The Thing About Today – June 14

June 14, 2020June 14, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

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.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – June 13

June 13, 2020June 12, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 13, 2020
Day 165 of 366

June 13th is the 165th day of the year. It is Inventors’ Day in Hungary.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Kitchen Klutzes of America Day, National Weed Your Garden Day, National Sewing Machine Day, and National Rosé Day (which is typically observed on the second Saturday in June).

Historical items of note:

In 313, the decisions of the Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and co-emperor Valerius Licinius, were published in Nicomedia. They granted religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire.
In 1525, Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, standing against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns.
In 1774, Rhode Island became the first of Britain’s North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.
In 1777, Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, known simply as Lafayette in the United States, landed near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.
In 1831, Scottish physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell was born. His most notable achievement was the “second great unification in physics”, specifically to formulate the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, bringing together for the first time electricity, magnetism, and light as different manifestations of the same phenomenon.
In 1865, Irish poet, playwright, and Nobel Prize laureate William Butler Yeats was born.
In 1870, Belgian immunologist, microbiologist, and Nobel Prize laureate Jules Bordet was born.
In 1892, actor Basil Rathbone was born.
In 1893, United States President Grover Cleveland noticed a rough spot in his mouth. On July 1, he underwent a secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw. The public didn’t find out until 1917, nine years after the president’s death.
In 1911, physicist, academic, and Nobel Prize laureate Luis Walter Alvarez was born.
In 1928, mathematician, academic, and Nobel Prize laureate John Forbes Nash, Jr. was born.
In 1929, illustrator Ralph McQuarrie was born. A lot of the imagery in science fiction and fantasy came from his mind.
In 1943, actor and producer Malcolm McDowell was born.
In 1951, actor Stellan Skarsgård was born.
In 1962, actress and author Ally Sheedy was born.
In 1966, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
In 1967, United States President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the United States Supreme Court.
In 1971, The New York Times began publication of the Pentagon Papers.
In 1978, the film version of Grease premiered.
In 1981, actor, producer, and Captain America Chris Evans was born.
In 1983, Pioneer 10 became the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passed beyond the orbit of Neptune.
In 1986, child actresses, fashion designers, and businesswomen twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were born.
In 1994, a jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blamed recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.

June 13th is National Random Acts of Light Day in the United States.

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
—Edith Wharton

National Random Acts of Light Day encourages people to bring light to the darkness of cancer by surprising someone with an act of kindness. After all, it takes just one gentle word or small token to help.

As part of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light The Night Walks fundraising campaign, Random Acts of Light brings awareness to the importance of providing cures. The organization also provides access to treatments for blood cancer patients.

A simple visit. A walk in the park. A fresh bouquet of flowers. A cup of coffee. Surprise someone you love by bringing a little light to their day.

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

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – Quarantine Con, Episode VIII

June 12, 2020September 26, 2025 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
Quarantine Con, Episode VIII
June 12, 2020

This week’s “can’t let it go” is yet another panel from the Classic Track Irregulars!

Broadcasting from their respective socially distant quarantine bunkers, the Dragon Con American Sci-Fi Classics Track panelists have returned to talk about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

But, not the Marvel Cinematic Universe that you know. Rather, the one that might have been.

Classics Track co-directors Joe Crowe and Gary Mitchel are joined by Van Allen Plexico and Darin Bush to talk about what would have happened if we got the MCU in the 1970s!

As before, Joe and Gary will be hosting more of these, so stay tuned to the YouTube channel and the group on Facebook. If you join in live, you can also leave comments and participate in the discussion using StreamYard connected through Facebook.

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – June 12

June 12, 2020June 11, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 12, 2020
Day 164 of 366

June 12th is the 164th day of the year. It is the World Day Against Child Labour, an International Labour Organization (ILO)-sanctioned holiday first launched in 2002 designed to raise awareness and activism to prevent child labor. The ILO is the United Nations body that regulates the world of work, and according to their data, hundreds of millions of girls and boys throughout the world are involved in work that deprives them of receiving an adequate education, health, leisure, and basic freedoms. Of these children, more than half are exposed to the worst forms of child labor, including work in hazardous environments, slavery, drug trafficking and prostitution, and involvement in armed conflict.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Red Rose Day, National Jerky Day, and National Peanut Butter Cookie Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1665, Thomas Willett was appointed the first mayor of New York City.
In 1817, the earliest form of bicycle, the dandy horse, was driven by Karl von Drais.
In 1827, Swiss author Johanna Spyri was born. Her best known work is Heidi.
In 1916, director and producer Irwin Allen was born.
In 1929, Anne Frank was born. She would famously chronicle her life in hiding from the soldiers of Nazi Germany. She died at the age of 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
In 1930, actor and singer Jim Nabors was born.
In 1935, a ceasefire was negotiated between Bolivia and Paraguay, thereby ending the Chaco War.
In 1939, filming began on Dr. Cyclops, a film by Paramount Pictures and the first horror film photographed in three-strip Technicolor.
In 1942, Anne Frank received a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
In 1948, comic book writer and editor Len Wein was born.
In 1958, actress Rebecca Holden was born.
In 1963, NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers was murdered in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi by Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith during the civil rights movement.
In 1967, You Only Live Twice premiered. It was the fifth James Bond film, and starred Sean Connery with a screenplay by Roald Dahl.
In 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark premiered.
In 1987, at the Brandenburg Gate, United States President Ronald Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
In 1997, Queen Elizabeth II reopened the Globe Theatre in London.
In 2007, analog television stations (excluding low-powered stations) switched to digital television following the DTV Delay Act.

In 1967, the United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declared that all U.S. state laws which prohibited interracial marriage were unconstitutional.

The case involved Mildred Loving, a woman of color, and her white husband Richard Loving. In 1958, they were sentenced to a year in prison for marrying each other. Their marriage violated Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which criminalized marriage between people classified as “white” and people classified as “colored”.

Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the court majority opinion that “the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State.” The anti-miscegenation laws violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The decision was followed by an increase in interracial marriages in the United States and is remembered annually on Loving Day.

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

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – June 11

June 11, 2020June 10, 2020 Michael Falkner1 Comment

June 11, 2020
Day 163 of 366

June 11th is the 163rd day of the year. It is Davis Day on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. Officially known as William Davis Miners’ Memorial Day, it is an annual day of remembrance for the coal mining communities to recognize all miners killed in the province’s coal mines. It originated in memory of William Davis, a coal miner who was killed during a long strike by the province’s coal miners against the British Empire Steel Corporation.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Making Life Beautiful Day, National Corn on the Cob Day, and National German Chocolate Cake Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1748, Denmark adopted the characteristic Nordic Cross flag later taken up by all other Scandinavian countries.
In 1770, British explorer Captain James Cook ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef.
In 1776, the Continental Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to the Committee of Five to draft a declaration of independence.
In 1837, the Broad Street Riot occurred in Boston, fueled by ethnic tensions between Yankees and Irish.
In 1864, German composer and conductor Richard Strauss was born.
In 1892, the Limelight Department was officially established in Melbourne, Australia. It was one of the world’s first film studios.
In 1895, Paris–Bordeaux–Paris took place. It is sometimes called the first automobile race in history.
In 1910, French biologist, author, inventor, and co-developer of the aqua-lung Jacques Cousteau was born.
In 1920, during the United States Republican National Convention in Chicago, Republican Party leaders gathered in a room at the Blackstone Hotel to come to a consensus on their candidate for the upcoming presidential election. This inspired the Associated Press to coin the political phrase “smoke-filled room”.
In 1933, actor, director, and screenwriter Gene Wilder was born.
In 1935, inventor Edwin Armstrong first demonstrated FM broadcasting at Alpine, New Jersey.
In 1944, USS Missouri (BB-63) was commissioned. It was the last battleship built by the United States Navy and future site of the signing of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender.
In 1945, actress Adrienne Barbeau was born.
In 1959, actor and screenwriter Hugh Laurie was born.
In 1962, Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.
In 1963, Governor of Alabama George Wallace defiantly stood at the door of Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama in an attempt to block two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, from attending that school. Later in the day, accompanied by federalized National Guard troops, they are able to register.
Also in 1963, President John F. Kennedy addressed Americans from the Oval Office proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The legislation would attempt to revolutionize American life by guaranteeing equal access to public facilities, ending segregation in education, and guaranteeing federal protection for voting rights.
In 1968, actress Sophie Okonedo was born.
In 1969, actor and producer Peter Dinklage was born.
In 1970, Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington officially received their ranks as United States Army Generals, becoming the first females to do so. They had been formally appointed on May 15th.
In 1977, the Main Street Electrical Parade premiered in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
In 1978, actor Joshua Jackson was born.
In 1982, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial premiered.
In 1984, Michael Larson successfully pulled off the Press Your Luck scandal by winning a record-breaking $110,237 by memorizing the gameboard patterns.
In 1986, actor Shia LaBeouf was born.
In 1990, the United Nations appointed Olivia Newton-John as an environmental ambassador.
In 1993, Jurassic Park premiered.
In 2002, Antonio Meucci was acknowledged as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress.
In 2004, Cassini–Huygens made its closest flyby of the Saturn moon Phoebe.

June 11th is King Kamehameha I Day.

The Hawaiian public holiday honors Kamehameha the Great, the monarch who first established the unified Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, comprised of the Hawaiian Islands of Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and Hawaiʻi.

The day was first proclaimed by Kamehameha V on December 22, 1871. It was almost meant as a replacement for Hawaiian Sovereignty Restoration Day, which the king and ministers disliked due to its association with the Paulet Affair, the five-month occupation of the Hawaiian Islands in 1843 by British naval officer Captain Lord George Paulet of HMS Carysfort.

In 1883, a statue of King Kamehameha was dedicated in Honolulu by King David Kalākaua. It was a duplicate statue because the original was lost at sea. It was later recovered and placed in North Kohala on the island of Hawaiʻi. There are other duplicates in Emancipation Hall at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C., and in Hilo on the island of Hawaiʻi.

King Kamehameha I Day was one of the first holidays proclaimed by the Governor of Hawaiʻi and the Hawaiʻi State Legislature when Hawaiʻi achieved statehood in 1959. Today, it is treated with elaborate events harkening back to ancient Hawaiʻi, respecting the cultural traditions that Kamehameha defended as his society was slowly shifting towards European trends.

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

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Timestamp #SJA8: The Day of the Clown

June 10, 2020June 9, 2020 Michael Falkner6 Comments

Sarah Jane Adventures: The Day of the Clown
(2 episodes, s02e02, 2008)

Sarah Jane’s worst fear come true?

A group of kids is playing football in a field when one of them kicks the ball into the forest. A boy named Tony goes for the ball, but he ends up getting snurched by a clown.

At the Smith house, Sarah Jane considers the three recently missing children as Luke reads an e-mail from Maria, obviously pining for her. Clyde arrives with news of new arrivals across the street. The boys head to school as Clyde leaves Sarah Jane with the idea that Maria might have left something behind.

By chance, the boys meet Rani, one of the new residents of Bannerman Road. They all head to class and meet the new headmaster, Mr. Chandra, a rather humorless chap. Clyde gets in trouble off the bat and Rani keeps seeing the mysterious clown.

Sarah Jane brings a welcome gift of tea and biscuits to her new neighbors. She meets Gita, Rani’s mother, and scans the house for alien residue. The coast is clear.

Oh, and the humorless headmaster? He’s Rani’s father.

Also, Sarah Jane prefers to be called Sarah Jane, even though the Doctor has nearly always called her Sarah.

By accident, Clyde hits Mr. Chadra in the head with a basketball, so he’s called to the headmaster’s office. While waiting for his talking-to, he encounters the clown and gives chase. He finds the clown in a restroom mirror and is inadvertently saved from doom by the headmaster.

Their discussion doesn’t go well and Clyde resolves to consult with Sarah Jane. He spots the clown with Luke after school, but Luke can’t see it. The boys try to locate it but only find a red balloon. Rani arrives in the nick of time to stop them from touching it, expressing a deep interest in the phenomenon. They all walk to Bannerman Road where the Chandras meet Clyde and the Smiths.

In the attic, the team develops a plan: Luke decides to keep an eye on Rani while Clyde and Sarah Jane investigate the missing children. Both teams eventually come to Spellman’s Magical Museum of the Circus, home of a clown who was handing out tickets to the attraction. Only children with tickets were seeing the clown apparition.

At the museum, we meet the strange Elijah Spellman and learn that Sarah Jane suffers from coulrophobia (the fear of clowns). During their tour, Clyde spots a watercolor picture that resembles their mysterious clown. Sarah Jane identifies it as the Pied Piper, a legendary figure of folklore that stole children from Hamelin. When Luke and Rani arrive, the clowns in the museum come to life and give chase. Sarah Jane disables them with the sonic lipstick and leads the kids out, but the doors are locked.

Spellman reveals himself as the clown, the Pied Piper, and he is intent on having the kids. The entity feeds off of their fear. Rani’s phone rings and somehow freezes Spellman, and the team is able to run back to Bannerman Road. Once they arrive, Sarah Jane offers Rani the Matrix choice between going back to her normal life and seeing how far the rabbit hole goes.

She chooses to explore Sarah Jane’s world.

She’s a bit overwhelmed by the truth and Mr. Smith, but sticks around as the alien “supercomputer” researches clowns and missing children. The clown, also known as Odd Bob, is traced back to a meteorite from the Jeggorabax Cluster that landed on Earth in 1283. It’s currently at the Pharos Institute, and Sarah Jane resolves to get a sample.

Sarah Jane offers Rani a device to keep her safe, trying to temper the young woman’s expectations. Later, while researching clowns, Luke asks her why she’s afraid of clowns. She explains that, as a child, she was frightened of a clown marionette owned by her Aunt Lavinia. It was one of the few times she missed having parents she could call on for comfort.

As the morning comes, Sarah Jane visits the Pharos Institute and secures a sample of the meteorite. Spellman arrives and rattles her, promising that families will perish at the deaths of a nation of children. At the school, a batch of red balloons fall from the sky, and those children that touch them lose free will. They mindlessly march, like rats to a piped tune, to Spellman’s museum.

Mr. Smith analyzes the meteorite and determines that Odd Bob is one of a species that feeds on emotion. Luke calls to alert her to the marching children and she meets the team at the museum’s front doors. She uses Mr. Smith to dial every student’s mobile, releasing them from Spellman’s thrall.

Unfortunately, the clown steals Luke, so Sarah Jane enters the museum and locks Rani and Clyde out. She heads to the Hall of Mirrors and tries to navigate the maze to Luke. Using the sonic, she shatters a mirror and uncovers a door.

Clyde and Rani sneak in through an open window as Sarah Jane confronts the clown. He tells her that he’s amassed a lot of children over the last 700 years, even though they fade away over time. He refuses to return them because to do so would eliminate his power.

Clyde and Rani figure out how to defeat fear: They start telling jokes, weakening Spellman with humor. As he weakens, Rani notices that the meteorite sample is glowing. Sarah Jane holds it out and pulls Spellman back into the vessel in which he came to Earth. Luke returns and all is well.

The rest of the children return home with no memory of their time away. Sarah Jane puts the meteorite into a safe box. Clyde makes amends with Mr. Chandra with the team’s help.

And Rani becomes a full-fledged member of the Bannerman Road Gang.

I like to think that her close relationship with the Doctor is why Sarah Jane prefers others to call her by both names. Only the Time Lord gets the special privilege.

That aside, this is a creepy and well-told story, hinging on a loose historical connection and playing off of a popular phobia. Bradley Walsh was phenomenal, channeling completely different (but each incredibly unsettling) personas for each face that he wore. Spellman’s robot clown army echoes the Nestene Consciousness (which we know from Spearhead from Space, Terror of the Autons, and Rose), and the clown aspect provide a similar level of unease as The Celestial Toymaker and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, in the latter of which the clowns were also robots.

I really admire Rani’s forthright zeal for the unknown. She’s completely enamored by the life that she could only speculate about, and I think she’ll bring a lot of energy to the team. I did keep looking for the Rani, but I’ll get used to the name in short order.

It’s also fun seeing the first Doctor Who-related meeting between actors Bradley Walsh and Anjli Mohindra (Rani). They’ll flip the roles in the Thirteenth Doctor’s era when Walsh plays a companion and Mohindra dons the villainous makeup in Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror.

Rating: 5/5 – “Fantastic!”

UP NEXT – Sarah Jane Adventures: Secrets of the Stars

The Timestamps Project is an adventure through the televised universe of Doctor Who, story by story, from the beginning of the franchise. For more reviews like this one, please visit the project’s page at Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – June 10

June 10, 2020June 9, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 10, 2020
Day 162 of 366

June 10th is the 162nd day of the year. It is Portugal Day, or officially Day of Portugal, Camões, and the Portuguese Communities, a commemoration of Portuguese poet and national literary icon Luís de Camões. Camões died on June 10, 1580, and his work is often compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil, and Dante.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Egg Roll Day, National Ballpoint Pen Day, National Iced Tea Day, National Black Cow Day, and National Herbs and Spices Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1829, the first annual Boat Race competition between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge took place on the River Thames in London.
In 1854, the United States Naval Academy graduated its first class of students.
In 1895, actress Hattie McDaniel was born. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first African American to win an Oscar, for her role as “Mammy” in 1939’s Gone with the Wind.
In 1916, entrepreneur William Rosenberg was born. He was the founder of Dunkin’ Donuts.
In 1922, singer, actress, and vaudevillian Judy Garland was born.
In 1928, author and illustrator Maurice Dendak was born. Among other books, he wrote Where the Wild Things Are.
In 1929, astronaut James McDivitt was born.
In 1947, Saab produced its first automobile.
In 1963, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex, was signed into law by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program.
In 1964, the United States Senate broke a 75-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, leading to the bill’s passage. The filibuster was launched by twenty conservative “Southern Bloc” senators who vowed to resist, “to the bitter end”, any measure or any movement that would bring social equality and “intermingling and amalgamation of the races” to the Southern states.
In 1965, model, actress, and producer Elizabeth Hurley was born.
In 1983, actress and producer Leelee Sobieski was born.
In 1992, model and actress Kate Upton was born.
In 2001, Pope John Paul II canonized Lebanon’s first female saint, Saint Rafqa.
In 2003, the Spirit rover was launched, beginning NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission.

June 10th is World Art Nouveau Day.

World Art Nouveau Day is dedicated to (you guessed it) art nouveau, a style of artwork that breaks down the traditional distinction between fine arts and applied arts. It was organized by The Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest in cooperation with Szecessziós Magazin, a Hungarian Magazine about the art form.

The selected date is the anniversary of the death of two famous architects of the movement, Antoni Gaudí and Ödön Lechner.

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

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – June 9

June 9, 2020June 8, 2020 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

June 9, 2020
Day 161 of 366

June 9th is the 161st day of the year. It is Autonomy Day in Åland, celebrating the anniversary of the first congregation of the regional government. The Åland Islands, or more simply, Åland, is an archipelago province at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea belonging to Finland. They were granted autonomy in 1921.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Donald Duck Day, National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day, National Earl Day, and Call Your Doctor Day (observed on the second Tuesday in June).

Historical items of note:

In 1732, James Oglethorpe was granted a royal charter for the colony of the future U.S. state of Georgia.
In 1891, composer and songwriter Cole Porter was born.
In 1922, pilot and poet John Gillespie Magee, Jr. was born.
In 1934, Donald Duck made his first appearance in a cartoon called “The Wise Little Hen”.
In 1951, composer, conductor, and producer James Newton Howard was born.
In 1954, Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashed out at Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Army–McCarthy hearings, giving McCarthy the famous rebuke, “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
In 1959, the USS George Washington (SSBN-598) was launched. It was the first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine.
In 1961, actor, producer, and author Michael J. Fox was born.
Also in 1961, screenwriter, producer, and playwright Aaron Sorkin was born.
In 1963, actor Johnny Depp was born.
In 1964, actress Gloria Reuben was born.
In 1973, Secretariat won the U.S. Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.
In 1978, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints finally opened its priesthood to “all worthy men”, ending a 148-year-old policy of inexplicably excluding black men from one of the most important aspects of their faith.
Also in 1978, actress Michaela Conlin was born.
In 1981, actress and filmmaker Natalie Portman was born.
In 1989, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier premiered.
In 2014, Laverne Cox became the first transgender woman to appear on the cover of Time Magazine.

June 9th is Coral Triangle Day.

The day celebrates and raises awareness of ocean conservation and protection, especially on the Coral Triangle, the world’s epicenter of marine biodiversity.

The Coral Triangle is the vast ocean expense located along the equator and the confluence of the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans. The region covers the exclusive economic zones of six countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and East Timor, collectively known as the “CT6” countries. The Coral Triangle is considered one of the three mega ecological complexes on Earth. The other two are the Congo Basin and the Amazon Rainforest.

The region represents the global epicenter of marine life abundance and diversity, containing 76% of all known coral species, 37% of all known coral reef fish species, 53% of the world’s coral reefs, the greatest extent of mangrove forests in the world, and spawning and juvenile growth areas for the world’s largest tuna fishery.

The area also may have a buffer against the future of climate change, making it potentially the world’s most important “refuge” for marine life. The combined resources provide profound benefits to the 363 million people who reside within the CT6 countries and benefit many millions more outside the region.

That said, the region is under significant threat by warming, acidifying, and rising seas.

Coral Triangle Day was first observed in 2012, working in conjunction with World Oceans Day.

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

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – Quarantine Con, Episode VII

June 8, 2020September 26, 2025 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
Quarantine Con, Episode VII
June 8, 2020

This week’s “can’t let it go” is yet another panel from the Classic Track Irregulars!

Broadcasting from their respective socially distant quarantine bunkers, the Dragon Con American Sci-Fi Classics Track panelists have returned to talk about which classic vampires they would let near their necks.

Classics Track co-directors Joe Crowe and Gary Mitchel are joined by Jason De La Torre and Michael Williams to talk about vampires in ’80s and ’90s movies and TV. Lost Boys! Interview with a Vampire! Near Dark! Forever Knight!

More things like that!

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

The Thing About Today – June 8

June 8, 2020June 7, 2020 Michael Falkner1 Comment

June 8, 2020
Day 160 of 366

June 8th is the 160th day of the year. It is World Brain Tumor Day, an international commemoration of brain tumor patients and their families.

In the United States, today is “celebrated” as National Best Friends Day, National Name Your Poison Day, and National Upsy Daisy Day.

Historical items of note:

In 1783, the Laki volcano in Iceland began an eight-month eruption that killed over 9,000 people and started a seven-year famine.
In 1789, James Madison introduced twelve proposed amendments to the United States Constitution in Congress. Of those proposed amendments, ten were ratified as the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791. Another became the Twenty-Seventh Amendment (dealing with Congressional salary changes) on May 5, 1992. The last one, concerning Congressional apportionment, is still pending before the states with an indefinite time limit.
In 1860, Irish-English mathematician and theorist Alicia Boole Stott was born.
In 1867, architect Frank Lloyd Wright was born. He designed the Price Tower and Fallingwater.
In 1887, Herman Hollerith applied for United States patent #395,781 for the “Art of Compiling Statistics”, which was his punched card calculator.
In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act into law. This authorized the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value.
In 1912, Carl Laemmle incorporated Universal Pictures.
In 1918, Air Force captain, actor, and singer Robert Preston was born.
In 1933, comedian, actress, and television host Joan Rivers was born.
In 1936, actor and singer James Darren was born.
In 1940, singer and actor Nancy Sinatra was born.
In 1943, Sixth Doctor (Doctor Who) Colin Baker was born.
In 1949, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was published.
In 1953, the United States Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. that restaurants in Washington, D.C., cannot refuse to serve black patrons.
In 1959, USS Barbero (SS-317) and the United States Postal Service attempted the delivery of mail via Missile Mail. The cost of continued service could not be justified.
In 1966, an F-104 Starfighter collided with XB-70 Valkyrie prototype number 2, destroying both aircraft during a photo shoot near Edwards Air Force Base. Joseph A. Walker, a NASA test pilot, and Carl Cross, a United States Air Force test pilot, were both killed.
Also in 1966, actress Julianna Margulies was born.
In 1972, nine-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc was burned by napalm, an event captured by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut moments later while the young girl was seen running down a road. The resulting photograph would become an iconic, Pulitzer Prize-winner.
In 1973, model and actress Lexa Doig was born.
In 1984, homosexuality was declared legal in the Australian state of New South Wales.
Also in 1984, the original Ghostbusters was released.
Also in 1984, Gremlins was released.

In 1992, the first World Oceans Day was celebrated. It coincided with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

World Oceans Day was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008. The international day supports the implementation of worldwide Sustainability Development Goals and fosters public interest in the management of the ocean and its resources. The day is marked in a variety of ways, including information campaigns and initiatives, special events at aquariums and zoos, outdoor explorations, aquatic and beach cleanups, educational and conservation action programs, art contests, film festivals, and sustainable seafood events.

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

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

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