June 24th is

Pralines Day

Swim a Lap Day

International Fairy Day

Celebration of the Senses Day *

Stonewall National Monument Day *

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MORE! Robert the Bruce, Pablo Picasso and Mary Pickford, click 

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Christianity – Feast of St. John the Baptist
Islam – Eid al-Fitr/Ramazan Baram (end of Ramadan)

Åland, Estonia, Finland, Sweden –
Midsummer Celebration

Canada – Quebec: St. Jean Baptiste Day
(patron saint of the city)

Lithuania – Day of Dew

Peru – Farmer Day and
Inti Raymi (Incan Sun Festival)

Philippines – Manila Day

Venezuela – Carabobo Battle

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On This Day in HISTORY

217 BC – Second Punic War: Four Roman legions under Gaius Flaminius Nepos are ambushed and defeated by Hannibal’s army at the Battle of Lake Trasimene

109 – Emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, 25 miles (40 kilometres) north-west of Rome

637 – The Battle of Moira is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dál Riata, a contender for the largest battle in the history of Ireland

972 – The Battle of  Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces

1128 – Forces led by Teresa of León, Countess of Portugal, and Fernando Pérez de Traba are defeated by Alfonso I, Teresa’s son, at the Battle of São Mamede.

1314 – Robert the Bruce leads Scottish forces to victory over Edward II of England
at Bannockburn

1374 – One of the first major outbreaks of St. John’s Dance or St. Vitus’s Dance, a possible mass psychogenic illness, overtakes Aachen, Germany, causing hallucinations, jumping and twitching until people collapse from exhaustion

Victims of Saint Vitus Dance Go on Pilgrimage, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

1509 – Henry VIII is crowned king of England

1519 – Théodore Bèza born, French Protestant theologian, author, translator and teacher, a disciple of John Calvin, influential figure in the Reformation

1532 – Robert Dudley, first Earl of Leicester born, English courtier, statesman, favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, financial backer of Francis Drake, patron of the arts, especially theatre

1604 – Samuel de Champlain reaches the mouth of the Saint John River

1717 – The Premier Grand Lodge, the first Masonic (Freemasons) Grand Lodge, is founded in London

1813 – Henry Ward Beecher born, American Congregational minister, abolitionist, author and social reformer, involved in a major scandal over alleged adulterous affairs

1831 – Rebecca Harding Davis born, American author and journalist; advocate for marginalized groups in society including blacks, Native Americans, women, immigrants and the working class; author of novella, Life in the Iron Mills

1842 – Ambrose Bierce born, American author, journalist and wit, served as a lieutenant in the Union Army during in the Civil War; The Devil’s Dictionary

1844 – Charles Goodyear is granted a U.S. patent for vulcanized rubber

1880 – Agnes Nestor born, American labor leader, politician, suffragist and social reformer, known for her roles in the International Glove Workers Union and the Women’s Trade Union League

1883 – Victor Franz Hess born in Austria-Hungary, American physicist; 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on atmospheric radiation, “cosmic rays”

1901 – First exhibition by Pablo Picasso, aged 19, opens in Paris

Self-portrait, by Pablo Picasso

1914 – Pearl Witherington born, British secret agent, fought in occupied France as a Special Operations Executive member, leading a guerrilla band of French resistance fighters; recommended for the Military Cross, but denied it because she was a woman.

1915 – Norman Cousins born, American essayist; editor of The Saturday Review

1916 – John Ciardi born, American poet, etymologist and translator, notably for Dante’s Divine Comedy; columnist and editor at The Saturday Review

1916 – Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to sign a million dollar contract

1918 – Mildred Ladner Thompson, American journalist, one of the first women reporters at The Wall Street Journal

1923 – Margaret Olley born, Australian painter, known for still-life paintings, recipient of the Mosman Art Prize

1940 – The WWII Vichy French government signs an armistice with Italy

1941 – Julia Kristeva born in Bulgaria, French psychoanalyst, sociologist, philosopher, author, feminist and human rights activist; founder of the Simone de Beauvoir Prize

1947 – Mick Fleetwood born, British rock musician, drummer and co-founder with John McVie of Fleetwood Mac

1949 – Hopalong Cassidy debuts as network TV’s first western series on NBC

1957 – In Roth v United States, and its companion case, Miller v. California, U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 ruling, redefines the Constitutional test for determining what constitutes obscene material not protected by the First Amendment;  Material whose “dominant theme taken as a whole appeals to the prurient interest” to the “average person, applying contemporary community standards.” Only material meeting this test could be banned as “obscene.” The convictions for publishing and sending obscene material through the mail in both companion cases are upheld

1964 – The Federal Trade Commission rules that health warnings must appear on all cigarette packages

1974 – Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” is released

1974 – The Beach Boys release their greatest hits album Endless Summer

1997 – The U.S. Air Force releases a report on the so-called “Roswell Incident,” suggesting alien bodies witnesses saw in 1947 were actually life-sized dummies

1998 – AT&T strikes a $31.7 billion deal to buy cable TV giant Tele-Communications

2004 – Federal investigators question President George W. Bush for over hour about the news leak of a CIA operative’s name

2009 – South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, missing for seven days, admits that he had secretly flown to Argentina to visit his mistress

2010 – Julia Gillard becomes Australia’s first female Prime Minister

2011 – Celebration of the Senses Day is launched

2011 – New York State legalizes same-sex marriage.

2016 – Stonewall National Monument Day * celebrates the designation of the Stonewall Inn and Christopher Park in Greenwich Village as the Stonewall National Monument, commemorating the LGBT Uprising which began June 28, 1969, the catalyst for the modern LGBTQ civil rights movement

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