10. January 11, 1957: Darryl Dawkins. The man who claimed to be from the planet Lovetron was one of the most ferocious dunkers in basketball history.
9. January 11, 1925: Grant Tinker. Working with NBC, he developed I Spy, Dr. Kildare, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, and, yes, Star Trek. He married actress Mary Tyler Moore, and, together, they formed MTM Enterprises, and produced The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spinoffs, Rhoda, Phyllis and Lou Grant. (Was Lou named for Grant Tinker?) They also developed The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart, WKRP in Cincinnati, The White Shadow, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere.
He went to NBC and developed not just Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere, but also Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court, The Cosby Show and The Golden Girls.
8. January 11, 1807: Ezra Cornell. In 1851, he founded Western Union. In 1865, he founded Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, chronologically the last (and, geographically, the hardest to reach) of the Ivy League schools.
7. January 11, 1942: Clarence Clemons. A change was made in time, and "The Big Man" joined Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing glorious saxophone in it from 1972 until his death in 2011. And, once again, there are plenty of Honorable Mentions in the music department:
Honorable Mention: January 11, 1946: Naomi Judd. A country-singing star, often with her daughter Wynonna Judd. Also the mother of actress Ashley Judd.
Honorable Mention: January 11, 1946: Tony Kaye. A member of several British rock bands, he was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Yes.
Honorable Mention: January 11, 1971: Mary J. Blige. If rhythm & blues really did survive disco, or came back after it, she's a big reason why.
6. January 11, 1842: William James."The Father of American Psychology," he wrote on everything from education to religion.
5. January 11, 1890: Max Carey. One of the last practitioners of the Dead Ball Era style of play, he led the National League in stolen bases 10 times, stealing 738 over the course of his career, most of it with the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he won the World Series in 1925. He collected 2,665 hits, and is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
But he's not the best ballplayer on this list:
4. January 11, 1876: Elmer Flick. With the Philadelphia Phillies, he led the National League in RBIs in 1900. With the team now known as the Cleveland Guardians, he led the American League in batting average in 1905, and in stolen bases in 1904 and 1906. He was a .313 lifetime hitter, and is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
3. January 11, 1885: Alice Paul. She and her compatriots finished the job that Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony began, securing the right to vote for American women. She didn't stop there, fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment, all the way up to her death in 1977.
2. January 11, 1815: John A. Macdonald. The 1st Prime Minister of Canada, holding the office from 1867 to 1873, and again from 1878 until his death in 1891.
Honorable Mention: January 11, 1934: Jean Chrétien. Prime Minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003.
1. January 11, 1755: Alexander Hamilton. He was with George Washington pretty much throughout the War of the American Revolution, from being in the boat with him crossing the Delaware to accepting the surrender at Yorktown. He was the biggest force in getting the Constitution of the United States ratified. And he was the 1st U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. Who knows what he could have done after age 48, if he hadn't been foolish enough to get into a duel with Aaron Burr.
Weird coincidence: Alexander Hamilton and Sir John A. Macdonald share a birthday, and each man is on his country's $10 bill. Or, rather, Macdonald was: In 2018, he was replaced by Viola Desmond, who was, effectively, Canada's version of Rosa Parks.
Still alive as of this writing: Judd, Kaye, Blige, Chrétien.