17 June

Notable Births

Rizki Juniansyah

b. 2003

Indonesian weightlifter (born 2003)

Odessa A'zion

b. 2000

American-German actress (born 2000)

Elena Rybakina

b. 1999

Kazakhstani tennis player (born 1999)

KJ Apa

b. 1997

New Zealand actor (born 1997)

Raluca Șerban

b. 1997

Romanian-Cypriot female tennis player (born 1997)

Clément Lenglet

b. 1995

French footballer (born 1995)

Amari Cooper

b. 1994

American football player (born 1994)

Nikita Kucherov

b. 1993

Russian ice hockey player (born 1993)

Daniel Tupou

b. 1991

Australia & Tonga international rugby league footballer

Jordan Henderson

b. 1990

English footballer (born 1990)

Josh Mansour

b. 1990

Lebanon and Australia international rugby league footballer

Simone Battle

b. 1989

American singer (1989–2014)

Andrew Ogilvy

b. 1988

Australian professional basketball player (born 1988)

Shaun MacDonald (footballer, born 1988)

b. 1988

Welsh footballer

Stephanie Rice

b. 1988

Australian swimmer (born 1988)

Kendrick Lamar

b. 1987

American rapper and songwriter (born 1987)

Apoula Edel

b. 1986

Armenian footballer

Shane Watson

b. 1981

Australian cricketer (born 1981)

Harry Browne

b. 1933

American writer and politician (1933–2006)

Alexander Shulgin

b. 1925

American chemist and recreational drug explorer (1925–2014)

Notable Deaths

Kenneth Kaunda

d. 2021

1st President of Zambia, 1964-1991

Jean Kennedy Smith

d. 2020

American diplomat (1928–2020)

Gloria Vanderbilt

d. 2019

American artist, author, actress, and designer (1924–2019)

Mohamed Morsi

d. 2019

President of Egypt from 2012 to 2013

Baldwin Lonsdale

d. 2017

President of Vanuatu from 2014 to 2017

Ron Clarke

d. 2015

Australian long-distance runner (1937–2015)

John David Crow

d. 2015

American football player, coach, and administrator (1935–2015)

Süleyman Demirel

d. 2015

President of Turkey from 1993 to 2000

Roberto Marcelo Levingston

d. 2015

President of Argentina from 1970 to 1971

Clementa C. Pinckney

d. 2015

American politician and pastor (1973–2015)

Patsy Byrne

d. 2014

British actress (1933–2014)

Éric Dewailly

d. 2014

Arnold S. Relman

d. 2014

American internist, professor and journal editor (1923–2014)

Bulbs Ehlers

d. 2013

American basketball, football, and baseball player

James Holshouser

d. 2013

American politician (1934–2013)

Rodney King

d. 2012

Black American victim of police brutality (1965–2012)

Patricia Brown (baseball)

d. 2012

American baseball player

Ralf Dahrendorf

d. 2009

German-British sociologist and politician (1929–2009)

Darrell Powers

d. 2009

US Army non-commissioned officer (1923–2009)

Kate Smith

d. 1986

American contralto (1907–1986)

On This Day in History

All 58 ›

2021

Juneteenth National Independence Day, was signed into law by President Joe Biden, to become the first federal holiday established since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

Juneteenth

2017

A series of wildfires in central Portugal kill at least 64 people and injure 204 others.

June 2017 Portugal wildfires

2015

Nine people are killed in a mass shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Charleston church shooting

1994

Following a televised low-speed highway chase, O. J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

O. J. Simpson

1992

A "joint understanding" agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. president George Bush and Russian president Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II).

George H. W. Bush

1991

Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act which required racial classification of all South Africans at birth.

Apartheid

1989

Interflug Flight 102 crashes during a rejected takeoff from Berlin Schönefeld Airport, killing 21 people.

Interflug Flight 102

1987

With the death of the last individual of the species, the dusky seaside sparrow becomes extinct.

Dusky seaside sparrow

1985

Space Shuttle program: STS-51-G mission: Space Shuttle Discovery launches carrying Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the first Arab and first Muslim in space, as a payload specialist.

Space Shuttle program

1972

Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee during an attempt by members of the administration of President Richard M. Nixon to illegally wiretap the political opposition as part of a broader campaign to subvert the democratic process.

Watergate scandal

1971

U.S. president Richard Nixon in a televised press conference called drug abuse "America's public enemy number one", starting the war on drugs.

Richard Nixon

1967

Nuclear weapons testing: China announces a successful test of its first thermonuclear weapon.

Nuclear weapons testing

1963

The United States Supreme Court rules 8–1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against requiring the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools.

Supreme Court of the United States

1963

A day after South Vietnamese president Ngô Đình Diệm announced the Joint Communiqué to end the Buddhist crisis, a riot involving around 2,000 people breaks out. One person is killed.

List of leaders of South Vietnam

1960

The Nez Perce tribe is awarded $4 million for 7 million acres (28,000 km2) of land undervalued at four cents/acre in the 1863 treaty.

Nez Perce

1958

The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing, in the process of being built to connect Vancouver and North Vancouver (Canada), collapses into the Burrard Inlet killing 18 ironworkers and injuring others.

Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing