913Constantine VII, the eight-year-old illegitimate son of Leo VI the Wise, becomes nominal ruler of the Byzantine Empire under the regency of a seven-man council headed by Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, appointed by Constantine's uncle Alexander on his deathbed.
1505The M8.2–8.8 Lo Mustang earthquake affects Tibet and Nepal, causing severe damage in Kathmandu and parts of the Indo-Gangetic plain.
1513War of the League of Cambrai: In the Battle of Novara, Swiss troops defeat the French under Louis II de la Trémoille, forcing them to abandon Milan; Duke Massimiliano Sforza is restored.
1523Swedish regent Gustav Vasa is elected King of Sweden and, marking a symbolic end to the Kalmar Union, 6 June is designated the country's national day.
1654Swedish Queen Christina abdicates her throne in favour of her cousin Charles Gustav and converts to Catholicism.
1674Shivaji is crowned as the first Chhatrapati of the Maratha Empire at Raigad Fort.
1762Seven Years' War: British forces begin the Siege of Havana and temporarily capture the city.
1813War of 1812: In the Battle of Stoney Creek, considered a critical turning point in the war, a British force of 700 under John Vincent defeats an American force twice its size under William Winder and John Chandler.
1822Alexis St Martin is accidentally shot in the stomach, leading to William Beaumont's studies on digestion.
1832The June Rebellion in Paris is put down by the National Guard.
1844The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London.
1859Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales. The date is still celebrated as Queensland Day.
1882The Shewan forces of Menelik II of Ethiopia defeat the Gojjame army in the Battle of Embabo. The Shewans capture Negus Tekle Haymanot of Gojjam, and their victory leads to a Shewan hegemony over the territories south of the Abay River.
1889The Great Seattle Fire destroys all of downtown Seattle.
1892The Chicago "L" elevated rail system begins operation.
1894Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Coloradostate militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike.
1912The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins. It is the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century.
1918World War I: U.S. Marine Corps suffers its worst single day's casualties during the Battle of Belleau Wood while attempting to recapture the wood at Château-Thierry (the losses are exceeded at the Battle of Tarawa in November 1943).
1925The original Chrysler Corporation is founded by Walter Chrysler from the remains of the Maxwell Motor Company.
1933The first drive-in theater opens in Camden, New Jersey.
1934New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
1942World War II: The United States Navy's victory over the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway is a major turning point in the Pacific Theater. All four Japanese fleet carriers taking part—, , and —are sunk, as is the heavy cruiser . The American carrier and the destroyer are also sunk.
1944World War II: Commencement of Operation Overlord: The Allied invasion of Normandy begins with the execution of Operation Neptune—commonly referred to as D-Day—the largest seaborne invasion in history. Nearly 160,000 Allied troops cross the English Channel with about 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers participating. By the end of the day, the Allies have landed on five invasion beaches and are pushing inland.
1944World War II: Capture of the Caen canal and Orne river bridges by British paratroopers, also known as Operation Coup de Main (incorrectly referred to as Operation Deadstick.)
1966March Against Fear: African-Americancivil rights activist James Meredith is wounded in an ambush by white sniper James Aubrey Norvell. Meredith and Norvell are photographed by Jack R. Thornell, whose photo will receive the 1967 Pulitzer Prize in Photography, the last one to be awarded in the category.
1971Soyuz 11 is launched. The mission ends in disaster when all three cosmonauts, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev are suffocated by uncontrolled decompression of the capsule during re-entry on 29 June.
1971Hughes Airwest Flight 706 collides with a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II of the United States Marine Corps over the San Gabriel Mountains, killing 50.
1976Chief Minister of Sabah Faud Stephens, Peter Joinud Mojuntin, and several other politicians are killed in a plane crash near Kota Kinabalu International Airport in Malaysia.
1985The grave of "Wolfgang Gerhard" is opened in Embu, Brazil; the exhumed remains are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's "Angel of Death"; Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February 1979.
1992Copa Airlines Flight 201 breaks apart in mid-air and crashes into the Darién Gap in Panama, killing all 47 aboard.
1993Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat wins the first presidential election in Mongolia.
1994China Northwest Airlines Flight 2303 crashes near Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, killing all 160 people on board.
2002Eastern Mediterranean event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at ten meters in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
1902Jimmie Lunceford, American saxophonist and bandleader (died 1947)
1903Aram Khachaturian, Armenian composer and conductor (died 1978)
1906Max August Zorn, German mathematician and academic who is noted for Zorn's lemma (died 1993)
1907Bill Dickey, American baseball player and manager who played in eight World Series, winning seven (died 1993)
1909Isaiah Berlin, Latvian-English historian and philosopher (died 1997)
1915Vincent Persichetti, American pianist and composer (died 1987)
1916Hamani Diori, Nigerien academic and politician, 1st President of Niger (died 1989)
1917Kirk Kerkorian, American businessman, founded the Tracinda Corporation (died 2015)
1918Kenneth Connor, English comedy actor (died 1993)
1918Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2009)
1919Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, English army officer and politician, 6th Secretary General of NATO (died 2018)
1920Virginia Oliver (died 2026), American lobster fisherwoman
1923V. C. Andrews, American author, illustrator, and painter (died 1986)
1923Jean Pouliot, Canadian broadcaster (died 2004)
1925Maxine Kumin, American poet and author (died 2014)
1925Frank Chee Willeto, American soldier and politician, 4th Vice President of the Navajo Nation and a noted code talker during World War II (died 2013)
1926Klaus Tennstedt, German conductor (died 1998)
1929James Barnor, Ghanaian photographer
1929Sunil Dutt, Indian actor, director, producer, and politician (died 2005)
1930Frank Tyson, English-Australian cricketer, coach and journalist (died 2015)
1931Richard Hickock, American convicted murderer (died 1965)
1932David Scott, American colonel, engineer, and astronaut who was the commander of Apollo 15
1933Heinrich Rohrer, Swiss physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013)
1934Albert II, King of the Belgians from 9 August 1993 to 21 July 2013 (abdicated)
1934Taichi Yamada, Japanese screenwriter and novelist (died 2023)
1935Jon Henricks, Australian swimmer; winner of two Olympic gold medals in 1956
1935Grant Green, American jazz guitarist and composer (died 1979)
1936D. Ramanaidu, Indian actor, director, and producer, founded Suresh Productions (died 2015)
1936Levi Stubbs, American soul singer; lead vocalist of the Four Tops (died 2008)
1939Louis Andriessen, Dutch pianist and composer (died 2021)
1939Gary U.S. Bonds, American singer-songwriter
1939Marian Wright Edelman, American child rights activist
1939Eddie Giacomin, Canadian Hockey goaltender
1940Willie John McBride, Northern Irish rugby player who toured with the British Lions five times
1941Alexander Cockburn, Scottish-born American journalist (died 2012)
1943Richard Smalley, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate in 1996 for chemistry (died 2005)
1944Monty Alexander, Jamaican jazz pianist
1944Phillip Allen Sharp, American molecular biologist; 1993 Nobel Prize laureate (Physiology or Medicine)
1944Tommie Smith, American sprinter and football player; winner of 1968 Olympic 200m gold medal in a world record time
1946Tony Levin, American bass player and songwriter
1947David Blunkett, British Labour politician; Home Secretary 2001–2004
1947Robert Englund, American actor; best known for Nightmare on Elm Street
1947Ada Kok, Dutch butterfly stroke swimmer; winner of three Olympic medals including gold in 1968
1947Keith Daniel Williams, American convicted rapist and triple murderer (died 1996)
1948Arlene Harris, American entrepreneur, inventor, investor and policy advocate
1949Holly Near, American folk singer and songwriter
1951Dwight Twilley, American pop/rock singer and songwriter (died 2023)
1952Harvey Fierstein, American actor and playwright; winner of four Tony Awards
1954Władysław Żmuda, Polish footballer and manager; 91 caps for Poland and voted Best Young Player at the 1974 FIFA World Cup
1955Sam Simon, American director, producer and screenwriter; co-developer of The Simpsons (died 2015)
1955Sandra Bernhard, American stand-up comic and actress
1955Lee Smolin, American theoretical physicist
1956Björn Borg, Swedish tennis player; winner of eleven Grand Slam singles titles including five consecutive Wimbledons
1959Colin Quinn, American comedian and actor
1960Steve Vai, American musician
1960Raudin Anwar, Indonesian diplomat
1962Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japanese director
1963Jason Isaacs, English actor
1966Sophie Jamal, Canadian endocrinologist involved in scientific misconduct
1966Tony Yeboah, Ghanaian footballer
1967Paul Giamatti, American actor and producer
1972Natalie Morales, American television journalist and NBC News anchor
1973Jackie Arklöv, Swedish mercenary and convicted murderer
1976J. Paul Getty, American businessman, founded the Getty Oil Company (born 1892)
1979Jack Haley, American actor (born 1897)
1982Kenneth Rexroth, American poet and academic (born 1905)
1983Hans Leip, German author, poet, and playwright who wrote the lyrics of Lili Marleen (born 1893)
1991Stan Getz, American saxophonist and jazz innovator (born 1927)
1994Mark McManus, Scottish actor (born 1935)
1994Barry Sullivan, American film actor (born 1912)
1996George Davis Snell, American geneticist and immunologist; awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980 for his studies of histocompatibility (born 1903)
2005Anne Bancroft, American film actress; winner of the 1963 Academy Award for Best Actress for The Miracle Worker (born 1931)
2006Billy Preston, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actor (born 1946)
2009Jean Dausset, French-Spanish immunologist and academic; awarded the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his studies of the genetic basis of immunological reaction (born 1916)
2012Vladimir Krutov, Russian ice hockey player; together with Igor Larionov and Sergei Makarov, formed the famed KLM Line. (born 1960)
2013Jerome Karle, American crystallographer and academic; awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research into the molecular structure of chemical compounds (born 1918)
2013Esther Williams, American swimmer and actress (born 1921)
2014Lorna Wing, English psychiatrist and physician; pioneered studies of autism (born 1928)
2015Vincent Bugliosi, American lawyer and author; prosecuting attorney in the Tate–LaBianca murders case (born 1934)
2015Ludvík Vaculík, Czech journalist and author; noted for The Two Thousand Words which inspired the Prague Spring (born 1926)
2016Viktor Korchnoi, Russian chess grandmaster; arguably the best player never to become World Chess Champion (born 1931)
2016Peter Shaffer, English playwright and screenwriter; works included Equus and Amadeus (born 1926)