My Birthday Month

This is my birthday month, my 40th birthday month.

My birthday falls towards the front of the month, but the party we're organising isn't till nearly the end, so I've decided to make it a birthday month.

And why not! I'm not going to crawl away and hide under my bed as one person turning 40 this month has suggested they'll do. No, God has blessed me with many friends over 40 and they all tell me I'm so young. Yes, my youth years are behind me, but I have, Lord willing, many good years left ahead. I might as well celebrate the 40 years God's given me thus far.

So I started my month by having a look at what else happened 40 years ago (some of these are for this month, others are for the year). It's quite a list, so I'll only give you the more interesting ones:

• The first handheld cellular phone call was my by Martin Cooper in New York City.
• The World Trade Centre was officially opened.
• The Watergate scandal erupted.
• The town of Antelope, California ceased to exist after 6,000 bombs detonated over 18 hrs in a railway yard.
• A dozen eggs cost 45c in the US.
• Some popular musicians this year: Stevie Wonder, ABBA, John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Rolling Stones.
• Some popular TV shows: M*A*S*H, The Waltons, Are you Being Served, The Price is Right.
• Elvis Presley's "Aloha from Hawaii" TV special was seen around the world by more than 1 billion people.

In Australia:

Prime Minister was Gough Whitlam.

The population was 13,303,664.

Joh Bjelke-Petersen was premier of Queensland, my home state.

The Federal voting age was lowered from2 1 to 18 only weeks before I was born.

Later in the year when I was six months old the Sydney Opera House was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.

There is quite a list of Australian sports people who were born that year, including Olympic Gold medal winner runner Cathy Freeman (with whom I participated in a relay race in high school, I can't remember which team won). Two other Olympic Gold medal winning swimmers, Susie O'Neill and Keiren Perkins were also born in the same year. I met Susie over morning tea when she was engaged to a doctor at the small rural hospital I was working at in 2006. Steven Bradbury, speed skater, famous for winning Australia's first Winter Olympics Gold medal, by default as the last man standing! Louise Sauvage was a dominant wheelchair athlete who also one many Olympic medals and a number of marathons too.

In Japan:

On the 1st of April that year Japan allowed its citizens to own gold!

The Jackson 4 performed at the Tokyo Imperial Theatre in Tokyo on April 4th.

In 1973 Japan's Rugby Union team toured England, Wales, and France. They won two of their 11 matches.

Anpanman, a very popular children's series, was first written in 1973. In 1988 it was broadcast as anime on TV and hasn't been off the air since then.