What Happened on June 26

Significant Events

  • 363 Roman Emperor Julian is killed during retreat from the Sassanid Empire. General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by troops on the battlefield.
  • 1794 Battle of Fleurus: major victory by forces of the First French Republic under General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan over the Coalition Army (Great Britain, Hanover, Dutch Republic, and Habsburgs) first use of reconnaissance balloon
  • 1857 The first 62 recipients are awarded the Victoria Cross for valour in the Crimean war by Queen Victoria
  • 1917 1st US troops arrive in France during World War I
  • 2016 Panama Canal's third set of locks opens for commercial traffic, doubling the Canal’s capacity at an estimated cost of $5.25 billion
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Did You Know?

According to the Lüneburg manuscript, a piper leads 130 children of Hamelin away

On June 26, 1284

Famous Birthdays

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Would You Believe?

The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio

On June 26, 1974

Famous Weddings

  • 1739 Taxonomist Carolus Linnaeus (32) weds Sara Elisabeth Moræa
  • 1912 US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles (24) weds Janet Pomeroy Avery at Auburn, New York
  • 1915 Poet T. S. Eliot (26) weds governess Vivienne Haigh-Wood (27) at Hampstead Register Office in London
  • 1937 Actress Mary Pickford (45) weds actor and band leader Charles Rogers (32)
  • 1955 Actor Geoffrey Holder marries Carmen de Lavallade

Famous Divorces

  • 1972 NFL quarterback Johnny Unitas (39) divorces first wife Dorothy Hoelle after nearly 2 decades of marriage
  • 1974 Actress Elizabeth Taylor's 5th divorce from actor Richard Burton
  • 1975 Cher divorces Sonny Bono
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Famous Deaths

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June in History