This Day in History: Dec 9

This Day in History will probably go down as the day that I learnt that Jay Leno is not going anywhere when he's done hosting the Tonight Show. As such it will go down as a sad day. He's not funny, people! Why do you keep trying to pretend that he is?

Anyways. Instead of dwelling on that depressing news, or the depressing news that went down This Day in History, I figured I'd try to focus on something more positive: birthdays. Since it's December 9th, I figured I'd give 9 birthday shout-outs to people born on this day.

Shout-out #1: John Milton
It's old Milty's 400th birthday today, and I give him a shout-out for daring to tell us that paradise was, in fact, lost. In my own humble opinion, I think the thing should have rhymed but what do I know.

Shout-out #2: Berton Churchill
Berty was born in 1879. He was a Canadian actor who made over 100 movies. I cannot find any connection to Winston Churchill, try as I might.

Shout-out #3: Clarence Birdseye
As someone who has eaten more than my fair share of Lean Cuisines, I feel compelled to give a shout-out to the founder of modern frozen food, born this day in 1886. He started considering new ways to freeze food while ice fishing with the Inuit.

Shout-out #4: Kirk Douglas
Born in 1916, Kirk Douglas gets a shout-out for being a fine actor in his own right but for also giving the world Michael Douglas.

Shout-out #5: Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
This man, born on December 9, 1920, served as Italian Prime Minister and as president. I was kind of hoping that they named Rome's Ciampino airport after him (the airport you use if you fly Ryan Air or Easy Jet or something else cheap out of Rome) but as it turns out, that was named after Giovanni Giustino Ciampini, a religious scientist and archaeologist who lived in the area in the 1600's. Still, the shout-out reserved for Ciampi remains in effect.

Shout-out #6: Bob Hawke
Bob Hawke, born this day in 1929, was the 23rd prime minister of Australia. His reign qualifies as the third longest term for a prime minister and the longest-serving prime minister from the Australian Labor Party. He is not related to acclaimed actor/author/director Ethan Hawke as far as I can tell.

Shout-out #7: Orville Moody
I picked Orville Moody, an American golfer born this day in 1933, because I liked the name. He died about four months ago.

Shout-out #8: Tom Kite
Tom Kite is also an American golfer! And I like his name also! The only difference here is that Tom Kite was born in 1949 and is not dead yet, according to Wikipedia.

Shout-out #9: John Malkovich
Born in 1953. By just being himself, John Malkovich gave John Cusack one of the best roles in his career.

Not getting birthday shout-outs for reasons known only to me: Dalton Trumbo, Donny Osmond, Imogen Heap, Judi Dench.