“Yeah, I’d have Destiny’s child at my funeral… naked on my coffin."
The theme of this entry is Crazy Shit That Happened on My Birthday:
963 - The imperial army proclaims Nicephorus Phocas to be Emperor of the Romans on the plains outside Cappadocian Caesarea.
1644 - English Civil War: the Battle of Marston Moor.
1698 - Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine.
1777 - Vermont becomes the first American territory to abolish slavery. (GO VERMONT!)
1839 - Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinque take over the slave ship Amistad.
1881 - Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James Garfield, who eventually dies from an infection on September 19.
1900 - The first zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany. (ZEPPELIN RUUUULES!)
1937 - Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight.
1950 - The Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, Japan burns down. (DDDDDDD:)
1962 - The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas. (AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!)
1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places.
1976 - North and South Vietnam, divided since 1954, reunite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
1985 - Andrei Gromyko is appointed the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. (my actual birth date! um, cool?)
2002 - Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon.
2003 - Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy, insults German MP Martin Schulz by calling him a "kapo" during a session of the European Parliament. (siiiiiiiiigh)
Aaaaaaaaaaaand I share my birthday with a pile of people, mostly crazy European monarchs and whatnot. The only one I ever remember is Thurgood Marshall (first black man to serve on the Supreme Court in the US), but also Imelda Marcos (see? I am allowed to have dozens of shoes!!), Dave Thomas (um, yay Wendy's?), Vicente Fox (which is pretty much the BEST NAME EVER), Bret 'Hitman' Hart (siiiiiigh), Jose Canseco (who I've only heard of cuz of The Simpsons baseball episode XD), Olivia Munn (bahahahaha Munngate) and a pair of useless starlets: Ashley Tisdale (who actually shares my exacty birth date, sigh) and Lindsay Lohan (a year younger). I am far too amused by this. ILU WIKIPEDIA.
Also GUESS WHO DIED ON MY BIRTHDAY?? NOSTRADAMUS!!! BAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! Also Rousseau, Ernest Hemingway, Betty Grable, and Jimmy Stewart (awww). And one year there was someone semi-notorious executed on my birthday which was a pretty shitty way to start out the day, let me tell you.
So. Now you have lots more useless trivia to fill your brain and take up the spots of actually useful info. You are welcome. ♥