Sunday Stealing: the September 26 edition

I guess I should really be doing this installment of Sunday Stealing on my actual birthday, but I’m not going to remember to post this on September 26, and I’m finding that scheduled posts isn’t working very well here these days (I’m not sure if that’s because of the site theme I’m using or what), so I’ll just do it now:

Wikipedia Meme

First, what is your birthday (month/day)?

Already noted: September 26! (Year: 1971. Get off my lawn.)

Now, go to Wikipedia and list:

1) Four historic events 

–In 1580, Sir Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the Earth. The voyage took almost three years, and when Drake arrived in the English Channel again, he learned that he had been presumed dead.
–In 1687, the Parthenon in Athens was badly damaged because someone had decided that it would be a great place to store gunpowder and munitions. It exploded. Oops.
–In 1789, President George Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State. Neither office is held by anyone worth anything today.
–In 1960, Democratic presidential candidate Senator John F. Kennedy faced the Republican nominee, Vice President Richard Nixon, in the first televised presidential debate.

2) Three births

Every year on my birthday I note that I share a birthdate with George Gershwin, Olivia Newton-John, and Jim Caviezel. So here I’ll note three other notable persons sharing my birthday:

–1774: Johnny Appleseed (I don’t want to admit how old I was when I learned that Johnny Appleseed was a real guy, I always figured his was like Paul Bunyan)
–1888: T.S. Eliot, English poet. I actually haven’t read enough Eliot!
–1963: Lysette Anthony, English actress. Twelve-year-old me had quite a crush on her when she appeared in Krull.

3) Two deaths

–1902: Levi Strauss, the guy who invented Levi’s jeans. Maybe I should wear a pair of Levi’s overalls this year in his honor….
–1984: John Facenda, the guy with the distinctive voice who narrated a bunch of NFL Films productions back in the day. You know, the guy who said things like “On this icy January day, two sets of warriors took to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field to decide the championship of the National Football League!”

1) One holiday or observance 

Well, I’m sure that any year now, the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons will achieve critical mass of societal awareness!

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