June 21
Jump to:
Events on This Day
1788 - The colony of New Hampshire became the ninth state to enter the United States of America. It had been a long time coming. For 38 years, the fishing colony, first settled in 1623, and named in 1630 by Captain John Mason after his Hampshire, England home, was a part of the Massachusetts colony. Then, in 1679 it became a separate royal colony. Concord, the capital of the Granite State, was also central to much of the Revolutionary War. The official state bird is the purple finch, and has a matching state flower, the purple lilac.1834 - Cyrus McCormick patented the first practical reaper for farming.
1853 - The envelope folding machine was patented by Dr. Russell L. Hawes of Worcester, MA.
1859 - Andrew Lanergan of Boston, MA received the first rocket patent. Did the receipt of this patent make Mr. Lanergan of Boston the first rocket scientist?
1907 - United Press was founded by E.W. Scripps as a privately owned wire service. U.P. transmitted 12,000 words of Morse code over leased telegraph lines to 369 newspapers.
1908 - Russian composer Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov died at the age of 64. His most important works were his operas, such as The Snow Maiden and Le Coq d’Or. The best known of Rimsky-Korsakov’s orchestral works is the exotic and colorful Scheherezade.
1913 - Georgia ‘Tiny’ Broadwick became the first woman to jump from an airplane -- over Los Angeles, CA. Fortunately for her, Georgia made the leap with a parachute securely fastened to her person...
1940 - Richard M. Nixon married Thelma Catherine ‘Pat’ Ryan this day.
1941 - Wayne King and his orchestra recorded Time Was, with Buddy Clark providing the vocal accompaniment, for Victor Records.
1942 - Ben Hogan recorded the lowest score (to that time) in a major golf tournament. Hogan shot a 271 for 72 holes at Ridgemoor Country Club, Chicago, IL.
1945 - The Battle of Okinawa ended this day. Japanese Major Gen. Isamu Cho and Lt. Gen Mitsuru Ushijima committed ceremonial hara-kiri (suicide), as American troops closed in on their command post. More than 80,000 Japanese, 80,000 civilian Okinawans and 12,000 Americans died during the battle. Although today Hiroshima and Nagasaki are more famous because the bombs killed so many people with one blow, more civilians and soldiers died at the Battle of Okinawa than in both bombings combined.
1948 - For those of us who have a garage full of those 12-inch round, black disks protected by flimsy cardboard covers, this note: Columbia Records announced that it was offering a new Vinylite long-playing record that could hold 23 minutes of music on each side. One of the first LPs produced was of the original cast recording of the Broadway show, South Pacific. Critics quickly scoffed at the notion of LPs, since those heavy, breakable, 78 RPM, 10-inch disks with one song on each side, were selling at an all-time high. It didn’t take very long though, for the 33-1/3 RPM album -- and its 7-inch, 45 RPM cousin to revolutionize the music industry and the record buying habits of millions.
1954 - NBC radio presented the final broadcast of The Railroad Hour, hosted by Gordon MacRae. The program had been on the air for almost six years.
1958 - Splish Splash, Bobby Darin’s first million-seller, was released by Atco Records. The song, written by Darin and Jean Murray, was Atco single #6117, recorded Apr 10, 1958.
1964 - Jim Bunning (later to become a U.S. Senator from Kentucky), a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies, threw the first perfect game in the National League in 84 years, leading the Phils to a 6-0 win over the New York Mets. Bunning worked his magic in the first game of a Father’s Day doubleheader. Byrum Saam called the play-by-play on radio. In the second game of the twin-bill, 18-year-old Rick Wise won his first major-league game, 8-2, as the Phillies swept the Mets that summer day. (Bunning was also the first hurler in 61 years to get a no-hitter in both leagues.)
1965 - Gary Player won the U.S. Open golf tournament to become only the fourth winner to earn all four top pro golf titles. Player from South Africa was the first non-American to achieve the feat. The Grand Slam of golf, incidentally, includes the U.S. Open, the British Open, the Masters and the PGA Championship. The other professional golfers who have won all four events are Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Gene Sarazen.
1970 - Tony Jacklin was the second British golfer in 50 years to win the U.S. Open golf tournament.
1970 - In the final game of the Soccer World Cup played in Mexico, Brazil beat Italy 4-1. With its triumph, Brazil became the first country to win the cup three times. Brazil’s Pele scored the first goal of the game.
1972 - Billy Preston received a gold record for the instrumental hit, Outa-Space. Preston, who played for gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, back in 1956, was also in the film St. Louis Blues as a piano player. He was a regular on the Shindig TV show in the 1960s; and recorded with The Beatles on the hits Get Back and Let It Be. Preston also performed at The Concert for Bangladesh in 1969. Many well-known artists utilized his keyboard talents, including Sly & The Family Stone and the Rolling Stones.
1975 - The Captain and Tennille’s Love Will Keep Us Together jumped into the #1 slot on the Billboard Hot 100, and stayed there for four weeks.
1977 - Menachem Begin, leader of Israel’s right-wing Likud bloc, became the country’s sixth prime minister.
1980 - German bandleader and composer Bert Kaempfert died on the Mediterranean island of Majorca at age 56. His trademark sound featured muted trumpet and electric bass backed by a large orchestra. Among Kaempfert’s hits, many of which he composed, were Wonderland by Night (1960) and Red Roses for a Blue Lady (1965). Kaempfert also wrote Strangers in the Night, a Frank Sinatra chart-topper (1966), and Spanish Eyes, a hit for Al Martino (1973).
1985 - Ray Miller replaced Billy Gardner as manager of the Minnesota Twins. Miller became the fourth new manager to unpack his suitcase in the American League since the season started, two months previous.
1985 - Ron Howard directed his first music video. The TV star of The Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days also directed the film Cocoon, which included Gravity, the song used in the video. Michael Sembello, a guitarist who played on Stevie Wonder’s hits between 1974 and 1979 was responsible for Gravity.
1989 - The U.S. Supreme Court in Texas v. Johnson ruled that burning the American flag as a political protest is protected by the First Amendment. In 1984, on Dallas City Hall property, Gregory Lee Johnson burned an American flag to protest Reagan administration policies. He was tried and convicted (one year in jail and $2,000 fine) under a Texas law outlawing flag desecration. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had reversed the conviction and the state then appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-to-4 against the Texas law.
1990 - Jazz and big band singer June Christy, who rose to fame with the Stan Kenton Orchestra in the 1940s, died in Los Angeles of kidney failure. She was 64. Her biggest hit with Kenton was Tampico, which reached number four (1945). Following the disbanding of the Kenton band in 1949, ‘The Misty Miss Christy’ began a solo career which produced some 20 albums.
1990 - In Northwestern Iran, an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter Scale, destroyed cities, towns, and villages. The quake (possible two quakes combined), in the Caspian Sea area, left some 40,000 people dead, 60,000 injured and 105,000 homeless.
1992 - Tom Kite fought fellow golfers and the elements as he won the U.S. Open. Scoring records had given way to survival at Pebble Beach, California. Howling winds made the greens as hard as concrete. Kite's final-round even-par score of 72 was enough to give him a two-stroke victory over Jeff Sluman.
1993 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Haitian boat people could be stopped at sea and returned home without asylum hearings.
1995 - Microsoft and Netscape officials met at Netscape headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Notes taken by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen indicate that Microsoft offered to buy a share of its rival if Netscape would stop making Navigator for the Windows market. The Andreessen notes would be used later in the U.S. government’s massive antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. (Microsoft founder Bill Gates was painted as the master string-puller in a no-holds-barred plan to destroy Netscape Communications Corp. when it refused to collaborate on a plot to divide the market for Internet browser software.)
1996 - Films debuting in U.S. theatres: Eraser, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Caan, Vanessa Williams, Robert Pastorelli and James Coburn; and the animated The Hunchback of Notre Dame, with the voices of Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Tony Jay, Kevin Kline, Paul Kandel, Jason Alexander, Charles Kimbrough, Mary Wickes, David Ogden Stiers and Heidi Mollenhauer.
1996 - The $46 million Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art opened.
1997 - The New York Liberty defeated the Los Angeles Sparks, 67-57, in the innaugural WNBA game before a sold-out crowd of 14,284 fans at the Great Western Forum. In other opening-day action: The Houston Comets beat Cleveland, 76-56, and the Sacramento Monarchs beat the Utah Starzz, 70-60. We’ll be right back with the weather...
1999 - Prince William, the ‘people’s prince’, turned 17. Princess Diana’s handsome eldest son was given a VW Golf by his dad, Prince Charles. This was the second birthday William had spent without his mother, who was killed in a car crash in August 1997.
1999 - Millennium, the album by The Backstreet Boys, was certified gold.
2000 - 22 Asian-American veterans received the Medal of Honor for bravery on the battlefield. The ceremony was held at the White House on this day, some 55 years after World War II ended.
2001 - A federal grand jury in Alexandria, VA indicted 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. Nineteen U.S. servicemen were killed and 372 wounded on June 25, 1996 by thea terrorist car bomb.
2001 - Actor Carroll O’Connor died at 76 years of age. O’Connor was hugely famous for his role as Archie Bunker in the TV series All in the Family.
2002 - These movies opened in the U.S.: Juwanna Mann, starring Miguel A. Núñez Jr., Vivica A. Fox, Tommy Davidson, Kevin Pollak, Ginuwine, Kim Wayans and Kimberly ‘Lil Kim’ Jones; the Disney animated Lilo & Stitch, featuring the voices Daveigh Chase, Jason Scott Lee, Tia Carrere, Kevin McDonald, Ashley Rose Orr, Ving Rhames, Kevin Michael Richardson , Chris Sanders and David Ogden Stiers; and Minority Report, with Tom Cruise, Max von Sydow, Steve Harris, Neal McDonough, Patrick Kilpatrick and Jessica Capshaw.
2002 - Raging wildfires in Arizona grew to 128,000 acres, forcing thousands of homeowners near the community of Show Low to flee.
2003 - Deaths on this day: Playwright George Axelrod (The Seven Year Itch) in Los Angeles at 81 years of age; and author Leon Uris (Battle Cry, Exodus) at age 78 on New York’s Shelter Island.
2003 - J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth book in the series, went on sale.
2004 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that people can be arrested for refusing to give their names to police -- even if no crime is alleged.
2004 - SpaceShipOne lifted off from the Mojave Desert in the initial stage of the first attempted commercial space flight. The aircraft was designed by aerospace designer Burt Rutan, built with more than $20 million in funding by billionaire Paul Allen, and was piloted by Michael Melvill. SpaceShipOne reached an altitude of 62.21 miles this day.
2007 - Bob Evans, founder of the Bob Evans Restaurant chain, died in Cleveland, Ohio. He was 89 years old. At the time of his death, there were 579 Bob Evans restaurants in 18 U.S. states.
2008 - Flooding in the Midwest U.S. brought freight traffic on the upper Mississippi to a standstill, stranding more than 100 barges loaded with grain, cement, scrap metal, fertilizer and other products.
2009 - Witnesses reported fierce clashes on the streets of Tehran, Iran after some 3,000 protesters defied supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s warnings against demonstrations. Police fired tear gas and water cannons to try to shut down the rally. There were no signs that the turbulence over Iran’s disputed presidential election would end.
2010 - An Iranian newspaper reported that police had issued warnings to 62,000 women who were ‘badly veiled’ in the Shiite holy province of Qom. The action was part of a clampdown on dress and behavior in the Iran.
2010 - The White House billed BP for 51-million-dollars. It was the third invoice sent to the British energy giant and its partners for U.S. government expenses incurred in the effort to halt the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
2010 - Druids, hippies, sun worshippers, pagans and partygoers welcomed the sun as it rose above the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge, England. The curious gather every year on the summer solstice to experience the ancient festival.
2011 - Japanese researchers announced their development of a self-propelled remote-controlled capsule endoscope that could ‘swim’ through the digestive tract.
2012 - Somali security forces rescued a South African couple who had been kidnapped by pirates in the Indian Ocean and held for 20 months near Mogadishu, Somalia. Debbie Calitz and Bruno Pelizzari had been sailing in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Kenya in October 2010 when their yacht was hijacked by 12 pirates who then set course for Somalia and took the couple ashore at Baraawe. Calitz later reported that she had been raped by her captors. She described how they had been taken hostage after their yacht, SY Choizil, skippered by Peter Eldridge (later rescued), was hijacked en route to Richards Bay from Dar es Salaam. South Africa’s government said it was gratified by the couple’s release and expressed its gratitude to Somalia’s government for helping with the release.
2012 - LeBron James and the Miami Heat won the NBA championship. The Eastern Conference champion Heat defeated the Western Conference champion Oklahoma City Thunder, 4 games to 1, and won their second National Basketball Association title. James was named the Finals MVP.
2013 - New movies in U.S. theatres: The animated adventure, Monsters University, featuring the voices of Nathan Fillion, John Krasinski, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Alfred Molina, Aubrey Plaza, Helen Mirren, Charlie Day, Billy Crystal and Bonnie Hunt; World War Z, starring Brad Pitt, Eric West, Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox, David Morse, Elyes Gabel, Michiel Huisman, Julian Seager, David Andrews, Daniel Newman, Sterling Jerins and Julia Levy-Boeken; Rushlights, with Beau Bridges, Aidan Quinn, Josh Henderson, Haley Webb, Jordan Bridges, Lorna Raver, Joel McKinnon Miller, Crispian Belfrage, Philip Lenkowsky and Eileen Grubba; and Unfinished Song, with Gemma Arterton, Christopher Eccleston, Terence Stamp, Vanessa Redgrave, Anne Reid, Alan Ruscoe, Jumayn Hunter and Calita Rainford.
2013 - The U.S. government filed sealed criminal charges against former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. He had admitted leaking secrets about classified U.S. surveillance programs and was believed to be hiding in Hong Kong.
2013 - Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that British spies were running an online eavesdropping operation so vast that internal documents said it even outstripped the international Internet surveillance effort of the U.S. The paper cited British intelligence memos leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
2014 - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported that the humanitarian situation in Syria was worsening. He said the number of people needing urgent help had reached 10.8 million, almost half of Syria’s population.
2015 - A Kuwaiti court sentenced female rights activist Rana Jassem al-Saadun to three years in jail after it convicted her (in absentia) of publicly criticizing the oil-rich Gulf state’s ruler. The same court had imposed two-year suspended jail terms to 21 other activists for repeating a speech that warned Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah against amending the electoral law to help the government control parliament.
2016 - Pacific Gas & Electric Co. announced it will close California’s last nuclear plant, Diablo Canyon near San Luis Obispo, in 2025 -- and develop more solar, wind and other clean power technologies.
2017 - Transformers: The Last Knight premiered in U.S. theatres. The sci-fi action adventure stars Laura Haddock, Mark Wahlberg, Gemma Chan, Anthony Hopkins, John Goodman, Isabela Moner, Stanley Tucci and Josh Duhamel.
2017 - Current and former U.S. officials told Congress that Moscow stockpiled stolen information and selectively disseminated it during the 2016 presidential campaign. 21 state elections systems were said to have been targeted. The Russians “used fake news and propaganda and they also used online amplifiers to spread the information to as many people as possible,” Bill Priestap, the FBI’s top counterintelligence official, told the Senate Intelligence Committee.
2017 - Some 13,000 people gathered at Stonehenge, Britain’s most famous prehistoric monument, to witness the summer solstice sunrise.
2018 - Australia’s Senate passed personal income tax cuts worth AU$144 billion ($106 billion) over a decade. The tax cuts for most of Australia’s workforce were a centerpiece of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s annual budget plan.
2018 - Sara Netanyahu, the wife of Israel’s Prime Minister, was charged with misusing some $100,000 in public funds to order lavish meals from celebrity chefs. The story was embarrassing for the first family and drew fresh attention to a series of corruption investigations plaguing PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
2019 - Films showing for the first time in U.S. theatres included: Anna, starring Sasha Luss, Helen Mirren and Luke Evans; Child’s Play, starring Aubrey Plaza, Mark Hamill and Tim Matheson; The Command, with Matthias Schoenaerts, Léa Seydoux and Peter Simonischek; the animated Toy Story 4, featuring characters voiced by Keanu Reeves, Tom Hanks, Jordan Peele, Jay Hernandez, Annie Potts, Timothy Dalton, Kristen Schaal, Keegan-Michael Key and Betty White; and Wild Rose, with Jessie Buckley, Matt Costello and Jane Patterson.
2019 - A plane carrying sky divers crashed while attempting to takeoff from Oahu, Hawaii’s North Shore, killing 11 people. The plane was upside down when it crashed. It was the most deadly civil aviation accident in the U.S. since a 2011 Reno Air Show wreck killed a pilot and 10 spectators in Nevada.
2019 - From our Really Weird News Dept: Marlene Mizzi, a former supervisor at Kennedy Airport, admitted that she had taken bribes to allow Qatar and other countries to park their planes overnight during the United Nations General Assembly. Mizzi pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of official misconduct and receiving unlawful gratuities. She was sentenced to community service.
2020 - The World Health Organization reported the largest single-day increase in coronavirus cases: 183,020 new cases in 24 hours. The WHO said Brazil led the way with 54,771 cases tallied and the U.S. was next at 36,617. Over 15,400 came were counted in India.
2020 - Poaching in India was becoming increasingly common during the coronavirus pandemic, as people without jobs turned to wildlife to make money and feed their families. It was also a big problem in Nepal, southeast Asia and parts of Africa.
2021 - In a unanimous ruling the Supreme Court said that the NCAA, which governs U.S. college sports, could not prohibit student-athletes from receiving modest, education-related payments. The ruling -- and another a few days later that allowed college athletes to make money off of their “name, image and likeness (NIL)” -- changed the landscape of college athletics.
2021 - The Israeli military said it had successfully tested an airborne high-power laser that can shoot down drones. Developed by Israeli defense major Elbit Systems, the prototype laser was mounted on a civilian plane when it successfully shot down several drones in a test over the Mediterranean Sea. Brigadier General Yaniv Rotem, head of military research and development at the Israeli Defence Ministry, said the ability to intercept and destroy threats from the air was groundbreaking -- and Israel was among the first countries to use such capabilities.
2022 - South Korea successfully launched its first satellites into orbit with a homegrown rocket -- the Nuri -- from the Naro Space Center.
2022 - Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani had a career high 8 RBI (including two home runs) in an 11-inning 12-11 LOSS to the Kansas City Royals (in Anaheim).
2022 - Severe flooding in southern China, including Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces, had some areas experiencing their highest rainfall since 1961, forcing authorities to evacuate tens of thousands.
2023 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) granted its first-ever approval of cell-cultured meat. Lab-grown meat is produced by collecting cells from live animals and cultivating them in a controlled laboratory environment. The resulting product replicates the taste and texture of conventionally farmed meat.
2023 - Movies debuting in the U.S. included: The Bikeriders, with Jodie Comer, Austin Butler and Tom Hardy; and The Exorcism, starring Russell Crowe, Ryan Simpkins and Sam Worthington.
and more...
Birthdays on This Day June 21
1859 - Henry Tanner
artist: one of the first black artists to be exhibited in galleries throughout the U.S.: The Banjo Lesson; died May 25, 1937
1903 - Al Hirschfeld
caricaturist: hid name of his daughter, Nina, in each of his drawings; died Jan 20, 20031905 - Jean-Paul Sartre
Nobel Prize-winning philosopher, writer: Being and Nothingness; playwright: No Exit, The Flies, The Age of Reason; rejected Nobel Prize for literature [1964]; died Apr 15, 19801906 - Randy (Randolph Edward) Moore
baseball: Chicago White Sox, Boston Braves, Brooklyn Dodgers, SL Cardinals; died June 12, 19921910 - Montie Montana
actor: Arizona Bushwhackers, Hud, The Boy from Oklahoma, Down Dakota Way, Riders of the Deadline; played the rodeo circuit in the U.S. and Canada; appeared in more than 60 annual Tournament of Roses parades; died May 20, 19981918 - Ed (Edmund Walter) Lopat (Lopatynski)
baseball: pitcher: Chicago White Sox, NY Yankees [World Series: 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953/all-star: 1951], Baltimore Orioles; died June 15, 19921921 - Judy Holliday (Tuvim)
actress: Adam’s Rib, Bells are Ringing, Born Yesterday, It Should Happen to You; died June 7, 19651921 - Jane (Ernestine) Russell
actress: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Outlaw, Paleface, The Road to Bali; activist for homeless children; died Feb 28, 20111925 - Maureen Stapleton
Academy Award-winning actress: Reds [1981]; A View from the Bridge, Bye, Bye Birdie, Cocoon: The Return; theatre at Hudson Valley Community College named for her; died Mar 13, 20061927 - Carl Stokes
politician: first black elected mayor of a major city: Cleveland [1967, 1969]; Cleveland Municipal Court Judge; died Apr 3, 19961932 - O.C. (Ocie Lee) Smith
singer: Little Green Apples, Daddy’s Little Man, Lighthouse, Slow Walk, The Son of Hickory Holler’s Tramp; vocalist for Count Basie Orchestra; died Nov 23, 20011933 - Bernie Kopell
actor: Get Smart, The Love Boat, Love American Style, When Things were Rotten, Combat High, Sunset Beach, Bug Buster1935 - Monte Markham
actor: The Second Hundred Years, Baywatch, Rituals, Dallas, Perry Mason, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, At First Sight, Judgment Day, Hotline, Guns of the Magnificent Seven1935 - Françoise Sagan (Quoirez)
author: Aimez-Vous Brahms, Bonjour Tristesse, Evasion, A Certain Smile; died Sep 24, 20041938 - Ron Ely (Ronald Pierce)
actor: Tarzan, Slavers, Doc Savage; host: Miss America Pageant1940 - Mariette Hartley
actress: Encino Man, Silence of the Heart, Improper Channels; TV hostess; commercials: Polaroid1941 - Joe Flaherty
Emmy Award-winning writer: SCTV Network 90 [1983]; actor: Second City TV, Maniac Mansion. Happy Gilmore, A Pig’s Tale, Who’s Harry Crumb, Back to the Future, Part 2, Speed Zone, Stripes, Used Cars, Tunnelvision1943 - Brian Sternberg
pole vaulter: Univ. of Washington: world pole vault record [16’-7": 1963]; died May 23, 20131944 - Ray Davies
musician: guitar, singer, songwriter: group: The Kinks: You Really Got Me, All Day & All of the Night, Tired of Waiting, A Well Respected Man, Sunny Afternoon, Lola1947 - Meredith Baxter
actress: Family Ties, Bridget Loves Bernie, Til Murder Do Us Part1947 - Michael Gross
actor: Family Ties, Firestorm: 72 Hours in Oakland, In the Heat of Passion 2: Unfaithful1947 - Joey Molland
musician: guitar, keyboards, singer: groups: Natural Gas, Badfinger: Day After Day, No Matter What, Baby Blue1947 - Wade Phillips
football: head coach: Denver Broncos, Buffalo Bills, Dallas Cowboys; defensive coordinato: Houston Texans1947 - Duane Thomas
football: Dallas Cowboys running back: Super Bowl V, VI1950 - Joey Kramer
musician: drums: group: Aerosmith: LPs: Toys in the Attic, Rocks, Draw the Line, Night in the Ruts1951 - Nils Lofgren
musician: guitar, keyboards, singer, songwriter: Back It Up, Keith Don’t Go [Ode to the Glimmer Twin], Beggars Day, No Mercy, Secrets in the Street, Delivery Night; groups: Grin, E Street Band1953 - Benazir Bhutto
politician, stateswoman: 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan [November 1988-1990, 1993-1996]; assassinated in a bombing Dec 27, 20071954 - Robert Pastorelli
actor: I Married a Centerfold, Beverly Hills Cop II, Murphy Brown, Dances with Wolves, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, Striking Distance, Eraser, South Pacific [2001]; died Mar 8, 20041955 - Leigh McCloskey
actor: Rich Man, Poor Man, Dallas [1980s]], The Love Boat, Hamburger... The Motion Picture, Trouble Shooters: Trapped Beneath the Earth, General Hospital1956 - Rick (Richard Lee) Sutcliffe
baseball: pitcher: LA Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs [Cy Young Award-winner: 1984], Baltimore Orioles, SL Cardinals1957 - Berkeley Breathed
cartoonist: Bloom County, Outland1957 - Mark Brzezicki
musician: drums: group: Big Country: Harvest Home, Fields of Fire, In a Big Country, Chance, Wonderland, East of Eden, Where the Rose is Sown1958 - Eric Douglas
actor: The Flamingo Kid, Delta Force 3: The Killing Game; died July 6, 20041959 - Tom Chambers
basketball: University of Utah, San Diego Clippers, Seattle SuperSonics, Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz; 20th player in NBA history to score 20,000 career points1959 - Kathy Mattea
singer: Love at the Five and Dime, Street Talk, Goin’ Gone, Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses, Come From the Heart, Burnin’ Old Memories, Walk the Way the Wind Blows, You’re the Power, Train of Memories, Untold Stories, Life as We Knew It, Where Have You Been, The Battle Hymn of Love, She Came from Fort Worth, Time Passes By, Walking Away a Winner1961 - Manu Chao
singer: sings in French, Spanish, English, Italian, Galician, Arabic, Portuguese and other languages; LPs: Clandestino, Próxima Estación: Esperanza, Sibérie m'était contéee, La Radiolina, Radio Bemba Sound System, Baionarena1964 - Sammi Davis-Voss
actress: The Lair of the White Worm, Hope and Glory, Homefront1964 - David Morrissey
actor: The Walking Dead, Sense and Sensibility, Centurion; director: Don’t Worry About Me, Sweet Revenge, Passer By1964 - Doug Savant
actor: Melrose Place, Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence, Shaking the Tree, Red Surf, Masquerade, Godzilla [1998]1967 - Derrick Coleman
basketball: Syracuse Univ, Seattle SuperSonics, Philadelphia 76ers, Charlotte Hornets1967 - Pierre Omidyar
founder, chairman of eBay auction site; became a billionaire at age 31; founder [w/wife Pamela] of Omidyar Network philanthropic investment firm1967 - Carrie Preston
actress: Elsbeth, A Bag of Hammers, Ready? Ok!, That Evening Sun, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Transamerica, The Stepford Wives [2004], True Blood, The Good Wife1970 - Sindee Coxx
actress [1994-2006]: X-rated films: Natural Born Thriller, The Stiff, Nightmare on Lesbian Street, Midnight Snacks, Generation X, Interview with a Vibrator, Mission Erotica, 69 Hours1973 - Juliette Lewis
actress: Cape Fear, Husbands and Wives, Natural Born Killers, Romeo is Bleeding, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, My Stepmother is an Alien, Too Young to Die, I Married Dora1973 - Pascal Rheaume
hockey [center]: NJ Devils, SL Blues, Chicago Blackhawks, Atlanta Thrashers, New York Rangers1974 - Maggie Siff
actress: Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, Leaves of Grass, Funny People, Push, Michael Clayton1975 - Brian Simmons
football [linebacker]: Univ of North Carolina; NFL: Cincinnati Bengals1977 - Al Wilson
football: Univ of Tennessee; NFL: Denver Broncos1978 - Erica Durance
actress: Smallville, Saving Hope, Final Verdict, Beyond Sherwood Forest, Sophie, Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, Gemelle1978 - Matt Kuchar
golf champ: won seven times on the PGA Tour, including the 2012 Players Championship; more than 80 top-10 finishes1979 - Chris Pratt
actor: Guardians of the Galaxy film series, Parks and Recreation, Everwood, The OC, Moneyball, Zero Dark Thirty, Humblebrag, Movie 43, Mr. Payback, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien TV series1982 - Jussie Smollett
actor: Empire, The Might Ducks, North, Alien: Covenant, Marshall1982 - Benjamin Walker
actor: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Kinsey, Flags of Our Fathers, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight1982 - Prince William (William Arthur Philip Louis Windsor)
Duke of Cambridge: first future king of England born in a hospital, first to wear disposable diapers, first to attend nursery school; son of England’s Prince Charles and Princess Diana; married long-time girlfriend Kate Middleton Apr 29, 20111996 - Scottie Scheffler
golf champ: 2022, 2024 Masters Tournament; 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational; 2022 WM Phoenix Open; 2022 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play; 2023, 2024 Players Championship [first to win in back-to-back years]1999 - Natalie Alyn Lind
actress: The Goldbergs, Gotham, The Gifted, Big Sky
and still more...
Hit Music on This Day June 21
1944Long Ago and Far Away (facts) - Helen Forrest & Dick Haymes
I’ll Be Seing You (facts) - The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra (vocal: Frank Sinatra)
1953
1962
1971
1980
1989
1998
2007
2016
and even more...
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they’d never end...
TWtD Calendar
