Google-search – add an event to Google Calendar from Google Search

On the left side under the title my calendars there is a link that says configuration, click that one first. Then you enter a page with several tabs, but by default you enter in your desired tab which is calendar. In this tabs you will find a link called notifications, click that link. In that page you can set all the reminders of the events that you want for before the date of the apointment, and you can program as many reminders as you want, in your own desired times.

Then you wont have to configure each appointment reminders, there will all work with your default configuration.

It is unclear what special feature you want a yearly event does not provide. My suggestion is to create a new calendar, label it something like "Anniversaries", then start recording yearly events.

On the other hand, birthdays are supposed to be recorded to Google Contacts. However, all birthdays show up in Birthdays Calendar and I'm not aware of an easy way to hide certain people or circles from the list.