July 22nd

Bob Dole is 87 today.

Oscar de la Renta is 78.

Oscar-winning actress Louise Fletcher, Nurse Ratched, is 76.

Tom Robbins is 73 today.

He’s known for novels such as Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976), Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas (1994), and Villa Incognito (2003). He says that when he starts a book, he has no idea of what the story will be. He never outlines and never revises. He just works on each sentence until he thinks it’s perfect, sometimes for more than an hour, and then he moves on to the next one. He said, “I’m probably more interested in sentences than anything else in life.”

The Writer’s Almanac (2009)

70. How old is Jeopardy host Alex Trebek today?

One-time supporting actor Oscar nominee Albert Brooks, Danny Glover and Don Henley of The Eagles all turn 63 today

Author S.E. Hinton is 62 today. She was born Susan Eloise Hinton.

Growing up, she loved to read, but her biggest dream in life was to be a cowboy. So she wrote a couple of books about cowboys, and then when she was 15 she started working on a book called The Outsiders. She wrote and edited much of her novel during her junior year of high school, the same year that she got a D in her creative writing class. The Outsiders was the story of two rival gangs, based on the gangs at her high school in Tulsa — one of them was a group of kids from working-class families, the other, children of rich families.

The Outsiders was published in 1967, during her first year of college at the University of Tulsa. It became one of the most popular young adult books ever, selling more than 14 million copies, and continues to sell hundreds of thousands each year.

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Two-time Oscar nominee for best actor Willem Dafoe, aka the Green Goblin, aka Jesus, is 55.

David Spade is 46.

Selena Gomez is 18 today. She started in show business on Barney & Friends at age 7.

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on July 22nd in 1890. She lived until January 22, 1995.

Amy Vanderbilt was born on July 22nd in 1908.