Category: Birthdays

Robbie Robertson of The Band is 66.

Julie Nixon Eisenhower, daughter of one president and granddaughter-in-law of another, is 61. (It’s her husband David Eisenhower for whom presidential retreat Camp David is named.)

Huey Lewis is 59. No news on the ages of The News.

Rich “Goose” Gossage is 58.

David Farragut was born on July 5th in 1801. He entered the U.S. Navy as a 9-year-old; as a 12-year-old he took command of a prize ship and brought her to port during the War of 1812. Though a native of Tennessee, Farragut honored his oath to the United States and remained with the Union. A naval force under his command took control of New Orleans in 1862. In August 1864 he led the victory at Mobile Bay where he is reported to have said, “Damn the torpedoes, Full speed ahead!”

Aboard Hartford, Farragut entered Mobile Bay, Alabama, 5 August 1864, in two columns, with armored monitors leading and a fleet of wooden ships following. When the lead monitor Tecumseh was demolished by a mine, the wooden ship Brooklyn stopped, and the line drifted in confusion toward Fort Morgan. As disaster seemed imminent, Farragut gave the orders embodied by these famous words. He swung his own ship clear and headed across the mines, which failed to explode. The fleet followed and anchored above the forts, which, now isolated, surrendered one by one. The torpedoes to which Farragut and his contemporaries referred would today be described as tethered mines.

Famous Navy Quotes

Phineas Taylor Barnum was born on this date in 1810.

In his 80 years, Barnum gave the wise public of the 19th century shameless hucksterism, peerless spectacle, and everything in between — enough entertainment to earn the title “master showman” a dozen times over. In choosing Barnum as one of the 100 most important people of the millennium, LIFE magazine dubbed him “the patron saint of promoters.”
. . .

In 1841, Barnum purchased Scudder’s American Museum on Broadway in New York City. He exhibited “500,000 natural and artificial curiosities from every corner of the globe,” and kept traffic moving through the museum with a sign that read, “This way to the egress” — “egress” was another word for exit, and Barnum’s patrons would have to pay another quarter to reenter the Museum!
. . .

One of Barnum’s biggest successes — literally! — came in 1882 with his acquisition of Jumbo. Dubbed “The Towering Monarch of His Mighty Race, Whose Like the World Will Never See Again,” Jumbo arrived in New York on April 9, 1882, and attracted enormous crowds on his way to his name becoming a part of the language.

The Greatest Show on Earth

July 1st is the birthday

… of Olivia de Havilland, 93 today. Miss de Havilland was nominated for an acting Oscar five times, winning for To Each His Own and The Heiress. She lost the best supporting actress Oscar for Gone With the Wind to Hattie McDaniel.

… of Cpl. Klinger. Jamie Farr is 75.

… of Famous Amos. Wally Amos is 73.

… of hockey great Rod Gilbert, 68.

… of Twyla Tharp. The choreographer is 68.

… of one-time Oscar nominee for best actress Geneviève Bujold. She’s 67. The nomination was for Anne of the Thousand Days.

… of Deborah Harry of Blondie. She’s 64.

… of Louis Winthorpe III. Canadian-born Dan Aykroyd is 57. Aykroyd was nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar for Driving Miss Daisy.

… of Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis, 48.

… of Pamela Anderson, 42.

… of Arwen. Liv Tyler is 32.

Diana, Princess of Wales, should have been 48 today.

Today is Canada Day, a holiday celebrating its independence from Britain on this date in 1867. The holiday was called Dominion Day until 1982 (in Quebec Le Jour de la Confédération). Three British colonies were joined to form Canada — Canada (which included Ontario and Quebec), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Today we honor two venerable American institutions.

On this date in 1864 Abraham Lincoln signed the land grant preserving Yosemite Valley.

According to the Library of Congress:

The legislation provided California with 39,000 acres of the Yosemite Valley and the nearby Mariposa Big Tree Grove “upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort, and recreation.”

The newly-appointed Yosemite Board of Park Commissioners confronted the dual task of preserving the magnificent landscape while providing for public recreation. With amazing foresight, board member and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted noted these goals could conflict. In his August 9, 1865 Draft of Preliminary Report upon the Yosemite and Big Tree Grove, Olmsted warns “the slight harm which the few hundred visitors of this year might do, if no care were taken to prevent it, would not be slight, if it should be repeated by millions.”

And Lena Horne is 92.

Even in her eighties, the legendary Lena Horne has a quality of timelessness about her. Elegant and wise, she personifies both the glamour of Hollywood and the reality of a lifetime spent battling racial and social injustice. Pushed by an ambitious mother into the chorus line of the Cotton Club when she was sixteen, and maneuvered into a film career by the N.A.A.C.P., she was the first African American signed to a long-term studio contract. In her rise beyond Hollywood’s racial stereotypes of maids, butlers, and African natives, she achieved true stardom on the silver screen, and became a catalyst for change even beyond the glittery fringes of studio life.

American Masters

Elsewhere —

Vincent D’Onofrio is 50.

Deirdre Lovejoy — Rhonda Pearlman of The Wire — is 47.

Mike Tyson is 43.

Michael Phelps is 24.

38 years ago today the 26th amendment was ratified by Ohio, the required 38th state. The amendment lowered the voting age to 18.

Al Molinaro of “Happy Days” is 90 today.

Mick Fleetwood is 62. “Rumours” has sold more than 19 million copies, the 9th best-selling album of all time.

Minka Kelly of “Friday Night Lights” is 29 today. Old for high school wouldn’t you say?

Jack Dempsey was born on this date in 1895 in Manassa, Colorado, which makes him about the most famous native-son of the San Luis Valley.

To many, Mr. Dempsey always remained the champion, and he always comported himself like one. He was warm and generous, a free spender when he had it and a soft touch for anybody down on his luck. After retirement from the ring, he made his headquarters in New York in Jack Dempsey’s Restaurant, first at the corner of 50th Street across Eighth Avenue from the old Madison Square Garden and later at 1619 Broadway, where his partner was Jack Amiel, whose colt, Count Turf, won the Kentucky Derby.

At almost any hour, Mr. Dempsey was on hand to greet friends and strangers with a cordial, ”Hiya, pal,” in a voice close to a boyish treble. (He wasn’t much better at remembering names than Babe Ruth, who called people ”kid.”) He posed for thousands of photographs with an arm around a customer’s shoulders or – if the customer preferred, and many males did -squared off face to face. Autographing tens of thousands of menus, he never scribbled an impersonal ”Jack Dempsey” but always took the trouble to write the recipient’s name and add ”good luck” or ”keep punching.” His ebullient good humor was even demonstrated against the occasional drunk who simply had to try out his Sunday punch on the old champion.

Grantland Rice said Mr. Dempsey was perhaps the finest gentleman, in the literal sense of gentle man, he had met in half a century of writing sports; Mr. Dempsey never knowingly hurt anyone except in the line of business.

The New York Times

Today is the birthday

… of Gena Rowlands. She’s 79. Miss Rowlands has been nominated for the best actress Oscar twice — A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980).

… of Salman Rushdie. He’s 62.

He resurrected a minor character from a novel that he had abandoned, a character born at the midnight moment of India’s independence. He placed this character, Saleem Sinai, at the center of his new work. He said, “Then Saleem, ever a striver for meaning, suggested to me that the whole of modern Indian history happened as it did because of him; that history, the life of his nation-twin, was somehow all his fault.”

Rushdie returned to England out of money. He got his copywriting job back on a part-time basis, working two or three days a week, splitting the job with another aspiring writer …

After he completed the manuscript for Midnight’s Children in 1979 and sent it to his editor, he learned that the first reader had reported after reading the thick manuscript: “The author should concentrate on short stories until he has mastered the novel form.” But the second reader was more enthusiastic, and the book was published in 1981 to great acclaim. It won the Booker Prize and marked Rushdie as one of the most important fiction writers of his generation.

The above excerpted from The Writer’s Almanac, which has much more. Midnight’s Children is on those book lists we’ve been discussing.

… of Phylicia Rashad. Clair Hanks Huxtable is 61. (Bill Cosby, Dr. Huxtable, is 11 years older.)

… of Kathleen Turner. She’s 55. Miss Turner was nominated for the best actress Oscar for Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).

… of Paula Abdul. She’s 47. A former Lakers cheerleader, Miss Abdul had six number one records 1988-1991. She topped the charts for 15 weeks altogether.

Lou Gehrig was born on June 19 in 1903.

Lou Gehrig teamed with Babe Ruth to form baseball’s most devastating hitting tandem ever. “The Iron Horse” had 13 consecutive seasons with both 100 runs scored and 100 RBI, averaging 139 runs and 148 RBI; set an American League mark with 184 RBI in 1931; hit a record 23 grand slams; and won the 1934 Triple Crown. His .361 batting average in seven World Series led the Yankees to six titles. A true gentleman and a tragic figure, Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak ended at 2,130 when he was felled by a disease that later carried his own name.

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Gehrig died in 1941. As Christopher Moltisanti of The Sopranos puts it, “You ever think what a coincidence it is that Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig’s disease?”

Moses Horwitz was born on June 19th 112 years ago. That’s the boss stooge, Moe Howard. “I’ll squeeze the cider out of your Adam’s apple.”

The Statue of Liberty arrived at Bedloe’s Island in New York harbor on June 19, 1885.

The statue is constructed of hand-shaped copper sheets, assembled on a framework of steel supports designed by engineers Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. For transit to America, the figure was broken down into 350 separate pieces and packed in 214 crates. The Statue of Liberty sits within the star-shaped walls of the former Fort Wood, rising to a height of 305 feet on a pedestal designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt.

Library of Congress

Among the millions celebrating their birthday today are …

Lou Brock, who’s 70.

Recognized as one of the most gifted base runners in baseball, Lou Brock helped to revolutionize the art and science of this element of the game as he totaled 938 stolen bases during his 19-year career. A six-time All-Star selection, Brock also accumulated more than 3,000 hits to help lead the St. Louis Cardinals to three National League pennants and two World Series championships. Although his stolen base records have been eclipsed, the National League honors each year’s stolen base leader with the Lou Brock Award.

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Sir Paul McCartney. He’s 67.

Between his work with the Beatles and as a solo artist and leader of Wings, McCartney has written or cowritten more than 50 Top Ten singles. With and without Wings, McCartney has been extremely prolific, averaging an album a year since the appearance of McCartney. Moreover, he’s been eclectic as well, not only recording pop and rock but also dabbling in various classical forms and ambient dance music. In the post-Beatles era McCartney has cracked the Top Forty 35 times. When combined with the Beatles’ 49 Top Forty U.S. singles, it is a matter of statistical fact that Paul McCartney is the most successful pop-music composer ever and the second greatest hitmaker, behind Elvis Presley. Without question he is one of the most important musicians of the 20th century.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The first film critic to win the Pulitizer Prize for distinguished criticism, Roger Ebert is 67 today.

Best actress Oscar nominee Carol Kane is 57.

So is Isabella Rossellini, the daughter of the two legends, Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman.

Bruce Smith is 46 today. Smith was Virginia Tech’s first great football player.

George Mikan was born on June 18 in 1924. At 6-10 Mikan was the first “big man” in basketball leading the Minneapolis Lakers to five NBA titles in six years. The widening of the lane, the NBA shot clock and the rule against defensive goaltending were brought about by Mikan’s dominance. He was named one of the 50 best ever in the NBA in 1996. George Mikan died in 2005.

That’s Mikan with Abdul-Jabbar and Shaq.

Emmy-award winning actor E.G. Marshall was born on June 18 in 1914. Marshall appeared in more than 100 television programs, most famously for The Defenders.

The famed oil firefighter Red Adair was born on June 18 in 1915. A generation ago Adair’s feats were well-known enough to inspire a John Wayne movie, Hellfighters.

Bud Collyer was born on June 18 in 1908. Collyer was the voice of Superman on the radio 1940-1951, but known better now as one of the first TV game show hosts, in particular for Beat the Clock.

Anastasia, the daughter of Nicholas II, would be 108 if she were alive today — as I’m sure somebody is claiming.

According to many sources, Geronimo was born 180 years ago today.

Novelist Joyce Carol Oates is 71 today.

She published her first story, “In the Old World,” in Mademoiselle magazine (1959) just before her senior year of college, and she published her first book of short stories, By the North Gate, a few years later, in 1963. She has gone on to become one of the most prolific writers of her generation, writing more than 70 books in 40 years, including novels, short stories, plays, poetry, and essays. She writes almost everything in long hand before typing, and she usually cuts out a few hundred pages from every novel before it is published.

The Writer’s Almanac (2008)

Lamont Dozier is 68. Along with Eddie and Brian Holland, Dozier wrote a few songs you may know, among them:

Baby I Need Your Loving
Baby Love
Bernadette
Come See About Me
Nowhere To Run
I Hear a Symphony
My World Is Empty Without You
Reach Out, I’ll Be There
How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You
(Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) I Can’t Help Myself
Stop! In The Name Of Love
This Old Heart Of Mine
It’s The Same Old Song
Jimmy Mack

Roberto “No Mas” Duran is 58. In a 1980 fight with Sugar Ray Leonard, with 16 seconds remaining in the 8th round, Duran had enough. He told the referee, “No mas, no mas.”

Phil Mickelson —Lefty — is 39 today.

The thin half of the great comedy team Laurel and Hardy, Stan Laurel, was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in England on this date in 1890. Laurel was the one Hardy usually blamed, “Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into.”

The Astronomy Picture of the Day notes its 14th birthday today.

George Washington was appointed commander in chief of the Continental Army on June 16, 1775, and the Army Corps of Engineers began on this date in 1775 as well, when the Continental Congress resolved:

That there be a chief Engineer for the army, in a separate department, and two assistants under him; that the pay of the chief engineer be sixty dollars per month, and the pay of the assistants each, twenty dollars per month.

Happy birthday to you too Uncle Rich.

… of Mario Cuomo, 77.

… of Jim Belushi. He’s 55.

… of Julie Hagerty. Airplane’s flight attendant is 54.

… of Wade Boggs, 51.

… of Oscar-winner Helen Hunt, 46.

… of Courteney Cox, now 45. Apparently that’s cougar age.

… of O’Shea Jackson. Ice Cube is 40.

And it’s the birthday of Doogie. Neil Patrick Harris was born in Albuquerque 36 years ago today. He grew up in Ruidoso, New Mexico.

John-Boy Walton is 58 today. That’s actor Richard Thomas.

The voice of Buzz Lightyear is 56. That’s Tim Allen.

The Olsen twins are 46.

President George H.W. Bush is 85 today.

Well, gawwwleee and shazzayam, Jim Nabors is 79.

Marv Philip Aufrichtig was born 68 years ago today. We know him as Marv Albert.

Armando Anthony Corea is also 68. We know him as Chick.

Anne Frank should have been 80 years old today. The Writer’s Almanac wrote a brief essay about Frank last year that began with: “It was on this day in 1942 that she received a red and white plaid journal, from her father, for her 13th birthday, and she started to write her diary, a diary that she called by the name of ‘Kitty.'”

Fifteen years ago today someone killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

Two-time Oscar nominee Gene Wilder is 76 today. Wilder was nominated for supporting actor for The Producers and as a co-writer with Mel Brooks for Young Frankenstein.

Adrienne Barbeau is 64.

Frank Beard is 60 today. That’s him with Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Frank Beard is the one without a beard.

Joe Montana is 53.

Hugh Laurie is 50.

Shia LaBeouf is 23.

William Styron was born on June 11th in 1925. This from American Masters:

After leaving the service, [Styron] moved to New York, where he supported his fledgling writing career working at McGraw-Hill Publishing. He also began taking classes with Hiram Haydn at the New School for Social Research. With guidance and encouragement from Haydn, Styron made his stunning debut at the age of twenty-six with LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS (1951). This novel launched his career and earned him the American Academy’s Prix de Rome. Told under the shadow of the Hiroshima bombing, LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS charts the tragic descent into suicide of a young woman raised in a troubled Virginia family.

He followed LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS with THE LONG MARCH (1957), SET THIS HOUSE ON FIRE (1960), and one of his most famous novels, THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER (1967). Published at the height of the civil rights movement, THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER is told from the point of view of the historical figure who led a disastrous and bloody slave insurrection which set the stage for the Civil War. Winning a Pulitzer Prize, THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER was both praised as a brave look into a rarely represented life, and maligned for what many saw as a clichéd conception of a black man.

Styron’s next novel did not appear for more than ten years. The tragedy of SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1979) is played out between a young Virginia writer and a Polish Holocaust survivor in an urban Jewish enclave of Brooklyn. It takes place during the aftermath of World War II, an era Styron describes as “a nightmarish Sargasso Sea of guilt and apprehensions.” In SOPHIE’S CHOICE, Styron weaves a fictional tale, profound in its engagement, with major recent historical events. Made into a popular movie starring Meryl Streep, SOPHIE’S CHOICE returned Styron to the popular eye as both a controversial personality and a major writer.

Styron’s compelling Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (1990) describes his crippling, nearly suicidal depression at age 60. Styron died in November 2006.

Vince Lombardi was born on June 11 in 1913. Lombardi is the legendary football coach. You know — the one the Super Bowl trophy is named for.

Some Lombardisms:

• “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”
• “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”
• “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”
• “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

Vince Lombardi died in 1970 at age 57.

Jeanette Rankin was born on this date in 1880 on a ranch near Missoula, Montana. In 1916, Rankin was elected the first woman member of the U.S. House of Representatives. She was not re-elected in 1918, after voting against entry in the First World War, but was returned to Congress for one term in 1940. In 1941, she cast the sole vote in Congress against the U.S. declaration of war on Japan. Jeanette Rankin was a social worker and a lobbyist for peace and women’s rights. She died just before her 93rd birthday in 1973. She is one of the two Montanans honored in The National Statuary Hall Collection of the U.S. Capitol. Read Rankin’s obituary from The New York Times.

And NewMexiKen’s very own sister Martha is celebrating her birthday today, too. Happy Birthday!

Oh, and today is a state holiday in Hawai’i. It’s Kamehameha Day in honor of King Kamehameha I, the chief who united the Hawaiian Islands in 1795.

Donald Duck, Cole Porter and Les Paul!

Lester William Polfus is 94 today. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as Les Paul.

The name Les Paul is synonymous with the electric guitar. As a player, inventor and recording artist, Paul has been an innovator from the early years of his life. Born Lester William Polfus in 1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Paul built his first crystal radio at age nine – which was about the time he first picked up a guitar. By age 13 he was performing semi-professionally as a country-music guitarist and working diligently on sound-related inventions. In 1941, Paul built his first solid-body electric guitar, and he continued to make refinements to his prototype throughout the decade. He also worked on refining the technology of sound, developing revolutionary engineering techniques such as close miking, echo delay and multitracking. All the while he busied himself as a bandleader who could play both jazz and country music.
…

In 1952, Les Paul introduced the first eight-track tape recorder (designed by Paul and marketed by Ampex) and, more significantly for the future of rock and roll, launched the solid-body electric guitar that bears his name. Built and marketed by Gibson, with continuous advances and refinements from Paul in such areas as low-impedance pickup technology, the Les Paul guitar became a staple instrument among discerning rock guitarists.

Robert S. McNamara is 93.

Dick Vitale is 70 today, baby! Not exactly a diaper dandy.

Michael J. Fox is 48.

West Wing producer Aaron Sorkin is 48.

Two-time nominee for the Best Actor Oscar, Johnny Depp is 46.

Tedy Bruschi is 36.

Natalie Portman is 28.

Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, on June 9th in 1891.

Mr. Porter wrote the lyrics and music for his songs, and to both he brought such an individuality of style that a genre known as “the Cole Porter song” became recognized.

The hallmarks of a typical Porter song were lyrics that were urbane or witty and a melody with a sinuous, brooding quality. Some of his best-known songs in this vein were “What Is This Thing Called Love,” “Night and Day,” “Love for Sale” and “Begin the Beguine.”

But an equally typical and equally recognizable Porter song would have a simple, bouncy melody and a lyric based on a long and entertaining list of similarities, opposite or contrasts. “Let’s Do It” ticked off the amiable amatory habits of birds, flowers, crustacea, fish, insects, animals and various types of humans, while “You’re the Top” was an exercise in the creation of superlatives that included such items as “the nimble tread of the feet of Fred Astaire,” “Garbo’s salary” and “Mickey Mouse.”

Still a third type of Porter song was exclamatory in both lyrics and melody. “Just One of Those Things,” “From This Moment On” and “It’s All Right With Me” were instances.

Obituary, New York Times (1964)

Night and Day was one of the NPR 100, their list of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century. The first note is repeated 35 times.

Donald Duck is 75 today. He debuted in the Disney Silly Symphony cartoon “The Wise Little Hen” on this date in 1934. (Donald Duck is one of three Disney characters with an “official” birthday. The others are Mickey and Minnie, who debuted on November 18, 1928.)

Donald Duck actually appeared in more theatrical cartoons than Mickey Mouse — 128. Donald’s middle name is Fauntleroy.

Barbara Bush is 84.

Jerry Stiller is 82. Stiller and Anne Meara have been married since 1954 and they are, of course, Ben and Amy Stiller’s parents.

Joan Alexandra Molinsky is 76. That’s Joan Rivers. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College.

Moondoggie is 73. James Darren to us; born James William Ercolani.

Nancy Sinatra is 69. Her boots have done a lot of walkin’.

Robbie Douglas is 65. That’s the second of “My Three Sons,” Don Grady.

Scott Adams (“Dilbert”) is 52.

Keenen Ivory Wayans is 51.

Julianna Margulies is 43.

Kanye West is 32.

Eddie Gaedel was born on this date in 1925. The 3-feet 7-inch Gaedel came to bat for the St. Louis Browns in 1951. He was, according to Browns owner Bill Veeck, “the best darn midget who ever played big-league ball.” As told in the first chapter of Veeck’s autobiography, Veeck as in Wreck — “When Eddie went into that crouch, his strike zone was just about visible to the naked eye. I picked up a ruler and measured it for posterity. It was 1½ inches. Marvelous.”

Frank Lloyd Wright was born on this date in 1867. PBS has a locator to the more than 60 Wright buildings open to the public. It includes building names, locations, photographs and maps.

For more than 70 years, Frank Lloyd Wright showed his countrymen new ways to build their homes and see the world around them. He created some of the most monumental, and some of the most intimate spaces in America. He designed everything: banks and resorts, office buildings and churches, a filling station and a synagogue, a beer garden and an art museum.

Sally Kellerman is 72. Kellerman was Hot Lips in the movie M*A*S*H. She got an Oscar supporting actress nomination for the portrayal.

Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones’ drummer, is 68.

That fine actor Stacy Keach is also 68.

Composer Martin Hamlisch is 65.

Jerry “The Beaver” Mathers is 61 today.

Comedian Dana Carvey is 54.

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade was born on June 2nd in 1740. We know him as the Marquis de Sade.

Elizabeth was crowned Queen on June 2nd, 56 years ago today.

Were he still alive, John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, would be 92 today.

Jerry West is 71 today.

Jerry West was on the fast track to stardom from the day he touched a basketball. Throughout the NBA’s history, it would be hard to find a better pure shooter. At West Virginia University, West led the Mountaineers to the NCAA Finals and captured the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award in 1959. In a superlative senior season, West was a consensus All-America and led West Virginia to its third consecutive conference championship. In Los Angeles, West played virtually his entire career with Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor, and five years with Wilt Chamberlain. When the game was on the line, West’s Los Angeles Laker teammates always found a way to get the ball to “Mr. Clutch.” His cool, calm, and collected personality and his leadership on the court was a coach’s dream. When he retired, West’s name was on nearly every page of the record books. He scored 25,192 points (third), averaged 27.0 ppg (fourth), made 7,160 free throws (second), dished out 6,238 assists (fifth). West was equally adept on the defensive end, named to the NBA All-Defensive First-Team four times.

Official Website of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

Gladys Knight is 65. The Pips are various ages.

Gladys Knight and the Pips – brother Merald “Bubba” Knight and cousins Edward Patten and William Guest – are one of the most respected and longest-lived soul groups, with hits spanning four decades. Knight was born in Atlanta, Georgia, where she began singing at age four with her brother and cousins at Baptist church functions. The group first recorded for the Brunswick label in 1958 and dented the charts with “Every Beat of My Heart” (1961) and “Letter Full of Tears” (1962), both on Fury Records. After a few more singles and personnel changes, which cemented Gladys Knight and the Pips in their most enduring and best-known lineup, the group signed with Motown’s Soul label in 1966. Motown founder Berry Gordy, who saw them perform at Harlem’s Apollo Theater in 1966, made note of Knight’s “class, artistry and stage presence….She could talk to an audience and articulate what she wanted to say with just the right words.”

At Motown, Gladys Knight and the Pips quickly rose to prominence with their version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (#1 R&B, #2 pop), which boasted more of an uptempo, gospel-style arrangement than Gaye’s own recording of it.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

John Fogerty is 64 today. Fogerty was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 with Creedence Clearwater Revival.

John Fogerty now firmly at the helm as guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer, Creedence took off with their neo-psychedelic reworking of Dale Hawkins’ rockabilly classic “Suzie Q.” From then on, the hits kept coming as the band churned out six albums of powerful, roots-oriented rock and roll between 1968 and 1970: Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bayou Country, Green River, Willie and the Poorboys, Cosmo’s Factory and Pendulum. Ten of Creedence’s singles cracked the Top Ten during the period 1968-71. Although the group was not overtly political, several of their songs – particularly “Fortunate Son” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain” – eloquently expressed the counterculture’s resistance to the Vietnam War and sympathy for those who were fighting in what now stand as anthems of those troubled times.

Oh, put me in, coach – I’m ready to play today;
Put me in, coach – I’m ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be centerfield.

Sondra Locke is 62 today. Though never married, she and Clint Eastwood were a couple from 1975-1990.

Brandon Cruz, Eddie in The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, is 47.

The Dionne Quintuplets were born in Corbeil, Ontario, Canada, 75 years ago today.

Annette Lillianne Marie Dionne
Cécile Marie Emilda Dionne
Emilie Marie Jeanne Dionne (died 1954)
Marie Reina Alma Dionne (died 1970)
Yvonne Edouilda Marie Dionne (died 2001)

Together, the five girls, at least two months premature, weighed about 14 pounds. They were put by an open stove to keep warm, and mothers from surrounding villages brought breast milk for them. Against all expectations, they survived their first weeks. Watch video.

According to the CBC Archives:

When the quints are still babies, the Ontario government takes the sisters from their parents, apparently to protect their fragile health, and makes the girls wards of the state. For the first nine years of their lives, they live at a hospital in their hometown that becomes a tourist mecca called “Quintland.” The Ministry of Public Welfare sets up a trust fund in their behalf with assurances that the financial well-being of the entire Dionne family would be taken care of “for all their normal needs for the rest of their lives.”

Between 1934 and 1943, about 3 million people visit Quintland. The government and nearby businesses make an estimated half-billion dollars off the tourists, much of which the Dionne family never sees. The sisters are the nation’s biggest tourist attraction — bigger than Niagara Falls.

After nine years and a bitter custody fight, the girls rejoined their family.

There is still a mystery surrounding what happened to the money the Ontario government placed in a trust fund for the quints, though it’s believed that most of the funds went to pay for the many employees of “Quintland.”

In 1998 the surviving quints were awarded $4 million by Ontario.

And the greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th century was born near Prague, Oklahoma, on this date in 1888. His Sac and Fox given name was Wa-Tho-Huk (Bright Path). We know him as Jim Thorpe.

Thorpe was named by ESPN as the 7th greatest athlete of the 20th century (after Jordan, Ruth, Ali, Brown, Gretsky and Owens). Read the biographical essay, Thorpe preceded Deion, Bo. A couple of items from the biography:

• Thorpe won both the decathlon and the pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. Swedish King Gustav V told him, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.” Thorpe reputedly replied, “Thanks, king.”
• Jim Thorpe was a twin. His brother Charles died of pneumonia at age 8.

Rudolph Giuliani is 65 today. Alone this disqualifies May 28th from any consideration as a holiday.

John Wayne was born Marion Michael Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, 102 years ago today.

Today is the birthday

… of Ian McKellen. Gandalf and Sir Leigh Teabing is 70 today. McKellen has been nominated for two Oscars, one each for best actor and best supporting actor.

… of Frank Oz. The voice of Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Cookie Monster, Bert, Grover, Yoda and so many more, is 65 today.

… of Mike Myers. Austin Powers and Shrek is 46.

… of Brian Urlacher, 31.

Miles Davis was born on this date in 1926. The web site for JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns has a brief introduction to Miles Davis.

Babe Ruth hit the 714th (and last) home run of his career on this date in 1935. He also hit 713 and 712 that day.