December 12th is the birthday

… of my friend and sometime reader of this blog, David. Happy Birthday, David. [Correction: His birthday is actual December 3rd.]

… of Bob Barker. C’mon down, he’s 83. NewMexiKen actually remembers seeing Ralph Edwards introduce Barker as the host of the daytime version of Truth Or Consequences 50 years ago. Barker hosted that show for 18 years.

… of Connie Francis. Do you suppose she’s still trying to get to where the boys are at 68.

… Dionne Warwick. Perhaps she’d just as soon walk on by her 66th birthday.

… of Dickey Betts. The member of the Allman Brothers band is 63.

… of Cathy Rigby. The Olympic gymnast is 54.

… of Tracy Austin. The one-time tennis prodigy is 44.

… of Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly. She’s 36.

Francis Albert Sinatra was born on this date 91 years ago. This from Sinatra’s New York Times obituary in 1998:

Widely held to be the greatest singer in American pop history and one of the most successful entertainers of the 20th century, Sinatra was also the first modern pop superstar. He defined that role in the early 1940’s when his first solo appearances provoked the kind of mass pandemonium that later greeted Elvis Presley and the Beatles.

During a show business career that spanned more than 50 years and comprised recordings, film and television as well as countless performances in nightclubs, concert halls and sports arenas, Sinatra stood as a singular mirror of the American psyche.

His evolution from the idealistic crooner of the early 1940’s to the sophisticated swinger of the 50’s and 60’s seemed to personify the country’s loss of innocence.

Pennsylvania ratified the Constitution on this date in 1787, thereby becoming the second state.