The Almanac
Government
June 1: The U.S. Treasury will receive for final approval the first of 50 new designs -- one for each state -- for the "tails" side of quarters. Each state's governor will choose a design from several approved by the Treasury; the coins will be minted over a 10-year-period in the order in which the states ratified the Constitution. The first new quarter, bearing Delaware's design, will circulate next year. This is the first time that states have been involved in national circulating-currency design. June 3: The last day on which the U.S. Air Force will accept requests for chimpanzees from its aerospace-research program. Although chimps were critical in the preparations for and early days of U.S. manned space travel (their reaction time, organ placement, and DNA are remarkably similar to those of human beings), the nearly 150 remaining chimps were declared "surplus to requirements" last year. A newly formed Institute for Captive Chimpanzee Care and Well-Being is trying to raise the funds to house the chimps, in the hope of preventing them from going to medical researchers.
Health & Safety
June 30: The most sweeping handgun-safety regulations in the country take effect in Massachusetts today. They are meant to prevent accidental discharges (each year hundreds of children and teenagers nationwide are killed by accidentally fired guns). All handguns sold commercially in the state must now pass drop tests that assess their propensity to discharge on impact, and must either meet standards for melting point, tensile strength, and metal density, or pass performance tests for malfunction and wear. And by September, to deter use by children, they must have a key-activated trigger lock and either have high trigger resistance or require multiple motions to fire. Under the regulations some 30 common types of handguns are likely to be barred from sale.
Demographics
June 1: Hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin officially begins today. Meteorologists and coastal residents will not be the only ones tracking this year's storms: investors in "catastrophe bonds," a new kind of security, will be keeping close watch as well. Catastrophe bonds are sold by insurance companies in order to boost reserves in the event of a major disaster. They offer high returns if losses over a specified period of time are lower than a specified amount; if losses are greater, the investor loses part or all of the principal. The idea of, in effect, betting against storms grew out of contrasting trends in demographics and in weather along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. While the population of these regions has soared (the Atlantic coastal counties now hold nearly a quarter of the nation's people), dramatically raising insurance losses when hurricanes occur, the incidence of hurricanes has fallen (only half as many major hurricanes have hit the coasts since 1970 as in the three preceding decades). However, investors may soon face less favorable odds, because hurricane activity is cyclical.
Environment
This month six teams of presidentially appointed scientists will complete the first phase of an evaluation of the Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone" -- a low-oxygen area off the Louisiana coastline. Dead zones are created where high levels of nutrients, often from agricultural runoff, flow into the ocean, in this case from the Mississippi River. As the water grows warmer and solar radiation increases, these nutrients boost algal populations; after the algae die and sink, they decompose, depleting the oxygen near the ocean floor. The dead zone in the Gulf is the largest in the western Atlantic, last year covering an area the size of New Jersey. The phenomenon has serious ecological and economic implications; at risk, among other things, is the Gulf's fishing industry. A task force will be seeking ways to reduce nutrients in the Mississippi without unfairly penalizing the agricultural industry: one proposal, for example, involves federal compensation to farmers who convert riverside farmlands to wetlands.
The Skies
June 10: Full Moon, also known this month as the Rose, Honey, or Strawberry Moon. 17: The Moon and Jupiter lie close together in the southeastern sky an hour before sunrise. 21: At 10:03 A.M. EDT the Summer Solstice occurs. 25: Mercury lies to the left of a very thin crescent Moon and below the paired stars Castor and Pollux, just above the western horizon 45 minutes after sunset.
Arts & Letters
June 3: The dedication of an 87-foot-tall stone face of Crazy Horse, a Sioux chief who helped to defeat George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The face was carved into a mountain in South Dakota in an effort begun 50 years ago today. It is to be part of a sculpture that will depict the warrior on his stallion, visible from all sides, and that will be the largest mountain carving in the world. The monument was started a sculptor who worked on Mount Rushmore, and has been continued by Ziolkowski's family since his death, in 1982. Today's events will include a dynamite blast intended to usher in another 50 years of work.
50 Years Ago
George Bernard Shaw, writing in the June, 1948, issue of The Atlantic Monthly: "Capital Punishment is a term which indicates muddled thinking. The dilemma of kill or be killed. ... is a hard fact which must be faced and organized. ... What are we to do with [criminals]? ... The thoughtless humanitarian is ready with his reply. Reform the criminal: be kind to him. But the criminal who can be reformed is not the problem. ... The real problem is the criminal you cannot reform: the human mad dog or cobra. The answer is, kill him kindly and apologetically, if possible without consciousness on his part. Let him go comfortably to bed expecting to wake up in the morning as usual, and not wake up. His general consciousness that this may happen to him should be shared by every citizen as part of his moral civic responsibility."
Illustrations by Elizabeth Brandt
The Atlantic Monthly; June 1998; The June Almanac; Volume 281, No. 6; page 18.