According to British law, any unclaimed swan swimming in the open waters of England and Wales belongs to the Queen. The law originated in medieval times when swans were a delicacy for the wealthy, but it still stands today. Queen Elizabeth II also upholds a centuries-old tradition with the swans: Every year during the third week of July, all the swans in the River Thames are counted for the Queen, by The Queen's Swan Marker and his crew, in a practice called "Swan Upping."
June 2, 1957 -
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was interviewed on US television for the very first time when CBS's Face the Nation aired on this date.
With Cold War tensions running high, some government officials accused CBS of putting out Communist propaganda. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, love god of Carol Burnett, refused to watch the interview.
June 2, 1973 -
Paul McCartney and Wings' song My Love, from the album Red Rose Freeway, hit No. 1 on the US singles chart on this date.
This was recorded live with an orchestra. McCartney allowed guitarist Henry McCullough to improvise his solo in the final take.
June 2, 1981 -
Barbara Walters famously asks Katharine Hepburn “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?”, on this date.
After the interview, Walters' "tree" question was remembered, but the context in which it was asked was not. The so-called "If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?" question quickly became the equivalent of a television urban legend, often spoofed or (wrongly) cited as one of Walters' most outlandish interview questions. Over the years, even interview subjects ranging from Johnny Carson and Glenn Beck to Sandra Bullock brought up the infamous "tree" question during sit-downs with Walters.
June 2, 1983 -
The 12-inch remix of The Safety Dance by Men Without Hats goes to #1 on the Billboard Dance chart. MTV begins playing the huzzah-worthy video, and the song soon rose up the Hot 100.
Though music fans have often interpreted the song as a metaphor for nuclear war or a call for safe sex, Men Without Hats guitarist Stefan Doroschuk said in an online interview that The Safety Dance is about nonconformism and everyone's ability to leave their friends behind and strike out on their own.
June 2, 1984 -
Wham! had their first UK No.1 with Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, on this date.
Written and produced by George Michael, one half of the duo. Inspiration for the song was a scribbled note left by his Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley for Andrew's parents, originally intended to read "wake me up before you go" but with "up" accidentally written twice, so Ridgeley wrote "go" twice on purpose.
June 2, 1987 -
The Paramount Picture Brian De Palma film, The Untouchables starring Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Robert DeNiro premiered in NYC on this date.
An envelope is dropped on the desk of Eliot Ness in one scene. It is assumed to be a bribe, but the amount inside is never revealed. In real life, Al Capone promised Eliot Ness that two $1,000 bills would be on his desk every Monday morning if he turned a blind eye to his bootlegging activities (an enormous amount of money then; more than $30,000 today). Ness refused the bribe, and in later years struggled with money. He died almost broke at the age of fifty-four.
June 2, 1989 -
Peter Weir's take on the classic film Goodbye Mr. Chips, Dead Poets Society, written by Tom Schulman, and starring Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, and Ethan Hawke opened in limited release on this date.
What attracted Robin Williams to the role of John Keating more than anything else was that John Keating was the type of teacher he, in his school days, always wished he had.
Today's moment of Zen
Today in History:
June 2, 1740 -
The Marquis de Sade was born on this date and his sexual proclivities made his name a noun.
His sexual proclivities themselves have been preserved in a mason jar at the Louvre.
June 2, 1793 -
Jean Paul Marat recites names of 29 people to the French Assembly, virtually all of whom will be guillotined. The Rain of Terror officially began in France.
June 2, 1886 -
President (Steven) Grover Cleveland, 49 and weighing over 300 lbs. (think William Barr with a walrus mustache) married Frances Folsom (his legal ward) in a White House ceremony on this date. Ms.Folsom, was the 22-year-old daughter of Cleveland's late law partner and friend, Oscar Folsom.
The intimate wedding ceremony took place in the White House Blue Room with fewer than 40 people present (those who could get over the entire ick factor.) To date, Cleveland is the only president to marry in the Executive Mansion while in office.
Here's a great bar bet: One of Cleveland's first political post was when he was elected Sheriff of Erie County in New York State in 1870. While in office, he presided over the hanging of two convicted murderers. So when he was elected President in 1884 (and in 1892), he was the only President to have personally executed anyone.
June 2, 1896 -
The first radio patent was issued to Guglielmo Marconi in England for his wireless telegraphy apparatus, described as “Improvements in Transmitting Electrical Impulses and Signals, and in Apparatus Therefor.” (UK No. 12,039)
I wonder what will become of that new fangled thing?
June 2, 1897 -
Mark Twain, at age 61, was quoted by the New York Journal on this date, as saying "the report of my death was an exaggeration."
That always puts a crimp in your day
June 2, 1910 -
Charles Stewart Rolls, one of the founders of Rolls-Royce, became the first man to fly an airplane nonstop across the English Channel both ways, on this date.
June 2, 1924 -
President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act (also known as the Snyder Act, after the bill's sponsor, Representative Homer P. Snyder, of New York,) granting full citizenship to all indigenous people born in the U.S. on this date.
June 2, 1941 -
Baseball great, Lou Gehrig, died at 37 at his home in the Bronx on this date.
You would have thought someone might have mentioned to him that he had Lou Gehrig's disease earlier in his career.
June 2, 1953 -
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor-Mountbatten officially becomes the head of her family's business and had her coronation on this date.
The entire ceremony was, save for the anointing and communion, televised throughout the Commonwealth, and was watched by an estimated 20 million people, with 12 million more listening on the radio.
The Queen's reign is longer than those of her four immediate predecessors combined (Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII and George VI). She is the longest reigning British or English monarch, the second-longest-serving current monarch of a sovereign state (after King Bhumibol of Thailand, who reigned for 70 years, 126 days) and the oldest reigning British monarch.
Here are the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom who served QEII
Sir Winston Churchill * 1952 – 1955
Sir Anthony Eden 1955 – 1957
Harold Macmillan 1957 – 1963
Sir Alec Douglas-Home 1963 – 1964
Harold Wilson 1964 – 1970
Edward Heath 1970 – 1974
Harold Wilson 1974 – 1976
James Callaghan 1976 – 1979
Margaret Thatcher 1979 – 1990
John Major 1990 – 1997
Tony Blair ** 1997 - 2007
Gordon Brown 2007 - 2010
David Cameron *** 2010 - 2016
Theresa May 2016 - 2019
Boris Johnson 2019 - present
* Incredibly Churchill had the distinction of being the only MP to be elected under both Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II.
** Tony Blair was the first Prime Minister to have been born during the Queen's reign. He was born in early May, 1953 - a month before the Coronation.
*** David Cameron was born in 1966; Prince Andrew, the Queen's third child was already 6 years old at the time.
And boy, while Charles is chomping at the bit, I bet Kate is starting to measure the curtains.
June 2, 1966 -
NASA had it's first successful moon landing with the Space Surveyor 1's soft landing, on this date.
The Soviet Union was the first when the Russian probe Luna 9 had a successful soft landing on the moon on February 3rd earlier in 1966 .
And so it goes.
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