Today is the birthday of Charlie Daniels. The devil in Georgia is 72.
Actress Jane Alexander is 69 today. Ms. Alexander has four Oscar nominations in her career; two for best actress and two for best supporting actress.
Det. Andy Sipowicz is 64. That’s Dennis Franz.
Bill Gates, the former resident of Albuquerque, is 53 today.
When he was in 8th grade, the [Seattle] Lakeside Mothers Club had a rummage sale and used the money to buy computer equipment for the school. Gates and his friend Paul Allen got completely swept up in the excitement of this new technology. They rummaged through dumpsters at the nearby Computer Center Corporation to find notes written by programmers, and with that information, they wrote a 300-page manual. He and Paul Allen moved to Albuquerque and started Microsoft in 1975.
Oscar winner Julia Roberts (Erin Brockovich) is 41. 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 34.
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.
The Writer’s Almanac (2007)
Harvard College was founded on this date in 1636.