Cy Young was a Major League Baseball (MLB) player. During his 22-year career (1890-1911), he pitched for five different teams, most notably the Boston franchise (Americans/Red Sox). Young established numerous pitching records, some of which have stood for a century. He still holds the MLB records for most wins (511), career innings pitched (7,355), career games started (815) and complete games (749). One year after Young’s death in 1955, the Cy Young Award was created to honor the previous season’s best pitcher. He was born on this day in 1867.
Francis I (born Jorge Bergoglio) is the 266th and current Pope of the Catholic Church, elected on March 13, 2013. As such, he is Bishop of Rome, the head of the worldwide Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina of Italian descent, Bergoglio became cardinal in 2001. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the papal conclave elected Bergoglio, who chose the papal name Francis in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. He is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas and the first from the Southern Hemisphere.
Before his election, Bergoglio was considered one of the most conservative cardinals, expressing strong opposition to homosexuality, same-sex marriage, LGBT adoption, contraceptives, abortion and euthanasia. My hope is that, in addition to his unprecedented name choice and humble refusal to stand on an elevated platform, Francis continues to be a pontiff of firsts and break other archaic traditions for the betterment of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics and all seven billion humans on this small planet.
Quentin Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is best known for Pulp Fiction (1994), a neo-noir crime film widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Tarantino’s work, which often employs nonlinear storylines and satirical violence, includes Reservoir Dogs (1992), Kill Bill (2003, 2004) and Inglourious Basterds (2009). His most recent and highest grossing film is Django Unchained (2012). Tarantino has received many industry awards, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes and two BAFTAs. He was born on this day in 1963.
Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, producer and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Kurosawa directed approximately one film per year, including a number of highly regarded films such as Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952), Seven Samurai (1954) and Yojimbo (1961). In 1990, he accepted the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was born on March 23, 1910.
Spike Lee is an American film director, producer, writer and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983. As a director, he is best known for Do the Right Thing (1989). Lee’s movies have examined race relations, colorism in the black community, urban crime and poverty. He has won an Emmy Award and received two Academy Award nominations. As an obnoxious superfan of the New York Knicks (and the Yankees), Lee is often seen courtside at Madison Square Garden. He was born on this day in 1957.
Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express, which consists of stories about two different lovesick Hong Kong policemen, is one of my three favorite post-1980s films. (The other two are David Lynch’s Lost Highway and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s The City of Lost Children.)
David Cronenberg is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people’s fears of bodily transformation and infection. In the first half of his career, Cronenberg explored these psychological themes mostly through horror and science fiction. Notable works include Videodrome (1983), The Fly (1986), eXistenZ (1999), A History of Violence (2005) and Eastern Promises (2007). Cronenberg was born on this day in 1943.
Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was the last of four kings to rule the last Sinhalese monarchy of the Kingdom of Kandy on the island of Sri Lanka. The Nayak kings were Buddhists who spoke Tamil. The king was eventually deposed by the British under the terms of the Kandyan Convention, in 1815, ending over 2,300 years of Sinhalese monarchy on the island. The island was incorporated into the British Empire.
Yes, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha really was the King of Kandy. I like to think he lived at the top of a gumdrop-adorned Kandy Mountain surrounded by kandy kane fences, referred to his palace as Kandyland and snacked on only the finest kandy korn. This information is not verifiable via Wikipedia. But I did find that the British Empire declared war on the Kingdom of Kandy in 1815 and the king was exiled to India, never to return. In a related story, Candy told me nothing really matters anymore.
Hugo Chávez was the President of Venezuela from 1999 until his death on March 5, 2013. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when it merged with several other parties to form the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which he led until his death. Following his own political ideology of Bolivarianism (named after Simón Bolívar), Chávez focused on implementing socialist reforms, including a new constitution, increased government funding of health care and education, and significant reductions in poverty.
Note: Shortly after Hugo Chávez’s death last week after a two-year battle with cancer, it was announced that he will be embalmed and put on display “for eternity,” much like the posthumous treatment of Communist leaders Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh.
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor who did most of his work as an expatriate in the United Kingdom. He is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Many of Kubrick’s films broke new ground in cinematography. His masterpieces include the science-fiction 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the dystopian A Clockwork Orange (1971) and the psychological horror The Shining (1980). Kubrick died on this day in 1999 at the age of 70.
Gabriel García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, he was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. García Márquez started as a journalist, but is best known for his novels, including One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), Autumn of the Patriarch (1975) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have helped popularize magic realism as a literary style. García Márquez was born on this day in 1927.
The nonlinear, multi-generational One Hundred Years of Solitude is my wife Heidi’s very favorite book and Gabriel García Márquez is her favorite author. I love magic realism and I agree that García Márquez is a pretty fantastic craftsman of richly detailed run-on sentences. But I was stunned that nearly every character in his famous century-spanning book is named José Arcadio or Aureliano. I am not exaggerating when I state that there are 22 characters named Aureliano in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Twenty-two. If you put this novel down for a few days, you too can share the farcical experience of having to cross-reference a family tree to remember which members of which generation are being talking about in a given chapter—even when you know that history repeating is the point and it almost doesn’t matter. I do like to experience how the world feels from García Márquez’s unique perspective.
Willie Stargell, nicknamed “Pops” in the later years of his career, was a Major League Baseball (MLB) player. He played his entire 21-year career as the left fielder and first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1962-1982). He helped the Pirates capture six National League East division titles, two National League pennants and two World Series (1971, 1979). He was born on this day in 1940.
Alexander Graham Bell was a scientist, inventor and engineer credited with inventing the first practical telephone. Both his mother and wife were deaf, which led him to research hearing and speech. His experiments with hearing devices culminated with the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876. Many other inventions marked Bell’s later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils and aeronautics. In 1888, Bell became a founding member of the National Geographic Society. He was born on March 3, 1847.
In retrospect, Bell considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study. Over 100 years later, I agree with his assessment. I do not like talking on the phone, or hearing it ring/vibrate/sing pop songs. Bell and I have the same birthday, so perhaps we would agree on many things.
Pope Francis I – No. 593
Francis I (born Jorge Bergoglio) is the 266th and current Pope of the Catholic Church, elected on March 13, 2013. As such, he is Bishop of Rome, the head of the worldwide Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina of Italian descent, Bergoglio became cardinal in 2001. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the papal conclave elected Bergoglio, who chose the papal name Francis in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. He is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas and the first from the Southern Hemisphere.
Before his election, Bergoglio was considered one of the most conservative cardinals, expressing strong opposition to homosexuality, same-sex marriage, LGBT adoption, contraceptives, abortion and euthanasia. My hope is that, in addition to his unprecedented name choice and humble refusal to stand on an elevated platform, Francis continues to be a pontiff of firsts and break other archaic traditions for the betterment of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics and all seven billion humans on this small planet.