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 Sao Mamede, near Guimaraes. Portuguese forces led by Afonso I beat his mother D.Teresa and D.Fernao 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 Jaen 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 Munster 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 Congres national des Canadiens-Francais.
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 Ambrazevicius
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 Chretien 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 Suarez 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 Gonzalez 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 Orleans, 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 Stove, 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 Kyrkjebo, 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 Garcia, Spanish footballer
1978 Shunsuke Nakamura, Japanese footballer
1978 Juan Roman 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 Francois 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 Romeo 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 Roque, 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 Ramon Jose Velasquez, 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 Jonas Gomez Gallo, Chilean businessman and politician (born 1923)
2019 Jose Huerta, Peruvian politician (born 1948)
2019 Yekaterina Mikhailovna-Demina, Russian military doctor (born 1925)
2019 Jorg Stubner, 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