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Sunday, April 15, 2007

Birthday Games


Catalyst has thrown down the gauntlet (ok, ok, he "tagged" me, but "thrown down the gauntlet" sounds so much more NASCAR) in an internet blog game having to do with birthdays. I've always sort of liked some of the stuff that has happened on my own birthday, February 7th-

1839 - Henry Clay declares in the Senate "I had rather be right than president!"

1914 - Charlie Chaplin’s alter ego “The Little Tramp” made his film debut in “Kid Auto Races at Venice” with the Keystone Cops.

1935 – Board game ‘Monopoly’ invented.

1940 - The Disney classic “Pinocchio” premiered.

1949 - Joe DiMaggio becomes 1st $100,000/year baseball player.

1962 - US begins blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

1964 - Beatlemania officially begans when the Beatles make their first appearance in the U.S. The Fab Four were greeted by over 3,000 fans when they arrived at New York’s Kennedy Airport.

1965 - Cassius Clay becomes a Muslim and adopts the name Muhammad Ali.

1971 – Women in Switzerland get the vote.

1974 - The Mel Brooks comedy “Blazing Saddles” premiered.


Of course, February 7th has not always been a beer and skittles sort of day. Amongst the lower points-

1965 - George Harrison has his tonsils removed.

1979 - "Supertrain," TV's Superbomb of 1979, debuts on NBC.

1984 - Michael Jackson awarded a 4-ft-high platinum disc by CBS.

1988 - Heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson marries actress Robin Givens.


As for folks who bought the farm that day, it's a bit of a mixed bag-

2001 - Dale Evans
1999 - King Hussein
1993 - Arthur Ashe
1979 - Josef Mengele
590 - Pelagius II, Gothic Pope (579-90), dies from plague


Some notable briths on February 7th (besides my own)-

1966 - Chris Rock
1962 - Garth Brooks (same year as me)
1960 - James Spader
1936 – Felix the Cat
1910 - Buster Crabbe
1905 – the state of Oklahoma
1885 - Sinclair Lewis
1883 - Eubie Blake
1873 - Thomas Andrews (designer of the ‘Titanic’)
1867 - Laura Ingalls Wilder
1817 - Frederick Douglass
1812 - Charles Dickens
1804 - John Deere
1478 - Sir Thomas More

Now that's more like it!

4 comments:

Phoebe Fay said...

You got a WHOLE STATE on your birthday!? That is impressive, even if it is the state's that's right behind North Dakota in least interesting places to live in the U.S.

Mike said...

Two things caught my interest here...well other than your own birth date of course.

First: It's funny that our own President kind of mirrors Henry Clay's declaration. Only difference is, Bush would rather be President than right.

Second: There really was a John Deere? I just assumed that was a tractor and not a real person.

Catalyst said...

c.c. - Gee! You're only 45?

PhoebeFay - Hey, wait a minute. I spent the first 29 years of my life in North Dakota. Oh, yeah, I just remembered - it is a boring place to live.

Mike - What about Felix the Cat?

Forrest Proper said...

Phoebe- yeah, but they have a GREAT musical!

Mike- well, The Deciderator always did have a problem with mixing stuff up.

Catalyst- Felix is going to be the new Attorney General.