![Today in History 26 June 2024](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/GridArt_20240626_041206446-1024x1024.jpg)
500 BC: The artists of the Nok people of West Africa are creating enchanting terracotta figures that are among the most wonderful sculptures of this time. This figure will be stolen when Europeans colonise Africa and sell for a high price as an artwork of exceptional quality.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Nok.jpg)
1906 The first Grand Prix car race is held
The competition was held on a circuit around Le Mans, France, and organized by the Automobile Club de France (ACF). Renault’s Ferenc Szisz won the competition.
1925: Charlie Chaplin‘s film “The Gold Rush” receives its premiere
The comedy featuring Chaplin in his famous Little Tramp role is a classic of the silent film genre. The English star actor repeatedly stated that this is the film he wants to be remembered for.
1936: The world’s first practical helicopter lifts off
The twin-rotor Focke-Wulf Fw 61 was first tested in Bremen, Germany. None of the first prototypes survived World War II but a replica can be seen at the Hubschraubermuseum in Bückeburg, Germany.
1945: The United Nations Charter is signed.
The United Nations is the world’s most important international organization.
1960: British Somaliland becomes an independent country, the State of Somaliland. The state’s autonomy will last for four days, and during this time it will be recognised by 35 other sovereign nations before it is absorbed along with the former Italian Somaliland into the pre-planned Somali Republic.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Somali-Republic.jpg)
1960: Madagascar achieves national independence, from France. The capital is Antananarivo. The national population is five million people.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Madagascar-1.jpeg)
1963: U.S. President John F. Kennedy holds his iconic “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech
The speech was a welcome gesture of support for the people of West Berlin. East Germany had erected the Berlin Wall just two years earlier to stop mass emigration to the West.
1974: Pack of chewing gum becomes first-ever item scanned with a UPC barcode
On the morning of June 26, 1974, at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio, a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum becomes the first grocery item scanned with a Universal Product Code or UPC. The result of years of scientific experimentation and industry cooperation, the UPC barcode would go on to be used well beyond the grocery checkout counter, becoming a ubiquitous feature of modern commerce, with billions of barcodes scanned daily.
1976: Opening of CN Tower
CN Tower, which opened to the public this day in 1976, was—at 1,815 feet (553 metres)—the world’s tallest freestanding structure until being surpassed in 2007 by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/CN-Tower.jpg)
1989: As Zaire (the Democratic Republic of Congo) slides further into poverty, ruler Mobutu Sese Seko ramps up his extravagant lifestyle by hiring a supersonic Concord jet to fly him to New York. The trip is the first of four times this year that he will rent a Concord. Photos of his large new palaces begin to circulate outside Zaire.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Mobutu-Sese-Seko.jpeg)
1993: In retaliation for an Iraqi plot to assassinate former U.S. President George H.W. Bush during his April visit to Kuwait, President Bill Clinton orders U.S. warships to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraqi intelligence headquarters in downtown Baghdad.
On April 13, 1993, the day before George Bush was scheduled to visit Kuwait and be honoured for his victory in the Persian Gulf War, Kuwaiti authorities foiled a car-bomb plot to assassinate him. Fourteen suspects, most of them Iraqi nationals, were arrested, and the next day their massive car bomb was discovered in Kuwait City. Citing “compelling evidence” of the direct involvement of Iraqi intelligence in the assassination attempt, President Clinton ordered a retaliatory attack against their alleged headquarters in the Iraqi capital on June 26.
2015: Terror attack strikes a beach resort near Sousse, Tunisia. An ISIS jihadist kills 38 people with an assault rifle. The massacre will cripple Tunisia’s tourism industry for two years.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Terror-attack-Sousse-Tunisia.jpg)
2015: This day marks a major milestone for civil rights in the United States, as the Supreme Court announces its decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. By one vote, the court rules that same-sex marriage cannot be banned in the United States and that all same-sex marriages must be recognized nationwide, finally granting same-sex couples equal rights to heterosexual couples under the law.
BIRTHS ON THIS DAY: June 26
Catherine Samba-Panza, 70 years
The first woman President of the Central African Republic (2014-2016), in Fort Lamy, French Equatorial Guinea. Her reputation for neutrality and incorruptibility as Mayor of Bangui during her country’s partisan and corrupt period of the country impressed the National Transitional Council, which appointed her Interim President.
![](https://b.blackcampus.online/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Catherine-Samba-Panza.jpg)
Benjamin Adekunle (26 June 1936 – 13 September 2014)
Benjamin Adekunle, also known as “The Black Scorpion,” played a significant role in the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970), which was fought between the Nigerian government and the secessionist state of Biafra. Adekunle was a colonel in the Nigerian Army and commanded the 3rd Marine Commando Division and known for his aggressive tactics, he earned the nickname “Black Scorpion.” He was credited with the recapture of the city of Port Harcourt from Biafran forces in 1968. He died at the age of 78.
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