Cop-Out

Ok, yet another meme to take up blogging space! What was I thinking to sign up for NaBloPoMo - the pressure?!?! Well really, I'm just not that creative, and I really am kinda busy - I gotta pack for next week, I've got to pack scrapbooking stuff too and I've got actual work to do. Blah, blah, blah...

Enough whining, let's get on to the meme! I found this on VeryContrary and thought it was pretty cool. The idea is this, go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday (leave off the year, cause as Contrary puts it "it’s very likely that the most notable thing that happened on your birthday the year you were born is that, well, you were born"). You'll be presented with a bunch of things that happened on your birthday, as well as interesting people that were also born on your birthday.

The list is insanely long, so here are some of the highlights of history for February 23 (besides me being born, which somehow didn't make the list). Sadly many of the things aren't particularly happy, but...

1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type.
1797 - French Forces launch a failed invasion of Britain.
1836 - The Siege of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.
1870 - Military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.
1883 - Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
1893 - Rudolf Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine.
1898 - Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing "J'accuse", a letter accusing the French government of anti-Semitism and wrongfully placing Captain Alfred Dreyfus in jail.
1903 - Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
1904 - For $10 million the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
1909 - The AEA Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
1917 - First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution.
1919 - Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party in Italy.
1941 - Plutonium was first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.
1945 - World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines and a commonly forgotten US Navy Corpsman, reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize.
1945 - World War II: The capital of the Philippines, Manila, is liberated by American forces.
1947 - International Organization for Standardization(ISO) is founded.
1954 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1974 - The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
1975 - In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly two months early in the United States.
1980 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament would decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.
1983 - The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.
1991 - Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabia border and enter Iraq, thus starting the ground-phase of the war.
1995 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 30.28 to close at 4,003.33, closing above 4,000 for the first time.
1997 - A large fire occurs in the Russian Space station, Mir.
1998 - Kissimmee Tornado Outbreak: Tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42.
1998 - Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.

There are a bunch of births and deaths too, but it was getting long enough!

Stalker Clock says days, 6 hours, 3 minutes and 11 seconds till I get home for my visit.

Current Music: From the Morning - Nick Drake