Presidential/VP Birthday Trivia Report: Rat, Dragon, Ox and Horse, but no Pigs

REPUBLICANS

John Sidney McCain

Birthday information: Born Aug. 29, 1936, a Saturday. Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt was in his first term as U.S. president.

Astrological sign: Virgo

Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Rat

Five events on Aug. 29 throughout history:

1533: The last Incan King of Peru, Atahualpa, was executed by strangulation on orders from Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro.

1758: New Jersey Legislature forms first Indian reservation.

1886: The chef of Chinese Ambassador Li Hung-chang's invented chop suey in New York City.

1973: U.S. President NixonPresident Nixon ordered by Judge John Sirica to turn over the Watergate tapes. Nixon refused and appealed the order.

2005: Hurricane Katrina strikes Gulf Coast, killing nearly 2,000 people and displacing hundreds of thousands more.

Sarah Louise Palin

Birthday information: Born Feb. 11, 1964, a Tuesday, in Sandpoint, Idaho. Lyndon B. JohnsonLyndon B. Johnson was president, having succeeded an assassinated John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy less than three months before Palin’s birth.

Astrological sign: Aquarius

Chinese zodiac: Year of the Dragon

Five events on Feb. 11 throughout history:

1531: Henry VIII recognized as supreme head of Church in England

1812: The term "gerrymandering" had its beginning when the governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, signed a redistricting law that favored his party.

1916: Emma Goldman arrested in New York for lecturing on birth control in violation of the Comstock Law.

1957: The National Hockey League (NHL) Players Association was formed in New York City.

1993: Janet RenoJanet Reno was appointed to the position of U.S. attorney general by President Bill ClintonBill Clinton. She was the first female to hold the position.

DEMOCRATS

Barack Hussein Obama

Birthday information: Born Aug. 4, 1961, a Friday, in Honolulu, Hawaii. John F. Kennedy had been the U.S. president since January of that year.

Astrological sign: Leo

Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Ox

Five events on Aug. 4 throughout history:

1735: Freedom of the press was established with an acquittal of John Peter Zenger. The writer of the New York Weekly Journal had been charged with seditious libel by the royal governor of New York. The jury said that "the truth is not libelous."

1830: Plans for the city of Chicago were laid out.

1956: Elvis PresleyElvis Presley released "Hound Dog.”

1977: President Carter established Department of Energy

1997: Teamsters began a 15-day strike against UPS (United Parcel Service). The strikers eventually won an increase in full-time positions and defeated a proposed reorganization of the companies pension plan.

Joseph Robinette Biden

Birthday Information: Born Nov. 20, 1942, a Friday, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Franklin D. Roosevelt was in his third term as U.S. president.

Astrological sign: Scorpio

Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Horse

Five events on Nov. 20 throughout history:

1789: New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.

1925: Robert Francis Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts.

1945: 24 Nazi leaders put on trial in Nuremberg, Germany.

1962: Cuban Missile Crisis resolved after U.S.S.R. agrees to remove bombers from Cuba and U.S. lifts blockade.

1975: After nearly 40 years of absolute rule, Spanish Generalisimo Francisco FrancoFrancisco Franco died in Madrid at age 82.

Punditty gleaned much of this information for this report from www.brainyhistory.com.