It was on this date, January 28, 1936, that American actor, director, screenwriter, and author Alan Alda was born Alphonso Joseph D’Abruzzo to actor and singer Robert Alda and Joan Browne, a former showgirl and Miss New York pageant winner. His adopted stage and screen name, “Alda,” is a portmanteau of ALphonso and D’Abruzzo. A […]

It was on this date, January 20, 1956, that American stand-up comedian and author William “Bill” Maher, Jr. was born in New York City to a Jewish mother and Catholic father and reared in River Vale, N.J.. Maher attended Cornell University and started his stand-up comic career in 1979. In addition to his live stand-up […]

It was on this date, January 14, 1919, that Andrew Aitken Rooney, who grew up to be legendary CBS News commentator Andy Rooney, was born in Albany, New York. It seems Rooney was born to be a newsman. Rooney began writing for Stars and Stripes in London after he (a pacifist who opposed the war) […]

It was on this date, January 8, 1942, that English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author of A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford. He entered Oxford University in 1959, showing an interest in classical music and science fiction as well as physics and cosmology. With a reputation as something of a […]

Read about comedian Paula Poundstone, the Vatican recognizing Israel, Flemish anatomist Andreas Vesalius, Swiss Protestant reformer Huldrych Zwingli, American science and science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, Roman statesman and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero, the founding of the Fabian Society, and more … (concludes the series)