Shavuot begins at sundown on this day. Called the Feast of the Weeks in the Jewish calendar, Shavuot is a two-day holiday that was originally a harvest festival. It’s also a thanksgiving day to commemorate the Giving of the Law, the Torah, recalling when Moses and the Israelites received the Ten Commandments from God at Mount Sinai. Shavuot, which means weeks, always begins exactly seven weeks after Passover. Shavuot is known also as Yom Habikkurim, or “The Day of the First Fruits,” because Israel’s farmers would bring a bundle from their first harvest to the temple in Jerusalem as a token of thanksgiving to God. Spring harvests in Israel began with the barley crop at Passover. Each farmer would set aside the first of each type of fruit to ripen, tie it in ribbon, and all would be brought to the city, accompanied by a joyful, musical celebration.
Hawaii is the only American state that was once a kingdom with its own monarchy. One of the greatest kings was King Kamehameha I, also called, appropriately, Kamehameha the Great. His name means “the very lonely one” or “the one set apart.” A statue of him can be found in the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.
King Kamehameha I probably was born some time around 1758, the year when Halley’s comet became visible over Hawaii. A courageous warrior, the king conquered and united the entire Hawaiian islands into one kingdom. During his reign, which lasted from 1782 to 1819, Hawaii became an important center in the fur and sandalwood trades.
The last king in the Kamehameha dynasty was King Kamehameha V, who ruled from 1863 to 1872. During this time, the king proclaimed June 11 as a day to honor his grandfather, King Kamehameha I. Nowadays, King Kamehameha I Day is celebrated with parades, singing, and feasts.
King Kamehameha V was succeeded by King Lunalilo, King Kalakaua, and finally, the much beloved Queen Lili’uokalani. It was she who wrote the famous song, “Aloha Oe.”“
Question of the Day
Why do people say “Geronimo!” when they jump out of airplanes?
Geronimo, an Apache leader who lived from 1829 to 1909, was known for the raids he led throughout the Southwest in resistance to his people being forced onto reservations. In a tribute to his reputation as a fearless warrior, American military parachute troops adopted his name as their battle cry as they jumped from airplanes.
Advice of the Day
Footprints on the sands of time are not made by sitting down.
Home Hint of the Day
Whenever possible, pick flowers in the late afternoon. They have a greater sugar content then and will last longer than ones picked earlier in the day.
Word of the Day
Cryophobia
Fear of extreme cold, frost, or ice
Puzzle of the Day
The numerical state(s). (Abbreviations of U.S. states)
MI (1,001 in Roman numerals), Tenn (10), and MD (1,500 in Roman numerals).
Born
Joseph Warren(U.S. patriot)–
Richard Strauss(German composer)–
Jacques-Yves Cousteau(marine explorer)–
Vince Lombardi(football coach)–
Peter Bergman(actor)–
Joe Montana(football player)–
Hugh Laurie(actor)–
Peter Dinklage(actor)–
Joshua Jackson(actor)–
Died
John Wayne(actor)–
Karen Quinlan,(Coma patient. In a pioneering Right to Die case her parents fought to remove her from a respirator after she lapsed into a persistent vegetative state from ingesting tranquilizers and alcohol, after the respirator was removed she lived for many more years before passing away)–
DeForest Kelley(actor)–
David Brinkley(reporter and commentator whose NBC broadcasts from 1956-70 helped define and popularize television news in America. Brinkley hosted one of the earliest television news magazines, David Brinkley’s Journal, in the early 1960s)–
Events
King Henry VIII of England and Katherine of Aragon were married–
Benjamin Franklin invented the Franklin stove–
Broad Street Riot, Boston, Massachusetts–
Sir Barton won triple crown–
Johnny Vander Meer of the Cincinnati Reds pitched his first no-hit, no-run professional baseball game–
Weather
A storm washed away 300 feet of Meigg’s Wharf in San Francisco–
Los Angeles climaxed a four-day heat wave with a temperature of 112 degrees F–
Phoenix, Arizona, had 1.64 inches of rain, a June record–
Hailstones as big as baseballs fell from Colorado Springs to Estes Park, Colorado, injuring 60 and causing $625 million in damage.–
Tornado killed 4 Boy Scouts at Little Sioux Scout Ranch camp in western Iowa, which occupies 1,800 acres. Three boys were 13 and one 14 years old. Scouts were there for a leadership training course. 48 scouts and staff were injured. Tornado struck about 6:30 p.m. 27 more tornadoes touched down in Kansas, Minnesota and Nebraska. Those tornadoes killed at least two people in northern Kansas, and destroyed much of the small town of Chapman. At Kansas State University campus in Manhattan, a tornado destroyed a wind erosion lab, damaged several engineering and science buildings, and tore the roof off a fraternity house.–
