.... Nothing happened. It was my due date for Little L, but all was quiet. I remember thinking about how, for 9 months, we'd focused on July 17 like it was a date set in stone. Like we were planning a wedding or some other event that could be, well, predicted. And wondering, if it wasn't the 17th, what date would become the important one to remember for the rest of my days?I think July 20 is a good day for a birthday. Especially for a girl. Apparently there was some important women's history made on July 20. According to Wikipedia, on that date in 1921, Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson became the first woman to preside over the US House of Representatives. Five years later, a convention of the Methodist Church voted to allow women to become priests. In 1942 during World War II, the first unit of the Women's Army Corps began training in Des Moines, Iowa. 1960 saw Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) elect Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first elected female head of government. I would also rank it as a banner day for women (and men) that, on July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage.
And then, at 9:14 am July 20, 2008, Eleanor was born. She joined other notable July 20 births including: Alexander the Great (356BC), Gregor Mendel (1822), Sir Edmund Hillary (1919), Carlos Santana (1947), Stone Gossard (1966), Gisele Bündchen (1980), and Julianne Hough (1988)*.
Sorry, July 17. You had your chance!
*Recent years have been light on scientists and world leaders, and heavy on entertainment and sports. But maybe Eleanor will change that!
4 comments:
She's a Cancer - like me! According to my book entitled The Secret Language of Birthdays, Miss Eleanor joins other notables such as:
*Gerd Binning, a German Nobel Prize-winning physicist;
*Theodore Prostakoff, a musical prodigy;
*Lazlo Mokoloy-Nagy, a Hungarian constructionist painter, sculptor and decor designer,
and
*William Hammon, an epidemiologist who used gamma-globulin to prevent polio.
Pretty impressive company! :o) Happy (early) Birthday, Miss El!
Isn't it funny how specific details stick in our minds... like your due date... and now I'm never going to forget that Carlos Santana was born on the same day as your little one :)
(ps sorry I haven't looking in on your blog for so long - I now have my Macbook back, so expect a deluge of comments, blog posts and other such idiocy from me)
Gege: My sister had that book, too! It's nice to see some more excellent company for Eleanor:) And thanks for the birthday wishes!
Jonathan: Nice to have you back! I'm glad you FINALLY got your Internet access at home all cleared up--looking forward to more posts and comments!
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