On June 20

Iranian aircraft shot down an American drone over the Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions between the two countries.

Iranian student Neda Agha-Soltan was shot dead in Tehran during the presidential election protests; footage of her death was widely distributed over the Internet, making it "probably the most widely witnessed death in human history".

A bomb explosion in the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran, left at least 25 dead and more than 70 injured.

The International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide, the first major conference in genocide studies, opened despite Turkish attempts to cancel it due to the inclusion of presentations on the Armenian genocide.

Bill Stewart, an American journalist, was executed by Nicaraguan Guardia forces.

Steven Spielberg's film Jaws was released; it became a summer blockbuster and the first film to earn $100 million in U.S. theatrical rentals.

The Mali Federation gained independence from France, but dissolved into Mali and Senegal two months later.

The extratropical remnants of an Atlantic hurricane reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada, causing 22 fishing boats to capsize and killing 35 people.

A Mafia hitman murdered gangster Bugsy Siegel, one of the driving forces in the development of the Las Vegas Strip, in Beverly Hills, California.

World War II: The Royal Air Force began Operation Bellicose, a four-day shuttle-bombing mission that included raids on Germany and Italy and a refuelling and rearming stop in Algeria.

Approximately 250,000 spectators attended the opening procession of the 28th International Eucharistic Congress in Chicago, United States.

British Army officer Thomas Stanton Lambert was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army near Moydrum, Ireland.

Workers at the Buckingham and Carnatic Mills in Madras, India, began a four-month strike.

Boxer Rebellion: The Imperial Chinese Army began a 55-day siege of the Legation Quarter in Peking.

Queen Victoria (pictured) acceded to the British throne, beginning a 63-year reign.

The Congress of the Confederation adopted the Great Seal of the United States (obverse pictured), used to authenticate documents issued by the U.S. federal government.