Events

Pre-1600

• 913 Constantine VII, the eight-year-old illegitimate son of Leo VI the Wise, becomes nominal ruler of the Byzantine Empire under the regency of a seven-man council headed by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, appointed by Constantine's uncle Alexander on his deathbed.

• 1505 The M8.2–8.8 Lo Mustang earthquake affects Tibet and Nepal, causing severe damage in Kathmandu and parts of the Indo-Gangetic plain.

• 1513 War of the League of Cambrai: In the Battle of Novara, Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis II de la Trémoille, forcing them to abandon Milan; Duke Massimiliano Sforza is restored.

• 1523 Swedish regent Gustav Vasa is elected King of Sweden and, marking a symbolic end to the Kalmar Union, 6 June is designated the country's national day.

1601–1900

• 1654 Swedish Queen Christina abdicates her throne in favour of her cousin Charles Gustav and converts to Catholicism.

• 1674 Shivaji is crowned as the first Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire at Raigad Fort.

• 1762 Seven Years' War: British forces begin the Siege of Havana and temporarily capture the city.

• 1813 War of 1812: In the Battle of Stoney Creek, considered a critical turning point in the war, a British force of 700 under John Vincent defeats an American force twice its size under William Winder and John Chandler.

• 1822 Alexis St Martin is accidentally shot in the stomach, leading to William Beaumont's studies on digestion.

• 1832 The June Rebellion in Paris is put down by the National Guard.

• 1844 The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London.

• 1859 Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales. The date is still celebrated as Queensland Day.

• 1862 American Civil War: The First Battle of Memphis, a naval engagement fought on the Mississippi River, results in the capture of Memphis, Tennessee by Union forces from the Confederates.

• 1882 The Shewan forces of Menelik II of Ethiopia defeat the Gojjame army in the Battle of Embabo. The Shewans capture Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, and their victory leads to a Shewan hegemony over the territories south of the Abay River.

• 1889 The Great Seattle Fire destroys all of downtown Seattle.

• 1892 The Chicago "L" elevated rail system begins operation.

• 1894 Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike.

1901–present

• 1912 The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins. It is the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.

• 1918 World War I: U.S. Marine Corps suffers its worst single day's casualties during the Battle of Belleau Wood while attempting to recapture the wood at Château-Thierry (the losses are exceeded at the Battle of Tarawa in November 1943).

• 1925 The original Chrysler Corporation is founded by Walter Chrysler from the remains of the Maxwell Motor Company.

• 1933 The first drive-in theater opens in Camden, New Jersey.

• 1934 New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

• 1942 World War II: The United States Navy's victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway is a major turning point in the Pacific Theater. All four Japanese fleet carriers taking part—, , and —are sunk, as is the heavy cruiser . The American carrier and the destroyer are also sunk.

• 1944 World War II: Commencement of Operation Overlord: The Allied invasion of Normandy begins with the execution of Operation Neptune—commonly referred to as D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history. Nearly 160,000 Allied troops cross the English Channel with about 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers participating. By the end of the day, the Allies have landed on five invasion beaches and are pushing inland.

• 1944 World War II: Capture of the Caen canal and Orne river bridges by British paratroopers, also known as Operation Coup de Main (incorrectly referred to as Operation Deadstick.)

• 1966 March Against Fear: African-American civil rights activist James Meredith is wounded in an ambush by white sniper James Aubrey Norvell. Meredith and Norvell are photographed by Jack R. Thornell, whose photo will receive the 1967 Pulitzer Prize in Photography, the last one to be awarded in the category.

• 1971 Soyuz 11 is launched. The mission ends in disaster when all three cosmonauts, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev are suffocated by uncontrolled decompression of the capsule during re-entry on 29 June.

• 1971 Hughes Airwest Flight 706 collides with a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II of the United States Marine Corps over the San Gabriel Mountains, killing 50.

• 1975 British referendum results in continued membership of the European Economic Community, with 67% of votes in favour.

• 1976 Chief Minister of Sabah Faud Stephens, Peter Joinud Mojuntin, and several other politicians are killed in a plane crash near Kota Kinabalu International Airport in Malaysia.

• 1982 1982 Lebanon War: The war begins as forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon during Operation Peace for the Galilee, eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.

• 1985 The grave of "Wolfgang Gerhard" is opened in Embu, Brazil; the exhumed remains are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's "Angel of Death"; Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979.

• 1992 Copa Airlines Flight 201 breaks apart in mid-air and crashes into the Darién Gap in Panama, killing all 47 aboard.

• 1993 Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat wins the first presidential election in Mongolia.

• 1994 China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303 crashes near Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, killing all 160 people on board.

• 2002 Eastern Mediterranean event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at ten meters in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.

• 2017 Syrian civil war: The Battle of Raqqa begins with an offensive by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to capture the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

• 2023 Russo-Ukrainian war: The Kakhovka Dam is destroyed.

• 2024 The launch of SpaceX Starship integrated flight test 4 (IFT-4)

Births

Pre-1600

• 1436 Regiomontanus (Johannes Müller von Königsberg), German mathematician, astronomer, and bishop (died 1476)

• 1519 Andrea Cesalpino, Italian philosopher, physician, and botanist (died 1603)

• 1599 Diego Velázquez (date of baptism), Spanish painter and educator (died 1660)

1601–1900

• 1606 Pierre Corneille, French playwright and producer (died 1684)

• 1622 Claude-Jean Allouez, French-American missionary and explorer (died 1689)

• 1714 Joseph I of Portugal, King of Portugal from 31 July 1750 until his death (died 1777)

• 1755 Nathan Hale, American soldier (died 1776)

• 1756 John Trumbull, American soldier and painter (died 1843)

• 1799 Alexander Pushkin, Russian author and poet (died 1837)

• 1810 Friedrich Wilhelm Schneidewin, German philologist and scholar (died 1856)

• 1825 Friedrich Bayer, German pharmacist, founded Bayer (died 1880)

• 1841 Eliza Orzeszkowa, Polish author and publisher (died 1910)

• 1843 Henriette Wulfsberg, Norwegian school owner and writer (died 1906)

• 1850 Karl Ferdinand Braun, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate in 1909 for physics (died 1918)

• 1851 Angelo Moriondo, Italian inventor of the espresso machine (died 1914)

• 1857 Aleksandr Lyapunov, Russian mathematician and physicist (died 1918)

• 1862 Henry Newbolt, English historian, author, and poet (died 1938)

• 1867 David T. Abercrombie, American entrepreneur and co-founder of lifestyle brand Abercrombie & Fitch (died 1931)

• 1868 Robert Falcon Scott, English sailor and explorer (died 1912)

• 1872 Alix of Hesse, German princess and Russian empress (died 1918)

• 1872 Arthur Henry Adams, Australian journalist and author (died 1936)

• 1875 Thomas Mann, German author and critic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1955)

• 1890 Ted Lewis, American singer, clarinet player, and bandleader (died 1971)

• 1891 Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Indian author and academic (died 1986)

• 1891 Erich Marcks, German general in WWII who planned Operation Barbarossa (died 1944)

• 1896 Henry Allingham, English World War I soldier and supercentenarian (died 2009)

• 1896 Italo Balbo, Italian air marshal and fascist politician who played a key role in developing Mussolini's air force (died 1940)

• 1897 Joel Rinne, Finnish actor (died 1981)

• 1898 Jacobus Johannes Fouché, South African politician, 2nd State President of South Africa (died 1980)

• 1898 Ninette de Valois, English ballerina, choreographer, and director (died 2001)

• 1900 Manfred Sakel, Ukrainian-American psychiatrist and physician (died 1957)

1901–present

• 1901 Jan Struther, English author, poet and hymnwriter who created the character Mrs Miniver (died 1953)

• 1901 Sukarno, Indonesian engineer and politician, 1st President of Indonesia (died 1970)

• 1902 Jimmie Lunceford, American saxophonist and bandleader (died 1947)

• 1903 Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer and conductor (died 1978)

• 1906 Max August Zorn, German mathematician and academic who is noted for Zorn's lemma (died 1993)

• 1907 Bill Dickey, American baseball player and manager who played in eight World Series, winning seven (died 1993)

• 1909 Isaiah Berlin, Latvian-English historian and philosopher (died 1997)

• 1915 Vincent Persichetti, American pianist and composer (died 1987)

• 1916 Hamani Diori, Nigerien academic and politician, 1st President of Niger (died 1989)

• 1917 Kirk Kerkorian, American businessman, founded the Tracinda Corporation (died 2015)

• 1918 Kenneth Connor, English comedy actor (died 1993)

• 1918 Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2009)

• 1919 Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, English army officer and politician, 6th Secretary General of NATO (died 2018)

• 1920 Virginia Oliver (died 2026), American lobster fisherwoman

• 1923 V. C. Andrews, American author, illustrator, and painter (died 1986)

• 1923 Jean Pouliot, Canadian broadcaster (died 2004)

• 1925 Maxine Kumin, American poet and author (died 2014)

• 1925 Frank Chee Willeto, American soldier and politician, 4th Vice President of the Navajo Nation and a noted code talker during World War II (died 2013)

• 1926 Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (died 1998)

• 1929 James Barnor, Ghanaian photographer

• 1929 Sunil Dutt, Indian actor, director, producer, and politician (died 2005)

• 1930 Frank Tyson, English-Australian cricketer, coach and journalist (died 2015)

• 1931 – Richard Hickock, American convicted murderer (died 1965)

• 1932 David Scott, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut who was the commander of Apollo 15

• 1933 Heinrich Rohrer, Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013)

• 1934 Albert II, King of the Belgians from 9 August 1993 to 21 July 2013 (abdicated)

• 1934 Taichi Yamada, Japanese screenwriter and novelist (died 2023)

• 1935 Jon Henricks, Australian swimmer; winner of two Olympic gold medals in 1956

• 1935 Grant Green, American jazz guitarist and composer (died 1979)

• 1936 D. Ramanaidu, Indian actor, director, and producer, founded Suresh Productions (died 2015)

• 1936 Levi Stubbs, American soul singer; lead vocalist of the Four Tops (died 2008)

• 1939 Louis Andriessen, Dutch pianist and composer (died 2021)

• 1939 Gary U.S. Bonds, American singer-songwriter

• 1939 Marian Wright Edelman, American child rights activist

• 1939 Eddie Giacomin, Canadian Hockey goaltender

• 1940 Willie John McBride, Northern Irish rugby player who toured with the British Lions five times

• 1941 Alexander Cockburn, Scottish-born American journalist (died 2012)

• 1943 Richard Smalley, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate in 1996 for chemistry (died 2005)

• 1944 Monty Alexander, Jamaican jazz pianist

• 1944 Phillip Allen Sharp, American molecular biologist; 1993 Nobel Prize laureate (Physiology or Medicine)

• 1944 Tommie Smith, American sprinter and football player; winner of 1968 Olympic 200m gold medal in a world record time

• 1946 Tony Levin, American bass player and songwriter

• 1947 David Blunkett, British Labour politician; Home Secretary 2001–2004

• 1947 Robert Englund, American actor; best known for Nightmare on Elm Street

• 1947 Ada Kok, Dutch butterfly stroke swimmer; winner of three Olympic medals including gold in 1968

• 1947 Keith Daniel Williams, American convicted rapist and triple murderer (died 1996)

• 1948 Arlene Harris, American entrepreneur, inventor, investor and policy advocate

• 1949 Holly Near, American folk singer and songwriter

• 1951 Dwight Twilley, American pop/rock singer and songwriter (died 2023)

• 1952 Harvey Fierstein, American actor and playwright; winner of four Tony Awards

• 1954 Władysław Żmuda, Polish footballer and manager; 91 caps for Poland and voted Best Young Player at the 1974 FIFA World Cup

• 1955 Sam Simon, American director, producer and screenwriter; co-developer of The Simpsons (died 2015)

• 1955 Sandra Bernhard, American stand-up comic and actress

• 1955 Lee Smolin, American theoretical physicist

• 1956 Björn Borg, Swedish tennis player; winner of eleven Grand Slam singles titles including five consecutive Wimbledons

• 1959 Colin Quinn, American comedian and actor

• 1960 Steve Vai, American musician

• 1960 Raudin Anwar, Indonesian diplomat

• 1962 Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japanese director

• 1963 Jason Isaacs, English actor

• 1966 Sophie Jamal, Canadian endocrinologist involved in scientific misconduct

• 1966 Tony Yeboah, Ghanaian footballer

• 1967 Paul Giamatti, American actor and producer

• 1972 Natalie Morales, American television journalist and NBC News anchor

• 1973 Jackie Arklöv, Swedish mercenary and convicted murderer

• 1974 Uncle Kracker, American musician

• 1974 Sonya Walger, British-American actress

• 1977 David Connolly, Irish footballer

• 1978 Mirko Šarić, Argentine footballer (died 2000)

• 1979 Roberto De Zerbi, Italian football manager

• 1980 Pete Hegseth, American author, political commentator and 29th United States Secretary of Defense

• 1983 Michael Krohn-Dehli, Danish footballer

• 1985 Sebastian Larsson, Swedish footballer

• 1985 Drew McIntyre, Scottish professional wrestler

• 1985 Becky Sauerbrunn, American footballer; twice a winner of the FIFA Women's World Cup, also an Olympic gold medallist

• 1986 Gin Wigmore, New Zealand singer and songwriter

• 1988 Anthony Pilkington, Irish footballer

• 1989 Jeanna Giese, American rabies survivor

• 1990 Gavin Hoyte, English born footballer who represented Trinidad and Tobago

• 1990 Anthony Rendon, American baseball player

• 1990 Pape Souaré, Senegalese footballer

• 1992 DeAndre Hopkins, American football player

• 1993 Vic Mensa, American rapper and singer

• 1994 Yvon Mvogo, Swiss footballer

• 1995 Julian Green, American soccer player

• 1996 Jack Hetherington, Australian rugby league player

• 1998 Kenny Pickett, American football player

• 2000 Haechan, South Korean singer

• 2001 Rayan Aït-Nouri, French-Algerian footballer

Deaths

Pre-1600

• 184 Qiao Xuan, Chinese official (born )

• 863 Abu Musa Utamish, vizier to the Abbasid Caliphate

• 913 Alexander III, Byzantine emperor (born 870)

• 1097 Agnes of Aquitaine, Queen of Aragon and Navarre

• 1134 Norbert of Xanten, German bishop and saint (born 1060)

• 1217 Henry I, King of Castile and Toledo (born 1204)

• 1251 William III of Dampierre, Count of Flanders

• 1252 Robert Passelewe, Bishop of Chichester

• 1480 Vecchietta, Italian painter, sculptor, and architect (born 1412)

• 1548 João de Castro, Portuguese soldier and politician, Governor of Portuguese India (born 1500)

• 1583 Nakagawa Kiyohide, Japanese daimyo (born 1556)

1601–1900

• 1661 Martino Martini, Italian Jesuit missionary (born 1614)

• 1799 Patrick Henry, American lawyer and politician, 1st Governor of Virginia (born 1736)

• 1813 Antonio Cachia, Maltese architect, engineer and archaeologist (born 1739)

• 1832 Jeremy Bentham, English jurist and philosopher (born 1748)

• 1861 Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, Italian politician, 1st Prime Minister of Italy (born 1810)

• 1865 William Quantrill, American Confederate guerrilla band leader (born 1837)

• 1878 Robert Stirling, Scottish minister and engineer, invented the stirling engine (born 1790)

• 1881 Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian violinist and composer (born 1820)

• 1891 John A. Macdonald, Scottish-Canadian lawyer and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Canada (born 1815)

1901–present

• 1916 Yuan Shikai, Chinese general and politician, 2nd President of the Republic of China (born 1859)

• 1922 Lillian Russell, American actress and singer (born 1860)

• 1935 Julian Byng, 1st Viscount Byng of Vimy, English field marshal and politician, 12th Governor General of Canada (born 1862)

• 1939 Constantin Noe, Megleno-Romanian editor and professor (born 1883)

• 1941 Louis Chevrolet, American race car driver and businessman, founded Chevrolet and Frontenac Motor Corporation (born 1878)

• 1946 Gerhart Hauptmann, German novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1862)

• 1947 James Agate, English author and critic (born 1877)

• 1948 Louis Lumière, French film director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1864)

• 1955 Max Meldrum, Scottish-Australian painter and educator (born 1875)

• 1961 Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (born 1875)

• 1962 Yves Klein, French painter (born 1928)

• 1962 Tom Phillis, Australian motorcycle racer (born 1934)

• 1963 William Baziotes, American painter and academic (born 1912)

• 1968 Robert F. Kennedy, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 64th United States Attorney General (born 1925)

• 1976 J. Paul Getty, American businessman, founded the Getty Oil Company (born 1892)

• 1979 Jack Haley, American actor (born 1897)

• 1982 Kenneth Rexroth, American poet and academic (born 1905)

• 1983 Hans Leip, German author, poet, and playwright who wrote the lyrics of Lili Marleen (born 1893)

• 1991 Stan Getz, American saxophonist and jazz innovator (born 1927)

• 1994 Mark McManus, Scottish actor (born 1935)

• 1994 Barry Sullivan, American film actor (born 1912)

• 1996 George Davis Snell, American geneticist and immunologist; awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980 for his studies of histocompatibility (born 1903)

• 2005 Anne Bancroft, American film actress; winner of the 1963 Academy Award for Best Actress for The Miracle Worker (born 1931)

• 2006 Billy Preston, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (born 1946)

• 2009 Jean Dausset, French-Spanish immunologist and academic; awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his studies of the genetic basis of immunological reaction (born 1916)

• 2012 Vladimir Krutov, Russian ice hockey player; together with Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov, formed the famed KLM Line. (born 1960)

• 2013 Jerome Karle, American crystallographer and academic; awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research into the molecular structure of chemical compounds (born 1918)

• 2013 Esther Williams, American swimmer and actress (born 1921)

• 2014 Lorna Wing, English psychiatrist and physician; pioneered studies of autism (born 1928)

• 2015 Vincent Bugliosi, American lawyer and author; prosecuting attorney in the Tate–LaBianca murders case (born 1934)

• 2015 Ludvík Vaculík, Czech journalist and author; noted for The Two Thousand Words which inspired the Prague Spring (born 1926)

• 2016 Viktor Korchnoi, Russian chess grandmaster; arguably the best player never to become World Chess Champion (born 1931)

• 2016 Peter Shaffer, English playwright and screenwriter; works included Equus and Amadeus (born 1926)

Holidays and observances

Christian feast day:

• Bessarion of Egypt

• Claudius of Besançon

• Iarlaithe mac Loga

• Ini Kopuria (Anglican Church of Melanesia, Church of England, Episcopal Church)

• Blessed Innocent Guz

• Marcellin Champagnat

• Blessed Maria Laura Mainetti

• Norbert

• June 6 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

• D-Day Invasion Anniversary

• Engineer's Day in Taiwan

• Korean Children's Union Foundation Day in North Korea

• Memorial Day in South Korea

• National Day of Sweden, marking the end of the Kalmar Union and the coronation of King Gustav Vasa

• National Huntington's Disease Awareness Day in the United States

• Queensland Day

• UN Russian Language Day

References

External links