Top 10 January 12 Birthdays

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1923: Ira Hayes. The Corporal was a member of the Pima tribe, and 1 of the 6 U.S. Marines who raised the flag atop Iwo Jima. He had it rough after that, and drank himself to death in 1955. Fellow Native American Peter La Farge wrote "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," and Johnny Cash recorded it.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1949: Ottmar Hitzfeld. A star forward in the Swiss and German soccer leagues in the 1970s and early '80s, he managed 2 different teams to win the UEFA Champions League: Borussia Dortmund in 1997 and Bayern Munich in 2001.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: January 12, 1954: Howard Stern. One of the most publicly disgusting people who has ever lived, but he did use his influence against Donald Trump in 2020, so that's something.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: January 12, 1964: Jeff Bezos. Yes, Amazon.com has helped a lot of people. It's also hurt a lot of people. With all his money, he could move most of Earth forward for a lifetime, instead of moving a few billionaires into space for a few minutes.

Dishonorable Mention: January 12, 1951: Rush Limbaugh. Few people have caused as much damage to America as he did.

10. January 12, 1910: Luise Rainier. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in back-to-back years, 1936 and '37. She lived to be nearly 105.

9. January 12, 1876: Jack London. One of the great American writers and adventurers.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1952: Walter Mosley. Author of the Easy Rawlins private detective novels.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1937: Shirley Eaton. She played Jill Masterson, the ill-fated "Golden Girl," in the James Bond film Goldfinger. She also starred in the Carry On series of British films, and as several femmes fatale, including in The Million Eyes of Sumuru.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1960: Oliver Platt. A "character actor," he played George Steinbrenner in ESPN's 2007 miniseries about the 1977 Yankees, The Bronx Is Burning.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1985: Issa Rae. In full, Jo-Issa Rae Diop, she co-created, co-wrote and starred in the HBO series Insecure.

8. January 12, 1947: Tom Dempsey. His achievement of a 63-yard field goal, when the old record was 56 yards, has since been matched and even surpassed. But he did it in New Orleans, below sea level, when most of the others did it at altitude. He remains one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history.

7. January 12, 1951: Drew Pearson. The native of South River, Middlesex County, New Jersey was a 3-time Pro Bowl receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, helping them win Super Bowl XII. It took a while, but he's in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

6. January 12, 1960: Dominique Wilkins. "The Human Highlight Film" was one-dimensional, but that one dimension made him one of the greatest dunkers in basketball history. He was named to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and the NBA's 75th Anniversary 75 Greatest Players.

5. January 12, 1920: James Farmer. Along with Martin Luther King, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young, he was one of the "Big Four" in the American Civil Rights Movement. His main claim to fame is that he organized the Freedom Rides.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1587: John Winthrop. One of the founders of America, he served several terms as Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He coined the phrase "city on a hill" to describe what America should be.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1729: Edmund Burke. Unlike most members of Britain's Parliament in his era, he spoke up for both the American colonies and his native Ireland. The fact that American conservatives consider him one of their philosophy's founding fathers (and I can't figure out why, because he was pro-voting rights) keeps him out of the Top 10.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1950: Sheila Jackson Lee. Since 1994, she has represented a Houston-based district in Congress, and has been a great defender of liberal causes.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1958: Christiane Amanpour. No, she's not in politics, but few have reported on the subject better, anywhere in the world -- or, in her case, pretty much everywhere in the world.

4. January 12, 1928: Ruth Brown. One of the women who turned rhythm & blues into rock & roll. Once again, music alone produces several Honorable Mentions.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1905: Woodward "Tex" Ritter. One of the great country singers of his era, father of actor John, grandfather of actors Jason, Tyler and Carly.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1926: Ray Price. Another great country singer, famed for his recording of Kris Kristofferson's "For the Good Times."

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1930: Glenn Yarborough. Lead singer of The Limeliters, and one of the major figures of the early 1960s folk music revival.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1941: Long John Baldry. Part of the British take on American blues. Elton John is said to have taken the "John" part of his name from Baldry.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1944: Cynthia Robinson. Trumpet player with Sly & The Family Stone. "All of the squares, go home!"

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1970: Corey Woods, a.k.a. Raekwon. A member of the Wu-Tang Clan, his name confuses me. I keep thinking it's something backwards. But "Nowkear" doesn't mean anything. Of course, Wu-Tang can make anything mean something.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1970: Zack de la Rocha. Lead singer of Rage Against the Machine.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1981: Amerie Rogers. She doesn't use her first name. She's good enough that she doesn't have to.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1987: Naya Rivera. I wasn't a Glee fan, but she deserved better than how things ended.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1993: Zayn Malik. He sang with One Direction, but was the 1st member to quit the group and go solo. Maybe that makes him the smartest member.

3. January 12, 1930: Tim Horton. The defenseman made his NHL debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1950, during one of their Stanley Cup dynasties. But he didn't become a starter until 1952, so he didn't win his 1st Cup until 1962. He won 4. He later co-founded the donut and coffee franchise that bears his name. He was still playing in 1974, at age 44, with the Buffalo Sabres, when he was killed in a car crash. He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, and both the Leafs and the Sabres retired uniform numbers for him.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1917: Jimmy Skinner. He coached the Detroit Red Wings to the 1955 Stanley Cup, and began the tradition of people from the winning team kissing the Cup.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1979: Marián Hossa. The right wing was on the wrong side of the 2008 and 2009 Stanley Cup Finals, losing first with the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Detroit Red Wings, then getting traded to the Wings and losing to the Penguins.

In 2010, he made it 3 straight Finals with 3 different teams. This time, he won, with the Chicago Blackhawks. And did that again in 2013, and again in 2015. He scored 525 goals in NHL play, and is in the Hall of Fame.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1988: Claude Giroux. The center has played for the Philadelphia Flyers since 2008, and has served as their Captain since 2013. He will probably finish his career with over 1,000 career points, and be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

2. January 12, 1952, 70 years ago: John Walker. The New Zealander held the record in the mile run from 1975 to 1979. He also won the Gold Medal in the 1,500 meters, the so-called "metric mile," at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1873: Spyridon Louis. It was fitting that, when the marathon race was introduced at the 1st modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, a Greek runner won it. For the rest of his life, until 1940, he was his country's greatest athletic hero. Maybe he still is.

1. January 12, 1944: Joe Frazier. Olympic Gold Medalist in 1964, and Heavyweight Champion of the World from 1968 -- or 1970, or 1971, depending on how you look at it -- to 1973. This is a 1st for this feature: An Honorable Mention after my Number 1 choice, in this case because he was in the same line of work.

Honorable Mention: January 12, 1894: Georges Carpentier. A genuine hero for France in World War I, "the Orchid Man" became Light Heavyweight Champion of the World. Then he made the mistake of challenging Jack Dempsey for the Heavyweight Championship, and lost badly.

Still alive as of this writing: Hitzfeld, Stern, Bezos, Mosley, Eaton, Platt, Issae Rae, Pearson, Wilkins, Jackson Lee, Amanpour, Raekwon, de la Rocha, Amerie, Malik, Hossa, Giroux, Walker.