On this day: June 15

Events on June 15

• 763 BC The Bur-Sagale eclipse was observed in Assyria, the earliest solar eclipse mentioned in historical sources that has been successfully identified. Wikipedia
• 844 Louis II is crowned as king of Italy at Rome by pope Sergius II. Wikipedia
• 1215 King John of England and a group of rebel barons agreed on the text of Magna Carta, an influential charter of rights. Wikipedia
• 1219 Northern Crusades: Danish victory at the Battle of Lindanise (modern-day Tallinn) establishes the Danish Duchy of Estonia. Wikipedia
• 1389 The Ottomans under Sultan Murad I defeat a Serb army under Lazar of Serbia in the battle of Kosovo. Both leaders are killed in the battle. Wikipedia
• 1520 Leo X issued the papal bull Exsurge Domine, censuring 41 propositions from Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses and subsequent writings, and threatening him with excommunication unless he recanted. Wikipedia
• 1567 Mary, Queen of Scots, and her new husband Bothwell are confronted by disgruntled Scottish nobles in the encounter at Carberry Hill. The stand-off ends with the surrender of queen Mary. Wikipedia
• 1800 War of the Second Coalition: The signing of the Convention of Alessandria brought temporary peace between France and Austria. Wikipedia
• 1804 New Hampshire approves the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratifying the document. Wikipedia
• 1826 In the Auspicious Incident, the Janissary mutiny against Sultan Mahmud II is defeated and the Janissary corps is disbanded as a result. Wikipedia
• 1846 The Oregon Treaty extends the border between the United States and British North America, established by the Treaty of 1818, westward to the Pacific Ocean. Wikipedia
• 1859 The shooting of a pig in the San Juan Islands led to the so-called Pig War over the border between the United States and British North America. Wikipedia
• 1878 Eadweard Muybridge took a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it gallops, which became the basis of motion pictures Wikipedia
• 1896 A magnitude-8.5 earthquake and a subsequent tsunami struck Japan, killing at least 22,000 people and destroying about 9,000 homes. Wikipedia
• 1904 A fire aboard the steamboat SS General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1,000. Wikipedia
• 1920 Three African-American circus workers were lynched by a mob in Duluth, Minnesota, a crime that shocked the country for having taken place in the Northern United States. Wikipedia
• 1920 Following the 1920 Schleswig plebiscites, Northern Schleswig is transferred from Germany to Denmark. Wikipedia
• 1921 Bessie Coleman became the first Black person to earn an international pilot's license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: The United States Army Air Forces began the first air raid of its strategic bombing campaign against the Japanese archipelago, although little damage was caused. Wikipedia
• 1944 World War II: The United States invades Saipan, capital of Japan's South Seas Mandate. Wikipedia
• 1977 After the death of dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, the first democratic elections take place in Spain. Wikipedia
• 1978 King Hussein of Jordan married American Lisa Halaby, who became known as Queen Noor of Jordan. Wikipedia
• 1991 An eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines deposited large amounts of particulate matter into the atmosphere, enough to briefly lower global temperatures by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F). Wikipedia
• 1995 Western Greece was struck by an earthquake registering 6.4–6.5 Mw that killed 26 people. Wikipedia
• 1996 The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a truck bomb in the commercial centre of Manchester, England, injuring more than 200 people and causing widespread damage to buildings. Wikipedia
• 2006 US president George W. Bush designated 140,000 square miles (360,000 km2) around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, now one of the world's largest protected areas. Wikipedia

Born on June 15

• 1330 Edward, the Black Prince of England (died 1376) Wikipedia
• 1843 Edvard Grieg, Norwegian pianist and composer (died 1907) Wikipedia
• 1902 Erik Erikson, German-American psychologist and psychoanalyst (died 1994) Wikipedia
• 1914 Yuri Andropov, Russian politician (died 1984) Wikipedia
• 1916 Herbert A. Simon, American political scientist and economist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2001) Wikipedia
• 1917 John Fenn, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2010) Wikipedia
• 1920 Alberto Sordi, Italian actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2003) Wikipedia
• 1933 Mohammad-Ali Rajai, Iranian politician, 2nd President of Iran (died 1981) Wikipedia
• 1943 Johnny Hallyday, French singer and actor (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1946 Demis Roussos, Egyptian-Greek singer-songwriter and bass player (died 2015) Wikipedia
• 1947 Alain Aspect, French physicist (Nobel Prize 2022 for experiments with entangled photons) Wikipedia
• 1949 Jim Varney, American actor, comedian, and screenwriter (died 2000) Wikipedia
• 1950 Lakshmi Mittal, Indian-English businessman Wikipedia
• 1953 Xi Jinping, Chinese engineer and politician, General Secretary of the Communist Party and President of China Wikipedia
• 1963 Helen Hunt, American actress, director, and producer Wikipedia
• 1964 Courteney Cox, American actress and producer Wikipedia
• 1964 Michael Laudrup, Danish footballer and manager Wikipedia
• 1966 Raimonds Vējonis, Latvian politician, 9th President of Latvia Wikipedia
• 1969 Ice Cube, American rapper, producer, and actor Wikipedia
• 1969 Oliver Kahn, German footballer and sportscaster Wikipedia
• 1973 Neil Patrick Harris, American actor and singer Wikipedia
• 1992 Mohamed Salah, Egyptian footballer Wikipedia

Died on June 15

• 923 Robert I of France (born 866) Wikipedia
• 1389 Murad I, Ottoman Sultan (born 1319) Wikipedia
• 1467 Philip III, Duke of Burgundy (born 1396) Wikipedia
• 1849 James K. Polk, American lawyer and politician, 11th President of the United States (born 1795) Wikipedia
• 1888 Frederick III, German Emperor (born 1831) Wikipedia
• 1889 Mihai Eminescu, Romanian journalist, author, and poet (born 1850) Wikipedia
• 1938 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German painter and illustrator (born 1880) Wikipedia
• 1971 Wendell Meredith Stanley, American biochemist and virologist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1904) Wikipedia
• 1991 Arthur Lewis, Saint Lucian economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1915) Wikipedia
• 1993 James Hunt, English racing driver and sportscaster (born 1947) Wikipedia
• 1996 Ella Fitzgerald, American singer and actress (born 1917) Wikipedia
• 2013 Kenneth G. Wilson, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1936) Wikipedia
• 2019 Franco Zeffirelli, Italian film director (born 1923) Wikipedia
• 2023 Glenda Jackson, English actress and politician (born 1936) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Arbor Day (Costa Rica) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Abraham of Clermont (or of St Cyriacus) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Alice (or Adelaide) of Schaerbeek Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Amos Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Albertina Berkenbrock Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Clement Vismara Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Edburga of Winchester Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Evelyn Underhill (Church of England and The Episcopal Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Germaine Cousin Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Landelin (of Crespin or of Lobbes) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed Peter Snow Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Trillo Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Vitus (Guy), Modestus and Crescentia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: June 15 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Day of Valdemar and Reunion Day (Flag Day) (Denmark) Wikipedia
• Engineer's Day (Italy) Wikipedia
• Global Wind Day (international) Wikipedia
• National Beer Day (United Kingdom) Wikipedia
• National Salvation Day (Azerbaijan) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “June 15” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/June 15” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “June 15” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for June 15 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.