June 19th in History

Michael Dobson | June 19

A Juneteenth celebration in Texas, 1900. Courtesy Austin Public Library.

Today in History

  • The US Congress prohibits slavery in the US (1862)
  • Juneteenth: Slaves in Galveston, Texas, are finally informed of their freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation (1865)
  • The first Father’s Day is celebrated in the US (1910)
  • The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved by Congress after an 83-day filibuster (1964)
  • Garfield debuts (1978)
  • WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requests asylum in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy (2012)

Birthdays

  • Blaise Pascal, mathematician (1623)
  • Dame May Whitty, actress (1865)
  • Wallis Simpson, duchess of Windsor (1896)
  • Moe Howard, leader of the Three Stooges (1897)
  • Guy Lombardo, bandleader (1902)
  • Lou Gehrig, baseball player (190)
  • Abe Fortas, Supreme Court justice (1910)
  • Lester Flatt, bluegrass musician (1914)
  • Julius Schwartz, comics editor, publisher, and agent (1915)
  • Pauline Kael, critic (1919)
  • Louis Jordan, actor (1921)
  • Gena Rowlands, actress (1930)
  • Wahoo McDaniel, football player and wrestler (1938)
  • Aung San Suu Kyi, politician and Nobel laureate (1945)
  • Salman Rushdie, author (1947)
  • Phylicia Rashad, actress (1948)
  • Ann Wilson, member of Heart (1950)
  • Kathleen Turner, actress (1954)
  • Paula Abdul, singer and dancer (1962)
  • Laura Ingraham, radio host (1964)
  • Macklemore, rapper (1983)

Deaths

  • J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan (1937)
  • Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted spies (1953)
  • Thomas J. Watson, CEO of IBM (1956)
  • Ed Wynn, actor (1966)
  • Sam Giancana, mobster (1975)
  • Len Bias, basketball player (1986)
  • William Golding, author (1993)
  • Manute Bol, basketball player (2010)
  • Slim Whitman, country singer and yodeler (2013)

Holidays and Celebrations

  • Day of the Independent Hungary (Hungary)
  • Feast of Forest (Palawan)
  • Garfield Day
  • Juneteenth (US)
  • Labour Day (Trinidad and Tobago)
  • Laguna Day (Laguna)
  • Never Again Day (Uruguay)
  • Surigao del Norte Day (Surigao del Norte)
  • Surigao del Sur Day (Surigao del Sur)
  • World Sauntering Day (international)
  • World Sickle Cell Day (International)

June 19 is the 170th day of the year (171st in leap years). There are 195 days remaining until the end of the year.