10. February 7, 1934: King Curtis. Curtis Ousley might have been the greatest saxophone player in rock and roll history. He played on all The Coasters' hits, on Aretha Franklin's early hits including "Respect," and, shortly before he was murdered in 1971, the theme to the TV show Soul Train.
9. February 7, 1965: Chris Rock. Yes, that's his real name: Christopher Julius Rock. He is one of the funniest comedians of my generation. 'Tis pity he's a Met fan.
8. February 7, 1974: Steve Nash. Born in South Africa and raised in Canada, each country can claim he's the best basketball player they've ever produced -- which is not a big deal. What is a big deal is that he made 8 NBA All-Star Games, led the league in assists 5 times, won back-to-back Most Valuable Player awards in 2005 and '06, and was named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary 75 Greatest Players. He is now the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.
Honorable Mention: February 7, 1935: Cliff Jones. The Welsh winger starred for North London soccer team Tottenham Hotspur, and is a surviving member of their 1961 Football League and FA Cup "Double" winners.
Honorable Mention: February 7, 1968: Peter Bondra. A 5-time NHL All-Star, the Washington Capitals right wing scored 503 goals, leading the NHL in 1995 and 1998.
Honorable Mention: February 7, 1973: Juwan Howard. The power forward was one of the "Fab Five" who led the University of Michigan to back-to-back NCAA Finals in 1992 and '93, which had to be vacated due to NCAA sanctions. A 1996 NBA All-Star, he closed his career winning NBA Championships with the Miami Heat in 2012 and '13. He is back at Michigan as head coach.
On a 1999 episode of The West Wing, he played a Secret Service Agent who had played in the NCAA Final Four -- at Duke, which was ironic, since Duke beat Michigan in the 1992 Final.
Honorable Mention: February 7, 1990: Steven Stamkos. A center, the 7-time NHL All-Star has captained the Tampa Bay Lightning to the 2020 and '21 Stanley Cups. He led the League in goals in 2010 and '12, and currently has 459 for his career.
Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 7, 1966: Kristin Otto. Perhaps the last Olympic star of East Germany, she won 6 Gold Medals in Seoul in 1988. She has said that she did not know she was being doped. Which is possible. But with the East German Olympic teams, can anyone's word be trusted?
7. February 7, 1962: Garth Brooks. Not the best country singer of all time, but the biggest-selling.
6. February 7, 1804: John Deere. A blacksmith, he invented the 1st commercially successful steel plow, and founded the agricultural and construction equipment company that bears his name. Joke about tractors, every time there's a recession: What's the difference between a pigeon and the American farmer? A pigeon can still make a deposit on a John Deere.
5. February 7, 1478: Thomas More. One of England's most prominent lawyers in his time, he wrote Utopia, giving that name to any alleged vision of an ideal society. At first, he supported King Henry VIII against the Protestant Reformation. But when he opposed Henry's move away from the Catholic Church, he was executed. The Church has named him the patron saint of politicians.
Honorable Mention: February 7, 1935: Herb Kohl. With his siblings, he founded Kohl's department stores. In 1985, he bought the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, saving them from being moved out of town, selling them in 2014. From 1989 to 2013, he was a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin. The Kohl Center, the University of Wisconsin's new sports arena, is named for him, as he donated $25 million toward its construction.
4. February 7, 1908: Charles "Buster" Crabbe. He excelled in 2 different fields. He won a Gold Medal in swimming in the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. Then he starred in movies as 3 "pulp" heroes of the time: Tarzan, and science fiction figures Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. For the 1979 TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, he was cast as a retired fighter pilot named Gordon.
Honorable Mention: February 7, 1915: Eddie Bracken. A comedy star in the 1940s, he played the elderly owner of the Chicago Cubs in the 1993 film Rookie of the Year.
Honorable Mention: February 7, 1955: Miguel Ferrer. The son of actor José Ferrer and singer Rosemary Clooney, he was part of the casts of Twin Peaks, Crossing Jordan and NCIS: Los Angeles.
Honorable Mention: February 7, 1960: Robert Smigel. A longtime writer for Saturday Night Live, he created the Chicago Superfans/sketch (in which he played Carl Wollarski), and "Saturday TV Funhouse." He also created the puppet Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
Honorable Mention: February 7, 1960: James Spader. He's starred in Boston Legal, The Blacklist, and as Ultron in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Honorable Mention: February 7, 1962: Eddie Izzard. The transgender comedian has cited Monty Python as her biggest influence. John Cleese has returned the favor, calling her "The Lost Python."
Honorable Mention: February 7, 1978: Ashton Kutcher. He rose to fame playing ginker Michael Kelso on That '70s Show, and played pretty much the same kind of guy in Dude, Where's My Car? Succeeding Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men might be the only time he's ever seemed like "the more mature one." But he's also become quite the venture capitalist, and a less damaging one than most billionaires.
3. February 7, 1932: Alfred Worden. He was the command module pilot on Apollo 15, which means he flew to the Moon, but he didn't walk on it. He discussed it with Fred Rogers on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
2. February 7, 1885: Sinclair Lewis. The foremost American writer of the 1920s, he was the 1st writer from the Western Hemisphere to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Honorable Mention: February 7, 1867: Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her Little House on the Prairie books were published between 1932 and 1943, when she was already an old lady, a stark contrast with Melissa Gilbert, who was only 9 years old when she began playing Laura on the TV version of the story.
Honorable Mention: February 7, 1932: Gay Talese. His work for Esquire magazine in the 1960s made him one of America's most honored print journalists.
1. February 7, 1812: Charles Dickens. The foremost English writer of the 19th Century, his works include David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, and A Christmas Carol. He treated humanity as a concept far better than he treated his family.
Still alive at this writing: Rock, Nash, Jones, Bondra, Howard, Stamkos, Otto, Brooks, Kohl, Smigel, Spader, Izzard, Kutcher, Talese.