Commentary
By Gary Kopycinski
I get so, so tired of Facebook applications. So many silly things. No, I’m not interested in your Mafia Wars. I have no interest in "Picture Your Friends." And I don’t do fantasy football, baseball, golf, or anything else.
On My Birthday, however, is pretty cool. Run the application, and you’ll be rewarded in seconds with historical events that happened on your birthday. Yes, it’s a touch of vanity, but it’s also a rather interesting history lesson. Not all of the events are incredibly important, but they are all somewhat notable.
I learned the lyrics to "Candle in the Wind 1997," were auctioned for $442,500 on February 11, 1998. In 1994, Lu Parker of South Carolina was crowned 43rd Miss USA. In 1990, James "Buster" Douglas KO-ed Mike Tyson to win the heavyweight boxing crown. Also in 1990, Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner for 27 years, was freed in South Africa. Anthony M. Kennedy was appointed to Supreme Court in 1988. Polish premier Jozef Pinkowski was replaced by Wojciech Jaruzelski in 1981. Going back a few more years, the Beatles made their first live appearance in the United States, playing at the Washington D.C. Coliseum.
The oldest date in the list? That would be February 11, 1531, when Henry VIII was recognized as supreme head of the Church in England, according to this application.
My favorite? In 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a friend in a hunting accident.
Oh, good times.
Here’s my complete list. Enjoy.
1963 – Gary Kopycinski’s Birthday!
2009 – Morgan Tsvangirai becomes Prime Minister of Zimbabwe after agreeing to share power with President Robert Mugabe
2006 – Dick Cheney accidentally shoots friend in a hunting accident
1998 – KVBC-FM (Las Vegas) offers Monica Lewinsky $5M for interview
1998 – Lyrics to "Candle in the Wind 1997," auctioned for $442,500
1997 – Bill Parcells becomes head coach of New York Jets
1997 – STS-82 (Discovery 22) launches
1996 – 46th NBA All-Star Game: East beats West 129-118 at San Antonio
1995 – Danyon Loader swims world record 400m freestyle (340.46)
1995 – Mark Foster swims world record 50m butterfly (23.55 sec)
1995 – Sandra Volker swims European record 50m backstroke (27.67 sec)
1995 – Space shuttle STS-63 (Discovery 19), lands
1995 – U.S. Male Figure Skating championship won by Todd Eldredge
1995 – West Indies score 5-660 against New Zealand
1994 – Lu Parker, (South Carolina), crowned 43rd Miss USA
1994 – Space shuttle STS-60 (Discovery 18), lands
1993 – Howard Stern’s radio show begins transmitting to Rochester New York (WRQI)
1993 – Irina Privalova runs world record 60m indoor (6.92 seconds)
1993 – Janet Reno selected by Clinton as U.S. Attorney General
1992 – F-16 jet crashes at residential district of Hengelo Netherlands (No deaths)
1992 – Michael Johnson runs indoor world record 400m (44.97 sec)
1991 – UNPO, Unrepresented Nations and People Org forms in Hague
1990 – 40th NBA All-Star Game: East beats West 130-113 at Miami
1990 – James "Buster" Douglas KOs Mike Tyson to win heavyweight boxing crown
1990 – Nelson Mandela (political prisoner-27 years) freed in South Africa
1990 – U.S. Male Figure Skating championship won by Todd Eldredge
1989 – Barbara Clementine Harris consecrated 1st female bishop (Episcopalian)
1989 – U.S. Female Figure Skating championship won by Jill Trenary
1988 – Anthony M. Kennedy appointed to Supreme Court
1987 – British Airways begins trading stocks
1987 – England beat Australia 2-0 to win the World Series Cup
1987 – Philippines constitution goes into effect
1987 – U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1986 – Activist Anatoly Scharansky released by U.S.S.R., leaves country
1986 – Australia beat India 2-0 to win the World Series Cup
1986 – Iran begins Fajr-8 offensive against Iraq
1985 – Jordan king Hussein and PLO leader Arafat sign accord
1985 – Kent Hrbek signs 5-year, $6 million contract with Minnesota Twins
1985 – Wasim Akram takes 10 wickets in his 2nd Test Cricket, New Zealand still wins
1984 – 10th space shuttle mission (41-B)-Challenger 4-returns to Earth
1984 – Wayne Gretzky sets NHL short handed season scoring record at 11
1983 – "Weird Al" Yankovic records "Ricky" and "Buckingham Blues" debut LP
1983 – 4th largest snowfall in New York City history (18"(46 cm))
1982 – Ozzie Smith for Garry Templeton trade finally goes through
1981 – Australia all out 83 vs. India at MCG chasing 143 to win
1981 – Polish premier Jozef Pinkowski replaced by Wojciech Jaruzelski
1979 – "They’re Playing Our Song" opens at Imperial New York City for 1082 performances
1979 – 43 million watch "Elvis!" on ABC
1979 – Emmy News and Documentaries Award presentation
1979 – Iran’s premier Bakhtiar resigns, Ayatollah Khomeini seizes power
1979 – Musical "They’re Playing Our Song," premieres in New York City
1978 – 16 Unification church couples wed in New York City
1978 – 25th hat trick in Islander history-Denis Potvin
1978 – China lifts a ban on Aristotle, Shakespeare, and Dickens
1978 – EOKA organization disbands in Cyprus
1977 – 20.2-kg lobster caught off Nova Scotia (heaviest known crustacean)
1976 – Clifford Alexander, Jr. confirmed as 1st black secretary of Army
1975 – Margaret Thatcher defeats Edward Heath for Conservative leadership
1974 – Dick Woodson is 1st of 48 to invoke baseball’s new arbitration rule
1974 – Titan-Centaur Test launch fails
1974 – 1st baseball arbitration Twins pitcher Dick Woodson seeking $29,000 wins, Twins offered $23,000
1973 – 1st one-day international for Pakistan and New Zealand
1973 – 1st sub 17-minute 1,500m female free style swim (Shane Gould 16m56.9s)
1973 – Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Naples-Lely Golf Classic
1973 – Philadelphia 76ers lose their 20th NBA game in a row
1971 – Montreal Canadien John Believau scores his 500th NHL goal
1971 – U.S., U.K., U.S.S.R., others sign Seabed Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons
1970 – 26.37 cm (10.38") of rainfall, Mount Washington, New Hampshire (state 24-hr rec)
1970 – Japan becomes 4th nation to put a satellite, Osumi, in orbit
1970 – John Lennon pays 1,344 pounds fine for 96 protesting South African rugby team playing in Scotland
1969 – Diana Crump becomes 1st U.S. woman jockey to ride against men, Hialelah
1969 – Dorey Funk, Jr. beats Gene Kiniski in Tampa, to become NWA champ
1968 – Israeli-Jordan border fight
1968 – Jeffrey Kramer survives 76-m jump, Washington Bridge, Hudson River New York
1968 – Madison Square Garden III closes MSG IV opens (New York City)
1966 – San Francisco Giant Willie Mays signs highest contract, $130,000 per year
1965 – Beatle Ringo Starr marries Maureen Cox
1965 – Braves propose to pay 5 cents from each ticket to bring a new team to Milwaukee
1964 – Beatles 1st live appearance in U.S.; Washington D.C. Coliseum
1964 – Greek and Turks begin fighting in Limassol, Cyprus
1964 – Taiwan drops diplomatic relations with France
1963 – Beatles tape 10 tracks for their 1st album
1963 – CIA Domestic Operations Division created
1962 – Beatles record "Please, Please Me"
1961 – Robert Weaver sworn in with then highest federal post by a black
1961 – Trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem
1960 – Jack Paar walks off his TV show
1959 – Vinoo Mankad ends his final Test Cricket (v WI at Delhi)
1958 – 1st flight with black stewardess, Ruth Carol Taylor, Ithaca New York
1958 – Marshal Chen Yi succeeds Chu En-lai as Minister of Foreign affairs
1958 – WTVC TV channel 9 in Chattanooga, Tennessee (ABC) begins broadcasting
1957 – KUMV TV channel 8 in Williston, ND (NBC) begins broadcasting
1957 – NHL Players Association forms (New York City), Red Wings’ Ted Lindsay elected president
1954 – 6th Emmy Awards: I Love Lucy, Donald O’Connor and Eve Arden wins
1953 – "Hazel Flagg" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater New York City for 190 performances
1953 – J. Styne/B. Hilliard’s musical "Hazel Flagg," premieres in New York City
1953 – President Eisenhower refuses clemency appeal for Rosenberg couple
1953 – Russia breaks diplomatic relations with Israel
1951 – Kwame Nkrumah wins 1st parliamentary election on Gold coast (Ghana)
1950 – "Rag Mop" by The Ames Brothers hit #1
1949 – Willie Pep recaptures world featherweight boxing title
1948 – Billy Griffith scores cricket century on debut England vs. WI, out for 140
1948 – John Costello follows Eamon Da Valera as premier of Ireland
1948 – Test Cricket debut of Frank Worrell, vs. England Port-of-Spain
1945 – 1st gas turbine propeller-driven airplane flight tested, Downey, California
1945 – Yalta agreement signed by FDR, Churchill and Stalin
1944 – German troops reconquer Aprilia Italy
1944 – U-424 sunk off Ireland
1943 – General Eisenhower selected to command the allied armies in Europe
1943 – Transport nr 47 departs with French Jews to nazi-Germany
1942 – "Archie" comic book debuts
1941 – 1st Gold record presented (Glenn Miller-Chattanooga Choo Choo)
1941 – Lieutenant-general Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli
1941 – Sicherheitsdienst complains about Dutch anti German sentiments
1938 – Steve Casey beats Lou Thesz in Boston, to become wrestling champ
1937 – 44-day sit-down strike at General Motors in Flint, Michigan ends
1936 – Pumping begins to build Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay
1935 – -11 degrees F (-24 degrees C), Ifrane, Morocco (African record low)
1935 – 1st U.S. airplane flight with auto slung beneath fuselage, New York
1932 – 73 degrees F highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in February
1929 – Eugene O’Neill’s "Dynamo," premieres in New York City
1929 – Vatican City, world’s smallest country, made an enclave of Rome
1928 – 2nd Winter Olympic games opens in St. Moritz, Switzerland
1927 – U.S. Female Figure Skating championship won by Beatrix Loughran
1927 – U.S. Male Figure Skating championship won by Nathaniel Niles
1926 – Tokelau (Union) Islands in South Pacific transfers to New Zealand
1922 – "April Showers" by Al Jolson hits #1
1922 – U.S. intervention army leaves Honduras
1921 – Ambassador Theater opens at 215 W 49th St. New York City
1919 – Friedrich Ebert (SPD), elected president of Germany
1916 – Baltimore Symphony Orchestra presents its 1st concert
1916 – Emma Goldman arrested for lecturing on birth control
1908 – Australia regain the Ashes with a 308 run cricket victory vs England
1908 – Heemskerk’s government begins in Holland
1907 – De Master’s Dutch government resigns
1907 – Passenger ship Larchmont sinks by Block Island, 322 die
1905 – James Blackstone, Seattle, bowls 299 -last pin breaks but stands
1905 – Pope Pius X publishes encyclical Vehementer nos
1903 – Anton Bruckner’s 9th Symfonie premieres in Vienna
1902 – Police beats up universal suffrage demonstrators in Brussels
1899 – -15 degrees F (-26 degrees C), Washington, D.C. (district record)
1899 – -61 degrees F, Montana (record low temperature)
1898 – Owen Smith of NC, AME Zion minister, named minister to Liberia
1897 – White Rose Mission opens on East 97th Street, New York City
1896 – Oscar Wildes "Salom" premieres in Paris
1895 – -17 degrees F (-27.2 degrees C) in Braemar, Grampian (UK record)
1895 – Georgetown became part of Washington D.C.
1889 – Meiji constitution of Japan adopted; 1st Diet convenes in 1890
1878 – 1st U.S. bicycle club, Boston Bicycle Club, forms
1878 – 1st weekly Weather report published in UK
1873 – Spanish Cortes fires king Amadeus I
1861 – President-elect Lincoln takes train from Spingfield Illinois to Washington D.C.
1861 – U.S. House unanimously passes resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state
1858 – 1st apparition of Mary to 14-year-old Bernadette of Lourdes France
1854 – Major streets lit by coal gas for 1st time
1852 – 1st British public female toilet opens (Bedford Street London)
1851 – 1st cricket 1st-class game in Australia, Tasmania vs. Vic, Launceston
1843 – Opera "I Lombardi," premieres in Milan
1840 – Gaetano Donizetti’s Opera "La Fille du Regiment," premieres in Paris
1837 – American Physiological Society organizes in Boston
1826 – London University founded
1814 – Norway’s independence proclaimed
1812 – Massachusetts Governor Gerry signs a redistricting bill-1st "gerrymander"
1811 – President Madison prohibits trade with Britain for 3rd time in 4 years
1810 – Napoleon marries Marie-Louise of Austria
1809 – Robert Fulton patents steamboat
1808 – Anthracite coal 1st burned as fuel, experimentally, Wilkes-Barre, Pa
1794 – 1st session of U.S. Senate open to the public
1793 – Prussian troops occupy Venlo, Netherlands
1790 – Society of Friends petitions Congress for abolition of slavery
1768 – Samuel Adams letter, circulates around American colonies, opposing Townshend Act taxes
1766 – Stamp Act declared unconstitutional in Virginia
1752 – Pennsylvania Hospital, the 1st hospital in the U.S., opened
1720 – Sweden and Prussia sign peace (2nd Treaty of Stockholm)
1638 – Dutch countess Louise of Solms marries earl John of Brederode
1575 – King Frederick of Denmark offers island of Hveen to Tycho Brahe
1573 – 1st European, Francis Drake sees the Pacific (from Panama)
1543 – Battle at Wayna Daga: Ethiopian/Portugese troops beat Moslem army
1543 – Karel/Henry VIII sign anti-French covenant
1531 – Henry VIII recognized as supreme head of Church in England
