April 18th

Today is the birthday

. . . of Pollyanna. Hayley Mills is 62.

. . . of two-time Oscar nominee James Woods. He’s 61.

. . . of Rick Moranis, 55.

. . . of Daphne Moon. Jane Leeves of “Frasier” is 47.

. . . of Conan O’Brien. He’s 45.

. . . of America Ferrera; she’s 24.

Lawyer and author Clarence Darrow was born on this date in 1857.

Darrow became famous for defending some of the most unpopular people of his time. In the 1925 Monkey Trial, he defended high school teacher John Scopes for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution in a Tennessee school. In “The Crime of the Century,” in 1924, he successfully defended two confessed teenage murderers, Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, from receiving the death penalty.
. . .

He once said: “I never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure.”

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

The first game was played at Yankee Stadium on this date in 1923.

War correspondent, and Albuquerquean, Ernie Pyle was killed by Japanese gunfire on the Pacific island of Ie Shima, off Okinawa, on this date in 1945.

Albert Einstein died at age 76 on this date in 1955.

And it was on this date in 1775 that Paul Revere and others rode to warn their countryman that British troops were mobilizing.

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

Continue reading Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.