October 4th should be a national holiday.
It’s the birthday of Susan Abigail Sarandon, born in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, 69 years ago today.
And, as if that’s not enough for a holiday, it’s also the birthdate of John Charles Carter, born October 4, 1923. As Charlton Heston he won the best actor Oscar for Ben-Hur (1959), his only nomination.
And, as if those aren’t enough, it’s also the birthdate of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 19th President of the United States. Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio, on this date in 1822.
Rutherford B. Hayes became the nineteenth U.S. president in 1877 after a bitterly contested election that pitted him against Democrat Samuel J. Tilden of New York. Tilden won the popular vote, but disputed electoral ballots from four states prompted Congress to create a special electoral commission to decide the election’s result. The fifteen-man commission of congressmen, senators, and Supreme Court justices, eight of whom were Republicans, voted along party lines to decide the election in Hayes’s favor. The electoral dispute has come to be known as the Tilden-Hayes Affair. Because of the tension surrounding this partisan decision, Hayes secretly took the oath of office in the White House Red Room. He was the first president to be sworn in at the residence.
The Space Age began 58 years ago today with the launch of Sputnik (Cпутник) by the Soviet Union. The word means companion or satellite in Russian.