Events Pre-1600 325 – The original Nicene Creed is adopted at the First Council of Nicaea. 978 – Byzantine forces loyal to emperor Basil II under Bardas Phokas the Younger defeat rebel forces under Bardas Skleros in the battle of Pankaleia (approximate date). 1306 – The Earl of Pembroke's army defeats Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven. 1586 – English colonists leave Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England's first permanent settlement in North America.
1601–1900 1718 – At least 73,000 people die in the 1718 Tongwei–Gansu earthquake due to landslides in the Qing dynasty. 1785 – The Boston King's Chapel adopts James Freeman's revised prayer book, without the Nicene Creed, establishing it as the first Unitarian congregation in the United States. 1791 – The first New Church place of worship the Birmingham New Jerusalem Temple was dedicated on the 19th day of June, 1791, in Birmingham, England.Schreck, Eugene J. E. Early History of the New Church in Birmingham. London, 1916, p. 27. The auspiciousness of this date was noted at the time.New Magazine of Knowledge, Vol. II, June 1791, p. 234. 1800 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Höchstädt results in a French victory over Austria. 1811 – The Carlton House Fête is held in London to celebrate the establishment of the Regency era.Hibbert, Christopher Weinreb, Ben, Keay, John & Keay, Julia. The London Encyclopaedia. Pan Macmillan, 2011. p.132 1816 – Battle of Seven Oaks between North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. 1821 – Decisive defeat of the Filiki Eteria by the Ottomans at Drăgășani (in Wallachia). 1846 – The first officially recorded, organized baseball game is played under Alexander Cartwright's rules on Hoboken, New Jersey's Elysian Fields with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23–1. Cartwright umpired. 1850 – Princess Louise of the Netherlands marries Crown Prince Karl of Sweden–Norway. 1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Territorial Slavery Act of 1862, which prohibits slavery in all current and future United States territories. 1865 – Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are officially informed of their freedom. The anniversary was officially celebrated in Texas and other states as Juneteenth. On June 17, 2021, Juneteenth officially became a federal holiday in the United States. 1867 – Maximilian I of the Second Mexican Empire is executed by a firing squad in Querétaro, Querétaro. 1875 – The Herzegovinian rebellion against the Ottoman Empire begins.
1901–present 1903 – Benito Mussolini, at the time a radical Socialist, is arrested by Bern police for advocating a violent general strike. 1910 – The first Father's Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington. 1913 – Natives Land Act, 1913 in South Africa implemented. 1921 – The village of Knockcroghery, Ireland, is burned by British forces. 1926 – King Roger, an opera about Roger II of Sicily by Karol Szymanowski, is premiered at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw. 1934 – The Communications Act of 1934 establishes the United States' Federal Communications Commission (FCC). 1943 – The Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL merge for one season due to player shortages caused by World War II. 1945 – The Smoke Tragedy leaves 355 workers dead in the underground copper mine of El Teniente, Chile.Emol, June 20, 2005, "La Tragedia del Humo": A 60 años del peor accidente minero en Chile (in Spanish) 1947 – Pan Am Flight 121 crashes in the Syrian Desert near Mayadin, Syria, killing 15 and injuring 21. 1953 – Cold War: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York. 1960 – Charlotte Motor Speedway holds its first NASCAR race, the inaugural World 600. 1961 – Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom. 1964 – The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate. 1965 – Nguyễn Cao Kỳ becomes Prime Minister of South Vietnam at the head of a military junta; General Nguyễn Văn Thiệu becomes the figurehead chief of state. 1978 – Garfield'''s first comic strip, originally published locally as Jon in 1976, goes into nationwide syndication. 1982 – The People's Armed Police is de facto founded; it is officially established 10 months later on April 5, 1983. 1985 – Members of the Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers, dressed as Salvadoran soldiers, attack the Zona Rosa area of San Salvador. 1987 – Basque separatist group ETA commits one of its most violent attacks, in which a bomb is set off in a supermarket, Hipercor, killing 21 and injuring 45. 1987 – Aeroflot Flight N-528 crashes at Berdiansk Airport in present-day Ukraine, killing eight people. 1988 – Pope John Paul II canonizes 117 Vietnamese Martyrs. 1990 – The current international law defending indigenous peoples, Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989, is ratified for the first time by Norway. 1990 – The Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is founded in Moscow. 1991 – The last Soviet army units in Hungary are withdrawn. 2005 – Following a series of Michelin tire failures during the United States Grand Prix weekend at Indianapolis, and without an agreement being reached, 14 cars from seven teams in Michelin tires withdraw after completing the formation lap, leaving only six cars from three teams on Bridgestone tires to race. 2007 – The al-Khilani Mosque bombing in Baghdad leaves 78 people dead and another 218 injured. 2009 – Mass riots involving over 10,000 people and 10,000 police officers break out in Shishou, China, over the dubious circumstances surrounding the death of a local chef. 2009 – War in North-West Pakistan: The Pakistani Armed Forces open Operation Rah-e-Nijat against the Taliban and other Islamist rebels in the South Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. 2012 – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requests asylum in London's Ecuadorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the US after publication of previously classified documents including footage of civilian killings by the US army; he will remain there until 2019. 2018 – The 10,000,000th United States Patent is issued. 2018 – Antwon Rose II is fatally shot in East Pittsburgh by East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld after being involved in a near-fatal drive-by shooting. 2020 – Animal rights advocate Regan Russell is run over and killed by a transport truck outside of a pig slaughterhouse in Burlington, Ontario.
Births
Pre-1600 1301 – Prince Morikuni, shōgun of Japan (died 1333) 1417 – Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, lord of Rimini (died 1468) 1566 – James VI and I of the United Kingdom (died 1625) 1590 – Philip Bell, British colonial governor (died 1678) 1595 – Hargobind, sixth Sikh guru (died 1644) 1598 – Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury (died 1677)
1601–1900 1606 – James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton, Scottish soldier and politician, Lord Chancellor of Scotland (died 1649) 1623 – Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and physicist (died 1662) 1633 – Philipp van Limborch, Dutch author and theologian (died 1712) 1701 – François Rebel, French violinist and composer (died 1775) 1731 – Joaquim Machado de Castro, Portuguese sculptor (died 1822) 1764 – José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguayan general and politician (died 1850) 1771 – Joseph Diaz Gergonne, French mathematician and philosopher (died 1859) 1776 – Francis Johnson, American lawyer and politician (died 1842) 1783 – Friedrich Sertürner, German chemist and pharmacist (died 1841) 1793 – Joseph Earl Sheffield, American businessman and philanthropist (died 1882) 1795 – James Braid, Scottish-English surgeon (died 1860) 1797 – Hamilton Hume, Australian explorer (died 1873) 1815 – Cornelius Krieghoff, Dutch-Canadian painter (died 1872) 1816 – William H. Webb, American shipbuilder and philanthropist, founded the Webb Institute (died 1899) 1833 – Mary Tenney Gray, American editorial writer, club-woman, philanthropist, and suffragette (died 1904) 1834 – Charles Spurgeon, English pastor and author (died 1892) 1840 – Georg Karl Maria Seidlitz, German entomologist and academic (died 1917) 1843 – Mary Sibbet Copley, American philanthropist (died 1929) 1845 – Cléophas Beausoleil, Canadian journalist and politician (died 1904) 1846 – Antonio Abetti, Italian astronomer and academic (died 1928) 1850 – David Jayne Hill, American historian and politician, 24th United States Assistant Secretary of State (died 1932) 1851 – Billy Midwinter, English-Australian cricketer (died 1890) 1851 – Silvanus P. Thompson, English physicist, engineer, and academic (died 1916) 1854 – Alfredo Catalani, Italian composer and academic (died 1893) 1854 – Hjalmar Mellin, Finnish mathematician and theorist (died 1933) 1855 – George F. Roesch, American lawyer and politician (died 1917) 1858 – Sam Walter Foss, American poet and librarian (died 1911) 1861 – Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, Scottish-English field marshal (died 1928) 1861 – Émile Haug, French geologist and paleontologist (died 1927) 1861 – José Rizal, Filipino journalist, author, and poet (died 1896) 1865 – May Whitty, English actress (died 1948) 1871 – Alajos Szokolyi, Hungarian hurdler, jumper, and physician (died 1932) 1872 – Theodore Payne, English-American gardener and botanist (died 1963) 1874 – Peder Oluf Pedersen, Danish physicist and engineer (died 1941) 1876 – Nigel Gresley, Scottish-English engineer (died 1941) 1877 – Charles Coburn, American actor (died 1961) 1881 – Maginel Wright Enright, American illustrator (died 1966) 1883 – Gladys Mills Phipps, American horse breeder (died 1970) 1884 – Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, French painter and historian (died 1974) 1886 – Finley Hamilton, American lawyer and politician (died 1940) 1888 – Arthur Massey Berry, Canadian soldier and pilot (died 1970) 1888 – Frank Johnston, Canadian artist, member of The Group of Seven (died 1949) 1891 – John Heartfield, German photographer and activist (died 1968) 1896 – Rajani Palme Dutt, English journalist and politician (died 1974) 1896 – Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, American wife of the former King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, Duke of Windsor (died 1986) 1897 – Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1967) 1897 – Moe Howard, American comedian (died 1975)
1901–present 1902 – Guy Lombardo, Canadian-American violinist and bandleader (died 1977) 1903 – Mary Callery, American-French sculptor and academic (died 1977) 1903 – Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (died 1941) 1903 – Wally Hammond, English cricketer and coach (died 1965) 1903 – Hans Litten, German lawyer (died 1938) 1905 – Mildred Natwick, American actress (died 1994) 1906 – Ernst Boris Chain, German-Irish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1979) 1906 – Knut Kroon, Swedish footballer (died 1975) 1906 – Walter Rauff, German SS officer (died 1984) 1907 – Clarence Wiseman, Canadian 10th General of the Salvation Army (died 1985) 1909 – Osamu Dazai, Japanese author (died 1948) 1909 – Rūdolfs Jurciņš, Latvian basketball player (died 1948) 1910 – Sydney Allard, English race car driver, founded the Allard Company (died 1966) 1910 – Paul Flory, American chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1985) 1910 – Abe Fortas, American lawyer and jurist, associate member of the US Supreme Court (died 1982) 1912 – Don Gutteridge, American baseball player and manager (died 2008) 1912 – Virginia MacWatters, American soprano and actress (died 2005) 1913 – Helene Madison, American swimmer (died 1970) 1914 – Alan Cranston, American journalist and politician (died 2000) 1914 – Lester Flatt, American bluegrass singer-songwriter, guitarist, and mandolin player (died 1979) 1915 – Pat Buttram, American actor (died 1994) 1915 – Julius Schwartz, American publisher and agent (died 2004)