Happy birthday to François-Marie Arouet, known to the less-enlightened people as Voltaire. But we're enlightened, because we read Voltaire. Sort of. He was something of an influence on the American Revolution, which is cool, and also the French Revolution, which, considering how that turned out, was probably not his proudest moment. But then, he wasn't a big fan of how things were going in France before the Revolution, so maybe it was. I guess being a smartass can get one in trouble.... Uh oh.
If you ever want to get a ground-level view of the American Revolution, I heartily suggest you read the memoirs of a lad named Joseph Plumb Martin. He was there for much of the War, as a soldier. He wrote quite well, and also was there at both Valley Forge and Yorktown. Cool guy, and he lived to a ripe old age.
If you're into Western History, you'll recognize the name Tom Horn. He worked for some years as a scout and tracker, assisting in law enforcement in various places. Oh, and he apparently also was picking up some extra money by working as an assassin, which makes him the precursor of a bunch of Hollywood heroes. I doubt that bad guys ever unknowingly kidnapped his family, thus bringing his wrath down upon them, so perhaps Hollywood did have that one original idea. In any case, Horn was convicted of a murder and hanged. Ironically, it's pretty questionable whether he was actually guilty of that particular murder. Of course, nobody questions that there were a lot of ones he wasn't convicted of....
If you're a football fan, you'll recognize the name Sid Luckman. In his day, he was considered a great passer- kind of the Brett Favre of the 40s. By today's standards, probably not so much. But hey, it was good enough to get him into the Hall of Fame. Too bad he played for the Bears.
And speaking of Hall of Fame sports figures, happy birthday to Stan Musial. If you follow baseball, you know the name. If you don't, I doubt you care.
1924 saw the birth of Christopher Tolkien, aka, "son of J.R.R." He's listed as an author, but really- what did he write other than editing and polishing his dad's stuff? I suppose I could look it up, but that would take time. And nothing he wrote will ever be in the same league as what Dad did. Kind of a bummer, if you stop and think about it. So I won't.
Ever heard of Richard Marcinko, who bills himself as "Demo Dick"? He was a Navy SEAL, best known for being a complete BS artist. He wrote a couple books about what an incredible stud-muffin he was (even by SEAL standards). Alas, there seems to be a load of crap in there, among other stuff. He wound up in prison after he founded SEAL Team 6- which he truly did, so give credit there. He claims (or at least claimed) that he was thrown into prison on trumped-up charges because he was such a bad-ass, but I've read other stuff which that he was into all kinds of shady things, and that he was thrown into jail for being, you know, a crook. You pays your money, you takes your pick.
On this date in 1945, Goldie Hawn was born. Back in her day, she was arguably the hottest thing ever! On the other hand, there is some evidence that he ditsy characters, most notably her role in "Laugh-In" were, shall we say, not such a stretch. Supposedly, the producer of Laugh-In told her once that if she had ever been able to remember her lines, neither of them would have lasted very long in the Biz.
Speaking of hot blonds, happy birthday also to Nicolette Sheridan. Alas, nowadays we have to say "speaking of hot blonds who went overboard with plastic surgery", which doesn't have quite the same ring.
Alas, that's about all the interesting ones for today. But check back next year, because I purposely left a few out. Wouldn't you like to know who...?
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