Today is the birthday
… of James Knox Polk, 11th president of the United States, born on this date in 1795.
… and of Warren Gamaliel Harding, 29th president of the United States, born on this date in 1865.
Polk is generally rated among the “near great” presidents for achieving what he set out to do (wrong as some of it might have been). Harding who died while president, is generally considered a “failure,” though he has moved up the ratings at least one slot during the past decade.
Daniel Boone was born on November 2nd in 1734 near Reading, Pennsylvania. (It was October 22nd the day he was born, but the calendar of the British Empire officially dropped 11 days in 1752.)
Daniel Boone fought in the French and Indian War, came home and got married, and managed to have 10 children in between his long and frequent hunting trips into the wilderness. He explored farther and farther west, and in 1767 he ventured into Kentucky for the first time. A couple of years later, he made it to the Cumberland Gap, and then he said, “I returned to my family with a determination to bring them as soon as possible to live in Kentucky, which I esteemed a second paradise.” He did manage to move his whole family to Kentucky, then West Virginia, and finally, Missouri. When someone asked him why he had left Kentucky, he said it was “too crowded.” In 1788, when he moved to West Virginia, there were about 70,000 people in the entire territory.
Above from The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor, which has more, as well as info about Lady Chatterly’s Lover and the birthday of cheerleading.
Pat Buchanan, a specter some people see everywhere, is 72 today.
Stefanie Zofya Paul was born in Hollywood, California, 68 years ago today. As Stefanie Powers she is best known for her role in Hart to Hart.
k.d. lang is 49. David Schwimmer — “Ross” — is 44.
Burt Lancaster was born on November 2, 1913. Lancaster had four best actor Oscar nominations, winning for Elmer Gantry. Among his last performances was as Dr. Archibald “Moonlight” Graham in Field of Dreams. Lancaster died in 1994.
North and South Dakota became the 39th and 40th states respectively on November 2, 1889.