You are currently viewing June 2024 Nature Culture Childhood Calendar
Stonehenge was built to align with the sun on the solstices. On the summer solstice, the sun rises behind the Heel Stone in the north-east part of the horizon and its first rays shine into the heart of Stonehenge.

June 2024 Nature Culture Childhood Calendar

June 20 is the Summer Solstice, the longest day the year, and the official first day of the Summer.  The Strawberry Full Moon symbolizing the first fruits of Summer occurs on June 21st. As Mary Holland writes in her essential phenological calendar of New England, Naturally Curious, June is a time of engagement.  June is National Pollinators Month  and it is filled with the hatches of different insects, the blossoming of flowers, and the most food that has been available since the end of last year’s summer. Animals are giving birth and young creatures are making their first forays into the world. Stripers are making their annual migration from Cheasepeake Bay and the Hudson River, up the Atlantic Coast, to Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. As I walk outside with my dog and the sun sets, I see the first fireflies of the year, blinking lights in the glowing darkness. Susan Blow, who opened the first successful kindergarten in the United States, was born in  1843. Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are, was born in 1928. Americans celebrate Juneteenth which marks the end of institutional slavery and the liberation of Black people. It’s a wonderful time to get outside and participate in the natural world. It’s a wonderful time to get out in your community and engage with other human beings. It’s a wonderful time to become part of a greater movement to create the kind of society that is sustainable in relation to the earth, that honors childhood and children, and that allows people to be free and nurtures their better angels!

Indigenous Environmental Network formed in 1990

National Pollinators Month

June 1st

First public phone booth installed in New Haven CT, 1880

N.A.A.C.P. founded by W.E. B Dubois and others in 1909

Vietnam War Veterans Against the War founded in 1967

Red Fox mothers are weaning their kits

https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/2017/04/26/weaning-of-red-fox-kits-nearing-completion/

 

June 2nd

Marquis de Sade, writer, sexual provocateur, source of the word ‘sadism”, b. 1740

Indian Citizen Act granted Native people born in the United States citizenship,  (right to vote was governed by state laws and many states  barred Native people the right to vote until 1957), in 1924

Helen Oxenbury, author of We’re Going On A Bear Hunt, b. 1938

Harriet Tubman leads an armed raid that frees over 800 people in South Carolina, in 1863

Fishing  spiders catch prey by: waiting patiently with legs outstretched, walking on water, or diving up to 7 inches deep into the water

June 3rd

Curtis Mayfield, soul, funk musician, lyricist, b. 1942

Allen Ginsberg, beat poet, activist, b. 1944

National Trails Day a day of service and appreciation of local, state, regional, and federal trails (first Saturday in June)

Josephine Baker, singer, dancer, actress, stripper, spy b. 1906

The striking, 4 petaled, white flower of the bunchberry is blooming

June 4th

 

Muhammad, Islamic prophet, mystic visionary, b. 570 ( exact day is unclear)

Congress passes the 19th Amendment and women get the vote in the Unites States in 1919 ( class and race laws continue to obstruct women from voting, 1919

Over 10,000 Haitian farmers protest the Monsanto Corporation donation of 475 tons of genetically modified seeds by burning them in 2010

Barred owls are feeding nestlings

June 5th

James Connolly, Scotch born Irish Revolutionary, Wobbly  (Marxist/Socialist), “Governments in capitalist society are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class,” b. 1868

Saint Boniface killed by druids for chopping down sacred tree, 753

AIDS epidemic recognized by the medical community  in 1981

Richard Scarry, writer and illustrator of the much loved Busytown books, b. 1919

World Environment Day

June 6th

Frozen food sold in retail stores for the first time time, in 1930

Half a million people protest the murder of George Floyd in over 550 cities, 2020

First roller coaster opens in Coney Island NY, 1884

Debtors’ Prisons abolished in the  US in 1778

Peter Spier, writer and illustrator of unique  children’s books People and Noah’s Ark

Cynthia Rylant, prolific writer of children’s books including All In A Day and Life, b. 1954

James Meredith leads the March Against Fear from Memphis Tennessee to Jackson Mississippi to encourage Black people to register to vote, is shot by a sniper, but recovers sufficiently to finish the March before reaching Memphis, 1966

Robert Patch, 6 years old, youngest person to receive a patent, for his toy truck in 1963

June 7th

Prince, revolutionary musician, b. 1958

First color tv broadcast in 1953

Susan Blow, opened the first successful kindergarten in the United States, b. 1843

Young eagles start flapping their wings to prepare to fledge

June 8th

World Oceans Day

American Medical Association recognizes the right to birth control in 1937

Snapping turtles are laying their eggs

June 9th

Donald Duck’s film debut, in 1934

 

Fred Ross knocks on the door, pitches political activism to Caesar Chavez and the migrant farm worker movement is born. “He started talking—and changed my life,” Chavez later remarked. “Fred did such a good job of explaining how poor people could build power that I could even taste it,” 1952

Black bears mating

 

June 10th

Maurice Sendak, renowned children’s writer and illustrator, author of Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen, b. 1928

25,000-50,000 people march in Washington DC in one of  the first significant Animal Rights Movement, in 1990

Red-Winged Blackbird eggs are hatching

June 11th

U.S. State Department permits transgender persons to change gender on passport without surgery

African American residents of Diamond, Louisiana won their fight with Shell Oil to pay for the relocation of residents due to hazardous environmental and health conditions caused by the company’s actions in the area, in 2002

Red-Tailed Hawks add greenery to their nests once the young are hatched

National Children’s Day (celebrated the second Sunday of the month of June)

June 12th

One-flowered Wintergreen Flowering

Anne Frank, juvenile author of her famous diary and victim of the Holocaust, b.1929

June 12 is National Loving Day in honor of the Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage in the case of Mildred and Richard Loving versus Virginia, https://www.exchangepress.com/eed/, in 1967

Good and Plenty candy trademark registered in 1928

June 13th

William Butler Yeats, Irish poet, b. 1865

New York Times publishes the Pentagon Papers, leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, hastening the end of the Vietnam War, 1971

14th Amendment, which granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and affirms for any person “equal protection of the laws,” passed and put into law in 1866

Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds drinking nectar from Honeysuckle flowers and other appropriate flowers

June 14th

Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist, writer of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, born in Litchfield CT, 1811

Ernesto “Che” Guevera, Argentinian revolutionary, b. 1928

Bruce Degen, illustrator of The Magic School Bus books, b. 1945

Supreme Court finds compulsory flag salutes unconstitutional in 1943

June 15th

Brian Jacques, adventure writer, author of the Redwall series, b. 1939

“It is candlelight, the fishes leap. The meadows sparkle with the coppery light of fireflies. The evening stars multiplied by undulating water is like bright sparks of fire continually ascending,” 1852, Thoreau’s Animal Diary

June 16

Henri Lefebvre, French, Marxist,  historian, philosopher of everyday life, b. 1901

Geronimo, Apache guerilla warrior and leader, b. 1829

Tupac Shakur, visionary rap artist, b. 1971

Supreme Court declares that living organisms that are “products of human ingenuity” are patentable, in 1980

Pearl Crescent Butterflies mating

https://the-natural-web.org/tag/pearl-crescent/

 

June 17th

M.C. Escher, artist who explores patterns, optical illusions and negative space, b. 1889

https://kottke.org/18/05/an-online-collection-of-high-res-scans-of-mc-eschers-prints

Adult stoneflies are emerging from their larval stage, from the bottom of streams

Five-year-old Anthony Quinn, his mother and siblings protested against the election of five Mississippi Congressmen from districts where Black people were not allowed to vote, in 1963

 

June 18th

White and Black teenagers and protestors attempted to desegregate a “public” swimming pool in Florida, in 1964

 

Chris Van Allsberg, author The Polar Express and Jumanji, b. 1949

 

Big Brown Bats are giving birth in maternity  colonies “where the mother’s cluster with their  young.”

 

 

June 19th

Father’s Day

Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of Texas slaves and freedom from slavery for Black people in general

Dalia Messick, who used the pseudonym Dale Messick, writes/draws “Brenda Starr,” the first cartoon strip by a woman that appeared in a major newspaper, in 1940

Chimney swifts are among the most aerial of all land birds but cannot perch like most other birds and have “specialized, long, sharp claws for gripping vertical surfaces,” whereby they roost in chimneys, buildings, and hollow trees.

June 20th

Lloyd Hall, food chemist invented many food preservation methods, b. 1894

Green frogs are calling to find mates and mark territory

Muhammad Ali was convicted for refusing the Vietnam War draft in 1967

Summer Solstice, first day of Summer, longest day ( longest time between sun rising and sun setting) of the year

Stonehenge was built to align with the sun on the solstices. On the summer solstice, the sun rises behind the Heel Stone in the north-east part of the horizon and its first rays shine into the heart of Stonehenge.

 

June 21st

First law, in the United Kingdom, limiting work hours for children to twelve in 1802

James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew  Goodman, three young Civil Rights Workers, tortured and murdered in Mississippi by the KKK, in 1964

Jean Paul-Sartre, French philosopher, playwright, author of Being and Nothingness, existentialist, champion of human freedom and collective action, ” in a relationship” with Simone de Beauvoir, b. 1905

The June Full Strawberry Moon, so named because strawberries are the first fruit of summer

 

My wife Suzanne Ryan’s birthday, thank you for being you, b.1961

June 22nd

Vatican forces Galileo to recant his view that the earth was not the center of the universe

Octavia Butler, African American science fiction writer, author of Kindred and Fledgling, http://libwww.freelibrary.org/blog/?action=post&id=4251 b. 1947

World Rain Forest Day

June 23rd

Alfred Kinsey, pioneering researcher and theorist in human sexuality, b. 1894

James Hansen testifies to Congress about the greenhouse effect and climate change in 1988

Arthur Melin granted a patent for the Hula-Hoop in 1964

 

European Honey Bees swarming and drones mating with new queen

June 24th

Ambrose Bierce, author of The Devil’s Dictionary, b. 1842

Kathryn Laskey, author of many non-fiction photograph books including Sugaring, Time, The Weaver’s Craft, and Think Like an Eagle

Ants disperse end up dispersing seeds because they feed on a fatty appendage to the seed called an “elaiosome,” and drag the whole thing down into their tunnels.

June 25th

Eric Carle, much beloved young children’s author of such classics as A Very Hungry Caterpillar, b. 1929

George Orwell, writer of 1984, and Politics and the English Language, derivation of the adjective “Orwellian,” b. 1903

Cattails flowering

June 25th

Massachusetts second-grade teacher Anne P. Hale Jr. was removed from her position because of her prior membership in the Communist Party and her lack of “perception, understanding, and judgment necessary in one who is to be entrusted with the responsibility for teaching the children of the Town”, in 1954

The Battle of the Greasy Grass, formerly known as the Battle of Little Big Horn, where Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse successfully led Cheyenne and Lakota warriors against George Custer and 225 American cavalry, in 1876

The Battle of Greasy Grass, Allan Mardon, 1996. Oil on linen, 76 x 136 inches.

 

Curiously enough when the male and female of a species’ plumage is similar, they often share more of the child-rearing responsibilities such as bringing food and keeping the nest clean.

June 26th

50,000-100,000 people march in NYC to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion in 1994

Aime Cesaire, Martinique poet, politician, critical theorist, champion of the notion of “Negritude,” as a way of exploring the essence of the African and African diaspora cultural experience, b. in 1913

Charlotte Zolotow, author of many wonderful children’s books that honor the emotional complexity of childhood, including William’s Doll, and a long time editor of Children’s Literature, b. 1916

Nancy Williard, elegant classicist and nature writer for children, including Sister Water, The Salt Marsh, A Visit to William Blake’s Inn, and Pish, Posh Said Hieronymus Bosch, b. 1938

Walter Farley, author of The Black Stallion, b. 1922

Children’s game Candy Land trademark registered in 1951

Contemporary Candyland Board (https://www.patheos.com/blogs/rachelmariestone/2012/04/02/cultural-evolution-of-candy-land/)

 

Sarah Pierce pioneering educator,  would open one of the nation’s first schools for young women, advance educational equality and help educate such future leaders as Harriet Beecher Stowe and her sister Catherine. Pierce founded the school in her home in 1792, and during the Litchfield Female Academy’s 41-year-long history, she educated women from throughout the United States and Canada. Born in Litchfield, CT,  1767

“When a dog runs at you whistle for him,” Thoreau’s Animal Almanac, 1840

June 27th

Helen Keller, socialist, suffragette, anti-war organizer, b. 1880

Emma Goldman, radical anarchist writer and activist, b. 1869

Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Black American poet, b. 1872

American Toadlets emerging from ponds after metamorphosizing from tadpoles, a process that takes about 3 weeks

https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/toadlets-dispersing/

 

June 28th

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher, writer of On Inequality, The Social Contract and Emile, b. 1712

Raggedy Ann doll invented in 1917

 

“Water Scorpions” actually related to arachnids, their “tails” being a breathing tube rather than a stinger

June 29th

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, writer of The Little Prince, b. 1900

Moose antlers growing

Edward Alexander Bouchet, African-American, graduated from Yale University as the sixth person to receive a Ph.D. in physics in the United States, in 1876
W.E.B. DuBois leads a silent march against lynching in New York City, in 1917
International Mud Day  (https://worldforumfoundation.org/workinggroups/nature/mud-day/) International Mud Day had its beginnings in 2009 at the World Forum for Early Childhood Care and Education in Belfast, where teacher researchers discussed the importance of mud play for young children and the challenges they faced in supporting  mud play in their respective countries!

Meteor Watch Day

 

David Mcphail, children’s illustrator and writer, known for his soft, delicate, precise drawings and funny gorgeous stories such a Mole Music, Edward and the Pirates, Beatrix Potter and Her Paintbox, and  Pigs Galore, Pigs Aplenty, http://davidmcphailillustrations.com/ , born in 1940

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