June 21st

June 21 is the 173rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. If the ancient Mayans were correct, there are 183 days remaining until the end of time.

217BCE The Romans, led by Gaius Flaminius, are ambushed and defeated by Hannibal at the Battle of Lake Trasimene. FABULOUS!

1633 Galileo Galilei is forced by Inquisition to "abjure, curse, and detest" his Copernican heliocentric views.  The Roman Catholic Church admits its mistake in the matter about 400 years later.

1877 Ten Irish immigrants who belong to the Molly Maguires (but NOT a Molly House!), are hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania prisons.

1893 1st Ferris wheel premieres at Chicago's Columbian Exposition. . .size queens!

1942 A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the United States mainland

1948 Columbia commits to 33 1/3 rpm records, plans to phase out 78's as Dr. Peter Goldmark of CBS demonstrates "long playing record"

1982 John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and being fixated on Jodie Foster

2004 SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.

1892 Reinhold Niebuhr, MO-born US theologian and writer who greatly influenced US foreign policy/Serenity Prayer
    God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
    Courage to change the things I can,
    And wisdom to know the difference.

1947 Meredith Baxter, gay US actress

1953 Michael Bowen, maybe gay US actor 

1955 David Marshall Grant, gay US actor

1955 Leigh McCloskey, US actor/Kelsey Grammer’s college roommate 

1961 Blake Gibbons, maybe gay US actor 

1964 David Morrissey, English actor 

1964 Doug Savant, US actor 

1969 Scott Carson, US actor 

1975 Daniel Grigson, Australian gymnast

1977 Will Thorp, English actor 

1978 Ignacio Corleto, Argentine rugger/Dieux du Stade model 

1982 HRH William, Duke of Cambridge/future King of England 

1982 Robin Zabler, German dancer/model 

1986 Rockne Brubaker, maybe gay STLMO-born US figure skater 

1527 Niccolo Machiavelli, Florentine statesman/author, has suggestions for God

1964 Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner, are planted in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.  Civil and voting rights demonstrations grow.

2008    Kermit Love, gay US puppeteer (Big Bird, Mr. Snuffleupagus, Snuggle Bear), flips the bird.  NB: Despite the coincidence of names, Kermit Love first met Jim Henson after the 1955 creation and naming of the Muppet, Kermit the Frog.