VERY late tonight. Happy birthday! If March 19 was your birthday, you shared it with daylight savings time established in 1918 (the idea was abandoned shortly after WWI; with the Tuskegee Airmen, activated in 1941; and with C-SPAN, which began broadcasting in 1979. On March 19 in 1863, the SS Georgiana, the most powerful ship in the Confederate Navy, was scuttled on her maiden voyage after being ripped to shreds by Union vessels; in 1941, Frank Nitti committed suicide (he actually shot himself in the head twice!); in 1962, Bob Dylan released his first album; and in 1987, Jim Bakker left the PTL Club amid rumors of numerous peccadilloes. As for people, you shared with a guy who spend a good deal of time lost; Richard Burton (no, not him, the other one); a man who was okay in a gunfight; a Nazi who was sorry for the Holocaust and another Nazi who wasn’t; for the second time in three days a woman who was a Bond girl twice; an assassin; the pioneer of women’s basketball; a woman known for her longevity as a Congressperson; possibly the greatest screen actress of all time; and the guy who famously said, “Yippee-ki-yay, m*****f*****!” This was the day the swallows come back to Capistrano. 1813 – David Livingstone – explorer; he was the first European to see Victoria Falls; during his travels in Africa he totally lost contact with the outside world for six years until he was found by Henry Stanley on 11/10/1871 1821 – Richard Francis Burton – geographer, explorer, spy, linguist; he was the first European to visit Lake Tanganyika; he translated the Arabian Nights; he published the Kama Sutra 1848 – Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp – gambler, lawman, buffalo hunter miner, saloon keeper, pimp, boxing referee; although he killed several men as U.S. Marshal, and was involved in many gunfights over the course of his career (including that notable dust-up at the O. K. Corral), he never so much as got a scratch from a bullet; what we think we know of his life is at least partly fiction 1849 – Alfred von Tirpitz – naval officer; he was an admiral in command of the Imperial German Navy’s High Seas Fleet in WWI; his one great naval engagement, the Battle of Jutland, ended in a draw 1860 – William Jennings Bryan – politician, statesman, failed presidential candidate (1896, 1900, 1904); he was an outspoken opponent of the gold standard (his “Cross of Gold” speech is one of the most famous in American history); he was also a creationist 1864 – Charles Marion Russell – artist; he painted and sculpted over 2,000 images of the old west, “The Scouts”, “Smoke from a .45”, “When Blackfoot and Sioux Meet” 1868 – Senda Berenson Abbott – teacher; she was a women’s basketball pioneer; she wrote the first rule book for women’s basketball; she tossed up the center court jump ball to start the first ever women’s game (and dislocated her shoulder doing it); little known fact: men were not allowed to attend the first games because the women wore bloomers 1881 – Edith Nourse (you may remember her better as Edith Nourse Rogers) – politician; she was the longest-serving woman in the U.S. Congress, having served 35 years, until Barbara Mikulski in 2012 surpassed her 1891 – Earl Warren – jurist; he was Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court (1953-1969); his court ended school segregation, ended prayer in school, and required one-man-one-vote; he also chaired the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy 1894 – Loretta Mary Aiken (you may remember her better as Jackie “Moms” Mabley) – comedienne, little known fact: in 1969 she became the oldest person to have a top 40 hit with her cover of “Abraham, Martin, and John” 1904 – John Joseph Sirica – jurist; he was the judge for the Watergate hearings; he is famous for ordering Nixon to turn over the White House tapes; little known fact: he was not highly regarded prior to Watergate because of his hot temper, the legal errors he committed, and his predilection for giving the maximum sentence allowed (his nickname was “Maximum John”) 1905 – Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer – architect; he was Hitler’s chief architect and Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich; although he may have been less than forthcoming, he was one of the few Nazis who accepted responsibility for the Holocaust, which led many to call him “The Nazi who said, ‘Sorry’”; he wrote several memoirs and “Inside the Third Reich” 1906 – Otto Adolf Eichmann – soldier, war criminal; as a Nazi lieutenant colonel, he was one of the major organizers of the Holocaust 1914 – Frederick Leonard Clark – great character actor; he was a large imposing balding man with a pencil thin mustache who often played the gruff boss, “Bells Are Ringing”, “Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine”, “Don’t Go Near the Water”, “Auntie Mame” 1916 – Irving Wallace – author, “The Chapman Report”, “The Prize”, “The Seven Minutes” 1920 – Tiger “Tige” Andrews” – actor most famous for his role as Captain Adam Greer on “The Mod Squad” 1923 – Armilda Jane Owen (you may remember her better as Pamela Britton) – actress most famous for her roles as Lorelei Brown on “My Favorite Martian” and as Paula Gibson in the film noir thriller “D. O. A.” 1928 – Patrick Joseph McGoohan – actor, “The Prisoner”, “Silver Streak”, “Braveheart” 1928 – Hans Küng – priest, theologian; he believes that Martin Luther overreacted just a bit; he rejects the doctrine of papal infallibility (because of which he is no longer allowed to teach theology by the Catholic Church) 1933 – Philip Milton Roth – author, “Goodbye Columbus”, “Portnoy’s Complaint” 1933 – Phyllis Newman – singer, actress, “That Was the Week That Was”, game show panelist, “What’s My Line?”, “The Match Game”, “To Tell the Truth” 1936 – Ursula Andress – actress, “What’s New Pussycat?”, “4 for Texas”, “The Blue Max”; she was a Bond Girl twice (Honey Ryder in “Dr. No” and Vesper Lynd in “Casino Royale”) 1936 – Clarence “Frogman” Henry – R&B and blues singer, “Ain’t Got No Home”, “You Always Hurt the One You Love” 1944 – Sirhan Bishara Sirhan – assassin; he killed Robert F. Kennedy; as of 2011, his lawyers are still trying to have his conviction overturned, citing Overwhelming evidence of his innocence despite the fact that he confessed after having been subdued and captured by eyewitnesses at the scene of the shooting with the murder weapon in his hand 1946 – Ruth Pointer – singer (Pointer Sisters), “Slow Hand”, “Yes We Can Can”, “Fire”, “I’m So Excited” 1946 – Paul Ashley Warren Atkinson – rock guitarist (The Zombies), “She’s Not There”, “Tell Her No”, “Time of the Season” 1947 – Glen Close – actress, “The Big Chill”, “The Natural”, “Albert Nobbs”, “Dangerous Liaisons”; little known fact: she, Deborah Kerr, and Thelma Ritter hold the record for most Oscar Nominations for an actress without a win (6) 1950 – James Redfield – author, “The Celestine Prophecy” 1955 – Walter Bruce Willis – actor, “Moonlighting”, “The Fifth Element”, “Red”, “Nobody’s Fool”; “A Good Day to Die Hard”, “The Sixth Sense”, “Pulp Fiction” 1955 – Derek Longmuir – pop drummer (The Bay City Rollers), one-hit wonder, “Saturday Night” 1958 – Andrew Walter “Andy” Reid – NFL head coach (Eagles, Chiefs)
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 05:35:01 +0000
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