Back in the good old days of the Web (which would be, oh, 1993 - 1995), there was Thomas Boutell’s World Birthday Web, a goofy site where you could put your birthday in and see who else had the same birthday. The cool thing was that every day on your birthday, you’d get a number of random “Happy Birthday!” greetings from random people. Like the Klingon automailer from the Klingon Language Institute:

A very happy birthday to you, from the Klingon Language Institute!
Or, as we like to say “Quchjaj qoSlIj.”
DuQuchmoH neH jajvam ‘e’ wItulbej

or some random people from Norway:

Hi Erik, and a happy birthday to you!
I’m a norwegian guy currently listening to a radio program about the Internet - you know, cool links, and so on.
So they mentioned this birthday page, I went there, and stuck with your name because it had a very norwegian touch - besides it was at the top of the list , -)

So here’s a birthday wish from
Frode, Oslo, Norway

or Italy:

Hello,
I have found your name in the boutell birthday list...
:-)-----------------------------------:-)
   Every good wish for your birthday  
:-)-----------------------------------:-)
Michele
 ______________________________________________________
Michele - Milano - Italy

Now, it helped that I was at the top of the list for Oct. 4, so I got a bunch for a while up until Thomas took the site down for a few years. Sadly, it’s but a shell of it’s former self… and I’m not at the top anymore.

But hey, now we have FaceBook, and thanks to everyone that wrote on my wall!