April 19

[tarotgal]

Just thought I'd post this. I made this list many many years ago. Luckily, nothing bad has happened on my birthday in the last few years, so I haven't had to add to it. But it used to be that I couldn't turn on the news on my birthday without seeing stories about the Oklahoma City Bombing or the Waco Compound seige. My favorite poet died on my birthday, too :-(


Baaaaad things (and not quite so bad things) that happened on my birthday:

• 2000 In the Philippines, Air Philippines GAP 541 crashed while preparing to land. 131 people were killed
  
• 1995 The Oklahoma City Bombing (kills 168 & injures 500)
  
• 1995 In Japan, poisonous phosgene gas was released in a crowded train at the main railway station in Yokohama; about 370 people were treated in hospital.
  
• 1994 Gates redefines e-mail in a speech to an e-mail association in Anaheim, California
  
• 1993 Branch Davidian Compound Burns (Waco, Texas) (Davidians commit suicide/burn- over 80 die)
  
• 1993 Fire in psychiatric institute in South Korea, kills 40
  
• 1991 Greyhound Bus posts $195 million loss for 1990
  
• 1990 Detroit Pistons & Phila 76'ers get into a fight accruing $162,500 in fines (an NBA record)
  
• 1989 Gun turret explodes on USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors
  
• 1989 A giant asteroid passed within 500,000 miles of Earth
  
• 1989 In El Salvador, Attorney Genenal Alvadora was killed by a car bomb
  
• 1987 USSR performs underground nuclear test
  
• 1987 Last wild condor captured on California wildlife reserve
  
• 1987 LA Clippers end season with a terrible 12-70 record
  
• 1985 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
  
• 1984 Nemesis, death star of dinosaurs 1st appears in print (Nature mag)
  
• 1983 France performs nuclear test
  
• 1980 Alfred Hitchcock dies in Calif at 80
  
• 1975 "The Hustle" enters pop and R&B charts (though it's grown on me... so maybe it's not all that bad)
  
• 1973 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
  
• 1972 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
  
• 1971 Charles Manson sentenced to life for Sharon Tate murder (okay, he certainly deserved it, but ick, I don't want anything about him associated with my birthday)
  
• 1967 Beatles sign a contract to stay together for 10 years (and they don't)
  
• 1965 At a cost of $20,000, the outer Astrodome ceiling is painted because of sun's glare (this causes the grass to die)
  
• 1961 Cuba's Bay of Pigs Victory Day
  
• 1959 Uprising in La Paz Bolivia, fails
  
• 1948 Chiang Kai-shek elected president of Nationalist China
  
• 1947 French ship explodes in Texas City harbor, kills about 522
  
• 1945 US aircraft carrier Franklin heavy damaged in Japanese air raid
  
• 1943 Revolt in Warsaw Ghetto under Mordechai Anielewicz begins, uprising put down
  
• 1941 Bulgarian troops invade Macedonia
  
• 1941 Milk rationed in Holland
  
• 1940 "Lake Shore Ltd" derails speed killing 34 near Little Falls NY
  
• 1940 Dutch prime minister De Geer declares state of siege
  
• 1939 Connecticut finally approves Bill of Rights (148 years late) (I guess this is a GOOD thing, but geez, CT, take your time don't you...)
  
• 1937 USSR performs underground nuclear test
  
• 1936 Anti-Jewish riots break out in Palestine
  
• 1933 The U.S. went off of the gold standard
  
• 1928 Japanese troops occupies Sjantung-schiereiland
  
• 1928 Yanks are out of 1st place for 1st time since May 1926
  
• 1921 Funeral of last German Emperoress, Augusta Victoria
  
• 1906 SF Earthquake ends killing 452
  
• 1906 Pierre Curie, French physicist/chemist (Nobel 1903), dies
  
• 1904 Much of Toronto destroyed by fire
  
• 1882 Charles Robert Darwin, evolutionist Dies
  
• 1874 Barracks on Alcatraz Island destroyed in fire
  
• 1864 Naval Engagement at Cherbourg, FR: USS Kearsage vs CSS Alabama
  
• 1862 Louis Powell Harvey, US governor of Wisconsin, drowns
  
• 1861 U.S. Civil War Begins
  
• 1861 Baltimore riots-4 soldiers, 9 civilians killed
  
• 1824 George Gorden Noel "Lord" Byron, poet, dies at 36
  
• 1775 American Revolution Begins with the Battle of Lexington and Concord (Shot heard 'round the World fired)
  
• 1587 Sir Frances Drake sails into Cadiz Spain & sinks Spanish fleet
  
• 1529 2nd Parliament of Spiers bans Lutheranism
  
• 1390 Robert II, King of Scotland, Dies
  
• 1054 Pope Leo IX dies
  

Some good things:

• 1998 Wang Dan, a leader of 1989 Tiananmen Square pro democracy protests, was freed by the Chinese government
  
• 1994 Supreme Court outlaws excluding people from juries because of gender
  
• 1994 Los Angeles jury awarded $3.8 million to Rodney King for violation of his civil rights
  
• 1994 Inkatha ends boycott of South African multi-racial election
  
• 1992 Balki & Mary Ann wed on "Perfect Strangers"
  
• 1990 Truce in Nicaragua's civil war
  
• 1982 Sally Ride announced as 1st woman astronaut
  
• 1982 Guinon Bluford announced as 1st black astronaut
  
• 1977 Alex Haley received a special Pulitzer Prize for his book "Roots"
  
• 1971 Sierra Leone becomes a republic (Natl Day)
  
• 1967 US Surveyor III lands on Moon
  
• 1960 Baseball uniforms began displaying player's names on their backs
  
• 1956 US actress Grace Kelly marries Monaco's Prince Rainier III (in Church)
  
• 1948 ABC-TV network begins
  
• 1947 Toronto Maple Leafs beat Montreal Canadiens 4 games to 2 for Stanley Cup
  
• 1946 Tim Curry Born in Cheshire, England
  
• 1935 Dudley Moore, English-born comedy film actor
  
• 1923 New Egyptian law allows suffrage for men, except soldiers
  
• 1919 Leslie Irvin of US makes 1st parachute jump & free fall
  
• 1910 Halley's comet seen by naked eye 1st time this trip (Curacao)
  
• 1909 Joan of Arc, declared a saint
  
• 1903 Eliot Ness, untouchable(FBI agent-Chicago), Born
  
• 1897 1st American marathon ran, John J McDermott wins in 2:55:10 (Boston Marathon)
  
• 1892 The Duryea gasoline buggy was introduced in the U.S. by Charles and Frank Duryea.
  
• 1852 The California Historical Society was founded
  
• 1825 33 patriotic exiles return to Uruguay
  
• 1770 Capt James Cook 1st sees Australia