Top 10 April 1 Birthdays

10. April 1, 1922: William Manchester. Writing for Life magazine, he interviewed Jacqueline Kennedy shortly after her husband's assassination, her only interview after it. In 1967, he published Death of a President, still the definitive book on the assassination, despite the many conspiracy theories about it.

He also wrote biographies of JFK, Ferdinand Magellan, H.L. Mencken, Winston Churchill, Douglas MacArthur; histories of the Rockefeller and Krupp families; and A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance -- Portrait of an Age.

9. April 1, 1973: Rachel Maddow. After starring on radio on Air America from 2005 to 2010, she hosted The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC from then until 2022, stepping aside to take on other projects. She has 3 Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award (for Best Spoken Word Album).

8. April 1, 1924: Brendan Byrne. As Prosecutor of Essex County, New Jersey, a crime lord he was prosecuting was caught on tape saying that he was one politician they couldn't touch. This got him elected Governor in 1973, with 66 percent of the vote.

In 1974, he got the State's 1st income tax passed, and conservatives were furious. His popularity crashed, and he had an approval rating of 17 percent. People began calling him "One-Term Byrne." Nevertheless, in 1977, he was re-elected with 55 percent of the vote.

Although it was his predecessor, William T. Cahill, who got construction started on the Meadowlands Sports Complex, putting New Jersey in sports' major leagues, Byrne got the Complex's Arena built, and, as a part-owner of the NHL's New Jersey Devils, the Arena was named for him when it opened in 1981. In 1996, a vengeful Republican-controlled State legislature took his name off it, and put a corporation's name on it. Byrne said, "I was immortal for 15 years."

Dishonorable Mention: April 1, 1901: Whittaker Chambers. He admitted that he had once been a Communist, while Alger Hiss always denied it. Chambers was also an alcoholic, and some members of the House Un-American Activities Committee had to have known that he was bisexual, which, had it been publicly known at the time, would have destroyed his credibility.

And now that former Soviet documents that have been declassified, showing that Hiss wasn't an active Soviet agent, we have one man who destroyed another, and for what? The fact that Chambers remains a conservative hero shows just how morally bankrupt the conservative movement is.

Dishonorable Mention: April 1, 1949: Paul Manafort. He worked on the Presidential campaigns of Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole. Then he decided he wanted to make real money, and lobbied the U.S. government on behalf of some nasty dictators: Vladimir Putin of Russia, Putin ally Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine (if he were still in power, Putin wouldn't have needed to invade), Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, and Jonas Savimbi of Angola.

In 2016, he was a campaign operative for Donald Trump, and was a go-between for them and the Russian government in attempts to fix the election. He was convicted on various charges, and sentenced to over 7 years in prison. Trump pardoned him.

Dishonorable Mention: April 1, 1950: Samuel Alito. One of the Five Liars on the U.S. Supreme Court who, in Citizens United v. FEC in 2010, ruled that corporations were "people" and entitled to all the rights thereof. He has opposed every actual civil right that people have during his time on the bench.

7. April 1, 1868: Edmond Rostand. He wrote a play based on the life of Cyrano de Bergerac, which made the fictional Cyrano look considerably more heroic than the real thing.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1929: Milan Kundera. Perhaps the leading writer of fiction to come from the post-World War II Warsaw Pact, he wrote The Unbearable Lightness of Being around the events of the Prague Spring of 1968.

6. April 1, 1954: Jeff Porcaro. He was the drummer for Toto. That, alone, would not get him on this list. But what Hal Blaine was to the 1960s, Porcaro was to the 1970s: The session drummer.

Here's some other songs he drummed on: "Diamond Girl" by Seals & Crofts," "You Are So Beautiful" by Joe Cocker, "The Pretender" by Jackson Browne, "Welcome Back" by John Sebastian, "Lowdown" and "Lido Shuffle" by Boz Scaggs, "When I Need You" by Leo Sayer, "Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon, "Undercover Angel" by Alan O'Day, "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon, "Year of the Cat" by Al Stewart, "Chuck E.'s In Love' by Rickie Lee Jones, "Arthur's Theme" by Christopher Cross, and Michael Jackson's entire Thriller album.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1873: Sergei Rachmaninoff. The greatest Russian composer since Tchaikovsky, he alternated between periods of heavy activity, producing great music, and depression, producing very little music.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1909: Eddy Duchin. One of the top bandleaders of the 1930s.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1948: Jimmy Cliff. Along with Bob Marley, one of the men who brought reggae music to the world.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1949: Gil Scott-Heron. He called himself a "bluesologist," but specialized in spoken-word poetry over a musical backing. He wasn't exactly the first rapper -- that could be Louis Armstrong, or Louis Jordan -- but his influence on hip-hop was greater than theirs.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1961: Susan Boyle. She was discovered at age 48. If she'd looked like Madonna, she might have been discovered at less than half that age. If Madonna looked like Susan Boyle, we'd have never heard of her.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1986: Hillary Scott. The lead singer of the country band Lady A, formerly known as Lady Antebellum.

5. April 1, 1920: Toshiro Mifune. He was Japan's Paul Newman, its Clint Eastwood, and its Harrison Ford, all before any of those guys became famous.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1883: Lon Chaney. "The Man of a Thousand Faces," Leonidas Frank Chaney starred in silent film versions of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera. His son Creighton Tull Chaney became known as Lon Chaney Jr., and starred in horror films like The Wolf Man.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1885: Wallace Beery. Best known for playing Long John Silver in the 1934 version of Treasure Island, his brother Noah and his nephew Noah Jr. also became big actors.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1917: Sydney Newman. He created the British TV series The Avengers, 2 years before Marvel Comics had a superhero team with that name. With C.E. Webber and Donald Wilson, he created Doctor Who. 

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1929: Jane Powell. She was known for musicals, including Royal Wedding and the film version of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. On Broadway, she replaced Mary Martin in The Sound of Music and Julie Andrews (who did the film version of The Sound of Music) in My Fair Lady.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1930: Grace Lee Whitney. She played Yeoman Janice Rand in the 1st season of the original Star Trek series, and later appeared in the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th movies based on it.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1939: Ali MacGraw. She starred in Love Story, the original version of The Getaway and The Winds of War.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1952: Annette O'Toole. She has 2 connections to Superman. In the 1983 film Superman III, she played Lana Lang, Clark Kent's teenage girlfriend in Smallville, Kansas. In the 2001-11 WB/CW Network series Smallville, she played Martha Kent, Clark's mother. Save your Oedipus jokes.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1957: Denise Nickerson. She played Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and later became part of The Short Circus, the kid band on PBS' The Electric Company.

4. April 1, 1932: Debbie Reynolds. Her 1952 performance in Singin' in the Rain launched her to one of Hollywood's most spectacular careers. Her 1957 performance in Tammy and the Bachelor led to her having a Number 1 hit, "Tammy."

Once married to singer Eddie Fisher, her daughter was actress Carrie Fisher, and her granddaughter is actress Billie Lourd. Her son Todd Fisher runs a series of resorts under her name.

3. April 1, 1927: Ferenc Puskás. The greatest soccer player that Eastern Europe has ever produced, the forward known as The Galloping Major starred for Budapest Honvéd, and led the Hungary team known as the Magnificent Magyars, winning the Gold Medal at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, embarrassing England 6-3 at Wembley Stadium in 1953, and reaching the Final of the 1954 World Cup.

After the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, he was forced into exile, and helped Real Madrid win the European Cup (now the UEFA Champions League) in 1958, 1959 and 1960. As a manager, he won league titles in Greece (and also led Athens' Panathinaikos to the Final of the 1971 European Cup), Paraguay and Australia. Hungary's new national stadium is named for him.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1927: Walter Bahr. The midfielder for the Philadelphia Nationals was the last surviving member of the U.S. soccer team that beat England at the 1950 World Cup. His sons Matt and Chris won Super Bowls as NFL placekickers.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1939: Phil Niekro. The master of the knuckleball is a member of the 300 Wins and 3,000 Strikeouts Clubs.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1946: Arrigo Sacchi. He managed AC Milan to back-to-back European Cups (now the UEFA Champions League) in 1989 and 1990, and led Italy to the 1994 World Cup Final.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1949: Sammy Nelson. A backup on North London soccer team Arsenal's Football League and FA Cup "Double" winners in 1971, he was the starting left back on their 1979 FA Cup winners.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1965: Mark Jackson. A freshman on St. John's University's 1985 Final Four team, he was the NBA Rookie of the Year with the New York Knicks in 1988, a led the NBA in assists with the Denver Nuggets in 1997. He later coached the Golden State Warriors, and became one of basketball's top game analysts.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1972: Darren McCarty. The right wing played on the Detroit Red Wings' Stanley Cup winners of 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1983: Sean Taylor. A member of the University of Miami's 2001 National Champions, the safety was on his way to his 2nd Pro Bowl with the team then known as the Washington Redskins when he was shot and killed. The outpouring of grief among the team's fans that, although the team now known as the Washington Commanders generally doesn't retire numbers, they retired his Number 21.

Honorable Mention: April 1, 1988: Brook Lopez. The all-time leading scorer for the franchise now known as the Brooklyn Nets (not named for him), he was an NBA All-Star in 2013, and won an NBA Championship with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021. His twin brother Robin Lopez was briefly a Bucks teammate, and now plays for the Orlando Magic.

2. April 1, 1815: Otto von Bismarck. As Foreign Minister of Prussia, he provoked, and won, the Second Schleswig War with Denmark, the Austro-Prussian War with Austria, and the Franco-Prussian War with France. This, and his work with the King of Prussia, Wilhelm I, unified the various princely states that had once been part of the Holy Roman Empire, and formed the Empire of Germany.

Bismarck was Chancellor of the Empire from unification in 1871 until 1890, when he was dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the grandson of his former partner. The capital of North Dakota, a State with a large German-American population, is named for him.

1. April 1, 1578: William Harvey. The first man to truly study, and the first to publish an accurate record of, the human circulatory system, this made him one of the most important medical practitioners of all time. He was later appointed court physician to Kings James I and Charles I of England.

Still alive as of this writing: Maddow, Manafort, Alito, Kundera, Cliff, Boyle, Scott, MacGraw, O'Toole, Sacchi, Nelson, Jackson, McCarty, Lopez.