It was on this date in 1622 that William Baffin died, of wounds suffered in an attack on a Portuguese fort in the Persian Gulf. Prior to that, he was an explorer, who sailed at various times from Greenland and to India. Some of the things he discovered were considered to be questionable, but it seems they've pretty much all been confirmed by others who are less crazy than he must have been to sail as far north as he did, when he did it. He's best known today for being the source of the name for Baffin Island, and Baffin Bay. The latter is on the coast of Greenland, and the former is the big island just to the left of Greenland on a map. It's part of Canada, though, while Greenland is part of Denmark.
Speaking of Darwin, which we weren't, RIP today for Terry Kath. He was the guitarist for the band Chicago. At least, he was until he decided to play Russian Roulette. The whole Darwin angle doesn't really pan out, since he had a daughter. However, he had issues, apparently. After successfully playing RR with a .38, he was playing with a semi-automatic pistol. That's never a good thing. He was smart enough to check it and make sure the clip was empty. Alas, he was not smart enough to check the chamber. At least he never knew what hit him, as a 9mm round to the temple is a pretty effective way to kill oneself. Sigh.
Ooh, ooh, ooh. Here's another cool person! RIP Bob Keeshan, aka "Clarabell the Clown" from Howdy Doody. Okay, I'm teasing: He was better known of course as Captain Kangaroo. And that's a legacy to leave behind! He died in 2004. He opposed children's TV shows based on toys, feeling that they didn't teach kids anything useful. Can't argue with that one. His grandson Britton is a mountain climber, who has conquered the Seven Summits, checking Everest off the list in 2004. In a nice touch, he buried a picture of himself and his grandpa at the summit of Everest.
And finally, speaking of incredibly talented and influential TV hosts, Johnny Carson died in 2005. The man was amazing. I recall reading about his appearance at some awards show dinner after he retired, where that pretentious idiot David Letterman said it was kind of distressing to realize that, even years after retiring, Carson was still funnier than he was. Of course, this is Letterman, so he should have been used to not being the funniest person in the room. At any rate, to Carson's credit, when he said he was retiring, he meant it. He never attempted a comeback, which probably would have netted him a gazillion dollars, even if it flopped. The man had the most incredible timing of any comic I've ever seen. Watch the famous clip of Ed Ames throwing a tomahawk on the Tonight Show. I won't spoil it for the 3 people who haven't seen it, but just watch Carson. He bides his time while the audience howls with laughter, giving them a look that very calmly says "go ahead and laugh. But I've got something even funnier waiting". And he did. And it was of course impromptu. Sigh. I wish I better appreciated him then, I'd have watched more of his shows. He's waaaaay better than anything on late night TV now.
And thus we'll end it there.
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