So, I reloaded a saved game that was many turns prior to the endless general event happening and when 1732AD rolled around it didn't happen again...but that was only b/c Saladin didn't decide to go to war that year as happened in the previous game. It was later on in early 1800s that he eventually did go to war and the same exact thing happened. So, the bug only concerns Saladin b/c numerous other great generals were born prior to the bug happening after I resorted to an earlier saved version of that same game.
Anyone have any ideas?