Today is the birthday of Charlie Daniels. The devil in Georgia is 71.
Actress Jane Alexander is 68 today. Ms. Alexander has four Oscar nominations in her career; two for best actress and two for best supporting actress.
Det. Andy Sipowicz is 63. That’s Dennis Franz.
Bill Gates, the former resident of Albuquerque, is 52 today.
Oscar winner Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich) is 40. Ms. Roberts was also nominated for best actress for Pretty Woman and best supporting actress for Steel Magnolias.
Joaquin Phoenix, who has already been nominated for a best supporting actor (“Gladiator”) and a leading actor (“Walk the Line”) Oscar, is 33.
Costume designer Edith Head was born on October 24th in 1897. Ms. Head was nominated for 35 Oscars, winning eight.
The developer of the first polio vaccine, Dr. Jonas Salk was born on this date in 1914.
He created the vaccine at the height of a polio epidemic in the mid-1950s, when parents were so worried about their children that they kept them home from swimming pools in the summer. Salk’s discovery was that a vaccine could be developed from a dead virus, and he tested the vaccine on himself, his family, and the staff of his laboratory to prove it was safe. The vaccine was finally released to the public in 1955, and the number of people infected by polio went down from more than 10,000 a year to fewer than 100. Salk was declared a national hero.