June 20

Events

• 451 - Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius' battles Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreats, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory.
• 1180 - First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan.
• 1620 - The Battle of Höchst takes place during the Thirty Years' War.
• 1631 - The Sack of Baltimore: The Irish village of Baltimore is attacked by Algerian pirates.
• 1652 - Tarhoncu Ahmed Pasha is appointed Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1685 - Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth declares himself King of England at Bridgwater.
• 1756 - A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
• 1782 - The U.S. Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.
• 1787 - Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention to call the government the 'United States'.
• 1789 - Deputies of the French Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath.
• 1819 - The U.S. vessel arrives at Liverpool, United Kingdom. It is the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey is made under sail.
• 1837 - Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.
• 1840 - Samuel Morse receives the patent for the telegraph.
• 1862 - Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, is assassinated.
• 1863 - American Civil War: West Virginia is admitted as the 35th U.S. state.
• 1877 - Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
• 1893 - Lizzie Borden is acquitted of the murders of her father and stepmother.
• 1895 - The Kiel Canal, crossing the base of the Jutland peninsula and the busiest artificial waterway in the world, is officially opened.
• 1900 - Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army begins a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Beijing, China.
• 1900 - Baron Eduard Toll, leader of the Russian Polar Expedition of 1900, departs Saint Petersburg in Russia on the explorer ship Zarya, never to return.
• 1921 - Workers of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Chennai, India, begin a four-month strike.
• 1942 - The Holocaust: Kazimierz Piechowski and three others, dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände, steal an SS staff car and escape from the Auschwitz concentration camp.
• 1943 - The Detroit race riot breaks out and continues for three more days.
• 1943 - World War II: The Royal Air Force launches Operation Bellicose, the first shuttle bombing raid of the war. Lancaster bombers damage the V-2 rocket production facilities at the Zeppelin Works while en route to an air base in Algeria.
• 1944 - World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concludes with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot".
• 1944 - Continuation War: The Soviet Union demands an unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Offensive. The Finnish government refuses.
• 1944 - The experimental MW 18014 V-2 rocket reaches an altitude of 176 km, becoming the first man-made object to reach outer space.
• 1945 - The United States Secretary of State approves the transfer of Wernher von Braun and his team of Nazi rocket scientists to the U.S. under Operation Paperclip.
• 1948 - The Deutsche Mark is introduced in Western Allied-occupied Germany. The Soviet Military Administration in Germany responded by imposing the Berlin Blockade four days later.
• 1956 - A Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashes in the Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey, killing 74 people.
• 1959 - A rare June hurricane strikes Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35.
• 1960 - The Mali Federation gains independence from France.
• 1963 - Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union and the United States sign an agreement to establish the so-called "red telephone" link between Washington and Moscow.
• 1972 - Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex.
• 1973 - Snipers fire upon left-wing Peronists in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in what is known as the Ezeiza massacre. At least 13 are killed and more than 300 are injured.
• 1973 - Aeroméxico Flight 229 crashes on approach to Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz International Airport, killing all 27 people on board.
• 1975 - The film Jaws is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of that time and starting the trend of films known as "summer blockbusters".
• 1979 - ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart is shot dead by a Nicaraguan soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The murder is caught on tape and sparks an international outcry against the regime.
• 1982 - The Argentine Corbeta Uruguay base on Southern Thule surrenders to Royal Marine commandos in the final action of the Falklands War.
• 1990 - Asteroid Eureka is discovered.
• 1990 - The 7.4 Manjil–Rudbar earthquake affects northern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X, killing 35,000–50,000, and injuring 60,000–105,000.
• 1991 - German Bundestag votes to move seat of government from the former West German capital of Bonn to the present capital Berlin.
• 1994 - The 1994 Imam Reza shrine bomb explosion in Iran leaves at least 25 dead and 70 to 300 injured.
• 2003 - The Wikimedia Foundation is founded in St. Petersburg, Florida.

  Births

• 1005 - Ali az-Zahir, Fatimid caliph of Egypt
• 1389 - John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, English statesman
• 1469 - Gian Galeazzo Sforza, duke of Milan
• 1566 - Sigismund III Vasa, Polish and Swedish king
• 1583 - Jacob De la Gardie, Swedish soldier and politician, Lord High Constable of Sweden
• 1634 - Charles Emmanuel II, duke of Savoy
• 1642 - George Hickes, English minister and scholar
• 1647 - John George III, Elector of Saxony
• 1717 - Jacques Saly, French sculptor and painter
• 1723 - Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian
• 1737 - Tokugawa Ieharu, Japanese shōgun
• 1754 - Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt, princess of Baden
• 1756 - Joseph Martin Kraus, German-Swedish composer and educator
• 1761 - Jacob Hübner, German entomologist and author
• 1763 - Wolfe Tone, Irish rebel leader
• 1770 - Moses Waddel, American minister and academic
• 1771 - Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, Scottish philanthropist and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Kirkcudbright
• 1771 - Hermann von Boyen, Prussian general and politician, Prussian Minister of War
• 1777 - Jean-Jacques Lartigue, Canadian bishop
• 1778 - Jean Baptiste Gay, vicomte de Martignac, French politician, 7th Prime Minister of France
• 1786 - Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, French poet and author
• 1796 - Luigi Amat di San Filippo e Sorso, Italian cardinal
• 1808 - Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi and scholar
• 1809 - Isaak August Dorner, German theologian and academic
• 1813 - Joseph Autran, French poet and author
• 1819 - Jacques Offenbach, German-French cellist and composer
• 1847 - Gina Krog, Norwegian suffragist and women's rights activist
• 1855 - Richard Lodge, English historian and academic
• 1858 - Charles W. Chesnutt, American novelist and short story writer
• 1860 - Alexander Winton, Scottish-American race car driver and engineer
• 1860 - Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer, footballer, and coach
• 1861 - Frederick Gowland Hopkins, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1865 - George Redmayne Murray, English biologist and physician
• 1866 - James Burns, English cricketer
• 1869 - Laxmanrao Kirloskar, Indian businessman, founded the Kirloskar Group
• 1870 - Georges Dufrénoy, French painter and academic
• 1872 - George Carpenter, American 5th General of The Salvation Army
• 1875 - Reginald Punnett, English geneticist, statistician, and academic
• 1882 - Daniel Sawyer, American golfer
• 1884 - Mary R. Calvert, American astronomer and author
• 1884 - Johannes Heinrich Schultz, German psychiatrist and psychotherapist
• 1885 - Andrzej Gawroński, Polish linguist and academic
• 1887 - Kurt Schwitters, German painter and illustrator
• 1889 - John S. Paraskevopoulos, Greek-South African astronomer and academic
• 1891 - Giannina Arangi-Lombardi, Italian soprano
• 1891 - John A. Costello, Irish lawyer and politician, 3rd Taoiseach of Ireland
• 1893 - Wilhelm Zaisser, German soldier and politician
• 1894 - Lloyd Hall, American chemist and academic
• 1896 - Wilfrid Pelletier, Canadian pianist, composer, and conductor
• 1897 - Elisabeth Hauptmann, German author and playwright
• 1899 - Jean Moulin, French soldier and engineer
• 1903 - Sam Rabin, English wrestler, sculptor, and singer
• 1905 - Lillian Hellman, American playwright and screenwriter
• 1906 - Bob King, American high jumper and obstetrician
• 1907 - Jimmy Driftwood, American singer-songwriter and banjo player
• 1908 - Billy Werber, American baseball player
• 1908 - Gus Schilling, American actor
• 1909 - Errol Flynn, Australian-American actor
• 1910 - Josephine Johnson, American author and poet
• 1911 - Gail Patrick, American actress
• 1912 - Anthony Buckeridge, English author
• 1912 - Jack Torrance, American shot putter and football player
• 1914 - Gordon Juckes, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1914 - Muazzez İlmiye Çığ, Turkish archaeologist and academic
• 1915 - Dick Reynolds, Australian footballer and coach
• 1915 - Terence Young, Chinese-English director and screenwriter
• 1916 - Jean-Jacques Bertrand, Canadian lawyer and politician, 21st Premier of Quebec
• 1916 - T. Texas Tyler, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1917 - Helena Rasiowa, Austrian-Polish mathematician and academic
• 1918 - George Lynch, American race car driver
• 1918 - Zoltán Sztáray, Hungarian-American author
• 1920 - Geoffrey Baker, English Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the British Army
• 1920 - Danny Cedrone, American guitarist and bandleader
• 1920 - Thomas Jefferson, American trumpet player
• 1921 - Byron Farwell, American historian and author
• 1921 - Pancho Segura, Ecuadorian tennis player
• 1923 - Peter Gay, German-American historian, author, and academic
• 1923 - Jerzy Nowak, Polish actor and educator
• 1924 - Chet Atkins, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
• 1924 - Fritz Koenig, German sculptor and academic, designed The Sphere
• 1925 - Doris Hart, American tennis player and educator
• 1925 - Audie Murphy, American lieutenant and actor, Medal of Honor recipient
• 1926 - Rehavam Ze'evi, Israeli general and politician, 9th Israeli Minister of Tourism
• 1927 - Simin Behbahani, Iranian poet and activist
• 1928 - Eric Dolphy, American saxophonist, flute player, and composer
• 1928 - Martin Landau, American actor and producer
• 1928 - Jean-Marie Le Pen, French intelligence officer and politician
• 1928 - Asrat Woldeyes, Ethiopian surgeon and educator
• 1929 - Edgar Bronfman, Sr., Canadian-American businessman and philanthropist
• 1929 - Anne Weale, English journalist and author
• 1929 - Edith Windsor, American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights activist
• 1930 - Magdalena Abakanowicz, Polish sculptor and academic
• 1930 - John Waine, English bishop
• 1931 - Olympia Dukakis, American actress
• 1931 - James Tolkan, American actor and director
• 1932 - Robert Rozhdestvensky, Russian poet and author
• 1933 - Danny Aiello, American actor
• 1933 - Claire Tomalin, English journalist and author
• 1934 - Wendy Craig, English actress
• 1935 - Jim Barker, American politician
• 1935 - Len Dawson, American football player and sportscaster
• 1935 - Armando Picchi, Italian footballer and coach
• 1936 - Billy Guy, American singer
• 1936 - Enn Vetemaa, Estonian author and screenwriter
• 1937 - Stafford Dean, English actor and singer
• 1937 - Jerry Keller, American singer-songwriter
• 1938 - Joan Kirner, Australian educator and politician, 42nd Premier of Victoria
• 1938 - Mickie Most, English music producer
• 1939 - Ramakant Desai, Indian cricketer
• 1939 - Budge Rogers, English rugby player and manager
• 1940 - Eugen Drewermann, German priest and theologian
• 1940 - John Mahoney, English actor
• 1941 - Stephen Frears, English actor, director, and producer
• 1941 - Ulf Merbold, German physicist and astronaut
• 1942 - Neil Trudinger, Australian mathematician and theorist
• 1942 - Brian Wilson, American singer-songwriter and producer
• 1945 - Anne Murray, Canadian singer and guitarist
• 1946 - Xanana Gusmão, Timorese soldier and politician, 1st President of East Timor
• 1946 - David Kazhdan, Russian-Israeli mathematician and academic
• 1946 - Bob Vila, American television host
• 1946 - André Watts, American pianist and educator
• 1947 - Dolores "LaLa" Brooks, American pop singer
• 1948 - Cirilo Flores, American bishop
• 1948 - Ludwig Scotty, Nauruan politician, 10th President of Nauru
• 1949 - Alan Longmuir, Scottish bass player and songwriter
• 1949 - Lionel Richie, American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor
• 1949 - Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 8th president of Sri Lanka
• 1950 - Nouri al-Maliki, Iraqi politician, 76th Prime Minister of Iraq
• 1951 - Tress MacNeille, American actress and voice artist
• 1951 - Sheila McLean, Scottish scholar and academic
• 1951 - Paul Muldoon, Irish poet and academic
• 1952 - John Goodman, American actor
• 1952 - Vikram Seth, Indian author and poet
• 1953 - Robert Crais, American author and screenwriter
• 1953 - Raúl Ramírez, Mexican tennis player
• 1953 - Willy Rampf, German engineer
• 1954 - Allan Lamb, South African-English cricketer and sportscaster
• 1954 - Ilan Ramon, Israeli colonel, pilot, and astronaut
• 1955 - E. Lynn Harris, American author
• 1956 - Peter Reid, English footballer and manager
• 1956 - Sohn Suk-hee, South Korean newscaster
• 1958 - Kelly Johnson, English hard rock guitarist and songwriter
• 1960 - Philip M. Parker, American economist and author
• 1960 - John Taylor, English singer-songwriter, bass player, and actor
• 1963 - Kirk Baptiste, American sprinter
• 1963 - Mark Ovenden, British author and broadcaster
• 1964 - Pierfrancesco Chili, Italian motorcycle racer
• 1964 - Silke Möller, German runner
• 1966 - Boaz Yakin, American director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1967 - Nicole Kidman, American-Australian actress
• 1967 - Dan Tyminski, American singer-songwriter
• 1968 - Robert Rodriguez, American director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1969 - Paulo Bento, Portuguese footballer and manager
• 1969 - Misha Verbitsky, Russian mathematician and academic
• 1969 - MaliVai Washington, American tennis player and sportscaster
• 1970 - Andrea Nahles, German politician, German Minister of Labour and Social Affairs
• 1970 - Athol Williams, South African poet and social philosopher
• 1971 - Rodney Rogers, American basketball player and coach
• 1971 - Jeordie White, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and bass player
• 1972 - Alexis Alexoudis, Greek footballer
• 1973 - Chino Moreno, American singer-songwriter
• 1975 - Joan Balcells, Spanish tennis player
• 1975 - Daniel Zítka, Czech footballer
• 1976 - Juliano Belletti, Brazilian footballer
• 1976 - Carlos Lee, Panamanian baseball player
• 1977 - Gordan Giriček, Croatian basketball player
• 1977 - Amos Lee, American singer-songwriter
• 1978 - Frank Lampard, English footballer
• 1978 - Jan-Paul Saeijs, Dutch footballer
• 1979 - Charles Howell III, American golfer
• 1980 - Franco Semioli, Italian footballer
• 1980 - Tika Sumpter, American actress
• 1980 - Fabian Wegmann, German cyclist
• 1981 - Brede Hangeland, Norwegian footballer
• 1982 - Aleksei Berezutski, Russian footballer
• 1982 - Vasili Berezutski, Russian footballer
• 1982 - Example, English singer/rapper
• 1983 - Josh Childress, American basketball player
• 1983 - Darren Sproles, American football player
• 1984 - Hassan Adams, American basketball player
• 1985 - Saki Aibu, Japanese actress
• 1985 - Aurélien Chedjou, Cameroonian footballer
• 1985 - Matt Flynn, American football player
• 1986 - Dreama Walker, American actress
• 1987 - A-fu, Taiwanese singer and songwriter
• 1987 - Carsten Ball, Australian tennis player
• 1987 - Asmir Begović, Bosnian footballer
• 1987 - Joseph Ebuya, Kenyan runner
• 1987 - Kierra Sheard, American gospel singer
• 1989 - Christopher Mintz-Plasse, American actor
• 1989 - Javier Pastore, Argentinian footballer
• 1989 - Terrelle Pryor, American football player
• 1990 - DeQuan Jones, American basketball player
• 1991 - Kalidou Koulibaly, Senegalese footballer
• 1991 - Rick ten Voorde, Dutch footballer
• 1993 - Sead Kolašinac, Bosnian footballer
• 1994 - Leonard Williams, American football player
• 1995 - Caroline Weir, Scottish footballer
• 1996 - Sam Bennett, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1997 - Bálint Kopasz, Hungarian sprint canoeist

  Deaths

• 465 - Emperor Wencheng of Northern Wei
• 656 - Uthman ibn Affan, Rashidun caliph
• 840 - Louis the Pious, Carolingian emperor
• 930 - Hucbald, Frankish monk and music theorist
• 981 - Adalbert, archbishop of Magdeburg
• 1176 - Mikhail of Vladimir, Russian prince
• 1351 - Margareta Ebner, German nun and mystic
• 1405 - Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, fourth son of King Robert II of Scotland
• 1597 - Willem Barentsz, Dutch cartographer and explorer
• 1605 - Feodor II of Russia
• 1668 - Heinrich Roth, German missionary and scholar
• 1776 - Benjamin Huntsman, English businessman
• 1787 - Carl Friedrich Abel, German viol player and composer
• 1800 - Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, German mathematician and academic
• 1810 - Axel von Fersen the Younger, Swedish general and politician
• 1815 - Guillaume Philibert Duhesme, French general
• 1820 - Manuel Belgrano, Argentinian general, economist, and politician
• 1837 - William IV of the United Kingdom
• 1840 - Pierre Claude François Daunou, French historian and politician
• 1847 - Juan Larrea, Argentinian captain and politician
• 1869 - Hijikata Toshizō, Japanese commander
• 1870 - Jules de Goncourt, French historian and author
• 1872 - Élie Frédéric Forey, French general
• 1875 - Joseph Meek, American police officer and politician
• 1888 - Johannes Zukertort, Polish-English chess player
• 1906 - John Clayton Adams, English painter
• 1909 - Friedrich Martens, Estonian-Russian historian, lawyer, and diplomat
• 1925 - Josef Breuer, Austrian physician and psychologist
• 1929 - Emmanouil Benakis, Greek merchant and politician, 35th Mayor of Athens
• 1945 - Bruno Frank, German author, poet, and playwright
• 1947 - Bugsy Siegel, American mobster
• 1952 - Luigi Fagioli, Italian race car driver
• 1958 - Kurt Alder, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1963 - Raphaël Salem, Greek-French mathematician and academic
• 1965 - Bernard Baruch, American financier and politician
• 1966 - Georges Lemaître, Belgian priest, physicist, and astronomer
• 1974 - Horace Lindrum, Australian snooker player
• 1975 - Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Hatian anthropologist
• 1978 - Mark Robson, Canadian-American director and producer
• 1984 - Estelle Winwood, English actress
• 1995 - Emil Cioran, Romanian-French philosopher and educator
• 1997 - Cahit Külebi, Turkish poet and author
• 1999 - Clifton Fadiman, American game show host, author, and critic
• 2001 - Gina Cigna, French-Italian soprano
• 2002 - Erwin Chargaff, Austrian-American biochemist and academic
• 2002 - Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner
• 2004 - Jim Bacon, Australian politician, 41st Premier of Tasmania
• 2005 - Larry Collins, American journalist, historian, and author
• 2005 - Jack Kilby, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate
• 2010 - Roberto Rosato, Italian footballer
• 2010 - Harry B. Whittington, English palaeontologist and academic
• 2011 - Ryan Dunn, American television personality
• 2012 – Judy Agnew, Second Lady of the United States.
• 2012 - LeRoy Neiman, American painter
• 2012 - Heinrich IV, Prince Reuss of Köstritz
• 2012 - Andrew Sarris, American critic
• 2013 - Ingvar Rydell, Swedish footballer
• 2015 - Angelo Niculescu, Romanian footballer and manager
• 2015 - Miriam Schapiro, Canadian-American painter and sculptor
• 2017 - Prodigy, American music artist

  Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day:
• *Adalbert of Magdeburg
• *Florentina
• *John of Matera
• *Blessed Margareta Ebner
• *Methodius of Olympus
• *Pope Silverius
• *June 20
• Day of the National Flag
• Earliest date for the summer solstice in the Northern hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Southern hemisphere, and its related observance:
• *Earliest day on which Day of the Finnish Flag can fall, while June 26 is the latest; celebrated on Saturday of Midsummer's Day
• *International Surfing Day
• *Litha / Midsummer celebrations in the northern hemisphere, Yule in the southern hemisphere.
• Gas Sector Day
• Martyrs' Day
• West Virginia Day
• World Refugee Day