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Morning Open Thread: June 6th - Code Talkers, D-Day, Drive-In Movies, and the Yo-Yo [1]
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Date: 2025-06-06
“So much of the progress that would define
the 20th century, on both sides of the Atlantic,
came down to the battle for a slice of beach
only six miles long and two miles wide.”
— President Barack Obama,
10 years ago, in Normandy to
mark D-Day’s 65th anniversary
‘It was a quarter to six, on the morning in June
When the little ships took to the sea
Loaded with men of all nations
The “Vanguard,” to set the world free’
— from Little Ships, a poem
by an unknown British author
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June 6th is:
Applesauce Cake Day
D-Day Anniversary: June 6, 1944 — The landing of Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy, Operation Overlord, a huge amphibious assault, marks the beginning of the final phase of WWII in Europe
Drive-in Movie Day: June 6, 1933 - the first drive-in movie theater, Hollingshead’s Drive-In, opens in Camden, New Jersey
Hollingshead’s Drive-In Theater - Camden NJ
Higher Education Day: established on June 6, 2015
Huntington’s Disease Awareness Day
National Eyewear Day
National Yo-Yo Day: launched by Daniel Volk, the “Yo-Yo Man” on June 6, 1990 in honor of Donald F. Duncan Sr., born June 6, 1892, founder of the Duncan Toys Company, best known as the biggest commercially successful manufacturer of the Yo-Yo
UN Russian Language Day: June 6, 2010 – UNESCO establishes Russian Language Day on the bithday of Aleksandr Pushkin, the “Father of modern Russian Literature,” as one of the International Mother Language Days which celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity and promote equal use of the six UN official working languages throughout the organization
Australia – Queensland Day
Bolivia – Teachers Day
North Korea – Children’s Union Foundation Day
Russia – Pushkin’s Birthday June 1, 1799 – Aleksandr Pushkin born – Russia’s premiere Romantic author and poet; founder of modern Russian literature
South Korea – Hyun Choong II (Memorial Day)
Sweden – Nationaldagen (National Day): June 6, 1523 – Gustav Vasa, the Swedish regent, is elected King of Sweden, ending the Kalmar Union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden
Taiwan – Engineer’s Day
913 – Byzantine Emperor Alexander III, reported to be lazy, lecherous, and a drunkard, dies at age 42 of exhaustion after playing tzykanion (polo). He was succeeded by his 8-year-old nephew Constantine VII
1539 – Katarina Vasa of Sweden born, oldest daughter of Gustav Vasa; in her marriage contract with Edzard II, Count of East Frisia, she was assured the dower lands of Berum and Norden, and the post of Regent if Edzard should be succeeded by an underage son of hers. Frisia was divided between Edzard and his brother John. From the beginning of her marriage in 1561, she took an active part in policy and the complicated affairs of state. She strongly Lutheran, and used all her family connections to support her husband in his conflict with his brother John, who was a Calvinist. In 1578, the childless John reluctantly agreed that Catherine and Edzard’s son would be his heir, but the conflict between the brothers continued. When Edzard died in 1599, Catherine took control over her dower lands as an autonomous ruler, declaring herself a vassal directly under the emperor, and refused to acknowledge any right within her dower lands to collect taxes or exert authority by her son, Enno III. Described as learned and intelligent by contemporaries, she had an interest in literature and theology. Katarina gave birth to eleven children, but two died in infancy. She died in 1610, at age 71
1586 – After the English and the Dutch rebels sign the Treaty of Nonsuch, forming an alliance in 1565, King Philip II of Spain declares war on England; Sir Francis Drake leaves quickly on an expedition to attack Spanish colonies; on June 6, his ships raid the fort of San Augustín in Spanish Florida
Sir Francis Drake’s fleet attacking St. Augstin, Spanish Florida – 1586
1599 – Diego Velázquez born, the leading 17th-century painter of Spain’s ‘Golden Age’
‘Las Meninas’ — by Diego Velázquez
1606 – Pierre Corneille, influential 17th century French dramatist; best known for Le Cid
1644 – The Qing dynasty Manchu forces led by the Shunzhi Emperor capture Beijing during the collapse of the Ming dynasty
1654 – Queen Christina abdicates the Swedish throne and is succeeded by her cousin Charles X Gustav, in part because she wants to convert to Roman Catholicism
Christina Queen
of Sweden —
by David Beck
1755 – Nathan Hale born, American Revolutionary War soldier/spy; captured by the British and hanged; famous for his last words, reported as: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”
1756 – John Turnbull born, American artist, noted for paintings of significant events in American history; including the signing of the Declaration of Independence
Declaration of Independence — by John Trumbull
1808 – Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoléon, who had been happy as King of Naples and Sicily, reluctantly becomes King of Spain and the Indies; he is unpopular with the Spanish, who revolt against French rule, sparking the Peninsular War
1822 – Alexis St. Martin, employed by the American Fur Company on Mackinac Island, is accidentally shot by a shotgun loaded with buckshot; Army surgeon William Beaumont treats his wounds, not expecting him to live, but St. Martin survives, even with a fistula (hole) in his stomach that never fully heals. Dr. Beaumont hires him as a handyman, but is soon making observations and conducting experiments on his stomach, discovering stomach acid, and that digestion is primarily a chemical process; Beaumont publishes an account of his work, Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and the Physiology of Digestion, in 1833, becoming the “Father of Gastric Physiology”
1826 – Sarah Parker Redmond born, African-American abolitionist, inspiring orator, American Anti-Slavery Society agent in England during Civil War, gathers support for anti-slavery cause and the Union Army, later moves to Italy and becomes a physician
1841 – Eliza Orzeszkowa born, Polish author of novels, sketches, and dramas; Nobel Prize nominee in 1905; activist with the Positivism movement during the foreign Partitions of Poland; worked to improve social conditions in Poland; best known for her novel, Nad Niemnem (On the Niemen River)
1842 – Steele MacKaye born, the first American actor to play Hamlet on the London stage, co-founder of the Lyceum Theatre School, which becomes the American Academy of Dramatic Arts; inventor with over 100 patents, including a folding theatre seat and flame-resistant stage curtains; founder of New York’s St. James and Lyceum Theatres
1844 – The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London
YMCA in London — 1840s
1844 – The Glaciarium opens, world’s first mechanically frozen ice rink
1875 – Thomas Mann born, German author and critic, 1929 Nobel Prize laureate
1882 – Anna Airy born, English painter and etcher; one of the first women officially commissioned as a war artist, in 1918 by the Munitions Committee of the Imperial War Musuem (IWM) to create paintings representing typical scenes in munitions factories. These paintings were often done under hazardous conditions. While working at great speed to paint A Shell Forge at a National Projectile Factory, Hackney Marshes, London, the temperatures grew so high that her shoes were burnt off her feet. This painting was featured in the 2011-2012 Imperial War Museum’s exhibition Women War Artists. She also created paintings commissioned by Women’s Work Section of the IWM, the Canadian War Memorials Fund, and by the Ministry of Munitions during WWII. She was regarded as one of the leading women artists of her generation, and exhibited her work at the Royal Academy every year from 1905 through 1956. In 1908, she was elected to the Royal Society of Painters and Etchers. Airy died in 1964 at age 82
‘An Aircraft Assembly Shop, Hendon’ - Anna Airy
1894 – Governor Davis H. Waite orders the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners’ strike, a victory for the union, and the only time in U.S. history that a state militia was called out in support of striking workers
1898 – Ninette de Valois born, English ballerina, choreographer and director; founder of The Royal Ballet, and the Royal Ballet School in Great Britain
Ninette de Valois as Papillon in ‘Carnaval’ - 1923
1901 – Sukarno born as Kusno Sosrodihardjo, a leader of Indonesia’s nationalist movement during the Dutch colonial period, and after independence, the first President of Indonesia (1945-1967)
1901 – Joyce Anstruther born, English writer who published under the pen name Jan Struther, and also wrote hymn lyrics; contributor to Punch magazine and wrote a fortnightly column for The London Times, where she created the character of Mrs. Miniver, who became so popular that the columns were published as a book in 1939, which inspired the screenwriters of the Academy Award-winning film Mrs. Miniver; her best-remembered hymn, written for children, is “Lord of All Hopefulness”
1903 – Aram Khachaturian born, Armenian composer and conductor
1913 – In South Africa, an anti-pass campaign was born when about 700 women marched to the Bloemfontein City Council in the Orange Free State to petition the mayor. The Orange Free State was the only province in which passes were stringently enforced to control the movement of women residing and working in towns. The Campaign gained momentum and spread to other areas. 34 women were arrested and convicted for not having passes. The direct result of this campaign was the founding of the Bantu Women’s League under the leadership of Charlotte Manye Maxeke. The Bantu Women’s League was relaunched by the African National Congress as its Women’s League in the 1940s
Charlotte Manye Maxeke
1918 – WWI: the U.S. Marine Corps suffers its worst single day’s casualties during the Battle of Belleau Wood near the Marne River. The brigade suffered 1,000 killed in action, and 4,000 wounded, gassed, or missing, equaling a 55 percent casualty rate. The supporting 2nd Regiment of Engineers lost another 450 casualties
1921 – London’s Southwark Bridge is opened by King George V and Queen Mary
1925 – Maxine Kumin born, American poet and author, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1981-1982)
1925 – Frank Chee Willeto born, American politician and WWII Navajo code talker with the 6th Marine Division at Saipan and Okinawa – the role of the code talkers was not revealed until it was declassified in 1968; served as Vice President of the Navajo Nation (1998-1999); he and the other surviving Navajo code talkers were awarded the Congressional Silver Medal in 2001
1932 – The Revenue Act of 1932 establishes the first U.S. gas tax, one cent per gallon sold
1934 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Act of 1933 into law, establishing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
1939 – Marian Wright Edelman born, lawyer and activist, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund
1942 – During the Battle of Midway, U.S. Navy dive bombers sink four Japanese carriers and the cruiser Mikuma
1948 – Arlene J. Harris born, inventor and entrepreneur, holder of numerous wireless patents; co-founder of Cellular Business Systems Inc (CBSI) who guided development of the leading billing/CRM service bureau and the first automated cellular service activation systems, now used worldwide, and participated in development of intersystem roaming protocols; first woman inductee to Wireless Hall of Fame (2007)
1949 – Holly Near born, American singer-songwriter, feminist and peace activist. She became involved with anti-war groups in college in the late 1960s, and in 1970 she was cast in the Broadway musical Hair. Her song, “It Could Have Been Me,” was a response to the Kent State shootings that same year. In 1971, she was part of the Free the Army Tour, an anti-Vietnam War road show which performed for audiences of soldiers. In 1972, she founded Redwood Records to produce and promote politically conscious artists, but the independent label went out of business in the mid-1990s; she sang “We Are Gentle Angry People” at the 2004 March for Women’s Lives, and has also been a guest at the GALA conferences for LGBTQ choirs and choruses. Her autobiography is called Fire in the Rain, Singer in the Storm
1951 – Marietta Giannakou born, Greek neuropsychologist at the University of Athens Faculty of Medicine before she entered politics; New Democracy politician since 1990; Minister for Health, Welfare and Social Security (1990-1991); Minister for National Education and Religious Affairs (2004-2007); Greek New Democracy member of the European Parliament (2009-2014)
1954 – In Moscow, a ceremony is held for the monumental sculpture of Yuriy Dolgorukiy, claimed as the city’s founder in 1147, although evidence points to a settlement there at least 200 years earlier
1955 – Sandra Bernhard born, American comedian, singer and LGBTQ rights activist; noted for her stand-up routines, and her comedy and singing albums
1962 – The Beatles record “Love Me Do” during their first recording session at Abbey Road Studios
1965 – The Rolling Stones release “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” in the U.S.
1971 – The Soviet Soyuz 11 is launched, the only manned mission to board the world’s first space station, Salyut 1
1972 – Natalie Morales born, American television journalist at NBC; Today Show co-anchor (2011-2016) and West Coast anchor (2016-2019); The Talk co-host and moderator (2021-2024)
1973 – Patrick Rothfuss born, American author of epic fantasy, The Kingkiller Chronicle series; won the 2007 Quill Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Award for his debut novel, The Name of the Wind
1978 – California voters overwhelmingly approve Proposition 13, a ballot measure for major cuts in rapidly escalating property taxes for both homes and businesses, a major revenue source for public schools; however California currently ranks 37th in the nation in quality of public education
1980 – Mmusi Maimane born, South African politician, leader of the Democratic Alliance party since 2015, and the party’s National Spokesperson from 2011 to 2014
1982 – The Lebanon War begins as forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon in “Operation Peace for the Galilee”
1985 – The body of “Wolfgang Gerhard” is exhumed in Brazil; tests prove it is Josef Mengele, Auschwitz’s infamous “Angel of Death”
1988 – Maria Alyokhina born, Russian musician and political activist, member of the punk rock group Pussy Riot. In 2012, she was convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for a performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. She has been recognized as a political prisoner by the Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners. Amnesty International named her a prisoner of conscience due to “the severity of the response of the Russian authorities.” Alyokhina was close to the end of her two-year prison sentence when she and band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were freed in December 2013, under an amnesty which they saw as a propaganda stunt to improve Putin’s image ahead of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics
1995 – Pink Floyd releases its two-CD album Pulse in the U.S.
2004 – Tamil is established as a “classical language” by the President of India, Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, in a joint sitting of the two houses of the Indian Parliament
2005 – In Gonzales v. Raich, the U.S. Supreme Court upholds a federal law banning cannabis, including medical marijuana
2016 – U.S. media reports that Hillary Rodham Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States, the first woman to be the nominee of a major party in 240-year history of United States of America
2018 – The State Department evacuated two more Americans in China who became ill after hearing strange noises, in cases similar to those reported in Cuba, beginning in 2016. More employees of the American Consulate in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou are being tested by a State Department medical team. The symptoms resemble those “following concussion or minor traumatic brain injury,” the State Department said. The first case in Guangzhou was reported several weeks ago. In Cuba, 24 American Embassy employees and relatives were plagued by headaches, nausea, hearing loss, and cognitive problems after hearing strange sounds. The mystery led the U.S. to sharply reduce its staff, and expel 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington DC. The Cuban government condemned this “hasty, inappropriate and unthinking” decision as motivated by politics, and warned that the diplomatic dispute would sour relations already imperiled by the Trump administration’s crack down on travel and commerce with the island nation. Some U.S. Experts suspect these are side effects from radio frequency and microwave radiation used by foreign intelligence surveillance, but found no proof
2019 – Former Vice President Joe Biden, the frontrunner in a crowded field of Democratic presidential candidates, announced that he now supports repealing the Hyde Amendment, a four-decade-old ban on using federal money for most abortions. Biden’s campaign had said a day earlier that he still supported the measure, putting him at odds with the other leading 2020 Democratic candidates. Biden criticized Republican governors for “denying health care” to vulnerable Americans by refusing Medicaid expansion. “I can’t justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability to exercise their constitutionally-protected right,” he said. “If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s ZIP code.”
2022 – Thousands of UK workers began the world’s biggest trial of four-day week. With work changed forever by the pandemic, businesses are testing whether pilot represents a recognition that ‘the new frontier for competition is quality of life.’ More than 3,300 workers at 70 UK companies, ranging from a local chip shop to large financial firms, start working a four-day week from Monday with no loss of pay in the world’s biggest trial of the new working pattern. The pilot program was organised by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with the thinktank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week Campaign, and researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College. The trial runs for six months and is based on the 100:80:100 model – 100% of pay for 80% of the time, in exchange for a commitment to maintain 100% productivity.
Everybody have a Free-to-Speak Friday
[END]
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