December 28th

Five-time Oscar nominee Denzel Washington is 55 today. He’s won twice — leading for Training Day and supporting for Glory.

Six-time Oscar nominee Maggie Smith is 75. She’s won twice — leading for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and supporting for California Suite.

Martin Milner, the senior police officer on “Adam-12” is 78.

Stan Lee (Stanley Martin Lieber), the creator of “Spider-Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” is 87.

Mackenzie Rosman of 7th Heaven is 20.

Earl Kenneth Hines was born on December 28, 1903.

A brilliant keyboard virtuoso, Earl “Fatha” Hines was one of the first great piano soloists in jazz, and one of the very few musicians who could hold his own with Louis Armstrong. His so-called ‘trumpet’ style used doubled octaves in the right hand to produce a clear melodic line that stood out over the sound of a whole band, but he also had a magnificent technical command of the entire range of the keyboard.

Earl Hines at All About Jazz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNJRLinVXgs

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia, on this date in 1856. After graduating from Princeton in 1879, Wilson studied law at the University of Virginia for one year. He received a Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins University in 1886. Wilson remains the only American president to have earned a doctoral degree.

Wilson served on the faculties of Bryn Mawr College and Wesleyan University before joining the Princeton faculty as professor of jurisprudence and political economy in 1890. He became President of Princeton in 1902. His commentary on contemporary political matters led to his election as Governor of New Jersey in 1910 and as President in 1912.

Wilson was the second of three sitting American Presidents to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. (Theodore Roosevelt was the first, Barack Obama the third.)