June 21

June 21 in recent years

2024 (Friday)

2023 (Wednesday)

2022 (Tuesday)

2021 (Monday)

2020 (Sunday)

2019 (Friday)

2018 (Thursday)

2017 (Wednesday)

2016 (Tuesday)

2015 (Sunday)

June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 193 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1925

• 524 – Battle of Vezerone: Burgundy triumphs over the French.
• 1529 – French forces are driven out of Northern Italy by Spain in the Battle of Landriano.
• 1621 – 27 Czech noblemen are executed in 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, was tortured then hanged by the French authorities in a public ceremony that involved her disgrace and the amputation of a hand.
• 1749 – Halifax, Nova Scotia founded.
• 1767 – English captain Samuel Wallis reaches the island of Tahiti.
• 1788 – New Hampshire ratifies the U.S. Constitution and is thus admitted as the 9th state in the United States.
• 1791 – King Louis XVI of France and members of his close family attempt to leave Paris.
• 1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: 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 impending American attack at Queenston, Ontario.
• 1824 – Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea.
• 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 labour activists, are hanged in the Carbon County, Pennsylvania Prison.
• 1887 – Queen Victoria's golden jubilee
• 1898 – Guam becomes a U.S. territory.
• 1908 – The Women's Social and Political Union holds a demonstration in London for a woman's right to vote. Over 250,000 women take part.
• 1915 – The U.S. Supreme Court hands down decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347 1915, striking down an Oklahoma law denying the right to vote to some citizens.
• 1919 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during 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 World War I.

1926 – 2000

• 1930 – One-year conscription begins in France.
• 1939 – The New York Yankees 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 USA mainland.
• 1945 – World War II: Battle of Okinawa ends.
• 1947 – A Seaman named Harold Dahl claims to have seen six UFOs near Maury Island. The next morning Dahl reported the first modern MIB encounter.
• 1948 – The Manchester small-scale Experimental Machine, the first stored-program computer, runs its first computer program.
• 1957 – Ellen Louks Fairclough sworn in as Canada's first woman Cabinet Minister
• 1963 – Pope Paul VI is elected.
• 1964 – Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi 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 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.
• 1998 – French police officer Daniel Nivel is beaten by German hooligans at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. He survives the attack, but is left permanently brain damaged.
• 2000 – Section 28, a law banning the "promotion" of homosexuality, is repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote.

From 2001

• 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 "libelling 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.
• 2006 – Pluto's newly discovered moons are named Nix and Hydra.
• 2009 – Greenland is allowed to make more decisions independently from Denmark.
• 2013 – At 11am, Singapore's new PSI record was broken again, with a PSI of 400 in the "Hazardous" range. The newly minted record was broken soon after at 12pm, with the PSI remaining in the "Hazardous" range with a reading of 401.
• 2014 – 2014 FIFA World Cup: Two World Cup scoring records are equaled in the 2–2 draw between Germany and Ghana. Asamoah Gyan of Ghana equals Roger Milla's African record of five, and Miroslav Klose of Germany equals Ronaldo's overall all-time record of fifteen.
• 2019 – The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations football tournament starts.

Births

Up to 1800

• 1002 – Pope Leo IX (d. 1054)
• 1226 – Boleslaus V of Poland (d. 1279)
• 1528 – Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1603)
• 1535 – Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (d. 1596)
• 1639 – Increase Mather, American minister and writer (d. 1723)
• 1646 – Maria Francisca of Savoy, Queen of Portugal (d. 1683)
• 1676 – Anthony Collins, English philosopher (d. 1729)
• 1710 – James Short, Scottish mathematician (d. 1768)
• 1730 – Motoori Norinaga, Japanese scholar (d. 1801)
• 1732 – Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer (d. 1791)
• 1736 – Enoch Poor, American general (d. 1780)
• 1750 – Pierre-Nicolas Beauvallet, French sculptor, draftsman and printmaker (d. 1818)
• 1759 – Alexander J. Dallas, 6th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1817)
• 1763 – Pierre Paul Royer-Collard, French statesman and philosopher (d. 1845)
• 1774 – Daniel D. Tompkins, US Congressman, Governor of New York, and the sixth Vice President of the United States (d. 1825)
• 1781 – Simeon Denis Poisson, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1840)
• 1788 – Princess Augusta of Bavaria (d. 1850)
• 1791 – Robert Napier, Scottish engineer (d. 1876)

1801 – 1900

• 1811 – Carlo Matteucci, Italian composer (d. 1868)
• 1818 – Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1893)
• 1823 – Jean Chacornac, French astronomer (d. 1873)
• 1826 – Georg von Neumayer, German scientist and polar explorer (d. 1909)
• 1831 – Duke Ludwig Wilhelm of Bavaria (d. 1920)
• 1839 – Machado de Assis, Brazilian writer (d. 1908)
• 1850 – Daniel Carter Beard, American illustrator and writer (d. 1941)
• 1850 – Enrico Cecchetti, Italian ballet dancer (d. 1928)
• 1856 – Friedrich Kluge, German philologist (d. 1926)
• 1862 – Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai prince, administrator and historian (d. 1943)
• 1863 – Albert Sauveur, metallurgist (one of the founders of physical metallurgy)
• 1863 – Max Wolf, German astronomer (d. 1932)
• 1870 – Clara Immerwahr, German chemist (d. 1915)
• 1882 – Rockwell Kent, American painter, printmaker, illustrator and writer (d. 1971)
• 1883 – Feodor Gladkov, Russian writer (d. 1958)
• 1883 – Lluís Companys i Jover, President of Catalonia (d. 1940)
• 1884 – Claude Auchinleck, British Field Marshal (d. 1981)
• 1887 – Norman L. Bowen, petrologist (d. 1956)
• 1889 – Ralph Craig, American athlete (d. 1972)
• 1890 – Frank S. Land, American businessman (d. 1959)
• 1891 – Pier Luigi Nervi, Italian architect (d. 1979)
• 1891 – Hermann Scherchen, German conductor (d. 1966)
• 1892 – Reinhold Niebuhr, German-American Protestant theologian (d. 1971)
• 1893 – Alois Hába, Czech composer (d. 1973)
• 1896 – Charles B. Momsen, American inventor (d. 1967)
• 1899 – Pavel Haas, Czech composer (d. 1944)

1901 – 1925

• 1903 – Hermann Engelhard, German athlete (d. 1984)
• 1903 – Al Hirschfeld, American cartoonist (d. 2003)
• 1905 – Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and playwright, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1964 (he decided not to accept it) (d. 1980)
• 1905 – Jacques Goddet, French sports journalist (d. 2000)
• 1910 – Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Soviet poet (d. 1971)
• 1911 – Ralph Wendell Burhoe, theologian and scientist, first American to win the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion
• 1911 – Karl Silberbauer, Austrian SS officer (d. 1972)
• 1912 – Mary McCarthy, American writer (d. 1989)
• 1912 – Marga Spiegel, German writer (d. 2014)
• 1912 – Kazimierz Leski, Polish pilot and engineer (d. 2000)
• 1914 – William Vickrey, Canadian economist, receives the Nobel Prize in Economics (d. 1996)
• 1918 – Eddie Lopat, American baseball player, coach and manager (d. 1992)
• 1918 – Robert Roosa, American economist and banker (d. 1993)
• 1918 – Tibor Szele, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1955)
• 1919 – Gower Champion, dancer and choreographer (d. 1980)
• 1919 – Gérard Pelletier, French journalist, politician and diplomat (d. 1997)
• 1919 – Vladimir Simagin, Chess International Grandmaster & Master, International Correspondence Chess Master, trainer
• 1919 – Paolo Soleri, Italian architect (d. 2013)
• 1920 – Ron Lewin, English footballer (d. 1985)
• 1920 – Hans Gerschwiler, Swiss figure skater (d. 2017)
• 1921 – Helmut Heissenbüttel, German avant-garde novelist and poet (d. 1996)
• 1921 – Judy Holliday, American actress (d. 1965)
• 1921 – Jane Russell, American actress (d. 2011)
• 1921 – István Zsolt, Hungarian football referee (d. 1991)
• 1922 – Heino Lipp, Estonian decathlete, shot putter and discus thrower (d. 2006)
• 1924 – Marga Lopez, Mexican-Argentine actress (d. 2005)
• 1925 – Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas, President of Bolivia (d. 2005)
• 1925 – Maureen Stapleton, American actress (d. 2006)
• 1925 – Giovanni Spadolini, Italian politician (d. 1994)

1926 – 1950

• 1926 – Johanna Quandt, German businesswoman (d. 2015)
• 1927 – Carl Stokes, American politician, Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1996)
• 1928 – Per Lillo-Stenberg, Norwegian actor (d. 2014)
• 1929 – Abdel Halim Hafez, Egyptian singer and actor (d. 1977)
• 1930 – Gerald Kaufman, English politician (d. 2017)
• 1931 – Margaret Heckler, American politician (d. 2018)
• 1932 – Bernard Ingham, English journalist and civil servant
• 1932 – Lalo Schifrin, Argentine pianist, composer and conductor
• 1934 – Wulf Kirsten, German writer and recipient of the 1989 Heinrich Mann Prize
• 1934 – Ken Matthews, British race-walker (d. 2019)
• 1935 – Françoise Sagan, French writer (d. 2004)
• 1938 – Ron Ely, American actor
• 1938 – Michael M. Richter, German mathematician and computer scientist
• 1939 – Ruben Berrios, Puerto Rican politician
• 1939 – Ken Catchpole, Australian rugby player (d. 2017)
• 1941 – Liz Mohn, German media proprietor
• 1941 – Valeri Zolotukhin, Russian actor (d. 2013)
• 1943 – Salomé, Spanish singer and Eurovision Song Contest winner
• 1943 – Beat Fehr, Swiss racing driver (d. 1967)
• 1944 – Tony Scott, British director and producer (d. 2012)
• 1944 – Ray Davies, English musician (The Kinks)
• 1944 – Jon Hiseman, English drummer (d. 2018)
• 1944 – Corinna Tsopei, Greek model and actress
• 1945 – Adam Zagajewski, Polish philosopher and poet
• 1946 – Piotr Domaradzki, Polish-American journalist and historian (d. 2015)
• 1946 – Brenda Holloway, American musician
• 1946 – Maurice Saatchi, Baron Saatchi, Iraqi-British businessman
• 1946 – Kate Hoey, British politician
• 1946 – Malcolm Rifkind, British politician
• 1947 – Meredith Baxter, American actress
• 1947 – Shirin Ebadi, Iranian jurist, activist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
• 1947 – Michael Gross, American actor
• 1947 – Joey Molland, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1947 – Fernando Savater, Spanish philosopher and writer
• 1948 – Ian McEwan, British writer
• 1948 – Lionel Rose, first aboriginal boxer to win a world title (in 1968) (d. 2011)
• 1948 – Andrzej Sapkowski, Polish fantasy writer
• 1949 – Stephen Hunter Flick, American sound editor
• 1950 – Anne Carson, poet
• 1950 – Joey Kramer, American musician (Aerosmith)
• 1950 – Vasilis Papakonstantinou, Greek singer

1951 – 1975

• 1951 – Nils Lofgren, American musician
• 1951 – Jim Douglas, 80th Governor of Vermont
• 1952 – Koichi Mashimo, Japanese director
• 1953 – Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan (twice), first female Muslim head of government (d. 2007)
• 1954 – Robert Menasse, Austrian writer
• 1954 – Anne Kirkbride, English actress (Coronation Street) (d. 2015)
• 1955 – Tim Bray, computer programmer
• 1955 – Michel Platini, French footballer
• 1957 – Luis Antonio Tagle, Filipino cardinal
• 1959 – Tom Chambers, American basketball player
• 1959 – Marcella Detroit, singer, musician and songwriter (Shakespear's Sister)
• 1959 – Nimr al-Nimr, Saudi cleric (d. 2016)
• 1960 – Kate Brown, American politician, 38th Governor of Oregon
• 1961 – Manu Chao, French singer and guitarist
• 1961 – Karen Barber, British ice dancer
• 1961 – Joko Widodo, 7th President of Indonesia
• 1962 – Viktor Tsoi, Russian musician
• 1963 – Dario Marianelli, Italian composer
• 1964 – David Morrissey, British actor
• 1964 – Doug Savant, American actor (Melrose Place, Desperate Housewives)
• 1965 – Yang Liwei, Chinese astronaut
• 1965 – Lana Wachowski, American movie director, screenwriter and producer
• 1966 – Rudi Bakhtiar, journalist
• 1966 – Sergey Grishin, Russian businessman and billionaire
• 1967 – Pierre Omidyar, French-American businessman, co-founded eBay
• 1967 – Yingluck Shinawatra, former Prime Minister of Thailand
• 1968 – Chris Gueffroy, last person to be shot at the Berlin Wall (d. 1989)
• 1971 – Anette Olzon, Swedish singer
• 1971 – Keith Loneker, American football player and actor (d. 2017)
• 1973 – Juliette Lewis, American actress
• 1974 – Flavio Roma, Italian footballer

From 1976

• 1976 – René Aufhauser, Austrian footballer
• 1976 – Miroslav Karhan, Slovakian footballer
• 1978 – Erica Durance, Canadian actress
• 1978 – Jean-Pascal Lacoste, French singer and actor
• 1978 – Gervase Markham, British computer programmer and blogger (d. 2018)
• 1979 – Kostas Katsouranis, Greek footballer
• 1979 – Chris Pratt, American actor
• 1981 – Brandon Flowers, American singer/keyboardist (The Killers)
• 1982 – Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, second-in-line to the British throne
• 1982 – Jussie Smollett, American actor
• 1983 – Edward Snowden, American intelligence contractor, activist and academic
• 1983 – Nadia López, Mexican singer
• 1985 – Kris Allen, American singer/American Idol Winner
• 1985 – Lana Del Rey, American singer
• 1986 – Hideaki Wakui, Japanese baseball player
• 1986 – Cheick Tioté, Ivorian footballer (d. 2017)
• 1987 – Sebastian Prödl, Austrian footballer
• 1987 – Pablo Barrera, Mexican footballer
• 1987 – Kim Ryeowook, South Korean singer, songwriter and actor
• 1988 – Alejandro Ramírez, Costa Rican chess player
• 1988 – Alyssa DeHaan, American basketball and volleyball player
• 1988 – Thaddeus Young, American basketball player
• 1989 – Abubakar Kaki Khamis, Sudanese track-and-field athlete
• 1990 – Knowledge Musona, Zimbabwean footballer
• 1991 – Gaël Kakuta, French footballer
• 1992 – Carly Booth, Scottish golfer
• 1992 – Max Schneider, American actor, dancer, model and singer
• 1994 – Chisato Okai, Japanese singer and actress
• 1997 – Rebecca Black, American pop singer, became famous on YouTube
• 1998 – Isabel Atkin, English freestyle skier
• 2001 – Aleksandra Obolentseva, Russian chess player
• 2001 – Eleanor Worthington Cox, English actress
• 2011 – Lil Bub, American celebrity cat

Deaths

Up to 1900

• 223 – Liu Rei, Chinese Emperor (b. 161)
• 1040 – Fulk III, Count of Anjou (b. 972)
• 1206 – Enrico Dandolo, 42nd Doge of Venice (b. 1107)
• 1208 – Philip of Swabia (b. 1177)
• 1305 – Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and Poland (b. 1271)
• 1377 – King Edward III of England (b. 1312)
• 1521 – Leonardo Loredan, 76th Doge of Venice (b. 1436)
• 1547 – Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian political philosopher (b. 1469)
• 1582 – Oda Nobunaga, Japanese shogun (b. 1534)
• 1591 – Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian saint (b. 1568)
• 1621 – Louis III, Cardinal of Guise (b. 1575)
• 1621 – Krystof Harant, Czech soldier, writer and composer (b. 1564)
• 1652 – Inigo Jones, English architect (b. 1573)
• 1661 – Andrea Sacchi, Italian painter (b. 1599)
• 1874 – Anders Jonas Angstrom, Swedish physicist (b. 1814)
• 1876 – Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican President and military figure (b. 1794)
• 1893 – Leland Stanford, 8th Governor of California (b. 1824)

1901 – 2000

• 1908 – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (b. 1844)
• 1914 – Bertha von Suttner, Austrian pacifist and first female winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1843)
• 1917 – Matthias Zurbriggen, Swiss mountain climber (b. 1856)
• 1921 – Murphy J. Foster, Governor of Louisiana (b. 1849)
• 1951 – Charles Dillon-Perrine, American astronomer (b. 1867)
• 1952 – Wop May, Canadian pilot and captain (b. 1896)
• 1954 – Gideon Sundback, Swedish engineer and inventor of the zipper (b. 1880)
• 1957 – Johannes Stark, German physicist (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, first President of Indonesia (b. 1901)
• 1970 – Piers Courage, English racing driver (b. 1942)
• 1979 – Angus MacLise, American drummer and songwriter (b. 1938)
• 1985 – Tage Erlander, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1901)
• 1992 – Li Xiannian, President of the People's Republic of China (b. 1909)
• 1993 – Ticho Parly, Danish tenor (b. 1928)
• 1997 – Shintaro Katsu, Japanese actor, singer, director and producer (b. 1931)
• 1998 – Anastasio Ballestero, Italian cardinal (b. 1913)
• 2000 – Alan Hovhanness, American composer (b. 1911)

From 2001

• 2001 – John Lee Hooker, American blues musician (b. 1916)
• 2003 – Leon Uris, American writer (b. 1924)
• 2005 – Jaime Sin, Archbishop of Manila (b. 1928)
• 2007 – Georg Danzer, Austrian singer (b. 1946)
• 2008 – Kermit Love, American puppeteer (b. 1916)
• 2010 – Stanley Lucas, British supercentenarian (b. 1900)
• 2011 – Maria Gomes Valentim, Brazilian supercentenarian (b. 1896)
• 2012 – Ramaz Shengelia, Soviet–Georgian footballer (b. 1957)
• 2012 – Anna Schwartz, American economist and writer (b. 1915)
• 2014 – Yozo Ishikawa, Japanese politician (b. 1925)
• 2014 – Walter Kieber, 7th Prime Minister of Liechtenstein (b. 1931)
• 2014 – Jimmy C. Newman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1927)
• 2015 – Veijo Meri, Finnish writer (b. 1928)
• 2015 – Gunther Schuller, American conductor, composer and musician (b. 1925)
• 2015 – Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, German politician (b. 1932)
• 2016 – Kunio Hatoyama, Japanese politician (b. 1948)
• 2016 – Henk Hofland, Dutch journalist, columnist and writer (b. 1927)
• 2016 – Al Howie, Scottish-Canadian long-distance runner (b. 1945)
• 2017 – Jean-Pierre Kahane, French mathematician (b. 1926)
• 2017 – Steffi Martin, German luger (b. 1962)
• 2017 – Con Sciacca, Italian-Australian politician (b. 1947)
• 2017 – Robert M. Shoemaker, American military officer (b. 1924)
• 2017 – Brian Street, British anthropologist (b. 1943)
• 2018 – Katriina Elovirta, Finnish footballer and referee (b. 1961)
• 2018 – Charles Krauthammer, American political commentator, columnist and writer (b. 1950)
• 2018 – Armando Merodio, Spanish footballer (b. 1935)
• 2018 – Laurence Street, Australian judge (b. 1926)
• 2018 – Grigory Barenblatt, Russian mathematician (b. 1927)
• 2018 – Jamsheed Marker, Pakistani politician (b. 1922)
• 2019 – Demetris Christofias, 6th President of Cyprus (b. 1946)
• 2019 – Bubba Green, American football player (b. 1957)
• 2019 – Jan Meyers, American politician (b. 1928)

Observances

• Saint Aloysius Gonzaga
• Summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, day with the most daylight hours
• Winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, day with the fewest daylight hours
• National Aboriginal Day (Canada)
• National Day (Greenland)
• World Humanist Day (International Humanist and Ethical Union)
• Statehood Day (New Hampshire)