June 21

In most years, this is the date of the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, as the day with the most daylight hours. In the southern hemisphere, this is the winter solstice, with the least daylight hours.
Events
Up to 1925
524 - Battle of Vezerone: Burgundy triumphs over the French.
1529 - French forces are driven out of Northern Italy by Spain in the Battle of Landriano.
1621 - 27 Czech noblemen are executed in the Old Town Square in Prague as a consequence of the Battle of White Mountain.
1665 - First soldiers of Le Regiment de Carignan-Salieres arrive at Quebec to invade Iroquois territories.
1734 - In Montreal in New France (today primarily Quebec), a black slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angelique, was tortured then hanged by the French authorities in a public ceremony that involved her disgrace and the amputation of a hand.
1749 - Halifax Nova Scotia founded.
1767 - English captain Samuel Wallis reaches the island of Tahiti.
1788 - New Hampshire ratifies the Constitution and is thus admitted as the 9th state in the United States.
1791 - King Louis XVI of France and members of his close family attempt to flee Paris.
1798 - Irish Rebellion of 1798: British Army defeats Irish rebels at Battle of Vinegar Hill
1813 - Peninsular War: Battle of Vitoria
1813 - Laura Secord sets out to warn British forces of impending American attack at Queenston Ontario.
1824 - Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea.
1859 - Franco-Austrian War: Battle of Solferino is fought. Witnessed by Henri Dunant, the results were the Geneva Conventions and the Red Cross.
1864 - Maori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ends.
1877 - The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants who were labour activists, are hanged in the Carbon County, Pennsylvania Prison.
1887 - Queen Victoria's golden jubilee
1898 - Guam becomes U.S. Territory.
1908 - The Women's Social and Political Union holds a demonstration in London for a woman's right to vote. Over 250,000 women take part.
1915 - The U.S. Supreme Court hands down decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347 1915, striking down an Oklahoma law denying the right to vote to some citizens.
1919 - Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during Winnipeg General Strike.
1919 - Admiral Ludvig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed were the last casualties of World War I.
1926 2000
1930 - One-year conscription begins in France.
1939 - The New York Yankees announce Lou Gehrig's retirement.
1940 - World War II: France surrenders to Germany.
1940 - First successful west to east navigation of Northwest Passage begins at Vancouver, British Columbia.
1942 - World War II: Tobruk falls to German forces.
1942 - World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against USA mainland.
1945 - World War II: Battle of Okinawa ends.
1947 - A Seaman named Harold Dahl claims to have seen six UFOs near Maury Island. The next morning Dahl reported the first modern MIB encounter.
1948 - The Manchester small-scale Experimental Machine, the first stored-program computer, runs its first computer program.
1957 - Ellen Louks Fairclough sworn in as Canada's first woman Cabinet Minister
1963 - Pope Paul VI is elected.
1964 - Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
1965 - Folk rock band The Byrds release their highly influential debut album Mr. Tambourine Man.
1973 - In handing down the decision in Miller v. California 413 US 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller Test, which now governs obscenity in U.S. law.
1982 - John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan.
1982 - Fete de la Musique street music festival inaugurated in France by Jack Lang.
1989 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Texas v. Johnson that flag burning is protected speech under the United States Constitution.
1998 - French police officer Daniel Nivel is beaten by German hooligans at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. He survives the attack, but is left permanently brain damaged.
2000 - Section 28, a law banning the "promotion" of homosexuality, is repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote.
From 2001
2003 - Deputy Justice Fazel Ahmed Manawi of the Afghan Supreme Court announces that Aftab editor Sayed Madawi and his deputy Ali Payam Sestani will be tried for "libelling Islam"
2003 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth book in J.K. Rowling's hugely popular Harry Potter series is published.
2004 - SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
2006 - Pluto's newly discovered moons are named Nix and Hydra.
2009 - Greenland is allowed to make more decisions independently from Denmark.
2013 - At 11am, Singapore's new PSI record was broken again, with a PSI of 400 in the "Hazardous" range. The newly minted record was broken soon after at 12pm, with the PSI remaining in the "Hazardous" range with a reading of 401.
2014 - 2014 FIFA World Cup: Two World Cup scoring records are equaled in the 2-2 draw between Germany and Ghana. Asamoah Gyan of Ghana equals Roger Milla's African record of five, and Miroslav Klose of Germany equals Ronaldo's overall all-time record of fifteen.
2019 - The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations football tournament starts.
Births
Up to 1800
1002 - Pope Leo IX (d. 1054)
1226 - Boleslaus V of Poland (d. 1279)
1528 - Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress (d. 1603)
1535 - Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (d. 1596)
1639 - Increase Mather, American minister and author (d. 1723)
1646 - Maria Francisca of Savoy, Queen of Portugal (d. 1683)
1676 - Anthony Collins, English philosopher (d. 1729)
1710 - James Short, Scottish mathematician (d. 1768)
1730 - Motoori Norinaga, Japanese scholar (d. 1801)
1732 - Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer (d. 1791)
1736 - Enoch Poor, American general (d. 1780)
1750 - Pierre-Nicolas Beauvallet, French sculptor, draftsman and printmaker (d. 1818)
1759 - Alexander J. Dallas, 6th United States Secretary of the Treasury (d. 1817)
1763 - Pierre Paul Royer-Collard, French statesman and philosopher (d. 1845)
1774 - Daniel D. Tompkins, US Congressman, Governor of New York, and the sixth Vice President of the United States (d. 1825)
1781 - Simeon Denis Poisson, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1840)
1788 - Princess Augusta of Bavaria (d. 1850)
1791 - Robert Napier, Scottish engineer (d. 1876)
1801 1900
1811 - Carlo Matteucci, Italian composer (d. 1868)
1818 - Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1893)
1823 - Jean Chacornac, French astronomer (d. 1873)
1826 - Georg von Neumayer, German scientist and polar explorer (d. 1909)
1831 - Duke Ludwig Wilhelm of Bavaria (d. 1920)
1839 - Machado de Assis, Brazilian writer (d. 1908)
1850 - Daniel Carter Beard, American illustrator and author (d. 1941)
1850 - Enrico Cecchetti, Italian ballet dancer (d. 1928)
1856 - Friedrich Kluge, German philologist (d. 1926)
1862 - Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai prince, administrator and historian (d. 1943)
1863 - Albert Sauveur, metallurgist (one of the founders of physical metallurgy)
1863 - Max Wolf, German astronomer (d. 1932)
1870 - Clara Immerwahr, German chemist (d. 1915)
1882 - Rockwell Kent, American painter, printmaker, illustrator and writer (d. 1971)
1883 - Feodor Gladkov, Russian writer (d. 1958)
1883 - Lluis Companys i Jover, President of Catalonia (d. 1940)
1884 - Claude Auchinleck, British Field Marshal (d. 1981)
1887 - Norman L. Bowen, petrologist (d. 1956)
1889 - Ralph Craig, American athlete (d. 1972)
1890 - Frank S. Land, American businessman (d. 1959)
1891 - Pier Luigi Nervi, Italian architect (d. 1979)
1891 - Hermann Scherchen, German conductor (d. 1966)
1892 - Reinhold Niebuhr, German-American Protestant theologian (d. 1971)
1893 - Alois Haba, Czech composer (d. 1973)
1896 - Charles B. Momsen, American inventor (d. 1967)
1899 - Pavel Haas, Czech composer (d. 1944)
1901 1925
1903 - Hermann Engelhard, German athlete (d. 1984)
1903 - Al Hirschfeld, American cartoonist (d. 2003)
1905 - Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and playwright, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1964 (he decided not to accept it) (d. 1980)
1905 - Jacques Goddet, French sports journalist (d. 2000)
1910 - Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Soviet poet (d. 1971)
1911 - Ralph Wendell Burhoe, theologian and scientist, first American to win the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion
1911 - Karl Silberbauer, Austrian SS officer (d. 1972)
1912 - Mary McCarthy, American writer (d. 1989)
1912 - Marga Spiegel, German author (d. 2014)
1912 - Kazimierz Leski, Polish pilot and engineer (d. 2000)
1914 - William Vickrey, Canadian economist, receives the Nobel Prize in Economics (d. 1996)
1918 - Eddie Lopat, American baseball player, coach and manager (d. 1992)
1918 - Robert Roosa, American economist and banker (d. 1993)
1918 - Tibor Szele, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1955)
1919 - Gower Champion, dancer and choreographer (d. 1980)
1919 - Gerard Pelletier, French journalist, politician and diplomat (d. 1997)
1919 - Vladimir Simagin, Chess International Grandmaster & Master, International Correspondence Chess Master, trainer
1919 - Paolo Soleri, Italian architect (d. 2013)
1920 - Ron Lewin, English footballer (d. 1985)
1920 - Hans Gerschwiler, Swiss figure skater (d. 2017)
1921 - Helmut Heissenbuttel, German avant-garde novelist and poet (d. 1996)
1921 - Judy Holliday, American actress (d. 1965)
1921 - Jane Russell, American actress (d. 2011)
1921 - Istvan Zsolt, Hungarian football referee (d. 1991)
1922 - Heino Lipp, Estonian decathlete, shot putter and discus thrower (d. 2006)
1924 - Marga Lopez, Mexican-Argentine actress (d. 2005)
1925 - Luis Adolfo Siles Salinas, President of Bolivia (d. 2005)
1925 - Maureen Stapleton, American actress (d. 2006)
1925 - Giovanni Spadolini, Italian politician (d. 1994)
1926 1950
1926 - Johanna Quandt, German businesswoman (d. 2015)
1927 - Carl Stokes, American politician, Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio (d. 1996)
1928 - Per Lillo-Stenberg, Norwegian actor (d. 2014)
1929 - Abdel Halim Hafez, Egyptian singer and actor (d. 1977)
1930 - Gerald Kaufman, English politician (d. 2017)
1931 - Margaret Heckler, American politician (d. 2018)
1932 - Bernard Ingham, English journalist and civil servant
1932 - Lalo Schifrin, Argentine pianist, composer and conductor
1934 - Wulf Kirsten, German writer and recipient of the 1989 Heinrich Mann Prize
1934 - Ken Matthews, British race-walker (d. 2019)
1935 - Francoise Sagan, French writer (d. 2004)
1938 - Ron Ely, American actor
1938 - Michael M. Richter, German mathematician and computer scientist
1939 - Ruben Berrios, Puerto Rican politician
1939 - Ken Catchpole, Australian rugby player (d. 2017)
1941 - Liz Mohn, German media proprietor
1941 - Valeri Zolotukhin, Russian actor (d. 2013)
1943 - Salome, Spanish singer and Eurovision Song Contest winner
1943 - Beat Fehr, Swiss racing driver (d. 1967)
1944 - Tony Scott, British director and producer (d. 2012)
1944 - Ray Davies, English musician (The Kinks)
1944 - Jon Hiseman, English drummer (d. 2018)
1944 - Corinna Tsopei, Greek model and actress
1945 - Adam Zagajewski, Polish philosopher and poet
1946 - Piotr Domaradzki, Polish-American journalist and historian (d. 2015)
1946 - Brenda Holloway, American musician
1946 - Maurice Saatchi, Baron Saatchi, Iraqi-British businessman
1946 - Kate Hoey, British politician
1946 - Malcolm Rifkind, British politician
1947 - Meredith Baxter, American actress
1947 - Shirin Ebadi, Iranian jurist, activist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
1947 - Michael Gross, American actor
1947 - Joey Molland, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
1947 - Fernando Savater, Spanish philosopher and author
1948 - Ian McEwan, British writer
1948 - Lionel Rose, first aboriginal boxer to win a world title (in 1968) (d. 2011)
1948 - Andrzej Sapkowski, Polish fantasy writer
1949 - Stephen Hunter Flick, American sound editor
1950 - Anne Carson, poet
1950 - Joey Kramer, American musician (Aerosmith)
1950 - Vasilis Papakonstantinou, Greek singer
1951 1975
1951 - Nils Lofgren, American musician
1951 - Jim Douglas, 80th Governor of Vermont
1952 - Koichi Mashimo, Japanese director
1953 - Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan (twice), first female Muslim head of government (d. 2007)
1954 - Robert Menasse, Austrian writer
1954 - Anne Kirkbride, English actress (Coronation Street) (d. 2015)
1955 - Tim Bray, computer programmer
1955 - Michel Platini, French footballer
1957 - Luis Antonio Tagle, Filipino cardinal
1959 - Tom Chambers, American basketball player
1959 - Marcella Detroit, singer, musician and songwriter (Shakespear's Sister)
1959 - Nimr al-Nimr, Saudi cleric (d. 2016)
1960 - Kate Brown, American politician, 38th Governor of Oregon
1961 - Manu Chao, French singer and guitarist
1961 - Karen Barber, British ice dancer
1961 - Joko Widodo, 7th President of Indonesia
1962 - Viktor Tsoi, Russian musician
1963 - Dario Marianelli, Italian composer
1964 - David Morrissey, British actor
1964 - Doug Savant, American actor (Melrose Place, Desperate Housewives)
1965 - Yang Liwei, Chinese astronaut
1965 - Lana Wachowski, American movie director, screenwriter and producer
1966 - Rudi Bakhtiar, journalist
1966 - Sergey Grishin, Russian businessman and billionaire
1967 - Pierre Omidyar, French-American businessman, co-founded eBay
1967 - Yingluck Shinawatra, former Prime Minister of Thailand
1968 - Chris Gueffroy, last person to be shot at the Berlin Wall (d. 1989)
1971 - Anette Olzon, Swedish singer
1971 - Keith Loneker, American football player and actor (d. 2017)
1973 - Juliette Lewis, American actress
1974 - Flavio Roma, Italian footballer
From 1976
1976 - Rene Aufhauser, Austrian footballer
1976 - Miroslav Karhan, Slovakian footballer
1978 - Erica Durance, Canadian actress
1978 - Jean-Pascal Lacoste, French singer and actor
1979 - Kostas Katsouranis, Greek footballer
1979 - Chris Pratt, American actor
1981 - Brandon Flowers, American singer/keyboardist (The Killers)
1982 - Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, second-in-line to the British throne
1982 - Jussie Smollett, American actor
1983 - Edward Snowden, American intelligence contractor, activist and academic
1983 - Nadia Lopez, Mexican singer
1985 - Kris Allen, American singer/American Idol Winner
1985 - Lana Del Rey, American singer
1986 - Hideaki Wakui, Japanese baseball player
1986 - Cheick Tiote, Ivorian footballer (d. 2017)
1987 - Sebastian Prodl, Austrian footballer
1987 - Pablo Barrera, Mexican footballer
1987 - Kim Ryeowook, South Korean singer, songwriter and actor
1988 - Alejandro Ramirez, Costa Rican chess player
1988 - Alyssa DeHaan, American basketball and volleyball player
1988 - Thaddeus Young, American basketball player
1989 - Abubakar Kaki Khamis, Sudanese track-and-field athlete
1990 - Knowledge Musona, Zimbabwean footballer
1991 - Gael Kakuta, French footballer
1992 - Carly Booth, Scottish golfer
1992 - Max Schneider, American actor, dancer, model and singer
1994 - Chisato Okai, Japanese singer and actress
1997 - Rebecca Black, American pop singer, became famous on YouTube
1998 - Isabel Atkin, English freestyle skier
2001 - Aleksandra Obolentseva, Russian chess player
2001 - Eleanor Worthington Cox, English actress
2011 - Lil Bub, American celebrity cat
Deaths
Up to 1900
223 - Liu Rei, Chinese Emperor (b. 161)
1040 - Fulk III, Count of Anjou (b. 972)
1206 - Enrico Dandolo, 42nd Doge of Venice (b. 1107)
1208 - Philip of Swabia (b. 1177)
1305 - Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and Poland (b. 1271)
1377 - King Edward III of England (b. 1312)
1521 - Leonardo Loredan, 76th Doge of Venice (b. 1436)
1547 - Niccolo Machiavelli, Italian political philosopher (b. 1469)
1582 - Oda Nobunaga, Japanese shogun (b. 1534)
1591 - Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian saint (b. 1568)
1621 - Louis III, Cardinal of Guise (b. 1575)
1621 - Krystof Harant, Czech soldier, writer and composer (b. 1564)
1652 - Inigo Jones, English architect (b. 1573)
1661 - Andrea Sacchi, Italian painter (b. 1599)
1874 - Anders Jonas Angstrom, Swedish physicist (b. 1814)
1876 - Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Mexican President and military figure (b. 1794)
1893 - Leland Stanford, 8th Governor of California (b. 1824)
1901 2000
1908 - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (b. 1844)
1914 - Bertha von Suttner, Austrian pacifist and first female winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1843)
1917 - Matthias Zurbriggen, Swiss mountain climber (b. 1856)
1921 - Murphy J. Foster, Governor of Louisiana (b. 1849)
1951 - Charles Dillon-Perrine, American astronomer (b. 1867)
1952 - Wop May, Canadian pilot and captain (b. 1896)
1954 - Gideon Sundback, Swedish engineer and inventor of the zipper (b. 1880)
1957 - Johannes Stark, German physicist (b. 1874)
1964 - James Chaney, American Civil Rights activist (b. 1943)
1964 - Andrew Goodman, American Civil Rights activist (b. 1943)
1964 - Michael Schwerner, American Civil Rights activist (b. 1939)
1969 - Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (b. 1934)
1970 - Sukarno, first President of Indonesia (b. 1901)
1970 - Piers Courage, English racing driver (b. 1942)
1979 - Angus MacLise, American drummer and songwriter (b. 1938)
1985 - Tage Erlander, Prime Minister of Sweden (b. 1901)
1992 - Li Xiannian, President of the People's Republic of China (b. 1909)
1993 - Ticho Parly, Danish tenor (b. 1928)
1997 - Shintaro Katsu, Japanese actor, singer, director and producer (b. 1931)
1998 - Anastasio Ballestero, Italian cardinal (b. 1913)
2000 - Alan Hovhanness, American composer (b. 1911)
From 2001
2001 - John Lee Hooker, American blues musician (b. 1916)
2003 - Leon Uris, American writer (b. 1924)
2005 - Jaime Sin, Archbishop of Manila (b. 1928)
2007 - Georg Danzer, Austrian singer (b. 1946)
2008 - Kermit Love, American puppeteer (b. 1916)
2010 - Stanley Lucas, British supercentenarian (b. 1900)
2011 - Maria Gomes Valentim, Brazilian supercentenarian (b. 1896)
2012 - Ramaz Shengelia, Soviet-Georgian footballer (b. 1957)
2012 - Anna Schwartz, American economist and author (b. 1915)
2014 - Yozo Ishikawa, Japanese politician (b. 1925)
2014 - Walter Kieber, 7th Prime Minister of Liechtenstein (b. 1931)
2014 - Jimmy C. Newman, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1927)
2015 - Veijo Meri, Finnish writer (b. 1928)
2015 - Gunther Schuller, American conductor, composer and musician (b. 1925)
2015 - Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, German politician (b. 1932)
2016 - Kunio Hatoyama, Japanese politician (b. 1948)
2016 - Henk Hofland, Dutch journalist, columnist and writer (b. 1927)
2016 - Al Howie, Scottish-Canadian long-distance runner (b. 1945)
2017 - Jean-Pierre Kahane, French mathematician (b. 1926)
2017 - Steffi Martin, German luger (b. 1962)
2017 - Con Sciacca, Italian-Australian politician (b. 1947)
2017 - Robert M. Shoemaker, American military officer (b. 1924)
2017 - Brian Street, British anthropologist (b. 1943)
2018 - Katriina Elovirta, Finnish footballer and referee (b. 1961)
2018 - Charles Krauthammer, American political commentator, columnist and writer (b. 1950)
2018 - Armando Merodio, Spanish footballer (b. 1935)
2018 - Laurence Street, Australian judge (b. 1926)
2018 - Grigory Barenblatt, Russian mathematician (b. 1927)
2018 - Jamsheed Marker, Pakistani politician (b. 1922)
2019 - Demetris Christofias, 6th President of Cyprus (b. 1946)
2019 - Bubba Green, American football player (b. 1957)
2019 - Jan Meyers, American politician (b. 1928)
Observances
Saint Aloysius Gonzaga
Summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, day with the most daylight hours
Winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, day with the fewest daylight hours
National Aboriginal Day (Canada)
National Day (Greenland)
World Humanist Day (International Humanist and Ethical Union)
Statehood Day (New Hampshire)
References
Days of the year