Isn't she lovely, isn't she wonderful (Stevie Wonder)

It's Jacky's birthday today so here's a post dedicated to her and her mum (Pat) and dad (Brian). I'm firmly of the opinion that birthdays are more special for the parents because they can actually remember the event.

So Pat and Brian will no doubt remember that in the year Jacqueline Frances Smith was born the Cold War continued to worsen when the Russians placed ballistic missiles on Cuban land just 90 miles away from the coast of Florida. So the world was on the brink of nuclear war and self destruction! To balance this JFK then set a goal of landing a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Interesting times.

Folk music was evolving into protest music thanks to young artists like Bob Dylan and the birth of surfing music by the Beach Boys grew in popularity. Meanwhile in England the Beatles recorded the single Love Me Do. The new hit on TV for that year was The Beverly Hillbillies and the first of the James Bond movies Dr No was an instant success, some of the other movies released included West Side Story, Spartacus, and Lawrence of Arabia.

Popular Singers of the day were Chubby Checker, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Neil Sedaka, Roy Orbison, and Shirley Bassey (one of my mum and dad's favourites).

In other news - the US Airforce investigates using lasers to intercept missiles, 90% of US households own a television set, Britain and France agree to develop the Concorde, and the year saw the first use of silicone breast implants by Houston plastic surgeons (this gave rise to the popular saying Houston we no longer have a problem).

The major world political leaders when Jacky emerged were: Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies, French President Charles de Gaulle, Soviet Union's Nikita Khrushchev, United States' President John F. Kennedy, United Kingdom's Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and Nu Zild's Prime Minister Sir Keith Holyoake.

In NZ the speed limit was raised to 55 mph (88kmph), Peter Snell broke the world record for the mile and 800 metres at Whanganui’s Cook’s Gardens and in August of Jacky's year New Zealand heart surgeon Brian Barratt-Boyes became only the second surgeon in the world to replace a heart valve. The first such operation had been completed only a month earlier. At Auckland's Green Lane hospital Barratt-Boyes assembled a team that was at the forefront of heart surgery.

Quite a year huh? All events were, of course, eclipsed by the event which has rocked my world for 26 years.

Happy birthday Jacky!