June was named either for the Roman goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter or the name from the Latin work juniors, meaning “younger ones”, as opposed to majors “elders” for which May is named.  June is also called the season of the unicorn, so get hunting for them, since June is also the month with the longest daylight hours.  Known for the largest number of marriages, this could be due to the namesake, Juno, who was the goddess of marriage and a married couple’s household, and it is consequently good luck to marry in June.  In Iceland, folklore says that if you bathe naked in the morning dew on the morning of June 24, you are supposed to keep aging at bay longer. 

Marilyn Monroe would be 85 on June 1 had she survived.  June 3, 1972 saw the first woman rabbi in the United States, Sally Jan Priesand who was ordained at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York.  June 3 was also Josephine Baker’s birthdate and the dancer was the only American-born woman to receive the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor for her Red Cross work during WWII.    June 4, Marie Thible of Lyons, France became the first woman to achieve free flight in a balloon reaching 8,500 feet for a duration of 45 minutes.  June 12 is Abused Women and Children Awareness Day, a day to prayerfully put an end to violent behavior in American homes, schools, workplaces and communities.  Anne Frank was born June 12.  And, today, June 28, Kathy Bates turns 63, also Mary Stuart Masterson 45, who were both in the film Fried Green Tomatoes.  Clara Maas, born 1876 was the heroic nurse who gave her life in the yellow fever experiments of 1901.