2-10-12

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was born in Moscow on this date in 1890. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958. He declined the Prize because the Soviet government was unhappy with the publication of Doctor Zhivago, smuggled out of the U.S.S.R. and published in 1957.

James Francis Durante was born in Brooklyn on February 10, 1893. Durante was a vaudevillian, singer, comedian, and TV personality in its early years. “Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.”

Bill Tilden was born in Philadelphia on February 10, 1893. Tilden won won 14 majors including 10 grand slam events and was ranked the number one tennis player in the world for seven years. Tilden’s name is included with Babe Ruth, Howie Morenz, Red Grange, Bobby Jones, and Jack Dempsey as part of the Golden Age of Sport.

Leontyne Price is 85 today. The soprano was the first African-American to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.

Elaine Lobi (E.L.) Konigsburg is 82 today. She is one of just five American authors to win the Newberry Medal twice, for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The View From Saturday.

Roberta Flack is 75. “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” won the Record of the Year Grammy back-to-back in 1973 and 1974. She was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina and was raised in Arlington, Virginia. Flack enrolled at Howard University at age 15.

Luis Donaldo Colosio might have been 62 today. He was assassinated at a political rally in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico in 1994 while a candidate for President of Mexico.

Mark Spitz is 62 today. Spitz won seven swimming gold medals at the 1972 Olympics.

Two-time British Open winner Greg Norman is 57 today.

Laura Dern is 45. Dern was nominated for the best actress Oscar for Rambling Rose in 1992. Her mother Diane Ladd played her mother in the film. Ladd was nominated for best supporting actress (her third such nomination). Neither won.

Queen Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, on February 10th in 1840. Albert died in 1861. Victoria died in 1901. (Victoria and Albert were both born in 1819 — the same midwife assisted at their births, Victoria in London in May and Albert near Coburg, Germany, in August.)

The 25th Amendment was ratified by the essential 38th state (Nevada) and became part of the Constitution on this date in 1967. Quick, what does it say?