A few work colleagues and I wondered about my birthday + US Presidential election history, and honestly I didn't know a lot about it.
So, in the spirit of the day, I dug up a few things (with the help of Wikipedia).
Since 1848, the beginning of single US Presidential election dates across all states...here's what's happened in Presidential elections falling on November 6:
In 1860, Abraham Lincoln, R, beat three opponents for his first election as President. Momentous, and a watershed moment for the United States and its practice of slavery...a trigger for southern secession and eventual civil war.
1888, Benjamin Harrison, R, defeats incumbent Grover Cleveland, D, in the electoral college...but Cleveland won the Popular Vote! And would be back! This election formed the backdrop for the 1968 Disney musical film 'The One And Only Original Family Band!' Eh? Songs by the Sherman brothers? Yeah.
1900, William McKinley, R, re-elected, over William Jennings Bryan, D. Bryan was unsuccessful in his second attempt to beat McKinley, who would be assassinated the following September, in Buffalo, as the old 'White House Blues' goes.
1928, Herbert Hoover, R, beats Al Smith, D. Al Smith's Big Problem? Anti-Catholic sentiment. There was apparently a current of paranoia that if Smith won the White House, the Pope would come and rule the US from a fortified location in Washington. Whoooa!
1956 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, R, beats Adlai Stevenson, D, earning re-election. A rematch of 1952 - and the most recent rematch to this day. They still liked Ike. (Sorry, couldn't resist)
1984 - Ronald Reagan, R, re-elected by a landslide over Walter Mondale, D. Reagan won the biggest total of electoral votes of any Presidential candidate (525 out of 538).
...and that brings us to...today.
If Barack Obama wins re-election, he'll be the first Democrat to notch a Presidential election victory on a November 6th. So there's that.
But the 6th is, after all, just the 6th.
What is a pattern?
Anything can happen.
I could be born, an unimagined soul, alongside countless others.
An entire country could take a step toward a widely-imagined future.
We'll read tea leaves, blow out candles, and carry on.
