217 BC Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeated Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom.
168 BC Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeated and captured Macedonian King Perseus, ending the Third Macedonian War.
1593 Battle of Sisak: Allied Christian troops defeated the Turks.
1633 The Holy Office in Rome forced Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe.
1680 Ebenezer Erskine, Scottish religious dissenter, was born (d. 1754).
1713 Lord John Philip Sackville, English MP and cricketer, was born (d. 1765).
1757 George Vancouver, British explorer, was born (d. 1798).
1783 A poisonous cloud from Laki volcanic eruption in Iceland reached Le Havre in France .
1825 The British Parliament abolished feudalism and the seigneurial system in British North America.
1844 North American fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon was founded at Yale University.
1845 Tom Dula, American folk character (Tom Dooley) was born (d. 1868).
1848 Beginning of the June Days Uprising in Paris.
1856 H. Rider Haggard, English author, was born (d. 1925).
1887 Julian Huxley, British biologist, was born (d. 1975).
1893 The Royal Navy battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally rammed the British Mediterranean Fleet flagship HMS Victoria which sank taking 358 crew with her, including the fleet’s commander, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.
1897 British colonial officers Rand and Ayerst were assassinated in Pune, Maharashtra, India by the Chapekar brothers and Ranade. They are considered the first martyrs to the cause of India’s freedom from Britain.
1898 Spanish-American War: United States Marines landed in Cuba.
1906 Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and pilot, was born (d. 2001).
1906 The Flag of Sweden was adopted.
1907 The London Underground’s Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway opened.
1910 John Hunt, Leader of the 1953 British Expedition to Mount Everest, was born (d. 1998).
1911 George V and Mary of Teck were crowned King and Queen.
1918 The Hammond circus train wreck killed 86 and injured 127 near Hammond, Indiana.
1919 The Flag of the Faroe Islands was raised for the first time.
1922 Bill Blass, American fashion designer, was born (d. 2002).
1922 Herrin massacre: 19 strikebreakers and 2 union miners were killed in Herrin, Illinois.
1932 Prunella Scales, English actress, was born.
1936 Kris Kristofferson, American singer/songwriter and actor, was born.
1940 France was forced to sign the Second Compiègne armistice with Germany.
1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. RussianThe 22 June song is devoted to this day.
1941 The June Uprising in Lithuania began.
1941 Various Communist and Socialist French Resistance movements merged to one group.
1942 Erwin Rommel was promoted to Field Marshal after the capture of Tobruk.
1944 Peter Asher, British singer, guitarist and producer (Peter & Gordon), was born.
1944 Opening day of the Soviet Union’s Operation Bagration against Army Group Centre.
1949 Meryl Streep, American actress. was born.
1953 – Cyndi Lauper, American singer, was born.
1954 Pauline Parker, 16, and her best friend Juliet Hulme, 15, killed Pauline’s mother, Honora, in Victoria Park, Christchurch.
1957 Garry Gary Beers, Australian bassist from group INXS, was born.
1957 The Soviet Union launched an R-12 missile for the first time (in Kapustin Yar).
1962 An Air France Boeing 707 jet crashed in bad weather in Guadeloupe, West Indies killing 113.
1964 Dan Brown, American author, was born.
1969 The Cuyahoga River caught fire, which triggered a crack-down on pollution in the river.
1978 Charon, a satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, was discovered.
1984 Virgin Atlantic Airways launched with its first flight from London Heathrow Airport.
2003 The largest hailstone ever recorded fell in Aurora, Nebraska
2009 June 22, 2009 Washington Metro train collision: Two Metro trains collided in Washington, D.C., killing 9 and injuring over 80.
2009 – Eastman Kodak Company announced that it would discontinue sales of the Kodachrome Color Film, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon.
2012 – Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo is removed from officebyimpeachment and succeeded by Federico Franco.
2012 – A Turkish Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter plane was shot down by the Syrian Armed Forces, killing both of the plane’s pilots and worsening already-strained relations between Turkey and Syria.
2015 – The Afghan National Assembly building was attacked by gunmenafter a suicide bombing. All 6 of the gunmen were killed, with 18 people injured.
Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia