19 June 2001

Facing allegations of sexual assault in Sweden, Julian Assange (pictured), the founder of WikiLeaks, requested asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

The royal wedding of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, and Daniel Westling took place in Stockholm Cathedral.

War in Afghanistan: British forces began Operation Panther's Claw, in which more than 350 troops made an aerial assault on Taliban positions in southern Afghanistan.

Only six race cars competed in the United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana, after all the Michelin-shod entrants were withdrawn due to safety concerns.

The Basque separatist group ETA detonated a car bomb at a Hipercor shopping centre in Barcelona, killing 21 people and injuring 45 others.

Nguyễn Cao Kỳ, the commander of the South Vietnam Air Force, was appointed prime minister at the head of a military regime.

Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (pictured) were executed as spies for passing nuclear weapons secrets to the Soviet Union.

American baseball player Lou Gehrig (pictured) was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, now commonly known in the United States as "Lou Gehrig's disease".

King Roger, an opera about Roger II of Sicily by Karol Szymanowski (pictured), was premiered at the Grand Theatre in Warsaw.

Second French intervention in Mexico: Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico was executed by firing squad in Querétaro City.

The first officially recorded baseball game in U.S. history using modern rules was played in Hoboken, New Jersey, with the "New York Nine" defeating the New York Knickerbockers 23–1.

The Maryland province of the Jesuits contracted to sell 272 slaves to buyers in Louisiana in one of the largest slave sales in American history.

The proprietors of King's Chapel, Boston, voted to adopt James Freeman's Book of Common Prayer, thus establishing the first Unitarian church in the Americas.

Animal rights advocate Regan Russell is run over and killed by a transport truck outside of a pig slaughterhouse in Burlington, Ontario.

The 10,000,000th United States Patent is issued.

Antwon Rose II is fatally shot in East Pittsburgh by East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld after being involved in a near-fatal drive-by shooting.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requests asylum in London's Ecuadorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the US after publication of previously classified documents including footage of civilian killings by the US army; he will remain there until 2019.

War in North-West Pakistan: The Pakistani Armed Forces open Operation Rah-e-Nijat against the Taliban and other Islamist rebels in the South Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Following a series of Michelin tire failures during the United States Grand Prix weekend at Indianapolis, and without an agreement being reached, 14 cars from seven teams in Michelin tires withdraw after completing the formation lap, leaving only six cars from three teams on Bridgestone tires to race.

The Communist Party of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic is founded in Moscow.

Pope John Paul II canonizes 117 Vietnamese Martyrs.

Basque separatist group ETA commits one of its most violent attacks, in which a bomb is set off in a supermarket, Hipercor, killing 21 and injuring 45.

Aeroflot Flight N-528 crashes at Berdiansk Airport in present-day Ukraine, killing eight people.

Members of the Revolutionary Party of Central American Workers, dressed as Salvadoran soldiers, attack the Zona Rosa area of San Salvador.