HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday Rocky
Happy Birthday to you!

(How funny is that picture? I just googled "birthday images" and this came up!)


I dedicate today's post to my most faithful reader, Rocky. Happy Birthday!

August 18 is the 230th day of the year (231st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 135 days remaining.

What else happened on August 18th?
1587 - Virginia Dare, granddaughter of Gov. John White of the Colony of Roanoke, becomes the first English child born in the Americas.

1868 - French astronomer Pierre Jules César Janssen discovers helium.

1920 - 19th Amendment to US constitution passes, guaranteeing women's suffrage.

1969 - Jimi Hendrix plays the unofficial last day of Woodstock.

1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is put under house arrest while on holiday in the town of Foros, Crimea.

1992 - NBA basketball player Larry Bird announces his retirement after winning an Olympic gold medal as a member of the U.S. Dream Team.

2005 - Dennis Rader is sentenced to 175 years in prison for the BTK serial killings.

Other people born August 18th:
1774 - Meriwether Lewis, American explorer (d. 1809)
1904 - Max Factor, Polish-born cosmetics entrepreneur
1917 - Caspar Weinberger, United States Secretary of Defense
1920 - Shelley Winters, American actress
1927 - Rosalynn Carter, First Lady of the United States
1933 - Roman Polanski, French-born director and actor
1936 - Robert Redford, American actor and director
1943 - Martin Mull, American comedian and actor
1952 - Patrick Swayze, American actor
1957 - Denis Leary, American comedian and actor
1958 - Madeleine Stowe, American actress
1969 - Edward Norton, American actor
1969 - Christian Slater, American actor

Friday, August 18, 2006 is also Bad Poetry Day.

There is even more cool information on The History Channel Web site, "Today in History."

There is another really cool site where you can find all sorts of information about the day you were born, exactly how old you are and lots of fun statistics. Visit the Birthday Calculator.