June 14, 2020
Day 166 of 366

 

June 14th is the 166th day of the year. It is Flag Day in the United States, commemorating the adoption of the flag on June 14, 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as International Bath Day, National Strawberry Shortcake Day, National Pop Goes the Weasel Day, National Bourbon Day, National New Mexico Day, and National Children’s Day (which is typically observed on the second Sunday in June).

 

Historical items of note:

• In 1158, Munich was founded by Henry the Lion on the banks of the river Isar.
• In 1618, Joris Veseler printed the first Dutch newspaper Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c. in Amsterdam.
• In 1775, the Continental Army was established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Army.
• In 1777, the Stars and Stripes was adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States.
• In 1789, the HMS Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 4,600 mile journey in an open boat.
• In 1822, Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society.
• In 1846, the Bear Flag Revolt began as white settlers in Sonoma, California started a rebellion against Mexico and proclaimed the California Republic.
• In 1864, German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer was born.
• In 1877, British biochemist Ida MacLean was born. She was the first woman admitted to the London Chemical Society.
• In 1900, Hawaii became a United States territory.
• In 1907, the National Association for Women’s Suffrage succeeded in getting Norwegian women the right to vote in parliamentary elections.
• In 1909, actor and singer Burl Ives was born.
• In 1949, Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rode a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 83 miles, thereby becoming the first monkey in space.
• In 1954, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a bill into law that placed the words “under God” into the United States Pledge of Allegiance. It was an attempt to differentiate the United States from the USSR during the Cold War.
• In 1959, Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere, opens to the public in Anaheim, California.
• In 1962, the European Space Research Organisation was established in Paris. It would later become the European Space Agency.
• In 1966, the Vatican announced the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“index of prohibited books”), which was originally instituted in 1557.
• In 1967, Mariner 5 was launched towards Venus.
• In 1968, model and actress Yasmine Bleeth was born.
• In 1991, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was released.
• In 2002, The Bourne Identity was released.

 

June 14th is World Blood Donor Day.

The event, established in 2004, serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank blood donors for their voluntary, life-saving gifts of blood.

Transfusion of blood and blood products helps to save millions of lives every year, helping patients who suffer from life-threatening conditions live longer and with a higher quality of life, and supports complex medical and surgical procedures. It also has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and perinatal care. Access to safe and sufficient blood and blood products can help reduce rates of death and disability due to severe bleeding during delivery and after childbirth. In many countries, there is not an adequate supply of safe blood, and blood services face the challenge of making sufficient blood available, while also ensuring its quality and safety.

World Blood Donor Day is one of eight official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO), along with World Health Day, World Tuberculosis Day, World Immunization Week, World Malaria Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Hepatitis Day, and World AIDS Day.

World Blood Donor Day is celebrated on June 14, on the birthday anniversary of Karl Landsteiner, the scientist who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the ABO blood group system.

 

The Thing About Today is an effort to look at each day of 2020 with respect to its historical context.

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