Andy Williams is 80. Williams headlined at Caesar’s Palace when it opened in 1966. That is, he was once a very big star.
Ozzy Osbourne is 59.
Daryl Hannah is 47 today. So is Julianne Moore. Together they have four Oscar nominations, two for leading actress and two for supporting actress. All are Moore’s, of course.
Brendan Fraser is 39.
George B. McClellan was born on this date in 1826. McClellan was the commander of Union forces in the east during much of the first two years of the War of the Rebellion. He loved to organize and feared to fight. McClellan was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for President in 1864, receiving 21 to Lincoln’s 212 electoral votes. For his unabashed hubris, McClellan rates right up there as one of the great asses of American history.
Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was born on this date in 1857. Born in the Ukraine of Polish descent, Joseph Conrad learned English in the British merchant marine in his twenties. He began writing in the 1890s and published his first novel, Almayer’s Folly, in 1895. Lord Jim (1900) and Heart of Darkness (1902) are his most famous works. The Writer’s Almanac has more about Conrad.
The first human heart transplant took place in Cape Town, South Africa, on this date 40 years ago (1967). The patient, Lewis Washkansky, survived 18 days before he died from double pneumonia, a result of anti-rejection drugs suppressing his immune system.