This week’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge from Randy involves collecting details about the day my Dad was born. I had to do a little bit of research to put this together.
My Dad was born 7 March 1927 (died 4 May 2010) in Oakland, California. I have always known his birth date. He’s my Dad…We celebrated it every year, silly! However, a few years ago, I noticed that my grandma had written a bunch of rhyming names in his baby book before he was born. I wondered if there might have been a twin that died. So, I ordered his birth certificate to be sure. I have that to confirm the date. And, no, he wasn’t a twin.
I found several historic events that happened on my Dad’s birthday. I decided to focus on those that happened within his lifetime. I used Historyorb.com and Wikipedia to locate this information.
On the day he was born, an 8.o earthquake struck Tango, Japan. I find that coincidental. When he was stationed in Japan during the Korean War, a large earthquake struck near where he was stationed. He had some horrifying memories of that event.
1932…There were riots at the Dearborn, MI Ford plant
1936…Germany violated the Treaty of Versailles by taking back the Rhineland
1939…Guy Lombardo recorded “Auld Lang Syne”
1943…Patton arrived in Tunisia
1945…Allied forces took Cologne
1951…Operation Ripper was begun in Korea by United Nations troops
1955…Baseball commissioner supported making the “spitter” (or spit ball) legal in professional baseball. (My Dad would get a kick out of this one being a lifelong baseball fan)
1960…Civil Rights marchers in Selma, Alabama were broken up in the Bloody Sunday confrontation.
1988…Pitcher, Jim Abbott, won the James E. Sullivan award. Abbott was noted for only having one arm.
1994…The US Navy allowed women on combat ships for the first time
Some famous people born on my Dad’s birthday…I used the biography.com and Wikipedia to locate this information.
1671…Rob Roy MacGregor
1693…Pope Clement XIII
1849…Luther Burbank
1875…Maurice Ravel
1934…Willard Scott
1938…Janet Guthrie
1942…Michael Eisner
1961…Wanda Sykes
I found four famous people found on his exact birthday…
Actor, James Broderick
French singer and actor, Phillipe Clay
Canadian author, Jean-Paul Desbiens
Belgian businessman, Henri Landwirth
There was a lot going on in my Dad’s lifetime, that’s for sure!
One of the two baby photos of my Dad that survived. Oakland, ca 1927
