Month: November 2011

Mary Travers, Mary of Peter, Paul & Mary, would have been 75 today. She died in 2009.

Carl Sagan would have been 77 today. He died in 1996.

Whitey Herzog is 80.

Whitey Herzog, former Rangers, Angels, Royals and Cardinals manager, won six division titles, three National League pennants and the 1982 World Series during his career as skipper. Herzog led the Royals to three straight American League West titles from 1976-78, then landed with the Cardinals in 1980. He led the Cardinals to NL pennants in 1982, 1985 and 1987 – leading the Redbirds to the ’82 World Series title in a classic seven-game series against the Brewers. Herzog was named the 1985 NL Manager of the Year by the BBWAA. He finished with a career record of 1,281-1,125 for a .532 winning percentage. His 1,281 wins rank 32nd on the all-time list.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson is 76.

Over 17 seasons with the Cardinals, Bob Gibson won 20 games five times and established himself as the very definition of intimidation, competitiveness, and dignity. One of the best athletes to ever play the game, the ex-Harlem Globetrotter posted a 1.12 ERA in 1968, the lowest figure since 1914, and was named the National League Cy Young Award winner and Most Valuable Player. Known as a premier big-game pitcher, Gibson posted World Series records of seven consecutive wins and 17 strikeouts in a game, and was named World Series MVP in 1964 and 1967.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Tom Weiskopf is 69. His one major win was The Open Championship in 1973.

The Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno, is 60.

Eric Dane is 39.

The actress Hedy Lamarr was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler on November 9th in 1913. Married six times, first to a Austrian armaments manufacturer, arrested for shoplifting in 1965, and co-holder of a 1942 patent that, according to Wikipedia is “a basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology, such as COFDM used in Wi-Fi network connections and CDMA used in some cordless and wireless telephones.”

Benjamin Banneker was born on November 9, 1731, in Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland.

Largely self-taught, Banneker was one of the the first African Americans to gain distinction in science. His significant accomplishments and correspondence with prominent political figures profoundly influenced how African Americans were viewed during the Federal period.

Banneker spent most of his life on his family’s 100-acre farm outside Baltimore. There, he taught himself astronomy by watching the stars and learned advanced mathematics from borrowed textbooks. In 1752, Banneker garnered public acclaim by building a clock entirely out of wood. The clock, believed to be the first built in America, kept precise time for decades. Twenty years later, Banneker began making astronomical calculations that enabled him to successfully forecast a 1789 solar eclipse. His estimate, made well in advance of the celestial event, contradicted predictions of better-known mathematicians and astronomers.

Library of Congress

Gail Borden, the inventor of condensed milk, was born on this date in 1801. His timing was perfect. He patented the milk just before the civil war when it’s use as part of the field ration made it a success. Borden was also instrumental in requiring dairy farmers to maintain clean facilities if they wanted to sell their milk to his company — Eagle Brand.

The first of seven African-Americans to be nominated for a best actress Oscar, Dorothy Dandridge was born on this date in 1922. She was nominated for Carmen Jones in 1955.

And 72 years ago the Holocaust began:

Today is the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night in 1938 when Hitler ordered a series of supposedly spontaneous attacks on Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues. The idea was to make the attacks look random, and then accuse the Jews of inciting the violence. In all, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned or destroyed. Rioters looted about 7,500 Jewish businesses and vandalized Jewish hospitals, homes, schools, and cemeteries. The event was used to justify barring Jews from schools and most public places, and forcing them to adhere to new curfews. In the days following, thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps. The event was called Kristallnacht, which means, “Night of Broken Glass.” It’s generally considered the official beginning of the Holocaust. Before that night, the Nazis had killed people secretly and individually. After Kristallnacht, the Nazis felt free to persecute the Jews openly, because they knew no one would stop them.

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media (2007)

The Atlantic began publication 154 years ago today; Rolling Stone began 44 years ago today.

In addition to Margaret Mitchell mentioned earlier, today is the birthday

… of Patti Page. A good gift for Patti as she turns 84 might be A Doggy in The Window. Depends on how much, I suppose.

… of Bobby Bowden. He’s 82.

… of Morley Safer. He’s 80.

… of Bonnie Bramlett. The Bonnie of Delaney, Bonnie & Friends is 67.

… of Bonnie Raitt. She turns 62 in the Nick of Time.

… of Michael Nyqvist. The Swedish actor — the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy films among others — is 51.

… of Sam Bradford. The 2008 Heisman winner is just 24.

Milton Bradley was born 175 years ago today (1836). In 1860 he released The Checkered Game of Life. In addition to success with games, Bradley was an advocate of kindergarten and early childhood education.

Bram Stoker was born on November 8th in 1847. He published Dracula in 1897. The Bram comes from his actual given name, Abraham. He was born in Dublin.

Today is the birthday of Billy Graham. He’s 93. You’d think he’d want to go to heaven by now.

Tom Peters is 69 today. In 1982 he published a widely-acclaimed bestseller In Search of Excellence. I have a first edition. The pages of the book about excellence are bound into the cover upside-down.

Johnny Rivers is 69.

Roberta Joan Anderson is 68. We know her as Joni Mitchell.

A consummate artist, Joni Mitchell is an accomplished musician, songwriter, poet and painter. Hailing from Canada, where she performed as a folksinger as far back as 1962, she found her niche on the same Southern California singer/songwriter scene of the late Sixties and early Seventies that germinated such kindred spirits as Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Mitchell’s artistry goes well beyond folksinging to incorporate elements of jazz and classical music. In her own words, “I looked like a folksinger, even though the moment I began to write, my music was not folk music. It was something else that had elements of romantic classicism to it.” Impossible to categorize, Mitchell has doggedly pursued avenues of self-expression, heedless of commercial outcomes. Nonetheless, she managed to connect with a mass audience in the mid-Seventies when a series of albums—Court and Spark (1974, #2), Miles of Aisles (1974, #2), The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975, #4) and Hejira (1976, #13)-established her as one of that decade’s pre-eminent artists.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

General David Petraeus is 59. His current job is Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Christopher Knight is 54. We know him better as Peter Brady.

The jockey Calvin Borel is 45 today.

Herman Mankiewicz was born 114 years ago today.

[Mankiewicz] worked as a screenwriter on many successful Hollywood films, but he was uncredited on a lot of them, like Horse Feathers (1932), Million Dollar Legs (1932), and The Wizard of Oz (1939) — he was the one who suggested that they film the Kansas scenes in The Wizard of Oz in black and white. But he did get credit for his work with Orson Welles co-writing the script for Citizen Kane (1941). Citizen Kane topped a lot of lists as the best film of the 20th century, but when it came out it only won one Academy Award, and that was for its screenplay.

When he was in New York, he said, “Oh, to be back in Hollywood, wishing I was back in New York.”

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor (2010)

Leon Trotsky was born on November 7, 1879 (but it was October 26th at the time).

The first internet radio broadcast was 17 years ago today according to Wikipedia. It was by WXYC at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Doug Wilder was elected governor of Virginia 22 years ago today. He was the first African-American governor of any state. Twenty-two years earlier, Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland, the first African-American mayor of a major city.