Answer of the Day
If it's June 21 in New York, is it June 21 in Australia? One answer is: much of the day. Because of the time zone difference, by 10AM in New York, it's already the next day in Australia. But, if you're really asking if the calendar is the same at the same time in both hemispheres, the answer is yes. While June 21 marks the beginning of summer in New York, it marks the beginning of winter in Australia. In the Northern Hemisphere, today is the summer solstice — the time when the North Pole is tilted toward the Sun. In the Northern Hemisphere, it's the longest day of the year. Some countries celebrate Midsummer Day with music, dancing and bonfires on this date (some celebrate it on June 24). Of course, all of this is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere, where this date marks the winter solstice, and the shortest day of the year.

Quote
"Summer is a promissory note signed in June, its long days spent and gone before you know it, and due to be repaid next January." — Hal Borland

Word of the day

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Today's History

'SpaceShipOne'

• US Constitution: went into effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it (1788)
• Ellen Louks Fairclough: was sworn in as the first female member of the Canadian cabinet (1957)
• Women's National Basketball Association: league play began (1997)
• polio: the World Health Organization declared Europe free of the disease (2002)
• SpaceShipOne: the first privately funded and developed spacecraft was launched over the Mojave Desert and piloted into space by Michael Melvill (2004)
• Pluto: newly discovered moons were named Nix and Hydra (2006)

Today's Birthdays

Prince William

• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980): existentialist author, Being and Nothingness; plus, writers Moses Hess (1812-1875), Joaquim Machado de Assis (1839-1908), Jose Graça Aranha (1868-1931), Mary McCarthy (1912-1989) and Françoise Sagan (1935-2004)
• Shirin Ebadi (63): first Iranian winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
• Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007): Pakistan's first female prime minister
• Berke Breathed (53): creator of Bloom County; cartoonist Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003) was also born today
• Doug Savant (46): Tom Scavo on Desperate Housewives; also, actors Jane Russell (89), Bernie Kopell (77), Monte Markham (75), Ron Ely (72), Mariette Hartley (70), Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross (both 63), Juliette Lewis (37) and Chris Pratt (31)
• Prince William (28): second in line to the British throne