Top 10 Birthdays

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...

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...

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...