Monday, May 01, 2006

Wikipedia Birthday Meme

Cool, another Meme and I like this one. It's easy to do (cut & paste) and the facts are rather fun too. All you do is go out to Wikipedia's website, type in your birthday without the year and hit enter. All kinds of interesting facts will appear. My birthday is July 18, 19XX.
Events
390 BC - Battle of the Allia: A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome.
64 - Great fire of Rome: A fire begins to burn in the merchant area of Rome and soon burns completely out of control while Emperor Nero reportedly plays his lyre and sings while watching the blaze from a safe distance.
1195 - Battle of Alarcos, great victory of Almohad ruler Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur over the Castilian King Alfonso VIII
1536 - The authority of the Pope is declared void in England.
1830 - Uruguay adopts its first constitution.
1857 - Louis Faidherbe, French governor of Senegal, arrives to relieve French forces at Kayes, effectively ending El Hajj Umar Tall's war on the French.
1863 - American Civil War: The first formal African American military unit, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, unsuccessfully assaults Confederate-held Fort Wagner but their valiant fighting still proves the worth of African American soldiers during the war.
1872 - Britain introduces voting by secret ballot.
1873 - Oscar II of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway in Trondheim
1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie announce the discovery of a new element and proposed to call it polonium.
1914 - The United States Army's Signal Corps is formed, giving definite status to its air service for the first time.
1925 - Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.
1938 - Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan arrives in Ireland.
1942 - World War II: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jets for the first time.
1944 - World War II: Hideki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan due to numerous setbacks in the war effort.
1947 - President Harry S. Truman signs the Presidential Succession Act into law which places the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore next in the line of succession after the United States Vice President.
1966 - Gemini 10 launched.
1968 - Vietnam War: The two-day Honolulu Conference begins in Honolulu, Hawaii between US President Lyndon B. Johnson and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu.
1968 - Intel incorporated.
1969 - After a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Ted Kennedy from Massachusetts drives an Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge into a tide-swept pond and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, dies.
1969 - Apollo 11 makes preparations for landing on the Moon.
1976 - Gymnast Nadia Comaneci, aged 14, scores first ever perfect 10 at the Olympics.
1977 - Vietnam joins the United Nations.
1982 - 268 campesinos ("countryside people") are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre in Ríos Montt's Guatemala.
1984 - McDonald's massacre in San Ysidro, California: In a fast-food restaurant, James Oliver Huberty kills 21 people and injures 19 others before being shot dead by police.
1986 - A tornado is broadcast live on KARE television in Minnesota when the station's helicopter pilot makes a chance encounter.
1989 - Rebecca Schaeffer is shot by a crazed fan, prompting California to pass America's first anti-stalking law in 1990.
1992 - The ten victims of the La Cantuta massacre disappeared from their university in Lima.
1992 - 'The Late Show', starring the D-Generation debuts on ABC.
1994 - In Buenos Aires, an explosion destroys a building housing several Jewish organizations killing 85 and injuring many more.
1994 - A court upholds NBA salary cap and draft rights.
1995 - On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufriere Hills volcano erupts. Over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee.
1996 - Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River in Quebec, beginning one of Canada's costliest natural disasters ever.
1996 - In an event very similar to the Oklahoma tornado that would occur three years later, an F5 tornado hit the town of Oakfield, Wisconsin.
1997 - 8000 low-caste Indians riot in Mumbai (Bombay) following a funeral for 10 children who had been killed by police.
1998 - A 23-foot tidal wave kills nearly 3,000 people in Papua New Guinea.
2001 - In Baltimore, Maryland, a 60-car train derails in a tunnel, sparking a fire that lasts days and virtually shuts down downtown Baltimore.
2003 - Kobe Bryant is charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year old girl.
[edit]

Births
1013 - Hermannus Contractus, learned monk (d. 1054)
1501 - Isabella of Burgundy, wife of Christian II of Denmark (d. 1526)
1504 - Heinrich Bullinger, Swiss religious reformer (d. 1575)
1552 - Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. 1612)
1634 - Johannes Camphuys, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1695)
1635 - Robert Hooke, English scientist (d. 1703)
1670 - Giovanni Bononcini, Italian composer (d. 1747)
1718 - Saverio Bettinelli, Italian writer (d. 1808)
1720 - Gilbert White, English ornithologist (d. 1793)
1797 - Immanuel Hermann Fichte, German philosopher (d. 1879)
1811 - William Makepeace Thackeray, English author (d. 1863)
1821 - Pauline Garcia-Viardot, French mezzo-soprano and composer (d. 1910)
1837 - Vasil Levski, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1873)
1845 - Tristan Corbière, French poet (d. 1875)
1848 - William Gilbert Grace, English cricketer (d. 1915)
1853 - Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1928)
1864 - Phillip Snowden, British politician (d. 1937)
1887 - Vidkun Quisling, Norwegian politician and traitor (d. 1945)
1890 - Frank Forde, fifteenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1983)
1892 - Arthur Friedenreich, Brazilian football player (d. 1969)
1894 - Isaac Babel, Ukrainian writer (d. 1940)
1900 - Nathalie Sarraute, French writer (d. 1999)
1902 - Jessamyn West, American writer (d. 1984)
1902 - Chill Wills, American actor (d. 1978)
1906 - S. I. Hayakawa, American semanticist and politician (d. 1992)
1906 - Clifford Odets, American writer (d. 1963)
1909 - Andrei Gromyko, Soviet diplomat and President (d. 1989)
1909 - Mohammed Daoud Khan, President of Afghanistan (d. 1978)
1911 - Hume Cronyn, Canadian actor (d. 2003)
1913 - Red Skelton, American actor and comedian (d. 1997)
1918 - Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
1921 - John Glenn, astronaut and politician
1922 - Thomas Kuhn, American philosopher (d. 1996)
1923 - Jerome H. Lemelson, American inventor (d. 1997)
1925 - Shirley Strickland, Australian athlete
1927 - Kurt Masur, Silesian-born conductor
1929 - Dick Button, American figure skater
1929 - Screamin' Jay Hawkins, American singer (d. 2000)
1930 - Burt Kwouk, English actor
1933 - Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet
1935 - Jayendra Saraswathi, Hindu religious leader
1937 - Roald Hoffman, Polish-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1937 - Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (d. 2005)
1938 - Paul Verhoeven, Dutch film director
1940 - James Brolin, American actor
1940 - Joe Torre, baseball player and manager
1941 - Martha Reeves, American singer
1947 - Steve Forbes, American entrepreneur and politician
1947 - Steven W. Mahoney, Canadian politician
1948 - Hartmut Michel, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1950 - Sir Richard Branson, British entrepreneur
1950 - Jack Layton, Canadian politician
1951 - Elio Di Rupo, Belgian politician
1960 - Anne-Marie Johnson, American actress
1962 - Jack Irons, American drummer Red Hot Chili Peppers
1963 - Martín Torrijos Espino, President of Panama
1963 - Mike Greenwell, baseball player
1967 - Vin Diesel, American actor
1969 - Masanori Murakawa, Japanese professional wrestler
1975 - Torii Hunter, baseball player
1975 - Daron Malakian, American guitarist (System of a Down)
1978 - Ben Sheets, baseball player
1979 - Joey Mercury, American professional wrestler
1980 - Kristen Bell, American actress
1982 - Priyanka Chopra, Indian actress and Miss World 2000
[edit]

Deaths
1100 - Godfrey of Bouillon, French crusader
1488 - Alvise Cadamosto, Italian explorer (b. 1432)
1591 - Jacobus Gallus, Slovenian composer (b. 1550)
1608 - Joachim Friedrich, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1546)
1610 - Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Italian artist (b. 1573)
1623 - Pope Gregory XV (b. 1554)
1639 - Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, German general (b. 1604)
1665 - Stefan Czarniecki, Polish general (b. 1599)
1695 - Johannes Camphuys, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (b. 1634)
1698 - Johann Heinrich Heidegger, Swiss theologian (b. 1633)
1721 - Antoine Watteau, French painter (b. 1684)
1730 - François de Neufville, duc de Villeroi, French soldier (b. 1644)
1792 - John Paul Jones, American naval commander (b. 1747)
1817 - Jane Austen, English novelist (b. 1775)
1863 - Robert Gould Shaw, American military officer (b. 1837)
1872 - Benito Juárez, President of Mexico (b. 1806)
1884 - Ferdinand von Hochstetter, Austrian geologist (b. 1829)
1892 - Thomas Cook, English travel agent (b. 1808)
1918 - several members of the Romanov family, executed by the Bolsheviks
Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, (b. 1864)
Prince Ioann Konstantinovich of Russia, (b. 1886)
Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia, (b. 1891)
Prince Igor Konstantinovich of Russia, (b. 1894).
Vladimir Paley, (b. 1897)
1937 - Julian Bell, British poet, killed in the Spanish Civil War (b. 1908)
1944 - Thomas Sturge Moore, English poet, author and artist (b. 1870)
1949 - Vítězslav Novák, Czech composer (b. 1870)
1952 - Paul Saintenoy, Belgian architect (b. 1862)
1953 - Lucy Booth, the fifth daughter of William and Catherine Booth (b. 1868)
1963 - Jack Solomon, restauranteur, co-founder Gallagher's Steak House (b.1896)
1968 - Corneille Heymans, Belgian physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
1988 - Nico, German-born model and singer (b. 1938)
1989 - Donnie Moore, baseball player (suicide) (b. 1954)
1990 - Yoon Boseon, President of South Korea (b. 1897)
1995 - Fabio Casartelli, Italian cyclist (b. 1970)
2001 - James Hatfield, American author (b. 1958)
2001 - Fabio Taglioni, Italian automotive engineer (b. 1920)
2002 - Victor Emery, British theoretical physicist (b. 1933)
2004 - Paul Foot, British journalist (b. 1937)
2005 - William Westmoreland, U.S. Army general (b. 1914)
[edit]

Holidays and observances
Uruguay - Constitution Day

3 Comments:

Blogger Gillian said...

You have a lot more savvy than me when it comes to using the computer. So please give me a little bit more of your time. What is "cut and paste"? You make it sound easy and it may help me get the sidebar right too. There is something familiar about it. I'm now going to spend some time doing my tag. Thanks a lot, cheers Gillian

2:50 AM  
Blogger Melissa said...

Cool....
Ben Sheets, born in 1978 is a kinda local hero in the town where I work. He was a baseball player from the college I attended.

2:03 PM  
Anonymous Rachel said...

Thanks foor this blog post

9:03 AM  

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