If you enjoy comedy clubs, humor in general, and standup comedians in particular, you’ll be ready to celebrate today. It’s the 190th anniversary of Charles Farrar Browne, who’s considered to be the first standup comedian and was a well-known humorist in the 1800s.  He was born Charles Brown, without the “e,” in a small town… Continue reading

There are plenty of widely known books, book series, and characters written for children. Howard Garis may have written more of them than anybody.  Garis was born in New York state on April 25, 1873. As an adult he moved to Newark, New Jersey and worked for a while as a reporter for the Newark… Continue reading

Otto Fredrik Gideon Sundbäck was born April 24, 1880, on a farm in Sweden. His family was well off, and Sundbäck was able to continue his higher education in Germany. He graduated in 1903 with an engineering degree, and moved to the US in 1905.  Sundbäck settled in Pennsylvania, in a medium-sized town, and pursued… Continue reading

William Shakespeare was possibly born today, in 1564. As a writer born on April 23 in the 1500s, it’s understandable if there’s a lot of confusion about him. After all, another writer was born on April 23 in the 1500s — actually the year 1500. I’m talking about Johann Stumpf, of course, who wrote about… Continue reading

Today is the anniversary of Henry Fielding’s birth, in 1707. He was born in England, to a privileged family (his uncle was an Earl), he was raised by his grandmother after his mother died when he was 11. Not too much is known about his early years, but he was probably not a model child… Continue reading

Labor activism, organizing, and battles between owners of machines and the people who operated them have been going on ever since industrial machinery has existed. Sarah George Bagley was born in New Hampshire, in the US, on April 19,1806, and was a labor leader during the 1840s.  Bagley was born in a rural household; the… Continue reading

It’s spring, and in the US that means the Baseball Season is here. Baseball is a sport that’s been around for about 150 years or so, and at one time was the most popular sport in the US — and was called the “national game.” Even so, it’s played in very few other countries (Japan… Continue reading

Audrey Tang Feng was born April 18 in 1981. If you’re into Perl programming, you know them as a community leader. If you’re way into Perl programming and aware of the, um, discussion around Perl 5 versus Perl 6, you know them as the leader of the Pugs project to implement a compiler for Raku… Continue reading

April 16 is Charlie Chaplin’s birthday, so there’s a certain argument that this shouldn’t be written down at all, but pantomimed, in monochrome, accompanied by piano or organ music and with a few narrative cards inserted. That’s the way Chaplin himself would have done it during the prime of his career in silent films. But… Continue reading

April 15 is the day Robert Edison Fulton, Jr. was born in New York City, in 1909. He was pretty well known, at least in the US, during his lifetime, but I bet you never heard of him. He was a rich kid — his father was the president of an early truck manufacturer, Mack,… Continue reading