Former Terrapin and Cowboy Randy White is 59. White is in both the College and Pro Football halls of fame.

Rob Lowe’s brother Chad is 44 today.

Drew Brees is 33.

Lloyd Bridges was born January 15th, 1913. Bridges had more than 200 credits, most notably as Mike Nelson in the TV series Sea Hunt. From High Noon to Airplane! to Hots Shots, Part Deux, Bridges was a multi-talented actor. Beau and Jeff are his sons.

The jazz drummer Gene Krupa was born in Chicago on January 15, 1909. He began playing and recording in the 1920s, but his work with the Benny Goodman Band in the 30s made Krupa a celebrity. It’s Krupa with the tom-toms on the iconic “Sing, Sing, Sing.”

Edward Teller was born in Budapest January 15, 1908. He emigrated to the U.S. in the 1930s, was a theoretical physicist and earned the title “Father of the Hydrogen Bomb,” a name he did not particularly care for. He was considered one of the inspirations for the title character in Dr. Strangelove.

Ray Chapman was born on this date in 1891. Playing shortstop for the Cleveland Indians in 1920, Chapman was hit by a pitch thrown by Yankees pitcher Carl Mays at the Polo Grounds. Chapman apparently never saw the pitch. It hit his head hard enough that Mays thought it had hit the bat; the pitcher fielded the carom and tossed it to first for the presumed out. Chapman took a few steps and collapsed (some reports say he collapsed immediately). He died the next day. Chapman is the only Major League player to die directly from game-related injury. (In 1909, Philadelphia Athletics catcher Michael Riley “Doc” Powers crashed into the wall chasing a pop up. He died of peritonitis as a result of surgeries two weeks later.)

“Big Daddy” Don Garlits is 80. Garlits was long the most prominent name in drag racing; he was the first to reach speeds above 170 in the quarter-mile, eventually topping 270.

Musician, composer, producer Allen Toussaint is 74.

Faye Dunaway is 71. Her name at birth was Dorothy Faye Dunaway. She won the best actress Oscar for Network; she was also nominated for Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown.

NPR’s Nina Totenberg is 68.

Pulitzer Prize winner Taylor Branch is 65. Branch won the prize for Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63, part of his trilogy.

Joseph Henry “T-Bone” Burnett is 64. Once a member of Bob Dylan’s band, Burnett’s fame is as a music producer, including artists John Mellencamp, Los Lobos, Counting Crows, Elton John, Leon Russell and Natalie Merchant. He has won Grammy Awards for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Walk the Line and Crazy Heart, and for his work with Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. He was nominated for Oscar for his songwriting contribution to the film Cold Mountain, and won the Oscar for best original song for “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart (shared with Ryan Bingham).

Apollo Creed is 64 today. That’s actor Carl Weathers.

Four-time Oscar nominee — writer, director, producer — Lawrence Kasdan is 63. Kasdan’s nominations were for The Big Chill, The Accidental Tourist and Grand Canyon.

The columnist Maureen Dowd is 60. Dowd won the Pulitzer Prize for her commentary on the Clinton-Lewinsky nonsense. She has been an op-ed columnist at the Times since 1995.

Sidney Biddle Barrows is 60. Her occupation is listed as madam. More specifically she was the “Mayflower Madam” because of her well-established family.

Steven Soderbergh is 49 today. He won the best director Oscar for Traffic and was nominated for Erin Brockovich.

Emily Watson is 45. She has made some odd career choices: Watson turned down the role of Amélie, Audrey Tautou parlayed it into international fame; Watson also turned down the role of Elizabeth, which worked out well for Cate Blanchett. Watson has still garnered two best actress Oscar nominations.

James Todd Smith is 44. It might help if I gave his stage name: LL Cool J.

Jason Bateman is 43.

Andy Rooney would have been 93 today.

Guy Williams, Zorro and Professor John Robinson of Lost in Space, was born on January 14, 1924. He died of a brain aneurysm in 1989. At birth in New York City, Guy Williams was Armand Joseph Catalano.

William Bendix was born on this date in 1906. Bendix played the title role in The Babe Ruth Story and the eponymous role on radio and TV in The Life of Riley.

The theologian, missionary, musician, music scholar and Nobel laureate Albert Schweitzer was born on this date in 1875.

It’s the birthdate of Benedict Arnold (1741), so no national holiday ever possible on January 14th, even if it is the anniversary of Today, whose first broadcast was January 14, 1952.

Billy Gray, the kid that befriended Klaatu in the classic 1951 sci-fi film The Day the Earth Stood Still, is 74 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 69.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is 51.

Patrick Dempsey is 46.

Orlando Bloom is 35.

Nate Silver, statistician and journalist, is 34.

“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 (2010)

Today is the birthday

… of actress Katherine “Scottie” MacGregor, 87. She was the nasty, self-aggrandizing Harriet Oleson on The Little House on the Prairie series.

… of Ray Price. Still for the good times at 86.

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 folksinger Glenn Yarbrough. He’s 82.

… of William Lee Golden. The big, bearded member, but not the bass voice, of the Oak Ridge Boys is 73.

… of Smokin’ Joe Frazier. The champ would have been 68 today. He died in November.

… of Cynthia Robinson. She’s dancing to the music at 66 (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 61.

… of the most dangerous man in America, Rush Limbaugh. The audio-terrorist is 61.

… of Howard Stern. He’s 58.

… of broadcast journalist Christiane Amanpour. She’s 54.

… of actor Oliver Platt, 52.

… of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. The billionaire is 48.

… of Naya Rivera of Glee. The high school cheerleader is 25.

Ira Hamilton Hayes was born at Sacaton, Arizona, on this date 89 years ago. The Pima Indian was one of six marines immortalized in Joe Rosenthal’s photo of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi. Hayes did not fair well with the resultant publicity. He died of exposure and alcohol poisoning at age 32. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Tex (Woodward Maurice) Ritter was born on January 12, 1905. It’s his voice singing “Blood on the Saddle” at Disney’s Country Bears Jamboree. John Ritter is a son.

By mid-decade, the enormous success of Gene Autry’s films led other studios to look for their own singing cowboys. One of the first producers to recognize Ritter’s potential was Edward Finney. He signed Ritter and released his first starring film, Song of the Gringo, in November 1936.

Ritter was well suited to the role of singing cowboy. He looked and acted the part and was singing the type of songs he loved best. Unfortunately most of his films were made for Grand National and Monogram, two of the so-called poverty row studios. These studios were smaller than the majors and made their films on limited budgets. Although Ritter’s films never had the production values of films starring Gene Autry or Roy Rogers, he still enjoyed considerable success at the box office.

In 1942, after a decade of recording with little success, Ritter became one of the first artists signed by the newly formed Capitol Records. He soon began scoring major hits with records such as “Jealous Heart,” “ Rye Whiskey,” “I’m Wastin’ My Tears on You,” and “You Will Have to Pay.” Ritter would record for Capitol for the rest of his life.

A different type of film opportunity came to Ritter in 1952, when he was asked to sing the title song of the Gary Cooper–Grace Kelly western High Noon. The song was used as a narrative throughout the film and became Ritter’s signature song. He went on to record a number of other western theme songs throughout the decade.

Country Music Hall of Fame

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.

The artist John Singer Sargent was born on January 12, 1856. Sargent created around 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors and is particularly well known for his portraits.

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.

John Winthrop, Puritan leader and early Massachusetts governor, most famous for his “city on the hill” metaphor (borrowed from the Sermon on the Mount, of course), was born on January 12, 1588 (1587 OS). Winthrop’s first three wives died, but his fourth outlasted him.

Amanda Peet is 40 today.

Nine-time Grammy winner Mary J. Blige is 41.

Frequent TV actress Kim Coles is 50.

Vicki Peterson of the Bangles is 54 (the others forming The Bangles were Vicki’s sister Debbi and Susanna Hoffs).

Ben Crenshaw is 60. Crenshaw won the Masters in 1984 and 1995.

Naomi Judd is 66. Her birth name was Diana Ellen Judd.

Clarence Clemons should have been 70 today. He died in June.

Rod Taylor is 82. He was the male lead in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and had 50 or so other credits.

Carroll Shelby is 89. He was a race driver but his greatest fame is from designing the Mustang Cobras.

Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Max Carey was born on this date in 1890.

Max Carey enjoyed six seasons in which he hit over .300, but he built a more lasting reputation as a superb defensive center fielder and a successful basestealer. The Pirates great still holds several National League records for fielding prowess and led the league in steals 10 times. In 1922, he approached perfection on the basepaths, stealing 51 bases in 53 attempts. In 1925 at age 35, Carey experienced his best season, hitting .343 during the regular season and .458 in the World Series.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Author and environmentalist Aldo Leopold was born on this date in 1887.

Born in 1887 and raised in Burlington, Iowa, Aldo Leopold developed an interest in the natural world at an early age, spending hours observing, journaling, and sketching his surroundings. Graduating from the Yale Forest School in 1909, he eagerly pursued a career with the newly established U.S. Forest Service in Arizona and New Mexico. By the age of 24, he had been promoted to the post of Supervisor for the Carson National Forest in New Mexico. In 1922, he was instrumental in developing the proposal to manage the Gila National Forest as a wilderness area, which became the first such official designation in 1924.

. . .

A prolific writer, authoring articles for professional journals and popular magazines, Leopold conceived of a book geared for general audiences examining humanity’s relationship to the natural world. Unfortunately, just one week after receiving word that his manuscript would be published, Leopold experienced a heart attack and died on April 21, 1948 while fighting a neighbor’s grass fire that escaped and threatened the Leopold farm and surrounding properties. A little more than a year after his death Leopold’s collection of essays A Sand County Almanac was published. With over two million copies sold, it is one of the most respected books about the environment ever published, and Leopold has come to be regarded by many as the most influential conservation thinker of the twentieth century.

Leopold’s legacy continues to inform and inspire us to see the natural world “as a community to which we belong.”

Aldo Leopold Foundation

Alexander Stirling Calder was born on January 11th in 1870. He was the son and father of Alexander Calders.

The philosopher and psychologist William James was born on this date in 1842.

William James was an original thinker in and between the disciplines of physiology, psychology and philosophy. His twelve-hundred page masterwork, The Principles of Psychology (1890), is a rich blend of physiology, psychology, philosophy, and personal reflection that has given us such ideas as “the stream of thought” and the baby’s impression of the world “as one great blooming, buzzing confusion” (PP 462). It contains seeds of pragmatism and phenomenology, and influenced generations of thinkers in Europe and America, including Edmund Husserl, Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, and Ludwig Wittgenstein. James studied at Harvard’s Lawrence Scientific School and the School of Medicine, but his writings were from the outset as much philosophical as scientific.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The Right Honourable Sir John A. Macdonald GCB KCMG PC PC (Can) QC was born on January 11th in 1815. Macdonald was the first prime minister of Canada, 1867-1873 (and again 1878-1891).

Ezra Cornell was born on this date in 1807. He was the founder of Western Union and the co-founder of Cornell University.

Alexander Hamilton was born on Nevis in the Caribbean on Janaury 11, 1755 (or possibly 1757).