Stan Lee (Stanley Martin Lieber), the creator of “Spider-Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” is 88.
Martin Milner, the senior police officer on “Adam-12” is 79.
Nichelle Nichols, Lieutenant (ultimately Commander) Uhura of “Star Trek” is 78. Nichols sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before acting.
Six-time Oscar nominee Maggie Smith is 76. She’s won twice — leading for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and supporting for California Suite. No Oscars for her most famous role though, Professor Minerva McGonagall in Harry Potter.
Five-time Oscar nominee Denzel Washington is 56 today. He’s won twice — leading for Training Day and supporting for Glory.
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.
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.)