Now I am (no longer) Six

Another one has come and gone.

A lovely dinner at Adam's Cafe in Lower Hutt on Sunday evening. A 'surprise' which wasn't entirely, but a lovely evening nonetheless.

A lovely bottle of port, some music, books, balloons, oh, and a dinosaur called Bert.

And then Charlotte sent me a list of things that happened on my birthday:

Events

• 1085 – Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo, Spain back from the Moors.
• 1420 – Henry the Navigator is appointed governor of the Order of Christ.
• 1521 – The Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw.
• 1659 – Richard Cromwell resigns as Lord Protector of England following the restoration of the Long Parliament, beginning a second brief period of the republican government called the Commonwealth of England.
• 1738 – A treaty between Pennsylvania and Maryland ends the Conojocular War with settlement of a boundary dispute and exchange of prisoners.
• 1787 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates convene a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States; George Washington presides.
• 1809 – Chuquisaca Revolution: a group of patriots in Chuquisaca (modern day Sucre) revolt against the Spanish Empire, starting the South American Wars of Independence.
• 1810 – May Revolution: citizens of Buenos Aires expel Viceroy Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros during the May week, starting the Argentine War of Independence.
• 1837 – The Patriots of Lower Canada (Quebec) rebel against the British for freedom.
• 1878 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera H.M.S. Pinafore opens at the Opera Comique in London.
• 1895 – Playwright, poet, and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons" and sentenced to serve two years in prison.
• 1895 – The Republic of Formosa is formed, with Tang Ching-sung as its president.
• 1914 – The United Kingdom's House of Commons passes the Home Rule Act for devolution in Ireland.
• 1925 – Scopes Trial: John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
• 1935 – Jesse Owens of Ohio State University breaks five world records and ties a sixth at the Big Ten Conference Track and Field Championships in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• 1936 – The Remington Rand strike, led by the American Federation of Labor, begins.
• 1938 – Spanish Civil War: The bombing of Alicante takes place, with 313 deaths.
• 1940 – World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk begins.
• 1953 – Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conduct their first and only nuclear artillery test.
• 1953 – The first public television station in the United States officially begins broadcasting as KUHT from the campus of the University of Houston.
• 1961 – Apollo program: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of the Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the Moon" before the end of the decade.
• 1963 – In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Organisation of African Unity is established.
• 1979 – Six-year-old Etan Patz disappears from the street just two blocks away from his New York home, prompting an International search for the child, and causing President Ronald Reagan to designate May 25th as National Missing Children's Day (in 1983).
• 1982 – HMS Coventry is sunk during the Falklands War.
• 2000 – Liberation Day of Lebanon. Israel withdraws its army from most of the Lebanese territory after 22 years of its first invasion in 1978.
• 2009 – North Korea allegedly tests its second nuclear device. Following the nuclear test, Pyongyang also conducted several missile tests building tensions in the international community.

Births

• 1048 – Emperor Shenzong of Song China (d. 1085)
• 1334 – Emperor Sukō, Japanese Pretender (d. 1398)
• 1458 – Mahmud Begada, Sultan of Gujarat (d. 1511)
• 1606 – Charles Garnier, French Jesuit missionary (d. 1649)
• 1713 – John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1792)
• 1725 – Samuel Ward, American politician (d. 1776)
• 1803 – Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist and playwright (d. 1873)
• 1803 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and philosopher (d. 1882)
• 1865 – John Mott, American YMCA leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (d. 1955)
• 1878 – Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, American tap dancer and actor (d. 1949)
• 1879 – Lord Beaverbrook, Canadian-born British publisher (d. 1964)
• 1886 – Philip Murray, Scottish-born American labor leader (d. 1952)
• 1886 – Rash Behari Bose, Indian revolutionary leader against the British Raj (d. 1945)
• 1889 – Igor Sikorsky, Russian-American inventor and aviation pioneer (d. 1972)
• 1892 – Josip Broz Tito, Yugoslav resistance leader and later Prime Minister and President (d. 1980)
• 1908 – Theodore Roethke, American poet (d. 1963)
• 1913 – Richard Dimbleby, British journalist and broadcaster (d. 1965)
• 1921 – Hal David, American lyricist and songwriter
• 1927 – Robert Ludlum, American writer (d. 2001)
• 1936 – Tom T. Hall, American singer and songwriter
• 1938 – Raymond Carver, American writer (d. 1988)
• 1939 – Ian McKellen, English actor
• 1944 – Frank Oz, English-born puppeteer and director
• 1956 – Sugar Minott, Jamaican reggae singer
• 1958 – Paul Weller, British musician (The Jam, The Style Council)
• 1959 – Julian Clary, British television personality
• 1963 – Mike Myers, Canadian actor and comedian
• 1969 – Anne Heche, American actress
• 1976 – Cillian Murphy, Irish actor
• 1979 – Jonny Wilkinson, English rugby player
• 1986 – Geraint Thomas, Welsh cyclist

Deaths

• 615 – Pope Boniface IV (b. c. 550)
• 709 – Aldhelm, English Christian saint, Latin poet and Anglo-Saxon literature scholar (b. c. 639)
• 735 – The Venerable Bede, English historian and monk (b. 672 or 673)
• 967 – Murakami, Emperor of Japan (b. 926)
• 992 – Mieszko I first lord and knight of Poland, duke of Polans (b. c. 935)
• 1085 – Pope Gregory VII (b. c. 1020)
• 1261 – Pope Alexander IV
• 1452 – John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury
• 1555 – King Henry II of Navarre (b. 1503)
• 1681 – Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Spanish playwright (b. 1600)
• 1789 – Anders Dahl, Swedish botanist (b. 1751)
• 1805 – William Paley, English philosopher (b. 1743)
• 1849 – Benjamin d'Urban, British general and colonial administrator (b. 1777)
• 1934 – Gustav Holst, English composer (b. 1874)
• 1954 – Robert Capa, Hungarian-born photojournalist (b. 1913)
• 1977 – Yevgenia Ginzburg, Russian writer (b. 1904)
• 1983 – Idris I, King of Libya (b. 1889)
• 2006 – Desmond Dekker, Jamaican ska musician (b. 1941)
  
  

But, after all, AA Milne taught me all I know about growing up: