June 19 In Swedish History
1976: Sweden’s king Carl XVI Gustaf marries Silvia Sommerlath. The two had met during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. They announced their engagement on March 12, 1976, and were married three months later in Storkyrkan (Stockholm Cathedral). It was the first marriage of a reigning Swedish monarch since 1797. If he had married Silvia during the reign of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf, he would have lost his position as heir-apparent to the Swedish throne. This was due to the inflexibility of his grandfather, who believed that royalty must marry royalty. Silvia was born in Heidelberg, Germany on December 23 in 1943, the daughter of the late Walther Sommerlath and his Brazilian wife Alice, née de Toledo. Her maternal grandfather was Artur Floriano de Toledo (1873–1935), a descendant of King Afonso III of Portugal and his concubine Maria Peres de Enxara. She is also of very distant Amerindian Brazilian ancestry. One of her ancestors was Chief Tibiriçá. She has two older brothers: Ralf and Walther Sommerlath. A third brother, Jörg Sommerlath, died in 2006.

In more recent years, the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland, and Daniel Westling took place on June 19, 2010 in Stockholm Cathedral. The romantic saga of the Crown Princess, who got her Prince never stops to fascinate the Swedish people.