128 Fun Facts About June

How many days does June have?

It is one of four 30-day months, alongside April, September and November.

Juno, the goddess who gave June its name, was identified with which Greek goddess?

The Romans equated Juno, queen of the gods and wife of Jupiter, with the Greek Hera, wife of Zeus; the Latin month Iunius took its name from her.

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.

In AD 65, June was briefly renamed Germanicus in honour of which Roman emperor?

Nero, whose names included Germanicus, had the Senate rename June after the deaths of two Junii Silani made the name Junius seem ill-omened; the renaming died with him in AD 68.

Which emperor renamed June 'Aelius' while renaming every month after his own names?

Commodus, whose names included Lucius Aelius Aurelius, renamed all twelve months after his names and titles late in his reign; the Senate reversed it after his murder in AD 192.

Whose calendar reform of 46 BC lengthened June from 29 to 30 days?

Julius Caesar's reform of 46 BC added a day to June, taking it from 29 to 30, and fixed the year at 365 days with a leap day every fourth year.

Per Ovid, a priestess advised delaying his daughter's wedding until after which date?

Ovid's Fasti has the wife of the Flamen Dialis advise waiting until 15 June, when the sweepings from Vesta's temple had been carried to the Tiber; before that, marriage was considered unlucky.

The June solstice, the Northern Hemisphere's longest day, most often falls on which date of the month?

The 21st is the usual date, though the solstice can land anywhere from 20 to 22 June; south of the equator it is the shortest day of the year.

The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins on which date?

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November, the six months in which the National Hurricane Center expects nearly all tropical cyclones.

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

It coincides with strawberry-picking season; other names include the rose moon and the honey moon.

Which of these is NOT one of the three June birthstones recognised in the United States?

Emerald belongs to May; June is unusual in having three stones.

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

Honeysuckle, a twining climber of the genus Lonicera, shares June's birth-flower honours with the rose; its sweet nectar, once sucked from the flowers by children, gives it its name.

Someone born on 25 June has which zodiac sign?

Gemini covers 21 May to 21 June, and Cancer runs from 22 June to 22 July.

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?

June is Pride Month in the United States, commemorating the Stonewall riots of June 1969; it is also Caribbean-American Heritage Month and National Safety Month there.

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 Feast of the Sacred Heart falls on the Friday after the second Sunday after Pentecost, so it usually lands in June.

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

The Northeast is the heartland of the Festas Juninas; Campina Grande in Paraíba and Caruaru in Pernambuco each claim the world's biggest São João, with weeks of forró and quadrilha dancing.

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

On 19 June 1865 General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 in Texas, announcing that all enslaved people there were free; Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.

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

The five landing beaches were Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword; Omaha, with its high cliffs, saw the worst casualties.

The D-Day landings themselves were codenamed what?

Overlord was the name for the whole invasion of Normandy; Neptune covered the assault phase on the beaches.

Flag Day in the United States, on 14 June, commemorates the adoption of the flag in which year?

The Second Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes by resolution on 14 June 1777, the date Flag Day commemorates; Congress made the observance official by law in 1949.

Magna Carta was sealed by King John on 15 June 1215 at which meadow 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?

Waterloo lies south of Brussels in what is now Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands; Wellington's army and Blücher's Prussians beat Napoleon on Sunday 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 19-year-old Bosnian Serb student, shot the Archduke and his wife Sophie; Čabrinović, Ilić and Grabež were fellow conspirators in the same Sarajevo plot.

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.

How many Japanese fleet carriers were sunk at the Battle of Midway on 4-7 June 1942?

All four Japanese fleet carriers engaged, Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū and Hiryū, were sunk, along with the heavy cruiser Mikuma; the Americans lost only the carrier Yorktown and a destroyer.

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

The Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory gave the battle its name; the Lakota call it the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and Custer's entire immediate command of the 7th Cavalry was killed.

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

The Korean War began when North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel on 25 June 1950; fighting lasted until the armistice of 27 July 1953.

The first iPhone went on sale in the United States on 29 June of which year?

The original iPhone went on sale on 29 June 2007, five months after Steve Jobs unveiled it at Macworld in January 2007; the iPhone 3G followed in July 2008.

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

Bloomsbury published the book on 26 June 1997 with a first run of just 500 hardbacks; chief executive Nigel Newton reportedly took the gamble after his eight-year-old daughter loved the manuscript.

Anne Frank received the notebook that became her diary for her 13th birthday on which day of June 1942?

It was an autograph book with a red-and-white checked cover and a small lock; the family went into hiding less than a month later.

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 flew on STS-7 aboard Challenger, launched on 18 June 1983; at 32 she was also the youngest American to have flown in space at that time.

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

The disassembled statue was reassembled on its pedestal on what was then called Bedloe's Island.

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

The three tunnelled out of Alcatraz through widened vent holes, left papier-mâché heads in their beds and paddled into San Francisco Bay on a raft of raincoats; they were never found.

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

Loving v. Virginia, decided unanimously on 12 June 1967, struck down every state ban on interracial marriage, overturning Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924.

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

Superman debuted in that 10-cent issue, and pristine copies now change hands for millions.

Born 27 June 1880, Helen Keller became the first deafblind American graduate of which college?

Helen Keller graduated cum laude from Radcliffe College, Harvard's women's college, in 1904, with Anne Sullivan spelling the lectures into her hand.

Which actress, born Norma Jeane Mortenson, has a 1 June birthday?

Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson in Los Angeles on 1 June 1926 and spent much of her childhood in foster homes before her first film contract in 1946.

Which Beatle was born on 18 June 1942?

Paul McCartney was born at Walton Hospital, Liverpool, on 18 June 1942; his mother Mary, a midwife, died when he was 14, a loss that later inspired '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, famous for his six marriages and for beginning the English Reformation, was born on 28 June 1491?

Henry VIII shares the birthday with the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, born in 1712.

Which pop star died on 25 June 2009?

Michael Jackson died of a propofol overdose at his rented Los Angeles home on 25 June 2009, aged 50, weeks before a planned run of comeback concerts in London.

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

Charles Dickens died of a stroke at Gad's Hill Place, Kent, on 9 June 1870, leaving The Mystery of Edwin Drood unfinished; he shares the date with Nero, who died 9 June AD 68.

The record one-hour rainfall, 305 mm, fell on 22 June 1947 in which US state?

Holt, Missouri, a small town north-east of Kansas City, took 305 mm (12 inches) in 42 minutes on 22 June 1947, the heaviest short-duration rainfall on record.

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

The -32.8°C reading was taken at Sarmiento in Argentina's Chubut Province, in Patagonia, on 1 June 1907, the World Meteorological Organization's recognised low for South America.

Which tennis tournament, the world's oldest, traditionally opened on the last Monday in June?

Wimbledon, first played at the All England Club in 1877, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world; its fortnight traditionally opened on the last Monday of June.

What is unusual about the day of the week on which June begins?

In any year, common or leap, no other month starts on the same weekday as June; May is the only other month for which that holds in every year.

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

At the June solstice everywhere north of the Arctic Circle has the midnight sun, with the Sun above the horizon for a full 24 hours; inside the Antarctic Circle it is polar night.

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

Frank Whittle, born in Coventry on 1 June 1907, patented his turbojet design in 1930 while a Royal Air Force officer; his W.1 engine first flew in the Gloster E.28/39 in May 1941.

What was the Old English name for June, displaced by the Latin-derived word?

Bede recorded the Old English name Ærra Liþa, 'before Litha', for June, with Æfterra Liþa for July; the Anglo-Norman forms join and junie shaped the modern spelling.

Roman scholars dated the calendar reset that made June the sixth month to which year?

From 153 BC Roman consuls took office on 1 January rather than in March, so the civil year began with January and June fell sixth; Numa had added January and February centuries earlier.

Plutarch implied June was a better month for weddings than which other month?

In his Roman Questions Plutarch asked why Romans avoided marrying in May and suggested June, Juno's month, was more favourable; Ovid was told to wait until mid-June.

Sweden's Midsummer Eve is celebrated on the Friday falling between which two June dates?

Since 1953 Sweden has kept Midsummer Eve on the Friday between 19 and 25 June, so it always opens a weekend; families raise a maypole and eat pickled herring.

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

Cherrapunji (Sohra) in Meghalaya recorded 2,493 mm in the 48 hours of 15-16 June 1995, the greatest two-day rainfall on record; the state's hills are among the wettest places on Earth.

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

Tim Berners-Lee, born in London on 8 June 1955, proposed the World Wide Web at CERN in 1989 and built the first browser and server there in 1990.

Which Argentine footballer was born on 24 June 1987?

Lionel Messi was born in Rosario on 24 June 1987, joined Barcelona's La Masia academy at 13 and captained Argentina to the 2022 World Cup.

Which figure of the Cuban Revolution was born on 14 June 1928?

Che Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina, on 14 June 1928 and qualified as a doctor in 1953 before joining Fidel Castro's expedition to Cuba in 1956.

Which Russian composer was born on 17 June 1882?

Igor Stravinsky was born at Oranienbaum near St Petersburg on 17 June 1882; his Rite of Spring caused a near-riot at its Paris premiere in May 1913.

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, the seventh president, died at the Hermitage, his plantation near Nashville, on 8 June 1845, aged 78, eight years after leaving office.

Which Macedonian king died on 10 or 11 June 323 BC?

Alexander the Great died in Babylon on 10 or 11 June 323 BC, aged 32, after about a fortnight of fever; his generals then carved up his empire.

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

William Harvey, whose De Motu Cordis of 1628 first described the circulation of the blood, died of a stroke at Roehampton on 3 June 1657, aged 79.

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

Frederick Barbarossa, 'red beard', drowned in the Saleph river in Anatolia on 10 June 1190 while leading the German army of the Third Crusade.

Which Canadian hockey legend died on 10 June 2016?

Gordie Howe, 'Mr. Hockey', died on 10 June 2016 aged 88; he played professionally across five decades, from Detroit in 1946 to a final NHL season with Hartford in 1980.

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

Wilhelm II, the last German Emperor, abdicated in November 1918 and lived in exile at Huis Doorn in the Netherlands until his death on 4 June 1941.

Which drink gets its own World Day on 1 June?

World Milk Day was established by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization in 2001 and is celebrated on 1 June to promote dairy farming.

What leisurely activity is celebrated by a world day on 19 June?

World Sauntering Day, 19 June, began in 1979 at the Grand Hotel on Michigan's Mackinac Island as a tongue-in-cheek answer to the jogging craze, urging people to slow down.

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

The Fête de la Musique, launched in 1982 by culture minister Jack Lang, puts free concerts on French streets every 21 June and has spread worldwide as World Music Day.

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

The Nativity of John the Baptist on 24 June is one of the few saints' feasts marking a birth rather than a death; St John's Eve on 23 June is marked with bonfires across Europe.

Which pair of apostles share a feast on 29 June?

The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul on 29 June honours the two apostles' martyrdom in Rome under Nero; it is a public holiday in the city of Rome and the Vatican.

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

The FIFA World Cup, held every four years, has mostly kicked off in June; the 2018 final drew a combined audience above a billion, and the 2022 edition in Qatar moved to November.

Glastonbury Festival takes place at Worthy Farm near which Somerset village?

Founder Michael Eavis was inspired by a 1970 Led Zeppelin gig at the Bath Festival.

How much did a ticket cost for the first Glastonbury festival in 1970?

The first Glastonbury, on 19 September 1970, cost £1 a ticket with free milk from the farm thrown in; about 1,500 people attended.

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

Martin Luther King Jr. Day was signed into law by Ronald Reagan in 1983 and first observed in 1986; Juneteenth, signed by Joe Biden on 17 June 2021, was the next federal holiday added.

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

Opal Lee, a retired Fort Worth teacher, walked 2.5 miles at a time in cities across the country from 2016 to symbolise the two and a half years Texans waited for emancipation; she was 94 when Biden signed the act.

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

Galveston is where General Granger proclaimed freedom on 19 June 1865; early celebrations began with church gatherings in 1866 and included pilgrimages back to the port.

The Juneteenth flag was created in 1997 by which activist?

Ben Haith, founder of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation, created the flag in 1997; it was first hoisted at Roxbury Heritage State Park in Boston in 2000.

In which decade was the name 'Juneteenth' first used?

The portmanteau of June and nineteenth is first recorded in the 1890s; earlier Texas celebrations were called Emancipation Day or Jubilee Day.

Traditional Juneteenth food and drink share what colour?

Red is the traditional Juneteenth colour, seen in strawberry soda, red velvet cake and barbecue and said to symbolise resilience; picnics, rodeos and Miss Juneteenth contests are also traditions.

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

Sonora Smart Dodd organised the first Father's Day in Spokane on 19 June 1910; she and her five brothers had been raised alone by their father, a Civil War veteran.

Grace Golden Clayton proposed a fathers' day in 1908 to honour men killed in what?

Her idea was not taken up at the time.

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

19 March is the feast of St Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus, so Spain, Italy and Portugal keep Father's Day then as Día del Padre or Festa del Papà.

On which day is Vatertag, Germany's Father's Day, celebrated?

Vatertag falls on Ascension Day, Christi Himmelfahrt, a Thursday 39 days after Easter Sunday and a national public holiday; men traditionally tour the countryside pulling wagons of beer.

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

Woodrow Wilson's proclamation of 30 May 1916 set 14 June as Flag Day nationwide; Congress made the observance official by law in 1949.

Which state was the first to make Flag Day a state holiday, in 1937?

Pennsylvania made 14 June a state holiday in 1937, the first state to do so; Wisconsin teacher Bernard Cigrand's 1885 school observance in Waubeka is often called the first Flag Day.

Which branch of the US military celebrates its birthday on 14 June, exactly two years before the flag's adoption?

It was founded as the Continental Army in 1775.

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

The festival was Ukon juhla, the feast of Ukko, the Finnish sky and thunder god; after Christianisation it became Juhannus, named for John the Baptist.

Which president first proclaimed June as 'Gay and Lesbian Pride Month', in 1999?

Bill Clinton issued the first presidential proclamation of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in June 1999; Barack Obama broadened it to LGBT Pride Month from 2009.

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?

The winner is draped in a blanket of white carnations.

By how many lengths did Secretariat win the 1973 Belmont Stakes?

Secretariat won the 1973 Belmont by 31 lengths in 2:24, an American record for 1½ miles on dirt; the win completed the first Triple Crown in 25 years.

In which year was the 24 Hours of Le Mans first run?

The first 24 Hours of Le Mans was run on 26-27 May 1923; it is the oldest active endurance race in the world and is usually held in mid-June.

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

The Circuit de la Sarthe mixes a permanent section with closed public roads such as the Mulsanne straight, giving a lap of about 13.6 km; the race has used it since 1923.

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

Pierre Levegh's Mercedes 300 SLR launched off Lance Macklin's Austin-Healey into the crowd, killing Levegh and 83 spectators, the deadliest accident in motorsport history.

Which driver won the 24 Hours of Le Mans nine times between 1997 and 2013?

Tom Kristensen, 'Mr Le Mans', won nine times between 1997 and 2013, including six in a row from 2000 to 2005, driving for Porsche, Audi and Bentley.

The first U.S. Open golf championship in 1895 was played at a club in which state?

Newport Country Club in Rhode Island hosted the first US Open on 4 October 1895, a 36-hole event won by Horace Rawlins the day after the US Amateur.

Trooping the Colour takes place at which London venue?

Trooping the Colour is held on Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall, usually on a Saturday in June, and has marked the sovereign's official birthday since 1748.

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, a poet and minister of the state of Chu, drowned himself in the Miluo River in 278 BC; legend says locals paddled out to save him and threw rice into the water.

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

Zongzi are glutinous rice parcels wrapped in bamboo leaves, eaten at the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, which usually falls in June.

Which Japanese entrepreneur pioneered large-scale cultured pearl farming?

Kokichi Mikimoto produced his first cultured half-pearls in 1893 and perfected spherical cultured pearls in the early 1900s, founding the pearl company that bears his name.

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

Alexandrite, found in the Urals in 1830 and identified by the Finnish mineralogist Nils Gustaf Nordenskiöld, was named in 1834 for the tsarevich who became Alexander II, on his coming of age.

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, the Dioscuri of Greek myth, are the twins of Gemini; the constellation's two brightest stars carry their names.

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

Italians chose a republic over the monarchy; the Frecce Tricolori fly over Rome each year.

Russia Day on 12 June marks the 1990 adoption of what?

On 12 June 1990 the Congress of People's Deputies of the RSFSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty; Russia Day has been a public holiday since 1992.

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 only recognised Philippine independence on 4 July 1946.

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

Gustav Vasa was elected king at Strängnäs on 6 June 1523, ending the Kalmar Union with Denmark; the day, which also recalls the 1809 constitution, became a public holiday only in 2005.

Denmark's Constitution Day on 5 June recalls the first constitution signed in which year?

Frederick VII signed Denmark's first democratic constitution on 5 June 1849, ending absolute monarchy; the 1953 constitution was signed on the same date.

Canada's National Indigenous Peoples Day, on the solstice, was first celebrated in which year?

Governor General Roméo LeBlanc proclaimed National Aboriginal Day in 1996, renamed National Indigenous Peoples Day in 2017; 21 June was chosen partly because many Indigenous communities celebrate the solstice.

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

Narendra Modi proposed the day in his first UN General Assembly speech in September 2014, suggesting 21 June as the longest day 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.

What nickname was given to the man who blocked a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square on 5 June 1989?

'Tank Man' stood in front of a column of Type 59 tanks on Chang'an Avenue on 5 June 1989, the day after the crackdown; Jeff Widener's photograph of him became one of the century's defining images.

Which 13th-century canoness of Liège spent forty years working to establish the feast of Corpus Christi?

Juliana of Liège, a canoness of Mont Cornillon, pressed for the feast from a vision in 1208 until Bishop Robert of Thourotte instituted it locally in 1246; Urban IV extended it to the whole Church in 1264.

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

Fairfax's New Model Army, formed only that spring, routed Charles I's army at Naseby in Northamptonshire on 14 June 1645, the decisive battle of the First English Civil War.

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

Edward II, son of the 'Hammer of the Scots', led the English army routed by Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn near Stirling on 23-24 June 1314, the decisive Scottish victory of the First War of Independence.

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

Jordan had annexed the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 1950; Israel took it in the June 1967 war, along with Sinai and Gaza from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria.

The Great Seattle Fire destroyed the city's business district on 6 June of which year?

The fire of 6 June 1889 began when a glue pot boiled over in a cabinet shop and burned about 25 blocks; Seattle was rebuilt in brick and stone on raised streets, leaving the Underground beneath Pioneer Square.

World Refugee Day, marked on 20 June, was first established by the UN in which year?

The UN General Assembly designated 20 June 2001 as the first World Refugee Day, marking the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention; the date was already Africa Refugee Day.

Inti Raymi, the Inca sun festival re-enacted in Cusco each 24 June, originally marked what?

The winter solstice, the Southern Hemisphere's shortest day, was the Inca New Year, when the hours of daylight began to lengthen again; the festival is re-enacted at the fortress of Sacsayhuamán above Cusco.

In which year was the last Inti Raymi held with an Inca emperor present?

The last Inti Raymi attended by a Sapa Inca was held in 1535 under Manco Inca, a year before his revolt against the Spanish; Faustino Espinoza Navarro's 1944 reconstruction revived it as theatre.

Austria marks the Midsummer solstice with a procession of up to 30 ships down which river?

The Danube's Wachau valley between Melk and Krems hosts the Sonnwendfeier, a 90-minute evening cruise past bonfires, fireworks and illuminated castle ruins.

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.

At which New York hotel was the first Tony Awards ceremony held on 6 April 1947?

The Waldorf Astoria's Grand Ballroom hosted the first Tonys on 6 April 1947; winners received scrolls, cigarette lighters and jewellery rather than medallions, and the ceremony later settled into early June.