- Today is the anniversary of two very significant WW II events, The Battle of Midway and D-Day aka Operation Overlord.
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- The first of these chronologically occurred on June 6 1942 in the Pacific ocean, known at the time as "The Pacific Theater of War" and involved a US fleet and a Japanese fleet. It was called the Battle of Midway after nearby Midway Atoll where there was a US airbase and is considered to be a major turning point in the war against Japan. The two fleets never made visual contact with each other, started on different sides of the date line, and conducted the entire battle by airplane. The battle lasted for several days until, on June 6th, Japan's Admiral Yamamoto ordered what was left of his forces to retreat, thereby ending it.. The Japanese lost 4 aircraft carriers and a heavy cruiser while the US lost one aircraft carrier and a destroyer.As bad as that disparity was, it was even worse than it looked because Japan rapidly lost the capacity to replace its losses.
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- "D-day" is used by the military to designate the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. Many invasions and operations had a designated D-Day of their own, but the best known is the June 6, 1944 Allied attack on the German forces in Normandy. That particular attack was the largest amphibious attack in history, involving over 5,000 vessels and the transport of almost 160,000 troops across the English Channel in a single day. The various beachheads provided the Allies with a toe hold on the French coast which they were able to slowly expand, such that some 875,000 men had been put ashore by June 30th.
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- We have an interesting juxtaposition of holidays, National Churro Day and National Hunger Awareness Day. There is no waffling about the former, because it is intended that we all run out and consume churros, today and everyday, in sufficient quantities to make somebody a decent profit. I really can't object, either, I really love them, especially Spanish style. The latter, of course, is simply an awareness day, pure posturing whereby we take official awareness of the problem and thus display our sympathy and empathy even though we have absolutely no intention of doing a damn thing to try to remedy the problem, at least not at the governmental level.
- /rant

Of course, National Huntington's Disease Awareness Day is just another awareness day. I'm sure that those afflicted with the disease or condition as well as family members of such persons are thrilled that somebody somewhere is aware of the existence of their condition.

On this day in history:

- 1523 – Swedish regent Gustav Vasa was elected King of Sweden
- 1822 – Alexis St Martin was accidentally shot in the stomach, leading to William Beaumont's studies on digestion.
- 1832 – The June Rebellion in Paris was put down by the National Guard.
- 1859 – Queensland was established as a separate colony from New South Wales.
- 1889 – The Great Seattle Fire destroyed all of downtown Seattle.
- 1892 – The Chicago "L" elevated rail system began operation.
- 1894 – Governor Davis H. Waite ordered the Colorado state militia to protect and support the miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike.This was the only time in US history that a state militia had been used to support instead of attack and suppress striking workers
- 1912 – The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begans.
- 1918 – Battle of Belleau Wood began.
- 1933 – The first drive-in theater opened in Camden, New Jersey.
- 1934 – FDR signed the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 into law
- 1942 – The US Navy defeated the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of Midway
- 1944 – The Allied invasion of Normandy (D-Day) began.
- 1971 – Soyuz 11 was launched.
- 1975 – A British referendum resulted in Britain's continued membership of the European Economic Community.
- 1982 – An Israeli invasion of Lebanon started the Lebanon War,
- 2002 – A near-Earth asteroid exploded over the Mediterranean Sea.

Some people who were born on this day:

“War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.”

~~ Thomas Mann

- 1436 – Regiomontanus (Johannes Müller von Königsberg), mathematician, astronomer, and bishop
- 1519 – Andrea Cesalpino, philosopher, physician, and botanist
- 1599 – Diego Velázquez (baptismal date), painter and educator
- 1606 – Pierre Corneille, playwright and producer
- 1755 – Nathan Hale, soldier and spy
- 1756 – John Trumbull, soldier and painter
- 1799 – Alexander Pushkin, author and poet
- 1850 – Karl Ferdinand Braun, physicist and academic
- 1857 – Aleksandr Lyapunov, mathematician and physicist
- 1875 – Thomas Mann, author and critic
- 1890 – Ted Lewis, singer, clarinet player, and bandleader
- 1898 – Ninette de Valois, ballerina, choreographer, and director
- 1901 – Jan Struther, author and poet who created the character Mrs Miniver
- 1902 – Jimmie Lunceford, saxophonist and bandleader
- 1903 – Aram Khachaturian, composer and conductor
- 1906 – Max August Zorn, mathematician and academic noted for Zorn's Lemma
- 1915 – Vincent Persichetti, pianist and composer
- 1918 – Edwin G. Krebs, biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1925 – Maxine Kumin, poet and author
- 1925 – Frank Chee Willeto, Navajo code talker
- 1933 – Heinrich Rohrer, physicist and academic
- 1936 – Levi Stubbs, soul singer; lead vocalist of the Four Tops
- 1939 – Louis Andriessen, pianist and composer
- 1939 – Gary U.S. Bonds, singer, songwriter
- 1943 – Richard Smalley, chemist and academic,
- 1944 – Monty Alexander, jazz pianist
- 1944 – Phillip Allen Sharp, molecular biologist
- 1946 – Tony Levin, bass player and songwriter
- 1948 – Arlene Harris, American entrepreneur, inventor, investor and policy advocate
- 1949 – Holly Near, folk singer and songwriter

Some people who died on this day:

“No power of government ought to be employed in the endeavor to establish any system or article of belief on the subject of religion.”

~~ Jeremy Bentham

- 1480 – Vecchietta, painter, sculptor, and architect
- 1813 – Antonio Cachia, architect, engineer and archaeologist
- 832 – Jeremy Bentham, jurist and philosopher
- 1878 – Robert Stirling, minister and engineer, invented the Stirling Cycle Engine
- 1881 – Henri Vieuxtemps, violinist and composer
- 1946 – Gerhart Hauptmann, novelist, poet, and playwright
- 1947 – James Agate, author and critic
- 1961 – Carl Gustav Jung, famous shrink
- 1962 – Yves Klein, painter
- 1963 – William Baziotes, painter and academic
- 1982 – Kenneth Rexroth, poet and academic
- 1983 – Hans Leip, author, poet, and playwright who wrote the lyrics of Lili Marleen
- 1991 – Stan Getz, saxophonist and jazz innovator
- 1996 – George Davis Snell, geneticist and immunologist
- 2006 – Billy Preston, singer, songwriter, pianist, and actor
- 2009 – Jean Dausset, immunologist and academic
- 2013 – Jerome Karle, crystallographer and academic
- 2014 – Lorna Wing, psychiatrist and physician; pioneered studies of autism
- 2015 – Ludvík Vaculík, journalist and author
- 2016 – Peter Shaffer, playwright and screenwriter;
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Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

- D-Day Invasion Anniversary
- National Day of Sweden
- National Huntington's Disease Awareness Day (USA.)
- Atheist Pride Day
National Higher Education Day
National Yo-Yo Day
National Churro Day
National Hunger Awareness Day
- UN Russian Language Day.

Today's Tunes

Jimmie Lunceford

Aram Khachaturian

Vincent Persichetti

Levi Stubbs

Gary U.S. Bonds

Monty Alexander

Tony Levin

Holly Near

Henri Vieuxtemps

Stan Getz

Billy Preston

Please save Covid-19 commentary for a separate thread. Thank you.

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?

Open Thread, Midway, D-Day, Huntington's Disease, Velasquez, Pushkin, Mann, Bentham, Rexroth, Levi Stubbs, Gary US Bonds, Stan Getz, Billy Preston, Holly Near