This Day in History –
On this day 33 years ago, at 7:10 am, in a hospital in Mexico City, a 24 inch-long baby boy, the longest ever born in that hospital, came into this world. Yes, today is my birthday, but it is not a day for celebrating. It is a day I approach with much trepidation, not because I am afraid of growing older, rather because bad things tend to happen on or around my birthday. It all started when I was four. It may have started earlier, but I can’t remember my birthdays before that one. My parents organized a party at a fun-themed restaurant. The clownish staff thought it would be hilarious to smash a big piece of cake in the birthday boy’s face. I did not find it funny, nor would I expect most four year-olds. I remember crawling under the table to cry.

Following birthdays have included piñatas falling on my head, injuries, illnesses, mishaps, misunderstandings, and even deaths. Yes, both my grandmothers died right around my birthday.

At first people think this is all a crock or just self-fulfilling prophecies. My wife was a skeptic at first, but she has grown to be a believer, more or less.

So for my birthday I avoid big plans, try to lay low, and hope for the best. I have gotten by with some uneventful birthdays, so it can be done. Let’s hope that this one is one of those quiet ones.

And if you are curious, other more interesting things have happened on this day as well.

Update - Since the above link requires you to actually enter the date - I could not get it to work directly - I went through the list of interesting events and birthdays. Actually, nothing really interesting happened on this day. There seem to have been a lot of nuclear tests on this date. I guess the first Supreme Court was convened and the Mormons officially ended their practive of polygamy. Interesting birthdays are Jim Henson (the Muppet man) and F. Scott Fitzgerald. For those of you who are interested following is the list:

On September 24 in history ..
· 0312 - Start of Imperial Indication
· 0366 - Liberius ends his reign as Catholic Pope
· 0673 - Synod of Hertford opens; canons made for English Church
· 0787 - 2nd Council of Nicaea (7th ecumenical council) opens in Asia Minor
· 1493 - Columbus' 2nd expedition to New World
· 1537 - Uprising in Lübeck fails
· 1625 - Dutch attack San Juan, Puerto Rico
· 1629 - Jacques Specx appointed governor-general of Dutch-Indies
· 1657 - 1st autopsy & coroner's jury verdict is recorded in state of Maryland
· 1664 - Dutch Fort Orange (Albany NY) surrenders to English
· 1683 - King Louis XIV expels all Jews from French possessions in America
· 1688 - France declares war on German
· 1732 - 21 homosexuals burned in South Horn
· 1742 - Faneuil Hall opens to public
· 1789 - Congress creates Post Office
· 1789 - Federal Judiciary Act is passed & creates a six-person Supreme Court
· 1789 - US Attorney General Office is created
· 1829 - Russia & Ottoman Empire sign Peace Treaty of Adrianople
· 1838 - Anti-Corn-Law League forms to repeal English Corn Law
· 1841 - Britain obtains Sarawak from Brunei (James Brooke appointed Rajah)
· 1845 - 1st baseball team is organized
· 1850 - Papal Bull issued, establishes Roman Catholic hierarchy in England
· 1852 - Henri Giffard, a French engineer, makes 1st dirigible flight
· 1853 - 1st round-the-world trip by yacht (Cornelius Vanderbilt)
· 1853 - France annexes Caledonia
· 1862 - Confederate Congress adopts confederacy seal
· 1865 - James Cooke walks tightrope from Cliff House to Seal Rocks, SF
· 1869 - Black Friday; Wall St panic after Gould & Fisk attempt to corner gold
· 1881 - Henry Morton Stanley signs contract with Congo monarch
· 1883 - National black convention meets in Louisville, Kentucky
· 1890 - Pres of Mormon Church in Salt Lake City issues a manifesto advising members that teaching & practice of polygamy should be abandoned
· 1895 - 1st round-the-world trip by a woman on a bicycle (took 15 months)
· 1919 - Babe Ruth sets season homer mark at 28 off of Yankee Bob Shawkey
· 1923 - Premiere of 1st celluloid film "Das Leben auf dem Dorfe" (Berlin)
· 1924 - Boston, Massachusetts opens its airport
· 1927 - NHL's Toronto St Patricks become Maple Leafs
· 1927 - Yanks set record of 106 victories
· 1929 - Lt James H Doolittle guides a Consolidated N-Y-2 Biplane over Mitchell Field in NY in 1st all-instrument flight
· 1930 - Portsmouth beats Brooklyn in 1st NFL game played under floodlights
· 1934 - 2500 fans see Babe Ruth's farewell Yankee appearance at Yankee Stadium
· 1938 - Don Budge becomes 1st tennis player to grand slam
· 1940 - Luftwaffe bombs Spitfire-factory in Southampton
· 1941 - 9 Allied governments pledged adherence to Atlantic Charter
· 1941 - Bomb explosion in German headquarter in Hotel Continental in Kiev
· 1943 - Soviet forces re-conquer Smolensk
· 1950 - "Operation Magic Carpet"-All Jews from Yemen move to Israel
· 1951 - Industrial estate at Harlow New Town UK opens
· 1951 - USSR performs nuclear test
· 1952 - Dutch minister Dark sentences war criminal W Lages to death
· 1952 - Underwater volcano explodes under research vessel Kaiyo-maru-5
· 1954 - Tonight Show premieres on NBC (Johnny takes over 8 years later)
· 1955 - Pres Eisenhower suffers a heart attack on vacation in Denver
· 1956 - 1st trans atlantic telephone cable in use (Newfoundland-Scotland)
· 1957 - Eisenhower orders US troops to desegregate Little Rock schools
· 1958 - 1st welded aluminum girder highway bridge completed, Urbandale, LA
· 1960 - 1st nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, launches (USS Enterprise)
· 1960 - International Development Association (UN agency) comes into existence
· 1960 - USS Enterprise, 1st nuclear power aircraft carrier, launches
· 1962 - KWSU TV channel 10 in Pullman, WA (PBS) begins broadcasting
· 1962 - US Circuit Court of Appeals orders Meredith admitted to University of Mississippi
· 1963 - Senate ratifies treaty with Britain & USSR limit nuclear testing
· 1964 - "Munsters" premieres on TV
· 1964 - 1st Minuteman II ICBM was tested
· 1964 - Willi Stoph succeeds Otto Great as premier of German Democratic Republic
· 1965 - Belgium Victor Leemans elected chairman of European Parliament
· 1965 - Saudi-Arabian & Egyptian accord about Yemen
· 1965 - Stefan Stefanopoulos forms Greek government
· 1966 - -30] Hurricane Inez, kills 293 in Caribbean, Florida & Mexico
· 1966 - France performs nuclear test at Fangataufa Island
· 1968 - "60 Minutes" premieres on CBS-TV
· 1968 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
· 1969 - 1st Elvis convention, 2500 fans attend in Cincinnati
· 1969 - Ton Duc Thang elected president of North Vietnam
· 1969 - Trial of "Chicago 8" (protesters at Dem Natl Conv) begins
· 1970 - 1st Automated return of lunar sample by Luna 16
· 1970 - Soviet Luna 16 lands on earth after 1st unmanned round trip to moon
· 1971 - 90 Russian diplomats expelled from Britain for spying
· 1971 - Eyskens-Cools disbands Belgium parliament
· 1972 - Antique F86 Sabrejet fails to takeoff at air show, kills 22
· 1973 - Guinea-Bissau declares independence
· 1976 - Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst sentenced to 7 years for her part in a 1974 bank robbery. Released after 22 months by Pres Carter
· 1977 - 1st broadcast of "Love Boat" on ABC-TV
· 1978 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
· 1979 - CompuServe began operation as 1st computer information service
· 1979 - Ghana adopts constitution
· 1979 - Russian ice skaters Protopopov & Beloussova ask for asylum in Switzerland
· 1979 - USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
· 1980 - Iraqi troops cross Iran's border, encircling Abadan
· 1981 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
· 1982 - Tennis great Bj”rn B”rg retires at 26
· 1982 - US, Italian & French peacekeeping troops begin arriving in Lebanon
· 1983 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
· 1984 - Paul McCartney release "No More Lonely Nights"
· 1985 - Apollo Computer Inc lays off 300 employees
· 1985 - Fastest English Channel crossing by a relay team set (15h 30m)
· 1987 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
· 1988 - Barbara C Harris of Mass, elected 1st woman Episcopal bishop
· 1988 - Canada's Ben Johnson runs drug-assisted 100 m in 9.79 sec
· 1990 - East Germany leaves Warsaw Pact
· 1990 - Supreme Soviet gives approval to switch to free market
· 1990 - West German Pres Richard von Weizsaecker signs reunification treaty
· 1991 - Doogie Howser loses his virginity
· 1993 - 1st Israeli killed by Islamics after PLO signs peace accord
· 1993 - Norodom Sihanouk again installed as king of Cambodia
· 1994 - Parliamentary election in Ukraine
· 1995 - Mt Ruapehu Volcano (North Island, NZ) erupts
· 1997 - Drug kingpin Ramon Arellano Felix placed on FBI's 10 most-wanted

Famous birthdays on September 24 ..
· 1501 - Girolamo Cardano, Italy, mathematician/astrologer (Ars Magna-1545)
· 1583 - Albrecht Eusebius Wenzel von Wallenstein, German general
· 1625 - Johan de Witt, statesman/advisor of Holland
· 1717 - Horace Walpole, England, British horror writer (Cattle of Ontario)
· 1739 - Grigorij A Potemkin, Monarch of Tauris/friend of Catherine II
· 1755 - John Marshall, Va, 4th Supreme Court Chief Justice (1801-35)
· 1762 - William Lisle Bowles, English poet (14 Sonnets)
· 1817 - Ramón de Campoamor Campoosorio, Spanish poet (Doloras)
· 1821 - Cyprian K Norwid, Polish painter/poet/playwright (Wanda)
· 1825 - Frances E W Harper, famous African
· 1848 - Pieter Louis Tak, literary (The Chronicle)
· 1859 - Julius Klengel, cellist/composer
· 1860 - Samuel Rutherford Crockett, novelist
· 1870 - Georges Claude, inventor (neon light)
· 1885 - Herman Bouber, Dutch actor/playwright (Sailor's Wives)
· 1890 - Alan Herbert, England, journalist/writer (Punch, Helen)
· 1892 - Sam[uel] de Vries, actor (Wandering Jew)
· 1895 - Andr‚ Cournand, physician
· 1896 - F Scott Fitzgerald, St Paul Minn, author (Great Gatsby)
· 1898 - Charlotte D baroness of Pallandt, Dutch sculptress
· 1898 - Howard W Florey, Aust, pathologist; purified penicillin (Nobel '45)
· 1899 - Eduardo Hernandez Moncada, composer
· 1904 - Owen Saunders, mechanical engineer
· 1910 - Leonarda da Vinci MacLaren, founder (LSE)
· 1911 - Konstantin Chernenko, USSR leader
· 1921 - Jim McKay, Phila Pa, sportscaster (ABC's Wide World of Sports)
· 1921 - Leonardo Lopez Salzedo, composer
· 1922 - David Lane, CEO (Commission for Racial Equality)
· 1923 - Ladislav Fuks, writer
· 1924 - Sheila MacRae, London England, actress (Jackie Gleason Show)
· 1924 - Simpson Guillen, cricketer (wicket-keeper for West Indies & NZ)
· 1924 - Walter Fufido, Bronx NY, Iwo Jima casualty (WW II)
· 1927 - Richard Swift, composer
· 1930 - John Watts Young, SF Calif, astronaut (Gem 3 10, Apol 10 16, STS 1 9)
· 1932 - Svetlana Beriozova, ballerina
· 1934 - Bernard Nevill, textile designer
· 1934 - Manfred Wärner, German general/sect-gen (NATO, 1988-94)
· 1934 - Robert Lang, actor (Night Watch)/director
· 1936 - Jim Henson, Greenville Miss, muppeteer (Sesame Street, Muppet Show)
· 1941 - Linda Eastman McCartney, NYC, Mrs Paul McCartney, rocker (Wings-Ram)
· 1946 - "Mean" Joe Greene, NFL tackle (Pitts Steelers), Coke spokesman
· 1946 - Carson Van Osten, rocker
· 1946 - Marc Edward Neikrug, composer
· 1946 - Pat Pocock, cricketer (intermittent England off-spinner 1968-85)
· 1948 - Phil Hartman, Brantford Ontario, actor (SNL, Peewee's Playhouse)
· 1950 - Mohinder Amarnath, cricketer (son of Lala Indian batsman of 70's/80's)
· 1952 - Joseph P Kennedy II, (Rep-D-Massachusetts)
· 1954 - Stephen Jones, art historian
· 1956 - Ilona Briesenick-Slupianek, German DR, shot-putter (Olympic-gold-1980)
· 1964 - Rafael Palmeiro, Havana Cuba, 1st baseman (Baltimore Orioles)
· 1967 - Chris Swan, rower (Olympics-1996)
· 1967 - Roland Jansen, soccer player (Willem II)
· 1969 - Gene Hunt, R&B musician (Acid Man)
· 1969 - Lisa Matthews, Peoria Ill, playmate (Apr, 1990)