Missed it by that much.

At midnight last night, it stopped being John Moses Browning's birthday and started being mine. I almost had a really cool birthday co-celebrant.

However, I do share a birthday with Hadrianus Augustus, Frederick the Great, Edith Wharton, Ernst Heinkel, Generalfeldmarschall Model, Oral Roberts, Warren Zevon, John Belushi, and Natassja Kinski. (Oral Bob and Bluto Blutarsky on the same day? That should tell you everything you need to know about the predictive power of astrology.)

In this age of internet fora, you are reminded that it is your birthday when your email inbox explodes with birthday greetings from every VBulletin or UBB forum at which you have ever registered. I had forgotten some of those places still existed, but I would like to assure at least two of them that, yes, I was prepared for Y2K.

According to Wikipedia, on this date in 1986, Voyager 2 passed within 81,500 kilometers of Uranus. (God bless Bill Herschel for that.) Also, the first Mac went on sale in 1984. And on this date in 2011 2012*, I believe I'll have an omelet at Cafe Pretenchou for breakfast.

*Obviously we are still in the month of Nonuary, which is defined as that period of time between the first day of the new year and the last day you accidentally write the old year on a check.
†Wanna drive someone with OCD crazy? Put a footnote down here without a referent in the body of text above.