Category: Birthdays

Today is the birthday

… of Kevin Costner. Costner won the Oscars for director and best picture for Dances With Wolves and was nominated for the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Lt. John Dunbar. He’s 55 today.

… of hockey hall-of-fame inductee Mark Messier. He’s 49.

… of Jesse L. Martin. The Law & Order actor is 41.

It’s also the birthday of Cary Grant (Archibald Alexander Leach, 1904-1986) and Danny Kaye (David Daniel Kaminski, 1913-1987). Both won honorary Oscars though neither won the real thing; Grant had two nominations.

Daniel Webster was born on January 18, 1782.

The first college basketball game with five players on a side was played on this date in 1896 at Iowa City, Iowa. The University of Chicago defeated the University of Iowa 15 to 12.

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is 46 today.

Billy Gray, the kid that befriended Klaatu in the classic 1951 sci-fi film The Day the Earth Stood Still, is 72 today. Billy’s old enough to play Professor Barnhardt this time around. Gray was Bud on the 50s sitcom Father Knows Best.

Richard Moll of Night Court is 67.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is 49.

Patrick Dempsey is 44.

Orlando Bloom is 33.

I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor; Believe me, honey, rich is better.”

Sophia Kalish was born at a farm house along the road in Russia as her mother was emigrating to America on this date in 1884. As Sophie Tucker she was one of the great stars of vaudeville, the Ziegfeld Follies and early movies. In the 1930s she brought elements of nostalgia for the early years of 20th century into her show. She was billed as “The Last of the Red Hot Mamas.” Her hearty sexual appetite was a frequent subject of her songs, unusual for female performers of the era. In addition to her performing, Sophie Tucker was active in efforts to unionize professional actors, and was elected president of the American Federation of Actors in 1938.

“From birth to age eighteen, a girl needs good parents. From eighteen to thirty-five, she needs good looks. From thirty-five to fifty-five, she needs a good personality. From fifty-five on, she needs good cash.”

The Library of Congress has more about The Last of the Red Hot Mamas.

A.B. Guthrie was born on this date in 1901. His The Big Sky (1946) is one of the classic works of western American literature. Its sequel, The Way West (1949), won the Pulitizer Prize for fiction in 1950.

What “The Big Sky” is: An unflinching account not only of the hardships and dangers of the 1830-1845 mountain man era, but also a glimpse into the meaning of our own existence here — the reasons why we come, the reasons why we stay. True to Guthrie’s bid for honesty, the answers aren’t always pretty.

Guthrie’s Boone Caudill is the quintessential anti-hero, a mean, moody misanthrope who heads West to escape his troubled past as well as to seek adventure and freedom. Ultimately, though, trouble follows Boone — because, after all, the one thing he can’t run away from is himself.

The theme, Guthrie wrote, is “that each man kills the thing he loves.

“If it had any originality at all, it was only that a band of men, the fur-hunters, killed the life they loved and killed it with a thoughtless prodigality perhaps unmatched.”

“The 100 Most Influential Montanans of the Century” by The Missoulian (1999)

Horatio Alger Jr. was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts on this date in 1832.

He was one of the most influential writers in American history. He wrote more than a hundred novels, almost every single one of which tells the same story: A young boy, living in poverty, manages to find success and happiness by working hard and never giving up. But even though Alger’s books were all the same, and none was a literary masterpiece, they were read by thousands of young Americans all across the country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has been argued that Horatio Alger, more than any other person, was responsible for creating the idea of the American Dream.

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Today is the birthday

… of Ray Price. Still for the good times at 84.

When Ray Noble Price was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996, many noted that the honor was long overdue. Such feelings weren’t based so much on the longevity of his career or on the number of major hits he has recorded, for in those regards Price was no different from many other deserving artists awaiting induction. More importantly, Price has been one of country’s great innovators. He changed the sound of country music from the late 1950s forward by developing a rhythmic brand of honky-tonk that has been hugely influential ever since. As steel guitarist Don Helms, a veteran of Hank Williams’s Drifting Cowboys once put it, “Ray Price created an era.”

Country Music Hall of Fame

… of Glenn Yarbrough. He’s 80.

… of William Lee Golden. The big, bearded member, but not the bass voice, of the Oak Ridge Boys is 71.

… of Smokin’ Joe Frazier. The champ is 66.

… of Cynthia Robinson. She’s dancing to the music at 64 (Sly and the Family Stone).

You might like to hear the horns blowin’,
Cynthia on the throne, yeah!
Cynthia & Jerry got a message they’re sayin’:
[Cynthia:] All the squares, go home!

… of Kirstie Alley. She’s 59.

… of the most dangerous man in America, Rush Limbaugh. The audio-terrorist is 59.

… of Howard Stern. He’s 56.

… of broadcast journalist Christiane Amanpour. She’s 52.

… of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. The billionaire is 46.

Jack London was born in San Francisco on this date in 1876. London wrote more than 50 books, including The Call of the Wild and White Fang (1906). His most unforgettable story may be To Build a Fire. London died at age 40.

John Hancock was born on this date in 1737. Hancock was President of the Continental Congress of the United States of America in the summer of 1776. He was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence.

Today is the birthday

… of Willie McCovey. “Stretch,” a baseball hall-of-famer, is 72.

TOP LEFT-HANDED HOME RUN HITTER IN N.L.
HISTORY WITH 521. SECOND ONLY TO LOU GEHRIG
WITH 18 CAREER GRAND SLAMS. LED N.L. IN HOMERS
THREE TIMES AND RBI’S TWICE. N.L. ROOKIE OF
YEAR IN 1959, MVP IN 1969 AND COMEBACK PLAYER
OF THE YEAR IN ’77. TEAMED WITH WILLIE MAYS
FOR AWESOME 1-2 PUNCH IN GIANTS’ LINEUP.

… of Scott McKenzie. So “if you’re going to San Francisco” wish Scott a happy 71st birthday.

… of Rod Stewart. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is 65.

Rod Stewart can be regarded as the rock generation’s heir to Sam Cooke. Like Cooke, Stewart delivers both romantic ballads and uptempo material with conviction and panache, and he sings in a warm, soulful rasp. A singer’s singer, Stewart seemed made to inhabit the spotlight.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

… of William Sanderson. The character actor (E.B. Farnum in “Deadwood,” Larry on “Newhart,” Lippy in “Lonesome Dove”) is 62.

… of George Foreman. The boxing hall-of-famer and cook is 61. Foreman has five daughters and five sons and has named all of the sons George — George Jr., George III, George IV, George V, and George VI.

… of Patricia Mae Andrzejewski. Pat Benatar is 57. She won four consecutive Grammy awards in the 1980s for “Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female.”

… of Shawn Colvin. The singer is 54.

Shawn Colvin is one of the bright spots of the so-called “new folk movement” that began in the late ’80s. And though she grew out of the somewhat limited “woman with a guitar” school, she has managed to keep the form fresh with a diverse approach, avoiding the clichéd sentiments and all-too-often formulaic arrangements that have plagued the genre. In less than a decade of recording, Colvin has emerged as a songcraftsman with plenty of pop smarts, which has earned her a broad and loyal following.

All Music Guide

Jim Croce was born on this date in 1943. Croce released just 11 singles, but “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” and “Time in a Bottle” made it to number one, the first in July 1973, the second posthumously after Croce died in a plane crash at age 30 in September of that year.

In the music industry, arguably the worst tragedy that can befall an artist is to die in their prime, when he or she is just beginning to break through to the mainstream and reach people on a national level. One such artist was Jim Croce, a songwriter with a knack for both upbeat, catchy singles and empathetic, melancholy ballads. Though Croce only recorded a few studio albums before an untimely plane crash, he continues to be remembered posthumously. Croce appealed to fans as a common man, and it was not a gimmick — he was a father and husband who went through a series of blue-collar jobs. And whether he used dry wit, gentle emotions, or sorrow, Croce sang with a rare form of honesty and power. Few artists have ever been able to pull off such down-to-earth storytelling as convincingly as he was.

allmusic

Had he not smoked, the historian and author Stephen Ambrose might have been 74 today; he died in 2002.

… born in Lovington, Illinois (1936), who wrote several best-selling books about American history, including Band of Brothers (1992) and Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West (1996).

He was a longtime professor, and many of the stories he wrote in his popular history books were ones he’d told over and over to his college students, trying hard to entertain them. He said, “There is nothing like standing before 50 students at 8:00 a.m. to start talking about an event that occurred 100 years ago, because the look on their faces is a challenge — ‘Let’s see you keep me awake.’ You learn what works and what doesn’t in a hurry.”

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Dumas Malone was born in Coldwater, Michigan, on this date in 1892. Professor Malone, who died in 1986, was a historian, biographer and editor. His foremost work, the six volume Jefferson and His Time, is the most authoritative biography of the William and Mary alumnus who became author of the Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia. The last volume, Sage of Monticello was completed when Malone was 89 years-old. Dumas Malone was presented the Medal of Freedom by President Reagan in 1983.

Today is the birthday

… of Judith Krantz, 82. She published her first novel at age 50.

… of Bart Starr. The hall-of-fame quarterback is 76.

… of Dick Enberg. The sportscaster is 75 (oh, my!).

… of Joan Baez. The singer is 69.

… of Jimmy Page. The Led Zeppelin rocker is 66.

Combining the visceral power and intensity of hard rock with the finesse and delicacy of British folk music, Led Zeppelin redefined rock in the Seventies and for all time. They were as influential in that decade as the Beatles were in the prior one. Their impact extends to classic and alternative rockers alike. Then and now, Led Zeppelin looms larger than life on the rock landscape as a band for the ages with an almost mystical power to evoke primal passions. The combination of Jimmy Page’s powerful, layered guitar work, Robert Plant’s keening, upper-timbre vocals, John Paul Jones’ melodic bass playing and keyboard work, and John Bonham’s thunderous drumming made for a band whose alchemy proved enchanting and irresistible. “The motto of the group is definitely, ‘Ever onward,’” Page said in 1977, perfectly summing up Led Zeppelin’s forward-thinking philosophy.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

… of Brenda Gayle Webb. Loretta Lynn’s little sister Crystal Gayle is 59.

… of J.K. Simmons. He’s 55. He’s seen on The Closer and Law & Order as Dr. Skoda, and was terrific, I thought, as Juno’s dad. He’s very good in a small role in Up in the Air, too.

… of New York Times Pulitizer Prize winning book critic Michiko Kakutani. She is 55 today.

… of Dave Matthews. He’s 43.

… of Chad Ochocinco. He’s Tres-Dos.

Gilligan (and Maynard Krebs) was born on this date in 1935. Bob Denver died in 2005.

The stripper Gypsy Rose Lee was born Rose Louise Hovick on this date in 1914, or January 8, 1911, or February 9, 1911.

Toyota and Datsun (Nissan) made their first appearance in the U.S. at the Los Angeles Auto Show 51 years ago today.

iTunes was announced 9 years ago today; the iPhone three years ago today.

… were born in a house without electricity or plumbing in East Tupelo, Mississippi, on this date in 1935. Jesse, the older twin, was stillborn. The parents were Vernon Elvis Presley and Gladys Smith Presley.

Today is the birthday

… of William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist. He’s 82.

… of Paul Revere Dick, 72. He and Mark Lindsay formed Paul Revere & The Raiders in 1960. They recorded “Louie Louie” in the same studio as The Kingsmen in Portland, Oregon in 1963. (The song was written in 1955.) The Kingsmen won that battle, but The Raiders went on to record five top 10 hits, including the number one, “Indian Reservation,” which sold six million copies.

… of Jann Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone. He’s 64.

… of Kenneth Clark Loggins. He’s 62.

… of David Stephen Caruso, 54.

… of Katherine Anne Couric. University of Virginia grad (1979), head resident of the Lawn and Tri-Delt, Katie Couric is 53.

… of Donna Rice, 52 today. That’s her in 1988 on Senator Gary Hart’s lap near the boat Monkey Business. That particular monkey business removed the married senator from the presidential race where he had been considered the front-runner.

… of Nicholas Kim Coppola. The Oscar-winner, known better as Nicolas Cage, is 46.

Prissy, actress Butterfly McQueen, was born Thelma McQueen on this date in 1911. Prissy was her first movie role. Ms. McQueen, who never married, earned a college degree at age 64. She died in 1995.

Cartoonist Charles Addams, from whom the Addams family emerged, was born on this date in 1912. Addams’s cartoons appeared in The New Yorker from 1932 until his death in 1988. His estate has managed to keep his cartoons largely off the internet.

The penultimate day of the year is the birthday

… of Russ Tamblyn. Riff, “a Jet to his dying day,” is 75.

… of Sandy Koufax. The most dominant pitcher in the game in the early 1960s, the man who threw four no-hitters including a perfect game is 74.

… of Paul (Noel actually) Stookey. Paul of Peter, Paul & Mary is 72.

… of James Burrows. The director of “Taxi,” “Cheers” and “Will and Grace” is 69.

… of Fred Ward. The actor (Gus Grissom in The Right Stuff and Earl Bassett in the greatest movie ever, Tremors) is 67.

… of Monkees Michael Nesmith (67) and Davy Jones (64).

… of Patti Smith. Punk rock’s poet laureate is 63.

… of Meredith Viera and of Matt Lauer. The Today show hosts are 56 and 52.

… of Tracey Ullman. She’s 50.

… of Eldrick Woods. Tiger is 34.

… of LeBron James. He’s 25 today.

Have a Coke and a smile today.

It’s the birthday of the man who introduced us to Coca-Cola, Asa Griggs Candler, born in Villa Rica, Georgia (1851). He grew up during the Civil War and wanted to be a doctor, but his family was so poor that he could only receive an elementary school education before becoming a pharmacist’s apprentice. But Candler proved to be business savvy, slowly building his own drugstore empire, and in 1886 he bought sole rights to John Pemberton’s original formula of Coca-Cola and formed the Coca-Cola Company in 1890. Candler understood the importance of advertising. He used calendars, billboards, and posters to keep the Coca-Cola trademark prominent in the public’s mind. After selling the patent in 1919, he went on to serve as Atlanta’s mayor and funded a teaching hospital for Emory University’s Medical School.

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

The Genius Among Geniuses, Alfred Einstein, was born on December 30, 1880.

Bo Diddley was born on this date in 1928.

Music historian Robert Palmer has described Bo Diddley as “one of the most original and fertile rhythmic intelligences of our time.” He will forever be known as the creator of the “Bo Diddley beat,” one of the cornerstone rhythms of rock and roll. He employed it in his namesake song, “Bo Diddley,” as well as other primal rockers like “Mona.” This distinctive African-based rhythm pattern (which goes bomp bomp bomp bomp-bomp) was picked up from Diddley by other artists and has been a distinctive and recurring element in rock and roll through the decades.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Mary Tyler Moore was born in Brooklyn, 72 years ago today.

On The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Moore played Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman “making it on her own” in 1970s Minneapolis. MTM first pitched her character to CBS as a young divorcee, but CBS executives believed her role as Laura Petrie was so firmly etched in the public mind that viewers would think she had divorced Dick Van Dyke (and that the American public would not find a divorced woman likable), so Richards was rewritten as a woman who had moved to the big city after ending a long affair. Richards landed a job working in the news department of fictional WJM-TV, where Moore’s all-American spunk played off against the gruff boss Lou Grant (Ed Asner), world-weary writer Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod) and pompous anchorman Ted Baxter (Ted Knight). In early seasons, her all-male work environment was counterbalanced by a primarily female home life, where again her character contrasted with her ditzy landlady Phyllis Lindstrom (Cloris Leachman) and her New York-born neighbor and best friend, Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper).

The Encyclopedia of Television

Angelina Jolie’s dad is 71. That would be four-time Oscar nominee, one-time winner, Jon Voight. Voight won his Oscar for Coming Home, as did co-star Jane Fonda. The film had eight nominations, three wins.

Marianne Faithfull is 63. Faithfull is a descendant of Count Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the 19th century author and source of the term “masochism.” Her signature song, As Tears Go By, was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Mayday Malone is 62. That’s Sam, Ted Danson.

Paula Poundstone is 50 today.

Two-time Oscar nominee Jude Law is 37.

On this date 52 years ago Tobin Rote threw for four touchdowns and ran for another as the Detroit Lions defeated the Cleveland Browns, 59-14, in the NFL championship game. (That was it. There was no Super Bowl then.) It was the Lions’ third title in six years, all over the Browns. Since then the Lions have missed 43 out of 52 post seasons (counting this year) and are 1-9 in games when they did make it. For nearly all of that time the Lions have been owned by William Clay Ford, grandson of Henry and son of Edsel. The Lions aren’t exactly built Ford tough.

The 17th president, Andrew Johnson, was born on this date in 1808. From the obituary in The New York Times in 1875:

The history this man leaves is a rare one. His career was remarkable, even in this country; it would have been quite impossible in any other. It presents the spectacle of a man who never went to school cession of posts of civil responsibility to the highest office in the land, and evincing his continued hold upon the popular heart by a subsequent election to the Senate in the teeth of a bitter personal and political opposition.

And today is the birthday of Donna, great and loyal friend, doting mother and grandmother and aunt, highly regarded federal executive and American Indian leader. She keeps mentioning making posole. She aces that and she’ll be perfect. Happy Birthday, Donna!

Five-time Oscar nominee Denzel Washington is 55 today. He’s won twice — leading for Training Day and supporting for Glory.

Six-time Oscar nominee Maggie Smith is 75. She’s won twice — leading for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and supporting for California Suite.

Martin Milner, the senior police officer on “Adam-12” is 78.

Stan Lee (Stanley Martin Lieber), the creator of “Spider-Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” is 87.

Mackenzie Rosman of 7th Heaven is 20.

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.

Earl Hines at All About Jazz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNJRLinVXgs

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.)

Today is the birthday

… of Scotty Moore. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is 78.

Scotty Moore served as Elvis Presley’s guitarist from 1954 to 1958, widely regarded as Presley’s golden years. Moore was a participant in the historic early sessions at Sun Recording Studio that mark the birth of rock and roll. It was on Monday, July 5th, 1954, that Presley, Moore and bassist Bill Black broke into bluesman Arthur Cruddup’s “That’s All Right” in a freewheeling style that brought together country and blues. They took a similarly approach to bluegrass legend Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky.” With these spontaneous breakthroughs, conceived in the most innocent and intuitive way, both sides of Elvis Presley’s legendary first single—and the first new strains of rock and roll—were in the can. Notably, the single (Sun 209) was credited to “Elvis Presley, Scotty and Bill.”

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

… of John Amos. Adm. Percy Fitzwallace (West Wing), Toby (Kunta Kinte as adult) and J.J.’s father (Good Times) is 70.

… of Cokie Roberts. The daughter of Hale and Lindy Boggs is 66.

… of Gerard Depardieu. The actor who has played more famous characters than even Charlton Heston (Cyrano De Bergerac, Jean de Florette, Christopher Columbus, Honoré de Balzac, Le Comte de Monte Cristo, Porthos, Auguste Rodin, Franco, Danton) is 61.

… of David Knopfler. The other Knopfler is 57, not old enough to be in dire straits yet.

Sarah Vowell, an Okie from Muskogee, is 40 today.

Her essay collection Take the Cannoli: Stories from the New World (2000) starts with a piece called “Shooting Dad,” which begins: “If you were passing by the house where I grew up during my teenage years and it happened to be before Election Day, you wouldn’t have needed to come inside to see that it was a house divided. You could have looked at the Democratic campaign poster in the upstairs window and the Republican one in the downstairs window and seen our home for the Civil War battleground it was. I’m not saying who was the Democrat or who was the Republican — my father or I — but I will tell you that I have never subscribed to Guns & Ammo, that I did not plaster the family vehicle with National Rifle Association stickers, and that hunter’s orange was never my color.”

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Marlene Dietrich was born on this date in 1901. Miss Dietrich was nominated for an Oscar for best actress for the 1930 film Morocco.

For crying out loud, what kind of country is this that today is not a national holiday? It’s a holiday in Canada for pete’s sake!

Today is the birthday of Carroll Spinney; he’s 76. For 40 years Spinney has been one of the most recognized performers on television. He’s won five Emmys and a National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Lifetime Achievement Award.

Carroll Spinney is the puppeteer who plays Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.

Abdul “Duke” Fakir is 74 today. He is the only surviving member of the Four Tops. The quartet performed together for 43 years (1954-1997) without a change in personnel. (Lawrence Payton died in 1997.)

“The Four Tops deserve to be recognized both for their achievements and their longevity. On the latter count, the group performed for over four decades together without a single change in personnel – a record of constancy that is mind-boggling in the notoriously changeable world of popular music. As for their accomplishments, the Four Tops cut some of Motown’s most memorable singles during the label’s creative zenith, including “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “I Can’t Help Myself,” “It’s the Same Old Song,” “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Standing in the Shadows of Love” and “Bernadette.” The Four Tops’ greatest records were recorded at Motown with the in-house songwriting and production team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland between 1964 and 1967.

The foursome arrived at Motown in 1963 as seasoned veterans, having already logged nearly a decade in show business. The Detroit-based vocal group – consisting of lead vocalist Levi Stubbs, first tenor Abdul “Duke” Fakir, second tenor Lawrence Payton and baritone Renaldo “Obie” Benson – began singing together as the Four Aims soon after graduating high school in 1954. …

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Phil Spector is 70. He’s doing 19-to-life for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson.

Phil Spector is among the greatest producers of rock and roll, and some would passionately argue that he is the greatest ever. His ambitious approach to the art of record production helped redefine and revitalize rock and roll during its early-Sixties slump. On a string of classic records released between 1961 and 1966 on his Philles label, he elevated the monaural 45 rpm single to an art form. “Little symphonies for the kiddies,” he called them, and they were indeed dramatic pop records possessed of a grandeur and intimacy theretofore uncommon in rock and roll.

Phil Spector

You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling (Righteous Brothers)
River Deep – Mountain High (Ike and Tina Turner)
Be My Baby (Ronettes)
Da Doo Ron Ron (Crystals)
Spanish Harlem (Ben E. King)
He’s a Rebel (Crystals)

Carlton Fisk is 62.

Baseball’s most durable catcher with 24 years behind the plate, Carlton Pudge Fisk caught more games (2,226) than any player in history. The 11-time All-Star hit 376 career home runs, including a record-setting 351 as a catcher, since bested by Mike Piazza. His most memorable home run came in Game Six of the 1975 World Series – a 12th inning blast off the left field foul pole at Fenway Park – giving his Red Sox a 7-6 win over Cincinnati. His tremendous pride and work ethic were respected by both teammates as well as the opposition.

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Ozzie Smith is 55.

Known as “The Wizard of Oz,” Ozzie Smith combined athletic ability with acrobatic skill to become one of the game’s great defensive shortstops. In 19 seasons with the Padres and Cardinals, the 13-time Gold Glove Award winner set major league shortstop records for assists, double plays and total chances. He would develop into an offensive weapon, finishing with over 2,400 hits and 500 stolen bases. His ninth-inning home run won the fifth game of the 1985 National League Championship Series.

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

David Sedaris is 53 today.

He grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. He moved to Chicago, and he made a living painting apartments, squirrel-proofing houses, and working as a house cleaner. Then, in 1992, he read his essay “The SantaLand Diaries” on NPR’s Morning Edition. It was extremely popular. He signed a contract with a publisher, and his books of essays were huge best-sellers — Barrel Fever (1994), Naked (1997), and Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000). But even after he became a successful writer, Sedaris kept his job cleaning apartments for a long time. He said, “I can only write when it’s dark, so basically, my whole day is spent waiting for it to get dark. Cleaning apartments gives me something to do when I get up. Otherwise, I’d feel like a bum.” Also, it allowed him to keep up with his favorite soap operas. David Sedaris has kept a diary for about 30 years. He makes one for every season, and each one has a cover. He says, “It’s a lot of work for something no one’s ever going to see.”

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Mao Tse-tung was born on December 26th in 1893.

Two football hall-of-famers, Paul Hornung (74) and Jack Ham (61) were born on this date. Those numbers are their ages, not their jersey numbers. Hornung wore 5 with Green Bay, Ham 59 with the Steelers. That’s Hornung on the SI cover while still the Golden Boy at Notre Dame — he won the Heisman, only player ever to win the award while playing for a losing team (the Irish were 2-8 in 1956).

Ham played 12 seasons for the Steelers and is regarded with Lawrence Taylor as the two best linebackers of all-time.

It’s the birthday of Montgomery Burns, Smithers, Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner and Reverend Lovejoy. Comedian and voice actor Harry Shearer is 66 today.

Another hall-of-famer, Susan Lucci, is 63 today. “The conniving Erica Kane, with 10 husbands down already, will fall into the arms of a much younger man on ABC’s soap opera [All My Children] this summer. To make life a little more complicated, it’s her daughter’s ex-husband and ex-fiance’s stepson.” Ms. Lucci has been playing that role since 1970.

Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam is 45.

The author Norman Maclean was born on this date in 1902.

He grew up in Montana. He taught English at the University of Chicago for many years, and built a cabin in Montana, near the Big Blackfoot River, and he spent every summer there.

After he retired from teaching, at the age of 70, he wrote his famous autobiographical novella, A River Runs Through It, which was published in 1976 by the University of Chicago Press. It was the first work of fiction the press ever published, and it was a huge best-seller, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

It begins: “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ’s disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.”

The Writer’s Almanac (2008)

Sarah Breedlove Walker was born on this date in 1867.

Mrs. C. J. Walker, known as New York’s wealthiest negress, having accumulated a fortune from the sale of so-called anti-kink hair tonic and from real estate investments in the last fourteen years, died yesterday morning at her country estate at Irvington-on-Hudson. She was proprietor of the Madame Walker hair dressing parlors at 108 West 136th Street and other places in the city. Her death recalled the unusual story of how she rose in twelve years from a washerwoman making only $1.50 a day to a position of wealth and influence among members of her race.

Estimates of Mrs. Walker’s fortune had run up to $1,000,000.

The above from Mrs. Walker’s 1919 obituary in The New York Times. It’s fascinating reading. Not the least of which is identifying this self-made woman by her married name, Mrs. C.J. — more than 30 years after she was widowed.

Joseph Smith began his 38 years on earth on this date in 1805.

The Federal Reserve System was created by the Owen-Glass Act, signed by President Wilson on this date in 1913.

The first major banking reform to follow the Civil War, the Federal Reserve was organized to regulate banking and provide the nation with a more stable and secure financial and monetary system. It remains the central banking authority of the United States, establishing banking policies, interest rates, and the availability of credit. It also acts as the government’s fiscal agent and regulates the supply of currency.

Expanded since its founding, in both size and function, the Federal Reserve consists of a board of governors, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, twelve regional Federal Reserve banks, the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Advisory Council, a Consumer Advisory Council, and several thousand member banks.

Library of Congress

George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Army on December 23, 1783.

Today is the birthday

… of Hector Elizondo. Better-known for Chicago Hope, NewMexiKen remembers this fine character actor best as the gracious hotel manager in Pretty Woman. He’s 73.

… of Steve Carlton. Lefty is 65.

Steve Carlton was an extremely focused competitor with complete dedication to excellence. He thrived on the mound by physically and mentally challenging himself off the field. His out-pitch, a hard, biting slider complemented a great fastball. He won 329 games – second only to Warren Spahn among lefties – and his 4,136 strikeouts are exceeded only by Nolan Ryan. Lefty once notched 19 strikeouts in a game, compiled six 20-win seasons, and was the first pitcher to win four Cy Young Awards.

National Baseball Hall of Fame

… of Diane Sawyer. She’s 64. New job this week.

… of Robin Gibb. The twin of Maurice (d. 2003) and brother of Barry and Andy (d. 1988) is 60.

… of Ralph Fiennes. The actor, twice nominated for the best actor Oscar, is 47.

Claudia Alta Taylor was born on this date in 1912.

In 1934 Lady Bird met Lyndon Baines Johnson, then a Congressional secretary visiting Austin on official business; he promptly asked her for a date, which she accepted. He courted her from Washington with letters, telegrams, and telephone calls. Seven weeks later he was back in Texas; he proposed to her and she accepted. In her own words: “Sometimes Lyndon simply takes your breath away.” They were married in November 1934.

The years that followed were devoted to Lyndon’s political career, with “Bird” as partner, confidante, and helpmate. She helped keep his Congressional office open during World War II when he volunteered for naval service; and in 1955, when he had a severe heart attack, she helped his staff keep things running smoothly until he could return to his post as Majority Leader of the Senate. He once remarked that voters “would happily have elected her over me.”

After repeated miscarriages, she gave birth to Lynda Bird (now Mrs. Charles S. Robb) in 1944; Luci Baines (Mrs. Ian Turpin) was born three years later.

The White House

I worked at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in the mid-1970s where I met and occasionally chatted with Mrs. Johnson. Lady Bird was a warm, impressive and attractive woman. She died in 2007.

The Solstice is at 10:47 this morning Mountain Time. Anthropologists have found that celebrations of the solstice go back for 30,000 years.

Ancient peoples believed that because daylight was waning, it might go away forever, so they lit huge bonfires to tempt the sun to come back. The tradition of decorating our houses and our trees with lights at this time of year is passed down from those ancient bonfires.

The Writer’s Almanac (2005)

According to the Library of Congress, “The name ‘winter’ comes from a Germanic term meaning ‘time of water’ and refers to the seasonal precipitation.”

Today is the birthday

… of Joe Paterno. The football coach at Penn State is 83.

… of Phil Donahue. The talk show host is 74.

… of Jane Fonda. The two-time Oscar-winning actress is 72. Miss Fonda has been nominated for the best actress Oscar six times, winning for Klute and Coming Home. She was also nominated for best supporting actress for On Golden Pond.

… of Carla Thomas. Gee Whiz, she’s 67.

… of Michael Tilson Thomas, he’s 65.

His grandparents, the Thomashefskys, were famous Yiddish theatrical stars. He graduated from the school of music at the University of Southern California and then got a fellowship conducting at Tanglewood, in the Berkshires. At 23, he was the youngest assistant conductor ever hired by the Boston Symphony.

He was the protégé of Leonard Bernstein, and is frequently compared to him. Like Bernstein, he stepped in at a major performance when the principal conductor got sick, and so made his reputation at age 24. He was founder of the New World Symphony in Miami, and in 1995 he went to direct the San Francisco Symphony, and he’s been there ever since. He hosts a classical music series on PBS called Keeping Score.

He said, “I believe that music is the most important when the music stops. When a piece ends, that’s when I really measure what effect it had on me or those who heard it.”

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor (2008)

… of Samuel L. Jackson. Mace Windu is 61. Jackson was nominated for the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction.

… of Chris Evert. The tennis hall-of-famer is 55.

… of Jane Kaczmarek. Malcolm’s mom is 54.

… of Ray Romano. Raymond is 52.

… of Kiefer Sutherland. Donald Sutherland’s little boy is 43.

… of Julie Delpy. The actress, who was nominated for a writing Oscar for Before Sunset, is 40.

Frank Zappa was born on this date in 1940. He died in 1993.

The singer, songwriter, and composer was born in Baltimore, Maryland (1940). Zappa’s father was a meteorologist in the Army who studied the effects of weather on explosions and poisonous gases. The gas masks and chemical paraphernalia his dad brought home were some of young Zappa’s first toys. When Frank Zappa started playing atonal classical music on his electric guitar, he said that his goal was to make sounds that would cause people to run from the room the moment they heard it. He was also a political activist, and he once proposed that the United States form a fourth branch of government devoted entirely to creativity.

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

Joseph Stalin was born on this date in 1879. This from his obituary in 1953:

Joseph Stalin became the most important figure in the political direction of one-third of the people of the world. He was one of a group of hard revolutionaries that established the first important Marxist state and, as its dictator, he carried forward its socialization and industrialization with vigor and ruthlessness.

During the second World War, Stalin personally led his country’s vast armed forces to victory. When Germany was defeated, he pushed his country’s frontiers to their greatest extent and fostered the creation of a buffer belt of Marxist-oriented satellite states from Korea across Eurasia to the Baltic Sea. Probably no other man ever exercised so much influence over so wide a region.

The New York Times

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered 72 years ago today.

That famous photo of Elvis Presley with President Richard Nixon was taken 39 years ago today. The National Archives has all the details — When Nixon Met Elvis, but here’s the photo and Elvis’s letter. Just click for the larger versions.

It’s the birthday of Al Kaline. The hall of fame right fielder is 75.

Today is also the birthday

… of Little Jimmy Dickens. The country novelty singer is 89.

… of Oscar-nominee Cicely Tyson. She’s 76. Tyson was nominated for the 1973 best actress award for her performance in Sounder.

… of Kevin McHale. The basketball hall of fame member is 52.

… of Mike Lookinland. Bobby Brady is 49.

… of Flashdance’s Jennifer Beals. She’s 46. Flashdance was her second film. She played Clifford’s girlfriend in My Bodyguard. Adam Baldwin (no relation to “the” Baldwins) was the bodyguard, Matt Dillon the bully, and Joan Cusack another girlfriend.

… of Jake Gyllenhaal. The Oscar nominated actor is 29.

Edith Piaf was born on this date in 1915. Petite Piaf (4-10, 90 pounds) was known as the “sparrow of the streets.” She was the leading chanteuse of her day, most well-known for “La vie en rose.” According to some reports she used her fame to ingratiate herself to Nazi officers during the occupation of France, then in turn used that to gain access to French prisoners with whom she had her photo taken. The prisoners used the photo to create false identity cards to assist in an escape. Ms. Piaf died in 1963.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was published on this date in 1843. I read it just the other evening — on my iPhone.

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.

Bah! Humbug!

Born on this date were

… Jane Austen (1775-1817). Best known for her novels about young women yearning to get married, she was never married.

… George Santayana (1863-1952). “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

… Margaret Mead (1901-1978). “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008). Clarke’s laws:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Broadcast journalist Lesley Stahl is 68.

TV producer Steven Bocho is 66.

Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top is 60.

Benjamin Bratt is 46.

Tim Conway is 76 today, Dave Clark of the Dave Clark Five 67, and Don Johnson 60.

Nero, the fifth and final Roman Emperor of the Julian-Claudian dynasty, was born on this date in 37. He was Emperor from 54-68. Nero was descended from Mark Antony and Octavia Minor on both sides of his family. And one of his great great grandfathers was Augustus (1st Emperor), Octavia’s brother.

Nero killed his mother. She, Agrippina, probably had it coming. She was the sister of Caligula (3rd Emperor), wife of Claudius (4th Emperor and her uncle) and mother of Nero (5th Emperor). The mother probably poisoned Claudius, so that her son, Nero, could become Emperor at age 17. (Nero was the adopted son of Claudius, as well as his great nephew.) Agrippina herself was killed (beaten to death by an assasin) in 59. What goes around, comes around.

The verdict on whether Nero set fire to Rome as a large urban renewal project is unclear. He did organize vast relief efforts using his own funds. But he also blamed the Christians for the fire when the populace began to suspect him. Nero did not fiddle while Rome burned. There were no violins (although he did play the lyre).

Nero killed himself at age 30. His inattention to important political matters, his self-indulgence and his gene pool had caught up with him.

Today is the birthday

… of jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player Clark Terry, 89.

Clark Terry performed with Charlie Barnet (1947) and in Count Basie’s big band and small groups (1948-51) before beginning an important affiliation with Duke Ellington, which lasted from 1951 to 1959. During this period Terry took part in many of Ellington’s suites and acquired a lasting reputation for his wide range of styles (from swing to hard bop), technical proficiency, and infectious good humor. After leaving Ellington, he became a frequent performer in New York studios and a staff member of NBC; he appeared regularly on the Tonight Show, where his unique “mumbling” scat singing became famous.

PBS – JAZZ

… of Patty Duke. The Oscar-winning actress is 63.

… of Gabriella. Vanessa Hudgens is 21 today.

Best actress Oscar nominee for Days of Wine and Roses, Lee Remick was born on this date in 1935. She is often remembered too for her performance in the classic film Anatomy of a Murder. Miss Remick died of cancer in 1991.

Don Hewitt, the long-time producer of 60 Minutes was born on this date in 1922. He died in August.

Hewitt worked as a copyboy for a New York newspaper for 15 dollars a week, then got a job with a photo agency, and then got hired away by CBS radio — since he had experience with pictures and visual layout — to help produce the new television news programming that the network was trying to launch. It was all brand-new in the 1940s, and Hewitt remembers asking them “What-avision?” He went down to Grand Central Terminal in New York and up to the top floor to take a look at these “little pictures in a box” of which people spoke. He later reminisced, “They also had cameras and lights and makeup artists and stage managers and microphone booms just like in the movies, and I was hooked.” That year, in 1948, he began producing and directing an evening news broadcast for CBS, and he would later become the executive producer of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

On September 24, 1968 Don Hewitt launched his investigative news magazine, 60 Minutes.

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Congressional Medal of Honor winner Jimmy Doolittle was born on this date in 1896. Doolittle led the daring bombing raid on Tokyo in April 1942. Sixteen B-25s from the U.S.S. Hornet did little damage, but the attack on the Japanese homeland was a major public relations and morale-boosting effort for U.S. forces just five months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

As predicted, Nostradamus was born on this date in 1503.

George Washington died at his Mount Vernon home on this date in 1799 at the age of 67. According to the Library of Congress, his last words reportedly were: “I feel myself going. I thank you for your attentions; but I pray you to take no more trouble about me. Let me go off quietly. I cannot last long.”

Alabama was admitted to the Union as the 22nd state on this date in 1819.

Roald Amundsen and four others became the first to reach the South Pole on this date in the summer of 1911. See the NOAA South Pole Live Camera.

And it’s the birthday of Veronica, one of the two official daughters-in-law of NewMexiKen. Veronica, like the President a graduate of Columbia University, is the mother of Sweetie Sofie and a law professor and attorney. Happy Birthday, Veronica.

Today is the birthday

… of Dick Van Dyke. Rob Petrie is 84. Nine emmy nominations, four wins.

… of Christopher Plummer. Captain Georg von Trapp is 80. More recently Plummer has been in A Beautiful Mind, Syriana, The Lake House and the voice of the bad guy in Up. Six films in 2005, a couple more in 2006, four in 2007, three more in 2008, seven in 2009 counting voice-overs, and a handful in production.

… of Ferguson Jenkins. The baseball hall-of-famer is 66.

Canada’s first Hall of Fame member, Fergie Jenkins used pinpoint control and effectively changed speeds to win 284 games. Cast in the same mold as finesse artists like Catfish Hunter and Robin Roberts, Jenkins forged an impressive 3.34 ERA despite playing 12 of his 19 seasons in hitters’ ballparks – Wrigley Field and Fenway Park. A diligent workhorse, Jenkins used an easy, uncomplicated motion to reach the 20-win mark seven times and capture the National League Cy Young Award in 1971.

National Baseball Hall of Fame

… of Ted Nugent, 61.

… of Wendie Malick. Just shoot her, she’s 59.

… of Ben Bernanke. The chairman of the Federal Reserve is 56.

… of Steve Buscemi. The actor who portrayed the creepy Tony Blundetto (Tony Soprano’s cousin) and the even creepier Carl Showalter in Fargo is 52.

… of Johnny Whitaker. That would be Buffy’s brother Jody on Family Affair. He’s 50. Kathy Garver, the actress who played his older sister Cissy on that show, is 64 today.

… of Jamie Foxx. The Oscar-winner is 42.

… of Taylor Swift, 20.

The Norwegian artist Edvard Munch was born on this date in 1863.

In 1892, he wrote in his journal: “I was walking along the road with two friends. The sun set. I felt a tinge of melancholy. Suddenly the sky became a bloody red. I stopped, leaned against the railing, dead tired, and I looked at the flaming clouds that hung like blood and a sword over the blue-black fjord and the city. My friends walked on. I stood there, trembling with fright. And I felt a loud, unending scream piercing nature.” The next year, he painted the first of several versions of his most famous painting, The Scream.

The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor