Saturday, July 31, 2004

This Birthday in History

Little Man turns 4 today. The miracle of the 'Net makes it easy to dig up some cool things that have happened on previous July 31sts:

1991: President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow.
1964: The U.S. space probe Ranger 7 transmitted pictures of the moon's surface (no sign of the man in the moon, however.)
1948: President Harry S. Truman helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild Field.
1790: Vermonter Samuel Hopkins was issued the first U.S. patent for a process of making fertilizer.

He also shares his birthday with:
J.K Rowling (Harry Potter)
Curt Gowdy (sportscaster)
Bill Berry (ex-R.E.M. member)
Dean Cain (Superman actor)
Milton Friedman (Nobel Prize-winning economist)

Given the fact that he's only 4, none of this matters to him. At this very moment, he's working the enriched birthday cake sugar levels out of his system, and will likely be doing so for some time to come. Ah, childhood.

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