Today in History for 21st June 2026

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Historical Events

1547 - Great fire in Moscow, a third of the largely wooden city destroyed and 2-3,000 killed
1788 - US Constitution comes into effect when New Hampshire is the 9th state to ratify it
1948 - Lord Mountbatten resigns as Governor General of India (formerly the last Viceroy)
2000 - US Senator Daniel K. Inouye and 19 other Japanese-American WWII veterans of the 442nd Regiment belatedly awarded the Medal of Honor by President Bill Clinton
2001 - Mexican artist Frida Kahlo becomes the first Hispanic woman honored on a US postage stamp

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Famous Birthdays

1823 - Jean Chacornac, French astronomer, born in Lyon, France (d. 1873)
1880 - Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, British civil servant, industrialist, economist, statistician and banker, born in Hampstead, London (d. 1941)
1916 - Joe Bamford, British manufacturer and multi-millionaire, born in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England (d. 2001)
1947 - Lex van Delden, Dutch actor (Soldier of Orange), born in Amsterdam (d. 2010)
1995 - Andrew Dismukes, American comedian, actor, and writer (Saturday Night Live, The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy), born in Houston, Texas

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Famous Deaths

1631 - John Smith, English explorer (Chesapeake Bay, New England) and leader of the Virginia Colony (Jamestown), dies at 51
1865 - Frances Adeline Seward, American First Lady of New York (1839-42) and wife of US Secretary of State William H. Seward, dies of a heart attack at 59
1964 - Andrew Goodman, US civil rights activist, murdered at 20
1995 - Laurence McKinley Gould, American Geologist and Polar Explorer who was chief scientist and second-in-command on the first expedition to the interior of Antarctica in 1929, dies at 98
2023 - Ronnie Nolan, Irish soccer wing-half (33 caps League of Ireland XI, 10 Republic of Ireland; Shamrock Rovers 297 games), dies at 89

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