History of Today 28 June: Important Events, Births and Deaths

Welcome to History of Today 28 June. On this page, you can read important historical events, famous births, notable deaths and general knowledge facts related to 28 June. This information is useful for UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railway, State PSC and other competitive exams.

Last updated on 28 June 2026, 01:00 AM

Important Events on 28 June in History

28 Jun 2016: A terrorist attack in Turkey's Istanbul Atatürk Airport kills 42 people and injures more than 230 others. Read more
28 Jun 2012: The United States Supreme Court upholds the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius. Read more
28 Jun 2009: Honduran president Manuel Zelaya is ousted by a local military coup following a failed request to hold a referendum to rewrite the Honduran Constitution. This was the start of the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis. Read more
28 Jun 2004: Iraq War: Sovereign power is handed to the interim government of Iraq by the Coalition Provisional Authority, ending the U.S.-led rule of that nation. Read more
28 Jun 2001: Slobodan Milošević is extradited to the ICTY in The Hague to stand trial. Read more
28 Jun 1997: Holyfield–Tyson II: Mike Tyson is disqualified in the third round for biting a piece off Evander Holyfield's ear. Read more
28 Jun 1989: On the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević delivers the Gazimestan speech at the site of the historic battle. Read more
28 Jun 1987: For the first time in military history, a civilian population is targeted for chemical attack when Iraqi warplanes bombed the Iranian town of Sardasht. Read more
28 Jun 1982: Aeroflot Flight 8641 crashes in Mazyr, Belarus, killing 132 people. Read more
28 Jun 1981: A powerful bomb explodes in Tehran, killing 73 officials of the Islamic Republican Party. Read more
28 Jun 1978: The United States Supreme Court, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke bars quota systems in college admissions. Read more
28 Jun 1976: The Angolan court sentences US and UK mercenaries to death sentences and prison terms in the Luanda Trial. Read more
28 Jun 1973: Elections are held for the Northern Ireland Assembly, which will lead to power-sharing between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland for the first time. Read more
28 Jun 1969: Stonewall riots begin in New York City, marking the start of the Gay Rights Movement. Read more
28 Jun 1964: Malcolm X forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Read more
28 Jun 1956: In Poznań, workers from HCP factory go to the streets, sparking one of the first major protests against communist government both in Poland and Europe. Read more
28 Jun 1950: Korean War: Suspected communist sympathizers (between 60,000 and 200,000) are executed in the Bodo League massacre. Read more
28 Jun 1950: Korean War: Packed with its own refugees fleeing Seoul and leaving their 5th Division stranded, South Korean forces blow up the Hangang Bridge in an attempt to slow North Korea's offensive. The city falls later that day. Read more
28 Jun 1950: Korean War: The Korean People's Army kills almost a thousand doctors, nurses, inpatient civilians and wounded soldiers in the Seoul National University Hospital massacre. Read more
28 Jun 1948: Cold War: The Tito–Stalin Split results in the expulsion of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia from the Cominform. Read more
28 Jun 1948: Boxer Dick Turpin beats Vince Hawkins at Villa Park in Birmingham to become the first black British boxing champion in the modern era. Read more
28 Jun 1945: Poland's Soviet-allied Provisional Government of National Unity is formed over a month after V-E Day. Read more
28 Jun 1942: World War II: Nazi Germany starts its strategic summer offensive against the Soviet Union, codenamed Case Blue. Read more
28 Jun 1940: Romania cedes Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union after facing an ultimatum. Read more
28 Jun 1936: The Japanese puppet state of Mengjiang is formed in northern China. Read more
28 Jun 1926: Mercedes-Benz is formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies. Read more
28 Jun 1922: The Irish Civil War begins with the shelling of the Four Courts in Dublin by Free State forces. Read more
28 Jun 1921: Serbian King Alexander I proclaims the new constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, known thereafter as the Vidovdan Constitution. Read more
28 Jun 1919: The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending the state of war between Germany and the Allies of World War I. Read more
28 Jun 1917: World War I: Greece joins the Allied powers. Read more
28 Jun 1914: Causes of World War I: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo, beginning the July Crisis and providing the casus belli of World War I. Read more
28 Jun 1911: The Nakhla meteorite, the first one to suggest signs of aqueous processes on Mars, falls to Earth, landing in Egypt. Read more
28 Jun 1904: The SS Norge runs aground on Hasselwood Rock in the North Atlantic 430 kilometres (270 mi) northwest of Ireland. More than 635 people die during the sinking. Read more
28 Jun 1902: The U.S. Congress passes the Spooner Act, authorizing President Theodore Roosevelt to acquire rights from Colombia for the Panama Canal. Read more
28 Jun 1896: An explosion in the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston, Pennsylvania results in a massive cave-in that kills 58 miners. Read more
28 Jun 1895: The United States Court of Private Land Claims rules James Reavis's claim to Barony of Arizona is "wholly fictitious and fraudulent." Read more
28 Jun 1894: Labor Day becomes an official US holiday. Read more
28 Jun 1882: The Anglo-French Convention of 1882 marks the territorial boundaries between Guinea and Sierra Leone. Read more
28 Jun 1881: The Austro–Serbian Alliance of 1881 is secretly signed. Read more
28 Jun 1880: Australian bushranger Ned Kelly is captured at Glenrowan. Read more
28 Jun 1870: The US Congress establishes the first federal holidays (New Year Day, July 4th, Thanksgiving, and Christmas).
28 Jun 1865: The Army of the Potomac is disbanded. Read more
28 Jun 1859: The first conformation dog show is held in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Read more
28 Jun 1855: Sigma Chi fraternity is founded in North America. Read more
28 Jun 1841: The Paris Opera Ballet premieres Giselle in the Salle Le Peletier. Read more
28 Jun 1838: Coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Read more
28 Jun 1807: Second British invasion of the Río de la Plata; John Whitelocke lands at Ensenada on an attempt to recapture Buenos Aires and is defeated by the locals. Read more

Famous Births on 28 June

28 Jun 2005: Tom Bischof, German footballer Tom Bischof is a German professional footballer who plays as a midfielder or full-back for Bundesliga club Bayern Munich and the Germany national team. Read more
28 Jun 2005: Pio Esposito, Italian footballer Francesco Pio Esposito is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Inter Milan and the Italy national team. Read more
28 Jun 2002: Marta Kostyuk, Ukrainian tennis player Marta Olehivna Kostyuk is a Ukrainian professional tennis player. She has career-high rankings by the WTA of No. 12 in singles, achieved on 8 June 2026, and No. 27 in doubles, reached in May 2023. Kostyuk has won three WTA Tour singles titles, including a WTA 1000 event at the 2026 Madrid Open, and two titles in doubles. Her best performance at the majors is reaching the semifinals of the 2026 French Open. She is currently the No. 2 player from Ukraine. Read more
28 Jun 1999: Markéta Vondroušová, Czech tennis player Markéta Vondroušová is a Czech suspended professional tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 6 by the WTA. Vondroušová has won three WTA Tour-level singles titles, including the 2023 Wimbledon Championships. She is the first unseeded player to win the Wimbledon women's singles title. She was also runner-up at the 2019 French Open, and claimed a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Read more
28 Jun 1997: Tadasuke Makino, Japanese racing driver Tadasuke Makino is a Japanese racing driver for Honda Motor Company who currently competes in Super GT for Team Kunimitsu and in the Super Formula Championship for Dandelion Racing. A feature race winner in the FIA Formula 2 Championship during his time abroad in junior categories, Makino has competed in the top level of Japan's domestic racing scene since 2019. Alongside teammate Naoki Yamamoto, he won the GT500 class championship in Super GT in 2020. Read more
28 Jun 1997: Shakur Stevenson, American boxer Ash-Shakur Nafi-Shahid Stevenson is an American professional boxer. He has won world championships in four weight classes, from featherweight to junior welterweight. He has held the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and Ring magazine junior welterweight titles since 2026. As an amateur, he represented the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics, winning the bantamweight silver medal. Read more
28 Jun 1996: Donna Vekić, Croatian tennis player Donna Vekić is a Croatian professional tennis player. She achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 17 on 27 January 2025. Her best performance at a major is reaching the semifinals at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, the longest in the history of the tournament, which she lost against Jasmine Paolini. Vekić is also an Olympic silver medalist, in singles at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Read more
28 Jun 1996: Larissa Werbicki, Canadian rower Larissa Werbicki is a Canadian rower. Read more
28 Jun 1994: Hussein, Crown Prince of Jordan Hussein bin Abdullah al-Hashimi is Crown Prince of Jordan as the eldest son of King Abdullah II and Queen Rania. He is a member of the House of Hashim, the royal family of Jordan since 1921, and is considered to be a 42nd-generation direct descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Read more
28 Jun 1993: Bradley Beal, American basketball player Bradley Emmanuel Beal Sr. is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Big Panda", he is a three-time NBA All-Star and one-time All-NBA Third Team selection. Read more
28 Jun 1992: Oscar Hiljemark, Swedish footballer Oscar Karl Niclas Hiljemark is a Swedish professional football coach and a former player who was most recently the head coach of Italian Serie B club Pisa. A midfielder, he started his career with IF Elfsborg in 2010 and went on to represent PSV, Palermo, Genoa, Panathinaikos, and Dynamo Moscow before retiring at AaB in 2021. A full international between 2012 and 2020, he won 28 caps for the Sweden national team and represented his country at UEFA Euro 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Read more
28 Jun 1992: Elaine Thompson, Jamaican sprinter Elaine Sandra-Lee Thompson-Herah, née Thompson, is a Jamaican sprinter who competes in the 60 metres, 100 metres and 200 metres. Regarded as one of the greatest female sprinters of all time, she is a five-time Olympic champion, the fastest woman alive in the 100 m, and the third fastest ever in the 200 m. Read more
28 Jun 1991: Seohyun, South Korean singer, dancer, and actress Seo Ju-hyun, known professionally as Seohyun, is a South Korean singer, actress, and songwriter. She debuted as a member of girl group Girls' Generation in August 2007, which went on to become one of the best-selling artists in South Korea and one of South Korea's most widely known girl groups worldwide. Seohyun released her first extended play Don't Say No in 2017. She left SM Entertainment later that year, although she remains as a member of Girls' Generation. Read more
28 Jun 1991: Kevin De Bruyne, Belgian footballer Kevin De Bruyne is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie A club Napoli and the Belgium national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation and one of the best players in Premier League history, De Bruyne has been described as a "complete" footballer. Read more
28 Jun 1991: Kang Min-hyuk, South Korean singer, drummer, and actor Kang Min-hyuk, also known mononymously as Minhyuk, is a South Korean musician, singer-songwriter, and actor. He is the drummer of South Korean rock band CNBLUE. Read more
28 Jun 1989: Jason Clark, Australian rugby league player Jason Clark is an Australian former rugby league footballer who last played as a loose forward for the Limoux Grizzlies in the Elite One Championship. Read more
28 Jun 1989: Andrew Fifita, Australian rugby league player Andrew Fifita is a former professional rugby league footballer who played as a prop. He has played for Tonga and Australia at international level. Read more
28 Jun 1989: David Fifita, Australian rugby league player David Fifita is a Tonga international rugby league footballer who plays as a prop for The Entrance Tigers in the Central Coast League in NSW, Australia. Read more
28 Jun 1989: Julia Zlobina, Russian-Azerbaijani figure skater Julia Sergeyevna Zlobina is a former competitive ice dancer. Competing for Azerbaijan with Alexei Sitnikov, she is the 2013 Golden Spin of Zagreb champion, 2013 Volvo Open Cup champion, 2012 Nebelhorn Trophy silver medalist, and 2013 Winter Universiade silver medalist. They competed at the 2014 Winter Olympics, finishing 12th, and have placed as high as sixth at the European Championships (2014). Read more
28 Jun 1989: Markiplier, American internet personality Mark Edward Fischbach, known professionally as Markiplier, is an American YouTuber, filmmaker, and actor. One of the most popular YouTubers on the platform, he is known for his "Let's Play" videos of indie horror games. He was listed by Forbes as the third-highest-paid content creator on the platform in 2022, and has won four Streamy Awards and a Golden Joystick Award. He has spun off his YouTube fame into a notable media career, venturing into acting and filmmaking. Read more
28 Jun 1989: Nicole Rottmann, Austrian tennis player Nicole Rottmann is an Austrian former professional tennis player. Read more
28 Jun 1987: Sonata Tamošaitytė, Lithuanian hurdler Sonata Tamošaitytė is a Lithuanian athlete. She was born in Kaunas. Read more
28 Jun 1987: Terrence Williams, American basketball player Terrence Deshon Williams is an American former professional basketball player. Williams was drafted 11th overall in the 2009 NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets. He was the senior co-captain for the 2008–09 University of Louisville Cardinals. Read more
28 Jun 1986: Kellie Pickler, American singer-songwriter Kellie Dawn Pickler is an American country music singer, actress and television personality. Pickler gained fame as a contestant on the fifth season of American Idol and finished in sixth place. In 2006, she signed to 19 Recordings and BNA Records as a recording artist. Her debut album, Small Town Girl, was released later that year and has sold over 900,000 copies. The album, which was certified gold by the RIAA, produced three singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts: "Red High Heels" at No. 15, "I Wonder" at No. 14, and "Things That Never Cross a Man's Mind" at No. 16. Read more
28 Jun 1985: Phil Bardsley, English footballer Phillip Anthony Bardsley is a former professional footballer who played as a full back. He also played international football for the Scotland national team. Read more
28 Jun 1985: Colt Hynes, American baseball player Joshua Colt Hynes is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays. Read more
28 Jun 1982: Ibrahim Camejo, Cuban long jumper Ibrahim Camejo Sayas is a Cuban long jumper. Read more
28 Jun 1981: Savage, New Zealand rapper Demetrius Christian Taanuu Savelio, better known by his stage name Savage, is a New Zealand hip hop recording artist, record producer and member of hip hop group the Deceptikonz. Savage was the first New Zealand hip hop artist to have a commercial single achieve platinum certification status in the United States. The "International Breakthrough" accolade of the Pacific Music Awards was created in his honour. Savage also has applied his recognisable voice in the electronic dance music space with 5× platinum hit ''Freaks'' with Timmy Trumpet, and 4 times platinum hit ''Swing'' with Joel Fletcher. Read more
28 Jun 1981: Michael Crafter, Australian singer-songwriter Michael Crafter is an Australian singer, songwriter and entertainment manager. His music career began as lead vocalist for I Killed the Prom Queen. Read more
28 Jun 1981: Guillermo Martínez, Cuban javelin thrower Guillermo Martínez López is a Cuban javelin thrower. Read more
28 Jun 1981: Brandon Phillips, American baseball player Brandon Emil Phillips is an American former professional baseball second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels and Boston Red Sox. At 6 feet (1.8 m) and 211 pounds (96 kg), Phillips batted and threw right-handed. Read more
28 Jun 1980: Jevgeni Novikov, Estonian footballer Jevgeni Aleksandrovitš Novikov is an Estonian former professional international footballer. He played the position of central and defensive midfielder. Read more
28 Jun 1979: Felicia Day, American actress and writer Kathryn Felicia Day is an American actress, singer, writer, and web series creator. She is the creator and star of the web series The Guild (2007–2013), a show loosely based on her life as a gamer. She also wrote and starred in the Dragon Age web series Dragon Age: Redemption (2011). She is a founder of the online media company Geek & Sundry, best known for hosting the show Critical Role between 2015 and 2019. Day was a member of the board of directors of the International Academy of Web Television from December 2009 until August 2012. Read more
28 Jun 1979: Randy McMichael, American football player Randy Montez McMichael is an American former professional football player who was a tight end in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the fourth round of the 2002 NFL draft. He played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs. Read more
28 Jun 1979: Florian Zeller, French author and playwright Florian Zeller is a French playwright, novelist, theatre director, and filmmaker. He has written over a dozen plays that have been staged worldwide, making him one of the most celebrated contemporary playwrights. Read more
28 Jun 1978: Simon Larose, Canadian tennis player Simon Larose is a former professional tennis player. He was Canada's top-ranked singles player for some months during 2003 and 2004. Larose retired from the tour shortly after being banned for two years for substance abuse. Read more
28 Jun 1977: Chris Spurling, American baseball player Christopher Michael Spurling is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the Detroit Tigers and the Milwaukee Brewers. He was born in Dayton, Ohio, and attended Sinclair Community College. He also graduated from Northridge High School. Read more
28 Jun 1977: Mark Stoermer, American bass player, songwriter, and producer Mark August Stoermer is an American musician. He is best known as the bassist for the rock band the Killers, with whom he has recorded six studio albums. Read more
28 Jun 1977: Harun Tekin, Turkish singer and guitarist Sami Harun Tekin is a Turkish singer, musician, and poet. He is one of the founding members and the vocalist of the Turkish rock band Mor ve Ötesi. Read more
28 Jun 1976: Shinobu Asagoe, Japanese tennis player Shinobu Asagoe is a Japanese former tennis player. She turned professional in 1997, and retired in 2006. Read more
28 Jun 1976: Seth Wescott, American snowboarder Seth Wescott is an American snowboarder. He is a two-time Olympic champion in the snowboard cross. Read more
28 Jun 1975: Jon Nödtveidt, Swedish singer-songwriter, and guitarist (died 2006) Jon Andreas Nödtveidt was a Swedish musician best known as the founder, vocalist and lead guitarist of the melodic black/death metal band Dissection. With the band, he released the seminal and influential extreme metal albums The Somberlain (1993) and Storm of the Light's Bane (1995). In addition to Dissection, Nödtveidt performed with several other projects, including Ophthalamia, The Black, De Infernali and Nifelheim, and also worked as a journalist for Metal Zone, where he covered the growing black metal scene. Read more
28 Jun 1974: Rob Dyrdek, American skateboarder, entrepreneur, and reality television star Robert Stanley Dyrdek is an American actor, producer, reality TV personality, and former professional skateboarder. He is best known for his roles in the MTV reality and variety shows Rob & Big, Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory, and Ridiculousness. In addition to his television ventures, Dyrdek is an entrepreneur, founding several businesses through his venture studio, Dyrdek Machine, including Street League Skateboarding and Superjacket Productions. Read more
28 Jun 1973: Adrián Annus, Hungarian hammer thrower Adrián Zsolt Annus is a Hungarian hammer thrower, who was stripped of his gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens for a doping violation in a highly publicized scandal. The disqualification received heightened attention, as it came on the heels of several drug scandals at the Athens Games and came as Annus' teammate, discus thrower Róbert Fazekas was also stripped of his Olympic title for a doping violation. The incident also received attention, as Annus refused for several months to return his gold medal, relenting only after the International Olympic Committee put pressure on the Hungarian Olympic Committee and threatened sanctions. Read more
28 Jun 1973: Corey Koskie, Canadian baseball player Cordel Leonard "Corey" Koskie is a Canadian former professional baseball third baseman, who played in Major League Baseball for the Minnesota Twins, Toronto Blue Jays, and Milwaukee Brewers. On February 4, 2015, Koskie was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Read more
28 Jun 1972: Ngô Bảo Châu, Vietnamese-French mathematician and academic Ngô Bảo Châu is a Vietnamese-French mathematician at the University of Chicago, best known for proving the fundamental lemma for automorphic forms. He is the first Vietnamese national to have received the Fields Medal. Read more
28 Jun 1972: Chris Leslie, English politician, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Christopher Michael Leslie is a British business executive and former politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley from 1997 to 2005 and Nottingham East from 2010 to 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, he defected to form Change UK and later became an independent politician. Read more
28 Jun 1972: Geeta Tripathee, Nepali poet, lyricist and literary critic Geeta Tripathee is a Nepali poet, lyricist, essayist, literary critic and scholar. An eminent writer in Nepali, Geeta Tripathee has two volumes of poetry collection, one of lyrical poems and seven books in other literary genre to her credit. She also writes for newspapers on issues concerning women, environment and societal injustice. Read more
28 Jun 1972: Alessandro Nivola, American actor Alessandro Antine Nivola is an American actor. His work includes both screen and stage, and his accolades include a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for a Tony Award and an Independent Spirit Award. Read more
28 Jun 1971: Lorenzo Amoruso, Italian footballer Lorenzo Amoruso is an Italian sports commentator and former professional footballer who played as a defender for seven teams in Italy, Scotland, England, and San Marino during his footballing career, but is perhaps best known for his six-year spell with Glasgow side Rangers. In that six-year spell, he won nine major honours with the club including domestic trebles in the 1998–99 and 2002–03 seasons, representing the side on more than 150 occasions in competitive football. Read more
28 Jun 1971: Fabien Barthez, French footballer Fabien Alain Barthez is a French former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. At club level, he played football in both France and England with Toulouse, Marseille, Monaco, Manchester United and Nantes. At international level, he played for the France national team, with whom he won the 1998 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 2000 and the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup, representing his nation at a total of three editions of both the FIFA World Cup and the UEFA European Championship; he also reached the final of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, after which he retired from international football. Read more
28 Jun 1971: Bobby Hurley, American basketball player and coach Robert Matthew Hurley is an American college basketball coach and former professional player. He was previously the head coach at the University at Buffalo and Arizona State University. Read more
28 Jun 1971: Ron Mahay, American baseball player and scout Ronald Matthew Mahay is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played for the Boston Red Sox, Oakland Athletics, Florida Marlins, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Kansas City Royals, and Minnesota Twins. After retiring from active play in January 2013, he was named a scout by the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2014 season. He is currently the pitching coach for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers of the MLB Draft League. Read more
28 Jun 1971: Elon Musk, South African-born American entrepreneur Elon Reeve Musk is a businessman and former public official who is the CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla and SpaceX. Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2025, and became the first and only trillionaire in terms of US dollars in mid June 2026; however as of June 21, 2026, Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$951 billion. Read more
28 Jun 1971: Aileen Quinn, American actress and singer Aileen Marie Quinn is an American actress, singer and dancer. She played the title character in the 1982 film Annie, which earned her two Golden Globe Award nominations. Read more
28 Jun 1970: Mushtaq Ahmed, Pakistani cricketer and coach Mushtaq Ahmed is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer who currently acts as the spin bowling coach for the Bangladesh national cricket team. A leg break googly bowler, at his peak he was described as one of the best three wrist-spinners in the world. In an international career that spanned from 1990 until 2003, he claimed 185 wickets in Test cricket and 161 in One Day Internationals. He was at his most prolific internationally between 1995 and 1998, but his most successful years were as a domestic player for Sussex in the early 2000s. Read more
28 Jun 1970: Tom Merritt, American journalist Thomas Andrew Merritt is an American technology journalist, writer, and broadcaster best known as the host of several podcasts. He is a former co-host of Tech News Today on the TWiT.tv Network, and was previously an executive editor for CNET and developer and co-host of the daily podcast Buzz Out Loud. As of March 2023, Merritt hosts Daily Tech News Show, Cordkillers and Sword and Laser, among other programs. Read more
28 Jun 1970: Mike White, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Michael Christopher White is an American filmmaker and actor. He created, writes, and directs the ongoing HBO satirical comedy anthology series The White Lotus, for which he has won three Primetime Emmy Awards. Read more
28 Jun 1969: Tichina Arnold, American actress and singer Tichina Rolanda Arnold is an American actress and comedian. Read more
28 Jun 1969: Stéphane Chapuisat, Swiss footballer Stéphane Chapuisat is a Swiss former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is currently the sporting director of BSC Young Boys. Read more
28 Jun 1969: Fabrizio Mori, Italian hurdler Fabrizio Mori is an Italian hurdler, best known for his gold medal at the 1999 World Championships. Read more
28 Jun 1968: Chayanne, Puerto Rican-American singer-songwriter and actor Elmer Figueroa Arce, known professionally as Chayanne, he is a Puerto Rican singer and actor. He has released 21 albums and sold over 15 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists. Read more
28 Jun 1967: Leona Aglukkaq, Canadian politician, 7th Canadian Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq is a Canadian politician. She was a member of the non-partisan Legislative Assembly of Nunavut representing the riding of Nattilik from 2004 until stepping down in 2008; then was a Conservative Member of Parliament representing the riding of Nunavut after winning the seat in the 2008 federal election. She was the first Conservative to win the seat, and only the second centre-right candidate ever to win it. Leona Aglukkaq is the first Inuk woman to serve in cabinet. She remained an MP until she was defeated in the 2015 federal election by Liberal candidate Hunter Tootoo. Aglukkaq unsuccessfully contested the 2019 federal election. Read more
28 Jun 1967: Gil Bellows, Canadian actor and producer Gil Bellows is a Canadian actor, producer, screenwriter, and director. Upon graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he began acting in films and television. Bellows also earned critical acclaim for his stage performances in The Snake and the Vein (1990–1992), Flaubert's Latest (1992), and his first starring role in Love and a .45 (1994). Bellows gained widespread recognition for his pivotal role as Tommy in The Shawshank Redemption (1994). The film, nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, is often regarded as one of the greatest ever made. Read more
28 Jun 1967: Zhong Huandi, Chinese runner Zhong Huandi is a retired Chinese long-distance runner who concentrated on the 3000 and 10,000 metres, and later the marathon. She became a four-time Asian champion and two-time World Championships silver medalist. On 8 September 1993, she became the second fastest 10,000 meter runner of all time, only surpassed by Wang Junxia, the winner of that same race by more than half a lap in what remained the world record until the 2016 Olympics. Both runners surpassed the standing world record by Ingrid Kristiansen. Read more
28 Jun 1967: Lars Riedel, German discus thrower Lars Peter Riedel a former German discus thrower. Riedel has the seventh longest discus throw of all-time with a personal best of 71.50 m. Read more
28 Jun 1966: Peeter Allik, Estonian painter and illustrator (died 2019) Peeter Allik was an Estonian artist and Surrealist. Read more
28 Jun 1966: Bobby Bare Jr., American singer-songwriter and guitarist Robert Joseph Bare Jr. is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Read more
28 Jun 1966: John Cusack, American actor and screenwriter John Paul Cusack is an American actor. With a career spanning over four decades, he has appeared in over eighty films. He began acting in films during the 1980s, appearing in coming-of-age dramedies such as Sixteen Candles (1984), Better Off Dead (1985), The Sure Thing (1985), Stand by Me (1986), and Say Anything… (1989). Moving away from his teen idol image, he went on to appear in a variety of genres, such as the crime thrillers The Grifters (1990) and The Paperboy (2012), the black comedies Bullets Over Broadway (1994) and Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), the romantic comedy Serendipity (2001), the time-traveling comedy Hot Tub Time Machine (2010), psychological thriller Identity (2003), the action thriller Con Air (1997), and the psychological horror film 1408 (2007). Read more
28 Jun 1966: Mary Stuart Masterson, American actress Mary Stuart Masterson is an American actress, producer, and director. After making her acting debut as a child in The Stepford Wives (1975), Masterson took a ten-year hiatus to focus on her education. Her early film roles include Heaven Help Us (1985), At Close Range (1986), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), and Chances Are (1989). Her performance in the film Immediate Family (1989) won her the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress, and she earned additional praise for her roles in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Benny & Joon (1993). Read more
28 Jun 1965: Jessica Hecht, American actress Jessica Hecht is an American actress known for her roles as Gretchen Schwartz on Breaking Bad, Susan Bunch on Friends, Carol Mannheim on The Boys, and Karen on Special, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. She is also known for her work on Broadway, earning Tony Award nominations for her roles in A View from the Bridge (2010), Summer, 1976 (2023), and Eureka Day (2025). Read more
28 Jun 1965: Tiaan Strauss, South African rugby player Christiaan Petrus 'Tiaan' Strauss, is a former rugby union and rugby league footballer who represented both South Africa and Australia at international level in rugby union and also played top-level domestic rugby league in Australia. He won the 1999 Rugby World Cup with Australia and the Currie Cup with Western Province. Read more
28 Jun 1964: Christina Ashcroft, Canadian sport shooter Christina Ashcroft is a Canadian sport shooter. Read more
28 Jun 1964: Mark Grace, American baseball player and sportscaster Mark Eugene Grace is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman who spent 13 seasons with the Chicago Cubs and three seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks of the National League (NL). He was a member of the 2001 World Series champion Diamondbacks that beat the New York Yankees. Read more
28 Jun 1964: Bernie McCahill, New Zealand rugby player Bernard Joseph McCahill is a former rugby union player from New Zealand who played for Auckland RFU and the All Blacks. Read more
28 Jun 1964: Dan Stains, Australian rugby league player and coach Dan Stains is an Australian former rugby league footballer and coach. He played primarily for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, usually as a second-row, prop and as a hooker. Read more
28 Jun 1964: Steve Williamson, English saxophonist and composer Steve Williamson is an English saxophonist and composer. He has been called "one of the most distinctive saxophone voices in contemporary British jazz". Read more
28 Jun 1963: Peter Baynham, Welsh actor, producer, and screenwriter Peter Baynham is a Welsh screenwriter, stand-up comedian and performer. His writing work includes collaborations with comedy figures such as Armando Iannucci, Steve Coogan, Chris Morris, Sacha Baron Cohen and Sarah Smith. Born in Cardiff, Wales, Baynham served in the British Merchant Navy at age 16 with a desire to travel the world after leaving school and later pursued a career in comedy as a stand-up comedian and then he became a writer and a performer for various news and sketch comedies in radio and television. He also became a writer in feature film. Read more
28 Jun 1963: Charlie Clouser, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer Charles Alexander Clouser is an American keyboardist, composer, record producer, and remixer. He worked with Trent Reznor for Nine Inch Nails from 1994 to 2000, and is a composer for film and television; among his credits are the score for the Saw franchise and American Horror Story. Clouser was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Metal Performance in 1997. Read more
28 Jun 1962: Anișoara Cușmir-Stanciu, Romanian long jumper Anișoara Cușmir-Stanciu, née Anișoara Cușmir, is a retired Romanian long jumper. She won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics, and placed second at the 1982 European and 1983 World Championships. Between 1982 and 1983 she improved the world record four times. She retired after the 1984 Olympics to become an athletics coach at CSA Steaua București. She was elected as President of Romanian Athletics Federation in May 2021. Read more
28 Jun 1962: Artur Hajzer, Polish mountaineer (died 2013) Artur Henryk "Słon” Hajzer was a Polish mountaineer. Hajzer summitted seven eight-thousanders, several via new routes and made the first winter climb of Annapurna on February 3, 1987. Read more
28 Jun 1962: Ann-Louise Skoglund, Swedish hurdler Eva Ann-Louise Skoglund is a retired track and field hurdler from Sweden. She is best known for winning the gold medal in the women's 400m hurdles at the 1982 European Championships, and she set the world best year performance in her event in 1982. Read more
28 Jun 1961: Kurt Eichenwald, American journalist Kurt Alexander Eichenwald is an American journalist and a New York Times bestselling author of five books, one of which, The Informant (2000), was made into a motion picture in 2009. He was a senior writer and investigative reporter with The New York Times, Condé Nast's business magazine, Portfolio, and later was a contributing editor with Vanity Fair and a senior writer with Newsweek. Eichenwald had been employed by The New York Times since 1986 and primarily covered Wall Street and corporate topics such as insider trading, accounting scandals, and takeovers, but also wrote about a range of issues including terrorism, the Bill Clinton pardon controversy, federal health care policy, and sexual predators on the Internet. Read more
28 Jun 1961: Jeff Malone, American basketball player and coach Jeffrey Nigel Malone is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for the Mississippi State Bulldogs, and is mostly known for his time with the Washington Bullets (1983–1990) of the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he was an NBA All-Star twice, playing the shooting guard position. He also played for the Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers, and Miami Heat. Read more
28 Jun 1960: John Elway, American football player and manager John Albert Elway Jr. is an American former professional football player who spent his entire 16-year career as a quarterback with the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). Following his playing career, he then spent 11 years with the Broncos in various front office positions, eventually being promoted to general manager. Elway and former backup quarterback and head coach Gary Kubiak are the only individuals to be associated with all three of the Broncos' Super Bowl wins. Read more
28 Jun 1960: Roland Melanson, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Roland Joseph "Rollie the Goalie" Melanson is a Canadian ice hockey coach and former goaltender in the National Hockey League (NHL). After a lengthy career in the NHL with the New York Islanders, Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils, and Montreal Canadiens, Melanson began working as a goaltending coach. Read more
28 Jun 1959: Clint Boon, English singer and keyboard player Clinton David Boon is an English musician, DJ and radio presenter. Boon originally rose to fame as the keyboard player of Inspiral Carpets. Read more
28 Jun 1959: John Shelley, British illustrator John Shelley (ジョン・シェリー) is a British illustrator, particularly noted for his work in Japan. Read more
28 Jun 1958: Donna Edwards, American lawyer and politician Donna Fern Edwards is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Maryland's 4th congressional district from 2008 to 2017. The district included most of Prince George's County, as well as part of Anne Arundel County. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Read more
28 Jun 1958: Félix Gray, Tunisian-French singer-songwriter Félix Boutboul, best known by the pseudonym of Félix Gray, is a French singer and songwriter. Read more
28 Jun 1957: Lance Nethery, Canadian ice hockey player and coach Lance Nethery is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre and coach, and current executive. He played 41 games in the National Hockey League with the New York Rangers and Edmonton Oilers during the 1980–81 and 1981–82 seasons. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1979 to 1990, was split between the minor leagues and then in Europe, mainly in the Swiss Nationalliga A. After his playing career Nethrey became a coach and manager in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, working in those roles between 1993 and 2019. Read more
28 Jun 1957: Georgi Parvanov, Bulgarian historian and politician, 4th President of Bulgaria Georgi Sedefchov Parvanov is a Bulgarian historian and politician who was the president of Bulgaria from 2002 to 2012. He was elected after defeating incumbent Petar Stoyanov in the second round of the November 2001 presidential election. He took office on 22 January 2002. He was reelected in 2006 with 75.9% of the vote, becoming the first Bulgarian president to serve two terms. Parvanov supported and promoted Bulgaria's accession to NATO (2004) and the EU (2007). Read more
28 Jun 1957: Mike Skinner, American race car driver Michael Curtis Skinner is an American former stock car racing driver. He has competed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Busch Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and he was the first ever champion of the latter in 1995. He has most recently driven the No. 98 Ford Fusion for Phil Parsons Racing in the Cup Series. He is the father of former NASCAR drivers Jamie Skinner and Dustin Skinner. He was born in Susanville, California. Read more
28 Jun 1957: Jim Spanarkel, American basketball player and sportscaster James Gerard Spanarkel is an American television analyst for College Basketball on CBS and Fox College Hoops. He is a former professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers and the Dallas Mavericks. He played college basketball for Duke University, where he was an All-American. Read more
28 Jun 1956: Amira Hass, Israeli journalist and author Amira Hass is an Israeli journalist, columnist, activist, and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper Haaretz covering Palestinian affairs in Gaza and the West Bank, where she has lived for almost thirty years. Read more
28 Jun 1956: Noel Mugavin, Australian footballer and coach Noel Mugavin is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Fitzroy and Richmond in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Read more
28 Jun 1955: Shirley Cheriton, British actress Shirley Cheriton is an English actress. She is best known for her roles as Debbie Wilkins in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and her portrayal of Miss Prescott in the Are You Being Served? follow up, Grace & Favour. She played Pat a pupil in series 6 of Please Sir. Read more
28 Jun 1954: A. A. Gill, Scottish author and critic (died 2016) Adrian Anthony Gill was a Scottish writer, best known for writing about food and travel, and for his work in television. Publications he contributed to included The Sunday Times, he wrote for Vanity Fair, GQ, and Esquire, and also published numerous books. Read more
28 Jun 1954: Alice Krige, South African actress Alice Maud Krige is a South African actress. Her big break came in 1981, when she starred as the Gilbert and Sullivan singer Sybil Gordon in the British historical film Chariots of Fire, and as Eva Galli / Alma Mobley in the American supernatural horror film Ghost Story. She received a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance in the West End theatre production of Arms and the Man (1981) and later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. Read more
28 Jun 1952: Enis Batur, Turkish poet and author Ahmet Enis Batur is a Turkish poet, essayist, novelist, and editor. Read more
28 Jun 1952: Pietro Mennea, Italian sprinter and politician (died 2013) Pietro Paolo Mennea, nicknamed la Freccia del Sud, was an Italian sprinter and politician. He was most successful in the 200 m event, winning a gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and setting a world record at 19.72 seconds in September 1979. This record stood for almost 17 years – the longest duration in the event history – and is still the European record. He is the only male sprinter who has qualified at four consecutive 200 metres Olympic finals: from 1972 to 1984. Read more
28 Jun 1952: Jean-Christophe Rufin, French physician and author Jean-Christophe Rufin is a French doctor, diplomat, historian and novelist. He is the president of Action Against Hunger, one of the earliest members of Médecins Sans Frontières, and a member of the Académie française. Read more
28 Jun 1951: Mick Cronin, Australian rugby league player and coach Michael William Cronin is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and coach. He was a goal-kicking centre for the Australian national team and a stalwart for the Parramatta Eels club. He played in 22 Tests and 11 World Cup matches between 1973 and 1982. Cronin retired as the NSWRL Premiership's and the Australian Kangaroos' all-time highest point-scorer and has since been named amongst the nation's finest footballers of the 20th century. Read more
28 Jun 1951: Mark Shand, English conservationist and author (died 2014) Mark Roland Shand was an English travel writer and conservationist. He was the brother of Queen Camilla. Shand wrote four travel books, and as a BBC conservationist appeared in documentaries related to his journeys, most of which centred on the survival of elephants. His book Travels on My Elephant became a bestseller and won the Travel Writer of the Year Award at the British Book Awards in 1992. He was the chairman of Elephant Family, a wildlife foundation, which he co-founded in 2002. Read more
28 Jun 1951: Lalla Ward, English actress and author The Honourable Sarah Jill "Lalla" Ward is an English actress, voice artist and author who is best known for playing the role of Romana II in the BBC television series Doctor Who from 1979 to 1981. Read more
28 Jun 1950: Philip Fowke, English pianist and educator Philip Fowke is an English pianist. Read more
28 Jun 1950: Mauricio Rojas, Chilean-Swedish economist and politician Mauricio José Rojas Mullor is a Chilean-Swedish politician and political economist, member of the Riksdag between 2002 and 2006. He served as Minister of Cultures, Arts and Heritage of Chile for four days, since August 10, 2018 until August 13, under the presidency of Sebastián Piñera. Read more
28 Jun 1950: Chris Speier, American baseball player and coach Christopher Edward Speier is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a shortstop, most notably for the San Francisco Giants and the Montreal Expos. He is known by the nickname "the Alameda Rifle" as a native of the San Francisco Bay Area city who possessed a strong arm during his days as an active player. Read more
28 Jun 1949: Don Baylor, American baseball player and coach (died 2017) Don Edward Baylor, nicknamed "Groove," was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager. During his 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), Baylor was a power hitter known for standing very close to home plate and was a first baseman, left fielder, and designated hitter. He played for six different American League (AL) teams, primarily the Baltimore Orioles and California Angels, but he also played for the Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins, and Boston Red Sox. In 1979, Baylor was an All-Star and won the AL Most Valuable Player Award. He won three Silver Slugger Awards, the Roberto Clemente Award, and was a member of the 1987 World Series champion Minnesota Twins. Read more
28 Jun 1948: Kathy Bates, American actress Kathleen Doyle Bates is an American actress and director. Her work spans over five decades, and her accolades include an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for a Tony Award and two BAFTA Awards. Read more
28 Jun 1948: Sergei Bodrov, Russian-American director, producer, and screenwriter Sergei Vladimirovich Bodrov is a Russian film director, screenwriter, and producer. In 2003 he was the president of the jury at the 25th Moscow International Film Festival. Read more
28 Jun 1948: Deborah Moggach, English author and screenwriter Deborah Moggach is an English playwright, novelist and screenwriter. She has written nineteen novels, including The Ex-Wives (1993), Tulip Fever, These Foolish Things and Heartbreak Hotel (2013). Her film scripts include Pride and Prejudice (2005). Read more
28 Jun 1948: Daniel Wegner, Canadian-American psychologist and academic (died 2013) Daniel Merton Wegner was an American social psychologist. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University, Trinity University, and a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was known for applying experimental psychology to the topics of mental control and conscious will, and for originating the study of transactive memory and action identification. In The Illusion of Conscious Will and other works, he argued that the human sense of free will is an illusion. Read more
28 Jun 1947: Mark Helprin, American novelist and journalist Mark Helprin is an American-Israeli novelist, journalist, conservative commentator, Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy, Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, and Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. While Helprin's fictional works straddle a number of disparate genres and styles, he has stated that he "belongs to no literary school, movement, tendency, or trend". Read more
28 Jun 1947: Laura Tyson, American economist and academic Laura D'Andrea Tyson is an American economist and university administrator who is currently a Distinguished Professor of the Graduate School at the Haas School of Business of the University of California, Berkeley and a senior fellow at the Berggruen Institute. She served as the 16th Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 1993 to 1995 and 2nd Director of the National Economic Council from 1995 to 1996 under President Bill Clinton. Tyson was the first woman to hold each of those posts. She is the first of only two people to have served in both posts, the second being Kevin Hassett. Read more
28 Jun 1946: Robert Asprin, American soldier and author (died 2008) Robert Lynn Asprin was an American science fiction and fantasy author and active fan, known best for his humorous series MythAdventures and Phule's Company. Read more
28 Jun 1946: Bruce Davison, American actor and director Bruce Davison is an American actor who has appeared in more than 270 films, television and stage productions since his debut in 1968. His breakthrough role was as Willard Stiles in the 1971 cult horror film Willard. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and won a Golden Globe Award and an Independent Spirit Award for his performance in Longtime Companion (1989). Read more
28 Jun 1946: David Duckham, English rugby player (died 2023) David John Duckham MBE was an English rugby union player. He played 36 games for England, in three tests on the 1971 British Lions tour to New Zealand and for Barbarians F.C. in their 1973 defeat of New Zealand. Read more
28 Jun 1946: Robert Xavier Rodríguez, American classical composer Robert Xavier Rodríguez is an American classical composer, best known for his eight operas and his works for children. Read more
28 Jun 1946: Jaime Guzmán, Chilean lawyer and politician (died 1991) Jaime Jorge Guzmán Errázuriz was a Chilean constitutional law professor, politician, and founding member of the conservative Independent Democratic Union party. In the 1960s, he strongly opposed the University Reform movement and became an active organizer of the Gremialist movement. Guzmán vehemently opposed President Salvador Allende and later became a trusted advisor of General Augusto Pinochet and his dictatorship. As a professor of Constitutional Law, Guzmán played a significant role in drafting the 1980 Chilean Constitution. He briefly served as a senator during the transition to democracy before being assassinated in 1991 by members of the communist urban guerrilla organization, the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (Autonomous). Read more
28 Jun 1946: Gilda Radner, American actress and comedian (died 1989) Gilda Susan Radner was an American actress and comedian. Read more
28 Jun 1945: Ken Buchanan, Scottish boxer (died 2023) Ken Buchanan was a Scottish professional boxer who competed between 1965 and 1982. He held multiple championships at lightweight; the World Boxing Association (WBA) and Ring magazine titles from 1970 to 1972; and the World Boxing Council (WBC) title in 1971, briefly reigning as undisputed champion until being stripped of the WBC title four months later. At regional level he held the British title twice in 1968 and 1973, and the European title from 1974 to 1975. Read more
28 Jun 1945: Jane Harman, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California) Jane Margaret Harman is an American former politician who served as the U.S. representative for California's 36th congressional district from 1993 to 1999 and again from 2001 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee (2002–2006), before she chaired the Homeland Security Committee's Intelligence Subcommittee (2007–2011). Harman was a conservative Blue Dog Democrat. Read more
28 Jun 1945: David Knights, English bass player and producer Procol Harum were an English rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have sold more than 10 million copies. Although noted for their baroque and classical influence, Procol Harum's music is described as psychedelic rock and proto-prog with hints of the blues, R&B, and soul. Read more
28 Jun 1945: Raul Seixas, Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (died 1989) Raul Santos Seixas was a Brazilian singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, considered "Father of Brazilian Rock". His musical work consists of seventeen albums released during his 26-year career. His musical style is traditionally classified as rock and baião, and he did indeed manage to unite both genres in songs like "Let me Sing, Let me Sing". His debut album, Raulzito e os Panteras (1968), was produced when he was part of the group Raulzito e os Panteras, but he only gained critical and public acclaim with songs like "Ouro de Tolo", "Mosca na Sopa" and "Metamorfose Ambulante," from the album Krig-ha, Bandolo! (1973). Raul Seixas had a musical style that was called "rebellious and mystical". This is due to the ideals he championed, such as the Alternative Society presented in the album Gita (1974), influenced by figures like the British occultist Aleister Crowley. Read more
28 Jun 1945: Türkan Şoray, Turkish actress, director, and screenwriter Türkan Şoray is a Turkish actress, writer and film director. She is known as "Sultan" of the Cinema of Turkey. She started her career in 1960, and won her first award as the most successful actress at the 1st Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival for the movie Acı Hayat. Having appeared in more than 222 films, Şoray has starred in the most feature films for a female actress worldwide. On 12 March 2010, Şoray was chosen as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador in Turkey, about which she said: "I think there is nothing that cannot be done with love. If we combine power with love, we can overcome many problems". Read more
28 Jun 1943: Jens Birkemose, Danish painter (died 2022) Jens Birkemose was a Danish contemporary painter. Read more
28 Jun 1943: Donald Johanson, American paleontologist and academic Donald Carl Johanson is an American paleoanthropologist. He is best known for discovering the fossil of a female hominin australopithecine known as "Lucy" in the Afar Triangle region of Hadar, Ethiopia. Read more
28 Jun 1943: Klaus von Klitzing, German physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Klaus von Klitzing is a German physicist, known for discovery of the integer quantum Hall effect, for which he was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physics. Read more
28 Jun 1942: Chris Hani, South African politician (died 1993) Chris Hani was a South African military commander, politician and revolutionary. He served as the leader of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the former armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). He was a fierce opponent of apartheid, and was assassinated by Janusz Waluś, a Polish immigrant and sympathiser of the Conservative opposition on 10 April 1993, during the unrest preceding the transition to democracy. Read more
28 Jun 1942: Hans-Joachim Walde, German decathlete (died 2013) Hans-Joachim Walde was a West German track and field athlete. He competed in the decathlon at the 1964, 1968 and 1972 Olympics and won a bronze medal in 1964 and a silver in 1968. Read more
28 Jun 1942: Frank Zane, American professional bodybuilder and author Frank Zane is a retired American professional bodybuilder and author. Known as "the Chemist", Zane is a three-time Mr. Olympia winner, having won the competition every year from 1977 to 1979. He previously reigned as Mr. Universe in 1965, 1968, 1970, 1971 and 1972, and Mr. America in 1966, 1967 and 1968. Typically competing at a bodyweight of less than 200lbs, he regularly placed higher than men much bigger than he was. His physique is considered one of the greatest in the history of bodybuilding for his meticulous focus on symmetry and proportion. With one of the smallest, tightest waists in bodybuilding, he was renowned for his vacuum pose. Read more
28 Jun 1941: Al Downing, American baseball player and sportscaster Alphonso Erwin Downing is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Milwaukee Brewers, and Los Angeles Dodgers from 1961 through 1977. Downing was an All Star in 1967 and the National League's Comeback Player of the Year in 1971. Downing allowed Hank Aaron's record breaking 715th home run on April 8, 1974. Read more
28 Jun 1941: Joseph Goguen, American computer scientist and academic, developed the OBJ language (died 2006) Joseph Amadee Goguen was an American computer scientist. He was professor of Computer Science at the University of California and University of Oxford, and held research positions at IBM and SRI International. Read more
28 Jun 1941: David Johnston, Canadian academic, lawyer, and politician, 28th Governor General of Canada David Lloyd Johnston is a Canadian academic, author, and statesman who served as the 28th governor general of Canada from 2010 to 2017. Johnston was the special rapporteur appointed to investigate reports of foreign interference in recent Canadian federal elections until his resignation on June 9, 2023. Read more
28 Jun 1940: Karpal Singh, Malaysian lawyer and politician (died 2014) Karpal Singh s/o Ram Singh Deo was an Indian Malaysian politician and lawyer. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Bukit Gelugor in the state of Penang from 2004 to 2014. During that time, he was also the National Chairman of the Democratic Action Party (DAP). Read more
28 Jun 1940: Muhammad Yunus, Bangladeshi economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and statesman. Yunus pioneered the modern concept of microcredit and microfinance, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. He is the founder of Grameen Bank and the first Bangladeshi to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Following the July Uprising, he was appointed as the 5th chief adviser of Bangladesh, the head of the interim government, serving from 2024 to 2026. Read more
28 Jun 1939: Klaus Schmiegel, German chemist Klaus Schmiegel, is a German chemist best known for his work in organic chemistry, which led to the invention of Prozac, a widely used antidepressant. Read more
28 Jun 1938: John Byner, American actor and comedian John Byner is an American actor, comedian and impressionist who has had a lengthy television and film career. His voice work includes the cartoon series The Ant and the Aardvark, in which the title characters are voiced by Byner's impressions of Dean Martin and Jackie Mason. Read more
28 Jun 1938: Leon Panetta, American lawyer and politician, 23rd United States Secretary of Defense Leon Edward Panetta is an American retired politician and government official who served under several Democratic administrations as Secretary of Defense (2011–2013), Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (2009–2011), White House Chief of Staff (1994–1997), director of the Office of Management and Budget (1993–1994), as well as a U.S. representative from California (1977–1993). Read more
28 Jun 1938: S. Sivamaharajah, Sri Lankan Tamil newspaper publisher and politician (died 2006) Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah was a Sri Lankan Tamil newspaper publisher, politician and Member of Parliament. Read more
28 Jun 1938: Simon Douglas-Pennant, 7th Baron Penrhyn, British baron Simon Douglas-Pennant, 7th Baron Penrhyn, is a British nobleman. He is the current holder of the title of Baron Penrhyn – he succeeded his father Nigel's elder brother the 6th Baron, who died without male issue in 2003. Read more
28 Jun 1937: George Knudson, Canadian golfer (died 1989) George Alfred Christian Knudson, CM was a Canadian professional golfer, who along with Mike Weir holds the record for the Canadian with the most wins on the PGA Tour, with eight career victories. Read more
28 Jun 1937: Fernand Labrie, Canadian endocrinologist and academic (died 2019) Fernand Labrie, was a Canadian medical researcher who specialized in endocrinological research and prostate cancer research. Read more
28 Jun 1937: Ron Luciano, American baseball player and umpire (died 1995) Ronald Michael Luciano was an American professional baseball umpire who worked in Major League Baseball's American League from 1969 to 1979. He was known for his flamboyant style, clever aphorisms, and a series of published collections of anecdotes from his colorful career. Read more
28 Jun 1936: Chuck Howley, American football player Charles Louis Howley is an American former professional football linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the West Virginia Mountaineers, earning three consecutive All-SoCon selections. Howley was selected seventh overall in the 1958 NFL draft by the Chicago Bears, where spent his first two seasons, before playing the remainder of his career with the Cowboys. Read more
28 Jun 1935: John Inman, English actor (died 2007) Frederick John Inman was an English actor and singer best known for his role as Mr. Humphries in Are You Being Served?, a British sitcom between 1972 and 1985, and the spin-off series Grace and Favour. He was the only actor from those series to reprise the role when an Australian version was launched. Read more
28 Jun 1934: Robert Carswell, Baron Carswell, Northern Irish lawyer and judge, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland (died 2023) Robert Douglas Carswell, Baron Carswell,, was a British barrister and judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland and a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. Read more
28 Jun 1934: Roy Gilchrist, Jamaican cricketer (died 2001) Roy Gilchrist was a West Indian cricketer who played 13 Tests for the West Indies in the 1950s. He was born in Saint Thomas, Jamaica and died of Parkinson's disease in St Catherine, Jamaica at the age of 67. Read more
28 Jun 1934: Bette Greene, American journalist and author (died 2020) Bette Jean Greene was the author of several books for children and young adults, including Summer of My German Soldier, The Drowning of Stephan Jones, and the Newbery Honor book Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe. Read more
28 Jun 1934: Carl Levin, American lawyer and politician (died 2021) Carl Milton Levin was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Michigan from 1979 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2007 to 2015. Read more
28 Jun 1934: Georges Wolinski, Tunisian-French journalist and cartoonist (died 2015) Georges David Wolinski was a French cartoonist and comics writer. He was killed on 7 January 2015 in the Charlie Hebdo shooting. Read more
28 Jun 1933: Gusty Spence, Northern Irish loyalist and politician (died 2011) Augustus Andrew Spence was a Northern Irish Ulster loyalist, politician, and militant who was the leader of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). One of the first UVF members to be convicted of murder, Spence was a senior figure in the organisation for over a decade. Read more
28 Jun 1932: Pat Morita, American actor (died 2005) Noriyuki "Pat" Morita was an American actor and comedian. He began his career as a stand-up comedian, before becoming known to television audiences for his recurring role as diner owner Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi on the sitcom series Happy Days from 1975 to 1983. Morita was subsequently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of martial arts mentor Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid (1984), which would be the first of a media franchise in which Morita was the central player. Read more
28 Jun 1931: Hans Alfredson, Swedish actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2017) Hans Folke "Hasse" Alfredson was a Swedish actor, film director, writer, and comedian. Born in Malmö, Sweden, he is known for his collaboration with Tage Danielsson as the duo Hasse & Tage and their production company AB Svenska Ord. His most celebrated contribution to their brand of humorist humanism was his ability to extemporize wildly absurd comic situations, for example in the Lindeman dialogues. Read more
28 Jun 1931: Junior Johnson, American race car driver (died 2019) Robert Glenn Johnson Jr. , better known as Junior Johnson, was an American professional stock car racing driver, engineer, and team owner as well as an entrepreneur. He won 50 NASCAR races in his career before retiring in 1966. In the 1970s and 1980s, he became a NASCAR racing team owner, winning the NASCAR championship with Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip three times each; Johnson was the first owner to win multiple championships with multiple drivers. He is credited as the first to use the drafting technique in stock car racing. He was nicknamed "The Last American Hero," and his autobiography and movie based on his upbringing is of the same name. In May 2007, Johnson teamed with Piedmont Distillers of Madison, North Carolina, to introduce the company's second moonshine product, called "Midnight Moon Moonshine", a nod to the days of his early youth in the 1940s when he made a living as a moonshiner/moonrunner and bootlegger. Read more
28 Jun 1931: Lucien Victor, Belgian cyclist (died 1995) Lucien Victor was a road racing cyclist from Belgium. He won the gold medal in the men's team road race, alongside André Noyelle and Robert Grondelaers at the 1952 Summer Olympics. He was a professional rider from 1953 to 1956. Read more
28 Jun 1930: William C. Campbell, Irish-American biologist and parasitologist, Nobel Prize laureate William Cecil Campbell is an Irish and American microbiologist known for his work in discovering a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworms, for which he was jointly awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He helped to discover a class of drugs called avermectins, whose derivatives have been shown to have "extraordinary efficacy" in treating River blindness and Lymphatic filariasis, among other parasitic diseases affecting animals and humans. Campbell worked at the Merck Institute for Therapeutic Research 1957–1990, and has become a research fellow emeritus at Drew University. Read more
28 Jun 1930: Itamar Franco, Brazilian engineer and politician, 33rd President of Brazil (died 2011) Itamar Augusto Cautiero Franco was a Brazilian politician who served as the 33rd president of Brazil from 29 December 1992 to 1 January 1995. Previously, he was the 21st vice president of Brazil from 1990 until the resignation of President Fernando Collor de Mello. During his long political career Franco also served as Senator, Mayor, Ambassador and Governor. At the time of his death he was a senator from Minas Gerais, having won the seat in the 2010 election. Read more
28 Jun 1930: Jack Gold, English director and producer (died 2015) Jacob Michael Gold was a British film and television director. He was part of the British realist tradition which followed the Free Cinema movement. Read more
28 Jun 1929: Alfred Miodowicz, Polish politician (died 2021) Alfred Miodowicz was a Polish politician and trade union activist. He was born in Poznań. A member of communist Polish United Workers' Party, he held posts in the State National Council, Central Committee and Political Bureau. He was also the leader of the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions and took part in the Polish Round Table Agreement. Read more
28 Jun 1928: Hans Blix, Swedish politician and diplomat, 33rd Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hans Martin Blix is a Swedish diplomat and politician for the Liberal People's Party. He was Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs (1978–1979) and later became the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Blix was the first Western representative to inspect the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union on-site and led the agency's response to them. Blix was also the head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission from March 2000 to June 2003, when he was succeeded by Dimitris Perrikos. In 2002, the commission began searching Iraq for weapons of mass destruction, ultimately finding none. On 17 March 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush delivered an address from the White House announcing that within 48 hours, the United States would invade Iraq unless Saddam Hussein would leave. Bush then ordered all of the weapons inspectors, including Blix's team, to leave Iraq so that America and its allies could invade Iraq on 20 March. In February 2010, Blix became head of the United Arab Emirates' advisory board for its nuclear power program. He is the former president of the World Federation of United Nations Associations. Read more
28 Jun 1928: Patrick Hemingway, American writer Patrick Miller Hemingway was an American wildlife manager and writer who was novelist Ernest Hemingway's second son and the first born to Hemingway's second wife Pauline Pfeiffer. During his childhood he travelled frequently with his parents and then attended Harvard University, graduated in 1950, and, shortly thereafter, moved to and lived in East Africa for twenty-five years. In Tanzania, Patrick was a professional big-game hunter and owned a safari business for more than a decade. In the 1960s, the United Nations appointed Hemingway to the Wildlife Management College in Tanzania as a teacher of conservation and wildlife. In the 1970s, he moved to Montana, where he managed the intellectual property of his father's estate. For example, he edited his father's unpublished novel about a 1950s safari to Africa and published it with the title True at First Light (1999). Read more
28 Jun 1928: Harold Evans, English-American historian and journalist (died 2020) Sir Harold Matthew Evans was a British-American journalist and writer. In his career in his native Britain, he was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981, and its sister title The Times for a year from 1981, before being forced out of the latter post by Rupert Murdoch. While at The Sunday Times, he led the newspaper's campaign to seek compensation for mothers who had taken the morning sickness drug thalidomide, which led to their children having severely deformed limbs. Read more
28 Jun 1928: Peter Heine, South African cricketer (died 2005) Peter Samuel Heine was a South African cricketer who played in fourteen Test matches between 1955 and 1962. On his Test debut, he took five wickets in the first innings against England at Lord's in 1955. Read more
28 Jun 1928: Cyril Smith, English politician (died 2010) Sir Cyril Richard Smith was a British Liberal Party and Liberal Democrat politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale from 1972 to 1992. Read more
28 Jun 1927: Correlli Barnett, English historian and author (died 2022) Correlli Douglas Barnett was an English military historian, who also wrote works of economic history, particularly on the United Kingdom's post-war deindustrialization. Read more
28 Jun 1927: Frank Sherwood Rowland, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2012) Frank Sherwood "Sherry" Rowland was an American Nobel laureate and a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. His research was on atmospheric chemistry and chemical kinetics. His best-known work was the discovery that chlorofluorocarbons contribute to ozone depletion. Read more
28 Jun 1926: George Booth, American cartoonist (died 2022) George Booth was an American cartoonist who worked for The New Yorker magazine. His cartoons usually featured an older everyman, everywoman, or everycouple beset by modern complexity, perplexing each other, or interacting with cats and dogs. Read more
28 Jun 1926: Mel Brooks, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Melvin James Brooks is an American actor, filmmaker, comedian, songwriter, and playwright. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 22 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2024. Read more
28 Jun 1926: Robert Ledley, American academic and inventor (died 2012) Robert Steven Ledley, professor of physiology and biophysics and professor of radiology at Georgetown University School of Medicine, pioneered the use of electronic digital computers in biology and medicine. In 1959, he wrote two influential articles in Science: "Reasoning Foundations of Medical Diagnosis" and "Digital Electronic Computers in Biomedical Science". Both articles encouraged biomedical researchers and physicians to adopt computer technology. Read more
28 Jun 1924: Kalevi Keihänen, Finnish entrepreneur (died 1995) Åke Kalevi Keihänen was a Finnish travel agency entrepreneur, director of Keihäsmatkat and a groundbreaking figure in Finnish tourism. Keihänen became known for his extravagant behaviour, long hair and unique style of dress – in advertisement photography, he wore a chinchilla fur coat with only a pair of swimming trunks underneath. The coat was said to have cost him 120,000 markka. Keihänen was said to have copied his style of dress from the Danish travel agency entrepreneur Simon Spies. Read more
28 Jun 1923: Pete Candoli, American trumpet player (died 2008) Walter Joseph "Pete" Candoli was an American jazz trumpeter. He played with the big bands of Woody Herman and Stan Kenton and worked in the studios of the recording and television industries. Read more
28 Jun 1923: Adolfo Schwelm Cruz, Argentinian racing driver (died 2012) Adolfo Carlos Julio Schwelm-Cruz was a racing driver from Argentina. He participated in one Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, on 18 January 1953. He scored no championship points. His father, Adolfo Julius Schwelm, was a German-born banker; he emigrated to Argentina and founded the settlement of Eldorado. Read more
28 Jun 1923: Gaye Stewart, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2010) James Gaye Stewart was a professional ice hockey forward. He played nine seasons as a left winger in the National Hockey League. Read more
28 Jun 1921: P. V. Narasimha Rao, Indian lawyer and politician, 9th Prime Minister of India (died 2004) Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao was an Indian independence activist, lawyer, and statesman from the Indian National Congress who served as the prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996. He was the first person from South India and the second person from a non-Hindi speaking background to be prime minister. He is known for his role in initiating India's economic liberalisation following an economic crisis in 1991, a process that has been sustained and expanded by every successive prime minister of the country. Read more
28 Jun 1920: Clarissa Eden, Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 2021) Anne Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon was an English memoirist and the second wife of Anthony Eden, who served as British prime minister from 1955 to 1957. She married Eden in 1952, becoming Lady Eden in 1954 when he was made Knight Companion of the Garter, before becoming Countess of Avon in 1961 when her husband was created Earl of Avon. In 2007, at 87, she released her memoir subtitled From Churchill to Eden. Read more
28 Jun 1919: Joseph P. Lordi, American government official (died 1983) Joseph P. Lordi was an American law enforcement official who served as the Essex County, New Jersey prosecutor and as the first Chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. Read more
28 Jun 1918: William Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, Scottish-English politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1999) William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw was a British Conservative Party politician who served in a wide number of Cabinet positions, most notably as Home Secretary from 1979 to 1983 and as de facto Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1988. He was Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1991. Read more
28 Jun 1917: A. E. Hotchner, American author and playwright (died 2020) Aaron Edward Hotchner was an American editor, novelist, playwright, and biographer. He wrote many television screenplays as well as noted biographies of Doris Day and Ernest Hemingway. He co-founded the charity food company Newman's Own with actor Paul Newman. Read more
28 Jun 1915: David "Honeyboy" Edwards, American delta blues guitarist (died 2011) David "Honeyboy" Edwards was an American delta blues guitarist and singer from Mississippi. Read more
28 Jun 1914: Aribert Heim, Austrian SS physician and Nazi war criminal (died 1992) Aribert Ferdinand Heim, also known as Dr. Death and Butcher of Mauthausen, was an Austrian Schutzstaffel (SS) doctor. During World War II, he served at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Mauthausen, killing and torturing inmates using various methods, such as the direct injection of toxic compounds into the hearts of his victims and removing the organs of victims without anesthesia. He also was responsible for a high but unknown number of deaths due to the experimentation. Read more
28 Jun 1913: Franz Antel, Austrian director and producer (died 2007) Franz Antel was an Austrian filmmaker. Read more
28 Jun 1913: George Lloyd, English soldier and composer (died 1998) George Walter Selwyn Lloyd was a British composer. Read more
28 Jun 1913: Walter Oesau, German colonel and pilot (died 1944) Walter "Gulle" Oesau was a German fighter pilot during World War II. A fighter ace, he served in the Luftwaffe from 1934 until his death in 1944. He rose to command Jagdgeschwader 1, which was named in his honor after his death. Read more
28 Jun 1912: Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, German physicist and philosopher (died 2007) Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker was a German physicist and philosopher. He was the longest-living member of the team which performed nuclear research in Nazi Germany during the Second World War, under Werner Heisenberg's leadership. There is ongoing debate as to whether or not he and the other members of the team actively and willingly pursued the development of a nuclear bomb for Germany during this time. Read more
28 Jun 1909: Eric Ambler, English author and screenwriter (died 1998) Eric Clifford Ambler OBE was an English author of thrillers, in particular spy novels. Also working as a screenwriter, Ambler used the pseudonym Eliot Reed for books written with Charles Rodda. Ambler is notable for his novel The Light of Day (1962), which won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel in 1964 and which was adapted into film as Topkapi (1964). Read more
28 Jun 1907: Jimmy Mundy, American saxophonist and composer (died 1983) James Mundy was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, arranger, and composer, best known for his arrangements for Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and Earl Hines. Read more
28 Jun 1907: Yvonne Sylvain, First female Haitian physician (died 1989) Yvonne Sylvain was a Haitian physician who was the first female medical doctor from the country. She was also the first woman accepted into the University of Haiti Medical School, and earned her medical degree in 1940. After graduation, she worked as a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology in the Port-au-Prince General Hospital. As Haiti's first female practitioner, she played an important role in providing improved medical access and tools for Haitian citizens. Among her other accomplishments, she was also one of the voices fighting for physical, economical, social, and political equality for Haitian women. Read more
28 Jun 1906: Maria Goeppert Mayer, German-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1972) Maria Goeppert Mayer was a German–American theoretical physicist who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics with J. Hans D. Jensen and Eugene Wigner. One half of the prize was awarded jointly to Goeppert Mayer and Jensen "for their discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure." She was the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, the first being Marie Curie in 1903. In 1986, the Maria Goeppert Mayer Award for early-career women physicists was established in her honor. Read more
28 Jun 1902: Richard Rodgers, American playwright and composer (died 1979) Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers was one of the best-known American composers of the 20th century, and his work significantly influenced popular music. Read more
28 Jun 1894: Jessie Baetz, Canadian-American artist, composer and pianist (died 1974 or later) Jessie Baetz was a Canadian-American artist, composer, and pianist. Read more
28 Jun 1894: Francis Hunter, American tennis player (died 1981) Francis "Frank" Townsend Hunter was an American tennis player who won an Olympic gold medal. He won the U.S. National Indoor Championships in 1922 and 1930 and the Eastern Clay Court Championships in 1919. Read more
28 Jun 1893: August Zamoyski, Polish-French sculptor (died 1970) Count August Zamoyski was a Polish sculptor, member of groups Bunt and Formiści. Read more
28 Jun 1892: Carl Panzram, American serial killer (died 1930) Charles "Carl" Panzram was an American rapist, serial killer, and habitual offender. In prison confessions and in his autobiography, Panzram confessed to having murdered twenty-one boys and men, only five of which could be corroborated. He is suspected of having killed more than a hundred boys and men in the United States alone, and several more in Portuguese Angola. Read more
28 Jun 1891: Esther Forbes, American historian and author (died 1968) Esther Louise Forbes was an American novelist, historian, and children's writer who received the Pulitzer Prize and the Newbery Medal. She was the first woman elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society. Read more
28 Jun 1891: Carl Spaatz, American general (died 1974) Carl Andrew Spaatz, nicknamed "Tooey", was an American World War II general. As commander of Strategic Air Forces in Europe in 1944, he successfully pressed for the bombing of the enemy's oil production facilities as a priority over other targets. He became Chief of Staff of the newly formed United States Air Force in 1947. Read more
28 Jun 1888: George Challenor, Barbadian cricketer (died 1947) George Challenor was a Barbadian cricketer who was part of the first West Indies Test side, and who faced the very first ball bowled to a West Indian cricketer in a Test match. He was recognised as the first great West Indian batsman, his obituary in Wisden Cricketer's Almanack ending with the words "His admirable batting did much toward raising cricket in West Indies to Test match standard". Challenor was born in Waterloo, St. Michael, Barbados and died in Collymore Rock, St. Michael, Barbados. He visited England three times as a member of a West Indian touring team; in 1906, 1923 and 1928. Read more
28 Jun 1888: Stefi Geyer, Hungarian violinist and educator (died 1956) Stefi Geyer was a Hungarian violinist who was considered one of the leading violinists of her generation. Read more
28 Jun 1884: Lamina Sankoh, Sierra Leonean banker and politician (died 1964) Lamina Sankoh, born Etheldred Nathaniel Jones, was a Sierra Leone Creole pre-independence politician, educator, banker and cleric. Sankoh is known most prominently for helping to found the Peoples Party in 1948, one of the first political parties in Sierra Leone. It eventually became the Sierra Leone People's Party. Read more
28 Jun 1883: Pierre Laval, French soldier and politician, 101st Prime Minister of France (died 1945) Pierre Jean Marie Laval was a French politician. He served as Prime Minister of France three times: 1931–1932 and 1935–1936 during the Third Republic, and 1942–1944 during Vichy France. After the war, Laval was tried as a Nazi collaborator and executed for treason. Read more
28 Jun 1880: John Meyers, American swimmer and water polo player (died 1971) Edward John Meyers was an American freestyle swimmer and water polo player for the Missouri Athletic Club who won a bronze medal for the U.S. in the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri. Read more
28 Jun 1879: Wilhelm Steinkopf, German chemist (died 1949) Georg Wilhelm Steinkopf was a German chemist. Today he is mostly remembered for his work on the production of mustard gas during World War I. Read more
28 Jun 1875: Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician and academic (died 1941) Henri Léon Lebesgue was a French mathematician known for his theory of integration, which was a generalization of the 17th-century concept of integration—summing the area between an axis and the curve of a function defined for that axis. His theory was published originally in his dissertation Intégrale, longueur, aire at the University of Nancy during 1902. Read more
28 Jun 1873: Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1944) Alexis Carrel was a French surgeon and biologist who spent most of his scientific career in the United States. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912 for pioneering vascular suturing techniques. He invented the first perfusion pump with Charles Lindbergh opening the way to organ transplantation. In later time however, it was acknowledged that Carrel and Lindbergh's version of the perfusion pump, which initially had media prominence, was impractical and difficult to use, and would lose influence by the 1940s. Carrel was also a pioneer in tissue culture, transplantology and thoracic surgery. He is known for his leading role in implementing eugenic policies in Vichy France. Read more
28 Jun 1867: Luigi Pirandello, Italian dramatist, novelist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1936) Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer most noted for his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art". Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written in Sicilian. Pirandello's tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd. Read more
28 Jun 1852: Charles Cruft, English showman, founded Crufts Dog Show (died 1938) Charles Alfred Cruft was a British showman who founded the Crufts dog show. Cruft first became involved with dogs when he began to work at Spratt's, a manufacturer of dog biscuits. He rose to the position of general manager, and whilst working for Spratt's in France he was invited to run his first dog show at the 1878 Exposition Universelle. After running dog shows in London for four years, he ran his first Cruft's dog show in 1891, and continued to run a further 45 shows until his death in 1938, as well as running two cat shows in 1894 and 1895. He was involved in a range of dog breed clubs, including that for Schipperkes, Pugs and Borzois. He and his wife upheld a story that they never owned a dog, and instead owned a cat, however Cruft admitted to owning at least one Saint Bernard in his memoirs, published posthumously. Read more
28 Jun 1844: John Boyle O'Reilly, Irish-born poet, journalist and fiction writer (died 1890) John Boyle O'Reilly was an Irish poet, journalist, author and activist. As a youth in Ireland, he was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or Fenians, for which he was transported to Western Australia. Read more
28 Jun 1836: Emmanuel Rhoides, Greek journalist and author (died 1904) Emmanuel Rhoides was a Greek writer, journalist, and translator. He is considered one of the most influential writers of 19th century Greece and a significant figure of Modern Greek literature. His most popular work, The Papess Joanne, was translated in several languages earning him international recognition throughout Europe. His complete literary corpus includes novels, short stories, essays, and translations. Read more
28 Jun 1831: Joseph Joachim, Austrian violinist, composer, and conductor (died 1907) Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most distinguished violinists of the 19th century. Read more
28 Jun 1825: Emil Erlenmeyer, German chemist (died 1909) Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer, known simply as Emil Erlenmeyer, was a German chemist known for contributing to the early development of the theory of chemical structure and formulating the Erlenmeyer rule. He also designed the Erlenmeyer flask, a specialized apparatus ubiquitous in chemistry laboratories, which is named after him. Read more
28 Jun 1824: Paul Broca, French physician, anatomist, and anthropologist (died 1880) Paul Pierre Broca was a French physician, anatomist and anthropologist. He is best known for his research on Broca's area, a region of the frontal lobe that is named after him. Broca's area is involved with language. His work revealed that the brains of patients with aphasia contained lesions in a particular part of the cortex, in the left frontal region. This was the first anatomical proof of localization of brain function. Read more

Notable Deaths on 28 June

28 Jun 2025: Aminu Dantata, Nigerian businessman and philanthropist (born 1931) Aminu Alhassan Dantata was a Nigerian businessman and philanthropist who was one of the promoters of Kano State Foundation, an endowment fund that supported educational initiatives and provided grants to small-scale entrepreneurs in Kano. He was the head of a group of companies that managed his real estate and other business ventures. Read more
28 Jun 2025: D. Wayne Lukas, American horse trainer (born 1935) Darrell Wayne Lukas was an American horse trainer and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee. He won 20 Breeders' Cup races, 15 Triple Crown races, received five Eclipse Awards for his accomplishments, and his horses won 25 year-end Eclipse Awards. Lukas was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2007. Read more
28 Jun 2025: Dave Parker, American baseball player and coach (born 1951) David Gene Parker, nicknamed "the Cobra", was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right fielder from 1973 to 1991. A seven-time All-Star, Parker won two National League (NL) batting titles and was the 1978 NL Most Valuable Player. He was a member of two World Series championship teams, winning with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979 and the Oakland Athletics in 1989. Read more
28 Jun 2024: Orlando Cepeda, Puerto Rican baseball player (born 1937) Orlando Manuel Cepeda Pennes, nicknamed "the Baby Bull" and "Peruchin", was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player, coach and scout. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman from 1958 to 1974, most prominently as a member of the San Francisco Giants where he established himself as one of the most consistent power hitters in the National League (NL) during the 1960s. An 11-time All-Star player, Cepeda was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999. Read more
28 Jun 2024: Audrey Flack, American artist (born 1931) Audrey Lenora Flack was an American visual artist. Her work pioneered the art genre of photorealism and encompasses painting, printmaking, sculpture, and photography. Read more
28 Jun 2024: Mohamed Osman Jawari, Somali attorney and politician, 12th Speaker of the Parliament of Somalia (born 1945) Mohamed Osman Jawari, also known as Mohamed Jawari or Osman Jawari, was a Somali attorney and politician. He was Speaker of the Federal Parliament of Somalia from 2012 to 2018. He also briefly served as acting President of Somalia from August to September 2012. Read more
28 Jun 2023: Lowell Weicker, French-American politician, 85th Governor of Connecticut (born 1931) Lowell Palmer Weicker Jr. was an American politician who served as a U.S. representative, U.S. senator, and the 85th governor of Connecticut. Read more
28 Jun 2018: Harlan Ellison, American writer (born 1934) Harlan Jay Ellison was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. His published works include more than 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic-book scripts, teleplays, essays, and a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media. Read more
28 Jun 2016: Scotty Moore, American guitarist (born 1931) Winfield Scott Moore III was an American guitarist who formed the Blue Moon Boys in 1954, Elvis Presley's backing band. He was studio and touring guitarist for Presley between 1954 and 1968. Read more
28 Jun 2016: Pat Summitt, American women's college basketball head coach (born 1952) Patricia Susan Summitt was an American women's college basketball head coach and college basketball player. She coached 1,098 career wins, the most in college basketball history at the time of her retirement. She served as the head coach of the University of Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team from 1974 to 2012 and is considered one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time. Read more
28 Jun 2016: Buddy Ryan, American football coach (born 1931) James David "Buddy" Ryan was an American football coach in the National Football League (NFL) and American Football League (AFL). During his 35-season coaching career, Ryan served as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1986 to 1990, and of the Arizona Cardinals from 1994 to 1995. Ryan also served as the defensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears from 1978 to 1985, and of the Houston Oilers in 1993. Coaching multiple Hall of Fame defensive players throughout his career, Ryan is considered by many to be one of the greatest defensive minds in the history of American football. Read more
28 Jun 2015: Jack Carter, American actor and comedian (born 1922) Jack Carter was an American comedian, actor and television presenter. Born in Brooklyn, Carter had a long-running comedy act similar to fellow rapid-paced contemporaries Milton Berle and Morey Amsterdam. Read more
28 Jun 2015: Jope Seniloli, Fijian politician, Vice-President of Fiji (born 1939) Ratu Jope Naucabalavu Seniloli was a Fijian chief who held the title of Turaga Taukei Naua and who served as Fiji's vice-president from 25 March 2001 to 29 November 2004, when he was forced to resign following his conviction for treason on 6 August 2004, and the rejection of his appeal early in November. Read more
28 Jun 2015: Wally Stanowski, Canadian ice hockey player (born 1919) Walter Peter Stanowski was a Canadian ice hockey defenceman. He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Read more
28 Jun 2014: Seymour Barab, American cellist and composer (born 1921) Seymour Barab was an American composer of opera, songs and instrumental and chamber music, as well as a cellist, organist and pianist. He was best known for his fairy tale operas for young audiences, such as Chanticleer and Little Red Riding Hood. He was a longtime member of the Philip Glass Ensemble. Read more
28 Jun 2014: Jim Brosnan, American baseball player (born 1929) James Patrick Brosnan was an American baseball player and author who played in Major League Baseball in 1954 and from 1956 through 1963. A right-handed pitcher, he appeared in 385 games, largely in relief, for the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox. Brosnan was listed as 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall and 197 pounds (89 kg). Read more
28 Jun 2014: On Kawara, Japanese painter (born 1933) On Kawara was a Japanese conceptual artist who lived in SoHo, New York City, from 1965 until his death. He took part in many solo and group exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1976. Read more
28 Jun 2014: Meshach Taylor, American actor (born 1947) Bruce Meshach Taylor was an American actor, widely known for his role as Anthony Bouvier on the CBS sitcom Designing Women (1986–93), for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He was also known for his portrayal of Hollywood Montrose, a flamboyant window dresser in the 1987 film Mannequin and its 1991 sequel. He played Sheldon Baylor on the CBS sitcom Dave's World (1993–97), appeared as Tony on the NBC sitcom Buffalo Bill opposite Dabney Coleman, and appeared as the recurring character Alastair Wright, the social studies teacher on the Nickelodeon sitcom Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. Read more
28 Jun 2013: Ted Hood, American sailor and architect (born 1927) Frederick Emmart Hood was an American yachtsman and naval architect. He founded the sailmaker Hood Sails in Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1952. Hood Sails operated until purchased by Quantum Sails in 2017. Hood founded Little Harbor Custom Yachts in 1959 and sold it to Hinckley Yachts in 1999. He won the America's Cup in 1974 skippering the yacht Courageous, which was built at Minnefords Shipyard in City Island, New York, after which he built a what he believed to have been a faster yacht and sold Courageous to Ted Turner, who beat him in it on his way to winning the 1977 America's Cup. Read more
28 Jun 2013: Tamás Katona, Hungarian historian and politician (born 1932) Tamás Katona was a Hungarian historian, academic, politician, who served as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1990 to 1992 and as Mayor of Budavár between 1994 and 1998. Besides that he represented Vác in the National Assembly of Hungary from 1990 to 1994, and functioned as MP from the Hungarian Democratic Forum's Pest County Regional List between 1994 and 1998. Read more
28 Jun 2013: Kenneth Minogue, New Zealand-Australian political scientist and academic (born 1930) Kenneth Robert Minogue was an Australian academic and political theorist. Long residing in the United Kingdom, Minogue was a prominent part of the intellectual life of British conservatism. Read more
28 Jun 2013: F. D. Reeve, American author and academic (born 1928) Franklin D'Olier Reeve was an American academic, writer, poet, Russian translator, and editor. He was the grandson of the first American Legion national commander, Franklin D'Olier, and the father of Superman actor Christopher Reeve. Read more
28 Jun 2013: David Rubitsky, American sergeant (born 1917) David Rubitsky was an American veteran of World War II who claimed he was denied the Medal of Honor because he was Jewish. In 1987, the United States Army began a 23-month investigation and concluded that there was "incontestable evidence" that he had not done what he had claimed. Read more
28 Jun 2012: Richard Isay, American psychiatrist and author (born 1934) Richard A. Isay was an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, author and gay activist. He was a professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and a faculty member of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Isay is considered a pioneer who changed the way that psychoanalysts view homosexuality. Read more
28 Jun 2012: Leontine T. Kelly, American bishop (born 1920) Leontine Turpeau Current Kelly was an American bishop of the United Methodist Church. She was the second woman elevated to the position of bishop within the United Methodist Church, and the first African American woman. Read more
28 Jun 2012: Robert Sabatier, French author and poet (born 1923) Robert Sabatier was a French poet and writer. He wrote numerous novels, essays and books of aphorisms and poems. He was elected to the Académie Goncourt in 1971, as well as to the Académie Mallarme. He is also the author of ''Histoire de la poésie française: La poésie du XVIIe siècle''. Read more
28 Jun 2012: Doris Sams, American baseball player (born 1927) Doris Jane Sams, nicknamed "Sammye", was an American outfielder and pitcher who played from 1946 through 1953 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Listed at 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m), 145 lbs., she batted and threw right-handed. Read more
28 Jun 2010: Robert Byrd, American lawyer and politician (born 1917) Robert Carlyle Byrd was an American politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia for over 51 years, from 1959 until his death in 2010. A Democrat, Byrd also served as a U.S. representative for six years, from 1953 until 1959. He remains the longest-serving U.S. senator in history; he was the longest-serving member in the history of the United States Congress until surpassed by Representative John Dingell of Michigan. Byrd is the only West Virginian to have served in both chambers of the West Virginia legislature and in both chambers of Congress. Read more
28 Jun 2009: A. K. Lohithadas, Indian director, producer, and screenwriter (born 1955) Ambazhathil Karunakaran Lohithadas was an Indian screenwriter, playwright, film maker, and producer who worked in the Malayalam film industry. In a career spanning over two decades, his films have won a National Film Award, six Kerala State Film Awards, and fourteen Kerala Film Critics Award for Best Script. Read more
28 Jun 2009: Billy Mays, American TV personality (born 1958) William Darrell Mays Jr. was an American television direct-response advertisement salesperson. Throughout his career, he promoted a wide variety of products, including OxiClean, Orange Glo, Kaboom, Zorbeez, and Mighty Mendit. His promotions aired mainly on the Home Shopping Network through his company, Mays Promotions, Inc., although they have aired on other syndicated networks. Mays's infomercials were known for his catch phrase "Hi, Billy Mays here", and his shouted delivery of lines. Read more
28 Jun 2007: Eugene B. Fluckey, American admiral, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1913) Eugene Bennett Fluckey, nicknamed "Lucky Fluckey", was a United States Navy rear admiral who received the Medal of Honor and four Navy Crosses during his service as a submarine commander in World War II. Read more
28 Jun 2007: Kiichi Miyazawa, Japanese lawyer and politician, 78th Prime Minister of Japan (born 1919) Kiichi Miyazawa was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1991 to 1993. Read more
28 Jun 2006: Jim Baen, American publisher, founded Baen Books (born 1943) James Patrick Baen was a U.S. science fiction publisher and editor. In 1983, he founded his own publishing house, Baen Books, specializing in the adventure, fantasy, military science fiction, and space opera genres. Baen also founded the video game publisher Baen Software. In late 1999, he started an electronic publishing business called Webscriptions, which is considered to be the first profitable e-book vendor. Read more
28 Jun 2006: Peter Rawlinson, Baron Rawlinson of Ewell, English lawyer and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (born 1919) Peter Anthony Grayson Rawlinson, Baron Rawlinson of Ewell, was an English barrister, Conservative Party politician and author. He served as Member of Parliament for Epsom for 23 years, from 1955 to 1978, and held the offices of Solicitor General (1962–1964) and Attorney General for England and Wales (1970–1974) and for Northern Ireland (1972–1974). Had he been appointed Lord Chancellor, as seemed likely during the mid-1970s, he would have been the first Roman Catholic to hold that position since Thomas More in 1532. Read more
28 Jun 2006: George Unwin, English pilot and commander (born 1913) George Cecil Unwin, was an officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and a flying ace of the Second World War. He is credited with destroying at least 15 German aircraft. Read more
28 Jun 2005: Brenda Howard, American activist (born 1946) Brenda Howard was an American bisexual rights activist and sex-positive feminist. The Brenda Howard Memorial Award is named for her. Read more
28 Jun 2005: Michael P. Murphy, American lieutenant, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1976) Michael Patrick Murphy was a United States Navy SEAL officer who was awarded the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions during the War in Afghanistan. He was the first member of the United States Navy (USN) to receive the award since the Vietnam War. His other posthumous awards include the Silver Star Medal and the Purple Heart. Read more
28 Jun 2004: Anthony Buckeridge, English author (born 1912) Anthony Malcolm Buckeridge was an English author, best known for his Jennings and Rex Milligan series of children's books. He also wrote the 1953 children's book A Funny Thing Happened which was serialised more than once on Children's Hour. Read more
28 Jun 2003: Joan Lowery Nixon, American journalist and author (born 1927) Joan Lowery Nixon was an American journalist and author, specializing in historical fiction and mysteries for children and young adults. Read more
28 Jun 2001: Mortimer J. Adler, American philosopher and author (born 1902) Mortimer Jerome Adler was an American philosopher, educator, encyclopedist, author, and lay theologian. His philosophical work was situated within the Aristotelian and Thomistic traditions. Adler taught at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, served as chairman of the board of editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, and founded the Institute for Philosophical Research. Read more
28 Jun 2000: Nils Poppe, Swedish actor, director, and screenwriter (born 1908) Nils Poppe was a Swedish actor, comedian, director, screenwriter and theatre manager. He is internationally most famous for his part in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, but in Sweden he was much loved and participated in over 50 films on cinema and TV. Read more
28 Jun 1999: Vere Bird, first Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda (born 1910) Sir Vere Cornwall Bird was an Antiguan politician who was the first Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda. His son, Lester Bryant Bird, succeeded him as prime minister. In 1994, he was declared a "National Hero". Read more
28 Jun 1995: Petri Walli, Finnish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (born 1969) Petri Ilari Walli was the founder, vocalist, guitar-player, songwriter and producer of the Finnish psychedelic rock-band Kingston Wall. Read more
28 Jun 1992: Guy Nève, Belgian racing driver (born 1955) Guy Hervé Ghislain Marie Stanislas Nève de Mévergnies was a Belgian racing driver. He was the younger brother of fellow racer Patrick Nève, who he had competed with and against. Read more
28 Jun 1992: Mikhail Tal, Latvian chess player (born 1936) Mikhail Tal was a Soviet Latvian chess grandmaster and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as one of the most influential players in chess history. Tal played in an attacking and daring combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability. Vladislav Zubok said of him, "Every game for him was as inimitable and invaluable as a poem". Read more
28 Jun 1989: Joris Ivens, Dutch journalist, director, and producer (born 1898) Georg Henri Anton "Joris" Ivens was a Dutch documentary filmmaker. Among the notable films he directed or co-directed are A Tale of the Wind, The Spanish Earth, Rain, …A Valparaiso, Misère au Borinage (Borinage), 17th Parallel: Vietnam in War, The Seine Meets Paris, Far from Vietnam, Pour le Mistral and How Yukong Moved the Mountains. Read more
28 Jun 1985: Lynd Ward, American author and illustrator (born 1905) Lynd Kendall Ward was an American artist and novelist, known for his series of wordless novels using woodcuts, and his illustrations for juvenile and adult books. His wordless novels have influenced the development of the graphic novel. Although strongly associated with his wood engravings, he also worked in watercolor, oil, brush and ink, lithography and mezzotint. Ward was a son of Methodist minister, political organizer and radical social activist Harry F. Ward, the first chairman of the American Civil Liberties Union on its founding in 1920. Read more
28 Jun 1984: Yigael Yadin, Israeli archaeologist, general, and politician (born 1917) Yigael Yadin was an Israeli archeologist, soldier and politician. He was the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and Deputy Prime Minister from 1977 to 1981. Read more
28 Jun 1983: Alf Francis, German-English motor racing mechanic and racing car constructor (born 1918) Alf Francis was a motor racing mechanic and racing car constructor. Read more
28 Jun 1981: Terry Fox, Canadian runner and activist (born 1958) Terrance Stanley Fox was a Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist. In 1980, having had one leg amputated due to cancer, he embarked on a cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research. The annual Terry Fox Run, first held in 1981, has grown to involve millions of participants in over 60 countries and is the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research; over C$1 billion has been raised in his name through the Terry Fox Research Institute as of February 2026. Read more
28 Jun 1980: José Iturbi, Spanish pianist and conductor (born 1895) José Iturbi Báguena was a Spanish conductor, pianist, harpsichordist and actor. Read more
28 Jun 1978: Clifford Dupont, English-Rhodesian lawyer and politician, 1st President of Rhodesia (born 1905) Clifford Walter Dupont was a British-born Rhodesian politician who served in the internationally unrecognised positions of officer administrating the government and president. Born in London and qualifying as a solicitor, Dupont served during the Second World War as an officer of the British Royal Artillery in North Africa before first visiting Southern Rhodesia in 1947. He returned a year later, started a ranch and emigrated full-time during the early 1950s, by which time the country had become a territory of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Read more
28 Jun 1976: Ruby McKim, American quilter (born 1891) Ruby Short McKim was an American quilt designer, entrepreneur, teacher, writer and magazine editor. She developed an early interest in drawing, and graduated from the New York School of Fine and Applied Art in 1912. McKim taught drawing in the Missouri public school system, and became a contributor to The Kansas City Star, from which her quilt works was first published. Read more
28 Jun 1975: Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis, Greek architect (born 1913) Constantinos A. Doxiadis, often cited as C. A. Doxiadis, was a Greek architect and urban planner, most widely known for being the lead architect and planner of Islamabad, the purpose-built capital of Pakistan in the 1960s. He is also known as the 'father of ekistics', which concerns the multi-aspectual science of human settlements. Read more
28 Jun 1975: Rod Serling, American screenwriter and producer (born 1924) Rodman Edward Serling was an American screenwriter and television producer, widely known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen, and helped form television industry standards. He was known as the "angry young man" of Hollywood, clashing with television executives and sponsors over a wide range of issues, including censorship, racism, and war. He was nominated for nine Primetime Emmy Awards, winning six times. Read more
28 Jun 1974: Vannevar Bush, American engineer and academic (born 1890) Vannevar Bush was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almost all wartime military R&D was carried out, including important developments in radar and the initiation and early administration of the Manhattan Project. He emphasized the importance of scientific research to national security and economic well-being, and was chiefly responsible for the movement that led to the creation of the National Science Foundation. Read more
28 Jun 1971: Franz Stangl, Austrian SS officer (born 1908) Franz Paul Stangl was an Austrian police officer and commandant of the Nazi extermination camps Sobibor and Treblinka in World War II. Read more
28 Jun 1966: Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, Turkish historian and politician, 21st Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey (born 1890) Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, also known as Köprülüzade Mehmed Fuad, was a Turkish sociologist, scholar, and Turkologist. He served in the Minister of Foreign Affairs and as Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey. A descendant of the prominent Köprülü family, Fuat Köprülü was a key figure in the intersection of scholarship and politics in early 20th-century Turkey. Read more
28 Jun 1965: Red Nichols, American cornet player, bandleader, and composer (born 1905) Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols was an American jazz cornetist, composer, and jazz bandleader. He was one of the most prolific and influential jazz musicians in the late 1920s and early 1930s, appearing on over 4,000 recordings. In 1959, a biopic was made of his life and career, The Five Pennies, starring Danny Kaye. Read more
28 Jun 1962: Mickey Cochrane, American baseball player and manager (born 1903) Gordon Stanley "Mickey" Cochrane, nicknamed "Black Mike", was an American professional baseball player, manager and coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and Detroit Tigers. Cochrane was considered one of the best catchers in baseball history and is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. In his first season as manager, he led the Tigers to 101 wins, which was the most for a rookie manager for 27 years. Read more
28 Jun 1962: Cy Morgan, American baseball player (born 1878) Harry Richard "Cy" Morgan was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Athletics and the Cincinnati Reds between 1903 and 1913. Morgan batted and threw right-handed. He was born in Pomeroy, Ohio Read more
28 Jun 1960: Jake Swirbul, American businessman, co-founded the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation (born 1898) Leon Albert "Jake" "The Bullfrog" Swirbul, was an aviation pioneer and co-founder of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation. Read more
28 Jun 1947: Stanislav Kostka Neumann, Czech writer, poet and journalist (born 1875) Stanislav Kostka Neumann was a Czech poet, literary critic, journalist and translator. He was known for his anarchist and communist views, which influenced his work. He is the father of the actor Stanislav Neumann. Read more
28 Jun 1945: Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu, Turkish journalist (born 1879) Yunus Nadi Abalıoğlu was a Turkish journalist and the founder of the newspaper Cumhuriyet. He was known for his support for Turkish nationalism and his sympathies with the Nazi regime, publishing many antisemitic propaganda articles in praise of Adolf Hitler. Read more
28 Jun 1944: Friedrich Dollmann, German general (born 1882) Friedrich Karl Albert Dollmann was a German general during World War II who commanded the 7th Army during the Invasion of France and the early phases of the Allied invasion of Normandy until his death in June 1944. Read more
28 Jun 1940: Italo Balbo, Italian air marshal and politician (born 1896) Italo Balbo was an Italian fascist politician and Blackshirts' leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force, Governor-General of Italian Libya and Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa. Due to his young age, he was sometimes seen as a possible successor to dictator Benito Mussolini. Read more
28 Jun 1939: Douglas H. Johnston, governor of the Chickasaw Nation (born 1856) Douglas Hancock Cooper Johnston, also known as "Douglas Henry Johnston", was a tribal leader who served as the last elected governor of the Chickasaw Nation from 1898 to 1902. He was re-elected in 1904. Read more
28 Jun 1936: Alexander Berkman, American author and activist (born 1870) Alexander Berkman was a Russian-American anarchist and author. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century, famous for both his political activism and his writing. Read more
28 Jun 1932: Urania Marquard Olsen, Danish-Norwegian actress and theatre director (born 1856) Urania Charlotte Amalie Marquard Olsen was a Danish-Norwegian actress and theatre director. Read more
28 Jun 1929: Edward Carpenter, English poet and philosopher (born 1844) Edward Carpenter was an English utopian socialist, poet, philosopher, anthologist, an early activist for gay rights and prison reform whilst advocating vegetarianism and taking a stance against vivisection. As a philosopher, he was particularly known for his publication of Civilisation: Its Cause and Cure. Here, he described civilisation as a form of disease through which human societies pass. Read more
28 Jun 1925: Georgina Febres-Cordero, Venezuelan nun (born 1861) Georgina Febres-Cordero, also known as "Mother Georgina" was a Venezuelan religious sister. Read more
28 Jun 1925: Henry C. Berghoff, German-American politician (born 1856) Henry Carl Berghoff was an American politician, lawyer, and businessman who co-founded the Herman Berghoff Brewing Company in 1887 and served as the 19th Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana from 1901 to 1906. Read more
28 Jun 1922: Velimir Khlebnikov, Russian poet and playwright (born 1885) Viktor Vladimirovich Khlebnikov, better known by the pen name Velimir Khlebnikov, was a Russian poet and playwright, a central part of the Russian Futurist movement, but his work and influence stretch far beyond it. Influential linguist Roman Jakobson hailed Khlebnikov as "the greatest world poet of our century". Read more
28 Jun 1917: Ștefan Luchian, Romanian painter and educator (born 1868) Ștefan Luchian was a Romanian painter, famous for his landscapes and still life works. Read more
28 Jun 1915: Victor Trumper, Australian cricketer (born 1877) Victor Thomas Trumper was an Australian professional cricketer. A right-handed batter and a right arm medium pace bowler, Trumper is generally regarded as one of the greatest batters in cricket history. He played for New South Wales from 1894/95 to 1913/14, and represented Australia in 48 Test matches. Read more
28 Jun 1914: Sophie, duchess of Hohenberg (born 1868) Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg was the wife of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Their assassination in Sarajevo sparked a series of events that led, four weeks later, to World War I. Read more
28 Jun 1914: Franz Ferdinand, archduke of Austria (born 1863) Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I. Read more
28 Jun 1913: Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales, Brazilian lawyer and politician, 4th President of Brazil (born 1841) Manoel Ferraz de Campos Sales was a Brazilian lawyer, coffee farmer, and politician who served as the fourth president of Brazil. Read more
28 Jun 1892: Alexandros Rizos Rangavis, Greek poet and politician, Greek Foreign Minister (born 1810) Alexandros Rizos Rangavis or Alexander Rizos Rakgabis, was a Greek man of letters, poet and statesman. Read more
28 Jun 1889: Maria Mitchell, American astronomer and academic (born 1818) Maria Mitchell was an American astronomer, librarian, naturalist, and educator. In 1847, she discovered a comet named 1847 VI that was later known as "Miss Mitchell's Comet" in her honor. She won a gold medal prize for her discovery, which was presented to her by King Christian VIII of Denmark in 1848. Mitchell was the first internationally known woman to work as both a professional astronomer and a professor of astronomy after accepting a position at Vassar College in 1865. She was also the first woman elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Read more
28 Jun 1881: Jules Armand Dufaure, French politician, 33rd Prime Minister of France (born 1798) Jules Armand Stanislas Dufaure was a French statesman who served 3 non-consecutive terms as Prime Minister of France. Read more
28 Jun 1880: Texas Jack Omohundro, American soldier and hunter (born 1846) John Baker Omohundro, also known as "Texas Jack", was an American frontier scout, actor, and cowboy. Born in rural Virginia, he served the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. He later served as a civilian scout for the US Army during the American Indian Wars.
Before his untimely death, Texas Jack became a legendary figure in the American Old West as a Western showman performing dramas on the stage alongside Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok, and was immortalized in dime novels published around the world. Read more
28 Jun 1836: James Madison, American academic and politician, 4th President of the United States (born 1751) James Madison was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison was popularly acclaimed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights. Read more
28 Jun 1834: Joseph Bové, Russian architect, designed the Triumphal Arch of Moscow (born 1784) Joseph Bové, also Joseph Jean-Baptiste Charles de Beauvais or Osip Ivanovich Bove, was an Italian-Russian neoclassical architect who supervised the reconstruction of Moscow after it was destroyed by fire in 1812. Read more
28 Jun 1813: Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Prussian general and politician, Prussian Minister of War (born 1755) Gerhard Johann David von Scharnhorst was a Hanoverian-born general in Prussian service from 1801. As the first Chief of the Prussian General Staff, he was noted for his military theories, his reforms of the Prussian army, and his leadership during the Napoleonic Wars. Scharnhorst limited the use of corporal punishments, established promotion for merit, abolished the enrollment of foreigners, began the organization of a reserve army, and organized and simplified the military administration. Read more

Why is 28 June Important in History?

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