June 23

June 23 is the 174th day of the year (175th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 191 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

229 – Sun Quan declares himself Chinese Emperor of the Wu Dynasty.
1280 – The Emirate of Granada defeats the Kingdom of Castile in the Battle of Moclin.
1295 – Pope Boniface VIII enters Rome.
1305 – Flemish–French peace treaty signed at Athis-sur-Orge.
1314 – Start of the Battle of Bannockburn south of Stirling, Edward II of England and Robert I of Scotland met in battle. Scotland won and Edward fled the field and Scotland.
1532 – Henry VIII & François I sign secret treaty against Emperor Charles V.
1611 – The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage sets Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in the Atlantic Ocean; they are never heard from again.
1661 – Marriage contract between Charles II of England and Catharina of Portugal.
1683 – William Penn signs friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Native Americans in Pennsylvania.
1713 – French residents of Acadia given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia, Canada.
1724 – Russia and Turkey sign Treaty of Constantinople.
1757 – Battle of Plassey – 3000 British troops under Robert Clive defeat a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj-ud-Dawlah at Plassey.
1758 – Seven Years War: Battle of Krefeld – British forces defeat French troops at Krefeld in Germany.
1760 – Seven Years War: Battle of Landshut – Austria beats Prussia.
1794 – Empress Catherine II grants Jews permission to settle in Kyiv.
1810 – John Jacob Astor forms the Pacific Fur Company.
1812 – War of 1812: The United Kingdom removes the restrictions on American commerce, therefore eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war.
1848 – Beginning of the June Days Uprising in Paris.
1858 – Six–year–old Edgardo Mortara is seized by Papal authorities.
1860 – The US Congress establishes the Government Printing Office.
1865 – American Civil War: At Fort Towson in Oklahoma Territory Confederate General Stand Watie surrenders the last significant rebel army.
1868 – Christopher Latham Sholes receives a patent for the typewriter.
1887 – The Rocky Mountains Park Act becomes law in Canada, creating that nation's first national park, Banff National Park.
1888 – Frederick Douglass is the first African–American nominated for US president.
1894 – International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne, Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.
1897 – The first women's international chess tournament begins in London.

1901 – 2000

1913 – Second Balkan War: The Greeks defeat the Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran.
1914 – Mexican Revolution: Pancho Villa takes Zacatecas from Victoriano Huerta
1915 – First wholesale slaughter of Armenian men in Harput (Kharpert), Turkey.
1919 – Estonian War of Independence: Decisive defeat of the "Baltische Landswehr" in the Battle of Cesis.
1924 – German serial killer Fritz Haarmann is captured.
1925 – Mount Logan, Canada's highest peak at 5959 metres above sea level, in the Yukon, is climbed for the first time, by a team of 6 climbers, led by Albert MacCarthy.
1931 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to accomplish the first round–the–world flight in a single–engine plane. Archived 2012-10-08 at the Wayback Machine
1938 – The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.
1938 – Marineland opens near St. Augustine, Florida.
1940 – World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler surveys newly defeated Paris in now–occupied France.
1941 – Lithuanian Activist Front declares independence (June independence) of Lithuania from Soviet Union; it was only brief however as Nazis occupied Lithuania a few weeks later.
1942 – Holocaust: The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz take place, on a train full of Jews from Paris.
1943 – World War II: British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sink the Italian submarine Asciangihi in the Mediterranean Sea, after she torpedoes the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.
1944 – Thomas Mann becomes a US citizen.
1946 – An earthquake strikes Vancouver Island.
1947 – The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.
1956 – Gamal Abdel Nasser elected president of Egypt.
1958 – The Dutch Reformed Church accepts women ministers.
1959 – Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany (where he resumed a scientific career).
1959 – A fire in a resort hotel in Stalheim, Norway kills 34 people.
1960 – Japan signs security treaty with the U.S.
1961 – Having been signed on December 1, 1959, the Antarctic Treaty goes into effect.
1967 – Cold War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for the three–day Glassboro Summit Conference.
1968 – 74 are killed and 150 injured in a soccer stampede towards a closed exit in a Buenos Aires stadium.
1969 – Warren E. Burger is sworn in as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring chief Earl Warren.
1972 – Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break–ins.
1974 – In Switzerland, the Canton of Jura separates from the Canton of Bern.
1979 – Sydney: New South Wales Premier Neville Wran officially opens the Eastern Suburbs Railway. It operates as a shuttle between Central & Bondi Junction until full integration with the Illawarra Line during 1980.
1983 – Pope John Paul II meets imprisoned Solidarity leader Lech Walesa in Poland.
1985 – A Boeing 747 carrying Air India Flight 182 blew up at 31,000 feet (9500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, South of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard.
1989 – The movie Batman is released in the United States.
1990 – Moldova declares independence.
1992 – Mafia boss John Gotti is sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and racketeering on April 2.
1992 – Yitzhak Rabin wins the Israeli parliamentary elections.
2000 – A ferry sinks on the Yangtze river, near Luzhou, in China's Sichuan province, killing 131 people.

From 2001

2001 – A magnitude 8.4 earthquake strikes off the coast of Peru.
2006 – Harriet the tortoise dies as one of the world's oldest living creatures, aged around 176 years.
2013 – Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope.
2013 – The health of former South African President Nelson Mandela is first reported to be in a "critical" state.
2014 – Three journalists working for Al-Jazeera are sentenced to prison in Egypt on accusations of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.
2016 – The Colombian government and FARC guerrillas sign a peace treaty.
2016 – United Kingdom European Union membership referendum: A majority (51.9%) vote to leave the European Union, making the United Kingdom the first independent country to do so. Majorities in Scotland, Northern Ireland and London all vote to remain.
2018 – Thousands of people protest in Central London against Brexit, two years to the day of the United Kingdom's narrow–majority vote to leave the European Union.
2018 – A bomb is detonated at a political rally attended by Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, in what is considered as an attempt to kill him.
2018 – Tham Luang cave rescue: 12 boys and their assistant football coach get stuck in the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand; they are discovered alive on July 2, with the internationally followed rescue being completed on July 10.
2019 – Ekrem Imamoglu wins the re–run of the mayoral election in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city; he defeats Binali Yildirim, who was formerly Prime minister of Turkey in Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party.

Births

Up to 1900

47 BC – Ptolemy Caesarion of Egypt (d. 30 BC)
1373 – Queen Joan II of Naples (d. 1435)
1435 – Francis II, Duke of Brittany (d. 1488)
1456 – Margaret of Denmark, Queen Consort of Scotland (d. 1486)
1534 – Oda Nobunaga, Japanese warlord (d. 1582)
1612 – André Tacquet, Flemish mathematician (d. 1660)
1668 – Giambattista Vico, Italian philosopher and historian (d. 1744)
1703 – Marie Leszczynska, Queen Consort of France (d. 1768)
1711 – Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Italian instrument maker (d. 1786)
1763 – Joséphine de Beauharnais, Empress of France (d. 1814)
1772 – Cristobal Mendoza, 1st President of Venezuela (d. 1829)
1800 – Karol Marcinkowski, Polish physician and social activist (d. 1846)
1815 – Robert Milligan McLane, American politician and diplomat (d. 1898)
1824 – Carl Reinecke, German musician and composer (d. 1910)
1863 – Sándor Bródy, Hungarian author and journalist (d. 1924)
1875 – Carl Milles, Swedish sculptor (d. 1955)
1875 – Norman Pritchard, Indian athlete (d. 1929)
1884 – Cyclone Taylor, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1979)
1887 – Ernst Rowohlt, German publisher (d. 1960)
1888 – Bronson M. Cutting, American politician (d. 1935)
1888 – Lee Moran, American actor (d. 1961)
1889 – Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet (d. 1966)
1894 – King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (d. 1972)
1894 – Alfred Kinsey, American entomologist and sexologist (d. 1956)
1897 – Alexandru Giugaru, Romanian actor (d. 1986)

1901 – 1950

1906 – King Tribhuvan of Nepal (d. 1955)
1907 – James Meade, English economist (d. 1995)
1909 – Georges Rouquier, French actor, movie director and screenwriter (d. 1989)
1910 – Milt Hinton, American jazz musician (d. 1990)
1910 – Jean Anouilh, French dramatist (d. 1987)
1910 – Gordon B. Hinckley, American Mormon leader (d. 2008)
1912 – Alan Turing, British mathematician (d. 1954)
1913 – William P. Rogers, American politician (d. 2001)
1916 – Ernst Willimowski, Polish footballer (d. 1987)
1919 – Hermann Gmeiner, founder of SOS Children's Villages (d. 1986)
1919 – Mohamed Boudiaf, Algerian political leader (d. 1992)
1923 – Johnny Barnes, Bermudian entertainer (d. 2016)
1923 – Giuseppina Tuissi, Italian Resistance activist (d. 1945)
1923 – Walter Wolfgang, German–British socialist and peace activist (d. 2019)
1925 – John Shepherd-Barron, Scottish inventor (d. 2010)
1925 – Art Modell, American businessman (d. 2012)
1925 – Oliver Smithies, British–American geneticist (d. 2017)
1926 – Arnaldo Pomodoro, Italian sculptor
1927 – Bob Fosse, American choreographer (d. 1987)
1928 – Klaus von Dohnanyi, former Mayor of Hamburg
1929 – June Carter Cash, American singer (d. 2003)
1930 – Donn F. Eisele, American colonel, pilot and astronaut (d. 1987)
1931 – Ola Ullsten, former Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 2018)
1931 – Gunnar Uusi, Estonian chess player (d. 1981)
1935 – Maurice Ferré, 32nd Mayor of Miami, Florida
1936 – Richard Bach, American writer and pilot
1936 – Jan Hoet, Belgian art historian (d. 2014)
1936 – Costas Simitis, former Prime Minister of Greece
1937 – Martti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland
1940 – Stuart Sutcliffe, British musician (d. 1962)
1940 – Wilma Rudolph, American runner (d. 1994)
1940 – Adam Faith, English singer and actor (d. 2003)
1940 – Derry Irvine, Scottish lawyer, judge and politician
1940 – Willie Wallace, Scottish footballer
1942 – Martin Rees, English cosmologist and astrophysicist
1943 – Albert Pintat, former Prime Minister of Andorra
1943 – James Levine, American conductor
1943 – Vint Cerf, American computer scientist and author
1945 – John Garang, South Sudanese politician (d. 2005)
1948 – Clarence Thomas, American jurist
1948 – Nabarun Bhattacharya, Indian author (d. 2015)
1950 – Orani Joao Tempesta, Brazilian cardinal

1951 – 1975

1951 – Michèle Mouton, French rally driver
1951 – Sergei Skripal, Russian double–agent
1953 – Armen Sarkissian, former Prime Minister and current President of Armenia
1955 – Maggie Philbin, English television and radio presenter
1955 – Jean Tigana, French footballer
1956 – Randy Jackson, American music producer
1957 – Frances McDormand, American actress
1957 – Jochen Schweizer, German entrepreneur
1960 – Tatsuya Uemura, Japanese musician and programmer
1960 – Donald Harrison, American saxophonist, composer and producer
1960 – Fadil Vokrri, Kosovar footballer (d. 2018)
1961 – Andrea Borella, Italian fencer
1961 – John Nicolson, Scottish politician
1963 – Colin Montgomery, Scottish golfer
1964 – Joss Whedon, American television director and movie director
1964 – Kenji Honnami, Japanese footballer
1965 – Paul Arthurs, British guitarist (Oasis)
1969 – Fernanda Ribeiro, Portuguese athlete
1970 – Yann Tiersen, French musician and songwriter
1972 – Zinedine Zidane, French footballer
1972 – Go Oiwa, Japanese footballer
1972 – Selma Blair, American actress
1973 – Marie N, Latvian singer
1973 – Eisuke Nakanishi, Japanese footballer
1975 – KT Tunstall, Scottish singer
1975 – Shuhei Terada, Japanese footballer

From 1976

1976 – Patrick Vieira, French footballer
1976 – Emmanuelle Vaugier, Canadian actress, singer, songwriter and model
1977 – Hayden Foxe, Australian footballer
1977 – Miguel Angel Angulo, Spanish footballer
1977 – Jason Mraz, American singer
1978 – Memphis Bleek, American rapper
1978 – Frédéric Leclercq, French singer-songwriter and musician
1980 – Francesca Schiavone, Italian tennis player
1980 – Melissa Rauch, American actress
1981 – Antony Costa, British singer (Blue)
1982 – Derek Boogaard, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2011)
1983 – José Manuel Rojas, Chilean footballer
1984 – Takeshi Matsuda, Japanese swimmer
1984 – Duffy, Welsh singer
1987 – Alessia Filippi, Italian swimmer
1988 – Chellsie Memmel, American gymnast
1989 – Jordan Nolan, Canadian ice hockey player
1989 – Ayana Taketatsu, Japanese voice actress
1989 – Lauren Bennett, British dancer, singer and model
1989 – Billie Kay, American professional wrestler
1991 – Katie Armiger, American singer
1992 – Luiza Galiulina, Uzbek gymnast
1995 – Hao Yun, Chinese swimmer
1995 – Danna Paola, Mexican singer and actress
2004 – Mana Ashida, Japanese actress and singer

Deaths

Up to 2000

79 – Vespasian, Roman Emperor (b. 9)
679 – Aethelthryth, Queen of Northumbria
1018 – Henry I, Margrave of Austria
1222 – Constance of Aragon, Holy Roman Empress (b. 1179)
1516 – Ferdinand II of Aragon (b. 1452)
1555 – Pedro Mascarenhas, Portuguese explorer (b. 1470)
1565 – Dragut, Ottoman general (b. 1485)
1582 – Shimizu Muneharu, Japanese military leader (b. 1537)
1615 – Mashita Nagamori, Japanese warlord (b. 1545)
1677 – William Louis, Duke of Württemberg (b. 1647)
1686 – William Coventry, English statesman (b. 1628)
1691 – Suleiman II, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1642)
1707 – John Mill, English theologian (b. 1645)
1779 – Mikael Sehul, Ethiopian warlord (b. 1691)
1806 – Mathurin Jacques Brisson, French zoologist and philosopher (b. 1723)
1832 – James Hall, Scottish geologist (b. 1761)
1836 – James Mill, Scottish philosopher and historian (b. 1773)
1856 – Ivan Kireevsky, Russian literary critic and philosopher (b. 1806)
1881 – Matthias Jakob Scheiden, German botanist (b. 1804)
1891 – Wilhelm Eduard Weber, German physicist (b. 1804)
1893 – William Fox, four–times Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1812)
1893 – Theophilus Shepstone, British–South African politician (b. 1817)
1914 – Bhaktivinoda Thakur, Indian philosopher and spiritual reformist (b. 1838)
1926 – Jon Magnusson, Prime Minister of Iceland (b. 1859)
1945 – Giuseppina Tuissi, Italian Resistance activist (b. 1923)
1959 – Boris Vian, French polymath (b. 1920)
1970 – Roscoe Turner, American aviator (b. 1895)
1980 – Varahagiri Venkata Giri, 4th President of India (b. 1894)
1980 – Sanjay Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi (b. 1946)
1981 – Zarah Leander, Swedish actress and singer (b. 1907)
1986 – Moses I. Finley, British historian (b. 1912)
1991 – Lea Padovani, Italian movie actress (b. 1920)
1995 – Anatoly Tarasov, Russian ice hockey coach (b. 1918)
1995 – Jonas Salk, American biologist and physician (b. 1914)
1996 – Andreas Papandreou, former Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1919)
1997 – Betty Shabazz, American activist (b. 1934)
1998 – Maureen O'Sullivan, Irish actress (b. 1911)
1999 – Buster Merryfield, English actor (b. 1920)
2000 – Peter Dubovsky, Slovakian footballer (b. 1972)

From 2001

2001 – Yvonne Dionne, one of the Dionne Quintuplets (b. 1934)
2001 – Corinne Calvet, French actress (b. 1925)
2006 – Aaron Spelling, American TV producer (b. 1923)
2006 – Harriet, Galapagos Tortoise (b. 1830)
2008 – Arthur Chung, former President of Guyana (b. 1918)
2009 – Hanne Hiob, German actress (b. 1923)
2009 – Ed McMahon, American television personality (b. 1923)
2010 – Mohammed Mzali, Prime Minister of Tunisia (b. 1925)
2011 – Gene Colan, American comic book artist (b. 1926)
2011 – Dennis Marshall, Costa Rican footballer (b. 1985)
2011 – Peter Falk, American actor (b. 1927)
2012 – Alan McDonald, Northern Irish footballer (b. 1963)
2012 – Brigitte Engerer, French pianist (b. 1952)
2013 – Bobby Bland, American singer-songwriter (b. 1930)
2013 – Richard Matheson, American author (b. 1926)
2014 – Steve Viksten, American television writer and voice actor (b. 1960)
2015 – Chris Woodhead, English educationist (b. 1946)
2015 – Helmuth Lohner, Austrian actor and theatre director (b. 1933)
2015 – Dick Van Patten, American actor (b. 1928)
2015 – Harvey Pollack, American sport statistician (b. 1922)
2015 – Thé Lau, Dutch singer and guitarist (b. 1952)
2015 – Magali Noël, French actress and singer (b. 1931)
2016 – James Green, American historian (b. 1944)
2016 – Stanley Mandelstam, American theoretical physicist (b. 1928)
2016 – Ralph Stanley, American musician (b. 1927)
2017 – Saman Kelegama, Sri Lankan economist (b. 1959)
2017 – Tonny van der Linden, Dutch footballer (b. 1932)
2017 – Mr. Pogo, Japanese professional wrestler (b. 1951)
2017 – Gabe Pressman, American journalist (b. 1924)
2017 – Betty Metcalf, American politician (b. 1921)
2018 – Alberto Fouilloux, Chilean footballer (b. 1940)
2018 – Donald Hall, American poet (b. 1928)
2018 – Kim Jong-pil, Prime minister of South Korea (b. 1926)
2018 – Violeta Rivas, Argentine singer and actress (b. 1937)
2019 – Peter Ball, English bishop and convicted sex offender (b. 1932)
2019 – Dave Bartholomew, American musician, bandleader and songwriter (b. 1918)
2019 – Andrey Kharitonov, Russian actor (b. 1959)
2019 – Fernando Roldán, Chilean footballer (b. 1920)
2019 – George Rosenkranz, Hungarian–Mexican chemist (b. 1916)
2019 – Abdul Sattar, Pakistani political scientist and diplomat (b. 1931)

Observances

National Day of Luxembourg (Grand Duke's official birthday)
Saint John's Eve, midsummer celebrations in some Northern Hemisphere countries
New Year in the Mapuche culture in southern Chile, related to the Southern Hemisphere's Winter solstice
United Nations Public Service Day
Victory Day (Estonia)
Father's Day (Poland, Nicaragua and Uganda)
Okinawa Memorial Day (after end of Battle of Okinawa)