Remembering the 1964 bday of larger than life #SNL comedian Chris Farley. He was taken from subway too early but left us with some hilarious moments on TV and the Big Screen. 🎥📺🙏👏🏻❤️ Chris Farley youtu.be/0lcFuBDkxo0?...

It’s Valentine’s Day.St. Valentine was an early Christian bishop preaching in pagan Rome.He cured the blind & those with epilepsy,but became associated with love by marrying Christian couples. His day was made famous by Worcester MA’s own Esther Howland,who in 1849 created the Valentine’s Day card.

(1) Remembering the 1892 bday of American Jurist/Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, of Watertown,NY. He had an amazing career as an attorney before being appointed to the SCOTUS by FDR…..

1941-OTD Dr. Charles Fletcher, a British physician/epidemiologist, injected the first human patient with the newly discovered antibiotic Penicillin. This opened up a new era of infectious disease study and pharmaceuticals. Fletcher went on to become a beloved TV Doctor for the #BBC. ⚕️👏🏻📺🇬🇧

1971-OTD #CaroleKing’s iconic record Tapestry was released. She won 4 Grammy’s the next year for the wonderful compilation of songs that became the soundtrack of the next decade. Carole just celebrated her 84th birthday yesterday. Tapestry still holds up!🎶👏🏻🙏❤️

1943-OTD Japanese forces withdrew from the Solomon Islands of Guadalcanal.This ended a battle that News 6 mos. long & was the 1st American land battle in the Pacific War.The American victory cost 7000 American lives & an estimated 25K Japanese lives.The 1st island hopping victory 4 the USA🇺🇸🙏

50 yrs ago OTD Martin Scorsese’s scathing film about the degradation of society in NYC,The Taxi Driver ,was released. It was controversial from the start but was buoyed by great performances by Robert DeNiro (Oscar) as Travis Bickle and a young Jodie Foster as a child prostitute. It is a classic🎥👏🏻❤️

1950- OYD Walt Disney studios released the animated classic Pinocchio. With beautiful songs and unforgettable characters like Jiminy Cricket, it was a huge hit. I was pretty scared when I first saw it about 20 years later as a 6 yo- but what a tale!🎥👏🏻❤️ share.google/Ev98OCruMZ9x...

Remembering the 1895 bday of the Sultan of Swat, HOF’Er George Herman “Babe” Ruth, whose legendary prowess at hitting the long ball cemented baseball as the national pastime. His 714 HR’s in what was otherwise considered a dead ball era are an amazing accomplishment.⚾️❤️👏🏻 www.mlb.com/video/rememb...

Remembering the 1934 bday of the true #MLB home run king, Hammerin’ Henry (Hank) Aaron. He was a 25 time All-Star & an underrated outfielder besides his 755 homers and a lifetime .300+ hitter. The Pride of Mobile Alabama. ⚾️🙏👏🏻

1970- OTD the epic biopic about General George Patton was released. It was a tour de force performance by George C. Scott who one the best actor Oscar in 1971. Still a great watch. 🎥🙏👏🏻❤️ youtu.be/sv9XNFpRdhg

150 yrs ago OTD Albert Spaulding founded his sporting goods company.He was a cofounder of the National League & is in the Hall of Fame.But I appreciate all the sporting equipment he made,not the least of which was the pinkie high bounce ball.In NYC we played stick/stoop/hand/wall ball with them. 👍🏀❤️

Today is the day in 1959 when the music died. RIP

The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Stan Grossfeld of the @bostonglobe.com just featured my work with Guns2Gardens MA, as well as Dr Mike Hirsh @mph54.bsky.social of UMass Memorial and Vanessa Calixto of Worcester's YouthGROW teen urban garden. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/02/m... guns2gardens.org

1887- OTD the first Ground Hog Day celebration at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, PA was celebrated. There has been a designated Punxsutawney Phil ever since. Waiting to hear his prediction of the winter this year.

1967- the 10 team American Basketball Association is founded. It lasts for a decade and introduces basketball to the 3 point shot. For me, watching Dr. J (Julius Erving) do superhuman things with that crazy looking ball made the ABA something I followed closely. Glad for the merger though. 🏀🙏❤️

Two baseball giants born on the same date today. Jackie Robinson-1919- who broke the color line and brought glory to the Bums in Brooklyn. And Mr Cub, Ernie Banks -1931-!who was a fixture at short/1b at Wrigley- Let’s Play 2! Thanks for the baseball memories!

1945–OTD a band of Army Rangers & Filipino guerrillas raiided a POW camp on Luzon called Cabanatuan where about 500 American & Filipino survivors of the 1942 Death March from Bataan were being held by the Japanese.The raid was well planned & spectacularly successful. 1 of the great escapes of WW2.👏🏻

Remembering the 1923 birthday of brilliant screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky who gave us movie greats like Marty, the Hospital, & Network. His prescience of where television news and reality TV will go still amazes me. 🎥📺❤️🙏👏🏻

OTD 40 yrs ago I was a pediatric surgery fellow at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philly.Inpatient floors had set up mini-theaters so everyone could watch America’s teacher, Christa McAuliffe, blast off in the Challenger. Tragedy ensued and tears and screams followed. Such a loss!😱🇺🇸😞

81 years ago OTD the Soviet army liberated Auschwitz. We commemorate the event by declaring this day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. I lost 6 of my 8 Great Grandparents in that camp. They were among the 1.2 million souls exterminated there. Never again✡️🙏😞

Remembering the 1876 birthday of Dr. Julius Hess, widely acknowledged as the father of Neonatology. He invented incubators for the care of premature infants and for their transport to speciality care units now called NICU’s. A true medical pioneer!⚕️👏🏻🙏

1970- Robert Altman’s iconic satire about the insanity of war called #MASH, was released OTD. Amazing cast, great comedy and great anti war messaging at the height of the Vietnam war. Bravo!

Remembering the 1917 bday of actor Ernest Borgnine of Hamden, CT.He won an Oscar 4 playing a regular frumpy guy in Paddy Chayefsky’s brilliant “Marty”. But then character roles including From Here 2 Eternity,Bad Day at Black Rock,the Wild Bunch,the Poseidon Adventure,The Dirty Dozen& McHale’s Navy👏🏻🎥

1939-OTD the movie version of the Rudyard Kipling poem, Gunga Din, was released. Featuring Cary Grant, Victor MCLaghlin, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. & Sam Jaffe, it was an adventure story with lots of humor. It did unfortunately reflect the colonialism in India but for a fun watch it is still tops🎥👏🏻🙏

music.apple.com/us/album/a-c... Remembering the 1931 birthday of R&B/pop legend Sam Cooke who was one of the early crossover artists from black gospel music to white pop charts. What a voice! And he wrote serious protest songs in such a way that people listened! 🎶👏🏻🙏

Remembering the 1922 birthday of actor Telly Savalas whose role as Kojak the lollipop swizzling detective made him a Tav legend. He also gave us great character roles in Kelly’s Heroes, the Dirty Dozen, and the Battle of the Bulge among others. “Who loves ya Baby!”

Happy 70th to comedian/author/TV host/interviewer/podcaster Bill Maher. You have calling it like you see it for over 30 years. Thanks for that🙏👏🏻

65 years ago today John F Kennedy delivered his stirring inaugural address in the bitter cold of Washington DC. Even as a 7 yo I watched in amazement youtube.com/shorts/L8l11...

65 years ago today the 1st episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show was filmed. Over 5 years it set the bar high for sitncoms thanks to the brilliant cast and the creativity of the shows writer/producer Carl Reiner Must C 📺 on #CBS youtu.be/5X827jjB2lw?...

Remembering the 1882 Birthday of British author A.A. Milne, creator of the The 100 Acre Wood world of Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin. Still some of the most soothing adventures and great life lessons are contained in his writings. Grandpas like me are grateful 😎🙏📖

Remembering the 1706 birthday of Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father, statesman, inventor, scientist and brilliant author. No one did more to facilitate the birth of the USA than Mr. Franklin. Bravo!👏🏻🇺🇸🙏

1974-OTD Peter Benchley’s tale of a rogue shark preying upon a New England island community in the height of summer,Jaws,was published.It was the “must read” book of that yr and became even more beloved when Stephen Spielberg released a movie by the same name in ‘75.Peter got a cameo in that film.

1977-OTD #SNL rolled out the Coneheads, the weirdest family from France ever created. Their sketches were goofy and nonsensical but as a med student we looked forward to Saturday nights because of comedy like this. Kudos to Dan Ackroyd, Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman! 📺👏🏻❤️

1794-OTD general practitioner Jesse Bennett performed the 1st successful caesarean section in North America on his own wife who was in dire shape in active labor.He delivered a baby girl who liveD till the age of 77 & bore 6 children herself.His wife survived and lived another 20 years as well. ⚕️👏🏻

1968- OTD the Man In Black, Mr Johnny Cash, played live at the Folsom Prison which was the subject of one of his best songs. It was an amazing performance by a legendary artist 🎶👏🏻❤️ music.apple.com/us/album/fol...

1966- OTD to the delight of 12 yo me, the #BATMAN TV show starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin premiered. First villains galore it was a fun watch. And a great theme song. music.apple.com/us/album/bat...

Today is 1755 bday of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton.His literary talents inspired his work employer 2 send him 2 Kings College (now Columbia University).He became an important adjutant 2 Gen. Washington, a coauthor of the Federalist Papers,& the 1st Secretary of the Treasury.A true Patriot!🇺🇸🙏👏🏻

1776-OTD Englishman Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense, widely acknowledged to have influenced many American colonists to support the revolution. Lots of lessons for today’s American government 🇺🇸👏🏻😞 “From the errors of other nations, let us learn wisdom”

1989-OTD 2 of the all time greats of baseball,Carl Yazstremski,Slugging left fielder of the Red Sox, and Johnny Bench,iconic catcher 4 the Cincinnati Reds,were voted in2 the Baseball Hall of Fame.They both were the models in their positions of how 2 field & both were prolific sluggers.Bravo⚾️👏🏻❤️

(1) George Washington 1st State of the Union speech 1/8/1790 addressing his “partners” in Congress. “The welfare of our Country is the great object to which our cares and efforts ought to be directed.”….

1992-OTD Tom Seaver,my all time favorite #NYMet, was elected nearly unanimously in2 the Baseball Hall of Fame.”The Franchise” as he was called, won 311 games,a World Series & 3 Cy Young’s. And he posted just about all the time! He became Avery astute broadcaster too. Taken from us too young. ⚾️👏🏻❤️

1838-OTD Samuel Morse of Charlestown, MA first demonstrated his revolutionary telegraph. Morse was already an accomplished painter (his portrait of Lafayette is below on the far right. But the telegraph changed the connectivity of the world and made him the father of telecommunications! 👏🏻❤️🇺🇸

Happy 95th birthday to the incredible actor, Robert Duvall, who has created so many incredible characters over 7 decades. He was in To Kill A Mockingbird, Network, The Godfather movies, Lonesome Dove, Dove, Days of Thunder to name a few. Always made the movie better regardless. Have a great day🎂🎉❤️🎥

Happy 83rd birthday to American biographer/historian #DorisKearnsGoodwin who has given us such insight on the presidencies of Lincoln, LBJ, Nixon and many more. She is also a huge baseball fan, first of the Brooklyn Dodgers then the Red Sox. Have a great day!📖👏🏻❤️🙏

1988- OTD Roy Orbison and friends got together for a tribute concert called “A Black and White Night”. Springsteen, Duane Eddy,, KD Lang, Jennifer Warnes Among others all pitched in to help Roy belt out his top hits. It still is a great watch/listen. 🎶🎥👏🏻🙏❤️ youtu.be/-8Jz3VW7rYk?...

Remembering the 1831 birthday of #JustinWinsor, a MA native and Harvard dropout who became the founder of the American Library Association after becoming chief librarian for both the Boston Public Library and the Harvard Library.📖👏🏻🙏

1818-OTD Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel, #Frankenstein,was 1st published.It asked the timeless question of whether humans should attempt 2 create life just because they might have the knowledge & skill 2 do so.It did not work out well 4 Baron Von Frankenstein.But the novel has made us think!!🙏

1966-OTD the Prefab Flur, the Monkees , released their version of Neil Diamond’s great song, “I’m a Believer” It went #1 and stayed there for 7 weeks. It saw new life in the Shrek films. Still a a great tune! music.apple.com/us/album/im-...

Happy 90th birthday 2 legendary #Dodgers pitcher, Sandy Koufax.Brooklyn-born,he had an incredible run as the best pitcher in baseball from 1959-1966. 4 no hitters,3 pitching triple crowns,2 World Series,3 unanimous Cy Young Awards.He quit baseball with elbow problems (now reparable) all too soon⚾️👏🏻❤️