Happy Birthdays

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 14th, you share your birthday with:

Johann Baptist Strauss Snr (composer – popularised the waltz. Father of Johann Sebastian Strauss)
Charles Charlesworth (first recorded case of progeria syndrome (accelerated aging). Dies of old age at 7)
Albert Einstein (theoretical physicist – theory of relativity, etc)
Michael Caine (actor – The Eagle Has Landed, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, etc)
Billy Crystal (actor/ comedian – City Slickers, etc)
Pam Ayres (poet/ comedienne)
Rick Dees (radio DJ)
David Byrne (musician/ song-writer – Talking Heads)

You also share the same date with these events:

1489: The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice.
1757: On-board the HMS Monarch, Admiral John Byng is executed by firing squad for neglecting his duty.
1885: Gilbert & Sullivan's "Mikado" premieres in London
1950: FBI's "10 Most Wanted Fugitives" program begins
1991: British Court of Appeal frees "Birmingham 6" who had been unjustly sentenced in August 1975 to life imprisonment
1995: Most people in space at any one time = 13
2005: The Cedar Revolution occurs, when over one and a half million Lebanese go into the streets of Beirut to demonstrate against the Syrian military presence in Lebanon, and against the government following the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Today’s special shout-out goes to

Happy Birthday Billy Crystal!

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 15th, you share your birthday with:

Hadrian (14th Roman Emperor – ordered the building of Hadrian’s Wall)
“Lightnin” Sam Hopkins (musician/ guitarist – blues aficionado)
Judd Hirsch (actor - Taxi, Ordinary People, Numb3rs, etc)
Ry Cooder (musician/ guitarist)
Terrence Trent D'Arby (singer – Wishing Well, etc)
Eva Longoria (model/ actress – Desparate Housewives)
Zmflavius (Sryth gamer and honoured forum member)

You also share the same date with these events:

44BC: the Ides of March... Julius Caesar is assassinated by Brutus
221: Liu Bei, a Chinese warlord and member of the Han royal house, declares himself emperor of Shu-Han and claims his legitimate succession to the Han Dynasty.
1906: In Britain, Rolls, Royce & Johnson form Rolls Royce Ltd
1944: Battle of Monte Casino. The monestary and town are bombed out of existence by the allies.
1961: South Africa withdraws from British Commonwealth
1968: LIFE magazine calls Jimi Hendrix "most spectacular guitarist in the world"
1999: After being downgraded to a “large solar body”, Pluto is reinstated as a planet
2004: exactly 5 years after Pluto is reinstated as the solar system’s furthest planet, a still farther solar body is discovered and named “Sedna”. Its discoverer fails in his attempt to get it classified as a planet.

Today’s special shout-out goes to

Happy Birthday Zmflavius!

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 16th, you share your birthdate with:

James Madison (4th US president)
Dr Joseph Mengele (Nazi dubbed “The Angel of Death”)
Jerry Lewis (actor/ comedian)
Erik Estrada (actor – played Ponch in “CHiPs”)
Margaret Weis (author – Dragons of Spring Dawning, etc)
Jimmy Nail (singer/ actor – Auf Wiedersesen Pet, Evita, etc)
Flavor Flav (rapper/ reality TV personality)

You also share the same day with these events:

597BC: Babylonians capture Jerusalem and replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king.
1345: The “Miracle of Amsterdam” occurs in which hundreds see a ‘holy spirit’ glide over a fire in the city.
1830: New York Stock Exchange has its slowest day ever with just 31 shares traded
1968: General Motors produces its 100 millionth automobile, the Oldsmobile Toronado.
1995: Mississippi formally abolishes slavery
1998: Pope John Paul II asks God for forgiveness for the inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust.
2006: The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to establish the UN Human Rights Council.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Jimmy Nail!

[Badstench]

It’s Saint Patrick’s Day!

If you were born on March 17th, you share your birthdate with:

Gottleib Daimler (inventor/ engineer – designed the first motorcycle)
Kincsem (a horse – it never lost a race it was entered in)
Nat “King” Cole (singer – Mona Lisa, etc)
Danny Devito (actor – Twins, played the despicable Louie in Taxi, etc)
Kurt Russell (actor – Escape From New York, Backdraft, etc)
Gary Sinise (actor – Forest Gump, CSI: New York, etc)
Rob Lowe (actor – St Elmo’s Fire, etc)
Billy Corgan (musician/ singer – Smashing Pumpkins)
Justin Hawkins (singer – The Darkness)

You also share the same day with these events:

180: Marcus Aurelius dies leaving Commodus as the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.
432: St Patrick, a bishop, is carried off to Ireland as a slave
1337: Edward, the Black Prince, is made Duke of Cornwall, the first Duchy made in England.
1521: Ferdinand Magellan discovers the Philippines
1753: St Patrick's Day is celebrated officially for the first time.
1845: Rubber band patented by Stephen Perry of London
1995: Sinn-Fein leader Gerry Adams visits White House

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Billy Corgan!

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 18th, you share your birthdate with:

Neville Chamberlain (British politician/ Prime Minister)
F W de Klerk (South African Premier who steered the country out from apartheid)
Charlie Pride (singer – African-American inductee to the Country & Western Hall of Fame)
Alex “Hurricane” Higgins (snooker player)
Brad Dourif (actor – played Grima “Wormtongue” in Lord of The Rings)
Vanessa Williams (model/ actress – Ugly Betty)
Queen Latifah (rapper/ actress – Hoodlum, Taxi, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

37: The Roman Senate annuls Tiberius' will and proclaims Caligula emperor.
1834: Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England, are sentenced to transportation to Australia for forming a trade union.
1944: Security guards and sales assistants are trampled when 2,500 women attempt to purchase 1,500 alarm clocks announced for sale in a Chicago Illinois department store
1965: Cosmonaut, Aleksei Leonov, leaves his spacecraft for 12 minutes to become the first person to walk in space
1989: The largest art robbery in the history takes place when 12 paintings valued at $100 million are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston
1989: In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Pyramid of Cheops
2003: Sign Language is recognised as an official language in Britain.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Queen Latifah!

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 19th, you share your birthdate with:

Aleksie M Romanov (first Russian Czar of the Romanov line)
Dr David Livingstone (explorer – at least, I presume so)
Wyatt Earp (marshal of Tombstone – Gunfight at the ‘OK’ corral)
Patrick McGoohan (actor – played No.6 in Prisoner – “I am not a number. I am a free man!”)
Ursula Andress (actress/ model – Dr No, Clash of the Titans, etc)
Glenn Close (actress – The Big Chill, Fatal Attraction, etc)
Ricky Wilson (musician/ guitarist – The B52’s)

You also share the same day with these events:

1644: In China, the last Emperor of the Ming dynasty commits suicide, prompting 200 members of the imperial court to do likewise.
1863: The SS Georgiana, the most powerful confederate cruiser, is destroyed on her maiden voyage.
1918: US congress organizes time zones and gives approval for daylight saving.
1932: In Australia, the Sydney harbour bridge is opened.
1965: The wreck of the SS Georgiana is discovered exactly 102 years after it sunk.
1982: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands, precipitating war with England.
1994: The largest omelette (1,383sq ft) is made with 160,000 eggs in Yokohama Japan
2008: GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye is briefly observed on this day.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Glenn Close!

[Doolipalally]

Think you deserve kudos there for picking Glenn Close over Ursula Andress! :)

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 20th, you share your birthday with:

Sergei V Rachmaninov (composer/ pianist)
Vera Lynn (singer/ war-time sweetheart – “Bring the Boys Back Home”)
Werner Klemperer (actor – played Colonel Klink in “Hogan’s Heroes”)
Hal Linden (actor – Barney Miller)
Lee “Scratch” Perry (musician/ singer – reggae artist)
Carl Palmer (drummer – Emerson Lake & Palmer)
William Hurt (actor – City of Darkness, Lost in Space, etc)
Jimmy Vaughan (musician/ guitarist – The Fabulous Thunderbirds)
Spike Lee (film director – Mo’ Better Blues, Malcolm X, etc)

You also share the same date with these events:

1345: The cause of “The Plague” is discovered... it occurred through the conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars.
1815: Napoleon Bonaparte enters Paris after escaping from Elba and begins 100-day rule
1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is published
1868: The James Gang robs the bank in Russelville, Kentucky, of $14,000
1969: John Lennon marries Yoko Ono in Gibraltar
1982: Joan Jett & the Blackhearts' "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" goes #1 for 7 weeks
1991: Supreme Court rules unanimously that employers can't exclude women from jobs where exposure to toxic chemicals could potentially damage foetus
2006: Cyclone Larry makes landfall in eastern Australia, destroying most of the country's banana crop. Truly a bad day for bananas.

Today’s special shout-out goes to

Happy Birthday William Hurt!

[Badstench]

YOUR STARS IN SRYTH
Aries: March 21 – April 20
Element: Fire
Symbol: The Ram
Ruler: Mars

The reason rams have big curling horns is so they can run at each other and butt heads repeatedly. This can sum up the personality of people born under the sign of Aries in two ways; 1) They are forthright, brave and resolute, or 2) they are thick-headed and stupid! In many cases, both categories are applicable, but for want of putting a positive slant on the peculiarities of Ariens, we shall concentrate on their better attributes.

People born between March 21 and April 20 are aggressive types. They can be loud, obtrusive and demanding of attention, and this exacerbates the fact that they don’t often display much in the way of wisdom. More simply put, they act first and think later. This is not always a bad thing, and it’s interesting to note that Ariens who follow an adventurous lifestyle are often more successful at surviving the hazards of their profession than others. This is because initial reactions are usually the ones that are done unto others before others can do unto them, which is a handy trait to have in a world of sword-wielding barbarians!

Indeed, you might be quite startled to observe the number of raised hands in the Adventurers Collective if you were to yell, “Who’s an Arien, then?”… and this would also go a long way to explaining why Vurii has recently invested in unbreakable furniture.

Ariens approach most matters in a direct and forceful way. It may not always be the best way, but things tend to get done nevertheless.

For the most part, you can trust an Arien. What they lack for in accuracy, they more than make up for with sincerity. There is a famous Srythian saying: “If you want an answer, seek and ye shall find, but if you want the truth, ask an Arien!”… and this is another reason why Arien’s can often be encountered at the centre of any brawl in progress, because they’re about as familiar with tact and diplomacy as a Dragon-Beetle in a feeding frenzy.

Aries and Money: As direct and stubborn as Arien’s can be, it may be surprising to learn that they are quite shrewd when it comes time to spend their ill-gotten gains. Like Sagittarians, they aren’t good at accumulating wealth and saving for a rainy day, but unlike Sagittarians, they can make the coins they do possess stretch a long way; Arien’s are good at haggling, mainly because they’re so single-minded (not to mention intimidating).

Arien’s can’t be bothered with things like banks and investment houses. Their financial philosophy revolves around the saying, “You can’t take it with you when you die!”

Where philanthropy is concerned, Ariens don’t recognise the word. Their purse strings are usually drawn tight… unless the situation involves a combination of booze and a pretty woman (or, if the Arien is female, booze and a shoe shop). The stinginess of Ariens makes one wonder why they are broke all the time. Not only are they always broke, but they have a tendency to rack up debts as well.

Aries and Romance: The Aries romantic is more likely to woo a member of the opposite sex with a playful punch to the solar plexus rather than with a bunch of flowers. Ariens really are clueless when it comes to expressing their gentler natures, mainly because there is nothing gentle about them, and this makes any attempt at “preening” seem awkward and uncomfortable.

However, if the recipient of an Arien’s attentions can see the bodily assaults for what they are (ie; romantic advances), and return the signals favourably, he/she will be rewarded with the adoration of the Arien, rather like how King Kong adored the screaming blonde chick.

And that’s the best way to treat a Arien partner; like an overgrown puppy… throw him/ her a bone every now and then, pat his/her tummy, and the future will be a good one!

Famous Ariens in Sryth: If you’ve ever taken a wander along the paths of a human cemetery dedicated to adventurers and mercenaries in Sryth, you might have noticed quite a few engravings that place the births of the deceased between March 21 and April 20. You should also notice that those same adventurers and mercenaries have a second engraved date that proclaims most of them as being dead.

Don’t laugh, for it has been proven that some of them aren’t dead – they’ve just taken advantage of death as a means by which to avoid repaying the debts they frequently accumulate. Indeed, there is one well-known adventurer who has four separate plots in the Trithik cemetery and has been buried in all of them at one time or another.

Other Sryth adventurers to have their birthdays under the sign of Aries include Taproot97 (March 29), and Nic (April 3).

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 21st, you share your birthday with:

Johann Sebastian Bach (composer )
John D Rockefella III (billionaire philanthropist)
Timothy Dalton (actor – one of the James Bond incarnations)
Roger Hodgson (singer – Supertramp)
Gary Oldman (actor – Batman: The Dark Knight, Dracula, etc)
Ayrton Senna (formula 1 race champion)
Mathew Broderick (actor – Godzilla, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, etc)

You also share the same date with these events:

1843: Preacher William Miller of Massachusetts predicts the world will end today. He was wrong.
1891: In West Virginia, a Hatfield marries a McCoy, ending a 20 year long feud started by an accusation of pig-stealing
1935: Persia is officially renamed Iran
1947: President Truman signs Executive Order 9835 requiring all federal employees to have allegiance to the United States
1952: Alan Freed presents Moondog Coronation Ball at old Cleveland Arena, the first rock & roll concert ever
1980: President Jimmy Carter announces US boycott of Moscow Olympics
1984: Part of Central Park is named Strawberry Fields honouring John Lennon

Today’s special shout-out goes to

Happy Birthday Gary Oldman!

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 22nd, you share your birthdate with:

Chico Marx (comedian – one of the Marx Brothers)
Marcel Marceau (famous mime artist)
William Shatner (actor – Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, Boston Legal, etc)
Andrew Lloyd Webber (composer/ song-writer)
George Benson (musician/ song-writer)
Mathew Modine (actor – Full Metal Jacket, etc)
Reese Witherspoon (actress – Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1922: British court sentences Mahatma Gandhi to 6 years in prison
1929: 66 horses start in Irish Grand National Sweepstakes
1954: First shopping mall opens in Southfield, Michigan
1978: Karl Wallenda of the The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1984: Teachers at the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, are charged with satanic ritual abuse of the children in the school. The charges are later dropped as being completely unfounded.
1993: Intel introduces Pentium-processor (80586) 64 bits-60 MHz-100+ MIPS
2009: Mount Redoubt, a volcano in Alaska begins erupting after a prolonged period of unrest.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Reese Witherspoon!

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 23rd, you share your birthday with:

Captain William Kidd (privateer – perhaps a pirate)
Joan Crawford (actress – Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, etc)
Roger Bannister (athlete – first man to run a sub 4 minute mile)
Ric Ocasek (singer – The Cars – Moving in Stereo, etc)
Patricia Richardson (actress – played Jill on Home Improvement)
Chaka Khan (singer)
Amanda Plummer (actress – Hotel New Hampshire, etc)
Princess Eugenie (daughter of Sarah Ferguson & Prince Andrew)

You also share the same date with these events:

1775: Patrick Henry proclaims "Give me liberty or give me death"
1839: First recorded use of "OK" [oll korrect] is seen in Boston’s Morning Post
1848: The ship, John Wickliffe, arrives at Port Chalmers carrying the first Scottish settlers for Dunedin, New Zealand. The city is dubbed “Edinburgh of the South”.
1879: Chile goes to war against Bolivia and Peru, and wins. They annex the territories that leave Bolivia land locked.
1923: Frank Silver & Irving Conn release "Yes, We Have No Bananas". Truly a good day for bananas.
1972: Evil Knievel breaks 93 bones after successfully clearing 35 cars on his motorcycle
1983: US president Ronald Reagan introduces "Star Wars" plan
1986: 6th Golden Raspberry Awards: Rambo: First Blood Part II wins
2001: The Russian Mir space station is disposed of, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.

Today’s special shout-out goes to

Happy Birthday Patricia Richardson!

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 24th, you share your birthdate with:

Harry Houdini (magician/ escapologist)
Joseph Barbera (animator/ cartoonist – of Hanna-Barbera fame)
Steve McQueen (actor – Bullit, Dead or Alive, etc)
Kelly LeBrock (actress – Weird Science, Woman In Red, etc)
The Undertaker (professional wrestler)
Lara Flynn Boyle (actress – Men In Black II, etc)
Keisha Castle-Hughes (actress – Whale Rider, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1877: The first and only time the university boat race between Oxford and Cambridge ends in a dead heat
1906: "Census of the British Empire" shows England has direct influence over 1/5 of the world
1944: 76 Allied officers escape Stalag Luft 3, as depicted in the movie, “The Great Escape”
1958: Elvis Presley joins the army (serial number 53310761)
1989: The Exxon Valdez disaster occurs when 11.3 million gallons of oil is spilled off Alaska
1999: Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
2008: Bhutan officially becomes a democracy with its first ever general election.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Keisha Castle-Hughes! (You know where she’s from, dontcha?)

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 25th, you share your birthdate with:

Burt Munro (land speed record holder – in 1967 at 68yrs of age and riding a 47-year old machine… his record [under 1000cc’s] still stands today)
Jack Ruby (shot Lee Harvey Oswald)
Patrick Troughton (actor – best known as the second incarnation of Dr Who)
Aretha Franklin (singer)
Elton John (musician/ singer – Goodby Yellow Brick Road, Candles In The Wind, etc)
Sarah Jessica Parker (actress – Sex in the City, etc)
Danica Patrick (racecar driver – one of the few females to race in the NASCAR series – quite good lookin’ too!)

You also share the same day with these events:

421: The city of Venice is founded, precisely at midday
1811: The famous poet, Percy Shelley is expelled from the University of Oxford for his publication of the pamphlet, “The Necessity of Atheism”
1939: Billboard magazine introduces the Country music chart with the original title, “hillbilly”.
1958: Sugar Ray Robinson becomes the first boxing champ to win 5 times
1990: 10th Golden Raspberry Awards: Star Trek V wins
1992: Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returns to Earth after a 10-month stay aboard the Mir space station.
1996: US issues newly-redesigned $100 bill

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Danica Patrick!

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 26th, you share your birthdate with:

Tennessee Williams (playwright – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
Leonard Nimoy (actor – “Live Long and Prosper” – Star Trek’s First Officer Spok)
Alan Arkin (actor – Catch 22, Little Miss Sunshine, etc)
James Caan (actor – The Godfather, etc)
Diana Ross (singer – The Supremes, etc)
Steven Tyler (rock singer – Aerosmith)
Martin Short (actor/ comedian – Three Amigos, etc)
Leeza Gibbons (Television host)
Keira Knightley (actress – Bend it Like Beckham, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1484: William Caxton prints the translation of Aesop's Fables.
1859: First sighting of Vulcan, a planet thought to orbit inside Mercury
1910: US forbids immigration to criminals, anarchists, paupers and the sick
1965: A truck carrying a load of bananas loses control down Moosic Street in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Truly a bad day for bananas.
1975: The Who’s rock opera, “Tommy”, premiers in London
1989: The first democratic free elections are held in Russia following the demise of the Soviet Union. Boris Yeltsin wins.
1999: The "Melissa worm" infects Microsoft word processing and e-mail systems around the world.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Steven Tyler! (more from amazement that he’s managed to stay alive this long)

[Doolipalally]

Do I detect a hint of a banana obsession creeping in here? ;)

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 27th, you share your birthday with:

Henry Royce (automobile manufacturer – Rolls-Royce)
Patti Hill Smith (author/ song-writer – Happy Birthday to You)
Cale Yarborough (race-car driver – four time Daytona 500 winner)
Michael York (actor – Logan’s Run, Cabaret, etc)
Shaun Cassidy (singer/ actor)
Quentin Tarantino (movie director – Pulp Fiction, etc)
Mariah Carey (singer – Love Takes Time, etc)

You also share the same date with these events:

1613: The first English child is born in Canada at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy.
1790: The shoelace is invented
1871: First ever international rugby game takes place between England and Scotland. Scotland win.
1881: Rioting takes place in Basingstoke in protest against the daily vociferous promotion of rigid temperance by the Salvation Army.
1973: At the 47th Academy awards, “The Godfather” wins best movie and Marlon Brando takes best actor, then turns down the Oscar in support of the Indians.
1980: Mount St Helens becomes active after 123 years of dormancy
2004: HMS Scylla, a decommissioned Leander frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe.

Today’s special shout-out goes to

Happy Birthday Quentin Tarantino!

With special mention to Patti Hill Smith. Could this be the most sung song in the world?

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 28th, you share your birthday with:

Dirk Bogarde (actor – Death in Venice, etc)
Michael Parkinson (television chat show host)
John Evans (drummer – Jethro Tull)
Salt (singer – half of the duo, “Salt’n’Pepper”)
Vince Vaughan (actor – The Wedding Crashers, etc)
David Keuning (musician/ guitarist – The Killers)
Amy Bruckner (actress – Nancy Drew – voted 2006, “The Coolest Person on TV” by the readers of Kid Showbiz Magazine.)

You also share the same date with these events:

845: Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.
1881: The Greatest Show on Earth is formed by P T Barnum and James A Bailey
1905: The Paramaribo dam railway opens in Suriname. It is never used
1930: Constantinople and Angora have their names changed to Istanbul and Ankara
1969: Greek poet and Nobel Prize laureate Giorgos Seferis makes a famous statement on the BBC World Service opposing the junta in Greece.
1979: A major nuclear accident occurs at 3 Mile Island, Middletown, Pennsylvania. There are no casualties
1989: New Zealand wins America's Cup over Stars & Stripes in a New York court. They let a steamroller roll over it and re-name it the New Zealand Shield. (okay... that last bit is pure fantasy... I’m warming up for April Fool’s day).

Today’s special shout-out goes to

Happy Birthday Amy Bruckner!

[Oldschool]

1989: New zealand wins america's cup over stars & stripes in a new york court. They let a steamroller roll over it and re-name it the new zealand shield. (okay... That last bit is pure fantasy... I’m warming up for april fool’s day).



lol!!!!

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 29th, you share your birthday with:

Warner Baxter (actor – The Cisco Kid.)
Evelyn de Rothschild (billionaire before billionaires were imagined – the original “Richie Rich”)
Terence Hill: (actor – known for his acting duo alongside Bud Spencer... funny stuff)
Eric Idle (comedian/ actor – one of the Monty Python crew – “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”)
Vangelis Papanthanisiou (musician/ pianist – Chariots of Fire, etc)
LaToya Jackson (singer – If You Feel the Funk)
Christopher Lambert (actor – The Highlander, Knight Moves, etc)
Elle MacPherson (super model/ actress – yummy!)
Lucy Lawless: (actress – Xena – She’s a kiwi dontchaknow?)
Deanna Troi (fictional doctor on Star Trek Voyager... born this day in the year, 2336)
Taproot97: (Sryth gamer and respected forum member).

You also share the same date with these events:

1549: Salvador da Bahia, the first capital of Brazil, is founded.
1795: Beethoven debuts. His first piano concerto bombs.
1912: Robert Scott makes the last entry in his diary while returning from the South Pole; “The end cannot be far”. His remains have never been found
1987: Wrestlemania – Hulk Hogan defeats Andre the Giant
1999: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 10006.78 - above the 10,000 mark for the first time ever.
2004: The Republic of Ireland becomes the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places, including bars and restaurants.

Today’s special shout-out goes to

Happy Birthday Taproot97!

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 30th, you share your birthdate with:

Peter I “The Great” Romanov (Great Tsar of Russia)
Jethro Tull (agricultural writer… namesake of the band formed by Ian Anderson)
Vincent van Gogh (expressionist artist – the one who supposedly chopped off his own ear)
Rolf Harris (artist/ entertainer/ singer – My Boomerang Won’t Come Back, etc)
Warren Beatty (actor – Bonnie & Clyde, Dick Tracy, etc)
Eric Clapton (musician/ guitarist extraordinaire – Layla, Tears In Heaven, etc)
Robbie Coltrane (actor/ comedian)
MC Hammer (rapper – Hammer Time)
Tracy Chapman (singer/ guitarist – Freedom Now, I Got a Fast Car, etc)
Celine Dion (vocalist/ singer – I’m Your Woman, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

240BC: 1st recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
1867: US buys Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000 (2 cents an acre - Seward's Folly)
1870: Texas becomes last confederate state readmitted to Union following the civil war
1932: Amelia Earhart becomes first woman to fly solo cross the Atlantic
1981: President Reagan is shot and wounded by John W Hinckley III
1987: Vincent van Goghs "Sunflowers" sells for record $39.7 million
1992: 64th Academy Awards; “Silence of the Lambs” wins best movie, while Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster win best male and best female for the same movie.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Eric Clapton!

[Badstench]

If you were born on March 31st, you share your birthdate with:

Herb Alpert (musician/ trumpeter – The Tijuana Brass Band)
Sheila Dikshit (Indian local politician and winner of this month’s “most unfortunate name” award)
Christopher Walken (actor – Deer Hunter, The King of New York, etc)
Albert Gore Jr (45th US Vice President and environmentalist – An Inconvenient Truth)
Rhea Pearlman (actress – Taxi, Cheers, etc)
Angus Young (musician/ guitarist – AC/DC)
Ewan McGregor (actor – Trainspotting, The Island, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1889: The Eiffel Tower officially opens to commemorate the French Revolution
1903: New Zealander, Richard Pearse, flies his monoplane several hundred yards… 9 months before the Wright Brothers!
1949: Newfoundland becomes Canada's 10th province
1963: Los Angeles ends streetcar service after 90 years
1978: Red Rum wins third consecutive Grand National horse race and retires
1994: The journal, “Nature”, reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus Afarensis skull.
2007: In Sydney, Australia, 2.2 million people take part in the first Earth Hour.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Albert Gore Jr!

[Badstench]

This post is coming in a little early today... this will give you a little bit of extra time to sort out the conundrum. Answers will not be accepted after the posting of birthdates for April 2

**************************************************

White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits.

If you were born on April 1st, you share your birthday with:

Otto Von Bismark (German general and chancellor – after whom the great battleship “Bismark” was named)
William Harvey (doctor – discovered the circulatory system)
Lon Chaney (actor – man of 1000 faces – Phantom of the Opera, High Noon, etc)
Anne McCaffrey (author – Dragonflight, Dragondrums, etc)
Debbie Reynolds (actress – Singin’ in the Rain, etc)
Harem Hatcher (suffered the first recorded case of “looking glass” syndrome, whereby his reflection looked, to him, something like a rabbit).
Simon Crowe (drummer – Boomtown Rats)

You also share the same date with these events:

1663: In the town of Gemert (Netherlands), it is decreed that women who fall pregnant out of wedlock are fined 50 guilders
1912 : The Greek athlete, Konstantinos Tsiklitiras, breaks the world record in the “standing long jump”, jumping 3.47 metres when the track starter gun is fired and startles him. He beat all the official entrants in that event.
1963: Jonas Bigbottom steps down from his position as company director of Heinz Ltd after they incorporate the weight-watchers brand into their company. His name wasn’t deemed appropriate.
1952: The Big Bang theory is first proposed.
1989: A new superhero is introduced by DC Comics named “Arm-Fall-Off-Boy”. He has the ability to detach his own limbs, which he can then use as blunt weapons.
1990: a law is passed in Salem, Oregon, that makes it illegal to stand within 2’ of a nude dancer.
2001: exactly 338 years after the event mentioned in 1663, Netherlands becomes the first country to allow same-sex marriage.

Today’s special shout-out goes to

Happy Birthday Arm-fall-Off-Boy!

The Fool’s challenge: A number of entries for April 1 do not belong on the list(s). The easy part of the challenge is for you to recognise which of the entries are anomolous. The hard part of the challenge is for you to explain why. The tricky part of the challenge is for you to realise that fact is sometimes stranger than fiction.

[Oldschool]

Rotfl...... I'll have to give this a go a bit later when I have the time although I see a few that are immediately suspicious which means they may be legit at least in part.

Folks we should spoiler tag our answers so others can enjoy.

[Elrond]

If you were born on April 1st, you also share the same date with these events:

1663: In the town of Gemert (Netherlands), it is decreed that women who fall pregnant out of wedlock are fined 50 guilders
1912 : The Greek athlete, Konstantinos Tsiklitiras, breaks the world record in the “standing long jump”, jumping 3.47 metres when the track starter gun is fired and startles him. He beat all the official entrants in that event.
2001: exactly 338 years after the event mentioned in 1663, Netherlands becomes the first country to allow same-sex marriage.

I think that the stuff in red is AFD fodder; and I've had time to only check out those two entries. Also, the Bismark information seems to be 100% true.

[spencer]

Here are my guesses:


1912 : The Greek athlete, Konstantinos Tsiklitiras, breaks the world record in the “standing long jump”, jumping 3.47 metres when the track starter gun is fired and startles him. He beat all the official entrants in that event. I think this is bogus because it would not be an official world record unless he was in an official competition :)
1963: Jonas Bigbottom steps down from his position as company director of Heinz Ltd after they incorporate the weight-watchers brand into their company. His name wasn’t deemed appropriate. Again, April Fool's in my opinion as I do not believe that Weight-watchers was around in 1963.
1952: The Big Bang theory is first proposed.
1989: A new superhero is introduced by DC Comics named “Arm-Fall-Off-Boy”. He has the ability to detach his own limbs, which he can then use as blunt weapons. Seriously? In the age of PC, which may not have been started. DC would not make a comic called Arm Fall off Boy. Some other, off-color publisher might, but I don't think that DC would do it.

[Badstench]

The Greek athlete event is correct to the word 'metres'. Everything after that is a fabrication.

The CEO of Heinz Ltd was not Jonas Bigbottom. In fact, no-one of that name has ever existed (to my knowledge). Most of that event is a fabrication, though Heinz did acquire the weight-watchers brand in 1963.

The proposal for the Big Bang theory first appeared in the "Physical Review", and was presented by Alpher, Bethe and Gamow. The event is accurate.

"Arm-Fall-Off-Boy" actually existed as a superhero from DC Comics. He appeared in one issue only. There is a minor anomoly to the event as stated: he didn't appear on April 1st, 1989, but in December of the same year.

Harem Hatcher never existed as the person described - suffering from delusions that he looked like a rabbit. However, the letters of the name can be rearranged (it's an anagram) to spell The March Hare. As we all know, The March hare was quite mad, but he was definitely no fool and doesn't belong to any date in April.

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 2nd, you share your birthday with:

Charlemagne (the 1st Holy Roman Emperor)
Casanova (writer and self professed romantic)
Hans Christian Anderson (children’s story teller/ writer)
Sir Alec Guiness (actor – Bridge on the River Kwai, etc)
Penelope Keith (actress – To the Manor Born, The Good Life, etc)
Emmylou Harris (singer)
Dana Carvey (actor/ comedian – Wayne’s World, etc)
Linford Christe (athlete – first person to hold the World, Olympic, Commonwealth and Continental 100 metre running titles)

You also share the same date with these events:

1513: Ponce de Leon discovers and claims Florida for Spain
1872: George B Brayton patents gasoline powered engine
1902: "Electric Theatre", the first full-time movie theatre in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.
1931: Teenage girl strikes out Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game in Chattanooga, Tennessee
1966: Soviet Union's Luna 10 becomes first spacecraft to orbit the moon
1977: Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors" album goes to #1 and stays at that position for 31 weeks
1977: Velcro is first available for sale to the general public

Today’s special shout-out goes to

Happy Birthday Penelope Keith!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 3rd, you share your birthday with:

Doris Day (actress – Pillow Talk, etc)
Marlon Brando (actor – The Godfather, Superman, etc)
Helmut Kohl (German politician/ chancellor)
Jan Berry (singer – half of the duo, “Jan & Dean”)
Alec Baldwin (actor – Beetlejuice, Mercury Rising, etc)
Eddie Murphy (actor/ comedian – 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, etc)
Melissa Etheredige (musician/ singer)
Nic (Sryth gamer and forum member)

You also share the same date with these events:

1860: Pony Express begins between St Joseph, Montana, and Sacramento, California
1882: Outlaw Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford.
1910: Highest mountain in North America, Mt McKinley, is conquered.
1949: North Atlantic Treaty pact is signed by US, Britain, France and Canada
1964: The Beatles hold the top 6 places on the Australian music charts
1967: 113 East Europeans attending World Amateur hockey championships in Vienna, ask for political asylum
1973: The first portable cell phone call is made in New York City
1985: Vic Elliot pockets 15,780 pool balls in 24 hours in London

Today’s special shout-out goes to

Happy Birthday Nic!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 4th, you share your birthday with:

Muddy Waters (musician/ Bluesman – Hoochie Coochie Man, etc)
Anthony Perkins (actor – Psycho, etc)
Pick Withers (musician/ guitarist – Dire Straits)
Christine Lahti (actress – Leaving Normal, Chicago Hope, etc)
Gary Moore (musician/ singer/ guitarist)
Hugo Weaving (actor – played “Mr Smith” in the Matrix trilogy)
Robert Downey Jnr (actor – US Marshals, Ironman, etc)
David Blaine (Illusionist)
Alicia Silverstone (actress – Batman Forever, Clueless, etc)
Heath Ledger (actor – Ned Kelly, Batman: The Dark Knight, etc)

You also share the same date with these events:

1581: Frances Drake completes circumnavigation of world
1948: 84-year-old Connie Mack challenges 78-year-old Clark Griffith to a race from home to 1st base; it ends in a tie
1972: First electric power plant fuelled by garbage begins operating
1975: Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
1984: Winston Smith in Orwell's "1984" begins his secret diary
1988: Eddie Hill becomes the world’s first driver to cover the quarter mile under 5 seconds
2007: 15 British Royal Navy personnel held in Iran are released by the Iranian President.

Happy Birthday Robert Downey Jnr!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 5th, you share your birthday with:

Spencer Tracy (actor – Adam’s Rib, etc)
Bette Davis (actress with the famous eyes – Jezebel, etc)
Gregory Peck (actor – To Kill a Mockingbird, etc)
Nigel Hawthorn (actor – The Madness of King George, Demolition Man, etc)
Peter Grant (band manager – Led Zeppelin)
Colin Powell (career politician – National Secretary of Affairs)
Eric Burdon (singer – The Animals – House of the Rising Sun, etc)

You also share the same date with these events:

1614: American Indian princess, Pocahontas, daughter of chief Powhatan, marries English colonist John Rolfe
1874: Johann Strauss Sr's opera "Die Fledermaus," premieres in Vienna
1895: Oscar Wilde loses libel case against Marquess of Queensberry, who accused him of homosexual practices
1896: 1st modern Olympic Games officially opens in Athens
1943: Poon Lim, a British sailor of Chinese descent, is found after 133 days spent adrift in the South Atlantic Ocean.
1955: Winston Churchill resigns as British Prime Minister.
1958: Ripple Rock, an underwater threat to navigation in the Seymour Narrows in Canada is destroyed in one of the largest non-nuclear controlled explosions of the time.
1974: The tallest building at 110 stories, The World Trade Center, opens in New York City

Happy Birthday Colin Powell!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 6th, you share your birthdate with:

Elizabeth Barrett-Browning (poet)
Robert Parker (desperado/ outlaw – better known as Butch Cassidy)
Donald Wills Douglas (aircraft pioneer)
George Reeves (actor – The original TV Superman)
Billy Dee Williams (actor – played Lando Calrissian in “The Empire Strikes Back”)
Merle Haggard (singer – Death Valley Days)
Marilu Henner (actress – Taxi, The Man Who Loved Women, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

46BC: Julius Caesar defeats Scipio (not Africanus) at the battle of Thapsus.
1652: Cape Town, the first European settlement in South Africa, is established
1722: Peter the Great ends tax on men with beards
1917: United States declares war on Germany to enter World War I
1938: Teflon invented by Roy J Plunkett
1980: Post It Notes are introduced
1991: Argentine soccer star, Diego Maradona, is suspended for 15 months by Italian League for testing positive for cocaine use
2006: Sign language is made an official language of New Zealand

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Marilu Henner!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 7th, you share your birthdate with:

William Wordsworth (poet laureate)
Billie Holiday (blues singer)
Ravi Shankar (musician/ sitarist)
James Garner (actor – Rockford Files, Maverick, etc)
Andrew Sachs (actor – played the hapless “Manuel” in Fawlty Towers)
David Frost (television presenter/ news anchor)
Francis Ford Coppola (film director – Apocalypse Now, Godfather, etc)
Jackie Chan (actor – The Medallion, Shinjuku, etc)
Russell Crowe (actor – Gladiator, Master & Commander, etc)
Victoria Adams (socialite – better known as “Posh Spice”)

You also share the same day with these events:

30: The accepted date (estimated) of the crucifixion of Jesus
1827: Wooden matches are invented by English chemist, John Walker.
1926: Benito Mussolini's Irish wife breaks his nose
1959: Oklahoma officially ends prohibition
1978: A copy of the Guttenberg bible sells for $2,000,000 in New York City
1994: The Vatican acknowledges the Holocaust for the first time
1999: The World Trade Organisation rules in favour of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas. There is no comment from the bananas whether this is a good or bad day.
2003: U.S. troops capture Baghdad; Saddam Hussein's regime falls two days later

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Jackie Chan!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 8th, you share your birthdate with:

Ponce de Leon (explorer – while searching for the fountain of youth, he discovered Florida instead, which, ironically, became the retirement state of the US)
Odd Nerdrum (artist – and this month’s dual award winner for both “coolest name” and “name most likely to have incurred incessant teasing at school”)
John Schneider (actor – played “Bo” in Dukes of Hazard)
Izzy Stradlin (guitarist – Guns’n’Roses)
Julian Lennon (musician and the son of another musician who wasn’t crap)
Robin Wright Penn (actress – Forest Gump, The Princess Bride, etc)
Patricia Arquette (actress – True Romance, Lost Highway, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1820: The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.
1879: Milk is sold in glass bottles for the first time
1979: 204th and final episode of "All in the Family" airs
1986: Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel California. They finally made his day.
1992: After 150 years of publication, “Punch” magazine prints the final issue
1994: Kurt Cobain (of Nirvana) is found dead
2008: The construction of the world's first building to integrate wind turbines is completed in Bahrain.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Patricia Arquette!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 9th, you share your birthdate with:

Isambard Kingdom Brunel (designer of the first transatlantic steamer – also nominated for “coolest name” award, and winner of “Name that wouldn’t be out of place in Minas Tirith” award)
Hugh Hefner (Playboy founder – the ultimate hedonist)
Dennis Quaid (actor – Dreamscape, The Right Stuff, etc)
Severiano Ballesteros (professional golfer)
Jacques Villeneuve (Formula 1 race driver)
Gerard Way (musician/ singer – My Chemical Romance)
Kristen Stewart (actress – Twilight, Zathura, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1682: Robert La Salle claims lower Mississippi (Louisiana) for France
1831: Robert Jenkins has one ear severed by Spanish coast guards, sparking the “War of Jenkin’s Ear” between England and Spain that lasted 9 years.
1865: General Robert E Lee and 26,765 troops surrender at Appomattox Court House in Virginia to US Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant
1953: Warner Brothers premieres “House of Wax”, the first 3-D film to show in a theatre. The movie stars Vincent Price and co-stars Roy Roberts.
1974: Padres owner, Ray Kroc, addresses fans… "Ladies & gentlemen, I suffer with you. I've never seen such stupid baseball playing in my life". Among the fans are quite a few men called Robert.
1986: "Dallas" announces it will revive killed character, Bobby Ewing, and we all know that “Bobby” is synonymous with “Bob”, which is a shortened version of “Robert”
2002: England’s favourite Royal, The Queen Mother, is interred at Westminster abbey. I have no “Robert” fact for this event.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Kristen Stewart!

And starting today…

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Time may be a great healer, but it’s a lousy beautician!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 10th, you share your birthdate with:

James Bowie (American pioneer and soldier. Killed at Alamo)
William Booth (founded the Salvation Army)
Joseph Pulitzer (publisher and namesake of the writers prize)
Harry Morgan (actor – played Colonel Potter in M*A*S*H)
Max Von Sydow (actor – Dune, Dreamscape, The Exorcist, etc)
Omar Sharif (actor – Dr Zhivago, etc)
Steven Seagal (actor – Hard To Kill, Above the Law, etc)
Hayley Westenra (vocalist – Who Painted the Moon Black? etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1739: In England, Dick Turpin is executed for stealing horses
1849: The safety pin is patented by Walter Hunt. He later sells the rights for $100
1858: The original 14.5 tonne bell for “Big Ben” is cast. Sadly, it cracks when undergoing testing and is never used.
1932: Paul von Hindenburg is elected 1st President of Germany. A few years later, Hitler replaces him.
1968: New Zealand’s worst maritime disaster occurs when the inter-island ferry runs aground and sinks in Wellington harbour during a ferocious storm
1972: 72 nations agree to the banning of biological weapons
1989: Food giants, H J Heinz, Van Camp Seafoods & Bumble Bee Seafoods say they will not buy tuna caught in nets that also trap dolphins

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Hayley Westenra!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Raising a teenager is like nailing jelly to a tree!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 11th, you share your birthdate with:

Anton LaVey (founded the Church of Satan – died 1997, and now I bet he’s eternally miserable!)
John Milius (author – Red Dawn, Big Wednesday, etc)
Robert Fripp (musician/ guitarist – King Crimson)
Richie Sambora (musician/ guitarist – Bon Jovi)
Billy Bowden (cricket umpire – shocked the establishment with outrageously exaggerated refereeing signals)
Jennifer Esposito (actress – Welcome to Collinwood, Crash, etc)
Josh Stone – (soul singer)

You also share the same day with these events:

1775: The last execution for witchcraft in Germany takes place.
1868: The Shogunate is abolished in Japan.
1899: Treaty of Paris ratifies end of Spanish-American war; Spain cedes Puerto Rico to US
1914: George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion," (My Fair Lady) premieres
1951: President Truman fires General Douglas McArthur
1961: Bob Dylan makes his first appearance at Folk City, Greenwich Village
1970: Apollo 13 is launched to Moon; unable to land, it returns 6 days later
1981: Valerie Bertinelli marries Eddie Van Halen
2006: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announces that Iran has successfully enriched uranium.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Jennifer Esposito!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Laughing is good exercise. It’s like jogging on the inside!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 12th, you share your birthdate with:

Mahavira (the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism – I have no idea who, or what, that means, but it sure was fun trying to pronounce)
Herbert Khaury (singer – better known as Tiny Tim – Tiptoe Through the Tulips)
Herbie Hancock (musician/ pianist)
David Letterman (Talkshow host)
David Cassidy (singer/ actor – The Partridge Family, etc)
Andy Garcia (actor – Ocean’s Eleven, Smokin’ Aces, etc)
Shannen Dougherty (actress – Beverly Hills, 90210, etc)
Claire Danes (actress – Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Stardust, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1606: England adopts the Union Jack as its flag
1954: Bill Haley & The Comets records "Rock Around Clock"
1983: Harold Washington becomes Chicago's first black mayor
1985: US Olympic Committee endorses a boycott of Moscow games
1990: First meeting of East German democratically elected parliament takes place. They acknowledge responsibility for the Nazi holocaust and ask for forgiveness
1999: US President Bill Clinton is cited for contempt of court for giving "intentionally false statements" in a sexual harassment civil lawsuit.
2009: U.S. Navy rescues captain Richard Phillips, killing three Somali pirates and capturing a fourth.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Andy Garcia!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Families are like fudge – mostly sweet… with a few nuts!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 13th, you share your birthdate with:

Guy Fawkes (conspirator/ terrorist – attempted to blow up English parliament)
Thomas Jefferson (3rd President of the United States)
Don Adams (actor – played the hapless agent 86 in the TV series of “Get Smart”)
Edward Fox (actor – The Day of the Jackal, Gandhi, All the Queen’s Men, etc)
Riff West (bassist – Molly Hatchet)
Randy Piper (musician/ guitarist – W.A.S.P)
Rick Shroder (actor – Silver Spoons, Earthling, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1796: The first elephant to step foot on US soil arrives from India
1959: Vatican edict forbids Roman Catholics voting for communists
1960: France becomes the 4th nuclear nation, exploding an A-Bomb in the Sahara
1966: Pan Am places $525,000,000 order for 25 Boeing 747’s
1970: Apollo 13 announces "Houston, we've got a problem!"
1979: Longest doubles ping-pong match ends after 101 hours
1997: At 21, Tiger Woods becomes the youngest ever PGA golf champion

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Riff West!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 14th, you share your birthdate with:

Adolph Hitler (some grubby little Austrian fellow with a funny moustache – went on to cause a bit of a hullabaloo)
Sir John Gielgud (actor – The Elephant Man, Chariots of Fire, etc)
Rod Steiger (actor – The Longest Day, Waterloo, etc)
Robert Mugabe (some grubby little African fellow from Yorkshire… E-ba-gum! Went on to become the President of Zimbabwe)
Frank Serpico (New York City policeman – went on to become Al Pacino and star in his own movie)
George Takei (actor – played “Sulu” in Star Trek)
Ryan O’Neal (actor – Love Story, Paper Moon, etc)
Ritchie Blackmore (musician/ guitarist – Deep Purple)
Robert Carlyle (actor – Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, etc)
Adrien Brody (actor – The Pianist, King Kong, etc)
Sarah Michelle Geller (actress – Buffy the Vampire Slayer, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1828: 1st edition of Webster’s dictionary is published
1841: Edgar Allen Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" is published
1865: President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater
1902: In Kemmerer, Wyoming, J.C Penney opens his first store.
1939: John Steinbeck’s novel "The Grapes of Wrath" is published
1948: A flash of light is observed in the crater “Plato”, on the Moon
1958: Sputnik 2 burns up in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the dog “Laika” is on board at the time.
1989: The 1,100,000,000th Chinese birth
2000: Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich files a lawsuit against P2P sharing phenomenon Napster. This law-suit eventually leads the movement against file-sharing programs.
2003: The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Adrien Brody!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
There’s no use knowing all the answers if you don’t invite any questions.

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 15th, you share your birthdate with:

Leonardo da Vinci (painter, sculptor, visionary, inventor, scientist… basically, he did everything and made the rest of us mere mortals appear hopelessly inadequate)
Elizabeth Montgomery (actress – played Samantha in the TV comedy, “Bewitched”)
Dodi Al-Fayed (businessman – died in car crash alongside Princess Diana)
Emma Thompson (actress – Nanny McPhee, Howard’s End, etc)
Samantha Fox (singer – Touch Me, etc)
Josh Todd (musician – Buckcherry)
Seth Rogen (comedian/ actor – Zack & Miri Make a Porno, Funny People, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1912: The Titanic sinks at 2:27am off Newfoundland as the band plays on
1923: Insulin becomes generally available for diabetics
1952: Franklin National Bank issues the world’s first credit card
1964: The world’s then longest bridge, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, opens.
1990: "In Living Color" premieres on FOX-TV
1992: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley are inducted into National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame
1997: Baseball honours Jackie Robinson by retiring #42 for all teams

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Emma Thompson!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
To be clever enough to accumulate wealth means you have to be stupid enough to want it in the first place

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 16th, you share your birthdate with:

Wilbur Wright (pioneer aviator – one of the Wright Brothers)
Charlie Chaplin (actor/ comedian – The Tramp, etc)
Spike Milligan (actor/ comedian/ storyteller – Bad Jelly The Witch, etc)
Peter Ustinov (actor – Death on the Nile, Logan’s Run, etc)
Henry Mancini (composer/ conductor – The Pink Panther, etc)
Joseph Alois Ratzinger (The Pope – better known as Pope Benedict XVI)
Gerry Rafferty (musician/ singer – Baker Street, etc)
Ellen Barkin (actress – The Big Easy, Sea of Love, etc)
Martin Lawrence (comedian/ actor – Bad Boys, Black Knight, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1178BC: [supposed] A solar eclipse marks the return of Odysseus to his kingdom after the Trojan War.
73: Masada, a Jewish fortress, falls to the Romans after several months of siege, ending the Jewish Revolt.
1874: Having been located by Henry Stanley, Dr Livingstone arrives back to England. Unfortunately, he does so as a corpse, while his heart [his actual heart] remains in Africa.
1922: Annie Oakley shoots 100 clay targets in a row
1986: Moammar Gadhafi appears on TV to dispel rumours of his death
2004: The super liner, Queen Mary 2, embarks on her first Trans-Atlantic crossing, linking the golden age of ocean travel to the modern age of ocean travel.
2008: Start of Papal Journey of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Pope Benedict XVI!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Knowing a special friendship is like peeing on yourself – everyone can see it, but only you get the warm feeling it brings.

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 17th, you share your birthdate with:

Nikita Kruschev (Premier of the USSR)
William Holden (actor – Bridge Over the River Kwai, etc)
Daffy Duck (animated character)
Billy Fury (singer – When Will You Say I Love You?”)
Roy Estrada (musician – Mothers of Invention)
Jan Hammer (musician/ keyboardist – theme to Miami Vice)
“Sugar” Ray Leonard (boxing champion)

You also share the same day with these events:

1397: Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II
1937: Daffy Duck premiers
1975: Khmer Rouge capture Phnom Penn – the world becomes aware of the “Killing Fields”
1983: India launches rocket SLV-3, thereby entering the space race.
1986: IBM produces the first megabit chip
2002: The first Canadian casualties are recorded in Iraq... by friendly fire.
2010: It rains in Auckland, New Zealand, after 32 days dry

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Daffy Duck!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
The average woman would rather have beauty over brains because the average man can see better than he can think.

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 18th, you share your birthdate with:

Lucretia Borgia (femme fatale)
Ali Khamenei (the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran)
Haley Mills (actress – Parent Trap, Pollyanna, etc)
James Woods (actor – Once Upon a Time in America, True Crime, etc)
Rick Moranis (actor – Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Spaceballs, etc)
Eric Roberts (actor – King of the Gypsies, Runaway Train, etc)
Haile Gebresleassie (athlete – considered one of the greatest long distance runners)
Frances Bean Cobain (daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love)

You also share the same day with these events:

1025: Bolesław Chrobry is crowned to become the first King of Poland.
1775: Paul Revere rides from Charleston to Lexington and warns that “The British are coming!”
1783: Fighting ceases in the American Revolution, eight years to the day since it began.
1881: Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.
1902: Denmark is first country to adopt fingerprinting to identify criminals
1906: The Los Angeles Times story on the Azusa Street Revival launches Pentecostalism as a worldwide movement.
1909: Joan of Arc is declared a saint
1924: First crossword puzzle book is published
1955: First "Walk"/"Don't Walk" lighted street signals are installed

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Rick Moranis!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Men are like bank accounts – without a lot of money they don’t generate much interest!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 19th, you share your birthdate with:

Eliot Ness (FBI agent – the original “Untouchable”)
Alexis Korner (Musician – Blues Inc.)
Dick Sargent (actor – played the long-suffering husband, Darrin, in “Bewitched”)
Dudley Moore (actor – 10, Arthur, Bedazzled, etc)
Tim Curry (actor – Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Three Musketeers, etc)
Ruby Wax (television personality)
Ashley Judd (actress – Double Jeopardy, etc)
Kate Hudson (actress – Almost Famous, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1770: Captain James Cook first sights Australia
1934: Shirley Temple appears in her 1st movie, "Stand Up & Cheer"
1954: 7-time winner of the Boston Marathon, 65-year-old Clarence Demar, runs his last race at Boston finishing 78th
1967: The Beatles sign a contract to stay together for 10 years (they don't)
1987: Gregory Robertson goes into a 200-mph free fall to save an unconscious skydiver
1994: Rodney King is awarded $3,800,000 in compensation of police beating
2005: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected Pope Benedict XVI on the second day of the Papal conclave.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Ashley Judd!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
The mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work unless it’s open.

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 20th, you share your birthdate with:

Harold Lloyd (silent actor/ comedian)
Alan Reed (the voice of Fred Flintstone)
Craig Frost (musician/ keyboardist – Grand Funk Railroad)
Jessica Lang (actress – Tootsie, Neverwas, etc)
Luther Vandross (singer)
Andy Serkis (actor – played Gollum in “Lord of the Rings”)
Carmen Electra (model/ singer/ actress)

You also share the same day with these events:

1918: Manfred von Richthofen (The Red Baron) shoots down his 79th and 80th victims, marking his final victories before his death the following day.
1962: New Orleans Citizens Co. offers free one-way ride to blacks who’ll move North
1976: George Harrison sings the Lumberjack Song with Monty Python
1978: Korean Airlines flight 007 is shot down by Soviets in Russian airspace
1981: Final performance of TV show "Soap" airs
1992: All star concert in memory of Freddie Mercury is held at Wembley Stadium, London
1993: The orbit of Uranus sees it pass Neptune, an event that happens once every 171 years

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Andy Serkis!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Forgive your enemies… nothing annoys them more!

[Badstench]

Your Stars in Sryth
Taurus: April 21 – May 21
Element: Earth
Symbol: The Bull
Ruler: Venus

Modesty and dependability is what Taureans are all about. There’s no one safer to trust with a secret, no one who can be more relied on to return something borrowed, no one who speaks with more honest intent. They are, indeed, paragons of the adages; “Solid as a rock”, “Salt of the earth” and “Dependable as death”

All in all, they sound like a pretty good bunch of people, yeah?

But wait… there’s a flip side to Taureans they’d rather you didn’t know about, and this encompasses those other adages used in familiarity with people born under the sign of Taurus; “Bull at a gate”, “Red rag to a bull”, and “Run for your life!”

Because… as dependable, reliable, trustworthy, and faithful as Taureans are, this belies the fact that they are less like a sturdy mountain and more like a dormant volcano

As a word of advice, never cheat a person born under the sign of Taurus, for once their ire is aroused, vengeance will follow swiftly, harshly, and with catastrophic results!

In short, Taureans make very good friends and very bad enemies. Always keep yourself on their good side.

Taurus and Money: If everyone was possessed of the financial wisdom of Taureans the world might be a happier place. Certainly, there would be a lot less poverty, though whether happiness is measured by a man’s wealth does not, in the eyes of a Taurean, necessarily measure his worth.

Because, to a Taurean, it’s not how much you’ve got, but what you do with it that counts. You’d be hard pressed to meet a Taurean spendthrift, but in the same vein, you’d also be hard pressed to find a Taurean who gives money away to beggars or borrowers. It’s not that they’re miserly… they believe a person stands or falls by his/ her own merits.

If a Taurean does give money away, it’s likely to be in the form of donations to a worthy cause that can benefit society as a whole rather than as a direct contribution to a certain part of it. In other words, if you’re poor and looking for a hand-out, don’t knock on the door of a Taurean.

Taurus and Romance: Knowing what we know about people born under the sign of the Bull, it should come as no surprise that Taurean partners are highly sought after for the loyalty, faithfulness and financial security they can offer. What this doesn’t tell us about Taureans is whether they are romantic.

They are, but in a way that isn’t immediately obvious. A Taurean might not buy flowers or do anything special on Valentine’s day, but he will make sure the woman’s cart is roadworthy, he’ll keep the house in good repair, and he’ll provide for all the necessities in the way of utilities. He does all this for the simple reasons of the continued health and safety of the people he is responsible for. It’s his way of saying, “I love you”!

Unfortunately, this stoic approach to romance often goes unnoticed, and Taureans are often accused of being uncaring, unfeeling and underwhelming.

It seems a bit of a tragedy, really!

I’m reminded of the story of the Taurean adventurer whose wife threatened divorce after fifteen years of marriage, citing the fact that he never showed her any affection. His surprised answer was simple… “Whad’ya mean? I married ya, did’n I?”

Famous Taureans in Sryth: One of the best known Taureans in Sryth is none other than Thane Pyrond I. This shows in his style of governance over Trithik… he is one of those rare politicians who act with integrity, and has thereby won the respect and loyalty of his subjects. His economic policies are carefully considered and always calculated to the nth degree. However, he is known to be quite severe when need arises, and those who have crossed him surely wish they hadn’t.

Another person born under the sign of Taurus is the grizzled owner of the Goblin Claw Inn, Grutzmil. He wears all the traits of a typical “bull” openly, being a direct and honest sort who expects the same treatment in return. Unfortunately, the majority of the patrons to his inn are mostly scum, so they see his less friendly side more often than not.

Other note-worthies born under the sign of Taurus include Neganti (May 3), Godrick (May 10), and Maskull (May 18)

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 21st, you share your birthdate with:

Catherine the Great (Russian Empress)
Jean-Baptiste Biot (physicist/ astronomer/ pioneer balloonist)
Charlotte Bronte (novelist – Jane Eyre)
Anthony Quinn (actor – Zorba the Greek, etc)
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor II (The Queen of England)
Iggy Pop (singer – Real Wild Child, etc)
Tony Danza (actor – Taxi, Who’s the Boss?, etc)
Robert Smith (singer – The Cure)

You also share the same day with these events:

753BC: The traditional date of the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus
1509: Henry VIII is crowned King of England
1863: Bahá'u'lláh, considered the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, declares his mission as "He whom God shall make manifest".
1908: Frederick A. Cook claims to have reached North Pole (He didn't)
1967: Josef Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, defects to the US
1984: After 37 weeks, "Thriller", by Michael Jackson, is knocked off as top album by "Footloose"
1989: Thousands of Chinese crowd into Beijing's Tiananmen Square cheering students demanding greater political freedom
1997: The ashes of Gene Roddenberry (the creator of Star Trek) are launched into orbit

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Iggy Pop!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they're going.

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 22nd, you share your birthdate with:

Isabella I (Queen of Spain and patron of Columbus)
J. Robert Oppenheimer (head of the Manhattan Project – the A-bomb)
Aaron Spelling (television producer)
Jack Nicholson (actor – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, etc)
Peter Frampton (musician/ singer – Frampton Comes Alive)
Ryan Stiles (actor/ comedian – Drew Carey Show, Who’s Line is it Anyway?, etc)
Amelle Berrabah (singer – Sugarbabes)

You also share the same day with these events:

1876: Tsjaikovsky completes his "Swan Lake" ballet
1915: Poison gas is used a weapon for the first time when Germany uses Chlorine during WW1
1955: Congress orders all US coins bear motto "In God We Trust"
1970: First Earth Day is held internationally to conserve natural resources
1983: Stern magazine announces major historical discovery of 60 volume personal diaries written by Adolph Hitler (turns out to be a hoax)
1991: Johnny Carson announces he will retire from the Tonight Show
1993: Candid Camera creator Allen Funt suffers a stroke at 78

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Jack Nicholson!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Life is like riding a bicycle... in order to keep your balance, you have to keep moving.

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 23rd, you share your birthdate with:

James Buchanan (15th US president)
Duncan Renaldo (actor – played The Cisco Kid)
Shirley Temple-Black (actress/ politician – Heidi, etc. Became ambassador to the UN)
Roy Orbison (musician/ singer – Pretty Woman, etc)
Lee Majors (actor – The Six Million Dollar Man, etc)
Michael Moore (satirist/ docu-film maker)
Steve Clark (musician/ guitarist – Def Leppard)
Valerie Bertinelli (actress – One Day at a Time, etc.)
Emily Fox (American cup-stacking champion. Awesome!)

You also share the same day with these events:

215BC: A temple is built on the Capitoline Hill dedicated to Venus Erycina to commemorate the Roman defeat at Lake Trasimene.
1014: King Brian Boru of Ireland defeats Danes at Battle of Clontarf
1348: 1st English order of knighthood (Order of the Garter) is founded
1500: Pedro Cabral lands at and annexes Brazil (Terra da Vera Cruz) for Portugal
1597: William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I of England in attendance.
1867: Queen Victoria and Napoleon III turn down plans for a channel tunnel
1977: Dr Allen Bussey completes 20,302 yo-yo loops. Awesome!
2009: The gamma ray burst GRB 090423 is observed for 10 seconds as the most distant object of any kind and also the oldest known object in the universe.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Valerie Bertinelli!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
A compromise is an agreement whereby both parties get what neither of them wanted

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 24th, you share your birthdate with:

Arthur Wellesley (better known as the “Duke of Wellington”. He defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and gave his name to that most indispensable item of farm-wear, the Wellingtons (gumboots, galoshes, etc)
Fannie Thomas (the oldest known American – died at 113 + 273 days)
Hugh Dowding (commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain)
Shirley MacLaine (actress – Terms of Endearment, Steel Magnolias, etc)
Barbra Streisand (singer/ actor – Funny Girl, A Star is Born, etc)
Paula Yates (singer/ writer – married Bob Geldof)
Kelly Clarkson (singer – the first American Idol winner)

You also share the same day with these events:

1479BC: Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty).
1184BC: Traditional date that the Greeks enter Troy using the Trojan Horse.
1908: Mr & Mrs Jacob Murdock become the first to travel across the US by car. They leave Los Angeles in a Packard and arrive in New York City 32 days, 5 hours and 25 minutes later.
1980: US military operation to save 52 hostages in Iran, fails. 8 die.
1989: Massachusetts declares that today is "New Kids on the Block Day"!
1990: Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine.
2006: King Gyanendra of Nepal gives into the demands of protesters and restores the parliament that he dissolved in 2002.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Kelly Clarkson!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job: it's a depression when you lose yours.

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 25th, you share your birthdate with:

Oliver Cromwell (Lord Protector of England)
Ella Fitzgerald (jazz singer)
Albert King (bluesman/ guitarist)
Albert Uderzo (cartoonist – Asterix & Obelix)
Al Pacino (actor – Godfather, Serpico, etc)
Bjorn Ulvaeus (singer/ guitarist – ABBA)
Hank Azaria (actor – The Simpsons, Grosse Point Blank, etc… in fact, he’s one of those actors who seems to pop up in just about everything!)
Renee Zellweger (actress – The Diary of Bridget Jones, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1792: Guillotine is first used when highwayman Nicolas J Pelletier is executed
1859: Ground broken for Suez Canal
1915: ANZAC troops land at Gallipoli, in Turkey. The ensuing battle becomes the date commemorated in New Zealand and Australia as the US equivalent of “Remembrance Day”.
1928: Buddy, a German Shepherd, becomes the first guide dog for the blind
1959: The St Lawrence Seaway linking the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean opens to shipping
1985: West German Parliament rules it illegal to deny the holocaust happened
1990: Hubble space telescope is placed into orbit by shuttle Discovery
2005: The final piece of the Obelisk of Axum is returned to Ethiopia after being stolen by the invading Italian army in 1937.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Hank Azaria!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane!

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 26th, you share your birthdate with:

Antonius Marcus Aurelius (Emperor of Rome – the one depicted by Richard Harris in “Gladiator”)
William Shakespeare (playwright – though how his birth date is known when his true identity is uncertain beats me).
Rudolf Hess (deputy to Adolph Hitler – arrested when he flies to Scotland to broker a peace deal between England and Germany)
William “Count” Basie (musician/ jazz pianist)
Carol Burnett (actress/ comedienne)
Jet Li (actor/ martial artist)
Jessica Lee Rose (New Zealand actress who became world famous via Youtube in her portrayal as “lonelygirl15”)

You also share the same day with these events:

1467: The portrait of the Blessed Virgin Mary miraculously appears on an unfinished wall of the church in Genazzano, Italy
1514: Copernicus makes his first observations of Saturn
1928: Madame Tussaud's waxwork exhibition opens in London
1945: Battle of Bautzen – the last noteworthy victory of the Wehrmacht during WW2, with a successful German tank-offensive.
1982: Rod Stewart is mugged. A gunman steals his $50,000 Porsche
1986: The 4th reactor at Chernobyl, USSR, explodes to cause the worlds worst nuclear disaster
1994: Physicists announce first evidence of the top quark subatomic particle.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Jet Li!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
A synonym is a word used in the place of the word you first thought of that you couldn’t spell

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 27th, you share your birthdate with:

Suleiman the Magnificent (Sultan of the Ottoman Empire)
Samuel Morse (inventor – telegraph/ morse code)
Ulysses S Grant (18th US president)
Katie Pierson (singer – The B52’s)
Ace Frehley (guitarist – KISS)
Sheena Easton (singer – For Your Eyes Only, etc)
Patrick Stump (musician – Fall Out Boy)

You also share the same day with these events:

1667: John Milton, blind and impoverished, sells the copyright to “Paradise Lost” for £10.
1773: British Parliament passes Tea Act (Boston won't like this)
1810: Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.
1908: The 4th modern Olympic games opens in London
1956: Heavyweight champ, Rocky Marciano, retires undefeated from boxing
2005: The super jumbo-jet aircraft Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
2006: Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Sheena Easton!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
The only time you run out of chances is when you stop taking them

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 28th, you share your birthdate with:

Ferruccio Lamborghini (automobile manufacturer)
Alistair MacLean (author – The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, etc)
Saddam Hussein (former president of Iraq)
Terry Pratchett (author – the “Discworld” series)
Jay Leno (talk show host/ comedian)
Penélope Cruz (actress – Vanilla Sky, Vicki Christina Barcelona, etc)
Jessica Alba (actress – Sin City, Fantastic Four, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1789: Fletcher Christian leads the mutiny against Captain William Bligh on the HMS Bounty
1902: Using the ISO 8601 standard Year Zero definition for the Gregorian calendar, the one billionth minute since the start of January 1, Year Zero occurs at 10:40 AM on this date.
1947: Thor Heyerdahl, aboard "Kon-Tiki", sets sail from Peru bound for Polynesia.
1966: At the 38th Academy awards, “The Sound of Music” wins best picture
1973: More than 6000 500 pound bombs detonate over the course of 18 hours in a railyard in northern California. The town of Antelope ceases to exist, with every building being reduced to its foundations
1977: Members of the Baader-Meinhoff Gang, including Andreas Baader, are jailed for life after a trial lasting nearly 2 years in Stuttgart, Germany
2001: Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Terry Pratchett!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to make those mistakes when no one is looking.

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 29th, you share your birthdate with:

Taliesin (Welsh poet, according to legend in Mabinogion)
Duke Ellington (composer/ band leader – Take the A Train, etc)
Otis Rush (musician/ guitarist/ bluesman)
Dale Earnhardt (NASCAR race driver)
Jerry Seinfeld (comedian/actor)
Kate Mulgrew (actress – played Captain Janeway on Star Trek Voyager)
Daniel Day-Lewis (actor – Last of the Mohicans, My Left Foot, etc)
Michelle Pfeiffer (actress – What Lies Beneath, Batman II, etc)
Andre Agassi (tennis player)
Uma Thurman (actress – Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, etc)
Lee Dong-Gook (Korean footballer and this month’s winner of the “Most-Politically-Incorrect-Name” award)

You also share the same day with these events:

1553: A Flemish woman introduces the practice of starching linen into England
1981: Peter Sutcliffe admits he is the Yorkshire Ripper
1988: Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson marry
1995: Longest sausage ever, at 2877 miles, made in Kitchener, Ontario
1997: The Chemical Weapons Convention outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons
2002: The United States is re-elected to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, one year after losing the seat it had held for 50 years.
2004: Oldsmobile builds its final car, ending 107 years of production

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Uma Thurman!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
A true friend is a friend who knows you, but loves you anyway.

[Badstench]

If you were born on April 30th, you share your birthdate with:

Al Lewis (actor – played Grandpa in “The Munsters”)
Willie Nelson (country singer)
Larry Niven (sci-fi author – Ringworld, etc)
Jane Campion (film director – The Piano, etc)
Akon (singer)
Kirsten Dunst (actress – Spiderman, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, etc)
Molloko (first Californian condor chick conceived in captivity)

You also share the same day with these events:

1483: Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit until July 23, 1503
1789: George Washington inaugurated as 1st president of US
1859: Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities" is first published
1938: The first televised FA Cup Final takes place between Huddersfield Town and Preston North End.
1952: Mr Potato Head becomes the first toy advertised on television
1988: Largest banana split ever, at 455 miles long, is made in Pennsylvania. Bananas everywhere are divided over their feelings about this.
1992: 208th and final episode of the Cosby Show airs on NBC-TV
1993: The World Wide Web is born at CERN.
2008: Two skeletal remains found near Ekaterinburg, Russia, were confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, and one of his sisters.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Kirsten Dunst!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Alcohol is necessary for a man so that he can have a good opinion of himself, undisturbed by the facts.

[Badstench]

White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits

If you were born on May 1st, you share your birthdate with:

Martha Burke (frontierswoman/ Indian fighter – better known as Calamity Jane)
Glenn Ford (actor – 3:10 to Yuma, Midway, etc)
Joseph Heller (author – Catch 22, etc)
Harry Belafonte (calypso singer – The Banana Boat Song [a favourite of banana kind])
Rita Coolidge (singer – Higher & Higher, etc)
Joanna Lumley (actress – Absolutely Fabulous, Sapphire & Steel, etc)
Ray Parker Jnr (musician/ singer – Ghostbusters, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1707: England, Wales and Scotland form United Kingdom of Great Britain
1883: "Buffalo Bill" Cody debuts his first Wild West Show
1898: George Dewey commands, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley" as US route Spanish fleet at Manila
1941: "Citizen Kane," directed and starring Orson Welles, premieres in New York City
1948: Glenn Taylor, Idaho’s Senator, is arrested in Birmingham, Alabama, for trying to enter a meeting through a door marked "for Negroes"
1963: James Wittaker becomes the first American to conquer Mt Everest
1979: Elton John becomes the first international pop star to perform in Israel
2003: In what becomes known as the "Mission Accomplished" speech, U.S. President George W. Bush declares that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended"

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Joanna Lumley!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason.

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 2nd, you share your birthdate with:

Bianca Perez Morena de Macias Jagger (model)
Judge Dread (musician – reggae/ ska)
Lou Gramm (singer/ song-writer – Foreigner)
Jay Osmond (singer. One of the Osmonds)
Brian Lara (West Indian cricket great)
Dwayne Johnson (wrestler-turned-actor. Better known as “The Rock”)
Lily Allen (singer)

You also share the same day with these events:

1878: US stops minting 20 cent coin
1941: Martin Bormann succeeds Rudolf Hess as Hitler's deputy
1946: The "Battle of Alcatraz" takes place, killing two guards and three inmates.
1979: "Quadrophenia" premieres in London
1980: Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in Wall (Part II)" is banned in South Africa
1982: Argentine cruiser, General Belgrano, is sunk by a British submarine during the Falklands War.
2000: President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access will no longer be restricted to the United States military.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Dwayne Johnson!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
The man who smiles when something goes wrong has thought of someone to blame it on

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 3rd, you share your birthdate with:

Niccolo Machiavelli (diplomat/ writer – his name became synonymous with the term, “Machiavellianism”)
Emmet Dalton (Outlaw – The Dalton Gang)
Bing Crosby (actor/ singer – White Christmas, etc)
James Brown (singer – The Godfather of Soul)
Frankie Valli (singer – The Four Seasons)
Christopher Cross (singer/ song-writer – Sailing, Arthur’s Theme, etc)
Ben Elton (author/ comedian)

You also share the same day with these events:

1494: Columbus discovers Jamaica and names it “St Iago”
1937: Margaret Mitchell wins Pulitzer Prize for "Gone With the Wind"
1956: A new range of mountains is discovered in Antarctica
1963: Martin Luther King Jr delivers his "I have a dream" speech
1973: Chicago's Sears Tower, the world's tallest building at the time, is completed.
1978: The first unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail (that would later become known as "spam") is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States.
2003: New Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses.
2007: British girl Madeleine McCann disappears from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Ben Elton!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
The only time a person gets lost in thought is when it’s unfamiliar territory

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 4th, you share your birthdate with:

Alice Pleasance Liddell (the model for Alice in Wonderland)
Audrey Hepburn (actress – Breakfast at Tiffany’s, etc)
Mick Mars (guitarist - Mötley Crüe)
Michael Barrymore (comedian/ gameshow host/ entertainer)
Pia Zadora (actress/ singer – a regular feature of the “Golden Raspberry” awards, winner of “worst actress of the 20th century”)
Randy Travis (country & western singer)
Lance Bass (singer – INSYNC)

You also share the same day with these events:

1715: The folding umbrella is first demonstrated
1893: Cowboy Bob Pickett invents bulldogging
1942: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins. It is the first sea battle fought solely in the air.
1972: The “Don't Make A Wave Committee”, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to "Greenpeace Foundation".
1979: Margaret Thatcher is voted England’s first woman Prime Minister.
1990: Angela Bowie reveals that ex husband, David Bowie, once slept with Mick Jagger
1998: A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber", Theodore Kaczynski, four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Randy Travis!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
The three words guaranteed to humiliate men everywhere are, “Hold my purse.”

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 5th, you share your birthdate with:

Karl Marx (philosopher)
Tyrone Power (actor – Mark of Zorro, etc)
Eric Burdon (singer – The Animals)
Lance Henrikson (actor – Aliens, Hard Target, etc)
Tammy Wynette (singer)
Michael Palin (actor/ comedian – One of the Monty Python crew)
Bill Ward (drummer – Black Sabbath)
Googoosh, Faegheh Atashin (فائقه آتشین) (Iranian, Persian singer/ actress and front runner for the “Coolest name” award)
Ian McCullough (singer – Echo & the Bunnymen)
Chris Brown (singer)

You also share the same day with these events:

1260: Kublai Khan becomes ruler of the Mongol Empire
1821: Emperor Napoleon I dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
1891: Carnegie Hall opens in New York City, with Tchaikovsky as guest conductor
1941: Chanel No. 5 is released.
1962: West Side Story soundtrack album goes to #1 and stays #1 for 54 weeks – longer than any other album
1979: Voyager 1 passes Jupiter
2000: A conjunction occurs between the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Michael Palin!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
The road to success is always under construction

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 6th, you share your birthdate with:

Sigmund Freud (psychologist)
Rudolph Valentino (actor – The Sheik, etc)
Orson Welles (actor – Citizen Kane, War of the Worlds, etc)
Bob Seger (musician/ singer – The Silver Bullet Band)
Richard “Dick” Fosbury (high jumper – invented the “Fosbury Flop”)
Tony Blair (British politician and Prime Minister)
George Clooney (actor – O Brother Where Art Thou?, Ocean’s Eleven, etc)
Lori Singer (actress – Footloose, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1527: Spanish and German Imperial troops sack Rome, ending the Renaissance
1835: James Gordon Bennett Sr. publishes the first issue of the New York Herald.
1937: The Hindenburg explodes in flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey
1988: Doughnutgate incident: NJ Devils' coach, Jim Schoenfeld, tells referee, Don Koharski, to “Eat another doughnut you fat pig!” He is suspended
1994: The Chunnel linking England and France officially opens
1997: Michael Jackson and the Bee Gees inducted into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
2004: The season finale of the sitcom “Friends” airs
2012: The transit of Venus across the face of the Sun will occur. The last time it happened was in 2004. The next time it happens will be in 2133

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday George Clooney!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Never insult the crocodile until after you’ve crossed the river

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 7th, you share your birthdate with:

Robert Browning (poet – The Pied Piper of Hamelin, etc)
Peter Il'yich Tchaikovsky (composer – 1812 Overture, etc)
Gary Cooper (actor – High Noon, etc)
Eva Peron (Argentine 1st Lady – immortalized by the stage show, “Evita”)
Gene Wolfe (sic-fi author – Soldiers of Arete, etc)
Bill Kreutzmann (drummer – Grateful Dead)
Phil Campbell (musician – Motörhead)

You also share the same day with these events:

1429: The siege of Orleans is broken by Joan of Arc
1718: The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville .
1895: Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates the world's first radio receiver.
1915: A German submarine sinks the passenger liner, Lusitania.
1934: World's largest pearl (6.4 kg) is found at Palawan, Philippines
1946: Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony Corporation) is founded with around 20 employees.
1970: "Long & Winding Road" becomes Beatles' last American release

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Phil Campbell!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Kung-Fu is a form of martial arts in which people who have had years and years of training can, using only their hands and feet, make some of the worst movies in the history of the world!

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 8th, you share your birthdate with:

Oscar Hammerstein (playwright/ composer – Oklahoma, The King and I, etc – half of the duo, “Rodgers and Hammerstein”)
Harry S Truman (33rd US President)
Sidney “Sid” James (actor/ comedian – one of the “Carry On” crew)
David Attenborough (naturalist/ documentary producer)
Toni Tenille (singer – half of the duo, “Captain and Tenille – “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”)
Gary Glitter (glam rocker)
Alex Van Halen (drummer – Van Halen)
Enrique Iglesias (singer)

You also share the same day with these events:

1886: Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta sells first Coca-Cola, an ingredient of which is cocaine
1919: Edward George Honey first proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I, which later results in the creation of Remembrance Day.
1936: Jockey, Ralph Neves, unexpectedly revives after being declared dead when he falls off his horse. His wife faints when he returns to the track.
1945: V-E Day. Germany signs unconditional surrender to end WW2
1952: MAD magazine debuts
1980: World Health Organization announces that smallpox had been eradicated
1993: 16 year old Keron Thomas disguises himself as a motorman and takes a New York City subway train and 2,000 passengers on a 3 hour ride

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Alex Van halen!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
He who laughs last didn’t get it!

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 9th, you share your birthdate with:

James Matthew Barrie (novelist – Peter Pan)
Howard Carter (archaeologist – found King Tutankhamen's tomb)
Albert Finney (actor – Murder on the Orient Express, The Bourne Ultimatum, etc)
Glenda Jackson (actress – Women in Love, etc)
Candice Bergen (actress – Murphy Brown, Boston Legal, etc)
Billy Joel (musician/ pianist)
Tom Petersson (musician/ bassist – Cheap Trick)

You also share the same day with these events:

1457BC: Battle of Megiddo (15th century BC) between Thutmose III and a large Canaanite coalition under the King of Kadesh. It is the first battle to have been recorded in what is accepted as relatively reliable detail.
1502: Columbus leaves Spain on his 4th and final trip to the New World
1671: Colonel Thomas Blood attempts to steal the Crown Jewels
1785: Joseph Bramah patents beer-pump handle
1971: Friends of Earth return 1500 non-returnable bottles to Schweppes
1989: Vice President Quayle says in his United Negro College Fund speech: "What a waste it is to lose one's mind" instead of "a mind is terrible thing to waste"
2006: George Preca is canonised as the first Maltese saint in history.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Billy Joel!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it, but it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 10th, you share your birthdate with:

Fred Astaire (actor/ dancer)
Fats Domino (musician/ singer – Blueberry Hill, etc)
Donovan (musician/ singer – Mellow Yellow, etc)
Sly Dunbar (reggae musician)
Homer Simpson (animated character)
Sid Vicious (guitarist – The Sex Pistols)
Bono Vox (singer/ song writer – U2)
Linda Evangelista (super model)
Snake (Sryth gamer and forum contributor)

You also share the same day with these events:

1752: Benjamin Franklins first tests the lightning rod
1801: First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America.
1908: In Philadelphia, Mother's Day is observed for the first time
1924: J Edgar Hoover is appointed head of the FBI
1963: The Decca recording label signs the Rolling Stones on advice of Beatle, George Harrison
1994: Nelson Mandela is sworn in as South Africa's first black president
2005: A hand grenade, thrown by Vladimir Arutinian, lands about 20 metres from U.S. President George W. Bush while he was giving a speech to a crowd in Tbilisi, Georgia, but it malfunctions and does not detonate.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Snake!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
In God we trust. All others must pay cash!

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 11th, you share your birthdate with:

Baron Münchhausen (self proclaimed adventurer and teller of impossible stories)
Irving Berlin (composer – White Christmas, etc)
Margaret Rutherford (actress – Murder Most Foul, etc)
Salvador Dali (surrealist painter – The Persistence of Memory, etc)
Natasha Richardson (actress – A Handmaid’s Tale, Gothic, etc)
Austin O’Brien (actor – Last Action Hero, etc)
Holly Valance (actress/ singer – Kiss Kiss, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

330: Constantinople (Byzantium) becomes capital of the Eastern Roman Empire
1310: Fifty-four members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake in France for being heretics.
1812: The waltz is introduced into English ballrooms. Most observers consider it disgusting and immoral.
1960: The first contraceptive pill is made available on the market.
1963: "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" by Peter, Paul & Mary hits #2
1969: Monty Python comedy troupe forms
1995: In New York City, more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
2000: Last performance of the musical, “Cats”, in London's West End.

Happy Birthday Holly Valance!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Most rock journalism comes from people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read. :- Frank Zappa

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 12th, you share your birthdate with:

Florence Nightingale (nurse revered during the Crimean war)
Katharine Hepburn (actress – On Golden Pond, The Lion in Winter, etc)
Burt Bacharach (composer – I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, etc)
Steve Winwood (musician/ bassist – Roll With It, etc)
Gabriel Byrne (actor – The Usual Suspects, Miller’s Crossing, etc)
August Darnelle (singer – better known as Kid Creole)
Ving Rhames (actor – Pulp Fiction, etc)
Emilio Esteves (actor – The Breakfast Club, Young Guns, etc)
Stephen Baldwin (actor – The Usual Suspects, etc)
Tony Hawk (skateboarder)
Jonah Lomu (New Zealand rugby player – regarded as one of the best rugby players ever)

You also share the same day with these events:

1870: Manitoba becomes a province of Canada
1888: The crouching start in a running race is first seen, used by Charles Sherrill of Yale
1932: Goofy, aka Dippy Dawg, first appears in “Mickey's Revue” by Walt Disney
1963: Bob Dylan walks off the Ed Sullivan Show
1977: Pink Floyd performs the first quadraphonic concert, in London.
1993: The last episode of “Cheers” airs.
2002: Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro, becoming first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.

Happy Birthday Tony Hawk!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value. :- Albert Einstein

[Badstench]

As of May 13, Doolipalally will be taking over the birthdates thread while I'm busy with moving house and waiting for a new internet connection to get set up.

My thanks to Dooli.

I'll see you all in the near future.

[Doolipalally]

If you were born on May 13th, you share your birthdate with:

1842 – Arthur Sullivan, composer (half of Gilbert & Sullivan)
1907 - Daphne du Maurier, author (Rebecca)
1914 – Joe Louis, world heavyweight boxing champion
1937 – Roger Zelazny, author (Chronicles of Amber)
1939 – Harvey Keitel, actor (Reservoir Dogs)
1947 - Stephen R. Donaldson, author (Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, 'Gap' series)
1950 – Stevie Wonder, singer-songwriter
1977 – Samantha Morton, actress (Minority Report)
1986 – Robert Pattinson, actor, (Harry Potter, Twilight)

You also share the same day with these events:

1648 - Construction of the Red Fort at Delhi is completed.
1787 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England with eleven ships full of convicts (First Fleet) to establish a penal colony in Australia.
1861 - The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.
1912 – The Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) is established in the United Kingdom.
1950 - Diner's Club issues its first credit cards
1958 – The trade mark Velcro is registered.
1965 - The Rolling Stones record "Satisfaction"
1981 – Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square in Rome.


Happy birthday Stephen Donaldson!


The daily “Words of Wisdom”:

Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead. (Chinese proverb)

[Doolipalally]

If you were born on May 14th, you share your birthdate with:

1316 - Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor
1881 - Ed Walsh, baseball player (holds the record for the lowest career ERA, and yes, I did have to look up what that meant)
1936 – Bobby Darin, singer
1944 - Francesca Annis, actress (Madame Bovary, Dune)
1952 - Robert Zemeckis, film director (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump)
1969 - Cate Blanchett, actress (LotR, Elizabeth)
1971 - Sofia Coppola, film director (Lost in Translation)
1973 - Natalie Appleton, singer (All Saints)


You also share the same day with these events:

1607 - The first English colony settlement in the New World is established at Jamestown, Virginia
1610 – Henry IV of France is assassinated bringing Louis XIII to the throne.
1796 – Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination.
1804 - The Lewis & Clark expedition sets out from St Louis for the Pacific Coast
1870 – The first game of rugby in New Zealand is played in Nelson between Nelson College and the Nelson Rugby Football Club (one for Badstench!).
1939 - Lina Medina becomes the world's youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.
1955 - The Warsaw Pact is signed by the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland & Romania


Happy birthday Cate Blanchett!


The daily “Words of Wisdom”:

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. (Anon)

[Doolipalally]

If you were born on May 15th, you share your birthdate with:

1856 – L. Frank Baum, author (Wizard of Oz)
1909 – James Mason, actor (Lolita, Boys from Brazil)
1926 - Anthony & Peter Shaffer, twin playwrights (Sleuth, Equus, Amadeus, Google them if you want to know who wrote what!)
1937 – Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State
1948 – Brian Eno, musician and record producer
1981 – Zara Phillips, tongue-studded British royal and champion 3-day eventer
1982 - Jessica Sutta, singer/dancer (The Pussycat Dolls)


You also share the same day with these events:

1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest. She is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury.
1718 – James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun.
1793 – Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 meters", at a height of 5-6 meters, during one of the first attempted flights.
1858 – Opening of the present Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London.
1905 – Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded when 110 acres (0.4 km²), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.
1935 – The Moscow Metro is opened to public (had to put that in!)
1940 – McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.
1990 – Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million, the most expensive painting at the time.


Happy birthday Zara Phillips!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:

Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual. (Terry Pratchett)

[Doolipalally]

If you were born on May 16th, you share your birthdate with:

1860 – Herman Webster Mudgett, aka Dr Henry Holmes, serial killer
1905 – Henry Fonda, actor (The Grapes of Wrath, On Golden Pond)
1919 – Liberace, over-dressed pianist
1953 – Pierce Brosnan, actor (shaken not stirred)
1955 – Olga Korbut, Olympic gymnast
1966 – Janet Jackson, singer with a wardrobe problem
1969 – David Boreanaz, actor (BtVS, Angel)
1986 – Megan Fox, actress (Transformers)

You also share the same day with these events:

1843 – The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail with one thousand pioneers from Elm Grove, Missouri.
1866 - Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer
1920 – Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
1951 – The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines.
1965 – The Campbell Soup Company introduces SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand.
1975 – Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.


Happy birthday Pierce Brosnan!

(And happy birthday to my dad :))

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:

Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch it to be sure. ('Murphy's Law')

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 17th, you share your birthdate with:

Sandro Botticelli (artist/ painter – Birth of Venus)
Dennis Hopper (actor – Easy Rider, Speed, etc)
Bill Bruford (musician/ drummer – Yes, King Crimson)
Bill Paxton (actor – Aliens, Twister, etc)
Sugar Ray Leonard (boxing champion)
Enya (singer/ song writer)
Craig Fergusson (comedian/ talk show host)

You also share the same day with these events:

1620: At Philippapolis, in Turkey, the first merry-go-round (carousel) is seen at a fair.
1846: Antoine Joseph Sax patents his musical instrument, which he calls a ‘saxophone’
1902: Greek archaeologist, Valerios Stais, discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
1949: British government recognizes Republic of Ireland
1961: Fidel Castro offers to exchange Bay of Pigs prisoners for 500 bulldozers
1984: Prince Charles calls a proposed addition to the National Gallery, London, a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend”.
1990: the World Health Organizations takes Homosexuality out of its list of mental illnesses.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Enya!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream, a vision. :- Muhammad Ali

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 18th, you share your birthdate with:

Nicholas II Aleksandrovitsj (last Czar of Russia)
Frank Capra (movie director – It’s a Wonderful Life, Arsenic & Old Lace, etc)
Karol Wojtyla (The recently deceased Pope, John Paul II)
Margot Fonteyn (prima ballerina)
Rick Wakeman (musician/ keyboardist – Yes)
Yun Fat Chow (actor – Bulletproof Monk, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, etc)
Toyah Wilcox (musician/ singer)
Jack Johnson (musician/ singer/ surfer – Good People, Sitting Waiting Wishing, etc)
Maskull (Sryth gamer and forum member)

You also share the same day with these events:

1291: The last Crusader stronghold at Acre falls to the Sultan of Egypt.
1804: Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of France
1830: Edwin Budding single handedly shatters the peacefulness of Saturdays by signing an agreement to manufacture lawnmowers.
1897: “Dracula”, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, is published.
1910: Earth passes through the tail of Halley’s Comet, causing the susceptible to believe that the world will end. It didn’t.
1934: The Academy Award statue is first referred to as “Oscar”.
1980: Mount St Helens erupts in Washington State.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Maskull!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Work is the curse of the drinking classes. :- Oscar Wilde

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 19th, you share your birthdate with:

Malcolm X (human rights activist)
Pol Pot (Leader of Khmer Rouge during the infamous days of the “Killing Fields”)
Peter Townshend (musician/ guitarist – The Who)
Dusty Hill (musician/ bassist – ZZ Top)
Phillip Rudd (drummer – AC/DC)
André the Giant (pro-wrestler)
Grace Jones (singer/ actress)

You also share the same day with these events:

1780: About midday, near-total darkness descends on much of New England. To this day, the cause remains unexplained
1862: The Homestead Act becomes law, providing cheap land for settlement of the West
1928: 51 frogs are entered in the 1st annual "Frog Jumping Jubilee" at Angel's Camp, California
1977: "Smokey & the Bandit," starring Burt Reynolds and Sally Field, premieres
1992: Vice President Dan Quayle sites Murphy Brown as a poor example of family values
1992: Englishman, Dave Gauder, pulls a 196 ton jumbo jet 3 inches
2161: 8 of the 9 planets will align on the same side of the Sun.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Peter Townshend!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
A consultant is someone who takes a subject you understand and turns it into something confusing

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 20th, you share your birthdate with:

William George Fargo (founder of Wells Fargo)
James Stewart (actor – Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Rear Window, etc)
Jack Kevorkian (doctor and advocate for the legalization of euthanasia)
Danny Aiello (actor – Once Upon a Time in America, Ruby, etc)
Joe Cocker (singer – You Can Leave Your Hat On, You Are So Beautiful, etc)
Cher (singer/ entertainer)
Tony Goldwyn (actor – Ghost, Kiss the Girls, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1310: Shoes are first shaped for both right and left feet
1609: Shakespeare's Sonnets are first published in London by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
1845: HMS Erebus and HMS Terror with 134 men under John Franklin sail from the River Thames in England, beginning a disastrous expedition to find the Northwest Passage. All hands are lost.
1874: Levi Strauss markets blue jeans with copper rivets
1927: At 7:40 AM, Charles Lindbergh takes off from New York City to become the first man to fly cross the Atlantic Ocean, landing at Paris, France.
1932: Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean
1979: Elton John becomes the first western pop star to perform a concert in the Soviet Union

Happy Birthday Cher!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Never argue with a fool least people can’t tell the difference.

[Badstench]

Your Stars in Sryth
Gemini: May 22 – June 21
Element: Air
Symbol: The Twins
Ruler: Mercury

In the Middle Ages the birth of twins was held to be an omen of evil, and it would be tempting to explain the psyche of Geminis in the manner so often mistaken by old-world conspiracy theorists and doom-sayers, which is to tell you that they are the spawn of Satan. It would be tempting, yes, and probably a lot more exciting than the actual truth.

The actual truth is that, although Geminis are depicted by the sign of the Twins, the majority of them didn’t have to share their mother’s womb with a sibling and weren’t born with cloven hooves or horns protruding from their foreheads.

Another accuracy when describing the personality of Gemini is to note that they are a bit flighty, somewhat absent-minded, and quite changeable. The depiction of twins as the sign of Gemini is merely to exemplify the notion that people born under the controlling influence of Mercury have a duality to their nature that usually baffles everyone else (except Aquarians, who share eccentricity as a trait in common with Gemini).

Gemini people appear to be quite a serious and dedicated lot, but they know how to have fun as well. The saying, “There’s a time for work and a time for play”, is typical of Geminis. The problem with the serious side of Gemini is that the projects they are serious about do not always remain constant, and this is where their changeability becomes obvious. When a Gemini takes hold of a cause or a hobby, a pursuit or an idea, he/she will embrace it with devoutness and dedication… until he/ she becomes distracted by something else, then the former cause of interest can quite easily be put aside and forgotten.

This non-chalante attitude to switching interests has often earned Gemini the ire of other people, and it’s these other people who, in modern times, continue to paint Geminis as being the spawn of Satan with cloven hooves and horny foreheads.

The fact remains, though, that Gemini people, despite their dedication to whatever the cause-of-the-moment is, have earned themselves a reputation for being predictably unpredictable.

Vocations suited to Gemini include courier driver, litigation lawyer, or traffic signalman, all of which could be summed up by the most appropriate vocation of all… circus ringmaster!

Gemini and Money: People born under the sign of Gemini are mindful of what money can do for them and are good at ensuring they always have enough for whatever necessity demands. However, they tend not to fret or think about it too much, not being possessed of an overly materialistic nature. As long as there’s enough for their requirements, then all is right with the world.

Nor are Geminis averse to sharing the wealth around with friends and family, and they are happy to donate money to worthy causes as long as they’re left with enough for themselves

Which just goes to prove why people in general seem to like Geminis, and why their reputation for being Hell-spawn is unfounded and unfair.

Gemini and Romance: This is the subject in which the Gemini personalities most often find themselves getting into trouble. It has everything to do with their unpredictability and propensity for allowing themselves to get distracted, because despite professing to be honourable types, Geminis tend to have roving eyes and imaginations. This is not to say they would purposefully cheat on their partners or knowingly commit adultery, but accidents happen, you know?

Thus, whenever you hear a domestic disturbance erupt, with one party accused of being a “cheating, two-faced, sack-of-worthless-expletive", it’s usually a good bet that the person on the end of the tongue lashing is a Gemini… or an Aquarius, but more likely a Gemini.

This is not to say that all Geminis are unfaithful. The one’s who manage to keep themselves loyal to one partner do so because they are constantly being distracted by the wonderment of the love and affection they feel for that other person, and… Ick! That’s enough of that talk; it’s almost enough to make a grown adventurer throw up.

Famous Geminis in Sryth: Although I went to great lengths to explain that the sign of the Twins reflects a duality of personality rather than a duality of physical being, I have to admit that there are two sets of twins known in Sryth, and it’s just possible that both were spawned in Hell.

The outlaws known as the Twin Blades were born under the sign of Gemini, and we all know what a disturbed pair they are!

But even more disturbing are the brothers Cragg, who live in Kyul-Thanor, where they practice the art of metallurgy and insults. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to call their behaviour impish rather than diabolic, but the fact remains that they are extremely weird.

Also born under the sign of Gemini are a whole raft of adventurers: texlaw1992 (May 26), racey (June 11), Moria369 (June 14), Lhiannan (June 15), Draxas (June 18), Nivek and ValothBranstrommer (June 20), and smv1973 (June 21), who has the distinction of straddling his birthday on the cusp with Cancer.

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 21st, you share your birthdate with:

Alexander Pope (poet – also known for his translation of Homer’s Iliad)
Fats Waller (jazz singer/ composer – Ain’t Misbehavin’, etc)
Harold Robbins (author – The Carpetbaggers, etc)
Raymond Burr (actor – Ironsides, Perry Mason, etc)
Leo Sayer (singer – When I Need Love, etc)
Mr T. (actor – The A Team, Rocky III, etc)
Judge Reinhold (actor – Fast Times at Ridgemont High, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1819: Originally known as “swiftwalkers”, the first bicycles are introduced to the US in New York City
1840: New Zealand officially declared a colony of Britain, 71 years after Captain James Cook first maps the coastline
1914: Greyhound Bus Co begins operations
1936: Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
1972: Michelangelo's Pietà, in St. Peter's Basilica, is damaged by a vandal.
1980: The second instalment of Star Wars, “The Empire Strikes Back”, premiers
1999: All My Children star, Susan Lucci, finally wins a Daytime Emmy after being nominated 19 times, the longest period of unsuccessful nominations in television history

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Mr T.!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 22nd, you share your birthdate with:

Wilhelm Richard Wagner (composer – Hitler’s favourite)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author – Sherlock Holmes)
Sir Laurence Olivier (actor – famed for his Shakespearian roles)
George Best (soccer great – Manchester United)
Cha Bum-Kun (Korean footballer – couldn’t let a name like that go past)
Iva Davies (guitarist/ singer – Icehouse)
Naomi Campbell (super model/ actress – has anger issues)

You also share the same day with these events:

1570: The first atlas, with 70 maps, is published
1892: Dr Washington Sheffield invents the toothpaste tube
1915: Lassen Peak erupts. Other than Mount St. Helens, it is the only mountain to erupt in the continental US during the 20th century.
1933: The Loch Ness Monster is first reportedly sighted by John Mackay
1961: The first revolving restaurant opens on top of The Needle, Seattle.
1986: Cher calls David Letterman an asshole on Late Night
2004: The U.S. town of Hallam, Nebraska, is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado that broke a width record at an astounding 2.5 miles wide. Only one local resident is killed.

Happy Birthday Naomi Campbell!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. :- William Shakespeare

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 23rd, you share your birthdate with:

Douglas Fairbanks (actor – Zorro, Robin Hood, etc)
Robert A Moog (musician/ inventor – Moog synthesizer)
“Marvelous” Marvin Hagler (boxing champion)
Drew Carey (actor/ comedian)
Helena Bonham Carter (actress – Sweeny Todd, Alice in Wonderland, etc)
Jewel (musician/ singer – Pieces of You, etc)
Heidi Range (singer – Sugarbabes)

You also share the same date with these events…

1701: After being convicted of piracy, Captain William Kidd is hanged in London
1785: Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocal spectacles
1958: Mao Tse tung starts "Great leap forward" movement in China
1970: Grateful Dead performs their first concert outside the US, in England
1983: Radio Moscow announcer, Vladimir Danchev, praises Afghanistan Muslims standing up to Russia; he is removed from the air
1992: President Bush orders Coast Guard to intercept boats with Haitian refugees
2003: The euro exceeds its initial trading value as it hits $1.18 for the first time since its introduction in 1999

Happy Birthday Helena Bonham Carter!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
It's better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone. :- Marilyn Monroe

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 24th, you share your birthdate with:

George III (King of England – as in, “The Madness of King George”)
Tommy Chong (comedian/ actor – of the duo, “Cheech & Chong”)
Gary Burghoff (actor – played Radar in M*A*S*H)
Bob Dylan (singer/ songwriter)
Priscilla Presley (actress and wife of Elvis Presley)
Steve Upton (drummer – Wishbone Ash)
Eric Cantona (French soccer player – also known as Eric “Kung-fu” Cantona)

You also share the same date with these events…

1830: “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is first published as an original poem by Sarah Josepha Hale
1954: German airline, Lufthansa, forms
1954: IBM announces a vacuum tube "electronic" brain that can perform 10 million operations an hour
1965: Supreme Court declares federal law allowing post office to intercept communist propaganda is unconstitutional
1989: "Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade" premieres
1993: Eritrea achieves independence from Ethiopia after 30-year civil war
2004: North Korea bans the ownership and use of mobile telephones

Happy Birthday Bob Dylan!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty with the son who neglects them. :- Confucius

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 25th, you share your birthdate with:

Igor Sikorsky (designer/ engineer – developed a working helicopter)
Eddie Maxwell (singer – pleased certain bunches of fruit when he sang, “Yes, We Have No Bananas”)
Robert Ludlum (author – The Bourne Identity, etc)
Sally Jesse Raphael (talk-show host)
Connie Selleca (actress – Greatest American Hero, etc)
Paul Weller (Musician/ singer – The Jam)
Mike Myers (actor/ comedian – Wayne’s World, Austin Powers, etc)
Anne Heche (actress – Volcano, etc)
Jonny Wilkinson (English rugby great)

You also share the same day with these events:

1895: The Republic of Formosa (Taiwan) is formed, with Tang Ching-sung as the president.
1935: Jesse Owens equals or breaks 6 world track & field records in one hour
1945: Arthur C Clark first proposes relay satellites in geosynchronous orbit
1967: John Lennon takes delivery of his psychedelic painted Rolls Royce
1986: 30,000,000 watch "Live Aid," a massive benefit concert
2000: Liberation Day of Lebanon. Israel withdraws its army from most of the Lebanese territory after 22 years of its first invasion in 1978.
2001: 32-year-old Erik Weihenmayer, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Mike Myers!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Aim low, achieve your goals, avoid disappointment

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 26th, you share your birthdate with:

Al Jolson (actor/ singer – Mamie, Swanee, etc)
John Wayne (actor – True Grit, etc)
Peter Cushing (actor – Dracula, Star Wars, etc)
Stevie Nicks (singer/ songwriter – Fleetwood Mac)
Lennie Kravitz (singer/ songwriter)
Zola Budd (athletic track star – famous for running bare-foot at the Olympics)
Texlaw1992 (Sryth gamer and honoured forum member)

You also share the same day with these events:

1647: Alse Young becomes the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies
1908: The first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.
1911: The first Indianapolis 500 automobile race is run
1937: San Francisco Bay's Golden Gate Bridge opens
1979: “Dancin' Fool” by Frank Zappa hits #45
1993: Long fly ball by Indians' Carlos Martinez bounces off Jose Canseco's head and goes over the fence for a home run
2002: The Mars Odyssey finds signs of large ice deposits on the planet Mars.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Texlaw1992!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Friends are people who are there for you when they’d rather be somewhere else doing something for themselves.

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 27th, you share your birthdate with:

“Wild Bill” Hickok (cowboy/ scout)
Vincent Price (actor – The Abominable Dr Phibes, The Pit and the Pendulum, etc)
Christopher Lee (actor – The Lord of the Rings, Dracula, etc)
Henry Kissinger (politician)
Louis Gosset Jr (actor – Officer and a Gentleman, The Deep, etc)
Siouxsie Sioux (singer – Siouxsie & The Banshees)
Neil Finn (musician/ singer/ songwriter – Crowded House)
Joseph Feinnes (actor – Flash Forward, Elizabeth, etc)
Jamie Oliver (chef – healthy food advocate)

You also share the same day with these events:

1703: St Petersburg (Leningrad) founded by Peter the Great
1907: Bubonic Plague breaks out in San Francisco
1930: At 319 metres, the world’s tallest man-made structure at the time, the Chrysler Building, opens in New York City.
1940: The evacuation of Dunkirk begins during WW2
1961: President Kennedy announces US goal to reach the Moon before the end of the decade
1995: Actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.
1999: The International Criminal Tribunal indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Neil Finn!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
One good thing about music… when it hits you, you feel no pain. :- Bob Marley

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 28th, you share your birthdate with:

Joseph Ignace Guillotin (physician/ inventor – invented the guillotine)
William Pitt, the Younger (English Prime Minister)
Ian Fleming (author – James Bond)
Gladys Knight (singer – leader of The Pips)
John Fogerty (singer – Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Roland Gift (singer – Fine Young Cannibals)
Kylie Minogue (singer/ entertainer)

You also share the same day with these events:

585BC: A solar eclipse occurs, as predicted by Greek philosopher and scientist Thales, while Alyattes is battling Cyaxares in the Battle of the Eclipse, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated.
1923: Attorney General says it is legal for women to wear trousers anywhere
1959: Monkeys, Able & Baker, zoom 500 km into space and become the first animals retrieved from a space mission
1961: After 78 years, the Orient Express makes it’s last run from Paris to Bucharest
1978: Al Unser become the 5th person to win the Indianapolis 500 three times
1999: After 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece "The Last Supper" is put back on display.
2008: The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal formally declares Nepal a republic, ending the 240-year reign of the Shah dynasty.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Kylie Minogue!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
It's hard to beat a person who never gives up. :-Babe Ruth

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 29th, you share your birthdate with:

Patrick Henry (US patriot - "Give me liberty or give me death")
Bob Hope (actor/ comedian)
Al Unser (racecar driver – 3 time winner Indianapolis 500)
Francis “Mike” Rossi (musician/ guitarist/ singer – Status Quo)
La Toya Jackson (singer)
Anette Bening (actress – American Beauty, etc)
Melissa Etheridge (musician/ singer)
Melanie Brown (singer – also known as Scary Spice of the Spice Girls)

You also share the same date with these events…

1592: At the Battle of Sacheon, the Korean navy repels a Japanese army that outnumbers it nearly 3 to 1.
1765: On his birthday, Patrick Henry makes his historic speech against the Stamp Act, answering a cry of "Treason!" with, "If this be treason, make the most of it!"
1849: Lincoln says the words, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of time, but you can't fool all of the people all of time"
1911: The Indianapolis 500 is raced for the first time
1942: Bing Crosby records "White Christmas", the greatest selling record to date
1980: Larry Bird beats out Magic Johnson for NBA rookie of year
1987: Michael Jackson attempts to buy Elephant Man's remains
1999: Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.

Happy Birthday Anette Bening!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 30th, you share your birthdate with:

Peter the Great (Russian Czar)
Peter Carl Fabergé (Russian goldsmith and jeweller)
Melvin J Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig)
Benny Goodman (bandleader – the King of Swing)
Nicky “Topper” Headon (drummer – The Clash)
Jake “The Snake” Roberts (wrestler)
Tom Morello (musician/ guitarist – Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave)

You also share the same date with these events…

1431: In Rouen, France, 19-year-old Joan of Arc is burned at the stake
1498: Columbus departs with 6 ships for third trip to America
1848: Mexico ratifies treaty giving US; New Mexico, California and parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Colorado in return for $15 million
1868: Memorial Day first observed when 2 women in Columbus, Mississippi, place flowers on both Confederate and Union graves
1901: Memorial day is first officially observed
1935: Babe Ruth plays his final game
1959: The Auckland Harbour Bridge is officially opened today in Auckland, New Zealand.
1987: West German Mathias Rust lands airplane on Red Square

Happy Birthday Tom Morello!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
You never miss the water till the well has run dry. :-Irish saying

[Badstench]

If you were born on May 31st, you share your birthdate with:

Denholm Elliott (actor – King Rat, Zulu Dawn, etc)
Clint Ranier III (prince of Monaco)
Clint Eastwood (actor – Dirty Harry, Pale Rider, etc)
John Bonham (drummer – Led Zeppelin)
Tom Berenger (actor – The Big Chill, Sniper, etc)
Harry Enfield (actor/ comedian – Men Behaving Badly)
Brooke Shields (model/ actress – Blue Lagoon, Suddenly Susan, etc)
Phil Keoghan (television presenter – The Amazing Race)
Colin Farrell (actor – Phone Booth, Alexander, etc)

You also share the same date with these events…

1279BC: Rameses II (The Great) becomes pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.
1665: Jerusalem's rabbi Sjabtai Tswi proclaims himself Messiah
1678: In Legend, Lady Godiva rides naked through Coventry in a protest of taxes, spied all the way by "Peeping Tom"
1759: The Province of Pennsylvania bans all theatre productions.
1893: Whitcomb Judson, of Chicago, patents a hookless fastening, otherwise known as a zipper
1980: "Love Stinks" by J Geils Band peaks at #38
2008: Usain Bolt breaks the world 100 metre sprint record in the time of 9.72 seconds.

Happy Birthday Brooke Shields!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. :-George S Patton

[Badstench]

White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits

If you were born on June 1st, you share your birthdate with:

Andy Griffith (actor – Matlock, etc)
Norma Jean Mortenson (better known as Marilyn Monroe)
Edward Woodward (actor – Breaker Morant, The Equalizer, etc)
Morgan Freeman (actor – Driving Miss Daisy, Outbreak, etc)
Jonathan Pryce (actor – Brazil, Stigmata, etc)
Ronnie Wood (musician/ guitarist – the Rolling Stones)
Heidi Klum (supermodel)
Justine Henin (tennis player)

You also share the same date with these events…

4000BC: Approximate domestication of the horse in the Eurasian steppes near Dereivka, central Ukraine (hypothesis only)
1215: Beijing, then under the control of Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Beijing.
1495: First written record of Scotch Whiskey appears in Exchequer Rolls of Scotland. Friar John Cor is the distiller
1879: Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, is killed in the Anglo-Zulu War.
1967: The Beatles release “Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” in the US
1974: The Heimlich manoeuvre (for rescuing choking victims) is published in the journal, Emergency Medicine.
1975: Ronnie Wood replaces Mick Taylor as Rolling Stone guitarist

Happy Birthday Morgan Freeman!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young. :-Fred Astaire

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 2nd, you share your birthdate with:

Marquis de Sade (author/ sadist)
Thomas Hardy (poet – “Far From the Madding Crowd”)
Johnny Weismuller (athlete/ actor – the original screen Tarzan)
Charlie Watts (drummer – the Rolling Stones)
Stacey Keach (actor – Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer)
Peter Sutcliffe (better known as “The Yorkshire Ripper)
Michael Anthony (musician/ bassist – Van Halen)

You also share the same day with these events:

1910: Pygmies are discovered in Dutch New Guinea
1953: Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey
1964: Rolling Stones play their first US concert in Lynn, Massachusetts
1989: "Dead Poets Society", starring Robin Williams, premieres
1989: 10,000 Chinese soldiers are blocked by 100,000 citizens protecting students demonstrating for democracy in Tiananmen Square, Beijing
1999: The Bhutan Broadcasting Service brings television transmissions to the Kingdom for the first time.
2004: Ken Jennings begins his 74-game winning streak on the syndicated game show Jeopardy!.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Charlie Watts!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Why is sex a sin if it’s the only thing that keeps the human race from disappearing? :-Anonymous

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 3rd, you share your birthdate with:

Henry Shrapnel (invented the exploding shrapnel shell)
Ransom Eli Olds (auto manufacturer – Oldsmobile)
Tony Curtis (actor – Some Like it Hot, The Defiant Ones, etc)
Mickey Finn (musician – Tyrannosaurus Rex [before it morphed into T.Rex])
Suzi Quatro (musician/ singer/ guitarist – Devilgate Drive, etc)
Tom Arnold (actor – True Lies, etc)
Rafael Nadal (tennis champion)

You also share the same day with these events:

1871: Jesse James and his gang rob the Obocock Bank, of $15,000
1937: The Duke of Windsor (Edward VIII) weds Mrs Wallis Warfield Simpson in France, having abdicated the throne of England to do so
1946: In Paris, the bikini bathing suit is modelled for the first time.
1956: 3rd class travel on British Railways ends
1968: Valerie Solanas, author of SCUM Manifesto, attempts to assassinate Andy Warhol
1969: Last episode of Star Trek airs on NBC
1970: Because of BBC commercial reference ban, Ray Davies (of The Kinks) flies round-trip between London and New York to change one word on the track for the song, “Lola”… coca-cola becomes cherry-cola.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Suzi Quatro!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Happy is the son whose faith in his mother remains unchallenged. :-Louisa May Alcott

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 4th, you share your birthdate with:

Christopher Cockerell (credited with inventing the hovercraft)
Robert Anderson (author – Tea & Sympathy)
Freddy Fender (musician/ singer)
Parker Stevenson (actor – member of the original cast of Baywatch)
Chris Kavanagh (musician – Sigue Sigue Sputnik)
Noah Wyle (actor – plays Dr John Carter on E.R)
Angelina Jolie (actress – Changeling, Mr & Mrs Smith, Tomb Raider, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1070: Roquefort cheese is first created in a cave near Roquefort, France.
1769: A transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in history.
1800: Construction of the White House is completed. President and Mrs John Adams move in.
1876: The Transcontinental Express train arrives in San Francisco, California, only 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.
1942: Battle of Midway begins, marking the first major defeat to Japan in WW2
1969: A 22-year-old man sneaks into wheel pod of a jet parked in Havana and survives the 9-hr flight to Spain
1977: The first personal computer, the Apple II, goes on sale.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Angelina Jolie!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts… that's what little girls are made of! The heck with sugar and spice. :-Bethany Hamilton

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 5th, you share your birthdate with:

Thomas Chippendale (famed furniture maker)
Pat Garret (American lawman)
Pancho Villa (Mexican revolutionary)
Anastasia Romanov (daughter of the last Czar of Russia)
Robert Lansing (actor – 12 O’clock High, etc)
Laurie Anderson (singer/ performance artist – O Superman, etc)
Kenny G (musician/ saxophonist)
Mark Wahlberg (actor – Planet of the Apes, The Departed, etc)
Lara Bingle (Australian model – “Where the bloody hell are ya?”)

You also share the same date with these events…

1783: Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier make the first public balloon flight
1873: Sultan Bargash closes the slave market of Zanzibar
1876: At the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, bananas find popularity in America.
1964: Davie Jones & the King Bees debut. They soon disband, but Davie goes on to re-invent himself as David Bowie.
1967: The 6 Day War between Israel and its arab countries begins.
1981: The Center of Disease Control reports a new type of pneumonia affecting gays. It becomes known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
1993: Singer Mariah Carey weds Tommy Mottola, CEO of Sony Music

Happy Birthday Mark Wahlberg!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
If the thunder is not loud, the peasant forgets to cross himself. :-Russian proverbI

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 6th, you share your birthdate with:

Nathan Hale (American spy/ patriot – He regretted having only one life to lose for his country)
Robert Falcon Scott (leader of the ill-fated expedition to conquer the South Pole)
The Dalai Lama (spiritual leader of Tibet)
Larry “The Mole” Taylor (musician – Canned Heat)
Dana Carvey (comedian/ actor – Wayne’s World, etc)
Bjorn Borg (tennis champion)
Steve Vai (musician/ guitarist extraordinaire)
Lukas Hass (actor – Mars Attacks, Lady in White, etc)

You also share the same date with these events…

1664: New Amsterdam is renamed New York
1944: D-Day! 150,000 allied troops land at Normandy in WW2
1955: “Rock Around the Clock”, by Bill Haley & the Comets, hits #1
1980: On his birthday, Bjorn Borg beats John McEnroe to claim the Wimbledon title
1999: At the Putim maximum security prison in Brazil, 345 prisoners run from the main gate in the largest jailbreak in Brazilian history. In the ensuing manhunt, five innocent bystanders are accidentally jailed.
2002: A near-Earth asteroid estimated at 10 metres diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The resulting explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.
2005: The United States Supreme Court votes to ban medical marijuana

Happy Birthday Steve Vai!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn’t want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named Bush, Dick, and Colon. :-Chris Rock

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 7th, you share your birthdate with:

Paul Gaugin (post-impressionist painter)
Jessica Tandy (actress – The Birds, Cocoon, etc)
Dean Martin (actor/ singer/ entertainer)
Tom Jones (singer/ entertainer – What’s New Pussycat? etc)
Liam Neeson (actor – Schindler’s List, Taken, etc)
O+> (singer formerly known as Prince – Raspberry Beret, Purple Rain, etc)
Karl Urban (actor – The Bourne Supremacy, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, etc)
Anna Kournikova (tennis player… sort of)
Zedalion (Sryth gamer and forum member)

You also share the same date with these events…

1769: Daniel Boone begins exploring Bluegrass State of Kentucky
1963: The Rolling Stones release their first single, “Come On”.
1965: Sony Corporation introduces its video cassette recorder
1989: For one second on this morning, the time is 01:23:45, 6-7-89
1993: Ground is broken in Cleveland for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
1993: Prince celebrates his birthday by changing his name to a symbol
2006: British Houses of Parliament are temporarily shut down due to anthrax alert.

Happy Birthday Zedalion!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Beauty is worse than wine, it intoxicates both the holder and beholder. :-Immerman

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 8th, you share your birthdate with:

Barbara Bush (American First Lady)
Joan Rivers (actress/ comedienne)
Nancy Sinatra (singer – “These Boots Were Made For Walking”, etc)
Boz Scaggs (musician/ singer – “Lido Shuffle”, etc)
Bonnie Tyler (singer – “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, etc)
Mick Hucknail (singer – Simply Red)
Lindsay Davenport (tennis player)
Kanye West (singer/ rapper)
Kim Clijsters (tennis player)

You also share the same day with these events:

452: Attila the Hun invades Italy
1896: First case of auto theft is reported.
1920: Edd Roush, of the Cincinnati Reds, falls asleep during a long infield argument. Heinie Groh goes to wake him, but the umpire ejects Roush for delaying the game.
1949: Siam changes name to Thailand
1974: Keyboardist Rick Wakeman quits rock group "Yes"
1987: New Zealand's Labour government legislates against nuclear weapons and nuclear powered vessels. This makes New Zealand the first and only nation to ban these things from its territory.
1988: Nippon Airways announces that painting eyeballs onto its jets cut bird collisions by 20%

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Kim Clijsters!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Why don’t Presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor? :-Serj Tankian

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 9th, you share your birthdate with:

George Stephenson (credited with inventing the steam locomotive – “Stephenson’s Rocket”)
Cole Porter (composer, lyricist)
Helena Rubinstein (cosmetics company founder)
Les Paul (musician/ guitar maker)
Donald Duck (quack)
Jon Lord (musician/ keyboardist – Deep Purple)
Michael J Fox (actor – Back to the Future, Teen Wolf, etc)
Johnny Depp (actor – Pirates of the Caribbean, Sweeny Todd, etc)
Natalie Portman (actress – V for Vendetta, The Phantom Menace, etc)
Anoushka Shankar (musician/ sitarist – daughter of Ravi Shankar)

You also share the same day with these events:

68: Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, imploring his secretary to slit his throat to evade a Senate-imposed death by flogging.
1310: Duccio's Maestà Altarpiece, a seminal artwork of the early Italian Renaissance, is unveiled and installed in the Siena Cathedral in Siena, Italy.
1822: Charles Graham patents false teeth
1898: China leases Hong Kong to Britain for 99 years
1931: Donald Duck appears in an animated movie for the first time. The title is “Wise Little Hen”.
1954: Joseph Welch asks Senator Joseph McCarthy "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" during Senate-Army hearings
1990: Monica Seles beats Steffi Graf to win the French Open tennis title

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Michael J Fox!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Who we are never changes. Who we think we are does. :-Mary S Almanac

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 10th, you share your birthdate with:

Hattie McDaniel (first black recipient of an academy award for her role in Gone With the Wind)
Chester Arthur Burnett (blues musician – better known as Howlin’ Wolf)
Prince Phillip Mountbatten (husband of Queen Elizabeth II)
Judy Garland (actress – The Wizard of Oz, etc)
Elisabeth Shue (actress – Cocktail, The Saint, etc)
Elizabeth Hurley (model/ actress – The Spy Who Shagged Me, Bedazzled, etc)
Linda Evangelista (supermodel/ actress)
Darren Robinson (also known as “Human Beatbox”. Awesome to hear!)
Leelee Sobieski (actress – Eyes Wide Shut, The Glasshouse, etc)

You also share the same date with these events…

1190: Frederick Barbarossa drowns in the Sally River while leading an army of crusaders to Jerusalem.
1720: Mustard is first marketed as a spreadable paste by Mrs Clements, of England.
1752: Benjamin Franklin's kite is struck by lightning
1829: The first Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place.
1985: New Zealand suffers it’s first terrorist attack when their ally, France, bombs the Greenpeace ship, “Rainbow Warrior”, in Auckland harbour. Diplomatic relations are strained when the bombers are caught and identified as French Secret Service agents.
2003: The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission. It doesn’t go well.

Happy Birthday Elisabeth Shue!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
I want to walk through life instead of being dragged through it. :- Alanis Morrisette

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 11th, you share your birthdate with:

Jacques-Yves Cousteau (ocean explorer/ environmentalist)
Gene Wilder (actor/ comedian – Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Blazing Saddles, etc)
Jackie Stewart (Formula 1 race driver/ announcer)
John Lawton (singer – Uriah Heep)
Frank Beard (drummer – ZZ Top)
Hugh Laurie (actor – House)
Shia LaBeouf (actor – Transformers, Eagle Eye, etc)
Racey (Sryth gamer and honoured forum member)

You also share the same day with these events:

1184BC: Troy is sacked and burned, according to calculations by Eratosthenes.
1770: Captain James Cook discovers the Great Barrier Reef off Australia
1928: Alfred Hitchcock's first film, "The Case Of Jonathan Drew," is released
1962: Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin become the only prisoners to successfully escape from Alcatraz.
1983: Don Genalo, needing just 3 of 5 pins to win the Southern California Open bowling tournament, miscalculates his score and intentionally gutters his ball.
1985: Russian space probe Vega 1 lands on Venus
2004: Ronald Reagan's funeral is held at Washington National Cathedral.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Racey!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
He who leads the pack must constantly look over his shoulder. :-Judge Fury

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 12th, you share your birthdate with:

George Bush Snr (41st US President)
Anne Frank (victim of the Nazi regime – made famous by her book, “The Diary of Anne Frank”
Jim Nabors (actor – played Gomer Pyle)
Roy Harper (musician – The guys from Led Zeppelin took their hats off to him)
Bun E Carlos (drummer – Cheap Trick)
Kenny Wayne Shepherd (musician/ guitarist)
Bryan Habana (South African rugby great)

You also share the same date with these events…

1880: John Lee Richmond pitches the first ever major league perfect game
1923: Harry Houdini frees himself from a straight jacket while suspended upside down, 40 feet (12 m) above the ground in New York City.
1935: Senator Huey Long of Louisiana speaks continually for 15½ hours in Senate's longest speech on record (150,000 words)
1965: The Rolling Stones release "Satisfaction"
1965: The Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe is supported by the announcement of the discovery of new celestial bodies know as blue galaxies
1989: Ben Johnson, Canadian Olympian, admits using steroids
2009: All television broadcasts in the United States switch from analog NTSC to digital ATSC transmission.

Happy Birthday Bun E Carlos!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it. :-William Adams

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 13th, you share your birthdate with:

Gnaeus Julius Agricola (Roman general responsible for the conquest of most of Britain)
Basil Rathbone (actor – Sherlock Holmes)
Malcolm McDowell (actor – A Clockwork Orange, etc)
Tim Allen (comedian/ actor – Home Improvement)
Rivers Cuomo (musician/ songwriter – Weezer)
Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen (twin actresses)

You also share the same date with these events…

1525: Martin Luther goes against the celibacy rule for priests and nuns decreed by the Roman Catholic Church when he marries Katharina von Bora
1825: Walter Hunt patents the safety pin
1912: Captain Albert Berry makes the 1st parachute jump from an airplane
1920: Post Office says children cannot be sent by parcel post
1922: Longest attack of hiccups begins. Charlie Osborne, 98, hiccups over 435 million times. He dies 11 months after it stops
1979: Sioux nation receives $100 million in compensation for Black Hills
2005: A jury in Santa Maria, California acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.

Happy Birthday Rivers Cuomo!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Life is a marshmallow, easy to chew but hard to swallow. :-Alberto Nikas

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 14th, you share your birthdate with:

Harriet Beecher Stowe (author – Uncle Tom's Cabin)
Alois Alzheimer (psychiatrist/ pathologist – identified Alzheimer’s disease)
Burl Ives (actor/ singer – Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
Che Guevara (Cuban revolutionary)
Donald Trump (property developer)
Alan White (drummer – Yes)
Boy George (musician/ singer – Culture Club)
Steffi Graf (tennis champion)
Moria369 (Sryth gamer and forum member)

You also share the same date with these events…

1907: Governmentt of Transvaal sends home 50,000 Chinese day workers
1942: Anne Frank begins her diary
1951: The first commercial computer, UNIVAC 1, enters service at the Census Bureau
1952: The keel is laid for the Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear powered submarine.
1982: Argentina surrenders to Britain on Falkland Islands, ending the 74-day conflict
1989: Queen Elizabeth II knights Ronald Reagan
1996: "Cable Guy" starring Jim Carrey is released

Happy Birthday Moria369!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Don't let someone become your everything, because when they're gone you have nothing! :-Kenya Mitchell

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 15th, you share your birthdate with:

Sir Edward Woodstock (Prince of Wales – The Black Prince)
Waylon Jennings (musician/ singer)
Xaviera Hollander (prostitute/ author – The Happy Hooker)
Demis Roussos (vocalist/ singer)
James Belushi (actor/ comedian – Red Heat, K9, etc)
Helen Hunt (actress – Mad About You, Twister, etc)
Courteney Cox (actress – Friends, Cougar Town, etc)
Ice Cube (rapper/ actor – Boyz in the Hood, etc)
Lhiannan (Sryth gamer and forum member)

You also share the same date with these events…

763BC: Assyrians record a solar eclipse that will be used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian history.
1219: According to legend, the Danish flag falls from the sky during the Battle of Lyndanisse, in Estonia, and turns the Danes' luck. The flag, known as the Dannebrog, is the oldest national flag in the world.
1785: Two French balloonists die in the world's first fatal aviation accident
1924: Native Americans are proclaimed US citizens
1956: John Lennon (15) and Paul McCartney (13) meet for first time when Lennon's rock group, The Quarrymen, perform at a church dinner
1978: Jordan's King Hussein marries 26-yr-old American, Elizabeth Halaby
1986: Russian newspaper, Pravda, announces that high-level Chernobyl staff were fired for stupidity

Happy Birthday Lhiannan!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern. :-Samuel Johnson

[Young Ned]

Happy Birthday to a famous Dwarven Mine #369 :)

Somehow that reminds me of Flood Control Dam #3, from the original Zork. :)

And happy belated birthday, Moria!

[racey]

Happy Belated Birthday moria369! I hope that you had a great day!

Happy Birthday Lhiannan! I hope that your day brings all that you wish!

[Oldschool]

Happy Birthday Lhiannan.

[Doolipalally]

Happy birthday Moria and Lhiannan. Hope to see you both around soon.

[scout1idf]

Happy Birthday Lhiannan.

[thingirl]

Happy Birthday Lhiannan!!!

[spencer]

Happy Birthday, Lhiannan!!

[Young Ned]

Happy birthday, Lhiannan! Don't know how I missed that before.

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 16th, you share your birthdate with:

Old Tom Morris (pioneer golfer – his son was known as Young Tom Morris, so Young Ned has historical company)
Geronimo (Apache chief)
Stan Laurel (comedian/ actor – half of the duo, “Laurel & Hardy”)
Enoch Powell (controversial English politician – anti-immigration)
Jesse Kuhaulua (Hawaiian, also known as Takamiyama – the first non-Japanese sumo champion)
Gary Roberts (musician/ guitarist – The Boomtown Rats)
Tupac Shakur (rapper/ actor)

You also share the same day with these events:

1858: Abraham Lincoln says, "A house divided against itself cannot stand"
1884: The first roller coaster begins operating at Coney Island.
1961: Soviet ballet dancer, Rudolf Nureyev, defects to the West in Paris
1974: Homer Simpson and Marge Bouvier get married
1988: In Santa Barbara, a team of 32 divers begin cycling underwater on a standard tricycle, to complete 116.66 miles in 75 hrs 20 mins.
1990: “Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer peaks at #8
2000: Israel complies with UN Security Council Resolution 425 and withdraws from all of Lebanon, except the disputed Sheba Farms.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Gary Roberts! (By default… he’s the only one on today’s list still alive)

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Don't worry about a thing,’cos every little thing is gonna be alright. :-Bob Marley

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 17th, you share your birthdate with:

Edward I (“Longshanks” – King of England)
Ruth Wakefield (invented the first chocolate chip cookie)
Newt Gingrich (American politician)
Barry Manilow (singer/ songwriter)
Paul Young (singer – Wherever I Lay My Hat, that’s My Home, etc)
Greg Kinnear (actor – The Matador, Little Miss Sunshine, etc)
Venus Williams (tennis champion)

You also share the same date with these events…

1631: Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. 20 years later, the construction of her tomb is finished. It is called the Taj Mahal.
1885: Statue of Liberty arrives in New York City aboard French ship `Isere'
1933: Date of the Kansas City Massacre when mobsters, including Pretty Boy Floyd, are involved in a shootout with the police.
1939: Last public guillotining in France. Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre. The knowledge of being last does not make him happy.
1980: Led Zeppelin begins their last European tour
1987: With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct.
1991: South Africa abolishes the last of its apartheid laws

Happy Birthday Greg Kinnear!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life to be thankful for a good one. :-Mae West

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 18th, you share your birthdate with:

James Montgomery Flagg (illustrator – best known for his drawing of Uncle Sam in the poster, “Uncle Sam Wants You!”
John D Rockerfeller IV (politician/ rich person)
Paul McCartney (musician/ singer/ songwriter – The Beatles)
Isabella Rossellini (actress – Blue Velvet, Immortal Beloved, etc)
Tom Bailey (musician/ guitarist – Thompson Twins)
Alison Moyet (singer – Alf)
Darren “Dizzy” Reed (musician/ keyboardist – Guns’n’Roses)
Draxas (Sryth Gamer and honoured forum member)

You also share the same day with these events:

1178: Canterbury monks report an explosion seen on the Moon. This is thought to have been the creation of the crater, Giordano Bruno
1767: Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain, sights Tahiti and is considered the first European to reach the island.
1815: Napoleon is defeated by the Duke of Wellington and General Blucher at the Battle of Waterloo
1959: Governor of Louisiana, Earl K. Long, is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital's director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane.
1967: The Monterey International Pop Festival rocks Southern California
1981: The AIDS epidemic is formally recognized by medical professionals
2000: The 100th US Golf Open begins at Pebble Beach Golf Links, California

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Draxas!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. :-Herm Albright

[zmflavius]

happy birthday draxas!

[Dariel]

Happy Birthday, Draxas. Have a Klondike bar. (You didn't even have to do anything to get it :cool: )

[spencer]

Happy Birthday, Draxas!!!

[Draxas]

Thank you All
Very kind

[scout1idf]

Happy Birthday Draxas!!!

[Lightwielder]

Happy Birthday, Draxas.

[Oldschool]

Happy Birthday Draxas

[smv1973]

Happy Birthday Draxas. I hope you have a great day.

[thingirl]

Happy Birthday Draxas!!!!!!!

[racey]

Happy Birthday Draxas!

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 19th, you share your birthdate with:

Moe Howard (comedian – one of the Three Stooges)
Phylicia Ayers-Allen Rashad (actress – played Clair in the Bill Cosby Show)
Salman Rushdie (novelist – Satanic Verses)
Kathleen Turner (actress – Romancing the Stone, etc)
Simon Wright (drummer – AC/DC)
Paula Abdul (singer/choreographer)
Garfield (a cat)

You also share the same date with these events…

1910: Father’s Day is celebrated for the first time
1917: King George V orders his family to drop all names and titles of German origin following World War 1. He adopts the name, “Windsor”.
1956: The partnership between Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin ends after 16 films
1973: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the stage production, opens in London
1978: Garfield, created by Jim Davis, first appears as a comic strip
1991: Colombian drug baron, Pablo Escobar, surrenders to police
2000: Tiger Woods wins golf's US Open by 15 shots, a record for all majors.

Happy Birthday Paula Abdul!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
The secret of my success is that at an early age, I discovered I was not God. :-Sri da Avabhas

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 20th, you share your birthdate with:

Errol Flynn (actor – Captain Blood, Robin Hood, etc)
DeForrest Kelly (actor – played Dr Leonard “Bones” McCoy on Star Trek)
Chet Atkins (musician/ guitarist)
Martin Landau (actor – Space 1999, Mission Impossible, etc)
Brian Wilson (singer – The Beachboys)
Lionel Richie (singer/ songwriter – The Commodores)
Cyndi Lauper (singer – Girls Just Want to Have Fune0
Nicole Kidman (actress – Eyes Wide Shut, Dead Calm, etc)
Nivek (Sryth gamer and forum member)
Valoth Branstrommer (Sryth gamer and forum member)

You also share the same date with these events…

451: German and Roman forces unite to defeat Attila the Hun at the Catalarinische Fields
1837: Queen Victoria, at 18, ascends British throne following death of King William IV
1893: Lizzie Borden is acquitted in the murder of her parents in New Bedford, Massachusetts
1968: Jim Hines becomes the first person to run 100 meters in under 10 seconds
1988: Supreme Court upholds a law that makes it illegal for private clubs to discriminate against women and minorities
1994: OJ Simpson is arraigned for murder of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman
1995: Space probe Ulysses begins 2nd passage behind the Sun

Happy Birthday Nivek!

Happy Birthday Valoth Branstrommer!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Children need models rather than critics. :-Joseph Joubert

[scout1idf]

Happy Birthday Nivek!


Happy Birthday Valoth Branstrommer!

[Doolipalally]

Happy birthday, guys. Hope it's a good one!

[Draxas]

Happy Birthday to Nivek

Happy Birthday to Valoth Branstrommer

[Oldschool]

Happy Birthday Nivek

Happy Birthday Valoth Branstrommer

[racey]

Happy Birthday Nivek!

Happy Birthday Valoth Branstrommer!

Have a good one!

[thingirl]

Happy Birthday Nivek!!!!

Happy Birthday Valoth Branstrommer!!!!

[zmflavius]

Happy Birthday Nivek!

Happy Birthday Valoth Branstrommer!

[spencer]

Happy Birthday Nivek!

Happy Birthday Valoth Branstrommer!

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 21st, you share your birthdate with:

Alexander Pope (poet – The Rape of the Lock, etc)
Martha Washington (the first 1st Lady)
Meredith Baxter-Birney (actress – Family Ties)
Leo Sayer (singer – You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, etc)
Nils Lofgren (guitarist/ singer/ songwriter – East Street Band)
Benazir Bhutto (politician – First female leader of a Moslem nation, Pakistan)
Juliette Lewis (actress – Natural Born Killers, Cape Fear, etc)
Smv1973 (Sryth gamer and honoured forum member)

You also share the same date with these events…

1633: Galileo Galilei is forced by Inquisition to "abjure, curse, and detest" his Copernican heliocentric views
1854: The first Victoria Cross is won during bombardment of Bomarsund in the Aland Islands.
1975: "Jaws", directed by Steven Spielberg, premiers
1975: Ritchie Blackmore quits Deep Purple, goes on to form Rainbow
1982: John Hinckley found not guilty of 1981 attempted assassination of President Reagan by reason of insanity
1985: American, Brazilian & West German forensic pathologists confirm skeletal remains exhumed in Brazil are Nazi Dr Josef Mengele
1990: At Yankee Stadium rally, Nelson Mandela dons a NY Yankee baseball cap and proclaims "I am a Yankee!"
2004: SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.

Happy Birthday Smv1973!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future. :-Robert H Schuller

Today is also the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere (I presume it's the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere?); it also coincides with Matariki, the Maori new year, recognised when the constellation Pleides first appears above the horizon in New Zealand. And if that ain't enough, today is an astrological cusp; we bid farewell to Gemini and prepare to welcome Cancer.

[scout1idf]

#00ffff
Happy Birthday Smv1973!

#00ffff

[Doolipalally]

Happy birthday smv! Best wishes for a great day!

[Lightwielder]

Happy Birthday, smv.

[spencer]

Happy Birthday Smv1973!

[Oldschool]

Happy Birthday SMV1973

[Draxas]

Happy Birthday SMV1973

[thingirl]

#00ffff
Happy Birthday Smv!!!!

#00ffff

[Badstench]

Your Stars in Sryth
Cancer: June 22 – July 20
Element: Water
Symbol: The Crab
Ruler: The Moon

The crab is a strange creature that walks sideways, and this is somewhat analogous of the personalities of people born between June 22 and July 20. Cancerians, they are called, and this sign plays host to a very mysterious bunch of people.

It’s hard to pin Cancerians down; they possess both the best and worst attributes of all the other star signs. This makes it difficult to categorize them and, truth be known, that’s exactly how a Cancerian prefers things. This is not to say that they’re secretive, but they are private people who don’t like attention. The practical upshot of this is that Cancerians are the quiet achievers of the world, those folk who tend to get things done because they’re not being constantly interrupted and bothered by admirers… or enemies.

And that’s what I mean when I say that moving sideways is analogous of a Cancerian, because you never see them coming. It’s not that they aren’t approaching, they just don’t appear to be.

There’s another crab-like analogy that fits well with Cancerians, and this has to do with crabs having a tough outer shell. It is often said of Cancerians that they are thick-skinned. Nothing could be further from the truth, for people born under the rule of the Moon are very sensitive individuals prone to high states of emotion. Thus, it would be better to think of Cancerians as having a soft interior, and you would know this as the truth if you were to ever spy them throwing a hissy fit in an unguarded moment.

To sum this up, Cancerians are the type of people most likely to go postal, most likely to have a name like Irilden Southrunner, and most likely to be involved in secret societies… or, at the very least, to have a secret handshake.

Cancer and Money: Cancerians are all about money!

Some people are good at saving money and some people aren’t. Cancerians fall into the former part of that statement simply because they don’t find it necessary to be ostentatious. This doesn’t mean they aren’t materialists, and it would probably surprise most other people to know that Cancerians aspire to wealth and opulence like no other star sign. They’re the type of people who might have obscenely expensive art collections shut away in underground vaults, or who live in mansions that appear outwardly dilapidated, but are appointed with every comfort and convenience imaginable inside.

On a more understandable level (understandable to the rest of us mere mortals), the Cancerian is the one person in a group whose wallet always seems to bulge at the sides from the pressure of a thick wad of notes… and, believe me, I’m not talking about post-it notes.

But you try and prise just one of those notes from a Cancerian and you’ll find yourself with either a boot up your backside or knife in your guts, because Cancerians are notorious misers. Not only are they miserly, but they’re mean with it.

On the positive side, though, Cancerian’s are very generous with advice… usually along the lines of, “Get a haircut and get a real job”.

Cancer and Romance: The quiet ones, they say, make the most faithful and trustworthy companions. This might be true, but you might notice the word “romance” was missing from that sentence.

A partnership of a personal nature is more commonly viewed in the terms of a business transaction: a Cancerian man would fully expect a dowry to accompany a prospective partner, while a Cancerian woman would only accept a man who can provide to her expensive tastes. Marriage is a promise of expectation; ie, “We promise to accept each other, and to accept that there won’t be any overt displays of affection that could be misconstrued in a romantic or “loving” way, and as long as we treat each other with respect and raise the requisite 2.4 children until the day they can be sent off to boarding school, then that will be just peachy… but woe betide you if you ever cheat on me, ‘cos I’ll see to it that my lawyers take you for everything you’ve got!”

Famous Cancerians in Sryth: I’ve already mentioned the name, Irilden Southrunner. No one actually knows what The Phantom Assassin looks like or what his aspirations are, but we can, at least, point to his secrecy as a trait that gives him away as being Cancerian.

Vurii, barkeep at the Adventurers Collective, is also Cancerian. Outwardly, she doesn’t display any signs of being a crab, except for the fact that she’s a businesswoman through and through. And loves money. And she’s not romantically linked. And she can be mean as Hell!

Other persons of note who are born between June 22 and July 20 include: Zeriken (June 28), Paladin (June 30), Wolfman10 (July 1), DEC100110 (July 14), Lightwielder (July 15), Mordain (July 19) and Dariel (July 20 – another cusp sitter).

[smv1973]

Thank you all very much for your birthday wishes.

[zmflavius]

Happy Birthday Smv1973!

[racey]

Happy Birthday smv1973! I hope that your day has been great!

Also congrats on rep #600!

[Arik]

Happy Birthday smv1973!

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 22nd, you share your birthdate with:

George Vancouver (explorer/ surveyor – namesake of Vancouver city)
Prunella Scales (actress – played “Sybil” in Fawlty Towers)
Kriss Kristofferson (singer/ actor – A Star is Born, etc)
Don Henley (musician/ singer – Eagles)
Todd Rundgren (musician/ guitarist/ singer)
Lindsay Wagner (actress – The Bionic Woman)
Meryl Streep (actress – The Devil Wears Prada, Sophie’s Choice, etc)
Erin Brockovich (human rights campaigner)

You also share the same day with these events:

1342 (Shire reckoning): Bilbo Baggins returns to his home at Bag End following his adventures there and back again.
1910: The first passenger airship, the zeppelin, "Deutscheland", takes to the skies
1941: Germany, Italy and Romania declare war on Soviet Union during WW II
1942: A Japanese submarine is sighted at the mouth of Columbia River, Oregon.
1978: Discovery of Charon, moon of Pluto is, is announced.
1981: John McEnroe erupts his infamous on-court tirade against the umpire, shouting, “You cannot be serious!”
1994: US beats Colombia 2-1 in 1994 soccer world cup (first win since 1950)

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Meryl Streep!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Beauty is achieved when you realise you already were to begin with. :-Jennifer Sare

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 23nd, you share your birthdate with:

Ptolemy XV (Egyptian Pharaoh, 47BC)
Johannes de Matha (French saint)
Stuart Sutcliffe (Original member of The Beatles. Often referred to as the 5th Beatle)
Bryan Brown (actor – F/X, Gorillas in the Mist, etc)
Myles Goodwin (musician/ guitarist – April Wine)
Jordan (actress/ model)
Duffy (singer)

You also share the same day with these events:

930: Iceland’s parliament is established, making it the oldest parliament still in existence
1611: Henry Hudson is set adrift in Hudson Bay by mutineers and never seen again
1955: Walt Disney's "Lady & the Tramp" is released
1974: The first extraterrestrial message is beamed from earth into space
1975: Alice Cooper breaks six ribs when he falls off stage during a concert in Vancouver, BC.
1993: Lorena Gallo Bobbitt amputates husband's John Wayne Bobbitt's penis
1996: Nintendo 64 goes on sale for the first time
2004: Bob Dylan accepts honorary doctor of music degree from the University of St Andrews, Scotland's oldest university

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Duffy!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
We were given two hands to hold, two legs to walk, two eyes to see, two ears to listen, but only one heart. Why? Because the other was given to someone else, for us to find.

[Lightwielder]

We were given two hands to hold, two legs to walk, two eyes to see, two ears to listen, but only one heart. Why? Because the other was given to someone else, for us to find.

Umm, this makes me wonder...why only one nose, then? :p

[thingirl]

Umm, this makes me wonder...why only one nose, then? :p

Because it ran away from the smell of the heart-robber. :p

[spencer]

Umm, this makes me wonder...why only one nose, then? :p

Well, you actually have two nostrils, so I think that takes care of it :)

[Young Ned]

That makes ME wonder what purpose the two nostrils really serve, though. Two eyes give us depth perception, and two ears give us... whatever the aural equivalent of depth perception is called: the ability to triangulate on sounds so we can tell approximately what direction they're coming from and (more approximately) how far away they are. But in both cases, the two organs are separated from one another, the better to perform this triangulation.

The two nostrils, though, are directly adjacent to one another, separated only by a thin flap of skin. How exactly does that help our ability to smell? Would we smell just as well if we had one larger nostril instead of two smaller ones?

[Lightwielder]

That makes ME wonder what purpose the two nostrils really serve, though. Two eyes give us depth perception, and two ears give us... whatever the aural equivalent of depth perception is called: the ability to triangulate on sounds so we can tell approximately what direction they're coming from and (more approximately) how far away they are. But in both cases, the two organs are separated from one another, the better to perform this triangulation.

The two nostrils, though, are directly adjacent to one another, separated only by a thin flap of skin. How exactly does that help our ability to smell? Would we smell just as well if we had one larger nostril instead of two smaller ones?

Well, perhaps it's not for the purpose of having two nostrils, but that there need to be a layer of skin to protect the septum. Pure speculation, though.

[spencer]

That makes ME wonder what purpose the two nostrils really serve, though. Two eyes give us depth perception, and two ears give us... whatever the aural equivalent of depth perception is called: the ability to triangulate on sounds so we can tell approximately what direction they're coming from and (more approximately) how far away they are. But in both cases, the two organs are separated from one another, the better to perform this triangulation.

The two nostrils, though, are directly adjacent to one another, separated only by a thin flap of skin. How exactly does that help our ability to smell? Would we smell just as well if we had one larger nostril instead of two smaller ones?

Perhaps the second nostril is the back up plan, in case one gets clogged or damaged.

[Badstench]

Badstench checks to see if there's anything in today's list that might elicit more nostril-talk. No? Okay... on with the show...

If you were born on June 24th, you share your birthdate with:

Jack Dempsey (champion boxer – also known as the “Manassa Mauler”
Al Molinaro (actor – played “Al” in Happy Days)
Mick Fleetwood (drummer – Fleetwood Mac)
Jeff Beck (musician/ guitarist)
Peter Weller (actor – Robocop)
John Illsley (musician/ bassist – Dire Straits)
Primera (a condor – the 5th of its kind born in captivity)

You also share the same day with these events:

843: Vikings sack and destroy Nantes, in France
1374: A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
1497: John Cabot, believing he has reached Asia, claims the newly discovered land for England. It turns out to be Nova Scotia, in Canada.
1880: First performance of “O Canada”, the song that would become the national anthem.
1901: The first exhibition of paintings by a young artist named Pablo Picasso opens in Paris
1947: Flying saucers are sighted over Mount Rainier by pilot Ken Arnold
1966: The day by which a period of relative peace following WWII exceeds that following WWI

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Mick Fleetwood!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
I have never known a man to think of himself when dying. Never. :-Antoine De Saint-Exupery

[Oldschool]

Badstench checks to see if there's anything in today's list that might elicit more nostril-talk. No? Okay... on with the show...


Probably a cultural and generational reference, still and no offense Badstench but I'm wondering if I was the only one that got a chuckle out of that especially when I read....


Al Molinaro (actor – played “Al” in Happy Days)


:cool:;)

[Badstench]

I know what you mean, Oldschool... he had one of the all-time great schnozzles.

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 25th, you share your birthdate with:

Antoni Gaudi (architect – very strange buildings)
George Orwell (author – Anumal Farm, 1984, etc)
Carly Simon (singer – You’re So Vain, etc)
Tim Finn (musician/ singer/ songwriter – Split Enz)
Ricky Gervais (comedian/ actor – Ghosttown, Extras, etc)
George Michael (singer – Wham!)
Matt Leblanc (actor – Friends, Joey, etc)
Roger Rabbit (animated character)

You also share the same day with these events:

1630: The fork is introduced to American dining by Govenor Winthrop
1876: General George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry are wiped out by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at Little Big Horn
1950: North Korea invades South Korea, marking the start of the Korean war
1972: Juan Peron is elected president of Argentina
1977: Roy C Sullivan, of Virginia, is struck by lightning for the 7th time!
1994: 1,500th goal in Soccer World Cup history scored by Caceres of Argentina
2010: New Zealand bows out of the football world cup without having lost a game. Unfortunately, they didn’t win any, either.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Ricky Gervais!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Yippies, Hippies, Yahoos, Black Panthers, lions and tigers alike – I would swap the whole damn zoo for the kind of young Americans I saw in Vietnam. :-Spiro T Agnew

[Young Ned]

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Yippies, Hippies, Yahoos, Black Panthers, lions and tigers alike – I would swap the whole damn zoo for the kind of young Americans I saw in Vietnam. :-Spiro T Agnew

Goes to show what a fool Agnew was. American society would be a lot more repressive and conformist now if we hadn't had all those groups of people.

Of course, he'd probably like that. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/Old_Ned/tongue.gif

[texlaw1992]

I can't remember who sang it, but the song went like this:

"I'm going to sing you a song about Spiro Agnew, and all the things he has done ..."

That was the entire song.

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 26th, you share your birthdate with:

“Big Bill” Broonzy (musician/ guitarist/ bluesman)
Pat Morita (actor – played Mr Miyagi in “The Karate Kid”)
Larry Taylor (musician – Canned Heat)
Helen Mirren (actress – The Madness of King George, etc)
Mick Jones (singer/ guitarist – The Clash)
Chris Issak (singer/ songwriter)
Chris O’Donnell (actor – Batman Forever, School Ties, etc)

You also share the same date with these events…

1284: One of many dates given for the story behind the Pied Piper, who supposedly lures 130 children away from Hamelin.
1797: Charles Newbold patents the cast-iron plough. He can't sell it to farmers, though, because they fear the effects of iron on soil!
1870: Wagner's opera "Valkyrie" premieres in Munich
1870: Christmas Day is declared a federal holiday in the United States.
1974: The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio
1993: The U.S. launches a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for a thwarted assassination attempt against former President George H.W. Bush
1997: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Communications Decency Act violates the First Amendment

Happy Birthday Helen Mirren!

The daily Words of Wisdom
We do not quit playing because we grow old, we grow old because we quit playing. :-Oliver Wendell Holmes

[Scarbrow]

Am I late for comment?


Antoni Gaudi (architect – very strange buildings)

Also some very beautiful designs, like Parc Güell:

On Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_G%C3%BCell)
Some more images (http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/spain/barcelona/gaudipark/gaudipark.html)


I've personally visited and liked it very much. Ask Google for more...

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 27th, you share your birthdate with:

Helen Keller (blind/deaf lecturer/ author)
Mary McAleese (President of Ireland)
James P Hogan (sci-fi author – Giant’s Star, etc)
Jason Patric (actor – Sleepers, Speed 2, etc)
J J Abrams (screen writer/ producer/ director – Armageddon, Cloverfield, etc)
Tobey Maguire (actor – Spiderman, etc)
Khloe Khadashian (American television personality/ model)

You also share the same date with these events…

1743: George II leads his troops into battle at Dettingen, Bavaria. This is the last time an English monarch would lead troops in the field.
1964: Jan & Dean release "Little Old Lady From Pasadena"
1967: The world's first ATM is installed in Enfield, London.
1979: Muhammad Ali confirms that his 3rd retirement is final (it isn't)
1985: U.S. Route 66 ceases to be an official U.S. highway.
1986: Because of New Zealand’s nuclear-free stance, the US says it will not defend the South Pacific nation if it is attacked.
1994: Aerosmith becomes the first major band to let fans download a full new music track free from the internet
2008: Bill Gates steps down as Chairman of Microsoft Corporation to work full time for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Happy Birthday Tobey Maguire!

The daily Words of Wisdom
Women are the real architects of society. :-Harriet Beecher Stowe

[Doolipalally]

1743: Charles II leads his troops into battle at Dettingen, Bavaria. This is the last time an English monarch would lead troops in the field.


George II. Charles II died in 1685.

[Oldschool]

Nice catch Dooli - although my knowledge of British Monarchy isn't greatly involved that's one I shoud've spotted considering the time period and especially since it mentions the Battle of Dettigen.

That whole time period was filled with as much intrigue, betrayl, rebellion, sex and violence that's in many works of fiction.

Not to mention a few songs. The following two inspired by The Young Pretender Bonnie Prince Charles's flight - in drag as a maid no less.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86egt8PDmos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auSa0YfkxFE
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auSa0YfkxFE) (Lyrics and translation in description)

[Badstench]

Oops! That was me having a spaced-out moment... it was George II. Dunno why I transposed Charles over George. Corrected.

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 28th, you share your birthdate with:

Henry VIII (King of England)
John Dillinger (bank robber/ gangster)
Richard Rodgers (composer – of Rodgers & Hemmerstein)
Mel Brooks (comedian/ actor/ director – Blazing Saddles, etc)
Kathy Bates (actress – Fried Green Tomatos, Misery, etc)
John Cusack (actor – Hi Fidelity, Grosse Point Blank, etc)
Mary Stuart Masterson (actress – Benny & Joon, Some Kind of Wonderful, etc)
Zeriken (Sryth gamer and forum member)

You also share the same date with these events…

1880: Ned Kelly, the Australian bushranger, is captured at Glenrowan after a shootout in which he wears full metal armour.
1914: Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo by young Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip , the casus belli of World War I.
1917: Raggedy Ann doll is invented
1973: Lawsuit in Detroit challenges Little League's "no girls" rule
1974: Wings release "Band on the Run"
1978: The Supreme Court orders California medical school to admit Allan Bakke, a white man claiming reverse discrimination after his application was rejected.
2005: The final design for Manhattan's Freedom Tower is formally unveiled.

Happy Birthday Zeriken!

The daily Words of Wisdom
Everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was. :-Richard L Evans

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 29th, you share your birthdate with:

Slim Pickens (actor – Dr Strangelove, Blazing Saddles, etc)
Roger Ruskin Spear (saxophonist – Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band )
Gary Busey (actor – Point Break, Big Wednesday, etc)
Little Eva (singer – Locomotion)
Ian Paice (drummer – Deep Purple, White Snake)
Amanda Donohoe (actress – Liar Liar, LA Law, etc)
Bret McKenzie (actor/ musician – Flight of the Conchords)
The Sryth Forum, MkII

You also share the same day with these events:

1613: Shakespeare's Globe Theatre burns down
1940: In the Batman Comic, mobsters rub out a circus highwire team known as the Flying Graysons, leaving their son Dick (Robin) an orphan
1949: South Africa begins implementing apartheid; mixed marriages are outlawed.
1968: "Tip-Toe Through The Tulips With Me" by Tiny Tim peaks at #17
1994: US reopens Guantanamo Naval Base to process refugees
1996: Superman's Action Comic #1 (1938) is auctioned at Sotheby’s for $61,900
2000: Eminem's mother goes to court claiming defamation of character in a $10 million civil suit, after taking exception to the line "My mother smokes more dope than I do" from her son's single 'My Name Is'

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Bret McKenzie! (He’s a Kiwi dontchaknow!)

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
[I]As the rest of the world is walking out the door, your best friend's are the ones walking in.

[Oldschool]

Happy Birthday Sryth Forum!!!!

[Oldschool]

Happy Birthday Zeriken

[zmflavius]

happy birthday zeriken!
Happy birthday sryth forum!

[thingirl]

Happy Birthday Zeriken!!!!
Hope you have a great day!

Happy Birthday Sryth Forum!!!!!!
I haven't broken you yet... And I sure hope I don't.

[racey]

Happy Belated Birthday Zeriken!

[shadowblack]

Allow me to be the first to say:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Paladin!

[Badstench]

If you were born on June 30th, you share your birthdate with:

Lena Horne (actress/ singer – Stormy Weather, etc)
Glenn Shorrock (singer – The Little River Band)
Andrew Scott (musician/ guitarist – Sweet)
Adrian Wright (singer – The Human League)
Yngwie Malmsteen (guitarist extraordinaire)
Mike Tyson (boxing champion)
Matisyahu (Hasidic Jewish Reggae singer)
Paladin (Sryth gamer and honoured forum member)

You also share the same day with these events:

1859: Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope, the first man to do so.
1908: A giant fireball is seen above Siberia, most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet (Tunguska Event)
1932: The “Night of Long Knives”. Hitler stages a bloody purge of the Nazi party to rid himself of rivals and opposition.
1936: "Gone With the Wind", by Margaret Mitchell, is published
1974: Soviet dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov, defects to the West
1994: US Ice Skating Federation bars Tonya Harding for life
1998: Sega Channel, cable's first on-demand video game service, closes down

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Paladin!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
We are all manufacturers; making good, making trouble, or making excuses. :-H V Adolt

[Lightwielder]

Happy Birthday, Paladin and Zeriken.

[scout1idf]

Happy Belated Birthday Zeriken!!!

and


Happy Birthday Paladin!!!

[Doolipalally]

Happy birthday, Paladin! Have a great day.

[Oldschool]

Happy Birthday Paladin!!!!

[racey]

Happy Birthday Paladin! I hope you have a great day!

[solitu]

Happy birthday Paladin!!!:)

[zmflavius]

Happy Birthday Paladin

[spencer]

Happy Birthday, Paladin!!!

[texlaw1992]

May you have many more - mazel tov!

[scout1idf]

Happy Birthday
Wolfman10!!!

[Oldschool]

Happy Birthday Wolfman

[Badstench]

Apologies...

I could have sworn I posted birthday wishes for July 1 while at work today, but it doesn't appear so.

I will rectify that as soon as I get back to work tomorrow.

In the meantime,

Happy Birthday Wolfman10

Oh.. and this is important... "White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits!"

[Young Ned]

Oh.. and this is important... "White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits!"

Ookaaaay... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/Old_Ned/suspicious.gif Why is that important?

[Badstench]

I thought everyone knew about "white rabbits"!

Is this not so?

I've been saying it on the 1st of every month since this thread first started.... don't tell me it was not recognized?

[Doolipalally]

Yes, but the question was, why is it important? :)

[racey]

Happy Birthday Wolfman10! Have a wonderful day!

[Doolipalally]

Oops, yes, happy birthday Wolfman! (Sorry, got caught up for a moment there! :))

[spencer]

Happy Birthday, Wolfman!!

[Badstench]

Dooli reiterated a question from Young Ned
Why is it important?
Referring to my monthly yelling of "White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits"

It's important for me to say it now, because when I get around to posting the post tomorow, it won't count. Too late... chance missed... after the fact... etc.

It has to be said on the 1st of every month, preferably as the first utterance after waking into the new day.

[zmflavius]

happy birthday wolfman10!

[Doolipalally]

Dooli reiterated a question from Young Ned

Referring to my monthly yelling of "White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits"

It's important for me to say it now, because when I get around to posting the post tomorow, it won't count. Too late... chance missed... after the fact... etc.

It has to be said on the 1st of every month, preferably as the first utterance after waking into the new day.

Yep, I know all that, but I'm still wondering why! What do you think might happen if you don't say it? :D

[smv1973]

Happy Birthday Wolfman10. I hope you have a great day.

[scout1idf]

I thought everyone knew about "white rabbits"!

Is this not so?

I've been saying it on the 1st of every month since this thread first started.... don't tell me it was not recognized?
Ok, I'm going to play dumb.

I don't get it.:confused:

[Badstench]

This from Wikipedia:
“Rabbit rabbit white rabbit” is a common British superstition. The most common modern version states that a person should say “rabbit, rabbit, white rabbit”, "rabbit, rabbit, rabbit" or simply "white rabbits" upon waking on the first day of each new month, and on doing so will receive good luck for the duration of that month.
The converse: instead of believing that saying it will bring good luck, believing that not saying it will bring bad luck.
For all things "White rabbits", here's the wiki link...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_rabbit

[Badstench]

White stibbar, white stibbar, white stibbar
(Which is the version you say when it’s no longer the 1st of the month) :rolleyes:

If you were born on July 1st, you share your birthdate with:

Indianna Jones Jr (fictional archaeologist/ adventurer)
Estée Lauder (cometics entrepreneur)
Olivia de Havilland (actress – Adventures of Robin Hood, etc)
Popeye the sailor man (cartoon character)
Imelda Marcos (Philippines First Lady with a shoe fetish)
Jamie Farr (actor – played “Klinger” in M*A*S*H)
Deborah Harry (singer/ actress – Blondie)
John Farnham (singer – The Voice, etc)
Dan Akroyd (actor/ comedian – Blues Brother’s, etc)
Carl Lewis (track athlete/ Olympian)
Pamela Anderson (actress – Baywatch, Home Improvement, etc)
Liv Tyler (actress – Lord of the Rings, Armageddon, etc)
Wolfman10 (Sryth gamer and forum member)

You also share the same day with these events:

1200: Sunglasses are invented in China (not necessarily this exact date)
1874: First US kidnapping for ransom occurs when $20,000 is demanded for the return of 4-year-old Charles Ross.
1898: Teddy Roosevelt & his Rough Riders charge up San Juan Hill
1929: US cartoonist, Elzie Segar, creates "Popeye"
1963: ZIP Codes are introduced for United States mail.
1967: Beatles' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," goes #1 for 15 weeks
1997: UK returns Hong Kong to China
2007: Smoking in England is banned in all public indoor spaces. With the ban already in force in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, this means it is illegal to smoke in indoor public places anywhere in the UK. The ban is also put into effect in Australia.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Somewhat Belated Birthday Wolfman10!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk. :-Joseph Joubert

[Badstench]

If you were born on July 2nd, you share your birthdate with:

Alan Webb (Shakespearian actor before he went to the dogs… starred in some “Lassie” movies)
Dave Thomas (founder of Wendy’s restaurants)
Ron Silver (actor – Silkwood, Timecop, etc)
Johnny Colla (musician/ saxophonist – Huey Lewis & the News)
Jerry Hall (model/ actress – Batman, Freejack, etc)
Ashley Tisdale (actress/ singer – High School Musical 1, 2 and 3, etc)
Lindsay Lohan (actress/ socialite/ slightly damaged victim of celebrity)

You also share the same day with these events:

1777: Vermont becomes the first American colony to abolish slavery
1843: An alligator falls from sky during a thunderstorm in Charleston, South Carolina.
1863: During the American Civil War, the battle of Gettysburg enters its second day
1865: William Booth founds the Salvation Army
1901: Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid rob a train of $40,000 at Wagner, Montana
1937: Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan disappear over the Pacific Ocean
1959: "Plan 9 From Outer Space," recognized as one of the worse films ever made, premieres
2003: Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy, insults German MP Martin Schulz by calling him a "kapo" during a session of the European Parliament.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Lindsay Lohan!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
There are things known and things unknown, and in between are the doors. :-Jim Morrison

[Oldschool]

This from Wikipedia:


For all things "White rabbits", here's the wiki link...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_rabbit

Nice link Badstench particularly the variations. Actually I was in the dark as most folks I'm guessing.

I figured it was a reference to either or both Alice in Wonderland or Jefferson Airplane's song (interestingly enough which is in my current "jukebox link") White Rabbit. Which of course was inspired by Alice in Wonderland - one of many songs and other things inspired by the novel.

With that in mind I kept waiting for utterances re: cheshire cats, march hares, dormice, white knights, red queens, or even the occasional hookah smoking caterpillar. ;)

[Young Ned]

I thought everyone knew about "white rabbits"!

Is this not so?

I've been saying it on the 1st of every month since this thread first started.... don't tell me it was not recognized?
Not by me, anyway. Sorry, I never noticed that.

Dooli reiterated a question from Young Ned

Referring to my monthly yelling of "White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits"

It's important for me to say it now, because when I get around to posting the post tomorow, it won't count. Too late... chance missed... after the fact... etc.

It has to be said on the 1st of every month, preferably as the first utterance after waking into the new day.

Okay... Why?

(Please don't take that as me joking or teasing you, trying to drive you crazy, or something like that. This is an intriguing look at how your mind works and I'm genuinely interested in why you have this custom and why it's important to you.)

Edit: Whoops, I didn't notice there was another page to the thread. Interesting! I've never heard of that particular superstition before.

[texlaw1992]

The Jewish version of the "white rabbit" is to say (English spelling approximate) "kenahora," which is basically used as a phrase to ward off the "evil eye."

There's amn old joke aboutan elderly Jewish lady testifying at a trial. The prosecutor asks here "How old are you?" and her constant response is "Kenahora, 73 years old." Frustrated, the prosecutor gets a sudden inspiration and asks "Kenahora, how old are you?" after which he finally gets just "73 years old."

So, now you have two ways to ward off bad luck.

[Badstench]

If you were born on July 3rd, you share your birthdate with:

Ken Russell (director – Tommy, Altered States, etc)
Jan Smithers (actress – palyed “Bailey” in WKRP in Cincinnati)
Richard Hadlee (New Zealand cricket great – fast bowler)
Laura Branigan (singer – Gloria, etc)
Tom Cruise (actor – Minority Report, Valkyrie, etc)
Patrick Wilson (actor – Watchmen, The A-Team, etc)
Shane Lynch (singer – Boyzone)

You also share the same date with these events…

1767: Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman, Robert Pitcairn, during an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret.
1929: Foam rubber is first developed by Dunlop Laboratories
1938: President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates the Eternal Light Peace Memorial and lights the eternal flame at Gettysburg Battlefield.
1976: 90th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Bjorn Borg beats Ilse Nastase
1976: After 12 years, Brian Wilson performs with the Beach Boys
1989: The movie, "Batman," sets the record for taking the quickest $100 million (10 days)
1996: The Stone of Scone is returned to Scotland

Happy Birthday Tom Cruise!

The daily Words of Wisdom
Never pick a fight with an ugly person... they’ve got nothing to lose. :-Robin Williams

[Badstench]

If you were born on July 4th, you share your birthdate with:

Calvin Coolidge (30th US President)
Gloria Stuart (actress and founder of the Screen Actors Guild)
Manolete (famous and revered Spanish bullfighter)
Iva Toguri D’Aquino (radio propagandist – better known as ‘Tokyo Rose’)
Gina Lollobrigida (actress – Trapeze, Falcon Crest, etc)
Koko (sign-language-using gorilla)
Ron Kovic (disabled Vietnam veteran whose story was told in the movie, “Born on the 4th of July”)

You also share the same date with these events…

1054: A super-nova becomes visible in the Crab Nebula, becoming the brightest such event to date.
1776: Signing of the Declaration of Independence, formalising US independence from Britain
1865: 1st edition of "Alice in Wonderland", by Lewis Carroll, is published
1960: America's new 50-star flag is unfurled, coinciding Independence Day with the inclusion of Hawaii as the 50th state the previous year
1993: Pizza Hut blimp deflates and lands safely on W 56th street in New York City
1996: Hot Mail, a free internet E-mail service begins operation
2009: The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after 8 years, due to security reasons following the World Trade Centre attacks.

Happy Birthday United States!

The daily Words of Wisdom
Love is a state in which man see things most decidedly as they are not. :-Frederich Nietzsche

[spencer]

HappyBirthdayUSA !!

[Lightwielder]

Happy Independence Day!

[scout1idf]

HappyBirthdayUSA !!

[Oldschool]

Happy Independence Day

http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-flag-static-002.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php)

[Badstench]

If you were born on July 5th, you share your birthdate with:

Mary Walcott (accuser at the Salem witch trials)
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (founder of Singapore)
Phineas Taylor Barnum (of Barnum & Bailey Circus fame)
Cecil John Rhodes (politician – namesake of Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe)
Yip Man (martial arts sensei of the wing-chun style – Bruce Lee’s teacher)
Huey Lewis (musician/ singer – Huey Lewis & The News)
Nick O’Malley (musician/ singer – Arctic Monkeys)
Dolly the sheep (first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell)

You also share the same day with these events:

1937: Spam, the luncheon meat, is introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.
1942: Ian Fleming (James Bond author) graduates from a training school for spies in Canada
1969: The Rolling Stones play a free concert in London's Hyde Park
1983: In Roanoke, Virginia, a woman gives birth to her baby 84 days after being declared brain dead
1989: Rod Stewart hits his head while on stage and knocks himself out
2003: SARS is declared to be contained by the World Health Organisation.
2009: Roger Federer wins a record 15th Grand Slam in tennis, winning a five set match against Andy Roddick at Wimbledon.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Nick O’Malley!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. :-Martin Luther King Jr

[Young Ned]

1989: Rod Stewart hits his head while on stage and knocks himself out

You're not supposed to take the term "head-banging" that literally, Rod!

[Badstench]

If you were born on July 6th, you share your birthdate with:

Nancy Davis Reagan (American 1st Lady)
Bill Haley (musician/ singer – Rock Around the Clock)
George W Bush Jr (43rd US President)
Sylvester Stallone (actor – Rocky, Demolition Man, etc)
Shelley Hack (actress – one of Charlie’s Angels)
Jennifer Saunders (actress/ comedienne – Absolutely Fabulous, etc)
50 Cent (rapper)

You also share the same date with these events…

1189: Richard I (the Lionheart) is crowned King of England
1484: Portuguese sea captain, Diego Cão, discovers the mouth of the Congo River.
1785: US Congress resolves currency named "dollar" and adopts decimal coinage
1928: World’s largest recorded hailstone (1.5 lbs – 7 inches in diameter) falls in Potter, Nebraska
1954: Elvis Presley records his first hit, "That's All Right"
1988: North Sea oil platform, Piper Alpha, explodes. 166 die.
1998: Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok becomes operational.

Happy Birthday 50 Cent!

The daily Words of Wisdom
If A equals success, then the formula is: A = X + Y + Z, where X is work, Y is play, and Z is keep your mouth shut. ;-Albert Einstein

[Doolipalally]

1189: Richard III (the Lionheart) is crowned King of England


must... not... correct... oh, bother it...

Richard I was the Lionheart. Richard III was the nasty type with the hump, if you believe Shakespeare (I don't, but that's another story!)

[Young Ned]

Another event for today:

One of my high school friends on Facebook pointed out that today is the day that Marty McFly arrived in the future after hitting 88mph in a time-traveling DeLorean in 1985. I'm totally bummed that we don't have hoverboards yet! Marty must have changed something in the past that kept us from developing that technology by now... darn him!

[Badstench]

If you were born on July 7th, you share your birthdate with:

Robert A Heinlein (sci-fi author – The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, etc)
Jon Pertwee (actor – Dr Who, Worzel Gummidge, etc)
Pierre Cardin (fashion designer)
Ted Cassidy 9actor – played “Lurch” in The Addams Family)
David Eddings (fantasy author – The Belgariad, Mallorean, etc)
Ringo Starr (drummer – The Beatles)
Bill Oddie (comedian/ ornithologist – one of The Goodies)

You also share the same day with these events:

1456: A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death
1802: First comic book, "The Wasp," is published
1928: Sliced bread is sold for the first time. It is described as “The greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped".
1946: Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini is canonized as America’s first saint
1953: Che Guevara sets out on his trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador.
1967: The Doors’, “Light My Fire”, hits #1
1978: Solomon Islands declares independence from UK

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Ringo Starr!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Anger is short madness. :-Horace

[Badstench]

If you were born on July 8th, you share your birthdate with:

Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin (invented the rigid dirigible and gave his name to the coolest rock band ever!)
Marty Feldman (actor with the googly eyes – Young Frankenstein, etc)
Jaimoe “Johnny” Johanson (drummer – Allman Brothers)
Anjelica Huston (actress – Prizzi’s Honour, Addams Family, etc)
Kevin Bacon (actor – Footloose, A Stir of Echoes, etc)
Beck (musician/ singer)
Jaden Smith (actor – Karate Kid – [son of Will Smith])

You also share the same day with these events:

939: The Major Occultation, or Ghaybat el-Kubra of Muhammad al-Mahdi (I’ll leave you to research what that means)
1579: Our Lady of Kazan, a holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church, is discovered underground in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan.
1776: Colonel John Nixon gives the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence
1963: US bans all monetary transactions with Cuba
1979: Voyager 2 takes first ever photo of Jupiter's satellite, Adrastea
1999: Allen Lee Davis is executed by electrocution in the state of Florida, the last use of the electric chair for capital punishment in Florida. (And guess what the knowledge of being ‘last’ didn’t make him?.. That’s right, it didn’t make him happy!)

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Anjelica Huston!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
There was a lot of tabloid journalism about my supposed sex addiction. Bullshit! It's all bullshit! I mean, come on, I never pretended to be a saint, but give me a break. :-Michael Douglas

[Badstench]

If you were born on July 9th, you share your birthdate with:

Barbara Cartland (author – romance novels)
Bon Scott (singer – AC/DC)
Dean R Koontz (sci-fi author – Starquest, Beastchild, etc)
Robin Williams (comedian/ actor – Mrs Doubtfire, Being Human, etc)
Tom Hanks (actor – Forest Gump, Big, etc)
Jim Kerr (singer – Simple Minds)
Courtney Love (singer – Hole)
Jack White (musician/ singer – White Stripes)
Spencer Elden (the baby on the cover of Nirvana’s “Never Mind” album)

You also share the same day with these events:

1877: The first Wimbledon tennis championship is held
1955: Bill Haley & Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" tops billboards chart
1958: A giant splash caused by the fall of 90 million tons of rock & ice into Lituya Bay, Alaska, washes 1,800 feet up the mountain
1982: Margaret Thatcher begins her 2nd term as British prime minster
1992: Kim Basinger gets the 1,959th star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame
1997: Mike Tyson is banned from boxing for biting Evander Holyfield's ear
2000: Pete Sampras wins his 13th Grand Slam tennis title at Wimbledon

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Jack White!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Falling in love is so hard on the knees. :-Aerosmith

[Badstench]

If you were born on July 10th, you share your birthdate with:

John Calvin (religious reformer – of ‘Calvanism’)
Camille Pissaro (impressionist painter – if you find one of his paintings in your granny’s attic, you’re gonna be rich!)
Ima Hogg (patron of arts/ founder of the Houston Symphony orchestra… but more importantly, this month’s recipient of the “Most Unfortunate Name” award.)
John Wyndham (author – The Day of the Triffids, etc)
John Bradley (American corpsman – one of those who are immortalized in the photo of the raising of the US flag on Iwo-Jima)
Ronnie James Dio (rock vocalist of the band, “DIO”, recently deceased)
Arthure Ash (tennis great)
Arlo Guthrie (musician – Alice’s Retaurant, etc)
Jessica Simpson (model/ actress/ singer.)

You also share the same date with these events… and this is a mega-list. It seems a lot happened this day through history.

988: The city of Dublin is founded on the banks of the river Liffey.
1040: uh oh! This one popped up on facts for today... we’ve already had a “discussion” about it, haven’t we Dooli? - Lady Godiva rides naked on horseback to force her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes.
1553: Lady Jane Grey becomes Queen of England (for nine days. She is eventually executed in the Tower of London)
1796: Carl Friedrich Gauss discovers that every positive integer is representable as a sum of at most three triangular numbers. (I put this one in for the benefit of psychoadept, who gave us the forum thread, “Fun with Probability”.)
1886: In one of the biggest geothermal explosions of the 19th century, Mt Tarawera, in New Zealand, explodes, destroying the pink and white terraces and burying a Maori village.
1890: Wyoming becomes the 44th state of the US.
1913: In Death Valley, Nevada, the temperature soars to 134 °F (56.7 °C), the highest ever recorded in the US.
1925: Meher Baba begins his silence of 44 years. His followers still observe Silence Day on this date in commemoration.
1940: The Battle of Britain begins when German bombers first approach England during World War 2.
1958: England gets its first parking meter.
1965: The Rolling Stones get their first #1 hit with “Satisfaction”. The song has been on the charts for a number of weeks, but only reaches the #1 position after adverse publicity from a Christian group draws attention to it.
1972: A herd of stampeding elephants kills 24 people in Chandka Forest, India
1985: Coca-Cola Company announces it will resume selling old formula Coke
1985: Playboy publishes full frontal nude pictures of Madonna
1991: Boris Yeltsin is sworn in as the first elected president of the Russian Republic
2002: At a Sotheby's auction, Peter Paul Rubens' painting, “The Massacre of the Innocents” is sold for £49.5million (US$76.2 million). So, if your granny has one of those Pissaro paintings in her attic... see what I mean?
2003: A Neoplan bus, owned by Kowloon Motor Bus Company, collides with a truck, smashes into an ox-drawn cart, then falls off a bridge and plunges into the underlying valley, landing on a the house where a wedding party is celebrating the marriage of a local dignitory. This is the deadliest traffic accident to date in Hong Kong. The terrible part of this story is... 2003 was the year of the Ox!

Happy Birthday Jessica Simpson! (I don’t care what they say about you, Jessica. You’re gorgeous!)

The daily Words of Wisdom
Reasons can sound like excuses. Excuses tend to sound like bullshit! :-Kori Mitchell, a.k.a Badstench

P.S: the bit about the traffic accident in Hong Kong? It was all true, except for the bit about it happening in the year of the Ox. I made that up, because it appealed to the black side of my sense of humour. In actual fact, I don’t know what year of the Chinese zodiac it happened. For all I know, it may have been the year of the Ox!

[zmflavius]

In fact, it was the year of the sheep. Say sheep twenty times fast.

[Lightwielder]

In fact, it was the year of the sheep. Say sheep twenty times fast.

"Sheep twenty times fast." There, I said it.

[Badstench]

If you were born on July 11th, you share your birthdate with:

Robert Bruce (King of Scotland)
John Quincy Adams (6th US President)
E B White (author – Charlotte’s Web)
Yul Brynner (actor – The King and I, etc)
Giorgio Armani (fashion designer)
Leon Spinks (champion boxer)
Suzanne Vega (singer – My Name is Luka)
Lil’ Kim (rapper)

You also share the same date with these events

1735: Mathematical calculations suggest that it was on this day that Pluto moved from the ninth to the eighth most distant planet from the Sun for the last time before 1979.
1776: Captain James Cook begins his third (and last) voyage
1921: Mongolia gains independence from China (National Day)
1955: Congress authorizes all US currency to say "In God We Trust"
1969: David Bowie releases "Space Oddity"
1975: Chinese archeologists discover a 3-acre burial site with 6,000 clay statues of warriors dating as early as 221 BC
1979: Skylab enters atmosphere over Australia and disintegrates

Happy Birthday Suzanne Vega!

The daily Words of Wisdom
By questioning Life, by admitting that you don’t know everything, only then can you appreciate new discoveries. :-Kori Mitchell

[scout1idf]

1975: Skylab enters atmosphere over Australia and disintegrates


From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab#Reentry

Ground controllers adjusted Skylab's orientation for ideal re-entry dynamics in the hours before reentry at approximately 16:37 UTC 11 July 1979.

Around the same time this was happening, one of our gas stations was getting a new tank put in and someone painted "Skylab" on the side of it.

[texlaw1992]

Her sister was "Ura" or "Eura" (seriously - the sisters are legendary in Texas and the parents clearly had a weird sense of humor).

[Young Ned]

I remember hearing that Ima and Ura had a third sister named "Shesa" (as in "She's a hog"), but no. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ima_Hogg) sez:

Contrary to popular belief, Ima did not have a sister named Ura. Texas legend insists that when Jim Hogg ran for re-election as Texas governor in 1892 he often travelled with Ima and a friend of hers and introduced them as his daughters Ima and Ura. Ima Hogg maintained throughout her life that this never happened. She was frequently forced to dispel the myth; hundreds of people wrote her letters inquiring whether her name was real and if she really had a sister named Ura. The Kansas City Star even invented another sister, Hoosa.

She didn't even have any sisters, actually, only brothers.

And here's a little bit of doggerel I picked up from a Gilbert & Sullivan parody many years ago:

"I'm called little Buttercup, dear little Buttercup,
though I would much rather not.
But still I'm called Buttercup, poor little Buttercup.
Parents like that should be shot."

[Oldschool]

Thinks about "A Boy Named Sue". (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-hYLL7Gpos)

Here's some others....

http://dailyqi.com/?p=13

http://www.guy-sports.com/months/jokes_names_children.htm

http://www.cracked.com/article_15765_the-20-most-bizarre-celebrity-baby-names.html

[Badstench]

If you were born on July 12th, you share your birthdate with:

Julius Caesar (Roman Imperator)
Oscar Hammerstein (lyricist – of ‘Rodgers & Hammerstein’ fame)
Milton Berle (comedian/ actor)
James E Gunn (sci-fi author – Immortal, etc)
Bill Cosby (comedian/ actor – The Cosby Show, etc)
Christine McVie (musician/ singer – Fleetwood Mac)
Richard Simmons (exercise guru)
Eric “The Fox” Carr (drummer – KISS)
Cheryl Ladd (actress – Charlie’s Angels, etc)

You also share the same day with these events:

1191: Richard Coeur de Lion and his Crusaders defeat the Saracens at the siege of Acre, in Palestine. (This is Richard the Lionheart, who is Richard I, one, numero uno, the first, not the third as erroneously noted in a previous post).
1630: New Amsterdam's governor buys Gull Island from Indians for cargo and renames it Oyster Island. It is later known as Ellis Island
1843: Mormon prophet and leader, Joseph Smith, says God permits polygamy
1979: Kiribati (formerly Gilbert Islands) declares independence from UK
1982: FEMA promises survivors of a nuclear war will get their mail
1982: Following the Falklands conflict, Britain announces it will release 593 Argentine Prisoners of War
1996: Michael Jordan signs an NBA contract for 1 year for $25 million

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Cheryl Ladd!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
I refuse to eat anything that shines brighter than the cellophane it comes wrapped in. :-Kori Mitchell

[thingirl]

If you were born on July 12th, you share your birthdate with:

Julius Caesar (Roman Imperator)

Really? We started school today, and my sisters are learning about Rome's beginnings. That's cool.

[Badstench]

I can't vouch for the accuracy of the birthdate for Julius Caesar... my reference site had it listed for July 12, then said it might also be July 13... and then it was listed on July 13, and said it might be July 12. :confused:

Wiki puts it at July 13... so perhaps we'll go with that.

[Badstench]

If you were born on July 13th, you share your birthdate with:

Nathan Bedford Forrest (Confederate Lieutenant-general and KKK grand wizard – a real person mentioned by Forrest Gump as being an ancestor)
Bob Crane (actor – played Colonel Hogan in Hogan’s Heroes)
Patrick Stewart (actor – played Captain Picard on Star Trek; The Next Generation)
Harrison Ford (actor – Patriot Games, Indianna Jones, Star Wars, etc)
Erno Rubik (inventor of the Rubik’s Cube)
Cheech Marin (comedian/ actor – Up in Smoke, Cheech & Chong)
Mark “Animal” Mendoza (musician – Twisted Sister)

You also share the same day with these events:

1568: Great moments in history – The dean of St Paul's Cathedral perfects a way to bottle beer
1837: Queen Victoria becomes the first English monarch to live in the present Buckingham Palace
1865: Horace Greeley advises his readers to "Go west young man"
1923: The Hollywood Sign is officially dedicated in the hills above Hollywood, Los Angeles. It originally reads "Hollywoodland " but the four last letters are dropped after renovation in 1949.
1930: 1st World Cup of football (soccer) begins in Uruguay, South America
1943: Greatest tank battle in history ends with Russia's victory over Germany at Kursk. Almost 6,000 tanks take part.
1945: The first atom bomb is readied for testing… in New Mexico, USA. It explodes on July 16.

Today’s special shout-out goes to…

Happy Birthday Harrison Ford!

The daily “Words of Wisdom”:
Never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. :-Winston Churchill

[Young Ned]

Thinks about "A Boy Named Sue". (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-hYLL7Gpos)

Here's some others....

http://dailyqi.com/?p=13

http://www.guy-sports.com/months/jokes_names_children.htm

http://www.cracked.com/article_15765_the-20-most-bizarre-celebrity-baby-names.html

Some truly awful names there, Oldschool. One of my favorites is one I read in a baby names book while waiting in a supermarket checkout line. The family's last name was "Ciancio", pronounced "see-ANN-see-oh." And they named their daughter... Nancy Ann.

Don't see why that's so bad? Say the whole name aloud, starting with the first name.

Also, my maternal grandmother's maiden name was Snow Frances Smith. Snow is a rather pretty name, I think, and she never had any complaints about it... until she decided to marry a fellow named Karl Green. Declaring that it would be a cold day in Hell before she'd let herself be called "Snow Green", she dropped Snow altogether and became Frances S[mith] Green.

Nearly everyone in the family just called her "Greenie", anyway...

[Badstench]

To me, Young Ned, that was a cool story.

The history of names and families is something I've always been interested in. I'm not talking about geneology... I'm referring to the personal details that only immediate family know.

A small example would be my name... I have made no secret of the fact that my 'real' name is Kori Mitchell, but what I haven't said is that "Kori" is actually a shortened version of my Maori name.

English based names can be shortened... William becomes Bill... Samuel becomes Sam... Richard becomes Dick (although, I know a few Richards, and not one of them likes to be called "Dick". Go figure!)

Anyway, because I call myself "Kori", I never considered that this was a common American name given to girls. Am I wrong? Is it one of those unisexual names?

Regardless, I've changed my facebook status recently. I have endevoured to make it obvious that I am a male... just so I will stop getting unsolicited requests for friendships from guys I don't know.

I mean.. if my profile says that my favourite movies include anything with car chases, explosions, big guns, and bikini clad women... isn't that a dead giveaway that I'm a bloke?

[Doolipalally]

Richard becomes Dick (although, I know a few Richards, and not one of them likes to be called "Dick". Go figure!)


It's partly a generational thing. Previous generations didn't have a problem because the word didn't have the same connotations. That's why my dad, whose name is Richard, is usually called Dick. And so was his best man, come to think of it.

Actually, I'm now wondering about the US - wasn't there a character on Veronica Mars who was called Dick? It didn't seem to raise any titters, though I always wondered if it was deliberate.

[thingirl]

I know two girls named Corrie. And Corrie ten Boom NEVER went by Cornelia.

And wasn't the previous US VP Richard "Dick" Chaney?

All I know is that, if I ever have a son, I'm not going to name him "Richard".

[Badstench]

Apologies for being a day late... Kori's computer was experiencing difficulty.

If you were born on July 14th, you share your birthdate with:

James Whistler (artist – Whistler’s Mother, etc)
King Sisavang Vong (King of Laos – recipient of this month’s “Cool Name” award)
Woodrow “Woodie” Guthrie (musician/ singer – This Land is Your Land, etc)
Gerald Ford (41st US President)
Chris Cross (singer – Arthur, etc)
Bob “Bob 2” Casale (musician - Devo
Ellen Reid (musician – Crash Test Dummies)
DEC100110 (Sryth gamer and forum member)

You also share the same date with these events

1789: The French Revolution begins with the fall of Bastille. This is marked by Bastille Day!
1832: Opium is exempted from federal tariff duty
1850: Refrigetrated ice is first demonstrated to the public
1891: John T Smith patents corkboard
1958: Colonel Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi army overthrow the recognised government.
1969: United States $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills are officially withdrawn from circulation.
2002: French President Jacques Chirac escapes an assassination attempt unscathed during Bastille Day celebrations.

Happy Birthday Happy Birthday DEC100110!

The daily Words of Wisdom
Dream as if you have forever. Live as if you only have today. :-James Dean

[Oldschool]

Happy Birthday DEC100110

[Badstench]

If you were born on July 15th, you share your birthdate with:

Ewostatewos (Ethiopian monk and religious leader – quite possibly an Ewok)
Rembrabdt Van Rijn (artist/ painter – Night Watch, etc)
Clive Cussler (author – Raise the Titanic, etc)
Linda Ronstadt (singer/ actress – Prates of Penzance, etc)
Jesse “The Body” Ventura (wrestler/ actor – Predator, Running Man, etc)
Joe Satriani (musician/ guitarist extraordinaire)
Forest Whitaker (actor – The Crying Game, Vantage Point, etc)
Brigitte Nielson (actress – Red Sonya, Rocky IV, etc)
Lightwielder (Sryth gamer and honoured forum member)

You also share the same date with these events

1205: Pope Innocent III states Jews are doomed to perpetual servitude and subjugation due to crucifixion of Jesus
1741: Alexei Chirikov sights land in Southeast Alaska. He sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska.
1795: "Marseillaise" becomes the French national anthem
1799: The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.
1922: A duck-billed platypus is publicly exhibited in the US, at New York zoo, for the first time.
1983: On her birthday, Linda Ronstadt debuts as Mabel in "Pirates of Penzance"
2003: AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape Communications Corporation. The Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day.

Happy Birthday Lightwielder!

The daily Words of Wisdom
An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all. :-Socrates

[Doolipalally]

Happy Birthday Lightwielder!

And belated happy birthday to Dec100110!

[Lightwielder]

Lightwielder (Sryth gamer and honoured forum member)

Honoured, huh? Who would have thought? Thanks, Badstench. :)

Thanks to you, too, Dooli.

My Birthday does not "officially" start for two hours and thirty-five minutes. I was born and still am in the Pacific Time Zone. Still, thanks.

[scout1idf]

Happy Birthday Lightwielder!

And belated happy birthday to
Dec100110!

[Oldschool]

Happy Birthday Lightwielder

[racey]

Happy Birthday Lightwielder! Have a great day!

Belated Happy Birthday DEC100110! Hope it was great!

[spencer]

Happy Birthday Lightwielder!!

[zmflavius]

Happy Birthday Lightwielder

[smv1973]

Happy (18th) Birthday Lightwielder. I hope you have a great day.

[thingirl]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIGHTWIELDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, now that's you're 18, congrats on being recognized by the law as an adult Wherever You Go (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhgWS09e_Gk)!

Oh, and...

Honoured, huh? Who would have thought?

Everyone. Me at least.

[Arik]

Happy Birthday Lightwielder!