The 42nd President of the United States. Born on this day in 1946, Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history. He won a second term, but was impeached (though ultimately acquitted) in a scandal involving a White House intern. He left office with the highest approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II.
A Puerto Rican professional baseball player and humanitarian. He was born on this day in 1934. He played his entire 18-year career with Major League Baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates (1955-72) and was the first Latin American player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He died in a plane crash in 1972, while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
A celebrated 19th-century American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier and politician who was born on this day in 1786. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet “King of the Wild Frontier.” He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives, served in the Texas Revolution and died at the Battle of the Alamo in 1836.
A French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815. His legal reform, the Napoleonic Code, influenced civil law jurisdictions worldwide. He is considered one of the greatest military commanders (see the Napoleonic Wars). He was born on this day in 1769.
P.S. Napoleon had problems, but being short wasn’t really one of them. He was 5′ 6″ or 5′ 7″ tall, which is average for an 18th-century Frenchman (but shorter than most Imperial Guards). Still, he gets the Napoleon complex named after him.
Magic Johnson is an NBA great who played point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers. He won five NBA championships with the Lakers during the 1980s, but retired abruptly in 1991 after contracting HIV. His friendship and rivalry with Larry Bird, whom he faced in the 1979 NCAA finals and three NBA championship series, is widely celebrated. Johnson was born on this day in 1959.
Note: This is 8-bit character #3 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
A Cuban revolutionary and politician born on this day in 1926. He played a key role in the Cuban Revolution, leading a successful guerrilla war against Batista’s forces with the aid of his brother Raúl Castro and friend Che Guevara. Castro became prime minister and president and converted Cuba to a one-party socialist state. In 2006, he delegated his presidential duties to Raúl Castro due to illness. On April 19, 2011, Fidel Castro resigned from the Communist Party central committee, thus stepping down as party leader.
An American professional wrestler, actor and television personality. He was born on this day in 1953 as Terry Bollea. In the 1980s, the Hulk Hogan character led the expansion of professional wrestling’s popularity across North America. This period of time in the history of the World Wrestling Federation is now referred to as the Hulkamania Era.
An American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s TV series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. He is also known for his trademark African Mandinka warrior hairstyle and his gold jewelry. This dude has been pitying fools for 30 years now.
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.
A fictional superhero in the Marvel Comics universe who first appeared in 1962. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Incredible Hulk is the emotional and impulsive alter ego of physicist Dr. Bruce Banner. The Hulk appears shortly after Banner is accidentally exposed to the blast of a test detonation of a gamma bomb he invented. Hulk smash!
Like many kids in the 1980s, I recall happily jumping across furniture to avoid my house’s lava floor while wearing Hulk-themed Underoos.
A fictional superhero created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1960s. In his original incarnation, he fought supervillains in outer space. In the 1990s, he was the host of the animated parody talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast on Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, which I quite enjoyed. In the 2000s, he was revamped as a serious superhero by DC Comics.
A fictional character in the Pierre Boulle novel Planet of the Apes, and the film series (1968, 1970-73) and television series based on it. He is an anthropomorphized orangutan who serves a dual role in the ape society, as Minister of Science and as Chief Defender of the Faith. Zaius knows the true origins of the ape society and how mankind fell as the dominant species.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a reboot of the Planet of the Apes series, opens today in theaters nationwide. I am curious about the new drug-based origin story. Unrelated to this is the amusing @Zaius13 Twitter account.
A 40-foot-tall purple gorilla and star of The Great Grape Ape Show, which was a late-1970s Saturday morning Hanna-Barbera cartoon. His catchphrase is repeating his name twice (“Grape Ape, Grape Ape”) after anything anyone says, usually as a form of agreement or acknowledgment. He travels the countryside with his canine pal Beegle Beagle.
Grape Ape is also one of my favorite items from Oregon’s Voodoo Doughnut. It’s a raised yeast doughnut with vanilla frosting, grape dust and lavender sprinkles.
After the enormous success of King Kong (1933), Merian C. Cooper and the same Hollywood creative team responsible for Kong made another film about a giant ape, this time named Joe. Mighty Joe Young was a 1949 RKO Radio Pictures film about a girl from Africa who brings an oversized ape (10-12 feet tall) to Hollywood to become a nightclub performer.
A fictional gorilla monster created by Merian C. Cooper that has appeared in several remakes and sequels since his 1933 movie debut. The original stop-motion animated film, in which Kong battles an airplane on top of the Empire State Building, is the most significant work featuring this 50-foot-tall gorilla who kidnaps and lusts for a human woman.
An almost-unstoppable enemy in Kid Icarus, which was an action platform video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, first released in 1987. The Eggplant Wizard (or, as we affectionately called him, the Eggplant Priest) could turn the protagonist’s (Pit’s) upper body into an eggplant by tossing eggplant projectiles at him. See this evil creature in action.
The official mascot of Japan’s NHK television station. Domo first appeared in stop-motion interstitial sketches in 1998 and later became well known outside of Japan through a Photoshopped image depicting Domos chasing a kitten. This Internet meme originated at Fark.com in 2002 and helped popularize “killing kittens” as a euphemism for masturbation.
A Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose vivid work had a far-reaching influence on 20th century art. He is also famous for his mental illness. In 1888, he famously cut off part of his left ear after a confrontation with his friend Paul Gauguin. He died on this day in 1890, largely unknown, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Now his paintings sell for $100 million.
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.
Eli the Cat – No. 177
One of my three cats. Eli was rescued from the feral cat colony beneath my old apartment complex. More accurately, he showed up at my door on Father’s Day in 2007 as a 12-week-old kitten and asked to come in. He is large (17 pounds), intelligent, affectionate and codependent. My coworker adopted Eli’s brother. His estimated birthday is March 11, 2007.
Update: Eli passed away of old age on August 6, 2021, two years after Tanuki and six years after The King. Dear Eli, good boy until the end, respectfully waited until the morning after our daughter Ramona’s eighth birthday to leave this mortal coil. Ramona was very fond of him. We all were.