Eagle Feathers #207 – The Summer Solstice

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

In the Northern hemisphere, June is the month that contains the longest day of the year. It has the most hours of daylight and the least of darkness. This year, June’s summer solstice day fell coincidently on 20, 2020. The 21st was Father’s Day and the traditional beginning of summer. It’s a popular time for weddings, deriving its name from Juno, the Roman goddess of love marriage.

June is the sixth month of the year, and its end represents the halfway mark in this unimaginable year of 2020. June is also a popular time for many historic dates:

• June 4, 1944 – Rome was liberated by the United States Fifth Army.
• June 6, 1944 – Was D-Day and World War II allies invaded France in the largest sea- born invasion in history.
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• June 10, 1974 – The Arrow Paper Company fire occurred in Somerville. The Somerville Fire Department’s headquarters at the Reilly Brickley Station on Winter Hill draws its name from those two firefighters who lost their lives at that horrific fire, Joseph Reilly and Robert Brickley.
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• June 13, 1917 – General John Pershing, followed by the million-man American Expeditionary Force’s soldiers, began arriving in France to fight in World War I. Somerville’s Medal of Honor hero, George Dilboy, was one of them.
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• June14, 1777 – Was the First American Flag Day and birth of the American Army.
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• June 17, 1972 – A tragic fire at the Hotel Vendome in Boston took the lives of nine firefighters. Over half of them were from Charlestown and Somerville.
• June 19, 1885 – The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City. She was a patriotic gift to America from France.
• June 20, 2020 – The Summer Solstice, the longest day in the northern Hemisphere, occurred.
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• June 21, 2020 – The National observance of Father’s Day and the first day of summer.

Locally, the most historic date by far in June is the 17th. On that day, the Battle of Bunker Hill occurred. It is formally celebrated only in Suffolk County and Somerville. The next time you travel over the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge, glance over at the Charlestown monument and remember the over 1,500 casualties of that hot June day.
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