June 21Birthdays & History

On this day: June 21 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 217 BCA Carthaginian force under Hannibal ambushes and defeats a Roman army commanded by Gaius Flaminius in the battle of lake Trasimene during the Second Punic War.AfricaEurope
2. 533A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarios sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily.EuropeMiddle EastAfrica
3. 870Caliph al-Muhtadi is killed by rebellious troops and is succeeded by his cousin Al-Mu'tamid.Middle East
4. 1307Külüg Khan is enthroned as Khagan of the Mongols and Wuzong of the Yuan.Asia
5. 1529French forces are driven out of northern Italy by Spain at the Battle of Landriano during the War of the League of Cognac.Europe
6. 1582Sengoku period: Oda Nobunaga, the most powerful of the Japanese daimyōs, is forced to commit suicide by his own general Akechi Mitsuhide.Asia
7. 1621Execution of 27 Czech noblemen on the Old Town Square in Prague as a consequence of the Battle of White Mountain.Europe
8. 1734In Montreal, New France, a slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique is put to death, having been convicted of setting the fire that destroyed much of the city.North AmericaEurope
9. 1749Halifax, Nova Scotia, is founded.North America
10. 1768James Otis Jr. offends the King and Parliament in a speech to the Massachusetts General Court.North America
11. 1788New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.North America
12. 1791King Louis XVI and his immediate family begin the Flight to Varennes during the French Revolution.Europe
13. 1798Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill.Europe
14. 1813Peninsular War: Wellington defeats Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Vitoria.Oceania
15. 1824Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea.EuropeMiddle East
16. 1826Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas.EuropeMiddle East
17. 1848In the Wallachian Revolution, Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Christian Tell issue the Proclamation of Islaz and create a new republican government.Europe
18. 1864American Civil War: The Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road begins.North AmericaMiddle East
19. 1898The United States captures Guam from Spain. The few warning shots fired by the U.S. naval vessels are misinterpreted as salutes by the Spanish garrison, which was unaware that the two nations were at war.North AmericaOceaniaEurope
20. 1900Boxer Rebellion: China formally declares war on the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan, as an edict issued from the Empress Dowager Cixi.AsiaNorth AmericaEurope
21. 1915The U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347 1915, striking down Oklahoma grandfather clause legislation which had the effect of denying the right to vote to African-Americans.North AmericaAfrica
22. 1919The Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during the Winnipeg general strike.North America
23. 1919Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet at Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed are the last casualties of World War I.Europe
24. 1921The Irish village of Knockcroghery is burned by British forces.Europe
25. 1929An agreement brokered by U.S. Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow ends the Cristero War in Mexico.North AmericaLatin America
26. 1930One-year conscription comes into force in France.Europe
27. 1940World War II: Italy begins an unsuccessful invasion of France.Europe
28. 1941Having defeated forces of Vichy France, Allied forces capture Damascus.EuropeMiddle East
29. 1942World War II: Tobruk falls to Italian and German forces; 33,000 Allied troops are taken prisoner.Europe
30. 1942World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by Japan against the United States mainland.AsiaNorth America
31. 1945World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ends when the organized resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapses in the Mabuni area on the southern tip of the main island.Asia
32. 1952The Philippine School of Commerce, through a republic act, is converted to Philippine College of Commerce, later to be the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.Asia
33. 1957Ellen Fairclough is sworn in as Canada's first female Cabinet Minister.North America
34. 1963Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini is elected as Pope Paul VI.Europe
35. 1964Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, are murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.North America
36. 1970Penn Central declares Section 77 bankruptcy in what was the largest U.S. corporate bankruptcy to date.North America
37. 1973In its decision in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the Miller test for determining whether something is obscene and not protected speech under the U.S. constitution.North America
38. 1973The Primer Congreso del Hombre Andino is inaugurated in Arica, Chile.Latin America
39. 1978The original production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Evita, based on the life of Eva Perón, opens at the Prince Edward Theatre, London.Europe
40. 1982John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.North America
41. 1985Braathens SAFE Flight 139 is hijacked on approach to Oslo Airport, Fornebu. Special forces arrest the hijacker and there are no fatalities.Europe
42. 1989The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397, that American flag-burning is a form of political protest protected by the First Amendment.North America
43. 1993Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on STS-57 to retrieve the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) satellite. It is also the first shuttle mission to carry the Spacehab module.Europe
44. 2000Section 28 (of the Local Government Act 1988), outlawing the 'promotion' of homosexuality in the United Kingdom, is repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote.Europe
45. 2001A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicts 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen.North AmericaMiddle East
46. 2004SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.World
47. 2005Edgar Ray Killen, who had previously been unsuccessfully tried for the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, is convicted of manslaughter 41 years afterwards (the case had been reopened in 2004).North America
48. 2006A Yeti Airlines de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter crashes at Jumla Airport in Nepal, killing nine people.North AmericaAsia
49. 2006Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra.World
50. 2009Greenland assumes self-rule.North America
51. 2012A boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsizes in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island of Java and Christmas Island, killing 17 people and leaving 70 others missing.Asia
52. 2012An Indonesian Air Force Fokker F27 Friendship crashes near Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport, killing 11.Asia
53. 2025A hot air balloon catches fire mid-flight and crashes in Praia Grande, Santa Catarina, Brazil, killing 8 of the 21 on board.Latin America

Source: Wikipedia "June 21" / CC BY-SA 4.0