June 21 Explained
This day 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 - Godomar, King of the Burgundians defeats the Franks at the Battle of Vézeronce.
- 1582 - Incident at Honnō-ji in Kyoto, Japan.
- 1621 - Execution of 27 Czech noblemen on the Old Town Square in Prague as a consequence of the Battle of 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, having been convicted of the arson that destroyed much of the city, 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 during the War of 1812.
- 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.
- 1864 - New Zealand Land Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ends.
- 1877 - The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants, are hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania Prisons.
- 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 Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed were the last casualties of the First World War.
- 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 Italian and 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.
- 1948 - The "Manchester Baby" (SSEM) runs the first ever computer program stored in electronic memory.
- 1952 - Philippine School of Commerce, through a republic act, was converted to Philippine College of Commerce; later to be the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
- 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.
- 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.
- 2000 - Section 28 (outlawing the 'promotion' of homosexuality in the United Kingdom) repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote.
- 2001 - A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., indicted 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen.
- 2002 - The World Health Organization declares Europe polio free.
- 2004 - SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
- 2006 - Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially christened Nix & Hydra.
Births
- 1002 - Pope Leo IX (d. 1054)
- 1226 - King Boleslaus V of Poland (d. 1279)
- 1528 - Maria of Spain, Holy Roman Empire Empress (1603)
- 1535 - 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)
- 1646 - Maria Francisca of Nemours, queen of Portugal (d. 1683)
- 1676 (O.S.) - Anthony Collins, English philosopher (d. 1729)
- 1712 - Luc Urbain de Bouexic, comte de Guichen, French admiral (d. 1790)
- 1730 - Motoori Norinaga, Japanese scholar (d. 1801)
- 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 (d. 1825)
- 1781 - Siméon-Denis Poisson, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1840)
- 1782 - Pyotr Kotlyarevsky, Russian general (d. 1852)
- 1788 - Princess Augusta of Bavaria (d. 1850)
- 1791 - Robert Napier, British engineer (d. 1876)
- 1798 - Wolfgang Menzel, German writer (d. 1873)
- 1805 - Charles Thomas Jackson, American scientist, polymath (d. 1880)
- 1811 - Carlo Matteucci, Italian physicist (d. 1868)
- 1812 - Moses Hess, Jewish socialist and nationalist (d. 1875)
- 1823 - Jean Chacornac, French astronomer (d. 1873)
- 1825 - William Stubbs, English historian and Anglican bishop of Oxford (d. 1901)
- 1828 - Ferdinand André Fouqué, French geologist (d. 1904)
- 1839 - Machado de Assis, Brazilian writer (d. 1908)
- 1850 - Daniel Carter Beard, founder of the Boy Scouts of America (d. 1941)
- 1858 - Medardo Rosso, Italian sculptor (d. 1928)
- 1859 - Henry Ossawa Tanner, American painter (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)
- 1868 - Edwin Stephen Goodrich, English zoologist (d. 1946)
- 1870 - Clara Immerwahr, German chemist (d. 1915)
- 1876 - Willem Hendrik Keesom, Dutch physicist (d. 1956)
- 1880 - Arnold Gesell, American psychologist and pediatrician (d. 1961)
- 1880 - Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, British civil servant, industrialist, economist, statistician and banker (d. 1941)
- 1882 - Rockwell Kent, American artist (d. 1971)
- 1882 - Lluís Companys i Jover, Spanish politician (d. 1940)
- 1883 - Fyodor Gladkov, Russian writer (d. 1958)
- 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)
- 1902 - Howie Morenz, professional ice hockey player (d. 1937)
- 1903 - Al Hirschfeld, American cartoonist (d. 2003)
- 1905 - Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (declined) (d. 1980)
- 1906 - Harold Spina, American composer (d. 1997)
- 1908 - William Frankena, American philosopher (d. 1994)
- 1910 - Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Soviet poet (d. 1971)
- 1912 - Mary McCarthy, American writer (d. 1989)
- 1912 - Kazimierz Leski, Polish engineer, fighter pilot and officer of the Home Army's intelligence and counter-intelligence (d. 2000)
- 1914 - William Vickrey, Canadian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
- 1916 - Joseph Cyril Bamford, English inventor and industrialist
- 1916 - Buddy O'Connor, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1977)
- 1918 - James Clyde Mitchell, English sociologist and anthropologist
- 1919 - Gérard Pelletier, French Canadian journalist, politician, and diplomat (d. 1997)
- 1919 - Vladimir Simagin, Russian chess master and teacher
- 1919 - Paolo Soleri, Italian-born American architect
- 1921 - Judy Holliday, American actress (d. 1965)
- 1921 - Jane Russell, American actress
- 1921 - Jean de Broglie, French politician
- 1923 - Jacques Hébert, French Canadian author, journalist and politician
- 1924 - Pontus Hultén, Swedish art collector and pioneering museum director (d. 2006)
- 1924 - Jean Laplanche, French psychoanalytic thinker
- 1924 - Max McNab, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 2007)
- 1925 - Giovanni Spadolini, Italian politician (d. 1994)
- 1925 - Maureen Stapleton, American actress (d. 2006)
- 1926 - Conrad Hall, Tahitian-born cinematographer (d. 2003)
- 1927 - Carl Stokes, Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1996)
- 1929 - Abdel Halim Hafez, Egyptian singer and actor (d. 1977)
- 1929 - Alexandre Lagoya, Greek-Italian classical guitarist (d. 1999)
- 1930 - Sir Gerald Kaufman, British politician
- 1930 - Mike McCormack, American professional football player
- 1931 - Margaret Mary O'Shaughnessy Heckler, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services
- 1932 - O.C. Smith, American singer (d. 2001)
- 1932 - Lalo Schifrin, Argentine pianist and composer
- 1935 - Françoise Sagan, French writer (d. 2004)
- 1938 - Ron Ely, American actor
- 1939 - Ruben Berrios, Puerto Rican politician
- 1940 - Mariette Hartley, American actress
- 1940 - Michael Ruse, Canadian philosopher
- 1941 - Joe Flaherty, American-Canadian actor
- 1942 - Togo D. West, Jr., American attorney and public official
- 1942 - Dan Henning, American football player
- 1942 - Henry S. Taylor, American writer
- 1943 - Salomé, Spanish singer
- 1944 - Ray Davies, English musician (The Kinks)
- 1944 - Corinna Tsopei, Greek beauty pageant winner, the first Greek Miss Universe
- 1945 - Adam Zagajewski, Polish philosopher, poet
- 1946 - Brenda Holloway, American musician
- 1946- Trond Kirkvaag, Norwegian comedian and author
- 1947 - Meredith Baxter, American actress
- 1947 - Michael Gross, American actor
- 1947 - Shirin Ebadi, Iranian lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
- 1947 - Joey Molland, English musician (Badfinger)
- 1948 - Ian McEwan, English writer
- 1948 - Lionel Rose, Australian boxer
- 1948 - Andrzej Sapkowski, Polish writer
- 1950 - Anne Carson, Canadian poet
- 1950 - Joey Kramer, American drummer and percussionist (Aerosmith)
- 1950 - Vasilis Papakonstantinou, Greek singer and musician
- 1950 - Gérard Lanvin, French actor
- 1951 - Nils Lofgren, American musician
- 1952 - Kôichi Mashimo, Japanese anime director
- 1953 - Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 2007)
- 1953 - Michael Bowen, American actor
- 1954 - Müjde Ar, Turkish actress
- 1954 - Mark Kimmitt, US Army general
- 1954 - Anne Kirkbride, English actress
- 1954 - Robert Menasse, Austrian writer
- 1954 - Augustus Pablo, Jamaican musician (d. 1999)
- 1954 - Robert Pastorelli, American actor (d. 2004)
- 1955 - Tim Bray, Canadian computer programmer
- 1955 - Leigh McCloskey, American actor
- 1955 - Michel Platini, French footballer
- 1957 - Berkeley Breathed, American cartoonist and author
- 1957 - Lucien DeBlois, professional ice hockey player
- 1958 - Gennady Padalka, cosmonaut
- 1959 - Tom Chambers, American basketball player
- 1959 - Marcella Detroit, singer and songwriter (Shakespear's Sister)
- 1959 - Kathy Mattea, American country singer
- 1961 - Kip Winger, American musician
- 1962 - Viktor Tsoi, Russian musician
- 1962 - Takeshi Asami, Japanese racing driver
- 1964 - Doug Savant, American actor
- 1964 - Sammi Davis, British actor
- 1965 - Larry Wachowski, film director
- 1965 - Yang Liwei, Chinese astronaut
- 1966 - Rudi Bakhtiar, American journalist
- 1966 - Mancow Muller, American radio personality
- 1966 - Nan Woods, American actress
- 1967 - Jim Breuer, American comedian
- 1967 - Pierre Omidyar, Iranian-American billionaire
- 1967 - Derrick Coleman, American basketball player
- 1968 - Sonique, British DJ
- 1968 - Alisyn Camerota, American journalist
- 1968 - Gretchen Carlson, American journalist
- 1969 - Gabriella Paruzzi, Italian skier
- 1970 - Sindee Coxx, American pornographic actress
- 1970 - Pete Rock, American rapper/producer
- 1971 - Marianne Lie Berg, Norwegian philosopher
- 1971 - Anette Olzon, Swedish singer
- 1972 - Alon Hilu, Israeli writer
- 1972 - Neil Doak, former Irish cricketer
- 1973 - Juliette Lewis, American actress
- 1974 - Natasha Desborough, British radio personality
- 1974 - Craig Lowndes, Australian racing driver
- 1976 - Mike Einziger, American musician (Incubus)
- 1976 - Nigel Lappin, Australian footballer
- 1977 - Jochen Hecht, German ice hockey player
- 1978 - Cristiano Lupatelli, Italian footballer
- 1978 - Jack Guzman, American actor
- 1978 - Erica Durance, Canadian actress
- 1979 - Chris Pratt, American actor
- 1980 - Sendy Rleal, Dominican baseball player
- 1980 - Richard Jefferson, American basketball player
- 1981 - Brandon Flowers, American singer and keyboardist (The Killers)
- 1981 - Yann Danis, French Canadian ice hockey player
- 1982 - Prince William of Wales, British prince
- 1984 - Alicia Alighatti, American pornographic actress
- 1984 - Franck Perera, French racing driver
- 1985 - Anthony Morelli, American football player
- 1985 - Byron Schammer, AFL footballer
- 1987 - Dale Thomas, AFL 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)
- 1865 - Frances Adeline Seward, wife of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward (b. 1824)
- 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)
- 1940 - Smedley Butler, American Marine general (b. 1881)
- 1951 - Charles Dillon Perrine, American astronomer (b. 1867)
- 1952 - Wilfrid 'Wop' May, Canadian aviation pioneer (b. 1896)
- 1954 - Gideon Sundback, invented the zipper (b. 1880)
- 1957 - Johannes Stark, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
- 1964 - James Chaney, American civil rights activist (b. 1943)
- 1964 - Andrew Goodman, American civil rights activist (b. 1943)
- 1964 - Michael Schwerner, American civil rights activist (b. 1939)
- 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)
- 1986 - Assi Rahbani, Lebanese composer and author (b. 1923)
- 1993 - Ticho Parly, Danish tenor (b. 1928)
- 1997 - Shintaro Katsu, Japanese entertainer (b. 1931)
- 1997 - Fidel Velázquez Sánchez, Mexican labour leader (b. 1900)
- 1998 - Al Campanis, American baseball executive (b. 1916)
- 1999 - Kami, Japanese drummer (Malice Mizer) (b. 1973)
- 2000 - Alan Hovhaness, American composer (b. 1911)
- 2001 - John Lee Hooker, American musician (b. 1916)
- 2001 - Carroll O'Connor, American actor (b. 1924)
- 2003 - Roger Neilson, Canadian ice hockey coach (b. 1934)
- 2003 - Leon Uris, American writer (b. 1924)
- 2004 - Leonel Brizola, Brazilian politician (b. 1922)
- 2005 - Jaime Cardinal Sin, Filipino Catholic Archbishop of Manila (b. 1928)
- 2007 - Bob Evans, American restaurateur (b. 1918)
Holidays and observances
External links
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