Twenty-Eight

Care to venture a guess as to what Tim Brown, Bob Dole, Meghan W., John Leguizamo, Keyshawn Johnson, Willem Defoe, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Alex Trebek, Selena Gomez and David Spade all have in common?

We were all born on July 22, of course!

Today is my 28th birthday, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Of course, Eric has spent the last few weeks going on and on about how incredibly old 28 really is (let's see how you feel about that come December 1st, pal!), but I'm feeling good. This afternoon Eric is taking me for a delicious lunch at Sushi Yasuda, and then tonight we'll be getting ready for our trip to Cleveland tomorrow! I'm very excited about both.

In addition to looking up celebrities who share my birthday, I also checked out what historical events happened on this day. Some of what I found was pretty interesting, and some was pretty depressing. In addition to my birth, these are some other things that have happened on July 22 over the course of time:

• 1298: King Edward I of England and his men defeated William Wallace and the Scots at the Battle of Falkirk
• 1686: The city of Albany, New York was officially chartered
• 1775: George Washington took command of U.S. troops
• 1796: Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company named an area in Ohio "Cleveland" after Gen. Moses Cleveland, the superintendent of the surveying party (Yeah! Go Cleveland! We share a birthday!)
• 1918: 504 sheep were killed by lightning in Utah's Wasatch National Park (I had to include this one because it is so totally random)
• 1934: Outside Chicago's Biograph Theater, "Public Enemy #1" John Dillinger was mortally wounded by FBI agents
• 1937: U.S. Senate rejected Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to enlarge the Supreme Court
• 1942: The U.S. began compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to wartime demands. Also, the systematic deportation of Jews from Warsaw to extermination camps began.
• 1967: Atlanta Braves used a record 5 pitchers in the ninth inning
• 1982: The biggest mass wedding in history took place in New York City (surprised?) - 2, 200 couples! Also, yours truly was born! This day rocked.
• 1990: Phil Mickelson won the U.S. Amateur Championship
• 1991: Jeffrey Dahmer confessed to killing 21 men in 1978
• 1994: O.J. Simpson pleaded "absolutely 100% not guilty" of murder
• 2003: Members of the 101st Airborne killed Sadam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay in Iraq
• 2009: The longest solar eclipse in history (6 minutes, 38 seconds) took place over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean

Was I right? Some interesting events, some depressing, and even some random (504 sheep hit by lighting? What??). Thanks for the info, Wikipedia!

Regardless of what else may have happened on this day in history, I just have to say thanks to my mom for giving birth to me on this day 28 years ago! And thanks to all of my wonderful family and friends for making my 28 years so great. I'm so lucky to be where I am and to have all of you in my life. Now let's get started on year 29!