Little Known Birthday Facts

In honor of the 200th birthdays of both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin on 2/15/09, I thought I would add 10 more candles and facts....not that any of us OGR'er need more wax and flame.......

1. On average 5 percent of babies are born on their due date.




2. Did you know that a person born on Feb. 29 is a "leaper" and celebrates every 4 years? Actor Dennis Farina and serial killer Aileen Wuornos share the date. It is also the fictional birthday of SUPERMAN!






3. William Shakespeare is rumored to have died on his birthday, but like other myths it is unconfirmed. A few though, had the ultimate "bummer birthday", actress Ingrid Bergman, Cubs greats Joe Tinker and Gabby Hartness, feminist Betty Friedan, talk-host and Wheel of Fortune guru, Mike Douglas and actor, John Banner who played Sgt. Schultz in "Hogan's Heroes".

4. On March 30, 1852 VanGogh's first child, Vincent was stillborn. Exactly one year later, Anna VanGogh gave birth to another son, named him Vincent. He became one of the world's most famous artists.

5. In 1965 whose birthday cake featured a plastic hypodermic needle on top of it?
President Lyndon Johnson. To symbolize the passage of the Medicare Act.

6. A husband and wife who share the same birthday and year?
Christo, the artist who decorated the sites of Germany's Reichstag and New York's Central Park and his wife Jeanne-Claude de Guillebon.

7. We all remember the sultry "Happy Birthday" song Marilyn Monroe sang to President John Kennedy in front of a crowd of 15,000 at Madison Square Garden while wearing a dress so tight she had to be sewn into it.

Few probably remember the joke made by Peter Lawford, Kennedy's brother-in-law, about Marilyn's belated entrance at the '62 gala birthday. He called her "the late Marilyn Monroe".
That remark took on a eerie memory when she died less than 3 months later.

8. The Farrell restaurant chain would collect names, birthdays and addresses of its kid clientele to present them free ice cream on their special day. Eric and Gregg Hentel of Palo Alto, Calif. made up names to get extra helpings of ice cream. Years later, the Draft used this ice cream list to track down 18 yr. old men for enlistment. The Farrell family was outraged to learn that a mailing list broker sold its list without their permission and the government was forced to dump 167,000 customer names from its files. In 1973, Farrell sold his 55 store chain of ice cream parlors to the Marriott Corporation, but remained as its spokesperson and developed a speech for new employees called Give 'em the Pickle!, based on a letter he received from a disappointed customer.

9. The children of Heath and Deborah Campbell were seized by New Jersey authorities over a dispute over a birthday cake. Heath Campbell requested the baker decorate a cake with "Happy Birthday Adolph Hitler" for his 3 yr. old son, Adolph Hitler Campbell. The baker said NO. The heavy publicity, forced children and family service authorities to check the treatment of Adolph and his younger sisters, Joyce Lynn Aryan Nation and Honszlynn Hinler Jean. All three were taken away.

10. A June, 2001 birthday party honoring the wife of then Tyco International Chairman Dennis Kozlowski broke the record. Held in Sardinia, at a cost of $2 million and half of the cost was billed to the company. It included an ice sculpture of Michelangelo's David with Stolichnaya vodka pouring out of David's most private appendage. Kozlowski was later imprisoned for misuse of company funds. To bad no laws prevailed to prosecute his bad taste.

A toast from Winnie to all our OGR birthday boomers...
"Sto lat" (One Hundred Years) of good wishes, good health and long life!!!
Now blow out the candles before the fire department arrives.