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Today (June 6)
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June 6 Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set in 1944 in France during World War II, it follows a group of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks), on their mission to locate Private James Francis Ryan (Matt Damon), who is to be brought home after his three brothers are killed in action. Inspired by the books of Stephen E. Ambrose and accounts of the deaths of members of a single family such as the Niland brothers, Rodat drafted the script and Paramount Pictures hired him to finish the writing. Spielberg wanted to make Saving Private Ryan as authentic as possible, and hired Frank Darabont and Scott Frank to perform uncredited rewrites based on research and interviews with veterans. The cast went through a week-long boot camp to understand the soldier experience. Filming took place from June to September 1997 in England and Ireland. Saving Private Ryan earned critical acclaim for its graphic portrayal of combat. (Full article...)
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June 6: National Day of Sweden
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Tomorrow (June 7)
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June 7 Munsey's Magazine was an American magazine founded by Frank Munsey in 1889. Originally launched in 1889 as Munsey's Weekly, it became an illustrated monthly in 1891, printing both fiction and non-fiction. In 1893 the price was reduced from 25 to 10 cents and circulation rose to more than 250,000 issues. The same year Munsey became one of the first publishers to regularly feature a pretty girl on the cover. Circulation was also helped by the liberal use of illustrations, and reached a peak of about 700,000 in 1897, declining in the 1910s. Well-known writers appeared, including O. Henry, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, P. G. Wodehouse, and Joseph Conrad. In 1929 it was merged with Argosy, another of Munsey's magazines. Magazine historians consider Munsey's to have started a revolution in magazine publishing by setting a low price to increase circulation, and attracting sufficient advertising revenue to make a substantial profit. Other magazines quickly followed the example of Munsey's. (Full article...)
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June 7 The premier of Victoria is the head of government in the state of Victoria, Australia. The premier leads the Cabinet of Victoria and selects its ministers to lead government. The premier is appointed by the governor of Victoria and is usually the leader of the political party that has a majority of members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. Elections are held every four years, on the last Saturday in November, and no term limits are imposed on the role. Currently, the premier is paid a total salary of A$481,190. Premiers who hold the office for more than 3,000 days are entitled to a statue, a milestone six premiers have achieved, however only four have had their statues erected. Since the role's establishment in 1855, there have been 49 premiers. The longest-serving premier was Henry Bolte of the Liberal Party, who served for more than 17 years. The shortest-serving premier, George Elmslie, served for only 13 days. The current premier, Jacinta Allan (pictured) of the Labor Party, assumed office on 27 September 2023. (Full list...)
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In two days (June 8)
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June 8 Bill Newton (8 June 1919 – 29 March 1943) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, honoured for his actions as a bomber pilot in Papua New Guinea during March 1943. Raised in Melbourne, he joined the Citizen Military Forces in 1938 and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in February 1940. He served as a flying instructor in Australia before being posted to No. 22 Squadron, which began operating Boston light bombers in New Guinea late in 1942. Having just taken part in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, he was on his fifty-second mission when he was shot down. Newton was still posted as missing when given the Victoria Cross in October 1943. It later emerged that he was captured by the Japanese and beheaded. Newton was the only Australian airman to receive a Victoria Cross for action in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II, and the sole Australian to be so decorated while flying with an RAAF squadron. (Full article...)
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In three days (June 9)
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June 9 The Ecstatic is the fourth album by American rapper Mos Def (pictured), released by Downtown Records on June 9, 2009. Singer Georgia Anne Muldrow and rappers Slick Rick and Talib Kweli were guest vocalists. The album has been described by music journalists as a conscious and alternative hip hop record. Mos Def's raps about global politics, love, spirituality, and social conditions are informed by Black internationalism and pan-Islamic ideas. The album's loosely structured, lightly reverbed songs use unconventional time signatures and samples taken from Afrobeat, soul, Eurodance, jazz, reggae, Latin, and Middle Eastern music. The Ecstatic charted at number nine on the Billboard 200 in its first week of release and eventually sold 168,000 copies. A widespread critical success, The Ecstatic was viewed as a return to form for Mos Def and one of the year's best albums. He performed concerts to support the record in North America, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom. (Full article...)
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In four days (June 10)
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June 10 Marasmius rotula, the pinwheel mushroom, is a fungus in the family Marasmiaceae. Widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, it was first described scientifically in 1772 by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli. The mushrooms are characterized by thin whitish caps up to 2.0 cm (0.8 in) wide that are sunken in the center and pleated with scalloped margins. The wiry black hollow stalks measure up to 8.0 cm (3.1 in) long by 1.5 mm (0.06 in) thick. On the underside of the caps are widely spaced white gills, attached to a collar encircling the stalk. The mushrooms grow in groups or clusters on decaying wood such as moss-covered logs and stumps. Spore release is dependent upon sufficient moisture. Dried mushrooms may revive after rehydrating and release spores for up to three weeks, much longer than most gilled mushrooms. Although the mushrooms are not generally considered edible, they produce a unique peroxidase enzyme that is attracting research interest for use in bioengineering applications. (Full article...)
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June 10: Dragon Boat Festival in China (2024)
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June 10 The discography of SZA, an American singer-songwriter, includes two studio albums, three extended plays (EPs), one live album, and forty-four singles, as of 2024. After self-releasing her first two EPs, SZA signed to the record label Top Dawg Entertainment, under which she released her 2017 debut studio album, Ctrl. The album peaked at number three in the United States Billboard 200, charted there for more than five years, and earned SZA some of her first Grammy nominations in 2018. After a five-year wait, during which SZA appeared in three top-10 collaborations, she released SOS, her second studio album. It became SZA's first number-one album in several countries, was the US's third best-selling album of 2023, and spawned "Kill Bill", the third best-selling single of the year worldwide. SZA's next projects are a deluxe edition of SOS and her third studio album, Lana. Ctrl and SOS have been ranked by Rolling Stone as among the 500 greatest albums of all time. (Full list...)
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In five days (June 11)
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June 11 Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and began to work as a sports broadcaster in Iowa. In 1937, he moved to California, and became a well-known film actor there. From 1947 to 1952, and from 1959 to 1960, Reagan served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1968 election as well as the 1976 election, but won both the nomination and election in 1980 election. As president, Reagan implemented new political initiatives as well as economic policies, advocating a laissez-faire philosophy, but the extent to which these ideas were implemented is debatable. The policies, dubbed "Reaganomics", included substantial tax cuts implemented in 1981. (Full article...)
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In six days (June 12)
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June 12 Incapillo is a Pleistocene-age caldera – a depression formed by the collapse of a volcano – in La Rioja Province, Argentina. It is part of the southernmost volcanic centre in the Andean Central Volcanic Zone (CVZ). Subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate is responsible for most of the volcanism in the CVZ. Volcanism commenced in the Incapillo region 6.5 million years ago, forming the high volcanic edifices of Monte Pissis, Cerro Bonete Chico and Sierra de Veladero. Incapillo is known to have erupted the Incapillo ignimbrite 0.52 ± 0.03 and 0.51 ± 0.04 million years ago; this has a total volume of about 20.4 cubic kilometres (4.9 cu mi). A caldera with dimensions of 5 by 6 kilometres (3.1 mi × 3.7 mi) formed during the eruptions. Later volcanism generated more lava domes within the caldera and a debris flow in the Sierra de Veladero. The lake within the caldera may overlie an area of ongoing hydrothermal activity. (Full article...)
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June 12: First day of Shavuot (Judaism, 2024); Dia dos Namorados in Brazil; Loving Day in the United States (1967)
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In seven days (June 13)
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June 13 The Battle of Villers-Bocage took place on 13 June 1944 during World War II. Following the D-Day landings on 6 June, the Germans established defences in front of Caen. The British attacked in an attempt to exploit a gap in the German defences west of the city. They reached Villers-Bocage without incident in the morning but were ambushed by Tiger I tanks as they left the town and numerous tanks, anti-tank guns and transport vehicles were destroyed. The Germans then attacked the town but were repulsed. The British withdrew west of Villers-Bocage that evening and repulsed another attack the next day. The British conduct in the battle was controversial because their withdrawal marked the end of the post–D-Day "scramble for ground" and the start of an attritional battle for Caen. Some historians wrote that the British attack was a failure caused by a lack of conviction among some senior commanders; others judged the British force to be insufficiently strong for the task. (Full article...)
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