What was going on when you were born ??

[wombat2u2004]

You'll be pleasantly surprised with this one... Click on the link, type the year of your birth!! Then click the question (?) mark!

A lot of information about the year you were born will 'type' on the screen. Many you have probably forgotten or never knew. Sit back and enjoy!!

http://whathappenedinmybirthyear.com/

[Roxyluvsme13]

I learned a lot of things I never knew even happened or existed! Thanks for this, Wom

[phesina]

World War II .. I was born 20 days after D-Day:

Operation Overlord, commonly known as D-Day, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The Allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland, in the largest amphibious military operation in history.


I'm waiting for the web page to get back to 1944 to find out what else was happening.. All it's telling me so far is what there WASN'T then.. no Google or Yahoo.. No PetOfTheDay even!

Michael Douglas, Diana Ross, and Rudy Guiliani were also born in 1944.

Thanks, Wom.. This is fascinating!

[Taz_Zoee]

I liked the facts it showed (and petoftheday!!). But I didn't like the underlying message it was sending. Did anyone else get that??

[Freedom]

Geez, Wom, Someone sent that to me about a week back, in an email. I do NOT recall the reference to Pet of the Day being in there! How'd you DO that? LOL

It's interesting. Covers the arts, science, politics and more. No matter what your interest, you get a flash back to how your field was back then.

Cindy, what undertone did you pick up????

[pomtzu]

I received a DVD a few years ago for my birthday, all about what was going on in the world and news headlines from the exact day that I was born. It was really interesting.

This link is pretty generalized to just cover some highlights of the whole year - and yes - I was wondering about that reference to PT also.

Hey phesina - 1944 was a darn good year - right??? Afterall, both of us were born then!!!!!

[Karen]

I am sure it looks at what server you came from to put "petoftheday.com" in there, that's all! Like I wouldn't know that .... some of it was pretty "duh - of course!"

[lvpets2002]

Well In 1959 == I was a Born Healthy Happy Baby Boomer..

Alaska was admitted as 49th State

Hawaii was admitted as 50th State

Dwight Eisenhower was President

Richard Nixon was Vice President

[Catty1]

I've replicated the typeout here for those who haven't gone to the link. I found it interesting.

In 1956, the world was a different place.

There was no Google yet. Or Yahoo. Or Petoftheday, for that matter.

In 1956, the year of your birth, the top selling movie was The Ten Commandments. People buying the popcorn in the cinema lobby had glazing eyes when looking at the poster.



Remember, that was before there were DVDs. Heck, even before there was VHS. People were indeed watching movies in the cinema, and not downloading them online. Imagine the packed seats, the laughter, the excitement, the novelty. And mostly all of that without 3D computer effects.

Do you know who won the Oscars that year? The academy award for the best movie went to Around the World in 80 Days. The Oscar for best foreign movie that year went to La Strada. The top actor was Yul Brynner for his role as King Mongkut of Siam in The King and I. The top actress was Ingrid Bergman for her role as Anna Koreff in Anastasia. The best director? George Stevens for Giant.

In the year 1956, the time when you arrived on this planet, books were still popularly read on paper, not on digital devices. Trees were felled to get the word out. The number one US bestseller of the time was Don't Go Near the Water by William Brinkley. Oh, that's many years ago. Have you read that book? Have you heard of it?

In 1956... The 1956 Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean resurface in the Soviet Union after being missing for 5 years. Nikita Khrushchev attacks the veneration of Joseph Stalin as a "cult of personality." The International Air Transport Association finalizes a draft of the Radiotelephony spelling alphabet for the International Civil Aviation Organization. Elvis Presley releases his first Gold Album titled Elvis Presley. The Broadway musical My Fair Lady opens in New York City. Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal sparking international condemnation. At age 48, Dutch boxer Bep van Klaveren contests his last match in Rotterdam. British diver Lionel Crabb dives into Portsmouth harbor to investigate a visiting Soviet cruiser and vanishes. Tunisia gains independence from France. Actress Marilyn Monroe marries playwright Arthur Miller.

That was the world you were born into. Since then, you and others have changed it.

The Nobel prize for Literature that year went to Juan Ramón Jiménez. The Nobel prize for physics went to John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain from the United States for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect. The sensation this created was big. But it didn't stop the planets from spinning, on and on, year by year. Years in which you would grow bigger, older, smarter, and, if you were lucky, sometimes wiser. Years in which you also lost some things. Possessions got misplaced. Memories faded. Friends parted ways. The best friends, you tried to hold on. This is what counts in life, isn't it?

The 1950s were indeed a special decade. The American economy is on the upswing. The cold war betwen the US and the Soviet Union is playing out throughout the whole decade. Anti-communism prevails in the United States and leads to the Red Scare and accompanying Congressional hearings. Africa begins to become decolonized. The Korean war takes place. The Vietnam War starts. The Suez Crisis war is fought on Egyptian territory. Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and others overthrow authorities to create a communist government on Cuba. Funded by the US, reconstructions in Japan continue. In Japan, film maker Akira Kurosawa creates the movies Rashomon and Seven Samurai. The FIFA World Cups are won by Uruguay, then West Germany, then Brazil.

Do you remember the movie that was all the rage when you were 15? Summer of '42. Do you still remember the songs playing on the radio when you were 15? Maybe it was One Bad Apple by The Osmonds. Were you in love? Who were you in love with, do you remember?

In 1956, 15 years earlier, a long time ago, the year when you were born, the song Memories Are Made of This by Dean Martin topped the US charts. Do you know the lyrics? Do you know the tune? Sing along.

(lyrics type out)

There's a kid outside, shouting, playing. It doesn't care about time. It doesn't know about time. It shouts and it plays and thinks time is forever. You were once that kid.

When you were 9, the movie Circus Angel was playing. When you were 8, there was Mary Poppins.

6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... it's 1956. There's TV noise coming from the second floor. Someone turned up the volume way too high. The sun is burning from above. These were different times. The show playing on TV is The Eddy Arnold Show. The sun goes down. Someone switches channels. There's Kraft Television Theater on now. That's the world you were born in.

Progress, year after year. Do you wonder where the world is heading towards? The technology available today would have blown your mind in 1956. Do you know what was invented in the year you were born? The Digital Clock. The Videotape Recorder.

(more lyrics type out)

In 1956, a new character entered the world of comic books: Batwoman. Bang! Boom! But that's just fiction, right? In the real world, in 1956, Carrie Fisher was born. And Geena Davis. Mickey Rourke, too. And you, of course. Everyone an individual. Everyone special. Everyone taking a different path through life.
It's 2011.

The world is a different place.

What path have you taken?

[happylabs]

I liked the facts it showed (and petoftheday!!). But I didn't like the underlying message it was sending. Did anyone else get that??

I had some trouble with the site. Maybe because of the filters here at work.

What was the underlying message?

[kittycats_delight]

I got that underlying tone. It was rather offensive in my opinion. It is done in a polite way but if you really READ what they are saying you can definitely detect it.

[phesina]

I received a DVD a few years ago for my birthday, all about what was going on in the world and news headlines from the exact day that I was born. It was really interesting.

This link is pretty generalized to just cover some highlights of the whole year - and yes - I was wondering about that reference to PT also.

Hey phesina - 1944 was a darn good year - right??? Afterall, both of us were born then!!!!!

Yes indeed!

[lizbud]

" There's Kraft Television Theater on now" I remember that show.
They always had great live plays with good actors & showed recipes
using Kraft cheese products during commercials.

ah, those were the days.

[cassiesmom]

1966 - I couldn't get the site Wom referenced to open, so I pulled this from Infoplease and the world online encyclopedia.
Medicare began on July 1 and Canada introduced a national earnings-related pension program.
Indira Gandhi was elected prime minister of India.
The Miranda v. Arizona case was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Warren. ("You have the right to remain silent...")
Richard Speck killed 8 nurses in Chicago.
Pope Paul VI and the Archbishop of Canterbury met in Rome - the first official meeting for 400 years between the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches.
Pampers introduced disposable diapers!

Best picture: A Man For All Seasons
Best musical at the Tony Awards: Man Of La Mancha
Record of the Year: "A Taste of Honey," Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" and Simon and Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence" were major record albums.
A U.S. first-class stamp cost 5 cents and gasoline in the U.S. averaged 32 cents a gallon.
The Orioles won the World Series and Montreal won the Stanley Cup.
Dr. Seuss' "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" was shown on television for the first time! That is still one of my very favorite Christmas stories.
Adam Sandler and David Schwimmer were born!
And I was born a few weeks preterm. I believe I was around a 33- or 34-weeker but my mom doesn't remember well anymore.

[wombat2u2004]

I do NOT recall the reference to Pet of the Day being in there! How'd you DO that? LOL

Magic