Honorable Mention: February 4, 1920: Janet Waldo. You might not know her name or her face, but you know her voice. Or, rather, her voices: She voiced Judy Jetson, the adult version of Pebbles Flintstone (and her grandmother, Wilma's mother, Pearl Slaghoople), Goldilocks, Precious Pupp's owner Granny Sweet, Alice of Alice in Wonderland, Penelope Pitstop, Josie McCoy of Josie and the Pussycats, an animated version of Morticia Addams, Little Red Riding Hood, both Gretel and the Witch who tormented Hansel and Gretel, and, in her last role, Mrs. Tobbis on King of the Hill.
Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 4, 1902: Charles Lindbergh. Yeah, he was a hero in 1927. By 1938, he was a Nazi sympathizer.
Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 4, 1959: Lawrence Taylor. The New York Giant linebacker has been called the best defensive player in football history. He's also been called an addict and a felon, and let's leave it at that.
Dishonorable Mention: February 4, 1947: Dan Quayle. Not only was he no Jack Kennedy, he wasn't even a Calvin Coolidge. And to think, the Republican Party has gotten, if not outright dumber, then, certainly, more anti-intellectual since, and they're proud of it.
10. February 4, 1906: Clyde Tombaugh. In 1930, he discovered the planet Pluto. This means that, as recently as 1997, there was a person alive on this planet who had discovered another planet in our own solar system.
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union redefined "planet," and Pluto was demoted to the status of "dwarf planet." Hell of a way to honor Tombaugh on the Centennial of his birth. I don't care: I'm still calling it a planet.
9. February 4, 1960: Jonathan Larson. His musical Rent was in previews when he died of an undiagnosed heart ailment in 1996.
8. February 4, 1940: George A. Romero. Created the modern zombie story with his 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. He would seem to have little in common with Fred (Mr.) Rogers, but, in Pittsburgh, not only were they actual neighbors, but close friends.
7. February 4, 1936: David Brenner. One of the funniest comedians of a generation that also included George Carlin and Richard Pryor, he still, years after his death, holds the record for most guest appearances on The Tonight Show: 156, including 76 times as guest host for Johnny Carson, more than anyone except Jay Leno and Joan Rivers.
6. February 4, 1948: Alice Cooper. Like Romero, he's really not as creepy as he might seem. The king of "shock rock" was personable enough to both become a friend of an aging Groucho Marx and guest-star on The Muppet Show. He's also a baseball fanatic: He has said that, growing up in Detroit, if you had offered him the choice of playing on The Ed Sullivan Show or in Tiger Stadium, he'd have said, "Where's my locker?"
He's also a golf fanatic... and a Republican. But not a Donald Trump fan: He says he played golf with Trump once, and he'll never do it again. He wouldn't say why. It's probably because Trump cheats.
5. February 4, 1962: Clint Black. Hard to believe that a country music superstar was born in the same hospital as Bruce Springsteen, but Clint was also born at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, New Jersey. But he grew up in Katy, Texas, near Houston, hometown of his wife, actress Lisa Hartman.
4. February 4, 1918: Ida Lupino. Before there was Hayley Atwell, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jane Seymour and Jean Simmons, there was Ida Lupino, a British brunette whose face and voice would have turned me to jelly had I been around in the 1940s. She went on to become the only person to both appear in and direct episodes of The Twilight Zone (different episodes), and the only woman to direct an episode of that series.
Honorable Mention: February 4, 1923: Conrad Bain. My parents' generation knew him as Dr. Arthur Harmon on Maude. Mine knew him as Phillip Drummond on Diff'rent Strokes. He had an identical twin brother, Bonar Bain. On an episode of Diff'rent Strokes, Bonar played Mr. Drummond, and Conrad played his distant cousin from the Netherlands -- an old woman.
Honorable Mention: February 4, 1970: Gabrielle Anwar. She played a rookie tango dancer in Scent of a Woman, a spy on Burn Notice, a sister of King Henry VIII in The Tudors, and Rapunzel on Once Upon a Time.
3. February 4, 1973: Oscar De La Hoya."The Golden Boy" won his 1st major boxing title in 1995, the IBF version of the Lightweight Championship of the World. He last held a title in 2007, the WBC version of the Light Middleweight Championship.
Honorable Mention: February 4, 1926: Gyula Grosics. Manager of the great Hungary national soccer team in the 1950s, winning the Gold Medal at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, demolishing England at Wembley Stadium in 1953, and reaching the 1954 World Cup Final.
Honorable Mention: February 4, 1929: Neil Johnston. A 6-time All-Star, the center led the NBA in scoring in 1953, '54 and '55, and in rebounding in '55. In 1956, he led the Philadelphia Warriors to the NBA Championship. He is in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Honorable Mention: February 4, 1961: Denis Savard. A longtime center for the Chicago Blackhawks, he played in 9 NHL All-Star Games. The Blackhawks would eventually retire his Number 18. But he never reached the Stanley Cup Finals with them.
Serge Savard wore 18, and the Montreal Canadiens retired it for him. They were not related. But when he was the Canadiens' general manager, Serge traded for Denis. The result was Denis' only Cup win, and the Canadiens' most recent, in 1993. Serge and Denis were both named to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players.
Honorable Mention: February 4, 1963: Pirmin Zurbriggen. The name sounds Swedish, but he's Swiss. In 1988, he won the downhill skiing event at the Winter Olympics in Calgary.
Honorable Mention: February 4, 1965: Jerome Brown. One of the players who established the University of Miami football dynasty with their 1983 National Championship, he made 2 Pro Bowls with the Philadelphia Eagles, and looked like he might become one of the greatest defensive tackles of all time. But he was killed in a car crash shortly before the 1992 season began.
Honorable Mention: February 4, 1967: Sergei Grinkov. He and his wife, Ekaterina Gordeeva, were Russians that even Americans could like. They won the pairs skating Gold Medal at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and again in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway. (They had turned professional and couldn't compete in Albertville, France in 1992, but a rule change reinstated them, so they competed in 1994.) But heart disease killed him in 1995.
2. February 4, 1921: Betty Friedan. She energized feminists in 1963 with The Feminine Mystique, and enraged some in 1981 with The Second Stage. In between, she served as the founding President of the National Organization for Women.
1. February 4, 1913: Rosa Parks. It was not spontaneous, it was not a one-time gesture of activism, and she was proud of it.
Still alive as of this writing: Taylor, Quayle, Cooper, Black, Anwar, De La Hoya, Savard, Zurbriggen.