180 – Twelve inhabitants of Scillium (near Kasserine, modern-day Tunisia) in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.
1048 – Damasus II is elected pope.
1203 – The Fourth Crusade captures Constantinople by assault. The Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos flees from his capital into exile.
1402 – Zhu Di, better known by his era name as the Yongle Emperor, assumes the throne over the Ming dynasty of China.
1429 – Hundred Years’ War: Charles VII of France is crowned the King of France in the Reims Cathedral after a successful campaign by Joan of Arc.
1453 – Battle of Castillon: The last battle of Hundred Years’ War, the French under Jean Bureau defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed in the battle in Gascony.
1717 – King George I of Great Britain sails down the River Thames with a barge of 50 musicians, where George Frideric Handel’s Water Music is premiered.
1762 – Catherine II becomes tsar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia.
1771 – Bloody Falls massacre: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee, traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his Arctic overland journey, massacres a group of unsuspecting Inuit.
1791 – Members of the French National Guard under the command of General Lafayette open fire on a crowd of radical Jacobins at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution, killing scores of people.
1794 – The 16 Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne are executed ten days prior to the end of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror.
1867 – Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the first dental school in the U.S. that is affiliated with a university.
1821: The Kingdom of Spain cedes the territory of Florida to the United States.
1899 – NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
1902 – Willis Carrier creates the first air conditioner in Buffalo, New York.
1917 – King George V issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British Royal Family will bear the surname Windsor.
1918 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are executed by Bolshevik Chekists at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
1918 – The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, is sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55; five lives are lost.
1932 – Altona Bloody Sunday: A riot between the Nazi Party paramilitary forces, the SS and SA, and the German Communist Party ensues.
1936 – Spanish Civil War: An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the civil war.
1938 – Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the “wrong way” to Ireland and becomes known as “Wrong Way” Corrigan.
1944 – Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320.
1944 – World War II: At Sainte-Foy-de-Montgommery. in Normandy Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was strafed by allied aircraft while returning to his headquarters.
1945 – World War II: The main three leaders of the Allied nations, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
1953 – The largest number of United States midshipman casualties in a single event results from an aircraft crash in Florida, killing 44.
1955 – Disneyland is dedicated and opened by Walt Disney in Anaheim, California.
1962 – Nuclear weapons testing: The “Small Boy” test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada National Security Site.
1968 – Abdul Rahman Arif is overthrown and the Ba’ath Party is installed as the governing power in Iraq with Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as the new Iraqi President.
1973 – King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan, while having surgery in Italy, is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan.
1975 – Apollo–Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations.
1976 – East Timor is annexed, and becomes the 27th province of Indonesia.
1976 – The opening of the Summer Olympics in Montreal is marred by 25 African teams boycotting the games because of New Zealand’s participation. Contrary to rulings by other international sports organizations, the IOC had declined to exclude New Zealand because of their participation in South African sporting events during apartheid.
1979 – Nicaraguan dictator General Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami, Florida, United States.
1981 – A structural failure leads to the collapse of a walkway at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri, killing 114 people and injuring more than 200.
1984 – The national drinking age in the United States was changed from 18 to 21.
1985 – Founding of the EUREKA Network by former head of states François Mitterrand (France) and Helmut Kohl (Germany).
1989 – First flight of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.
1989 – Holy See–Poland relations are restored.
1996 – TWA Flight 800: Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound TWA Boeing 747 explodes, killing all 230 on board.
1998 – The 7.0 Mw Papua New Guinea earthquake triggers a tsunami that destroys ten villages in Papua New Guinea, killing up to 2,700 people, and leaving several thousand injured.
1998 – A diplomatic conference adopts the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, establishing a permanent international court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
2000 – During approach to Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Airport, Alliance Air Flight 7412 suddenly crashes into a residential neighborhood in Patna, killing 60 people.
2001 – Concorde is brought back into service nearly a year after the July 2000 crash.
2006 – The 7.7 Mw Pangandaran tsunami earthquake severely affects the Indonesian island of Java, killing 668 people, and leaving more than 9,000 injured.
2007 – TAM Airlines Flight 3054, an Airbus A320, crashes into a warehouse after landing too fast and missing the end of the São Paulo–Congonhas Airport runway, killing 199 people.
2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777, crashes near the border of Ukraine and Russia after being shot down. All 298 people on board are killed.
2014 – A French regional train on the Pau-Bayonne line crashes into a high-speed train near the town of Denguin, resulting in at least 25 injuries.
2015 – At least 120 people are killed and 130 injured by a suicide bombing in Diyala Governorate, Iraq.
2018 – 12 new moons are discovered orbiting. Jupiter
Births on July 17
1487 – Ismail I of Iran (d. 1524)
1499 – Maria Salviati, Italian noblewoman (d. 1543)
1531 – Antoine de Créqui Canaples, Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1574)
1674 – Isaac Watts, English hymnwriter and theologian (d. 1748)
1695 – Christian Karl Reinhard of Leiningen-Dachsburg-Falkenburg-Heidesheim (d. 1766)
1698 – Pierre Louis Maupertuis, French mathematician and philosopher (d. 1759)
1708 – Frederick Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (d. 1769)
1714 – Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, German philosopher and academic (d. 1762)
1744 – Elbridge Gerry, American merchant and politician, 5th Vice President of the United States (d. 1814)
1763 – John Jacob Astor, German-American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1848)
1774 – John Wilbur, American minister and theologian (d. 1856)
1797 – Paul Delaroche, French painter and academic (d. 1856)
1823 – Leander Clark, American businessman, judge, and politician (d. 1910)
1831 – Xianfeng Emperor of China (d. 1861)
1837 – Joseph-Alfred Mousseau, Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician, 7th Secretary of State for Canada (d. 1886)
1839 – Ephraim Shay, American engineer, invented the Shay locomotive (d. 1916)
1853 – Alexius Meinong, Ukrainian-Austrian philosopher and academic (d. 1920)
1868 – Henri Nathansen, Danish director and playwright (d. 1944)
1870 – Charles Davidson Dunbar, Scottish soldier and bagpipe player (d. 1939)
1871 – Lyonel Feininger, German-American painter and illustrator (d. 1956)
1879 – Jack Laviolette, Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and manager (d. 1960)
1882 – James Somerville, English admiral and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset (d. 1949)
1888 – Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Ukrainian-Israeli novelist, short story writer, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1970)
1889 – Erle Stanley Gardner, American lawyer and author (d. 1970)
1894 – Georges Lemaître, Belgian priest, astronomer, and cosmologist (d. 1966)
1896 – Rupert Atkinson, English RAF officer (d. 1919)
1898 – Berenice Abbott, American photographer (d. 1991)
1898 – Osmond Borradaile, Canadian soldier and cinematographer (d. 1999)
1899 – James Cagney, American actor and dancer (d. 1986)
1900 – Marcel Dalio, French actor (d. 1983)
1901 – Luigi Chinetti, Italian-American race car driver (d. 1994)
1901 – Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet and author (d. 1938)
1901 – Patrick Smith, Irish farmer and politician, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine (d. 1982)
1902 – Christina Stead, Australian author and academic (d. 1983)
1905 – William Gargan, American actor (d. 1979)
1910 – James Coyne, Canadian lawyer and banker, 2nd Governor of the Bank of Canada (d. 2012)
1910 – Frank Olson, American chemist and microbiologist (d. 1953)
1911 – Lionel Ferbos, American trumpet player (d. 2014)
1911 – Heinz Lehmann, German-Canadian psychiatrist and academic (d. 1999)
1912 – Erwin Bauer, German race car driver (d. 1958)
1912 – Art Linkletter, Canadian-American radio and television host (d. 2010)
1913 – Bertrand Goldberg, American architect, designed the Marina City Building (d. 1997)
1914 – Eleanor Steber, American soprano and educator (d. 1990)
1915 – Bijon Bhattacharya, Indian actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1978)
1915 – Arthur Rothstein, American photographer and educator (d. 1985)
1917 – Lou Boudreau, American baseball player and manager (d. 2001)
1917 – Phyllis Diller, American actress, comedian, and voice artist (d. 2012)
1917 – Kenan Evren, Turkish general and politician, 7th President of Turkey (d. 2015)
1917 – Christiane Rochefort, French author (d. 1998)
1918 – Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio, Guatemalan soldier and politician, President of Guatemala (d. 2003)
1918 – Red Sovine, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1980)
1920 – Gordon Gould, American physicist and academic, invented the laser (d. 2005)
1920 – Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish businessman, 7th President of the International Olympic Committee (d. 2010)
1921 – George Barnes, American guitarist, producer, and songwriter (d. 1977)
1921 – Louis Lachenal, French mountaineer (d. 1955)
1921 – Mary Osborne, American guitarist (d. 1992)
1921 – Toni Stone, American baseball player (d. 1996)
1921 – František Zvarík, Slovak actor (d. 2008)
1923 – Jeanne Block, American psychologist (d. 1981)
1923 – John Cooper, English car designer, co-founded the Cooper Car Company (d. 2000)
1924 – Garde Gardom, Canadian lawyer and politician, 26th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia (d. 2013)
1925 – Jimmy Scott, American singer and actor (d. 2014)
1925 – Mohammad Hasan Sharq, Afghan politician
1926 – Édouard Carpentier, French-Canadian wrestler (d. 2010)
1926 – Willis Carto, American activist and theorist (d. 2015)
1928 – Vince Guaraldi, American singer-songwriter and pianist (d. 1976)
1929 – Sergei K. Godunov, Russian mathematician and academic
1932 – Niccolò Castiglioni, Italian composer (d. 1996)
1932 – Red Kerr, American basketball player and coach (d. 2009)
1932 – Wojciech Kilar, Polish pianist and composer (d. 2013)
1932 – Karla Kuskin, American author and illustrator (d. 2009)
1932 – Slick Leonard, American basketball player and coach
1932 – Quino, Spanish-Argentinian cartoonist
1932 – Hal Riney, American businessman, founded Publicis & Hal Riney (d. 2008)
1933 – Keiko Awaji, Japanese actress (d. 2014)
1933 – Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, Maltese politician, 9th Prime Minister of Malta
1933 – Tony Pithey, Zimbabwean-South African cricketer (d. 2006)
1934 – Lucio Tan, Chinese-Filipino billionaire businessman and educator
1935 – Diahann Carroll, American actress and singer (d. 2019)
1935 – Peter Schickele, American composer and educator
1935 – Donald Sutherland, Canadian actor and producer
1938 – Hermann Huppen, Belgian author and illustrator
1939 – Andrée Champagne, Canadian actress and politician
1939 – Spencer Davis, Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist
1939 – Ali Khamenei, Iranian cleric and politician, 2nd Supreme Leader of Iran
1940 – Tim Brooke-Taylor, English actor and screenwriter (d. 2020)
1941 – Daryle Lamonica, American football player
1941 – Bob Taylor, English cricketer
1941 – Achim Warmbold, German race car driver and manager
1942 – Don Kessinger, American baseball player and manager
1942 – Gale Garnett, New Zealand–born Canadian singer
1942 – Connie Hawkins, American basketball player (d. 2017)
1942 – Zoot Money, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player
1943 – LaVyrle Spencer, American author and educator
1944 – Mark Burgess, New Zealand cricketer and footballer
229 – Sun Quan proclaims himself emperor of Eastern Wu.
1266 – War of Saint Sabas: In the Battle of Trapani, the Venetians defeat a larger Genoese fleet, capturing all its ships.
1280 – The Spanish Reconquista: In the Battle of Moclín the Emirate of Granada ambush a superior pursuing force, killing most of them in a military disaster for the Kingdom of Castile.
1305 – A peace treaty between the Flemish and the French is signed at Athis-sur-Orge.
1314 – First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburn (south of Stirling) begins.
1532 – Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France sign the “Treaty of Closer Amity With France” (also known as the Pommeraye treaty), pledging mutual aid against Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
1565 – Dragut, commander of the Ottoman navy, dies during the Great Siege of Malta.
1594 – The Action of Faial, Azores. The Portuguese carrack Cinco Chagas, loaded with slaves and treasure, is attacked and sunk by English ships with only 13 survivors out of over 700 on board.
1611 – The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson’s fourth voyage sets Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again.
1683 – William Penn signs a friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.
1713 – The French residents of Acadia are given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia, Canada.
1757 – Battle of Plassey: Three thousand British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000-strong Indian army under Siraj ud-Daulah at Plassey.
1758 – Seven Years’ War: Battle of Krefeld: British, Hanoverian, and Prussian forces defeat French troops at Krefeld in Germany.
1760 – Seven Years’ War: Battle of Landeshut: Austria defeats Prussia.
1780 – American Revolution: Battle of Springfield fought in and around Springfield, New Jersey (including Short Hills, formerly of Springfield, now of Millburn Township).
1794 – Empress Catherine II of Russia grants Jews permission to settle in Kiev.
1810 – John Jacob Astor forms the Pacific Fur Company.
1812 – War of 1812: Great Britain revokes the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war.
1860 – The United States Congress establishes the Government Printing Office.
1865 – American Civil War: At Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie surrenders the last significant Confederate army.
1868 – Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the “Type-Writer”.
1887 – The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada creating the nation’s first national park, Banff National Park.
1894 – The International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne in Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.
1913 – Second Balkan War: The Greeks defeat the Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran.
1914 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa takes Zacatecas from Victoriano Huerta.
1917 – In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retires 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire.
1919 – Estonian War of Independence: The decisive defeat of the Baltische Landeswehr in the Battle of Cēsis; this date is celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia.
1926 – The College Board administers the first SAT exam.
1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine plane.
1938 – The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.
1940 – Adolf Hitler goes on a three-hour tour of the architecture of Paris with architect Albert Speer and sculptor Arno Breker in his only visit to the city.
1940 – Henry Larsen begins the first successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
1941 – The Lithuanian Activist Front declares independence from the Soviet Union and forms the Provisional Government of Lithuania; it lasts only briefly as the Nazis will occupy Lithuania a few weeks later.
1942 – World War II: Germany’s latest fighter aircraft, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales.
1946 – The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake strikes Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
1947 – The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry S. Truman’s veto of the Taft–Hartley Act.
1951 – The ocean liner SS United States is christened and launched.
1956 – The French National Assembly takes the first step in creating the French Community by passing the Loi Cadre, transferring a number of powers from Paris to elected territorial governments in French West Africa.
1959 – Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany where he resumes a scientific career.
1960 – The United States Food and Drug Administration declares Enovid to be the first officially approved combined oral contraceptive pill in the world.
1961 – The Antarctic Treaty System, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and limits military activity on the continent, its islands and ice shelves, comes into force.
1967 – Cold War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for the three-day Glassboro Summit Conference.
1969 – Warren E. Burger is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren.
1969 – IBM announces that effective January 1970 it will price its software and services separately from hardware thus creating the modern software industry.
1972 – Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the Watergate break-ins.
1972 – Title IX of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 is amended to prohibit sexual discrimination to any educational program receiving federal funds.
1973 – A fire at a house in Hull, England, which kills a six-year-old boy is passed off as an accident; it later emerges as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by serial arsonist Peter Dinsdale.
1985 – A terrorist bomb explodes at Narita International Airport near Tokyo. An hour later, the same group detonates a second bomb aboard Air India Flight 182, bringing the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland killing all 329 aboard.
1994 – NASA’s Space Station Processing Facility, a new state-of-the-art manufacturing building for the International Space Station, officially opens at Kennedy Space Center.
2001 – The 8.4 Mw southern Peru earthquake shakes coastal Peru with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A destructive tsunami followed, leaving at least 74 people dead, and 2,687 injured.
2012 – Ashton Eaton breaks the decathlon world record at the United States Olympic Trials.
2013 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.
2013 – Militants stormed a high-altitude mountaineering base camp near Nanga Parbat in Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan killing ten climbers, and a local guide.
2014 – The last of Syria’s declared chemical weapons are shipped out for destruction.
2016 – The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union, by 52% to 48%.
2017 – A series of terrorist attacks took place in Pakistan resulting in 96 deaths and wounded 200 others.
Births on June 23
47 BC – Caesarion, Egyptian king (d. 30 BC)
1385 – Stefan, Count Palatine of Simmern-Zweibrücken (d. 1459)
1433 – Francis II, Duke of Brittany (d. 1488)
1456 – Margaret of Denmark, Queen of Scotland (d. 1486)
1489 – Charles II, Duke of Savoy, Italian nobleman (d. 1496)
1534 – Oda Nobunaga, Japanese warlord (d. 1582)
1596 – Johan Banér, Swedish field marshal (d. 1641)
1616 – Shah Shuja, Mughal prince (d. 1661)
1625 – John Fell, English churchman and influential academic (d. 1686)
1668 – Giambattista Vico, Italian jurist, historian, and philosopher (d. 1744)
1683 – Étienne Fourmont, French orientalist and sinologist (d. 1745)
1711 – Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Italian instrument maker (d. 1786)
1716 – Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley, English lawyer and politician, Solicitor General for England and Wales (d. 1789)
1750 – Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu, French geologist and academic (d. 1801)
1763 – Joséphine de Beauharnais, French wife of Napoleon I (d. 1814)
1799 – John Milton Bernhisel, American physician and politician (d. 1881)
1800 – Karol Marcinkowski, Polish physician and activist (d. 1846)
1824 – Carl Reinecke, German pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1910)
1843 – Paul Heinrich von Groth, German scientist (d. 1927)
1860 – Albert Giraud, Belgian poet and librarian (d. 1929)
1863 – Sándor Bródy, Hungarian author and journalist (d. 1924)
1877 – Norman Pritchard, Indian-English hurdler and actor (d. 1929)
1879 – Huda Sha’arawi, Egyptian feminist and journalist (d. 1947)
1884 – Cyclone Taylor, Canadian ice hockey player and politician (d. 1979)
1888 – Bronson M. Cutting, American publisher and politician (d. 1935)
1889 – Anna Akhmatova, Ukrainian-Russian poet and author (d. 1966)
1889 – Verena Holmes, English engineer (d. 1964)
1894 – Harold Barrowclough, New Zealand military leader, lawyer and Chief Justice (d. 1972)
1894 – Alfred Kinsey, American entomologist and sexologist (d. 1956)
1894 – Edward VIII, King of the United Kingdom (d. 1972)
1899 – Amédée Gordini, Italian-born French race car driver and sports car manufacturer (d. 1979)
1900 – Blanche Noyes, American aviator, winner of the 1936 Bendix Trophy Race (d. 1981)
1901 – Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Turkish author, poet, and scholar (d. 1962)
1903 – Paul Martin Sr., Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 1992)
1904 – Quintin McMillan, South African cricketer (d. 1938)
1905 – Jack Pickersgill, Canadian civil servant and politician, 35th Secretary of State for Canada (d. 1997)
1906 – Tribhuvan of Nepal (d. 1955)
1907 – Dercy Gonçalves, Brazilian actress and singer (d. 2008)
1907 – James Meade, English economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1995)
1909 – David Lewis, Russian-Canadian lawyer and politician (d. 1981)
1909 – Georges Rouquier, French actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1989)
1910 – Jean Anouilh, French playwright and screenwriter (d. 1987)
1910 – Gordon B. Hinckley, American religious leader, 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 2008)
1910 – Milt Hinton, American bassist and photographer (d. 2000)
1910 – Bill King, English commander and author (d. 2012)
1910 – Lawson Little, American golfer (d. 1968)
1912 – Alan Turing, English mathematician and computer scientist (d. 1954)
1913 – William P. Rogers, American commander, lawyer, and politician, 55th United States Secretary of State (d. 2001)
1915 – Frances Gabe, American artist and inventor (d. 2016)
1916 – Len Hutton, English cricketer and soldier (d. 1990)
1916 – Irene Worth, American actress (d. 2002)
1916 – Al G. Wright, American bandleader and conductor
1919 – Mohamed Boudiaf, Algerian politician, President of Algeria (d. 1992)
1920 – Saleh Ajeery, Kuwaiti astronomer
1921 – Paul Findley, American politician (d. 2019)
1922 – Morris R. Jeppson, American lieutenant and physicist (d. 2010)
1922 – Hal Laycoe, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1998)
1923 – Peter Corr, Irish-English footballer and manager (d. 2001)
1923 – Elroy Schwartz, American screenwriter and producer (d. 2013)
1923 – Doris Johnson, American politician
1923 – Jerry Rullo, American professional basketball player (d. 2016)
1923 – Giuseppina Tuissi, Italian communist and Partisan (d. 1945)
1924 – Frank Bolle, American comic-strip artist, comic-book artist, and illustrator (d. 2020)
1925 – Miriam Karlin, English actress (d. 2011)
1925 – Art Modell, American businessman (d. 2012)
1925 – Anna Chennault, Chinese widow of Lieutenant General Claire Lee Chennault (d. 2018)
1926 – Lawson Soulsby, Baron Soulsby of Swaffham Prior, English microbiologist and parasitologist (d. 2017)
1926 – Magda Herzberger, Romanian author, poet and composer, a survivor of the Holocaust
2000 – Peter Dubovský, Slovak footballer (b. 1972)
2002 – Pedro Alcázar, Panamanian boxer (b. 1975)
2005 – Shana Alexander, American journalist and author (b. 1926)
2005 – Manolis Anagnostakis, Greek poet and critic (b. 1925)
2006 – Aaron Spelling, American actor, producer, and screenwriter, founded Spelling Television (b. 1923)
2007 – Rod Beck, American baseball player (b. 1968)
2008 – Claudio Capone, Italian-Scottish actor (b. 1952)
2008 – Arthur Chung, Guyanese surveyor and politician, 1st President of Guyana (b. 1918)
2008 – Marian Glinka, Polish actor and bodybuilder (b. 1943)
2009 – Raymond Berthiaume, Canadian singer-songwriter and producer (b. 1931)
2009 – Ed McMahon, American game show host and announcer (b. 1923)
2009 – Jerri Nielsen, American physician and explorer (b. 1952)
2010 – John Burton, Australian public servant and diplomat (b. 1915)
2011 – Peter Falk, American actor (b. 1927)
2011 – Dennis Marshall, Costa Rican footballer (b. 1985)
2011 – Fred Steiner, American composer and conductor (b. 1923)
2012 – James Durbin, English economist and statistician (b. 1923)
2012 – Brigitte Engerer, French pianist and educator (b. 1952)
2012 – Alan McDonald, Northern Ireland footballer and manager (b. 1963)
2012 – Frank Chee Willeto, American soldier and politician, 4th Vice President of the Navajo Nation (b. 1925)
2012 – Walter J. Zable, American football player and businessman, founded the Cubic Corporation (b. 1915)
2013 – Bobby Bland, American singer-songwriter (b. 1930)
2013 – Gary David Goldberg, American screenwriter and producer (b. 1944)
2013 – Frank Kelso, American admiral and politician, United States Secretary of the Navy (b. 1933)
2013 – Kurt Leichtweiss, German mathematician and academic (b. 1927)
2013 – Richard Matheson, American author and screenwriter (b. 1926)
2013 – Darryl Read, English singer-songwriter, drummer, and actor (b. 1951)
2013 – Sharon Stouder, American swimmer (b. 1948)
2014 – Nancy Garden, American author (b. 1938)
2014 – Euros Lewis, Welsh cricketer (b. 1942)
2014 – Paula Kent Meehan, American businesswoman, co-founded Redken (b. 1931)
2015 – Miguel Facussé Barjum, Honduran businessman (b. 1924)
2015 – Nirmala Joshi, Indian nun, lawyer, and social worker (b. 1934)
2015 – Dick Van Patten, American actor (b. 1928)
2016 – Ralph Stanley, American singer and banjo player (b. 1927)
Holidays and observances on June 23
Christian feast day:
Æthelthryth
Marie of Oignies
Joseph Cafasso
June 23 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Earliest day on which Feast of Raḥmat can fall, while June 24 is the latest. (Bahá’í Faith)
Father’s Day (Nicaragua, Poland)
Grand Duke’s Official Birthday (Luxembourg)
International Widows Day (international)
National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism (Canada)
Okinawa Memorial Day (Okinawa Prefecture)
St John’s Eve and the first day of the Midsummer celebrations [although this is not the real summer solstice; see June 20] (Roman Catholic Church, Europe):
Bonfires of Saint John (Spain)
First night of Festa de São João do Porto (Porto)
First day of Golowan Festival (Cornwall)
Jaaniõhtu (Estonia)
Jāņi (Latvia)
Kupala Night (Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine)
