Today is Friday, June 26, the 177th day of 2026. There are 188 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On June 26, 1997, the first Harry Potter novel, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by J.K. Rowling, was published in the United Kingdom. It was later released in the United States under the title “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”
Also on this date:
In 1917, U.S. troops entered World War I as the first soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force landed in Saint-Nazaire, France.
In 1945, the charter of the United Nations was signed by 50 countries in San Francisco.
In 1948, the Berlin Airlift began in earnest after the Soviet Union cut off land and water routes to the isolated western sector of Berlin.
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy visited West Berlin, where he delivered his famous speech expressing solidarity with the city’s residents, declaring: “Ich bin ein Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”).
In 1993, President Bill Clinton announced the U.S. had launched missiles against Iraqi targets because of “compelling evidence” Iraq had plotted to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush.
In 1996, in the case of United States v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the Virginia Military Institute’s male-only admission policy violated the Fourteenth Amendmentap Equal Protection Clause. (VMI enrolled its first female cadets the following year.)
In 2008, in District of Columbia v. Heller, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a handgun ban in the District of Columbia as it affirmed, 5-4, that an individual’s right to gun ownership is protected by the Second Amendment.
In 2013, in the case of United States v. Windsor, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the nation’s legally married same-sex couples equal federal footing with all other married Americans, and cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California in a separate decision.
In 2015, in its 5-4 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage across the country, ruling that state-level bans on same-sex marriage violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
In 2024, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was sentenced in federal court in New York to 45 years in prison and fined $8 million for conspiring to distribute more than 400 tons of cocaine and for firearms offenses. (Hernandez was freed in 2025 after a pardon by President Donald Trump, who said Hondurans believed Hernandez had been “set up.”
Today’s Birthdays:
- Jazz musician-composer Dave Grusin is 92.
- Brazilian singer-songwriter and politician Gilberto Gil is 84.
- Basketball Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer is 73.
- Musician Mick Jones (The Clash, Big Audio Dynamite) is 71.
- Cyclist Greg LeMond is 65.
- Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe is 58.
- Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson is 56.
- Actor Sean Hayes is 56.
- Actor Chris O’Donnell is 56.
- Actor Nick Offerman is 56.
- Country musician Gretchen Wilson is 53.
- Baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter is 52.
- Actor Jason Schwartzman is 46.
- Actor Aubrey Plaza is 42.
- Actor-author Jennette McCurdy is 34.
- Singer-actor Ariana Grande is 33.
- Actor Jacob Elordi is 29.
