It's my Birthday and D-Day, today!

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday Incognito, Happy Birthday to me.

Yes, it's my Birthday.... another year older and hopefully wiser, although at this stage in the game, I think I'll start counting backwards. I have to rehearse from 2 to 8, so no celebrations. Ah well.

I discovered, on Encarta, that I share my birthday with some interesting luminaries. They're all dead, except for Kumin:

Sukarno, Indonesia's first president (1901)
Thomas Mann, novelist and short-story writer (1875)
Diego Velázquez, painter (1599)
Robert Falcon Scott, Antarctic explorer (1868)
Bill Dickey, baseball catcher (1907)
Maxine Kumin, poet (1925)

June 6th is also noted for the following historical happenings. Betcha didn't know half of them. The only one I was familiar with was, obviously, D-Day:

1703: Work begins on the city of Saint Petersburg, Russia, meant by Tsar Peter I (the Great) to be a “window on Europe.” Learn more about Saint Petersburg.

1884: The group of Republican Party dissidents known as the Mugwumps leaves the party convention, refusing to support its nominee for president, James G. Blaine. Learn more about the Mugwumps.

1925: Under Walter P. Chrysler, a former General Motors executive, the Maxwell Motor Corporation becomes the Chrysler Corporation.

1944: In the largest seaborne invasion in history, known as D-Day, over 120,000 Allied troops land on the beaches of Normandy in German-occupied northern France. Learn more about World War II.

1978: California voters overwhelmingly approve Proposition 13, which cuts local property taxes by more than two-thirds, sending many local governments into financial crisis. Learn more about California.

1984: The Indian army attacks the sacred Golden Temple in Amritsar, killing hundreds of Sikh separatists headquartered there. Four months later, outraged Sikhs assassinate Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Learn more about Indira Gandhi.

For a more extensive list of births and happenings, check it out on Wikipedia.