June 21
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June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. This day usually marks the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere and the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere, and thus is the day of the year with the longest hours of daylight in the northern hemisphere and the shortest in the southern hemisphere.
Events
- 524 - Battle of Vezerone: Burgundy triumphs over the French.
- 1621 - an execution of 27 Czech lords on the Old Town Square in Prague as a consequence of the battle on the "White Mountain".
- 1665 - First soldiers of Le Régiment de Carignan-Salières arrive at Quebec to invade Iroquois territories.
- 1734 - In Montreal in New France (today primarily Quebec), a black slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique was tortured and hanged by the French authorities in a public ceremony that involved her disgrace and the amputation of a hand.
- 1749 - Halifax, Nova Scotia, founded.
- 1788 - New Hampshire ratifies the Constitution and is thus admitted as the 9th state in the United States.
- 1798 - Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at Battle of Vinegar Hill
- 1813 - Peninsular War: Battle of Vitoria
- 1813 - Laura Secord sets out to warn British forces of an impending U.S. attack on Queenston, Ontario.
- 1824 - Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea.
- 1826 - Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas
- 1854 - First Victoria Cross won during bombardment of Bomarsund in the Aland Islands.
- 1859 - Franco-Austrian War: Battle of Solférino is fought. Witnessed by Henri Dunant, the results were the Geneva Conventions and the Red Cross.
- 1864 - Maori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ends.
- 1877 - The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants who were labor activists, are hanged in the Carbon County, Pennsylvania Prison.
- 1887 - Queen Victoria's golden jubilee.
- 1898 - Guam becomes a U.S. territory.
- 1915 - The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347 1915, striking down an Oklahoma law denying the right to vote to some citizens.
- 1919 - Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during the Winnipeg General Strike.
- 1919 - Admiral Ludvig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed were the last casualties of the First World War.
- 1939 - The New York Yankees U.S. baseball team announce Lou Gehrig's retirement.
- 1940 - World War II: France surrenders to Germany.
- 1940 - First successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage begins at Vancouver, British Columbia.
- 1942 - World War II: Tobruk falls to German forces.
- 1942 - World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the U.S. mainland.
- 1945 - World War II: Battle of Okinawa ends.
- 1947 - A seaman named Harold Dahl claims to have seen six UFOs near Maury Island, United States. The next morning Dahl reported the first modern Men in Black encounter.
- 1957 - Ellen Louks Fairclough sworn in as Canada's first woman Cabinet Minister
- 1964 - Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
- 1965 - Folk rock band The Byrds release their highly influential debut album Mr. Tambourine Man.
- 1973 - In handing down the decision in Miller v. California 413 US 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller Test, which now governs obscenity in U.S. law.
- 1982 - John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
- 1982 - Fête de la Musique street music festival inaugurated in France by Jack Lang.
- 1989 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Texas v. Johnson that flag burning is protected speech under the United States Constitution.
- 1999 - First iBook introduced by Apple Computer.
- 2000 - Section 28 repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote.
- 2003 - Deputy Justice Fazel Ahmed Manawi of the Afghan Supreme Court announces that Aftab editor Sayed Madawi and his deputy Ali Payam Sestani will be tried for "libeling Islam."
- 2003 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth book in J.K. Rowling's hugely popular Harry Potter series, is published.
- 2004 - SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
- 2005 - Donald Tsang Yam Kuen is appointed by the People's Republic of China to take over from Tung Chee Hwa as the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Births
- 1002 (O.S.) - Pope Leo IX (d. 1054)
- 1226 (O.S.) - King Boleslaus V of Poland (d. 1279)
- 1535 (O.S.) - Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (d. 1596)
- 1639 (O.S.) - Increase Mather, New England Puritan minister (d. 1723)
- 1646 (O.S.) - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, German philosopher and scientist (d. 1716)
- 1676 (O.S.) - Anthony Collins, English philosopher (d. 1729)
- 1712 - Luc Urbain de Bouexic, comte de Guichen, French admiral (d. 1790)
- 1732 - Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer (d. 1791)
- 1736 (O.S.) - Enoch Poor, American general in the Continental Army (d. 1780)
- 1759 - Alexander J. Dallas, American statesman and financier (d. 1817)
- 1763 - Pierre Paul Royer-Collard, French philosopher (d. 1845)
- 1764 - Sidney Smith, British admiral (d. 1840)
- 1774 - Daniel D. Tompkins, Congressman, Governor of New York, and sixth Vice President of the United States
- 1781 - Siméon-Denis Poisson, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1840)
- 1811 - Carlo Matteucci, Italian physicist (d. 1868)
- 1823 - Jean Chacornac, French astronomer (d. 1873)
- 1825 - William Stubbs, English historian and Anglican bishop of Oxford
- 1828 - Ferdinand André Fouqué, French geologist (d. 1904)
- 1839 - Machado de Assis, Brazilian writer (d. 1908)
- 1859 - Henry Ossawa Tanner, American painters (d. 1937)
- 1862 - Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai prince and historian (d. 1943)
- 1863 - Max Wolf, German astronomer (d. 1932)
- 1864 - Heinrich Wölfflin, Swiss art historian (d. 1945)
- 1880 - Arnold Gesell, American psychologist and pediatrician (d.1961)
- 1882 - Rockwell Kent, American artist (d. 1971)
- 1883 - Lluís Companys i Jover, President of Catalonia (d. 1940)
- 1884 - Claude Auchinleck, British field marshal (d. 1981)
- 1887 - Norman L. Bowen, Canadian petrologist (d. 1956)
- 1889 - Ralph Craig, American athlete (d. 1972)
- 1891 - Pier Luigi Nervi, Italian architect (d. 1979)
- 1891 - Hermann Scherchen, German conductor (d. 1966)
- 1892 - Reinhold Niebuhr, Protestant theologian (d. 1971)
- 1893 - Alois Hába, Czech composer (d. 1973)
- 1896 - Charles B. Momsen, American inventor (d. 1967)
- 1898 - Donald C. Peattie, American botanist and writer (d. 1964)
- 1903 - Al Hirschfeld, American cartoonist (d. 2003)
- 1905 - Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (declined) (d. 1980)
- 1908 - Yoon Bong-Gil, Korean resister against Japanese occupation of Korea (d. 1932)
- 1912 - Mary McCarthy, American writer (d. 1989)
- 1914 - William Vickrey, Canadian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
- 1919 - Gower Champion, dancer and choreographer (d. 1980)
- 1919 - Gérard Pelletier, French journalist, politician, and diplomat (d. 1997)
- 1921 - Judy Holliday, American actress (d. 1965)
- 1921 - Jane Russell, American actress
- 1925 - Maureen Stapleton, American actress
- 1926 - Conrad Hall, Tahitian-born cinematographer (d. 2003)
- 1927 - Carl Stokes, Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1996)
- 1930 - Sir Gerald Kaufman, British politician
- 1931 - Margaret Mary O'Shaughnessy Heckler, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services
- 1935 - Françoise Sagan, French writer (d. 2004)
- 1939 - Ruben Berrios, Puerto Rican politician
- 1940 - Mariette Hartley, American actress
- 1942 - Henry Taylor, American poet
- 1943 - Salomé, Spanish singer
- 1944 - Ray Davies, English musician (The Kinks)
- 1946 - Brenda Holloway, American musician
- 1947 - Meredith Baxter, American actress
- 1947 - Michael Gross, American actor
- 1947 - Shirin Ebadi, Iranian activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- 1948 - Ian McEwan, English writer
- 1948 - Lionel Rose, Australian boxer
- 1948 - Andrzej Sapkowski, Polish writer
- 1950 - Anne Carson, Canadian poet
- 1951 - Nils Lofgren, American musician
- 1953 - Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan
- 1954 - Robert Menasse, Austrian writer
- 1955 - Tim Bray, Canadian computer programmer
- 1955 - Michel Platini, French footballer
- 1955 - Leigh McCloskey, American actor
- 1957 - Berkeley Breathed, American cartoonist and author
- 1958 - Gennady Padalka, cosmonaut
- 1959 - Marcella Detroit, singer and songwriter (Shakespear's Sister)
- 1959 - Kathy Mattea, American country singer
- 1962 - Viktor Tsoi, Russian musician
- 1964 - Doug Savant, American actor
- 1965 - Larry Wachowski, film director
- 1966 - Rudi Bakhtiar, American journalist
- 1970 - Sindee Coxx, American pornographic actress
- 1972 - Alon Hilu, Israeli writer
- 1973 - Juliette Lewis, American actress
- 1974 - Natasha Desborough, British radio personality
- 1976 - Mike Einziger, American musician (Incubus)
- 1976 - Nigel Lappin, Australian footballer
- 1981 - Brandon Flowers, American singer and keyboardist (The Killers)
- 1982 - Prince William of Wales
- 1985 - Lee Croft, English footballer
Deaths
- 1305 - King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and Poland (b. 1271)
- 1377 - King Edward III of England (b. 1312)
- 1527 - Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and political author (b. 1469)
- 1529 - John Skelton, English poet
- 1547 - Sebastiano del Piombo, Italian painter (b. 1485)
- 1582 - Oda Nobunaga, Japanese warlord (b. 1534)
- 1591 - Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian saint (b. 1568)
- 1621 - Kryštof Harant, Polish soldier, writer, and composer (b. 1564)
- 1652 - Inigo Jones, English architect (b. 1573)
- 1738 - Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, English statesman (b. 1674)
- 1796 - Richard Gridley, American Revolutionary soldier (b. 1710)
- 1824 - Étienne Aignan, French writer (b. 1773)
- 1874 - Anders Jonas Ångström, Swedish physicist (b. 1814)
- 1893 - Leland Stanford, American Business Tycoon and founder of Stanford University
- 1908 - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (b. 1844)
- 1914 - Bertha von Suttner, Austrian writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1843)
- 1934 - Thorne Smith, American author (b. 1892)
- 1951 - Charles Dillon Perrine, American astronomer (b. 1867)
- 1952 - Wilfrid 'Wop' May, Canadian aviation pioneer (b. 1896)
- 1957 - Johannes Stark, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
- 1964 - Andrew Goodman, American civil rights activist (b. 1943)
- 1964 - James Chaney, American civil rights activist (b. 1943)
- 1964 - Michael Schwerner, American civil rights activist (b. 1939)
- 1969 - Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (b. 1934)
- 1970 - Sukarno, President of Indonesia (b. 1901)
- 1976 - Margaret Herrick, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences director (b. 1902)
- 1979 - Angus Maclise, American mystic, shaman, musician, and composer (b. 1938)
- 1980 - Bert Kaempfert, German orchestra leader and songwriter (b. 1923)
- 1985 - Tage Erlander, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1901)
- 1997 - Fidel Velázquez Sánchez, Mexican labor leader (b. 1900)
- 2000 - Alan Hovhaness, American composer (b. 1911)
- 2001 - Carroll O'Connor, American actor (b. 1924)
- 2001 - John Lee Hooker, American musician (b. 1916)
- 2003 - Roger Neilson, Canadian hockey coach (b. 1934)
- 2003 - Leon Uris, American writer (b. 1924)
- 2004 - Leonel Brizola, Brazillian politician (b. 1922)
- 2005 - Jaime Cardinal Sin, Filipino Catholic Archbishop of Manila (b. 1928)
Holidays and Observances
- Summer solstice (Northern hemisphere) and Winter solstice (Southern hemisphere)
- Astrology: First day of sun sign Cancer
- National Aboriginal Day in Canada (starting in 1996)
- Midsummer – Neopagan festival – Litha
- National Day of Greenland
- Fête de la Musique in France, Belgium and Switzerland.
- TROSA Day in Space and Astronomy history
External links
June 20 - June 22 - May 21 - July 21 – listing of all days