History of 21 June
- 2001 – Former Haitian Army colonel Carl Dorelien taken into custody in Port St. Lucie. Dorelien had been in exile since 1994 when he was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a 1994 massacre.
- 2003 – The fifth Harry Potter book, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” was published by J.K. Rowling. Amazon.com shipped out more than one million copies on this day making the day the largest distribution day of a single item in e-commerce history. The book set sales records around the world with an estimated 5 million copies were sold on the first day.
- 2004 – SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan and piloted by Mike Melvill, reached 328,491 feet above Earth in a 90 minute flight. The height is about 400 feet above the distance scientists consider to be the boundary of space.
- 2005 – Edgar Ray Killen, who had previously been unsuccessfully tried for the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Mickey Schwerner, is convicted of manslaughter 41 years afterwards (the case had been reopened in 2004).
- 2006 – Pluto’s newly discovered moons are officially named Nix and Hydra.
- 2009 – Greenland assumes self-rule.
- 2012 – A boat carrying more than 200 migrants capsized in the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian island.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Yann Danis, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1981 – Garrett Jones, American baseball player
- 1981 – Brandon Flowers, American singer-songwriter
- 1981 – Brad Walker, American pole vaulter
- 1982 – Lee Dae-ho, South Korean baseball player
- 1982 – Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
- 1982 – Jussie Smollett, American actor and singer
- 1983 – Edward Snowden, American activist and academic
- 1985 – Lana Del Rey, American singer-songwriter
- 1985 – Sentayehu Ejigu, Ethiopian runner
- 1985 – Byron Schammer, Australian footballer
- 1986 – Kathleen O’Kelly-Kennedy, Australian wheelchair basketball player
- 1986 – Hideaki Wakui, Japanese baseball player
- 1987 – Pablo Barrera, Mexican footballer
- 1987 – Sebastian Prödl, Austrian footballer
- 1987 – Dale Thomas, Australian footballer
- 1988 – Allyssa DeHaan, American basketball and volleyball player
- 1988 – Paolo Tornaghi, Italian footballer
- 1988 – Thaddeus Young, American basketball player
- 1989 – Abubaker Kaki, Sudanese runner
- 1990 – Ričardas Berankis, Lithuanian tennis player
- 1990 – Lunar C, English rapper
- 1990 – François Moubandje, Swiss footballer
- 1990 – Håvard Nordtveit, Norwegian footballer
- 1991 – Gaël Kakuta, French footballer
- 1992 – MAX, American singer, songwriter, actor, dancer and model
- 1994 – Başak Eraydın, Turkish tennis player
- 1996 – Tyrone May, Australian rugby league player
- 1997 – Rebecca Black, American singer-songwriter
- 1997 – Derrius Guice, American football player
- f Java and Christmas Island, killing 17 people and leaving 70 others missing.