Former senator but still a jackass, Alan Simpson is 81 today. Why was Simpson, then 79 years old, co-heading a commission on how to manage the deficit? His co-chair was 65. Have we no young people in this country? No one with a stake in the future?
Just a Dream, Just a Dream Jimmy Clanton is 72 today. His hit was in 1958. There’s a video of Clanton lip-syncing the song as a 60-something silver haired crooner. Trust me, he and the song only worked when he was 18.
Hall of fame basketball coach John Thompson Jr. is 71 today.
Terry Bradshaw is 64, Mark Harmon 61 and Jimmy Connors 60 today.
Harmon’s father was “Old 98,” Tom Harmon, a football great at Michigan and for the L.A. Rams. Mark himself played quarterback at UCLA, where he graduated cum laude.
Keanu Reeves is 48.
And Salma Hayek is 46. Ms. Hayek received a best actress Oscar nomination for Frida. She was born Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico; her father is Lebanese, her mother of Spanish ancestry. (Photo from Cannes 2010.)
Laurindo Almeida was born 95 years ago today in São Paulo, Brazil (he died in 1995). Bear with the intro and listen to the video.
Teacher-Astronaut Christa McAuliffe would have been 64 today.
It was on the morning of September 2nd in 1945 that the Japanese officially surrendered to Gen. Douglas MacArthur aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. MacArthur signed the articles at 9:07 am Tokyo time, ending World War II. President Truman declared Sunday, September 2nd V-J Day in the U.S.
Vice PresidentTheodore Roosevelt said “Speak softly and carry a big stick” at the Minnesota State Fair 111 years ago today.
And on this date in 1885, in Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, white miners of the Union Pacific Coal Company attacked their Chinese co-workers:
… over a dispute on who had the right to work in a particularly lucrative area of the mine. The violence occurred after Chinese workers refused to participate in a strike for higher wages planned by the American miners. Twenty-eight Chinese were killed and fifteen were wounded; seventy-nine homes were set ablaze. The bodies of many of the dead and wounded were thrown into the flames. Several hundred Chinese workers were chased out of town and fled to the surrounding hills. Property damage was estimated at $150,000.
A week later, federal troops escorted Chinese laborers back to the mines. After restoring order, the troops remained at Rock Springs until 1898. Although the federal government had refused responsibility for actions in a territory, President Grover Cleveland requested that Congress indemnify the Chinese for their loss of property and Congress complied.