Happy birthday who?

[sd gross]

I see by my PeeDee that today (2/12) is the birthday of The Doors Ray Manzarek, Arsenio Hall and other showbiz luminaries, but nowhere do I see it mentioned that today is the birthday of one Abe Lincoln, born 202 years ago in Hardin County, Kentucky.
Two weeks ago we couldn't escape the media blitz surrounding the 100th anniversary of the emergence of the Bewildered and Vacuous Ronald ("facts are stubborn things") Reagan, but nowhere (NOWHERE!) did I see or hear it mentioned that on January 30th, we need to perhaps recognize the one-time existence of one F.D. Roosevelt. (whose name may not be on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but most people dug his act nevertheless.)
And 'scuse me for wondering, but where might Arsenio Hall be, if it weren't for Abe Lincoln?
Am I out of touch with whom and what we're inclined to acknowledge and honor, or am I (as the late Pauline used to say) just expecting too much, and setting myself up for a lifetime of disappointment!

[zenekar]

Stephen,

I appreciate what you write here about this society's priorities of entertainment over learning about/from and being aware of our history. This is truly a dumb-down society. And I would further suggest that it is by design. Or, is it that this fabricated culture chooses to remain ignorant? People in North Africa, the "Middle East" (depends from what geographical perspective one views the globe), South America, etc., are awakening with intelligence and knowledge of their history while USA society sleepwalks (or drives gas guzzling SUVs), oblivious the the damage US corporations and the corrupt imperialist government has caused in the world, which fuels the uprisings.

Don't bang your head against the wall -- you'll dent the sheetrock. :)

Attila

[zenekar]

I meant to write "dumbed-down" society but "dumb-down" works too.

Attila

[podfish]

I see by my PeeDee that today (2/12) is the birthday of The Doors Ray Manzarek, Arsenio Hall and other showbiz luminaries, but nowhere do I see it mentioned that today is the birthday of one Abe Lincoln, born 202 years ago in Hardin County, Kentucky.

shelf rotation? 200 year limit? 'course that doesn't explain stiffing FDR.

[Marty M]

Galileo Galilei, born February 15,1564 in Pisa, Italy

Susan B. Anthony, born February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts

I see by my PeeDee that today (2/12) is the birthday of The Doors Ray Manzarek, Arsenio Hall and other showbiz luminaries, but nowhere do I see it mentioned that today is the birthday of one Abe Lincoln, born 202 years ago in Hardin County, Kentucky.
Two weeks ago we couldn't escape the media blitz surrounding the 100th anniversary of the emergence of the Bewildered and Vacuous Ronald ("facts are stubborn things") Reagan, but nowhere (NOWHERE!) did I see or hear it mentioned that on January 30th, we need to perhaps recognize the one-time existence of one F.D. Roosevelt. (whose name may not be on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but most people dug his act nevertheless.)
And 'scuse me for wondering, but where might Arsenio Hall be, if it weren't for Abe Lincoln?
Am I out of touch with whom and what we're inclined to acknowledge and honor, or am I (as the late Pauline used to say) just expecting too much, and setting myself up for a lifetime of disappointment!

[Marty M]

Louis Comfort Tiffany, born February18,1848 in New York City

[Marty M]

Nicolaus Copernicus, born February 19,1473 in Torun, Poland

[Marty M]

Ansel Easton Adams, born February 20, 1902 in San Francisco

[Marty M]

Andres Torres Segovia, born February 21, 1893 in Linares, Spain

[Marty M]

George Washington, born February 22, 1732 in Westmoreland, Colony of Virginia

Frederic Francois Chopin (french spelling), born February 22 (or March 1), 1810 in Zelazowa Wola, Poland

[sd gross]

Today, February 22nd, is significant for being the birthdays of several somewhat notable people.

1732 George Washington, born in Virginia (or possibly Libya) President of the USA 1789-1797

1788 Artie Schopenhauer, born in Germany, noted party animal and philospher, known as The Great Pessimist

1810 Freddy F. Chopin, pianist/composer born in Poland

1822 Adolf Kuszmaul, German physician and beer recycler (he invented the stomach pump)

1857 Robert Baden Powell, who was awarded a Merit Badge for inventing the Boy Scouts (and the Girl Guides, so he could get his wife out of the house and spend more time with his first invention)

1867 Heinrich (Hank) Hertz, physicist, who was the first to broadcast and receive radio waves while in his rented Yugo.

1874 Bill Klem, who made a career of calling people out just when they thought they were safe.

1883 Maggie Clark, who was the voice of Snow White when she wasn't too Sleepy or Grumpy

1892 David Dubinsky born in Brest Russia (now Belarus) (, labor leader, Freedom Award, 1969 Medal of Freedom (Think ILGWU)

1892 Edna St. Vincent Millay, born in Rockland, ME but moved to Greenwich Village (getting it confused with Greenwich CT) and spent much time wondering where all those hip people came from poet, dramatist, Pulitzer Prize Winner

George Washington, born February 22, 1732 in Westmoreland, Colony of Virginia

Frederic Francois Chopin (french spelling), born February 22 (or March 1), 1810 in Zelazowa Wola, Poland

[Marty M]

Emma Willard, born February 23,1787 in Berlin, Connecticut. Founded first women's school of higher education.

George Frederic Watts, born February 23, 1817 in Marylebone, England

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois born February 23, 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts

[Marty M]

February 24

Winslow Homer born in 1836, Boston, Massachusetts

Richard Hamilton born in 1922, London, England

Michael Harrington born in 1928, St. Louis, Missouri


February 23

George Frideric Handel born in 1685, Halle, Germany

[Marty M]

February 25

Pierre Aguste Renoir born in 1841, in Limoges, France

Anthony Joseph Lloyd born in 1950, in Trafford, England
Labor Party member of Parliament, voted against England participating in the invasion of Iraq, and voted against the renewal of the Trident Nuclear Missile System.

Howard Clinton Zahniser born in 1906, in Franklin, Pennsylvania
Executive director of the Wilderness Society. Primary author of the Wilderness Act of 1964 (he worked continuously for six years to see this law passed). The Wilderness Act was signed into law on September 3, 1964 by President Lyndon Johnson. It created and protected over 9.1 million acres of wilderness. Today over 107 million acres are protected. It also created the legal definition of wilderness. "A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where men and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."

[Marty M]

February 26

Victor Hugo born in 1802, in Besancon, France

Antione Dominique "Fats" Domino born in 1928, in Vacherie, Louisiana

[Marty M]

February 27

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow born in 1807, in Portland, Maine

Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner born in 1861, in Donji Kraljevec, Austria-Hungary now Croatia

John Ernst Steinbeck born in 1902, in Salinas, California

Navarre Scott Momaday born in 1934, in Lawton, Oklahoma

[Marty M]

February 28

Linus Carl Pauling born in 1901, in Lake Oswego, Oregon

Frank Owen Gehrry born in 1929, in Toronto, Ontario

Paul Robin Krugman born in 1953, in Albany, New York

[Marty M]

Frank Owen Gehry
(sorry about the typo)

[Marty M]

February 29

Howard Nemerov born in 1920, in New York City

March 1

Robert Lowell born in 1917, in Boston, Massachusetts

Richard Purdy Wilbur born in 1921, in New York City

Archer John Porter Martin born in 1910, in London
He received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for partition chromatography and later developed gas-liquid chromatography.

[Marty M]

March 2

Russell Dana "Russ" Feingold born in 1953, in Jamesville, Wisconsin
US Senator from Wisconsin
Initially the only senator to vote against the USA Patriot Act. His voting history is impressive and worth reading.

Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson born in 1923, in Deep Gap, North Carolina

Theodore Seuss Geisel, "Dr. Seuss", born in 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts

[Marty M]

March 3

George William Hill born in 1838, in New York City. Mathematician, calculated orbits of the moon and planets.

John Murray born in 1841, in Coburg, Ontario. Oceanographer, discovered Mid-Atlantic Ridge and oceanic trenches.

James Ingram Merrill born in 1926, in New York City. Poet, philanthropist.

[Marty M]

March 4

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi born in 1678, in Venice

Valerie Jane Goodall born in 1934, in London

Zenzile Miriam Makeba born in 1932, in Johannesburg, South Africa

[Marty M]

March 5

Gerardus Mercator born in 1512, in Rupelmonde, Holy Roman Empire. Mercator projection of world map.

William Oughtred born in 1574, in Eton, England. Invented the slide rule.

Rosa Luxemburg born in 1871, in Zamosc, Russia (Poland)

Roy Gutman born in 1944, in New York City

[Marty M]

March 6

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni born in 1475, in Caprese, Tuscany, (today: Caprese Michelangelo)

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov born in1844, in Tikhvin, Russia

Joseph von Fraunhofer born in 1787, in Straubing, Bavaria
He invented the spectroscope and observed a pattern of dark lines in the sun's optical spectrum. He carefully and systematically measured and mapped these dark lines. Later it was discovered that these lines correspond to the absorption of light by chemical elements and ions (oxygen, hydrogen, iron, calcium, sodium, mercury and magnesium to name a few). This early work forms the basis for atomic absorption spectroscopy.

[Marty M]

March 7

Joseph Maurice Ravel born in 1875, in Cibourne, France

Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan (Mondrian) born in 1872, in Amersfoort, Netherlands

Milton Avery born in 1884, in Altmar, New York

Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi born in 1924, in Leith, Scotland

Luther Burbank born in 1849, in Lancaster, Massachusetts

[Marty M]

March 8

Keith Jarrett born in 1945, in Allentown, Pennsylvania

Abu al Qasin Mahmud ibn Umar al Zamakhshari born in 1074, in Persia. Scholar and theologian.
(with a name like this I just couldn't resist listing him)


March 7

Stanley Lloyd Miller born in1930, in Oakland, California
He designed an experiment which demonstrated that amino acids could be formed from a mixture of inorganic gasses, water, and the application of an electrical spark. Amino acids are the "building blocks" of proteins, which are essential for the formation of living matter. This experiment was significant because it showed that organic compounds could form from inorganic compounds under fairly simple physical processes.

[Marty M]

March 10

Ina Donna Coolbrith born in 1842, in Nauvoo, Illinois
She was the first poet laureate for California.

[Marty M]

March 11

Ralph David Abernathy born in 1926, in Marengo County, Alabama

[Marty M]

March 12

Jesse "Lone Cat" Fuller born in 1896, in Jonesboro, Georgia.
He was a one-man-blues-band musician who began his career playing on the streets of San Francisco, passing the hat for money in the1950's. His songs have been covered by the Grateful Dead, Hot Tuna, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Peter Paul and Mary, and Glenn Yarbrough.

[Marty M]

March 14

Albert Einstein born in 1879, in Ulm, Germany
He received the Nobel Prize in physics. His work included general and special relativity, mass energy equivalence, photoelectric effect and unified field theory.

Paul Ehrlich born in 1854, in Strehlen, Prussia
He received the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine. His work provided the groundwork for today's understanding of immunology and the mechanism of disease.

James Bogardus born in1800, in Catskill, New York
He was an architect who built cast iron buildings, which led to the steel frame construction of today. Five of his iron buildings are still standing in New York City.