Kenny Rogers is 69.
Patty McCormack is 62. The actress, known now as Patricia McCormack, was nominated for the supporting actress Oscar as an 11-year-old for her performance in The Bad Seed.
Kim Cattrall of Sex in the City is 51.
Hayden Panettiere of Heroes is 18.
William “Count” Basie was born on this date in 1904.
Count Basie was a leading figure of the swing era in jazz and, alongside Duke Ellington, an outstanding representative of big band style.
Quotation from the PBS website for Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns. The page has a nice biography of Basie with some audio clips, including Basie’s 1937 recording of “One O’Clock Jump,” one of NPR’s 100 “most important American musical works of the 20th century.”
Wilt Chamberlain was born in Philadelphia 71 years ago today. Usually called “The Stilt” because it rhymed with Wilt, Chamberlain actually preferred the nickname “The Big Dipper.”
- Scored 800 points in first 16 high school games.
- Unanimous All-American at Kansas 1957, 1958, averaging nearly 30 points per game.
- Four-time NBA MVP.
- Scored 31,419 points (30.1 ppg) in 1,045 pro games, including 100 in one game against the Knicks.
- All-time scoring leader when he retired, since surpassed.
Chamberlain died in 1999.
Hawaii entered the Union as the 50th state on this date in 1959. The eight major islands in the chain are Ni’ihau, Kaua’i, O’ahu, Moloka’i, Lāna’i, Kaho’olawe, Maui and Hawai’i.