June 26



Events

Up to 1950 
 4  Roman Emperor Augustus adopts Tiberius.
 221  Roman Emperor Elagabalus adopts his cousin Alexander Severus as his heir.
 363  Roman Emperor Julian is killed during retreat from the Sassanid Empire. Troops on the battlefield proclaim Jovian Emperor.
 687  Benedict II becomes Pope.
 1409  Western Schism: The Catholic church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.
 1483  Richard III becomes king of England.
 1492  Mont Aiguille, in the Western Alps in France is climbed for the first time by Antoine de Ville.
 1541  Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima.
 1718  Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich of Russia (son of Peter I of Russia) dies mysteriously after his father sentenced him to death for plotting against him. (occurred on July 7 in the Gregorian calendar)
 1723  After a siege, and bombardment by cannon, Baku surrenders to the Russians.
 1740  A combined force of Spanish, free Blacks, and allied Indians defeat a British garrison at the Siege of Fort Mose near St. Augustine, Florida in the War of Jenkins' Ear.
 1819  The bicycle is patented.
 1830  King George IV of the United Kingdom dies. His brother succeeds him as William IV of the United Kingdom.
 1843  The Treaty of Nanking comes into effect, effectively giving Hong Kong to the United Kingdom.
 1848  End of the June Days Uprising in Paris.
 1857  First Investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London.
 1860  In Durban, South Africa, Africa's first railway is opened.
 1870  Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the US.
 1879  Egypt sells its parts of the Suez Canal to the United Kingdom.
 1886  Henri Moissan isolates elemental fluorine for the first time.
 1889  Bangui, now-capital city of the Central African Republic, is founded.
 1905  A telegram is sent to Iceland for the first time, from Cornwall.
 1906  The 1906 French Grand Prix is held, as the first Grand Prix motor racing event ever held.
 1917  World War I: US troops arrive in France to fight alongside Britain and France against Germany.
 1920  Antonio Maria da Silva becomes Prime Minister of Portugal.
 1924  American occupying forces leave the Dominican Republic.
 1934  President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act, which establishes credit unions.
 1934  Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.
 1940  World War II: Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and northern part of Bukovina.
 1945  The United Nations Charter is signed.
 1945  In Germany, the CDU political party is founded.
 1948  The Western allies start an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union has blockaded West Berlin.

1951  2000 
 1954  The FIFA World Cup's most goal-filled match occurs in Lausanne, Switzerland, as the Austria national football team wins 7-5 against the Switzerland national football team.
 1959  Ingemar Johansson of Sweden becomes Boxing Heavyweight World Champion when he defeats Floyd Patterson.
 1959  The Saint Lawrence Seaway opens, opening North America's Great Lakes to ocean-going ships.
 1960  Former British Protectorate of Somaliland (British Somaliland) gains its independence.
 1960  Madagascar becomes independent from France.
 1963  John F. Kennedy speaks the famous words "Ich bin ein Berliner" at a speech in Berlin.
 1964  The Beatles release the album A Hard Day's Night.
 1966  The Basel Canton in Switzerland allows women to vote.
 1973  On Plesetsk Cosmodrome 9 persons were killed at an explosion of a Cosmos 3-M rocket.
 1974  The first retail product (a pack of chewing gum) was sold using a barcode reader.
 1975  Indira Gandhi establishes authoritarian rule in India.
 1976  The CN Tower in Toronto is officially opened.
 1977  The last concert of Elvis Presley takes place.
 1978  Air Canada Flight 221 to Toronto overruns the runway and crashes into the Etobicoke Creek ravine.
 1979  Muhammad Ali retires.
 1987  Convention against Torture entered into force.
 1991  The Yugoslav People's Army  begins the Ten-Day War in Slovenia and Croatia.
 1995  Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak survives an assassination attempt in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
 1995  Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani becomes Emir of Qatar after deposing his father, Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani in a bloodless coup.
 1996  Journalist Veronica Guerin is shot dead in Dublin, Ireland.
 1997  Bertie Ahern becomes Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland.
 1997  The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment.
 1997  Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the U.S.), the first book in J.K. Rowling's hugely popular Harry Potter series, is published.
 2000  Human Genome Project: The completion of the first rough map of the human genetic code is announced.

From 2001 
 2003  The U.S. Supreme Court rules that sodomy laws are unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas.
 2006  East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri resigns after weeks of political unrest.
 2007  In Zheijiang, China, the Huangzhou Bay Bridge is opened.
 2007  Lina Hahne, a 23-year-old medical student, is crowned Miss Sweden after the original winner was dethroned.
 2013  Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard loses a vote within the Australian Labor Party against previous Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who succeeds her the next day.
 2014  2014 FIFA World Cup: FIFA hands out its heaviest FIFA World Cup ban to Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez for biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini two days earlier. The Uruguayan Football Association appeals the decision.
 2015  Islamist Terror attacks occur in France, Kuwait and Tunisia. A local businessman is decapitated in Southeast France; At least 27 people killed in a bombing at a mosque in Kuwait; A gun attack on foreign tourists in Sousse, Tunisia, kills at least 38 people.
 2015  The Supreme Court of the United States rules that all states of the United States are to recognize same-sex marriage.
 2016  Chile defeats Argentina in the final of the Copa América Centenario. Argentina's Lionel Messi announces his retirement from the national team after the match.
 2017  Theresa May's Conservative Party agrees a deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party in order to stay in power in the United Kingdom.
 2018  The United States Supreme Court, in a majority decision, rules in favour of Donald Trump's travel ban on people from several Muslim-majority countries.
 2018  Activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeats incumbent United States Representative Joe Crowley in an upset victory in the Democratic Party primary for New York's 14th congressional district.

Births

Up to 1900 
 1501  Cho Shik, Korean scholar, politician, educator and poet (d. 1572)
 1557  Leandro Bassano, Italian painter (d. 1622)
 1575  Anne Catherine of Brandenburg, Queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1612)
 1582  Johannes Schultz, German composer (d. 1653)
 1653  Cardinal André-Hercule de Fleury, Bishop of Fréjus, chief minister of France under Louis XV (d. 1743)
 1681  Hedvig Sophia of Sweden (d. 1708)
 1689  Edward Holyoke, American clergyman and academic (d. 1769)
 1726  Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia (d. 1796)
 1730  Charles Messier, French astronomer (d. 1817)
 1741  John Langdon, American politician (d. 1819)
 1753  Antoine de Rivarol, French writer (d. 1801)
 1760  Johann I Joseph, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1836)
 1786  Sunthorn Phu, Thai poet (d. 1855)
 1817  Branwell Bronte, English painter and poet (d. 1848)
 1819  Abner Doubleday, American major general (d. 1893)
 1821  Bartolomé Mitre, 6th President of Argentina (d. 1906)
 1824  William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish physicist (d. 1907)
 1826  Adolf Bastian, German polymath (d. 1905)
 1839  Sam Watkins, American Confederate soldier and writer (d. 1901)
 1854  Robert Laird Borden, eighth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1937)
 1865  Bernard Berenson, art connoisseur (d. 1959)
 1866  George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, English financier of Egyptian excavations (d. 1923)
 1871  Johan Anker, Norwegian sailor (d. 1940)
 1880  Mitchell Lewis, American movie actor (d. 1956)
 1892  Pearl S. Buck, American writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 1973)
 1893  Big Bill Broonzy, American blues musician and composer (d. 1958)
 1895  George Hainsworth, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1956)
 1897  Viola Dana, American actress (d. 1987)
 1898  Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft designer (d. 1978)
 1899  Maria Nikolaevna Romanova, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Alexandra Fyodorovna (d. 1918)
 1899  Elvy Kalep, Estonian pilot and artist (d. 1989)

1901  1950 
 1902  Hugues Cuénod, Swiss tenor (d. 2010)
 1904  Peter Lorre, Hungarian actor (d. 1964)
 1904  Frank Scott Hogg, Canadian astronomer (d. 1951)
 1906  Edward Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana (d. 1979)
 1908  Salvador Allende, President of Chile (d. 1973)
 1909  Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's manager (d. 1997)
 1909  Wolfgang Reitherman, German-American animator, director and producer (d. 1985)
 1911  Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American athlete and golfer (d. 1956)
 1912  Jay Silverheels, actor (d. 1980)
 1913  Aimé Césaire, French-Martinican poet and politician (d. 2008)
 1913  Maurice Wilkes, British computer scientist (d. 2010)
 1914  Shapour Bakhtiar, Iranian politician (d. 1991)
 1914  Laurie Lee, English poet, novelist and screenwriter (d. 1997)
 1914  Wolfgang Windgassen, German tenor (d. 1974)
 1916  Giuseppe Taddei, Italian baritone (d. 2010)
 1919  Richard Neustadt, political historian (d. 2003)
 1920  Jean-Pierre Roy, Canadian baseball player (d. 2014)
 1922  Eleanor Parker, American actress (d. 2013)
 1922  Dick Smith, American special effects make-up artist (d. 2014)
 1924  Richard Bull, American actor (d. 2014)
 1925  Pavel Belyayev, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1970)
 1925  Wolfgang Unzicker, German chess player (d. 2006)
 1927  Dimitar Iliev Popov, Prime Minister of Bulgaria (d. 2015)
 1928  Yoshiro Nakamatsu, Japanese inventor
 1929  Milton Glaser, American graphic designer, typographer and teacher
 1930  Jackie Fargo, American professional wrestler (d. 2013)
 1933  Claudio Abbado, Italian conductor (d. 2014)
 1933  David Winnick, English politician
 1934  Dave Grusin, American jazz pianist
 1934  Jeremy Wolfenden, British journalist (d. 1965)
 1936  Robert Maclennan, British politician
 1936  Jean-Claude Turcotte, Canadian cardinal (d. 2015)
 1936  Benjamin Adekunle, Nigerian general (d. 2014)
 1936  Hal Greer, American basketball player
 1937  Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist (d. 2013)
 1938  Neil Abercrombie, American politician, 7th Governor of Hawaii
 1939  Chuck Robb, American politician, 64th Governor of Virginia
 1942  Gilberto Gil, first Minister of Culture of Brazil, singer, songwriter and musician
 1944  Wolfgang Weber, German footballer
 1945  Dwight York, musician, fashion consultant, cult leader and child molester
 1947  Peter Sloterdijk, German philosopher
 1948  Sergei Bodrov, Russian movie director, screenwriter and producer
 1949  Fredric Brandt, American dermatologist (d. 2015)
 1950  Michael Paul Chan, American actor

1951  1975 
 1951  Gary Gilmour, Australian cricketer (d. 2014)
 1951  Jürgen Rüttgers, German politician
 1952  Gordon McQueen, Scottish footballer
 1952  Simon Mann, English mercenary
 1954  Luis Arconada, Basque-Spanish footballer
 1954  Steve Barton, American actor, singer and dancer (d. 2001)
 1955  Mick Jones, British musician, guitarist with The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite
 1956  Chris Isaak, American pop singer and actor
 1956  Patrick Mercer, British politician
 1957  Pietro Paolo Virdis, Italian footballer
 1957  Philippe Mabboux, French organist and composer
 1957  Patty Smyth, American singer-songwriter
 1958  Pedro Cateriano, former Prime Minister of Peru
 1958  Riho Sibul, Estonian singer and guitarist
 1959  Mark McKinney, Canadian actor and screenwriter
 1960  Mark Durkan, Northern Irish politician
 1961  Greg Lemond, cyclist
 1961  Toni Barry, British voice actress
 1961  Terri Nunn, American singer (Berlin)
 1962  Jerome Kersey, American basketball player (d. 2015)
 1963  Richard Garfield, American game designer
 1963  Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russian CEO of YUKOS Oil Company
 1966  Dany Boon, French actor, director and screenwriter
 1967  Olivier Dahan, French director and screenwriter
 1967  Tarun Sagar, Indian Jain monk (d. 2018)
 1968  Gudni Th. Johannesson, Icelandic historian and academic, 6th President of Iceland
 1968  Jovenel Moïse, President of Haiti (d. 2021) 
 1968  Rich Eisen, American ESPN SportsCenter anchor
 1968  Shannon Sharpe, American football player and commentator
 1968  Paolo Maldini, Italian footballer
 1968  Armand de Las Cuevas, French cyclist (d. 2018)
 1969  Colin Greenwood, musician, Radiohead
 1969  Francis Magee, Irish actor
 1969  Geir Moen, Norwegian sprinter
 1970  Paul Thomas Anderson, American director, producer and screenwriter
 1970  Irv Gotti, American record producer
 1970  Sean Hayes, American actor, singer and producer
 1970  Chris O'Donnell, American actor
 1972  Caroline Nokes, English politician
 1972  Jussi Sydanmaa, Finnish musician (Lordi)
 1973  Gretchen Wilson, American country music singer
 1974  Derek Jeter, American baseball player
 1975  Jean-Paul Abalo, Togolese footballer

From 1976 
 1976  Ed Jovanovski, Canadian ice hockey player
 1976  Chad Pennington, American football player
 1976  Alexander Zakharchenko, Ukrainian separatist leader (d. 2018)
 1977  Kubo Tite, cartoonist
 1979  Ryan Tedder, American singer, musician and producer (OneRepublic)
 1980  Jason Schwartzman, American actor
 1980  Michael Vick, American football player
 1981  Paolo Cannavaro, Italian footballer
 1983  Felipe Melo, Brazilian footballer
 1984  Raymond Felton, American basketball player
 1984  Deron Williams, American basketball player
 1984  Priscah Jeptoo, Kenyan runner
 1984  Aubrey Plaza, American actress
 1985  Arjun Kapoor, Indian actor
 1985  Daniela Sabatino, Italian footballer
 1985  Urgyen Trinley Dorje, Tibetan spiritual leader
 1986  Xisco, Spanish footballer
 1987  Samir Nasri, French footballer
 1988  Amanda Marchant, English singer
 1988  Sam Marchant, English singer
 1988  Dakota L. Meyer, American soldier
 1990  Belaynesh Oljira, Ethiopian runner
 1992  Joel Campbell, Costa Rican footballer
 1992  Melanie Amaro, British-American singer
 1992  Jennette McCurdy, American actress and singer
 1993  Ariana Grande, American actress and singer
 2005  Princess Alexia of the Netherlands

Deaths

Up to 1950 
 363  Julian, Roman Emperor (killed in battle) (b. 331)
 1291  Eleanor of Provence, queen of Henry III of England
 1541  Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conqueror of Peru (murdered)
 1718  Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich of Russia (b. 1690), died on July 7 in the Gregorian calendar
 1784  Caesar Rodney, 4th Governor of Delaware (b. 1728)
 1808  Ludwik Tyszkiewicz, Polish poet and politician (b. 1748)
 1810  Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, French inventor (b. 1740)
 1830  King George IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1762)
 1836  Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, French composer (b. 1706)
 1856  Max Stirner, German philosopher (b. 1806)
 1870  Armand Barbès, French revolutionary (b. 1809) 
 1878  Mercedes of Orléans, Queen of Spain (b. 1860)
 1883  Edward Sabine, Irish-English astronomer, geophysicist and ornithologist (b. 1788)
 1918  Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet (b. 1843)
 1922  Albert I, Prince of Monaco (b. 1841)
 1938  Daria Pratt, American golfer (b. 1859)
 1939  Ford Maddox Ford, English writer (b. 1873)
 1943  Karl Landsteiner, Austrian doctor, won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1868)
 1945  Emil Hacha, 3rd President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1872)
 1946  Yosuke Matsuoka, Japanese politician (b. 1880)
 1947  Richard Bedford Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1870)
 1949  Kim Gu, Korean politician (b. 1876)

1951  2000 
 1951  Frank Ferera, Hawaiian musician (b. 1885)
 1955  Engelbert Zaschka, German helicopter pioneer (b. 1895)
 1956  Clifford Brown, American jazz saxophonist (b. 1930)
 1957  Alfred Döblin, German writer (b. 1878)
 1957  Malcolm Lowry, English poet and author (b. 1909)
 1958  Andrija Štampar, physician and United Nations diplomat (b. 1888)
 1958  George Orton, Canadian athlete (b. 1873)
 1964  Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect (b. 1888)
 1975  St. Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish Roman Catholic priest (b. 1902)
 1979  Akwasi Afrifa, Ghanaian politician (b. 1936)
 1990  Anni Blomqvist, Finnish writer (b. 1909)
 1993  William H. Riker, political scientist (b. 1920)
 1996  Veronica Guerin, Irish journalist (b. 1958)
 1997  Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Hawaiian singer (born 1959)

From 2001 
 2002  Jay Berwanger, American football player (b. 1914)
 2002  Arnold Brown, 11th General of the Salvation Army (b. 1913)
 2003  Sir Denis Thatcher Bt., husband of Margaret Thatcher (b. 1915)
 2003  Strom Thurmond, United States Senator (b. 1902)
 2003  Marc-Vivien Foé, Cameroonian footballer (b. 1975)
 2004  Yash Johar, Indian movie producer (b. 1929)
 2005  Richard Whiteley, British game show host (b. 1943)
 2007  Liz Claiborne, Belgian-born fashion designer (b. 1929)
 2007  Jupp Derwall, German footballer and manager (b. 1927)
 2010  Algirdas Brazauskas, Lithuanian President (b. 1932)
 2011  Jan van Beveren, Dutch footballer (b. 1948)
 2012  Nora Ephron, American writer, screenwriter and movie director (b. 1941)
 2013  Marc Rich, Belgian-American businessman (b. 1934)
 2013  Bert Stern, American photographer (b. 1929)
 2013  Kimberly McCarthy, American murderer (b. 1961)
 2014  Ivan Plyushch, Ukrainian politician (b. 1941)
 2014  Howard Baker, American politician and diplomat, United States Senator for Tennessee (b. 1925)
 2014  Wolf Koenig, German-born Canadian filmmaker (b. 1927)
 2014  Ron Hall, Australian rules footballer (b. 1945)
 2015  Yevgeny Primakov, former Prime Minister of Russia (b. 1929)
 2015  Richard Matt, American murderer and prison escapee (b. 1966)
 2016  Austin Clarke, Canadian novelist (b. 1934)
 2016  Barbara Goldsmith, American author (b. 1931)
 2016  Ryan Jimmo, Canadian mixed martial artist (b. 1981)
 2016  Kim Sung-min, South Korean actor (b. 1973)
 2016  Kavalam Narayana Panicker, Indian dramatist, theatre director and poet (b. 1928)
 2016  Rostislav Yankovsky, Belarussian actor (b. 1930)
 2017  Desh Bandhu Gupta, Indian businessman (b. 1938)
 2017  Doug Peterson, American yacht designer (b. 1945)
 2017  Habib Thiam, Prime Minister of Senegal (b. 1933)
 2017  Alice Trolle-Wachtmeister, Swedish countess (b. 1926)
 2017  Claude Fagedet, French photographer (b. 1928)
 2018  Andrey Dementyev, Russian poet (b. 1928)
 2018  Henri Namphy, President of Haiti (b. 1932)
 2018  Daniel Pilon, Canadian actor (b. 1940)
 2018  Big Bill Bissonnette, American jazz trombonist (b. 1937)
 2018  Ignatios Lappas, Greek Orthodox bishop (b. 1946)
 2018  Phil Rodgers, American golfer (b. 1938)
 2019  Georges Brossard, Canadian entomologist (b. 1940)
 2019  Douglas Fielding, British actor and narrator (b. 1946)
 2019  Manuel Real, American lawyer and politician (b. 1924)
 2019  Andrey Nikolayevich Sakharov, Russian historian (b. 1930)
 2019  Max Wright, American actor (b. 1943)

Observances 
 Independence Day in Madagascar
 Flag Day (Romania)
 Army and Navy Day (Azerbaijan)
 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

Days of the year