What happened on June 26 ?

363 - Roman Emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire. General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by the troops on the battlefield.

684 - Benedict II becomes Pope.

1284 - According to legend, the Pied Piper lures 130 children of Hamelin away.

1409 - Western Schism: The Catholic church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XII in Avignon.

1483 - Richard III becomes king of England.

1723 - After a lasting siege and firing from the cannons Baku surrendered to Russians.

1807 - Lightning hits a warehouse in Luxembourg, killing 230 people.

1819 - The bicycle is patented.

1857 - The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London.

1870 - The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States.

1924 - American occupying forces leave the Dominican Republic.

1934 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Federal Credit Union Act, which establishes credit unions.

1934 - Initial flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first practical helicopter.

1940 - World War II: Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and northern part of Bukovina.

1945 - The United Nations Charter is signed.

1948 - The Western allies start an airlift to Berlin after the Soviet Union has blockaded West Berlin.

1959 - The Saint Lawrence Seaway opens, opening North America's Great Lakes to ocean-going ships.

1960 - Former British Protectorate of Somaliland British Somaliland gains its independence

1963 - John F. Kennedy spoke the famous words "Ich bin ein Berliner" on a visit to West Berlin.

1973 - On Plesetsk Cosmodrome 9 persons are killed in an explosion of a Cosmos 3-M rocket.

1974 - 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

1975 - Indira Gandhi establishes authoritarian rule in India.

1975 - FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler and American Indian Movement member Joseph Stuntz were killed in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Oglala, South Dakota.

1976 - The CN Tower, the tallest free-standing structure on land in the world, was opened.

1977 - Elvis Presley gives his last concert at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana.

1977 - The Yorkshire Ripper kills 16 year old shop assistant Jayne MacDonald in Leeds, changing public perception of the killer as she was the first victim who was not a prostitute.

1978 - Air Canada Flight 189 to Winnipeg overran the runway and crashed into the Etobicoke Creek ravine. Two of 107 passengers onboard died.

1979 - Muhammad Ali retires from the world of boxing.

1993 - The U.S. launches a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for a thwarted assassination attempt against former President George H.W. Bush in April in Kuwait.

1996 - Irish Journalist Veronica Guerin is shot in her car while in traffic in the outskirts of Dublin

1997 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment.

2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas.

2006 - The Republic of Montenegro becomes the 192nd member of the United Nations.