Archive for June 2022
History of All You Need Is Love, by The Beatles
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HISTORY OF ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE, BY THE BEATLES On June 25, 1967, The Beatles released the song “All You Need Is Love.” At that time, they participated in the Our World TV show, which used the recently constructed communication satellite system and broadcast their performance across the globe. Beatles drummer Ringo Starr said…
Read MoreHistory of the Summer of Love — 1967: Part 4, Rock & Roll
HISTORY OF THE SUMMER OF LOVE — 1967: PART 4, ROCK & ROLL It was twenty years ago today Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play They’ve been going in and out of style But they’re guaranteed to raise a smile Rock & Roll in the late ’60s was exemplified when The Beatles…
Read MoreHistory of St. John the Baptist Day
HISTORY OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST DAY The Feast of St. John the Baptist, or the Nativity of St John the Forerunner, sometimes called St. John the Baptist Day, is celebrated on June 24 in many places around the world, though not much in the United States, as we’ll see below. Celebration of the Feast…
Read MoreHistory of the Summer of Love — 1967: Part 3, Drugs
HISTORY OF THE SUMMER OF LOVE — 1967: DRUGS When I was a Resident Assistant at U.C. Berkeley in the early ’70s, a local police officer I knew gave me a tour down nearby Telegraph Avenue. He told me: “All the major drug deals on the West Coast go down within a two block stretch…
Read MoreHistory of the Summer of Love — 1967: Part 2, Sex
HISTORY OF THE SUMMER OF LOVE — 1967: PART 2, SEX “Make love, not war” and the call for “free love” represented a cultural shift in mores in 1967. Even The Beatles sang “All You Need Is Love.” If the ’60s was the time of the “sexual revolution,” the natural question is: who won? There were…
Read MoreHistory of the Summer of Love — 1967: Part 1 – Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll
HISTORY OF THE SUMMER OF LOVE — 1967: SEX, DRUGS, AND ROCK & ROLL The Summer of Love was fifty-five years ago, the Summer of 1967, with its epicenter in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. It was a summer of sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Both San Francisco and Liverpool celebrated 30-year anniversaries in 1997. While…
Read MoreScience of the Summer Solstice: Start of Summer
SCIENCE OF THE SUMMER SOLSTICE Solstice comes from the Latin word solstitium, meaning “Sun, standing-still.” The Summer Solstice occurs on June 21 at 09:14 UTC, Coordinated Universal Time, Zulu Time, or roughly Greenwich Mean Time. Greenwich, England, is the prime meridian — the zero point for longitude lines. Why is UTC the abbreviation for Coordinated Universal…
Read MoreHistory of Juneteenth: and the Emancipation Proclamation
HISTORY OF JUNETEENTH: and the Emancipation Proclamation June Nineteenth, or Juneteenth, marks the celebration of the emancipation of African-American slaves in Texas in 1865. While the annual celebration started in Texas the following year in 1866 — and became an official Texas state holiday there in 1980 — this formerly obscure holiday is now observed…
Read MoreHistory of Father’s Day: the Beginning
HISTORY OF FATHERS DAY: the Beginning [NOTE: I wrote a more extended and serious version of this article for CBS.com several years ago. It has been published on their network of sites for major cities around the country. You can find that article here.] Origin of Fathers Day The celebration of Father’s Day goes…
Read MoreHistory of The Natural: A Father Returns
HISTORY OF THE NATURAL: A Father Returns A classic movie with a timeless topic comes to mind in celebration of Father’s Day. The 1984 film The Natural asks the question: Can you return? If the movie Field of Dreams was epic, then The Natural was mythic, as I’ll explain below. The Natural: The Story…
Read MoreHistory of Field of Dreams: A Father’s Day Treat
HISTORY OF FIELD OF DREAMS: A Father’s Day Treat One of my all-time favorite movies is not an action movie, a science fiction movie, a comic book blockbuster, or a fantasy film. It’s a baseball movie. Or is it? Is it a movie about Berkeley, Iowa, Fenway Park, or America? It’s all of them, and…
Read MoreHistory of Explo 72: The Apex of the Jesus Movement, 50 Years Ago
History of Explo ’72: The Apex of the Jesus Movement, 50 Years Ago Fifty years ago, Explo ’72 was held in Dallas, Texas, from June 12 to June 17, 1972. It was the most conspicuous event of the Jesus Movement, at least in the media. Sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ, it was initially called…
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