Top 10 Birthdays

February 29 only comes once every 4 years, but I was able to find at least 10 notables with it as a birthday. Dishonorable Mention: February 29, 1956: Aileen Wuornos.  Serial killer convicted of 6 murders. Charlize Theron won an Oscar for playing her in  Monster . Dishonorable Mention: February 29, 1960: Richard Ramirez.  Serial killer convicted of 13 murders. Known as the Valley Intruder and the Night Stalker. 10. February 29, 1736: Mother Ann Lee . She founded the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Coming, better known as the Shakers. This made her one of the few women to lead a religious movement in known history. 9. February 29, 1860: Herman Hollerith.  The leading American statistician of his generation, he founded the company that would become International Business Machines, or IBM. 8. February 29, 1976: Ja Rule.  At the dawn of the 21st Century, he was one of the biggest names in hip-hop. Okay, it's one of the shortest names, but he's not all...

Dishonorable Mention: February 28, 1906: Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.  The former Murder, Incorporated hitman "invented" Las Vegas, but the profits didn't come in fast enough, and he paid the price. 10. February 28, 1955: Adrian Dantley.  The forward was an All-American at Notre Dame, playing on the 1974 team that ended UCLA's college basketball record 88-game winning streak. He was a 6-time NBA All-Star, winning a Championship with the 1989 Detroit Pistons. He is in the Basketball Hall of Fame.   9. Honorable Mention: February 28, 1929: Hayden Fry.  He coached Southern Methodist University to a Conference Championship, and the University of Iowa to 3 of them. Barry Kemp, creator of the TV sitcom  Coach , was an Iowa graduate, and named the lead character, Hayden Fox, after Fry -- though they were very different men. 8. February 28, 1942: Brian Jones.  While he messed things up for himself, he was the most talented musician in The Rolling Stones. Honorable Ment...

10. February 27, 1930: Joanne Woodward.  Although her husband, Paul Newman, was much more famous, she won an Academy Award long before he did. She is now the earliest living Oscar winner. In 1960, she received the 1st star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Honorable Mention: February 27, 1940: Howard Hesseman.  He played Dr. Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati, and Charlie Moore on Head of the Class. 9. February 27, 1961: James Worthy.  He didn't like the nickname "Big Game James," but he earned it. He led North Carolina to the 1982 National Championship, and won NBA Championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1985, 1987 and 1988. He was named to the NBA's 50 and later 75 Greatest Players. Honorable Mention: February 27, 1943: Carlos Alberto Parreira.  Although he never played professional soccer, "Big Phil" became one of the sport's greatest managers. He won league titles in his native Brazil and Turkey, made a bigger mark in the international game, leadin...

10. February 26, 1973: Marshall Faulk.  A 7-time Pro Bowler, he could have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on his rushing statistics alone: 12,279 yards, including 100 touchdowns. Or, he could have been elected on his receiving stats alone: 767 catches for 6,875 yards, including 36 touchdowns. He was the best player on the St. Louis Rams' "Greatest Show On Turf" team that won Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000, and perhaps the best player in the game at the time. Honorable Mention: February 26, 1946: Colin Bell.  Star of the Manchester City team that won England's Football League in 1968 and the FA Cup in 1969. Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 26, 1973:   Ole Gunnar Solskjær .  He scored the goal that won the 1999 UEFA Champions League for Manchester United. I say "Somewhat Honorable" because that United team was full of cheats, although  Solskjær  was never considered to be one of them. More recently, he was considerably less successful as their ma...

10. February 25, 1917: Anthony Burgess.  He wrote  A Clockwork Orange . 9. February 25, 1903: Frank "King" Clancy.  Despite being only 5-foot-7 and 135 pounds, the defenseman was one of the toughest hockey players of his generation. He helped the Ottawa Senators win the Stanley Cup in 1923 and 1927, and the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1932. In 1998, 61 years after his last game,  The Hockey News  ranked him 52nd on their list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players. In 2017, 80 years after his finale, the NHL named him to their 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players. The NHL annually awards the King Clancy Memorial Trophy to the player who " demonstrates leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made exceptional humanitarian contributions in the community." 8. February 25, 1937: Bob Schieffer.  Since 1969, he's worked for CBS News. He was their chief Washington correspondent from 1982 to 2015, and the host of their Sunday morning news show  Face the Na...

10. February 24, 1942: Joe Lieberman.  A 4-term U.S. Senator from Connecticut, in 2000 he became the 1st Jewish person nominated for Vice President by a major party. The less said about his political career from the moment he accepted that nomination onward, the better. 9. February 24, 1836: Winslow Homer.  Painter known for his nautical scenes, especially New England beaches. 8. February 24, 1921: Abe Vigoda.  He played gangster Salvatore Tessio in  The Godfather , and moved to the other side of the law to play Detective Phil Fish on  Barney Miller  and  Fish . Honorable Mention: February 24, 1931: Dominic Chianese.  He played Johnny Ola in  The Godfather Part II , and Corrado Soprano Jr., a.k.a. Uncle Junior, on  The Sopranos.  But he's no thug: He's a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, a Broadway veteran, and a fine singer even into his 90s. Honorable Mention: February 24, 1932: John Vernon.  He played the Mayor o...

Honorable Mention: February 23, 1960: Emperor Naruhito of Japan.  The grandson of Hirohito, he is a purely ceremonial leader. And, like most world leaders, he doesn't like Donald Trump, either. 10. February 23, 1925: Louis Stokes.  The brother of Carl Stokes, the 1st black Mayor of a large American city, he represented that same city, Cleveland, in the U.S. House of Representatives, the 1st black one from Ohio. He became the 1st person on the House Appropriations Committee, and eventually chaired the Congressional Black Caucus and the House Intelligence Committee. 9. February 23, 1633: Samuel Pepys.  A member of England's Parliament during the reign of King Charles II, he kept a diary that provided great detail on the events of that period, including the Great Plague of London in 1665 and the Great Fire the next year. Honorable Mention: February 23, 1904: William L. Shirer . Nearly as important a historian, he wrote the greatest chronicle thus far of Nazi Germany,  T...

Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 22, 1403: King Charles VII of France.  He owed his crown to 2 people: Joan of Arc, who turned the Hundred Years' War around, and whom he later abandoned; and King Henry VI of England, his incompetent opponent. Honorable Mention: February 22, 1918: Robert Wadlow.  An overactive pituitary gland made him the tallest human being ever measured. By his 22nd birthday in 1940, he was 8 feet, 11 1/2 inches tall, and 439 pounds (but still looked skinny), and showed no signs of having stopped growing. Unfortunately, his huge size made walking difficult, and he had to wear braces, which led to an infection. Antibiotics were still a few years away, and he died. Honorable Mention: February 22, 1918: Don Pardo.  He first worked for NBC in 1938. He last worked for them in 2014, just before his death. He was the announcer for  Saturday Night Live  from 1975 until 2014. On a 1998 episode, there was a flash-forward to the year 2011, when he was...

Honorable Mention: February 21, 1875: Jeanne Calment.  She died in 1997, at the age of 122, making her the oldest person whose age has ever been verified. She lived in Arles, France, and, as a teenager, knew painter Vincent van Gogh, who lived there at the time. Honorable Mention: February 21, 1937: King Harald V of Norway.  A 2nd cousin of Queen Elizabeth II (they're both great-grandchildren of Britain's King Edward VII), he represented his country in the sailing competitions in 3 Olympics. Dishonorable Mention: February 21, 1794: Antonio  López de Santa Anna .  The victorious general at the Battle of the Alamo was called "The Napoleon of the West" and "The Man of Destiny." Apparently, his destiny was to get the hopes of the Mexican people up, then let them down, go into exile, and then come back and try it all over again.  He lost Texas in 1836, then he lost 1/3rd of Mexico's territory in 1847. Still, he served as President on 10 separate occasions: Fo...

Honorable Mention: February 20, 1901:  René Dubos .  The biologist's 1968 book So Human an Animal won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. He coined the saying, "Think globally, act locally." Honorable Mention: February 20, 1902: Ansel Adams.  The U.S. Department of the Interior hired him to take photographs of the National Parks. They made him the best-known American photographer of the 20th Century, and also led him to become one of the fathers of the environmental movement. Honorable Mention: February 20, 1924: Gloria Vanderbilt.  She began her public life in a tug of war between the Vanderbilt, Whitney and Morgan families. She ended it as the mother of TV journalist Anderson Cooper. In between, despite already having more money than most people know what to do with, she became a major fashion designer. 10. February 20, 1984: Trevor Noah.  His memoir was titled  Born a Crime , because he was the son of a mixed-race marriage in apartheid-era South ...