The birthday-number effect is the unconscious tendency of people to prefer the numbers in the date of their birthday over other numbers. First reported in 1997 by Japanese psychologists Shinobu Kitayama and Mayumi Karasawa, the birthday-number effect has been shown to hold across age and gender. The effect is most prominent for numbers over 12. Birth dates are unconsciously associated with the self, and most people like themselves; this has been offered as an explanation for the effect. Conversely, people who do not like themselves tend not to exhibit the effect. One lab study revealed an increase in favourable attitudes towards prices that were secretly manipulated to match the day of the month of the subjects’ birth, but a second study using birth year as price did not lead to the same result. People also have an unconscious preference for the letters in their name, and the two effects are significantly correlated. Another study found that participants with high self-esteem tended to prefer product names that included numbers from their birthday along with letters from their name.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday-number_effect

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1775:

American Revolutionary War: At the Battle of Quebec, British forces repulsed an attack by the Continental Army to capture Quebec City and enlist French Canadian support. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Quebec_(1775)

1857:

Queen Victoria selected Ottawa, then a small logging town, to be the capital of the British colony of Canada. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa

1963:

Despite Prime Minister Roy Welensky's efforts, the Central African Federation officially collapsed, subsequently becoming three separate nations: Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Welensky

1986:

Three disgruntled employees set fire to the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killing more than 90 people and injuring 140 others (rescue efforts depicted), making it the second deadliest hotel fire in United States history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dupont_Plaza_Hotel_arson

1999:

Panama took control of the Panama Canal Zone from the United States, in accordance with the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_Zone

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

hemerology: The study of calendars, especially with a view to identifying propitious days. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hemerology

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I need not tell you that the world situation is very serious. That must be apparent to all intelligent people. I think one difficulty is that the problem is one of such enormous complexity that the very mass of facts presented to the public by press and radio make it exceedingly difficult for the man in the street to reach a clear appraisement of the situation. … it is of vast importance that our people reach some general understanding of what the complications really are, rather than react from a passion or a prejudice or an emotion of the moment. … It is virtually impossible at this distance merely by reading, or listening, or even seeing photographs or motion pictures, to grasp at all the real significance of the situation. And yet the whole world of the future hangs on a proper judgment. It hangs, I think, to a large extent on the realization of the American people, of just what are the various dominant factors. What are the reactions of the people? What are the justifications of those reactions? What are the sufferings? What is needed? What can best be done? What must be done?   --George Marshall https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Marshall