June 23 facts for kids

2025 Calendar

June 23 in recent years

June 23 is the 174th day of the year (175th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 191 days remain until the end of the year.

June 23rd is a day filled with many interesting events throughout history, from ancient battles to modern scientific breakthroughs and important cultural celebrations. It's a day when leaders were born, new inventions changed the world, and significant decisions shaped nations. Let's explore some of the most notable moments that happened on this day!

Historical Events
Famous Births
Notable Deaths
Holidays and Celebrations
See also

Historical Events

Ancient Times and Middle Ages

In 229, Sun Quan declared himself the emperor of Eastern Wu, a powerful kingdom in ancient China.
In 1266, during the War of Saint Sabas, the Venetian navy won a big victory against a larger Genoese fleet in the Battle of Trapani, capturing all their ships.
A peace treaty was signed in 1305 between the Flemish people and the French at Athis-sur-Orge.
The Battle of Bannockburn began in 1314 near Stirling, Scotland. This was a major battle in the First War of Scottish Independence.
In 1532, Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France signed a treaty called the "Treaty of Closer Amity With France," promising to help each other against Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
Dragut, a famous commander of the Ottoman navy, died in 1565 during the Great Siege of Malta.
In 1594, during the Action of Faial in the Azores, an English attack sank the Portuguese ship Cinco Chagas, which was carrying treasure. Only 13 people out of over 700 survived.

17th to 19th Centuries

In 1611, the crew of Henry Hudson's ship left him, his son, and seven loyal crew members adrift in a boat in what is now Hudson Bay. They were never seen again.
William Penn signed a friendship treaty with the Lenape Native Americans in Pennsylvania in 1683.
In 1713, French people living in Acadia (now part of Canada) were given one year to promise loyalty to Britain or leave Nova Scotia.
The Battle of Plassey took place in 1757. Three thousand British soldiers led by Robert Clive defeated a huge Indian army of 50,000 soldiers.
In 1758, during the Seven Years' War, British, Hanoverian, and Prussian forces defeated French troops at Krefeld in Germany.
The Battle of Landeshut in 1760 saw Austria defeat Prussia during the Seven Years' War.
The Battle of Springfield was fought in 1780 during the American Revolution in New Jersey.
Empress Catherine II of Russia allowed Jewish people to settle in Kyiv in 1794.
In 1810, John Jacob Astor started the Pacific Fur Company, a big business for trading furs.
Great Britain removed trade restrictions on American ships in 1812, which had been a main reason for the War of 1812.
The United States Congress created the Government Printing Office in 1860.
In 1865, at the end of the American Civil War, Confederate General Stand Watie surrendered his army in the Oklahoma Territory.
Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent in 1868 for his invention, which he called the "Type-Writer".
Canada's first national park, Banff National Park, was created in 1887 when the Rocky Mountains Park Act became law.
The International Olympic Committee was founded in 1894 in Paris by Baron Pierre de Coubertin. This committee organizes the Olympic Games.

20th and 21st Centuries

In 1913, the Greeks defeated the Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran during the Second Balkan War.
During the Mexican Revolution in 1914, Pancho Villa captured the city of Zacatecas from Victoriano Huerta.
In 1917, baseball history was made when Boston Red Sox pitcher Ernie Shore retired 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who was ejected from the game.
The Baltische Landeswehr was decisively defeated in the Battle of Cēsis in 1919, a key moment in the Estonian War of Independence. This day is celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia.
The College Board gave the very first SAT exam in 1926.
In 1931, Wiley Post and Harold Gatty began their attempt to fly around the world in a single-engine plane from Long Island.
The Civil Aeronautics Act was signed into law in 1938, creating the Civil Aeronautics Authority to manage aviation in the United States.
In 1940, Adolf Hitler visited Paris for three hours, touring the city's famous buildings.
Also in 1940, Henry Larsen started the first successful journey through the Northwest Passage from west to east.
The Lithuanian Activist Front declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1941, forming a temporary government. However, the Nazis occupied Lithuania shortly after.
During World War II in 1942, a German fighter aircraft, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, was captured intact when its pilot mistakenly landed at a British air base in Wales.
The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake shook Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
In 1947, the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives voted to overturn President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft–Hartley Act.
The famous ocean liner SS United States was named and launched in 1951.
In 1956, the French National Assembly began creating the French Community, giving more power to local governments in French West Africa.
Klaus Fuchs, a spy involved in the Manhattan Project, was released from prison in 1959 and moved to East Germany to continue his scientific work.
The Antarctic Treaty System came into force in 1961. This treaty protects Antarctica for scientific research and prevents military activities there.
In 1967, during the Cold War, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson met with Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin for a three-day meeting called the Glassboro Summit Conference.
Warren E. Burger became the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1969.
Also in 1969, IBM announced that it would start selling its software and services separately from its computer hardware, which helped create the modern software industry.
In 1972, during the Watergate scandal, tapes revealed that U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and his Chief of Staff talked about using the Central Intelligence Agency to stop the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the break-ins.
Also in 1972, Title IX was added to the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law stops sexual discrimination in any educational program that gets money from the federal government.
A fire in Hull, England, in 1973 killed a six-year-old boy. It was later discovered to be the first of many fires set by a serial arsonist.
The video game Sonic the Hedgehog was released in North America in 1991, starting a very popular video game series.
NASA's Space Station Processing Facility, a new building for making parts of the International Space Station, opened in 1994 at Kennedy Space Center.
In 2001, a powerful 8.4 magnitude earthquake struck coastal Peru, causing a destructive tsunami. At least 74 people died, and many more were injured.
Ashton Eaton broke the decathlon world record in 2012 at the United States Olympic Trials.
Nik Wallenda became the first person to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope in 2013.
In 2014, the last of Syria's declared chemical weapons were shipped out for destruction.
The United Kingdom voted in a referendum in 2016 to leave the European Union, with 52% voting to leave.
In 2018, twelve boys and their assistant coach from a soccer team in Thailand got trapped in a flooding cave. This led to a huge 18-day rescue operation.

Famous Births

Born Before 1600

47 BC – Caesarion, an Egyptian king.
1385 – Stephen, Count Palatine of Simmern-Zweibrücken.
1433 – Francis II, Duke of Brittany.
1456 – Margaret of Denmark, Queen of Scotland.
1489 – Charles II, Duke of Savoy, an Italian nobleman.
1534 – Oda Nobunaga, a powerful Japanese warlord.
1596 – Johan Banér, a Swedish field marshal.

Born 1601–1900

1616 – Shah Shuja, a Mughal prince.
1668 – Giambattista Vico, an Italian philosopher and historian.
1716 – Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley, an English lawyer and politician.
1750 – Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu, a French geologist.
1763 – Joséphine de Beauharnais, the wife of Napoleon I.
1799 – John Milton Bernhisel, an American physician and politician.
1824 – Carl Reinecke, a German pianist, composer, and conductor.
1879 – Huda Sha'arawi, an Egyptian feminist and journalist.
1884 – Cyclone Taylor, a Canadian ice hockey player and politician.
1889 – Anna Akhmatova, a famous Ukrainian-Russian poet.
1894 – Alfred Kinsey, an American entomologist.
1894 – Edward VIII, who was King of the United Kingdom.

Born 1901–Present

1901 – Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, a Turkish author and poet.
1903 – Paul Martin Sr., a Canadian lawyer and politician.
1907 – James Meade, an English economist who won the Nobel Prize.
1909 – David Lewis, a Russian-Canadian lawyer and politician.
1910 – Jean Anouilh, a French playwright.
1910 – Gordon B. Hinckley, a religious leader.
1912 – Alan Turing, a brilliant English mathematician and computer scientist. He is often called the "father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence."
1916 – Len Hutton, a famous English cricketer.
1919 – Mohamed Boudiaf, a politician who became President of Algeria.
1925 – Miriam Karlin, an English actress.
1927 – Bob Fosse, an American actor, dancer, and choreographer.
1929 – June Carter Cash, an American singer-songwriter and musician.
1930 – Donn F. Eisele, an American astronaut.
1936 – Richard Bach, an American novelist, famous for Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
1937 – Martti Ahtisaari, a Finnish politician who became the 10th President of Finland and won the Nobel Peace Prize.
1940 – Wilma Rudolph, an American runner who won multiple Olympic gold medals.
1942 – Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, an English cosmologist and astrophysicist.
1947 – Bryan Brown, an Australian actor.
1948 – Clarence Thomas, an American lawyer and Supreme Court Justice.
1953 – Armen Sarkissian, an Armenian physicist and politician who became President of Armenia.
1955 – Glenn Danzig, an American singer-songwriter.
1957 – Frances McDormand, a highly acclaimed American actress who has won many awards.
1963 – Colin Montgomerie, a Scottish golfer.
1964 – Joss Whedon, an American director, producer, and screenwriter.
1972 – Selma Blair, an American actress.
1972 – Zinedine Zidane, a legendary French footballer and manager.
1975 – KT Tunstall, a Scottish singer-songwriter.
1977 – Jason Mraz, an American singer-songwriter.
1979 – LaDainian Tomlinson, an American football player.
1980 – Melissa Rauch, an American actress.
1984 – Duffy, a Welsh singer-songwriter.
1988 – Chet Faker, an Australian singer-songwriter.
1989 – Lisa Carrington, a New Zealand canoeist who has won many Olympic medals.

Notable Deaths

Died Before 1600

79 – Vespasian, a Roman emperor.
679 – Æthelthryth, an English saint.
1018 – Henry I, a margrave of Austria.
1222 – Constance of Aragon, a Hungarian queen.
1314 – Henry de Bohun, an English knight who died in the Battle of Bannockburn.
1356 – Margaret II, a Holy Roman Empress.
1537 – Pedro de Mendoza, a Spanish explorer and conqueror.
1565 – Dragut, an Ottoman admiral.

Died 1601–1900

1615 – Mashita Nagamori, a Japanese daimyō.
1770 – Mark Akenside, an English poet.
1832 – Sir James Hall, 4th Baronet, a Scottish geologist.
1836 – James Mill, a Scottish economist and philosopher.
1881 – Matthias Jakob Schleiden, a German botanist.
1891 – Wilhelm Eduard Weber, a German physicist.
1893 – William Fox, a lawyer and the second Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Died 1901–Present

1945 – Giuseppina Tuissi, an Italian journalist and activist.
1953 – Albert Gleizes, a French painter.
1956 – Reinhold Glière, a Russian composer.
1959 – Boris Vian, a French author and poet.
1969 – Volmari Iso-Hollo, a Finnish runner.
1970 – Roscoe Turner, an American pilot.
1980 – Sanjay Gandhi, an Indian politician.
1989 – Werner Best, a German police officer.
1995 – Jonas Salk, an American biologist and physician who developed the first successful polio vaccine.
1996 – Andreas Papandreou, a Greek economist and politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece.
1997 – Betty Shabazz, an American educator and activist.
1998 – Maureen O'Sullivan, an Irish-American actress.
2006 – Aaron Spelling, an American producer and screenwriter who created many popular TV shows.
2009 – Ed McMahon, an American TV host and announcer.
2011 – Peter Falk, an American actor, famous for playing Columbo.
2013 – Richard Matheson, an American author and screenwriter.
2015 – Dick Van Patten, an American actor.
2016 – Ralph Stanley, an American singer and banjo player.
2021 – John McAfee, a British-American computer programmer and businessman who founded the McAfee antivirus company.

Holidays and Celebrations

Father's Day is celebrated in Nicaragua and Poland.
Grand Duke's Official Birthday is a special day in Luxembourg.
International Women in Engineering Day celebrates the achievements of women in engineering.
International Widows Day is observed around the world to highlight the challenges faced by widows.
National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism is observed in Canada.
Okinawa Memorial Day is a day of remembrance in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan.
Saint John's Eve and the first day of the Midsummer celebrations are celebrated in many parts of Europe, especially in the Roman Catholic Church. These include:
- Bonfires of Saint John in Spain.
- The first night of Festa de São João do Porto in Porto, Portugal.
- The first day of the Golowan Festival in Cornwall, England.
- Jaaniõhtu in Estonia.
- Jāņi in Latvia.
- Kupala Night in Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine.
United Nations Public Service Day is an international day celebrating the value of public service.
Victory Day is celebrated in Estonia.