Today June 21st 2009 this day in history Read more below to view events, deaths, births, Holidays observances and video clips. Last database updated: Jan 17th, 2009
Events
524 – Godomar, King of the Burgundians defeats the Franks at the Battle of Vézeronce.
1582 – The Incident at Honno-ji takes place 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.
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, is 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, is founded.
1788 – New Hampshire ratifies the Constitution of the United States and is admitted as the 9th state in the United States.
1798 – Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at the 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 – The 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 World War I.
1940 – The 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 United States mainland.
1945 – World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ends.
1948 – The Manchester Baby (SSEM) runs the first ever computer program stored in electronic memory.
1948 – Columbia Records introduces the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.
1952 – Philippine School of Commerce, through a republic act, is converted to Philippine College of Commerce; later to be the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.
1957 – Ellen Louks Fairclough is 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.
1999 – Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad starts his work in Perdana Putra, Putrajaya.
2000 – Section 28 (outlawing the promotion of homosexuality in the United Kingdom) is repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote.
2001 – A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicts 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen.
2004 – SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
2006 – Pluto s newly discovered moons are officially named Nix & Hydra.
2007 – TEENick s last airing of the short-lived reality series, Dance on Sunset.
2008 – Russia beats Holland 3:1 at the European Football Championship
Births
1002 – Pope Leo IX (d. 1054)
1226 – King Boleslaus V of Poland (d. 1279)
1528 – Maria of Spain, Holy Roman Empire Empress (d. 1603)
1535 – Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (d. 1596)
1639 (O.S.) – Increase Mather, New England Puritan minister (d. 1723)
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)
1750 – Pierre-Nicolas Beauvallet, French artist (d. 1818)
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)
1786 – Charles Edward Horn, British musician
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)
1850 – Enrico Cecchetti
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)
1879 – Gemma Doyle, Victorian Debutante, developer of the Realms theology (d. 1949)
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)
1890 – Frank Sherman Land, The order of DeMolay founder (d. 1959)
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)
1894 – Milward Kennedy, British public servant and mystery writer (d. 1968)
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 (d. 2001)
1916 – Buddy O Connor, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1977)
1918 – Eddie Lopat, American baseball player (d. 1992)
1918 – James Clyde Mitchell, English sociologist and anthropologist (d. 1995)
1919 – Gérard Pelletier, French Canadian journalist, politician, and diplomat (d. 1997)
1919 – Vladimir Simagin, Russian chess master and teacher (d. 1968)
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
1941 – Lyman Ward, 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
1951 – Jim Douglas, American politician, governor of Vermont
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 – Robert Pastorelli, American actor (d. 2004)
1955 – Tim Bray, Canadian computer programmer
1955 – Leigh McCloskey, American actor
1955 – Aloysius Amwano, Nauruan politician
1955 – Jean-Pierre Mader, French singer-songwriter
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
1961 – Manu Chao, French musician
1961 – Sascha Konietzko, German musician
1961 – Karen Barber, ice skater
1962 – Viktor Tsoi, Russian musician
1962 – Takeshi Asami, Japanese racing driver
1964 – Sammi Davis, British actress
1964 – David Morrissey, British actor
1964 – Doug Savant, American 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
1969 – Gabriella Paruzzi, Italian skier
1970 – Sindee Coxx, American pornographic actress
1970 – Pete Rock, American rapper/producer
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
1974 – Rob Kelly, American football player
1974 – Neely Jenkins, American musician
1976 – Antonio Cochran, American football player
1976 – Mike Einziger, American musician
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
1978 – Dejan Ognjanovic, Montenegrin football player
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, 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
1987 – Kim Ryeowook, Korean pop singer
1987 – Sebastian Prödl, Austrian footballer
1988 – Alejandro Ramírez, chess Grandmaster
Deaths
223 – Liu Bei, Emperor of Shu Han (b. 161)
1205 – Enrico Dandolo, Doge of Venice (b. 1107)
1208 – Philip of Swabia, King of Germany and duke of Swabia (b. 1177)
1305 – King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and Poland (b. 1271)
1377 – King Edward III of England (b. 1312)
1421 – Jean Le Maingre, Marshal of France (b. 1366)
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)
1631 – John Smith, English explorer
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, American inventor, perfected 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)
1987 – Madman Muntz, American entrepreneur, businessman, electrical engineer, TV commercial actor (b. 1914)
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)
2001 – Souad Hosni, Egyptian actress (b. 1942)
2003 – Roger Neilson, Canadian ice hockey coach (b. 1934)
2003 – Leon Uris, American writer (b. 1924)
2003 – Jason Moran, Australian criminal (b. 1967)
2004 – Leonel Brizola, Brazilian politician (b. 1922)
2005 – Jaime Cardinal Sin, Filipino Catholic Archbishop of Manila, prominent leader during the People Power Revolution(b. 1928)
2007 – Bob Evans, American restaurateur (b. 1918)
2008 – Scott Kalitta, American drag racer (b. 1962)
Holidays and observances
Summer solstice (Northern Hemisphere) and winter solstice (Southern Hemisphere) celebrations
National Aboriginal Day in Canada (starting in 1996, not nationally recognized)
Midsummer – Neopagan festival – Litha
National Day of Greenland
Fête de la Musique World Music Day, since 1982.
Secular Humanists: World Humanist Day
National Go Skateboarding Day
Saint Alban
Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, patron saint of youth (d. 1591)
Saint Engelmond
Saint Martin of Tongeren (d. 350)
