June 30 is World Social Media Day, International Parliamentarianism Day, and International Asteroid Day. Also, on this day, in different eras, events took place that influenced the fate of countries, the course of wars, national movements and scientific progress.
World Day of Social Networks
This day was started in 2010 by an American media company Mashable as a day to realize the impact of social networks on society. The idea quickly spread on a global scale, as social networks became not only a way of communication, but also a major tool for news, business, promotion and protest.
Today, social networks are the main source of information for billions of people. They are changing politics, culture, media, marketing and even medicine. But at the same time, they become a space for misinformation, addiction, cyberbullying and commercial exploitation of personal data.
Interesting facts
The world’s first social network, SixDegrees, appeared in 1997, allowing users to create profiles, friend lists, and send messages. It was ahead of its time and closed due to low user interest.
Twitter did not start as a startup, but as a side project of the employees of the Odeo company, which was engaged in podcasts. The idea of creating a short message service was proposed by Jack Dorsey.
Facebook was originally called Facemash and was created to rate photos of Harvard students – it was closed due to complaints, but this platform became the basis of the future social giant.
In 2011, Facebook had more active users than there were total Internet users in 2004.
Instagram Stories is not an original idea. The format of disappearing photos and videos was copied by Snapchat after it refused to sell the company to Facebook.
In China, the WeChat social network combines messenger, banking, government services, video service and even access to transportation. It is a complete digital ecosystem for life.
TikTok surpassed YouTube in average video watch time per user back in 2021. This happened for the first time in history and indicates a change in the content consumption format.
YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world after Google. People search it not only for music, but also for recipes, instructions, and scientific lectures.
In India, the Prime Minister’s official Twitter account has more than 100 million followers, more than many global celebrities and companies.
In some countries, such as Iran or North Korea, classic Western social networks are banned completely, and citizens are forced to use domestic counterparts or VPNs.
TikTok algorithms analyze not only likes, but also scrolling speed. If the user stayed longer on the video, this is already a signal of interest, even without a reaction.
In the Philippines, mobile operators have long provided free access only to Facebook. For millions of users, it was the only accessible segment of the Internet.
Social networks are already being used by epidemiologists to detect new outbreaks of diseases by geotags and posts of users with certain symptoms.
In 2018, the United Nations said that Facebook played a key role in fueling hatred against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, with the network contributing to the spread of calls for violence.
LinkedIn is the oldest of the currently active social networks. It appeared in 2003 and to this day remains the main platform for professional networking.
In 2022, more than 70% of young people in the United States received their news not from television or newspapers, but from social networks. This completely changed the structure of information consumption.
In 2018, social networks were recognized as one of the factors in the genocide in Myanmar. According to the UN, Facebook has fueled the spread of hatred against Rohingya Muslims, which has led to violence.
International day of parliamentarism
This day was established by the UN General Assembly in 2018. The date is timed to the creation of the Inter-Parliamentary Union — the first international parliamentary organization that appeared on this day in 1889. It is intended to remind about the role of parliaments as the basis of democratic governance. Parliament performs the functions of legislation, control over executive power, representation of citizens’ interests and accountability.
The purpose of the holiday is to increase public awareness of the principles of the work of parliaments, their tasks, structure and influence on the life of the state. Particular attention is paid to the participation of women, youth and minorities in law-making processes, the transparency of procedures, and citizens’ access to parliamentary information.
Interesting facts
The Inter-Parliamentary Union, in whose honor the day is established, was created as a platform for dialogue between the parliamentarians of France and Great Britain to prevent wars. Today it includes almost all countries of the world.
In Sweden, Parliament (Riksdag) documents are automatically translated into English, and all sessions are streamed online with simultaneous sign language interpretation.
Iceland’s parliament is one of the oldest in the world, having been established as early as 930. It has been operating continuously for over a thousand years.
In India, Members of Parliament can raise queries on any matter of state, and the ministers concerned are required to answer them publicly during the session.
In Rwanda, more than 60% of the seats in the parliament are held by women, which is the highest rate of gender representation in the world.
In the Estonian Parliament, all voting takes place electronically, and there is no paper archive in the building – all documents are kept digitally.
In New Zealand, Parliament officially recognizes MPs’ speeches in indigenous languages - such as Maori – and provides real-time translation.
The Parliament of the European Union is the only supranational parliament in the world that is directly elected by citizens from over 400 million voters.
International Asteroid Day
This day was approved by the UN General Assembly in 2016 at the initiative of the Association of Space Explorers. The date is timed to the anniversary of the Tunguska phenomenon — the largest recorded fall of a space body to Earth, which occurred on June 30, 1908 in Siberia.
The purpose of this day is to draw attention to the threat of collision between the Earth and near-Earth objects, such as asteroids and comets. The event is used for educational activities, dissemination of knowledge about planetary security, as well as popularization of astronomy and space exploration.
Interesting facts
The Tunguska phenomenon destroyed more than 2,000 square kilometers of taiga. The explosion was 1000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, but did not leave a crater, because the body exploded in the atmosphere.
International Asteroid Day was initiated by astronaut Rusty Schweikart, astrophysicist Brian May (guitarist of the band Queen), film director Gregory Richters and businessman Danica Remy.
According to NASA, 80 to 150 objects larger than 1 meter pass the Earth every day. Most of them burn up in the upper atmosphere, but large ones can pose a threat.
In 2013, a meteor with a diameter of about 20 meters exploded in Chelyabinsk, Russia. The shock wave damaged thousands of windows and injured more than 1,600 people — no system predicted its arrival.
NASA and ESA are working on asteroid early warning and deflection systems. In 2022, the DART probe deliberately changed the trajectory of an asteroid for the first time in an experiment to protect the planet.
There is a special database of the Near Earth Object Program, where a list of all detected near-Earth objects, including an assessment of the risk of collision, is updated daily.
Asteroid 99942 Apophis, discovered in 2004, was long considered dangerous for Earth in 2029. Currently, his risk is recognized as zero, but the observations continue.
Anyone can help in the search for new asteroids – for this there are open image processing projects and software for amateurs.
Historical events on this day
1520 — the Spanish conquistadors executed the ruler of the Aztec Empire, Montezuma II, who had been trying to balance resistance and diplomacy with Cortes for a long time. His death was a turning point in the decline of the Aztec civilization.
1605 — Lzheddmitry, an impostor who claimed to be the miraculously saved Tsarevich Dmitri, entered Moscow. This episode started one of the most unstable pages in Russian history — the period of Troubles.
1792 — a volunteer battalion from Marseille arrived in Paris, singing the “Battle Song of the Army of the Rhine”, which since then became known as the “Marseillaise” and later became the national anthem of France.
1798 — Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Egypt with his army, starting the famous Egyptian campaign. The campaign aimed to disrupt British interests in the Middle East and brought new knowledge of Egyptology to Europe.
1810 — The Kingdom of Holland was liquidated and included in the French Empire, which strengthened Napoleon’s hegemony in Western Europe.
1876 — Serbia and Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire. This became part of a wider national liberation movement of the Balkan peoples, which later led to the collapse of the empire.
1894 – in London, Tower Bridge was opened – one of the most recognizable bridges in the world, with a unique lifting system for the passage of ships.
1910 — the laying of a telephone cable between Europe and South America was completed, which was a technical breakthrough in intercontinental communication.
1913 — the Second Balkan War began, when Bulgaria turned against its former allies Serbia and Greece, dissatisfied with the territorial arrangements after the First War.
1940 — by order of Hermann Göring, Germany began an air blockade of Great Britain, preparing for a large-scale operation against the island. This became a prelude to the Battle of Britain.
1941 — in Lviv, the Ukrainian National Assembly proclaimed the Act of Restoration of the Ukrainian State. The Ukrainian State Board headed by Yaroslav Stetsk was formed. This step was carried out under German occupation and was not recognized.
1945 — The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was transformed into the Crimean Oblast by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and directly subordinated to the Russian Federation. This decision had an administrative and repressive nature.
1947 — the Taras Shevchenko Scientific Society, which was forced to leave Lviv due to the Soviet authorities, resumed work in Munich. The society became an important center of Ukrainian science in the diaspora.
1948 — in the United States, scientists William Shockley, Walter Brattain and John Bardeen from Bell Laboratories officially announced the creation of the transistor, a technology that launched the era of electronics.
1971 — during the return to Earth, the entire crew of the Soyuz-11 spaceship died – Georgy Dobrovolskyi, Vladyslav Volkov and Viktor Patsaev. They were the first in history to spend a long time on the Salyut-1 orbital station, but died due to depressurization.
1988 — Pope John Paul II excommunicated Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre for disobeying the decision of the Second Vatican Council. This became a landmark conflict between traditionalists and reformers in the Catholic Church.
1991 — the first session of the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people ended in Simferopol. The National Mejlis headed by Mustafa Dzhemilev was created – the key self-governing body of the Crimean Tatars.
1992 — The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the law on the separation of powers between the central authorities and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The document aimed to regulate the status of Crimea within the state.
2013 — in the village of Vradiivka, Mykolaiv Oblast, a mass protest began after police officers were accused of raping a local woman. The event caused a stir throughout the country and became a symbol of protest against the arbitrariness of law enforcement officers.
2022 — Russian troops left the Snake Island in the Black Sea, having suffered losses. Although Russia called it a “gesture of goodwill”, it was actually a consequence of Ukrainian attacks and yet another defeat in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
The history of the slogan: “Peace to houses – war to palaces!”
On June 30, 1834, a proclamation with the slogan was printed in one of the lands of Central Germany: “Peace to houses – war to palaces!”. Its author is the German writer Georg Buchner, an active critic of social injustice and the founder of the revolutionary “Human Rights Society”.
This pamphlet called for the overthrow of the old order, the removal of the officials of the aristocratic government, and the handing over of the property of the enemies of the revolution to the people—not as revenge, but as covering “revolutionary expenses.” In essence, it was a manifesto of protest against inequality, where property was seen as an instrument of oppression and its redistribution as an act of justice.
The phrase itself is often mistakenly attributed to the French revolutionary Pierre-Joseph Cambon, although he did indeed utter similar calls: “Woe to the rich, glory to the poor!” The slogan quickly became a symbol of popular anger — simple, short, emotionally powerful. In the 19th century, it was picked up by revolutionaries throughout Europe, and in the 20th, it gained popularity again, especially during revolutionary movements.
The call sounded like a kind of oath: to fight for the interests of the oppressed, to destroy the symbols of luxury and privilege. Its meaning was clear to everyone – both the poor man and the intellectual and the soldier.
But the consequences of the slogan, like the revolutions themselves, were ambiguous: war, chaos, destruction – not only in the palaces, but also in the very houses for which it all began. Everything ended with repression, hunger, violence — and often new injustice.
In Ukraine, this slogan also became widespread during the Civil War, especially among radicalized peasants and Red Army soldiers. It sounded with anger and hope, like the promise of a new world. But the real consequences, as in all of Europe, turned out to be more complex than the two-line formula.
The first leap second input
On June 30, 1972, a leap second – 23:59:60 – was introduced for the world time coordination for the first time. These extra seconds are added based on the results of astronomical observations at the end of the Universal Time day—June 30 or December 31—so that UTC does not differ from UT1 by more than ±0.9 seconds. On such days, after 23:59:59, the moment 23:59:60 conditionally comes. This allows the difference between atomic and astronomical time to be corrected.
Negative leap seconds (ie subtracting a second) have never been used in practice. The decision to introduce additional seconds is made by the International Earth Rotation Service.
As the Earth’s rotation gradually slows down, the need for additional seconds will increase in the future. It is expected that over time they will have to be added more and more often – with an acceleration of 31 seconds per century. In each subsequent century, it will be necessary to add about 64 seconds more than in the previous one. For example, in the 22nd century, the need to add an average of two seconds per year is expected, and in 2000 years – almost every month.
This creates numerous challenges for computer systems, satellites and navigation equipment where precise synchronization is extremely important. Because of this, some scientists and engineers are advocating the abolition of the extra second as an obsolete mechanism.
