June 18



Events

Up to 1900 
 618  Tang Dynasty rule begins in China, with the accession of Emperor Gaozu of Tang (Li Yuan).
 1053  Battle of Civitate: 3,000 horsemen of Norman Count Humphrey of Hauteville heavily defeat the troops of Pope Leo IX.
 1264  The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, as the first known meeting of an Irish legislature.
 1429  French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the English army under John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay, helping to turn the tide in the Hundred Years' War.
 1633  Charles I is crowned King of Scots at Saint Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.
 1757  Battle of Polin: Between the Prussians under Frederick the Great and the Austrians in the Seven Years' War.
 1767  English captain Samuel Wallis sights Tahiti, possibly being the first European to sight the island in present-day French Polynesia.
 1778  American Revolutionary War: British troops abandon Philadelphia.
 1812  The United States declares war on the United Kingdom, starting the War of 1812.
 1815  Battle of Waterloo: British, Russian and Prussian forces defeat a French army led by Napoleon Bonaparte.
 1830  The French colonisation of Algeria begins.
 1858  Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace with almost-identical conclusions about Evolution.
 1859  First successful climb of the Aletschhorn mountain in the Swiss Alps.
 1873  Susan B. Anthony is fined for her attempt to vote in the 1872 US Presidential Election.
 1897  Kyoto University is founded.
 1900  Empress Dowager Longyu of China orders that all foreigners be killed.

1901  2000 
 1908  Japanese immigration to Brazil begins.
 1908  The University of the Philippines is founded.
 1928  As a passenger, Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, from Newfoundland to Wales. Her pilot was Wilmer Shutz and Lou Gordon was her mechanic.
 1928  Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen goes missing on a rescue mission in the Arctic Ocean. His plane is most likely to have crashed near Svalbard.
 1932  FIBA, the world's governing authority on basketball, is founded in Geneva, Switzerland.
 1940  Charles de Gaulle makes the appeal of June 18th, calling on the French to resist the Nazis.
 1940  Winston Churchill makes his famous "Finest Hour" speech, to raise the spirits of the British people during World War II.
 1945  William Joyce is charged with treason for his pro-German propaganda during World War II.
 1946  Italy is formally proclaimed a Republic after a referendum on June 2 when a majority of voters chose not to have the monarchy.
 1953  Egypt becomes a Republic.
 1953  A US Air Force C-124 plane crashes and burns in Tokyo, Japan, killing 129 people.
 1954  Pierre Mendès-France becomes Prime Minister of France.
 1965  The US uses B-52 bombers to attack National Liberation Front guerrillas in South Vietnam.
 1972  The Staines Air Disaster occurs near London Heathrow Airport.
 1979  US President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II arms reduction treaty in Vienna.
 1981  The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational aircraft initially designed around stealth technology, makes its first flight.
 1981  The Treaty of Basseterre is signed, creating the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States.
 1982  After defeat in the Falklands War, Argentine military leader Leopoldo Gualtieri resigns from office.
 1983  Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.
 1983  Iranian teenager Mona Mahmudnizhad and 9 other women are executed for their membership of the Baha'i faith.
 1994  The Troubles: Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force attack a crowded bar in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland with assault rifles, killing 6 people.
 1996  Ted Kaczynski, the suspected Unabomber, is indicted on ten criminal counts.
 2000  Ethiopia and Eritrea sign an agreement to end their border war.

From 2001 
 2006  Kazakhstan launches its first space satellite, KazSat.
 2007  The Charleston Sofa Super Store fire in Charleston, South Carolina kills 9 firefighters.
 2009  The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a NASA robotic spacecraft, is launched.
 2010  The US' first execution by firing squad in 14 years occurs in the state of Utah.
 2014  2014 FIFA World Cup: The Spain national football team, defending champion, is knocked out at the group stage by the Chile national football team.  Four years earlier, then-defending champion, the Italy national football team, also got knocked out at this stage.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1269  Eleanor of England, Countess of Bar (d. 1298)
 1318  Princess Eleanor of Woodstock (d. 1355)
 1466  Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (d. 1539)
 1511  Bartolomeo Ammanati, Italian architect and sculptor (d. 1892)
 1517  Emperor Ogimachi of Japan (d. 1593)
 1667  Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshal (d. 1750)
 1673  Antonio de Libres, Spanish composer (d. 1747)
 1677  Antonio Maria Bononcini, Italian cellist and composer (d. 1726)
 1757  Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentine political leader (d. 1833)
 1757  Ignaz Pleyel, Austrian-French composer and piano manufacturer (d. 1831)
 1769  Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Anglo-Irish politician (d. 1822
 1799  William Lassell, English astronomer (d. 1880)
 1799  Prosper Menière, French physician (d. 1862)
 1812  Ivan Goncharov, Russian writer (d. 1891)
 1816  Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte, daughter of Napoleon (d. 1907) 
 1816  Jung Bahadur Rana, Nepali ruler (d. 1877)
 1839  William H. Seward Jr., Union Brigadier General in the American Civil War (d. 1920)
 1845  Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, French doctor, won the 1907 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1922)
 1845  Gustav Storm, Norwegian historian, writer and professor (d. 1903)
 1850  Richard Heuberger, Austrian composer and critic (d. 1914)
 1857  Henry Clay Folger, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1930)
 1868  Miklós Horthy, Hungarian regent (d. 1957)
 1870  Edouard Le Roy, French philosopher and mathematician (d. 1954)
 1874  George Tupou II, King of Tonga (d. 1918)
 1877  James Montgomery Flagg, American painter and illustrator (d. 1960)
 1882  Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgarian Communist leader (d. 1949)
 1883  Mary Alden, American actress (d. 1946)
 1884  Edouard Daladier, French politician (d. 1970)
 1886  George Mallory, English mountaineer (d. 1924)
 1886  Alexander Wetmore, American ornithologist and paleontologist (d. 1978)
 1891  Mae Busch, Australian-American actress (d. 1946)
 1896  Blanche Sweet, American actress (d. 1986)
 1897  Martti Marttelin, Finnish long-distance runner (d. 1940)

1901  1950 
 1901  Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
 1902  Boris Barnet, Soviet movie director, actor and boxer (d. 1965)
 1903  Jeanette McDonald, American actress and singer (d. 1965)
 1903  Raymond Radiguet, French novelist and poet (d. 1923)
 1904  Manuel Rosenthal, French conductor and composer (d. 2003)
 1907  Frithjof Schuon, Swiss-American metaphysicist, philosopher and author (d. 1998)
 1910  Ray McKinley, American musician (d. 1995)
 1912  Glenn Morris, American decathlete and actor (d. 1974)
 1913  Robert Mondavi, American winemaker (d. 2008)
 1915  Red Adair, American firefighter (d. 2004)
 1916  Julio César Turbay Ayala, 25th President of Colombia (d. 2005)
 1917  Erik Ortvad, Danish painter (d. 2008)
 1917  Richard Boone, American actor (d. 1981)
 1918  Jerome Karle, American chemist (d. 2013)
 1918  Franco Modigliani, Italian economist (d. 2003)
 1920  Lode van den Bergh, Belgian writer
 1922  Claude Helffer, French pianist (d. 2004)
 1922  Donald Keene, Japanese and American scholor and expert of Japan studies (d. 2019)
 1923  Veronica Carstens, First Lady of Germany (d. 2012)
 1923  Szymon Szurmiej, Polish actor and director (d. 2014)
 1924  George Mikan, American basketball player (d. 2005)
 1925  Robert Arthur, American actor (d. 2008)
 1927  Eva Bartok, Hungarian-American actress (d. 1998)
 1929  Jürgen Habermas, German sociologist and philosopher
 1929  Ann Mara, American businesswoman (d. 2015)
 1929  Tibor Rubin, Hungarian-American soldier (d. 2015)
 1931  Fernando Henrique Cardoso, 34th President of Brazil, 1995-2003
 1932  Dudley R. Herschbach, American chemist
 1932  Geoffrey Hill, English poet (d. 2016)
 1936  Denny Hulme, New Zealand racing driver (d. 1992)
 1936  Barack Obama, Sr. (d. 1982), Kenyan father of Barack Obama
 1936  Norodom Monineath, Cambodian Queen Mother
 1936  Ronald Venetiaan, former President of Suriname
 1937  Vitaly Zholobov, Soviet cosmonaut
 1937  Jay Rockefeller, American politician
 1939  Jack Herer, American writer and activist (d. 2010)
 1940  Mirjam Pressler, German writer (d. 2019)
 1941  Delia Smith, British cookery writer
 1941  Roger Lemerre, French footballer and manager
 1942  Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa
 1942  Roger Ebert, American movie critic (d. 2013)
 1942  Sir Paul McCartney, English singer-songwriter and musician (The Beatles)
 1942  Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor (d. 2004)
 1942  Carl Radle, American bass player and producer
 1943  Raffaella Carra, Italian singer, dancer and actress
 1944  Salvador Sánchez Cerén, President of El Salvador
 1946  Maria Bethania, Brazilian singer 
 1946  Fabio Capello, Italian football manager
 1947  Bernard Giraudeau, French actor, director and writer (d. 2010)
 1949  Jaroslaw Kaczynski, former Prime Minister of Poland
 1949  Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland (d. 2010)
 1949  Lincoln Thompson, Jamaican singer, songwriter and musician (d. 1999)
 1950  Annelie Ehrhardt, German athlete
 1950  Rod de'Ath, Welsh drummer (d. 2014)
 1950  Mike Johanns, 38th Governor of Nebraska

1951  1975 
 1951  Jerry McNerney, American politician
 1951  Gyula Sax, Hungarian chess player (d. 2014)
 1952  John Carl Buechler, American visual effects artist and film director (d. 2019)
 1952  Isabella Rossellini, Italian actress
 1952  Marcella Bella, Italian singer
 1952  Denis Herron, Canadian ice hockey player
 1952  Lee Soo-man, South Korean businessman
 1953  Sandy Allen, American, world's tallest woman (d. 2008)
 1953  Vladislav Terzyul, Ukrainian mountaineer (d. 2004)
 1954  Tinna Gunnlaugsdottir, Icelandic actress
 1955  Misia, Portuguese singer
 1957  Andrea Evans, American actress
 1957  Miguel Angel Lotina, Spanish footballer
 1957  Irene Epple, German skier
 1958  Peter Altmaier, German politician
 1961  Alison Moyet, British singer
 1962  Mitsuharu Misawa, Japanese wrestler (d. 2009)
 1964  Uday Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein (d. 2003)
 1965  Robin Christopher, American actress
 1970  Ivan Kozak, Slovakian footballer
 1970  Katie Derham, English broadcaster
 1971  Nigel Owens, Welsh rugby referee
 1971  Jason McAteer, English-Irish footballer and manager
 1971  Gaute Kivistik, Estonian journalist and author
 1972  Anu Tali, Estonian pianist and conductor
 1973  Julie Depardieu, French actress
 1973  Ray LaMontagne, American singer-songwriter and musician
 1973  Alexandros Papadimitriou, Greek hammer thrower
 1974  Vincenzo Montella, Italian footballer
 1974  Sergey Sharikov, Russian fencer
 1975  Jem, Welsh singer-songwriter and producer
 1975  Jamel Debbouze, French-Moroccan actor and producer

From 1976 
 1976  Alana de la Garza, American actress
 1976  Blake Shelton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 1978  Wang Liqin, Chinese table tennis player
 1978  Lilia Kopylova, Russian-English professional dancer
 1979  Yumiko Kobayashi, Japanese voice actress
 1980  Kevin Bishop, English actor and comedian
 1981  Marco Streller, Swiss footballer
 1982  Nadir Belhadj, Algerian footballer
 1982  Marco Borriello, Italian footballer
 1984  Janne Happonen, Finnish ski jumper
 1986  Richard Gasquet, French tennis player
 1986  Richard Madden, Scottish actor
 1987  Omar Arellano, Mexican footballer
 1987  Melanie Iglesias, American model and actress
 1987  Marcelo Martins Moreno, Bolivian footballer
 1988  Elini Dimoutsos, Greek footballer
 1988  Islam Slimani, Algerian footballer
 1988  Josh Dun, American musician (Twenty One Pilots)
 1989  Renee Olstead, American actress and singer
 1989  Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Gabonese footballer
 1990  Luke Adam, Canadian ice hockey player
 1990  Sandra Izbasa, Romanian gymnast
 1991  Rei Okamoto, Japanese model and actress
 1997  Max Records, American actor
 2006  Countess Zaria of Orange-Nassau, Jonkrouwe van Amsberg, Dutch royal

Deaths

Up to 1950 
 741  Leo III the Issaurian, Byzantine Emperor (b. 685)
 1234  Emperor Chukyo of Japan (b. 1218)
 1291  King Alfonso III of Aragon (b. 1265)
 1464  Rogier van der Weyden, Flemish painter (b. 1400)
 1629  Piet Hein, Dutch naval commander (b. 1577)
 1650  Christoph Scheiner, German astronomer (b. 1575)
 1673  Jeanne Mance, French settler in New France, present-day Quebec (b. 1606)
 1680  Samuel Butler, English poet (b. 1612)
 1726  Michel Richard Delalande, French organist and composer (b. 1657)
 1742  John Aislabie, English politician (b. 1670)
 1749  Ambrose Philips, English poet (b. 1674)
 1772  Johann Ulrich von Cramer, German jurist and philosopher (b. 1706)
 1794  François Nicolas Léonard Buzet, French revolutionary figure (b. 1760)
 1815  Thomas Picton, British general (b. 1758)
 1886  Prince Sigismund of Prussia (b. 1864)
 1902  Samuel Butler, English writer (b. 1835)
 1905  Carmine Crocco, Italian soldier (b. 1830)
 1915  Eufemio Zapata, brother of Emiliano Zapata (b. 1873)
 1916  Max Immelmann, German flying ace (b. 1890)
 1917  Tito Maiorescu, Romanian Prime Minister (b. 1840)
 1922  Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (b. 1851)
 1928  Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer (b. 1872)
 1929  Carlo Airoldi, Italian marathon runner (b. 1869)
 1936  Maxim Gorky, Russian writer (b. 1868)
 1937  Gaston Doumergue, French politician (b. 1863)
 1942  Arthur Pryor, American trombonist and bandleader (b. 1870)
 1945  Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., American general (b. 1886)
 1947  Shigematsu Sakaibara, Japanese admiral (b. 1898)

1951  2010 
 1959  Ethel Barrymore, American actress (b. 1879)
 1963  Pedro Armendariz, Mexican actor (b. 1912)
 1967  Beat Fehr, Swiss racing driver (b. 1942)
 1967  Geki, Italian racing driver (b. 1942)
 1971  Paul Karrer, Swiss chemist (b. 1889)
 1974  Georgy Zhukov, Marshal of the Soviet Union (b. 1896)
 1978  Walter C. Alvarez, American physician (b. 1884)
 1980  André Leducq, French cyclist (b. 1904) 
 1982  Djuna Barnes, American writer (b. 1892)
 1983  Mona Mahmudnizhad, Iranian Baha'i
 1986  Frances Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (b. 1921)
 1989  I. F. Stone, American journalist (b. 1907)
 1992  Mordecai Ardon, Israeli painter (b. 1896)
 1997  Lev Kopelev, Russian writer and dissident (b. 1912)
 2006  Vincent Sherman, American actor and director (b. 1906)
 2007  Bernard Manning, English comedian (b. 1930)
 2007  Hank Medress, American singer (The Tokens) (b. 1938)
 2008  Jean Delannoy, French movie director and producer (b. 1908)
 2010  José Saramago, Portuguese writer (b. 1922)
 2010  Marcel Bigeard, French military officer (b. 1916)

From 2011 
 2011  Frederick Chiluba, 2nd President of Zambia (b. 1943)
 2011  Yelena Bonner, Russian human rights activist (b. 1923)
 2011  Ulrich Biesinger, German footballer (b. 1934)
 2011  Clarence Clemons, American musician and actor (b. 1942)
 2012  Luis Edgardo Mercado Jarrin, 109th Prime Minister of Peru (b. 1919) 
 2013  Michael Hastings, American journalist (b. 1980)
 2014  Claire Martin, Canadian author (b. 1914)
 2014  Vladimir Popovkin, Russian general, Director of the Russian Federal Space Agency (b. 1957)
 2014  Horace Silver, American jazz musician and composer (b. 1928)
 2014  Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist, invented Kevlar (b. 1923)
 2014  Johnny Mann, American musician, composer, conductor and entertainer (b. 1928)
 2015  Ralph J. Roberts, American businessman (b. 1920)
 2015  Jack Rollins, American movie producer (b. 1915)
 2015  Allen Weinstein, American historian (b. 1937)
 2015  Patrick Eisdell Moore, New Zealand surgeon (b. 1928)
 2016  Vittorio Merloni, Italian entrepreneur (b. 1933)
 2016  Paul Cox, Dutch-Australian film director (b. 1940)
 2016  Sverre Kjelsberg, Norwegian musician (b. 1946)
 2016  William J. Livsey, American army general (b. 1931)
 2016  Wu Jianmin, Chinese diplomat (b. 1939)
 2017  Pierluigi Chicca, Italian fencer (b. 1937)
 2017  Tim Hague, Canadian mixed martial artist (b. 1983)
 2017  Tony Liscio, American football player (b. 1940)
 2017  Shih Chun-jen, Taiwanese neurosurgeon (b. 1923)
 2017  Hans Breder, German-American artist (b. 1935)
 2017  Keith Farnham, American politician (b. 1947)
 2018  Walter Bahr, American soccer player (b. 1927)
 2018  Kostas Politis, Greek basketball player (b. 1942)
 2018  XXXTentacion, American rapper (b. 1998)
 2018  Big Van Vader, American professional wrestler (b. 1955)
 2018  Bertha Sanseverino, Uruguayan politician (b. 1946)
 2018  Nathan Shaham, Israeli writer (b. 1925)
 2019  Stephen Blaire, American bishop (b. 1941)
 2020  Tibor Benedek, Hungarian water polo player (b. 1972)
 2020  John Bredenkamp, Zimbabwean rugby union player and businessman (b. 1940)
 2020  Dame Vera Lynn, British singer and actress (b. 1917)

Observances
 Autistic Pride Day
 Evacuation Day (Egypt)
 International Sushi Day
 National Day (Seychelles)

Days of the year