Today is my 40th birthday!  In honor of that event and to celebrate the fact that I’m taking this milestone age fairly well (in that I’m not hiding under my bed or rocking in the corner…), I thought it would be fun to see what other people, things and events occurred in 1969:

• According to Wikipedia, I share my birthdate with Australian actress Angela Vincent and Austrailian rugby player Michael Hancock.  (I’ve never heard of either of them.  But in their defense, they probably haven’t heard of me, either.)  
• Woodstock (the music festival – not Snoopy’s pal) was held 40 years ago. 
• Interestingly, the day I was born was also the day Jack Kerouac died.   I’m pretty sure one thing has nothing to do with the other, but just in case, I would like to extend an apology to all the beat poets out there in the world who may blame me.
• Nixon became the 37th President of the United States.  (Yeah, yeah, I know, but he’s also responsible for the panda bears and cherry blossoms.)
• The first GAP store opened and poor college students everywhere learned to fold T-shirts and hoodies.
• It’s my birthday year so I get to completely ignore the Charles Manson murders, Vietnam War and the scientific theory that this was the year AIDS came to the US.
• A car goes off the road on a tiny Massachusetts island that no one ever heard of before.  A girl dies.  A man proves he really sucks in a crisis, but will later demonstrate his strength lies in the long haul.  Everyone in the world becomes familiar with a place called Chappaquiddick.
• Sesame Street and Scooby-Doo both debuted!  That’s right – I am the same age as Big Bird, Scooby, Grover, Velma, Oscar the Grouch, Daphne, Bert and Ernie.  Not bad company to keep.
• Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid was released which very well may explain my obsession with both westerns and buddy movies.
• Mario Puzo published The Godfather, and the mafia/mobster genre is born.
• Dave Thomas opened the first Wendy’s restaurant and probably heard for the first of many times, “Dude, seriously, who’s going to eat that?  It’s square.”
• The Eagle landed and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.  Beat that, 1970.