Today Is My Birthday

     

Tucson Weather Today

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"Two things happen when you get to be old. One, you gather experience and knowledge. You learn from your mistakes, and thereby offer wisdom to others. The second thing that happens is that you grow forgetful, ornery and senile, and when you offer advice, well, you sometimes just don't know what you're talking about."
--Camron Wright,

Today I turned into a 75-year-old. I hate viewing myself in photographs because I do not see myself as I appear to my eyes in the mirror, and especially as I see myself in my imagination. Nowadays my image in photos reminds me of my maternal grandfather. Good God! I truly look like Grandpa Morris looked throughout his final few years.

Actually, I never thought I'd make it this far. I remember that, for most of my teenage years I often swore (loudly and boastfully) that I would never see 30. And I sincerely believed that to be a fact.

Born in Rensselaer, Indiana in 1939, around the time that Adolph Hitler decided to invade Poland, I grew up to become a real wild child - a young, careless, thrill-seeking, authority-hating, and extremely dangerous mush-brained rebel... who was stupidly granted at the age of 16 a valid but potentially lethal driver's license.

Statistically speaking, I should never have survived my teen years.

But, somehow, I did.

WOW!

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Historical Events

On this day, May 19, in 1967 one of the first major treaties designed to limit the spread of nuclear weapons went into effect as the Soviet Union ratifies an agreement banning nuclear weapons from outer space. The United States, Great Britain, and several dozen other nations had already signed and/or ratified the treaty. With the advent of the so-called "space race" between the United States and the Soviet Union, which had begun in 1957 when the Russians successfully launched the Sputnik satellite, some began to fear that outer space might be the next frontier for the expansion of nuclear weapons.

The agreement was yet another step toward limiting nuclear weapons. In 1959, dozens of nations, including the United States and the Soviet Union, had agreed to ban nuclear weapons from Antarctica. With the action taken in May 1967, outer space was also officially declared off-limits for nuclear weapons.

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Word Definition

hygroscopic
adjective
absorbing or attracting moisture from the air.

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Other People Born May 19th, 1939

Francis Richard "Dick" Scobee

(May 19, 1939 - January 28, 1986)

Dick Scobee was an American astronaut. He was killed commanding the Space Shuttle Challenger, which suffered catastrophic booster failure during launch of the STS-51-L mission.

Nancy "Ka Shen" Kwan

(born May 19, 1939)

Nancy Kwan is a Hong Kong-born, biracial American actress (Flower Drum Song, World of Suzie Wong) who played a pivotal role in the acceptance of actors of Asian ancestry in major Hollywood film roles.

Tomasz Sikorski

(May 19, 1939 - 12 Nov 1988)

Tomasz Sikorski was a Polish composer and pianist.

James Fox

(born 19 May 1939)

James Fox is an English actor. He first appeared on film in The Miniver Story in 1950. In 1964, he won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his role in The Servant (1963). He had roles in films such as Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), King Rat (1965), The Chase (1966), Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), Isadora (1968), and Performance (1970, alongside Mick Jagger),

Another Person Born May 19

(but not in 1939)

Johns Hopkins

(May 19, 1795 – Dec 24, 1873)

Johns Hopkins was an American entrepreneur, abolitionist and philanthropist of 19th-century Baltimore, Maryland. His bequests founded numerous institutions, including Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

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"As my late mother famously observed, the one thing to be said for growing old is that every year there are a few more things I don’t have to give a rat’s ass about."
--Lawrence Block

This Is Who I Am