Events Pre-1600 618 – Li Yuan becomes Emperor Gaozu of Tang, initiating three centuries of Tang dynasty rule over China. 656 – Ali becomes Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate. 860 – Byzantine–Rus' War: A fleet of about 200 Rus' vessels sails into the Bosphorus and starts pillaging the suburbs of the Byzantine capital Constantinople. 1053 – Battle of Civitate: Three thousand Norman horsemen of Count Humphrey rout the troops of Pope Leo IX. 1155 – Pope Adrian IV crowns Frederick Barbarossa as Holy Roman Emperor. 1156 – The treaty of Benevento between Pope Adrian IV and William I of Sicily is concluded. 1264 – The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, the first definitively known meeting of this Irish legislature. 1265 – A draft Byzantine–Venetian treaty is concluded between Venetian envoys and Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, but is not ratified by Doge Reniero Zeno. 1391 – Tokhtamysh–Timur war: Battle of the Kondurcha River: Timur defeats Tokhtamysh of the Golden Horde in present-day southeast Russia.Tucker, Spencer C. (2009-12-23). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East [6 volumes]: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-85109-672-5. 1429 – Charles VII's army defeats an English army under John Talbot at the Battle of Patay during the Hundred Years' War. The English lost 2,200 men, over half their army, crippling their efforts during this segment of the war.
1601–1900 1633 – Charles I is crowned King of Scots at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh. 1684 – The charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is revoked via a scire facias writ issued by an English court. 1757 – Battle of Kolín between Prussian forces under Frederick the Great and an Austrian army under the command of Field Marshal Count Leopold Joseph von Daun in the Seven Years' War. 1778 – American Revolutionary War: The British Army abandons Philadelphia. 1799 – Action of 18 June 1799: A frigate squadron under Rear-admiral Jean-Baptiste Perrée is captured by the British fleet under Lord Keith. 1803 – Haitian Revolution: The Royal Navy led by Rear-Admiral John Thomas Duckworth commence the blockade of Saint-Domingue against French forces. 1812 – The United States declaration of war upon the United Kingdom is signed by President James Madison, beginning the War of 1812. 1815 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Waterloo results in the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte by the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, forcing Napoleon to abdicate the throne of France for the second and last time. 1822 – Konstantinos Kanaris blows up the Ottoman navy's flagship at Chios, killing the Kapudan Pasha Nasuhzade Ali Pasha. 1837 – St. Joseph Mutiny: African soldiers in the 1st West India Regiment – led by former slave trader Daaga – launch a rebellion in the British colony of Trinidad in an attempt to escape to Africa. 1858 – Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin's own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory. 1859 – First ascent of Aletschhorn, second summit of the Bernese Alps. 1873 – Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election. 1887 – The Reinsurance Treaty between Germany and Russia is signed.
1901–present 1906 – Sultan Abdelaziz of Morocco ratifies the agreement reached in the Algeciras Conference in a personal decree. 1907 – Most resistance societies in Santiago return to work, bringing an end to the 1907 Chilean general strike. 1908 – Japanese immigration to Brazil begins when 781 people arrive in Santos aboard the ship Kasato-Maru. 1908 – The University of the Philippines is established. 1920 – The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922) begin with a week of sectarian violence in Derry."Londonderry's forgotten week of bloodshed' in 1920". BBC News, 20 April 2023. 1928 – Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean (she is a passenger; Wilmer Stultz is the pilot and Lou Gordon the mechanic). 1935 – Police in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, clash with striking longshoremen, resulting in a total of 60 injuries and 24 arrests. 1940 – World War II: Appeal of 18 June by Charles de Gaulle. 1940 – World War II: The "Finest Hour" speech is delivered by Winston Churchill. 1945 – William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") is charged with treason for his pro-German propaganda broadcasting during World War II. 1946 – Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, a Socialist, calls for a Direct Action Day against the Portuguese in Goa. 1948 – Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. 1948 – Britain, France and the United States announce that on June 21, the Deutsche Mark will be introduced in western Germany and West Berlin. Over the next six days, Communists increasingly restrict access to Berlin. 1953 – The Egyptian revolution of 1952 ends with the overthrow of the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the declaration of the Republic of Egypt. 1953 – A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns near Tachikawa, Japan, killing 129. 1954 – Carlos Castillo Armas leads an invasion force across the Guatemalan border, setting in motion the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état. 1958 – Benjamin Britten's one-act opera Noye's Fludde premieres at the Aldeburgh Festival. 1965 – Vietnam War: The United States Air Force uses B-52 bombers to attack guerrilla fighters in South Vietnam. 1972 – Staines air disaster: One hundred eighteen people are killed when a BEA H.S. Trident crashes minutes after takeoff from London's Heathrow Airport. 1979 – SALT II is signed by the United States and the Soviet Union. 1981 – The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational aircraft initially designed around stealth technology, makes its first flight. 1982 – Italian banker Roberto Calvi's body is discovered hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London, England. 1983 – Space Shuttle program: STS-7, astronaut Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space. 1983 – Mona Mahmudnizhad, together with nine other women of the Baháʼí Faith, is sentenced to death and hanged in Shiraz, Iran, over her religious beliefs. 1984 – A major clash between about 5,000 police and a similar number of striking miners takes place at Orgreave, South Yorkshire, during the 1984–85 UK miners' strike. 1994 – The Troubles: Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) attack a crowded pub with assault rifles in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland. Six Catholic civilians are killed and five wounded. It was crowded with people watching the 1994 FIFA World Cup. 1998 – Propair Flight 420 crashes near Montréal–Mirabel International Airport in Quebec, Canada, killing 11. 2006 – The first Kazakh space satellite, KazSat-1, is launched. 2007 – The Charleston Sofa Super Store fire kills nine firefighters in Charleston, South Carolina. 2009 – The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a NASA robotic spacecraft is launched. 2018 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.1 strikes northern Osaka. 2023 – Titan, a submersible operated by OceanGate Expeditions, implodes in the North Atlantic Ocean while attempting to view the wreck of the Titanic, killing all five people on board, including OceanGate co-founder and CEO Stockton Rush.
Births Pre-1600 1269 – Eleanor of England, Countess of Bar (died 1298) 1318 – Eleanor of Woodstock (died 1355) 1332 – John V Palaiologos, Byzantine Emperor (died 1391) 1466 – Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (died 1539) 1511 – Bartolomeo Ammannati, Italian architect and sculptor, designed the Ponte Santa Trinita (died 1592) 1517 – Emperor Ōgimachi of Japan (died 1593) 1521 – Maria of Portugal, Duchess of Viseu (died 1577)
1601–1900 1667 – Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshal (died 1750) 1673 – Antonio de Literes, Spanish composer (died 1747) 1677 – Antonio Maria Bononcini, Italian cellist and composer (died 1726) 1716 – Joseph-Marie Vien, French painter and educator (died 1809) 1717 – Johann Stamitz, Czech violinist and composer (died 1757) 1757 – Ignaz Pleyel, Austrian-French pianist and composer (died 1831) 1757 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentine lawyer and politician 1st Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (died 1833) 1769 – Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Irish-English politician, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (died 1822) 1799 – William Lassell, English astronomer and merchant (died 1880) 1812 – Ivan Goncharov, Russian journalist and author (died 1891) 1815 – Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, German general (died 1881) 1816 – Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte, French daughter of Napoleon (died 1907) 1816 – Jung Bahadur Rana, Nepali ruler (died 1877) 1833 – Manuel González Flores, Mexican general and President (1880-1884) (died 1893) 1834 – Auguste-Théodore-Paul de Broglie, French philosopher and academic (died 1895) 1839 – William H. Seward Jr., American general and banker (died 1920) 1845 – Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, French physician and parasitologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1922) 1850 – Richard Heuberger, Austrian composer and critic (died 1914) 1854 – E. W. Scripps, American publisher, founded the E. W. Scripps Company (died 1926) 1857 – Henry Clay Folger, American businessman and philanthropist, founded the Folger Shakespeare Library (died 1930) 1858 – Andrew Forsyth, Scottish-English mathematician and academic (died 1942) 1858 – Hector Rason, English-Australian politician, 7th Premier of Western Australia (died 1927) 1862 – Carolyn Wells, American novelist and poet (died 1942) 1863 – George Essex Evans, English-Australian poet and author (died 1909) 1868 – Miklós Horthy, Hungarian admiral and politician, Regent of Hungary (died 1957) 1870 – Édouard Le Roy, French mathematician and philosopher (died 1954) 1877 – James Montgomery Flagg, American painter and illustrator (died 1960) 1881 – Zoltán Halmay, Hungarian swimmer (died 1956) 1882 – Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgarian compositor and politician, 32nd Prime Minister of Bulgaria (died 1949) 1884 – Édouard Daladier, French captain and politician, Prime Minister of France (died 1970) 1886 – George Mallory, English lieutenant and mountaineer (died 1924) 1886 – Alexander Wetmore, American ornithologist and paleontologist (died 1978) 1887 – Tancrède Labbé, Canadian businessman and politician (died 1956) 1896 – Blanche Sweet, American actress (died 1986) 1897 – Martti Marttelin, Finnish runner (died 1940) 1900 – Vlasta Vraz, Czech-American relief worker, editor, and fundraiser (died 1989)
1901–present 1901 – Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (died 1918) 1901 – Llewellyn Rees, English actor (died 1994) 1902 – Louis Alter, American musician (died 1980) 1902 – Paavo Yrjölä, Finnish decathlete (died 1980) 1903 – Jeanette MacDonald, American actress and singer (died 1965) 1903 – Raymond Radiguet, French author and poet (died 1923) 1904 – Keye Luke, Chinese-American actor (died 1991) 1904 – Manuel Rosenthal, French conductor and composer (died 2003) 1905 – Eduard Tubin, Estonian composer and conductor (died 1982) 1906 – Kay Kyser, American bandleader and radio personality(died 1985) 1907 – Frithjof Schuon, Swiss-American metaphysicist, philosopher, and author (died 1998) 1908 – Bud Collyer, American actor and game show host (died 1969) 1908 – Stanley Knowles, American-Canadian academic and politician (died 1997) 1908 – Nedra Volz, American actress (died 2003) 1910 – Dick Foran, American actor and singer (died 1979) 1910 – Avon Long, American actor and singer (died 1984) 1910 – Ray McKinley, American singer, drummer, and bandleader (died 1995) 1912 – Glenn Morris, American decathlete (died 1974) 1913 – Wilfred Gordon Bigelow, Canadian soldier and surgeon (died 2005) 1913 – Sammy Cahn, American pianist and composer (died 1993) 1913 – Sylvia Porter, American economist and journalist (died 1991)