This day in history

Quick quiz: August 16 was an inauspicious day for at least three famous (one was rather infamous) men who all died on this date.

One was a sultan, one was a king, and one was a dictator. One died at age 42, one at 53, one at 78. (as the saying goes, the good die young, the one who lived the longest was the one of the three who should have been taken out long before). One was known for frequenting the butcher shop, as he had quite the healthy appetite; one was known for never butchering a song; and the last one was known for butchering his own people.

I’m sure nearly every boomer aged person out there would know who these guys are. I just wonder how many of the recent generations would know them. In my own mind, I don’t know how someone could not know who these guys are; but I know there are people out there who would probably say they never heard of these guys. I have a natural love of trivia, current events, history, news of the weird, general knowledge, etc. My wife often times asks me, after I come out with an answer to some obscure question---how do you know this stuff? I don’t know. I just read a lot, pay attention to what I’m reading or seeing on tv, and I just have a good memory. I keep telling our cub scouts (I’m the cubmaster of our town’s pack) never stop learning, and have fun doing it. I often ask trivia questions to the adults during our meetings and events, then hand out prizes for the correct answers. I’ll then tell the boys---look at that, this dad probably learned this when he was your age and hasn’t thought about it since; but today he won a gift certificate because he remembered something he learned.

Anyway, back to the quiz. I know I didn’t give very good clues, but I bet if you’re over 40 you may have figured them out.

Elvis Presley: king of rock n roll, age 42
Babe Ruth: sultan of swat, age 53
Idi Amin: dictator of Uganda, age 78.