Top 10 facts about birthdays

September 16 is the most common birthday

ACCORDING to research at Harvard University in 2012, September 16 is the most common birthday in the USA.

 

Research by the greetings card company Moonpig has now confirmed that the same is true in the UK.

1. The most probable date of conception for a baby born on September 16 was the previous Christmas Day (or Boxing Day if the birth is in a leap year). 

2. On an average day, nearly 177,000 people in the UK will be celebrating their birthday. 

3. The least common birthday date in both the UK and USA (apart from February 29) is December 25. 

4. In many East Asian countries, the day a person is born is considered to be its first birthday. The second birthday occurs at the age of one. 

5. When Mildred and Patti Hall wrote the “Happy Birthday To You” tune in 1893, it was sung to the words “Good morning to all”.

6. Goon Show stars Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe both had birthdays on September 8. 

7. Horror film stars Vincent Price and Christopher Lee both had birthdays on May 27. 

8. Until the Registration Act of 1836, dates of birth were not routinely recorded in the UK, though parish records usually listed baptismal dates. 

9. The earliest known use of the phrase “birthday cake” listed in the Oxford Dictionary was in 1785… 

10. … and “birthday card” was first seen in 1902.