Saturday, 21st June 2025 in London

21st June in the Stars – Star Sign Cancer

Today, the zodiac sign Cancer celebrates its birthday.

Personality Profile

Personality Those born on 21st June blend emotional depth with spiritual sensitivity. Neptune's influence gifts them an artistic, dreamy quality that transcends typical Cancer characteristics. They are intuitive souls seeking emotional security and meaningful connections.

Strengths & Weaknesses Their greatest strength lies in compassion and empathy—they sense unspoken feelings naturally. However, emotional overwhelm and difficulty setting boundaries can challenge them. Escapism through excessive daydreaming presents a potential pitfall.

Love These individuals love deeply and loyally, seeking emotional merger rather than surface-level romance. Their idealistic vision of partnership can lead to disappointment when reality doesn't match their dreams.

Caree & Finance They thrive in creative, nurturing professions like therapy, art, or social work. Financial stability matters for emotional security, yet they may drift into impractical money management habits.

Health Their health intertwines closely with emotional wellbeing. Regular mindfulness, creative expression, and nature time help them stay grounded and balanced.

That night, the moon was in its waxing gibbous phase.

Chinese year of the Snake (Wood).

Fun Facts About 21st June

Name Days in Your Language: Summer, Willard, Winston, Winton

Someone born on this day would be just 345 days old today — roughly 8,294 hours, 497,688 minutes, or 29,861,308 seconds spent on Earth so far.

It's the 172. day of the year. In 2025, 21st June falls on a Saturday.

There are 193 days still to come.

We’re currently in Week 25 — the year marches on.

Famous Birthdays on 21st June

On this day, 318 notable people were born on 21st June — spanning from 906 to 2011. From world leaders to artists and scientists, discover who shares this birthday.

21/06/2011

Lil Bub, American celebrity cat (died 2019)

Lil Bub, officially Lil BUB, was an American celebrity cat known for her unique physical appearance. Her photos were first posted to Tumblr in November 2011, before taking off after being featured on the social news website Reddit. "Lil Bub" on Facebook has over three million likes. Lil Bub starred in Lil Bub & Friendz, a documentary that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 18, 2013, and won the Tribeca Online Festival Best Feature Film.

21/06/2007

Nanou Philips, Belgian ASMR social media personality

Nanou Philips is a Belgian social media personality. Under the online handle Nanou ASMR, she produces ASMR content, which she is mostly known for, on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, in addition to other platforms. Besides ASMR, Philips also uploads vlogging content. Having done content creation since mid-childhood, she has amassed a large following online from her ASMR and vlogging content.

21/06/2001

Alexandra Obolentseva, Russian chess player

Alexandra Sergeevna Obolentseva is a Russian chess player. She was awarded the title Woman Grandmaster by FIDE in 2018. Obolentseva has won the World Youth Chess Championships, the World Schools Chess Championships and the European Schools Chess Championships in her age girls category.

21/06/2000

Dylan Brown, New Zealand rugby league player

Dylan Brown is a New Zealand professional rugby league footballer who plays as a five-eighth for the Newcastle Knights in the National Rugby League and New Zealand at international level.

21/06/1999

Ky Rodwell, Australian rugby league player

Ky Rodwell is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who plays as a prop and loose forward for Wakefield Trinity in the Super League.

21/06/1998

Isabel Atkin, British-American freestyle skier

Isabel "Izzy" Atkin is a former British-American freestyle skier who competed internationally for Great Britain. She won bronze in women's slopestyle at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the first British Olympic medal in skiing.

21/06/1997

Rebecca Black, American singer-songwriter

Rebecca Renee Black is an American singer, songwriter, YouTuber, and DJ. She gained extensive media coverage when the music video for her 2011 debut single "Friday" went viral on YouTube and various social media sites. The song had a polarizing reaction as while it peaked at number 58 on the Billboard Hot 100, it was also panned by audiences and music critics, many of whom considered it "among the worst songs ever made". In 2013, Black released a follow-up single "Saturday" to similar commercial success and marginally improved reception.

Derrius Guice, American football player

Derrius Guice is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the LSU Tigers, becoming the first player in Southeastern Conference (SEC) history with three career games of 250 or more rushing yards before being selected by the Washington Redskins in the second round of the 2018 NFL draft.

21/06/1996

Tyrone May, Australian rugby league player

Tyrone May is a Samoa international rugby league footballer who plays for Hull Kingston Rovers in the Super League. Primarily a stand-off, May has played in a number of other positions during his career, including centre, scrum-half, loose forward and fullback.

Scottie Scheffler, American golfer

Scott Alexander Scheffler is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He is currently ranked world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, a position he has held for over 175 weeks during his career. He has won four major championships.

21/06/1994

Başak Eraydın, Turkish tennis player

Başak Eraydın is a Turkish professional tennis player.

21/06/1993

Hungrybox, Argentine-American esports player

Juan Manuel DeBiedma, better known by his alias Hungrybox, is an Argentine–American professional Super Smash Bros. player, streamer, tournament organizer and commentator. Recognized as one of the greatest and most successful Super Smash Bros. Melee players of all time, he is one of the "Five Gods of Melee" along with Adam "Armada" Lindgren, Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Joseph "Mang0" Marquez, and Kevin "PPMD" Nanney, and is regarded as the greatest Jigglypuff player in history. He is also an active competitor in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and has been a member of Team Liquid since 2015, becoming its co-owner in December 2021. He is currently ranked as the 3rd best Melee player in the world for 2025.

21/06/1992

MAX, American singer, songwriter, actor, dancer and model

Maxwell George Schneider, also known by his mononym Max, is an American singer and actor. He is best known for his 2016 single "Lights Down Low", which peaked within the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 and received triple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). A sleeper hit, the song emerged from his second album, Hell's Kitchen Angel (2016), which was released by DCD2 Records and narrowly entered the Billboard 200. He signed with Arista Records to release his third album, Color Vision (2020).

Hussein El Shahat, Egyptian professional footballer

Hussein Ali El Shahat Ali Hassan is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays for Egyptian Premier League club Al Ahly as a winger.

21/06/1991

Gaël Kakuta, French footballer

Gaël Romeo Kakuta Mambenga is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Greek Super League club AEL. Born in France, he represents the DR Congo national team.

Lee Min-young, South Korean singer-songwriter, actress, and entertainer

Lee Min-young, known professionally as Min, is a South Korean singer, television personality, songwriter, and actress. She is best known as a former member of the South Korean girl group Miss A.

21/06/1990

Ričardas Berankis, Lithuanian tennis player

Ričardas Berankis is a Lithuanian former professional tennis player. He was the first and only Lithuanian to enter the ATP top 50 rankings, making him the highest ranked Lithuanian tennis player of all time. Berankis has reached two singles finals on the ATP World Tour, at the Los Angeles Open in 2012 and at the Kremlin Cup in 2017 and won one doubles title in Houston. He was also a prominent member of the Lithuania Davis Cup team.

Sergei Matsenko, Russian chess player

Sergei Vadimovich Matsenko is a Russian chess grandmaster.

François Moubandje, Swiss footballer

Jacques François Moubandje is a former professional footballer who played as a left back. Born in Cameroon, he represented the Switzerland national team.

Håvard Nordtveit, Norwegian footballer

Håvard Nordtveit is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a defender or defensive midfielder.

Isabel Pires, Portuguese politician

Isabel Cristina Rua Pires is a Portuguese politician and former member of the Assembly of the Republic, the national legislature of Portugal. A member of the Left Bloc, she has represented Lisbon from October 2015 to March 2022 and Porto from September 2023 to March 2024. She had also been a temporary substitute member of the Assembly from February 2023 to August 2023.

21/06/1989

Abubaker Kaki, Sudanese runner

Abubaker Kaki Khamis is a Sudanese runner who specialises in the 800 metres. He is a two-time World Indoor Champion over the distance and also won gold at the 2007 All-Africa Games. He represented Sudan at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. He is a member of the Messiria ethnic minority.

21/06/1988

Allyssa DeHaan, American basketball and volleyball player

Allyssa DeHaan is an American former collegiate basketball and volleyball player. She played for Michigan State University from 2006 to 2010.

Alejandro Ramírez, American chess player

Alejandro Tadeo Ramírez Álvarez is a Costa Rican-American chess Grandmaster and commentator. At the age of 15, he became the first Central American to achieve the title of Grandmaster and was the second youngest chess grandmaster in the world at the time. Born in Costa Rica, he represented Costa Rica before switching to the United States in 2011.

Paolo Tornaghi, Italian footballer

Paolo Tornaghi is an Italian footballer who plays as a goalkeeper.

Thaddeus Young, American basketball player

Thaddeus Charles Young Sr. is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, before being selected 12th overall in the 2007 NBA draft by the Philadelphia 76ers. In 2018, Young became the 5th player in NBA history with at least 800 games to average 13.5 points, 5.9 Rebounds, 1.4 steals, 49% FGS, and 30% 3PT FGS, after Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James.

21/06/1987

Pablo Barrera, Mexican footballer

Pablo Edson Barrera Acosta is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a winger.

Sebastian Prödl, Austrian footballer

Sebastian Prödl is an Austrian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. A full international from 2007 to 2018, he represented the Austria national team at UEFA Euro 2008 and UEFA Euro 2016.

Dale Thomas, Australian footballer

Dale Robert Jordan “Daisy” Thomas is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Collingwood Football Club and Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Thomas was a priority pick in 2005, where he then played with the Collingwood Football Club from 2006 to 2013 before transferring to Carlton in 2014.

Kim Ryeo-wook, South Korean singer

Kim Ryeo-wook, better known by the mononym Ryeowook, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, and musical actor. He is best known as a member of boy group Super Junior and its subgroups, Super Junior-K.R.Y. and Super Junior-M. Along with four other Super Junior members, he is one of the first Korean artists to appear on Chinese postage stamps. He began a solo career in 2016 with his first EP The Little Prince.

21/06/1986

Kathleen O'Kelly-Kennedy, Australian wheelchair basketball player

Kathleen O'Kelly-Kennedy is an Australian 4.0 point wheelchair basketball player who plays forward-centre. She was part of the bronze medal-winning Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing.

Hideaki Wakui, Japanese baseball player

Hideaki Wakui is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He has previously played in NPB for the Seibu Lions / Saitama Seibu Lions, Chiba Lotte Marines, and Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

21/06/1985

Kris Allen, American musician, singer and songwriter

Kristopher Neil Allen is an American singer, songwriter, and the winner of the eighth season of American Idol.

Lana Del Rey, American singer-songwriter

Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, known professionally as Lana Del Rey, is an American singer-songwriter. Her music is noted for its melancholic exploration of glamor and romance, with frequent references to pop culture and 1950s–1970s Americana. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an MTV Video Music Award, three MTV Europe Music Awards, two Brit Awards, two Billboard Women in Music awards, and a Satellite Award, in addition to nominations for 11 Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe Award. Variety honored her at their Hitmakers Awards for being "one of the most influential singer-songwriters of the 21st century". In 2023, Rolling Stone placed Del Rey on their list of the "200 Greatest Singers of All Time", while Rolling Stone UK named her as the "greatest American songwriter of the 21st century".

Sentayehu Ejigu, Ethiopian runner

Sentayehu Ejigu Tamerat is an Ethiopian long-distance runner, who specializes in the 3000 and 5000 metres. She represented Ethiopia at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Byron Schammer, Australian footballer

Byron Schammer is an Australian rules footballer currently playing with the Claremont Football Club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). He previously played with the Fremantle Football Club in the Australian Football League.

21/06/1983

Edward Snowden, American activist and academic

Edward Joseph Snowden is a former United States National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs.

21/06/1982

Lee Dae-ho, South Korean baseball player

Lee Dae-ho is a South Korean professional baseball player who played as a first baseman. During his career, he played for the Lotte Giants of the KBO League, Orix Buffaloes and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), and the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB).

William, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the British throne

William, Prince of Wales, is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales.

Jussie Smollett, American actor and singer

Jussie Smollett is an American actor, filmmaker and singer. He began his career as a child actor in 1991 debuting in The Mighty Ducks (1992). From 2015 to 2019, Smollett portrayed musician Jamal Lyon in the Fox drama series Empire.

21/06/1981

Yann Danis, Canadian ice hockey player

Yann Joseph Richard Danis is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders, Edmonton Oilers, and New Jersey Devils. He played in the butterfly style of goaltending.

Garrett Jones, American baseball player

Garrett Thomas Jones is an American former professional baseball first baseman and right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Miami Marlins, and New York Yankees, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yomiuri Giants.

Brandon Flowers, American singer-songwriter

Brandon Richard Flowers is an American musician. He serves as the co-founder, lead vocalist, primary songwriter, keyboardist, and occasional bassist of the Las Vegas–based rock band the Killers, which he formed with Dave Keuning in 2001.

Brad Walker, American pole vaulter

Brad Walker is an American pole vaulter. He was the American recordholder and was the 2007 World Champion in the event.

21/06/1980

Michael Crocker, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster

Michael "Croc" Crocker is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 2000s and 2010s. An Australian international and Queensland State of Origin representative forward, he played his club football in the National Rugby League for the Sydney Roosters, Melbourne Storm and the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Crocker played in 5 Grand Finals during his career, including three consecutive Grand Final appearances between 2002 and 2004, including one victory in 2002.

Łukasz Cyborowski, Polish chess player

Łukasz Cyborowski is a Polish chess Grandmaster (2003).

Richard Jefferson, American basketball player

Richard Allen Jefferson Jr. is an American former professional basketball player who played small forward. He played for eight teams during his 17-season career in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Sendy Rleal, Dominican baseball player

Sendy Rleal Aquino is a former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles in 2006, and in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) for the Sinon Bulls in 2010.

21/06/1979

Kostas Katsouranis, Greek footballer

Kostas Katsouranis is a Greek former professional footballer. A versatile midfielder, who won the Super League Greek Footballer of the Year Award in 2005 and 2013, as well as the Cosme Damião Award for Footballer of the Year in 2008.

Chris Pratt, American actor

Christopher Michael Pratt is an American actor and film producer. His films as a leading actor have grossed over $14.1 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing film stars of all time. Pratt was one of the world's highest-paid actors annually from 2015 to 2017. Through starring in blockbuster franchises and big-budget films, he has established himself as one of Hollywood's most bankable stars.

21/06/1978

Thomas Blondeau, Flemish writer (died 2013)

Thomas Blondeau was a Flemish writer, poet and journalist. He studied literature at the University of Leuven and the University of Leiden. He wrote for newspapers including Mare, Deng, De Revisor, De Standaard and Dif.

Matt Kuchar, American golfer

Matthew Gregory Kuchar is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and formerly the Nationwide Tour. He has won nine times on the PGA Tour. Kuchar briefly enjoyed success in the early 2000s before suffering a slump where he struggled to maintain his playing status on the PGA Tour. He rejuvenated himself and built a new, one-plane swing from 2008 onward leading to improved results. Kuchar was the PGA Tour's leading money winner in 2010.

Cristiano Lupatelli, Italian footballer

Cristiano Lupatelli is an Italian professional football coach and former player who is the goalkeeping coach of club Juventus U23. As a player, he was a goalkeeper; he is known for his trademark goatee and sideburns with his bald head.

Dejan Ognjanović, Montenegrin footballer

Dejan Ognjanović is a Montenegrin former professional footballer who played as a defender. On the international level, he represented FR Yugoslavia most notably at the 2001 Kirin Cup as well as Montenegro from 2008 to 2010.

Rim'K, French rapper

Abdelkrim Brahmi, known professionally as Rim'K is a French rapper of Algerian origins. Rim'k is a member of the group 113, alongside Mokobé and AP, and the supergroup Mafia K-1 Fry. He also has a group called Maghreb United.

21/06/1977

Michael Gomez, Irish boxer

Michael Gomez is a former professional boxer who competed from 1995 to 2009. He was born to an Irish Traveller family in Longford, Ireland, spending his early years in Dublin before moving to London and later Manchester, England, with his family at the age of nine. In boxing he was affectionately known as "The Predator", "The Irish Mexican" and "The Mancunian Mexican".

Al Wilson, American football player

Aldra Kauwa Wilson is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for eight seasons with the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Tennessee Volunteers, earning consensus All-American honors. Wilson was selected by the Denver Broncos in the first round of the 1999 NFL draft, and played his entire professional career for the Broncos. He was a five-time Pro Bowl selection and a two-time All-Pro selection.

21/06/1976

Shelley Craft, Australian television host

Shelley Craft is an Australian television personality.

Mike Einziger, American guitarist and songwriter

Michael Aaron Einziger is an American musician, songwriter and producer. He is best known for being co-founder and guitarist of the rock band Incubus, and has also co-written, produced and collaborated with a wide array of artists including Pharrell Williams, Hans Zimmer, Skrillex, Tyler the Creator, Avicii, Damian Marley, Jason Schwartzman and Steve Martin among many others. Incubus has sold over 23 Million albums worldwide, and in 2013, Einziger co-wrote the hit song "Wake Me Up", alongside Avicii and Aloe Blacc. As an entrepreneur, Einziger is the co-founder and co-chairman of the wireless technology platform MIXhalo, and also the co-founder and CEO of the biotechnology startup Versicolor Technologies. Einziger received his education at Harvard University.

Nigel Lappin, Australian footballer and coach

Nigel Lappin is a former professional Australian rules footballer. Lappin is currently serving as an assistant coach with the Geelong Football Club.

21/06/1975

Brian Simmons, American football player

Brian Eugene Simmons is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker for 10 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the University of North Carolina, and earned All-American honors. He was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals 17th overall in the 1998 NFL draft, and he played professionally for the Bengals and New Orleans Saints of the NFL.

21/06/1974

Rob Kelly, American football player

Robert James Kelly III is an American former professional football player who was a safety for four seasons with the New Orleans Saints in the National Football League (NFL) and one on the injured reserve list for the New England Patriots. He played college football for the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Craig Lowndes, Australian race car driver

Craig Andrew Lowndes is an Australian racing car driver in the Repco Supercars Championship racing for Team 18. He is also a TV commentator.

Flavio Roma, Italian footballer

Flavio Roma is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

21/06/1973

Juliette Lewis, American actress and singer-songwriter

Juliette Lake Lewis is an American actress, singer and musician. She is known for her portrayals of offbeat characters, often in films with dark plots, themes, and settings. Lewis gained prominence in American cinema during the early 1990s, appearing in various independent and arthouse films. Lewis's accolades include nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards.

John Mitchell, English guitarist, vocalist and songwriter

John Mitchell is an Irish musician and record producer. He primarily plays guitar and has been a member of the bands It Bites, Arena, Frost*, Kino, A, The Urbane, and Asia, as well as pursuing a solo career with the Lonely Robot project.

21/06/1972

Nobuharu Asahara, Japanese sprinter and long jumper

Nobuharu Asahara is a former Japanese athlete who specialized in the 100 meters and long jump. He won the 100 m at the Japanese national championship on five occasions in 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001 and 2002, and he took part in the Olympics four times in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008. He represented Japan six times at the World Championships in Athletics.

Neil Doak, Northern Irish cricketer and rugby player

Neil George Doak is a Northern Irish former cricketer and rugby union player. He is the former head coach of the Ireland U20 rugby union team.

Irene van Dyk, South African-New Zealand netball player

Irene van Dyk is a former netball international who represented both New Zealand and South Africa. Between 2000 and 2014 she made 145 senior appearances for New Zealand. She was a member of the New Zealand teams that won the 2003 World Netball Championships and the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games titles. Between 1994 and 1999 she made 72 senior appearances for South Africa. She was member of the South Africa team that were silver medallists at the 1995 World Netball Championships. She captained South Africa at the 1999 World Netball Championships. During her international netball career, she scored 5917 goals from 6572 attempts at 90%. Van Dyk remains the world's most capped netball international. She was the 2003 New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year. Between 2003 and 2013, van Dyk played for Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic. In 2005 and 2006, she was a member of the Magic team that won two successive National Bank Cup titles and in 2012, she was a member of the Magic team that won the ANZ Championship. In 2009, van Dyk was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to netball. In 2022, she was included on a list of the 25 best players to feature in netball leagues in New Zealand since 1998. In 2024 she was inducted into the Netball New Zealand Hall of Fame.

Tomáš Valášek, Slovak diplomat and politician

Tomáš Valášek is a Slovak diplomat and politician. From 2013 to 2017 he served as the ambassador of Slovakia to NATO. From 2020 he is a Member of the National Council.

21/06/1971

Tyronne Drakeford, American football player

Tyronne James Drakeford is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL). He played for the San Francisco 49ers, New Orleans Saints, and Washington Redskins. He played college football for the Virginia Tech Hokies and was selected in the second round of the 1994 NFL draft.

21/06/1970

Eric Reed, American pianist and composer

Eric Scott Reed is an American jazz pianist and composer. His group Black Note released several albums in the 1990s.

21/06/1968

Sonique, English singer-songwriter and DJ

Sonia Marina Clarke, better known by her stage name Sonique, is an English singer, musician and DJ. She came to public attention as a member of dance band S'Express during the early 1990s, but achieved greater success as a solo artist in the early-to mid 2000s. During this period, she achieved UK top 20 hits with "It Feels So Good", "Sky", "I Put a Spell on You" and "Can't Make Up My Mind", and won the 2001 BRIT Award for British female solo artist.

21/06/1967

Jim Breuer, American comedian, actor, and producer

James Breuer is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He was a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 1998 and starred in the film Half Baked (1998).

Derrick Coleman, American basketball player and sportscaster

Derrick Demetrius Coleman is an American former professional basketball player. Coleman attended Syracuse University and was selected first overall in the 1990 NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets.

Pierre Omidyar, French-American businessman, founded eBay

Pierre Morad Omidyar is a French-born Iranian-American billionaire. A technology entrepreneur, software engineer, and philanthropist, he is the founder of eBay, where he served as chairman from 1998 to 2015. Omidyar is the grandson of the Imperial Iranian Army General Mahmud Mir-Djalali, who was instrumental in the 1921 rise of the Pahlavi Dynasty, the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh, and the building out of Iran's Mechanized Artillery Forces and Defense Industries. As of 2023, Forbes ranked Omidyar as the 245th-richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $8.7 billion.

Carrie Preston, American actress, director, and producer

Carrie Preston is an American actress, director, and producer. She is best known for her roles as Arlene Fowler in the HBO fantasy drama series True Blood (2008–2014) and as Elsbeth Tascioni in the CBS legal drama series The Good Wife (2010–2016) and the two spinoffs The Good Fight (2017–2022) and Elsbeth (2024–present). For her work on The Good Wife, Preston received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.

Yingluck Shinawatra, Thai businesswoman and politician, 28th Prime Minister of Thailand

Yingluck Shinawatra is a Thai businesswoman, politician and a member of the Pheu Thai Party who was the 28th prime minister of Thailand from 2011 to 2014. Yingluck was Thailand's first female prime minister and its youngest in over 60 years since the Siamese revolution of 1932. She was removed from office on 7 May 2014 by a Constitutional Court decision.

21/06/1966

Gretchen Carlson, American model and TV journalist, Miss America 1989

Gretchen Elizabeth Carlson is an American broadcast journalist, writer, and television personality.

21/06/1965

David Beerling, English biologist and academic

David John Beerling FLSW is the Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Climate change mitigation and Sorby Professor of Natural Sciences in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences (APS) at the University of Sheffield, UK. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

Yang Liwei, Chinese general, pilot, and astronaut

Yang Liwei is a Chinese major general, former military pilot, and former taikonaut of the People's Liberation Army.

Ewen McKenzie, Australian rugby player and coach

Ewen James Andrew McKenzie is an Australian professional rugby union coach and a former player. A prop, he played for Australia's World Cup winning team in 1991 and earned 51 caps for the Wallabies during his test career. He played nine seasons for the NSW Waratahs and two for the ACT Brumbies.

Lana Wachowski, American director, producer, and screenwriter

Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski are American film and television directors, writers and producers. Together known as the Wachowskis, the sisters are both trans women and have worked as a writing and directing team throughout most of their careers. They made their directing debut with Bound (1996), and achieved fame with The Matrix (1999), a major box-office success for which they won the Saturn Award for Best Director. They wrote and directed two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, and were involved in the writing and production of other works in the Matrix franchise.

21/06/1964

David Morrissey, English actor and director

David Mark Joseph Morrissey is an English actor and filmmaker. He had numerous small roles in films and television series throughout the 1990s before achieving wider recognition for playing Gordon Brown in The Deal (2003), Stephen Collins in State of Play (2003), The Governor in the third, and fourth seasons of The Walking Dead (2012–2015), and DCS Ian St Clair in Sherwood (2022–present). He has also acted extensively on stage with companies such as the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre.

Valeriy Neverov, Ukrainian chess player

Valeriy Neverov is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster (1991) and four-time Ukrainian Chess Champion.

Dimitris Papaioannou, Greek director and choreographer

Dimitris Papaioannou is an Athenian born on 21 June 1964 who emerged from the Greek underground art scene as a defining figure. Starting as a comics creator, he became a director, choreographer, performer, and designer of sets, costumes, and lighting. His hybrid creations gained a growing dedicated audience in Greece, and in 2004 he became the youngest artist to have been assigned to direct the biggest show on earth: the Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies. A decade later, in 2015, he was discovered by European programmers and was invited to tour.

Dean Saunders, Welsh footballer and manager

Dean Nicholas Saunders is a Welsh football manager and former professional footballer.

Doug Savant, American actor

Douglas Peter Savant is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Matt Fielding in the Fox prime time soap opera Melrose Place (1992–97), Tom Scavo in ABC comedy-drama Desperate Housewives (2004–12), and as Sgt. O'Neal in Godzilla (1998).

21/06/1963

Dario Marianelli, Italian pianist and composer

Dario Marianelli is an Italian composer.

Mike Sherrard, American football player

Michael Watson Sherrard is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos. He played college football for the UCLA Bruins. Sherrard was selected in the first round of the 1986 NFL draft.

21/06/1962

Shōhei Takada, Japanese shogi player and theoretician

Shōhei Takada is a Japanese retired professional shogi player who achieved the rank of 7-dan.

Viktor Tsoi, Russian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1990)

Viktor Robertovich Tsoi was a Soviet singer-songwriter and actor who co-founded Kino, one of the most popular and influential bands in the history of Russian music.

21/06/1961

Manu Chao, French singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer

Manu Chao is a French-Spanish musician. He sings in French, Spanish, English, Italian, Arabic, Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, Greek, and occasionally in other languages. Chao began his musical career in Paris, busking and playing with groups such as Hot Pants and Los Carayos, which combined a variety of languages and musical styles. With friends and his brother Antoine Chao, he founded the band Mano Negra in 1987, achieving considerable success, particularly in Europe. He became a solo artist after its breakup in 1995 and since then has toured regularly with his live band, Radio Bemba Sound System.

Sascha Konietzko, German keyboard player and producer

Sascha Kegel Konietzko, also known as Sascha K and Käpt'n K, is a German musician and record producer. He is the founder and frontman of the industrial band KMFDM.

Joko Widodo, Indonesian businessman and politician, 7th President of Indonesia

Joko Widodo, often known mononymously as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who served as the seventh president of Indonesia from 2014 to 2024. Previously a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), he was the country's first president not to emerge from the political or military elite. Before becoming president, he served as mayor of Surakarta from 2005 to 2012 and as governor of Jakarta from 2012 to 2014.

Kip Winger, American rock singer-songwriter and musician

Charles Frederick "Kip" Winger is an American musician, songwriter and composer. He is best known as the frontman, lead singer and bass player of the rock band Winger, but also runs parallel careers as a solo rock artist and contemporary classical composer. He initially gained notability as a member of Alice Cooper's band, contributing bass to his Constrictor (1986) and Raise Your Fist and Yell (1987) albums.

Iztok Mlakar, Slovenian actor and singer-songwriter

Iztok Mlakar is a Slovenian singer-songwriter and theatre actor. Styled as the "bard of the Slovenian Littoral", he is best known for his ironic chansons in the Littoral dialect of Slovene. Together with Adi Smolar, Mlakar is among the best-known singer-songwriters in Slovenia since 1990.

21/06/1960

Kate Brown, American politician, 38th Governor of Oregon

Katherine Brown is an American politician and attorney who served as the 38th governor of Oregon from 2015 to 2023. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Karl Erjavec, Slovenian politician

Karl Viktor Erjavec is a Slovenian lawyer and politician who served in the government of Slovenia as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2018. He was the president of the Democratic Party of Pensioners of Slovenia, having held the position from 2005 to January 2020 and again from December 2020 until March 2021. He was Minister of Defense from 2004 to 2008 and 2018 to 2020 and Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning from 2008 to 2010.

21/06/1959

John Baron, English captain and politician

John Charles Baron is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Basildon and Billericay, previously Billericay, from 2001 to 2024. He has frequently rebelled against his party, specifically in his calling for a referendum on the European Union (EU) before the 2015 election and in opposing military intervention in Iraq, Libya, and Syria.

Tom Chambers, American basketball player and sportscaster

Thomas Doane Chambers is an American former professional basketball player. He played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he was a four-time NBA All-Star. He was a two-time All-NBA Second Team selection during his career. He played for the San Diego Clippers, Seattle Supersonics, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz, Charlotte Hornets, and Philadelphia 76ers.

Marcella Detroit, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Marcella Levy, known professionally as Marcy Levy and Marcella Detroit, is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She co-wrote the 1977 Eric Clapton hit "Lay Down Sally" and released her debut studio album Marcella in 1982. She joined Shakespears Sister in 1988 with ex-Bananarama member Siobhan Fahey. Their first two studio albums, Sacred Heart (1989) and Hormonally Yours (1992), both reached the top 10 of the UK Albums Chart. Detroit sang the lead vocals on their biggest hit, "Stay", which spent eight consecutive weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart in 1992. Detroit left the band in 1993 and had a UK top 20 hit with "I Believe" in 1994. She formed the Marcy Levy Band in 2002, and finished third in the 2010 ITV series Popstar to Operastar.

Kathy Mattea, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Kathleen Alice Mattea is an American country music and bluegrass singer. Active since 1984 as a recording artist, she has charted more than 30 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including four that reached No. 1: "Goin' Gone", "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses", "Come from the Heart", and "Burnin' Old Memories", plus 12 more that charted within the top ten. She has released 14 studio albums, two Christmas albums, and one greatest hits album. Most of her material was recorded for Universal Music Group Nashville's Mercury Records Nashville division between 1984 and 2000, with later albums being issued on Narada Productions, her own Captain Potato label, and Sugar Hill Records. Among her albums, she has received five gold certifications and one platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She has collaborated with Dolly Parton, Michael McDonald, Tim O'Brien, and her husband, Jon Vezner. Mattea is also a two-time Grammy Award winner: in 1990 for "Where've You Been", and in 1993 for her Christmas album Good News. Her style is defined by traditional country, bluegrass, folk, and Celtic music influences. She was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 2025.

21/06/1958

Víctor Montoya, Bolivian journalist and author

Víctor Montoya is a Bolivian writer, cultural journalist, and pedagogue. Imprisoned by the dictatorship in his native Bolivia, he became an exile following a campaign by Amnesty International in 1977.

Gennady Padalka, Russian colonel, pilot, and astronaut

Gennady Ivanovich Padalka is a Russian Air Force officer and Roscosmos cosmonaut. Padalka is the only person to have served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS) four times. He previously held the record for the most time spent in space at 878 days until Oleg Kononenko broke this record on February 4, 2024 at 07:30:08 UTC and is currently at 2nd position. He worked on both Mir and the International Space Station.

21/06/1957

Berkeley Breathed, American author and illustrator

Guy Berkeley "Berke" Breathed is an American cartoonist, children's book author, director, and screenwriter, known for his comic strips Bloom County, Outland, and Opus. Bloom County earned Breathed the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1987.

Luis Antonio Tagle, Filipino cardinal

Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle is a Filipino prelate of the Catholic Church, and has been the pro-prefect for the Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches of the Dicastery for Evangelization since December 8, 2019. He previously served as the 32nd archbishop of Manila from 2011 to 2020, and earlier on as bishop of Imus from 2001 to 2011. Tagle is the current cardinal bishop of Albano and also serves as the president of the Catholic Biblical Federation, grand chancellor of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, president of the Interdicasterial Commission for Consecrated Religious, and as a member of various departments and dicasteries in the Roman Curia. He is often referred to by his nickname, Chito.

21/06/1956

Rick Sutcliffe, American baseball player and broadcaster

Richard Lee Sutcliffe, nicknamed "the Red Baron", is an American former Major League Baseball pitcher with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, Baltimore Orioles, and St. Louis Cardinals between 1976 and 1994. Sutcliffe is currently a broadcaster for ESPN and Marquee Sports Network.

21/06/1955

Tim Bray, Canadian software developer and businessman

Timothy William Bray is a Canadian software developer, environmentalist and political activist and one of the co-authors of the original XML specification. He worked for Amazon Web Services from December 2014 until May 2020 when he quit due to concerns over the terminating of whistleblowers. Previously he has been employed by Google, Sun Microsystems and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Bray has also founded or co-founded several start-ups, such as Antarctica Systems.

Michel Platini, French footballer and manager

Michel François Platini is a French football administrator and former player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, Platini won the Ballon d'Or three times in a row, in 1983, 1984 and 1985, and came seventh in the FIFA Player of the Century vote. In recognition of his achievements, he was named a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1985 and became an Officer in 1998. As the president of UEFA in 2015 he was banned from involvement in football under FIFA's organisation, over ethics violations. The ban lasted until 2023.

21/06/1954

Már Guðmundsson, Icelandic economist, former Governor of Central Bank of Iceland

Már Guðmundsson is an Icelandic economist and policy maker. He was the Governor of the Central Bank of Iceland from 2009 to 2019.

Mark Kimmitt, American general and politician, 16th Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs

Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmitt is a retired American general and former diplomat. He served as the 16th Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs under George W. Bush from August 2008 to January 2009. Before he joined the State Department, he was a brigadier general in the United States Army and served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East. Kimmitt has also served as deputy director for strategy and plans for the United States Central Command and deputy director for operations/chief military spokesman for coalition forces in Iraq; he also served at NATO's SHAPE headquarters in Belgium.

Robert Menasse, Austrian author and academic

Robert Menasse is an Austrian writer.

21/06/1953

Benazir Bhutto, Pakistani politician, Prime Minister of Pakistan (died 2007)

Benazir Bhutto was a Pakistani politician and stateswoman who served as the prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman elected to head a democratic government in a Muslim-majority country. Ideologically a liberal and a secularist, she chaired or co-chaired the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) from the early 1980s until her assassination in 2007.

Augustus Pablo, Jamaican producer and musician (died 1999)

Horace Michael Swaby, also known as Augustus Pablo, was a Jamaican roots reggae and dub composer, performer, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He was active from the 1970s until his death. He was known for playing the melodica.

21/06/1952

Judith Bingham, English singer-songwriter

Judith Bingham is an English composer and mezzo-soprano singer. She was a member of the BBC Singers from 1983 to 1995. She is a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music. Bingham won the 1977 BBC Young Composer Award, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2020 for services to music.

Jeremy Coney, New Zealand cricketer and sportscaster

Jeremy Vernon Coney is a former New Zealand cricketer and current cricket commentator. An all-rounder, between 1974 and 1987 he played 52 Test matches and 88 One Day Internationals (ODIs) for New Zealand, of which he was captain in 15 Tests and 25 ODIs.

Patrick Dunleavy, English political scientist and academic

Patrick John Dunleavy is Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Public Policy within the Government Department of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He was also Co-Director of the Democratic Audit and the Chair of the LSE Public Policy Group. In addition Dunleavy is an ANZSOG Institute for Governance Centenary Chair at the University of Canberra, Australia.

Kōichi Mashimo, Japanese director and screenwriter

Kōichi Mashimo is a Japanese former anime director and the founder of the animation studio Bee Train. Since the creation of the studio, Mashimo directed or otherwise participated in a large number of the studio's works, for example, as a member of the art or sound department.

Ginny Ruffner, American artist

Ginny Carol Ruffner was an American glass artist based in Seattle, Washington. She is known for her use of the lampworking technique and for her use of borosilicate glass in her painted glass sculptures.

21/06/1951

Jim Douglas, American academic and politician, 80th Governor of Vermont

James Holley Douglas is an American politician from the state of Vermont. A Republican, he served as the 80th governor of Vermont from 2003 to 2011. On August 27, 2009, Douglas announced that he would not seek re-election for a fifth term in 2010. He left the office in January 2011.

Terence Etherton, English lawyer and judge

Terence Michael Elkan Barnet Etherton, Baron Etherton was a British judge and member of the House of Lords. He served as the Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice from 2016 to 2021 and Chancellor of the High Court from 2013 to 2016.

Alan Hudson, English footballer

Alan Anthony Hudson is an English former footballer who played for Arsenal, Chelsea, Stoke City and the Seattle Sounders as well as the England national football team.

Nils Lofgren, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

Nils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock musician, recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Along with his work as a solo artist, he has been a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band since 1984, a member of Crazy Horse, and the founder and frontman of the band Grin. In 2014, Lofgren was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band.

Lenore Manderson, Australian anthropologist and academic

Lenore Hilda Manderson is an Australian medical anthropologist. She is professor of medical anthropology in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, and the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts, at Monash University, Australia.

Mona-Lisa Pursiainen, Finnish sprinter (died 2000)

Eivor Mona-Lisa Pursiainen, née Strandvall, was a Finnish female sprinter, who was especially successful in 1973–1974, being ranked #2 in the world over 100 metres and # 3, over 200 metres and 400 metres in 1973. In 1974, she was ranked #7 in the 100 metres and #6 in the 200 metres. She won 100 metres and 200 metres at the 1973 Summer Universiade held in Moscow. She won a bronze medal in the 200 metres at the 1974 European Athletics Championships, as well as a silver medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay, and helped Finland to a National Record of 3:25.7. She would take two silver medals over the 100 metres and 200 metres at the 1975 Summer Universiade in Rome.

21/06/1950

Anne Carson, Canadian poet and academic

Anne Patricia Carson is a Canadian poet, essayist, translator, classicist, and professor.

Joey Kramer, American rock drummer and songwriter

Joseph Michael Kramer is an American musician best known as the drummer of the hard rock band Aerosmith, which was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Enn Reitel, Scottish actor and screenwriter

Enn Reitel is a Scottish actor who specialises in voice work in films, television series, and video games.

Trygve Thue, Norwegian guitarist and record producer (died 2022)

Trygve Thue was a Norwegian guitarist and music producer, and an original member of the Norwegian band Saft. He was the brother of the folk singer Ove Thue.

John Paul Young, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter

John Inglis Young, OAM, known professionally as John Paul Young, is an Australian pop singer who is best known for having a worldwide hit with "Love Is in the Air" in 1978. His career was boosted by regular appearances as a performer and guest host on Countdown, a 1974–1987 TV series for Australia's national broadcaster ABC. Besides "Love Is in the Air", Young had top ten chart success in Germany and the Netherlands with "Standing in the Rain", released in 1977, and four other top ten hits in South Africa, including No. 1 hits "Yesterday's Hero" in 1975, and "I Hate the Music" in 1976.

21/06/1949

John Agard, Guyanese-English author, poet, and playwright

John Agard FRSL is a Guyanese-born British playwright, poet and children's writer. In 2012, he was selected for the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He was awarded BookTrust's Lifetime Achievement Award in November 2021.

Derek Emslie, Lord Kingarth, Scottish lawyer and judge

Derek Robert Alexander Emslie, Lord Kingarth is a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland, sitting in the High Court of Justiciary and the Inner House of the Court of Session. He is the son of former Lord President George Emslie, Baron Emslie, and younger brother of fellow judge Nigel Emslie, Lord Emslie, and older brother of rhino conservationist Dr Richard Emslie.

21/06/1948

Jovan Aćimović, Serbian footballer and manager

Jovan "Kule" Aćimović is a Serbian former footballer who played as a midfielder.

Ian McEwan, British novelist and screenwriter

Ian Russell McEwan is a British novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, The Times featured him at number 35 on its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945", and The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 19 out of "the 100 most powerful people in British culture".

Andrzej Sapkowski, Polish author and translator

Andrzej Sapkowski is a Polish fantasy writer. He is best known for his series of books The Witcher, which revolves around the eponymous monster hunter, or "witcher", Geralt of Rivia. The saga has been popularized through video games, television, stage, comic books and translated into 37 languages making him the second most-translated Polish science fiction and fantasy writer after Stanisław Lem.

Philippe Sarde, French composer and conductor

Philippe Sarde is a French film composer. Considered among the most versatile and talented French film composers of his generation, Sarde has scored over two hundred films, film shorts, and television mini-series. He received an Academy Award nomination for Tess (1979), and twelve César Award nominations, winning for Barocco (1976). In 1993, Sarde received the Joseph Plateau Music Award.

21/06/1947

Meredith Baxter, American actress

Meredith Ann Baxter is an American actress and producer. She is known for her roles on the CBS sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie (1972–1973), ABC drama series Family (1976–1980) and the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1982–1989). A five-time Emmy Award nominee, one of her nominations was for playing the title role in the 1992 TV film A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story.

Shirin Ebadi, Iranian lawyer, judge, and activist, Nobel Prize laureate

Shirin Ebadi is an Iranian Nobel laureate, lawyer, writer, teacher and a former judge and founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. In 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her pioneering efforts for democracy and women's, children's, and refugee rights. She was the first Iranian to receive the award.

Michael Gross, American actor

Michael Edward Gross is an American television, film, and stage actor. He is notable for playing Steven Keaton on the sitcom Family Ties (1982–1989) and survivalist Burt Gummer in the Tremors film franchise, being the only actor to appear in all the films and the television show.

Joey Molland, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2025)

Joseph Charles Molland II was an English singer-songwriter and guitarist whose recording career spanned five decades. He was best known as a member of Badfinger, the most successful of the acts he performed with. Molland was the last surviving member from the band's classic line-up.

Wade Phillips, American football coach

Harold Wade Phillips is an American football coach. He has served as the head coach of the Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills, Dallas Cowboys, Houston Roughnecks, and San Antonio Brahmas. He has also served as an interim head coach for the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, and Houston Texans. Additionally, Phillips has long been considered to be among the best defensive coordinators in the NFL. In his long career, he has served as defensive coordinator in eight separate stints with seven different franchises. Multiple players under Phillips' system have won Defensive Player of the Year: Reggie White, Bryce Paup, Bruce Smith, J. J. Watt, and Aaron Donald. Others under Phillips have won Defensive Rookie of the Year: Mike Croel and Shawne Merriman. In Phillips' lone Super Bowl victory, a defensive player would be named Super Bowl MVP: Von Miller.

Fernando Savater, Spanish philosopher and author

Fernando Fernández-Savater Martín is a Spanish philosopher, essayist and author.

21/06/1946

Per Eklund, Swedish race car driver

Per Torsten Eklund is a Swedish Rally and Rallycross driver. His nickname is "Pekka". In rallying he never made it to the very top but he has been very successful in his later rallycross career.

Kate Hoey, Northern Irish-British academic and politician, Minister for Sport and the Olympics

Catharine Letitia Hoey, Baroness Hoey, better known as Kate Hoey, is a Northern Irish politician and life peer who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Home Affairs from 1998 to 1999 and Minister for Sport from 1999 to 2001. During the 1970s Hoey was involved in radical far-left groups but by the end of the decade became involved with the Labour Party. Hoey remained a member of the Labour Party for several decades while she was Member of Parliament (MP) for Vauxhall from 1989 to 2019, but resigned from the party in 2020.

Brenda Holloway, American singer-songwriter

Brenda Holloway is an American soul singer who was a recording artist for Motown Records during the 1960s. Her best-known recordings are the hits "Every Little Bit Hurts", "When I'm Gone", and "You've Made Me So Very Happy". The latter, which she co-wrote, was later widely popularized when it became a Top Ten hit for Blood, Sweat & Tears. She left Motown after four years, at the age of 22, and largely retired from the music industry until the 1990s, after her recordings had become popular on the British "Northern soul" scene.

Trond Kirkvaag, Norwegian actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2007)

Trond Georg Kirkvaag was a Norwegian comedian, actor, impressionist, screenwriter, author, director and television host. During his 39 years at the Norwegian TV network, NRK, he produced numerous comedy television series. After his death he was widely hailed by his colleagues as possibly the greatest Norwegian TV comedian in history. He was the son of NRK journalist and television host Rolf Kirkvaag.

Malcolm Rifkind, Scottish lawyer and politician, Secretary of State for Scotland

Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind is a British politician who served in the cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1986 to 1997, and most recently as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament from 2010 to 2015. He is also known for his advocacy of a pro-European stance within his party's policies.

Maurice Saatchi, Baron Saatchi, Iraqi-British businessman, founded M&C Saatchi and Saatchi & Saatchi

Maurice Nathan Saatchi, Baron Saatchi is a British businessman, and with his brother, Charles, co-founder of the advertising agencies Saatchi & Saatchi and M&C Saatchi.

21/06/1945

Robert Dewar, English-American computer scientist and academic (died 2015)

Robert Berriedale Keith Dewar was an American computer scientist and educator. He helped to develop programming languages and compilers and was an outspoken advocate of freely licensed open-source software. He was a cofounder, CEO, and president of the AdaCore software company. He was also an enthusiastic amateur performer and musician, especially with the Village Light Opera Group in New York City.

Adam Zagajewski, Polish author and poet (died 2021)

Adam Zagajewski was a Polish poet, novelist, translator, and essayist.

21/06/1944

Ray Davies, English singer-songwriter and guitarist

Sir Raymond Douglas Davies is an English musician. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and primary songwriter for the rock band the Kinks, which he led, with his younger brother Dave providing lead guitar and backing vocals, and both of them were the only consistent members during the band's existence. He has also acted in, directed and produced shows for theatre and television. Known for focusing his lyrics on rock bands, English culture, nostalgia and social satire, he is often referred to as the "Godfather of Britpop", though he disputes this title. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Kinks in 1990. After the dissolution of the Kinks in 1996, he embarked on a solo career.

Jon Hiseman, English drummer (died 2018)

Philip John Albert "Jon" Hiseman was an English drummer, recording engineer, record producer, and music publisher. He played with the Graham Bond Organisation, with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and later formed what has been described as the "seminal" jazz rock/progressive rock band, Colosseum. He later formed Colosseum II in 1975.

Tony Scott, English-American director and producer (died 2012)

Anthony David Leighton Scott was an English film director and producer. He made his theatrical film debut with The Hunger (1983) and went on to direct highly successful action and thriller films such as Top Gun (1986), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Days of Thunder (1990), The Last Boy Scout (1991), True Romance (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), Enemy of the State (1998), Man on Fire (2004), Déjà Vu (2006), The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009) and Unstoppable (2010).

21/06/1943

Diane Marleau, Canadian accountant and politician, Canadian Minister of Health (died 2013)

Diane Marleau, was a Canadian politician. She represented the riding of Sudbury in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 2008, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Jean Chrétien. Marleau was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.

Brian Sternberg, American pole vaulter (died 2013)

Brian Sternberg was a world record holder in the men's pole vault who was paralyzed from the neck down after a trampoline accident in 1963.

21/06/1942

Clive Brooke, Baron Brooke of Alverthorpe, English businessman and politician

Clive Brooke, Baron Brooke of Alverthorpe is a British trade unionist, and Labour Member of the House of Lords.

Norbert Brunner, Swiss Catholic bishop

Norbert Brunner is a Swiss prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sion in Switzerland from 1995 to 2014. He was the elected President of the Swiss Bishops Conference for the term 2010–2012.

Paul Chernoff, American mathematician and poet (died 2017)

Paul Robert Chernoff was an American mathematician, specializing in functional analysis and the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics. He is known for Chernoff's Theorem, a mathematical result in the Feynman path integral formulation of quantum mechanics. He was also the author of limericks.

Marjorie Margolies, American journalist and politician

Marjorie Margolies is a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Fels Institute of Government and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a former journalist and a Democratic politician. From 1993 to 1995, she was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district.

Henry S. Taylor, American author and poet (died 2024)

Henry Splawn Taylor was an American poet, academic, and translator. The author of more than 15 books of poems, translation, and nonfiction, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1986.

Flaviano Vicentini, Italian cyclist (died 2002)

Flaviano Vicentini was an Italian road race cyclist who was active between 1963 and 1971. After becoming the world champion in 1963 as amateur, he turned professional. He then won the Grand Prix de Cannes in 1966 and the Giro del Lazio in 1969. In 1968 and 1969 he also won one stage at the Volta a Catalunya.

Togo D. West Jr., American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 3rd United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (died 2018)

Togo Dennis West Jr. was an American attorney and Army officer who served as the third secretary of veterans affairs in the administration of President Bill Clinton from 1998 until his resignation in 2000. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the second African American to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs. West previously served as the 16th secretary of the army from 1993 to 1998, as General Counsel of the Department of Defense from 1980 to 1981, and as General Counsel of the Navy from 1977 to 1979.

21/06/1941

Aloysius Paul D'Souza, Indian Catholic bishop

Aloysius Paul D'Souza is the former Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mangalore. He was consecrated on 8 November 1996, succeeding his predecessor Basil Salvadore D'Souza.

Joe Flaherty, American-Canadian actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2024)

Joseph Flaherty was an American actor, writer, and comedian. In television, Flaherty starred on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV from 1976 to 1984 and as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks (1999). His film roles include the heckler in Happy Gilmore (1996).

Lyman Ward, Canadian actor

Lyman Ward is a Canadian actor best known for his roles in Creature (1984), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), and Milk and Honey (1988).

21/06/1940

Mariette Hartley, American actress and television personality

Mary Loretta Hartley is an American film and television actress. She is possibly best known for her roles in film as Elsa Knudsen in Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962), Susan Clabon in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie (1964), and Betty Lloyd in John Sturges' Marooned (1969). She has appeared extensively on television, with notable roles as Claire Morton in the ABC soap opera Peyton Place (1965), various roles in the CBS television Western drama series Gunsmoke, and a series of commercials with James Garner in the 1970s and 1980s.

Michael Ruse, Canadian philosopher and academic

Michael Escott Ruse was a British-born Canadian philosopher of science who specialised in the philosophy of biology and worked on the relationship between science and religion, the creation–evolution controversy, and the demarcation problem within science. Ruse began his career teaching at The University of Guelph and spent many years at Florida State University.

21/06/1938

Don Black, English songwriter

Donald Blackstone, known professionally as Don Black, is an English lyricist. His works have included numerous musicals, movie, television themes and hit songs. He has provided lyrics for John Barry, Charles Strouse, Matt Monro, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Quincy Jones, Hoyt Curtin, Lulu, Jule Styne, Henry Mancini, Meat Loaf, Michael Jackson, Robbie Williams, Elmer Bernstein, Michel Legrand, Hayley Westenra, Ennio Morricone, A. R. Rahman, Marvin Hamlisch and Debbie Wiseman.

John W. Dower, American historian and author

John W. Dower is an American author and historian. His 1999 book Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II won the U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction, the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, the Bancroft Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, and the John K. Fairbank Prize of the American Historical Association.

Michael M. Richter, German mathematician and computer scientist (died 2020)

Michael M. Richter was a German mathematician and computer scientist. Richter is well known for his career in mathematical logic, in particular non-standard analysis, and in artificial intelligence, in particular in knowledge-based systems and case-based reasoning. He is worldwide known as pioneer in case-based reasoning.

21/06/1937

John Edrich, English cricketer and coach (died 2020)

John Hugh Edrich, was an English first-class cricketer who, during a career that ran from 1956 to 1978, was considered one of the best batsmen of his generation. Born in Blofield, Norfolk, Edrich came from a cricketing family, his four cousins, Eric Edrich, Bill Edrich, Geoff Edrich and Brian Edrich, all having played first-class cricket. He was educated at the private Bracondale School between the ages of eight and seventeen, during which time he played cricket at weekends and was coached by former cricketer C. S. R. Boswell.

21/06/1935

Françoise Sagan, French author and playwright (died 2004)

Françoise Sagan was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Sagan was known for works with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois characters. Her best-known novel was her first, Bonjour Tristesse (1954), which was written when she was a teenager.

21/06/1933

Bernie Kopell, American actor and comedian

Bernard Morton Kopell is an American character actor known for his roles as Siegfried in Get Smart from 1966 to 1969 and as Dr. Adam Bricker ("Doc") on The Love Boat from 1977 to 1986.

21/06/1932

Bernard Ingham, English journalist and civil servant (died 2023)

Sir Bernard Ingham was a British journalist and civil servant. He was Margaret Thatcher's chief press secretary throughout her time as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990.

Lalo Schifrin, Argentinian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 2025)

Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin was an Argentine and American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. Initially prominent as a jazz composer, he was best known for his large body of film and television scores, which incorporates jazz and Latin American musical elements alongside traditional orchestration.

O.C. Smith, American R&B/jazz singer (died 2001)

Ocie Lee Smith, known professionally as O. C. Smith, was an American singer. His recording of "Little Green Apples" went to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968 and sold over one million records.

21/06/1931

Zlatko Grgić, Croatian-Canadian animator, director, and screenwriter (died 1988)

Zlatko Grgić was a Croatian animator who emigrated to Canada in the late 1960s.

Margaret Heckler, American journalist, lawyer, and politician, 15th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (died 2018)

Margaret Mary Heckler was an American politician and diplomat who represented Massachusetts's 10th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1967 until 1983. A member of the Republican Party, she also served as the 15th United States secretary of health and human services from 1983 to 1985, as well as United States ambassador to Ireland from 1986 to 1989.

David Kushnir, Israeli Olympic long-jumper (died 2020)

David Kushnir was an Israeli Olympic long-jumper and track and field coach.

21/06/1930

Gerald Kaufman, English journalist and politician, Shadow Foreign Secretary (died 2017)

Sir Gerald Bernard Kaufman was a British politician and author who served as a minister throughout the Labour government of 1974 to 1979. Elected as a member of parliament (MP) at the 1970 general election, he became Father of the House in 2015 and served until his death in 2017.

Mike McCormack, American football player and coach (died 2013)

Michael Joseph McCormack Jr. was an American professional football player, coach, and executive in the National Football League (NFL). He played as an offensive tackle with the Cleveland Browns from 1954 through 1962 and served as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Colts, and Seattle Seahawks. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1984.

21/06/1928

Wolfgang Haken, German-American mathematician and academic (died 2022)

Wolfgang Haken was a German American mathematician who specialized in topology, in particular 3-manifolds.

Fiorella Mari, Brazilian-Italian actress (died 1983)

Fiorella Colpi, known professionally as Fiorella Mari, was a Brazilian-born Italian actress.

Margit Bara, Hungarian actress (died 2016)

Margit Bara was a Hungarian film actress. She appeared in 25 films between 1956 and 1975. She retired from acting in 1977 and later in 1992 received the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary and in 2002 she was awarded the Kossuth Prize.

21/06/1927

Carl Stokes, American lawyer, politician, and diplomat, United States Ambassador to Seychelles (died 1996)

Carl Burton Stokes was an American politician and diplomat of the Democratic Party who served as the 51st mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. Elected on November 7, 1967, and taking office on January 1, 1968, he was one of the first black elected mayors of a major U.S. city.

21/06/1926

Fred Cone, American football player (died 2021)

Fred Cone was an American professional football player who was a fullback and placekicker in the National Football League (NFL) for the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the Clemson Tigers. He was inducted into the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame.

Conrad Hall, French-American cinematographer (died 2003)

Conrad Lafcadio Hall, ASC was a French Polynesian-born American cinematographer. Named after writers Joseph Conrad and Lafcadio Hearn, he became widely prominent as a cinematographer earning numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards and five American Society of Cinematographers Awards.

21/06/1925

Larisa Avdeyeva, Russian mezzo-soprano (died 2013)

Larisa Ivanovna Avdeyeva or Avdeeva was a Soviet and Russian mezzo-soprano, who starred with the Bolshoi Opera for thirty years. She was awarded the title of People’s Artist of the RSFSR in (1964).

Stanley Moss, American poet, publisher, and art dealer (died 2024)

Stanley Moss was an American poet, publisher, and art dealer.

Giovanni Spadolini, Italian journalist and politician, 45th Prime Minister of Italy (died 1994)

Giovanni Spadolini was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as the 44th prime minister of Italy. He had been a leading figure in the Republican Party and the first head of a government to not be a member of Christian Democrats since 1945. He was also a newspaper editor, journalist and historian. He is considered a highly respected intellectual for his literary works and his cultural dimension.

Maureen Stapleton, American actress (died 2006)

Lois Maureen Stapleton was an American actress. She received numerous accolades, becoming one of the few actors to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Tony Awards. She also received a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award.

21/06/1924

Pontus Hultén, Swedish art collector and historian (died 2006)

Karl Gunnar Vougt Pontus Hultén was a Swedish art collector and museum director. Pontus Hultén is regarded as one of the most distinguished museum professionals of the twentieth century. He was the pioneering former head of the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm and in the 1970s he was invited to participate in the creation of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, where he was the first director of the Musée National d'Art Moderne (MNAM) in 1974–1981.

Ezzatolah Entezami, Iranian actor (died 2018)

Ezzatollah Entezami, or Ezzatolah Entezami was an Iranian actor.

Wally Fawkes, British-Canadian jazz clarinetist and satirical cartoonist (died 2023)

Walter Ernest Fawkes, also known as Trog when signing cartoons, was a Canadian-British jazz clarinettist and satirical cartoonist.

Jean Laplanche, French psychoanalyst and academic (died 2012)

Jean Laplanche was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and wrote more than a dozen books on psychoanalytic theory. The journal Radical Philosophy described him as "the most original and philosophically informed psychoanalytic theorist of his day."

21/06/1923

Jacques Hébert, Canadian journalist and politician (died 2007)

Jacques Hébert, was a Canadian author, journalist, publisher, Senator and world traveller who visited more than 130 countries.

21/06/1922

Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Burkinabé historian, politician and writer (died 2006)

Joseph Ki-Zerbo was a Burkinabé historian, politician and writer. He is recognized as one of Africa's foremost thinkers.

21/06/1921

Judy Holliday, American actress and singer (died 1965)

Judy Holliday was an American actress, comedian, singer, and songwriter.

Jane Russell, American actress and singer (died 2011)

Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was an American actress, model, and singer. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s and starred in more than 20 films.

William Edwin Self, American actor, producer, and production manager (died 2010)

William Edwin Self was an American television and film producer who began his career as an actor.

21/06/1920

Hans Gerschwiler, Swiss figure skater (died 2017)

Hans Gerschwiler was a Swiss figure skater. He was the 1948 Olympic silver medalist

21/06/1919

Antonia Mesina, Italian martyr and saint (died 1935)

Antonia Mesina was a 15 year old Italian Roman Catholic and part of Catholic Action. Mesina was murdered in mid-1935 after she attempted to fend off a would-be rapist and suffered 74 strikes with a stone before she died. She was beatified in 1987.

Gérard Pelletier, Canadian journalist and politician (died 1997)

Gérard Pelletier was a Canadian politician, diplomat and journalist from Quebec best known for his association with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau that started decades before their entries to the political arena. A long time personal confidant of Trudeau, Pelletier served in Trudeau's cabinet and then in two key diplomatic postings.

Vladimir Simagin, Russian chess player and coach (died 1968)

Vladimir Simagin was a Russian chess grandmaster. He was three times Moscow champion, helped to train Vasily Smyslov to the World Championship, and made many significant contributions to chess openings. He died of a heart attack while playing in the Kislovodsk tournament.

Paolo Soleri, Italian-American architect, designed the Cosanti (died 2013)

Paolo Soleri was an Italian architect and urban planner. He established the educational Cosanti Foundation and Arcosanti. Soleri was a lecturer in the College of Architecture at Arizona State University and a National Design Award recipient in 2006. He coined the concept of 'arcology' – a synthesis of architecture and ecology as the philosophy of democratic society. He died at home of natural causes on 9 April 2013 at the age of 93.

21/06/1918

Robert A. Boyd, Canadian engineer (died 2006)

Robert A. Boyd was a Canadian electric engineer and utility executive. He successfully led the construction of the first phase of the James Bay hydroelectric project, a large dam complex built in northern Quebec by Hydro-Québec during the 1970s and early 1980s.

James Joll, English historian, author, and academic (died 1994)

James Bysse Joll FBA was a British historian and university lecturer whose works included The Origins of the First World War and Europe Since 1870. He also wrote on the history of anarchism and socialism.

Eddie Lopat, American baseball player, coach, and manager (died 1992)

Edmund Walter Lopat was an American Major League Baseball pitcher, coach, manager, front office executive, and scout. He was sometimes known as "the Junk Man", but better known as "Steady Eddie", a nickname later given to Eddie Murray. He was born in New York City.

J. Clyde Mitchell, British sociologist and anthropologist (died 1995)

James Clyde Mitchell was a British sociologist and anthropologist.

Dee Molenaar, American mountaineer (died 2020)

Dee Molenaar was an American mountaineer, author and artist. He is best known as the author of The Challenge of Rainier, first published in 1971 and considered the definitive work on the climbing history of Mount Rainier.

Robert V. Roosa, American economist and banker (died 1993)

Robert Vincent Roosa was an American economist and banker. He served as Treasury Undersecretary for Monetary Affairs during the Kennedy administration from 1961 to 1964. He believed the U.S. dollar should be the world's leading currency and reference point because the United States was the leading political and economic power.

Tibor Szele, Hungarian mathematician and academic (died 1955)

Tibor Szele was a Hungarian mathematician, working in combinatorics and abstract algebra.

Josephine Webb, American engineer (died 2017)

Josephine Webb was an American electrical engineer who obtained two patents for oil circuit breaker contact design, known colloquially as "switchgear". She designed an eighteen-inch, full newspaper size fax machine with superior resolution. She co-founded Webb Consulting Company with her husband, also an electrical engineer. She was one of the first female electrical engineers, and considered a pioneer by the Society of Women Engineers. At Purdue University, she was one out of a total of five women engineers.

21/06/1916

Joseph Cyril Bamford, English businessman, founded J. C. Bamford (died 2001)

Joseph Cyril Bamford, CBE was a British businessman. He was the founder of J.C. Bamford Excavators Limited (JCB), a manufacturer of heavy equipment.

Tchan Fou-li, Chinese photographer (died 2018)

Tchan Fou-li was a Hong Kong photographer who worked to develop distinctive Chinese forms of photography and to establish photography as a serious art form in Hong Kong. He is known for his photographs, described as evoking the artistic values and composition of Chinese landscape paintings. A New York Times reviewer called him "one of the great visual artists of his time" because of his "carefully crafted images that celebrate the beauty of the human condition and the majesty of nature."

Herbert Friedman, American physicist and astronomer (died 2000)

Herbert Friedman was an American physicist and astronomer who did research in X-ray astronomy. During his career Friedman published hundreds of scientific papers. One such example is "Ultraviolet and X Rays from the Sun". Friedman worked at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for the entirety of his professional career, from 1940-1980. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1960. He received the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1964. That same year, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. In 1987 he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics “for pioneering investigations in solar X-rays”.

Buddy O'Connor, Canadian ice hockey player (died 1977)

Herbert William "Buddy" O'Connor was a Canadian professional ice hockey centre who played for the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers in the National Hockey League between 1941 and 1951. He won the Hart Trophy and Lady Byng Trophy in 1948.

21/06/1915

Wilhelm Gliese, German soldier and astronomer (died 1993)

Wilhelm Gliese was a German astronomer who specialized in the study and cataloging of nearby stars.

21/06/1914

William Vickrey, Canadian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1996)

William Spencer Vickrey was a Canadian-American professor of economics. He was a lifelong faculty member at Columbia University. A theorist who worked on public economics and mechanism design, Vickrey primarily discussed public policy problems. He originated the Vickrey auction, introduced the concept of congestion pricing in networks, formalized arguments for marginal cost pricing, and contributed to optimal income taxation. James Tobin described him as "an applied economist's theorist, as well as a theorist's applied economist."

21/06/1913

Madihe Pannaseeha Thero, Sri Lankan monk and scholar (died 2003)

Most Venerable Madihe Pannaseeha Mahathera was an eminent Sri Lankan Buddhist monk, who was the Mahanayaka of Amarapura sect from July 13, 1969, until his death on September 9, 2003.

Luis Taruc, Filipino political activist (died 2005)

Luis Mangalus Taruc was a Filipino political figure and rebel during the agrarian unrest of the 1930s until the end of the Cold War. He was the leader of the Hukbalahap group between 1942 and 1950. His involvement with the movement came after his initiation to the problems of agrarian Filipinos when he was a student in the early 1930s. During World War II, Taruc led the Hukbalahap in guerrilla operations against the Japanese occupants of the Philippines.

21/06/1912

Kazimierz Leski, Polish pilot and engineer (died 2000)

Kazimierz Leski, nom de guerre Bradl, was a Polish engineer, co-designer of the Polish submarines ORP Sęp (1938) and ORP Orzeł, a fighter pilot, and an officer in World War II Home Army's intelligence and counter-intelligence.

Mary McCarthy, American novelist and critic (died 1989)

Mary Therese McCarthy was an American novelist, critic and political activist, best known for her novel The Group, her marriage to critic Edmund Wilson, her intimate friendship with her colleague Hannah Arendt and her storied feud with playwright Lillian Hellman. McCarthy was the winner of the Horizon Prize in 1949 and was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships, in 1949 and 1959. She was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy in Rome. In 1973, she delivered the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden, the Netherlands, under the title Can There Be a Gothic Literature? The same year she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She won the National Medal for Literature and the Edward MacDowell Medal in 1984. McCarthy held honorary degrees from Bard, Bowdoin, Colby, Smith College, Syracuse University, the University of Maine at Orono, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of Hull.

Vishnu Prabhakar, Indian author and playwright (died 2009)

Vishnu Prabhakar was a Hindi writer. He had several short stories, novels, plays and travelogues to his credit. Prabhakar's works have elements of patriotism, nationalism and messages of social upliftment. He was the First Sahitya Academy Award winner from Haryana.

21/06/1911

Irving Fein, American producer and manager (died 2012)

Irving Fein was an American television and film producer, and the manager of entertainers Jack Benny and George Burns.

21/06/1910

Aleksandr Tvardovsky, Russian poet and author (died 1971)

Aleksandr Trifonovich Tvardovsky was a Soviet poet and writer and chief editor of Novy Mir literary magazine from 1950 to 1954 and 1958 to 1970. During his editorship, the magazine published One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He is best known for his epic poem Vasili Tyorkin.

21/06/1908

William Frankena, American philosopher and academic (died 1994)

William Klaas Frankena was an American moral philosopher. He was a member of the University of Michigan's department of philosophy for 41 years (1937–1978), and chair of the department for 14 years (1947–1961).

21/06/1906

Grete Sultan, German-American pianist (died 2005)

Grete Sultan was a German-American pianist.

21/06/1905

Jacques Goddet, French journalist (died 2000)

Jacques Goddet was a French sports journalist and director of the Tour de France road cycling race from 1936 to 1986.

Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and author (died 1980)

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism. His work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature despite attempting to refuse it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution."

21/06/1903

Hermann Engelhard, German runner and coach (died 1984)

Hermann Engelhard was a German middle-distance runner who won two medals at the 1928 Summer Olympics.

Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist, painter and illustrator (died 2003)

Albert Hirschfeld was an American caricaturist best known for his black-and-white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars.

21/06/1900

Georges-Henri Bousquet, French economist and Islamologist (died 1978)

Georges-Henri Bousquet was a 20th-century French jurist, economist and Islamologist. He was a professor of law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Algiers where he was a specialist in the sociology of North Africa. He is also known for his translation work of the great Muslim authors, Al-Ghazali, a theologian who died in 1111 and Tunisian historian Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406). He was known as a polyglot, spoke several European languages and Eastern ones.

21/06/1899

Pavel Haas, Czech composer (died 1944)

Pavel Haas was a Czech composer who was murdered during the Holocaust. He was an exponent of Leoš Janáček's school of composition, and also utilized elements of folk music and jazz. Although his output was not large, he is notable particularly for his song cycles and string quartets.

21/06/1896

Charles Momsen, American admiral, invented the Momsen lung (died 1967)

Charles Bowers Momsen, nicknamed "Swede", was born in Flushing, New York. He was an American pioneer in submarine rescue for the United States Navy, and he invented the underwater escape device later called the "Momsen lung", for which he received the Navy Distinguished Service Medal in 1929. In May 1939, Momsen directed the rescue of the crew of Squalus (SS-192).

21/06/1894

Milward Kennedy, English journalist and civil servant (died 1968)

Milward Rodon Kennedy Burge was an English civil servant, journalist, crime writer and literary critic. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. He served with British Military Intelligence in World War I and then worked for the International Labour Organization and the Egyptian government. He was London editor of the Empire Digest and reviewed mystery fiction for The Sunday Times and The Guardian. He retired in the 1960s to West Sussex. Burge married Georgina Lee in 1921 and after her death married Eveline Schrieber Billiat in 1926. He also wrote under the pseudonym Evelyn Elder.

Harry Schmidt, German mathematician and physicist (died 1951)

Harry Schmidt was a German mathematician. Core areas of his research were experimental physics, as well as the theory of boundary layers and wings in aerodynamics.

21/06/1893

Alois Hába, Czech composer and educator (died 1973)

Alois Hába was a Czech composer, music theorist and teacher. He belongs to the important discoverers in modern classical music, and to the major composers of microtonal music, especially using the quarter-tone scale, though he used others such as sixth-tones, fifth-tones, and twelfth-tones. From the other microtonal conceptions, he discussed a "three-quarter tone" system in his theoretical works but he used scales in this tuning in sections of some of his compositions. In his prolific career, Hába composed three operas, an enormous collection of chamber music including 16 string quartets, piano, organ and choral pieces, some orchestral works and songs. He also had special keyboard and woodwind instruments constructed that were capable of playing quarter-tone scales.

21/06/1892

Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian and academic (died 1971)

Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American Reformed theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of America's leading public intellectuals for several decades of the 20th century and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. A public theologian, he wrote and spoke frequently about the intersection of religion, politics, and public policy, with his most influential books including Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man.

21/06/1891

Pier Luigi Nervi, Italian architect and engineer, co-designed the Pirelli Tower and Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption (died 1979)

Pier Luigi Nervi was an Italian engineer and architect. He studied at the University of Bologna graduating in 1913. Nervi taught as a professor of engineering at Rome University from 1946 to 1961 and was known as a structural engineer and architect and for his innovative use of reinforced concrete, especially with numerous notable thin shell structures worldwide.

Hermann Scherchen, German-Swiss viola player and conductor (died 1966)

Hermann Scherchen was a German conductor, who was principal conductor of the city orchestra of Winterthur from 1922 to 1950. He promoted contemporary music, beginning with Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, followed by works by Richard Strauss, Anton Webern, Alban Berg, Edgard Varèse, later Iannis Xenakis, Luigi Nono and Leon Schidlowsky. He usually conducted without using a baton.

21/06/1889

Ralph Craig, American sprinter and sailor (died 1972)

Ralph Cook Craig was an American track and field athlete. He was the winner of the sprint double at the 1912 Summer Olympics.

21/06/1887

Norman L. Bowen, Canadian geologist and petrologist (died 1956)

Norman Levi Bowen FRS was a Canadian geologist. Bowen "revolutionized experimental petrology and our understanding of mineral crystallization". Beginning geology students are familiar with Bowen's reaction series depicting how different minerals crystallize under varying pressures and temperatures."

21/06/1884

Claude Auchinleck, English field marshal (died 1981)

Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck was a British Indian Army commander who saw active service during the world wars. A career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, he rose to become commander-in-chief of the Indian Army by early 1941 during the Second World War. In July 1941 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Middle East Theatre, but after initial successes, the war in North Africa turned against the British-led forces under his command and he was relieved of the post in August 1942 during the North African campaign.

21/06/1883

Feodor Gladkov, Russian author and educator (died 1958)

Fyodor Vasilyevich Gladkov was a Soviet and Russian socialist realist writer, best known for his 1925 novel Cement. Gladkov joined a Marxist group in 1904, and in 1905 went to Tiflis and was arrested there for revolutionary activities. He was sentenced to three years' exile. He then moved to Novorossiysk. Among other positions, he served as the editor of the newspaper Krasnoye Chernomorye, secretary of the journal Novy Mir, special correspondent for Izvestia, and director of the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow from 1945 to 1948. He received the Stalin Prize for his literary accomplishments, and is considered a classic writer of Soviet Socialist Realist literature.

21/06/1882

Ya'acov Ben-Dov, Israeli photographer and cinematographer (died 1968)

Yaacov Ben-Dov was an Israeli photographer and a pioneer of Jewish cinematography in Palestine.

Lluís Companys, Spanish lawyer and politician, 123rd President of Catalonia (died 1940)

Lluís Companys i Jover was a Catalan politician from Spain who served as president of Catalonia from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.

Adrianus de Jong, Dutch fencer and soldier (died 1966)

Adrianus Egbert Willem "Adriaan" "Arie" de Jong was a fencer who competed at five Olympic Games.

Rockwell Kent, American painter and illustrator (died 1971)

Rockwell Kent was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, writer, sailor, adventurer and voyager.

21/06/1881

(O.S.) Natalia Goncharova, Russian painter, costume designer, and illustrator (died 1962)

Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 1582 and 1923. Before as well as after the legal change, writers used the dual dating convention to specify a given day by giving its date according to both styles of dating.

21/06/1880

Arnold Gesell, American psychologist and pediatrician (died 1961)

Arnold Lucius Gesell was an American psychologist, pediatrician and professor at Yale University known for his research and contributions to the fields of child hygiene and child development.

Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, English economist and civil servant (died 1941)

Josiah Charles Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp was an English industrialist, economist, civil servant, statistician, writer, and banker. He was a director of the Bank of England and chairman of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.

21/06/1876

Willem Hendrik Keesom, Dutch physicist and academic (died 1956)

Willem Hendrik Keesom was a Dutch physicist who, in 1926, invented a method to freeze liquid helium. He also developed the first mathematical description of dipole–dipole interactions in 1921. Thus, dipole–dipole interactions are also known as Keesom interactions. He was previously a student of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, who had discovered superconductivity.

21/06/1874

Jacob Linzbach, Estonian linguist (died 1953)

Jakob Linzbach was an Estonian linguist.

21/06/1870

Clara Immerwahr, Jewish-German chemist and academic (died 1915)

Clara Helene Immerwahr was a German chemist. She was the first German woman to be awarded a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Breslau, and is credited with being a pacifist as well as a "heroine of the women's rights movement". From 1901 until her death from suicide in 1915, she was married to the eventual Nobel Prize-winning chemist Fritz Haber.

Anthony Michell, English-Australian engineer (died 1959)

Anthony George Maldon Michell FRS was an Australian mechanical engineer of the early 20th century.

Julio Ruelas, Mexican painter (died 1907)

Julio Ruelas was a Mexican graphic artist, painter, draughtsman and printmaker. Ruelas was the principal illustrator of the Revista Moderna magazine and is most associated with Mexican symbolism. A number of his works are on display at the Museum of the City of Mexico and in the Zacatecas museum. Artistically, he was noted for creating etched images depicting his own face, incorporating black, twisted lines to give an impression of being tormented.

21/06/1868

Edwin Stephen Goodrich, English zoologist and anatomist (died 1946)

Edwin Stephen Goodrich FRS, was an English zoologist, specialising in comparative anatomy, embryology, palaeontology, and evolution. He held the Linacre Chair of Zoology in the University of Oxford from 1921 to 1946. He served as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science from 1920 until his death.

21/06/1867

Oscar Florianus Bluemner, German-American painter and illustrator (died 1938)

Oscar Bluemner, born Friedrich Julius Oskar Blümner and after 1933 known as Oscar Florianus Bluemner, was a Prussian-born American Modernist painter.

William Brede Kristensen, Norwegian historian of religion (died 1953)

William Brede Kristensen was a Norwegian born, Dutch theologian, professor and historian of religion.

21/06/1866

Matt Kilroy, American baseball player (died 1940)

Matthew Aloysius "Matches" Kilroy was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. During his rookie season in 1886, he had 513 strikeouts, which remains the MLB single-season record.

21/06/1864

Heinrich Wölfflin, Swiss historian and critic (died 1945)

Heinrich Wölfflin was a Swiss art historian, esthetician and educator, whose objective classifying principles were influential in the development of formal analysis in art history in the early 20th century. He taught at the University of Basel, the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in the generation that saw German art history's rise to pre-eminence. His three most important books, still consulted, are Renaissance und Barock (1888), Die Klassische Kunst, and Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe.

21/06/1863

Ludwig Lange, German physicist (died 1936)

Ludwig Lange was a German physicist.

Max Wolf, German astronomer and academic (died 1932)

Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography. He was the chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory from 1902 until his death in 1932.

21/06/1862

Damrong Rajanubhab, Thai historian and author (died 1943)

Prince Tisavarakumara, the Prince Damrong Rajanubhab was the founder of the modern Thai educational system as well as the modern provincial administration. He was an autodidact, a (self-taught) historian, and one of the most influential Thai intellectuals of his time.

21/06/1860

William Dobinson Halliburton, British physiologist and biochemist (died 1931)

William Dobinson Halliburton FRS was a British physiologist, noted for being one of the founders of the science of biochemistry.

21/06/1859

Henry Ossawa Tanner, American-French painter and illustrator (died 1937)

Henry Ossawa Tanner was an American artist who spent much of his career in France. He became the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim. Tanner moved to Paris, France, in 1891 to study at the Académie Julian and gained acclaim in French artistic circles. In 1923, the French government elected Tanner chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

21/06/1858

Giuseppe De Sanctis, Italian painter (died 1924)

Giuseppe De Sanctis was an Italian painter, primarily of portraits and cityscapes.

Medardo Rosso, Italian sculptor and educator (died 1928)

Medardo Rosso was an Italian sculptor. He is considered, like his contemporary and admirer Auguste Rodin, to have been an artist working in a post-Impressionist style.

21/06/1857

Charles Alderton, American pharmacist, founded Dr. Pepper (died 1941)

Charles Courtice Alderton was an American pharmacist and the inventor of the carbonated soft drink Dr Pepper.

21/06/1850

Daniel Carter Beard, American author and illustrator, co-founded the Boy Scouts of America (died 1941)

Daniel Carter "Uncle Dan" Beard was an American illustrator, author, youth leader, Georgist and social reformer who founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, which Beard later merged with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

21/06/1846

Marion Adams-Acton, Scottish-English author and playwright (died 1928)

Marion Jean Catherine Adams-Acton was a Scottish novelist who wrote under the pseudonym "Jeanie Hering".

Enrico Coleman, Italian painter (died 1911)

Enrico Coleman was an Italian painter of British nationality. He was the son of the English painter Charles Coleman and brother of the less well-known Italian painter Francesco Coleman. He painted, in oils and in watercolours, the landscapes of the Campagna Romana and the Agro Pontino; he was a collector, grower and painter of orchids. Because of his supposedly Oriental air, he was known to his friends as "Il Birmano", the Burmese.

21/06/1845

Samuel Griffith, Welsh-Australian politician, 9th Premier of Queensland (died 1920)

Sir Samuel Walker Griffith was an Australian judge and politician who served as the inaugural Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1919. He also served a term as Chief Justice of Queensland and two terms as Premier of Queensland, and played a key role in the drafting of the Australian Constitution.

Arthur Cowper Ranyard, English astrophysicist and astronomer (died 1894)

Arthur Cowper Ranyard was an English astrophysicist.

21/06/1839

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian author, poet, and playwright (died 1908)

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, sometimes called Bruxo do Cosme Velho, was a pioneer Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright and short story writer, widely regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature. In 1897, he founded and became the first President of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He was multilingual, having taught himself French, English, German and Greek later in life.

21/06/1836

Luigi Tripepi, Italian theologian (died 1906)

Luigi Tripepi was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal and poet. He was one of the most important Roman Catholic apologists of the 19th century.

21/06/1834

Frans de Cort, Flemish poet and author (died 1878)

Frans Jozef de Cort, was a Flemish writer.

21/06/1828

Ferdinand André Fouqué, French geologist and academic (died 1904)

Ferdinand André Fouqué was a French geologist and petrologist.

Nikolaus Nilles, German Catholic writer and teacher (died 1907)

Nikolaus Nilles was a Roman Catholic writer and teacher.

21/06/1825

Thomas Edward Cliffe Leslie, Irish economist and jurist (died 1882)

Thomas Edward Cliffe Leslie was an Irish jurist and economist. He was professor of jurisprudence and political economy in Queen's College, Belfast, noted for challenging the Wages-Fund doctrine and for addressing contemporary agrarian policy questions. A critic of Ricardian orthodoxy, he said that it had sidelined consumer behaviour and demand. He developed the idea of consumer sovereignty, but insisted that the analysis of demand should be based on historical and comparative institutional work.

William Stubbs, English bishop and historian (died 1901)

William Stubbs was an English historian and Anglican bishop. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford between 1866 and 1884. He was Bishop of Chester from 1884 to 1889 and Bishop of Oxford from 1889 to 1901.

21/06/1823

Jean Chacornac, French astronomer (died 1873)

Jean Chacornac was a French astronomer and discoverer of a comet and several asteroids.

21/06/1814

Paweł Bryliński, Polish sculptor (died 1890)

Paweł Bryliński was a Polish folk-sculptor. He is perhaps best known for a series of works concerning Holy Week.

Anton Nuhn, German anatomist and academic (died 1889)

Anton Nuhn was a German anatomist.

21/06/1811

Matthew Simpson, American Methodist bishop and academic (died 1884)

Matthew Simpson was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1852 and based mainly in Philadelphia. During the Reconstruction Era after the Civil War, most evangelical denominations in the North, especially the Methodists, were initially strong supporters of radical policies that favored the Freedmen and distrusted the Southern whites. However, by the late 1860s in border state conferences, the MEC North moved well away from their work with the Freedmen's Bureau and often sided with the grievances of Southern white members. Bishop Simpson played a leading role in mobilizing the Northern Methodists for the cause. His biographer calls him the "High Priest of the Radical Republicans."

21/06/1805

Karl Friedrich Curschmann, German composer and singer (died 1841)

Karl Friedrich Curschmann was a German song composer and singer.

Charles Thomas Jackson, American physician and geologist (died 1880)

Charles Thomas Jackson was an American physician and scientist who was active in medicine, chemistry, mineralogy, and geology.

21/06/1802

Karl Zittel, German theologian (died 1871)

Karl Zittel was a German theologian, who was a prominent figure in 19th century Liberal Protestantism. He was the father of paleontologist Karl Alfred von Zittel (1839–1904).

21/06/1798

Alexander Thomson of Banchory, Scottish jurist, agriculturalist and religious activist (died 1868)

Alexander Thomson of Banchory FRSE (1798–1868) was a 19th-century Scottish advocate, agriculturalist, antiquary, author, philanthropist and traveller. He owned an estate at Banchory-Devenick in Aberdeenshire. After qualifying as an advocate in Edinburgh he returned to the estate and did not pursue a career at the bar preferring to follow the life of a country gentleman. He travelled extensively in Europe, spending many years studying overseas. He settled crofters on his estate and planted many trees. His position in life allowed to give time to many interests including antiquarian studies, geology, biology and social reform. He attempted to unite Marischal and King's Colleges in Aberdeen University. At the Disruption he sided with the Free Church and was a prominent leader in that cause. He died in 1868 and bequeathed a sizeable museum and collection of books to the church. He also gave a substantial amount of money to set up a Free Church College in Aberdeen.

21/06/1797

Wilhelm Küchelbecker, Russian poet and author (died 1846)

Wilhelm Ludwig von Küchelbecker was a Russian Romantic poet and Decembrist revolutionary of German descent.

21/06/1792

Ferdinand Christian Baur, German theologian and scholar (died 1860)

Ferdinand Christian Baur was a German Protestant theologian and founder and leader of the (new) Tübingen School of theology. Following Hegel's theory of dialectic, Baur argued that second century Christianity represented the synthesis of two opposing theses: Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity. This and the rest of Baur's work had a profound impact on higher criticism of biblical and related texts.

21/06/1786

Charles Edward Horn, English opera singer and composer (died 1849)

Charles Edward Horn was an English composer and singer.

21/06/1781

Siméon Denis Poisson, French mathematician and physicist (died 1840)

Baron Siméon Denis Poisson was a French mathematician and physicist who worked on statistics, complex analysis, partial differential equations, the calculus of variations, analytical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, thermodynamics, elasticity, and fluid mechanics. Moreover, he predicted the Arago spot in his attempt to disprove the wave theory of Augustin-Jean Fresnel.

21/06/1774

Daniel D. Tompkins, American lawyer and politician, 6th Vice President of the United States (died 1825)

Daniel D. Tompkins was an American politician who served as the sixth vice president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He previously served as the fourth governor of New York from 1807 to 1817.

21/06/1764

Sidney Smith, English admiral and politician (died 1840)

Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith was a British naval officer and politician. Serving in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, he rose to the rank of admiral in the Royal Navy. Smith was known for his outspoken character and penchant for acting on his own initiative, which caused a great deal of friction with many of his superiors and colleagues.

21/06/1763

Pierre Paul Royer-Collard, French philosopher and academic (died 1845)

Pierre Paul Royer-Collard was a French statesman and philosopher, leader of the Doctrinaires group during the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830).

21/06/1759

Alexander J. Dallas, American lawyer and politician, 6th United States Secretary of the Treasury (died 1817)

Alexander James Dallas was an American statesman who served as the 6th United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1814 to 1816 under President James Madison. He was also a lawyer who worked as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1801–1814) and the 1st Reporter of Decisions of the United States Supreme Court (1790–1800).

21/06/1750

Pierre-Nicolas Beauvallet, French sculptor and illustrator (died 1818)

Pierre-Nicolas Beauvallet, was a French sculptor, draftsman and printmaker.

21/06/1741

Prince Benedetto, Duke of Chablais (died 1808)

Prince Benedetto, Duke of Chablais was an Italian nobleman and military leader. He was the youngest child of King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia. He married his half-niece Maria Anna of Savoy; they had no children. Benedetto was the owner of the Palazzo Chiablese in Turin.

21/06/1736

(O.S.) Enoch Poor, American general (died 1780)

Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 1582 and 1923. Before as well as after the legal change, writers used the dual dating convention to specify a given day by giving its date according to both styles of dating.

21/06/1732

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German pianist and composer (died 1791)

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach was a German composer and harpsichordist, the fifth son of Johann Sebastian Bach, sometimes referred to as the "Bückeburg Bach".

21/06/1730

Motoori Norinaga, Japanese poet and scholar (died 1801)

Motoori Norinaga was a Japanese scholar of Kokugaku active during the Edo period. He is conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies.

21/06/1712

Luc Urbain de Bouëxic, comte de Guichen, French admiral (died 1790)

Luc Urbain du Bouëxic, comte de Guichen was a French Navy officer who commanded the fleets that fought the Royal Navy at the Battle of Ushant and Battle of Martinique during the American Revolutionary War.

21/06/1710

James Short, Scottish-English mathematician and optician (died 1768)

James Short FRS was a Scottish mathematician and manufacturer of optical instruments, principally telescopes. During his 35-year career as a telescope-maker he produced approximately 1,360 scientific instruments.

21/06/1706

John Dollond, English optician and astronomer (died 1761)

John Dollond was an English optician, known for his successful optics business and his patenting and commercialization of achromatic doublets.

21/06/1676

(O.S.) Anthony Collins, English philosopher and author (died 1729)

Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 1582 and 1923. Before as well as after the legal change, writers used the dual dating convention to specify a given day by giving its date according to both styles of dating.

21/06/1639

(O.S.) Increase Mather, American minister and author (died 1723)

Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, they refer to the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 1582 and 1923. Before as well as after the legal change, writers used the dual dating convention to specify a given day by giving its date according to both styles of dating.

21/06/1636

Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon, French noble (died 1721)

Godefroy Maurice de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duke of Bouillon was a French nobleman and member of the House of La Tour d'Auvergne, one of the most important families in France at the time. He married Marie Anne Mancini, niece of Cardinal Mazarin and had seven children.

21/06/1630

Samuel Oppenheimer, German Jewish banker and diplomat (died 1703)

Samuel Oppenheimer was an Ashkenazi Jewish banker, imperial court diplomat, factor, and military supplier for the Holy Roman Emperor. He enjoyed the special favor of Emperor Leopold I, to whom he advanced considerable sums of money for the Great Turkish War. Prince Eugene of Savoy brought him a large number of valuable Hebrew manuscripts from Turkey, which became the nucleus of the famous David Oppenheim Library, now part of the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

21/06/1565

Scipione Chiaramonti, Italian philosopher and astronomer (died 1652)

Scipione Chiaramonti was an Italian philosopher and noted opponent of Galileo.

21/06/1535

Leonhard Rauwolf, German physician and botanist (died 1596)

Leonhard Rauwolf was a German physician, botanist, and traveller. His main notability arises from a trip he made through the Levant and Mesopotamia in 1573–75. The motive of the trip was to search for herbal medicine supplies. Shortly after he returned, he published a set of new botanical descriptions with an herbarium. Later he published a general travel narrative about his visit.

21/06/1528

Maria of Austria, Holy Roman Empress (died 1603)

Maria of Austria or Maria of Spain, also known as Isabel, was the empress consort and queen consort of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia and Hungary. She served as regent of Spain in the absence of her father Emperor Charles V from 1548 until 1551 and was one of the most powerful empresses of the Holy Roman Empire.

21/06/1521

John II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Haderslev (died 1580)

Hans the Elder was the only Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Haderslev. The predicate the Elder is used to distinguish him from his nephew, Hans the Younger, who held Sønderborg from 1564 as a partitioned-off duke. He ruled the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein jointly with his brother Duke Adolf, and his half-brother, King Christian III of Denmark and his successor, King Frederick II.

21/06/1226

Bolesław V the Chaste of Poland (died 1279)

Bolesław V the Chaste was Duke of Sandomierz in Lesser Poland from 1232 and High Duke of Poland from 1243 until his death, as the last male representative of the Lesser Polish branch of Piasts.

21/06/1002

Pope Leo IX (died 1054)

Pope Leo IX was the Bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 12 February 1049 to his death in 1054. Leo IX is considered to be one of the most historically significant popes of the Middle Ages; he was instrumental in the precipitation of the Great Schism of 1054, considered the turning point in which the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches formally separated.

21/06/0906

Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad, Saffarid emir (died 963)

Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Muhammad was the amir of Sistan from 923 until his death in 963. He is responsible for restoring Saffarid rule over Sistan, and was a great patron of the arts.

Lives Remembered on 21st June

On 21st June, 113 remarkable people passed away — from 532 to 2024. Remember the lives and legacies of those we lost on this day.

21/06/2024

Frederick Crews, American essayist and literary critic (born 1933)

Frederick Campbell Crews was an American essayist and literary critic. Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, Crews was the author of numerous books, including The Tragedy of Manners: Moral Drama in the Later Novels of Henry James (1957), E. M. Forster: The Perils of Humanism (1962), and The Sins of the Fathers: Hawthorne's Psychological Themes (1966), a discussion of the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne. He received popular attention for The Pooh Perplex (1963), a book of satirical essays parodying various schools of literary criticism. Initially a proponent of psychoanalytic literary criticism, Crews later rejected psychoanalysis, becoming a critic of Sigmund Freud and his scientific and ethical standards. Crews was a prominent participant in the "Freud wars" of the 1980s and 1990s, a debate over the reputation, scholarship, and impact on the 20th century of Freud, who founded psychoanalysis. In 2017, he published Freud: The Making of an Illusion.

21/06/2023

Winnie Ewing, Scottish politician (born 1929)

Winifred Margaret Ewing was a Scottish lawyer and politician who figured prominently in the Scottish National Party.

21/06/2018

Charles Krauthammer, American columnist and conservative political commentator (born 1950)

Charles Krauthammer was an American political columnist. A moderate liberal who turned independent conservative as a political pundit, Krauthammer won the Pulitzer Prize for his columns in The Washington Post in 1987. His weekly column was syndicated to more than 400 publications worldwide. While in his first year studying medicine at Harvard Medical School, Krauthammer became permanently paralyzed from the waist down after a diving board accident that severed his spinal cord at cervical spinal nerve 5. After spending 14 months recovering in a hospital, he returned to medical school, graduating to become a psychiatrist involved in the creation of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders III in 1980. He joined the Carter administration in 1978 as a director of psychiatric research, eventually becoming the speechwriter to Vice President Walter Mondale in 1980.

21/06/2016

Pierre Lalonde, Canadian television host and singer (born 1941)

Pierre Lalonde was a Canadian singer and television host, who was sometimes also billed as Peter Martin in the United States.

21/06/2015

Darryl Hamilton, American baseball player and sportscaster (born 1964)

Darryl Quinn Hamilton was an American professional baseball outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1988 and 2001 for the Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers, San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies, and New York Mets. Hamilton prepped at Louisiana State University Laboratory School in Baton Rouge and then attended Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana.

Veijo Meri, Finnish author and poet (born 1928)

Veijo Väinö Valvo Meri was a Finnish writer. Much of his work focuses on war and its absurdity. The work is anti-war and has dark humor.

Remo Remotti, Italian actor, playwright, and poet (born 1924)

Remo Remotti was an Italian actor, playwright, artist and poet.

Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski, German soldier and politician (born 1932)

Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski was a politician and trader in the German Democratic Republic. He was director of a main department ('Hauptverwaltungsleiter') in the Ministry for Foreign Trade and German Domestic Trade (1956–62), the Deputy Minister for External Trade (1967–75), and head of the GDR's Kommerzielle Koordinierung.

Gunther Schuller, American horn player, composer, and conductor (born 1925)

Gunther Alexander Schuller was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician.

21/06/2014

Yozo Ishikawa, Japanese politician, Japanese Minister of Defense (born 1925)

Yozo Ishikawa was a Japanese lawmaker and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). He served as director general of the now-defunct defense agency of Japan in 1990.

Walter Kieber, Austrian-Liechtenstein politician, 7th Prime Minister of Liechtenstein (born 1931)

Walter Kieber was a lawyer and politician from Liechtenstein who served as Prime Minister of Liechtenstein from 1974 to 1978. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister of Liechtenstein from 1970 to 1974 and again from 1978 to 1980.

Wong Ho Leng, Malaysian lawyer and politician (born 1959)

Wong Ho Leng was a Malaysian politician. He was the opposition leader of the Sarawak State Assembly from May 2006 to June 2013. He was also the state chairman of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) from 2001 until 10 June 2013. He was the Member of the State Legislative Assembly of Sarawak for the seat of Bukit Assek until his death on 21 June 2014.

21/06/2013

James P. Gordon, American physicist and academic (born 1928)

James Power Gordon was an American physicist known for his work in the fields of optics and quantum electronics. His contributions include the design, analysis and construction of the first maser in 1954 as a doctoral student at Columbia University under the supervision of C. H. Townes, development of the quantal equivalent of Shannon's information capacity formula in 1962, development of the theory for the diffusion of atoms in an optical trap in 1980, and the discovery of what is now known as the Gordon-Haus effect in soliton transmission, together with H. A. Haus in 1986. Gordon was a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences.

Elliott Reid, American actor and screenwriter (born 1920)

Edgeworth Blair "Elliott" Reid was an American actor.

21/06/2012

Richard Adler, American composer and producer (born 1921)

Richard Adler was an American lyricist, writer, composer and producer of several Broadway shows. He is best known for his work with Jerry Ross on the musicals The Pajama Game (1954) and Damn Yankees (1955).

Abid Hussain, Indian economist and diplomat, Indian Ambassador to the United States (born 1926)

Abid Hussain was an Indian economist, civil servant and diplomat. He was India's ambassador to the United States of America from 1990 to 1992 and a member of the Planning Commission from 1985 to 1990.

Sunil Janah, Indian photographer and journalist (born 1918)

Sunil Janah was an Indian-American photojournalist and documentary photographer who worked in India in the 1940s. Janah documented India's independence movement, its peasant and labour movements, famines and riots, rural and tribal life, as well as the years of rapid urbanization and industrialization. He was best known for his coverage of the Bengal famine of 1943.

Anna Schwartz, American economist and author (born 1915)

Anna Jacobson Schwartz was an American economist who worked at the National Bureau of Economic Research in New York City and a writer for The New York Times. Paul Krugman has said that Schwartz is "one of the world's greatest monetary scholars."

21/06/2011

Robert Kroetsch, Canadian author and poet (born 1927)

Robert Paul Kroetsch was a Canadian novelist, poet and nonfiction writer. In his fiction and critical essays, as well as in the journal he co-founded, boundary 2, he was an influential figure in Canada in introducing ideas about postmodernism.

21/06/2010

Russell Ash, English author (born 1946)

Russell Ash was the British author of the Top 10 of Everything series of books, as well as Great Wonders of the World, Incredible Comparisons and many other reference, art and humour titles, most notably his series of books on strange-but-true names, Potty, Fartwell & Knob, Busty, Slag and Nob End and Big Pants, Burpy and Bumface. Once described as 'the human Google', his obituary in The Times stated that 'In the age of the internet, it takes tenacity and idiosyncratic intelligence to make a living from purveying trivial information. Russell Ash did just that'.

Irwin Barker, Canadian actor and screenwriter (born 1956)

Irwin Barker was a Canadian comedian and writer. He wrote for This Hour Has 22 Minutes and The Rick Mercer Report, and was nominated for four Gemini Awards as a writer and one as stand-up performer for his 2005 performance at the Halifax Comedy Festival. Barker was also nominated for three Writers' Guild of Canada Screenwriter's awards, and won the award in 2008. He was a regular writer and contributor for CBC Radio's The Debaters.

İlhan Selçuk, Turkish lawyer, journalist, and author (born 1925)

İlhan Selçuk was a Turkish lawyer, journalist, author, novelist and editor.

21/06/2008

Scott Kalitta, American race car driver (born 1962)

Scott D. Kalitta was an American drag racer who competed in the Funny Car and Top Fuel classes in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. He had 17 career Top Fuel wins and one career Funny Car win. At the time of his death due to an accident during race qualifying, he was one of 14 drivers to win in both divisions. He was the son of veteran NHRA driver and crew chief Connie Kalitta.

21/06/2007

Bob Evans, American businessman, founded Bob Evans Restaurants (born 1918)

Robert Lewis Evans was an American restaurateur and marketer of pork sausage products. He founded a restaurant chain bearing his name. The company also owns Owens Country Sausage.

21/06/2006

Jared C. Monti, American sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1975)

Jared Christopher Monti was a soldier in the United States Army who received the United States military's highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the War in Afghanistan.

21/06/2005

Jaime Sin, Filipino cardinal (born 1928)

Jaime Lachica Sin was a Filipino Catholic prelate who served as the 30th archbishop of Manila from 1974 until his retirement in 2003. He was elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1976.

21/06/2004

Leonel Brizola, Brazilian engineer and politician, Governor of Rio de Janeiro (born 1922)

Leonel de Moura Brizola was a Brazilian politician. Launched into politics by Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas in the 1930–1950s, Brizola was the only politician to serve as elected governor of two Brazilian states. An engineer by training, Brizola organized the youth wing of the Brazilian Labour Party and served as state representative for Rio Grande do Sul and mayor of its capital, Porto Alegre.

Ruth Leach Amonette, American businesswoman (born 1916)

Ruth Leach Amonette was an American businesswoman, author, and educator. She was appointed as the first female executive and vice president at IBM in 1943, becoming one of only a few women in high-ranking corporate positions in the US at the time. She was renowned nationally for her work in business and as an educator.

21/06/2003

Roger Neilson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (born 1934)

Roger Paul Neilson was a Canadian professional ice hockey coach, most notably in the NHL, where he served with eight teams. Known as "Captain Video" because of his technological contributions to the game, he is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame in the builder category. Alongside his decorated coaching abilities, Neilson is commonly remembered today for his many antics which resulted in the creation of several NHL rules.

Leon Uris, American soldier and author (born 1924)

Leon Marcus Uris was an American author of historical fiction who wrote many bestselling books, including Exodus and Trinity.

21/06/2002

Timothy Findley, Canadian author and playwright (born 1930)

Timothy Irving Frederick Findley was a Canadian novelist and playwright. He was also informally known by the nickname Tiff or Tiffy, an acronym of his initials.

21/06/2001

John Lee Hooker, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1917)

John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he developed in Detroit. Hooker often incorporated other elements, including talking blues and early North Mississippi hill country blues. He developed his own driving-rhythm boogie style, distinct from the 1930s–1940s piano-derived boogie-woogie. Hooker was ranked 35 in Rolling Stone's 2015 list of 100 greatest guitarists, and has been cited as one of the greatest male blues vocalists of all time.

Soad Hosny, Egyptian actress and singer (born 1942)

Soad Mohammad Kamal Hosny was an Egyptian actress. She was known as the "Cinderella of the Screen" and one of the most influential actresses in the Middle East and the Arab world. She is generally regarded as one of Egypt's most iconic female performers of the 20th-century, who played leading roles for many of the country's top directors, in a career spanning 83 films between 1959 and 1991, garnering several national and international accolades.

Carroll O'Connor, American actor and producer (born 1924)

John Carroll O'Connor was an American actor whose television career spanned over four decades. He found widespread fame as Archie Bunker, the main character in the CBS television sitcoms All in the Family (1971–1979) and its continuation, Archie Bunker's Place (1979–1983). He later starred in the NBC/CBS television crime drama In the Heat of the Night (1988–1995), where he played the role of police chief William "Bill" Gillespie. In the late 1990s, he played Gus Stemple, the father of Jamie Buchman on Mad About You. In 1996, O'Connor was ranked number 38 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. He won five Emmys and one Golden Globe Award.

21/06/2000

Alan Hovhaness, Armenian-American pianist and composer (born 1911)

Alan Hovhaness was an American composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies and 434 opus numbers. The true tally is well over 500 surviving works, since many opus numbers comprise two or more distinct works.

21/06/1999

Kami, Japanese drummer (born 1973)

Ukyou Kamimura , better known by his stage name Kami, was a Japanese musician best known as visual kei rock band Malice Mizer’s drummer. He died on June 21, 1999, in his sleep of a subarachnoid hemorrhage at the age of 27. Dir En Grey drummer Shinya cited Kami as one of the three greatest Japanese drummers.

21/06/1998

Harry Cranbrook Allen, English historian (born 1917)

Harry Cranbrook Allen was a British historian of the United States.

Anastasio Ballestrero, Italian cardinal (born 1913)

Anastasio Alberto Ballestrero, religious name Anastasio del Santissimo Rosario, was an Italian cardinal and member of the Discalced Carmelites who served as the Archbishop of Turin from 1977 until his resignation in 1989. Ballestrero was elevated to the cardinalate in 1979 and became a leading progressive voice in the Italian episcopate during his time as the head of the Italian Episcopal Conference in the pontificate of the conservative Pope John Paul II. Ballestrero likewise was known for being reserved when it came to the Shroud of Turin as opposed to the enthusiasm of John Paul II for the relic. The cardinal allowed for testing of the shroud and announced that the relic itself was a product of the Middle Ages as opposed to the genuine burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

Al Campanis, American baseball player and manager (born 1916)

Alexander Sebastian Campanis was an American executive in Major League Baseball (MLB). He had a brief major league playing career, as a second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943; he was the first Greek player in MLB history. Campanis is most famous for his position as general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1968 to 1987, from which he was fired on April 8, 1987, as a result of controversial remarks regarding black people in baseball made during an interview on Nightline two days earlier.

21/06/1997

Shintaro Katsu, Japanese actor, singer, director, and producer (born 1931)

Shintaro Katsu was a Japanese actor, singer, and filmmaker. He is known for starring in the Akumyo series, the Hoodlum Soldier series, the Hanzo the Razor series, and the Zatoichi series.

Fidel Velázquez Sánchez, Mexican trade union leader (born 1900)

Fidel Velázquez Sánchez was the preeminent Mexican union leader of the 20th century. In 1936 he was one of the original founders, along with Vicente Lombardo Toledano, of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), the national labor federation most closely associated with the ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). He replaced Lombardo as the leader of the CTM in 1941, then expelled him from it in 1948. He led the CTM, which grew increasingly corrupt and conservative, until his death in 1997.

21/06/1994

William Wilson Morgan, American astronomer and astrophysicist (born 1906)

William Wilson Morgan was an American astronomer and astrophysicist. The principal theme in Morgan's work was stellar and galaxy classification. He is also known for helping prove the existence of spiral arms in our galaxy. In addition to his scientific achievements he served as professor and astronomy director for the University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin and was the managing editor for George Hale's Astrophysical Journal.

21/06/1992

Ben Alexander, Australian rugby league player (born 1971)

Ben Alexander, also known by the nickname "Boods", was an Australian rugby league footballer who played as a halfback or hooker for the Penrith Panthers in the New South Wales Rugby League premiership. He was the younger brother of his Penrith teammate Greg Alexander.

Arthur Gorrie, Australian hobby shop proprietor (born 1922)

Arthur Dingwall Gorrie was an Australian hobbyist. He ran a small hobby shop in Woolloongabba and was involved with model aeronautical clubs including the Model Aeronautical Association of Australia and the Queensland Model Aeronautical Association from the early 1950s. He was involved with Toastmasters International and was honored by them on many occasions. He became a Distinguished Toastmaster in 1979 and Toastmaster of the Year on eight occasions.

Rudra Mohammad Shahidullah, Bangladeshi poet, author, and playwright (born 1956)

Rudra Mohammad Shahidullah was a Bangladeshi poet noted for his revolutionary and romantic poetry. He is considered one of the leading Bengali poets of the 1970s. He received Munir Chaudhury Memorial Award in 1980 and Ekushey Padak in 2024

Li Xiannian, Chinese captain and politician, President of China (born 1909)

Li Xiannian was a Chinese Communist military and political leader, president of China from 1983 to 1988 under paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and then chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1988 until his death. He was a full member of the Politburo from 1956 to 1987, and of its Standing Committee from 1977 to 1987.

21/06/1990

Cedric Belfrage, English journalist and author, co-founded the National Guardian (born 1904)

Cedric Henning Belfrage was an English film critic, journalist, writer and political activist. He is best remembered as a co-founder of the radical US weekly National Guardian. Later Belfrage was referenced as a Soviet agent in the US intelligence Venona project, although it appears he had been working for British Security Co-ordination as a double agent.

June Christy, American singer (born 1925)

June Christy was an American singer, known for her work in the cool jazz genre and for her silky smooth vocals. Her success as a singer began with The Stan Kenton Orchestra. She pursued a solo career from 1954 and is best known for her debut album Something Cool. After her death, she was hailed as "one of the finest and most neglected singers of her time."

21/06/1988

Bobby Dodd, American football coach (born 1908)

Robert Lee Dodd was an American college football player and coach, college baseball coach, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Georgia Tech from 1945 to 1966, compiling a record of 165–64–8. His teams won consecutive Southeastern Conference (SEC) title in 1951 and 1952, and his 1952 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team won the 1953 Sugar Bowl and was recognized as a national champion by a number of selectors though they finished second behind Michigan State in both major polls. Dodd was also Georgia Tech's head baseball coach from 1932 to 1939, tallying a mark of 43–64–2, and the school's athletic director from 1950 until 1976. All together, Dodd served Georgia Tech 57 years in various capacities.

21/06/1987

Madman Muntz, American engineer and businessman, founded the Muntz Car Company (born 1914)

Earl William "Madman" Muntz was an American businessman and engineer who sold and promoted cars and consumer electronics in the United States from the 1930s until his death in 1987. He was a pioneer in television commercials with his oddball "Madman" persona; an alter ego who generated publicity with his unusual costumes, stunts, and outrageous claims. Muntz also pioneered car stereos by creating the Muntz Stereo-Pak, better known as the 4-track cartridge, a predecessor to the 8-track cartridge developed by Lear Industries.

21/06/1986

Assi Rahbani, Lebanese singer-songwriter and producer (born 1923)

Assi Rahbani was a Lebanese composer, musician, conductor and producer. He was part of the Rahbani Brothers, with his brother Mansour Rahbani. He married Lebanese singer Nouhad Haddad, more famous by her stage name, Fairuz. Their son Ziad Rahbani was also an artist in music, theatre, and a political activist.

21/06/1985

Hector Boyardee, Italian-American chef and businessman, founded Chef Boyardee (born 1897)

Ettore Boiardi, also known as Hector Boyardee, was an Italian-American chef and entrepreneur, famous for his brand of food products, named Chef Boyardee.

Tage Erlander, Swedish lieutenant and politician, 25th Prime Minister of Sweden (born 1901)

Tage Fritjof Erlander was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden and leader of the Social Democratic Party from 1946 to 1969. During his record-long premiership, Erlander was an architect of the "Swedish Model" and oversaw a major expansion of the welfare state (Folkhemmet), marked by social equality, economic growth, and the development of extensive public services. Referred to as "Sweden’s longest prime minister" for both his towering height and his unprecedented 23-year tenure as head of government, he was known for his moderation, pragmatism, self-ironic humour, and modesty.

21/06/1981

Don Figlozzi, American illustrator and animator (born 1909)

Don Figlozzi was an American animator and cartoonist. A veteran of Fleischer Studios and member of the National Cartoonists Society, he spent the first half of his career in animation and the second half at the New York Daily News, where his cartoons, signed "Fig," became a fixture. Historian Harvey Deneroff of the Savannah College of Art and Design suggests that Figlozzi may have created the first animations to be used on television.

21/06/1980

Bert Kaempfert, German conductor and composer (born 1923)

Bert Kaempfert was a German orchestra leader, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, arranger, and composer. He made easy listening and jazz-orientated records and wrote the music for a number of well-known songs, including "Strangers in the Night", "Danke Schoen", "Moon over Naples" and "A Swingin' Safari". In 1961, Kaempfert was the first to produce professional music recordings by the Beatles.

21/06/1976

Margaret Herrick, American librarian (born 1902)

Margaret Florence Herrick, also known professionally as Margaret Gledhill, was an American librarian and the executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1971, the academy's library was named the Margaret Herrick Library in her honor.

21/06/1970

Sukarno, Indonesian engineer and politician, 1st President of Indonesia (born 1901)

Sukarno was an Indonesian statesman, activist, and revolutionary who served as the first president of Indonesia from 1945 to 1967.

Piers Courage, English race car driver (born 1942)

Piers Raymond Courage was a British racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1967 to 1970.

21/06/1969

Maureen Connolly, American tennis player (born 1934)

Maureen Catherine Connolly-Brinker, known as "Little Mo", was an American tennis player, the winner of nine major singles titles in the early 1950s. In 1953, she became the first woman to win a Grand Slam. She is also the only player in history to win a title without losing a set at all four major championships. The following year, in July 1954, a horseback riding accident seriously injured her right leg and ended her competitive tennis career at age 19. She died of ovarian cancer at the age of 34.

21/06/1968

Constance Georgina Tardrew, South African botanist (born 1883)

Constance Georgina Adams, also known as Constance Georgina Tardrew, was a South African housewife and collector of botanical specimens. Known by the nicknames Connie and Daisy, Adams was born in Cape Town and spent her early childhood on a farm in Tulbagh before moving to Warrenton. She subsequently lived in Kimberley before getting married, settling in Johannesburg where she became active in the Housewives League of South Africa. Inspired by her parents' interest in botany, she became a successful collector for both the Albany Museum in Grahamstown and McGregor Museum in Kimberley. She also cultivated a friendship with the Director of the latter, Maria Wilman. She collected over 240 specimens, which were presented to the Albany Museum, McGregor Museum and the National Herbarium in Pretoria.

21/06/1967

Theodore Sizer, American professor of the history of art (born 1892)

Theodore Sizer was an American professor of the history of art at Yale University and a director of the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. He was named the first Pursuivant of Arms for Yale University in 1963.

21/06/1964

James Chaney, American civil rights activist (born 1943)

James Earl Chaney was an American civil rights activist. He was one of three civil rights workers murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by members of the Ku Klux Klan on June 21, 1964. The others were Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner from New York City.

Andrew Goodman, American civil rights activist (born 1943)

Andrew Goodman was an American civil rights activist. He was one of three civil rights workers murdered in Philadelphia, Mississippi, by members of the Ku Klux Klan in 1964. Goodman was a volunteer for the Freedom Summer campaign that sought to register African Americans to vote in Mississippi and to set up Freedom Schools for black Southerners. His two fellow activists, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, worked for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

Michael Schwerner, American civil rights activist (born 1939)

Michael Henry "Mickey" Schwerner was an American civil rights activist. He was one of three civil rights workers murdered in rural Neshoba County, Mississippi, by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Schwerner and two co-workers, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, were killed in response to their civil rights work, which included promoting voting registration among African Americans, most of whom had been disenfranchised in the state since 1890.

21/06/1957

Claude Farrère, French captain and author (born 1876)

Claude Farrère, pseudonym of Frédéric-Charles Bargone, was a French Navy officer and writer. Many of his novels are based in exotic locations such as Istanbul, Saigon, or Nagasaki.

Johannes Stark, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1874)

Johannes Stark was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1919 for his discovery of the Stark effect.

21/06/1954

Gideon Sundback, Swedish-American engineer, developed the zipper (born 1880)

Otto Fredrik Gideon Sundbäck was a Swedish-American electrical engineer, who is most commonly associated with his work in the development of the zipper.

21/06/1952

Wop May, Canadian captain and pilot (born 1896)

Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May, was a Canadian flying ace in the First World War and a leading post-war aviator. He was the final Allied pilot to be pursued by Manfred von Richthofen before the German ace was shot down on the Western Front in 1918. After the war, May returned to Canada, pioneering the role of a bush pilot while working for Canadian Airways in Northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories.

21/06/1951

Charles Dillon Perrine, American astronomer (born 1867)

Charles Dillon Perrine was an American astronomer at the Lick Observatory in California (1893-1909) who moved to Cordoba, Argentina to accept the position of Director of the Argentine National Observatory (1909-1936). The Cordoba Observatory under Perrine's direction made the first attempts to prove Einstein's theory of relativity by astronomical observation of the deflection of starlight near the Sun during the solar eclipse of October 10, 1912 in Cristina (Brazil), and the solar eclipse of August 21, 1914 at Feodosia, Crimea, Russian Empire. Rain in 1912 and clouds in 1914 prevented results.

Gustave Sandras, French gymnast (born 1872)

Silvaine Gustave Sandras was a French gymnast who competed in the early 20th century. He participated in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, and won the equivalent of a gold medal in the only gymnastic event to take place at the games, the combined exercises.

Ville Kiviniemi, Finnish politician (born 1877)

Vilhelm Kiviniemi was a Finnish farmer, politician and member of the Parliament of Finland, the national legislature. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he represented Lapland between November 1917 and September 1918. He was amongst dozens of social democrat MPs who were persecuted for political reasons by the victorious Whites following end of the Finnish Civil War in 1918. Kiviniemi was sentenced to death for treason but this was later commuted to life imprisonment. He received a presidential pardon in 1922.

21/06/1940

Smedley Butler, American general, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1881)

Major General Smedley Darlington Butler was a United States Marine Corps officer. During his 34-year military career, he fought in the Philippine–American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Mexican Revolution, World War I, and the Banana Wars. At the time of his death, Butler was the most decorated Marine in U.S. military history. By the end of his career, Butler had received sixteen medals, including five for heroism; he was awarded the Marine Corps Brevet Medal as well as two Medals of Honor, both for separate actions.

Édouard Vuillard, French painter (born 1868)

Jean-Édouard Vuillard was a French painter, decorative artist, and printmaker. From 1891 through 1900, Vuillard was a member of the avant garde artistic group Les Nabis, creating paintings that assembled areas of pure color. His interior scenes, influenced by Japanese prints, explored the spatial effects of flattened planes of color, pattern, and form. As a decorative artist, Vuillard painted theater sets, panels for interior decoration, and designed plates and stained glass. After 1900, when the Nabis broke up, Vuillard adopted a more realistic style, approaching landscapes and interiors with greater detail and vivid colors. In the 1920s and 1930s, he painted portraits of figures in French industry and the arts in their familiar settings.

21/06/1934

Thorne Smith, American author (born 1892)

James Thorne Smith Jr. was an American writer of humorous supernatural fantasy fiction under the byline Thorne Smith. He is best known today for the two Topper novels, comic fantasy fiction involving sex, frequent drinking and ghosts. With racy illustrations, these sold millions of copies in the 1930s and were equally popular in paperbacks of the 1950s.

21/06/1929

Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse, English sociologist, journalist, and academic (born 1864)

Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse, FBA was a British liberal political theorist and sociologist, who has been considered one of the leading and earliest proponents of social liberalism. His works, culminating in his famous book Liberalism (1911), occupy a seminal position within the canon of New Liberalism.

21/06/1914

Bertha von Suttner, Austrian journalist and author, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1843)

Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicitas von Suttner was an Austrian noblewoman, pacifist and novelist. In 1905, she became the second female Nobel laureate, the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first Austrian laureate.

21/06/1908

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer and educator (born 1844)

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, a member of the group of composers known as The Five. His best-known orchestral compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade—are staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his fifteen operas. Scheherazade is an example of his frequent use of fairy-tale and folk subjects. He was the husband of the composer Nadezhda Rimskaya-Korsakova.

21/06/1893

Leland Stanford, American businessman and politician, 8th Governor of California (born 1824)

Amasa Leland Stanford was an American attorney, industrialist, philanthropist, and Republican Party politician from Watervliet, New York. He served as the eighth governor of California from 1862 to 1863 and represented the state in the United States Senate from 1885 until his death in 1893. Stanford and his wife Jane founded Stanford University, named after their late son.

21/06/1880

Theophilus H. Holmes, American general (born 1804)

Lieutenant-General Theophilus Hunter Holmes was an American soldier who served as a senior officer of the Confederate States Army and commanded infantry in the Eastern and Trans-Mississippi theaters of the American Civil War. He had previously served with distinction as an officer of the United States Army in the Seminole and Mexican–American wars. A friend and protégé of Confederate States President Jefferson Davis, he was appointed commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department but failed in his key task, which was to defend the Confederacy's hold on the Mississippi.

21/06/1876

Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican general and politician 8th President of Mexico (born 1794)

Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón, often known as Santa Anna, was a Mexican general, politician, and caudillo who served as the eighth president of Mexico on multiple occasions between 1833 and 1855. He was a controversial and pivotal figure in Mexican politics during the 19th century, to the point that he has been called an "uncrowned monarch", and historians often refer to the three decades after Mexican independence as the "Age of Santa Anna".

21/06/1874

Anders Jonas Ångström, Swedish physicist and astronomer (born 1814)

Anders Jonas Ångström was a Swedish physicist and one of the founders of the science of spectroscopy.

21/06/1865

Frances Adeline Seward, American wife of William H. Seward (born 1824)

Frances Adeline Seward was the First Lady of New York and the wife of William Henry Seward, a senator in the New York legislature, Governor of New York, a senator from New York and United States Secretary of State under President Abraham Lincoln.

21/06/1824

Étienne Aignan, French playwright and translator (born 1773)

Étienne Aignan was a French translator, political writer, librettist and playwright. In 1814 he was made a member of the Académie française, succeeding Bernardin de Saint-Pierre in Seat 27. He died on 21 June 1824 aged 51 years old.

21/06/1796

Richard Gridley, American soldier and engineer (born 1710)

Richard Gridley was a soldier and engineer who served for the British Army during the French and Indian Wars and for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.

21/06/1765

Nachman of Horodenka, Hasidic rabbi

Rabbi Nachman of Horodenka was a Hasidic leader.

21/06/1738

Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, English politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (born 1674)

Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, was a British Whig statesman. From 1714 to 1717, and again from 1721 to 1730, he served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department. He directed British foreign policy in close collaboration with his brother-in-law, prime minister Robert Walpole. He was often known as Turnip Townshend because of his strong interest in farming field turnips and his role in the British Agricultural Revolution.

21/06/1737

Matthieu Marais, French author, critic, and jurist (born 1664)

Mathieu Marais was a French jurist and lawyer at the Parlement of Paris. He is later known by the edition of his Journal and Memoirs by Mathurin de Lescures.

21/06/1661

Andrea Sacchi, Italian painter (born 1599)

Andrea Sacchi was an Italian painter of High Baroque Classicism, active in Rome. A generation of artists who shared his style of art include the painters Nicolas Poussin and Giovanni Battista Passeri, the sculptors Alessandro Algardi and François Duquesnoy, and the contemporary biographer Giovanni Bellori.

21/06/1652

Inigo Jones, English architect, designed the Queen's House and Wilton House (born 1573)

Inigo Jones was an English architect who was the first significant architect in England in the early modern era and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable architect in England, Jones was the first person to introduce the classical architecture of Rome and the Italian Renaissance to England. He left his mark on London by his design of single buildings, such as the Queen's House which is the first building in England designed in a pure classical style, and the Banqueting House, Whitehall, as well as the layout for Covent Garden square which became a model for future developments in the West End. He made major contributions to stage design by his work as a theatrical designer for several dozen masques, most by royal command and many in collaboration with Ben Jonson.

21/06/1631

John Smith, English admiral and explorer (born 1580)

John Smith was an English soldier, explorer, admiral of New England, and author. He was knighted for his services to Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania, and his friend Mózes Székely. Following his return to England from a life as a soldier of fortune and as a slave, he played an important role in the establishment of the colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America, in the early 17th century. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony between September 1608 and August 1609, and he led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay, during which he became the first English explorer to map the Chesapeake Bay area. Later, he explored and mapped the coast of New England.

21/06/1622

Salomon Schweigger, German theologian (born 1551)

Salomon Schweigger was a German Lutheran theologian, minister, anthropologist and orientalist of the 16th century. He provided insights during his travels in the Balkans, Constantinople and the Middle East, and published a travel book of his exploits. He also published the first German language translation of the Qur'an.

21/06/1621

Louis III, Cardinal of Guise (born 1575)

Louis de Lorraine known as the Cardinal de Guise was the second son of Henry I, Duke of Guise and Catherine of Cleves.

Kryštof Harant, Czech soldier and composer (born 1564)

Kryštof Harant of Polžice and Bezdružice was a nobleman, traveler, humanist, soldier, writer and composer from Bohemia. He joined the Protestant Bohemian Revolt in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown against the House of Habsburg that led to Thirty Years' War. Following the victory of Catholic forces in the Battle of White Mountain, Harant was executed in the mass Old Town Square execution by the Habsburgs.

21/06/1596

Jean Liebault, French agronomist and physician (born 1535)

Jean Liébault was a doctor and agronomist, born in Dijon.

21/06/1591

Aloysius Gonzaga, Italian saint (born 1568)

Aloysius de Gonzaga, SJ was an Italian aristocrat who became a member of the Society of Jesus. While still a student at the Roman College, he died as a result of caring for the victims of a serious epidemic. He was beatified in 1605 and canonized in 1726.

21/06/1585

Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland (born 1532)

Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland, 2nd Baron Percy was an English nobleman and conspirator.

21/06/1582

Oda Nobunaga, Japanese warlord (born 1534)

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese samurai and daimyō and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the Tenka-bito and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demon King of the Sixth Heaven".

21/06/1558

Piero Strozzi, Italian general (born 1510)

Piero Strozzi was an Italian military leader. He was a member of the rich Florentine family of the Strozzi.

21/06/1547

Sebastiano del Piombo, Italian painter and educator (born 1485)

Sebastiano del Piombo was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance and early Mannerist periods, famous as the only major artist of the period to combine the colouring of the Venetian school in which he was trained with the monumental forms of the Roman school. He belongs both to the painting school of his native city, Venice, where he made significant contributions before he left for Rome in 1511, and that of Rome, where he stayed for the rest of his life, and whose style he thoroughly adopted.

21/06/1529

John Skelton, English poet and educator (born 1460)

John Skelton, also known as John Shelton was an English poet, playwright, priest, and tutor to King Henry VIII of England. Writing in a period of linguistic transition between Middle English and Early Modern English, Skelton is one of the most important poets of the early Tudor period. As a poet, Skelton is mostly remembered for his invectives and satires, often written in a highly irregular metre now called Skeltonics. However, Skelton's poetic oeuvre encompasses a wide range of genres, including dream vision, parody, ballad, panegyric, and Latin elegiac. He also wrote the first secular morality play in English, Magnyfycence, an important landmark in the development of English Renaissance theatre.

21/06/1527

Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian historian and author (born 1469)

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian who lived during the Italian Renaissance. He is best known for his political treatise The Prince, written around 1513 but not published until 1532, five years after his death. He has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science.

21/06/1421

Jean Le Maingre, French general (born 1366)

Jean II Le Maingre, also known as Boucicaut, was a French knight and military leader. Renowned for his military skill and embodiment of chivalry, he was made a Marshal of France.

21/06/1377

Edward III of England (born 1312)

Edward III, also known as Edward of Windsor before accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after the disastrous and unorthodox reign of his father, Edward II. Edward III transformed the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe. His fifty-year reign is one of the longest in English history and saw vital developments in legislation and government, in particular the evolution of the English Parliament, as well as the ravages of the Black Death. He outlived his eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, and was succeeded by his grandson, Richard II.

21/06/1359

Erik Magnusson, king of Sweden (born 1339)

Erik Magnusson, sometimes known as Erik XII, was a Swedish prince who was formally elected King of Sweden in 1344. He held no real power before 1356, when he led a rebellion against his father, King Magnus Eriksson, forcing Magnus to divide the kingdom with him. Erik then ruled large parts of Sweden and Scania alongside his father until his sudden death in 1359, possibly from the Black Death.

21/06/1305

Wenceslaus II of Bohemia (born 1271)

Wenceslaus II of Bohemia was King of Bohemia (1278–1305), Duke of Cracow (1291–1305), and King of Poland (1296–1305).

21/06/1208

Philip of Swabia (born 1177)

Philip of Swabia February/March 1177 – 21 June 1208), styled Philip II in his charters, was a member of the House of Hohenstaufen and King of Germany from 1198 until his assassination.

21/06/1171

Walter de Luci, French-English monk (born 1103)

Walter de Luci, Abbot of Battle Abbey, was the brother of Richard de Luci, who was Chief Justiciar of England.

21/06/1040

Fulk III, Count of Anjou (born 972)

Fulk III, known as Fulk the Black or Fulk Nerra, was an early count of Anjou, celebrated as one of the first great builders of medieval castles. It is estimated Fulk constructed approximately 100 castles as well as abbeys throughout the Loire Valley. He fought successive wars with neighbors in Brittany, Blois, Poitou and Aquitaine and made four pilgrimages to Jerusalem during the course of his life. He had two wives and three children.

21/06/0947

Zhang Li, official of the Liao Dynasty

Zhang Li, courtesy name Mengchen (夢臣), was an official of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period state Later Tang, as well as the Khitan state Liao.

21/06/0870

Al-Muhtadi, Muslim caliph

Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn Hārūn ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Muhtadī bi-ʾLlāh, better known by his regnal name al-Muhtadī bi-ʾLlāh, was the Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate from July 869 to June 870, during the "Anarchy at Samarra".

21/06/0868

Ali al-Hadi, the tenth Imam of Shia Islam (born 829)

Ali ibn Muhammad al-Hadi was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the tenth Imam in Twelver Shia, succeeding his father, Muhammad al-Jawad. Born in Medina in 828, Ali is known with the titles al-Hādī and al-Naqī. After the death of his father in 835, most followers of al-Jawad readily accepted the imamate of Ali, who was still a child at the time. Drawing parallels with the story of young Jesus in the Quran, Twelver sources attribute an exceptional innate knowledge to Ali which qualified him for the imamate despite his young age.

21/06/0866

Rodulf, Frankish archbishop

Rodulf was the archbishop of Bourges from 840 until his death. He is remembered as a skillful diplomat and a proponent of ecclesiastical reform. As a saint, his feast has been celebrated on 21 June.

21/06/0532

Emperor Jiemin of Northern Wei, former Northern Wei emperor

Emperor Jiemin of Northern Wei ( 魏節閔帝), also known as Emperor Qianfei (前廢帝), at times referred to by pre-ascension title Prince of Guangling (廣陵王), personal name Yuan Gong (元恭), courtesy name Xiuye (脩業), was an emperor of the Xianbei-led Northern Wei dynasty of China. He became emperor after the clan members of the paramount general Erzhu Rong, after Erzhu Rong was killed by Emperor Xiaozhuang, overthrew Emperor Xiaozhuang. Emperor Jiemin tried to revive order of the Northern Wei state, but with his power curbed by the Erzhus, was not able to accomplish much. After the general Gao Huan defeated the Erzhus in 532, Emperor Jiemin was imprisoned by Gao and subsequently poisoned to death by Emperor Xiaowu, whom Gao made emperor.

Celebrations & Special Days Worldwide on 21st June

Christian feast day: Alban of Mainz

Alban of Mainz was a Catholic priest, missionary, and martyr in the Late Roman Empire. He is venerated as Saint Alban of Mainz in the Catholic Church, not to be confused with Saint Alban of Verulamium.

Christian feast day: Aloysius Gonzaga

Aloysius de Gonzaga, SJ was an Italian aristocrat who became a member of the Society of Jesus. While still a student at the Roman College, he died as a result of caring for the victims of a serious epidemic. He was beatified in 1605 and canonized in 1726.

Christian feast day: Engelmund of Velsen

Saint Engelmund of Velsen was an English-born missionary to Frisia. He was educated in his native country and entered the Benedictine Order. He was ordained a priest and later became an abbot.

Christian feast day: Martin of Tongres

Saint Martin of Tongres is venerated as the seventh bishop of Tongeren. He apostolized the Hesbaye district of Brabant. His feast day is June 21.

Christian feast day: Onesimos Nesib (Lutheran)

Onesimos Nesib was a native Oromo scholar who converted to Lutheran Christianity and translated the Christian Bible into Oromo. His parents named him Hika as a baby, meaning "Translator"; he took the name "Onesimus", after the Biblical character, upon converting to Christianity.

Christian feast day: June 21 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

June 20 - Eastern Orthodox Church calendar - June 22

Day of the Martyrs (Togo)

Public holidays in Togo are days when workers in the Togolese Republic get the day off work.

Father's Day (Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Uganda, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates)

Father's Day is a day set aside for honoring one's father, as well as fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. "Father's Day" complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Mother's Day and, in some countries, Siblings Day, and Grandparents' Day. The day is held on various dates across the world, and different regions maintain their own traditions of honoring fatherhood.

Go Skateboarding Day

Go Skateboarding Day (GSD), observed on the 21st of June, is an event created by Don Brown, formerly IASC Marketing Director and co-created with Per Welinder who wanted a day for the global skate community to all ride together and elevate the energy of skateboarding around the world. International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC).

International Yoga Day (international)

The International Day of Yoga is a day in recognition of Yoga that is celebrated around the world annually on 21 June following its adoption by the United Nations in 2014. As Yoga exercises have shown significant benefits for physical and mental well-being, it was considered important by the UN to globally promote this wellness practice, which originated in ancient India.

National Indigenous Peoples Day (Canada)

National Indigenous Peoples Day is a day recognizing and celebrating the cultures and contributions of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Indigenous peoples of Canada.

Solstice-related observances (see also June 20): Day of Private Reflection (Northern Ireland)

The Day of Private Reflection is a day of remembrance created to acknowledge and reflect upon the conflict in Northern Ireland. It was proposed by Healing Through Remembering, a cross-community organisation devoted to dealing with the legacy of the conflict. The occasion sought to look toward a peaceful future, while reflecting on the violence of the past.

Solstice-related observances (see also June 20): International Surfing Day

International Surfing Day, held annually on the third Saturday of June, is an unofficial, environmentally conscious sports-centered holiday that celebrates the sport of surfing, surfing lifestyle, and the sustainability of ocean resources. Contests and prizes are also part of the celebration, with surfing-related industries donating prizes such as surfboards and wetsuits. Another purpose of the celebration is to promote the popularity of surfing and to attract new participants.

Solstice-related observances (see also June 20): National Day (Greenland)

This is a list of public holidays in Greenland.

Solstice-related observances (see also June 20): We Tripantu, a winter solstice festival in the southern hemisphere. (Mapuche, southern Chile)

Wiñoy Tripantu is the Mapuche celebration that marks the return of the sun, often referred to as the Mapuche New Year. It occurs on the June solstice, which is the shortest day of the year in the Mapuche homeland in the Southern Hemisphere. Sometimes, the term We Tripantu is used interchangeably with Wiñoy Tripantu, but some Mapuche language speakers use We Tripantu for the Gregorian calendar New Year and reserve Wiñoy Tripantu for the June solstice celebration.

Solstice-related observances (see also June 20): Willkakuti, an Andean-Amazonic New Year (Aymara)

Willkakuti, Machaq Mara, Mara T'aqa, Jach'a Laymi or Pacha Kuti is an Aymara celebration in Bolivia, Chile and the Puno Region of Southern Peru which takes place annually on 21 June, commemorating the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere.

Solstice-related observances (see also June 20): Fête de la Musique

The Fête de la Musique, also known in English as Music Day, Make Music Day, or World Music Day, is an annual music celebration which usually takes place in mid-June. On Music Day, citizens and residents are urged to play music outside, in their neighborhoods or in public spaces and parks. Free concerts are also organized, where musicians play for fun; no fees are involved.

World Humanist Day (Humanism)

World Humanist Day is a Humanist holiday celebrated annually around the world on the June solstice, which usually falls on June 21. According to Humanists International, the day is a way of spreading awareness of Humanism as a philosophical life stance and means to effect change in the world. It is also seen as a time for Humanists to gather socially and promote the positive values of Humanism.

World Hydrography Day (international)

World Hydrography Day, 21 June, was adopted by the International Hydrographic Organization as an annual celebration to publicise the work of hydrographers and the importance of hydrography.

What Happened on 21st June?

50 significant events took place on Wednesday, 21st June — stretching from 533 to 2025. Explore the moments that shaped history on this day.

21/06/2025

A hot air balloon catches fire mid-flight and crashes in Praia Grande, Santa Catarina, Brazil, killing 8 of the 21 on board.

A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket, which carries passengers and a source of heat, in most cases an open flame caused by burning liquid propane. The heated air inside the envelope makes it buoyant, since it has a lower density than the colder air outside the envelope. As with all aircraft, hot air balloons cannot fly beyond the atmosphere. The envelope does not have to be sealed at the bottom, since the air inside the envelope is at about the same pressure as the surrounding air. In modern sport balloons the envelope is generally made from nylon fabric, and the inlet of the balloon is made from a fire-resistant material such as Nomex. Modern balloons have been made in many shapes, such as rocket ships and the shapes of various commercial products, though the traditional shape is used for most non-commercial and many commercial applications.

21/06/2012

A 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.

The 2012 Indian Ocean migrant boat disaster occurred on 21 June 2012, when a boat carrying more than 200 refugees capsized in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island of Java and the Australian external territory of Christmas Island. 109 people were rescued, 17 bodies were recovered, and approximately 70 people remain missing. The boat's passengers were all male and were mostly from Afghanistan.

An Indonesian Air Force Fokker F27 Friendship crashes near Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport, killing 11.

The Indonesian Air Force is the aerial branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. The Indonesian Air Force is headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia, and is headed by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Its order of battle is split into three Air Operations Commands. Most of its airbases are located on the island of Java. The Indonesian Air Force also has its ground force unit, called Air Force Quick Reaction Force Command (Korpasgat). The corps is also known as the "Orange Berets" due to the distinctive color of their service headgear.

21/06/2009

Greenland assumes self-rule.

Greenland is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark and is the largest of the kingdom's three constituent parts by land area, the others being Denmark proper and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenland are citizens of Denmark. They are thus citizens of the European Union (EU), although Greenland is not part of the EU. It is the world's largest island and lies between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. It shares a small 1.2-kilometre (0.75 mi) border with Canada on Hans Island. The capital and largest city is Nuuk. Kaffeklubben Island off the northern coast is the world's northernmost undisputed point of land – Cape Morris Jesup on the main island was thought to be so until the 1960s. Economically, Greenland is heavily reliant on aid from Denmark, which has averaged 5.4 billion kr. annually in the period 2019–2023, amounting to more than 20% of the territory's gross domestic product.

21/06/2006

Pluto's newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra.

Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest known trans-Neptunian object by volume by a small margin, but is less massive than Eris. Like other Kuiper belt objects, Pluto is made primarily of ice and rock and is much smaller than the inner planets. Pluto has roughly one-sixth the mass of the Moon and one-third of its volume. Originally considered a planet, its status was changed when astronomers adopted a new definition of the word with new criteria.

A Yeti Airlines de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter crashes at Jumla Airport in Nepal, killing nine people.

Yeti Airlines Pvt. Ltd. is an airline based in Kathmandu, Nepal. The airline was established in May 1998 and received its air operator's certificate on 17 August 1998. Since 2019, Yeti Airlines is the first carbon neutral airline in Nepal and South Asia. It is the parent company of Tara Air. As of 2024, Yeti Airlines is the second-largest domestic carrier in Nepal by passengers carried and third largest by fleet size.

21/06/2005

Edgar 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).

Edgar Ray Killen was an American Ku Klux Klan organizer who planned and directed the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, three civil rights activists participating in the Freedom Summer of 1964. He was found guilty in state court of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005, the forty-first anniversary of the crime, and sentenced to 60 years in prison. He appealed the verdict, but the sentence was upheld on April 12, 2007, by the Supreme Court of Mississippi. He died in prison on January 11, 2018, at age 93.

21/06/2004

SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.

SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with sub-orbital spaceflight capability at speeds of up to 3,000 ft/s (2,000 mph) / 910 m/s (3,300 km/h) using a hybrid rocket motor. The design features a unique "feathering" atmospheric reentry system where the rear half of the wing and the twin tail booms folds 70 degrees upward along a hinge running the length of the wing; this increases drag while retaining stability. SpaceShipOne completed the first crewed private spaceflight in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service. Its mother ship was named "White Knight". Both craft were developed and flown by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which was a joint venture between Paul Allen and Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aviation company. Allen provided the funding of approximately US$25 million.

21/06/2001

A 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.

Alexandria is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River in Northern Virginia, bordering Washington, D.C. to the northeast. The city's population of 159,467 at the 2020 census made it the sixth-most populous city in Virginia and 169th-most populous city in the U.S. Alexandria is a principal city of the Washington metropolitan area, which is part of the larger Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area. Large portions of neighboring Fairfax County have Alexandria mailing addresses, but are administratively distinct from the independent city.

21/06/2000

Section 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.

Section 28 refers to a part of the Local Government Act 1988, which stated that local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship". It is sometimes referred to as Clause 28, or as Section 2A in reference to the relevant Scottish legislation.

21/06/1993

Space 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.

Space Shuttle Endeavour is a retired orbiter from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the fifth and final operational Shuttle built. It embarked on its first mission, STS-49, in May 1992 and its 25th and final mission, STS-134, in May 2011. STS-134 was expected to be the final mission of the Space Shuttle program, but with the authorization of STS-135 by the United States Congress, Atlantis became the last shuttle to fly.

21/06/1989

The 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.

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on questions of U.S. constitutional or federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party". In 1803, the court asserted itself the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law.

21/06/1985

Braathens SAFE Flight 139 is hijacked on approach to Oslo Airport, Fornebu. Special forces arrest the hijacker and there are no fatalities.

Braathens SAFE Flight 139 was an aircraft hijacking that occurred in Norway on 21 June 1985. The incident took place on a Boeing 737-205 belonging to Braathens SAFE that was on a scheduled domestic flight from Trondheim Airport, Værnes to Oslo Airport, Fornebu. The hijacker was Stein Arvid Huseby, who was drunk during most of the incident. It was the first plane hijacking to take place in Norway; there were no deaths and no injuries. Huseby was sentenced to three years' imprisonment and five years' detention.

21/06/1982

John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

John Warnock Hinckley Jr. is an American man who attempted to assassinate U.S. president Ronald Reagan as he left the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1981, two months after Reagan's first inauguration. Using a revolver, Hinckley wounded Reagan, police officer Thomas Delahanty, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and White House Press Secretary James Brady. Brady was left disabled and died 33 years later from his injuries.

21/06/1978

The 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.

Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice is an English songwriter. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Evita; Chess ; Aida ; and, for Disney, Aladdin, The Lion King, and the stage adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. He also wrote lyrics for the Alan Menken musical King David, and for DreamWorks Animation's The Road to El Dorado.

21/06/1973

The Primer Congreso del Hombre Andino is inaugurated in Arica, Chile.

Primer Congreso del Hombre Andino was an academic conference in northern Chile organized by the northern branch of the University of Chile in June 1973. Its subject was the Indigenous societies of the Andean world, be these modern, historical or archaeological. The conference was an important milestone in the development of Andean studies including Andean archaeology and for Chile it marked the maturation of academic studies carried out by scholars based in its northern cities.

In 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.

Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court clarifying the legal definition of obscenity. The ruling was the origin of the three-part judicial test for determining obscene media content that can be banned by government authorities, which is now known as the Miller test.

21/06/1970

Penn Central declares Section 77 bankruptcy in what was the largest U.S. corporate bankruptcy to date.

The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, each of which were united by large-scale service into the New York metropolitan area and to a lesser extent New England and Chicago.

21/06/1964

Three 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.

The civil rights movement was a social movement in the United States from 1954 to 1968 which aimed to abolish legalized racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement in the country, which most commonly affected African Americans. The movement had origins in the Reconstruction era in the late 19th century, and modern roots in the 1940s and in Mohandas Gandhi's nonviolent movement in India. After years of nonviolent protests and civil disobedience campaigns, the civil rights movement achieved many of its legislative goals in the 1960s, during which it secured new protections in federal law for the civil rights of all Americans, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

21/06/1963

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini is elected as Pope Paul VI.

A conclave was held from 19 to 21 June 1963 to elect a new pope to succeed John XXIII, who had died on 3 June 1963. It was the last conclave before the introduction of the current 80-year-old age limit for cardinal electors in 1970, and of the 82 members of the College of Cardinals, all but two attended. On the sixth ballot, the conclave elected Cardinal Giovanni Montini, the archbishop of Milan. After accepting his election, he took the name Paul VI. His coronation on 30 June 1963 was the latest papal coronation to date.

21/06/1957

Ellen Fairclough is sworn in as Canada's first female Cabinet Minister.

Ellen Louks Fairclough was a Canadian politician. A Progressive Conservative member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1950 to 1963, she was the first woman ever to serve in the Canadian Cabinet.

21/06/1952

The Philippine School of Commerce, through a republic act, is converted to Philippine College of Commerce, later to be the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

The Polytechnic University of the Philippines is a public research university in the Philippines with a main campus in Santa Mesa, Manila. It was founded on 19 October 1904, as the Manila Business School (MBS) and as part of Manila's public school system. It was eventually promoted to a chartered state university in 1978, by virtue of Presidential Decree 1341. PUP has more than 20 campuses across Central Luzon, Southern Luzon and Metro Manila. With over 80,000 enrolled students in all campuses, PUP claims to be the largest state university in the Philippines by student population.

21/06/1945

World 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.

The Battle of Okinawa , codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by the United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army. The initial invasion of Okinawa on 1 April 1945 was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The Kerama Islands surrounding Okinawa were preemptively captured on 26 March 1945 by the U.S. Army 77th Infantry Division. The 82-day battle on Okinawa lasted from 1 April 1945 until 22 June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were planning to use Kadena Air Base on the island as a staging point for Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands, 340 mi (550 km) away.

21/06/1942

World War II: Tobruk falls to Italian and German forces; 33,000 Allied troops are taken prisoner.

The Axis capture of Tobruk, also known as the Fall of Tobruk and the Second Battle of Tobruk was part of the Western Desert campaign in Libya during the Second World War. The battle was fought by the Panzerarmee Afrika, a German–Italian military force in North Africa which included the Afrika Korps, against the British Eighth Army which comprised contingents from Britain, India, South Africa and other Allied nations.

World 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.

The Bombardment of Fort Stevens occurred in June 1942, in the American Theater and the Pacific Theater of World War II. The Imperial Japanese submarine I-25 fired on Fort Stevens, which defended the Oregon side of the Columbia River's Pacific entrance.

21/06/1940

World War II: Italy begins an unsuccessful invasion of France.

World War II, or the Second World War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all of the world's countries participated. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, the latter enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the only nuclear weapons used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, causing the death of 60 to 75 million people. Millions died as a result of massacres, starvation, disease, and genocides, including the Holocaust. After the Allied victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and German and Japanese leaders were tried for war crimes.

21/06/1930

One-year conscription comes into force in France.

Conscription, also known as the draft in American English, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day under various names. The modern system of near-universal national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s, where it became the basis of a very large and powerful military. Most European nations later copied the system in peacetime, so that men at a certain age would serve 1 to 8 years on active duty and then transfer to the reserve force. In the early 2000s, Norway and Sweden became the first nations to conscript women on the same legal terms as men. In 2025, Denmark ruled to implement a similar system.

21/06/1929

An agreement brokered by U.S. Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow ends the Cristero War in Mexico.

Dwight Whitney Morrow was an American businessman, diplomat, and politician, best known as the U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 1927 to 1930 who improved bilateral relations, mediating the religious conflict in Mexico known as the Cristero rebellion (1926–29), but also contributing to an easing of conflict between the two countries over oil. The Morrow Mission to Mexico was an "important step in the 'retreat from imperialism." A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the United States senator from New Jersey from 1930 to 1931.

21/06/1921

The Irish village of Knockcroghery was burned by British forces.

Knockcroghery is a village and townland in County Roscommon, Ireland. It is located on the N61 road between Athlone and Roscommon town, near Lough Ree on the River Shannon. The townland of Knockcroghery is in the civil parish of Killinvoy and the historical barony of Athlone North.

21/06/1919

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police fire a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during the Winnipeg general strike.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 provinces and territories, over 150 municipalities, and 600 Indigenous communities. The RCMP is commonly known as the Mounties in English.

Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet at Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed are the last casualties of World War I.

Hans Hermann Ludwig von Reuter was a German admiral who commanded the High Seas Fleet when it was interned at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands at the end of World War I. On 21 June 1919 he ordered the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow to prevent the British from seizing the ships.

21/06/1915

The 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 blacks.

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on questions of U.S. constitutional or federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party". In 1803, the court asserted itself the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law.

21/06/1900

Boxer Rebellion: China formally declares war on the United States, Britain, Germany, France and Japan, as an edict issued from the Empress Dowager Cixi.

The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, Boxer Movement, Yihetuan Movement, or Boxer War, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists. Its members were known as the "Boxers" in English, owing to many of them practicing Chinese martial arts, which at the time were referred to as "Chinese boxing". It was defeated by the Eight-Nation Alliance of foreign powers.

21/06/1898

The 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.

The capture of Guam from Spain by the United States took place in a bloodless engagement during the Spanish–American War. The U.S. Navy sent a single cruiser, USS Charleston, to capture the island of Guam, which was under Spanish control. The Spanish garrison on the island had no knowledge of the war and no real ability to resist the American forces. They surrendered without resistance, and the island passed into American control. The event was the only conflict of the Spanish–American War on Guam.

21/06/1864

American Civil War: The Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road begins.

The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war ended with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery, freeing four million African Americans.

21/06/1848

In the Wallachian Revolution, Ion Heliade Rădulescu and Christian Tell issue the Proclamation of Islaz and create a new republican government.

The Wallachian Revolution of 1848 was a Romanian liberal and nationalist uprising in the Principality of Wallachia. Part of the Revolutions of 1848, and closely connected with the unsuccessful revolt in the Principality of Moldavia, it sought to overturn the administration imposed by Imperial Russian authorities under the Regulamentul Organic regime, and, through many of its leaders, demanded the abolition of boyar privilege. Led by a group of young intellectuals and officers in the Wallachian Militia, the movement succeeded in toppling the ruling Prince Gheorghe Bibescu, whom it replaced with a provisional government and a regency, and in passing a series of major progressive reforms, announced in the Proclamation of Islaz.

21/06/1826

Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas.

The Maniots or Maniates is the traditional name for the native Greek inhabitants of the Mani Peninsula in the southern Peloponnese region of Greece. They have historically been known as Mainotes, and the peninsula as Maina.

21/06/1824

Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces capture Psara in the Aegean Sea.

The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence fought by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire from 1821 to 1829. In 1826, the Greeks were assisted by the British Empire, the Kingdom of France, and the Russian Empire, while the Ottomans were aided by their vassals, especially by the Eyalet of Egypt. The war led to the formation of modern Greece, which in subsequent years would be expanded to its current size. The revolution is commemorated by the Greek diaspora as independence day on 25 March.

21/06/1813

Peninsular War: Wellington defeats Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Vitoria.

The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by the Iberian nations Spain and Portugal, along with the United Kingdom, against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, it is considered to overlap with the Spanish War of Independence. It overlapped with the War of the Fifth Coalition (1809) and the War of the Sixth Coalition (1812–1814).

21/06/1798

Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeats Irish rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill.

The Irish Rebellion of 1798 was a popular insurrection against the British Crown in what was then the separate, but subordinate, Kingdom of Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen. First formed in Belfast by Presbyterians opposed to the landed Anglican establishment, the Society, despairing of reform, sought to secure a republic through a revolutionary union with the country's Catholic majority. The grievances of a rack-rented tenantry drove recruitment.

21/06/1791

King Louis XVI and his immediate family begin the Flight to Varennes during the French Revolution.

Louis XVI was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France, and Maria Josepha of Saxony, Louis became the new Dauphin when his father died in 1765. In 1770, he married Marie Antoinette. He became King of France and Navarre on his paternal grandfather's death on 10 May 1774, and reigned until the abolition of the monarchy on 21 September 1792. From 1791 onwards, he used the style of king of the French.

21/06/1788

New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Of the 50 U.S. states, New Hampshire is the seventh-smallest by land area and the tenth-least populous, with a population of 1,377,529 residents as of the 2020 census. Concord is the state capital and Manchester is the most populous city. New Hampshire's motto, "Live Free or Die", reflects its role in the American Revolutionary War; its nickname, "The Granite State", refers to its extensive granite formations and quarries. It is well known for holding the first primary in the U.S. presidential election cycle, and its resulting influence on American electoral politics.

21/06/1768

James Otis Jr. offends the King and Parliament in a speech to the Massachusetts General Court.

James Otis Jr. was an American lawyer, politician, and activist who was an early supporter of patriotic causes in the Province of Massachusetts Bay at the beginning of the American Revolution. Otis was a fervent opponent of the writs of assistance introduced in 1761 which allowed law enforcement officials to search private property without cause. He later criticized British plans to introduce new taxes in the Thirteen Colonies. As a result, Otis is often credited with coining the slogan "taxation without representation is tyranny".

21/06/1749

Halifax, Nova Scotia, is founded.

Halifax, officially the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), is the capital and most populous municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. It consists of four former municipalities that were amalgamated in 1996: Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford, and Halifax County.

21/06/1734

In 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.

Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest in Canada, and the eighth-largest in North America. Founded in 1642 as Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", it now takes its name from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked mountain around which the early settlement was built. The city is centred on the Island of Montreal and a few, much smaller, peripheral islands, the largest of which is Île Bizard. It lies 196 kilometres (122 mi) east of the national capital, Ottawa, and 258 kilometres (160 mi) southwest of the provincial capital, Quebec City.

21/06/1621

Execution of 27 Czech noblemen on the Old Town Square in Prague as a consequence of the Battle of White Mountain.

Old Town Square execution was the execution of 27 Bohemian leaders of the Bohemian Revolt by the Austrian House of Habsburg that took place on 21 June 1621 at the Old Town Square in Prague.

21/06/1582

Sengoku period: Oda Nobunaga, the most powerful of the Japanese daimyōs, is forced to commit suicide by his own general Akechi Mitsuhide.

The Sengoku period was the period in Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or Meiō incident (1493) are generally chosen as the period's start date, but there are many competing historiographies for its end date, ranging from 1568, the date of Oda Nobunaga's march on Kyoto, to the suppression of the Shimabara Rebellion in 1638, deep into what was traditionally considered the Edo period. Regardless of the dates chosen, the Sengoku period overlaps substantially with the Muromachi period (1336–1573).

21/06/1529

French forces are driven out of northern Italy by Spain at the Battle of Landriano during the War of the League of Cognac.

The Kingdom of France is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe from the High Middle Ages to 1848 during its dissolution. It was also an early colonial power, with colonies in Asia and Africa, and the largest being New France in North America geographically centred on the Great Lakes. In the 16th to the 18th centuries, the French colonial empire stretched from a total area at its peak in 1680 to over 10 million square kilometres, the second-largest empire in the world at the time behind the Spanish Empire.

21/06/1307

Külüg Khan is enthroned as Khagan of the Mongols and Wuzong of the Yuan.

Külüg Khan, born Khayishan, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Wuzong of Yuan, was an emperor of the Yuan dynasty of China. Apart from being the Emperor of China, he is regarded as the seventh Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, although it was only nominal due to the division of the empire. His regnal name "Külüg Khan" means "warrior Khan" or "fine horse Khan" in the Mongolian language.

21/06/0533

A Byzantine expeditionary fleet under Belisarios sails from Constantinople to attack the Vandals in Africa, via Greece and Sicily.

Flavius Belisarius was a military commander of the Byzantine Empire under Emperor Justinian I. Belisarius was instrumental in the reconquest of much of the Mediterranean territory belonging to the former Western Roman Empire, which had been lost less than a century prior. He is considered one of the greatest military commanders of Byzantium and in history generally.

On this day

World Music Day

International Day of Yoga

World Giraffe Day

What the Weather Had in Store for London on 21st June 2025

21st June in the Stars – Star Sign Cancer

Personality Profile

Fun Facts About 21st June

Famous Birthdays on 21st June

Lil Bub, American celebrity cat (died 2019)

Nanou Philips, Belgian ASMR social media personality

Alexandra Obolentseva, Russian chess player

Dylan Brown, New Zealand rugby league player

Ky Rodwell, Australian rugby league player

Isabel Atkin, British-American freestyle skier

Rebecca Black, American singer-songwriter

Derrius Guice, American football player

Tyrone May, Australian rugby league player

Scottie Scheffler, American golfer

Başak Eraydın, Turkish tennis player

Hungrybox, Argentine-American esports player

MAX, American singer, songwriter, actor, dancer and model

Hussein El Shahat, Egyptian professional footballer

Gaël Kakuta, French footballer

Lee Min-young, South Korean singer-songwriter, actress, and entertainer

Ričardas Berankis, Lithuanian tennis player

Sergei Matsenko, Russian chess player

François Moubandje, Swiss footballer

Håvard Nordtveit, Norwegian footballer

Isabel Pires, Portuguese politician

Abubaker Kaki, Sudanese runner

Allyssa DeHaan, American basketball and volleyball player

Alejandro Ramírez, American chess player

Paolo Tornaghi, Italian footballer

Thaddeus Young, American basketball player

Pablo Barrera, Mexican footballer

Sebastian Prödl, Austrian footballer

Dale Thomas, Australian footballer

Kim Ryeo-wook, South Korean singer

Kathleen O'Kelly-Kennedy, Australian wheelchair basketball player

Hideaki Wakui, Japanese baseball player

Kris Allen, American musician, singer and songwriter

Lana Del Rey, American singer-songwriter

Sentayehu Ejigu, Ethiopian runner

Byron Schammer, Australian footballer

Edward Snowden, American activist and academic

Lee Dae-ho, South Korean baseball player

William, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the British throne

Jussie Smollett, American actor and singer

Yann Danis, Canadian ice hockey player

Garrett Jones, American baseball player

Brandon Flowers, American singer-songwriter

Brad Walker, American pole vaulter

Michael Crocker, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster

Łukasz Cyborowski, Polish chess player

Richard Jefferson, American basketball player

Sendy Rleal, Dominican baseball player

Kostas Katsouranis, Greek footballer

Chris Pratt, American actor

Thomas Blondeau, Flemish writer (died 2013)

Matt Kuchar, American golfer

Cristiano Lupatelli, Italian footballer

Dejan Ognjanović, Montenegrin footballer

Rim'K, French rapper

Michael Gomez, Irish boxer

Al Wilson, American football player

Shelley Craft, Australian television host

Mike Einziger, American guitarist and songwriter

Nigel Lappin, Australian footballer and coach

Brian Simmons, American football player

Rob Kelly, American football player

Craig Lowndes, Australian race car driver

Flavio Roma, Italian footballer

Juliette Lewis, American actress and singer-songwriter

John Mitchell, English guitarist, vocalist and songwriter

Nobuharu Asahara, Japanese sprinter and long jumper

Neil Doak, Northern Irish cricketer and rugby player

Irene van Dyk, South African-New Zealand netball player

Tomáš Valášek, Slovak diplomat and politician

Tyronne Drakeford, American football player