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Frank Vincent Zappa, 1940 – 1993 Born: 21 December 1940, Baltimore, MarylandDied: 4 December 1993, Los Angeles, California Zappa’s father worked as a chemist and mathematician in the defense industry and the family moved frequently. On returning to Baltimore where his father worked at a chemical warfare facility, Zappa developed a sensitivity to mustard gas […] More

Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867 – 1959 Born: 8 June 1867, Richland Center, WisconsinDied: 9 April 1959, Phoenix, Arizona Born Frank Lincoln Wright, he changed his name to honor his mother’s family (Lloyd Jones) after his father left and divorced in 1885. Wright attended high school at Madison, Wisconsin but didn’t graduate. He was given special […] More

Herbert George Wells, 1866 – 1946 Born: 21 September 1866, Bromley, England, UKDied: 13 August 1946, London, England, UK Wells’ family was lower middle class, his father Joseph had a small shop (china and sporting goods, seems an odd combination) that didn’t provide much income. Joseph played cricket for the Kent county team. Happy fans […] More

Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh, 1903 – 1966 Born: 28 October 1903, London, England, UKDied: 10 April 1966, Combe Florey, Somerset, England, UK The son of a noted editor and publisher (Arthur Waugh), he was raised in an upper-middle class home and attended Heath Mount School. He would have gone on to Sherborne but his […] More

Pelham Grenville “Plum” Wodehouse, 1881 – 1975 Born: 15 October 1881, Guildford, Surrey, England, UKDied: 14 February 1975, Southampton, New York “Plum” was born in England while his mother was on a visit, his father served as a judge at Hong Kong at the time and the boy lived there for only three years before […] More

Robin McLaurin Williams, 1951 Born: 21 July 1951, Chicago, Illinois After Williams’ father, a Ford Motor Company executive, retired, the family moved to the San Francisco area. Robin dropped out of Claremont College, where he was majoring in political science, to study drama at New York City’s Julliard School. His intelligence and incredible energy have […] More

Ruth Karola Westheimer Born: 4 June 1928, Wiesenfeld, Germany (now part of Karlstadt) Born Karola Ruth Siegel into a family of Orthodox Jews, the family had decided to flee Germany but her grandmother refused to leave her home. After Krystalnacht her father was arrested and she was sent to a Swiss school. Letters from her […] More

Marilyn vos Savant Born: 11 August 1946, St. Louis, Missouri Born Marilyn Mach, the daughter of immigrants; her father from Germany and her mother from Italy. She is a descendent of physicist Ernst Mach. At age ten her IQ was tested and the result was calculated as 228, although the calculation that led to that […] More

Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, 1925 – 2012 Born: 3 October 1925, West Point, New YorkDied: 31 July 2012, Hollywood Hills, California Vidal was born in the Cadet Hospital of the military academy at West Point, his father was the first aeronautics instructor there. His father co-founded three airlines; the Ludington Line which eventually became part […] More

Peter Alexander Ustinov, 1921 – 2004 Born: 16 April 1921, London, EnglandDied: 28 March 2004, Genolier, Vaud, Switzerland Peter Alexander Ustinov was born just months after his mother arrived from Saint Petersburg. Ustinov left school at 16 to become an actor, first appearing on stage in 1938. As a private in the British Army’s Royal […] More

Harry S. Truman, 1884 – 1972 Born: 8 May 1884, Lamar, MissouriDied: 26 December 1972, Kansas City, Missouri After high school Truman worked as bank clerk, but prospects were bleak and he came home to the farm. He fought in World War I, returned home, married Bess, and became a haberdasher. When that business failed […] More

Irving Stone, 1903 – 1989 Born: 14 July 1903, San Francisco, CaliforniaDied: 26 August 1989, Los Angeles, California Born Irving Tannenbaum, his parents divorced in 1910 and Irving later took his stepfather’s name. His mother wanted him to study medicine, but he changed course at the University of California at Berkeley and majored in political […] More

Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792 – 1822 Born: 4 August 1792, Field Place, Horsham, West Sussex, EnglandDied: 8 July 1822, Viareggio, Grand Duchy of Tuscany The eldest of seven children, Shelley was tutored at home before entering Syon House Academy at Brentford in 1802. In 1804 he entered Eton College where he was subjected to regular […] More

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 1872 – 1970 Born: 18 May 1872, Ravenscroft, Trellech, Monmouthshire, Wales, UKDied: 2 February 1970, Penrhyndeudraeth, Merionethshire, Wales, UK The 3rd Earl Russell was born Wales but raised at London after his parents’ deaths. Tutored at home, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1890, distinguishing himself in mathematics and philosophy. During […] More

Carl August Sandburg, 1878 – 1967 Born: 6 January 1878, Galesburg, IllinoisDied: 22 July 1967, Connemara Farm, Flat Rock, North Carolina Three-time Pulitzer winner Carl Sandburg showed little potential as a young man. He left school at thirteen to drive a milk wagon, then bounced from job to job in his hometown of Galesburg, Illinois, […] More

Arnold Joseph Toynbee, 1889 – 1975 Born: 14 April 1889, London, England, UKDied: 22 October 1975, York, England, UK Toynbee was raised at London, educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford. He taught at Balliol College briefly, then King’s College London, the London School of Economics, and the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Not […] More

Louis “Studs” Terkel, 1912 – 2008 Born: 16 May 1912, New York CityDied: 31 October 2008, Chicago, Illinois Terkel’s family moved to Chicago in 1920 and he rarely left. His parents had a boarding house and hotel from 1926 to 1936 and Terkel credits the residents’ Depression-era conversation in the lobby as being a major […] More

Anne Sullivan, 1866 – 1936 Born: 14 April 1866, Feeding Hills, MassachusettsDied: 20 October 1936, Queens, New York Annie’s parents were both cooks who had left Ireland because of the potato famine. At age five, she contracted trachoma, an infection of the eyes that causes loss of vision due to scarring. She had many surgeries […] More

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 1834 – 1892 Born: 19 June 1834, Kelvedon, Essex, England, UKDied: 31 January 1892, Menton, Alpes-Maritimes, France Although Spurgeon’s grandfather and father had both been Congregationalist ministers, he didn’t become a Christian until a snowstorm forced him to take refuge in a Primitive Methodist chapel at Colchester in 1850. He moved to […] More

Adam Smith, 1723 – 1790 Born: baptized 16 June 1723 (O. S. 5 June), Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland, UKDied: 14 July 1790, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK Smith’s father, also named Adam Smith, died six months before Smith was born. He was abducted by gypsies when he was four but quickly reunited with his mother. He attended the […] More

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, 1771 – 1832 Born: 15 August 1771, Edinburgh, Scotland, UKDied: 21 September 1832, Melrose, Scotland, UK Scott contracted polio in his second year and spent significant time in various places healing from it, during which time his grandmother regaled him with old tales of the Scottish Borders country and his […] More

Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, 1881 – 1973 Born: 25 October 1881, Málaga, Andalusia, SpainDied: 8 April 1973, Mougins, France His full name is Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, honoring various saints and family members followed by his father’s and mother’s […] More

George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), 1903 – 1950 Born: 25 June 1903, Motihari, Bihar, Bengal Presidency, British IndiaDied: 21 January 1950, Camden, London, England, UK Born Eric Arthur Blair, his father was in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service. A year later Eric left for England with his sisters and mother and other […] More

Joyce Carol Oates Born: 16 June 1938, Lockport, New York Oates attended a one-room schoolhouse and started reading at an early age. Her grandmother gave her a typewriter when she was fourteen and she started writing short stories. After graduating from Williamsville South High School (Williamsville, New York) in 1956 she won a scholarship to […] More

Andrew Aitken “Andy” Rooney, 1919 – 2011 Born: 14 January 1919, Albany, New YorkDied: 4 November 2011, New York City Andrew Aitken Rooney was born at Albany, New York on 14 January 1919. At Albany Academy a teacher told him he was a good writer, so he worked as a copy boy at The Knickerbocker […] More

Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre, 1758 – 1794 Born: 6 May 1758, Arras, FranceDied: 28 July 1794, Paris, France Robespierre was a man of humble birth, born to a working-class family in Arras, France, who learned early the contempt in which the nobility held commoners. Politically, the greatest influence on his life and philosophy […] More

Howard Allen O’Brien (Anne) Rice Born: 4 October 1941, New Orleans, Louisiana The second daughter in an Irish Catholic family, she was christened with her father’s name: Howard Allen O’Brien. When her mother took her to school for the first time a nun asked her her name, she said “Anne” and her mother didn’t correct […] More

Charles Reade, 1814 – 1884 Born: 8 June 1814, Ipsden, Oxfordshire, England, UKDied: 11 April 1884, London, England, UK Studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, earned his B.A. in 1835 and became a fellow of the college. He was later dean of arts and vice-president, retaining his fellowship although he lived most of his life at […] More

Jerry Eugene Pournelle Born: 7 August 1933, Shreveport, Louisiana Educated at Capleville, Tennessee; served in US Army in Korean War. He earned two M.S. degrees (experimental statistics and systems engineering) and two Ph.D.s (psychology and political science) at the University of Washington. He managed several political campaigns and was involved in writing several significant reports […] More

Norman Vincent Peale, 1898 – 1993 Born: 31 May 1898, Bowersville, OhioDied: 24 December 1993, Pawling, New York Peale attended Ohio Wesleyan University and Boston University, then was a reporter for the Findley, Ohio Morning Republic before his ordination in 1922. He served churches in Rhode Island and New York in the Methodist Episcopal Church […] More

Cyril Northcote Parkinson, 1909 – 1993 Born: 30 July 1909, Barnard Castle, County Durham, EnglandDied: 9 March 1993, Canterbury, Kent, England The son of the principal at the York School of Arts and Crafts, Parkinson was educated at St Peter’s School, York where he won a scholarship to study history at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. After […] More

Margaret Mead, 1901 – 1978 Born: 16 December 1901, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaDied: 15 November 1978, New York City Mead’s father was a professor of finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and her mother was a sociologist studying Italian immigrants, the family moved frequently so Margaret alternated between various schools and home schooling. […] More

Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, 1689 – 1755 Born: 18 January 1689, Château de la Brède, La Brède, Gironde, FranceDied: 10 February 1755, Paris, France His father was a soldier with noble ancestry, his mother had a great deal of money and the barony of La Bréde. After studying at […] More

Arthur Asher Miller, 1915 – 2005 Born: 17 October 1915, New York CityDied: 10 February 2005, Roxbury, Connecticut Miller, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants, attended public school at Manhattan. In his early years the family was quite wealthy, his father’s clothing store employed 400, but the business didn’t survive the depression, the family moved to […] More

Frederic Ogden Nash, 1902 – 1971 Born: 19 August 1902, Rye, New YorkDied: 19 May 1971, Baltimore, Maryland Nash’s father was in the import/export business and moved frequently, Nash graduated from St George’s School at Middletown, Rhode Island. After family finances prevented him from finishing even a year at Harvard, he struggled as a school […] More

Stephen Glenn Martin Born: 14 April 1945, Waco, Texas Martin was raised at Inglewood and Garden Grove, California and had a difficult and distant relationship with his father. His first job was selling guidebooks at Disneyland and he started working on magic tricks, juggling, and creating balloon animals. He started working on comedy routines while […] More

André Malraux, 1901 – 1976 Born: 3 November 1901, Paris, FranceDied: 23 November 1976, Créteil, France Born into a wealthy Parisian family, his parents separated four years later, eventually divorced, and his father suicided in 1930 in response to the market crash the year before; André was raised by his mother, aunt, and grandmother at […] More

Michael Glenn “Mike” Mullen Born: 4 October 1946, Los Angeles, California Attended Blessed Sacrament Catholic School, graduated from Notre Dame High School at Sherman Oaks in 1964 and the United States Naval Academy in 1968. Served as a junior officer on three ships, commanded Noxubee, Goldsborough, and Yorktown, and had two group commands before taking […] More

Larry Jeff McMurtry Born: 3 June 1936, Wichita Falls, Texas McMurtry grew up at Archer City, Texas, earned degrees from North Texas State (B.A. 1958) and Rice (M.A., 1060) and had a writing fellowship at Stanford where he became a scout for rare books. His used bookstore at Archer City (Booked Up) is the largest […] More

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, 1800 – 1859 Born: 25 October 1800, Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, EnglandDied: 29 December 1859, London, England Babington was a noted child prodigy, at age eight he had written Compendium of Universal History which covered events from the creation to 1800 and The Battle of Cheviot, a romance à la […] More

Jack London, 1876 – 1916 Born: 12 January 1876, San Francisco, CaliforniaDied: 22 November 1916, Glen Ellen, California It is assumed that John Griffith had a surname on his birth certificate, but no trace of that document survives. His mother, Flora Wellman, was living with an astrologer, William H. Chaney, at the time of the […] More

Thomas Jefferson, 1743 – 1826 Born: 13 April 1743, Shadwell, VirginiaDied: 4 July 1826, Charlottesville, Virginia By far my favorite among the founding fathers, Jefferson is also one of my favorite authors of quotes. He distinguished himself as a horticulturist, statesman, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, author, and inventor. He was ambassador to France under the Articles […] More

Frances Ann Lebowitz Born: 27 October 1950, Morristown, New Jersey After being expelled from high school for “surliness”, Lebowitz worked various odd jobs (including writing pornography on contract and driving a taxi) and sold ads for a small magazine before Andy Warhol hired here as a columnist for Interview. She also wrote for Mademoiselle before […] More

Joseph Rudyard Kipling, 1865 – 1936 Born: 30 December 1862, Bombay (Mumbai), IndiaDied: 18 January 1936, London, England Kipling was the son of the headmaster of a school at Bombay (Mumbai). At five the boy was sent to school in England, although poor health prevented his attending for several years, and he returned to India […] More

Charles Franklin Kettering, 1876 – 1958 Born: 8 May 1876, Loudonville, OhioDied: 25 November 1958, Dayton, Ohio With limited finances and poor eyesight, Kettering didn’t earn his engineering degree from Ohio State University until 1904 at age 28. He became a researcher for National Cash Register for five years, designing an improved ignition system for […] More

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1917 – 1963 Born: 29 May 1917, Brookline, MassachusettsDied: 22 November 1963, Dallas, Texas The son of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr, a prominent businessman, and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, daughter of Boston’s mayor, “Jack” was educated mostly at private schools, notably Choate School at Wallingford, Connecticut. He spent a year in Europe, largely […] More

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce, 1882 – 1941 Born: 2 February 1882, Rathgar, IrelandDied: 13 January 1941, Z Joyce was born in a suburb of Dublin, the eldest of ten surviving children in a wealthy family that soon came on hard times through his father’s drinking. He wrote his first poem at age nine, about the […] More

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1906 – 2001 Born: 22 June 1906, Englewood, New JerseyDied: 7 February 2001, Passumpsic, Vermont Born Anne Spencer Morrow, after graduating from The Chapin School at New York City Anne earned her BA from Smith College where her mother was a trustee. She met Charles Lindbergh in Mexico while her father was […] More

Robert Edward Lee, 1807 – 1870 Born: 19 January 1807, Stratford Hall, VirginiaDied: 13 October 1870, Lexington, Virginia Lee was the son of Revolutionary War hero Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee. He graduated second in his class from West Point in 1829, the only cadet ever to graduate without a single demerit, and was commissioned a […] More

James Douglas Muir “Jay” Leno Born: 28 April 1950, New Rochelle, New York Leno’s mother immigrated from Scotland, his father was born to immigrants from Italy. He was raised at Andover, Massachusetts where his high school guidance counselor recommended he drop out. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in speech therapy at Emerson College at Boston, […] More

Fiorello Henry La Guardia, 1882 – 1947 Born: 11 December 1882, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New YorkDied: 20 September 1947, Bronx, New York Born Fiorello Enrico La Guardia, the middle name was changed to Henry when he was still a child. He grew up as an “Army brat” in Arizona and was living in Trieste, Hungary […] More

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 – 1832 Born: 28 August 1749, Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Holy Roman EmpireDied: 22 March 1832, Weimar, Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach Goethe’s father Caspar, frustrated at his own advancement due to poor education, hired tutors to teach Johann and his sister Cornelia. By the time he was sent to Leipzig to […] More

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin, 1848 – 1904 Born: 7 June 1848, Paris, FranceDied: 8 May 1903, Atuona, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia Gauguin’s father Clovis was a Republican journalist, three years after his birth the family fled the country after a change in governments. Clovis didn’t survive the journey, leaving the three-year-old Paul, a sister, and […] More

Mary Tyler “Molly” Ivins, 1944 – 2007 Born: 30 August 1944, Monterey, CaliforniaDied: 31 January 2007, Austin, Texas Jim Ivins was an oil and gas executive, the family lived in Houston’s affluent River Oaks area and Molly was sent to the private St John’s School where she was involved with the annual and student newspaper […] More

Herbert Clark Hoover, 1874 – 1964 Born: 10 August 1874, West Branch, IowaDied: 20 October 1964, New York City Hoover’s parents both died before he was ten years old, and young Herbert Clark Hoover moved to Oregon to live with an uncle in 1885. He attended Friends Pacific Academy (now George Fox University) for two […] More

Ernest Miller Hemingway, 1899 – 1961 Born: 21 July 1899, Oak Park, IllinoisDied: 2 July 1961, Ketchum, Idaho Hemingway took a job as a reporter for the Kansas City Star instead of college. Eye damage from high-school boxing matches kept him from fighting in the first world war, but not from driving an ambulance in […] More

Horace Greeley, 1811 – 1872 Born: 3 February 1811, Amherst, New HampshireDied: 29 November 1872, Pleasantville, New York At age eleven Greeley was apprenticed to a printer, after his apprenticeship ended he moved to New York in 1831 and worked for a string of newspapers before founding the New York Tribune in 1841. He edited […] More

James Mercer Langston Hughes, 1902 – 1967 Born: 1 February 1902, Joplin, MissouriDied: 22 May 1967, New York City While his parents were black, both his grandfathers were white and both parents were educated. His father left the family to seek opportunities in Cuba and Mexico, avoiding racial prejudice in the US. While his mother […] More

Ben Hecht, 1893 – 1964 Born: 28 February 1894, New York CityDied: 18 April 1964, New York City Hecht’s parents were Jewish immigrants from Belarus, he grew up and attended school at Racine, Wisconsin, spending summers with an uncle at Chicago. At age ten he was considered a child prodigy of the violin, two years […] More

Moss Hart, 1904 – 1961 Born: 24 October 1904, New York CityDied: 20 December 1961, Palm Springs, California Moss Hart was largely raised by an irascible grandfather, bitter about his life in the US compared to his brothers’ lives in England but in love with reading, and an aunt who often took him out of […] More

Alexander Hamilton, 1757 – 1804 Born: 11 January 1757, Charlestown, Nevis (now Saint Kitts and Nevis)Died: 12 July 1804, New York City The bastard son of Rachel Faucett Lavien, a landed Huguenot mother who had left her husband, and James Hamilton, the son of a Scottish laird who abandoned the family after siring two sons, […] More

Zsa Zsa Gabor Born: 6 February 1917, Budapest, Austro-Hungarian Empire Born Gábore S´ri, on arrival in the US she adopted Western name order and changed her name to Zsa Zsa. Her current legal name is S´ri Prinzessin von Anhalt. Educated at Madame Subilia’s, a Swiss boarding school. She competed in the 1936 Miss Hungary contest, […] More

Sigmund Freud, 1856 – 1939 Born: 6 May 1856, Freiberg, Moravia, AustriaDied: 23 September 1939, London, England Sigi’s mother was twenty years younger than his father, younger than his step-brother, and Sigmund was an uncle on the day he was born. After the recession of 1865 the family moved to Leipzig, then Vienna, where Freud […] More

Gerald Rudolf Ford, Jr, 1913 – 2006 Born: 14 July 1913, Omaha, NebraskaDied: 26 December 2006, Rancho Mirage, California The man we know as Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr at Omaha, Nebraska on this day in 1913. , Ford’s mother left an abusive relationship just two weeks after the birth and lived […] More

W. C. Fields (William Claude Dukenfield, 1880 – 1946 Born: 29 January 1880, Darby, PennsylvaniaDied: 25 December 1946, Pasadena, California Claude Dukenfield was the eldest child of a produce vendor. He only went to school for about four years. Some sources suggest he ran away from home at age eleven, the truth is that his […] More

Epictetus, 55 – 135 His original name is unknown, as a youth he was a slave of Epaphroditus, a wealthy freedman under Nero, and his name simpley means “acquired”. While still a slave he studied Stoic philosophy under Musonius Rufus. He was emancipated and taught philosophy at Rome until the emperor Domitian banished all philosophers […] More

Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower, 1890 – 1969 Born: 14 October 1890, Denison, TexasDied: 28 March 1969, Washington City After growing up at Abilene, Kansas, graduating from Abilene High School in 1909, he was turned down by the Naval Academy (missing the age cutoff) but accepted at West Point. The class of 1915 became known as […] More

Alexandre Dumas, père, 1802 – 1870 Born: 24 July 1802, Villers-Cotterêts, Aisne, FranceDied: 5 December 1870, Puys (near Dieppe, Seine-Maritime), France Born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, Alexandre Dumas, père was the grandson of a French nobleman and a Haitian slave and the son of one of Napoleon’s generals. His family fell into disfavor and […] More

Philip Kindred Dick, 1928 – 1982 Born: 16 December 1928, Chicago, IllinoisDied: 2 March 1982, Santa Ana, California Dick and his twin sister Jane Charlotte were born six weeks prematurely. When Dick’s father purchased a life insurance policy on the family a nurse was sent by the insurance company; she was appalled by the condition […] More

Charles Robert Darwin, 1809 – 1882 Born: 12 February 1809, Mount House, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, EnglandDied: 19 April 1882, Down House, Downe, Kent, England Darwin’s father and paternal grandfather were physicians, his mother was an heiress to the Wedgewood china fortune. He and his brother Erasmus were sent to the University of Edinborough to become a […] More

Marie Skłodowska Curie, 1867 – 1934 Born: 7 November 1867, Warsaw, Vistula Country, Russian EmpireDied: 4 July 1934, Passy, Haute-Savoie, France Marie Skłodowska was born at Warsaw, the youngest child of well-known teachers. Her older sister died when Marie was ten, and her devout Catholic mother two years later, at which point she became an […] More

John Michael Crichton, 1942 – 2008 Born: 23 October 1942, Chicago, IllinoisDied: 4 November 2008, Los Angeles, California Crichton grew up on Long Island at Roslyn, New York. He started writing early and had a travel column in the New York Times at age fourteen. He entered Harvard College pursuing a degree in literature but […] More

Raymond Thornton Chandler, 1888 – 1959 Born: 23 July 1888, Chicago, IllinoisDied: 26 March 1959, San Diego, California After his alcoholic father abandoned the family they moved to England, Chandler was educated in the local school at Upper Norwood and attended Dulwich College, London, which was a public school, not university level, but spent time […] More

John William “Johnny” Carson, 1925 – 2005 Born: 23 October 1925, Corning, IowaDied: 23 January 2005, Los Angeles, California Carson grew up at Norfolk, Nebraska, served in the Navy from 1943 to 1946, worked in radio, was a writer for Red Skelton, and hosted various television game shows. In 1962 he was picked to take […] More

Edmund Burke, 1729 – 1797 Born: 12 January 1729, Dublin, IrelandDied: 9 July 1797, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, UK Edmund Burke was an Irish politician, writer, orator and philosopher admired in his time by conservatives and liberals alike, and is considered the father of modern conservatism. In a time when Catholicism was a bar to holding […] More

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, 1859 – 1930 Born: 22 May 1859, Edinburgh, ScotlandDied: 7 July 1930, Crowborough, East Sussex, England Conan Doyle was boarded at a Jesuit prep school, then attended Stonyhurst College before studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1876 to 1881. He served as ship’s medical officer on two voyages before […] More

William Sloane, Jr Coffin, 1924 – 2006 Born: 1 June 1924, New York CityDied: 12 April 2006, Strafford, Vermont Born into a well-known American family, his great-grandfather founded an imports and furniture manufacturing company, his father was president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and his uncle was president of Union Theological Seminary. His father […] More

John Marwood Cleese Born: 27 October 1939, Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, England, UK Cleese has that surname because his father, Reginald Francis Cheese, switched one letter when he enlisted in the Army in 1915. Cleese attended St Peter’s Preparatory School where he did well in sports as well as academics, at 13 he went to Clifton […] More

Avram Noam Chomsky Born: 7 December 1928, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Chomsky was born to immigrant Jews, his father from Ukraine and his mother from Belarus. His father was a professor of Hebrew and Noam gained his first understanding of linguistic history from reading drafts of his father’s books. They were a rare Jewish family in a […] More

George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, 1788 – 1824 Born: 22 January 1788, Dover, Kent, England, UKDied: 19 April 1824, Messolonghi, Aetolia-Acarnania, Greece “Mad, bad, and dangerous to know” was an apt description. Passionate, arrogant, constantly in debt, and promiscuous with both sexes, he shocked and titillated England with his lifestyle even as he stunned […] More

Thomas Browne Born: 19 October 1605, London, England, UKDied: 19 October 1682, Norwich, East Anglia, England, UK Browne’s father, a silk merchant, died early in Browne’s life and he was sent to Winchester College, the oldest public school in England. He went on to Pembroke College, Oxford, graduating in 1626, then studied medicine at the […] More

Kingman Brewster, Jr, 1919 – 1988 Born: 17 June 1919, Longmeadow, MassachusettsDied: 8 November 1988, Oxford, England, UK Brewster was born into an old New England family, directly descended from two who came over on the Mayflower, including the leader of the Pilgrim colony. He attended Belmont Hill School outside Boston, then entered Yale College, […] More

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906 – 1945 Born: 4 February 1906, Breslau (Wrocław), PolandDied: 9 April 1945, Flossenb Expected to follow his father into psychiatry, he announced that he would prepare for ministry at age thirteen. He studied at Tübingen and earned his doctorate at the University of Berlin at age 21, but church rules prevented ordination […] More

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce,The Devil’s Dictionary Born: 24 June 1842, Meigs County, Ohio Bierce wrote satiric “dictionary” entries as part of his newspaper columns between 1881 and 1906. He first suggested a Comic Dictionary in a column he wrote for the News Letter of San Francisco in 1869. Between 1877 and 1878 he twice used “The […] More

Honoré de Balzac, 1799 – 1850 Born: 20 May 1799, Tours, Indre-et-Loire, FranceDied: 18 August 1850, Paris, France First sent away for four years with a wet nurse, at eight Balzac was sent to a grammar school where his rebellion against rote led to his being often sent to a detention cell called “the alcove” […] More

Henry Brooks Adams, 1838 – 1918 Born: 16 February 1838, Boston, MassachusettsDied: 27 March 1918, Washington City His father Charles Francis Adams was a statesman of note, later serving as minister to England during the Civil War. His grandfather was John Quincy Adams, the sixth US president, and his great grandfather was John Adams, the […] More

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 121 – 180 Born: 26 April 0121, RomeDied: 17 March 0180, Vindobona (Vienna) Marcus Annius Catilius Severus was born to Spanish parents at Rome on this day in 121. He was a serious and studious child and came to the attention of the emperor Hadrian. Hadrian adopted Antoninus on the condition that […] More

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, 1732 – 1799 Born: 24 January 1732, Paris, FranceDied: 18 May 1799, Paris, France French dramatist best known for creating Figaro in three plays; Le Barbier de Séville, Le Mariage de Figaro, and La Mère coupable. Invented a more accurate watch movement. After Voltaire’s death, bought rights to most of the […] More

Sholom Asch, 1880 – 1957 Born: 1 November 1880, Kutno, Kingdom of Prussia (now Poland)Died: 10 July 1957, London, England, UK Putno was part of the Prussian partition when he was born Szalom Asz, Putno has been in central Poland since the end of WW I. He received a traditional Jewish education at home, then […] More

Kingsley William Amis, CBE, 1922 – 1995 Born: 16 April 1922, Clapham, South London, England, UKDied: 22 October 1995, London, England, UK Amis was raised by “culpably boring” parents, his father was a clerk at Colman’s Mustard. He was educated at City of London School, entering St John’s College, Oxford in 1941. The next year […] More

Louisa May Alcott, 1832 – 1888 Born: 29 November 1832, Germantown, PhiladelphiaDied: 6 March 1888, Boston, Massachusetts Alcott’s father Bronson Alcott was a teacher and a member of the Transcendental Club, her mother Abba was an active proponent of women’s rights and abolition. She grew up as a rebellious tomboy in the tension between her […] More

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, 1922 – 2007 Born: 11 November 1922, Indianapolis, IndianaDied: 11 April 2007, New York City Kurt Vonnegut wrote for the daily school paper at Shortridge High School at Indianapolis, then went on to Cornell University but couldn’t connect with the subjects his father had pushed him to pursue, although he enjoyed writing […] More

Rebecca West (Cicely Isabel Fairfield), 1892 – 1983 Born: 21 December 1892, London, England, UKDied: 15 March 1983, London, England, UK Born Cicely Isabel Fairfield, her father was a prominent journalist who provided an atmosphere of lively debate and intellectual stimulation but who had numerous affairs before abandoning the family in 1900 when “Cissy” was […] More

John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807 – 1892 Born: 17 December 1807, Haverhill, MassachusettsDied: 7 September 1892, Hampton Falls, New Hampshire Raised in a Quaker family on a marginal farm, the frail boy was unsuited to the hard work and couldn’t see the difference between ripe and unripe strawberries. His early education came largely from rereading his […] More

Neil Percival Young Born: 12 November 1945, Toronto, Ontario, Canada After Young’s parents divorced when he was twelve, he moved with his mother to Winnipeg, Manitoba where Neil enrolled at Earl Grey Junior High School and joined his first band. While at Kelvin High School he was in several bands, after dropping out he soon […] More

William Wordsworth, 1770 – 1850 Born: 7 April 1770, Wordsworth House, Cockermouth, England, UKDied: 23 April 1850, Cumberland, England, UK Wordsworth was taught to read by his mother and was exposed to poetry by his normally-distant father. His formal education started after his mother died when he was eight, but that education was narrow and […] More

Oprah Gail Winfrey Born: 29 January 1954, Kosciusko, Mississippi Her birth certificate reads “Orpah Gail Winfrey”, she was named after a character from the Old Testament book Ruth. She was born to a pair of unwed teenagers, the father already in the Army, and was raised by a strict but supportive grandmother who taught her […] More

Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington, 1769 – 1852 Born: 1 May 1769, Dublin, IrelandDied: 14 September 1852, Walmer, Kent, England, UK Arthur Wellesley, fourth son of the Earl of Mornington, was a poor scholar and an idle young man well into his twenties. His brother Richard Wesley purchased him an Army commission in March […] More

Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1919 – 2000 Born: 18 October 1919, Montreal, Quebec, CanadaDied: 28 August 2000, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau was born at Montréal, Quebec on this day in 1919, attended a Jesuit school there and went on to the Université de Montréal before being drafted. After WW II he […] More

George Washington, 1732 – 1799 Born: 22 February 1732, Westmoreland County, Colony of Virginia, British AmericaDied: 14 December 1799, Mount Vernon, Virginia Washington was born to Augustine Washington and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington, at Pope’s Creek Estate, there were two sons by Augustine’s first wife. Six years later the family moved to Ferry […] More

Alexandrina Victoria of the United Kingdom, 1819 – 1901 Born: 24 May 1819, Kensington Palace, London, England, UKDied: 22 January 1901, Osborne House, Isle of Wight, England, UK Victoria’s father died when she was eight months old, her mother and John Conroy devised the “Kensington System” to keep her dependant and in virtual isolation, seeing […] More

James Grover Thurber, 1894 – 1961 Born: 8 December 1894, Columbus, OhioDied: 2 November 1961, New York City Thurber’s father was a mild-mannered clerk who became the model of his “Walter Mitty” character, his mother a “born comedienne” mother who loved practical jokes and once hobbled into a revival tent and was miraculously “cured”. Thurber […] More

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1809 – 1892 Born: 6 August 1809, Somersby, Lincolnshire, England, UKDied: 6 October 1892, Haslemere, Surrey, England, UK Tennyson was born to a church rector. Although George Tennyson was the oldest son, the estate went to his brother Charles, so although the family was comfortable, the contrast with his uncle’s castle left […] More

Adlai Ewing Stevenson II, 1900 – 1965 Born: 5 February 1900, Los Angeles, CaliforniaDied: 14 July 1965, London, England, UK Stevenson was born into a political family, named after his grandfather who had been vice president under Grover Cleveland. (He was not named for his father, Lewis Green Stevenson, thus he is a “II” rather […] More

Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811 – 1896 Born: 14 June 1811, Litchfield, ConnecticutDied: 1 July 1896, Hartford, Connecticut Harriet Elisabeth Beecher was the daughter of Lyman Beecher, an outspoken Calvinist clergyman, her mother Roxanna died just less than four years later. One of her five brothers was Henry Ward Beecher. She attended Litchfield Academy, in 1824 […] More

Benjamin McLane Spock, 1903 – 1998 Born: 2 May 1903, New Haven, ConnecticutDied: 15 March 1998, La Jolla, California Spock “prepped” at Andover, then entered Yale University, living at home for the first year. A member of the crew spotted the 6’4″ freshman and asked him to row, the Yale “heavyweight varsity eight” brought home […] More

Samuel Smiles, 1812 – 1904 Born: 23 December 1812, Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland, UKDied: 16 April 1904, Kensington, London, England, UK Smiles was the second of eleven children, he left school at 14 and apprenticed with a doctor, which allowed him to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He practiced medicine but became more […] More

Gail Sheehy Born: 27 November 1937, Mamaroneck, New York Born Gail Meritt, she graduated from the University of Vermont in 1958, in 1960 she moved to New York City and married Albert Sheehy. (She divorced Sheehy in 1968, married Clay Felker in 1984.) She was fashion editor for Democrat and Chronicle, feature writer for the […] More

Charles M. Schwab, 1862 – 1939 Born: 18 February 1862, Williamsburg, PennsylvaniaDied: 18 October 1939, London, England After graduating from high school in 1880, Schwab went to work for Carnegie Steel as a “stake driver” in a mill. Within six months he had gone from unskilled labor to assistant plant manager, in 1887 he was […] More

Saki (Hector Hugh Munro), 1870 – 1916 Born: 18 December 1870, Akyab, Burma (Myanmar)Died: 13 November 1916, Beaumont-Hamel, France Charles Munro was an inspector-general for the British Imperial police in Burma when Hector was born. Two years later Hector’s mother, on a visit to England, was run down by a charging cow and miscarried, complications […] More

Alfred Damon Runyon, 1880 – 1946 Born: 4 October 1880, Manhattan, KansasDied: 10 December 1946, New York City Born Alfred Damon Runyan, he grew up in the Colorado town of Pueblo. At age fourteen he volunteered for the Spanish-American War and served in the Philippines. From Denver he covered Pancho Villa’s forays along the Mexican […] More

Emanuel James “Jim” Rohn, 1930 – 2009 Born: 17 September 1930, Yakima, WashingtonDied: 5 December 2009, West Hills, California Rohn grew up on an Idaho farm. He met Earl Shoaff about 1955 who helped him use his farm-bred work habits to make a fortune over the next several years. After moving to Beverly Hills, California […] More

Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875 – 1926 Born: 4 December 1875, Prague, Bohemia, AustriaDied: 29 December 1926, Montreux, Switzerland Born René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke, his father was career soldier who washed out and ended up working for the railroad, his mother was mourning the death of her daughter. To compensate, his mother forced […] More

James Barrett “Scotty” Reston, 1909 – 1995 Born: 3 November 1909, Clydebank, Dumbartonshire, ScotlandDied: 6 December 1995, Washington City The devout Scottish-Presbyterian family emigrated to the US in 1920 and settled at Dayton, Ohio. Reston was more interested in golf than school and was Ohio High School Golf Champion in 1927. He graduated from the […] More

Ayn Rand, 1905 – 1982 Born: 2 February 1905, Saint Petersburg, Russian EmpireDied: 6 March 1982, New York City Born Alisa Zino’yevna Rosenbaum, the daughter of a Jewish pharmacist. Her intelligence meant that most of her friends were adults, and she formed an early appreciation for America based on the few films she saw. While […] More

Ezra Loomis Pound, 1885 – 1972 Born: 30 October 1885, Hailey, Idaho TerritoryDied: 1 November 1972, Venice, Italy By the time Ezra was five his family moved to the Philadelphia area where his father was an assayer for the mint. He was educated in a series of small “dame schools”, two years in a military […] More

Eden Phillpotts, 1862 – 1960 Born: 4 November 1862, Mount Aboo, Rajputana, British RajDied: 29 December 1960, Broadclyst, East Devon, England, UK Phillpotts’ father, a captain in the Indian army, was killed when his son was five; his mother moved her three sons back to England. Eden attended Mannamead College at Plymouth and spent holidays […] More

Patrick Layton “Pat” Paulsen, 1927 – 1997 Born: 6 July 1927, South Bend, WashingtonDied: 24 April 1997, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico Paulsen’s family moved to Mill Valley, California when Pat was ten. He graduated from Tamalpais High School and immediately joined the Marine Corps during World War II. After the war he worked as a […] More

Dorothy Rothschild Parker, 1893 – 1967 Born: 22 August 1893, Long Branch, New JerseyDied: 7 June 1967, New York City Born Dorothy Rothschild at her family’s beach cottage, raised in Manhattan. Her mother died when she was five, the stepmother she hated and referred to as “the housekeeper” died five years later. Dot attended elementary […] More

José Ortega y Gasset, 1883 – 1955 Born: 9 May 1883, Madrid, SpainDied: 18 October 1955, Madrid, Spain Ortega y Gasset was the son of the director of a newspaper, El Imparcial, owned by his mother’s family. Educated first by Jesuits at Málaga, he then went to a Basque college, took his PhD in philosophy […] More

Alfred Bernhard Nobel, 1833 – 1896 Born: 21 October 1833, Stockholm, SwedenDied: 10 December 1896, Sanremo, Italy Nobel’s father Immanuel was the inventor of plywood. The family moved to Saint Petersburg in 1842 where Immanuel manufactured torpedos for the czarist navy. Nobel studied chemistry there and, at age 18, began four years study of chemistry […] More

Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769 – 1821 Born: 15 August 1769, Ajaccio, CorsicaDied: 5 May 1821, Longwood, Saint Helena, British Empire Born to a Genoese noble family, Napoleon Bonaparte — christened Napoleone di Buonaparte — rose to become Emperor of France, and the man that the Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington called the greatest general of all […] More

John Muir, 1838 – 1914 Born: 21 April 1838, Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland, UKDied: 24 December 1914, Los Angeles, California Daniel Muir was a strict and religious man who was fond of the lash, and son John was a spirited and curious boy who was its frequent recipient. By the time the Muirs moved to […] More

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, 1533 – 1592 Born: 28 February 1533, ChDied: 13 September 1592, Ch Montaigne was born on the family estate and soon embarked on one of the strangest courses of education imaginable. Instead of allowing the boy to become accustomed to great wealth on the family estate, he was sent to live […] More

Harvey Bernard Milk, 1930 – 1978 Born: 22 May 1930, Woodmere, New YorkDied: 27 November 1978, San Francisco, California Milk was aware of his homosexuality as a teenager but stayed in the closet. He was active in sports and was a class clown in high school while developing an early passion for opera. He earned […] More

Henri-René-Albert-Guy de Maupassant, 1850 – 1893 Born: 5 August 1850, near Dieppe, Seine-Inférieure, FranceDied: 6 July 1893, Paris, France de Maupassant’s parents separated when he was eleven, his mother taught him to love the classics, particularly Shakespeare. Living on the Normandy coast, he also took to boats, a love he continued when living at Paris […] More

Thurgood Marshall, 1908 – 1993 Born: 2 July 1908, Baltimore, MarylandDied: 24 January 1993, Bethesda, Maryland Named Thoroughgood at birth, Marshall was the great-grandson of a slave. He didn’t enjoy spelling his name, so he shortened it in second grade. When he misbehaved in school, his punishment was copying the Constitution, which he later attributed […] More

Maimonides (Moshe ben Maimon), ca. 1137 – 1204 Born: 14th of Nisan, 4895 (30 March 1135), CDied: 12 December 1204, Fostat, Egypt Maimonides is known by his Hebrew name, Moshe ben Maimon, an Arabic name I won’t attempt here, a Greek name, Moses Maimonides, and is often referred to in Jewish works as the Rambam, […] More

Mignon McLaughlin, 1913 – 1983 Born: 6 June 1913, Baltimore, MarylandDied: 20 December 1983, Coral Gables, Florida Mignon was raised at Manhattan by her mother Joyce Neuhaus, a prominent lawyer, and graduated from Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts) in 1933. She returned to New York City as a journalist and wrote short stories for Redbook, Cosmopolitan, […] More

Douglas MacArthur, 1880 – 1964 Born: 26 January 1880, Little Rock, ArkansasDied: 5 April 1964, Washington City “Big Mac” was a soldier to the core: Not only was he the son of a highly-decorated general, he was actually born in a building that had been an arsenal. He moved with his family from one assignment […] More

John Locke, 1632 – 1704 Born: 29 August 1632, Wrington, Somerset, EnglandDied: 29 October 1704, Essex, England At fifteen Locke was sent to Westminster School at London, then was admitted to Christ Church, Oxford where he chafed at studying Aristotle when more recent philosophy was available, notable Descartes. He got his bachelor’s degree in 1656 […] More

Harry Sinclair Lewis, 1885 – 1951 Born: 7 February 1885, Sauk Centre, MinnesotaDied: 10 January 1951, Rome, Italy Educated in the public schools of a small town, Lewis was tall, pop-eyed, and afflicted with acne. He was an avid and somewhat romantic reader as a boy, he attempted to run away from home at age […] More

Thomas Edward Lawrence, 1888 – 1935 Born: 16 August 1888, Tremadog, Caernarfonshire, North Wales, UKDied: 19 May 1935, Bovington Camp, Dorset, England, UK Lawrence was the illegitimate son of Thomas Chapman and Sarah Junner. Junner herself was illegitimate, and styled herself “Miss Lawrence”. Chapman and Junner had five sons in all, without marriage, and presented […] More

Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr, 1913 – 1973 Born: 25 August 1913, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaDied: 18 October 1973, Woodland Hills, California Kelly was raised at Bridgeport, Connecticut, graduating from Warren Harding High School in 1930. He became a crime reporter on the Bridgeport Post and took up cartooning to illustrate a biography of Bridgeport native P. T. […] More

Benjamin Jonson, 1572 – 1637 Born: 11 June 1572, Westminster, London, England, UKDied: 6 August 1637, Westminster, London, England, UK Jonson’s father, a clergyman, died before Ben was born and his mother married a bricklayer. He was educated at a school in St Martin’s Lane and was sent to Westminster School where he was taught […] More

Abraham Lincoln, 1809 – 1865 Born: 12 February 1809, Hardin County, KentuckyDied: 15 April 1865, Washington City Lincoln’s parents Thomas and Nancy were uneducated farmers, but they lost their farm in court action related to the deed and moved to Indiana. Lincoln’s mother died in 1818, his father remarried. In 1830 the Lincoln’s lost their […] More

John Winston Ono Lennon, 1940 – 1980 Born: 9 October 1940, Liverpool, England, UKDied: 8 December 1980, New York City Born John Winston Lennon, his father Alfred was away at sea for his early years and his mother Julia was pregnant by another man when Alfred returned five year later. John was raised by Julia’s […] More

Stephen King, 1947 Born: 21 September 1947, Portland, Maine At two, Stephen’s father stepped out to get a pack of cigarettes, and has not been seen since. He started writing at age eleven, working with his brother Dave to turn out a mimeographed newspaper they sold for a nickel. His first story was published in […] More

Bridget Jean Collins Kerr, 1922 – 2003 Born: 10 July 1922, Scranton, PennsylvaniaDied: 5 January 2003, White Plains, New York Bridget Jean Collins was raised at Scranton, Pennsylvania, received her B.A. from Marywood College in 1943 and an M.F.A. from Catholic University in 1945. She met Walter Kerr, a drama professor and later Pulitzer-winning critic, […] More

Charles Bishop Kuralt, 1934 – 1997 Born: 10 September 1934, Wilmington, North CarolinaDied: 4 July 1997, New York City At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kuralt was editor of The Daily Tar Heel. He left without graduating to work as a reporter for the Charlotte News. Hired as a writer by CBS, […] More

John Jay, 1745 – 1829 Born: 12 December 1745, New York CityDied: 17 May 1829, Bedford, New York Born to a prominent New York family, Jay was tutored mostly at home (he did spend three years studying under an Anglican priest at New Rochelle) before entering King’s College, now Columbia University. He graduated in 1764 […] More

Robert Green Ingersoll, 1833 – 1899 Born: 11 August 1833, Dresden, New YorkDied: 21 July 1899, Dobbs Ferry-on-Hudson, New York Ingersoll’s mother died a year and a half after he was born, his father was a fierce abolitionist whose sermons so fiery that he frequently had to find new churches. With little formal schooling, Robert […] More

Elbert Hubbard, 1856 – 1915 Born: 19 June 1856, Bloomington, IllinoisDied: 7 May 1915, Eight miles (15 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland After growing up in a hard-shell Baptist home at Hudson, Illinois, his first business venture was selling products from the Larkin Soap Company. He was an innovative salesman and moved […] More

George Harrison, 1943 – 2001 Born: 25 February 1943, Liverpool, EnglandDied: 29 November 2001, Los Angeles, California Harrison’s father was a bus conductor and his mother a shop assistant, he attended Dovedale Primary School and went on to the Liverpool Institute for Boys. At thirteen he bought a used guitar and devoted himself to mastering […] More

William Randolph Hearst, 1863 – 1951 Born: 29 April 1863, San Francisco, CaliforniaDied: 14 August 1951, Beverly Hills, California Hearst’s wealthy parents sent him to prep school at St Paul’s School, Concord, New Hampshire, and he enrolled at Harvard, where he was a member of the Harvard Lampoon until he was expelled over a prank. […] More

John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, 1892 – 1964 Born: 5 November 1892, Oxford, England, UKDied: 1 December 1964, Bhubaneswar, India Haldane was educated at Dragon School, Eton and Oxford, mastering Latin, Greek, French, and German while earning a “double first” in mathematics and classics, even though his interests were mostly in science. Possibly most important is […] More

Hiram Ulysses Grant, 1822 – 1885 Born: 27 April 1822, Point Pleasant, OhioDied: 23 July 1885, Mount McGregor, New York Born to Pennsylvania natives Jesse Root Grant and Hannah Simpson Grant, the family moved to Georgetown, Ohio the year after he was born. His mother called him “Lys”. Congressman Thomas Hamer nominated him to the […] More

Jerome John “Jerry” Garcia, 1942 – 1995 Born: 1 August 1942, San Francisco, CaliforniaDied: 9 August 1995, Forest Knolls, California Four-year-old “Jerry” lost most of his right middle finger to an axe wielded by his brother splitting kindling on a camping trip. After his father drowned in a 1947 fishing accident, the Garcia children were […] More

Barbara Murray Holland, 1933 – 2010 Born: 5 April 1933, Washington CityDied: 7 September 2010, Bluemont, Virginia Born Barbara Murray, her parents divorced and her mother married Thomas Holland, who Barbara feared and disliked. She won the National Scholastic poetry competition in consecutive years, the first junior to win and the first to repeat. She […] More

John Richard Hersey, 1914 – 1993 Born: 17 June 1914, Tientsin, ChinaDied: 24 March 1993, Key West, Florida Born to American missionaries, Hersey spoke Chinese before he learned English upon the family’s return to the US when he was ten. He was educated at Hotchkiss School, graduated from Yale University, and was a Mellon fellow […] More

Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux, 1882 – 1944 Born: 29 October 1882, Bellac, Haute-Vienne, FranceDied: 31 January 1944, Paris, France Giraudoux studied at the Lycée Lakanal at Paris and after graduating traveled extensively, mostly in Europe but included a year lecturing at Harvard. He returned to France in 1910 and took a position with the Ministry of […] More

Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller, 1895 – 1983 Born: 12 July 1895, Milton, MassachusettsDied: 1 July 1983, Los Angeles, California Fuller spent much of his youth on Bear Island in Penobscot Bay off the coast of Maine. In school he had trouble with geometry, unable to comprehend the abstractions involved but became a certified machinist and […] More

Benjamin Franklin, 1706 – 1790 Born: 17 January 1706, Boston, MassachusettsDied: 17 August 1790, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania At various times Franklin was a scientist, an inventor, a statesman, a printer, a philosopher, a musician, an economist, and a flyer of kites. He even came up with the idea that became Daylight Saving Time, but those who […] More

Albert Einstein, 1879 – 1955 Born: 14 March 1879, Ulm, Kingdom of Württemberg, German EmpireDied: 18 April 1955, Princeton, New Jersey Raised in a family of non-observant Jews, Einstein attended a Catholic elementary school before entering Luitpold Gymnasium. A poor Jewish medical student ate dinner with the Einstein family every Thursday for six years, tutoring […] More

Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky, 1821 – 1881 Born: 11 November 1821, Moscow, Russian EmpireDied: 9 February 1881, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire Dostoyevsky was born at the Mariinsky Hospital for the poor, where his despotic alcoholic father was a surgeon. Despite his parents, Dostoyevsky enjoyed talking to the patients in the hospital garden. His early education was […] More

Nora Ephron, 1941 – 2012 Born: 19 May 1941, New York CityDied: 26 June 2012, New York City Nora Ephron’s parents were both screen writers. The family moved to Beverly Hills in 1945 and Nora graduated from Beverly Hills High School in 1958. While at Wellesley she was an intern in the Kennedy White House, […] More

Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren “Betty” Ford, 1918 – 2011 Born: 8 April 1918, Chicago, IllinoisDied: 8 July 2011, Rancho Mirage, California Two years after her birth the family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. After high school she studied dance at Bennington College in Vermont, did some modeling at New York City, and studied and danced […] More

Geraldine Anne Ferraro Zaccaro, 1935 – 2011 Born: 26 August 1935, Newburgh, New YorkDied: 26 March 2011, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts Ferraro’s father was an Italian immigrant, her mother the child of Italian immigrants. Educated at a Catholic schools, she attended Marymount Academy at Tarrytown, Now York where she was a member of the […] More

John Dewey, 1859 – 1952 Born: 20 October 1859, Burlington, VermontDied: 1 June 1952, New York City Dewey attended the University of Vermont, earning a BA (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1879. He taught high school for three years, thought better of it and earned his PhD at Johns Hopkins (1884) and taught at the University […] More

Clarence Seward Darrow, 1857 – 1938 Born: 18 April 1857, Kinsman Township, Trumbull County, OhioDied: 13 March 1938, Chicago, Illinois Darrow’s parents both had New England roots back to the Revolution; his father was an abolitionist and free thinker who was known as the “village infidel”, his mother an early advocate of women’s rights. Darrow […] More

Mario Matthew Cuomo Born: 15 June 1932, Queens, New York Cuomo’s parents emigrated from Salerno, Italy, Mario spoke only Italian until he started school. After P.S. 50 he attended St John’s Preparatory School. He stayed on for college, getting his B.A. in 1953, and then a law degree in 1956, tied for first in his […] More

Paulo Coelho, 1947 Born: 24 August 1947, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Coelho, pronounced POW-loo koo-ELL-yoo, attended a Jesuit school and wanted to be writer from an early age. His deep introspection and opposition to his parents desires for him to pursue a traditional career led them to commit him to a mental institution when he […] More

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, 1547 – 1616 Born: 29 September 1547, AlcalDied: 23 April 1616, Madrid, Crown of Castile Cervantes was certainly born close to the date referenced above, although there are no birth records. The date is assigned on the assumption that he was named for the saint on whose feast day he was […] More

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, 1474 – 1564 Born: 6 March 1475, Caprese, Arezzo, Republic of FlorenceDied: 18 February 1564, Rome, Papal States Caprese was part of the Republic of Florence (Repubblica Fiorentina) during Michelangelo’s lifetime, it is now part of Tuscany. His family had been bankers at Florence but his father Lodovico had not […] More

Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz, 1780 – 1831 Born: 1 July 1780, Burg bei Magdeburg, PrussiaDied: 16 November 1831, Breslau, Silesia von Clausewitz, the son of a Prussian tax officer who had served in the army, joined the Prussian army at age twelve, and saw action against France during the French Revolution. When Napoleon crushed […] More

Thomas Carlyle, 1795 – 1881 Born: 4 December 1795, Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, UKDied: 5 February 1881, London, England, UK Thomas Carlyle was born at Ecclefechan, Scotland on this day in 1795 and raised in a stern Calvinist family which expected him to enter the ministry. He boarded for three years at Annan Academy at Annan […] More

Julia McWilliams Child, 1912 – 2004 Born: 15 August 1912, Pasadena, CaliforniaDied: 14 August 2004, Montecito, California Born Julia McWilliams, the future chef attended Polytechnic School there and The Branson School at Ross, California. After graduating with a BA in history from Smith College in 1934, she worked as an advertising copywriter at New York […] More

William Henry Cosby, Jr Born: 12 July 1937, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania One of four children of a Navy cook, Cosby excelled at sports and coasted in class. He described himself as the “class clown”. He failed tenth grade and apprenticed at a shoe-repair shop, then worked in a muffler shop before joining the Navy. He was […] More

Henry Steele Commager, 1902 – 1998 Born: 25 October 1902, Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaDied: 2 March 1998, Amherst, Massachusetts Commager was orphaned early in life and raised by his maternal grandfather, a paster in the Danish Lutheran Church, first at Toledo, Ohio and then Chicago. He got a job in the University of Chicago library which gave […] More

Robert Leo Byrne Born: 22 May 1930, Dubuque, Iowa Byrne eared a degree in civil engineering at the University of Colorado in 1954 and moved to the San Francisco area where he edited a construction-industry magazine before becoming a full-time writer in 1977. He apparently got good with a cue stick on the way to […] More

Rita Mae Brown Born: 28 November 1944, Hanover, Pennsylvania Abandoned as an infant, Brown spent several years in an orphanage, and was later adopted by relatives. She attended Broward Community College and the University of Florida, she relates being thrown out over integration. She transferred to New York University for her degree in Classics and […] More

Erma Louise Bombeck, 1927 – 1996 Born: 21 February 1927, Dayton, OhioDied: 22 April 1996, San Francisco, California Born Erma Fiste, she started grade school early and loved to read. At Emerson Junior High she wrote a humor column for the school paper, at Patterson Vocational High School her column was devoted to more serious […] More

Neil Alden Armstrong, 1930 – 2012 Born: 5 August 1930, Wapakoneta, OhioDied: 25 August 2012, Cincinnati, Ohio Neil Alden Armstrong was born at Wapakoneta, Ohio on 5 August 1930. At age six he had a ride in a Ford Trimotor, at fifteen he had his pilot’s license. His father was a state auditor and the […] More

Alfred Adler, 1870 – 1937 Born: 7 February 1870, Rudolfsheim, Austria-Hungary (near Vienna)Died: 28 May 1937, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK Early childhood health problems, including rickets that kept him from walking until age four followed by near-fatal pneumonia, caused him to decide at age five to become a doctor. He earned his medical degree at the […] More

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, 1898 – 1956 Born: 10 February 1898, Augsburg, Bavaria, German EmpireDied: 14 August 1956, East Berlin, German Democratic Republic Despite occasional allusion to a peasant upbringing, Brecht grew up in a middle-class family. At school he met Caspar Neher, who designed sets of Brecht’s dramas from 1923 to 1949. When the […] More

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce, 1842 Born: 24 June 1842, Meigs County, Ohio Bierce grew up in a literary household in Indiana, attending high school at Warsaw, leaving home at fifteen to become a “printer’s devil” at a small Ohio newspaper. He joined the Union Army’s 9th Indiana Regiment in 1862, rising from first lieutenant to brevet […] More

Russell Wayne Baker Born: 14 August 1925, Morrisonville, Virginia Baker’s father died when Russell was five, poverty forced his mother to give up her second daughter for adoption. With his mother and sister he lived with family in New Jersey for a while before settling at Baltimore. After graduating from Baltimore City College high school […] More

Norman Ralph Augustine Born: 27 July 1935, Denver, Colorado Augustine was active in scouting, becoming an Eagle Scout (1952), graduated from East Denver High School and graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering (1957, 1959). He joined McDonald Douglass in 1958 as a Program Manager and rose […] More

Franklin Pierce Adams, 1881 – 1960 Born: 15 November 1881, Chicago, IllinoisDied: 23 March 1960, New York City Born Franklin Leopold Adams, he changed his middle name to Pierce at his confirmation in 1894. He graduated from Armour Scientific Academy in 1899 and went on to the University of Michigan but only stayed a year, […] More

Lyman Frank Baum, 1856 – 1919 Born: 15 May 1856, Chittenango, New YorkDied: 6 May 1919, Hollywood, California Baum’s father Benjamin was a barrel maker and profited greatly from the Pennsylvania oil boom that started when Frank (he didn’t like or use his first name) was three. With a weak heart and tendency to daydreaming, […] More

Joseph Wright Alsop V, 1910 – 1989 Born: 11 October 1910, Avon, ConnecticutDied: 28 August 1989, Washington City Alsop’s prominent family sent him to Groton (graduated 1928) and Harvard (1932). He became a reporter at the New York Herald Tribune at New York City, then moved to the Washington bureau three years later. During World […] More

Virginia Woolf, 1882 – 1941 Born: 25 January 1882, London, England, UKDied: 28 March 1941, Lewes, East Sussex, England, UK Born Adeline Virginia Stephen, her father was a noted man of letters and her mother was from a family in the publishing business. Both of her parents had survived their first spouses, between siblings and […] More

Andy Warhol, 1928 – 1987 Born: 6 August 1928, Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaDied: 22 February 1987, New York City Born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburg’s Soho neighborhood, he attended Holmes Elementary and Schenley High School, then trained in commercial art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University), graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Pictorial […] More

Noah Webster, 1758 – 1843 Born: 16 October 1458, West Division, Hartford, ConnecticutDied: 28 May 1843, New Haven, Connecticut Webster studied at Yale during the Revolution, graduating in 1778, and served in the Connecticut militia. He taught school to pay for his education, earned his law degree in 1781. When he actually practiced law in […] More

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet), 1694 – 1778 Born: 21 November 1694, Paris, FranceDied: 30 May 1778, Paris, France Born to a minor treasury official from a noble Poitou family, Arouet received his education from the Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand. He wanted to write, but his father insisted on law and, training first with a lawyer […] More

Peter Yarrow Born: 31 May 1938, New York City Yarrow’s parents were named Yaroshevitz when they arrived at Providence, Rhode Island from Ukraine. Yarrow attended New York’s High School of Music and Art (now LaGuardia High School), then graduated from Cornell University in 1959 before returning to New York. He started singing with Mary Travers […] More

Walter Winchell, 1897 – 1972 Born: 7 April 1897, New York, New YorkDied: 20 February 1972, Los Angeles, California As a teenager Winchell took to vaudeville, posting gossip on backstage bulletin boards. He became a journalist in the ’20s and, at a time when newspapers didn’t mention celebrity personal lives until divorce papers were filed, […] More

Alfred North Whitehead, 1861 – 1947 Born: 15 February 1861, Ramsgate, Kent, EnglandDied: 30 December 1947, Cambridge, Massachusetts Though young Alfred was a normally healthy child, his parents took it in mind that he was frail and kept him out of school until he was fourteen. In 1879 he won a scholarship to Trinity College, […] More

Mary Jane “Mae” West, 1893 – 1980 Born: 17 August 1893, Bushwick, New YorkDied: 22 November 1980, Los Angeles, California Born Mary Jane West, for various reasons she gave 1888, 1892, 1892, and 1900 as her year of birth. She first appeared in amateur shows at age seven, and in vaudeville with the Hal Clarendon […] More

Jules Gabriel Verne, 1828 – 1905 Born: 8 February 1828, Nantes, FranceDied: 24 March 1905, Amiens, France The eldest child in a wealthy family at the bustling port of Nantes, Verne spent summers at a country house on the Loire. His inquisitive and adventuresome character surfaced early, he and brother Paul often rented a boat […] More

Desmond Mpilo Tutu Born: 7 October 1931, Klerksdorp, Transvaal, South Africa Tutu’s father was a teacher at a school for the blind, his mother was a cleaner and cook at the school. The family moved to Johannesburg twelve years later and Desmond attended Johannesburg Bantu High School. He hoped to become a doctor but his […] More

Calvin Marshall “Bud” Trillin Born: 5 December 1935, Kansas City, Missouri Trillin attended public schools at Kansas City, graduating from Southwest High School in 1953. He went on to Yale, graduating in 1957, and worked at the Time magazine offices at London, Paris, and Tunisia while waiting to start a stint in the army, which […] More

Henry David Thoreau, 1817 – 1862 Born: 12 July 1817, Concord, MassachusettsDied: 6 May 1862, Concord, Massachusetts Thoreau, which rhymed with “thorough” or “furrow” rather than the more common “thuh ROW, was the son of a pencil maker and apparently learned the trade as he returned to it later when sales of his self-published Walden […] More

George Bernard Shaw, 1856 – 1950 Born: 26 July 1856, Dublin, IrelandDied: 2 November 1950, Ayot St. Lawrence, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom Shaw’s father, George Carr Shaw, was an unsuccessful grain merchant and habitual drunkard. His mother, Lucinda Elizabeth Shaw, was a professional singer. Shaw and his two sisters were largely raised by servants. Shaw […] More

Grace Slick Born: 30 October 1939, Evanston, Illinois Born Grace Barnett Wing, her family lived in the Chicago area, Los Angeles, and San Francisco before settling at Palo Alto. She attended Palo Alto Senior High School, transferred to Castilleja High School, attended Finch College (New York) and the University of Miami at Coral Gables Florida. […] More

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller, 1759 – 1805 Born: 10 November 1759, Marbach am Neckar, Duchy of WürttembergDied: 9 May 1805, Weimar, Duchy of Saxe-Weimar Named after Kaiser Friedrich II of Prussia, friends and family called him Fritz. He was the only son of a military doctor who was away in the Seven Years’ War […] More

Antoine Jean-Baptiste Marie Roger de Saint-Exupéry, 1900 – 1944 Born: 29 June 1900, Lyon, FranceDied: 31 July 1944, Offshore south of Marseille, France The third of five children in an old family of provincial nobility, his father the viscount died before Antoine was four. He failed his final exams at preparatory school, then studied architecture […] More

Steven Allan Spielberg Born: 18 December 1946, Cincinnati, Ohio Spielberg’s Jewish parents were Leah Adler, a restaurateur and concert pianist and Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer. He grew up in Haddon Heights, New Jersey and Scottsdale, Arizona. It was in Scottsdale that he joined the Boy Scouts, earning a photography merit badge with an 8mm […] More

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, 1932 – 2011 Born: 27 February 1932, Hampstead, London, England, UKDied: 23 March 2011, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California Elizabeth (never “Liz”) was born to an art dealer and a former actress, her American parents and English birth made her a citizen of both nations. She started ballet lessons at three […] More

Rex Todhunter Stout, 1886 – 1975 Born: 1 December 1886, Noblesville, IndianaDied: 27 October 1975, Danbury, Connecticut The Stouts moved to Topeka, Kansas within months of Rex’s birth. The son of Quaker parents, at age four he had read the entire Bible, twice. At age nine he was known as a prodigy in arithmetic. At […] More

Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), 1783 – 1842 Born: 23 January 1783, Grenoble, FranceDied: 23 March 1841, Paris, France Beyle was close to his mother, but she died seven years after his birth; he disliked his father, hated his aunt who took over raising him, and detested the Jesuit preach hired as his tutor. Through family connections […] More

William Penn Adair “Will” Rogers, 1879 – 1935 Born: 4 November 1879, Oologah, Indian Territory (Oklahoma)Died: 15 August 1935, Point Barrow, Alaska Territory Born to Clement Rogers and Mary Schrimsher on the Dog Iron Ranch near the present-day Oolagah, Oklahoma on this day in 1879. His father was a Cherokee senator and judge, the county […] More