As we noted in a post last year, Lorde might be the most famous teenager since Joan of Arc. Today, she turns 18, which is rather mind-boggling considering her fame, accolades, and maturity beyond her years. As she celebrates not only her birthday but the upcoming release of her Hunger Games: Mockingjay soundtrack, which she curated and stars in, we look back at what else went down on November 7, 1996, the day Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor was born in Takapuna, New Zealand.
It was truly a different time: Tupac was on cover of Rolling Stone after being shot a month earlier in Las Vegas, Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” was the Number 1 song in the United States, and Suede’s Coming Up filled record store shelves across the United Kingdom.
What else happened? Here’s a rundown, in no particular order, according to History Orb, Dates In History, Wiki, and other internet sites…
1. Anton Chekhov’s 3 Sisters opens at Lunt-Fontanne Theater in New York City. Of, course, we’re bigger fans of that other Chekhov work…
2. Former NFL player and 1983 Heisman Trophy Winner Mike Rozier is shot several times in East Camden, New Jersey.
3. Celebrated Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer scores 314* in a cricket FC game for Mumbai v Saurashtra. We’ll assume that’s, like, really good.
4. British political scientist Bryan Keith-Lucas dies aged 84.
5. Another political scientist, Nigeria’s Claude Ake, dies aged 57. Bad day for poly-sci dudes.
6. Royal prince Jaja Wachuku, Nigerian Lawyer and First Foreign Affairs Minister, dies aged 78. Bad day for Nigeria.
7. Mining engineer Michael Fenton Haddon dies aged 81.
8. NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor. Woo, USA!
9. Decorated World War II veteran Beauford Theodore “Andy” Anderson dies at the age of 74. Anderson was a United States Army soldier who received the Medal of Honor on June 27, 1946.
10. Superstar DJ David Guetta turns 29 years old.
11. New Highway Hymnal bassist Amelia Gormley turns 6.
12. Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt celebrates being dead 34 years, and Steve McQueen’s death hits Sweet 16.
13. The Edmonton Oilers smoke goaltender Scott Bailey and the Boston Bruins at the old Garden, 6-0, behind a hat trick by former Bruin Mariusz Czerkawski. Mariusz Czerkawski!
14. The NBA’s Sacramento Kings saw their then-record 497-game sellout streak broken.
15. The Florida Marlins sign Brian Daubach as a free agent. Good Ol’ Dauber would be released, then signed again by the Fish, making his debut in 1998 before coming to Boston a year later.
16. A Nigerian Boeing 727 crashes into a lagoon 40 miles southeast of Lagos, killing 143. Yikes, a bad day for that country.
17. Diff’Rent Strokes actress Dana Plato turns 32. She would die three years later.
18. Former Illinois Democratic Congressman Mel Reynolds and his wife are indicted by a federal grand jury on a variety of fraud charges relating to personal and campaign finances.
Happy birthday, Lorde.