June
Gay and Lesbian Pride Month (United States)
Cities all over the world hold gay Pride festivities on different dates in the month of June. Many cities choose the weekend closest to June 27-29 so that the celebration will coincide with the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.
June 5
Shavuot (“weeks”) is one of three Pilgrim Festivals (along with Passover and Sukkot) in the Jewish calendar. It falls on the sixth day of Sivan beginning at sunset the night before and celebrates the Ten Commandments, the foundation of Jewish law. Shavout is also known as the Feast of Weeks because it occurs seven weeks after the first day of Passover.
Originally, Shavout was a time of bringing the first fruits of harvest to Jerusalem as a show of thanks but has since transformed into the anniversary of the day the Torah was given to the Jewish people.
June 6
The terms D-Day and H-Hour are used for the day and hour on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. They designate day and hour for an operation when the actual day and hour have not yet been determined or announced. The letters are derived from the words for which they stand, "D" for the day of the invasion and "H" for the hour the operation actually begins.
According to the U.S. Army's Center of Military History, the earliest known use of these terms is in Field Order Number 9, First Army, American Expeditionary Forces. It is dated September 7, 1918: "The first Army will attack at H hour on D day with the object of forcing the evacuation of the St. Mihiel Salient."
D-Day for the invasion of Normandy was set for June 5, 1944, but it actually occurred on June 6. Therefore, D-Day, as it applies to Overlord, is June 6, 1944.
June 14
Flag Day was first observed in 1877 on the 100th anniversary of the Continental Congress’ adoption of the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the United States. In that year, Congress asked that all public buildings fly the flag on June 14. The idea quickly caught on and many people wanted to participate in waving the flag.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Flag Day as a national celebration. However, the holiday was not officially recognized until 1949 when President Harry Truman signed the National Flag Day Bill. In 1996, President Bill Clinton issued a proclamation.
Fathers Day was first celebrated in Spokane, Washington on June 19, 1910. Sonora Smart Dodd originally thought of the idea while listening to a Mother’s Day sermon the previous year. Dodd and her five siblings were raised single handedly by their father, William Jackson Smart, after their mother died during childbirth in 1898. Her petition advocating a national father’s day was supported by the local ministerial association and the Young Men’s Christian Association.
By 1924, the idea of the national Fathers Day was so popular that President Calvin Coolidge supported it. However, it was not until 1966 that a presidential proclamation declared that the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day. This proclamation by President Lyndon Johnson was made permanent by President Richard Nixon in 1972.
June 19
Juneteenth celebrates the freedom of over 250,000 slaves at the close of the Civil War. The holiday is based on events that occurred mainly in Texas but is now celebrated nationwide. The celebration takes its name from June 19, 1865, the day federal troops arrived in Galveston to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. Although the Proclamation had taken effect on January 1, 1863, it freed few, if any, slaves.
Over the years Juneteenth festivals have evolved into day long events which include picnics, parades, music, dancing, and baseball.
|
