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Thread: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

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    Libertarian Autocrat Vox Imperatoris's avatar
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    Default What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    What are the most important events, in your opinion, that have happened on your birthday? Things in your own life don't count (so no "I was born!")?

    The two most important things that have happened on my birthday, October 28, are the Battle of Milvian Bridge in the year A.D. 312, in which Constantine defeated Maxentius and, more importantly, supposedly saw the sign that would lead him to convert to Christianity, and the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962—it was the day on which Khrushchev announced that he would withdraw the Russian nuclear missile bases.

    Wikipedia is very good for this, since it has a comprehensive listing of events that have happened on every day of the year. I didn't know either of these things fell on my birthday until I looked it up.

    Also, just for fun, the most important people (known to be) born on the same day as me are Bill Gates and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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  2. #2
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    From Wikipedia...

    70 - The destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans.
    1693 - Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon's invention of Champagne.
    1892 - The family of Lizzie Borden is found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.
    1914 - World War I: Germany invades Belgium. In response, the United Kingdom declares war on Germany. The United States declares its neutrality.
    1944 - The Holocaust: a tip from a Dutch informer leads the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they find Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family.
    1964 - Vietnam War: United States destroyers USS Maddox and USS C. Turner Joy report coming under attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. The destroyers open fire at what they believe were Vietnam People's Army torpedo boats, although subsequent research has raised doubts that the targets were real. This engagement has become known as the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.
    1990 - The Invasion of Kuwait stops and becomes the Gulf War.

    So let's see...mainly a bunch of people burning, pillaging, and killing each other (which is not unlike the other 364 days of the year, I suspect). I guess there's nothing to do for it but raise a glass of bubbly

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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on you

    Damn Wikipedia for crushing my heart. When I was a kid, I read in the Mansfield News Journal (yeah, I'm callin' 'em out) "On This Date" section that Cleopatra killed herself on my birthday (August 30). You know, with the asp bite. So cool! I told people this factoid all my life. Until I looked on Wikipedia recently to see what other cool stuff happened on my birthday. And I found out that she killed herself on 12 August 30 BC. Which means that some nimrod at the Journal must have gotten the year mixed up with the day (because there's NO WAY I would have read "On This Date" on August 12 and mistook it for my birthday). And thusly my birth date famousness has been reduced to these lukewarm events:

    1799 - Capture of the entire Dutch fleet by British forces under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell during the Second Coalition of the French Revolutionary Wars
    1835 - Melbourne, Australia is founded.
    1836 - The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen
    1862 - American Civil War: Union forces are defeated in Second Battle of Bull Run.
    1941 - World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins
    1945 - Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.
    1967 - Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
    1984 - STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage
    AKA xanthous

  4. #4
    Content Generator AllWalker's avatar
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    Check this out:

    September 4:
    476 - Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of Rome is deposed, marking what is now considered to be the FALL OF THE FUCKING ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE START OF THE MIDDLE AGES! Yay, I win already.
    1666 - the most destructive day of the Great Fire of London. Yeah, that's right.
    1781 - Los Angeles in settled. That's right, LA.
    1870 - Emperor Napolean III is deposed - Third French Republic begins.
    1884 - Britain stops sending convicts to my home state of New South Wales. A very early birthday present, I'd say.
    1888 - First camera to use roll film is patented
    1939 - Japan declares neutrality in the European war. Awesome.
    1951 - The FIRST, LIVE, TRANSCONTINENTAL TV BROADCAST occurs. This technology leads to shows like American Idol. Um, yay?
    1956 - first commercial computer that used magnetic disk storage is released, happens to be IBM. This technology leads to things like Windows Vista. Um, yay?
    1972 - $2m (in 1972 dollars) of art is stolen
    1998 - nothing much happened. Nope, boring year. But, I suppose if you're desperate, you could count a couple of guys at Stanford University who, now what was it... OH YEAH, INVENTED FUCKING GOOGLE! Yay, I definitely win now!

    *goes dancing off into the sunset. like a douche*
    Something tells me we haven't seen the last of foreshadowing.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Allegedly.

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    Stegodon
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    Pearl Harbor was bombed.

    Terrell Owens was born (the exact day).

  7. #7
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    Bloomsday. (Long before I was born).

  8. #8
    my god, he's full of stars... OneCentStamp's avatar
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    September 10, 2001: several deadly serious Arabs pack bags for one-way flights.
    "You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because I'm on nitrous."

    find me at Goodreads

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    Oliphaunt jali's avatar
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    Me!
    They weren't singing....they were just honking.
    Glee 2009

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    Stegodon
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    1901 - Edward VII is proclaimed King after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.
    1905 - Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.
    1946 - Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.
    1968 - Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space.
    1973 - The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decision in Roe v. Wade, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states.
    1984 - The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous "1984" television commercial.
    1987 - Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer shoots and kills himself at a press conference on live national television, leading to debates on boundaries in journalism.
    Why won't those stupid idiots let me join their crappy club for jerks?

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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    1587 - Mary, Queen of Scots was executed at suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England.
    1904 - Battle of Port Arthur: A surprise torpedo attack by the Japanese at Port Arthur, China starts the Russo-Japanese War.
    1910 - The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.
    1952 - Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the UK.
    1963 - Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.
    1983 - The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia's second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, the 320m deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night.

  12. #12
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    Whole lotta resigning and failing on my birthday:

    1863 - American Civil War: following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sends a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (which is refused upon receipt).
    1963 - Great Train Robbery: in England, a gang of 15 train robbers steal 2.6 million pounds in bank notes.
    1973 - U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew appears on television to denounce accusations he had taken kickbacks while governor of Maryland.
    1974 - Watergate scandal: U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his resignation, effective the next day.
    1988 - The lights are turned on at Wrigley Field for the first time, making it the last major league stadium to host night games. (The game, against the Philadelphia Phillies, is rained out after three-and-a-half innings.) (And Cubs fans are still mad about this, at least some of them.)
    1991 - The Warsaw radio mast, at one time the tallest construction ever built, collapses.

  13. #13
    Oliphaunt Taumpy's avatar
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on you

    Nothing too earth shaking, but I like a couple of these. The first one I only list because it's the place I was born too. And the last one amuses me a lot.

    July 8th:

    1680 - The first confirmed tornado in America kills a servant in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
    1776 - The Declaration of Independence is read aloud in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Liberty Bell was famously rung.
    1853 - Commodore Perry sails into Tokyo Bay.
    1889 - The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published.
    1947 - Reports are broadcast that a UFO has crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.


    Quote Originally posted by annehere
    Damn Wikipedia for crushing my heart. When I was a kid, I read in the Mansfield News Journal (yeah, I'm callin' 'em out) "On This Date" section that Cleopatra killed herself on my birthday (August 30). You know, with the asp bite. So cool! I told people this factoid all my life. Until I looked on Wikipedia recently to see what other cool stuff happened on my birthday. And I found out that she killed herself on 12 August 30 BC. Which means that some nimrod at the Journal must have gotten the year mixed up with the day (because there's NO WAY I would have read "On This Date" on August 12 and mistook it for my birthday).

    I have something similar. My mom always told me as a kid that Sandra Day O'Connor was named to be the first female Supreme Court justice on the exact day I was born to impress the values of feminism on me, however it appears that actually happened on the 7th. Ah well. Lesson stuck just the same.
    Taumpy: Oh noes, you aren't a super powerful wave of destruction.
    Panther Squad: It's true! My scythe does not shorn the biomonsters in great swaths like it ought!

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    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    1886 - Pharmacist John Stith Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage that would later be named "Coca-Cola"
    1945 - VE Day
    1988 - R. A. Heinlein passed away.


    Only the most important events, of course.

  15. #15
    אני אוהב יהודים!
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    Default Picked out a few....

    1803 - Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of U.S. Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void.
    1859 - Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.
    1876 - Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray.
    1912 - Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state.
    1920 - The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago, Illinois.
    1929 - St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
    1962 - First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
    2008 - Northern Illinois University shooting: a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall of the DeKalb County, Illinois university resulting in 6 fatalities (including gunman) and 18 injuries.

  16. #16
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    1815--Battle of Waterloo
    There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. -- Ray Bradbury's "Coda"

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    Stegodon
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    1632 - Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published.
    1732 - George Washington, First President of the United States born
    1819 - By the Adams-Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.
    1856 - The Republican Party opens its first national meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
    1862 - Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia. He was previously inaugurated as a provisional president on February 18, 1861.
    1915 - World War I: Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
    1942 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defenses collapses.
    1943 - World War II: Members of White Rose are executed in Nazi Germany.
    1959 - Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
    1980 - Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4-3, in what is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history.
    1997 - In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly had been successfully cloned.
    Better is heart than a mighty blade
    For him who shall fiercely fight;
    The brave man well shall fight and win,
    Though dull his blade may be.

  18. #18
    Elephant Claptree's avatar
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    Quote Originally posted by Dudley Garrett
    Pearl Harbor was bombed.

    Terrell Owens was born (the exact day).
    I don't share Mr. Owens' year, but that of Eric Chavez of Oakland Athletics.

    Some other notable birthday pals: Eli Wallach, Noam Chomsky, Tom Waits, Larry Bird, Chasey Lain, Jennifer Carpenter, John Terry and Aaron Carter. Solid list.

  19. #19
    Elephant
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    70 - Roman forces sack Jerusalem.
    1504 - Michelangelo's David is unveiled in Florence.
    1923 - Honda Point Disaster: nine US Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast. Seven are lost.
    1935 - Huey Long is fatally shot in Louisiana.
    1966 - Star Trek premieres on NBC
    1974 - Gerald Ford pardons Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.
    I do not bite my thumb at you, but I bite my thumb.

  20. #20
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    Events:
    1846 - Mexican-American War begins
    1861 - The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered
    1913 - Igor Sikorsky becomes the first man to pilot a four-engine aircraft.
    1917 - Three shepherd children had reported the first apparition of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal.
    1950 - The first round of the Formula 1 World Championship is held at Silverstone.
    1994 - Johnny Carson makes last television appearance on The David Letterman Show.

    Births
    1588 - Ole Worm
    1914 - Joe Louis
    1931 - Jim Jones
    1937 - Roger Zelazny
    1941 - Ritchie Valens
    1945 - Magic Dick
    1961 - Dennis Rodman
    1964 - Stephen Colbert!!!

    Deaths
    1961 - Gary Cooper
    1972 - Dan Blocker
    1975 - Bob Wills
    1977 - Mickey Spillane

    May 13th is also National Root Canal Appreciation Day

  21. #21
    Oliphaunt
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    800 - Charlemagne arrives at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope Leo III.
    1248 - Conquest of Seville by the Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile.
    1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Chattanooga begins - Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant reinforce troops at Chattanooga, Tennessee and counter-attack Confederate troops.
    1876 - Corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Marcy Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) is delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain.
    1936 - The first edition of Life is published.
    1976 - Apneist Jacques Mayol is the first man to reach a depth of 100 m undersea without breathing equipment
    1980 - A series of earthquakes in southern Italy kills approximately 4,800 people.
    1981 - Iran-Contra Affair: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
    1990 - The first all woman expedition to the south pole (3 Americans, 1 Japanese and 12 Russians), sets off from Antarctica on the 1st leg of a 70 day, 1287 kilometre ski trek.
    1996 - Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 123.


    Sharing a birthday:
    Franklin Pierce (14th President of the US)
    Billy the Kid
    Boris Karloff
    Harpo Marx
    French artist Erte
    Johnny Mandel
    Susan Anspach
    Joe Eszterhas
    Steve Landesberg
    Bruce Vilanch
    Bruce Hornsby
    Dominique Dunne
    Oded Fehr
    and Miley Cyrus

    Died on my birthday:
    Merle Oberon
    Roald Dahl
    Roy Acuff
    Louis Malle
    I'm not good at the advice. Can I offer you a sarcastic comment instead?

  22. #22
    Curmudgeon OtakuLoki's avatar
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    Quote Originally posted by yawndave
    May 13th is also National Root Canal Appreciation Day

    And my sister's birthday!





    :twisted:

  23. #23
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    December 18:

    Events:
    1620 - The Mayflower lands in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts with 102 Pilgrims on board.
    1777 - The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga in October.
    1787 - New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
    1878 - John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania.
    1966 - Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker.
    1987 - Larry Wall releases the first version of the Perl programming language.
    1996 - The Oakland, California school board passes a resolution officially declaring "Ebonics" a language or dialect.

    Births:
    1878 - Joseph Stalin
    1886 - Ty Cobb
    1916 - Betty Grable
    1917 - Ossie Davis
    1943 - Keith Richards
    1956 - Ron White
    1958 - Mario, American-Italian video game character <-- Awesome!
    1963 - Brad Pitt
    1964 - Stone Cold Steve Austin
    1970 - DMX
    1978 - Katie Holmes
    1980 - Christina Aguilera

    Also, Chris Farley died on my birthday in 1997.

  24. #24
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    Quote Originally posted by Dogzilla
    Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. Allegedly.
    Hey, mine too!

  25. #25
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on you

    Well, Reagan getting shot kinda put a damper on my 11th birthday party. Still owe Hinckley a kick in the nads for that one.

  26. #26
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    Default Re: What are the most important things that have happened on your birthday?

    I didn't need to go to the wiki. JFK was shot on my 9th birthday. No party for sinjin, which was all I really cared about at the time.

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