Month of the Year: June Trivia Quiz

Answer: Carousel

In "Carousel," Nettie notes that coming of springtime in Maine and sings "June is bustin' out all over! / All over the meadow and the hill, / Buds're bustin' outa bushes, / And the rompin' river pushes / Ev'ry little wheel that wheels beside a mill." This play also included such hits as "If I Loved You" and "You'll Never Walk Alone."

Answer: light at night

There are over 900 species of beetles called June bugs or June beetles or May beetles. The female lays her eggs just below the surface of the soil. The larvae hatch in the spring, grow into pupae and mature into June bugs. For unknown reasons, June bugs are intensely attracted to light at night.

This makes the evening enjoyment of porches and patios difficult. The sound of June bugs battering against windows and screens is a sign of summer in the US.

Answer: a sleeping woman

Leighton's painting of "Flaming June" is esteemed by most experts as his best work. In depicting a sleeping woman, he invokes classical Greek and Roman images of nymphs and naiads. The painting was lost from the early 1900s until its rediscovery in the 1960s. It was purchased by the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Answer: Bette Davis

Bretaigne Windust directed Ranald MacDougall's screenplay, nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Comedy. America was ready for a good laugh in 1948 and this movie delivered. Little Known Hollywood Fact: Debbie Reynolds was discovered by talent scouts at the 1948 Miss Burbank contest and played a small uncredited part ("Boo's Girlfriend at Wedding") in "June Bride," her first film.

Answer: pearl, alexandrite, moonstone

The traditional June birthstones are pearl, alexandrite and moonstone. Pearls are an organic gem in the sense that they grow inside a mollusk. They may be cultured or naturally occurring. Moonstone is a form of feldspar. It is desirable because of the way light seems to glow within it.

The Ancient Greek and Romans believed it came from the moon because the moon also glows. Alexandrite is a scarce variety of chrysoberyl. It is desirable because it appears to be different colours in different kinds of light.

It was named after Alexander II of Russia, where it was mined extensively. Aquamarine and bloodstone are the birthstones for March, opal and tourmaline for October, and tanzanite, turquoise and zircon for December.

Answer: Danish, Swahili, Javanese

"Juni" is also the word for the month of June in German, Icelandic, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Swedish, Zulu, and Indonesian. June is "jun" in Bosnian and "juny" in Catalan and Frisian. It is "Ioúnios" in Greek, "xuño" in Galician, and "giugno" in Italian. It is "yuwol" in Korean, "Tháng sáu" in Vietnamese, and "Isilimela" in Xhosa. The Maori word in "pipiri." June found its way into Middle English from the Old French "juin" which was derived from the Latin "Junius."

Answer: Bing Crosby

Romance thaws a winter's chill according to this song: "It's June in January / Because I'm in love / But only because I'm in love with you." Bing Crosby's first recording of this song was with Georgie Stoll and his Orchestra for the motion picture "Here Is My Heart." He again recorded it on an album in 1954 and yet again in 1977.

Many others recorded this standard: Guy Lombardo, The Hi-Lo's, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Dean Martin, and Ferrante & Teicher.

Answer: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender

Thom Higgins of Minnesota created the term "gay pride" and Brenda Howard, called "the Mother of the Pride," used it for the first pride day, first pride week and first pride parade in New York City. LGBT Pride Month occurs in the US in June, the month of the Stonewall riots of 1969. Presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden have proclaimed the observance.

The Russian celebration is in May recalling the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993. On some college campuses, the month is kept in April, when students are in school, and the result is called Gaypril.

The consistent emphasis of these observance, despite a great deal of local variability, is the promotion of dignity and equality for people of all manner of sexual orientations and genders.

Answer: 30

"Countdown" is a long story about the consequences of an event which instantly kills six billion people, leaving only teenagers to survive. Adults and small children are reduced to puddles of "black goo." Each of the twelve volumes tells of the aftermath in one month of 1999. Daniel Parker is the pen name of Daniel Ehrenhaft, who writes lots of children's and YA books.

Answer: the Roman goddess Juno

The Latin name "Junius" (meaning the month of June) is a variant of the Latin word for "Junonius" (meaning sacred to Juno). Juno is the name of the Roman goddess who was, variously, the patroness of marriage, of the well-being of women, and of child-birth. She was the wife of Jupiter and the queen of the gods. Her connection with marriage explains the tradition of June weddings.