June 22nd is

Chocolate Éclair Day

Journey’s End Day *

Onion Rings Day

Worldwide VW Beetle Day *

World Rainforests Day

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MORE! Katherine Dunham, Chuck Berry and Miri Yu, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Belarus – Remembrance of Victims
of the Great Patriotic War Day

Croatia – Fascist Resistance Day

El Salvador – Teacher’s Day

United Kingdom – Guernsey: Father’s Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

662: Ruizong (personal name Li Dan) born, last Chinese emperor of the Tang Dynasty; he cedes the imperial throne to his mother Wu Zeitan in 690, who installs herself as empress regnant – the only woman in Chinese history ever to rule as empress regnant

1342 – Journey’s End Day * – by Shire Reckoning, Bilbo Baggins returns to his home at Bag End in J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit

Bag End by cmykyles

1377 – Richard II succeeds Edward III as King of England

1427 – Lucrezia Tornabuoni born, Italian political advisor to her husband Piero Cosimo de’ Medici and her son, Lorenzo ‘the Magnificent,’ during their de facto rule of Florence and the Florentine Republic; supported convents, widows and orphans, and was a patron of the arts, especially poets; author of religious stories, plays and poetry

Lucrezia Tornabuoni, by Domenico Ghirlandaio

1450 – Eleanor of Naples born, Duchess of Ferrara (1471-1493) by marriage to Ercole d’Este; she served as regent (1482-1484) while her husband was at war with the Republic of Venice, and was known for her subtle but effective handling of politics, sage counsel, and common sense. She was also a patron of the Arts, and several authors dedicated their books to her

1633 – The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe, after heated controversy

1675 – The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, is founded; British King Charles II and John Flamsteed lay the foundation stone

1772 – Somerset v Stewart UK court case finds slavery unsupported by English common law, which encourages the abolitionist movement

1805 – Giuseppe Mazzini born, Italian journalist, revolutionary and uncompromising republican, during Risorgimento (“Rising Again”), the struggle for Italian Unification

1813 – Laura Secord sets out to walk 20 miles to warn Canadian troops of an impending attack by the Americans during the War of 1812

1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates for the second and last time

1844 – Harriett Stone Lothrop born, used pseudonym Margaret Sidney, American author of the Five Little Peppers series

1856 – H. Rider Haggard born, English novelist of adventure stories, notably King Solomon’s Mines and She; also involved in agricultural reform as a commissioner on land use boards, his efforts contributed to passage of the 1909 Development Bill

1869 – Caroline O’Day born, American politician, the third woman and first female Democrat, elected to Congress from New York (1935-1943); co-sponsor of Wagner-O’Day Act, predecessor to the expanded Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act, requiring all federal agencies to purchase specified supplies and services from nonprofit agencies employing people with significant disabilities, such as blindness, since 2006 called AbilityOne

1870 – U.S Congress votes on formation of the Department of Justice; much of the department’s time in its early years is spent prosecuting Ku Klux Klan members

1871 – William McDougall born in England, American psychologist noted for his work in developing theories on instinct and on social psychology; opponent of behaviorism

1887 – Sir Julian Huxley born, British biologist, philosopher, and author; influential in development of embryology, systematics, and studies of behaviour and evolution; brother of Aldous Huxley

1897 – In South Africa, electricity comes to the city of Durban when the mayor, Mrs. George Payne, pulls a switch, and parts of the town are bathed in light

1898 – Erich Maria Remarque born in Germany, American author;  All Quiet on the Western Front

1906 – Anne Morrow Lindbergh born, American author of fiction and non-fiction; noted for Gift from the Sea; married to aviator Charles Lindbergh; in 1930, she became the first American woman to earn a first-class glider pilot’s license.  From the mid-1930s up until Pearl Harbor, the Lindberghs both advocated American isolationism and made some pro-Hitler statements which tarnished their images. Anne Lindbergh began to redeem herself through her writing in the 1950s, especially with the publication of Gift from the Sea in 1955, which became a national bestseller

1909 – Katherine Dunham born, American dancer, choreographer, author, educator and activist, called the “matriarch and queen mother of black dance”, directed the Katherine Dunham Dance Company for almost 30 years

1911 –Coronation of George V as King of the UK and British Dominions beyond the Seas

1914 – Mei Zhi born, Chinese author and essayist; joined the League of Left-Wing Writers in Shanghai in 1932; she and her husband Hu Fen were arrested in 1955 for “counter-revolutionary activities” – her “crime” was that she had transcribed one of her husband’s books. She was in prison until 1961 when her mother died. Her husband wasn’t released in 1965, and they both remained under surveillance by the Public Security Department. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in 1966, they were sent to a prison camp that produced tea. Hu was imprisoned, fell ill, and she was taken to the prison to nurse him. In 1979, Mei was “rehabilitated” and then given permission to take Hu to Beijing for treatment of his increasing mental illness, where he died in 1985.  She wrote memoirs of his imprisonment,  and published collections of children’s stories. She joined the China Writer’s Association in 1982, which offered some protection of writer’s rights, but also enforced acceptable literary norms

Mei Zhi and Hu Fen

1918 – Dame Cicely Saunders born, English nurse, social worker, physician and writer; notable for her major role in the birth of the Hospice movement, highlighting palliative care, especially pain management; founded a charity to promote research in improving the care and treatment of patients with progressive illnesses

1921 – Barbara Vucanovich born, American politician, first woman to represent Nevada in U. S. House of Representatives (Republican-Nevada, 1983-1997), advocate for breast-cancer awareness

1921 – Gower Champion born, American choreographer, dancer and director

1921 – Joseph Papp born, American theatrical producer and director; founder of NY’s Public Theatre and Shakespeare in the Park

1933 – Dianne Feinstein, American politician, San Francisco Mayor (1978-1988); U. S. Senator (Democrat-California, 1992 to present); first woman to chair Senate Rules Committee (2007–2009) and the Select Committee on Intelligence (2009- 2015)

1934 — Worldwide VW Beetle Day *- A contract is signed for the development of the VW Beetle by Ferdinand Porsche

1939 – Ada E. Yonath born, Israeli scientist and crystallographer; pioneering work on structure of the ribosome was rewarded by a 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry shared with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz ; director of Center for Biomolecular Structure at the Weizmann Institute of Science

1940 – WWII: Eight days after Hitler’s forces had overrun France and taken Paris, Marshal Henri Philippe Petain had replaced Paul Reynaud as prime minister, and a French delegation at Compiègne signs an armistice treaty with the Nazis.  The treaty gave Germany control over the north and west of the country, including Paris and all of the Atlantic coastline, but left the rest, around two-fifths of France’s prewar territory, unoccupied. After the war, Petain was convicted of treason

1940 – Joan Busfield born, British sociologist, psychologist and author; President of the British Sociological Association (2003-2005); noted for research on mental disorders; Managing madness: changing ideas and practice, Men, women, and madness: understanding gender and mental disorder, and Mental Illness

1940 – U.S. Congress authorizes building 200 new ships, a 70% increase in the U.S. Navy fleet, at a cost of $4 billion USD

1940 – Dame Esther Rantzen born, English journalist and presenter of That’s Life! (1973-1994); founder of the child protection charity ChildLine in 1986, and The Silver Line, to combat loneliness, in 2012

1941 – Germany invades the Soviet Union

1941 – Terttu Savola born, Finnish Politician, chair of the For the Poor party; member of the city council of Espoo (since 2008), becoming her party’s first member to win a council seat.  She is the ambassador for human rights and children’s rights in the Finnish UN alliance, and a lecturer for the Finnish Refuge Help Association.  Savola is also the editor of the Plari newspaper published by the Southern Ostrobothnians (a regional group) in Helsinki

1944 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the GI Bill of Rights, authorizing a broad package of benefits for WWII veterans

1945 – The WWII Battle of Okinawa ends, after 83 days during which 110,000 Japanese and 12,520 Americans are killed

1946 – Sheila Hollins, Baroness Hollins, British professor of psychiatry of learning disability; President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (2005-2008);crossbench Life Peer in the House of Lords since 2010; President of the British Medical Association (2012-2013)

1946 – Linda Bond born, Canadian officer of the Salvation Army (1969-2013); she served as 19^th General of the Salvation Army (2011-2013)

1947 – Octavia E. Butler born, African American science fiction author; multiple winner of Hugo and Nebula awards; noted for Kindred; Parable of the Talents; Bloodchild; and Speech Sounds. Butler died at age 58 in 2006 of a stroke, and was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010

1949 – Meryl Streep born, American actress, nominated for a record 21 Academy Awards, and winner of three Oscars; known for supporting liberal political causes and gender equality

1949 – Elizabeth Warren born, American Democratic politician; U.S Senator from Massachusetts since 2013; FDIC Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion (2006-2010); Law School professor whose research and analysis established her expertise in bankruptcy and commercial law; among other universities, she taught at Harvard Law School (1992 and 1995-2011)

1953 – Cyndi Lauper born, American singer-songwriter and LGBTQ activist; in 2012, she started True Colors United because up to 40% of American youth who identify as LGBT end up homeless. Her organization works to end youth homelessness. The True Colors Residence in New York City offers temporary shelter and job placement assistance

1955 – Christine Orengo born, British Professor of Bioinformatics at University College London; known for her work on protein structure, particularly the CATH (Protein Structure Classification) database. Orengo received a Chemical Physics degree at the University of Bristol, then went on to study Medical Physics, and was awarded a Master of Science degree (1977) for research on the disruption of iron metabolism in laboratory rats with Yoshida sarcomas. She earned a PhD (1984) for research on the redox (a rare chemical reaction) properties of ions in proteins. She worked as a researcher at the National Institute  for Medical Research until 1990. She joined the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University College London in 1995, and was awarded a Medical Research Council (MRC) Senior Fellowship in Bioinformatics. She was promoted to Professor of Bioinformatics in 2002

1959 – Chuck Berry releases “Memphis”

1964 – Amy Brenneman born, American actress, writer and producer; best known for playing the title role in the television drama Judging Amy (1999=-2005). She is pro-choice, and was one of the 5,000 who signed  the “We Had Abortions” petition in the October 2006 issue of Ms. Magazine. Brenneman is also a strong supporter of more restrictive gun laws, hosting the 2009 Target for a Safe America gala in Los Angeles for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence

1968 – Miri Yu born in Yokohama, Zainichi Korean playwright, novelist and essayist. Zainichi Koreans are Korean naturalized citizens of Japan who immigrated to Japan before 1945, or are the descendants of those immigrants. She writes in Japanese, her native language, but is a citizen of South Korea

1970 – President Nixon signs the bill into law lowering the voting age to 18

1972 – Wangechi Mutu born in Kenya, Kenyan-American artist and sculptor

1974 – Jo Cox born, British Labour Member of Parliament (2015-2016); assassinated on June 16, 2016, shot and stabbed to death by a far-right extremist as she was arriving for a meeting with constituents. Cox was a supporter of aid to refugees from war in the Middle East, a campaigner for resolution of the Syrian Civil War, and an advocate for Britain to remain in the European Union. She worked for Oxfam (2001-2015) rising to head of policy and advocacy at Oxfam GB

1974 – Anne Murray’s “You Won’t See Me” hits #1

1977 – Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell begins serving an 8-year sentence for his role in the Watergate cover-up

1981 – Mark David Chapman pleads guilty to killing former Beatle John Lennon

1987 – The International Labour Organisation (ILO), at its annual conference in Geneva, calls for international sanctions against South African minerals

1992 – R.A.V. vs. City of St. Paul: The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rules that hate-crime laws that ban cross-burning and similar expressions of racial bias as hate ‘speech’ violate the First Amendment

Dr. Martin Luther King removes a burnt cross from his front yard

1995 – Worldwide VW Beetle Day * is launched, commemorating the contract signed on this day in 1934 between the German Automobilistic Industry National Association and Dr. Ferdinand Porsche for a prototype “people’s car” to be submitted within 10 months of the contract signing, the genesis of the world’s best-selling car

2011 – President Barack Obama announces he will pull home 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by the following summer

2015 – South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley calls for removal of the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds after the hate-crime murders by a white supremacist of nine African American members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, during a prayer meeting. Among the dead was the senior pastor, state Senator Clementa C. Pickney

2018 – The Supreme Court ruled in Carpenter v. United States that police need a warrant to track a person’s location information from cell towers over an extended period of time. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the Court’s left wing in the 5-4 decision, writing that constant cell phone use makes monitoring location data “near perfect surveillance” akin to attaching “an ankle monitor to the phone’s user.” The government argued unsuccessfully that cell phone users “cannot reasonably expect” providers to conceal this information from the state

2019 – Over 200 demonstrators, many of them survivors of Japanese-American internment camps during WWII, gathered at the gates of Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to protest the Trump administration’s plan to move 1,400 migrant children to the fortified army post later this summer. Fort Sill held 700 Japanese-Americans in horrid conditions during the internment era, which is a driving force behind the outrage surrounding the White House’s decision. “We are here to say, ‘Stop repeating history,'” Satsuki Ina, a 75-year-old survivor of internment, said. Military police tried to disperse the crowd, but they remained until local police from Lawton, Oklahoma, arrived and let them speak

Fort Sill protest – photo by John Ota

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