June 26

1284 Even though the Pied Piper of Hamelin is just a myth, the town of Hamelin's records state that many children disappeared from the town around the time of the story. The town chronicle even wrote in 1384 "It is 100 since our children left". In the account of the story by the Brothers Grimm, June 26, 1284 was the day the rat-catcher led the children out of Hamelin.

1492 The sport of mountaineering originated on June 26, 1492 when an expedition set out to climb Mont Aiguille, in the Vercors near Grenoble, led by Antoine De Ville, Lord of Domjulien and Beaupré. De Ville and his team scaled the near-vertical Alpine peak Mont Aiguille on King Charles VIII orders. They reached the summit by means of ropes and siege ladders, remaining there for just under a week. It was the first ever recorded climb of any technical difficulty.

Picture of a mountaineer by Josef Feid Anastasius Grün

1657 Great preparations were made for English physician William Harvey's funeral following his death in early June 1657. On June 26th his deceased body, attended by the fellows of the College of Physicians, was conveyed in a funeral procession from his death place in Roehampton to Hempstead Church in Essex, where it was deposited in a vault prepared by his brother Eliab.

1827 English inventor and pioneer of the spinning industry Samuel Crompton died on June 26, 1827. Building on the work of James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright he invented the spinning mule,  a machine which produced yarn of such astonishing fineness that his house was beset by persons eager to know the secret.  His spinning mule transformed spinning from a hand-operated cottage industry to the machine-operated factory process of today.

The only surviving Samuel Crompton spinning mule. By Pezzab

1807 The worst lightning strike disaster ever recorded occurred on June 26, 1807, when lightning struck a gunpowder factory in the Luxembourg city of Kirchberg during the Napoleonic wars. When it was struck by lightning, the ammunition burst into flames causing a huge explosion. The blast and the ensuing raging fire completely destroyed two blocks, igniting other fires in adjacent properties and causing the deaths of over 300 people.

1814 The 16-year-old Mary Goodwin declared her love for the married Percy Shelley at her mother's graveside in the cemetery of St Pancras Old Church on June 26, 1814. The pair eloped to France a month later with Mary's stepsister, Clare Clairmont, in tow. The couple spent the 1816 summer with Lord Byron and others near Geneva where Goodwin conceived the idea for Frankenstein. Three weeks after the suicide of Shelley's wife in December 1816, the pair were married.

Mary Godwin declaring her love for Percy Shelley 

1830 By the late 1820s. George IV of the UK's heavy drinking and indulgent lifestyle had taken their toll on his health. He passed away aged 67 at about half-past three in the morning of June 26, 1830 at Windsor Castle. The dying George reportedly called out "Good God, what is this?" clasped his page's hand and said "my boy, this is death," after which he expired. He was England's fattest king and most profligate.

1830 Because King George IV's only legitimate child, Princess Charlotte, had died before him, William succeeded his older brother to the English throne. William IV became king on June 26, 1830, aged 64. He was the oldest ever person to have come to the British or English throne. He was also King of Hanover but never visited Hanover while he was its king.

1844 The first U.S. President to marry while in office was John Tyler. He married Julia Gardiner on June 26, 1844 at the Church of the Ascension in New York, during his presidency. This was Tyler's second marriage, as his first wife, Letitia Christian Tyler, had passed away in 1842 while he was still in office. President Tyler was 54 years old, while Julia was just 24 when they tied the knot. The children from his first wife did not approve of his new bride and did not attend.

Julia Gardiner

1862 On June 26, 1862, Joseph Wells, cricketer father of the noted author H.G. Wells, became the first bowler to take four wickets in four balls in county cricket. Playing for Kent against Sussex at Hove, he  dismissed James Dean, Spencer Leigh, Charles Ellis and Richard Fillery with successive balls. (Spencer Leigh was the great-nephew of Jane Austen.)

1870 In America Christmas was not celebrated by the early settlers, who were mainly Puritans.  By the late 1860s, rigid puritanical attitudes opposing Christmas had softened and many were adopting the recent English custom of celebrating Christmas in a big way with cards, a tree and other associated paraphernalia. Christmas was declared a federal holiday by the United States Congress on June 26, 1870

1876 Native Americans and Canadians played a lacrosse match at Windsor Castle before Queen Victoria, who recorded the event in her journal dated June 26, 1876: "I watched a game of la crosse played by a team of 14 Canadians and 13 Iroquois Indians . . . .The game was very pretty to watch . . . It is played with a ball, and there is much running . . ."

1889 Bangui, the capital and largest city of the Central African Republic, was founded by French explorers Albert Dolisie and Alfred Uzac in French Congo on June 26, 1889. De Brazza, who represented the French government, signed treaties with local chiefs, including Chief Makoko of the Bateke people, to establish French presence in the region. He selected the location for the outpost, which later became Bangui, because of its strategic position on the Ubangi River.

1898 Ferdinand Porsche designed the first electric/gasoline hybrid, the System Lohner-Porsche vehicle, which he unveiled in Vienna on June 26, 1898. Unfortunately, the weight of its 1,800 kg (4,000 lb) of lead–acid batteries rendered it slow to climb hills. It also suffered from limited range due to limited battery life. In its place Porsche introduced the "Lohner-Porsche Mixte Hybrid" in 1900, the first successful petroleum electric hybrid vehicle on record.

The Lohner-Porsche Mixed Hybrid

1902 The coronation for Edward VII of the United Kingdom had originally been scheduled for June 26, 1902, but he was troubled by stomach ache in the run up. Two days before the coronation, Edward was diagnosed with appendicitis, by which time all the foreign kings and princes had arrived. He was operated on at home by Sir Frederick Treves, the surgeon who looked after Elephant Man Joseph Merrick, and the coronation had to wait until August .

1906 The 1906 French Grand Prix, the first ever Grand Prix motor racing event, was held at the Sarthe circuit outside Le Mans, in France on June 26-27, 1906. Six laps of the 105 kilometres (65 mi) long circuit were run each day by the 34 cars. Lasting for more than 12 hours overall, the race was won by Hungarian Ferenc Szisz driving for the Renault team.

1907 The Tiflis bank robbery was an armed robbery using bombs and guns of a bank stagecoach on
June 26, 1907 in the city of Tiflis (now Georgia's capital, Tbilisi). The robbery was organized by a number of top-level Bolsheviks, including Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, and executed by a party of revolutionaries led by Stalin's early associate Ter-Petrosian (Kamo). They escaped with 341,000 rubles (equivalent to around $4 million in 2020).

1915 T.S. Eliot married Vivienne Haigh-Wood, a Cambridge governess, at Hampstead Register Office on June 26. 1915. The marriage was markedly unhappy, in part because of Vivienne's mental health issues. Vivienne was committed to the Northumberland House mental hospital, Stoke Newington, in 1938, and remained there until she died. Although Eliot was still legally her husband, he never visited her.

1936 The Focke-Wulf Fw 61 is widely recognized as the first fully controllable helicopter. Designed by German engineer Heinrich Focke, the Fw 61 made its maiden flight on June 26, 1936, with test pilot Ewald Rohlfs at the controls. Heinrich Focke and his team continued to refine their helicopter designs, leading to the development of more advanced models during World War II. 

1942 Cary Grant was born Archibald Alexander Leach on January 18, 1904 in Bristol, England.  He traveled with the Bob Pender Stage Troupe to the US at the age of 16 on a two-year tour of the country. When the troupe returned to Britain, Leach decided to stay in the US and continue his stage career where he became a part of the vaudeville world. Leach became a naturalized United States citizen on June 26, 1942, at which time he also legally changed his name to "Cary Grant".

1945 The United Nations Conference on International Organization (UNCIO) took place between April  25, 1945 and June 26, 1945 in San Francisco. On the last day of the conference delegates from 50 nations signed a charter creating the The United Nations Organization — later known as the United Nations.

1948 The 1948 Berlin Blockade by the Soviet Union made overland travel between West Germany and West Berlin impossible. US and British pilots begin dropping food and supplies by plane to Berlin on June 26, 1948 after the city was isolated in the Cold War. The Berlin Airlift, when the US and Britain flew in two million tons of supplies to isolated West Berlin in 1948-9, lasted for 320 days.
US pilots managed to rain down 23 tons of candy on the city's kids to boost their morale.

1960 The Malagasy Republic was proclaimed in 1958, as an autonomous state within the French Community. A period of provisional government ended with the adoption of a constitution the following year and full independence on June 26, 1960. The nation comprises the island of Madagascar as well as numerous smaller peripheral islands.

1964 The tallest woman ever, Zeng Jinlian, was born on June 26, 1964. Jinlian was from Yujiang village in the Bright Moon Commune, Hunan Province, China. The giant Chinese teenager measured 246.3 cm (8 ft 1 in) and suffered from both scoliosis and diabetes, dying in 1982.

1997 JK Rowling was staring out of the window of a train when the idea, plot and characters for Harry Potter came to her. Rowling completed the manuscript of her first Harry Potter story in 1995, having written some of it in local cafés in Edinburgh, where she was an unemployed single mother living on state benefits. The first hardback print run of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was a mere 500 copies. It was published on June 26, 1997.

Wikipedia

2008 On  June 26, 2008, Billboard announced that Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" had officially become the 1,000th #1 US single of the Rock era. "I Kissed a Girl" was a controversial song when it was released, as it dealt with the topic of same-sex attraction. It helped to pave the way for other songs about same-sex attraction to achieve mainstream success.

2016 A third, wider lane of locks was constructed on the Panama Canal between September 2007 and May 2016. The expanded canal began commercial operation on June 26, 2016 increasing the capacity and efficiency of the waterway. The original canal had a system of locks that allowed ships to transit between the two oceans. However, with the growth of global trade and the increase in the size of modern cargo ships, the original canal's capacity had become insufficient.

2019 World Refrigeration Day is an international awareness campaign to raise the profile of the refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat-pump sector. Held annually on June 26 from 2019, it was established by the World Refrigeration Day Secretariat in Derbyshire, England. The day was chosen to celebrate the birth date of Lord Kelvin on June 26, 1824. Kelvin formed the first and second laws of thermodynamics and absolute temperatures are stated in units of kelvin in his honor.