Going down the rabbit hole

 It is my birthday today. 

Here are some things that happened on the very day I was born.

September 16, 1966 (Friday)[edit]

·         The Metropolitan Opera House opened at Lincoln Center in New York City with the world premiere of Samuel Barber's opera Antony and Cleopatra. I have a card of this event!

A Japanese freighter, the August Moon broke apart after striking a reef about 200 miles southeast of Hong Kong, after encountering heavy seas caused by Typhoon Elsie. However, all 44 crewmen were saved by helicopters dispatched from the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany, and taken to safety to the British frigate HMS Loch Fada.^[81] Ironically, 44 crewmen of the Oriskany would be killed the following month in an onboard fire.^[82]

·         The Canada–United States Automotive Products Agreement, signed on January 16, 1965, and commonly referred to as "The Auto Pact", came into effect, setting equal standards for the trade of automobiles and motor vehicle equipment.

·         U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Narciso Ramos signed the Ramos-Rusk Agreement, amending the terms of the 99-year leases that the United States had signed in 1947 for military bases in the Philippines. Under the terms of the pact, the remaining term of the leases was changed from 80 years to 25 years, and all leases would expire on September 16, 1991, rather than in the year 2046.

 ·         In South Vietnam, after national elections took place as scheduled for the constitutional revision, Buddhist leader Thích Trí Quang ended a 100-day hunger strike that had started after the government had crushed the Buddhist uprising in June. During that time, the 42 year old monk had gone from 130 pounds to only 68 pounds.

·         A British research expedition reported that it had found the bodies of 12 U.S. Navy officers whose plane had disappeared almost five years earlier. The Neptune P-2V had been lost after taking off from Keflavik airport in Iceland on January 12, 1962.^[87]

·         Died: Larry Bader, American amnesia victim who disappeared during a storm during a fishing trip in 1957, and assumed a new identity as "Fritz Johnson", serving as a news announcer and then a sports director for a Nebraska television station until he was rediscovered in 1965.

I AM 21,914 DAYS OLD = 60 YEARS TODAY 9/16/2026

Now for some happenings on other September 16th's. Some interesting, some maybe not. 

·  THE YEAR OF   307  Emperor Severus II is captured and imprisoned at Tres Tabernae. He is later executed (or forced to commit suicide) after Galerius unsuccessfully invades Italy.

·  1400 Owain Glyndŵr is declared Prince of Wales by his followers.

·  1620 Pilgrims set sail from England on the Mayflower.

·  1701 James Francis Edward Stuart, sometimes called the “Old Pretender”, becomes the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England and Scotland.

 ·  1776 American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Harlem Heights is fought.

·  1779 American Revolutionary War: The Franco-American Siege of Savannah begins.

·  1795 The first occupation by United Kingdom of Cape Colony, South Africa with the Battle of Hout Bay, after successive victories at the Battle of Muizenberg and Wynberg, after William V requested protection against revolutionary France’s occupation of the Netherlands.

·  1810 With the Grito de Dolores, Father Miguel Hidalgo begins Mexico’s fight for independence from Spain. Usually celebrated as Independence Day 9/16.

·  1812 The Fire of Moscow begins shortly after midnight and destroys three quarters of the city days later.

·  1863 Robert College of Istanbul-Turkey, the first American educational institution outside the United States, is founded by Christopher Robert, an American philanthropist.

·  1880 The Cornell Daily Sun prints its first issue in Ithaca, New York. The Sun is the nation’s oldest, continuously-independent college daily.

·  1893 Settlers make a land run for prime land in the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma.

·  1908 The General Motors Corporation is founded.

·  1919 The American Legion is incorporated.

·  1920 The Wall Street bombing: A bomb in a horse wagon explodes in front of the J. P. Morgan building in New York City killing 38 and injuring 400.

·  1940 World War II: Italian troops conquer Sidi Barrani.

·  1941 World War II: Concerned that Reza Shah Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, was about to ally his petroleum-rich empire with Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union invade Iran in late August and force the Shah to abdicate in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

·  1943 World War II: The Allied invasion of Italy concludes when Heinrich von Vietinghoff, commander of the German Tenth Army, orders his troops to withdraw from Salerno.

·  1945 World War II: The surrender of the Japanese troops in Hong Kong is accepted by Royal Navy Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt.

·  1947 Typhoon Kathleen hits Saitama, Tokyo and Tone River area, at least 1,930 killed.

·  1955 The military coup to unseat President Juan Perón of Argentina is launched at midnight.

·  1955 A Soviet Navy Zulu-class submarine becomes the first to launch a ballistic missile.

·  1959 The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City.

·  1961 The United States National Hurricane Research Project drops eight cylinders of silver iodide into the eyewall of Hurricane Esther. Wind speed reduces by 10%, giving rise to Project Stormfury.

·  1961 Typhoon Nancy, with possibly the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, makes landfall in Osaka, Japan, killing 173 people.

·  1963 Malaysia is formed from the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo (Sabah) and Sarawak. However, Singapore soon leaves this new country.

·  1966 The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City with the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s opera Antony and Cleopatra.

·  1970 King Hussein of Jordan declares military rule following the hijacking of four civilian airliners by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). This results in the formation of the Black September Palestinian paramilitary unit.

·  1975 Papua New Guinea gains independence from Australia.

·  1975 Cape Verde, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe join the United Nations.

·  1975 The first prototype of the Mikoyan MiG-31 interceptor makes its maiden flight.

·  1976 Armenian champion swimmer Shavarsh Karapetyan saves 20 people from a trolleybus that had fallen into a Yerevan reservoir.

·  1978 An earthquake measuring 7.5 to 7.9 on the Richter scale hits the city of Tabas, Iran killing about 25,000 people.

·  1980 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines join the United Nations.

·  1982 Lebanon War: The Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon takes place.

·  1987 The Montreal Protocol is signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion.

·  1990 The railroad between the People’s Republic of China and Kazakhstan is completed at Dostyk, adding a sizable link to the concept of the Eurasian Land Bridge.

·  1992 The trial of the deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega ends in the United States with a 40-year sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering.

·  1992 Black Wednesday: The pound is forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism by currency speculators and is forced to devalue against the German mark.

·  1994 The British government lifts the broadcasting ban imposed against members of Sinn Féin and Irish paramilitary groups in 1988.

·  2005 The Camorra organized crime boss Paolo Di Lauro is arrested in Naples, Italy.

·  2007  One-Two-GO Airlines Flight 269 carrying 128 crew and passengers crashes in Thailand killing 89 people.

·  2007  Mercenaries working for Blackwater Worldwide shoot and kill 17 Iraqis in Nisour Square, Baghdad; all criminal charges against them are later dismissed, however they are later tried and convicted of the crime.

·  2013  A gunman kills twelve people at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.

·  2014

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant launches its Kobani offensive against Syrian–Kurdish forces.

The number-one hit song in the U.S. on the day of my birth (actually the day after) was You Can’t Hurry Love by The Supremes as compiled by Billboard Hot 100 (September 17, 1966). 

Now for the rabbit hole thing. 

According to the internet there are close to 300 famous people that have a birthdate of 9/16.

I went down that hole and I have them all listed elsewhere. Some of the people definitely have trading cards, and I believe many more probably do. 

I plan on getting what I can for my birthday binder. That will be a time suck. But hey I'll probably enjoy most it.

Now I did actually get my 9/16 birthday people into binders. I have 3 three inch binders and one half that size. 

The first binder is predominantly Robin Yount (476), and then filled the back portion with Orel Hershiser (263). 

The second binder has Tim Raines (332), Tettleton (135), Hall (regrettably 82), Relaford (55), Grossman (60), Beckman (36). 

The rest of the birthday folks are in the third book.

I'll work on the other birth dates (for my daughters and grandson) throughout the rest of the year. That will get them up to date and on a book shelf.