Top 10 February 13 Birthdays

Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 13, 1910: William Shockley. He led the team that invented the transistor. But he was also a big believer in eugenics and in black people being inferior.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 13, 1944: Jerry Springer. He actually did a good job as Mayor of Cincinnati. As for his hosting of a talk show, well, if you consider that his job was to appeal to the lowest common denominator, then he did a good job there, too.

Dishonorable Mention: February 13, 1883: Hal Chase. He could hit a little, and was said to be the best-fielding 1st baseman the game had yet seen. So when he made errors, people tended to blame the infielders throwing to him. Some knew better, that he was mishandling throws to tank games because he'd bet on his own team to lose. It finally got him banned from baseball. Otherwise, he would have had a shot at the Hall of Fame.

10. February 13, 1933: Kim Novak. One of the all-time movie "blonde bombshells."

9. February 13, 1944: Stockard Channing. From Betty Rizzo in Grease to Dr. Abbey Bartlett on The West Wing, she is one of the top actresses of her generation.

8. February 13, 1916: Tennessee Ernie Ford. Born and raised in Bristol, so he could very easily have been Virginia Ernie. That bass voice swept up from Appalachia all over the world, and ain't no company store can lay a claim on his soul.

7. February 13, 1920: Boudleaux Bryant. With his wife Felice, he wrote a long string of country and rock and roll hits. For The Everly Brothers: "Bye Bye, Love," "Wake Up, Little Susie," "All I Have to Do Is Dream" and "Bird Dog." But their best known song might be the theme song for the University of Tennessee, "Rocky Top."

Honorable Mention: February 13, 1942: Peter Tork. The keyboard player for The Monkees.

Honorable Mention: February 13, 1950: Peter Gabriel. The original lead singer of Genesis, he is now better known for using his music to advance the cause of human rights.

Honorable Mention: February 13, 1961: Henry Rollins. He sang lead for the punk bands Black Flag and Rollins Band (no "The"), and hosts radio shows.

6. February 13, 1885: Bess Truman. Harry's wife lived to be 97, making her, so far, the oldest living former First Lady.

5. February 13, 1895: Robert H. Jackson. He served as U.S. Attorney General before 13 years on the U.S. Supreme Court, dying in office shortly after taking part in the unanimous vote in Brown v. Board of Education.

Honorable Mention: February 13, 1946: Richard Blumenthal. Current U.S. Senator from Connecticut.

4. February 13, 1923: Chuck Yeager. The 1st man to travel faster than the speed of sound.

3. February 13, 1915: Aung San. The nation of Myanmar, formerly Burma, considers him the Father of the Nation, though he was assassinated shortly after independence. He actually was the father of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

2. February 13, 1947: Mike Krzyzewski. He's won 1,191 games, more than any college basketball coach. He's won 12 Conference Championships, 5 National Championships, and 3 Olympic Gold Medals. And he still doesn't know that his own name is pronounced "Kruh-SHEV-skee," not "Shuh-SHEV-skee."

Honorable Mention: February 13, 1961: Marc Crawford. He coached the Colorado Avalanche to the 1996 Stanley Cup.

Honorable Mention: February 13, 1971: Mats Sundin. He scored 564 goals, became the all-time leading scorer for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and led Sweden to the Gold Medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

Honorable Mention: February 13, 1986: Aqib Talib. A 5-time Pro Bowl cornerback, he helped the Denver Broncos win Super Bowl 50.

1. February 13, 1919: Eddie Robinson. He coached football at Grambling State University from 1941 to 1997, leading them to educations first, and 9 black college National Championships second.

Still alive as of this writing: Springer, Novak, Channing, Gabriel, Rollins, Blumenthal, Krzyzewski, Crawford, Sundin, Talib. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top February 17 Birthdays

Image
  Honorable Mention: February 17, 1924: Margaret Truman Daniel.  The only child of President Harry Truman, she wanted to be an opera singer. A scathing review of a 1950 concert in  The Washington Post  led to a nasty response from her father. Fortunately, she found something she was very good at: Writing murder mystery novels set in Washington, D.C. Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 17, 1981: Paris Hilton.  Just because she's frequently self-centered doesn't mean she's a rotten person. And she's gotten pretty far on what little talent she has. 10. February 17, 1929: Chaim Potok.  A rabbi who proved equally adept at writing history and novels, both about how Jewish people fit into both their own world and the larger world around them. 9. February 17, 1942: Huey P. Newton.  One of the most misunderstood Americans of the late 20th Century, as co-founder of the Black Panther Party, he started support programs including food banks, clothing banks, medica...
Read more

Top 10 February 4 Birthdays

Image
Honorable Mention: February 4, 1920: Janet Waldo.  You might not know her name or her face, but you know her voice. Or, rather, her voices: She voiced Judy Jetson, the adult version of Pebbles Flintstone (and her grandmother, Wilma's mother, Pearl Slaghoople), Goldilocks, Precious Pupp's owner Granny Sweet, Alice of  Alice in Wonderland , Penelope Pitstop, Josie McCoy of  Josie and the Pussycats , an animated version of Morticia Addams, Little Red Riding Hood, both Gretel and the Witch who tormented Hansel and Gretel, and, in her last role, Mrs. Tobbis on  King of the Hill . Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 4, 1902: Charles Lindbergh.  Yeah, he was a hero in 1927. By 1938, he was a Nazi sympathizer. Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 4, 1959: Lawrence Taylor.  The New York Giant linebacker has been called the best defensive player in football history. He's also been called an addict and a felon, and let's leave it at that. Dishonorable Mention: Februa...
Read more

Top 10 February 12 Birthdays

Image
Dishonorable Mention: February 12, 1663: Cotton Mather.  Arguably the father of American Puritanism. The heck with him. Dishonorable Mention: February 12, 1965: Brett Kavanaugh.  This guy belongs in court, all right. As a defendant. 10. February 12, 1775: Louisa Adams.  Having John and Abigail Adams as in-laws wasn't easy. But when her husband, John Quincy Adams, became President, she became First Lady, and was much more admired as that than her husband was as President. Honorable Mention: February 12, 1884: Alice Roosevelt Longworth.  When her father, Theodore Roosevelt, was President, she married Ohio Congressman Nicholas Longworth, who later became Speaker of the House. The marriage was a great relief to TR, who said, in a rare admission of fallibility, "I can run the country, or I can control Alice, but I cannot do both." After her husband died, she remained Washington's leading hostess. She liked to say, "If you can't say something nice about someone, co...
Read more