175 Fun Facts About June

'Thirty days hath September, April, June and' which month?

November. Each of them was a 29-day month in the old Roman calendar and gained its thirtieth day in the calendar reform of 46 BC.

Juno, the goddess June is usually said to be named after, was identified with which Greek goddess?

Hera. The Romans matched their queen of the gods with the wife of Zeus; Rome's mint later stood in the temple of Juno Moneta, a title that gave English the words 'mint' and 'money'.

In the original Roman calendar, June was which month of the year?

In the ten-month calendar credited to Romulus the year began with March, making June the fourth month; January and February were added later, traditionally by Numa Pompilius.

A year after the Great Fire of Rome, the Senate renamed June 'Germanicus' to flatter which emperor?

Nero. Germanicus was one of his own names, and the senator behind the motion argued that 'Junius' had become ill-omened after two men of that family were executed; the two months before it were renamed for the emperor too.

Which emperor, who fought as a gladiator, renamed every month after himself, June becoming 'Aelius'?

Commodus. He gave all twelve months his own names and titles and restyled Rome itself as the 'Colony of Commodus'; the old names came back after he was strangled on the last day of AD 192.

Whose calendar reform of 46 BC gave June an extra day?

Julius Caesar. His reform added ten days to the old 355-day year, one of them to June, and he stretched 46 BC itself to 445 days to pull the calendar back in step with the seasons.

Ovid was told to delay his daughter's June wedding until the sweepings from Vesta's temple had gone down which river?

The Tiber. The wife of Jupiter's priest told the poet that early June was unlucky for brides, and that he should wait until the refuse swept from Vesta's shrine had floated down to the sea.

Storms of the Atlantic season that officially opens every 1 June are known by which name?

Hurricanes. The same storms are called typhoons in the north-west Pacific; the six-month season was drawn to start on 1 June because that window takes in about 97% of Atlantic tropical storm activity.

June's full moon is most commonly known by which name?

Strawberry. Algonquian peoples of north-eastern North America used the name for the weeks when strawberries ripened for picking; Europeans called the same moon the rose moon or the mead moon.

The June birthstone alexandrite is prized for which unusual trick?

Changing colour. Alexandrite looks green in daylight and raspberry-coloured by lamplight, because bluish and yellowish light each bring out a different one of its two colours; dealers call it 'emerald by day, ruby by night'.

The rose and which climbing plant are the birth flowers of June?

Honeysuckle. It shares June's birth-flower honours with the rose, and its name means just what it says: 'honey-suck', after the sweet nectar that can be sucked from the flowers.

Someone born on 25 June has which zodiac sign?

Cancer. The Sun enters the sign at the June solstice, the day it stands directly over the line of latitude that carries the same name, the Tropic of Cancer; Gemini covers the month before.

In the United States and Britain, Father's Day falls on which day of June?

Father's Day is the third Sunday of June in the United States, Britain, Canada and many other countries; Richard Nixon made it a permanent US national observance in 1972.

In the United States, June is observed as which month-long celebration?

Pride. The month marks the Stonewall riots of June 1969, and the first Pride marches were held a year later, on the uprising's first anniversary.

The Stonewall riots began in the early hours of 28 June 1969 in which New York neighbourhood?

The Stonewall Inn stands on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village; patrons of the Mafia-owned bar fought back against a police raid in the early hours of 28 June 1969.

In Catholicism, June is dedicated to which devotion?

The Sacred Heart of Jesus. Its feast falls 19 days after Pentecost, on a Friday that usually lands in June, and the devotion spread after the French nun Margaret Mary Alacoque reported visions of Christ's heart in the 1670s.

Brazil's Festas Juninas are celebrated most intensely in which region of the country?

Northeast. In its semi-arid backlands the June parties double as thanks for the rainy season, and Campina Grande and Caruaru draw the biggest crowds with forró, bonfires and mock country weddings.

Juneteenth marks General Gordon Granger enforcing emancipation in 1865 in which state?

Texas. Granger's order of 19 June 1865 told Texans that all enslaved people were free, the final enforcement of an Emancipation Proclamation that Lincoln had issued two and a half years earlier.

D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion in history, took place on which day of June 1944?

6th. Eisenhower had picked the 5th, but Channel storms forced a 24-hour delay; waiting any longer would have cost at least two weeks, because the tides and moon suited only a few days each month.

Overlord's naval assault phase on D-Day was codenamed what?

Operation Neptune. Days before the landings the word turned up as a Daily Telegraph crossword answer, after Utah, Omaha and Overlord, and MI5 went to question the schoolmaster who set the puzzles.

The resolution of 14 June 1777 marked by Flag Day said the flag's 13 stars represented 'a new' what?

Constellation. The one-sentence resolution never said how the stars should be laid out, so early flag makers set them in rows, in a circle or even as one big star.

Magna Carta was sealed by King John on 15 June 1215 at which spot beside the Thames?

Runnymede, a water-meadow on the Thames near Windsor, was neutral ground between the royal castle and the barons' camp at Staines; the charter is dated 15 June 1215.

The Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon's final defeat, was fought on 18 June 1815 in what is now which country?

Belgium did not exist yet: Waterloo, south of Brussels, then lay in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and it was there that Wellington's troops and Blücher's Prussians beat Napoleon on 18 June 1815.

On 17 June 1972, burglars tied to Nixon's campaign were caught inside which organisation's headquarters?

The five burglars were caught in the Democratic National Committee's offices in the Watergate complex; the cover-up that followed forced Nixon's resignation in August 1974.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 by which student?

Gavrilo Princip. A grenade thrown by a fellow plotter had bounced off the Archduke's car that morning; Princip got his chance when the driver, unsure of a changed route, turned into the street where he was standing.

In which room of the palace was the Treaty of Versailles signed on 28 June 1919?

The Hall of Mirrors was chosen because the German Empire had been proclaimed there in January 1871; the signing fell on the fifth anniversary of the Sarajevo assassination.

Which battle of 4-7 June 1942 cost Japan four aircraft carriers in the Pacific?

Midway. American codebreakers had read Japan's plans, so US carriers were waiting in ambush; Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū all went down, for the loss of the Yorktown.

Custer's Last Stand, on 25-26 June 1876, was fought along which river?

The Little Bighorn. Custer split the 7th Cavalry into three before attacking a Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho camp, and every man of the five companies that rode with him was killed; the Lakota call it the Greasy Grass.

Which war began on 25 June 1950 with a surprise invasion across a partition line?

The Korean War. North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel that day; the armistice of July 1953 stopped the fighting, but it was never followed by a peace treaty.

The first iPhone went on sale on 29 June 2007 tied exclusively to which American phone network?

AT&T. Apple had signed the exclusive deal with Cingular, which took the AT&T name before launch day, and American buyers had no other choice of network until Verizon's iPhone arrived in February 2011.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was first published in Britain on 26 June 1997 by which house?

Bloomsbury. Rival publishers had turned the manuscript down; chairman Nigel Newton bought it for a £2,500 advance after his eight-year-old daughter read the opening chapter and nagged him for more.

Bloomsday, 16 June, celebrates the day in 1904 on which the events of which novel take place?

Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom through Dublin on 16 June 1904; Joyce chose the date because it was the day of his first outing with Nora Barnacle, his future wife.

In June 1983, which astronaut became the first American woman in space aboard the shuttle Challenger?

Sally Ride. On that flight she worked the shuttle's robotic arm, which she had helped to develop, to release a free-flying satellite and pluck it back out of orbit.

On 17 June 1885, the French steamer Isère arrived in New York carrying what in crates?

The disassembled Statue of Liberty. The crates then sat waiting because money for the pedestal had run out; a newspaper appeal by the publisher Pulitzer raised the rest, and the statue went up on Bedloe's Island in 1886.

On the night of 11 June 1962, Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers escaped from which prison?

Alcatraz. The three widened the vents in their cells, left dummy heads topped with real hair in their beds and paddled into San Francisco Bay on a raft made of raincoats; they were never found.

Loving Day, 12 June, marks the 1967 Supreme Court ruling that struck down state bans on what?

Interracial marriage. Police arrested Richard and Mildred Loving in their own bedroom in 1958, and a Virginia judge ordered the couple out of the state for 25 years; the nine justices ruled for them unanimously.

Action Comics #1, cover-dated June 1938, introduced which superhero?

Superman. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had sold every right to the character for $130 that spring, a deal they came to regret, and the comic that launched him cost a dime.

Helen Keller, born 27 June 1880, became the first deafblind person to earn a degree at which Harvard-affiliated college?

Radcliffe. Keller graduated with honours in 1904 with Anne Sullivan at her side, the teacher who had first reached her by spelling words into her palm and who went with her to college.

Which actress was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on 1 June 1926?

Marilyn Monroe. She was working in a wartime aircraft factory when a military photographer picked her out, the start of the modelling career that won her a film contract in 1946.

Which Beatle, the voice of 'Yesterday', was born on 18 June 1942?

Paul McCartney. His mother Mary, a midwife, died when he was 14, and he has said that a dream about her years later gave him 'Let It Be'.

Which mathematician and codebreaker was born on 23 June 1912?

Alan Turing was born in Maida Vale, London, on 23 June 1912; at Bletchley Park he designed the bombe machines that broke German Enigma traffic.

Which English king, who broke with Rome to begin the English Reformation, was born on 28 June 1491?

Henry VIII. As a second son he was never meant to rule; the crown, and a wife in Catherine of Aragon, came to him only because his elder brother Arthur died young.

Which pop star died on 25 June 2009?

Michael Jackson. He died weeks before a run of 50 comeback concerts in London, and so many people searched for the news that Google briefly took the surge for an automated attack.

Which novelist, author of Great Expectations, died on 9 June 1870?

Charles Dickens. He died at Gad's Hill Place with The Mystery of Edwin Drood unfinished, so its ending is anyone's guess; expected to lie quietly at Rochester, he was buried in Westminster Abbey by public demand.

News of which feat reached Britain just in time for Elizabeth II's coronation on 2 June 1953?

The first ascent of Everest. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit on 29 May, and the news, sent by runner and radio, broke in London four days later, on coronation morning.

In which country was South America's lowest temperature, -32.8°C, recorded on 1 June 1907?

Argentina. The reading came from Sarmiento, a steppe town in Chubut Province that Boer families from South Africa had begun settling only a few years before, after losing the Boer War.

Which tennis tournament, the world's oldest, traditionally spans late June and early July?

Wimbledon. The All England club staged its first championship in 1877 to pay for repairs to the pony roller that kept its lawns in shape; 22 men entered.

Which calendar quirk is true of June in every single year?

Its first weekday is unique that year. Because of the way the month lengths add up, no other month ever begins on the weekday that June does; its last day is less special, always matching the weekday on which March ends.

North of the Arctic Circle, the June solstice brings which phenomenon?

The midnight sun. Earth's tilt leans the far north toward the Sun in June, so on the Arctic Circle it stays up for a full day at the solstice, while at the North Pole it does not set for about six months.

Which engineer, who invented the turbojet engine, was born on 1 June 1907?

Frank Whittle. The Air Ministry dismissed the young RAF officer's jet as impractical, so he patented it himself in 1930; eleven years passed before his engine finally flew, in the Gloster E.28/39.

The Old English name for June, 'Litha', was recorded in 725 by which monk known as 'the Venerable'?

Bede. In The Reckoning of Time the Northumbrian monk listed the old English months, giving 'Litha' for both June and July; Tolkien later revived the word as the hobbits' midsummer 'Lithe'.

Romans put weddings off until June partly for fear of May's Lemuria, rites to drive out what?

Ghosts. In the dead of night the head of the house walked barefoot, casting black beans behind him for the spirits to gather; Linnaeus later named the lemur after these lemures.

Sweden's Midsummer Eve, always a Friday between 19 and 25 June, is feasted with new potatoes and which dish?

Pickled herring. Several kinds are served with dill, soured cream and chives, and ring-dances circle a maypole that has been clad in leaves and flowers.

The greatest 48-hour rainfall on record, nearly 2.5 metres in June 1995, fell on which Indian town?

Cherrapunji, in Meghalaya, took 2,493 mm on 15-16 June 1995; long billed as the wettest place on Earth, it has since lost that title on yearly averages to nearby Mawsynram.

Which computer scientist, born on 8 June 1955, invented the World Wide Web?

Tim Berners-Lee. His 1989 proposal at CERN came back from his boss marked 'Vague but exciting'; he built the web anyway, and in 1993 CERN agreed to give the technology away royalty-free.

Which Argentine footballer was born on 24 June 1987?

Lionel Messi. Diagnosed with a growth hormone disorder as a boy, he left Rosario at 13 because Barcelona had agreed to pay for the treatment he needed.

Which beret-wearing icon of the Cuban Revolution has 14 June 1928 on his birth certificate?

Che Guevara. Born in Rosario, he qualified as a doctor in 1953, but the poverty he saw on a long journey across Latin America, part of it by motorcycle, had already turned him toward revolution.

Which Russian composer of The Firebird was born on 17 June 1882?

Igor Stravinsky was born at Oranienbaum near St Petersburg; three years after The Firebird, the first night of his Rite of Spring in Paris broke into audience uproar and passed into legend as a riot.

Which national hero of the Philippines was born on 19 June 1861?

José Rizal, born in Calamba on 19 June 1861, wrote the novels Noli Me Tángere and El Filibusterismo that helped inspire the Philippine Revolution; he was executed in December 1896.

Which US president, the seventh, died on 8 June 1845?

Andrew Jackson. He died at the Hermitage, his Tennessee plantation, a decade after a gunman's two pistols both misfired at close range and the president set about him with his cane.

Which Macedonian king died in Babylon in June 323 BC?

Alexander the Great died at 32 in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, and his generals spent the next decades fighting over the empire he left.

Which English physician who first described the circulation of blood died on 3 June 1657?

William Harvey set out the circulation of the blood in De Motu Cordis in 1628; as physician to Charles I he followed the king to war and was present at the Battle of Edgehill in 1642.

Which Holy Roman Emperor drowned in a river on 10 June 1190 during the Third Crusade?

Frederick Barbarossa drowned crossing the Saleph river in Anatolia; his death broke German morale, and only a small remnant of his host carried on to the Holy Land.

Which Canadian hockey legend, nicknamed 'Mr Hockey', died on 10 June 2016?

Gordie Howe retired in 1971 but came back two years later, at 45, to play alongside his sons Mark and Marty for the Houston Aeros; he finally left the NHL in 1980, aged 52.

Which monarch died in exile at Doorn in the Netherlands on 4 June 1941?

Wilhelm II fled to the Netherlands as Germany collapsed in November 1918; Queen Wilhelmina's government refused Allied demands to hand him over for trial, and he lived out his life at Huis Doorn.

Which drink has had its own World Day on 1 June since the UN's food agency created it in 2001?

Milk got its World Day when the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization picked 1 June because many countries already held their national milk days around that time of year.

Which leisurely activity has a world day on 19 June, created as an answer to the 1970s jogging fad?

Sauntering got its day from W.T. 'Bill' Rabe, a publicist at the Grand Hotel on Michigan's Mackinac Island, who wanted people to slow down and enjoy the world around them rather than rush through it.

Which festival, launched in France in 1982, is held on the streets every 21 June?

The Fête de la Musique grew from a survey showing five million French people played an instrument; culture minister Jack Lang and Maurice Fleuret invited them all to play outdoors, and the idea has since spread worldwide.

The feast of the Nativity of which saint falls on 24 June?

John the Baptist has a birthday feast in midsummer because Luke's Gospel makes him about six months older than Jesus, so his nativity sits six months before Christmas; bonfires mark the eve across Europe.

Which pair of apostles share a feast on 29 June?

Peter and Paul share the day as patrons of Rome, where both are held to have been martyred; at the feast-day Mass the pope gives each newly appointed metropolitan archbishop a pallium, a woollen band for the shoulders.

Which quadrennial tournament, first held in Uruguay in 1930, usually kicks off in June?

The FIFA World Cup has mostly kicked off in June, but the 2022 edition in Qatar was moved to November and December because the Gulf's summer heat was judged too dangerous for players.

Glastonbury Festival is held at Worthy Farm, which for the rest of the year is what kind of farm?

A dairy farm: Michael Eavis's cows graze the Somerset site when the stages come down, and the festival sits out a 'fallow year' every so often so the land can recover.

The first Glastonbury festival, in September 1970, opened the day after which rock star died?

Jimi Hendrix died in London on 18 September 1970; the next day about 1,500 people paid £1 each at Worthy Farm, where Michael Eavis had been inspired to try his own event by that summer's Bath blues festival.

Juneteenth was the first new federal holiday since which one was adopted in 1983?

Martin Luther King Jr. Day reached Ronald Reagan's desk in 1983 after Stevie Wonder's hit 'Happy Birthday' and a petition of six million signatures built pressure on Congress; no federal holiday was added again until Juneteenth.

Which activist known as the 'grandmother of Juneteenth' campaigned for the federal holiday?

Opal Lee, a retired Fort Worth teacher, began leading 2.5-mile walks in cities across the country in 2016, aged 89, to mark the two and a half years the news of freedom took to arrive; she was 94 when the holiday became law.

Early Juneteenth pilgrimages went to which port city where emancipation was announced?

Galveston is where Union general Gordon Granger issued his order on 19 June 1865; it declared all slaves free, yet in the same breath advised them to stay at their present homes and work for wages.

Which president signed the law that made Juneteenth a federal holiday?

Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act on Thursday 17 June 2021; because the 19th fell on a Saturday, federal workers got their first Juneteenth day off the very next morning.

Before the word Juneteenth caught on in the 1890s, the 19 June celebration was commonly known as what?

Jubilee Day was the name for the first anniversary gatherings in 1866, which doubled as political rallies teaching freed people about their voting rights; 'Juneteenth' simply runs June and nineteenth together.

Traditional Juneteenth food and drink share what colour?

Red is the Juneteenth colour, from red velvet cake to watermelon and red drinks; it echoes much older hibiscus and kola-nut drinks, and is said to stand for resilience and for the blood shed in slavery.

Who founded Father's Day in Washington state in 1910?

Sonora Smart Dodd, one of six children raised by a widowed Civil War veteran, lobbied Spokane's churches, YMCA and shopkeepers for an equivalent of Mother's Day; the first Father's Day followed on 19 June 1910.

Grace Golden Clayton held a 1908 fathers' service in West Virginia to honour men killed in what?

A mining accident at Monongah killed more than 360 men in December 1907; Clayton's memorial service the following July was never repeated, so the idea had to be born again in Spokane two years later.

In Catholic Europe, Father's Day has traditionally fallen on 19 March, whose feast day?

Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus, has his feast on 19 March, so Catholic Europe honours fathers then, and Spanish and Portuguese settlers carried the custom to Latin America.

Vatertag, Germany's Father's Day, is celebrated on which Christian feast?

Ascension Day, a public holiday that always falls on a Thursday, is when German men mark Vatertag with a boozy outing, traditionally hauling a handcart of beer through the countryside rather than spending the day with the family.

Which president issued the 1916 proclamation designating 14 June as Flag Day?

Woodrow Wilson's 1916 proclamation asked Americans to mark 14 June as Flag Day, but Congress took until 1949 to approve the national observance, and it has never been made a federal holiday.

Which state, home of Betsy Ross, became the first to make Flag Day a state holiday, in 1937?

Pennsylvania made 14 June a legal state holiday in 1937, long after Wisconsin teacher Bernard Cigrand began pressing for a national Flag Day, which Congress has never turned into a federal holiday.

Which branch of the US military celebrates its birthday on 14 June, the same date as Flag Day?

The Army dates its birth to 14 June 1775, when the Continental Congress voted to raise ten companies of riflemen, more than a year before there was a United States for them to serve.

Finland's pre-Christian midsummer festival, now called Juhannus, was originally held in honour of which god?

Ukko, the Finnish god of weather and thunder, was honoured at midsummer in the hope of rain and good crops; the Church later tied the date to a saint's feast, which gave the festival its modern name.

Which president issued the first proclamation of a month honouring gay and lesbian Americans?

Bill Clinton issued the first such proclamation in 1999, thirty years after the Stonewall uprising; George W. Bush issued none, and Barack Obama revived the tradition, adding bisexual and transgender Americans.

World Environment Day on 5 June was born out of a 1972 UN conference in which city?

The UN General Assembly created World Environment Day in 1972 after the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, which opened on 5 June that year; Nairobi-based UNEP runs it.

The Belmont Stakes is nicknamed 'The Test of the Champion' and 'The Run for the' what?

Carnations cover the winner: the track's florist glues about 700 white ones onto a velvet blanket on race day, the Belmont's answer to the Kentucky Derby's roses.

Which horse won the 1973 Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths to complete the Triple Crown?

Secretariat ran the mile and a half in 2:24 and ended a 25-year wait for a Triple Crown; thousands of winning tickets were never cashed, because bettors kept them as souvenirs.

Le Mans forms motorsport's unofficial Triple Crown with the Indianapolis 500 and which other race?

The Monaco Grand Prix completes the trio; Le Mans, first run in 1923 and now a June fixture, was designed to reward cars that could last for 24 hours rather than the outright fastest machine.

Le Mans is held on which track, partly made up of closed public roads?

The Circuit de la Sarthe joins a permanent section to public roads closed for the race; two chicanes were added to its long Mulsanne straight for 1990 to rein in the top speeds cars were reaching.

Whose car crashed into the crowd in the 1955 Le Mans disaster, killing more than 80?

Pierre Levegh's Mercedes was launched off Lance Macklin's Austin-Healey into the crowd, killing him and more than 80 spectators; Mercedes withdrew its cars that night, and Switzerland banned circuit racing for decades.

Between 2000 and 2013, Tom Kristensen took seven of his record nine Le Mans wins with which German carmaker?

Audi gave Tom Kristensen seven of his nine wins, but the first came in a Porsche on his Le Mans debut in 1997, after a call-up only days before the race.

The first US Open golf championship, in 1895, was played at Newport in which state?

Rhode Island's Newport Golf Club staged the first US Open on 4 October 1895: just eleven players went round and round its nine holes in a single day, and Horace Rawlins won by two strokes.

Trooping the Colour takes place at which London venue?

Horse Guards Parade hosts the ceremony, which has marked the sovereign's official birthday since 1748; it is held in June whatever the monarch's real birth date, a slot chosen in the hope of good weather.

Which monarch founded Ascot racecourse in 1711?

Queen Anne founded Ascot in 1711 after judging the heath ideal for racing while riding out from Windsor; Royal Ascot is held each June and opens with the Queen Anne Stakes.

The Dragon Boat Festival commemorates which poet and minister of the state of Chu?

Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo River in 278 BC after his state's capital fell to Qin; in legend, villagers raced out in boats to save him and threw rice into the water, which is how the festival got its races.

What are the sticky rice dumplings eaten at the Dragon Boat Festival called?

Zongzi are sticky rice parcels wrapped in bamboo leaves; in legend they began as rice thrown into a river so that the fish would leave a drowned poet's body alone.

Which Japanese entrepreneur pioneered large-scale cultured pearl farming?

Kokichi Mikimoto, an udon-shop owner's son, grew his first cultured half-pearls in 1893 after years of failures and near bankruptcy; round ones took far longer, and the business only took off in the 1920s.

The June birthstone alexandrite was named in honour of which future Russian emperor?

Alexander II was the young heir to the throne when the gem turned up in the Ural Mountains in the 1830s; its shift between green and red matched imperial Russia's military colours, which made it a national favourite.

What is the shimmering optical effect that gives moonstone its name?

Adularescence, named after the adularia feldspar of the Swiss Alps, is the billowy blue-white glow produced by light scattering between thin layers inside moonstone.

Which US state made moonstone its official gem in 1970 to honour the Moon landings?

Florida adopted moonstone as its state gem in 1970 to honour the Apollo missions launched from Kennedy Space Center, although the stone is found neither in the state nor on the Moon.

Gemini, the sign for most June birthdays, is represented by which mythological twins?

Castor and Pollux were inseparable: when the mortal Castor was killed, Pollux would not accept immortality unless he could share it with his twin, and in myth Zeus set the pair among the stars as Gemini.

Italy's Republic Day on 2 June commemorates a 1946 referendum on what?

The form of government was the question: about 54 per cent chose a republic over the monarchy, and Umberto II, king for barely a month, left for exile in Portugal.

Russia Day on 12 June marks which event of 1990?

A declaration of state sovereignty, passed by the Russian republic's parliament on 12 June 1990, put its laws above those of the Soviet Union, a first step towards the full independence that followed in 1991.

The Philippines celebrates Independence Day on 12 June, marking its 1898 declaration of independence from which colonial power?

Spain was the colonial ruler in 1898; the United States recognised Philippine independence only on 4 July 1946, and that was the country's Independence Day until the holiday was moved to 12 June in 1962.

Sweden's National Day on 6 June honours the 1523 election of which king?

Gustav Vasa's election on 6 June 1523 took Sweden out of the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Norway; the date was only Swedish Flag Day until 1983, and became a public holiday in 2005.

Denmark's Constitution Day on 5 June marks the 1849 charter that brought an end to what?

Absolute monarchy ended when Frederick VII signed Denmark's first democratic constitution on 5 June 1849; the day is still kept with open-air political speeches rather than parades.

Canada's National Indigenous Peoples Day, held each June, honours First Nations, Métis and which other people?

Inuit, First Nations and Métis are the three peoples honoured; the day was proclaimed in 1996 and set on the summer solstice, long a time of celebration for many Indigenous communities.

Which leader proposed the International Day of Yoga in a 2014 UN address?

Narendra Modi proposed the day in his UN General Assembly speech in September 2014, suggesting its date because that is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere; the UN adopted it that December.

Most fighting in the 17 June 1775 battle of the Siege of Boston took place on which height?

The Battle of Bunker Hill was actually fought mostly on Breed's Hill, where the colonists had dug in overnight; 'don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes' is its apocryphal order.

'Tank Man', the lone protester who halted a column of tanks on 5 June 1989, stood near which square?

Tiananmen Square had been cleared by force the day before; the man, never identified, stepped in front of the lead tank on Chang'an Avenue with his shopping bags and then climbed onto it.

Which feast, usually falling in June, did Juliana of Liège spend decades campaigning for after a vision?

Corpus Christi began with Juliana of Liège, who pressed for a feast of the Eucharist until her bishop ordered one in 1246; a former archdeacon of Liège later became Pope Urban IV and extended it to the whole Church in 1264.

Which Parliamentarian force crushed the Royalists at Naseby on 14 June 1645?

The New Model Army had been formed only that spring and its infantry was still partly untrained, yet under Fairfax and Cromwell it destroyed Charles I's veterans at Naseby and decided the First English Civil War.

Which English king lost to Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn on 23-24 June 1314?

Edward II marched north to relieve Stirling Castle, whose English governor had promised to surrender unless help reached him by midsummer; Robert the Bruce routed the relief force at Bannockburn, just short of the castle.

In the Six-Day War of June 1967, Israel captured the West Bank from which country?

Jordan had ruled the West Bank since 1948, and King Hussein signed a defence pact with Egypt a week before the war; that drew his troops into the fighting and cost him the territory, East Jerusalem included.

Which city burned on 6 June 1889 and rebuilt on raised streets, leaving an 'Underground' beneath them?

Seattle's fire began when a pot of glue boiled over in a woodworking shop and spread across 25 blocks of timber buildings; the city rebuilt in brick on streets raised above the old ground floors.

World Refugee Day on 20 June took its date from a refugee day already kept on which continent?

Africa Refugee Day was already marked on 20 June, so the UN took over the date for the whole world from 2001, the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Inti Raymi, the Inca sun festival, is re-enacted each 24 June at a fortress above which Peruvian city?

Cusco was the Inca capital, where the festival greeted the returning sun at the Southern Hemisphere's shortest day; Spanish priests banned it, and it came back only in 1944, as open-air theatre.

The last Inti Raymi attended by an Inca emperor came in 1535, three years after which conquistador seized Atahualpa?

Francisco Pizarro captured Atahualpa at Cajamarca in 1532 and later had Manco Inca recognised as ruler; Manco presided over the 1535 festival, then turned on the Spanish and led a revolt the following year.

Austria's Wachau valley marks the Midsummer solstice with bonfires and fireworks watched from ships on which river?

The Danube runs through the Wachau's vineyards, which glow with fires and torches while boats cruise below; Enlightenment-era authorities banned the solstice fires, but the custom outlived the bans.

Kupala Night, the Slavic solstice festival of bonfires and river rituals, takes its name from a Proto-Slavic word meaning what?

To bathe is the root meaning; bathing in rivers, jumping over bonfires and floating flower wreaths for divination are all part of the night's rituals.

The Tony Awards, now a June fixture, were first presented in 1947 at which New York hotel?

The Waldorf Astoria's Grand Ballroom hosted the first Tonys on Easter Sunday 1947; winners went home with scrolls, cigarette lighters and jewellery, because the famous medallion did not appear until 1949.

Which Disney character officially celebrates his birthday on 9 June, marking his 1934 debut in The Wise Little Hen?

Donald Duck debuts as a shirker who fakes a belly ache to avoid helping the hen plant her corn. A historian later found the cartoon was first shown that May, but Disney kept the June date.

June bugs, the brown insects that swarm porch lights on early summer nights, belong to which group?

Beetles of the genus Phyllophaga also go by May beetles and July beetles. Their eggs hatch into white grubs that grow to around 40 mm long.

Which sweet treat, served to American soldiers in First World War France, has a national day on June's first Friday?

Doughnuts were the idea of two volunteers, Margaret Sheldon and Helen Purviance, who could not bake fresh goods in huts near the front line. A Chicago fundraiser in 1938 turned the memory into an annual day.

June Carter, of country music's Carter Family, accepted an on-stage proposal in Ontario in 1968 from which singer?

Johnny Cash proposed during a live show in London, Ontario, and the pair married that March in Kentucky. They stayed together until her death in 2003, and he died only four months later.

Which prehistoric English monument, built partly of Welsh stones, is aligned towards sunrise on the June solstice?

Stonehenge stands on Salisbury Plain, and the axis that catches the June sunrise also points to sunset at the opposite solstice. Its bluestones are thought to have come 150 miles from the Preseli Hills.

June Cleaver, a housewife who wears a pearl necklace even while gardening, is the mother in which American sitcom?

Leave It to Beaver cast Barbara Billingsley as June from the 1957 pilot through a 1980s sequel series. She returned once more for a cameo as Aunt Martha in the 1997 film version.

Juno, the Roman goddess traditionally credited with June's name, was both wife and sister to which god?

Jupiter and Juno were both children of Saturn, which made the rulers of the gods siblings as well as spouses. A flock of geese was kept in her temple on Rome's Capitol.

Asteroid Day, held every 30 June, marks the anniversary of which 1908 blast that flattened Siberian forest?

The Tunguska event was a meteor air burst that levelled about 2,150 square kilometres of trees. Queen guitarist Brian May, an astrophysicist, was among the co-founders of the awareness day in 2014.

June Gloom is the nickname for cool, overcast early-summer mornings along which stretch of American coast?

Southern California gets the gloom when low cloud forms over the cool California Current and spreads ashore overnight. Locals have matching names for other months, including May Gray and Fogust.

The showtune June Is Bustin' Out All Over comes from which 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical?

Carousel transplanted the Hungarian play Liliom from Budapest to the coast of Maine. Richard Rodgers later wrote that it was his favourite of all his musicals.

June graduates across America walk in to Pomp and Circumstance, a march written by which English composer?

Edward Elgar borrowed the title from a line in Shakespeare's Othello. In Britain the same tune is a fixture of the Last Night of the Proms, where it is sung as Land of Hope and Glory.

June Lockhart, later the mother in Lost in Space, first played farm boy Timmy's mother in which series?

Lassie kept her busy as Ruth Martin from 1958 to 1964, more than a decade after she had acted in the film Son of Lassie. Both of her famous roles were television mothers.

In which television drama does Elisabeth Moss play June Osborne, a captive renamed Offred by her new masters?

The Handmaid's Tale won Moss an Emmy for best lead actress in a drama. Her character is seized while trying to escape to Canada with her husband and daughter.

Which American city's Rose Festival, first held in 1907, is crowned each June by the Grand Floral Parade?

Portland has been called the City of Roses for more than a century because its climate suits the flower. Its parade is the country's second-largest all-floral procession, behind Pasadena's Tournament of Roses.

Which Surrey racecourse stages the Derby, the classic flat race run on the first Saturday of June?

Epsom Downs first held the race in 1780, and legend says a coin toss between the Earl of Derby and Sir Charles Bunbury settled its name. Bunbury's colt Diomed won the first running anyway.

Which Russian city holds its White Nights Festival each summer, when June skies never darken beyond twilight?

St Petersburg lies far enough north that from late April to late August its nights stop at twilight. The festival fills them with ballet, opera and the Scarlet Sails fireworks celebration.

World Blood Donor Day marks the 14 June birthday of which Austrian-born scientist who identified the blood groups?

Karl Landsteiner distinguished the main blood groups in 1901 and collected a Nobel Prize in 1930. In between, he was part of the team that discovered the polio virus.

Which Midwestern city has been the June home of the College World Series, baseball's student championship, since 1950?

Omaha staged the tournament at Rosenblatt Stadium for six decades before a new ballpark took over in 2011. The series is so tied to Nebraska that its organising body carries the city's name.

India's summer monsoon normally reaches the mainland first, at the beginning of June, in which southwestern state?

Kerala takes the first downpours near its capital, Thiruvananthapuram, and the rains then need until about mid-July to cover the whole country.

The June Taylor Dancers, famous for overhead kaleidoscope shots, were regulars on which comedian's variety show?

Jackie Gleason met the choreographer in a Baltimore nightclub in 1946, when she helped him get over a bout of stage fright. Her dancers lay in a circle on the floor to make the patterns.

Which senator was shot in a kitchen hallway of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on 5 June 1968?

Robert Kennedy had just addressed campaign supporters in the hotel's Embassy Ballroom and left the podium through the kitchen. He died nearly 25 hours later, aged 42.

At which Berlin landmark did Ronald Reagan stand on 12 June 1987 to urge Mikhail Gorbachev to open the Wall?

Brandenburg Gate stood so close to the divide that Reagan spoke in front of two panes of bulletproof glass shielding him from the East. Several of his own aides had argued against the challenge.

Which Soviet cosmonaut, a former textile worker and amateur skydiver, became the first woman in space on 16 June 1963?

Valentina Tereshkova circled Earth 48 times in almost three days aboard Vostok 6, flying alone. Soviet television showed her live from the capsule as she talked by radio with Nikita Khrushchev.

Which London playhouse burned down on 29 June 1613 after a stage cannon set its thatched roof alight?

The Globe went up in flames in the middle of a performance, yet nobody was hurt. One surviving account says a man's burning breeches were put out with a bottle of ale.

Which brownshirt leader, an early ally of Hitler, was killed in the purge that began on 30 June 1934?

Ernst Röhm was arrested at a hotel in Bad Wiessee during the Night of the Long Knives and taken to a Munich prison. Offered the chance to take his own life, he refused and was shot.

As 30 June 1997 ticked over to midnight, Britain returned which territory to China after 156 years of rule?

Hong Kong had been in British hands since its main island was captured in 1841 during the First Opium War. Chris Patten, a career politician and not a diplomat, was the last governor.

Which future president was jailed for life on 12 June 1964 at the end of South Africa's Rivonia Trial?

Nelson Mandela escaped the death sentence that the prosecution had called for. He went on to serve 27 years in prison, at first on Robben Island.

The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed on 7 June 1494, divided newly found lands between Castile and which other kingdom?

Portugal took everything east of a line drawn 370 leagues west of Cape Verde. That share turned out to include the eastern edge of Brazil, where Pedro Álvares Cabral landed in 1500.

Bridget Bishop, the first person executed in the Salem witch trials, died on 10 June 1692 by what method?

Hanging killed all nineteen people executed after conviction at Salem. Giles Corey, who refused to enter a plea, was pressed to death under heavy stones.

Which channel went on air at the start of June 1980 as the first in America to broadcast news around the clock?

CNN was introduced on its first day by founder Ted Turner, and a husband-and-wife team, David Walker and Lois Hart, anchored the opening newscast.

Which 18-year-old princess became Britain's monarch on 20 June 1837 on the death of her uncle, William IV?

Victoria wrote in her diary that her mother woke her at six that morning, and she received the news alone in her dressing gown. Having turned 18 a month earlier, she needed no regent.

West Virginia joined the Union on 20 June 1863; which other state was also admitted during the Civil War?

Nevada followed in 1864, but West Virginia is the only state formed by separating from a Confederate one. Its western counties had refused to follow Virginia out of the Union in 1861.

Jaws, released on 20 June 1975, starred prop sharks nicknamed Bruce after which associate of Steven Spielberg?

His lawyer, Bruce Ramer, lent the name to three pneumatic sharks. They broke down so often that the director chose mostly to suggest the creature with an ominous musical theme.

The Great Seal of the United States, adopted on 20 June 1782, shows which bird gripping arrows and an olive branch?

A bald eagle holds 13 arrows in one talon and an olive branch in the other, the sign of a country that wants peace but stays ready for war.

Locked out of their chamber on 20 June 1789, deputies of France's Third Estate swore a famous oath in what venue?

A tennis court near the palace was proposed by the deputy Guillotin after soldiers barred the usual meeting room. All but one of the 577 members took the oath.

Which Massachusetts woman was acquitted on 20 June 1893 of murdering her father and stepmother with a hatchet?

Lizzie Borden walked free but was ostracised by Fall River society all the same. She stayed in the town anyway, in a new house she named Maplecroft.

An agreement signed on 20 June 1963 set up the Cold War hotline between Washington and which other capital?

Moscow and Washington were first linked by Teletype machines, later by fax. Despite its film image, the hotline was never a telephone line.

Which heavyweight boxing champion was convicted on 20 June 1967 of evading the Vietnam War draft?

Muhammad Ali was sentenced to five years and a $10,000 fine but stayed out of prison while he appealed. The Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 1971.

Which newspaper columnist hosted Toast of the Town, the CBS variety show that premiered on 20 June 1948?

Ed Sullivan fronted the show for 23 years, and viewers used his name for it long before CBS made that the official title in 1955. His Broadway studio was later renamed the Ed Sullivan Theater in his honour.

Which Australian actress, an Oscar winner for The Hours, was born in Honolulu on 20 June 1967?

Nicole Kidman arrived while her Australian parents were in the United States on student visas. Her birthplace earned her the Hawaiian name Hōkūlani, meaning heavenly star.

Captain James Cook's ship Endeavour ran aground on 11 June 1770 on which Australian natural wonder?

Great Barrier Reef coral held the ship fast until Cook had her guns thrown overboard to lighten her. The spot she struck, just before 11 pm, is known as Endeavour Reef.

Which member of the Committee of Five, named on 11 June 1776, drafted the Declaration of Independence?

Thomas Jefferson was handed the job once the committee had agreed a general outline. With Congress keeping a busy schedule, he had limited time to write over the following 17 days.

Which Alabama governor stood in a university doorway on 11 June 1963 to block two Black students from enrolling?

George Wallace moved only after the president federalized the state's National Guard and a general ordered him to step aside. Vivian Malone and James Hood then completed their registration.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, released on 11 June 1982, boosted sales of which candy after M&M's turned the film down?

Reese's Pieces got the part after Mars reportedly feared the alien would frighten children. In the film, a boy lays a trail of the sweets to lure the creature back to his house.

Which singing contest, adapted from a British format, premiered on Fox on 11 June 2002 and crowned Kelly Clarkson?

American Idol grew out of Britain's Pop Idol and stayed on Fox for 15 seasons, until 2016. It became one of the most successful shows in American television history.

Which French ocean explorer, co-inventor of the Aqua-Lung and captain of the Calypso, was born on 11 June 1910?

Jacques Cousteau used the breathing gear to shoot some of the first underwater documentaries. His research vessel was named after a sea nymph, who also appears on the logo of his society.

Which actor, the original screen Willy Wonka, was born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee on 11 June 1933?

Gene Wilder made his name in Mel Brooks comedies such as The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. He later teamed up with Richard Pryor in four films.

Which Western star, born Marion Morrison and an Oscar winner for True Grit, died on 11 June 1979?

John Wayne made his last public appearance at the Academy Awards ceremony just two months before his death. His Oscar came for playing a cantankerous one-eyed marshal.

King Kamehameha Day, a public holiday every 11 June, honours the monarch who first unified which island chain?

Hawaii was first brought under one crown by Kamehameha the Great. His grandson, Kamehameha V, proclaimed the holiday in 1871.

Which colt won the Belmont Stakes on 11 June 1919 to become the first winner of American racing's Triple Crown?

Sir Barton had never won a race before that year's Kentucky Derby, which he entered as a maiden. The following year he lost a match race in Ontario to Man o' War by seven lengths.