Birthday MeMe

I stole another meme from Heather’s blog. I just couldn’t resist.

Here's what to do if you want to play along. Go to Wikipedia and type in your birth date (omitting the year). Then share (at least) 3 events, two births, and one holiday that share your special day.

Here are my favorite June 5th observances. It was too hard to stick to the minimums.

Events:

1851 - Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin or, Life Among the Lowly starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper.

1968 - U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. Kennedy dies the next day.

1977 - The Apple II, the first practical personal computer, goes on sale.

1989 - The Unknown Rebel halts the progress of a column of advancing tanks for over half an hour after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

Births:

1646 - Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia, Italian mathematician and first woman to receive a Ph.D. (d. 1684). I’m a math teacher—go figure.

1718 - Thomas Chippendale, English furniture maker (d. 1779)

1878 - Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary (d. 1923)

1895 - William Boyd, American actor (d. 1972). This guy is better known as Hopalong Cassidy.

1971 - Mark Wahlberg, American singer and actor. Yep—Marky Mark and I are exactly the same age.

1977 - Liza Weil, American actress. I’m a huge Gilmore Girls fan, and so much of her Paris character reminds me of my high school self.

1979 - Pete Wentz, American musician (Fall Out Boy). This one is for my students who adore him. I have no idea who he is.

Holiday:

Constitution Day in Denmark. My father was once offered an assignment in Denmark when I was younger, and I always thought we should have taken it so I could celebrate my birthday as a national holiday. I was a little self-centered then (and still am on occasion).