June 23rd
Today is St. John's Eve,  is the eve of celebration before the Feast Day of St John the Baptist. The Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:36, 56–57) states that John was born about six months before Jesus, therefore the feast of John the Baptist was fixed on 24 June six months before Christmas. This feast day is one of the very few saints' days to mark the supposed anniversary of the birth, rather than the death, of the saint commemorated.
The Feast of St John coincides with the June solstice also referred to as Midsummer. The Christian holy day is fixed at 24 June but in some countries, festivities are celebrated the night before on St John's Eve.



1314 The Battle of Bannockburn begins in the First War of Scottish Independence. Robert the Bruce eventually defeated the English armies of King Edward II, this defeat of the English led directly to raids upon Northern England by the Scots and allowed the Scottish invasion in Ireland.


1868  Key Event: Christopher Latham Sholes receives a patent for an invention he calls the "type-writer".


1912 Computer expert and mathematician Alan Mathison Turing was born at Maida Vale in London.

1916 Yorkshire and England cricketer Len Hutton is born at Fulneck, Pudsey, Yorkshire. He set a record in 1938 for the highest individual innings in a Test match in only his sixth Test appearance, scoring 364 runs against Australia, a milestone that stood for nearly 20 years (and remains an England Test record). In 1952, he became the first professional cricketer of the 20th Century to captain England in Tests; under his captaincy England won the Ashes the following year for the first time in 19 years. Following the war, he was the mainstay of England's batting, and the team depended greatly on his success.


1927 American actor, dancer, director, producer, choreographer, etc. Bob Fosse was born at Chicago, Illinois.  He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. He was nominated for an Academy Award four times, winning for his direction of Cabaret (beating Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather).


1929 American singer, dancer, actress, comedian June Carter Cash was born at Maces Spring, Virginia. The second wife of singer Johnny Cash. She played the guitar, banjo, harmonica, and autoharp, and acted in several films and television shows.


1940 English singer and actor Adam Faith was born at Acton,London as Terence Nelhams-Wright. He was one of the most charted acts of the 1960s. He became the first UK artist to lodge his initial seven hits in the Top 5. He was also one of the first UK acts to record original songs regularly.



1940 Scottish guitarist, poet and artist Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe was born in Edinburgh. Best known as the original bassist for the Beatles. Sutcliffe left the band to pursue his career as an artist, having previously attended the Liverpool College of Art. Sutcliffe and John Lennon are credited with inventing the name, "Beatals", as they both liked Buddy Holly's band, the Crickets. The band used this name for a while until Lennon decided to change the name to "the Beatles", from the word Beat. As a member of the group when it was a five-piece band, Sutcliffe is one of several people sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Beatle".


1959 A fire at a hotel in Stalheim, Norway kills 34 people, had the Trumpton Fire Brigade not been enjoying an apres ski break the death toll would have been much higher, to this day the Norwegians still shout, " Hail til Trumpton helter, hilser vi deg Kaptein Flack!"



1964 American writer, director and producer Joss Whedon was born in New York. He is the founder of Mutant Enemy Productions and co-founder of Bellwether Pictures. He is best known as the creator of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003), Angel (1999–2004), Firefly (2002–03), Dollhouse (2009–10) and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013–present) as well as Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008). Whedon co-wrote Toy Story (1995), wrote and directed Serenity (2005), co-wrote and produced The Cabin in the Woods (2012), and wrote and directed The Avengers (2012), the third highest-grossing film of all time.



1976 French footballer, manager and pundit Patrick Vieira was born in Dakar, Senegal. He rose to prominence during a hugely successful spell at Arsenal from 1996 to 2005, where he eventually became club captain, and won three Premier League titles – one unbeaten – and four FA Cups. At present he is the Manager of the Reserves squad at Premier League club Manchester City, known as the Elite Development Squad.


1980 Indian politician Sanjay Gandhi died instantly from head wounds in an air crash on 23 June 1980 near Safdarjung Airport in New Delhi. He was flying a new aircraft of the Delhi Flying club, and, while performing an aerobatic manoeuvre over his office, lost control and crashed. The only passenger in the plane, Captain Subhash Saxena, was also killed in the crash.

1981 Antony Daniel Costa is born at Edgware in London. He is best known as a member of the boy band Blue.



1984 Welsh singer Duffy is born at Bangor, Gwynned as Amie Ann Duffy. Her 2008 debut album, Rockferry, entered the UK Album Chart at number one. It was the best-selling album in the United Kingdom in 2008with 1.68 million copies sold.The album was certified several times Platinumand sold over 7 million copies worldwide, spawning the hits "Mercy" and "Warwick Avenue". With "Mercy", Duffy became the first Welsh woman to achieve number-one on the UK Singles Chart since Bonnie Tyler topped the charts with "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in 1983.


1998 Maureen Paula O'Sullivan, an Irish actress best known for playing Jane in the Tarzan series of films starring Johnny Weissmuller. died of complications from heart surgery on 23 June 1998, at age 87.


2006 American TV Producer Aaron Spelling suffered a severe stroke at The Manor, his estate in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California. He died at his estate on June 23, 2006 from complications of the stroke, at the age of 83.

2011 American actor and director Peter Falk died at his longtime Roxbury Drive Beverly Hills home. The cause of death was later revealed as cardiorespiratory arrest, with pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease as underlying causes.  Although Falk appeared in numerous other television roles in the 1960s and 1970s, he is best known as the star of the TV series Columbo.

Just One More Thing!

2013 Nik Wallenda becomes the first person to walk across The Grand Canyon on a tightrope. Throughout the walk, Wallenda could be heard praying, repeatedly saying "Thank you, Jesus."Wallenda ran the last few steps then jumped off and kissed the ground.


^{2014  London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced he is to attempt to walk across the Thames on a tightrope, " We think we can do this , I thought about walking across the Thames but we decided that was just showing off, so we decided to ape Nik Wallenda and use a tightrope! Practice? Well I was on that zip wire the other year, that ended well ... so I should be OK, infact to make it more interesting, the Met will fire their new water cannons at me whilst I tippy toe across! The PM? Well I did ask him but he's a little bit yellow under his blue, so he's saying he's busy with Mr Juncker!"}

People Actually Vote For Him?

Walking On Water Failure!