seems like it is disabled in the options menu
to activate:
- go to admin cp
- options
- scroll to forum home options
- set Display Logged in Users? to anything but no
- set Display Today's Birthdays? to yes
- set Display Calendar Events? to anything but zero
if that doesn't work it would mean that some part of the forum home template has been deleted, but it seems to be on all styles, so i think it will work.