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Today in History, June 26th

On June 26, 1945, 50 nations signed the United Nations Charter in San Francisco. Plus the Berlin Airlift and the Obergefell ruling.

By Today in History Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published June 26, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

June 26 is best known for 1945, when delegates from 50 nations signed the United Nations Charter in San Francisco. The date also saw the Berlin Airlift begin in 1948 and the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide.

The big story: The United Nations Charter is signed (1945)

The war in Europe was over, but the war in the Pacific was not, when delegates gathered in the Herbst Theater auditorium in San Francisco to sign a new rulebook for the world. The founding conference had opened on April 25 with 50 nations at the table, and after two months of haggling they unanimously adopted a charter with a preamble, 19 chapters and 111 articles. Its aims were broad: keep the peace, strengthen international law, raise living standards and expand human rights. It also set up the organization’s main organs, including the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Secretariat and the International Court of Justice. The groundwork went back years, through the 1941 Atlantic Charter, the Dumbarton Oaks talks and the Yalta compromise among the “Big Three.” Signing was not the finish line, though. The charter only took force on October 24, 1945, once the five permanent Security Council members and most other signers had ratified it.

More events on June 26

Year	What happened
1483	Richard, Duke of Gloucester, began his reign as England’s Richard III after taking the throne from his young nephew, Edward V.
1541	Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish conqueror of the Incas, was assassinated in Lima by Spanish rivals.
1721	Boston physician Zabdiel Boylston, backed by the minister Cotton Mather, began the first smallpox inoculations in the American colonies.
1862	Robert E. Lee’s army attacked George McClellan’s Union forces at Mechanicsville, Virginia, opening the Seven Days’ Battles.
1917	The first U.S. infantry troops sent to fight in World War I landed in France at Saint-Nazaire.
1948	The U.S. and Britain began flying food and supplies into West Berlin after the Soviets blockaded the city, the start of the Berlin Airlift.
1959	The St. Lawrence Seaway opened, linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes for oceangoing ships.
1963	President John F. Kennedy declared his solidarity with West Berliners in a speech near the Berlin Wall.
1974	A pack of Juicy Fruit gum became the first grocery item rung up by scanning a UPC barcode.
1997	J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was published in London.
2013	In United States v. Windsor, the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act’s federal definition of marriage.
2015	In Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court ruled that state bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional.

Born on June 26

1819: Abner Doubleday, U.S. Army officer once thought to have invented baseball, born in Ballston Spa, New York.
1904: Peter Lorre, Hungarian-born film actor famous for soft-spoken villains, born in Rózsahegy.
1911: Babe Didrikson Zaharias, star of basketball, track and field and golf, born in Port Arthur, Texas.
1974: Derek Jeter, longtime New York Yankees shortstop, born in Pequannock, New Jersey.