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21 June 2012

Your previous life, according to Wikipedia. Enter your birth date into Google with the word "died" in front of it, for example, "died January 1, 1980." Post the first Wikipedia link that appears in the results to show us who you were in your previous incarnation.→[More:]

Mine: Ray Brown, a baseball pitcher from Ohio who played in the Negro Leagues.

post by: BoringPostcards at: 08:01 | 31 comments

Hmm... this seems specious. Wouldn't a lot of people have to have been the same person? I mean, I know at least four other people with my exact birthdate. And there are probably more.

posted by Eideteker 21 June | 08:18

Raymond McKee

posted by sperose 21 June | 08:21

倪柝聲

posted by Hugh Janus 21 June | 08:29

One of the Rockefellers. Also Fred Gipson, who wrote Old Yeller.

posted by Orange Swan 21 June | 08:32

Hmmm, evidently no one famous died on my birthday. A lot of people died tragically in Alitalia Flight 112, but none of them were famous individually.

posted by msali 21 June | 08:37

Either Brenda Frazier or Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia. A debutante or an Algerian diplomat who was shot down by fighter jets. A combination of the two probably fits best.

posted by stynxno 21 June | 08:53

Similar to msali, nobody famous seems to have died on my birthday, but an earthquake did kill somewhere between 2 and 3000 people in Turkey. So there's that.

posted by gaspode 21 June | 09:25

Louis-Philippe Picard. (Who?)

posted by Senyar 21 June | 09:32

Kazi Nazrul Islam, a (the?) national (rebel) poet of Bangladesh. Happily I bear no physical resemblance.

posted by mireille 21 June | 09:33

Karl Mauss Cool.

posted by Splunge 21 June | 09:37

A Republican senator from Idaho. This goes with the guy with the same name as me who is a Republican strategist in Pennsylvania.

posted by Obscure Reference 21 June | 09:54

I got someone I've never heard of, but who nevertheless sounds very interesting.

To my knowledge I have never met anyone born on my exact birthday.

posted by JanetLand 21 June | 10:21

"William George Lathrop was a pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played for the Chicago White Sox."

Google lists a bunch more people who were born on the very same day as I, but have recently died. I win.

posted by Ardiril 21 June | 10:58

Big Bill Gatewood a Negro Leagues pitcher and manager.

posted by arse_hat 21 June | 12:02

Now everyone can have the same experience I had, being born the same day James Dean died, a date made into a movie. It must be noted that my entering this world preceded his departure by about 14 hours, so I am not the reincarnation of the 'Rebel Without a Cause'. No cause, yes, but more saboteur than rebel.

posted by oneswellfoop 21 June | 13:02

Edward Wailes, the U.S. ambassador to Iran 1958-61.

People could never remember my birthday, and then Michael Jackson died on it. Now it's easy.

However, I ask the question (although it was Kevin Costner who really asked it): how come, in a previous life, we were always someone special or famous? How come no one was ever Joe Schmoe?

posted by Melismata 21 June | 14:46

Yuri Kovalyov, a Soviet footballer.

posted by Madamina 21 June | 16:00

Not good. Apparently my birth began a killer hurricane season in the Atlantic.

Though per a different source, and assuming the Interntional Date Line isn't a problem, I may have been Prime Minister of Australia.

posted by bearwife 21 June | 16:25

Er, International Date Line.

posted by bearwife 21 June | 16:26

Those having trouble finding someone may want to try alternate search terms, like:

"died on january 1 2000"
"january 1 2000 was" (for entries that give birth/death ranges in parentheses)
"died [on] 1 january 2000" (Euro-style, with or without the "on")
"1 january 2000 was"
Etc.

Using these, I found:

Ruth Lyons, a TV baroness who invented the daytime TV talk show

Abram Belskie, a British sculptor and "medical artist"

Theodor Ionescu, a pioneering physicist in plasma and nuclear fusion

Morris Janowitz, an American sociologist who contributed to "sociological theory, the study of prejudice, urban issues, and patriotism"

Hans Baumann, a German poet and children's book author

posted by Rhaomi 21 June | 16:26

Some Italian kid who fell in a well

posted by rmless2 21 June | 16:54

Walt Disney, which I already knew. But on December 15, of various years, lots of famous people died.

posted by deborah 21 June | 18:04

Apparently I was Rudolph Ganz. So, that's where the piano thing came from...

posted by ninazer0 21 June | 19:52

Frank Ferguson, a character actor on such shows as My Friend Flicka, Lassie, The Andy Griffith Show, Petticoat Junction, Bonanza, Perry Mason, and Maverick. This may explain why I avoid the limelight ...

posted by bluesapphires 21 June | 20:04

Abdul Salam Arif, second president of Iraq. Died in a plane crash and was replaced by his tool of a brother.

Or Carlo Carrà, Italian Futurist, best known for his work The Funeral of the Anarchist Galli.

posted by BitterOldPunk 21 June | 23:31

Oh God. No fun for me.

posted by Miko 21 June | 23:38

Dashiell Hammett

posted by psho 22 June | 01:03

Uh. There was a theatre fire in Senegal that killed 64 people, but none of them are named.

posted by mygothlaundry 22 June | 14:32

Remember that iconic photo of the Marines at Iwo Jima?

I was one of those guys.

posted by jason's_planet 22 June | 20:12

Kurt Kuhnke
a racing driver from Germany, although he was more successful in motorcycle racing.

Possibly related:
A meteor shower hit Mexico creating a luminance in the night sky as bright as day; a meteorite weighing over 1 ton fell in Chihuahua, Mexico.

posted by Glinn 24 June | 11:14

(oops, missed that part about the first Wikipedia link. In that case I may have been some Canadian hockey player.)

posted by Glinn 24 June | 11:15

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