HISTORY & TIMELINE

27 June

A journey through
27 June in history

The story of 27 June runs from a Roman army choosing a new emperor in the deserts of Mesopotamia in 363 to a Japanese spacecraft arriving at the asteroid Ryugu in 2018. In between come the last British king to lead his troops in battle, the killing of Joseph Smith at Carthage Jail, the Potemkin mutiny, Slocum’s homecoming, the first nuclear power station to feed a grid, the first cash machine, a coup in Uruguay, the independence of Djibouti, France’s first European football title, the end of Route 66, the opening of the Austria-Hungary border and a palace coup in Qatar.

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EARLIEST RECORDS

Ancient & Early History

The earliest worthwhile records and events connected with this date.

363

A gold solidus coin of the emperor Jovian, struck in 363-364Image: Coin Archives · CC BY-SA 2.5

politics · Middle East

The Roman army proclaims Jovian emperor

The emperor Julian had invaded the Persian Empire in 363, but his army was forced to retreat up the Tigris, and on 26 June he was killed in a skirmish. With the army stranded deep in Mesopotamia, the officers had to choose a successor at once. The next day the troops acclaimed Jovian, a senior officer of the imperial guard. To get his men home he agreed a humiliating peace, handing back Roman lands and cities to Persia. A Christian, he ended Julian’s attempt to revive the old pagan religion, but he died in February 364 after only eight months in power.

Source: Britannica: Jovian ↗

III

A CHANGING WORLD

Early Modern Era

Exploration, political change, scientific development and expanding global connections.

1743

John Wootton’s painting of George II on horseback at the Battle of DettingenImage: John Wootton · Public domain

world · Europe

George II leads his army at Dettingen

During the War of the Austrian Succession an allied army of British, Hanoverian and Austrian troops found its retreat along the river Main in Bavaria blocked by the French under the Duc de Noailles. On 27 June 1743 King George II, then aged 60, led the allies into battle at Dettingen. After an early French cavalry charge broke into the allied lines, the French were driven back in confusion across the river, losing several thousand men. It was the last time a reigning British monarch commanded his troops in battle.

Source: National Army Museum: Battle of Dettingen ↗

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The 1800s

Industry, empire, invention, reform and a century of enormous transformation.

1844

The old jail at Carthage, Illinois, where Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killedImage: Nyttend · Public domain

culture · Americas

Joseph Smith is killed at Carthage Jail

Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, and his brother Hyrum were being held at the jail in Carthage, Illinois, on a charge of treason after years of conflict between the Mormons and their neighbours. Late in the afternoon of 27 June 1844 a mob of between 150 and 200 men, their faces blackened, stormed the building. Hyrum was killed almost at once, and Joseph was shot as he tried to escape from a window. The killings led, within a few years, to the Mormons’ long migration west to Utah.

Source: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith ↗

1898

Joshua Slocum’s sloop Spray, the small boat in which he sailed alone around the worldImage: Unknown · Public domain

world · Americas

Joshua Slocum completes the first solo voyage around the world

Joshua Slocum, born in Nova Scotia, had spent his working life as a merchant captain, but by the 1890s the age of sail was ending and he had no ship. He was given an old wreck of a fishing boat, the Spray, and spent many months rebuilding her into a sturdy sloop about 11 metres long. In April 1895 he set out from Boston with no crew at all. His route took him across the Atlantic to the Azores and Gibraltar, back across to South America, through the Strait of Magellan, and on across the Pacific to Samoa and Australia, round the Cape of Good Hope and home by way of the West Indies. At one o’clock in the morning of 27 June 1898 he dropped anchor at Newport, Rhode Island, having covered some 46,000 miles in a little over three years. No one had sailed alone around the world before. His account, Sailing Alone Around the World, published in 1899, is still read as a classic of the sea.

Source: Britannica: Joshua Slocum ↗

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The 1900s

War and peace, technological leaps, social change, politics, sport and popular culture.

1905

The battleship Potemkin at Constanța in Romania in 1905, where the mutineers finally gave up the shipImage: Фотография из коллекции Юрия Чернова. · Public domain

politics · Europe

Sailors seize the Russian battleship Potemkin

In the summer of 1905 the Russian Empire was in turmoil. Its army and navy were losing a war against Japan, and strikes and protests against the tsar had spread from St Petersburg to cities across the country. In the Black Sea Fleet the new battleship Potemkin was one of the most powerful ships afloat, but her crew were resentful of harsh discipline and poor conditions. On 27 June 1905 (14 June in the old Russian calendar) the sailors protested about meat they said was unfit to eat. The argument turned into a confrontation in which several officers were killed or thrown into the sea, and a sailor, Afanasy Matyushenko, took command. The ship steamed to Odesa, where a general strike was under way, and when troops fired on crowds in the port the city was left in bloodshed. With no other ships joining them, the mutineers sailed on and surrendered the Potemkin to the Romanian authorities at Constanța, opening her sea cocks first. Some were later caught and executed or exiled. Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 film Battleship Potemkin made the mutiny one of the most famous episodes of the 1905 revolution.

Source: Britannica: Potemkin (Russian battleship) ↗

1954

The Obninsk nuclear power station in 2009, after it closed and became a museumImage: Pavel Bykov / Павел Быков · CC BY-SA 3.0

science · Europe

The first nuclear power station joins an electricity grid

At Obninsk, south-west of Moscow, Soviet scientists built a small reactor designed to make electricity rather than weapons material. It first went critical in May 1954, and on 27 June, by most accounts, it was connected to the Moscow grid, the first nuclear power station anywhere to supply a public network. Its output was only 5 megawatts, but it ran for almost half a century before closing in 2002, and the building now houses a museum.

Source: American Nuclear Society: Anniversary at Obninsk, the first commercial nuclear power plant ↗

1967

The Barclays branch in Enfield Town, north London, where the world’s first cash machine was installedImage: Philafrenzy · CC BY-SA 4.0

world · Europe

The world’s first cash machine opens in Enfield

In the 1960s banks kept short hours, and customers who missed them had no way of getting cash until the next working day. Barclays decided to try a machine that would hand out banknotes around the clock, and chose its branch at 20 The Town in Enfield, north London, partly because it had a good wide pavement and was close to the bank’s head office. The machine was opened on 27 June 1967 in front of a curious crowd, and the comedy actor Reg Varney, star of the television series On the Buses, made the first withdrawal. It worked very differently from a modern cash machine. Customers used special paper vouchers, a little like cheques, which were checked against a personal number, and each one could be exchanged for £10 in cash, the most the machine would pay out at a time. Cash machines soon spread around the world, and Historic England has since listed the Enfield branch for its place in the history of banking.

Source: Historic England: London bank, home to the world’s first cash machine, listed ↗

1973

The Legislative Palace in Montevideo, home of Uruguay’s parliamentImage: Felipe Restrepo Acosta · CC BY-SA 4.0

politics · Americas

Uruguay’s president shuts down parliament

Uruguay had long been one of South America’s most stable democracies, but by 1973 the armed forces, which had crushed the Tupamaro guerrillas, held growing power over the elected president, Juan María Bordaberry. On 27 June 1973, backed by the military, he dissolved parliament. The trade unions answered with a general strike that lasted about two weeks despite heavy repression. Political parties were banned and the press censored, and military rule lasted until 1985.

Source: Britannica: Juan María Bordaberry Arocena ↗

1977

The flag of Djibouti flying beside the seaImage: Skilla1st · CC BY-SA 4.0

world · Africa

Djibouti becomes independent from France

Djibouti sits at the southern mouth of the Red Sea, beside the narrow strait of Bab el-Mandeb, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. France took control of the area in the late 19th century and ran it as French Somaliland, and from 1967 as the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas, after its two largest peoples. Its port grew on the railway that linked the coast with Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. Pressure for independence grew through the 1970s, and after talks in Paris in which Hassan Gouled Aptidon was one of the chief negotiators, the territory became the independent Republic of Djibouti on 27 June 1977. Hassan Gouled Aptidon became its first president and held the office until 1999. France kept a military base in the new country, and its position on the sea lanes between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean has kept Djibouti strategically important ever since.

Source: Britannica: History of Djibouti ↗

1984

Michel Platini’s free kick goes in during the Euro 1984 final between France and SpainImage: Unknown author · Public domain

sport · Europe

Platini’s France win the European Championship at home

France hosted the European Championship in 1984, and their captain Michel Platini was in the form of his life. He scored freely on the way to the final as the hosts played an attacking style that won them many admirers. The final against Spain was played at the Parc des Princes in Paris on 27 June 1984. Midway through the second half Platini curled a free kick towards goal, and the Spanish goalkeeper Luis Arconada let it slip under his body and over the line. France had Yvon Le Roux sent off late on, but Bruno Bellone broke away to make it 2-0 in the final minute. Platini’s nine goals in the tournament are still a record for the finals, and the win gave France their first major trophy in football.

Source: UEFA: Platini fires hosts France to EURO 1984 final glory against Spain ↗

1985

The old Route 66 near Amboy in the Mojave Desert, California, with the highway’s shield painted on the roadImage: Dietmar Rabich · CC BY-SA 4.0

culture · Americas

Route 66 is taken off the US highway map

Route 66 was created in 1926 as one of the first highways in the new US numbered system, running roughly 2,400 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica in California. It carried families fleeing the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, soldiers and supplies in the Second World War and holiday traffic in the boom years after it, and its diners, motels and neon signs became part of American popular culture in songs, novels and television. From the 1950s new interstate highways, wider, faster and safer, were built to replace it section by section, and five interstates eventually took over its route. The last stretch was bypassed in Arizona in October 1984, and on 27 June 1985 Route 66 was formally removed from the US highway system. The road did not vanish, though. Long sections survive as ‘Historic Route 66’, and it remains one of the best-loved journeys in America.

Source: US National Park Service: Demise and resurgence of interest in Route 66 ↗

1989

Alois Mock, Austria’s foreign minister, in 1986Image: Schweinsohr · CC BY-SA 4.0

politics · Europe

Austria and Hungary cut a hole in the Iron Curtain

For forty years a fortified fence of barbed wire and alarms ran along Hungary’s border with Austria, part of the Iron Curtain that divided communist Eastern Europe from the West. By 1989 Hungary’s reforming government no longer saw the point of it, and on 2 May it began to take down the surveillance equipment and wire. On 27 June 1989 the two countries’ foreign ministers, Alois Mock of Austria and Gyula Horn of Hungary, met at the border and together cut through the fence with wire cutters for the cameras. The symbolic act, suggested by the Austrian side, was seen around the world. Many East Germans took it as a sign that a way to the West was opening, and over the summer growing numbers of them travelled to Hungary hoping to cross. The flow of people helped build the pressure that brought down the Berlin Wall that November.

Source: CVCE (University of Luxembourg): Alois Mock and Gyula Horn open the Iron Curtain between Austria and Hungary, 27 June 1989 ↗

1995

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, emir of Qatar, at the Polish Senate in 2011Image: Michał Józefaciuk · CC BY-SA 3.0 pl

politics · Middle East

Sheikh Hamad takes power in Qatar

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the crown prince, had been running much of Qatar’s government for some years. On 27 June 1995, while his father, the emir Sheikh Khalifa, was abroad, Hamad deposed him in a bloodless coup with the backing of leading members of the ruling family. Father and son were reconciled the following year. Under Hamad, Qatar used its huge natural gas wealth to become a major regional power.

Source: Britannica: Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifa Al Thani ↗

2000 TO TODAY

Modern Day

The events of recent decades that have already become part of the historical record.

2018

The asteroid Ryugu photographed by Hayabusa2 in September 2018Image: Original image taken by JAXA/ISAS, processed by User:Anonymsiy, image adjusted by User:Nrco0e · CC BY 4.0

science · Asia

Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft arrives at the asteroid Ryugu

Asteroids such as Ryugu are thought to be leftovers from the building of the planets, so a sample from one could show what the early solar system was made of. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, launched Hayabusa2 in December 2014 to fetch material from Ryugu, a small, dark near-Earth asteroid, and bring it home. After a journey of three and a half years, the spacecraft reached its target on 27 June 2018, when controllers confirmed at 9.35 in the morning, Japanese time, that it was holding station about 20 kilometres from the asteroid. Close up, Ryugu turned out to be shaped like a spinning top and strewn with boulders. Hayabusa2 touched down twice in 2019 to collect samples, and its capsule returned them to Earth in December 2020.

Source: JAXA: Hayabusa2 rendezvous with Ryugu ↗

RESEARCH

Sources & Further Reading

Selected authoritative references supporting the events on this page.

Britannica: Jovian↗Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent): Flavius Claudius Jovianus↗National Army Museum: Battle of Dettingen↗Britannica: Battle of Dettingen↗The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: Deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith↗Library of Congress: Carthage jail, scene of the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith on June 27, 1844↗Britannica: Joshua Slocum↗Project Gutenberg: Joshua Slocum, Sailing Alone Around the World↗Britannica: Potemkin (Russian battleship)↗Britannica: Russian Revolution of 1905↗American Nuclear Society: Anniversary at Obninsk, the first commercial nuclear power plant↗IAEA: From Obninsk beyond, nuclear power conference looks to future↗Historic England: London bank, home to the world’s first cash machine, listed↗Barclays: From the archives, the ATM is 50↗Britannica: Juan María Bordaberry Arocena↗Centro de Fotografía de Montevideo: Huelga General de 1973↗Britannica: History of Djibouti↗US Department of State, Office of the Historian: Djibouti↗UEFA: Platini fires hosts France to EURO 1984 final glory against Spain↗French Football Federation (FFF): 27 juin 1984, sur le toit de l’Europe↗US National Park Service: Demise and resurgence of interest in Route 66↗Britannica: Route 66↗CVCE (University of Luxembourg): Alois Mock and Gyula Horn open the Iron Curtain between Austria and Hungary, 27 June 1989↗European Parliament: 27 June, the Iron Curtain was breached↗Britannica: Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifa Al Thani↗US Department of State: Background Notes, Qatar, November 1997↗JAXA: Hayabusa2 rendezvous with Ryugu↗NASA Astromaterials: Hayabusa2 mission to asteroid Ryugu↗

WHY THESE MOMENTS?

Significance before volume

This page is not the longest possible list of events. It is a chronological journey through 27 June, where each entry is chosen for historical significance, human interest and reliability.

Facts are checked against authoritative museums, archives, universities and reference works. Where sources disagree, the page says so.

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