Category: Birthdays

Today is the birthday

… of Willie McCovey. “Stretch,” a baseball hall-of-famer, is 70.

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 69th birthday.

… of Rod Stewart. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is 63.

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 60.

… of George Foreman. The boxing hall-of-famer and cook is 59. 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 55. She won four consecutive Grammy awards in the 1980s for “Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female.”

… of Shawn Colvin. The singer is 52.

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)

Today is the birthday

… of Bart Starr. The hall-of-fame quarterback is 74.

… of Dick Enberg. The sportscaster is 73 (oh, my!).

… of Joan Baez. The singer is 67.

… of Jimmy Page. The Led Zeppelin rocker is 64.

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 57.

… of Dave Matthews. He’s 41.

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

Richard Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California, on this date in 1913.

Toyota made its first appearance in the U.S. at the Los Angeles Auto Show 50 years ago today. Datsun (Nissan), too.

… 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.

Robert Duvall was born in San Diego 77 years ago today. Duvall won the best actor Oscar for his portrayl of Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies in 1983. Among other characters he has portrayed are Boo Radley, Frank Burns, Tom Hagen, Lt. Col. William ‘Bill’ Kilgore, Bull Meechum and the unforgettable Augustus McCrae.

Umberto Eco is 76 today.

Eco had never written any fiction, but the idea intrigued him, so he told the publisher that he would work on something. He got the idea of a murder mystery set in the Middle Ages, and he wrote about a Franciscan friar who stumbles upon a series of interrelated deaths in the Italian abbey he is visiting. He filled the book with the history of the 14th century, as well as philosophy and theology. He also used every trick he’d ever learned from studying detective novels and spy movies to create his protagonist, William of Baskerville.

When Eco finished the novel, titled The Name of the Rose, he thought that his publishers were being way too optimistic when they ordered 30,000 copies to be printed. But when it came out in 1980, The Name of the Rose sold 2 million copies.

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

Charlie Rose is 66 today.

Diane Keaton was born in Los Angeles 62 years ago today. Keaton won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of Annie Hall in 1977. She has had three other Oscar nominations. She has never married but has adopted two children. Her real name is Diane Hall; she changed to Keaton, her mother’s maiden name, because there was already a Diane Hall in the Actor’s Guild.

Marilyn Manson is 39.

… was born on this date in 1643.

The NOVA website devoted to Einstein talks also of the genius of Newton.

There is a parlor game physics students play: Who was the greater genius? Galileo or Kepler? (Galileo) Maxwell or Bohr? (Maxwell, but it’s closer than you might think). Hawking or Heisenberg? (A no-brainer, whatever the best-seller lists might say. It’s Heisenberg). But there are two figures who are simply off the charts. Isaac Newton is one. The other is Albert Einstein. If pressed, physicists give Newton pride of place, but it is a photo finish — and no one else is in the race.

Newton’s claim is obvious. He created modern physics. His system described the behavior of the entire cosmos — and while others before him had invented grand schemes, Newton’s was different. His theories were mathematical, making specific predictions to be confirmed by experiments in the real world. Little wonder that those after Newton called him lucky — “for there is only one universe to discover, and he discovered it.”

Today is the birthday

… of George Martin. The man who produced The Beatles’ records is 82.

… of Dabney Coleman. Franklin M. Hart Jr. is 76 (that’s the boss in Nine To Five).

… of Bobby Hull. The hockey hall-of-famer is 69.

… of Stephen Stills. The rock and roll hall-of-famer is 63.

… of John Paul Jones. No, not the Navy guy. The Led Zeppelin guy. He’s 62.

… of Victoria Principal. Pamela Barnes Ewing (Dallas) is 58.

… of Mel Gibson. Old Blood and Guts is 52.

… of Danica McKellar, 33. You know, Winnie from The Wonder Years.

… of Eli Manning, 27.

J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, on this date in 1892. Tolkien is best known for his fantasy novels The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (1954-1955).

Joseph de Veuster was born on this date in 1840. Known as Father Damien, the Belgian priest spent the last 16 years of his life ministering to the leper colony on Molokai.

“This is my work in the world. Sooner or later I shall become a leper, but may it not be until I have exhausted my capabilities for good.”

With King Kamehameha, Damien’s statue is one of the two chosen by Hawaii to be displayed in Statuary Hall in the nation’s Capitol.

Source: Hawaii State Government: Father Damien

Today is the birthday

… of Odetta. The folk and blues singer is 77.

… of Anthony Hopkins. The Oscar winner is 70. Hopkins has been nominated for Best Actor three times, winning for The Silence of the Lambs. He was also nominated as Best Supporting Actor for Amistad.

… of Tim Considine. Spin of “Spin and Marty” is 67. Considine was also the oldest of “My Three Sons” and played the soldier slapped by General Patton in the film Patton.

… of Sarah Miles. The Oscar nominee (best actress for Ryan’s Daughter) is 66.

… of Ben Kingsley. The Oscar winner is 64. He won Best Actor for his portrayal of Gandhi. He was also nominated for Best Actor for House of Sand and Fog and twice for Best Supporting Actor.

… of Diane Von Furstenberg. The fashion designer is 61.

… of Tim Matheson. Animal House’s “Otter,” better known recently as Vice President John Hoynes on “West Wing,” is 60.

… of Donna Summer. The Bad Girl is 59.

… of Bebe Neuwirth. Lilith is 49. Ms. Neuwirth won the Emmy twice for this role on Cheers.

… of Val Kilmer. “Iceman” is 48.

… of Gong Li. The actress is 42.

Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. was born in Roswell, New Mexico, on this date in 1943. His grandmother gave him a guitar while he lived in Tucson and eventually he became John Denver. Denver died in 1997 when his experimental plane crashed into Monterey Bay.

George C. Marshall was born on this date in 1880.

Few Americans in the twentieth century have left a greater legacy to world peace than George C. Marshall (1880-1959). As chief of staff of the United States Army during World War II, it fell to Marshall to raise, train, and equip an army of several million men. It was Marshall who selected the officer corps and it was Marshall who played a leading role in planning military operations on a global scale. In the end, it was Marshall whom British Prime Minister Winston Churchill hailed as “the true organizer of victory.”

Yet history will associate Marshall foremost as the author of the Marshall Plan. The idea of extending billions of American dollars for European economic recovery was not his alone. He was only one of many Western leaders who realized the tragic consequences of doing nothing for those war-shattered countries in which basic living conditions were deplorable and still deteriorating two years after the end of the fighting. But Marshall, more than anyone else, led the way. In an address at Harvard University on June 5, 1947, Marshall, in his capacity as secretary of state, articulated the general principles of the Marshall Plan. (National Portrait Gallery)

Marshall won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.

Henri Matisse was born on this date in 1869. With Picasso, Matisse is considered the pinnacle of 20th century painting.

The WebMuseum has details of the life and works of Matisse including several examples.

Matisse died in 1954.

The penultimate day of the year is the birthday

… of Bo Diddley. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is 79.

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)

… of Russ Tamblyn. Riff, “a Jet to his dying day,” is 73.

… 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 72.

… of Paul (Noel actually) Stookey. Paul of Peter, Paul & Mary is 70.

… of James Burrows. The director of “Taxi,” “Cheers” and “Will and Grace” is 67.

… of Fred Ward. The actor (Gus Grissom in “The Right Stuff”) is 65.

… of Monkees Michael Nesmith (65) and Davy Jones (62).

… of Patti Smith. Punk rock’s poet laureate is 61.

… of Meredith Viera and of Matt Lauer. The Today show hosts are 54 and 50.

… of Tracey Ullman. She’s 48.

… of Eldrick Woods. Tiger is 32.

… of LeBron James. He’s 23 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

Alfred Einstein was born on December 30, 1880.

Five-time Oscar nominee Denzel Washington is 53 today. He’s won twice — leading for Training Day and supporting for Glory.

Six-time Oscar nominee Maggie Smith is 73. 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 76.

Stan Lee, the creator of “Spider-Man” and “The Incredible Hulk” is 85.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia, on this date in 1856. Wilson was the second of two sitting American Presidents to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. Theodore Roosevelt was the other.

Today is the birthday

… of Hector Elizondo. Better-known perhaps for Chicago Hope, NewMexiKen remembers this fine character actor best as the gracious hotel manager in Pretty Woman. He’s 71.

… of Steve Carlton. Lefty is 63.

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 62. Another person NewMexiKen once met; in Sawyer’s case while she worked for Richard Nixon after he resigned the presidency. It was 33 years ago, but I can still remember the moment and thinking that I wanted to be a former President when I grew up so that women as attractive as she would be on my staff.

… of Robin Gibb. The twin of Maurice (d. 2003) and brother of Barry and Andy (d. 1988) is 58.

… of Ralph Fiennes. The actor, twice nominated for the best actor Oscar, is 45.

Claudia Taylor Johnson was born on this date in 1912. NewMexiKen worked at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in the mid-1970s where I met and occasionally chatted with Mrs. Johnson. She was a warm, impressive and attractive woman.

The Solstice is at 11:08 tonight Mountain Time.

Today is the birthday

… of Joe Paterno. The football coach at Penn State is 81.

… of Phil Donahue. The talk show host is 72.

… of Jane Fonda. The two-time Oscar-winning actress is 70. 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 65.

… of Michael Tilson Thomas. The director of the San Francisco Symphony is 63.

… of Samuel L. Jackson. Mace Windu is 59. 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 53.

… of Jane Kaczmarek. Malcolm’s mom is 52.

… of Ray Romano. Raymond is 50.

… of Kiefer Sutherland. He’s 41.

… of Julie Delpy. The actress, who was nominated for a writing Oscar for Before Sunset, is 38.

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

Dick Wolf, the producer of the Law & Order shows is 61 today.

Author Sandra Cisneros is 53.

It’s the birthday of the poet and novelist Sandra Cisneros, born in Chicago in 1954. When she was growing up, her Mexican-born father would often have bouts of nostalgia for the home country, and he would force the whole family to go back there for a few months.

She went on to college, and she later said she was lucky to be a girl, because her father didn’t care what she studied. He just expected her to meet her husband. So she was free to study an impractical subject like English. She kept writing, and one of her professors encouraged her to apply to the Iowa Writer’s Workshop.

But once Cisneros got there, she felt totally out of place. She said, “My classmates were from the best schools in the country. They had been bred as fine hothouse flowers. I was a yellow weed among the city’s cracks.” One day, her class was given an exercise to think about the houses they’d grown up in. Cisneros’s family had only owned one house, an ugly red bungalow. Listening to her classmates describe their childhood homes, she realized that she had grown up in a completely different world. She said, ” It was not until this moment when I separated myself, when I considered myself truly distinct, that my writing acquired a voice. … That’s when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn’t write about.”

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

These poor folks have a birthday within a week of Christmas.

Keith Richards is 64.

Steven Spielberg is 61.

Ray Liotta, that good fella, is 52.

Brad Pitt is getting old. He’s 44.

Christina Aguilera is 27.

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 is 90 today. 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.

TV producer Steven Bocho is 64.

Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top is 58.

Benjamin Bratt is 44.

Today is the birthday

… of Dick Van Dyke. Rob Petrie is 82. Nine emmy nominations, four wins.

… of Christopher Plummer. Captain Georg von Trapp is 80. More recently Plummer has been in A Beautiful Mind, Syriana and The Lake House. Six films in 2005, a couple more in 2006, four in 2007 and a handful in production.

… of Ferguson Jenkins. The baseball hall-of-famer is 64.

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 Wendie Malick. Just shoot her, she’s 57.

… of Ben Bernanke. The chairman of the Federal Reserve is 54. If he lasts as long as Greenspan he’ll still be chairman in 2025.

… of Steve Buscemi. The actor who portrayed the creepy Tony Blundetto (Tony Soprano’s cousin) and the even creepier Carl Showalter in Fargo is 50.

… of Johnny Whitaker. That would be Buffy’s brother Jody on Family Affair. He’s 48.

… of Jamie Foxx. The Oscar-winner is 40.

Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, 92 years ago today (1915).

This from Sinatra’s New York Times obituary in 1998:

Widely held to be the greatest singer in American pop history and one of the most successful entertainers of the 20th century, Sinatra was also the first modern pop superstar. He defined that role in the early 1940’s when his first solo appearances provoked the kind of mass pandemonium that later greeted Elvis Presley and the Beatles.

During a show business career that spanned more than 50 years and comprised recordings, film and television as well as countless performances in nightclubs, concert halls and sports arenas, Sinatra stood as a singular mirror of the American psyche.

His evolution from the idealistic crooner of the early 1940’s to the sophisticated swinger of the 50’s and 60’s seemed to personify the country’s loss of innocence.

Today is the birthday

… of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The Nobel Prize winner (for Literature in 1970) is 89.

… of Rita Moreno. The Oscar winner — supporting actress for Anita in West Side Story — is 76.

… of author Jim Harrison, 70.

… born in Grayling, Michigan (1937), whose first big success was Legends of the Fall (1979). He’s written many more books. His most recent is the collection of poetry Saving Daylight, which came out this September (2007). Jim Harrison said, “I like grit, I like love and death, I’m tired of irony… A lot of good fiction is sentimental… The novelist who refuses sentiment refuses the full spectrum of human behavior, and then he just dries up… I would rather give full vent to all human loves and disappointments, and take a chance on being corny.”

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

… of Tom Hayden. Royal Oak’s most famous native, co-founder of Students for a Democratic Society and Jane Fonda’s one-time husband is 68.

… of John Kerry. He’s 64.

… of Brenda Lee. She’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree this year at age 63.

… of Terri Garr. The Oscar nominee (supporting actress for Tootsie) is 60.

Andy Williams is 80. Williams headlined at Caesar’s Palace when it opened in 1966. That is, he was once a very big star.

Ozzy Osbourne is 59.

Daryl Hannah is 47 today. So is Julianne Moore. Together they have four Oscar nominations, two for leading actress and two for supporting actress. All are Moore’s, of course.

Brendan Fraser is 39.

George B. McClellan was born on this date in 1826. McClellan was the commander of Union forces in the east during much of the first two years of the War of the Rebellion. He loved to organize and feared to fight. McClellan was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for President in 1864, receiving 21 to Lincoln’s 212 electoral votes. For his unabashed hubris, McClellan rates right up there as one of the great asses of American history.

Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was born on this date in 1857. Born in the Ukraine of Polish descent, Joseph Conrad learned English in the British merchant marine in his twenties. He began writing in the 1890s and published his first novel, Almayer’s Folly, in 1895. Lord Jim (1900) and Heart of Darkness (1902) are his most famous works. The Writer’s Almanac has more about Conrad.

The first human heart transplant took place in Cape Town, South Africa, on this date 40 years ago (1967). The patient, Lewis Washkansky, survived 18 days before he died from double pneumonia, a result of anti-rejection drugs suppressing his immune system.

Today is the birthday

… of Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Inspector Lewis Erskine and Stuart Bailey is 90.

… of Dick Clark. America’s oldest teenager is 78.

… of G. Gordon Liddy, 77.

… of movie director Ridley Scott. He’s 70. Three nominations for the best director Oscar. Can you name the films?

… of David Mamet. The playwright is 60. Two Oscar nomintations for writing, Wag the Dog and The Verdict.

[Mamet], whose father was a labor lawyer and loved to argue for the sake of arguing. Mamet said, “In my family, in the days prior to television, we liked to while away the evenings by making ourselves miserable, solely based on our ability to speak the language viciously.” Mamet has gone on to write a series of plays about con men, salesmen, thieves, and liars in plays such as American Buffalo (1975) and Glengarry Glen Ross (1984), which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. His newest play, November, is scheduled to open on Broadway this January (2008).

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

… of Mandy Patinkin. Inigo Montoya is 55.

… of Jeannie Kendall, of The Kendalls. She’s 53. Heaven’s Just a Sin Away, one of NewMexiKen’s favorites.

… of Bo Jackson, 45.

… of Ben Stiller. He’s 42.

… of Sandra Oh. The actress (Sideways, Arli$$, Grey’s Anatomy) is 37.

Oliver Winchester was born on this date in 1810. A clothing manufacturer, Winchester bought a small failing division of Smith & Wesson in 1850, the division that made a rudimentary repeating rifle. In 1860, an engineer working for Winchester, Benjamin Tyler Henry, developed the first successful repeating rifle. It was improved upon and became known as the Winchester in 1866.

It was on this date in 1835 that Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born.

He’s best known to us today for his novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, but in his own lifetime his best-selling books were his travel books such as Roughing It (1872), A Tramp Abroad (1880), and Life on the Mississippi (1883).

The above from The Writer’s Almanac last year, which had quite a bit about Twain. The following is from The Writer’s Almanac for this year.

Mark Twain wrote, “It’s lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened.”

And Winston Churchill was born on this date in 1874.

Churchillian quotes:

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”

“He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”

“Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.”