PERSONAL STATISTICS

My name is Maggie Hos-McGrane. I was born on Thursday 26th March 1959 and was given the name Margaret after my grandmother, my father's mother. The name Margaret comes from the Latin word meaning "a pearl". (At that time, of course, I was Margaret McGrane, the Hos got added later when I married my husband who is Dutch. We live in Holland and it is quite usual for a married woman to have both her maiden name and her married name.) I am a 5th Grade teacher at the International School of Amsterdam. When I calculated my age in days, on 24th September 1999, I was 14792 days old (40 years). I was born just after a full moon and, interestingly enough, so were many students in my class!

SHARED BIRTHDAYS

Some famous people I share a birthday with are: Diana Ross the singer, who is 15 years older than me, A. E. Housman, the English poet and Robert Frost, the New England poet. Also born on 26th March were Tennessee Williams the playwright and author Erica Jong. I was also interested to find out that Leonard Nimoy (Spock in "Star Trek") and James Caan also share my birthday.

EVENTS OCCURRING ON MY BIRTHDAY

Historical Events. Historic events which occurred on my birthday include the death of Ludwig van Beethoven who died in Vienna, Austria in 1827 and the death of the poet Walt Whitman in 1892. It was also the day that East Pakistan proclaimed its independence, taking the name Bangladesh. Probably the most important event to take place on my birthday was in 1979 when the Camp David peace treaty was signed by Israeli Prime Miniser Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. This was 37 years to the day after the first Jews were boarded on trains for the Auschwitz concentration camp where eventually 2 million Jews, hundreds of thousands of Gypsies, and thousands of Polish political prisoners and Russian prisoners of war perished. Also on my birthday in 1992 the former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was sentenced to six years in prison for raping a Miss Black America contestant, and in 1997 39 members of the Heaven's Gate techno religous cult committed suicide inside a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California. The cult members believed that by committing suicide they would enter an alien spacecraft hidden behind the comet Hale-Bopp to prevent human detection, and thereafter they would pass through Heaven's Gate into a higher existence.

Entertainment--MusicPopular songs from the year I was born include Bobby Darin's "Dream Lover", "Lonely Boy" by Paul Anka, "A Big Hunk O'Love" by Elvis Presley, "Mack the Knife" by Bobby Darin and "There Goes My Baby" by the Drifters. In the week I was born Eddie Cochran entered the 1959 charts with "C'mon Everybody" his last top 40 hit. Chart toppers in different years included Perry Como with "Wanted" and Doris Day with "Secret Love" in 1954, and "Walk like a Man" by the Four Seasons in 1963. I remember very well the hits from 1972, the year I became a teenager. They included "A Horse with No Name" by America, "Without You" by Nilsson, "Mother and Child Reunion" by Paul Simon and "Keep on Loving You" by REO Speedwagon. Other musical events in the week I was born include the Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" which caused enough publicity to get Rubin "Hurricane" Carter released from jail in 1976, and the marriage of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley in 1985.

EVENTS OCCURRING ON MY BIRTHDAY

Entertainment--Film The best movie of the year 1959 was "Ben-Hur", and not surprisingly the best actor was the star of "Ben-Hur", Charlton Heston. Biblical movies were very popular in the 1950s. My parents were at the cinema watching "The Ten Commandments" when my mother went into labour with me. This was quite unexpected as I was born two months early! Other great movies from 1959 include: "The Diary of Anne Frank", "The Nun's Story", "Room at the Top" and "Some Like it Hot" starring Maralyn Monroe. Walt Disney also released "Sleeping Beauty" that year.

Entertainment--TelevisionIt's hard to know what people were watching on television in England in the 1950s because not many people had televisions. 1959 did see the beginnings of the TV series "Whack-O!", a comedy set in a rather tatty public school and in the 1960s I remember shows like "Dixon of Dock Green", "Steptoe and Son" and "Till Death Us Do Part" Another big hit in the 1960s was "Not Only ... But Also" starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. I can also vaguely remember "The Lucy Show" and "The Dick Van Dyke Show". We didn't have a television until I was about five or six years old, but I can remember going to friends houses and watching chilren's TV programmes such as "Andy Pandy" and "The Woodentops" which came on at lunchtimes in a "Watch with Mother" slot. A children's programme I remember very well from the late 1960s was called "Lost In Space". I remember writing to the actors and receiving signed photos!

NOSTALGIA

Barbie dolls were introduced in 1959, the year I was born. I can remember playing with these as a little girl. Also Hula Hoops were a craze in the early 1960s. Another popular toy we played with as children was the Etch-a-Sketch which sold more than one hundred million! My mother still has our old one at home, and now my children play with it! It was also interesting to find out that the "Game of Life" was invented by Reuben Klammer in the year I was born. We have the Dutch version of this game today and my children still like to play it!

SUMMARY / EVALUATION