June 24 in Pop Culture History

June 24 Facts, Fun Trivia and History

June 24 History Highlights

  • 1950 – In South Africa, the Group Areas Act was passed, formally segregating races (Apartheid).
  • 1957 – In Roth v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.
  • If you were born on June 24th,
    You were likely conceived the week of… October 1st (prior year)

The Dancing Plague of 1374

In 1374 AD, A strange mania, originally from the Rhine Valley in 1374 took over several medieval towns. Victims were seized by an agonizing compulsion to dance for hours or days without rest or food before some people died of exhaustion. Within weeks this mystery illness had engulfed large areas of Germany, France, and The Netherlands with possibly hundreds falling victim. Similar “Dancing mania” marathons were known to have happened in 1237, 1284, and 1518.

The region has been known to have a fungus – the Ergeot Fungus – which has been known to give people muscle spams, make people manic, and suffer from hallucinations. A possible cause was Sydenham’s Chorea, named after British physician Thomas Sydenham (1624–1689), also known as chorea minor and historically and occasionally referred to as St Vitus’ Dance, is a disorder characterized by rapid, uncoordinated jerking movements primarily affecting the face, hands, and feet. Another possibility was simply a curse put upon them by Saint Vitus, martyred by the Romans in 303; known as the Patron Saint of Dancing and Entertainers.

June 24 is…

Creamy Pralines Day
Swim a Lap Day

June 24 Birthday Quotes

“Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.”
– Ambrose Bierce

“A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.”
– Jack Dempsey

“If you were to ask me, ‘What the hell does a musician have in common with a restaurant?’I would say a huge amount. It’s showtime every day, it’s a team of people, like, running a circus, which is running a rock-and-roll band.”
– Mick Fleetwood

“Things turn out better by accident sometimes. But you can’t organize accidents.”
– Jeff Beck

“No economy can continue to function when the vast middle class and everybody else don’t have enough purchasing power to buy what the economy is capable of producing without going deeper and deeper into debt.”
– Robert Reich

“Democracy is four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.”
– Ambrose Bierce

June 24 Birthdays

1788 – Thomas Blanchard, American inventor (died in 1864)
1842 – Ambrose Bierce, American short story writer, essayist, and journalist (died in 1914)
1895 – Jack Dempsey, American boxer (died in 1983)
1901 – Chuck Taylor, American basketball player and sneaker salesman (died in 1969)
1915 – Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and author (died in 2001)
1919 – Al Molinaro, American character actor (died in 2015)
1942 – Mick Fleetwood, English-American drummer
1944 – Jeff Beck, English guitarist
1946 – Robert Reich, American economist and politician
1950 – Nancy Allen, American actress
1966 – Hope Sandoval, American singer-songwriter

June 24 History

1374 – An early morning, a sudden outbreak of ‘St. Vitas’s Dance’ caused people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapsed from exhaustion.

1497 – John Cabot landed in North America at Newfoundland

1509 – Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon were crowned King and Queen of England.

1873 – Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) received a patent (#140,245) for a self-pasting Scrapbook.

1880 – First performance of O Canada took place at at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français. The song later became Canada’s national anthem.

1916 – Mary Pickford became the first female film star to sign a million-dollar contract (with Adolph Zukor/Paramount).

1938 – Pieces of a meteor, estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it hit the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded, landed near Chicora, in western Pennsylvania. A cow was reportedly injured.

1947 – Kenneth Arnold reported seeing the Mount Rainier UFO.

1948 – Veteran Pilots Clarence Chiles and Charles Whitted, in Alabama, saw a cigar-shaped vehicle, with windows, flying beside them.

1949 – The first television western, Hopalong Cassidy, aired on NBC, starring William Boyd.

1957 – Jack Parr became the host on The Tonight Show on NBC,

1989 #1 Hit June 24, 1989 – June 30, 1989: Richard Marx – Satisfied

June 24, 1995 (fiction) Peter Pettigrew killed Cedric Diggory, Harry Potter

1997 – US Air Force officials released a 231-page report dismissing all of the claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947.

2000 #1 Hit June 24, 2000 – July 14, 2000: Enrique Iglesias – Be With You

2004 – In New York, capital punishment was declared unconstitutional.

2008Wipeout premiered on ABC.

June 24, 2010 – The Apple iPhone 3GS & iPhone 4 were released.

June 24, 2016Adventures in Babysitting aired on The Disney Channel

Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts

The U.S. pizza industry serves up to 100 acres of pizza every day.

TV Quotes… “The tribe has spoken” (Jeff Probst) on Survivor.

“Danger Will Robinson!” – Robot B-9 (Lost in Space)

As a kid, I thought about how 10 dollars could buy 10 Hershey Bars if I was an adult. As an adult, I think about how I could eat 10 Hershey Bars as a kid.

The collective term for nieces and nephews is “niblings”

Nothing is worse than the people who say, “I wish they taught us meaningful things in high school like taxes or saving for retirement” Really? Do you think you were going to pay attention in tax class?

The Capital of Saudi Arabia is Riyadh

?.? = the new emoticon for rolling your eyes at somebody #eyeroll

Einstein’s theory of relativity is just over 100 years old, but according to Einstein’s theory of relativity, time is relative so we don’t really know how old the theory is.

Deodorant companies should stop advertising “last 48 hrs”. Some people do believe that and then they get on a crowded bus.

Ben Franklin’s 13 Virtues #3 – Order.
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

Don’t ever look your symptoms up online because you’ll end up having a deadly disease that isn’t curable.

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