What happened on June 26? There are more than 250 events that were made this day in history. Here are the important historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
Interesting Facts & Myths About June 26
June 26 is the 178th day of the year 2024. There are 188 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Wednesday. This day falls under the 26th week of the year 2024.
On this day in Corpus Christi, Texas 78460 sunrise occured at 06:36 AM and sunset occured at 08:32 PM (local time).
The zodiac sign of a person born on this day is Cancer. The modern birthstone for this month is Pearl while the mystical birthstone is Moonstone.
According to the Chinese calendar, there are 217 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year (January 29, 2025).
Are you looking for a day of the week calculator? Try it on any date like anniversaries, birthday of someone you know, or any other date that is special to you. You can even try it on historical dates. For example: November 23
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Historical Events For June 26
- 221Roman Emperor Elagabalus adopts his cousin Alexander Severus as his heir and receives the title of Caesar.
- 363Roman Emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire. General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by the troops on the battlefield.
- 1284the legendary Pied Piper leads 130 children out of Hamelin, Germany
- 1409Western Schism: the Roman 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.
- 1541Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima by the son of his former companion and later antagonist, Diego Almagro the younger. Almagro is later caught and executed.
- 1718Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich of Russia, Peter the Great’s son, mysteriously dies after being sentenced to death by his father for plotting against him.
- 1723After a siege and bombardment by cannon, Baku surrenders to the Russians.
- 1848End of the June Days Uprising in Paris.
- 1857The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London.
- 1870The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.
- 1907The 1907 Tiflis bank robbery took place in Yerevan Square, now Freedom Square, Tbilisi.
- 1909The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity.
- 1917The first U.S. troops arrive in France to fight alongside Britain and France against Germany in World War I.
- 1918World War I, Western Front: Battle for Belleau Wood – Allied Forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord defeat Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince.
- 1924American occupying forces leave the Dominican Republic.
- 1927The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island.
- 1934President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act, which establishes credit unions.
- 1936Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.
- 1940World War II: under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.
- 1941World War II: Soviet planes bomb Kassa, Hungary (now Košice, Slovakia), giving Hungary the impetus to declare war the next day.
- 1942The first flight of the Grumman F6F Hellcat.
- 1945The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
- 1948Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery is published in The New Yorker magazine.
- 1948The Western allies begin an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union blockades West Berlin.
- 1948William Shockley files the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.
- 1952The Pan-Malayan Labour Party is founded in Malaya, as a union of statewise labour parties.
- 1953Lavrentiy Beria,head of MVD, is arrested by Nikita Khrushchev and other members of the Politburo.
- 1955The South African Congress Alliance adopts the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown.
- 1959The Saint Lawrence Seaway opens, opening North America’s Great Lakes to ocean-going ships.
- 1960Madagascar gains its independence from France.
- 1960The former British Protectorate of British Somaliland gains its independence as Somaliland.
- 1973At Plesetsk Cosmodrome 9 people are killed in an explosion of a Cosmos 3-M rocket.
- 1974The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley’s chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio
- 1975Two FBI agents and a member of the American Indian Movement are killed in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; Leonard Peltier is later convicted of the murders in a controversial trial.
- 1977The Yorkshire Ripper kills 16 year old shop assistant Jayne MacDonald in Leeds, changing public perception of the killer as she is the first victim who is not a prostitute.
- 1978Air Canada Flight 189 to Toronto overruns the runway and crashes into the Etobicoke Creek ravine. Two of 107 passengers on board perish.
- 1991Ten-Day War: the Yugoslav people’s army begins the Ten-Day War in Slovenia.
- 1995Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani deposes his father Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, in a bloodless coup.
- 1996Irish Journalist Veronica Guerin is shot in her car while in traffic in the outskirts of Dublin
- 1997The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
- 2003The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional.
- 2006Mari Alkatiri, the first Prime Minister of East Timor, resigns after weeks of political unrest.
- 2008The U.S. Supreme Court rules in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution protects an individual right, and that the District of Columbia handgun ban is unconstitutional.
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Who Were Born On June 26?
- 1575Anne Catherine of Brandenburg, queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1612)
- 1681Hedwig Sophia, duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, Swedish writer (d. 1708)
- 1689Edward Holyoke, American academic (d. 1769)
- 1694Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist and mineralogist (d. 1768)
- 1702Philip Doddridge, English religious leader (d. 1751)
- 1703Thomas Clap, American academic (d. 1767)
- 1730Charles Messier, French astronomer (d. 1817)
- 1798Wolfgang Menzel, German writer (d. 1873)
- 1817Branwell Bronte, British painter and poet (d. 1848)
- 1819Abner Doubleday, American Major General (d. 1893)
- 1821Bartolomé Mitre, Argentine historian and politician (d. 1906)
- 1824William Thomson, Irish-born physicist (d. 1907)
- 1835Thomas W. Knox, American author (d. 1896)
- 1839Sam Watkins, American Confederate soldier and author (d. 1901)
- 1854Robert Laird Borden, Canadian politician (d. 1937)
- 1865Bernard Berenson, American art historian (d. 1959)
- 1866George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, English financier of Egyptian excavations (d. 1923)
- 1869Martin Andersen Nexø, Danish writer (d. 1954)
- 1880Natalia, Princess Brassova (d. 1952)
- 1881Ya'akov Cohen, Israeli poet (d. 1960)
- 1892Pearl S. Buck, American writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1973)
- 1895George Hainsworth, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1950)
- 1898Chesty Puller, American military officer (d. 1971)
- 1898Willy Messerschmitt, German aircraft designer (d. 1978)
- 1899Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
- 1901Stuart Symington, American politician (d. 1988)
- 1902Hugues Cuénod, Swiss Tenor (d. 2010)
- 1904Frank Scott Hogg, Canadian astronomer (d. 1951)
- 1904Peter Lorre, Hungarian actor (d. 1964)
- 1906Alberto Rabagliati, Italian singer (d. 1974)
- 1906Viktor Schreckengost, American industrial designer (d. 2008)
- 1907Debs Garms, American baseball player (d. 1984)
- 1909Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s manager (d. 1997)
- 1909Wolfgang Reitherman, American animator (d. 1985)
- 1911Babe Didrikson Zaharias, American athlete (d. 1956)
- 1913Aimé Césaire, French Martinican poet and politician (d. 2008)
- 1913Maurice Wilkes, British computer scientist (d. 2010)
- 1914Kathryn Johnston, American police shooting victim (d. 2006)
- 1914Laurie Lee, British writer (d. 1997)
- 1915Charlotte Zolotow, American author
- 1915Paul Castellano, American organized crime figure (d. 1985)
- 1916Giuseppe Taddei, Italian opera singer (d. 2010)
- 1916Virginia Satir, American psychotherapist and author (d. 1988)
- 1919Richard Neustadt, American political historian (d. 2003)
- 1921Violette Szabo, French WWII secret agent (d. 1945)
- 1922Eleanor Parker, American actress
- 1923Barbara Graham, American murderer (d. 1955)
- 1924Kostas Axelos, Greek philosopher (d. 2010)
- 1925Pavel Belyayev, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1970)
- 1927Robert Kroetsch, Canadian author (d. 2011)
- 1928Jacob Druckman, American composer (d. 1996)
- 1928Yoshiro Nakamatsu, Japanese inventor
- 1929Milton Glaser, American designer
- 1931Colin Wilson, British writer
- 1933Claudio Abbado, Italian conductor
- 1933Gene Green, American baseball player (d. 1981)
- 1934Dave Grusin, American jazz pianist
- 1934Jeremy Wolfenden, British journalist (d. 1965)
- 1936Jean-Claude Turcotte, Cardinal Archbishop of Montreal
- 1936Robert Maclennan, British politician
- 1937Robert Coleman Richardson, American physicist, Nobel laureate
- 1937Sombat Metanee, Thai film actor
- 1938Billy Davis, Jr., American singer (The 5th Dimension)
- 1938Gerald North, American climatologist
- 1941Yves Beauchemin, Canadian novelist
- 1942Gilberto Gil, Brazilian singer and Minister of Culture
- 1942James J. Dillon, American professional wrestling manager
- 1943Georgie Fame, British singer
- 1943John Beasley, American actor
- 1943Warren Farrell, American author
- 1945Malachi York, Nuwaubian leader
- 1951Gary Gilmour, Australian cricketer
- 1951Pamela Bellwood, American actress
- 1953Robert Davi, American actor
- 1954Steve Barton, American actor (d. 2001)
- 1955Dick Mol, Dutch paleonthologist
- 1955Gedde Watanabe, American actor
- 1955Mick Jones, British guitarist (The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite)
- 1956Chris Isaak, American singer
- 1957Patty Smyth, American singer (Scandal)
- 1957Philippe Couillard, Quebec neurosurgeon and politician
- 1959Mark McKinney, Canadian actor
- 1960Zachary Breaux, American jazz guitarist (d. 1997)
- 1961Greg LeMond, American cyclist
- 1961Terri Nunn, American singer (Berlin)
- 1962Jerome Kersey, American basketball player
- 1962Preston A. Whitmore II, American screenwriter and film director
- 1963Harriet Wheeler, British singer (The Sundays)
- 1963Mark McClellan, American government official
- 1963Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, Russian businessman
- 1963Richard Garfield, American game designer
- 1964Tommi Mäkinen, Finnish rally driver
- 1966Dany Boon, French director, actor and writer
- 1966Jürgen Reil, American drummer (Kreator)
- 1966Minaguchi Yuko, Japanese voice actress
- 1967Todd Pletcher, American horse trainer
- 1968Paolo Maldini, Italian footballer
- 1968Shannon Sharpe, American football player
- 1969Colin Greenwood, British musician
- 1969Ingrid Lempereur, Belgian swimmer
- 1969Mike Myers, American baseball player
- 1970Chris O'Donnell, American actor
- 1970Irv Gotti, American record producer
- 1970Matt Letscher, American actor
- 1970Nick Offerman, American actor
- 1970Paul Thomas Anderson, American filmmaker
- 1970Sean Hayes, American actor
- 1971Max Biaggi, Italian motorcycle racer
- 1972Garou, Canadian singer
- 1972Jai Taurima, Australian long jumper
- 1973Gretchen Wilson, American singer
- 1973Jussi Sydänmaa, Finnish musician (Lordi)
- 1973Rebecca Budig, American actress
- 1974Derek Jeter, American baseball player
- 1974Jason Kendall, American baseball player
- 1974Jeff Frankenstein, American musician (Newsboys)
- 1974Matt Striker, American professional wrestler
- 1974Nicole Saba, Lebanese singer
- 1975Chris Armstrong, Canadian hockey player
- 1975Jonah Sorrentino, American hip hop artist
- 1975Terry Skiverton, English football player
- 1976Chad Pennington, American football player
- 1976Ed Jovanovski, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1976Paweł Małaszyński, Polish actor
- 1977Florian Kehrmann, German handball player
- 1977Kubo Tite, Japanese cartoonist
- 1977Mark Jindrak, American professional wrestler
- 1977Quincy Lewis, American basketball player
- 1979Brandi Burkhardt, American actress and beauty pageant contestant
- 1979Ryan Tedder, American musician
- 1979Ryo Fukuda, Japanese racing driver
- 1979Wálter Herrmann, Argentinian basketball player
- 1980Chris Shelton, American baseball player
- 1980Hamílton, naturalized Togolese footballer
- 1980Jason Schwartzman, American actor
- 1980Michael Vick, American football player
- 1980Sinik, French singer and rapper
- 1981Damien Sargue, French singer
- 1983Felipe Melo, Brazilian footballer
- 1983Vinícius, Brazilian footballer
- 1984Aubrey Plaza, American comedian, writer and actress
- 1984Deron Williams, American basketball player
- 1984Elijah Dukes, American baseball player
- 1984Gabrielle Walcott, Trinidad and Tobagoian beauty pageant contestant
- 1984Jose Juan Barea, American basketball player
- 1984Raymond Felton, American basketball player
- 1985Urgyen Trinley Dorje, 17th Karmapa Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader
- 1987Carlos Iaconelli, Brazilian racing driver
- 1987Samir Nasri, French footballer
- 1991Diego Falcinelli, Italian footballer
- 1991Houssem Chemali, French footballer
- 1992Jennette McCurdy, American actress and singer
- 1992Joel Campbell, Costa Rican footballer
- 1993Ariana Grande, American actress and singer
- 2005Princess Alexia of the Netherlands
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Who Died On June 26?
- 363Julian the Apostate, Roman Emperor (b. 331)
- 1541Francisco Pizarro, Spanish conqueror of Peru
- 1688Ralph Cudworth, English philosopher (b. 1617)
- 1784Caesar Rodney, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1728)
- 1793Gilbert White, English ornithologist (b. 1720)
- 1795Johannes Jährig, German linguist (b. 1747)
- 1810Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, French inventor (b. 1740)
- 1836Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, French composer (La Marseillaise) (b. 1760)
- 1856Max Stirner, German philosopher (b. 1806)
- 1878Mercedes of Orleans, queen of Spain (b. 1860)
- 1918Peter Rosegger, Austrian poet (b. 1843)
- 1922Albert I, Prince of Monaco (b. 1848)
- 1939Ford Madox Ford, English writer (b. 1873)
- 1943Karl Landsteiner, Austrian biologist and physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1868)
- 1945Emil Hácha, President of Czechoslovakia (b. 1872)
- 1946Max Kögel, SS officer (b. 1895)
- 1946Yōsuke Matsuoka, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan (b. 1880)
- 1947Richard Bedford Bennett, eleventh Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1870)
- 1948Lilian Velez, Filipino actress (b. 1924)
- 1949Kim Gu, President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (b. 1876)
- 1955Engelbert Zaschka, German helicopter pioneer (b. 1895)
- 1956Clifford Brown, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1930)
- 1957Alfred Döblin, German writer (b. 1878)
- 1958Andrija Štampar, Croatian physician and United Nations diplomat (b. 1888)
- 1958George Orton, Canadian athlete (b. 1873)
- 1964Gerrit Rietveld, Dutch architect (b. 1888)
- 1964Leo Dandurand, American-born Canadian sports executive (b. 1889)
- 1967Françoise Dorléac, French actress (b. 1942)
- 1975Saint Josemaría Escrivá, Spanish Catholic priest (b. 1902)
- 1980Miriam Daly, Irish republican activist (b. 1928)
- 1990Anni Blomqvist, Finnish novelist (b. 1909)
- 1992Herman Rohde, professional wrestler (b. 1921)
- 1993Roy Campanella, American baseball player (b. 1921)
- 1993William H. Riker, American political scientist (b. 1920)
- 1994Jahanara Imam, Bangladeshi writer and activist (b. 1929)
- 1996Veronica Guerin, Irish journalist (b. 1958)
- 1997Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Hawaiian singer (b. 1959)
- 2001Soccer (dog actor) (b. 1988)
- 2002Arnold Brown, the 11th General of The Salvation Army (b. 1913)
- 2002Jay Berwanger, American football player and first recipient of the Heisman Trophy (b. 1914)
- 2003Denver Randleman, U.S. Army Seargent (b. 1920)
- 2003Marc-Vivien Foé, Cameroon footballer (b. 1975)
- 2003Sir Denis Thatcher MBE, husband of Margaret Thatcher (b. 1915)
- 2003Strom Thurmond, U.S. Senator (b. 1902)
- 2004Naomi Shemer, Israeli singer and song-writer (b. 1930)
- 2004Yash Johar, Indian film producer (b. 1929)
- 2005Richard Whiteley, British television game show host (b. 1943)
- 2006Tommy Wonder, Dutch magician (b. 1953)
- 2007Joey Sadler, All Black rugby player (b. 1914)
- 2007Liz Claiborne, Belgian-born American fashion designer (b. 1929)
- 2010Algirdas Brazauskas, President of Lithuania (b. 1932)
- 2010Sergio Vega, Mexican Banda singer (b.1969)
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