Dang! Just minutes late! Happy birthday! If March 28th was your birthday, you shared with a good friend and teammate, Mike Pitts, and with the mother of my children, Karen Hodges. You also shared with Valetta, the capital of Malta, whose foundation was laid in 1566; and also with San Francisco, founded in 1776. On March 28th in 845, Paris was sacked by Vikings; in 1910, Henri Fabre became the first person to successfully fly a seaplane; in 1930, Constantinople changed its name to Istanbul; and in 1979, a coolant leak caused a partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. As for other people, you share with a guy who just couldn’t wait to get out of town; with a real basketball coach and with a guy who played one on TV; with the zoologist who let Jim do most of the work; with a couple of great artists; with two women whose claims to fame were that they had a “habit” of seeing things; with the men who brought us PBR and Bud; with Bunny, Salt, and Gaga; and with the guy who taught us how to spell M-I-C (see you real soon) K-E-Y (why, because we like you) M-O-U-S-E. In Tibet, you can celebrate Serfs Emancipation Day today! 1472 – Bartolomeo (you may remember him better as Fra Bartolomeo) – monk, painter, “Holy Family with the Infant St. John”, “Madonna in Glory with the Saints”, “Pieta”, “The Vision of St. Bernard” 1483 – Raphael Sanzio de Urbino – artist, “The School of Athens”, “Transfiguration”, “Sistine Madonna” 1515 – Teresa Sanchez de Cepeda y Ahumada (you may remember her better as St. Teresa of Avila) – mystic, author, “The Interior Castle”, “The Way to Perfection”; she was subject to visions and spiritual ecstasies 1836 – Johann Gottlieb Frederick Pabst – brewer; he founded the Pabst Brewing Company 1842 – William (William was the only name he was given when he was born a slave in Norfolk, Virginia; you may remember him better as William Harvey Carney) – soldier; he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during the Battle of Fort Wagner 1853 – Rudolf Kittel – Old Testament scholar; his “Biblia Hebraica” is still a standard text 1868 – Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (you may remember him better as Maxim Gorky) – playwright, “Children of the Sun”, author, “The Mother”, “The Song of the Stormy Petrel” 1890 – Paul Samuel Whiteman – orchestra leader, “Mississippi Mud”, television host, “Paul Whiteman’s TV Teen Club”; little known fact: Tootsie Roll was the sponsor and Dick Clark read the commercials 1894 – Otto Ernst Lindemann – naval officer; he was the first, last, and only commanding officer of the German battleship Bismark; he went down with the ship 1899 - August Anheuser “Gussie” Busch, Jr. – baseball executive (Cardinals), brewer; he built Anheuser-Busch into the largest brewery in the world; he purchased the Cardinals to prevent the franchise from moving to Houston in 1953 1905 – Richard Marlin Perkins – zoologist, television host, “Mutual of Omahas Wild Kingdom”; typical episode scene: “I’ll guard the equipment in the truck while Jim subdues the gorilla” 1907 – Lúcia de Jesus Santos (you may remember her better as Sister Lúcia of Fatima) – witness; she and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto all claimed to have had several visions of an angel and of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima in Portugal 1907 – Irvin Paul Swifty Lazar – quintessential Hollywood talent agent; he represented Bogart, Cher, Cary Grant, Madonna, many others 1909 – Nelson Algren Abraham (you may remember him better as just Nelson Algren) – author, “The Man with the Golden Arm”, “A Walk on the Wild Side” 1910 – James Wesley “Jimmie” Dodd – actor, “The Flying Tigers”, head Mouseketeer, singer/songwriter, “The Mickey Mouse Club March” 1912 – Frank Lovejoy – actor, “Home of the Brave”, “Men of the Fighting Lady”, “The Hitch-Hiker” 1914 - Edmund Sixtus Muskie – politician, failed presidential candidate (1968); he was the U.S. Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter (1980) 1915 – Jacob Harold Levinson (you may remember him better as Jay Livingston) – composer, “Buttons & Bows”, “Mona Lisa”, “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” 1921 – Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde (you may remember him better as Dirk Bogarde) – actor, “Death in Venice”, “Victim”, “A Bridge Too Far” 1924 – Frederick Cecil “Freddie” Bartholomew – actor, “Little Lord Fauntleroy”, “Captains Courageous”, “David Copperfield” 1928 - Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski – political scientist, National Security Advisor during the Carter administration; he brokered the Camp David Accords and SALT II; he negotiated the transfer of control of the Panama Canal to Panama; he financed Afghan rebels during the Soviet invasion; he ended détente with the Soviet Union; he disastrously backed the Shah of Iran 1940 - Kevin Loughery – former NBA guard (Pistons, BALTIMORE Bullets, 76ers), coach (76ers, Nets, Hawks, Bulls, Bullets, Heat) 1941 – Alf Clausen – composer most famous for the music scores of every “Simpsons” episode since 1990; he also scored “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “The Naked Gun” 1942 – Hans Conrad Schumann – soldier; he was a nineteen year old East German border guard who famously leapt over the barbed wire separating East and West Berlin during the construction of the Berlin Wall and defected to the West on August 15, 1961 1943 – Conchata Galen Ferrell – actress, “Hot L Baltimore”, “Two and a Half Men” 1944 – Kenneth Joseph “Ken” Howard – actor most famous for his role as basketball coach Ken Reeves in “The White Shadow” 1944 – Richard Francis Dennis “Rick” Barry III – NBA Hall of Fame forward (Warriors, Oaks, Caps, Nets, Rockets); he was NBA Rookie of the year in 1966 and MVP in 1975 1945 - Chuck Portz – pop bassist (The Turtles), “You Baby”, “It Ain’t Me Babe” 1948 - Dianne E. Wiest – actress, “Hannah and Her Sisters” (Oscar – Best Supporting Actress), “Bullets over Broadway” (Oscar – Best Supporting Actress), “Footloose”, “Edward Scissorhands” 1948 - John Spencer Evans (you may know him better as John Evan) – rock keyboardist (Jethro Tull), “Locomotive Breath”, “Thick as a Brick”, “Songs from the Wood” 1949 - Milan “Bunny” Williams R&B keyboardist (The Commodores), “Three Times a Lady”, “Brick House”, “Just to Be Close to You”, songwriter “Machine Gun” 1955 – Reba Nell McEntire – country singer, “Somebody”, “How Was I to Know”, actress, “Tremors”, “Reba” 1957 - Harvey Edward Glance – track and field athlete; he won the Gold Medal in the 4x100m relay at the 1976 Olympics 1958 - Bart Conner – gymnast; he won 2 Gold Medals at the 1984 Olympics, a team Gold and the individual parallel bars (he scored a perfect 10); following the Olympics, he married Nadia Comăneci 1959 Christopher Patrick “Chris” Myers – sports journalist (ESPN, FOX Sports), he hosted “Up Close” on ESPN 1966 – Cheryl James (you may know her better as Salt) - rapper (Salt-n-Pepa), “Shake Ya Thang”, “Push It”, “Shoop”, “What a Man” 1970 – Vincent Anthony “Vince” Vaughn – actor, “Wedding Crashers”, “Couples Retreat”, “Psycho” 1972 – Nicholas John “Nick” Frost – actor, “Shaun of the Dead”, “Hot Fuzz”, “Paul” 1972 - Keith Matthew Tkachuk – NHL left winger (Jets, Coyotes, Blues, Thrashers, USA Olympic Hockey Team); he is a five-time All-Star and one of only 4 American-born NHL players to score more than 500 goals 1975 – Kate Irene Kreider (you may know her better as Kate Gosselin, but I kind of hope not) – reality TV personality, ”Jon & Kate Plus 8”, “Kate Plus 8”; to paraphrase Bill Maher, if her children were cats, she would have been featured on Animal Planet’s “Confessions: Animal Hoarding” 1981 - Julia O’Hara Stiles – actress, “10 Things I Hate About You”, “Mona Lisa Smile”, “Silver Linings Playbook”, “The Bourne Identity”, “Save the Last Dance” 1986 – Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (you may know her better as Lady Gaga) – pop singer/songwriter, “Born This Way”, “Poker Face”, “Bad Romance”
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 04:02:02 +0000
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