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Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Almanac for June 17th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for June 17th: https://ko-fi.com/post/June-17-Z8Z61GMIOG


Beatles Trivia
June 17, 1974: John Lennon is in a New York recording studio working on his album Walls and Bridges when Elton John pays him a visit. Elton John hears the potential in the track “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” and agrees to play piano on the song.

Bummer June 17th

June 17, 1871: Clement Vallandigham, an attorney who once represented Ohio in the U.S. House of Representatives, dies after accidentally shooting himself in the abdomen. The wound happened the previous day while Vallandigham demonstrated to a courtroom how the alleged victim of his client (Vallandigham represented the defendant) may have accidentally shot himself.

June 17, 1952: 37-year-old rocket scientist Marvel Whiteside “Jack” Parsons is killed in an accidental explosion while mixing explosive fuel in his home laboratory. Since Parsons was known to be meticulously careful in the lab, some have speculated that his unexpected death could have been the result of suicide or foul play. 

Sadly, when she heard the news of her son’s death, Parson’s mother Ruth Whiteside killed herself by taking an overdose of barbiturates.

June 17, 1966: A 19-year-old man who illegally entered Disneyland in Anaheim, California, is struck and killed by the park’s Monorail. 

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Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Almanac for June 16th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for June 16th: https://ko-fi.com/post/June-16-M4M21GMIPO
Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Bloomsday

Artist Birthday: Daniel Brühl


Beatles Trivia
June 16, 2001, South Bend: Once upon a time, South Bend had a summer festival called the Ethnic Festival. Tit and I, living in a downtown apartment near where the festival took place, visited it both yesterday and today. On this day we ate lunch while listening to a reggae band named Indika. 

We went home for a while, but came back out after dinner to have a funnel cake and listen to a Beatles tribute band. They wore the full Beatles suits and wigs even in the heat. They played many lesser-known songs such as “Boys” and “Taxman.” For a free concert on a beautiful night in the park, it was great. We watched the fireworks afterward.

Bummer June 16th

June 16, 1944: 14-year-old George Stinney becomes the youngest person to be executed in the U.S. in the 20th century when he dies by electric chair in Columbia, South Carolina. The African-American teen was convicted of the murders of two white girls, aged seven and 11, although the South Carolina court vacated his conviction and declared Stinney wrongfully executed in 2014. Stinney’s body was so much smaller than the average prisoner, he had to sit on a Bible as a booster seat in the electric chair.

June 16, 1959: Between 1 and 2 a.m., actor George Reeves is found dead of a single gunshot wound to the head in a bedroom of a home in Los Angeles where is a party is taking place. Officially ruled a suicide, witness reports conflict, and some of Reeves’s friends and family members have questioned whether the death may have been an accident or perhaps a homicide.

June 16, 1970: Chicago Bears halfback Brian Piccolo, age 26, dies of embryonal cell carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of testicular cancer, that has spread to his lung, liver, and other organs.

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June 16, 1994: Kristen Pfaff, bassist for the band Hole, dies of a heroin overdose. She is 27 years old.

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Monday, June 15, 2026

Almanac for June 15th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for June 15th: https://ko-fi.com/post/June-15-X8X31GMIR3

Bummer June 15th

June 15, 1785: The first recorded deaths in aviation history occur when hot air balloonists Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and Pierre-Ange Romain crash into the French coast while attempting to balloon across the English Channel.

June 15, 1996: Legendary jazz and popular vocalist Ella Fitzgerald dies of complications of diabetes.

Good luck, España, in today's FIFA World Cup soccer match vs. Cabo Verde!
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Sunday, June 14, 2026

Almanac for June 14th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for June 14th: https://ko-fi.com/post/June-14-E1E21GMIZ8

Bowman Gum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Bummer June 14th

June 14, 1949: 19-year-old typist Ruth Ann Steinhagen shoots and almost kills Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus in one of the earliest recorded cases of what comes to be known as stalking. Steinhagen, a resident of Cicero, Illinois, has been obsessed with Waitkus since she sees him playing for the Chicago Cubs in 1946. She even leaves an empty plate at the dinner table for him when eating with her family. Steinhagen was seeing a psychiatrist, but this didn’t stop her from traveling to Chicago’s Edgewater Beach Hotel, leaving a note with Waitkus’s roommate asking to meet, then shooting the baseball player with a .22 caliber rifle when he came to see her. She shot him in the chest, puncturing one of his lungs.

After shooting Waitkus, Steinhagen allegedly looked for a second bullet with which to shoot herself, but was unable to find one. Instead she called the police and told them, “I just shot a man,” allowing Waitkus to reach medical care before his injury killed him. He had to sit out the rest of the ‘49 baseball season, but returned in 1950. Eddie Waitkus developed a drinking problem and died in 1972 of esophageal cancer.

June 14, 1986: Three roller coaster riders are killed and a fourth is permanently disabled when their car derails on the Mindbender at Fantasyland (now Galaxyland) Amusement Park in West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada. 

June 14, 2017: The Grenfell Tower apartment building in London catches fire due to an electrical fault in a refrigerator on its fourth floor. Fire and smoke spread rapidly, trapped by the building’s exterior cladding and insulation, which act like a chimney. 70 people die in the 24-story tower before the fire can be extinguished and two more die in the hospital. 70 others are injured.

On the same day in the United States, six people are shot at a Congressional charity baseball game, including U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (a Republican), a Capitol Police officer, and a Congressional aide. The 66-year-old perpetrator is shot by police and dies of his injuries. All of those who are injured eventually recover fully, aside from physical and psychological scars.

Saturday, June 13, 2026

Almanac for June 13th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for June 13th: https://ko-fi.com/post/June-13-J3J01GMJ0X

Bummer June 13th

June 13, 2012: 26-year-old Indonesian singer Irma Bule performs in a village in West Java, using a live king cobra as a stage prop. The snake bites Bule. She continues performing, but collapses and dies from the venomous bite 45 minutes later.

Bule wasn’t a well-known performer. Like many other young, single mothers in Indonesia hoping for more lucrative musical careers, she performed for a small fee plus whatever tips she could get from the audience. Performers who incorporate snakes into their act are paid slightly more, but the snakes are generally non-venomous and often have their mouths taped shut. Bule’s mother believes Bule did not know the snake she was performing with was venomous.

Good luck to Brazil in today's FIFA World Cup match vs. Morocco! 
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Friday, June 12, 2026

Almanac for June 12

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for June 12th: https://ko-fi.com/post/June-12-D1D21GMJ1Z

Bummer June 12th

June 12, 2015: Musician Dave Grohl falls from the stage, breaking his leg, while performing with the Foo Fighters in Gothenburg, Sweden.



Good luck to Canada (Group B) and the USA (Group D) in the FIFA World Cup!
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Thursday, June 11, 2026

Almanac for June 11th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for June 11th: https://ko-fi.com/Post/June-11-E1E31GMJ32

Bummer June 11th

June 11, 1955: The 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race turns disastrous when Pierre Levegh’s Mercedes-Benz rear-ends Lance Macklin’s Austin-Healey. Macklin had swerved in front of Levegh to avoid hitting a third driver. The Mercedes-Benz leapfrogs over the Austin-Healey, flies over an earthen barrier, strikes the spectator area twice (breaking apart in the process), and comes to land on the barrier. In the process, Levegh is thrown from his car onto the track and killed instantly.

83 spectators are killed in the accident. An additional 120 people are injured. Levegh’s car burns for hours after the crash; its body is made with magnesium. Water poured on the car by rescue workers intensifies the magnesium fire. Among the injured are spectators burned by the magnesium sparks. 

June 11, 1979: Marion Morrison, who acted under the stage name John Wayne, dies of stomach cancer at the age of 72. 


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