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Top 10 June 16 Birthdays

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Honorable Mention: June 16, 1644: Henrietta Anne Stuart. A daughter of King Charles I of England and his French wife, Queen Henrietta Maria, she and her mother had to flee England after its Civil War led to the execution of her father in 1649. Her mother's cousin, King Louis XIV, protected them, and married Henrietta off to his brother, Philippe I, Duke of  Orléans, Anjou, Valois and Chartres. (He was 20, she was 16, so it wasn't that bad, especially by the standards of the time.) Following the death of Oliver Cromwell, her brother was restored to the throne as King Charles II in 1660. And with England at war with the Netherlands, she did something few before her considered possible: She negotiated a treaty between historic enemies England and France, the Secret Treaty of Dover in 1670. Within days of the Treaty, she died, believing she had been poisoned. However, earlier illnesses suggest that she had an ulcer, and it finally ruptured, killing her shortly after her 26th birth
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Top 10 June 11 Birthdays

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Dishonorable Mention: June 11, 1888: Bartolomeo Vanzetti. He and Nicola Sacco were almost certainly innocent of the murder that got them executed in 1927. But they were still terrorists. Dishonorable Mention: June 11, 1943: Henry Hill. The real guy behind the story of Goodfellas, he had no one to blame for what happened to him but himself. In the end, he chose not to "live the rest of his life like a schnook," and broke his witness-protection agreement, and went back to prison. Dishonorable Mention: June 11, 1960: Mehmet Oz. The heart surgeon left credibility to push pseudoscience, and he is now the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, a Trump ally. 10. June 11, 1572: Ben Jonson. The author of Every Man In His Humour was regarded as the 2nd-greatest writer in the English language during the time of William Shakespeare. 9. June 11, 1880: Jeannette Rankin. The Republican from Montana served 2 terms in the U.S. Congress: 1917-18 and 1941-42. She was a suf
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Top 10 May 25 Birthdays

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Honorable Mention: May 25, 1887: Padre Pio.  Born Francesco Forgione, and canonized as Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, the Franciscan monk exhibited stigmata, and was known in his time to heal the sick. He was canonized after sick people began praying to him and getting better. Honorable Mention: May 25, 1917: Theodore Hesburgh.  From 1952 to 1987, he was the President of the University of Notre Dame. The school's main library, which overlooks Notre Dame Stadium and has a mural of Christ with his hands raised, known as "Touchdown Jesus," is named for him. At the time of his death in 2015, he had more honorary degrees than any living person, 150. Disclaimer: I'm a Protestant, but I can still admire these two giants of 20th Century Catholicism. Honorable Mention: May 25, 1960: Amy Klobuchar. In 2020, like previous U.S. Senators from Minnesota Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy and Walter Mondale, she ran for President. She finished 3rd in the New Hampshire Primary, but 6th in
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Top 10 May 22 Birthdays

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Dishonorable Mention: May 22, 1942: Theodore Kaczynzski. He could have been one of the great scientists or mathematicians of his generation. Instead, he turned to a primitive life. When the encroachment of society rendered that too difficult, he became the "Unabomber": From 1978 to 1995, he killed 3 people and injured 23 others in 16 separate bombings. Thanks to assistance from his own brother, the FBI arrested him in 1996. In 2021, he was transferred to a federal prison hospital for health reasons. 10. May 22, 1844: Mary Cassatt. One of the few women in the Impressionist painting movement, she was probably the leading female American painter until Georgia O'Keeffe came along. 9. May 22, 1930: Harvey Milk. The 1st openly gay politician elected to office in America, he didn't even get to serve one full year as a member of the Board of Supervisors (San Francisco's equivalent of a City Council) before he was assassinated. He might not have become so big an icon if
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Top 10 May 2 Birthdays

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Somewhat Honorable Mention: May 2, 1879: James F. Byrnes. The good: He was briefly a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, before President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided that, with World War II raging, he would be more valuable in the State Department. There, he was the Director of the Office of Economic Stabilization, and then the Director of the Office of War Mobilization. In this last capacity, he directed the building of the atomic bomb that ended the war. He then served as the 1st postwar Secretary of State. The bad: As a U.S. Senator before all this, and as Governor of South Carolina after this, he was an ardent segregationist. Somewhat Honorable Mention: May 2, 1892: Manfred von Richthofen. "The Red Baron" fought for Imperial Germany, an enemy of freedom. But he was the most successful fighter pilot of World War I, shooting down 80 opposing planes, before meeting his own doom in 1918. 10. May 2, 1946: David Suchet.  He's English, despite his French-sounding name and
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