May 10, 2013
Jason Collins is an American professional basketball center, most recently playing for the NBA’s Washington Wizards. He attended Stanford University and was selected in the first round of the 2001 NBA Draft. Collins has played for six teams in 12 NBA seasons and is now a free agent. On April 29, 2013, Collins became the first active male professional athlete in a major North American team sport to publicly come out as gay. According to ESPN’s Rick Reilly, “Collins is now the Jackie Robinson of gay athletes and, like Robinson, strong enough for the job. He’s universally loved in the NBA.”
P.S. Collins has said that he chose to wear jersey number 98 in honor of Matthew Shepard, the victim of a gay hate crime in 1998.
March 29, 2013
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.
December 10, 2012
Emily Dickinson was an American poet who lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. While Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime. Dickinson’s poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. She was born on this day in 1830.
November 19, 2012
Ted Williams was a Major League Baseball (MLB) player who spent his entire 22-year career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox (1939-1942 and 1946-1960). Williams led the league in batting six times, won the American League MVP twice and won the Triple Crown twice. A 19-time All-Star, he had a career batting average of .344 with 521 home runs. Williams was the last player to bat over .400 in a single season (.406 in 1941).
October 17, 2012
Bobby Orr is a Canadian former National Hockey League (NHL) player. He played his 12-season career (1966-1978) for the Boston Bruins and the Chicago Black Hawks. A defenseman, Orr used his skating speed and scoring abilities to revolutionize the position. Orr remains the only defenseman to have won the league scoring title. He was named the NHL’s best defenseman eight consecutive times and MVP three consecutive times. With Orr, the Bruins won the Stanley Cup twice, in 1970 and 1972. He is one of the greatest hockey players of all time.
June 12, 2012
George H. W. Bush was the 41st President of the United States. During his presidency, the U.S. started the Persian Gulf War (codenamed Operation Desert Storm) in 1991 response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Bush was born on this day in 1924. His eldest son served as the 43rd President of the United States.
Note: This is 8-bit U.S. president #13 of 43.
April 30, 2012
Bill Russell is a former NBA player with the Boston Celtics from 1956-1969. He played the center position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Russell was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA Championships during his 13-year career.
Note: This is 8-bit character #4 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
April 10, 2012
Jack Kerouac was an American novelist, poet and face of the 1950s Beat Generation, with William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty and travel. His autobiographical novels include On the Road and Big Sur.
February 5, 2012
An American football quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He won three Super Bowls in four years with the New England Patriots. Brady helped set the record for the longest consecutive win streak in NFL history with 21 straight wins over two seasons (2003-04). In 2007, he led the Patriots to the NFL’s first undefeated 16-game regular season.
Note: Today Brady and the Patriots face the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, a rematch of 2008′s Super Bowl XLII upset. It will be Brady’s fifth Super Bowl.
October 11, 2011
A fictional character created by Ben Edlund in 1986 as a newsletter mascot for a chain of Boston-area comic book stores. He is an absurdist spoof of comic book superheroes. The character later spun off into an independent comic book series in 1988, and gained mainstream popularity through an animated TV series on Fox in 1994.
October 7, 2011
An American author and poet best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre. Poe is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. On October 3, 1849, he was found on the streets of Baltimore delirious and wearing clothes that were not his own. Poe is thought by some to have been the victim of cooping before his mysterious death. He died on this day at age 40.
Note: According to a 1906 article from The New York Times, Poe parted his hair on the right. Many photos seem to show the opposite, but that’s because the image is reversed in most daguerreotypes (the photographic process of the mid-1800s). Just saying.
August 9, 2011
Larry Bird is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. He started at forward for 13 seasons with the Boston Celtics, spearheading one of the NBA’s most formidable frontcourts that won three NBA championships during the 1980s. His friendship and rivalry with Magic Johnson, whom he faced in the 1979 NCAA finals and three NBA championship series, is widely celebrated.
Note: This is 8-bit character #2 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
July 28, 2011
George Herman Ruth, Jr. (AKA “the Bambino” and “the Sultan of Swat”) was a Major League Baseball player from 1914-1935. He is one of the most famous sports heroes in American culture and is considered the greatest baseball player ever. He spent his career with the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox and set numerous MLB records.
June 9, 2011
An African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist. As a spokesman for the Nation of Islam he taught black supremacy. After he left the Nation of Islam in 1964, he became a Sunni Muslim, but was assassinated a few months later while giving a speech. Here is a relevant song: “Wake Up” by Rage Against the Machine.
May 29, 2011
The 35th President of the United States. JFK was born on this day in 1917. He was assassinated in 1963 as he traveled in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. I remain fascinated by the many conspiracy theories.
Alexander Graham Bell – No. 582
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.