Happy first day of summer! Though it can be a little confusing to know when the first day of summer starts, (is it June 20th? June 21st?), the first day of summer is actually determined by the summer solstice (when the sun is at its northernmost point in the sky) so in 2008, summer starts on June 20th (at 7:59 p.m. to be even more precise) for Marylanders. In Europe, it’s June 21st this year.

The summer solstice is actually the longest day of the year as far as the number of daylight hours goes. For countries in the Southern Hemisphere, the start of summer (longest day of the year) is 6 months away (in December!).