Dad’s 81st birthday would have been today and I thought it might be fun to read the runes of history to find some notable people and events that shared his birthday.
The idea comes from Carol who let me know me that her mother was also born on the 15th of January and that this year would have been her 110th.
She was his dearest friend and companion of many years who he’d met at the Ringling Brothers Clown College where they were both learning the art of performing as clowns in one of the last classes Ringling Brothers ever hosted. His performances as Brother Noah for special needs kids would eventually earn him Volusia County Schools Volunteer of the Year three years in a row and Carol’s alter-ego Crystal was often just as integral to those performances!
He genuinely loved performing for the kids and insisted on performing pro bono. One of the wealthy families in Daytona Beach tried hiring him for an afternoon to entertain the kids during the party after a wedding whilst the adults would take advantage of the freedom from the kids to get rip-roaring drunk. He refused every one of the ever increasing offers until they finally gave up after pitching an enormous sum that probably would have ensured he was financially secure for the next ten years.
Brother Noah’s legacy of being vehemently opposed to cigarettes, booze, and drugs was too important to him no matter how tempting their offers were.
He never regretted turning them down for an instant and his insistence on doing shows for the special needs kids in the schools that were more often than not ignored by others kept him in the grease paint until the pain from the reaction with his skin finally got unbearable and he had to give up performing.
Anywho…the one famous figure I’ve always known shared his birthday was Dr Martin Luther King Jr who needs no introduction and whose spirit I’m sure will be channeled in opposition to the current push to roll back the gains in civil rights over the past sixty years.
Here are some of the more noteworthy people who also celebrated another trip round the sun on 15 January…
- 1622 – Molière, French actor and playwright
- 1623 – Algernon Sidney, British philosopher whose book Discourses Concerning Government was one of the two works cited by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson as inspiring their thoughts on liberty and the rights of man.
- 1754 – Richard Martin, co-founder of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals…given Dad’s love of animal welfare, I’d imagine that sharing a birthday with Richard Martin would be pleasing to him!
- 1902 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia whose descendant and at one point heir to the throne would lead a Know Your World presentation at Ft Leavenworth on the Kingdom
- 1909 – Gianoberto Maria Carlo Bugatti, son of Ettore Bugatti whose modern hypercars are a petrolhead’s dream
- 1913 – Lloyd Vernet Bridges Jr, famous actor who as tower controller Steve McCroskey in “Airplane!” noted that he picked the wrong week to quit drinking, smoking, sniffing glue, and amphetamines (in that order). Considering that Dad’s best birthday present for me ever was when he quit smoking cold turkey whilst we were stationed at Ft Sam Houston, I’m thinking #2 in that list is appropriate. 🙂
There are also some notable events that occurred on 15 January…
- 1889 – The Coca-Cola Company is founded in Atlanta GA
- 1892 – James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball (a sport Dad played in high school)
- 1943 – The Pentagon is dedicated (and is visible from Dad’s grave in Arlington Cemetery)…several time they tried to bring him in for a tour at the Pentagon and he refused every one of them
- 1967 – The first Super Bowl is held in Los Angeles. The explosion in costs for adverts and the half-time show would come a few years later
- 2009 – US Airways 1549 lands safely in the Hudson River and everyone on board survived after the Airbus A320 ingested geese into both engines after takeoff from LaGuardia, a supreme example of flying prowess that is probably the first time that an airline has an accident that actually improves the reputation of the airline!
Happy day to those people and events that shared Dad’s birthday through the years!