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Former senator but still a jackass, Alan Simpson is 81 today. Why was Simpson, then 79 years old, co-heading a commission on how to manage the deficit? His co-chair was 65. Have we no young people in this country? No one with a stake in the future?

Just a Dream, Just a Dream Jimmy Clanton is 72 today. His hit was in 1958. There’s a video of Clanton lip-syncing the song as a 60-something silver haired crooner. Trust me, he and the song only worked when he was 18.

Hall of fame basketball coach John Thompson Jr. is 71 today.

Terry Bradshaw is 64, Mark Harmon 61 and Jimmy Connors 60 today.

Harmon’s father was “Old 98,” Tom Harmon, a football great at Michigan and for the L.A. Rams. Mark himself played quarterback at UCLA, where he graduated cum laude.

Keanu Reeves is 48.

And Salma Hayek is 46. Ms. Hayek received a best actress Oscar nomination for Frida. She was born Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico; her father is Lebanese, her mother of Spanish ancestry. (Photo from Cannes 2010.)

Laurindo Almeida was born 95 years ago today in São Paulo, Brazil (he died in 1995). Bear with the intro and listen to the video.

http://youtu.be/W-9OrHd6QdM

Teacher-Astronaut Christa McAuliffe would have been 64 today.

It was on the morning of September 2nd in 1945 that the Japanese officially surrendered to Gen. Douglas MacArthur aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. MacArthur signed the articles at 9:07 am Tokyo time, ending World War II. President Truman declared Sunday, September 2nd V-J Day in the U.S.

Vice PresidentTheodore Roosevelt said “Speak softly and carry a big stick” at the Minnesota State Fair 111 years ago today.

And on this date in 1885, in Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, white miners of the Union Pacific Coal Company attacked their Chinese co-workers:

… over a dispute on who had the right to work in a particularly lucrative area of the mine. The violence occurred after Chinese workers refused to participate in a strike for higher wages planned by the American miners. Twenty-eight Chinese were killed and fifteen were wounded; seventy-nine homes were set ablaze. The bodies of many of the dead and wounded were thrown into the flames. Several hundred Chinese workers were chased out of town and fled to the surrounding hills. Property damage was estimated at $150,000.

A week later, federal troops escorted Chinese laborers back to the mines. After restoring order, the troops remained at Rock Springs until 1898. Although the federal government had refused responsibility for actions in a territory, President Grover Cleveland requested that Congress indemnify the Chinese for their loss of property and Congress complied.

Library of Congress

“I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.”

Lily Tomlin is 73 today.

Seiji Ozawa is 77 and Leonard Slatkin is 68.

Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees is 66.

Barry, Maurice [d. 2003] and Robin Gibb [d. 2012] — better known as the Bee Gees — are among the most successful vocal groups in rock and roll history. They rank sixth on the all-time top-sellers list, having sold 64 million albums to date. Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees. The trio’s contributions to 1977’s Saturday Night Fever pushed that soundtrack album past the 40 million mark. It reigned as the top-selling album in history until Michael Jackson’s Thriller — an album that Jackson has acknowledged was inspired by Saturday Night Fever — surpassed it in the Eighties. Saturday Night Fever and 1979’s Spirits Having Flown combined to yield six #1 hits, making the Bee Gees the only group in pop history to write, produce and record that many consecutive chart-topping singles.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

Dr. Phil is 62.

Gloria Estefan is 55.

The only undefeated heavyweight champion (1952-1956), Rocky Marciano was born on September 1st in 1923. He died in a small plane crash the day before he turned 46 in 1969. Marciano was the Seabiscuit of boxing.

For a heavyweight, he was considered too short (5-10 1/4) and too light (183-189 pounds) for most of his fights. His reach of only 68 inches was a distinct disadvantage (no heavyweight champ ever had such a short reach).

But how do you measure a person’s heart? In that area, Marciano possibly had the largest in the sport. He refused to stay down, and he refused to lose. He might be bloodied, but he wouldn’t be beaten.

ESPN Classic

Estee Lauder was born on the first day of September in 1908. She died in 2004.

The great labor leader Walter Reuther was born on the first day of September in 1907. Reuther died in a small plane crash in 1970.

President Nixon called Mr. Reuther’s death “a deep loss not only for organized labor but also for the cause of collective bargaining and the entire American process.” Mr. Nixon added:

“He was a man who was devoted to his cause, spoke for it with eloquence and worked for it tirelessly. While he was outspoken and controversial, even those who disagreed with him had great respect for his ability, integrity and persistence.”

The New York Times

Edgar Rice Burroughs was born in Chicago on the first day of September in 1875.

He had read Darwin’s book Descent of Man, and he was fascinated by the idea that human beings were related to apes. He began to wonder what might happen if a child from an excessively noble, well-bred family were somehow left in the jungle to be raised by apes. The result was his story “Tarzan of the Apes,” which filled an entire issue of All-Story magazine in October of 1912. It was one of the most popular issues the magazine had ever published, and within six-months, Edgar Rice Burroughs was a full-time writer producing about 400,000 words of short stories every year.

The Writer’s Almanac (2007)

Blind and deaf, Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe on the first day of September in 1904.

On the first day of September in 1773, Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published in London.

Wheatley’s collection was the first volume of poetry by an African-American poet to be published. Regarded as a prodigy by her contemporaries, Wheatley was approximately twenty at the time of the book’s publication.

Born in the Senegambia region of West Africa, she was sold into slavery and transported to Boston at age seven or eight. Purchased off the slave ship by prosperous merchant John Wheatley and his wife Susanna in 1761, the young Phillis was soon copying the English alphabet on a wall in chalk.

Rather than fearing her precociousness, the Wheatleys encouraged it, allowing their daughter Mary to tutor Phillis in reading and writing. She also studied English literature, Latin, and the Bible—a strong education for any eighteenth-century woman. Wheatley’s first published poem, “On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin,” was published in Rhode Island’s Newport Mercury newspaper on December 21, 1767.

Today in History: Library of Congress

On the first day of September in 1939 Germany invaded Poland and ignited World War II.

The Sweeties grandmother was born on the first day of September. Happy Birthday, Grammy.

One of just 13 men to win baseball’s triple crown (with Baltimore in 1966), Frank Robinson is 77 today. A few of the others: Cobb, Hornsby (twice), Foxx, Gehrig, Williams (twice), Mantle. The last, Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.

Frank Robinson was one of baseball’s great gamers. As Rookie of the Year in 1956 and an MVP in both leagues (with the Reds in 1961 and the Orioles in ’66), he developed a reputation as an aggressive outfielder and hard-charging baserunner. The American League Triple Crown winner in 1966, Robinson amassed 586 home runs and ended his career just 57 hits shy of the 3,000-hit club. His intelligence and leadership helped him become the Major Leagues’ first African-American field manager in 1975, when he skippered the Cleveland Indians.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Van Morrison is 67 today.

One of the greatest singers of all time, Van Morrison has been following his muse in an uncompromising way since the early Sixties. His career has been a model of artistic consistency and workmanlike devotion. He has explored soul, jazz, blues, rhythm & blues, rock and roll, Celtic folk, pop balladry and more, forging a distinctive amalgam that has Morrison’s unvarnished passion at its core. He has referred to his music as “Caledonia soul,” reflecting his deep immersion in American roots music and Irish mysticism.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Violinist Itzhak Perlman is also 67 today.

New York Giants Coach Tom Coughlin is 66.

Richard Gere is 63. No Oscar nominations for Gere, but his actual middle name is Tiffany.

Two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Edwin Moses is 57 today. Moses set the world record in the 400-meter hurdles four different times.

Five time Oscar nominee for best actor, two time winner, Frederic March was born on the last day of August in 1897. March won for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1931 and The Best Years of Our Lives in 1946, an incredible performance and film.

Radio and television performer Arthur Godfrey was born on the last day of August in 1903. Godfrey, seemingly forgotten now, was one of the biggest stars of early television.

Arthur Godfrey ranks as one of the important on-air stars of the first decade of American television. Indeed prior to 1959 there was no bigger TV luminary than this freckled faced, ukelele playing, host/pitchman. Through most of the decade of the 1950s Godfrey hosted a daily radio program and appeared in two top-ten prime time television shows, all for CBS. As the new medium was invading American households, there was something about Godfrey’s wide grin, his infectious chuckle, his unruly shock of red hair that made millions tune in not once, but twice a week.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications

The esteemed New Yorker editor William Shawn was born on the last day of August in 1907. His actual name is William Chon. Before The New Yorker, Shawn worked briefly at the Las Vegas, New Mexico, Optic.

Four days before he died in 1992, Shawn had lunch with Lillian Ross, and she showed him a book cover blurb she had written and asked if he would check it. She later wrote of that day, “He took out the mechanical pencil he always carried in his inside jacket pocket, and … made his characteristically neat proofreading marks on a sentence that said ‘the book remains as fresh and unique as ever.’ He changed it to read, ‘remains unique and as fresh as ever.’ ‘There are no degrees of uniqueness,’ Mr. Shawn said politely.”

The Writer’s Almanac (2006)

The lyricist Alan Jay Lerner was born on the last day of August in 1918.

But Lerner and Loewe’s biggest success was a musical version of George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion: My Fair Lady, which premiered on Broadway on March 15, 1956. In that musical’s most famous song, Professor Henry Higgins teaches Eliza Doolittle to properly pronounce the phrase “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.” Lerner spent six weeks working on most of the songs in the musical, but he wrote “The Rain in Spain” in 10 minutes.

The Writer’s Almanac (2007)

Maria Montessori was born in Chiaravalle, Italy, on the last day of August in 1870.

Mary Ann Nichols, a prostitute, was found murdered in London’s East End on August 31, 1888. She is generally regarded as the first victim of Jack the Ripper.

Princess Diana died 15 years ago today.

Today is the birthdate of John Caldwell Calhoun, born March 18, 1782, in Abbeville, South Carolina. Calhoun was the 7th Vice President of the United States, serving under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. He was the 16th Secretary of State, serving President John Tyler. He was the 10th Secretary of War, serving President James Monroe. He was twice United States Senator. He was a U.S. Representative, 1811-1817. Early in his political career, Calhoun was a nationalist. After 1840, he was an ardent states-rightist. Slavery corrupted Calhoun every bit as much as it did the most brutal slave-trader or overseer.

Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, was born in Caldwell, New Jersey, on this date in 1837. Cleveland was elected in 1884 and 1892. He also had the most popular votes in 1888, but as we know, the winner of the popular vote isn’t always elected. Cleveland was a pro-business Democrat, somewhat a reformer, known for his honesty. Republicans found that Cleveland had fathered a child outside of marriage while a lawyer in Buffalo, New York, a decade earlier. He was greeted with chants “Ma, ma, where’s my pa?” Cleveland admitted he had paid the woman child support (though whether he actually was the father is uncertain). After the election the chant became, “Ma, ma, where’s my pa? Gone to the White House, ha ha ha.”

Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister known for his appeasement of Hitler before World War II, was born on March 18, 1869. Chamberlain, a Conservative, was prime minister from May 1937 to May 1940. He was succeeded by Winston Churchill. The concessions with Hitler were signed at Munich in September 1938. It permitted the German annexation of the Czechoslovakian Sudetenland.

The actor Edward Everett Horton was born on March 18, 1886. Horton’s career lasted from 1906-1970. Primarily a supporting character actor, he was in many films with Fred Astaire. Horton was the narrator of “Fractured Fairy Tales” on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

Ernest Gallo was born on this date in 1909. With his brother Julio he founded the Gallo Winery in 1933 with $5,900. Ernest Gallo was a billionaire when he died in 2007. His wife of 62 years was Amelia Franzia.

Andy Granatelli is 89 today. Granatelli was a major player in auto racing and CEO of STP.

Charlie Pride is 74.

Wilson Pickett would have been 71 today; he died in 2006.

Wilson Pickett brought the gruff, throaty power of his gospel-trained voice to bear on some of the most incendiary soul music of the Sixties. Some of his best work, including “In the Midnight Hour” and “634-5789,” was cut in the mid-Sixties at Stax studios in Memphis and released on Atlantic Records. Pickett also connected with the crew of house musicians at Muscle Shoals, where, beginning in 1966, he cut such memorable soul smashes as “Land of 1,000 Dances,” “Mustang Sally” and “Funky Broadway.” Pickett enjoyed a steady run of hits on Atlantic, leaving behind a legacy of some of the deepest, funkiest soul music ever to emerge from the South.

Pickett’s forceful style was nurtured in the Baptist choirs of his native Prattville, Alabama, and on the streets of Detroit, where he moved with his family as a teenager.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s is 61 today. Queen Latifah (Dana Elaine Owens) is 42.