Somewhat Honorable Mention: March 10, 1452: King Ferdinand V of Castile. Also King Ferdinand III of Léon, King Ferdinand II of Aragon, King Ferdinand I of Navarre, King Ferdinand III of Naples, King Ferdinand II of Sardinia, and King Ferdinand II of Sicily. With his wife, Queen Isabella, he ruled over Spain, and extended its Empire to its greatest influence, including funding the expeditions of Christopher Columbus.
But Columbus also became the first conquistador, which led to suffering beyond measure for the natives of the New World. And he also presided over the Spanish Inquisition, which led to suffering beyond measure for the Protestants and Jews of Spain.
Honorable Mention: March 10, 1964: Edward Wessex. Or so he's billed as one of his country's finest documentary filmmakers. You might know him better as Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Forfar, the youngest child of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
Somewhat Honorable Mention: March 10, 1939: Irina Press. At the 1960 Olympics in Rome, she won a Gold Medal in the 80-meter hurdles. At the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, she won Gold in the heptathlon. Her sister Tamara Press won Gold Medals in the shot put and the discus throw.
In 1967, it was announced that gender testing would be introduced into the Olympic Games. Neither sister ever competed in international events again. Were they given male hormones by their Soviet masters? Were they intersex? If there was nothing fishy going on, and they were just better, why didn't they compete in Mexico City in 1968?
Somewhat Honorable Mention: March 10, 1958: Steve Howe. The relief pitcher was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1980, and helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win the 1981 World Series. He made the All-Star Game in 1982.
But he was addicted to cocaine. He kept getting suspended for it. New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner kept giving him new chances. Finally, he was released in 1996, missed the team's World Series win that year, and never appeared in another major league game. He finished with a 47-41 record and 91 saves.
Just when it looked like he'd finally beaten cocaine, and gotten off to a new start as a contractor, he was killed in a truck accident in 2006. Methamphetamine was found in his system. He had simply traded one drug for another.
Dishonorable Mention: March 10, 1845: Czar Alexander III of Russia. Ruling over a vast Empire from the assassination of his father Alexander II in 1881 until his own death in 1894, he was one of the most repressive rulers of his time, anywhere in the world.
But perhaps I should thank him, because, if he had not been such an evil man, my father's Polish ancestors and my mother's Ukrainian and Lithuanian ancestors would never have found it necessary to escape and come to America.
Dishonorable Mention: March 10, 1928: James Earl Ray. He confessed to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. He later recanted, and even convinced the surviving members of the King family that he didn't do it. Even if that was true, he was still an unrepentant racist, and spent the last 30 years of his life in prison.
Dishonorable Mention: March 10, 1936: Sepp Blatter. In 1998, just before the World Cup started, he was elected President of FIFA, the Federation of International Football Associations, the governing body for world soccer. The sport grew by leaps and bounds under his tenure. But so did the corruption within it. He finally had to resign under a cloud in 2015. His legacy is that the game reached more fans than ever, but got further from the fans than ever before.
Dishonorable Mention: March 10, 1957: Osama bin Laden. We'll never know what he could have done if he had used his considerable intelligence, drive and organizing skills for good. We know what he did after he decided to use them for evil.
10. March 10, 1903: Clare Booth Luce. She wasn't just the wife of Time and Life publisher Henry Luce: As Sylvia Jukes Morris put it in the title of her biography of Mrs. Luce, she had a Rage for Fame. In 1936, her play The Women took Broadway by storm, and was made into a classic film in 1940. Her writing was a constant presence in her husband's various magazines.
She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from a Connecticut district in 1942 and 1944. President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed her U.S. Ambassador to Italy in 1953. She was a major fundraiser for every Republican nominee for President from Wendell Willkie in 1940 (a nomination practically engineered by her husband) until Ronald Reagan in 1984 (she died in 1987).
9. March 10, 1961: Laurel Clark. She and her husband Donald were both physicians, and were both Captains in the U.S. Navy. She became an astronaut, but died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster on February 1, 2003.
8. March 10, 1903: Bix Beiderbecke. The trumpet playing of Leon Bismark Beiderbecke was described in his own time as being like "shooting bullets at a bell." He also composed for the piano. But he drank himself to death at age 28.
7. March 10, 1981: Samuel Eto'o. The forward starred in Spain for FC Barcelona, helping them win the UEFA Champions League in 2006 and 2009; and in Italy for Internazionale Milano, winning it in 2010.
He led the Cameroon national team to the Olympic Gold Medal in 2000 in Sydney, and to the African Cup of Nations in 2000 and 2002. He is now the President of the Cameroonian Football Federation.
Honorable Mention: March 10, 1926: Marques Haynes. From 1947 to 1953, he was one of the most popular players on the Harlem Globetrotters. But he left them in a dispute with team owner Abe Saperstein. He founded his own barnstorming team, the Harlem Magicians, and later played on other traveling teams, finally retiring in 1992.
Honorable Mention: March 10, 1948: Austin Carr. He was a member of the Notre Dame basketball team that beat UCLA in 1971 and was named College Player of the Year that season. That UCLA team then won 88 straight games, before losing in 1974, again to Notre Dame. That year, Carr made his only NBA All-Star Game. His Number 34 was retired by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Honorable Mention: March, 10, 1965: Rod Woodson. One of the best safeties in football history, he made 11 Pro Bowls, and was named the NFL's 1993 Defensive Player of the Year. He helped the Pittsburgh Steelers reach Super Bowl XXX, and the Baltimore Ravens win Super Bowl XXXV. He was named to the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame, and the NFL's 75th and 100th Anniversary Teams.
Honorable Mention: March 10, 1977: Shannon Miller. After winning 2 Silver Medals and 3 Bronze Medals in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, the gymnast won 2 Gold Medals in 1996 in Atlanta.
6. March 10, 1947: Kim Campbell. She is the only woman ever to be the head of a national government on the North American continent. She was first elected to Canada's Parliament in 1986. In 1990, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed her Minister of Justice. On January 4, 1993, he appointed her Minister of Defence.
She became Prime Minister when he retired on June 25, 1993. But it wasn't a progressive act: It was a cowardly act. Mulroney knew that the people of Canada were sick of the Conservative Party, and he wanted someone else to take the fall in the upcoming election. Campbell did: The "Tories" went from 156 seats and a majority in the House of Commons to 2 seats. Two. Neither of which was hers.
She was Prime Minister for all of 132 days, the 3rd-shortest term in the office's history, never faced Parliament, and never moved into the official residence at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa. She has since been active in diplomatic roles.
5. March 10, 1963: Rick Rubin. He and Russell Simmons founded Def Jam Recordings, helping popularize hip-hop by producing Run-DMC, The Beastie Boys, LL Cool J and Public Enemy.
He later became President of Columbia Records, moving on to country music, producing The (Dixie) Chicks and giving Johnny Cash his late revival. He also produced metal acts Danzig and Slayer, and alternative rock acts Red Hot Chili Peppers and Weezer.
4. March 10, 1940: Chuck Norris. Do I have a lot of guts putting him only at Number 4? No. Face it, the main reason the star of many 1970s and '80s action films and the CBS drama series Walker, Texas Ranger is still alive is that he doesn't want that rematch in Heaven with Bruce Lee.
3. March 10, 1958: Sharon Stone. Star of Basic Instinct, The Quick and the Dead, and many men's fantasies.
Honorable Mention: March 10, 1962: Jasmine Guy. Whitley Gilbert, her character on A Different World, would have done very well to be as accomplished as her portrayer.
2. March 10, 1983: Carrie Underwood. She won American Idol in 2005, and has been one of the biggest stars in country music ever since. Her husband is former pro hockey star Mike Fisher, meaning her married name is Carrie Fisher.
Honorable Mention: March 10, 1947: Tom Scholz. The founder, main songwriter and lead guitarist of the band Boston.
Honorable Mention: March 10, 1964: Neneh Cherry. The stepdaughter of jazz trumpeter Don Cherry and the half-sister of singer Eagle-Eye Cherry, she's only been a one-hit wonder in America, with "Buffalo Stance" in 1989. But she's remained productive in Britain.
Honorable Mention: March 10, 1972: Timbaland. Better known as a producer than as a singer/rapper, Timothy Zachery Mosley has worked with Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, Nas, Ludacris, Nelly Furtado, Drake and Rick Ross.
1. March 10, 1946: Jim Valvano. He coached the basketball team at North Carolina State University to the 1983 National Championship, one of the great upset runs in the history of American sports. Just 10 years later, he was dying of cancer, but became a role model to cancer patients. The V Foundation has raised millions for cancer research.
For those of you who are British: When the final buzzer went off at the 1983 NCAA Final in Albquerque, Jimmy V ran around the court like a nut, saying, "I was looking for somebody to hug." It was a moment comparable to Bob Stokoe after he led Sunderland AFC to a similar upset in the 1973 FA Cup Final.
Still alive as of this writing: Press, Blatter, Woodson, Eto'o, Carr, Miller, Rubin, Norris, Stone, Guy, Underwood, Scholz, Cherry, Timbaland.