Yesterday was my birthday. I usually commemorate it in my this blog by going through all the horrible things that happened this week. This year, I think it is really important to keep strong, so I’m going to try looking for the positive:

Railfan made me a kick-ass cake. Dark chocolate cake, split layers, with ganache made from Guittard between the layers, with the whole thing covered in chocolate buttercream. The Resident Shrink, who is careful about what she eats in a way I wish I could emulate, actually got a second piece.*

April 17:

• Daffy Duck debuted.
• The Apollo 13 astronauts returned safely to Earth.
• Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II.
• Lochner v. New York. (Ok, this might not be a good thing, but it is interesting.)
• The Kepler telescope identifies an Earth-sized, habitable planet around another star.
• Thornton Wilder is born.
• Sean Bean is born. (Among a lot of other people.)

April 16:

• The first railway through India is established.
• Natural Bridges National Monument is established in Utah.
• Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly across the English Channel.
• Albert Hoffman accidentally discovers the hallucinogenic effects of LSD.
• MLK writes the Letter from Birmingham Jail.
• The last Apollo flight, Apollo 16, takes off from Cape Canaveral.
• Ford Maddox Brown was born.
• Charlie Chaplin was born.
• Henry Mancini was born.
• Dusty Springfield was born
• Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Claire Foy, and Chance the Rapper were all born.

April 18:

• Yankee stadium opens. (I realize for a lot of people this is NOT a good thing, but YMMV. In any case, it is important for the history of baseball, no matter how much you hate the Yankees. I hate the Yankees too, as far as that goes.)
• Irish Republic Act goes onto effect. The Irish Republic is established.
• The International Court of Justice holds its first meeting in the Hague.
• Lucrezia Borgia is born, making Renaissance history more interesting.
• Clarence Darrow is born.
• David Tennant (*swoon*) is born.

I could go on to the other days this week, but I think I will leave it at this. At any rate, at least some positive things happened this week in April.

Oh, and I was born. For now, I am going to treat that as a good thing.

*I had a second piece, too, for breakfast.