Mona Lisa's Birthday

Lisa del Giocondo, née Gherardini, was an Italian noblewoman. She was born June 15, 1479, had five children, and died at an uncertain time in later adulthood. How wonderful that her husband commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint her portrait. Leonardo was never paid for it because he kept it. The portrait is 30 inches by 21 inches. It has been at the Louvre since 1797, where it draws big crowds. I had to gently push my way through the roomful of people to get this close to it. The painting has been parodied a gazillion times.

The Elephant on the Eads Bridge

150 years ago today, a circus elephant was led across the just-completed Eads Bridge in St. Louis. Popular thinking held that elephants had a sense about unsafe surfaces, but this not-so-wee beasty walked right across, impressing upon people that the bridge was sound. Of course, the test was a great publicity gimmick, too. A few weeks later, the bridge was dedicated, on July 4, 1874.

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Landscape: Bill Farnsworth

Bill Farnsworth (American,  b.1958), "A Walk in the Country," n.d.

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https://www.billfarnsworth.com

The Prisoner

The 17-episode series "The Prisoner" began its American run on June 1, 1968, after premiering in Britain the previous fall. It stars Patrick McGoohan (also the series creator) as an unnamed  intelligence agent who angrily and abruptly resigns. Soon he finds himself rendered unconscious and taken to a pretty coastal village where he is always referred to as Number 6. He responds to the village's Number 2: "I am not a number, I am a free man!" The series follows the village leaders' always unsuccessful attempts to find out why the agent resigned and what he knows. I didn't see the series until our local PBS station ran all the episodes during the late 1970s. (We did used to watch McGoohan's earlier series "Secret Agent." It's uncertain whether "The Prisoner" is supposed to be a continuation.) "The Prisoner" is quite a compelling series about individualism vs. collectivism, with detective and science-fiction elements, and a wonderful Sixties vibe.

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First Report of AIDS

On June 5, 1981, the first published report of cases of the disease eventually named AIDS appeared in a journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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D-Day, 80 Years Ago Today

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/d-day-allies-invade-europe?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1_0UrziIzC75z72y0rsD2HxzmvV6AkH0dDiShjc0xC44RD30c2l0bLbHY_aem_AfiWjeUd_8-0wa_YFlwdmOqVP95MFQuZRT9OGRLlq_U-_1HckMgKJ0vVHbZzYba9UONfgHDR4R_T0Leb8iepbIM8