Saturday, June 12, 2021

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: What Happened on Your Mother's Birth Date?

I like this Saturday Night Genealogy Fun topic already, because I know one great answer to one of the questions.

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along; cue the Mission:  Impossible! music!):

(1)
What day was your mother born?  Where was she born?  What day of the week was it?  Tell us how you found out.

(2) What has happened in recorded history on your mother's birth date (day and month)?  Tell us how you found out and list five events.


(3) What famous people have been born on your mother's birth date?  Tell us how you found out and list five of them.

(4) Tell us about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook Status post.  Please leave a link in a comment to this post.

1.  My mother, Myra Roslyn (Meckler) Sellers Preuss, was born November 11, 1940 in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York (the same date and place as Barbara Boxer, although I don't know yet if it was the same hospital).  By using TimeAndDate.com, I confirmed that my memory was accurate and that my mother was born on a Monday.

2.  The most well known historical event thtat occurred on my mother's birth date is the armistice that officially ended World War I, which took place on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.  (Yes, my mother had that drilled into her children's heads very early.)

I thought that the Edmund Fitzgerald sank on November 11, but the Wikipedia page devoted to the ship has the date as November 10.  I don't remember from where I had the idea that it was the 11th.  Ah, well.

I searched for November 11 on Wikipedia to see what other interesting events did fall on that day.  Some that struck me:

In 1028, Constantine VIII, the emperor/co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire for 66 years, died.

In 1750, riots broke out in Lhasa after the murder of the Tibetan regent.

In 1831, Nat Turner was hung in Jerusalem, Virginia after inciting the well known slave uprising.

In 1880, the famous (infamous) Ned Kelly was hung at Melbourne Gaol in Victoria, Australia.

3.  You mean famous besides my mother and Boxer? :)  How about (gleaned from the same Wikipedia page):

Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, born in 1050

Charlotte of Savoy, French queen, born in 1441

Sikandar Jah, 3rd Nizam of Hyderabad State, born in 1766

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian author and philosopher, born in 1821

Taslim Olawale Elias, Nigerian academic and jurist, born in 1914

Although one must take into account which calendar was in use for historic events.  For example, in 1821 Russia was still using the Julian calendar (because it didn't change to the Gregorian until 1918).   According to PlanetCalc.com, November 11, 1821 on the Julian calendar was November 23 on the Gregorian calendar, while November 11 on the Gregorian calendar was October 30 on the Julian.  (Wikipedia appears to be using the Gregorian November 11 for Dostoevsky.)  Constantine VIII died, and Henry IV and Charlotte of Savoy were born, under the Julian calendar, because the Gregorian calendar did not yet exist.

5 comments:

  1. I hadn't thought about the different calendars. Good one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't remember what we had to read in high school, but I haven't thought about Dostoevsky since then!I just looked it up - both Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Loved this post :) And great point re double-dating...something we all need to keep in mind when doing our research in Europe, and the early Colonial period here in North America...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I think Wikipedia "regularizes" dates to the Gregorian, but in other countries different calendars are often in use, so if you find dates on other sites, it's something to check on. For example, I think the calendar that was being used in India in 1766 was the Fasli calendar.

      Delete

All comments on this blog will be previewed by the author to prevent spammers and unkind visitors to the site. The blog is open to everyone, particularly those interested in family history and genealogy.