History Events on June 26

Livonian campaign of Stephen Báthory begins.

#Livonian_campaign_of_Stephen_Báthory

Swedish boxer Ingemar Johansson becomes world champion of heavy weight boxing, by defeating American Floyd Patterson on technical knockout after two minutes and three seconds in the third round at Yankee Stadium.

#Ingemar_Johansson

Mari Alkatiri, the first Prime Minister of East Timor, resigns after weeks of political unrest.

#Mari_Alkatiri

Pope Benedict XVI reinstates the traditional laws of papal election in which a successful candidate must receive two-thirds of the votes.

#Pope_Benedict_XVI

Bangui is founded by Albert Dolisie and Alfred Uzac in what was then the upper reaches of the French Congo.

#Bangui

The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.

#Christmas

Madagascar gains its independence from France.

#Madagascar

Air Canada Flight 189, flying to Toronto, overruns the runway and crashes into the Etobicoke Creek ravine. Two of the 107 passengers on board perish.

#Air_Canada_Flight_189

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, Ohio.

#Universal_Product_Code

Przemys? II crowned king of Poland, following Ducal period. The white eagle is added to the Polish coat of arms.

#Przemys?_II

Cold War: U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall.

#John_F._Kennedy

Richard III becomes King of England.

#Richard_III_of_England

Roman emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sasanian Empire.

#Julian_(emperor)

The former British Protectorate of British Somaliland gains its independence as Somaliland.

#British_Somaliland

World War I: Allied forces under John J. Pershing and James Harbord defeat Imperial German forces under Wilhelm, German Crown Prince in the Battle of Belleau Wood.

#Allies_of_World_War_I

World War I: The American Expeditionary Forces begin to arrive in France. They will first enter combat four months later.

#World_War_I

The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

#Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States

Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and Edward, Earl of March, land in England with a rebel army and march on London.

#Richard_Neville,_16th_Earl_of_Warwick

Treaty of Nanking comes into effect, Hong Kong Island is ceded to the British "in perpetuity".

#Treaty_of_Nanking

French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Fleurus marked the first successful military use of aircraft.

#French_Revolutionary_Wars

Cold War: The first supply flights are made in response to the Berlin Blockade.

#Cold_War

William Shockley files the original patent for the grown-junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor.

#William_Shockley

The first flight of the Grumman F6F Hellcat.

#Grumman_F6F_Hellcat

Ottomans begin the second Siege of Rhodes.

#Siege_of_Rhodes_(1522)

Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani deposes his father Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, in a bloodless coup d'état.

#Hamad_bin_Khalifa_Al_Thani

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.

#Western_Schism

Alexei Petrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, Peter the Great's son, mysteriously dies after being sentenced to death by his father for plotting against him.

#Alexei_Petrovich,_Tsarevich_of_Russia

Lavrentiy Beria, head of MVD, is arrested by Nikita Khrushchev and other members of the Politburo.

#Lavrentiy_Beria

Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima by the son of his former companion and later antagonist, Diego de Almagro the younger. Almagro is later caught and executed.

#Francisco_Pizarro

The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London.

#Victoria_Cross

After a siege and bombardment by cannon, Baku surrenders to the Russians.

#Russo-Persian_War_(1722-1723)

World War II: San Marino, a neutral state, is mistakenly bombed by the RAF based on faulty information, leading to 35 civilian deaths.

#San_Marino

Henri Moissan isolated elemental Fluorine for the first time.

#Henri_Moissan

The first Grand Prix motor racing event held.

#1906_French_Grand_Prix

The South African Congress Alliance adopts the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown.

#Freedom_Charter

Yugoslav Wars: The Yugoslav People's Army begins the Ten-Day War in Slovenia.

#Yugoslav_Wars

The Human Genome Project announces the completion of a "rough draft" sequence.

#Human_Genome_Project

World War II: Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.

#World_War_II

Roman emperor Elagabalus adopts his cousin Alexander Severus as his heir and receives the title of Caesar.

#Roman_emperor

The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity.

#Science_Museum,_London

United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act, which establishes credit unions.

#Franklin_D._Roosevelt

The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional.

#Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States

Elvis Presley held his final concert in Indianapolis, Indiana at Market Square Arena.

#Elvis_Presley

A combined force of Spanish, free blacks and allied Indians defeat a British garrison at the Siege of Fort Mose near St. Augustine during the War of Jenkins' Ear.

#Siege_of_Fort_Mose

Augustus adopts Tiberius.

#Augustus

Ulrich von Jungingen becomes Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.

#Ulrich_von_Jungingen

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

#Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States

World War II: The Battle of Osuchy in Osuchy, Poland, one of the largest battles between Nazi Germany and Polish resistance forces, ends with the defeat of the latter.

#Battle_of_Osuchy

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage under the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

#Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States

Five different terrorist attacks in France, Tunisia, Somalia, Kuwait, and Syria occurred on what was dubbed Bloody Friday by international media. Upwards of 750 people were either killed or injured in these uncoordinated attacks.

Riots in China's Xinjiang region kill at least 36 people and injure 21 others.

The Waldo Canyon fire descends into the Mountain Shadows neighborhood in Colorado Springs burning 347 homes in a matter of hours and killing two people.

A suicide bomber dressed as an Iraqi policeman detonates an explosive vest, killing 25 people.

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.

Karol Wojty?a (later John Paul II) made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI.

The Pan-Malayan Labour Party is founded in Malaya, as a union of statewide labour parties.

Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery is published in The New Yorker magazine.

The United Nations Charter is signed by 50 Allied nations in San Francisco, California.

World War II: Soviet planes bomb Kassa, Hungary (now Košice, Slovakia), giving Hungary the impetus to declare war the next day.

Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.

The Cyclone roller coaster opens on Coney Island.

The American occupation of the Dominican Republic ends after eight years.

End of the June Days Uprising in Paris.

William IV becomes king of Britain and Hanover.

Mongols defeat the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Köse Da?.

En no Ozuno, a Japanese mystic and apothecary who will later be regarded as the founder of a folk religion Shugend?, is banished to Izu ?shima.

Pope Benedict II is chosen.