Day of the year
June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 194 days remain until the end of the year.
Pre-1600[edit]
16011900[edit]
- 1622 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.
- 1791 King Louis XVI, disguised as a valet, and the French royal family attempt to flee Paris during the French Revolution.[2]
- 1819 The U.S. vessel SS Savannah 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.[3]
- 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.
1901present[edit]
- 1921 Workers of Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in the city of Chennai, India, begin a four-month strike.
- 1926 The 28th International Eucharistic Congress begins in Chicago, with over 250,000 spectators attending the opening procession.[4]
- 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. Avro 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 World War II: During the Continuation War, the Soviet Union demands unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful VyborgPetrozavodsk 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 (it later splits into Mali and Senegal).
- 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, D.C. and Moscow.
- 1964 A Curtiss C-46 Commando crashes in the Shengang District of Taiwan, killing 57 people.[5]
- 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.[6]
- 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 National Guard soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle during the Nicaraguan Revolution. The murder is caught on tape and sparks an international outcry against the regime.
- 1982 The International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide opens in Tel Aviv, despite attempts by the Turkish government to cancel it, as it included presentations on the Armenian genocide.[7]
- 1982 The Argentine Corbeta Uruguay base on Southern Thule surrenders to Royal Marine commandos in the final action of the Falklands War.
- 1988 Haitian President Leslie Manigat is ousted from power in a coup d’état led by Lieutenant general Henri Namphy.[8]
- 1990 Asteroid Eureka is discovered.
- 1990 The 7.4 Mw ManjilRudbar earthquake affects northern Iran with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), killing 35,00050,000, and injuring 60,000105,000.
- 1991 The German Bundestag votes to move seat of government from the former West German capital of Bonn to the present capital of 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.[9]
- 2019 Iran’s Air Defense Forces shoot down an American surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz amid rising tensions between the two countries.[10]
Pre-1600[edit]
16011900[edit]
- 1634 Charles Emmanuel II, duke of Savoy (d. 1675)
- 1642 (O.S.) George Hickes, English minister and scholar (d. 1715)
- 1647 (O.S.) John George III, Elector of Saxony (d. 1691)
- 1717 Jacques Saly, French sculptor and painter (d. 1776)
- 1723 (O.S.) Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (d. 1816)
- 1737 Tokugawa Ieharu, Japanese shōgun (d. 1786)
- 1754 Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt, princess of Baden (d. 1832)
- 1756 Joseph Martin Kraus, German-Swedish composer and educator (d. 1792)
- 1761 Jacob Hübner, German entomologist and author (d. 1826)
- 1763 Wolfe Tone, Irish rebel leader (d. 1798)
- 1770 Moses Waddel, American minister and academic (d. 1840)
- 1771 Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, Scottish philanthropist and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Kirkcudbright (d. 1820)
- 1771 Hermann von Boyen, Prussian general and politician, Prussian Minister of War (d. 1848)
- 1777 Jean-Jacques Lartigue, Canadian bishop (d. 1840)
- 1778 Jean Baptiste Gay, vicomte de Martignac, French politician, 7th Prime Minister of France (d. 1832)
- 1786 Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, French poet and author (d. 1859)
- 1796 Luigi Amat di San Filippo e Sorso, Italian cardinal (d. 1878)
- 1808 Samson Raphael Hirsch, German rabbi and scholar (d. 1888)
- 1809 Isaak August Dorner, German theologian and academic (d. 1884)
- 1813 Joseph Autran, French poet and author (d. 1877)
- 1819 Jacques Offenbach, German-French cellist and composer (d. 1880)
- 1847 Gina Krog, Norwegian suffragist and women’s rights activist (d. 1916)[11]
- 1855 Richard Lodge, English historian and academic (d. 1936)
- 1858 Charles W. Chesnutt, American novelist and short story writer (d. 1932)
- 1859 Christian von Ehrenfels, Austrian philosopher (d. 1932)[12]
- 1860 Alexander Winton, Scottish-American race car driver and engineer (d. 1932)
- 1860 Jack Worrall, Australian cricketer, footballer, and coach (d. 1937)
- 1861 Frederick Gowland Hopkins, English biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1947)
- 1865 George Redmayne Murray, English biologist and physician (d. 1939)
- 1866 James Burns, English cricketer (d. 1957)
- 1867 Leon Wachholz, Polish scientist and medical examiner (d. 1942)[13]
- 1869 Laxmanrao Kirloskar, Indian businessman, founded the Kirloskar Group (d. 1956)
- 1870 Georges Dufrénoy, French painter and academic (d. 1943)
- 1872 George Carpenter, American 5th General of The Salvation Army (d. 1948)
- 1875 Reginald Punnett, English geneticist, statistician, and academic (d. 1967)
- 1882 Daniel Sawyer, American golfer (d. 1937)
- 1884 Mary R. Calvert, American astronomer and author (d. 1974)
- 1884 Johannes Heinrich Schultz, German psychiatrist and psychotherapist (d. 1970)
- 1885 Andrzej Gawroński, Polish linguist and academic (d. 1927)
- 1887 Kurt Schwitters, German painter and illustrator (d. 1948)
- 1889 John S. Paraskevopoulos, Greek-South African astronomer and academic (d. 1951)
- 1891 Giannina Arangi-Lombardi, Italian soprano (d. 1951)
- 1891 John A. Costello, Irish lawyer and politician, 3rd Taoiseach of Ireland (d. 1976)
- 1893 Wilhelm Zaisser, German soldier and politician (d. 1958)
- 1894 Lloyd Hall, American chemist and academic (d. 1971)
- 1896 Wilfrid Pelletier, Canadian pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1982)
- 1897 Elisabeth Hauptmann, German author and playwright (d. 1973)
- 1899 Jean Moulin, French soldier and engineer (d. 1943)
1901present[edit]
- 1903 Sam Rabin, English wrestler, sculptor, and singer (d. 1991)
- 1905 Lillian Hellman, American playwright and screenwriter (d. 1984)[14]
- 1906 Bob King, American high jumper and obstetrician (d. 1965)[15]
- 1906 William Reid, Scottish mining engineer (d. 1985)[16]
- 1907 Jimmy Driftwood, American singer-songwriter and banjo player (d. 1998)
- 1908 Billy Werber, American baseball player (d. 2009)
- 1908 Gus Schilling, American actor (d. 1957)
- 1909 Errol Flynn, Australian-American actor (d. 1959)
- 1910 Josephine Johnson, American author and poet (d. 1990)
- 1911 Gail Patrick, American actress (d. 1980)
- 1912 Anthony Buckeridge, English author (d. 2004)
- 1912 Jack Torrance, American shot putter and football player (d. 1969)
- 1912 Geoffrey Baker, English Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the British Army (d. 1980)
- 1914 Gordon Juckes, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1994)
- 1914 Muazzez İlmiye Çığ, Turkish archaeologist and academic
- 1915 Dick Reynolds, Australian footballer and coach (d. 2002)
- 1915 Terence Young, Chinese-English director and screenwriter (d. 1994)
- 1916 Jean-Jacques Bertrand, Canadian lawyer and politician, 21st Premier of Quebec (d. 1973)
- 1916 T. Texas Tyler, American country music singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1972)
- 1917 Helena Rasiowa, Austrian-Polish mathematician and academic (d. 1994)
- 1918 George Lynch, American race car driver (d. 1997)
- 1918 Zoltán Sztáray, Hungarian-American author (d. 2011)
- 1920 Danny Cedrone, American guitarist and bandleader (d. 1954)
- 1920 Thomas Jefferson, American trumpet player (d. 1986)
- 1921 Byron Farwell, American historian and author (d. 1999)
- 1921 Pancho Segura, Ecuadorian tennis player (d. 2017)
- 1923 Peter Gay, German-American historian, author, and academic (d. 2015)
- 1923 Jerzy Nowak, Polish actor and educator (d. 2013)
- 1924 Chet Atkins, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2001)
- 1924 Fritz Koenig, German sculptor and academic, designed The Sphere (d. 2017)
- 1925 Doris Hart, American tennis player and educator (d. 2015)
- 1925 Audie Murphy, American lieutenant and actor, Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1971)
- 1926 Rehavam Ze’evi, Israeli general and politician, 9th Israeli Minister of Tourism (d. 2001)
- 1927 Simin Behbahani, Iranian poet and activist (d. 2014)
- 1928 Eric Dolphy, American saxophonist, flute player, and composer (d. 1964)
- 1928 Martin Landau, American actor and producer (d. 2017)
- 1928 Jean-Marie Le Pen, French intelligence officer and politician
- 1928 Asrat Woldeyes, Ethiopian surgeon and educator (d. 1999)
- 1929 Edgar Bronfman, Sr., Canadian-American businessman and philanthropist (d. 2013)
- 1929 Anne Weale, English journalist and author (d. 2007)
- 1929 Edith Windsor, American lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights activist (d. 2017)
- 1930 Magdalena Abakanowicz, Polish sculptor and academic (d. 2017)
- 1930 John Waine, English bishop (d. 2020)
- 1931 Olympia Dukakis, American actress (d. 2021)
- 1931 James Tolkan, American actor and director
- 1932 Robert Rozhdestvensky, Russian poet and author (d. 1994)
- 1933 Danny Aiello, American actor (d. 2019)[17]
- 1933 Claire Tomalin, English journalist and author
- 1934 Wendy Craig, English actress
- 1935 Jim Barker, American politician (d. 2005)
- 1935 Len Dawson, American football player (d. 2022)
- 1935 Armando Picchi, Italian footballer and coach (d. 1971)
- 1936 Billy Guy, American singer (d. 2002)
- 1936 Enn Vetemaa, Estonian author and screenwriter (d. 2017)
- 1937 Stafford Dean, English actor and singer
- 1937 Jerry Keller, American singer-songwriter
- 1938 Joan Kirner, Australian educator and politician, 42nd Premier of Victoria (d. 2015)
- 1938 Mickie Most, English music producer (d. 2003)
- 1939 Ramakant Desai, Indian cricketer (d. 1998)
- 1939 Budge Rogers, English rugby player and manager
- 1940 Eugen Drewermann, German priest and theologian
- 1940 John Mahoney, English-born American actor (d. 2018)
- 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[18]
- 1946 André Watts, American pianist and educator
- 1947 Dolores “LaLa” Brooks, American pop singer
- 1948 Cirilo Flores, American bishop (d. 2014)
- 1948 Alan Longmuir, Scottish bass player and songwriter (d. 2018)
- 1948 Ludwig Scotty, Nauruan politician, 10th President of Nauru
- 1949 Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 8th president of Sri Lanka
- 1949 Lionel Richie, American singer-songwriter, pianist, producer, and actor
- 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 (d. 2003)
- 1955 E. Lynn Harris, American author (d. 2009)
- 1956 Peter Reid, English footballer and manager
- 1956 Sohn Suk-hee, South Korean newscaster
- 1958 Kelly Johnson, English hard rock guitarist and songwriter (d. 2007)
- 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 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[19]
- 1987 A-fu, Taiwanese singer and songwriter
- 1987 Carsten Ball, Australian tennis player
- 1987 Asmir Begović, Bosnian footballer
- 1987 Joseph Ebuya, Kenyan runner
- 1989 Christopher Mintz-Plasse, American actor[20]
- 1989 Javier Pastore, Argentinian footballer
- 1989 Terrelle Pryor, American football player
- 1990 DeQuan Jones, American basketball player
- 1990 Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Senegalese writer[21]
- 1991 Kalidou Koulibaly, Senegalese footballer
- 1991 Rick ten Voorde, Dutch footballer
- 1994 Leonard Williams, American football player[22]
- 1995 Caroline Weir, Scottish footballer[23]
- 1995 Carol Zhao, Canadian tennis player[24]
- 1996 Sam Bennett, Canadian ice hockey player[25]
- 1997 Bálint Kopasz, Hungarian sprint canoeist[26]
- 2003 Hans Niemann, American chess player[27]
Pre-1600[edit]
16011900[edit]
- 1605 Feodor II of Russia (b. 1589)
- 1668 Heinrich Roth, German missionary and scholar (b. 1620)
- 1776 Benjamin Huntsman, English businessman (b. 1704)
- 1787 Carl Friedrich Abel, German viol player and composer (b. 1723)
- 1800 Abraham Gotthelf Kästner, German mathematician and academic (b. 1719)
- 1810 Axel von Fersen the Younger, Swedish general and politician (b. 1755)
- 1815 Guillaume Philibert Duhesme, French general (b. 1766)
- 1820 Manuel Belgrano, Argentinian general, economist, and politician (b. 1770)
- 1837 William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1765)
- 1840 Pierre Claude François Daunou, French historian and politician (b. 1761)
- 1847 Juan Larrea, Argentinian captain and politician (b. 1782)
- 1869 Hijikata Toshizō, Japanese commander (b. 1835)
- 1870 Jules de Goncourt, French historian and author (b. 1830)
- 1872 Élie Frédéric Forey, French general (b. 1804)
- 1875 Joseph Meek, American police officer and politician (b. 1810)
- 1876 John Neal, American writer, critic, editor, lecturer, and activist (b. 1793)[29]
- 1888 Johannes Zukertort, Polish-English chess player (b. 1842)
1901present[edit]
- 1906 John Clayton Adams, English painter (b. 1840)
- 1909 Friedrich Martens, Estonian-Russian historian, lawyer, and diplomat (b. 1845)
- 1925 Josef Breuer, Austrian physician and psychologist (b. 1842)
- 1929 Emmanouil Benakis, Greek merchant and politician, 35th Mayor of Athens (b. 1843)
- 1945 Bruno Frank, German author, poet, and playwright (b. 1878)
- 1947 Bugsy Siegel, American mobster (b. 1906)
- 1952 Luigi Fagioli, Italian race car driver (b. 1898)
- 1958 Kurt Alder, German chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1902)
- 1963 Raphaël Salem, Greek-French mathematician and academic (b. 1898)
- 1965 Bernard Baruch, American financier and politician (b. 1870)
- 1966 Georges Lemaître, Belgian priest, physicist, and astronomer (b. 1894)
- 1969 Bishnu Prasad Rabha, Indian artist, painter, actor, dancer, writer, music composer and politician (b. 1909)
- 1974 Horace Lindrum, Australian snooker player (b. 1912)
- 1975 Suzanne Comhaire-Sylvain, Hatian anthropologist (b. 1898)[30]
- 1978 Mark Robson, Canadian-American director and producer (b. 1913)
- 1984 Estelle Winwood, English actress (b. 1883)
- 1995 Emil Cioran, Romanian-French philosopher and educator (b. 1911)
- 1997 Cahit Külebi, Turkish poet and author (b. 1917)
- 1999 Clifton Fadiman, American game show host, author, and critic (b. 1902)
- 2001 Gina Cigna, French-Italian soprano (b. 1900)
- 2002 Erwin Chargaff, Austrian-American biochemist and academic (b. 1905)
- 2002 Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (b. 1916)
- 2004 Jim Bacon, Australian politician, 41st Premier of Tasmania (b. 1950)
- 2005 Larry Collins, American journalist, historian, and author (b. 1929)
- 2005 Jack Kilby, American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1923)
- 2010 Roberto Rosato, Italian footballer (b. 1943)
- 2010 Harry B. Whittington, English palaeontologist and academic (b. 1916)
- 2011 Ryan Dunn, American television personality (b. 1977)
- 2012 Judy Agnew, Second Lady of the United States. (b. 1921)[31]
- 2012 LeRoy Neiman, American painter (b. 1921)
- 2012 Heinrich IV, Prince Reuss of Köstritz (b. 1919)
- 2012 Andrew Sarris, American critic (b. 1928)
- 2013 Ingvar Rydell, Swedish footballer (b. 1922)
- 2015 Angelo Niculescu, Romanian footballer and manager (b. 1921)
- 2015 Miriam Schapiro, Canadian-American painter and sculptor (b. 1923)
- 2017 Prodigy, American music artist (b. 1974)
- 2022 Caleb Swanigan, American NBA player. (b. 1997) [32]