On this day in 1957,
A magnitude 9.1 earthquake shook the Andreanof Islands in Alaska, the second strongest quake in U.S. history (although Alaska would not become the 49th state until more than a year later), generating a tsunami that hit the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
Harry Belafonte's Banana Boat (Day-O) was number 6 on the Cashbox Top 50 music charts.
Faith Daniels, former news anchor (CBS-TV), and Jon Engen Oslo Norway, US biathlete (Olympics-1994) were born.
And, sharing the birthdate with them is our own PZ Myers of Pharyngula and the University of Minnesota at Morris.
Happy 50th birthday, Professor Myers!
See a list of everyone else's birthday wishes at linkfests hosted by GrrlScientist, Coturnix, and Archy.
Now, PZ just has to work on getting the $10,000 to $30,000 speaking appearance fee commanded by Daniels.
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That earthquake: really not my fault. Literally. I was born on the Seattle Fault. If you want to blame me for the subduction of the Juan de Fuca plate, you might be able to make the case, but I was nowhere near Alaska on that day. My mom will back me up on that.
Not that I was faulting you, PZ.
Given Dawkins' poem, I tried to come up with some poetic tie-in to the earthquake and your birth, but only found Walt Whitman's, "Earth, My Likeness!":
Earth, my likeness,
Though you look so impassive, ample and spheric there,
I now suspect that is not all;
I now suspect there is something fierce in you eligible to burst forth,
For an athlete is enamour'd of me, and I of him,
But toward him there is something fierce and terrible in me eligible to burst forth,
I dare not tell it in words, not even in these songs.