I was wandering the blogosphere last night and I came across this rather fun idea on Scottish fellow orangutan Dr. Vee's blog (he in turn nabbed it from some bloke called Nick Barlow). No doubt this orignated in Scotland as a way to pass the time in one's dead swan fallout shelter, but if fulfills two criteria for me, the "I did not know that" factor and mild egotism quotient (although some of this I did know, as my friend RPS has an excellent system of telling you things that happened on your birthday. If he were a car salesman he'd win the steak knives for sure).
"Go to Wikipedia. Type in your birth date (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death."
21st June:
Events:
1859 - Italian Independence wars: Battle of Solférino is fought. Witnessed by Henri Dunant, the results were the Geneva Conventions and the Red Cross.
1982 - John Hinckley is found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
2004 - SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.
Birthdays:
1905 - Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer, Nobel Prize laureate (declined)
1944 - Ray Davies, English musician
Death (3 deaths, same event):
1964 - Andrew Goodman, American civil rights activist
1964 - James Chaney, American civil rights activist
1964 - Michael Schwerner, American civil rights activist
And one more thing for s&g, it is also the National Day of Greenland.
In other news, Listmaker's Baseball Diaries are back! And this year, rather than waiting until October for a nostalgic tour de force look back at the season, Obi Wan Menschnobi promises to update on an almost real time basis. Next year it will be laptops and wifi at Shea.
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Less of the cracks about swan fallout, lest ye forget that one of your wedding guests spent five years working for a swan charity and can see the bonnie Fife coast from his living room window...
Which reminds me - since we are both genetically 1/16 Scottish and I actually live in the darned place, I'll be trying to out-Jock you on the big day in my Groundskeeper Willie outfit.
August 16:
Events:
1920 - Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit in the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. To date, Chapman is the only player to die from injuries sustained in a Major League Baseball game.
1954 - Sports Illustrated magazine is first published.
1962 - The Beatles fire drummer Pete Best and replace him with Ringo Starr.
1974 - The Ramones play their first ever show at the CBGB's.
I couldn't decide between the last two.
Birthdays:
1913 - Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1992)
1958 - Madonna, American singer and actress
Actress?? Also, both Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford, albeit 23 years apart.
Death:
1977 - Elvis Presley, American singer and actor (b. 1935)
I didn't even have to look this up. Lots of honorable mentions: Babe Ruth (1948), Robert Johnson (1938), Bela Lugosi (1956) and, of course, Good King Wenceslaus (1419)
Cuz, I was going to email you and warn you that there is a good chance that US Customs will make you take a plunge in sheep dip before letting you through for the nupituals. You should have seen the fuss when we returned from our hols in 2001 when Blighty was in the grip of foot and mouth.
Me in a kilt, you in suitable Edinburgh garb (trews and a Maggie Smith mask?), and even Little Bruva indicating that he will be donning a Tam O'Shanter: jings!
Joe, truly a good day to die!
Ach, Muriel Spark is so last century. I'll be combining the best of Irvine Welsh, Jo Rowling, Sandy McCall Smith and Iain Banks.
That'll be a wizard's hat and lively African print dress accessorised with a broken pool cue and pocketful of dead wasps then.
events
1932 - First Sunday game at Fenway Park, the New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 13-2 (Of Course!)
1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits segregation in public places
1863 - U.S. Civil War: The final and bloodiest day of the Battle of Gettysburg
born
1947 - Dave Barry, American writer
1893 - Mississippi John Hurt, American musician (d. 1966
1970 - Teemu Selänne, Finnish hockey player
died
1969 - Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones) (drowned) (b. 1942)
1971 - Jim Morrison, American singer (The Doors) (b. 1943)
ah man, thanks for the promo. love my new nickname too.
CM: Would you ever expect to learn about the Red Sox doing something and the Yankees not spoiling it?
Listo: I'm just psyched that you are going current, not retrospective. Its all so much more opinionated than Peter Gammons.
Since I'm crap with history, I went for more recent events.
July 20
Events:
1969 - Apollo Program: Apollo 11 lands on the Moon (this is the easy answer when asked about important events that took place on my birthday)
1984 - Officials of the Miss America pageant ask Vanessa Lynn Williams to quit after Penthouse published nude photos of her.
2005 - Canada becomes the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage, after the bill C-38 receives its Royal Assent.
Births:
1938 - Natalie Wood, American actress (and my sister is named for her!)
1947 - Carlos Santana, Mexican guitarist
Death:
1937 - Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
June 15
Events:
763 BC - Assyrians record a solar eclipse that will be used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history.
1752 - Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity.
1954 - UEFA (the Union des Associations Européennes de Football) is formed in Basle, Switzerland.
Birthdays:
1932 - Mario Cuomo, Governor of New York
1943 - Xaviera Hollander, Dutch author (I share a birthday with the Happy Hooker!)
1972 - Andy Pettitte, baseball player (Come back Andy. We were born on the same day, in the same year! We miss you.)
Death:
1996 - Ella Fitzgerald, American singer (b. 1917)
This is a cool one. Mind if I put it up on my site?
I love the fact that all told something interesting appears to have happened on every day of the year, ever.
Bill, go for it- after all I lifted it from somewhere else too.
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