Today is the first day of summer, also known as the Summer Solstice. It's the longest day of the year (and the shortest night).



The actual moment of the solstice will occur at about 1:04 A.M. this evening, while the sun sits directly above the Pacific Ocean to the west of Hawaii.  Don't complain about the heat today, remember that it's the beginning of Winter in Australia.  (The naked run is optional - please.)



While you are chillin' in your office, think about this - Twenty-five percent of all winning lottery tickets are issued in summer. One in every five people in the world live on less than $1 a day.


Congratulations to all of the kids graduating elementary school in NYC today.




June 21,1955 -
The David Lean movie, Summertime starring Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi premiered in New York on this date.



Despite being set in summer, as its title suggests, some of the scenes were shot in winter. This is particularly clear during Katharine Hepburn's visit to San Marco's Square: while watching the clock tower, she sees a parade of wooden statues coming up of the clock and marching around it; those statues are actually the Three Wise Men, and they appear only once every year, on January 6th.


June 21, 1977 -
Martin Scorsese's homage to movie musicals - New York, New York, premiered on this date.



Originally four and a half hours long. Martin Scorsese cut it to 153 minutes, then to 136 minutes. In 1981 some material (mainly the 'Happy Endings' sequence) was restored and the film became 163 minutes long. The added 'Happy Endings' musical fantasy cost an extra $350,000 to make.


June 21, 1988 -
Robert Zemeckis' incredible advancement in animation, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, opened in NYC on this date.



During filming, Charles Fleischer delivered Roger Rabbit's lines off camera in full Roger costume including rabbit ears, yellow gloves and orange cover-alls. During breaks when he was in costume, other staff at the studios would see him and make comments about the poor caliber of the effects in the "rabbit movie".


Today in History:
June 21, 1877 -
The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants who were labor activists, are hanged at Carbon County Prison in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.

Author and Judge John P. Lavelle of Carbon County said of this, "The Molly Maguire trials were a surrender of state sovereignty...A private corporation initiated the investigation through a private detective agency. A private police force arrested the alleged defenders, and private attorneys for the coal companies prosecuted them. The state provided only the courtroom and the gallows."


June 21, 1893 -
The first Ferris wheel debuted at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, on this date. The Ferris wheel was designed by George W. Ferris, a bridge-builder from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.



The exposition commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's landing in America. The Chicago Fair's organizers wanted something that would rival the Eiffel Tower. Gustave Eiffel had built the tower for the Paris World's Fair of 1889, which honored the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution.


June 21, 1905 -
It would have been the 108th birthday of Jean-Paul Sartre today.



But what the hell does he care; he's dead and it doesn't mean anything anyway.


June 21, 1982 -
Using an innovative Jodie Foster defense, John Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity, on this date, for the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.



Nobody was impressed by this verdict.


June 21, 1989 -
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Texas v. Johnson that flag burning is indeed protected speech under the Constitution, prompting Congress to put forth an endless series of amendments to ban the activity.





And so it goes.