On My Birthday

I have been tagged by Ali over at Dragons and Fairy Dust in a great new meme created Kate at The Five Fs. This asks a number of questions about the day on which you were born and invites you to add your post to her link-up. Kate has set herself the ambitious target of having a post for each day of the year and there are already a good number of really interesting responses. You  can answer the questions by searching for the date of your birthday into Wikiepedia or On This Day. As something of a trivia junkie this meme was right up my street, so here goes.

When is your birthday? 28th March

Pick three people who share your birthday and share what you know about them.
Lady Gaga - eccentric and very cool singer. Her real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta and she was born in New York. Some of her most famous songs include Poker Face, Telephone (with Beyonce) and Born this Way. I quite admire Lady Gaga, even though she is a bit bonkers. She is a strong woman who has the confidence to forge her own path in a music industry where assimilation seems to be more important than uniqueness. Am I allowed to feel a bit grumpy that she is 9 years younger than me?
Nick Frost - Simon Pegg's mate, a very funny man and star of Spaced (one of my all time favourite shows), Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. He was born in 1972, 5 years before me so is going to be celebrating a big birthday this year. 
Chris Barrie - of Red Dwarf and The Brittas Empire fame. Another very funny man. I only wish I shared the knack for comedy that the above two of my shared birthday men have.
Lots of other people share my birthday - Neil Kinnock (I always knew about this one growing up for some reason), Reba McEntire, Michael Parkinson, Mike Newell, Vince Vaughn, Julia Stiles and Scott Mills to name just a few.

Is anyone listed as being born on the same day as you (ie the same year)? If so, what do you know about them?
Erik Rasmussen, American ice hockey player
Lauren Weisberger, American novelist
Annie Wersching, American actress

 Lauren Weisberger wrote The Devil Wears Prada, I haven't read it but I quite enjoyed the film. Annie Wersching played Renee in the final two seasons 0f 24. Erik Rasmussen is, apparently, a retired ice hockey player. I'm quite impressed that I would actually recognise one of my 'twins' if I saw them in the street!

List three people who died on your birthday and tell us what you know about them. 
Virginia Woolf - on March 28th 1941 Virginia Woolf filled her pockets with stones and walked into the river near her home and drowned herself. I feel really sad that I share this date with her. I have both enjoyed, and studied, many of her novels in my life and hate that her depression led her to take her own life.
Maria von Trapp - yes, that Maria died at the ripe old age of 82 on my 10th birthday in 1987. You'll all be familiar with her story as Hollywood-ised by The Sound of Music but it might be worth reading her Wikipedia entry to find out the truth behind the musical.
Patrick Troughton - the second Doctor Who. He died on the same day as Maria von Trapp but was aged 67. Apparently he was the first man to play Robin Hood on TV too. 

List three notable events that took place on your birthday.
In 1939 Madrid fell to General Franco's army which led to the formal end of the Spanish Civil war 4 days later. Franco's regime would last until his death in 1975.
The nuclear power debate has always been a contentious one, with many good arguments for and against the use of this alternative power source. These arguments were brought into sharp focus by the events of my second birthday, 28th March 1979, when a nuclear reactor overheated at Three Mile Island in Pensylvania, USA, causing a partial meltdown. Obviously I wasn't aware of this aged 2 but, as a Geography student with a particular interest in energy resources I soon remedied this at university.
March 28th 2005 saw an earthquake devastate Sumatra, Indonesia. It measured 8.7 on the Richter Scale and was the 4th strongest recorded since 1965. Over 1300 people died as a result.

Tell us about a holiday that falls on your birthday.
Nothing major to report here. March 28th is the Christian feast day for the Saints Guntram, Priscus and Pope Sixtus III. In Japan they commemorate Sen no Rikyū (the historical figure regarded as having had the most impact upon the traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony) and in Tibet they celebrate Serf's Emancipation Day. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia it is Teacher's Day. As my birthday is at the end of March, when Easter is particularly early it can fall around my birthday, as can Mother's Day if Easter is late. Always nice to have time off work around your birthday!

I am tagging the following people to tell me (and Kate) what happened on your birthdays.
Coombe Mill
The Diary of a Lagos Mum
Trouble Doubled
Tiger Tales
This is Sarah, Mum of 3

If I haven't tagged you and you want to have a go, just remember to link up with Kate when you are done.