)
1620 – Amar Singh I, ruler of Mewar (b. 1559)
1630 – Henry Briggs, English mathematician and astronomer (b. 1556)
1636 – Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul, French diplomat (b. 1552)
1641 – Lawrence Hyde, English lawyer (b. 1562)
1697 – Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician and theorist (b. 1640)
1744 – Ludwig Andreas von Khevenhüller, Austrian field marshal (b. 1683)
1750 – Albert Schultens, Dutch philologist and academic (b. 1686)
1779 – Thomas Hudson, English painter (b. 1701)
1795 – Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German harpsichord player and composer (b. 1732)
1799 – Gabriel Christie, Scottish general (b. 1722)
1823 – Edward Jenner, English physician and immunologist (b. 1749)
1824 – Théodore Géricault, French painter and lithographer (b. 1791)
1831 – Sangolli Rayanna, Indian soldier (b. 1798)
1831 – Anton Delvig, Russian poet and journalist (b. 1798)
1849 – Thomas Lovell Beddoes, English poet, playwright, and physician (b. 1803)
1855 – Gérard de Nerval, French poet and translator (b. 1808)
1860 – Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, opera singer (b. 1804)
1869 – Duncan Gordon Boyes, English soldier; Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1846)
1870 – Victor de Broglie, French politician, 9th Prime Minister of France (b. 1785)
1885 – Edward Davy, English-Australian physician and engineer (b. 1806)
1885 – Charles George Gordon, English general and politician (b. 1833)
1886 – David Rice Atchison, American general and politician (b. 1807)
1887 – Anandi Gopal Joshi, One of the first female Indian physicians (b. 1865)
1891 – Nicolaus Otto, German engineer, invented the Internal combustion engine (b. 1833)
1893 – Abner Doubleday, American general (b. 1819)
1895 – Arthur Cayley, English mathematician and academic (b. 1825)
1904 – Whitaker Wright, English businessman (b. 1846)
1926 – John Flannagan, American priest and academic (b. 1860)
1932 – William Wrigley, Jr., American businessman, founded the Wrigley Company (b. 1861)
1942 – Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician and academic (b. 1868)
1943 – Harry H. Laughlin, American sociologist and eugenicist (b. 1880)
1943 – Nikolai Vavilov, Russian botanist and geneticist (b. 1887)
1946 – Oskar Kallas, Estonian linguist and diplomat (b. 1868)
1946 – Adriaan van Maanen, Dutch-American astronomer and academic (b. 1884)
1947 – Grace Moore, American soprano and actress (b. 1898)
1948 – Kâzım Karabekir, Turkish general and politician, 5th Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (b. 1882)
1948 – Fred Conrad Koch, American biochemist and endocrinologist (born 1876)
1948 – John Lomax, American musicologist and academic (b. 1867)
1952 – Khorloogiin Choibalsan, Mongolian general and politician, 12th Prime Minister of Mongolia (b. 1895)
1953 – Athanase David, Canadian lawyer and politician (b. 1882)
1957 – Helene Costello, American actress (b. 1906)
1962 – Lucky Luciano, Italian-American mob boss (b. 1897)
1968 – Merrill C. Meigs, American publisher (b. 1883)
1973 – Edward G. Robinson, Romanian-American actor (b. 1893)
1975 – Donald Sheldon, American bush pilot (b. 1921)
1976 – João Branco Núncio, Portuguese bullfighter (b. 1901)
1977 – Filopimin Finos, Greek production manager and producer, founded Finos Film (b. 1908)
1979 – Nelson Rockefeller, American businessman and politician, 41st Vice President of the United States (b. 1908)
1980 – Simon Kapwepwe, Zambian politician, 2nd Vice President of Zambia (b. 1922)
1983 – Bear Bryant, American football player and coach (b. 1913)
1985 – Kenny Clarke, American jazz drummer and bandleader (b. 1914)
1990 – Bob Gerard, English race car driver and businessman (b. 1914)
1990 – Lewis Mumford, American sociologist and historian (b. 1895)
1992 – José Ferrer, Puerto Rican-American actor (b. 1912)
1993 – Jan Gies, Dutch businessman and humanitarian (b. 1905)
1993 – Robert Jacobsen, Danish sculptor and painter (b. 1912)
1993 – Jeanne Sauvé, Canadian journalist and politician, 23rd Governor General of Canada (b. 1922)
1996 – Georg Alexander, Duke of Mecklenburg (b. 1921)
1996 – Harold Brodkey, American author and academic (b. 1930)
1996 – Frank Howard, American football player and coach (b. 1909)
1996 – Henry Lewis, American bassist and conductor (b. 1932)
1997 – Jeane Dixon, American astrologer and psychic (b. 1904)
2000 – Don Budge, American tennis player and coach (b. 1915)
2000 – Kathleen Hale, English author and illustrator (b. 1898)
2000 – A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-American author (b. 1912)
2001 – Al McGuire, American basketball player and coach (b. 1928)
2003 – Valeriy Brumel, Russian high jumper (b. 1942)
2003 – Hugh Trevor-Roper, English historian and academic (b. 1917)
2003 – George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, Scottish banker and politician, Secretary of State for Scotland (b. 1931)
2004 – Fred Haas, American golfer (b. 1916)
2006 – Khan Abdul Wali Khan, Pakistani politician (b. 1917)
2007 – Gump Worsley, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1929)
2008 – Viktor Schreckengost, American sculptor and designer (b. 1906)
2010 – Louis Auchincloss, American novelist and essayist (b. 1917)
2011 – David Kato Kisule, Ugandan teacher and LGBT rights activist, considered a father of Uganda’s gay rights movement (b. 1964)
2011 – Charlie Louvin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1927)
2012 – Roberto Mieres, Argentinian race car driver (b. 1924)
2013 – Christine M. Jones, American educator and politician (b. 1929)
2013 – Stefan Kudelski, Polish-Swiss engineer, invented the Nagra (b. 1929)
2013 – Padma Kant Shukla, Indian physicist and academic (b. 1950)
2013 – Shōtarō Yasuoka, Japanese author (b. 1920)
2014 – Tom Gola, American basketball player, coach, and politician (b. 1933)
2014 – Paula Gruden, Slovenian-Australian poet and translator (b. 1921)
2014 – José Emilio Pacheco, Mexican poet and author (b. 1939)
2014 – Ralph T. Troy, American banker and politician (b. 1935)
2015 – Cleven “Goodie” Goudeau, American art director and cartoonist (b. 1932)
2015 – Tom Uren, Australian soldier and politician (b. 1921)
2016 – Sahabzada Yaqub Khan, Pakistani politician and diplomat, 14th Pakistani Minister of Foreign Affairs (b. 1920)
2016 – Abe Vigoda, American actor (b. 1921)
2017 – Mike Connors, American actor (b. 1925)
2017 – Tam Dalyell, Scottish politician (b. 1932)
2017 – Lindy Delapenha, Jamaican footballer and sports journalist (b. 1927)
2017 – Barbara Hale, American actress (b. 1922)
2020 – John Altobelli, American college baseball coach (b. 1963)
2020 – Kobe Bryant, American basketball player (b. 1978)

Holidays and observances on January 26

Christian feast day:
- Alberic
- Founders of Cîteaux (Alberic of Cîteaux, Robert of Molesme, Stephen Harding)
- Blessed Gabriele Allegra
- Paula
- Timothy and Titus
- January 26 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Australia Day (Australia)
Duarte Day (Dominican Republic)
Engineer’s Day (Panama)
International Customs Day
Liberation Day (Uganda)
Republic Day (India)

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

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

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