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My birthday is coming up next month. Fun fact: My birthday is as far from today as it was from 1914. What was going on in 1914 (no earlier than May 17)?

• England passes the Irish Home Rule Bill. My maternal, maternal, great grandmother was probably pleased.
• Honus Wagner becomes the first baseball player in the 20th century with 3,000 career hits.
• Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated.
• The Royal Naval Air Service is established.
• Babe Ruth makes his Major League debut.
• World War I begins.
• A ton of other war stuff.

How about some innovations and inventions?

• The first electric traffic light is installed at Euclid Ave. and East 105 St. in Cleveland, OH.
• Oxymorphone (related to morphine) is developed.
• Stainless steel items spread through the general public.
• A perfumer, Puig, is founded.
• Woodman’s of Essex, a Boston clam shack, opens.

Births of people (no one of note on May 17)

• Superman actor George Reeves (died before I was born).
• Boxer Jersey Joe Walcott
• Actor Alec Guinness
• Actor Ray Walston
• Baseball’s Joe DiMaggio

Source: Wikipedia. So, perhaps none of this is true.

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