Summer 2019 began a few minutes ago, as I write this. We’ll enjoy more daylight hours for the next week to ten days than at any other time of the year. Here in Bloomington, there’ll be traces of light in the northwest evening sky until well after 10pm. I spent a July 4th at a friend’s home in neighboring Owen County a few years back and was pleasantly surprised to note the sky retained a hint of blue even after 11pm. For a guy who merely survives through the dark days of December and January, this time of year gooses the mood almost as effectively as a refreshing bourbon cocktail.
June 21st, besides being one of my favorite days of the year, has been the date of a few notable events:
- 1989: The US Supreme Court ruled that the burning of the American flag is a form of protected speech (Texas vs. Johnson).
- 1964: Civil rights activists Goodman, Chaney & Schwermer were brutally murdered by white supremacists in Mississippi.
- 1945: The final skirmish in the Battle of Okinawa ends, making it the final hurdle prior to a planned invasion of the Japanese home islands in World War II.
- 1900: China declares war on the United States, Great Britain, Germany France, and Japan in the midst of the Boxer Rebellion (or Yihetuan Movement).
- 1791: King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family flee Paris during the French Revolution.
And these people were born on this date:
- 1905: Jean-Paul Sartre (author: Nausea, No Exit, The Crucible screenplay)
- 1912: Mary McCarthy (author: The Company She Keeps, A Charmed Life, The Group)
- 1957: Berkeley Breathed (cartoonist: “Bloom County,” “Outland,” “Opus”)
- 1983: Edward Snowden (whistleblower)
▼
Listen, You!
Here’s the link to yesterday’s Big Talk, featuring Herald-Times columnist and autism educator Adria Nassim.
Nassim
▲