Today is the birthday
… of Shirley Temple Black. The actress turned diplomat is 80. Shirley Temple was in approximately 50 films before she turned 18. She received a special juvenile Oscar in 1935.
… of Lee Majors. He’s 69. Soon the $6-million man will be found on eBay for $7.95.
… of Michael Moore, 54.
… of Judy Davis. The two-time Oscar nominee is 53.
… of Valerie Bertinelli. Once Barbara Cooper on One Day at a Time (1975-1984), she’s 48.
… of George Lopez. He’s 47.
… of Melina Kanakaredes, 41.
It was on the date in 1791 that James Buchanan, the former worst president ever of the U.S., was born.
Stephen A. Douglas, the short guy who debated Lincoln during the 1858 election—and won the election, was born on this date in 1813. Douglas died shortly after Lincoln’s inaugural as president in 1861.
And April 23, 1564, is generally accepted as the birth date of William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare used one of the largest vocabularies of any English writer, almost 30,000 words, and he was the first writer to invent or record many of our most common turns of phrase, including “foul play,” “as luck would have it,” “your own flesh and blood,” “too much of a good thing,” “good riddance,” “in one fell swoop,” “cruel to be kind,” “play fast and loose,” “vanish into thin air,” “the game is up,” “truth will out” and “in the twinkling of an eye.”
Shakespeare has always been popular in America, and many colonists kept copies of his complete works along with their Bibles. Pioneers performed his work out West. Many of the mines and canyons across the West are named after Shakespeare or one of his characters. Three mines in Colorado are called Ophelia, Cordelia, and Desdemona.