Somewhat Honorable Mention: March 9, 1943: Bobby Fischer. Through being a teenage prodigy at the game, and winning the World Championship by defeating the titleholder, a Soviet, in 1972, he may have inspired more people to take an interest in chess than any other person, living or dead. But his decline into mental illness and noxious bigotry tarnished his legacy.
10. March 9, 1954: Bobby Sands. The British called him a terrorist. The Irish called him a freedom fighter. The Catholic people of Belfast elected him to the British Parliament while he was in prison for a crime he may not have committed.
He went on a hunger strike, for better treatment for the prisoners, including blankets during the cold Winter of 1980-81. The government, led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, wouldn't allow it. They were willing to let a Member of Parliament die rather than let prisoners be treated like human beings. After 66 days without food, Sands died. I don't know if he was innocent or guilty, but he had more courage than his accusers.
9. March 9, 1918: Mickey Spillane. In 1947, he created the hard-boiled private detective Mike Hammer in his novel I, the Jury. In 1963, another Hammer novel, The Girl Hunters, was made into a movie. Spillane played Hammer, making him the 1st published writer ever to play his own creation onscreen. In the 1970s and '80s, he appeared in a few Miller Lite beer commercials.
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1926: Joe Franklin. By the time he was born, vaudeville was already on its last legs. But he became radio's and television's voice of nostalgia. From 1951 to 1962, he hosted The Joe Franklin Show on what's now WABC-Channel 7 in New York. From then until 1993, he hosted it on what's now WWOR-Channel 9. Billy Crystal memorably played him on Saturday Night Live.
8. March 9, 1824: Leland Stanford. The railroad executive served as Governor of California in 1862 and 1863, and as U.S. Senator from the State from 1885 until his death in 1893. You might think he founded and funded the University outside San Francisco that bears his name. But it doesn't: He named it the Leland Stanford Junior University, after his son, who died of typhoid at age 15. Leland Sr. said, "The children of California shall be our children."
7. March 9, 1568: Luigi Gonzaga. Known in Latin as Aloysius de Gonzaga, the Italian aristocrat-turned-priest died in 1591 while caring for plague victims, becoming one himself. He was canonized a Saint. Many schools around the world are named for him, including a Catholic university in Spokane, Washington.
6. March 9, 1930: Ornette Coleman. Calling what the saxophonist played "free jazz" was like calling Pablo Picasso's work "modern art." It only scratches the surface of what he did.
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1928: Keely Smith. Best known for her work with her then-husband, bandleader Louis Prima. In 1959, they shared one of the 1st annual Grammy Awards, for "That Old Black Magic." (That's "black" as in "wicked." Neither was African-American: Keely was Irish, and Louis was Italian.)
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1933: Lloyd Price. He claimed that "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" -- "Lord, Miss Claudia" -- was the 1st song he'd ever written. In 1952, it hit Number 1 on the rhythm & blues chart, and became a song that every R&B singer, every country singer, and every rock & roller had to record.
He also had a Number 1 pop-chart hit with a revival of the murder ballad "Stagger Lee," and another hit with "Personality," which gave him the nickname "Mr. Personality."
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1942: John Cale. The Welsh violinist became the bass guitarist for The Velvet Underground, before going back to classical composing. While the VU's Lou Reed wrote a song titled "Heroin," John should not be confused with the American rocker J.J. Cale, who wrote a song titled "Cocaine."
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1942: Mark Lindsay. He was the lead singer for late 1960s rock band Paul Revere & The Raiders. (Revere was the keyboard player.)
5. March 9, 1940: Raúl Juliá. He played both Prospero and Caliban, Macbeth, Petruchio, Othello, Miguel de Cervantes and Don Quixote, MacHeath, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, Dracula, Aristotle Onassis, Archbishop Oscar Romero, Chico Mendes, Gomez Addams and General M. Bison. He played good guys and bad guys with equal aplomb. We lost him way too soon.
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1856: Eddie Foy. One of the biggest stars of the vaudeville era, he starred with his kids in an act titled "The Seven Little Foys." In 1942, his son Eddie Jr. played him in Yankee Doodle Dandy, opposite James Cagney as George M. Cohan. In 1955, in The Seven Little Foys, Bob Hope played him, including a tap-dance duel with Cagney reprising his role as Cohan.
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1902: Will Geer. In the early 1950s, he got blacklisted for refusing to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. How's this for revenge: In 1970, he played George Washington on Bewitched. In the last 6 years of his life, 1972 to 1978, he played Zebulon Tyler "Grandpa" Walton on The Waltons.
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1964: Juliette Binoche. She won an Oscar for The English Patient. I'd rather she won it for Chocolat. Or for any of her other films.
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1971: Emmanuel Lewis. Unlike Gary Coleman, to whom he was so easily compared, the star of Webster has no known medical condition that limited him to a height of 4-foot-3. He has hardly acted as an adult, usually playing himself or other former child stars.
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1979: Oscar Isaac.He's been King John, Hamlet, Romeo, Paul Gaugin, Federico García Lorca, Gomez Adams, and 2 Marvel Comics superheroes, Moon Knight and Spider-Man 2099. But once you're in Star Wars, that's what people know you for, and he'll forever be remembered as Poe Dameron.
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1980: Matthew Gray Gubler. He played Dr. Spencer Reid on Criminal Minds.
4. March 9, 1983: Clint Dempsey. Along with his contemporary Landon Donovan, he is 1 of the 2 greatest soccer players in American history. The forward played well enough for the New England Revolution that West London team Fulham wanted him, and he became one of the earliest Americans to excel in the Premier League.
He helped the U.S. team reach the World Cup in 2006, 2010 and 2014; and win the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2005, 2007 and 2017. He helped the Seattle Sounders win the 2014 U.S. Open Cup and the 2016 MLS Cup.
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1890: Rupert Balfe. Most Americans have never heard of him. He played in Australian Rules football, and was killed in 1915 at the Battle of Gallipoli.
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1922: Herb Douglas. He won a Bronze Medal in the long jump at the 1948 Olympics in London. Having just turned 100, he is the oldest living African-American Olympic medalist. He was elected to the University of Pittsburgh Athletic Hall of Fame.
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1964: Phil Housley. A 7-time NHL All-Star, he was one of the highest-scoring defensemen ever, scoring 338 goals and 894 assists, the majority of it for the Buffalo Sabres. He helped the U.S. team win the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1968: Youri Djorkaeff. The midfielder won a few minor trophies with AS Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain and Internazionale Milano. But he won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 with the French national soccer team.
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1973: Aaron Boone. The grandson, son and brother of major league players, he played 13 seasons, highlighted by 2003, when he made his only All-Star Game, and hit a Pennant-winning home run for the New York Yankees to go to his only World Series. As the Yankees' manager, well, he's made the Playoffs, but...
Honorable Mention: March 9, 1975: Juan Sebastián Verón. His father, Juan Ramón Verón, starred in their native Argentina for Estudiantes, and was known as La Bruja, the Witch. So the son was La Brujita, the Little Witch. He starred in Italian soccer for Parma, Lazio and Inter Milan, though was considered a disappointment in England for Manchester United.
3. March 9, 1814: Taras Shevchenko. He has been called the father of Ukrainian literature, and was imprisoned by the Russian Empire for advocating for Ukrainian independence.
2. March 9, 1451: Amerigo Vespucci. The Italian sailor worked first for Spain, then for Portugal, sailing to what became known as the continent of South America. He coined the phrase "The New World," and later writers named the lands, unknown to Europe before the voyages of Christopher Columbus, "America" in his honor, or "Columbia" in Columbus'.
By the 1530s, "America" won out, although, having died in 1512, Vespucci may never have been aware of the honor. For the record, he never set foot on the North American mainland. Then again, neither did Columbus.
1. March 9, 1934: Yuri Gagarin. On April 12, 1961, the Soviet Air Force Lieutenant became the 1st human in space, completing a single Earth orbit aboard Vostok 1. He was one of the few Russians that it was considered safe for Americans to admire. Not even 7 years later, Colonel Gagarin was killed in the crash of a test flight.
Still alive as of this writing: Cale, Lindsay, Binoche, Lewis, Isaac, Gubler, Dempsey, Douglas, Housley, Djorkaeff, Boone, Verón.