Guest Author - Judith Hodges

Today in History- July 4th

Independence Day (U.S.)

Happy Birthday!
1804 Nathaniel Hawthorne, author (The Scarlet Letter)
1826 Stephen Foster, songwriter (Oh Susannah, Camptown Races, Swanee River, Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair, Beautiful Dreamer)
1872 Calvin Coolidge, US President
1883 Rube Goldberg, inventor/cartoonist
1910 Gloria Stuart, actress (Titanic)
1918 Ann Landers, advice columist
1918 Abigail Van Buren, advice columnist (Dr. Abby, twin sister of Ann Landers)
1920 Leona Helmsley, hotel mogul
1924 Eva Marie Saint, actress (Because of Winn-Dixie, North by Nortwest)
1927 Gina Lollobrigida, actress (Solomon and Sheba, Strange Bedfellows)
1927 Neil Simon, playwright (The Odd Couple, The Sunshine Boys, The Goodbye Girl)
1930 George Steinbrenner, baseball team owner
1938 Bill Withers, singer (Ain't No Sunshine)
1941 Digger Phelps, basketball coach
1943 Geraldo Rivera, talk show host/reporter
1946 Ron Kovic, Vietnam War veteran (Born on the Fourth of July)

Deaths:
1826 John Adams, US President
1826 Thomas Jefferson, US President
1831 James Monroe, US President
1995 Bob Ross, painting teacher on PBS
1995 Eva Gabor, actress (Green Acres)
1997 Charles Kuralt, news reporter (On the Road)
2003 Barry White, singer (Can't get enough of your Love, Babe)


Events:
1776 The Declaration of Independence aggreed on creating the USA.
1855 Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass was first published
1939 Lou Gehrig retired from baseball saying he was the "Luckiest man on the face of the Earth".


History Lesson:
Not a very good day for US Presidents.

Thomas Jeferson was the author of the US Declaration of Independence.

Calvin Coolidge was so unfriendly a woman once told him that she had made a bet she could get him to say three words to her. His only words to her were "You lose".