Today is Napoleon’s birthday. He was born August 15, 1769 (and died in 1821, at age 51). As an adult, Napoleon Bonaparte was just over 5-feet, 6-inches tall (1.686 m), about average for his countrymen at the time.
Four time Oscar nominee for best supporting actress (one win), Ethel Barrymore was born on this date in 1879.
Pulitzer-winning author Edna Ferber was born 121 years ago today. She’s known best for So Big (Pulitzer prize in 1924), Show Boat, Cimarron, Giant and Ice Palace.
TV chef Julia Child was born Julia McWilliams in Pasadena, California, on this date in 1912.
Wisecracking Dick Van Dyke Show co-star Rose Marie is 88.
Mannix, Mike Connors, is 86.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is 73.
Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth, is 61.
Debra Messing is 43.
Ben Affleck is 39.
Jennifer Lawrence is 21 today. She was a best actress Oscar nominee for Winter’s Bone.
Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, would have been 57 today. He died in 2004.
Pro Football Hall of Fame member Gene Upshaw was born on August 15th in 1945. Upshaw played for the Raiders, 1967-1981. (Ahh, the glory years.) Upshaw had a second career as Executive Director of the National Football League Players Association. He died in August 2008.
Canadian born jazz pianist Oscar Peterson was born 86 years ago today (1925). The seven-time Grammy winner died in 2007.
Today is the Feast of the Assumption, the principal feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the feast celebrates both the “happy departure of Mary from this life” and the “assumption of her body into heaven.”
By promulgating the Bull Munificentissimus Deus, 1 November, 1950, Pope Pius XII declared infallibly that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was a dogma of the Catholic Faith. Likewise, the Second Vatican Council taught in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium that “the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things.”
Ethel Barrymore is also famous for being the subject of one of the funniest lines in “Singin’ in the Rain” and therefore one of the funniest movie lines of all time. As Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) jumps out of a cake, Gene Kelly exclaims, “It’s Ethel Barrymore!”