Fun facts about summer

•    The first day of summer is known as the Summer Solstice and in the Northern Hemisphere it falls on June 20 or June 21 each year, depending on when the sun is furthest north of the Equator. •    People in the Southern Hemisphere have their longest day of summer in December. •    The names of the key summer months have Roman origins. June is named after Juno, who was the wife of Jupiter. Marc Antony named July after Julius Caesar and August was named after Caesar’s nephew, Augustus. •    One of the more annoying parts of summer are the mosquitoes, which have been around for 30 million years. It’s said they can find warm-blooded mammals from 100 feet away. •    Until the early 19th century, there was no summer vacation in schools. Depending on the location of schools breaks came either quarterly (town schools) or to coincide with planting and harvest seasons (rural schools). •    School summer vacation was invented by educator Horace Mann in 1840. •    France’s Eiffel Tower can grow by more than six inches in summer due to the expansion of the iron on hot days. •    July is the month where most ice cream is sold in the US. That’s why it’s also the National Ice Cream Month. Americans eat about 5.5 gallons of ice cream per year on average. •    The first Summer Olympic Games were held in 1896 in Athens. Women were first allowed to compete in 1900. •    Summer camps in the US date back to the start of the 20th century. There are more than 12,000 camps in the US. Of these, 7,000 are resident camps. •    Want to get an idea of the temperature outside on a summer night? Count the number of cricket chirps in 15 seconds then add 37 and you’ll find the temperature of the air degrees Fahrenheit. •    Watermelon is a vegetable, not a fruit. As the air heats up, so does the consumption of watermelon. This vegetable is part of the cucumber, squash and pumpkin family.

— Compiled by The Surfer