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Cartoonist Charles Addams, from whom the Addams family emerged, was born 100 years ago today. Addams’s cartoons appeared in The New Yorker from 1932 until his death in 1988. The Google Doodle today salutes Addams.

January 7th is the birthday

… of William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist and winner of an Oscar for the screenplay. He’s 84.

… of Paul Revere Dick, 74. He and Mark Lindsay formed Paul Revere & The Raiders in 1960. They recorded “Louie Louie” in the same studio as The Kingsmen in Portland, Oregon in 1963. (The song was written in 1955.) The Kingsmen won that battle, but The Raiders went on to record five top 10 hits, including the number one, “Indian Reservation,” which sold six million copies.

… of Jann Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone. He’s 66.

… of Kenneth Clark Loggins. He’s 64.

… of David Stephen Caruso, 56.

… of Katherine Anne Couric. University of Virginia grad (1979), head resident of the Lawn and Tri-Delt, Katie Couric is 55.

… of Donna Rice, 54 today. That’s her in 1988 on Senator Gary Hart’s lap near the boat Monkey Business. That particular monkey business removed the married senator from the presidential race where he had been considered the front-runner.

… of Nicholas Kim Coppola. The Oscar-winner, known better as Nicolas Cage, is 48.

Jeremy Renner is 41.

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

Zora Neale Hurston was born on January 7th in 1891. She was an author and part of the Harlem Renaissance.

Millard Fillmore, the 13th President of the United States, was born January 7, 1800. Fillmore succeeded Zachary Taylor when Taylor died of gastroenteritis 16 months into his term (July 9, 1850). Though from New York, Fillmore was neutral or pro-slavery. He signed the the various acts of the fateful Compromise of 1850 including the Fugitive Slave Act.

Former Vice President Walter F. Mondale is 84 today.

Robert Duvall was born in San Diego 81 years ago today. Duvall won the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies in 1983; he has two other nominations for best actor and three for best supporting actor. Among characters Duvall has portrayed are Boo Radley, Frank Burns, Tom Hagen, Lt. Col. William ‘Bill’ Kilgore, Bull Meechum and the unforgettable Augustus McCrae.

Umberto Eco is 80 today.

Charlie Rose is 70.

Diane Keaton was born in Los Angeles 66 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.

Iris DeMent is 51.

Marilyn Manson is 43.

January Jones is 34 today.

George Reeves was born in 1914 on January 5th. He was Miss Scarlett’s beau in Gone with the Wind, but is known now of course for playing Superman on TV 1952-1958. IMDb lists 78 credits. Reeves committed suicide at age 45 (some say he was murdered by his lover’s husband).

Jane Wyman was born on January 5th in 1917. She won the best actress Oscar in 1949 for her performance in Johnny Belinda; she had three other best actress nominations. Ms. Wyman died in 2007. She was married five times to four men (one being Ronald Reagan 1940-1949), but unmarried during the last 42 years of her life. Her real name was Sarah Jane Mayfield; Wyman was her first married name.

Sam Phillips was born near Florence, Alabama, on this date in 1923. He died in 2003.

If Sam Phillips had discovered only Elvis Presley, he would have earned his rightful place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But his Sun Records label was also an early home to Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, Howlin’ Wolf and more of rock and roll’s greatest talents. Sun produced more rock and roll records than any other label of its time. They included the songs that served as the foundation for rock and roll, such as Elvis Presley’s first five singles (beginning with “That’s All Right” b/w “Blue Moon of Kentucky” in 1954), Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes,” Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On” and Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line.”

But there was much, much more: Bill Justis’ aptly titled sax instrumental “Raunchy,” a national Top Three hit; some of Roy Orbison’s earliest recordings, including “Ooby Dooby”; the rockabilly classic “Flying Saucers Rock and Roll,” by Billy Lee Riley; the first pop hit, “Lonely Weekends,” for pianist Charlie Rich; and such high-charting R&B entries as Rufus Thomas’s “Bear Cat.” It is a testimony to Phillips’ ecumenical, color-blind vision of American music that a song like “Breathless,” by Jerry Lee Lewis, could make the Top Ten on the pop, country and R&B charts alike.

http://youtu.be/WG9fs7qnBoY

King Camp Gillette was born on this date in 1855.

At the age of 17, Gillette became a traveling salesman, who made improvement to his wares as well as selling them. By 1890, he had earned four patents. More importantly, he had learned from the President of his company that disposable items made for big sales.

On the road, Gillette used to shave every morning with a Star Safety Razor: that is, a heavy, wedge-shaped blade fitted perpendicularly into its handle. It would have been downright dangerous, in the lavatory of a rumbling train, for Gillette to shave with the type of straight razor used by most men at the time. However, the safety razor did share a major shortcoming with standard razors: the blade had to be sharpened frequently on a leather strop; and even so, the blade eventually became too worn to sharpen.

One morning in 1895, Gillette, now living in Boston, had a revelation: if he could put a sharp edge on a small square of sheet steel, he could market a safety razor blade that could be thrown away when it grew dull, and readily replaced. Gillette visited metallurgists at MIT, who assured him his idea was impossible. It took Gillette six years to find an engineer, William Emery Nickerson (an MIT-trained inventor), who could produce the blade Gillette wanted.

In 1901, Gillette and Nickerson formed the American Safety Razor Company (soon thereafter renamed for Gillette himself). For the first time, razor blades would be sold in multiple packages, with the razor handle a one-time purchase. Production began in 1903; Gillette won a patent for his product the next year.

Excerpted from Inventor of the Week: Archive — MIT

Stephen Decatur was born in Sinepuxent, Maryland, on January 5th in 1779. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1798.

At the age of 25, Decatur became the most striking figure of the Tripolitan Wars. On February 16, 1804, Decatur led 74 volunteers into Tripoli harbor to burn the captured American frigate Philadelphia. British Admiral Lord Nelson is said to have called the raid “the most bold and daring act of the age.” Raised to the rank of captain, Decatur was the youngest captain in the American navy.

At the outbreak of the War of 1812, Decatur was the commanding officer of the frigate United States, which he had served aboard as a midshipman. As commander of the ship, he defeated and captured the British frigate Macedonian in October 1812. He brought the vessel safely back to the United States. It was the only British ship to be refitted and commissioned in the American navy during the war. Early in 1815 he was commodore of a three-ship squadron, when his flagship, the President, while running the British blockade, struck bottom. The damaged ship was unable to escape the blockading squadron and was captured.

In 1815, Decatur commanded a nine-ship squadron headed for Mediterranean to end the cruising of Algerian corsairs against American shipping. Decatur’s abilities as a negotiator were recognized after he secured a treaty with the Algerians. During celebration of the peace with the North African state, Decatur declared his famous line: “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be right; but our country right or wrong.”

Decatur was noted not only for his brilliant Navy career, but also for his involvement in duels, which was how men of honor settled disputes in his day. On March 22, 1820, he was killed in a duel with Commodore James Barron. Barron was court-martialed for surrendering his ship to a British man-of-war in 1807. This surrender was one of the major events leading to the War of 1812. When Barron returned to the United States after the war, he had intentions of resuming his naval service but met much criticism, especially from Commodore Decatur. Barron was severely wounded in his leg but fired the shot that ended Decatur’s life.

Zebulon Pike was born in Lamberton, New Jersey, on January 5th in 1779. In 1806-1807:

Zebulon Pike sets out on an expedition to make peace among the Pawnee in Nebraska and explore the headwaters of the Arkansas River. His mission takes him into Colorado, where on Thanksgiving Day he and his party try unsuccessfully to climb the peak that bears his name.

Crossing the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Zebulon Pike comes to the Rio Grande, which he mistakes for the Red River. Here he builds an outpost and is discovered by a Spanish patrol, which takes him first to Santa Fe, then into Mexico, and finally to the Tejas border near Natchitoches, Louisiana, where he re-enters the United States in June. After reporting on Spanish forces and settlements in the Southwest, Pike publishes an account of his expedition which makes him a national celebrity.

Pikes Peak ranks 32nd among Rocky Mountain summits.

Henry Ford announced a minimum wage of $5 day as part of a larger benefits package on January 5, 1914.

To run the factory continuously instead of only eighteen hours a day, giving employment to several thousand more men by employing three shifts of eight hours each, instead of only two nine-hour shifts, as at present.

To establish a minimum wage scale of $5 per day. Even the boy who sweeps up the floors will get that much.

Before any man in any department of the company who does not seem to be doing good work shall be discharged, an opportunity will be given to him to try to make good in every other department. No man shall be discharged except for proved unfaithfulness or irremediable inefficiency.

The New York Times

George Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis, a widow with two children, on January 5, 1759. She was 27, he was nearly 27.

Don Shula is 82.

Dyan Cannon is 75.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is 69. Goodwin won the Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Homefront During World War II.

Patty Loveless is 55. Andy Borowitz is 54. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. is 52.

Julia Ormond is 47.

Issac Newton 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. “

The physician, political leader and signer of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush was born on this date in 1746 — or on December 24, 1745, depending. When he was six, Britain and its colonies converted to the Gregorian calendar, skipping forward 11 days. Rush urged the removal of General Washington early in the War for Independence (he later regretted that action), helped prepare Meriwether Lewis for his expedition with William Clark, and brought about the reconciliation between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in 1812. Rush was an prominent early abolitionist but owned a slave.

Jacob Grimm was born on January 4, 1785. He was a philologist and mythologist, who with his brother Wilhelm collected and published Grimms’ Fairy Tales. It was titled Children’s and Household Tales; the first volume was published 200 years ago.

Louis Braille was born on this date in 1809. He died at age 43, but managed to create the alphabet named for him in his short life. Braille was blind from a childhood accident.

Charles Sherwood Stratton was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on January 4, 1838. As an adult Stratton was 2 feet, 11 inches tall and went by the name General Tom Thumb. He was 3 feet, 4 inches at death — from a stroke at age 45.

Sterling Holloway was born on January 4, 1905. He was an actor with bushy red hair and a high voice, perhaps best known as the voice of Winnie the Pooh, though he has 176 credits at IMDb.

Thomas Edison electrocuted Topsy, an elephant, on this date in 1903 to proved alternating current was dangerous. It certainly was dangerous for Topsy.

Today is the birthday

… of George Martin. The man who produced The Beatles’ records is 86.

… of Dabney Coleman. Franklin M. Hart Jr. is 80 (that’s the boss in Nine To Five).

… of Bobby Hull. The hockey hall-of-famer is 73.

… of Stephen Stills. The rock and roll hall-of-famer is 67.

… of John Paul Jones. No, not the Navy guy. The Led Zeppelin guy. He’s 66.

… of Victoria Principal. Pamela Barnes Ewing (Dallas) is 62.

… of Mel Gibson. He is 56.

… of Danica McKellar, 37. You know, Winnie from The Wonder Years. After that show she graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in mathematics.

… of Eli Manning, 31.

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

Lucretia Mott was born on January 3rd in 1793.

Inspired by a father who encouraged his daughters to be useful and a mother who was active in business affairs, Lucretia Mott worked as a tireless advocate for the oppressed while also raising six children. Over the course of her lifetime, Mott actively participated in many of the reform movements of the day including abolition, temperance, and pacifism. She also played a vital role in organizing the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, which launched the woman suffrage movement in America.

Today in History: Library of Congress

This is Ms. Mott’s complete New York Times obituary from 1880:

Lucretia Mott died last evening at her residence, near Philadelphia, in her eighty-eighth year. Mrs. Mott, whose name was probably as widely known as that of any other public woman in this or the preceding generation, was born in the old whaling town of Nantucket on the 3d of January, 1793. Her maiden name was Coffin. When 11 years old, her parents removed to Boston, where she went to school, finishing her education at a young ladies’ boarding school in Dutchess County, N.Y., in which, when only 15 years old, she became a teacher. In 1809 she rejoined her parents, who had removed to Philadelphia, and in 1811, two years later, was married to James Mott. She was then in her nineteenth year. Her husband went into partnership with her father, Mr. Coffin, and Mrs. Mott again turned her attention to educational matters. In 1817 she took charge of a school in Philadelphia, and in 1818 began to preach. She made extended pilgrimages through New-England, Pennsylvania, Maryland and parts of Virginia advocating Quaker principles and waging at the same time a vigorous warfare against the evils of intemperance and slavery. In the division of the Society of Friends in 1827 she adhered to the Hicksites. Mrs. Mott took a prominent part in organizing the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia in 1833, and was a delegate to the famous World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840, where, in company with other female delegates, she was refused admission on account of her sex. She was also prominent in the original Woman’s Rights Convention held at Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848, over which her husband, James Mott, presided. During the last 30 years she has been conspicuous in such gatherings and in annual meetings of the Society of Friends. Among her published works are “Sermons to Medical Students” and “A Discourse on Women.”

Apple, Inc. (Apple Computer, Inc. until 2007) was incorporated 35 years ago today. The company had been founded the previous April 1st.

Calvin Hill is 65. A Yale graduate, Hill was a first round draft choice by Dallas and was NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1969. He was a four-time Pro Bowl selection. Hill also had the strongest looking hands I ever saw.

Tia Carrere, 45. She was born Althea Rae Janairo in Honolulu (or possibly Kenya).

Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. is 44.

Christy Turlington, 43.

Taye Diggs, 41.

Paz Vega, 36. Her name is Paz Campos Trigo. She was born in Seville, Spain; her father a retired bull fighter. She is the mother of three.

Kate Bosworth, 29.

The “King of the Road” Roger Miller was born in Fort Worth on January 2, 1936.

One of the most multifaceted talents country music has ever known, Roger Dean Miller left a musical legacy of astonishing depth and range. A struggling honky-tonk singer and songwriter when he first hit Nashville in 1957, he blossomed into a country-pop superstar in the 1960s with self-penned crossover hits like “Dang Me” and “King of the Road.” In 1965–66 he won eleven Grammy awards. Two decades later, he received a 1985 Tony award for his score for Big River, a Broadway musical based on Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In between such career triumphs, Miller kept friends and fans in constant stitches as his extemporaneous wit proved almost as famous as his music.

Country Music Hall of Fame

Issac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia, on this date in 1920. The Writer’s Almanac profile in 2009 included this:

He published his first story when he was 18, and published 30 more stories in the next three years. At age 21, he wrote his most famous story after a conversation with his friend and editor John Campbell. Campbell had been reading Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature, which includes the passage, “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which has been shown!” Asimov went home and wrote the story “Nightfall” (1941), about a planet with six suns that has a sunset once every 2,049 years. It’s been anthologized over and over, and many people still consider it the best science fiction short story ever written.

Asimov died in 1992.

Sally Rand was born on this date in 1904. Ms. Rand was a burlesque dancer, famed for her feather fan and bubble dances. She was portrayed in the movie The Right Stuff, shown performing for the Mercury Astronauts in 1962 when she was 58. Ms. Rand died in 1979.

Apsley Cherry-Garrard was born in Bedford, England on this date in 1886. From The Writer’s Almanac in 2003:

He’s the author of the Antarctic travelogue, The Worst Journey in the World (1922). His book is about a search for the eggs of the Emperor Penguin in 1912. He and his two companions traveled in near total darkness and temperatures that reached negative 77.5 degrees Fahrenheit. He wrote, “Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.”

And, as discussed in The 25 (Essential) Books for the Well-Read Explorer, where Cherry-Garrard’s tale is listed second:

Cherry-Garrard’s first-person account of this infamous sufferfest is a chilling testimonial to what happens when things really go south. Many have proven better at negotiating such epic treks than Scott, Cherry, and his crew, but none have written about it more honestly and compassionately than Cherry. “The horrors of that return journey are blurred to my memory and I know they were blurred to my body at the time. I think this applies to all of us, for we were much weakened and callous. The day we got down to the penguins I had not cared whether I fell into a crevasse or not.”

… of Frank Langella. The 2009 Oscar-nominee is 74.

… of Country Joe McDonald. Give me an “F”… He’s 70.

… of Grandmaster Flash. The rapper is 54. He was born Joseph Saddler.

… of the very wealthy Elin Nordegren. The former Mrs. Woods is 32.

Also born on New Year’s Day:

William Fox (of Fox Pictures) in 1879.

“Wild Bill” Donovan in 1883. Donovan directed the American Office of Strategic Service during World War II, precursor to the CIA.

J. Edgar Hoover, in 1895.

Barry Goldwater in 1909.

Hyman “Hank” Greenberg in 1911. Greenberg was twice American League MVP, hit 58 homeruns in 1938, and is considered by most the first Jewish sports superstar.

Jerome David Salinger in 1919.

Doak Walker in 1927. Walker won the Heisman in 1948 while at SMU, where he was three times All-American. He played in the NFL for the Detroit Lions (when they were good). Walker is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The award for the best college running back each year is called the Doak Walker Award. That’s how good of a running back Walker was. Rick Reilly said of Walker, “He was so shifty you couldn’t have tackled him in a phone booth, yet so humble that he wrote the Associated Press a thank-you note for naming him an All-American.” Walker died in 1998 from injuries in a skiing accident.

Betsy Ross was born on this date in 1752, but that was before the British Empire accepted the Gregorian calendar so it wasn’t New Year’s Day.

Paul Revere was born on January 1st in 1735 (but the calendar on the wall read December 21, 1734).

December 31st has been the last day of each year, in some places at some times, since 153 B.C.E., and more formally since the Julian calendar in 45 B.C.E. Under the influence of the Christian Church in the Middle Ages the year was sometimes instead centered on a religious festival, but the institution on the Gregorian calendar (1582 in Catholic countries, 1752 in Britain and her colonies) settled on December 31st as the last day of the year.

Today is the birthday

… of Sir Anthony Hopkins. The Oscar winner is 74. 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 71. 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 70.

… of Ben Kingsley. The Oscar winner is 68. 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 Fürstenberg. The fashion designer is 66.

… of Tim Matheson. Animal House’s “Otter,” better known more recently as Vice President John Hoynes on “West Wing,” is 64.

… of Donna Summer. The Bad Girl is 63.

… of Bebe Neuwirth. Lilith is 53. Ms. Neuwirth won the Emmy twice for this role on Cheers.

… of Val Kilmer. He’s 52.

… of Gong Li. The actress is 46. So is author Nicholas Sparks.

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.