3.5 decades…

That’s how long I’ve been around as of 7am this morning. To celebrate my 35th year on earth I’ve decided to highlight some of the other significant historical events that occured on this date (courtesy of Wikipedia).

• 1775 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Lexington and Concord – British General Thomas Gage attempts to confiscate American colonists’ firearms. Captain John Parker orders his band of minutemen to not fire unless fired upon. Random shots rang out among the British soldiers. The minutemen promptly fired back. This was the “shot heard round the world.” The British are driven back to Boston, Massachusetts, thus beginning the American Revolutionary War.
• World War II: In Poland, German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
• The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in failure.
• The 50-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.
• Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168.

None of this is as important as the fact that on this day in 1971 I was born on my grandfather’s birthday.  He would have been 100 today.