June 14 has been the site of major historical milestones, including the end of the Falklands War in 1982, the fall of Paris to Nazi Germany in 1940, and the adoption of the U.S. flag in 1777
June 14 is best known as World Blood Donor Day and, in the United States, as National Flag Day. It is also celebrated globally as International Bath Day, National Strawberry Shortcake Day, and World Juggling Day, while marking major historical milestones like the birthday of Che Guevara.
None of the above is a rail landmark in the Thames Valley, Wessex, South West amd South Wales, let alone being a public transport issue of interest to us on the Coffee Shop. Events seem to cluster around certain times of year, perhaps to do with politic, financial year and weather patterns, and we are June. There are other dates in June where our "On this day" reports "No 'On This Day' events reported for xxth Jun". It's also - possible - that there's a personal bias here in that in past years I've been involved with other things at this time of year and taken my eye off the addition of items for some of these dates.
No news - in many ways - is good news. The Coffee Shop thrives on the "out of the ordinary" and "nothing much happening to distrupt trains or concern us" tends to lead to less messages being posted. Good information systems (as well as more modern social media) have a tendency to leave us rather quieter than we were in the past, and really we should celebrate those good information systems, and consistent routine reliable operation which are, after all very much the goal.
Yesterday - 13th June - we reported On this Day on the first train ride by a monarch. But a monarch is just a single person in their country, and they sit in a unique position. Public transport - trains and buses (and trams, ferries, lifts, escalators, aircraft, taxis etc) exist for mass transit. And there remains a logical social requirement to provide consistent mobility and information on mobility for all, and for those of us who wish to help inform others for better use thereof, to give thoughtful feedback, and to assist / partner with anyone and everyone who has parallel or near-parallel objectives.
Yesterday also brought - to me - a micro reminder of some of the issues and areas we can help with, and some elements where current provision isn't ideal. Plans and thoughts afoot reminded my of the little things where significant differences can / could / should be made over coming months and years. There's another thread to come on this. It also reminded me of my own increased frailty - and there's yet more of a topic there.
The 19th, 20th and 24th June are also showing up as "nothing much happened" days, as are 4th, 8th, and 13th July. We do have over 500 "on this day" events that come up every year from our database, but the spread is uneven. Please go ahead and post events for these days - or tell me and I will post them. The
OTD▸ system is set up as a "capital" rather than a "revenue" system - single actions to add something leaves it there for the life of the system without a need to re-invest or maintain each year, and as such I haven't taken the time and effort to make it easy for anyone except myself to actually add the links that "pin" posts to days - a little bit dictatorial maybe; happy, then to add appropriate new items for members, and to take items away should there be good reason such as moderator team consensus that I should do so.
