Frivolity

The birthday game (via The Mumpsimus): three events, two births, one death on your birthday, with help from Wikipedia.

July 21:

3 events

1865 - In the market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots Dave Tutt dead in what is regarded as the first true western showdown.

1925 - Scopes Trial: In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in class and fined $100.

1969 - Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin become the first men to walk on the Moon.

2 births

1899 - Ernest Hemingway, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1961)

1911 - Marshall McLuhan, Canadian author (d. 1980)

(and I could have also had Isaac Stern, Don Knotts, Kenneth Starr, Cat Stevens, Garry Trudeau or--the one that always pops up in horoscopes--Robin Williams--lots of choices....)

1 death

1967 - Basil Rathbone, English actor (b. 1892)