The Wonders of St. John’s Day
Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 22nd, 2006
St. John’s Day
June 24
Knights Templars display “Mysterious Head” at Poitiers (1308). Founding of the Order of the Garter (1348). John Cabot discovers North America (1497). Galileo released (1633). “Woman of the Wilderness” utopian community arrives in America (1694). “W of W” angelic visions (1701). Grand Lodge of Freemasons inaugurated (1717). Ambrose Bierce born (1842). Red rain, Italy (1877). Ice fall, Ft. Lyon, Colorado (1877). Fall of jelly-like mass, Eton (1911). Fred Hoyle born (1915). Mick Fleetwood (1942) and Jeff Beck (1944) born.
First day of “flying saucer” history, Mt. Rainier & Mt. Adams, Washington State (1947). Filmstock fire kills seventeen people, Brussels (1947). Movie theaters evaluated during huge fire, Perth Amboy, NJ (1947). United Airlines plane struck by lightning over Cleveland (1947). Invasion of grasshoppers battled with flame-throwers, Guatemala/El Salvador (1947). Woman attacked and killed by bees or wasps, Seattle (1947). Bizarre aerial sightings near Daggett, California (1950) and on Iwo Jima (1953).
The deaths of various phenomena researchers, writers, and fans (Frank Scully, June 24, 1964; Frank Edwards, near the coming midnight of the 24th, still on June 23, 1967; Arthur Bryant, June 24, 1967; Richard Church June 24, 1967; Willy Ley, June 24, 1969; Jackie Gleason, June 24, 1987).
Locals have Bigfoot sightings, Logan and Union counties, Ohio (1980). Chupacabras encountered outside disco, Maria Elena, Argentina (2000). Moose hunters see Bigfoot, near Fort Simpson, NWT, Canada (2002). Mysterious fire erupts in Gallipolis, Ohio resident’s car on bridge from Ohio to Point Pleasant, West Virginia (2003). Massive unusual aerial phenomena, Xalapa, Mexico (2005). “Aren’t You Chupacabra to See Me?” airs for first time on Cartoon Network (2005). Nestle uses Bigfoot-costumed marchers to launch Kit Kat Limited Edition – Cappuccino at the Giant Mahkota Parade, Malacca, and Jusco Tebrau City, Johor (2005).
Grand opening of Bates College Museum of Art’s “Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale” exhibition (2006).
Unexplained events. Mysterious fiery outbursts. Strange cryptid sightings. Beltane fires. Little people. Miracles. Bathing. Round dances. Collecting of glowworms. Folkloric incidents. Weird encounters.
Respect the wonder and adventure of the 24th of June. What events have dotted your past crypto-inquiries from this point on the calendar?
What’s in the mix on this day in ’06?
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Here’s a few of the more Fortean entries in my odd collection of events I call a calendar-
European Day of Fors Fortuna (Lady Luck).
Mariner’s Blessing in Atlantic City, New Jersey. (Sadly unobserved anymore).
Celebration Of The Senses.
2 Eskimos kill a huge, yellow-furred bear similar to Arctodus Simus that died out in the Pleistocene Era at Rendezvous Lake, Barren ground, Canada. It is later given the scientific name Vetularctos inopinatus, 1864.
Pieces of ice “so large that they could not be grasped in one hand” are strewn about by a tornado in Colorado, 1877.
The ground in Eton, England is found covered by masses of jelly the size of peas, believed by some to be the larval eggs of some kind of worm or insect, 1911.
Birth of Astronomer, Science Fiction Author, and Scientific Gadfly Sir Fred Hoyle in Bingley, England, 1915.
6 men seeking shelter in a shack from a thunderstorm die when a nearby lightning blast sets off a charge of dynamite inside in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1924.
Maria Goretti canonized as a Saint by Pope Pius XII in a ceremony attended by her mother and her murderer (The first known case of either). The 12-year-old had died in 1902 2 days after fending off a violent attempted rape by 18-year-old Alexander Serenelli. Before she died, she pardoned him for his sins and hoped that he might one day join her in heaven. He, apparently, had a vivid dream while in jail at about this time in which she offered him flowers that glowed with white flame, 1950.
116th Graduation at the Albany Avenue Atlantic City High School, the last class to do so, 1994. (It’s not very Fortean, but it’s where I went to school. It was a cool, gothic cathedral of a building that sadly, is nothing more than a casino parking lot now).
USAF releases the Roswell Report, purporting that alien bodies seen by witnesses were test dummies, 1997.
Crop circles discovered in Latty Township, Ohio, 1998.
Ambrose Bierce rules!!!
BG
(I had to say something.)
Well, it’ll be my 35th birthday, so I’ll be eligible for the presidency of the United States. That’s pretty bizarre.
I want a Lemur. Throwing that into the mix is a bit odd eh? oh well.
What A Strange Day!!
Dear Loren,
St. John’s Day (“Jaanipäev”) is a major traditional holiday in Estonia where I was born, celebrated by singing around bonfires, in Estonian communities in the United States and Canada as well as in Estonia itself. The glow-worm, because it usually starts appearing around St. John’s Day, is called “Jaaniuss”–“St. John’s Worm”–in Estonian.
It’s interesting that Kenneth Arnold’s 1947 sighting of nine flying whatisits over Mt. Rainier should have taken place on St. John’s Day–though I never noticed the connection before. What might be significant is not the mere fact of Arnold seeing them that day–there were UFO sightings all over the West Coast throughout June and early July that Summer, as well as the Roswell crash–but rather the fact that Arnold’s sighting, on that date, was the one that for some reason catalyzed public interest the way none of its recent predecessors had–and moreover gripped the general public imagination, not just the small minority of readers of Charles Fort or science-fiction. Fort had “scooped” Arnold and Palmer–a golf name-game there, too?:=)–by two and a half decades with _The Book of the Damned_ in 1919–but had not galvanized the general public the way Kenneth Arnold did on St. John’s Day, 1947.
It’s also very curious how a number of UFO witnesses or researchers died on or very close to St. John’s Day, as you pointed out–Frank Scully, June 24, 1964; Frank Edwards, near midnight on June 23, 1967; Arthur Bryant, June 24, 1967.I believe John A. Keel might have been one of the first to point this out, in _The Mothman Prophecies_.
As for the Masonic connections of St. John’s Day–would anybody happen to know if Kenneth Arnold, Ray Palmer, Richard Shaver, Donald Keyhoe, or George Adamski were Masons?
Cheers,
T. Peter
Saint Jean Baptiste day rocks. How’s millions of French Canadians partying sound like? Gotta love our national holiday. Nothing weird to report on my side though, except that I celebrated a French Canadian holiday in an Irish pub lol.
Fire blocks Grand Canyon exits
From Chricago Tribune news services
Published June 25, 2006
SEDONA, ARIZONA — A 15,500-acre wildfire in Grand Canyon National Park prompted officials to close several roads, blocking the exits for an unknown number of tourists on the North Rim on Saturday (June 24, 2006) as crews worked on a plan to escort visitors out of the park as soon as possible.
The blaze, which had not threatened any property, was allowed to burn since it was discovered June 8 in the Kaibab National Forest after a series of lightning strikes.
But strong winds pushed the flames into areas without fire lines and forced the roads closed Saturday morning, said a spokesman with the team fighting the fire.
Near Sedona, dozens of residents who were evacuated from scenic Oak Creek Canyon a week ago returned to their homes Saturday.
We can add to this list “virus destroys writer’s OS, nearly destroying life’s work and resulting in mad dash to salvage contents of hard drive…”