June 24



Events

Up to 1900 
 79 - Titus becomes Roman Emperor after the previous day's death of his father, Vespasian.
 109 - Roman Emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, 40 kilometers northwest of Rome.
 972 - Battle of Cedynia: First documented victory of Polish forces takes place.
 1128 – Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães. Portuguese forces led by Afonso I beat his mother D.Teresa and D.Fernão Peres de Trava. After this battle, the future king calls himself "Prince of Portugal", the first step towards "official independence" in 1143.
 1230 - The Siege of Jaén starts in the context of the Spanish Recoquista. 
 1314 – End of the Battle of Bannockburn. Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce beat Edward II of England. Scotland regains its independence.
 1340 - Hundred Years' War: Battle of Sluys - The French fleet is almost destroyed  by the English fleet commanded personally by King Edward III of England.
 1374 – A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aix-la-Chapelle, Prussia, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
 1441 – Eton College is founded.
 1497 – John Cabot lands on North America in Newfoundland; first European discovery of the region since the Vikings.
 1497 – Cornish rebels Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank are executed at Tyburn, London
 1509 – Henry VIII is crowned King of England.
 1534 – Jacques Cartier makes the European discovery of Prince Edward Island.
 1535 – The Anabaptist state of Münster is conquered and disbanded.
 1571 - Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founds Manila.
 1597 – The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reaches Bantam (on Java).
 1604 – Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford dies. Leading candidate for true authorship of the Shakespeare canon.
 1622 - Battle of Macau: The Dutch fail in an attempt to capture Macau.
 1662 – The Dutch attempt but fail to capture Macao.
 1664 – The colony of New Jersey is founded.
 1692 – Kingston, Jamaica is founded.
 1779 - American Revolutionary War: The Great Siege of Gibraltar begins.
 1793 – First republican constitution in France adopted.
 1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon's invasion of Russia begins.
 1813 - Battle of Beaver Dams: A British and Indian combined force defeats the United States Army.
 1821 – Battle of Carabobo: Venezuela gains total independence from Spain.
 1859 – Battle of Solferino (Battle of the Three Sovereigns). Sardinia and France defeat Austria in northern Italy.
 1861 – Tennessee becomes the 11th and last state to secede from the US.
 1880 – First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.
 1894 – The IOC decides to hold the Olympic Games every four years.

1901  2000 
 1901 – First exhibition of Pablo Picasso's work opens.
 1902 – King Edward VII of the United Kingdom develops appendicitis, delaying his coronation.
 1910 – Japan invades Korea.
 1913 – Greece and Serbia annul their alliance with Bulgaria.
 1913 – Joseph Cook becomes the 6th Prime Minister of Australia.
 1916 – Mary Pickford becomes first movie star to get million dollar contract.
 1918 – First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.
 1918 – The giant cannon Big Bertha begins bombardments on Paris
 1932 – A military coup ends the absolute power of the king of Siam (Thailand).
 1938 - Pieces of meteor, estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it explodes in the Earth's atmosphere, lands near Chicora, Pennsylvania.
 1939 - Siam is renamed Thailand for the first time, by Prime Minister Plaek Pibulsonggram.
 1940 – France and Italy sign an armistice.
 1941 – Government of briefly independent Lithuania conducts its first meeting under prime minister Juozas Ambrazevičius
 1945 – The U.S.S.R. capture the Free Republic of Schwarzenberg.
 1946 – Georges Bidault becomes Prime Minister of France
 1947 – First known sighting of UFOs: Kenneth Arnold, flying over Washington, USA, notices nine luminous disks in the form of saucers.
 1948 – Start of the Berlin Blockade. The Soviet Union makes overland travel between the West with West Berlin impossible.
 1957 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.
 1963 – Zanzibar is granted internal self-government by the UK.
 1967 - The UK's worst caving disaster kills 6 people at Mossdale Caverns.
 1974 – The UPC label is used for the first time to ring up purchases at a supermarket.
 1975 – An Eastern Airlines Boeing 727 crashes at John F. Kennedy Airport, New York. 113 people die.
 1981 – For what would be the world's longest single-span suspension bridge for 17 years, the Humber Bridge, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, opens.
 1982 – British Airways flight 9 flies into volcanic ash erupting from Mount Galunggung in Indonesia, causing all four of its engines to fail.
 1982 - Jean-Loup Chrétien becomes the first French person to go into space.
 1983 – Sally Ride, first female American astronaut, returns to earth.
 1983 – Yasser Arafat banned from Damascus.
 1989 - Jiang Zemin becomes the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China.
 1993 – Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter loses the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand after receiving a mailbomb from the Unabomber.
 1995 - South Africa wins the Rugby Union World Cup in front of its home crowd. Nelson Mandela famously hands the trophy to team captain Francois Pienaar.
 1996 – Michael Johnson breaks the world record in the 200 metres with a time of 19.66 seconds
 1999 – The guitar with which Eric Clapton recorded Layla is sold at auction for the astounding price of $497,500.

From 2001 
 2002 – The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania kills 281 people.
 2003 - Air France's last Concorde flight takes place.
 2004 - In the state of New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional.
 2005 – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is elected to his first term as President of Iran.
 2007 – Before becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (on June 27) Gordon Brown succeeds Tony Blair as leader of the Labour Party.
 2010 – Julia Gillard becomes the first female Prime Minister of Australia, succeeding Kevin Rudd.
 2010 – The longest match in the history of professional tennis ends at Wimbledon, after two days. John Isner beats Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the deciding set.
 2012 - Lonesome George, the last-known surviving Pinta Island tortoise, dies in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, aged around 100. His sub-species is therefore considered to be extinct.
 2012 - Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood is declared the winner of the previous week's Presidential election in Egypt.
 2014 - Albania officially becomes an EU candidate country.
 2014 - Uruguayan footballer Luis Suárez is involved in a biting controversy at the 2014 FIFA World Cup when cameras show him biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini during a match. He is suspended from competitive games for four months.
 2016 - David Cameron announces his intention to resign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom after 51.9% of British voters decided to leave the European Union in a referendum.
 2017 - 15 people are killed and 93 are missing after a landslide hits Xinmo village in Sichuan, People's Republic of China.

Births

Up to 1800 
 1244  Henry I, Landgrave of Hesse (died 1308)
 1293  Joan the Lame, Queen of France (died 1348)
 1314  Philippa of Hainaut, Queen Consort of Edward III of England (died 1369)
 1343  Joan of Valois, Queen of Navarre (died 1373)
 1386  John of Capistrano, Italian saint (died 1456)
 1413  John IV, Marquess of Montferrat (died 1464)
 1485  Johannes Bugenhagen, German reformer (died 1558)
 1519  Theodore Beza, French theologian and reformer (died 1605)
 1532  Edzard II, Count of East Frisia (died 1599)
 1532  William IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (died 1592)
 1532  Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (died 1588)
 1535  Joan of Spain, Spanish-born Queen Consort of Portugal (died 1573)
 1542  Saint John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite friar and poet (died 1591)
 1661  Hachisuka Tsunanori, Japanese daimyo (died 1730)
 1694  Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, Swiss theorist (died 1748)
 1704  Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, French aristocrat (died 1771)
 1740  Juan Ignacio Molina, Chilean naturalist (died 1829)
 1755  Anarchasis Clats, Prussian-born French revolutionary (died 1794)
 1767  Jean-Baptiste  Benoit Eyries, French geographer, author and translator (died 1846)
 1770  Albrecht Berblinger, German inventor (died 1829)
 1774  Antonio González de Balcarce, Argentine military commander (died 1819)
 1777  John Ross, naval officer and explorer (died 1856)
 1782  Juan Larrea, Argentine politician and merchant (died 1847)
 1784  Juan Antonio Lavalleja, Uruguayan revolutionary and political figure (died 1853)
 1795  Ernst Heinrich Weber, anatomist and physiologist (died 1878)

1801  1900 
 1803  George James Webb, composer (died 1887)
 1804  Willard Richards, American religious leader (died 1854)
 1811  John Archibald Campbell, American jurist (died 1889)
 1813  Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman and reformer (died 1887)
 1818  Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (died 1901)
 1821  Guillermo Rawson, Argentine politician (died 1890)
 1825  Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia (died 1844)
 1826  George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia (died 1898)
 1833  Gustaf Akerhielm, Prime Minister of Sweden (died 1900)
 1838  Jan Matejko, Polish painter (died 1893)
 1842  Ambrose Bierce, American writer (died 1914)
 1850  Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, British general, original Order of Merit member (died 1916)
 1852  Victor Adler, Austrian politician (died 1918)
 1860  Mercedes of Orléans, Queen of Spain (died 1878)
 1869  Prince George of Greece and Denmark (died 1957)
 1869  Caroline Furness, American astronomer (died 1936)
 1880  Oswald Veblen, American mathematician (died 1960)
 1882  Carl Diem, German sports scientist and Olympic official (died 1962)
 1883  Victor Franz Hess, Austrian-born American physicist (died 1964)
 1883  Frank Venner, American runner (died 1966)
 1884  Frank Waller, American athlete (died 1941)
 1888  Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect (died 1964)
 1893  Roy O. Disney, American businessman (died 1971)
 1895  Jack Dempsey, American boxer (died 1983)
 1898  Karl Selter, Estonian politician (died 1958)

1901  1925 
 1901  Harry Partch, composer (died 1974)
 1906  Pierre Fournier, French cellist (died 1986)
 1907  Arseny Tarkovsky, Russian poet (died 1989)
 1908  Hugo Distler, German composer (died 1942)
 1908  Guru Gopinath Indian classical dancer (died 1987)
 1908  Alfons Rebane, Estonian colonel (died 1976)
 1909  Jean Deslauriers, Canadian conductor, violinist and composer (died 1978)
 1909  William Penney, English mathematician (died 1991)
 1909  David Rose, composer, musician (died 1990)
 1911  Juan Manuel Fangio, Argentine race car driver (died 1995)
 1911  Ernesto Sabato, Argentine writer and physicist (died 2011)
 1912  Mary Wesley, British writer (died 2002)
 1913  Gustaaf Detoor, Belgian cyclist (died 2002)
 1914  Robert Aickman, writer (died 1981)
 1915  Fred Hoyle, cosmologist and science fiction writer (died 2001)
 1916  William B. Saxbe, 70th United States Attorney General (died 2010)
 1917  David Easton, Canadian political scientist (died 2014)
 1919  Al Molinaro, American actor (died 2015)
 1922  Tata Giacobetti, Italian singer and lyricist (Quartetto Cetra) (died 1988)
 1922  Jack Carter, American comedian and actor (died 2015)
 1923  Margaret Olley, Australian artist (died 2011)
 1923  Marc Riboud, French photographer
 1923  Cesare Romiti, Italian businessman and economist
 1923  Yves Bonnefoy, French poet (died 2016)
 1924  Kurt Furgler, Swiss politician (died 2008)

1926  1950 
 1926  Walter Hirrlinger, German politician (died 2018)
 1927  Martin Lewis Perl, American physicist (died 2014)
 1927  James B. Edwards, American politician, 110th Governor of South Carolina and 3rd United States Secretary of Energy (died 2014)
 1928  M. S. Viswanathan, Indian film score composer (died 2015)
 1928  Yvan Delporte, Belgian comics writer (died 2007)
 1928  Wolfgang Altenburg, German general
 1929  Carolyn S. Shoemaker, American astronomer
 1930  Claude Chabrol, French movie director (died 2010)
 1930  Dave Creighton, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2017)
 1931  Billy Casper, American golfer (died 2015)
 1933  Sam Jones, American basketball player
 1937  Anita Desai, American novelist
 1938  Lawrence Block, American writer
 1938  Albufaz Elchibey, former President of Azerbaijan
 1940  Vittorio Storaro, Italian cinematographer
 1940  Augusto Fantozzi, Italian lawyer and politician (died 2019)
 1941  Charles Whitman, American murderer (died 1966)
 1942  Colin Groves, Australian primatologist (died 2017)
 1942  Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, former President of Chile
 1942  Michele Lee, actress
 1944  Jeff Beck, British guitarist (Yardbirds)
 1944  Chris Wood, British musician (died 1983)
 1945  Colin Blunstone, American musician (The Zombies)
 1945  George Pataki, former Governor of New York
 1945  Betty Stöve, Dutch tennis player
 1946  Ellison Onizuka, American astronaut (died 1986)
 1946  Robert Reich, American politician and political commentator
 1947  Clarissa Dickson Wright, English cookery writer and broadcaster (died 2014)
 1947  Mick Fleetwood, British musician (Fleetwood Mac)
 1949  Betty Jackson, English fashion designer (born in Lancashire)
 1949  John Illsey, English guitarist (Dire Straits)
 1949  Brigitte Mohnhaupt, German militant, member of the Red Army Faction
 1950  Jan Kulczyk, Polish businessman (d. 2015)
 1950  Wilfried, Austrian singer and actor (d. 2017)
 1950  Moshe Ya'alon, Israeli politician

1951  1975 
 1951  Ivar Formo, Norwegian cross-country skier  (died 2006)
 1951  Raelene Boyle, Australian athlete
 1951  Simon Rouse, English actor
 1952  Dianna Melrose, English diplomat
 1953  William E. Moerner, American chemist and physicist
 1953  Garry Shider, musician (P Funk)
 1954  Mark Edmondson, Australian tennis player
 1956  Owen Paterson, British politician
 1956  Joe Penny, American actor
 1957  Astro, English rapper (UB40)
 1957  Mark Parkinson, 45th Governor of Kansas
 1958  Jean Charest, Quebec politician
 1959  Andy McCluskey, British singer, songwriter and musician
 1960  Elish Angiolini, Scottish judge
 1960  Trisha Meili, writer
 1961  Iain Glen, Scottish actor
 1961  Bernie Nicholls, Canadian ice hockey player
 1963  Mike Wieringo, American comic book artist (died 2007)
 1963  Preki, Serbian-American footballer
 1966  Adrienne Shelly, American actress (died 2006)
 1966  Milena Bertolini, Italian footballer and coach
 1967  Richard Kruspe-Bernstein, German guitarist (Rammstein)
 1967  Sherry Stringfield, American actress
 1969  Sissel Kyrkjebø, Norwegian singer
 1970  Glenn Medeiros, Hawaiian singer and songwriter
 1971  Ji Jin-hee, South Korean actor
 1971  Christopher Showerman, American actor
 1972  Robbie McEwen, Australian cyclist
 1973  Alexander Beyer, German actor
 1973  Jere Lehtinen, Finnish ice hockey player
 1974  Chris Guccione, American baseball player and umpire
 1975  Marek Malik, Czech ice hockey player
 1975  Federico Pucciarello, Argentine-Italian rugby player

From 1976 
 1977  Dimos Dikoudis, Greek basketball player
 1978  Luis García, Spanish footballer
 1978  Shunsuke Nakamura, Japanese footballer
 1978  Juan Román Riquelme, Argentine footballer
 1978  Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen, Finnish guitarist (Nightwish)
 1979  Petra Nemcova, Czech model
 1979  Dafydd Jones, Welsh rugby player
 1980  Cicinho, Brazilian footballer
 1980  Minka Kelly, American actress
 1980  John Bryant Davila, American actor
 1981  Siddharth Nair, cartoonist and writer
 1982  Kevin Nolan, English footballer
 1982  Christian Montero, Costa Rican footballer
 1982  Jarret Stoll, Canadian ice hockey player
 1983  Rebecca Cooke, English swimmer
 1985  Diego Alves, Brazilian footballer
 1986  Stuart Broad, English cricketer
 1986  Solange Knowles, American actress and singer
 1987  LiSA, Japanese singer and musician
 1987  Lionel Messi, Argentine footballer
 1988  Micah Richards, English footballer
 1991  Rie Kitahara, Japanese actress and singer (AKB48)
 1992  David Alaba, Austrian footballer
 1992  Raven Goodwin, American actress
 1992  Stuart Hogg, Scottish rugby player
 1992  Sam Morrison, Welsh cyclist
 1993  Piero Barone, Italian singer (Il Volo)
 1993  Beanie Feldstein, American actress

Deaths

Up to 1950 
 238  Maximius Thrax, Roman Emperor (born 173)
 803  Higbald, Bishop of Lindisfarne
 1195  Albert I, Margrave of Meissen (born 1158)
 1314  Gilbert de Clare, 8th Earl of Gloucester (born 1291)
 1314  Robert de Clifford, 1st Baron de Clifford (born 1274)
 1398  Hongwu Emperor of China, founder of the Ming Dynasty (born 1328)
 1439  Frederick IV of Austria, Regent of Tyrol and Further Austria
 1519  Lucrezia Borgia, duchess of Ferrara (born 1480)
 1520  Hosokawa Sumimoto, Japanese samurai commander (born 1489)
 1564  Rani Durgavati, Indian queen (born 1524)
 1604  Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain of England (born 1550)
 1637  Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, French astronomer (born 1580)
 1766  Adrien Maurice de Noailles, French soldier and politician (born 1678)
 1803  Matthew Thornton, signer of the US Declaration of Independence (born 1714)
 1817  Thomas McKean, American lawyer and politician (born 1769)
 1835  Andreas Vokos Miaoulis, Greek admiral and politician (born 1769)
 1882  Joachim Raff, German-Swiss composer (born 1822)
 1894  Marie François Sadi Carnot, French statesman (born 1837)
 1908  Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States (born 1837)
 1909  Sarah Orne Jewett, American writer (born 1849)
 1922  Walther Rathenau, German Minister of Foreign Affairs (born 1867, assassinated)
 1931  Otto Mears, Russian-American businessman (born 1840)
 1931  Xiang Zhongfa, Chinese Communist politician (born 1880)
 1935  Carlos Gardel, Argentine singer-songwriter (born 1890)
 1947  Emil Seidel, American politician and Mayor of Milwaukee (born 1864)

From 1951 
 1953  George Herbert Walker, grandfather of US President George H. W. Bush (born 1875)
 1968  Tony Hancock, British comedian (born 1924)
 1984  Clarence Campbell, Canadian president of the National Hockey League (born 1905)
 1987  Jackie Gleason, American actor and musician (born 1916)
 1988  Marta Abba, Italian actress (b. 1900)
 1989  Hibari Misora, Japanese singer and actress (born 1937)
 1993  Archie Williams, American sprinter (b. 1915)
 2000  Vera Atkins, Special Operations Executive intelligence officer (born 1908)
 2000  Rodrigo Bueno, Argentine singer-songwriter (born 1973)
 2002  Pierre Werner, Prime Minister of Luxembourg (born 1913)
 2004  Ifigeneia Giannopoulou, Greek songwriter (born 1957)
 2007  Nancy Benoit, American professional wrestler (born 1964)
 2007  Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler (born 1967)
 2007  Hans Sturm, German footballer (born 1935)
 2007  Natasja Saad, Danish reggae and dance hall artist (born 1924)
 2009  Roméo LeBlanc, Governor-General of Canada (born 1927)
 2012  Lonesome George, Ecuadorean Pinta Island tortoise (born around 1912)
 2012  Heino Kruus, Estonian basketball player (born 1926)
 2012  Miki Roqué, Spanish footballer (born 1988)
 2013  Mick Aston, British archaeologist (born 1946)
 2013  Emilio Colombo, former Prime Minister of Italy (born 1920)
 2013  William Hathaway, American politician (born 1924)
 2014  Ramón José Velásquez, former Acting President of Venezuela (born 1916)
 2014  Eli Wallach, American actor (born 1915)
 2015  Walter Browne, Australian-American chess player (born 1939)
 2015  Mario Biaggi, American politician (born 1917)
 2015  Marva Collins, American educator (born 1936) 
 2016  Bernie Worrell, American musician (born 1944)
 2017  Mats Johansson, Swedish journalist (born 1951)
 2017  Parker Lee McDonald, American jurist (born 1924)
 2017  Maria Mutagamba, Ugandan economist and politician (born 1952)
 2017  Nils Nilsson, Swedish ice hockey player (born 1936)
 2018  Frank Heart, American computer engineer (born 1929)
 2018  Constance Adams, American architect and explorer (born 1964)
 2018  Stanley Anderson, American actor (born 1939)
 2018  Darryl N. Johnson, American politician (born 1938)
 2018  Josip Pirmajer, Slovenian footballer and manager (born 1944)
 2019  Jeff Austin, American musician and singer (born 1974)
 2019  Billy Drago, American actor (born 1946)
 2019  Steve Dunleavy, Australian-born American journalist (born 1938)
 2019  Jónas Gómez Gallo, Chilean businessman and politician (born 1923)
 2019  José Huerta, Peruvian politician (born 1948)
 2019  Yekaterina Mikhailovna-Demina, Russian military doctor (born 1925)
 2019  Jörg Stübner, German footballer (born 1965)

Observances 
 Discovery Day (Newfoundland and Labrador)
 National Day of Quebec
 Saint John's Day, day of midsummer celebrations in the Northern Hemisphere
 Flag Day (Estonia, Finland)

Days of the year