June 22

• June 22, 168 BC
  Rome under general Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeats Philip V of Macedon at battle of Pydna and assures dominance in Greece
• June 22, 431
  First Council of Ephesus, the third ecumenical council of the early Christian Church, opens
• June 22, 1476
  The Swiss overcome Burgundy's Charles the Bold at the Battle of Morat during Burgundian Wars
• June 22, 1497
  Antitax insurrection in Cornwall is suppressed at Blackheath, London
• June 22, 1633
  Italian scientist Galileo Galilei is forced to recant that the Earth orbits the Sun and commuted to house arrest by the Roman Catholic Inquisition
• June 22, 1691
  Ahmed II succeeded Suleiman II in the Ottoman House of Osman
• June 22, 1740
  King Frederick II of Prussia ends torture and guarantees freedom of religion and the press
• June 22, 1783
  A poisonous cloud from Laki volcanic eruption in Iceland reaches Le Havre in France
• June 22, 1799
  In France a scientific congress adopts the length of the meter as one ten-millionth of the distance along the surface of the Earth from its equator to its pole, in a curved line of latitude passing through the center of Paris
• June 22, 1815
  Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates a second time, in favour of his son, Napoléon Francis Joseph Charles Bonaparte
• June 22, 1816
  An English statute establishes a single gold standard for money, with silver coins reduced to status of tokens of limited legal tender
• June 22, 1847
  The first doughnut with a hole in it is created in United States
• June 22, 1874
  Doctor Andrew Taylor Still of Macon, Missouri, founds osteopathy, a type of alternative medicine, that claims that the wellbeing of an individual depends on their bones, muscles, ligaments and connective tissue functioning smoothly together
• June 22, 1922
  The Irish Civil War begins between Irish republicans over the Anglo-Irish Treaty shortly after the establishment of the Irish Free State
• June 22, 1922
  Pius XI becomes Pope
• June 22, 1940
  After German blitz France formally surrenders at the signing ceremony, held in the same wagon-lit railroad car used by French Marshal Ferdinand Foch to accept the surrender of Germany in 1918
• June 22, 1941
  Over 4 million soldiers of the Axis powers invade the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, the largest military operation in human history, opening the Eastern Front of World War II
• June 22, 1944
  Soviet forces, comprised of about 1.2 million men, 2715 tanks, and 5327 aircraft, launch Operation Bagration on German Army Group Centre to clear German forces from the Belorussian SSR and eastern Poland
• June 22, 1945
  Okinawa, Japan, is declared captured by the Allies with total US casualties about 80,000 and 120,000 Japanese
• June 22, 1978
  Charon, a satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, is discovered by James Christy
• June 22, 1992
  Two skeletons excavated in Yekaterinburg are identified as Czar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra

June 16

• June 16, 1487
  Henry VII beat John de la Pole at the Battle at Stoke, the last battle of the Wars of the Roses
• June 16, 1671
  Stenka Razin, Cossack rebel leader, is tortured and executed in Moscow
• June 16, 1755
  British capture Fort Beauséjour during French and Indian War and expel the Acadians, who move to destinations like Maine and Louisiana
• June 16, 1779
  Spain, in support of the US, declares war on England
• June 16, 1815
  Napoleon defeat the Prussians under Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at the Battle of Ligny, Belgium
• June 16, 1824
  The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is formed at Old Slaughter's Coffee House in London under the direction of Arthur Broome
• June 16, 1875
  In Paris, France, the first stone is laid for the Sacré-Cœur basilica in Montmartre, dedicated in honor of casualties during the Franco-Prussian War
• June 16, 1903
  Ford Motor Company, an American automaker, incorporates in Detroit
• June 16, 1940
  Marshal Philippe Pétain takes over the government, and immediately calls for a ceasefire after Paul Reynaud resigns as Prime Minister of France
• June 16, 1960
  Psycho, a psychological thriller-horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, considered one of the greatest films of all time, is released
• June 16, 1963
  Valentina Tereshkova from Soviet Union becomes the first woman in space
• June 16, 1976
  Student uprisings begin in Soweto, South Africa, in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in local schools
• June 16, 1977
  Leonid Brezhnev is named president of USSR
• June 16, 1989
  A crowd of 250,000 gathers at Heroes Square in Budapest for the historic reburial of Imre Nagy, the former Hungarian prime minister who had been executed in 1958
• June 16, 2009
  The first summit of BRICS economic bloc, an international association of emerging national economies created by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, begins

March 20

• March 20, 1413
  Henry IV, King of England, dies in the house of the Abbot of Westminster and is succeeded by Henry V
• March 20, 1602
  The Dutch East India Company, a powerful company, possessing quasi-governmental powers, is chartered by the States-General of the Netherlands to carry out trade and colonial activities in Asia
• March 20, 1727
  Sir Isaac Newton, physicist, mathematician and astronomer, dies in London
• March 20, 1739
  In India, Nader Shah of Persia defeats the Mughals at the Battle of Delhi, then occupies and sacks Delhi taking possession of the Peacock Throne, a famous jeweled throne of the Mughal emperors
• March 20, 1760
  Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings
• March 20, 1799
  Napoleon Bonaparte begins the siege of Acre defended by Turks, which becomes the turning point of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and Syria
• March 20, 1815
  Napoleon Bonaparte with his veterans enters Paris after escape from imprisonment on the island of Elba, beginning his Hundred Days rule
• March 20, 1848
  King Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicates in favour of his eldest son Maximilian, with beginning of revolutions in the German states
• March 20, 1852
  Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a novel based on the theme that slavery is incompatible with Christianity, is first published in book form after being serialized
• March 20, 1854
  The Republican Party is founded when former members of the Whig political party met to establish a new political party that would oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories
• March 20, 1890
  Young German emperor Wilhelm II fires republic chancellor Otto Von Bismarck
• March 20, 1964
  European Space Research Organization is established by 10 European nations for scientific research in space
• March 20, 1995
  Members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult release sarin gas on five separate railway trains in Tokyo, killing 12 and injuring 4700