The Day I Was Born

The world's population is expected to hit seven billion in the next few days. After growing very slowly for most of human history, the number of people on Earth has more than doubled in the last 50 years. Human society has grown and evolved, as a result lots of changes have happened worldwide. In the other hand statisticians have also calculated the “mortality rate” for the world to be roughly .883 percent. This means that 1 out of every 113 people in the world died last year. It seems like the number of people being born surpasses the number of people dying. Politics, media, nature, religion, nuclear weapons, crime, fame and family are topics that can affect a society in many ways and are things that we can control, but life and death will come no matter what we do. Confronting the mortality of the world around us as well as our own mortality can lead us to reflect more earnestly about our priorities and provide us with a sense of urgency and purpose.

Where do I fit into this story of human life? Or what is my purpose? Well, back 40 years ago, to be more exact May 23^rd, 1974 the day I was born the World’s population was close to 4 Billion people; I was the 3,988,908,214^th baby to be born in the world and the 78,303,097,240^th person to have lived since history began. Both numbers have been calculated using UN Population Division figures. The first is an estimate of how many people were alive on my date of birth. It is one possible value based on global population figures and estimates of growth rates over time.

Based on this rate, here is an estimate of the incidence of death among people now living in the world,

•   1.78 deaths per second

•   107 death per minute

•   6,390 deaths per hour

•   153,000 deaths per day

•   56.0 million deaths per year

•   3.9 billion deaths per average lifetime (70 years)

Thursday May 23^rd, 1974 was a special day for many reasons. The US president was Richard Nixon (Republican). In that special week in May, people in the US were listening to The Streak by Ray Stevens. In the UK Sugar Baby Love by The Rubettes was in the top 5 hits. 

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, directed by Michael Cimino, was one of the most viewed movies released in 1974.


Songs of 1974

There were many holidays being celebrated worldwide on this day. Some of these holidays were Turtle Day, Saint Desiderius, Saint Guibert of Gemblours, Saint Montana and the Bahá'i Faith: Declaration of the Báb. Turtle Day is celebrated worldwide in a variety of ways, from dressing up as turtles or wearing green summer dresses, to saving turtles caught on highways, to research activities. Turtle Day lesson plans and craft projects encourage teaching about turtles in classrooms. Saint Desiderius, Saint Guibert of Gemblours and Saint Montana are Catholic holidays within the Catholic Roman Church. There are nine annual Bahá'í holy days plus an annual fast, May 23 is the Bahá'i Faith: Declaration of the Báb. The Bahá'í calendar started from the original Badí‘ calendar, created by the Báb in the Persian Bayán (5:3) and the Kitabu'l-Asmá'.[5] An early version of the calendar began to be implemented during his time.

Nuclear weapons were being tested in 1974, interestingly enough Great Britain performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site on May 23^rd of that year. A test is defined in the Threshold Test Ban Treaty as either a single underground nuclear explosion (detonation) conducted

at a test site, or two or more underground nuclear explosions (detonations) conducted within an area delineated by a circle

having a diameter of two kilometers and conducted within a total period of time not to exceed 0.1 second. Sixty-three of the

1,054 nuclear tests conducted by the United States consisted of more than one underground nuclear explosion (detonation). Nevada Test Site - 62 tests had simultaneous detonations.

Italian Red Brigade officer Mario Sossi freed in May 23^rd 1974. The Red Brigades (Italian: Brigate Rosse, often abbreviated BR) is a paramilitary organization, based in Italy, which was responsible for numerous violent incidents, including assassinations, kidnapping and robberies during the so-called "Years of Lead". Formed in 1970, the organization sought to create a "revolutionary" state through armed struggle, and to remove Italy from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Red Brigades attained notoriety in the 1970s and early 1980s with their violent attempts to destabilise Italy by acts of sabotage, bank robberies, and kidnappings.

Piazza della Loggia bombing

Main article: Piazza della Loggia bombing

In May 1974, a bomb exploded during an anti-fascist demonstration in Brescia, killing eight and wounding over 90.

Famous People born on May 23^rd, 1974,

Kimber West: Atlanta, Georgia -- Playmate (February 1997)

Ken Jennings: American game show contestant

Jewel: American singer

Monica Naranjo: Spanish singer

Duane Clemons;: linebacker (Minnesota Vikings).

Jewel [Kilcher] in Saint George: Utah, USA; folk/rock vocalist ("Pieces of You").

Charlie Yeung: Hong Kong actress and singer

Famous People who died on May 23^rd, 1974,

Kathleen Cannell: Writer

Ad of the day in Spain.

But much more happened that day in Guatemala, a country located in Central America. I was born, yes I came into this world at 9:10pm, my recorded weight was 7 lbs. 4 oz. and my mother gave birth to me naturally without any complications. I was born in the “Materno Infantil” Zona 10 de la Reforma, Guatemala City.

That day my mother and father worked. My Mother had a Beauty salon at home and my Father worked at a factory. It was sunny but rainy that day. Rainbows were all over the city. My Mother did a perm and some haircuts that morning. Around 4pm she was drinking coffee and eating cake with my aunt and experienced some labor pain. My father got home around 5pm from work, he was in a celebrating mode and decided to have some beers while watching the Looney tunes, Speedy Gonzales and Bugs Bunny, he then decided to eat some watermelon, which got him sick. He told me that it seemed like he was giving birth that afternoon after eating and drinking these. The cartoons were in black and white, because they owned a 19” black and white TV just like the one shown below.

Around 7PM my mother was in labor pain and was taken to the hospital by a family member in a car. My dad came along even though he was not feeling that great. They accidentally passed the hospital without noticing and had to make a U turn and drive back. My Mom was 31 years old at the time and my dad was only 22 years old. Once they arrived at the hospital my mother was placed on a hospital bed and my dad went to the waiting room where the World Cup Soccer was being announced in channel 3, the world cup was scheduled to start soon that next month. It was even being announced in the radio station of that time “Chapinlandia” My dad tells me that Germany won that tournament that year.

My dad tells me that I was born with my eyes open and that I was very alert. He remembers me wearing a white t-shirt and a white cloth diaper. Many of these little details explain many of the things I stand for or that I just simply relate to. I love the color white, I love The Soccer World Cup, I love the Looney tunes specially Bugs Bunny, I love it when it is raining and the sun is out and you get to see the rainbows. I love eating cake and drinking coffee and I love eating watermelon, but not drinking beer with it. My life has been blessed by the different people around me during these 40 years of my life, specially my family and friends. Each one of them had a purpose and that was to make me who I am today.

We can lead others to reflect earnestly about the priorities when we understand the truth of life and death. We need to take action and love one another; regardless of the differences that surround us because life is short and the same way we got here we will also leave this earth one day. 15,435.9 people have died in the past 3 hours according to the death rate by the hebrewchristians.com site. http://www.hebrew4christians.com/About_HFC/Death_Rate/death_rate.html