June 22
Events
Pre-1600
- 217 BC - Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV Philopator of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom.
- 168 BC - Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeat Macedonian King Perseus who surrenders after the battle, ending the Third Macedonian War.
- 431 - The Council of Ephesus, the third ecumenical council, begins, dealing with Nestorianism.
- 813 - Battle of Versinikia: The Bulgars led by Krum defeat the Byzantine army near Edirne. Emperor Michael I is forced to abdicate in favor of Leo V the Armenian.
- 910 - The Hungarians defeat the East Frankish army near the Rednitz River, killing its leader Gebhard, Duke of Lotharingia.
- 1527 - Fatahillah expels Portuguese forces from Sunda Kelapa, now regarded as the foundation of Jakarta.
- 1593 - Battle of Sisak: Allied Christian troops defeat the Ottomans.
1601–1900
- 1633 - The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe in the form he presented it in, after heated controversy.
- 1774 - The British pass the Quebec Act, setting out rules of governance for the colony of Quebec in British North America.
- 1783 - A poisonous cloud caused by the eruption of the Laki volcano in Iceland reaches Le Havre in France.
- 1793 - Haitian Revolution: The Battle of Cap-Français ends with French Republican troops and black slave insurgents capturing the city.
- 1807 - In the Chesapeake–''Leopard'' affair, the British warship attacks and boards the American frigate.
- 1812 - France declares war on Russia, starting Napoleon's invasion.
- 1813 - War of 1812: After learning of American plans for a surprise attack on Beaver Dams in Ontario, Laura Secord sets out on a journey on foot to warn Lieutenant James FitzGibbon.
- 1839 - Cherokee leaders Major Ridge, John Ridge, and Elias Boudinot are assassinated for signing the Treaty of New Echota, which had resulted in the Trail of Tears.
- 1870 - The United States Department of Justice is created by the U.S. Congress.
- 1893 - The Royal Navy battleship accidentally rams the British Mediterranean Fleet flagship which sinks taking 358 crew with her, including the fleet's commander, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.
- 1897 - British colonial officers Charles Walter Rand and Lt. Charles Egerton Ayerst are assassinated in Pune, Maharashtra, India by the Chapekar brothers and Mahadeo Vinayak Ranade, who are later caught and hanged.
- 1898 - Spanish–American War: In a chaotic operation, 6,000 men of the U.S. Fifth Army Corps begins landing at Daiquirí, Cuba, about east of Santiago de Cuba. Lt. Gen. Arsenio Linares y Pombo of the Spanish Army outnumbers them two-to-one, but does not oppose the landings.
1901–present
- 1907 - The London Underground's Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway opens.
- 1911 - George V and Mary of Teck are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
- 1911 - Mexican Revolution: Government forces bring an end to the Magonista rebellion of 1911 in the Second Battle of Tijuana.
- 1918 - The Hammond Circus Train Wreck kills 86 and injures 127 near Hammond, Indiana.
- 1922 - British Army Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson is killed by the Irish Republican Army helping to spark the Irish Civil War.
- 1940 - World War II: France is forced to sign the Second Compiègne armistice with Germany, in the same railroad car in which the Germans signed the Armistice in 1918.
- 1941 - World War II: Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.
- 1942 - World War II: Erwin Rommel is promoted to Field Marshal after the Axis capture of Tobruk.
- 1942 - The Pledge of Allegiance is formally adopted by U.S. Congress.
- 1944 - World War II: Opening day of the Soviet Union's Operation Bagration against the Army Group Centre.
- 1944 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill.
- 1945 - World War II: The Battle of Okinawa comes to an end with an American flag-raising ceremony.
- 1948 - The ship brought the first group of 802 West Indian immigrants to Tilbury, marking the start of modern immigration to the United Kingdom.
- 1948 - King George VI formally gives up the title "Emperor of India", half a year after Britain actually gave up its rule of India.
- 1962 - Air France Flight 117 crashes on approach to Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport in Guadeloupe, killing 112 people.
- 1965 - The Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea is signed.
- 1966 - Vietnamese Buddhist activist leader Thích Trí Quang was arrested as the military junta of Nguyen Cao Ky crushed the Buddhist Uprising.
- 1969 - The Cuyahoga River catches fire in Cleveland, Ohio, drawing national attention to water pollution, and spurring the passing of the Clean Water Act and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
- 1978 - Charon, the first of Pluto's satellites to be discovered, was first seen at the United States Naval Observatory by James W. Christy.
- 1979 - Former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe was acquitted of conspiracy to murder Norman Scott, who had accused Thorpe of having a relationship with him.
- 1984 - Virgin Atlantic launches with its first flight from London to Newark.
- 1986 - The famous Hand of God goal, scored by Diego Maradona in the quarter-finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup match between Argentina and England, ignites controversy. This was later followed by the Goal of the Century. Argentina wins 2–1 and later goes on to win the World Cup.
- 1990 - Cold War: Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled in Berlin.
- 2000 - Wuhan Airlines Flight 343 is struck by lightning and crashes into Wuhan's Hanyang District, killing 49 people.
- 2002 - An earthquake measuring 6.5 Mw strikes a region of northwestern Iran killing at least 261 people and injuring 1,300 others and eventually causing widespread public anger due to the slow official response.
- 2007 - The small town of Elie, Manitoba is hit by Canada’s most intense tornado on record.
- 2009 - A Washington D.C Metro train traveling southbound near Fort Totten station collides into another train waiting to enter the station. Nine people are killed in the collision and at least 80 others are injured.
- 2012 - Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo is removed from office by impeachment and succeeded by Federico Franco.
- 2012 - A Turkish Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter plane is 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 is attacked by gunmen after a suicide bombing. All six of the gunmen are killed and 18 people are injured.
- 2022 - An earthquake occurs in eastern Afghanistan resulting in over 1,000 deaths.
- 2025 - The United States conducts airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
Births
Pre-1600
- 662 - Rui Zong, emperor of the Tang Dynasty
- 916 - Sayf al-Dawla, founder of the Emirate of Aleppo
- 1000 - Robert I, duke of Normandy
- 1373 - Elizabeth Bonifacia, heiress of Poland
- 1427 - Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Italian writer and wife of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici
- 1450 - Eleanor of Naples, duchess of Ferrara
- 1477 - Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset, English nobleman
- 1593 - Sir John Gell, 1st Baronet, English landowner and Parliamentarian commander
1601–1900
- 1680 - Ebenezer Erskine, Scottish minister and theologian.
- 1684 - Francesco Manfredini, Italian violinist and composer
- 1704 - John Taylor, English author and scholar
- 1713 - John Sackville, English cricketer and politician
- 1738 - Jacques Delille, French poet and translator.
- 1757 - George Vancouver, English lieutenant and explorer.
- 1763 - Étienne Méhul, French pianist and composer.
- 1767 - Wilhelm von Humboldt, German philosopher, academic, and politician, Interior Minister of Prussia.
- 1792 - James Beaumont Neilson, Scottish engineer and businessman
- 1805 - Giuseppe Mazzini, Italian journalist and politician.
- 1820 - James Hutchison Stirling, Scottish physician and philosopher.
- 1834 - William Chester Minor, American surgeon and linguist
- 1837 - Paul Morphy, American chess player
- 1837 - Ernst Ziller, German-Greek architect, designed the Presidential Mansion
- 1844 - Oscar von Gebhardt, German theologian and academic
- 1845 - Tom Dula, American soldier
- 1845 - Richard Seddon, English-New Zealand politician, 15th Prime Minister of New Zealand
- 1850 - Ignác Goldziher, Hungarian scholar of Islam
- 1855 - Samuel Morris, Australian cricketer
- 1856 - Henry Rider Haggard, English novelist.
- 1861 - Maximilian von Spee, Danish-German admiral
- 1864 - Hermann Minkowski, German mathematician and academic
- 1869 - Hendrikus Colijn, Dutch Politician and Prime Minister of the Netherlands
- 1871 - William McDougall, English psychologist and polymath
- 1873 - Filippo Silvestri, Italian entomologist and academic
- 1874 - Walter Friedrich Otto, German philologist and scholar
- 1876 - Pascual Díaz y Barreto, Mexican archbishop
- 1879 - Thibaudeau Rinfret, Canadian lawyer and jurist, 9th Chief Justice of Canada
- 1880 - Johannes Drost, Dutch swimmer
- 1884 - James Rector, American sprinter and lawyer
- 1885 - Milan Vidmar, Slovenian engineer and chess player
- 1887 - Julian Huxley, English biologist and academic
- 1888 - Harold Hitz Burton, American lawyer and politician, 45th Mayor of Cleveland
- 1889 - Joseph Cohen, British solicitor, property developer, cinema magnate and Jewish community leader
- 1890 - Aleksander Warma, Estonian commander and politician, 4th Prime Minister of Estonia in exile
- 1891 - Franz Alexander, Hungarian psychoanalyst and physician
- 1892 - Robert Ritter von Greim, German general and pilot
- 1894 - Bernard Ashmole, English archaeologist and art historian
- 1896 - Leonard W. Murray, Canadian admiral
- 1897 - Edmund A. Chester, American journalist and broadcaster
- 1897 - Norbert Elias, German-Dutch sociologist and philosopher
- 1898 - Erich Maria Remarque, German-Swiss soldier and author
- 1899 - Richard Gurley Drew, American engineer, invented Masking tape
- 1899 - Michał Kalecki, Polish economist and academic
- 1900 - Oskar Fischinger, German-American abstract artist, filmmaker, and painter