June 2 Birthday
On June 2, 1924, President Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, granting US citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States. Before this act, citizenship had been granted piecemeal — through treaties, military service, or allotment. Even after 1924, many states denied Native Americans the vote through literacy tests, poll taxes, and residency requirements. Utah did not guarantee the Native vote until 1962. The act was sponsored by Homer P. Snyder of New York, who said it was "simply an act of justice." The Bureau of Indian Affairs estimated that 125,000 Native Americans became citizens. But citizenship did not bring equal rights — it brought the expectation that Native Americans would assimilate. Queen Elizabeth II was crowned on June 2, 1953, in Westminster Abbey. The coronation was the first major event broadcast live on television — 27 million people in Britain watched. Churchill, who had opposed televising the ceremony, relented after pressure from the Queen. The broadcast boosted television sales in Britain dramatically. The Queen was twenty-seven. She rode in a gold state coach to the Abbey, a journey that took forty-five minutes. The crown she wore weighed four pounds. She has been queen for seventy years — the longest reign in British history. Thomas Hardy, born this day in 1840, was a Dorset stonemason's son who became the greatest English novelist of his generation. Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895) attacked the sexual and religious conventions of Victorian England. The bishop of Wakefield publicly burned a copy of Jude. Hardy stopped writing novels and spent the last thirty years of his life writing poetry. His heart was buried in Stinsford churchyard; his ashes in Westminster Abbey. The heart was reportedly eaten by a cat during the funeral preparations. People born on June 2 fall under the zodiac sign of Gemini. The birthstone is Pearl and the birth flower is Rose. Historical events on June 2 include 1924: Indian Citizenship Act grants US citizenship to Native Americans, 1953: Queen Elizabeth II crowned at Westminster Abbey, 1979: Pope John Paul II visits Poland, first papal visit to a communist country. Famous people born on June 2 include Thomas Hardy (1840), Jerry Mathers (1948), Justin Long (1978).