Historical events that took place on your birthday...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

I share my birthday (May 15) with, among others, Joseph Cotten, James Mason, Eroll Garner, K.T. Oslin, Chazz Palminteri, George Brett, John Smoltz and Emmitt Smith. Oh, and Tori Spelling. Emily Dickinson and Edward Hopper died.

Las Vegas was founded (1905), the Supreme Court dissolved Standard Oil (1911), Joe DiMaggio began his 56-game hitting streak (1941), Rocky Marciano beat Jersey Joe Walcott to win the heavyweight boxing title (1953), George Wallace was shot and left paralyzed (1972), Nolan Ryan pitched his first no-hitter, against Kansas City (1973), and Len Barker pitched a perfect game against Toronto (1981). On the day I was born, Gordon Cooper took off on the last of the Project Mercury space flights (1963).

42

[QUOTE=mhendo
There were a bunch of other famous and semi-famous people born on my birthday, including Jacques Cousteau and, amusingly enough, Vince Lombardi and Joe Montana.[/QUOTE]

When I saw the Jacques Cousteau I realized we’re birthday buddies. Next Saturday right? Happy early Birthday mhendo.

43

My birthday seems to fall on a date with Great Cosmic Significance ™. See the Wikipedia entries. Most notably, to me:
1775 - American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Lexington and Concord – British General Thomas Gage attempts to confiscate American colonists’ firearms. The British are driven back to Boston, Massachusetts, thus beginning the American Revolutionary War.
1971 - Launch of Salyut 1, first human-made space station.
1993 - The 50-day siege of the Branch Davidian complex outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.
1995 - Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168.
2005 - Joseph Ratzinger elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal conclave.

Shared Birthdays of note:
1903 - Eliot Ness, American lawman (d. 1957)
1930 - Dick Sargent, actor (d. 1994)
1933 - Jayne Mansfield, American actress (d. 1967)
1935 - Dudley Moore, actor, musician, comedian, composer (d. 2002)
1946 - Tim Curry, British actor
1968 - Ashley Judd, actress
1979 - Kate Hudson, actress
1981 - Hayden Christensen, actor

44

The Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. “A horse. A horse. My kingdom for a horse.”

45

some highlights from Wiki:

* 1759 - British capture Quebec City
* 1850 - The U.S. Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act.
* 1851 - The New-York Daily Times, which will become The New York Times, begins     publishing
* 1895 - Daniel David Palmer makes the first chiropractic adjustment.
* 1906 - Typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10000 persons in Hong Kong
* 1927 - Columbia Broadcasting System goes on the air
* 1932 - Actress Peg Entwistle commits suicide by jumping from the H in the Hollywood sign, forever turning the sign into a symbol for the paradox of the American film industry.
* 1942 - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation authorized
* 1947 - The United States Department of Defense begins operation (formerly known as National Military Establishment).
* 1975 - Patty Hearst arrested after a year on the FBI Most Wanted List
* 1985 - Steve Jobs resigns from Apple Computer
* 1989 - Hurricane Hugo hits Puerto Rico, killing six
* 1992 - The existence of the National Reconnaissance Office, operating since 1960, is declassified.
* 1997 - Ted Turner donates $1 billion to the United Nations
* 2003 - Hurricane Isabel makes landfall in the U.S.

Births:

* 1709 - Samuel Johnson, English writer and lexicographer (d. 1784)
* 1733 - George Read, American judge and signer of the Declaration of Independence
* 1765 - Pope Gregory XVI (d. 1846)
* 1819 - Leon Foucault, physicist (d. 1868)
* 1870 - Clark Wissler, anthropologist
* 1876 - James Scullin, ninth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1953)
* 1895 - John Diefenbaker, thirteenth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1979)
* 1905 - Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, actor (d. 1977)
* 1905 - Greta Garbo, actress (d. 1990)
* 1905 - Agnes de Mille, dancer, choreographer (d. 1993)
* 1916 - Rossano Brazzi, actor (d. 1994)
* 1928 - Phyllis Kirk, Syracuse NY, actress (Thin Man, Red Button's Show)
* 1932 - Nikolai Rukavishnikov, cosmonaut (d. 2002)
* 1933 - Robert Blake, actor
* 1939 - Fred Willard, Ohio, comedian (Fernwood 2 Night, Real People)
* 1940 - Frankie Avalon, musician
* 1952 - Dee Dee Ramone, American musician, bassist with The Ramones (d. June 5, 2002)
* 1952 - Rick Pitino, basketball coach
* 1961 - James Gandolfini, actor
* 1963 - **Wallflower**
* 1971 - Lance Armstrong, cycling champion
* 1971 - Jada Pinkett Smith, model, actress
* 1975 - Anthony McPartlin, English television presenter
46

September 9, mine, is California’s Admission Day. I’m ashamed to say I don’t know the year it was admitted, though.

47

The highlights of Wikipedia’s entry on August 28th …

  • 1565 - St. Augustine, Florida, established. It is the oldest surviving European settlement in the United States.
  • 1833 - Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire.
  • 1845 - Scientific American magazine publishes first issue
  • 1884 - First known photograph of a tornado is made.
  • 1916 - Germany declares war on Romania.
  • 1916 - Italy declares war on Germany.
  • 1943 - In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.
  • 1955 - Black Mississippi boy Emmett Till is murdered for whistling to a white woman and calling her baby.
  • 1963 - During a 200,000-person civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his famous I have a dream speech.
  • 1968 - Riots in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention
  • 1977 - Infamous Doper interface2x is bestowed upon the world. All societies rejoice.
  • 1990 - Iraq declares Kuwait to be a province of Iraq.
  • 1990 - The Plainfield Tornado: An F5 tornado hit in Plainfield, Illinois and Joliet, Illinois killing 28 people.

Notable Births

  • 1749 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and scientist (d. 1832)
  • 1828 - Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer of “War, What is it Good For?” (d. 1910)
  • 1849 - Benjamin Godard, French composer (d. 1895)
  • 1930 - Ben Gazzara, actor
  • 1943 - Lou Piniella, baseball manager
  • 1957 - Daniel Stern, actor
  • 1958 - Scott Hamilton, figure skater
  • 1965 - Shania Twain, singer
  • 1968 - Billy Boyd, Scottish actor
  • 1969 - Jason Priestley, actor
  • 1982 - LeAnn Rimes, singer
48

The best of March 1:

1692 - The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts.
1781 - The Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation.
1872 - Yellowstone National Park is established as the world’s first national park.
Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity.
1932 - The son of Charles Lindbergh, Charles Augustus Lindbergh III, is kidnapped.
1936 - Hoover Dam is completed.
1969 - During a performance at Miami’s Dinner Key Auditorium, Jim Morrison of the Doors is arrested for exposing himself during the show.
1978 - Charlie Chaplin’s coffin is stolen from a Swiss cemetery.

Births:

1445 - Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter
1810 - Frédéric Chopin, Polish-French composer and pianist
1954 - Ron Howard, American actor, director, and producer

It’s also the New Year in the Roman republic and labor day in western australia.

49

George Washington was born on my birthday (er, or the othe way around), as was the founder of my alma mater. And also Edna St. Vincent Millay, and John Maynard Keynes, and Wagner.

Robert Kennedy was shot; he died the next day.

In 1959, the first Daytona 500 was held.

On the day I was actually born, we beat the Russians in hockey, much to our great shock.

That was all off the top of my head; according to the “this day in history” websites my birthday is also the day they first used fake rabbits at dog tracks and the day Halle Berry filed for divorce, along with many other very important historical events. :slight_smile:

50

:eek: You were born in 1431?! :eek:

51

The only cool thing that happened for me was the birth of Hal 9000, in either '92 or '97 depending on your source.

52

The assassination of Julius Caesar.

Not the same year, though…

53

Same exact date, and everything. :cool:

54

From Wikipedia:

1915 - George Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
I like neon signs.

1935 - Coopers Inc. sold the world’s first briefs.
I used to exclusively wear tighty-whities. I switched to boxer-briefs for this one girl I dated. Only time I’ve ever changed my underwear for a woman.

1953 - 68% of all United States television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
…I got nothin’.

1955 - The Scrabble board game debuts.
Awesome.

1983 - Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal, is arrested in Bolivia.
Took 'em long enough to find the Butcher of Lyons. And I liked the Barbie Museum scene from Rat Race.

2038 - 2^31 - 1 seconds will have passed since Unix epoch and current computers will read 20:45:52 UTC, December 13, 1901, causing the Year 2038 problem.
Oh, shit.
Also, I share the birthday of Robert E. Lee, Edgar Allen Poe, Janis Joplin, and Dolly Parton. January 19th, don’cha know.

55

On November 18…

1307: William Tell shot an apple off his son’s head.
1477: William Caxton publishes the first book printed in England.
1626: St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome is dedicated.
1793: The Louvre officially opens in Paris.
1805: Lewis and Clark reach Pacific Ocean.
1820: Captain Nathaniel Palmer discovers Antarctica.
1861: Poet and abolitionist Julia Ward Howe writes “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” after witnessing a skirmish between Union and Confederate troops.
1865: Mark Twain’s first short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” is published.
1883: The United States adopts four standard time zones.
1894: First newspaper Sunday color comic section published.
1901: A treaty with Britain gives the United States the go-ahead to build the Panama Canal.
1902: The first teddy bear is named after Pres. Theodore Roosevelt.
1909: The US invaded Nicaragua (some would say for the first time).
1913: The first airplane loop-the-loop is performed over San Diego.
1928: Mickey Mouse makes his film debut in “Steamboat Willie,” the first animated talking picture.
1929: Dr. Vladimir K. Zworykin demonstrates the first all-electronic TV receiver.
1936: The main span of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is joined.
1942: Thornton Wilder’s “Skin of our Teeth” premieres in NYC.
1961: JFK sent 18,000 military “advisors” to South Vietnam.
1963: Bell Telephone introduces the Touch-Tone phone.
1966 (The Year of Doug): U.S. Roman Catholic bishops do away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays; Sandy Koufax announces his retirement due to arthritic left elbow.
1970: Dr. Linus Pauling declares that large doses of Vitamin C could ward off colds.
1978: Congressman Leo Ryan is announced missing on a visit to Jonestown, Guyana.
1987: The congressional Iran-Contra committees issue their final report, saying President Reagan bore “ultimate responsibility” for wrongdoing by his aides.
1999: A pyramid of logs for a traditional football bonfire collapses and kills 11 students of Texas A&M University.
2004: In Little Rock, Ark., 30,000 guests attend the opening of the Clinton Presidential Center; Britain outlaws fox hunting; Scott Peterson is ordered to stand trial for the killing of his wife, Laci, and their unborn son.

Whew…What a day.

56

The one I always remember is that Captain James Cook was “killed by natives”. Oh that and some guy called Valentine has it as his Saint’s Day :wink:

Different years but my fokls have easy to remember birthdays

Dad - coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
Mum - Pearl Harbour ( Hi merrily ! )
Brother - New Year’s Day
Fiancé - D-Day

(Isn’t using Wikipedia cheating ?)

57

Oh and I forgot - the day I was born, same year and everything was the day the UK ‘went decimal’, no more pounds shillings and pence and abstract 12 of this = 1 of that but only 12 of that = 1 of the other type stuff.

58

Turns out July 29 is quite the happening day! I thought it’d be interesting to include people who died on my birthday.

Events

1014 - Battle of Kleidion: Byzantine emperor Basil II inflicts not only a decisive defeat on the Bulgarian army, but his subsequent savage treatment of 15,000 prisoners reportedly causes Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria to die of shock.
1030 - The Battle of Stiklestad: The fall of King Olaf “the Saint”, and start of Danish rule in Norway.
1567 - James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling.
1588 - Battle of Gravelines: The Spanish Armada is defeated by an English naval force under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake off the coast of Gravelines, France.
1693 - War of the Grand Alliance: Battle of Landen - France wins a Pyrrhic victory over Allied forces in the Netherlands.
1793 - John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there.
1848 - Irish Potato Famine: Tipperary Revolt - In Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put-down by police.
1851 - Annibale de Gasparis discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.
1858 - United States and Japan sign the Harris Treaty.
1864 - American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC.
1900 - In Italy, King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated by Italian-born anarchist Gaetano Bresci.
1907 - Sir Robert Baden-Powell founds the Boy Scouts movement with the first scout camp at Brownsea Island.
1932 - Great Depression: In Washington, DC, US troops disperse the last of the “Bonus Army” of World War I veterans.
1945 - The BBC Light Programme radio station was launched, aimed at mainstream light entertainment and music.
1947 - After being shut off on November 9, 1946 for a refurbishment, ENIAC, the world’s first all-electronic digital computer, is reactivated after a memory upgrade. It will remain in continuous operation until October 2, 1955.
1948 - After a hiatus of 12 years due to World War II, the first Summer Olympics opened in London, United Kingdom.
1954 - The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of The Lord of the Rings, is published in the UK.
1957 - The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.
1958 - The U.S. Congress formally creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
1965 - Vietnam War: The first 4,000 101st Airborne Division paratroopers arrive in Vietnam, landing at Cam Ranh Bay.
1967 - Vietnam War: Off the coast of North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin, fire sweeps the USS Forrestal, in the worst US naval disaster since World War II (134 American servicemen are killed, 62 injured, 21 planes are destroyed and 42 more are damaged).
1976 - In New York City, the “Son of Sam” pulls a gun from a paper bag, killing one and seriously wounding another in the first of a series of attacks that terrorized the city for the next year.
1981 - Lady Diana Spencer marries Charles, Prince of Wales.
1993 - The Israeli Supreme Court acquits accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk of all charges and he is set free.
1996 - The controversial child protection portion of the Communications Decency Act (1996) is struck down as too broad by a US federal court.
2004 - U.S. Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts accepts the Democratic nomination for President of the United States at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts.

Births

1805 - Alexis de Tocqueville, historian and political scientist (d. 1859)
1869 - Booth Tarkington, author (d. 1946)
1871 - Grigori Rasputin, Russian spiritualist (d. 1916)
1874 - 1883 - Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator (d. 1945)
1892 - William Powell, actor (d. 1984)
1905 - Clara Bow, actress (d. 1965)
1905 - Dag Hammarskjöld, UN Secretary-General (d. 1961)
1905 - Thelma Todd, actress (d. 1935)
1938 - Peter Jennings, television news anchor
1949 - Vida Blue, Major League Baseball player

Deaths

238 - Pupienus and Balbinus, Roman emperors (assassinated)
1099 - Pope Urban II
1108 - King Philip I of France (b. 1081)
1507 - Martin Behaim, navigator and geographer (b. 1459)
1644 - Pope Urban VIII
1833 - William Wilberforce, campaigner against slavery
1844 - Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, composer
1856 - Robert Schumann, German composer
1890 - Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (b. 1853)
1900 - King Umberto I of Italy
1951 - Hozumi Shigeto, Japanese author
1954 - Coen de Koning, Dutch speed skater
1970 - John Barbirolli, conductor
1970 - George Szell, Hungarian conductor
1974 - Mama Cass Elliot, musician
1974 - Erich Kästner, German author
1975 - James Blish, science fiction writer
1979 - Bill Todman, game show producer
1981 - Robert Moses, New York public works official (b. 1888)
1982 - Vladimir Zworykin, physicist and inventor
1983 - David Niven, actor
1983 - Raymond Massey, actor
1983 - Luis Buñuel, director
1984 - Fred Waring, band leader, inventor
1990 - Bruno Kreisky, Chancellor of Austria (b. 1911)
2001 - Edward Gierek, Polish politician
2001 - Henryk Jablonski, President of Poland
2001 - Wau Holland, German hacker
2003 - Foday Sankoh, Sierra Leonean rebel leader
2004 - Francis Crick, molecular biologist
2004 - Rena Vlahopoulou, Greek comedienne and actress (b. 1923)

Holidays and observations

Peru - Independence Day (observed)
Norway - St. Olav’s Day
Roman Catholic Church - Feast of Saint Olaf (Olaf II of Norway), patron of woodcarvers
Roman Catholic Church - Feast of Saint Martha, sister of Lazarus, patron of cooks and dieticians
Faroe Islands - Ólavsøka: opening of the Løgting session

59

:smack: bugger why didn’t I preview ?
“12 of this = 1 of that, 14 of that = 1 of the other, 16 of the other = etc.”

60

283 - St Gaius becomes Pope.
384 - St Siricius becomes Pope.
1586 - The reign of Emperor Go-Yozei, the 107th imperial ruler of Japan, began.
1637 - The Shimabara Rebellion broke out in Japan.
1777 - France became the first nation to recognize the United States of America
1830 - Santa Marta, Colombia Simon Bolivar dies.
1843 - A Christmas Carol, a fictional short story by Charles Dickens, was first published.
1862 - General Ulysses S. Grant issued General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
1903 - First powered flight, by the Wright Brothers.
1919 - Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1935 - First flight of the Douglas DC-3.
1939 - German battleship Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff at the Battle of the River Plate.
1941 - German siege of Sevastopol begins
1944 - Western Defense Command issues proclamation ending requirement of Japanese internment.
1944 - In the Malmédy massacre around 80 American POW are executed by Waffen-SS troops of Jochen Peiper’s Kampfgruppe.
1961 - India seizes Goa from Portugal
1961 - A fire at a circus in Niteroi, Brazil kills 323 people.
1967 - Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1908) disappeared swimming near Portsea, Victoria
1969 - U.S. Air Force announces that its UFO investigations have found no evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft.
1969 - SALT I talks begin
1970 - My Lai trial begins
1970 - Coastal cities events Mass riots in the coastal cities of Poland ended in massacre of shipyard workers in Gdynia
1973 - The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.
1982 - Tootsie opens in theaters, starring Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Teri Garr, Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, Bill Murray, Sydney Pollack, George Gaynes, and Geena Davis.
1989 - The first episode of The Simpsons airs on FOX
1989 - Brazil holds its first free election in 25 years.
1989 - Full scale street manifestations and riots in Timisoara ignite the Romanian Revolution
1997 - A chartered Yakovlev-42 from Ukraine crashes into the mountains near Katerini, Greece killing 70
1998 - Claudia Benton is murdered in her West University, Texas home by Angel Maturino Resendiz. She is his fifth murder victim in his fourth incident.
2002 - Peace accord signed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2003 - First supersonic flight by Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne
2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the third and final Lord of the Rings movie to open in theaters.