#52Stories, Week 27, What do you know about the day that you were born ? What stories have you been told about your birth ?

Well, I know which day I was born, and I know which day of the week it was. But I don’t know too much about the day itself.

September – so early spring – but whether it was filled with sunshine and blue skies or cool breezes and spring showers, I don’t know.

Friday’s child is loving and giving. Did my parents have plans for the weekend ? Or were they just planning on waiting for me to show up ?

What global, national or local events were happening ? Sadly in New Zealand the papers from that day haven’t been digitised yet, so all I can do is try to find something more global. It can’t have been anything too momentous or I think I would have heard about it. I know for example on the day my brother was born, that the Berlin Wall construction was completed. So if Mum remembered that from the day he was born maybe the news of the day on my birthday was inconsequential.

So from the wonderful world of the interweb :

·         Duke Ellington won Springarn Medal for his musical achievements

·         US Congress passed a bill authorising food stamps for poor Americans

·         Elroy Face’s 22 game win streak ends as Dodgers beat Pirates 5-4

·         Oriole Jerry Walker pitches 16 inn beating White Sox 1-0

·         Dwight D Eisenhower was President of the US

·         Harold McMillan was Prime Minister of Great Britain

·         Walter Nash was Prime Minister of New Zealand

·         Keith Holyoake was the Leader of the Opposition

·         Viscount Cobham was Governor-General

·         Denis Rogers became Mayor of Hamilton (Dove=Myer Robinson became Mayor of Auckland and Frank Kitts was Mayor of Wellington)

·         Auckland Harbour Bridge had been open for 3 months

·         The British Lions were on tour – the AB’s won of course ! 18-17, 11-8, 22-8 before the Lions won the 4^th match 9-6. Wilson Whineray and Colin Meads were young All Blacks

·         The new Wellington airport opened at Rongotai

·         New Zealand and 11 other countries active in Antarctic during the Geophysical Year signed the Antarctic Treaty

·         Turners and Growers announced that it would now export the Chinese gooseberry under the name “kiwifruit”

·         The first discovery of gas at Kapuni was made

·         The New Zealand Broadcasting Service made the country’s first experimental television broadcast from the roof of the 1YA studio in Shortland Street, Auckland

·         Bruce Mason’s one man play “The end of the golden weather” was debuted

·         Stirling Moss and Jack Brabham raced for the chequered flag in the New Zealand Grand Prix at Ardmore in front of 80000 people. Moss won. Bruce McLaren came 3^rd.

·         President Eisenhower was preparing for the visit to the US of Nikita Khrushchev

·         Living Doll by Cliff Richard & the Drifters was #1 in the UK and

·         The Three Bells by The Browns was #1 in the US

There you have it – not everything happened on my birthday – but in the end it was a pretty good list of things for the year.