If at first you don't succeed, that pretty much does it for skydiving.

If at first you don't succeed, that pretty much does it for skydiving.is my saying for today (August 17th)!

Quote of the day: "The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us." by Quentin Crisp

Word of the day: burgoo - noun: a thick oatmeal eaten by sailors (not to be confused with bird-goo)

August 16th is the 229th day of the year (230th in a leap year) and there are 136 days left until the end of the year.

If today is your Birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

If you would like your birthday or a family member, or even a friends included in my "Birthday List", just leave a comment with all the pertinent information like Name, nickname, occupation and date of birth!

Famous People Who Birthday Is Today!

Births

1473, Duke of York, Richard

1578, Italian painter, Francesco Albani (d. 1660)

1601, French mathematician, Pierre de Fermat (d. 1665)

1629, King John III of Poland (d. 1696)

1686, Italian composer, Nicola Porpora (d. 1768)

1753, Czech linguist, Josef Dobrovský (d. 1828)

1768, French general, Louis Charles Antoine Desaix (d. 1800)

1786, Davy Crockett, American frontiersman and soldier (d. 1836)

1786, Mother of Queen Victoria, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (d. 1861)

1794, German priest, Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst (d. 1849)

1828, French neurologist, Jules Bernard Luys (d. 1897)

1844, Menelek II of Ethiopia (d. 1913)

1863, American author and naturalist, Gene Stratton-Porter (d. 1924)

1866, 6th Nizam of Hyderabad, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan (d. 1911)

1866, English actress, Julia Marlowe (d. 1950)

1873, American gynecologist, John A. Sampson (d. 1946)

1878, Australian cricketer, Reggie Duff (d. 1911)

1880, South African cricketer, Percy Sherwell (d. 1948)

1887, Jamaican-born Black rights activist, Marcus Garvey (d. 1940)

1887, Charles I of Austria (d. 1922)

1888, American actor, Monty Woolley (d. 1963)

1890, 8th United States Secretary of Commerce, Harry Hopkins (d. 1946)

1890, Polish aviator, Stefan Bastyr (d. 1920)

1893, American actress, Mae West (d. 1980)

1896, American military engineer, Leslie Groves (d. 1970)

1904, Austrian musicologist, Leopold Nowak (d. 1991)

1904, American newspaper editor and politician, Mary Cain (d. 1984)

1909, American trumpeter and bandleader, Larry Clinton (d. 1985)

1911, Russian chess player, Mikhail Botvinnik (d. 1995)

1911, German military officer, Martin Sandberger (d. 2010)

1913, American Watergate informant, W. Mark Felt (d. 2008)

1913, American baseball player, Rudy York (d. 1970)

1913, Argentine racing driver, Óscar Alfredo Gálvez (d. 1989)

1914, Son of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. (d. 1988)

1919, American singer, Georgia Gibbs (d. 2006)

1920, Irish actress, Maureen O'Hara

1921, British historian, Geoffrey Rudolph Elton (d. 1994)

1922, England cricketer, Roy Tattersall

1926, Chinese politician, Jiang Zemin

1926, British singer, George Melly (d. 2007)

1926, French actor, director and screenwriter, Jean Poiret (d. 1992)

1929, American U-2 pilot, Francis Gary Powers (d. 1977)

1930, American actor, Glenn Corbett (d. 1993)

1930, English poet, Ted Hughes (d. 1998)

1932, West Indian writer, Nobel Laureate, V. S. Naipaul

1933, American NASA executive, Eugene F. Kranz

1933, Mark Dinning, American singer (d. 1986)

1935, Russian actor, Oleg Tabakov

1936, Native American musician and actor, Floyd Red Crow Westerman (d. 2007)

1938, Indonesian Muslim cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir

1938, Greek politician, Theodoros Pangalos

1939, American musician, Luther Allison (d. 1997)

1939, British actor, Anthony Valentine

1940, Argentinian film director, Eduardo Mignogna (d. 2006)

1941, French Canadian film director, Jean Pierre Lefebvre

1941, American baseball player, Boog Powell

1943, American actor, Robert De Niro

1943, American musician, Dave "Snaker" Ray (d. 2002)

1944, CEO of Oracle Corporation, billionaire, Larry Ellison

1946, American film director, Martha Coolidge

1946, 4th and 6th Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago, Patrick Manning

1947, American musician, Gary Talley

1947, German-born American economist and author, Sylvia Nasar

1948, American musician, Rod MacDonald

1949, American musician , Sib Hashian

1949, American politician, Norm Coleman

1951, Canadian actor, Robert Joy

1951, British boxer, Alan Minter

1952, Brazilian race car driver, Nelson Piquet

1952, German F1 team principal of BMW Sauber, Dr. Mario Theissen

1952, Argentinian tennis player, Guillermo Vilas

1953, Premiership winning Australian football coach, Michael Malthouse

1953, American book publisher, Judith Regan

1953, English musician, Kevin Rowland

1954, American guitarist, Eric Johnson

1955, American heir, Richard Hilton

1955, English bass player, singer and songwriter, Colin Moulding

1956, American film executive, Gail Berman

1956, Spanish cyclist, Álvaro Pino

1957, British figure skater, Robin Cousins

1958, American singer, Belinda Carlisle

1958, British banker, Fred Goodwin

1958, Canadian snooker player, Kirk Stevens

1959, Japanese voice actress and singer, Chika Sakamoto

1959, American author, Jonathan Franzen

1959, American cult leader, David Koresh (d. 1993)

1959, American author, Eric Schlosser

1960, Swiss singer, Stephan Eicher

1960, American actor and director, Sean Penn

1962, American musician, Gilby Clarke

1962, American actor, John Marshall Jones

1962, American professional wrestler, Buddy Landel

1963, American football coach, Jon Gruden

1963, Indian film director, S. Shankar

1964, Canadian musician, Colin James

1964, American singer, Maria McKee

1966, American jazz singer, Maysa Leak

1966, American skateboarder, Rodney Mullen

1966, Canadian hockey player, Don Sweeney

1967, American singer, Kevin Max

1968, American football player, Ed McCaffrey

1968, English actress, Helen McCrory

1969, American basketball player, Christian Laettner

1969, American actor and singer, Donnie Wahlberg

1969, American rapper, Kelvin Mercer

1970, American tennis player, Jim Courier

1970, English actor and voice artist, Rupert Degas

1970, Norwegian footballer, Øyvind Leonhardsen

1971, South Korean singer and actress, Uhm Jung-hwa

1971, Puerto Rican baseball player, Jorge Posada

1971, Australian Rules footballer, Shaun Rehn

1972, Bangladeshi cricketer, Habibul Bashar

1972, American actor, Ken Ryker

1974, Lebanese musician, Tony Hajjar

1974, American novelist, Nicola Kraus

1975, Italian-born American television personality, Giuliana DePandi

1976, American actor, Scott Halberstadt

1976, Dutch reporter, Geertjan Lassche

1977, Australian race walker, Nathan Deakes

1977, French footballer, William Gallas

1977, French footballer, Thierry Henry

1977, Finnish singer, Tarja Turunen

1977, English footballer, Matthew Oakley

1978, Hong Kong actress, Karena Lam

1978, Norwegian singer, Vibeke Stene

1979, American football player, Antwaan Randle El

1979, British actor, Marcus Patric

1980, Zimbabwean cricketer, Keith Dabengwa

1980, Dutch footballer, Jan Kromkamp

1980, Norwegian singer, Lene Marlin

1981, American television personality, Kristin Holt

1982, American professional wrestler, Cheerleader Melissa

1982, English footballer, Phil Jagielka

1982, American actor, Mark Salling

1983, American baseball player, Dustin Pedroia

1984, American basketball player Dee Brown

1984, American football player, Garrett Wolfe

1985, Japanese actress, Yu Aoi

1986, American basketball player, Rudy Gay

1986, American basketball player, Tyrus Thomas

1986, American actor & singer, Bryton McClure

1988, American actor, Brady Corbet

1988, Japanese actress, Erika Toda

1988, Performer, Nichole Cordova

1989, German actor, Frederick Lau

1990, American actor, Colin Bates

1990, British actress, Rachel Hurd-Wood

1991, American actress, Montana Fishburne

1996, Filipina actress, Ella Cruz

Famous People who died on August 17th!

1153, Son of Stephen of England, Eustace IV of Boulogne (b. 1130)

1304, Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (b. 1243)

1510, English statesman, Edmund Dudley (b. 1462)

1657, British admiral, Robert Blake (b. 1599)

1673, Dutch physician and anatomist, Regnier de Graaf (b. 1641)

1676, German novelist, Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen (b. 1621)

1720, French scholar, Anne Lefèvre (b. 1654)

1723, English scholar, Joseph Bingham (b. 1668)

1768, Russian poet, Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky (b. 1703)

1785, Governor of Connecticut, Jonathan Trumbull (b. 1710)

1786, King Frederick II of Prussia (b. 1712)

1834, Bosnian rebel leader, Husein Gradašcevic (b. 1802)

1838, Italian librettist, Lorenzo Da Ponte (b. 1749)

1850, Argentine general, Don José de San Martín (b. 1778)

1861, American Politician, Alcée Louis la Branche (b. 1806)

1870, Cuban poet, musician, and freedom fighter of the 19th century, Pedro Figueredo (b. 1818)

1875, German linguist, Wilhelm Bleek (b. 1827)

1880, Norwegian violinist, Ole Bull (b. 1810)

1896, British automobile fatality, Bridget Driscoll

1901, French composer, Edmond Audran (b. 1842)

1903, Norwegian landscape painter, Hans Gude (b. 1825)

1909, Indian Revolutionary, Madan Lal Dhingra (b. 1883)

1918, Russian revolutionary, Moisei Uritsky (b. 1873)

1920, American baseball player, Ray Chapman (b. 1891)

1924, Australian cricketer, Tom Kendall (b. 1851)

1925, Transylvanian writer, Ioan Slavici (b. 1848)

1935, American feminist and writer, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (b. 1860)

1940, American aviator, Billy Fiske (b. 1911)

1949, Filipino jurist and politician, Gregorio Perfecto (b. 1891)

1954, American recording artist, Billy Murray (b. 1877)

1962, East German defector, Peter Fechter (b. 1944)

1964, American baseball player best known for his involvement in the Black Sox Scandal, Happy Felsch

1969, German physicist, Nobel laureate, Otto Stern (b. 1888)

1970, Thai filmmaker, Rattana Pestonji (b. 1908)

1971, German field marshal, Wilhelm List (b. 1880)

1971, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 39th Yokozuna, Maedayama Eigoro (b. 1914)

1973, French composer, Jean Barraqué (b. 1928)

1973, American singer, Paul Williams (b. 1939)

1973, American author, Conrad Aiken (b. 1889)

1976, American actor, William Redfield (b. 1927)

1979, American roller coaster designer, John C. Allen (b. 1907)

1979, American actress, Vivian Vance (b. 1909)

1983, American lyricist, Ira Gershwin (b. 1896)

1987, Nazi deputy, Rudolf Hess (b. 1894)

1987, Israeli actor, Shaike Ophir (b. 1929)

1987, Italian studio drummer, Gary Chester (b. 1924)

1988, Pakistani politician, Former Martial Law Administrator and President of Pakistan, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (b. 1924)

1988, Son of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. (b. 1914)

1988, Australian-born American actress, Victoria Shaw (b. 1935)

1990, American singer and actress, Pearl Bailey (b. 1918)

1992, American film actor, Al Parker (b. 1952)

1993, Chinese mathematician, Feng Kang (b. 1920)

1994, Italian-American race car driver and team owner, Luigi Chinetti (b. 1901)

1994, American boxer, Jack Sharkey (b. 1902)

1995, American screenwriter, Howard Koch (b. 1902)

1995, Australian rules footballer, Ted Whitten (b. 1933)

1998, Polish track and field athlete, Wladyslaw Komar (b. 1940)

1998, Polish track and field athlete, Tadeusz Slusarski (b. 1950)

2004, Australian writer, Thea Astley (b. 1925)

2004, French baritone, Gérard Souzay (b. 1918)

2005, American astrophysicist, John Bahcall (b. 1934)

2007, British journalist and politician, Bill Deedes (b. 1913)

2007, American basketball player, Eddie Griffin (b. 1982)

2008, Italian businessman and football team owner, Franco Sensi (b. 1926)

2010, Italian politician and eighth President of the Italian Republic, Francesco Cossiga
updated by BrianMc