June 18

2024 Calendar

June 18 is the 169th day of the year (170th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 196 days remaining until the end of the year.

Events

Up to 1900

618 – Tang Dynasty rule begins in China, with the accession of Emperor Gaozu of Tang (Li Yuan).
1053 – Battle of Civitate: 3,000 horsemen of Norman Count Humphrey of Hauteville heavily defeat the troops of Pope Leo IX.
1264 – The Parliament of Ireland meets at Castledermot in County Kildare, as the first known meeting of an Irish legislature.
1429 – French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the English army under John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay, helping to turn the tide in the Hundred Years' War.
1633 – Charles I is crowned King of Scots at Saint Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.
1757 – Battle of Polin: Between the Prussians under Frederick the Great and the Austrians in the Seven Years' War.
1767 – English captain Samuel Wallis sights Tahiti, possibly being the first European to sight the island in present-day French Polynesia.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: British troops abandon Philadelphia.
1812 – The United States declares war on the United Kingdom, starting the War of 1812.
1815 – Battle of Waterloo: British, Russian and Prussian forces defeat a French army led by Napoleon Bonaparte.
1830 – The French colonisation of Algeria begins.
1858 – Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace with almost-identical conclusions about Evolution.
1859 – First successful climb of the Aletschhorn mountain in the Swiss Alps.
1873 – Susan B. Anthony is fined for her attempt to vote in the 1872 US Presidential Election.
1897 – Kyoto University is founded.
1900 – Empress Dowager Longyu of China orders that all foreigners be killed.

1901 – 2000

1908 – Japanese immigration to Brazil begins.
1908 – The University of the Philippines is founded.
1928 – As a passenger, Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, from Newfoundland to Wales. Her pilot was Wilmer Shutz and Lou Gordon was her mechanic.
1928 – Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen goes missing on a rescue mission in the Arctic Ocean. His plane is most likely to have crashed near Svalbard.
1932 – FIBA, the world's governing authority on basketball, is founded in Geneva, Switzerland.
1940 – Charles de Gaulle makes the appeal of June 18th, calling on the French to resist the Nazis.
1940 – Winston Churchill makes his famous "Finest Hour" speech, to raise the spirits of the British people during World War II.
1945 – William Joyce is charged with treason for his pro-German propaganda during World War II.
1946 – Italy is formally proclaimed a Republic after a referendum on June 2 when a majority of voters chose not to have the monarchy.
1953 – Egypt becomes a Republic.
1953 – A US Air Force C-124 plane crashes and burns in Tokyo, Japan, killing 129 people.
1954 – Pierre Mendès-France becomes Prime Minister of France.
1965 – The US uses B-52 bombers to attack National Liberation Front guerrillas in South Vietnam.
1972 – The Staines Air Disaster occurs near London Heathrow Airport.
1979 – US President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign the SALT II arms reduction treaty in Vienna.
1981 – The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk, the first operational aircraft initially designed around stealth technology, makes its first flight.
1981 – The Treaty of Basseterre is signed, creating the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States.
1982 – After defeat in the Falklands War, Argentine military leader Leopoldo Gualtieri resigns from office.
1983 – Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.
1983 – Iranian teenager Mona Mahmudnizhad and 9 other women are executed for their membership of the Baha'i faith.
1994 – The Troubles: Members of the Ulster Volunteer Force attack a crowded bar in Loughinisland, Northern Ireland with assault rifles, killing 6 people.
1996 – Ted Kaczynski, the suspected Unabomber, is indicted on ten criminal counts.
2000 – Ethiopia and Eritrea sign an agreement to end their border war.

From 2001

2006 – Kazakhstan launches its first space satellite, KazSat.
2007 – The Charleston Sofa Super Store fire in Charleston, South Carolina kills 9 firefighters.
2009 – The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a NASA robotic spacecraft, is launched.
2010 – The US' first execution by firing squad in 14 years occurs in the state of Utah.
2014 – 2014 FIFA World Cup: The Spain national football team, defending champion, is knocked out at the group stage by the Chile national football team. Four years earlier, then-defending champion, the Italy national football team, also got knocked out at this stage.

Births

Up to 1900

1269 – Eleanor of England, Countess of Bar (d. 1298)
1318 – Princess Eleanor of Woodstock (d. 1355)
1466 – Ottaviano Petrucci, Italian printer (d. 1539)
1511 – Bartolomeo Ammanati, Italian architect and sculptor (d. 1892)
1517 – Emperor Ogimachi of Japan (d. 1593)
1667 – Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshal (d. 1750)
1673 – Antonio de Libres, Spanish composer (d. 1747)
1677 – Antonio Maria Bononcini, Italian cellist and composer (d. 1726)
1757 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas, Argentine political leader (d. 1833)
1757 – Ignaz Pleyel, Austrian-French composer and piano manufacturer (d. 1831)
1769 – Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, Anglo-Irish politician (d. 1822
1799 – William Lassell, English astronomer (d. 1880)
1799 – Prosper Menière, French physician (d. 1862)
1812 – Ivan Goncharov, Russian writer (d. 1891)
1816 – Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte, daughter of Napoleon (d. 1907)
1816 – Jung Bahadur Rana, Nepali ruler (d. 1877)
1839 – William H. Seward Jr., Union Brigadier General in the American Civil War (d. 1920)
1845 – Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, French doctor, won the 1907 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1922)
1845 – Gustav Storm, Norwegian historian, writer and professor (d. 1903)
1850 – Richard Heuberger, Austrian composer and critic (d. 1914)
1857 – Henry Clay Folger, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1930)
1868 – Miklós Horthy, Hungarian regent (d. 1957)
1870 – Edouard Le Roy, French philosopher and mathematician (d. 1954)
1874 – George Tupou II, King of Tonga (d. 1918)
1877 – James Montgomery Flagg, American painter and illustrator (d. 1960)
1882 – Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgarian Communist leader (d. 1949)
1883 – Mary Alden, American actress (d. 1946)
1884 – Edouard Daladier, French politician (d. 1970)
1886 – George Mallory, English mountaineer (d. 1924)
1886 – Alexander Wetmore, American ornithologist and paleontologist (d. 1978)
1891 – Mae Busch, Australian-American actress (d. 1946)
1896 – Blanche Sweet, American actress (d. 1986)
1897 – Martti Marttelin, Finnish long-distance runner (d. 1940)

1901 – 1950

1901 – Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
1902 – Boris Barnet, Soviet movie director, actor and boxer (d. 1965)
1903 – Jeanette McDonald, American actress and singer (d. 1965)
1903 – Raymond Radiguet, French novelist and poet (d. 1923)
1904 – Manuel Rosenthal, French conductor and composer (d. 2003)
1907 – Frithjof Schuon, Swiss-American metaphysicist, philosopher and author (d. 1998)
1910 – Ray McKinley, American musician (d. 1995)
1912 – Glenn Morris, American decathlete and actor (d. 1974)
1913 – Robert Mondavi, American winemaker (d. 2008)
1915 – Red Adair, American firefighter (d. 2004)
1916 – Julio César Turbay Ayala, 25th President of Colombia (d. 2005)
1917 – Erik Ortvad, Danish painter (d. 2008)
1917 – Richard Boone, American actor (d. 1981)
1918 – Jerome Karle, American chemist (d. 2013)
1918 – Franco Modigliani, Italian economist (d. 2003)
1920 – Lode van den Bergh, Belgian writer
1922 – Claude Helffer, French pianist (d. 2004)
1922 – Donald Keene, Japanese and American scholor and expert of Japan studies (d. 2019)
1923 – Veronica Carstens, First Lady of Germany (d. 2012)
1923 – Szymon Szurmiej, Polish actor and director (d. 2014)
1924 – George Mikan, American basketball player (d. 2005)
1925 – Robert Arthur, American actor (d. 2008)
1927 – Eva Bartok, Hungarian-American actress (d. 1998)
1929 – Jürgen Habermas, German sociologist and philosopher
1929 – Ann Mara, American businesswoman (d. 2015)
1929 – Tibor Rubin, Hungarian-American soldier (d. 2015)
1931 – Fernando Henrique Cardoso, 34th President of Brazil, 1995-2003
1932 – Dudley R. Herschbach, American chemist
1932 – Geoffrey Hill, English poet (d. 2016)
1936 – Denny Hulme, New Zealand racing driver (d. 1992)
1936 – Barack Obama, Sr. (d. 1982), Kenyan father of Barack Obama
1936 – Norodom Monineath, Cambodian Queen Mother
1936 – Ronald Venetiaan, former President of Suriname
1937 – Vitaly Zholobov, Soviet cosmonaut
1937 – Jay Rockefeller, American politician
1939 – Jack Herer, American writer and activist (d. 2010)
1940 – Mirjam Pressler, German writer (d. 2019)
1941 – Delia Smith, British cookery writer
1941 – Roger Lemerre, French footballer and manager
1942 – Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa
1942 – Roger Ebert, American movie critic (d. 2013)
1942 – Sir Paul McCartney, English singer-songwriter and musician (The Beatles)
1942 – Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor (d. 2004)
1942 – Carl Radle, American bass player and producer
1943 – Raffaella Carra, Italian singer, dancer and actress
1944 – Salvador Sánchez Cerén, President of El Salvador
1946 – Maria Bethania, Brazilian singer
1946 – Fabio Capello, Italian football manager
1947 – Bernard Giraudeau, French actor, director and writer (d. 2010)
1949 – Jaroslaw Kaczynski, former Prime Minister of Poland
1949 – Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland (d. 2010)
1949 – Lincoln Thompson, Jamaican singer, songwriter and musician (d. 1999)
1950 – Annelie Ehrhardt, German athlete
1950 – Rod de'Ath, Welsh drummer (d. 2014)
1950 – Mike Johanns, 38th Governor of Nebraska

1951 – 1975

1951 – Jerry McNerney, American politician
1951 – Gyula Sax, Hungarian chess player (d. 2014)
1952 – John Carl Buechler, American visual effects artist and film director (d. 2019)
1952 – Isabella Rossellini, Italian actress
1952 – Marcella Bella, Italian singer
1952 – Denis Herron, Canadian ice hockey player
1952 – Lee Soo-man, South Korean businessman
1953 – Sandy Allen, American, world's tallest woman (d. 2008)
1953 – Vladislav Terzyul, Ukrainian mountaineer (d. 2004)
1954 – Tinna Gunnlaugsdottir, Icelandic actress
1955 – Misia, Portuguese singer
1957 – Andrea Evans, American actress
1957 – Miguel Angel Lotina, Spanish footballer
1957 – Irene Epple, German skier
1958 – Peter Altmaier, German politician
1961 – Alison Moyet, British singer
1962 – Mitsuharu Misawa, Japanese wrestler (d. 2009)
1964 – Uday Hussein, son of Saddam Hussein (d. 2003)
1965 – Robin Christopher, American actress
1970 – Ivan Kozak, Slovakian footballer
1970 – Katie Derham, English broadcaster
1971 – Nigel Owens, Welsh rugby referee
1971 – Jason McAteer, English-Irish footballer and manager
1971 – Gaute Kivistik, Estonian journalist and author
1972 – Anu Tali, Estonian pianist and conductor
1973 – Julie Depardieu, French actress
1973 – Ray LaMontagne, American singer-songwriter and musician
1973 – Alexandros Papadimitriou, Greek hammer thrower
1974 – Vincenzo Montella, Italian footballer
1974 – Sergey Sharikov, Russian fencer
1975 – Jem, Welsh singer-songwriter and producer
1975 – Jamel Debbouze, French-Moroccan actor and producer

From 1976

1976 – Alana de la Garza, American actress
1976 – Blake Shelton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1978 – Wang Liqin, Chinese table tennis player
1978 – Lilia Kopylova, Russian-English professional dancer
1979 – Yumiko Kobayashi, Japanese voice actress
1980 – Kevin Bishop, English actor and comedian
1981 – Marco Streller, Swiss footballer
1982 – Nadir Belhadj, Algerian footballer
1982 – Marco Borriello, Italian footballer
1984 – Janne Happonen, Finnish ski jumper
1986 – Richard Gasquet, French tennis player
1986 – Richard Madden, Scottish actor
1987 – Omar Arellano, Mexican footballer
1987 – Melanie Iglesias, American model and actress
1987 – Marcelo Martins Moreno, Bolivian footballer
1988 – Elini Dimoutsos, Greek footballer
1988 – Islam Slimani, Algerian footballer
1988 – Josh Dun, American musician (Twenty One Pilots)
1989 – Renee Olstead, American actress and singer
1989 – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Gabonese footballer
1990 – Luke Adam, Canadian ice hockey player
1990 – Sandra Izbasa, Romanian gymnast
1991 – Rei Okamoto, Japanese model and actress
1997 – Max Records, American actor
2006 – Countess Zaria of Orange-Nassau, Jonkrouwe van Amsberg, Dutch royal

Deaths

Up to 1950

741 – Leo III the Issaurian, Byzantine Emperor (b. 685)
1234 – Emperor Chukyo of Japan (b. 1218)
1291 – King Alfonso III of Aragon (b. 1265)
1464 – Rogier van der Weyden, Flemish painter (b. 1400)
1629 – Piet Hein, Dutch naval commander (b. 1577)
1650 – Christoph Scheiner, German astronomer (b. 1575)
1673 – Jeanne Mance, French settler in New France, present-day Quebec (b. 1606)
1680 – Samuel Butler, English poet (b. 1612)
1726 – Michel Richard Delalande, French organist and composer (b. 1657)
1742 – John Aislabie, English politician (b. 1670)
1749 – Ambrose Philips, English poet (b. 1674)
1772 – Johann Ulrich von Cramer, German jurist and philosopher (b. 1706)
1794 – François Nicolas Léonard Buzet, French revolutionary figure (b. 1760)
1815 – Thomas Picton, British general (b. 1758)
1886 – Prince Sigismund of Prussia (b. 1864)
1902 – Samuel Butler, English writer (b. 1835)
1905 – Carmine Crocco, Italian soldier (b. 1830)
1915 – Eufemio Zapata, brother of Emiliano Zapata (b. 1873)
1916 – Max Immelmann, German flying ace (b. 1890)
1917 – Tito Maiorescu, Romanian Prime Minister (b. 1840)
1922 – Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (b. 1851)
1928 – Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer (b. 1872)
1929 – Carlo Airoldi, Italian marathon runner (b. 1869)
1936 – Maxim Gorky, Russian writer (b. 1868)
1937 – Gaston Doumergue, French politician (b. 1863)
1942 – Arthur Pryor, American trombonist and bandleader (b. 1870)
1945 – Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., American general (b. 1886)
1947 – Shigematsu Sakaibara, Japanese admiral (b. 1898)

1951 – 2010

1959 – Ethel Barrymore, American actress (b. 1879)
1963 – Pedro Armendariz, Mexican actor (b. 1912)
1967 – Beat Fehr, Swiss racing driver (b. 1942)
1967 – Geki, Italian racing driver (b. 1942)
1971 – Paul Karrer, Swiss chemist (b. 1889)
1974 – Georgy Zhukov, Marshal of the Soviet Union (b. 1896)
1978 – Walter C. Alvarez, American physician (b. 1884)
1980 – André Leducq, French cyclist (b. 1904)
1982 – Djuna Barnes, American writer (b. 1892)
1983 – Mona Mahmudnizhad, Iranian Baha'i
1986 – Frances Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (b. 1921)
1989 – I. F. Stone, American journalist (b. 1907)
1992 – Mordecai Ardon, Israeli painter (b. 1896)
1997 – Lev Kopelev, Russian writer and dissident (b. 1912)
2006 – Vincent Sherman, American actor and director (b. 1906)
2007 – Bernard Manning, English comedian (b. 1930)
2007 – Hank Medress, American singer (The Tokens) (b. 1938)
2008 – Jean Delannoy, French movie director and producer (b. 1908)
2010 – José Saramago, Portuguese writer (b. 1922)
2010 – Marcel Bigeard, French military officer (b. 1916)

From 2011

2011 – Frederick Chiluba, 2nd President of Zambia (b. 1943)
2011 – Yelena Bonner, Russian human rights activist (b. 1923)
2011 – Ulrich Biesinger, German footballer (b. 1934)
2011 – Clarence Clemons, American musician and actor (b. 1942)
2012 – Luis Edgardo Mercado Jarrin, 109th Prime Minister of Peru (b. 1919)
2013 – Michael Hastings, American journalist (b. 1980)
2014 – Claire Martin, Canadian author (b. 1914)
2014 – Vladimir Popovkin, Russian general, Director of the Russian Federal Space Agency (b. 1957)
2014 – Horace Silver, American jazz musician and composer (b. 1928)
2014 – Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist, invented Kevlar (b. 1923)
2014 – Johnny Mann, American musician, composer, conductor and entertainer (b. 1928)
2015 – Ralph J. Roberts, American businessman (b. 1920)
2015 – Jack Rollins, American movie producer (b. 1915)
2015 – Allen Weinstein, American historian (b. 1937)
2015 – Patrick Eisdell Moore, New Zealand surgeon (b. 1928)
2016 – Vittorio Merloni, Italian entrepreneur (b. 1933)
2016 – Paul Cox, Dutch-Australian film director (b. 1940)
2016 – Sverre Kjelsberg, Norwegian musician (b. 1946)
2016 – William J. Livsey, American army general (b. 1931)
2016 – Wu Jianmin, Chinese diplomat (b. 1939)
2017 – Pierluigi Chicca, Italian fencer (b. 1937)
2017 – Tim Hague, Canadian mixed martial artist (b. 1983)
2017 – Tony Liscio, American football player (b. 1940)
2017 – Shih Chun-jen, Taiwanese neurosurgeon (b. 1923)
2017 – Hans Breder, German-American artist (b. 1935)
2017 – Keith Farnham, American politician (b. 1947)
2018 – Walter Bahr, American soccer player (b. 1927)
2018 – Kostas Politis, Greek basketball player (b. 1942)
2018 – XXXTentacion, American rapper (b. 1998)
2018 – Big Van Vader, American professional wrestler (b. 1955)
2018 – Bertha Sanseverino, Uruguayan politician (b. 1946)
2018 – Nathan Shaham, Israeli writer (b. 1925)
2019 – Stephen Blaire, American bishop (b. 1941)
2020 – Tibor Benedek, Hungarian water polo player (b. 1972)
2020 – John Bredenkamp, Zimbabwean rugby union player and businessman (b. 1940)
2020 – Dame Vera Lynn, British singer and actress (b. 1917)

Observances

Autistic Pride Day
Evacuation Day (Egypt)
International Sushi Day
National Day (Seychelles)