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The light cruiser HMS Calcutta was sunk by the Luftwaffe off Alexandria, Egypt.
In the power vacuum in Baghdad following the collapse of the Rashid Ali regime, two days of violence known as the Farhud broke out against the local Jewish population.
Died:Hans Berger, 68, German psychiatrist (suicide); Jenny Dolly, 48, American dancer and actress, one-half of The Dolly Sisters identical twin performers; Hugh Walpole, 57, English novelist
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass once again. During the five-hour conference Hitler ranted about Rudolf Hess and other recent events, but kept Mussolini in the dark about the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union. However, major Italian troop movements in the Balkans around this time suggest that the Italian government was likely aware of Hitler's intentions anyway. Mussolini reportedly told Count Ciano after the meeting, "I wouldn't be at all sorry if Germany in her war with Russia got her feathers plucked."
German submarine U-147 was sunk off Ireland by depth charges from British warships.
The Massacre of Kondomari and the first Alikianos executions were carried by German paratroopers in reprisal for the active participation of Cretan civilians during the Battle of Crete.
The British cargo ship Michael E was torpedoed and sunk in the North Atlantic by the German submarine U-108.
Razing of Kandanos: German occupying forces in Crete completely destroyed the village of Kandanos in retaliation for the resistance of the local population during the Battle of Crete.
The Finnish High Command granted the German General Staff permission to use northern Finland as a staging area for the planned attack on the Soviet Union.
Hitler received Japanese ambassador Hiroshi Ōshima at the Berghof and informed him of the plan to attack the Soviet Union.
48-year-old Mrs. Simon Olson of Moorhead, Minnesota, drowned in Avalanche Creek in Glacier National Park, Montana, after falling in while posing for a photograph on a log beside the creek.
British intelligence intercepted Ambassador Ōshima's coded message which included considerable details of Germany's plan to attack the USSR. However, due to a lack of either translators or interest, the report was not delivered to the Joint Intelligence Committee for eight days.
The British ocean liner Zealandic struck a sunken wreck off Cromer while trying to evade a Luftwaffe attack and ran aground. Zealandic was then torpedoed by German E-boats before she could be salvaged.
Died:Morris Michael Edelstein, 53, Polish-born American Congressional Representative; Wilhelm II, 82, Emperor of Germany from 1888 to 1918
From Alexandria the Greek Prime Minister-in-exile Emmanouil Tsouderos made a broadcast to the people of occupied Greece. "Unite as one man more closely than ever around our national symbols, around our flag and our heroic King," Tsouderos said. "Keep your heads high as men who have been victorious. Do not trust the enemy; and have confidence in the final victory. Help each one of you, with every means at your disposal in order that we may achieve the final victory. Help our country to overcome the present misfortunes until the glorious day of liberation of a Greece great and new."
President Roosevelt signed a bill authorizing the requisitioning of all foreign merchant ships idling in American ports. He then issued an executive order authorizing the Maritime Commission to operate or dispose of the ships in the interest of national defense. 84 vessels were affected by the order.
Commissar Order: Hitler ordered that commissars of the Red Army captured in battle or in resistance were "to be disposed of by gunshot immediately."
President Roosevelt said during a press conference that many Americans were being duped by German propaganda into believing that Britain was on the verge of collapse and would soon be suing for peace.
President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8773, authorizing the Secretary of War to take over the striking North American Aviation plant in Inglewood, California. The president explained in a statement that the work stoppage could not be allowed to continue because it had created a situation that was "seriously detrimental to the defense of the United States."
Luftwaffe units began deploying near the Soviet border.
Hitler issued Directive No. 31, German Military Organisation in the Balkans.
The funeral of ex-kaiser Wilhelm II was held in Doorn. Although Hitler had wanted a state funeral in Berlin with himself in a prominent role, Wilhelm's family insisted on respecting instructions he'd given in 1933 that he was to be buried in Doorn if Germany was not a monarchy at the time of his death. However, a delegation of Nazi officials led by Arthur Seyss-Inquart was allowed to attend as well as a Wehrmacht guard of honour, and Wilhelm's wishes that Nazi regalia not be displayed at his funeral were ignored.
Vichy Vice-Premier François Darlan made a speech to the French people warning of those who were "trying to darken the nation's understanding." Darlan said that "de Gaullist and Communist propaganda" both had "the same goal - to create disorder in the country, to increase the misery of the population, to prevent the rebirth of the nation ... Frenchmen, beware and help the government in its heavy, very heavy task. This task of the government is triple: to ameliorate the French people's situation, to prepare for peace in that measure a conquered nation can, and to prepare France's future in a new Europe."
On the first anniversary of Italy's entry into the war, Mussolini said in a speech to the Grand Council of Fascism that the United States was already in a de facto state of war with the Axis, but that "America's attitude does not bother us excessively ... American intervention would merely lengthen the war and would not save England."
The United States sent a note to Portugal reserving the right to act in self-defense should the Azores and Cape Verde Islands be threatened by belligerent powers.
Representatives of fourteen Allied countries and governments-in-exile made a pact in London to fight until victory was won and not make separate peace treaties with any Axis countries.
Hitler met with Romanian leader Ion Antonescu in Munich. An agreement was reached for Romania to participate in the invasion of the USSR.
The British cargo ship Empire Dew was torpedoed and sunk north of the Azores by German submarine U-48.
President Roosevelt ordered the closing of all German consulates in the United States and expulsion of their German employees no later than July 10, on the grounds of improper activities "inimical to the welfare of this country."
Winston Churchill gave a radio speech from London accepting an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Rochester in New York. Churchill told his American listeners that it gave him "comfort and inspiration to feel that I think as you do, that our hands are joined across the oceans, and that our pulses throb and beat as one ... A wonderful story is unfolding before our eyes. How it will end we are not allowed to know. But on both sides of the Atlantic we all feel, I repeat, all, that we are a part of it, that our future and that of many generations is at stake."
President Roosevelt told Congress that the United States would not yield to such "outrageous and indefensible" acts as the sinking of the SS Robin Moor and said that Germany would be held accountable.
A Russian expedition in Samarkand opened the tomb of the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur and discovered his embalmed body. Rumors circulated among the locals that opening the tomb would bring a curse.
Hitler sent Benito Mussolini a secret message informing him of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. "I waited until this moment, Duce, to send you this information, it is because the final decision itself will not be made until 7 o'clock tonight," Hitler wrote. "I earnestly beg you, therefore, to refrain, above all, from making any explanation to your Ambassador at Moscow, for there is no absolute guarantee that our coded reports cannot be decoded. I, too, shall wait until the last moment to have my own Ambassador informed of the decisions reached."
A law in Vichy France limited Jews to only 3 percent of university students.
The United States completed the tit-for-tat exchange of consulate closings with Germany and Italy by ordering all Italian consulates to close before July 15.
The British steam collier Gasfire struck a mine in the North Sea and sank. All 26 crew were rescued.
The Germans executed Operation Renntier to secure the nickel mines around Petsamo in Finland.
The June Uprising in Lithuania began when a segment of the Lithuanian population rose up and declared the restoration of the country's independence.
Hitler issued a lengthy proclamation of war with the Soviet Union presenting his justification for the German invasion. Hitler presented himself as doing everything he could to preserve peace and only turning to force as a last resort.
Italy and Romania also declared war on the Soviet Union.
Vyacheslav Molotov gave a broadcast authorized by Stalin to the citizens of the Soviet Union. "This war has been forced upon us, not by the German people, not by German workers, peasants and intellectuals, whose sufferings we well understand, but by the clique of bloodthirsty Fascist rulers of Germany who have enslaved Frenchmen, Czechs, Poles, Serbians, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Greece and other nations," Molotov said. "The government of the Soviet Union expresses its unshakable confidence that our valiant army and navy and brave falcons of the Soviet Air Force will acquit themselves with honor in performing their duty to the fatherland and to the Soviet people, and will inflict a crushing blow upon the aggressor."
Winston Churchill gave a speech announcing the German invasion of the Soviet Union and explaining Britain's new alliance with Russia. "No one has been a more consistent opponent of Communism than I have for the last twenty-five years," Churchill said. "I will unsay no word that I have spoken about it. But all this fades away before the spectacle which is now unfolding ... Any man or state who fights on against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe ... It follows, therefore, that we shall give whatever help we can to Russia and the Russian people. We shall appeal to all our friends and allies in every part of the world to take the same course and pursue it, as we shall, faithfully and steadfastly to the end."
Bombing of Kassa: Unidentified aircraft attacked the Hungarian city of Kassa. This attack became the pretext for Hungary to declare war on the Soviet Union the following day.
North Atlantic weather war: The German weather ship Lauenburg was intercepted by British warships north of Iceland. A boarding party from the destroyer HMS Tartar seized a large amount of material that would be useful in cracking German codes, and then the Lauenburg was sunk by gunfire.
Hitler issued a secret decree formally designating Hermann Göring as his successor. This is the decree that was referred to in the Göring telegram of April 1945.
Germans capture the port city of Libau in Latvia.
German submarine U-651 was depth charged and sunk in the North Atlantic by British warships.
Seidel, Michael (2002). Streak: Joe Dimaggio and the Summer Of '41. University of Nebraska Press. p. 91. ISBN978-0-8032-9293-2.
^ Smith, Robert C. (2007). The State of Strategic Intelligence, June 1941: The War with Russia: Operation Barbarossa. Bennington, VT: Merriam Press. p. 15. ISBN978-1-57638-061-1.
^ "1941". World War II Database. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
Ross, William G. (2007). The Chief Justiceship of Charles Evans Hughes, 1930–1941. University of South Carolina Press. p. 243. ISBN978-1-57003-679-8.
^ Gregory, Don A.; Gehlen, Wilhelm R. (2009). Two Soldiers, Two Lost Fronts: German War Diaries of the Stalingrad and North Africa Campaigns. Philadelphia, PA: Casemate. p. 223. ISBN978-1-935149-74-3.
^ "1941". MusicAndHistory. Archived from the original on August 28, 2012. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
^ Mercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 551. ISBN978-0-582-03919-3.
"F. D. R. Demands Reparation for Sinking of Robin Moor". Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn. June 20, 1941. p. 1.
^ Kirchubel, Robert (2013). Operation Barbarossa: The German Invasion of Soviet Russia. Botley, Oxfordshire: Osprey Publishing. p. 8. ISBN978-1-78200-408-0.
Salmaggi, Cesare; Pallavisini, Alfredo (1979). 2194 Days of War: An Illustrated Chronology of the Second World War. Mayflower Books. p. 144. ISBN978-0-8317-8941-1.
^ Arad, Yitzhak (2009). The Holocaust in the Soviet Union. University of Nebraska Press. p. 164. ISBN978-0-8032-2270-0.
