Creative waste of time

I swore I'd get some writing done without blogging.
Now I'm blogging and not even really writing.
I found this at Rene's blog (she found it at Tori's) and so on...


Go to Wiki and list three "fun" things, two birthdays and one death that happened on your birthday:

(My birthday isn't one of those that passes quietly in this nation. You all may have heard or seen this date in a history book at some point. While I share a birthday with Ron Kovic, our birthday is the title of his memoir and movie so I thought I could put others on my list below.)

July 4
1803 - The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
1827 - Slavery is abolished in New York State.
1950 - First broadcast by Radio Free Europe.

I've listed two birthdates but three names. As Ann and Pauline are twins, it is still the same day
1804 - Nathaniel Hawthorne, American writer (d. 1864)
1918 - Ann Landers, American advice columnist (d. 2002)
1918 - Pauline Phillips (Abigail Van Buren), American advice columnist and twin sister to Ann Landers

The rules say list one death but, as above, I've listed two people who died on the same day.
1826 - John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, died. (On the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence)