On the Right Track Baby, I Was Born This Day

I once read somewhere that each person shares their birthday with 9 million other people. Hmmm…kinda makes you feel a little less special. That is, of course, unless you share your birthday with some really cool people.

When I was in high school I had the same birthday as my 2 best friends, Eddie and Harold. We discovered it our sophomore year when we were filling out information cards during Band. Of the 3 of us, I was the youngest. I was born at 5:03 pm and they were both born in the morning.

I also have the exact same birthday, July 26 – 1957, as Hart Hanson, the creater of Bones. Also born on that day were Nana Visitor who played Kira Nerys on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Yuen Biao, a Hong Kong actor and martial artist.

Everyone in my immediate family has the same birthday as a U.S. President. Well, everyone except me, that is. I got stuck with a vice presidential birthday – George Clinton, the 4th vice president. He was only one of two vice presidents to serve under 2 different presidents – Jefferson and Madison. He was also the first Governor of New York.

George Clinton – P Funk star, NOT vice president

I guess a vice presidential birthday isn’t too bad, especially when the veep has the same name as one of the coolest funkadelic stars EVER.

If P-Funk George’s mother could have just waited 4 more days, he would have had the July 26 birthday, too.

George Clinton – Vice President

Another person that I share my birthday with is Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World. The interesting thing about Huxley is that he died on same day as JFK – Nov. 22, 1963, as did C.S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis’ and Huxley’s deaths were overshadowed by the death of JFK.

According to Huxley’s wife, Huxley, unable to speak and on his deathbed, made a written request for her to inject him with “LSD, 100 µg, intramuscular”. She obliged. He died a little after 5 pm that day. About 4 hours or so after Kennedy.

Other famous people born on this day were:
 

George Bernard Shaw – Irish Writer and Nobel Laureate. July 26, 1856 – Nov. 2, 1950
Carl Jung – Swiss psychiatrist, influential thinker, and founder of Analytical Psychology. July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961
George Grosz – German artist and prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity group, before emigrating to the United States in 1933. July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959. In the photo he is painting his famous Hitler in Hell.
Blake Edwards – American film director, screenwriter and producer. July 26, 1922 – Dec. 15, 2010
Jason Robards – American actor of Film, stage, television, and winner of the Tony Award, two Academy Awards and the Emmy. July 26, 1922 – Dec. 26, 2000
Stanley Kubrick – American film director, writer and producer. Famous for Dr. Stranglove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange. July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999
Mary Jo Kopechne – Secretary and political campaign specialist who died in a car accident on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts on July 18, 1969, while a passenger in a car being driven by U.S. Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy. July 26, 1940 – July 18, 1969
Mick Jagger – Lead vocalist for The Rolling Stones. July 26, 1943

There are quite a few more famous people who were born on that day, but those were just some of my favorites.

As far as who died on my birthday, I think that Ed Gein, the serial killer who was the inspiration for the character, Norman Bates, in Hitchcock’s movie Psycho, is the most notorious. I’m not putting up a picture of him because he creeps me out.

As far as events go, Carlos Castillo Armas, dictator and president of Guatemala, was assassinated on the day that I was born. He was shot dead in the presidential palace by a palace guard, Romeo Vásquez, on July 26, 1957. It is still uncertain whether the killer was paid to assassinate Castillo, or had other motives. Vásquez was found dead a short while later in what is believed to be a suicide.