The Hula Hoop was introduced
Elvis joined the Army
Explorer I was launched
Postal Rates went up, first time in 26 years.
Oh yeah I forgot…Jimmy Carter and I share the same birthday.
The Supreme court outlawed prayer in school the day I was born.
Malcolm Scott Carpenter was orbiting the Earth. That’s where my parents got my name. Scott not Malcolm.
Also on my birthday, The Korean war began (1950) and Custer figured it was a good day to die (1876.)
I was born two days prior to Reagan’s inauguration in 1980. That means I get to tack on the Carter administration as being part of my lifetime.
Also, the Ayatollah Khomeini (sorry if I butchered that spelling) was recently named Time magazine’s man of the year.
Ukelele King George Formby died on my birthday. He was probably more popular in England than Slim Whitman and Elvis Prese.
Well, I was born seventeen days before the earthquake/eruption/explosion.
Ah, to be a Taurus … 
Aren’t we great!
Heh, I forgot; I share my birthday (different year, though) with Traci Lords.
I had to look him up too, as the name didn’t ring a bell. Apparently, he’s a VJ for MTV Netherlands.
On February 16, 1973, not a lot happened, apparently.
Well, I did find a few interesting things for the date, if not the year:
1923 The burial vault of King Tutankhamen’s tomb is opened in Egypt.
1959 Fidel Castro becomes premier of Cuba after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista.
Then there’s:
February 12, 1973: The first of the American POWs from North Vietnam are released.
Well, I guess you could say I was born in the dying days of the Vietnam war.
Ah! Turns out I share my birthday with Kathy Freeman, the Australian runner of Aboriginee descent. That’s pretty cool. Same date, but different years: Ice T, John McEnroe, and Valentino Rossi. Wow, I’m surrounded by rebels.
[sub]If only I had 10% of Rossi’s riding skills, I’d be a happy man.[/sub]
Hmph–you haven’t seen my sister Melinda.
Anyway, I was born on the same date (but not the same day–they were on the other side of the International Date Line) that Jacques Picard and Don Walsh set the record for the deepest dive by going to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the bathyscape Trieste.
I’m one day younger than the late Michael Hutchence and one day older than Nastassja Kinski.
On the day I was born,
An NBC-TV special starring Miss Petula Clark aired.
Former president Eisenhower lay in state in the Capitol.
In the city of Mankato, Minnesota, the Mayor announced that an informal hearing had been had at Kennedy School the previous evening attended by a large delegation of residents from the Hilltop area, at which time the assessment policy for the Kennedy Storm Sewer Project had been discussed.
The world’s top-ranked chess player was Bobby Fischer.
Sgt. Edward B. Lama was killed in Vietnam.
Gene Brabender and Gordy Lund were traded by the Baltimore Orioles to the Seattle Pilots for future Hall-of-Famer Chico Salmon.
Yoko Ono’s film “Rape (Film No. 6)” premiered. No word from Siskel or Ebert.
You can find some interesting stuff on the damn Internet, I tell ya.
Well. elsewhere on the planet, Baker, was born. Hi sis!
1954 – Eisenhower was president, it was the year of the McCarthy Army hearings and Brown vs. Topeka Board of Ed; Elvis was appearing on Louisiana Hayride; Saul Bellow won a National Book Award fro The Adventures of Augie March; and a first-class stamp cost $0.03.
Wow, thanks!
Relooking, it appears that “Wild Boys” by Duran Duran was the #1 song the week I was born. Never heard of it.
One thing I forgot: Some one with my first name, middle initial, and last name was born exactly one year after I was. Weird, eh?
It doesn’t get any better than that! Anyone nickname you “the Eagle”? Also during the three weeks following your birth, Edward Kennedy crashed his car into the Chappauquidic, the Charles Manson gang committed the Tate-LaBianca murders and Woodstock began!
Marilyn Monroe died in August of 1962. Was that the year you were born?
So you admit it! You were born without a prayer!
Do you know if the movie The Year of Living Dangerously was set during that time?
One of the best albums ever!
Now that one should earn you a special prize! Maybe the Hyperelastic Memorial Sewer Project?
Coldfire, I remember the New Year’s Eve before you were born. That’s the only one I’ve spent in Europe (Denmark). That’s the coldest I’ve ever been (br-r-r-r).
Super Gnat, now that is weird! Did you find that out on the internet? And you’re welcome.
I know this stuff because my parents carefully recorded it in my baby book, which I became fascinated with when I was old enough to read.
The most popular movie in America was Saturday Night Fever. Jimmy Carter was midway through his term. Clothing fashions were godawful.
The biggest news was the birth of the world’s first test tube baby (not me). Newsweek’s cover had her picture and the caption “That Baby!” which my parents saved.
P.S. My birthday is tomorrow.
I was born on May, 25, 1986. For those of you who are old enough to remember, that was the day they did “hands across America.” A chain of people holding hands apparently stretched all across the country on the day I was born.
The only thing I always remember about 1956 was that Howl was published.
Nine days before I was born, Alan Shepard went up in Freedom 7.
11 days after I was born, JFK made his famous speech to a joint session of congress where he said “I believe that this nation should commit itself, before this decade is out, to landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.”
And, on the very day I was born, riders on one of the Freedom Rider buses were attacked in Anniston, Alabama
A flood.
No, that isn’t supposed to be a sick joke.
**Zoe,**Yes! I was born without a prayer! Like you don’t know! 
And Carole King was born on my birthday too. George Michael too. And Stalin too (I think…)