June 26
1819
The bicycle was patented by W. K. Clarkson.
1843
Hong Kong was proclaimed a British crown colony.
1906
The first Grand Prix motor race was held in Le Mans, France.
1959
The St. Lawrence Seaway, connecting the Great Lakes and the Atlantic, was opened.
1963
President John Kennedy gave his, “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner) speech in West Berlin.
1976
The CN Tower in Toronto opened, then the world’s tallest free-standing structure.
2000
The first map of the human genome, which required decoding more than 3 billion biochemical “letters” of human DNA, is completed.
2003
Former South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond died at age 100.
Birthdays
Pearl S. Buck
1892–1973, American author, born in Hillsboro, W.Va., graduated Randolph-Macon Women’s College, 1914.
Bernard Berenson
art critic (1865)
William Lear
inventor (1902)
Babe Didrickson Zaharias
athlete (1911)
Claudio Abbado
conductor (1933)