June 26

Events363 - Roman Emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire. General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by the troops on the battlefield.684 - Benedict II becomes Pope.1284 - According to legend, the Pied Piper lures 130 children of Hamelin away.1409 - Western Schism: The Roman Catholic church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.1483 - Richard III becomes king of England.1541 - Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima by the son of his former companion and later antagonist, Diego Almagro the younger. Diego is later caught and executed.1718 - Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich of Russia, Peter the Great's son, mysteriously dies after being sentenced to death by his father for plotting against him. 1723 - After a lasting siege and firing from the cannons Baku surrendered to  Russians.1807 - Lightning hits a warehouse in Luxembourg, killing 230 people.1819 - The bicycle is patented.1848 - End of the June Days Uprising in Paris.1857 - The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London.1870 - The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.1918 - World War I Western Front: Battle for Belleau Wood - Allied Forces under John J. Pershing & James Harbord defeat Imperial German Forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince.1924 - American occupying forces leave the Dominican Republic.1934 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act, which establishes credit unions.1934 - Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.1940 - World War II: Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and northern part of Bukovina. 1945 - The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.1948 - The Western allies start an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union has blockaded West Berlin.1948 - William Shockley filed the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.1959 - The Saint Lawrence Seaway opens, opening North America's Great Lakes to ocean-going ships.1960 - Former British Protectorate of Somaliland British Somaliland gains its independence1963 - John F. Kennedy speaks the famous words "Ich bin ein Berliner" on a visit to West Berlin. 1973 - On Plesetsk Cosmodrome 9 people are killed in an explosion of a Cosmos 3-M rocket.1974 - The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio1975 - Indira Gandhi establishes authoritarian rule in India.1975 - Two FBI agents and a member of the American Indian Movement are killed in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; Leonard Peltier is later convicted of the murders in a controversial trial.1976 - The CN Tower, the tallest free-standing structure on land in the world, was opened.1977 - The Yorkshire Ripper kills 16 year old shop assistant Jayne MacDonald in Leeds, changing public perception of the killer as she was the first victim who was not a prostitute.1978 - Air Canada Flight 189 to Toronto overran the runway and crashed into the Etobicoke Creek ravine. Two of 107 passengers onboard died.1992 - Denmark wins the European Football Championship title by beating Germany 2-0 in Nya Ullevi stadium (Gothenburg,Sweden)1993 - The U.S. launches a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for a thwarted assassination attempt against former President George H.W. Bush in April in Kuwait.1995 - Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani deposed his father Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, in a bloodless coup.1996 - Irish Journalist Veronica Guerin is shot in her car while in traffic in the outskirts of Dublin1997 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment1997 - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling is published in the United Kingdom.2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas.2006 - The Republic of Montenegro becomes the 192nd member of the United Nations.
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