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 America 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 Andre-Hercule de Fleury, Bishop of Frejus, 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 Bartolome 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 Cuenod, 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 Aime Cesaire, 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 Jurgen Ruttgers, 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 Moise, President of Haiti (d. 2021)
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 Barbes, French revolutionary (b. 1809)
1878 Mercedes of Orleans, 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 Doblin, German writer (b. 1878)
1957 Malcolm Lowry, English poet and author (b. 1909)
1958 Andrija Stampar, physician and United Nations diplomat (b. 1888)
1958 George Orton, Canadian athlete (b. 1873)
1964 Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect (b. 1888)
1975 St. Josemaria Escriva, 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 Foe, 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