Happy 200th birthday to that other great US president from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln.

It's also the bicentenary of one of the world's great scientists, Charles Darwin.

On a more personal note, February 12 would have been the 89th birthday of my Uncle Percy. He only saw, however, 22 of those years. Private Eyre was one of 1200 Australian soldiers who died in the Battle of El Alamein in October 1942.

But most importantly of all to me, happy 6th birthday Adara!