June 21 in Pop Culture History

June 21 Fun Facts, Trivia and History

June 21 History Highlights

  • June 21 is the first day of Summer
  • 1893 – The first Ferris wheel premiered at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition
  • June 21 Birthday (fictional) Princess Anna of Arendella, Frozen
  • If you were born on June 21st,
    You were likely conceived the week of… September 28th (prior year)

The Summer Solstice

When the Sun reaches its most northerly and southerly excursion on Earth, a Solstice occurs. There are two each year: traditionally June 21 (summer solstice) and December 21 (the winter solstice).
The June (Summer) Solstice happens when there are more hours of daylight than any other date throughout that year. The December (Winter) Solstice meanwhile takes place at a relatively early point in winter and during this period will have the fewest daylight hours than any other date within that given calendar year. The solstices are the days when there is either most or least sunlight for places outside of the equator.

The June solstice is the only day of the year when all locations inside the Arctic Circle experience a continuous period of daylight for 24 hours. On the Antarctic Circle, there are 24 hours of nighttime on the June solstice. Each solstice can occur on the 20th, 21st, or 22nd of that month, depending on your location.

June 21 is…

Daylight Appreciation Day
First Day of Summer
Peaches & Cream Day
Smoothie Day

June 21 Birthday Quotes

“Life is an art, not a science. You make it up as you go along.”
– Al Hirschfeld

“Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons.”
– Al Hirschfeld

“If to the viewer’s eyes, my world appears less beautiful than his, I’m to be pitied and the viewer praised.”
– Rockwell Kent

“Understanding human nature. Perception. That’s how I see acting – perception and communication.”
– Juliette Lewis

“Take it from a kid who grew up having no money, and struggling hard to get by. Just know, if you stick to your path and you believe in yourself and you be courageous enough to be yourself, you can grow up; you can be your own Star-Lord.” – Chris Pratt

“They held up The Outlaw for five years. And Howard Hughes had me doing publicity for it every day, five days a week for five years.”
– Jane Russell

June 21 Birthdays

1882 – Rockwell Kent, American painter and illustrator (died in 1971)
1903 – Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist, painter and illustrator (died in 2003)
1921 – Judy Holliday, American comedic actress and singer (died in 1965)
1921 – Jane Russell, American actress (died in 2011)
1941 – Joe Flaherty, American-Canadian comedic actor
1944 – Ray Davies, English singer-songwriter
1947 – Meredith Baxter, American actress
1965 – Lana Wachowski, American director, producer, and screenwriter
1973 – Juliette Lewis, American actress
1979 – Chris Pratt, American actor
1981 – Brandon Flowers, American singer-songwriter
1985 – Lana Del Rey, American singer-songwriter
1997 – Rebecca Black, American singer-songwriter
2011 – Lil Bub, American celebrity cat (died in 2019)

June 21 History

1788 – New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

1834 – Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent (#X008277) for his grain reaping machine,

1877 – The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants convicted of murder, were hanged in Pennsylvania prisons, in Schuylkill County and Carbon County.

1893 – The first Ferris wheel premiered at Chicago’s Columbian Exposition, and could hold up to 2000 people on 36 cars, and was 264 feet tall.

1913 – The first successful parachute jump from an airplane by a woman was made by Georgia Broadwick, age 18, over Griffith Field, Los Angeles, California.

1940 – The first successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage begins at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

1948 – Columbia Records introduced the long-playing record album (33 1/3 revolutions per minute) in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, New York. The first was released in 1949 – ML 4001, Nathan Milstein performing the Mendelssohn violin concerto.

1952 #1 Hit June 21, 1952 – July 4, 1952: Al Martino – Here In My Heart

1975 #1 Hit June 21, 1975 – July 18, 1975: Captain & Tennille – Love Will Keep Us Together

1978 – East End Show – Evita (Musical) June 21, 1978

1990 (Earthquake) Rudbar, Iran

2004SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.

2006 – Pluto’s recently discovered moons were officially named Nix and Hydra.

Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts

“Mother, should I trust the government?” #songlyrics

A group of Cheetahs is called a Coalition.

Useless Pronunciation: S as in sea

Everything in an apology before the word ‘but’ doesn’t matter.

James Bond must be a really bad spy if his villains are always expecting him.

85% of all bikinis never touch the water.

“As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.” – Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) #moviequotes

It’s funny how when I’m eating and I drop something my dog and I are on totally opposite sides of the emotional spectrum.

There’s no poo in shampoo, hence the sham.

Ringo Starr – Real Name: Richard Starkey

In 1994, Timex and Microsoft designed the Datalink 150 watch together. It was the first smartwatch ever, beating Apple by 12 years.

By the time you die, your life will have caused a better or worse world than if you had never existed. Your call.

Once the initial fun of owning a time machine wore off, most people would just use it to ripen avocados.

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