WIKIPEDIA MEME

Chuck, who wears see-through raincoats and clown shoes, has this Wikipedia meme in his blog, Separation Anxiety. It requires you to choose three historical events, two births, and one death that occurred on your birthday and post them in your journal. Aside from being a fun meme, I also think it is interesting. I have always thought dates and numbers often oddly connect in our lives.

Anywhooooo, here are the ones that pertain to my date of my birth:

THREE HISTORICAL EVENTS:
1307 William Tell shot an apple off his son's head.
1894 1st newspaper Sunday color comic section published (NY World).
1949 Jackie Robinson, Brooklyn Dodgers, was named NL's MVP.

TWO BIRTHS:
1789 Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre, who went on to develop a method of photography
1928 Mickey Mouse, who made his debut in Steamboat Willie.

ONE DEATH:
1969 Joseph P. Kennedy died in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, at age 81.

Curious information, isn't it? It is to me. Each particular listing made me pause and think about the person/cartoon character. Take for instance, William Tell. Who doesn't automatically equate his name with shooting that apple? Then, there is Jackie Robinson. History has told us all he went through to be accepted into the baseball world as a person and not as a color. Mickey Mouse? He made many people laugh and smile. He entertained the young and the old. Joseph Kennedy is not someone I admire in any way. When I discovered he died on my date of birth, I immediately thought of some of the very ugly things he did during his lifetime. At least I found something positive about him in that he fathered President Kennedy who married Jackie Bouvier. Now, SHE is someone I admired. And Daguerre? WOW. What an impact his invention (in conjunction with three other men) continues to make on the entire world.

History. Gotta love it.

"History is the ship carrying living memories to the future." ~ Stephen Spender