10. March 8, 1953: Jim Rice. An 8-time All-Star, the Boston Red Sox left fielder led the AL in home runs 3 times. He finished his career with 382 home runs, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in his last year of eligibility.
9. March 8, 1726: Richard Howe. The 1st Earl Howe and his brother, Sir William Howe, very nearly conquered America in 1776. Richard had already won the decisive naval battle of the French and Indian War in 1759, the Battle of Quiberon Bay.
8. March 8, 1943: Lynn Redgrave. Part of England's legendary Redgrave-Richardson acting family, she starred in the films Tom Jones and Georgy Girl. She played Xaviera Hollander in the film version of her memoir The Happy Hooker. She also starred in the 1979-81 CBS sitcom House Calls. She has the dubious distinction of being the only person ever to be nominated for the full EGOT -- an Emmy Award, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony -- without winning any of them.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1910: Claire Trevor. She got top billing in the original 1939 version of Stagecoach, over John Wayne. She won an Oscar opposite Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Berman in Key Largo.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1921: Alan Hale Jr. The son of a prominent actor, he is mainly remembered for playing Jonas Grumby, "The Skipper," on Gilligan's Island.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1921: Cyd Charisse. One of postwar Hollywood's top female dancers, and one of the few to work with both of the leading male dancers of the era, Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1943: Susan Clark. She met Alex Karras as co-stars in a movie where she played Babe Didrikson and he played Babe's husband, George Zaharias. They stayed together until death did they part, and co-starred on Webster together.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1961: Camryn Manheim. She played Ellenor Frutt on The Practice, Delia Banks on Ghost Whisperer, and just began playing Kate Dixon on the revival of Law & Order.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1976: Freddie Prinze Jr. He didn't go into standup comedy like his father, but he became a better actor.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1977: James Van Der Beek. He played Dawson Leery on Dawson's Creek.
7. March 8, 1942: Dick Allen. Known as Richie Allen early in his career, he was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1964, the American League Most Valuable Player in 1972, and a 7-time All-Star. He was one of the most fearsome hitters in the game, and was beloved by his teammates everywhere he went, but team management never understood him, nor even tried. In just 12 full seasons, his last at age 33, he hit 351 home runs. He is often cited as one of the players not in the Baseball Hall of Fame most deserving of election.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1922: Carl Furillo. From a mining town outside Reading, Pennsylvania, his strong right arm gave him the nickname "The Reading Rifle." He was the right fielder on the Brooklyn Dodger teams that became known as "The Boys of Summer." He won the National League batting title in 1953. He helped the Dodgers win 7 Pennants, and the World Series in Brooklyn in 1955 and in Los Angeles in 1959.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1930: Bob Grim. The American League Rookie of the Year in 1954, he helped the New York Yankees win the 1956 World Series.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1956: Laurie Cunningham. The English left wing starred with Birmingham-area soccer team West Bromwich Albion in the late 1970s. He and teammates Brendan Batson and Cyrille Regis became known as "The Three Degrees" after the American vocal group, and were among the earliest black players to gain popularity in England.
But West Brom needed money, and sold him to Real Madrid, where he helped them win Spain's La Liga in 1980. He later signed with Wimbledon FC, and was a member of their team that upset Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup Final. The following season, he returned to Spain, playing for Rayo Vallecano, but was killed in a car accident.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1961: Larry Murphy. In 1980-81, with the Los Angeles Kings, he set NHL records for most assists and most points by a rookie defenseman. He made 3 All-Star Games, and won the Stanley Cup in 1991 and 1992 with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and again in 1997 and 1998 with the Detroit Red Wings. He also helped Canada win the 1987 and 1991 Canada Cups (hockey's version of the World Cup), and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1965: Kenny Smith. After starring at the University of North Carolina, he won NBA Championship with the 1994 and 1995 Houston Rockets. He's now better known as a TV studio analyst for basketball.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1970: Jason Elam. The placekicker on the Denver Broncos' Super Bowl winners of 1997 and 1998, in the latter season he tied the NFL record by kicking a 63-yard field goal.
6. March 8, 1939: Jim Bouton. His career as a pitcher had most of its great moments early: He helped the Yankees win the 1962 World Series as a rookie, won 21 games in 1963, and won 18 plus 2 more in the World Series in 1964. Then he hurt his elbow and lost his fastball, and the Yankees traded him away.
In 1969, with the expansion Seattle Pilots, he kept a diary of the season, which was published the next year until the title Ball Four. He revealed that baseball players were human, fallible, silly, horny, and were constantly cheated out of money by team management. The baseball establishment was furious, and demanded he apologize and disavow the book, which he refused to do. The establishment was probably relieved when an injury ended his career in that 1970 season.
Times changed, and not only was he proven right, but later tell-all books made Ball Four look tame. Jim became the sports anchor for the ABC affiliate in New York, co-invented the shredded bubblegum Big League Chew, and made a comeback with the Atlanta Braves in 1978, going 1-3 at age 39 after not throwing a major-league pitch for 8 years.
5. March 8, 1945: Micky Dolenz. The drummer for The Monkees, and now their last surviving member. He sang lead on "Last Train to Clarksville,""I'm a Believer,""Pleasant Valley Sunday" and, a song he also wrote, "Randy Scouse Git." He also directed and co-write the show's last episode.
Honorable Mention: March 8, 1946: Randy Meisner. The guitarist was with The Eagles from 1971 to 1977, and wrote and sang lead on their song "Take It to the Limit."
4. March 8, 1947: Carole Bayer Sager. She wrote "A Groovy Kind of Love,""Midnight Blue,""Don’t Cry Out Loud,""When I Need You,""Nobody Does It Better,""Arthur's Theme,""Heartlight,""On My Own" and "That's What Friends Are For." The last two, with her then-husband Burt Bacharach.
3. March 8, 1841: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. The grandson and namesake of one of early America's greatest poets, he became one of the greatest Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Despite being a Republican, he once said, "I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization."
2. March 8, 1879: Otto Hahn. His record is mixed. In World War I, he was a pioneer in chemical warfare. In between the World Wars, he and his partner Lise Meitner discovered the elements thorium and protatctinium, and the isotope uranium-235, which made possible nuclear fission -- which he, Meitner and Fritz Strassman discovered.
An opponent of the Nazis, he fled Germany, and gave his services to America, helping the development of the atomic bomb, hoping to beat the Nazis to it. We did.
1. March 8, 1822: Ignacy Łukasiewicz. He invented the kerosene lamp, which made possible the invention of the streetlight, long before the invention of the light bulb.
Still alive as of this writing: Rice, Clark, Manheim, Prinze, Van Der Beek, Murphy, Smith, Elam, Dolenz, Meisner, Bayer Sager.