Today's Famous Birthdays

[IceWizard]

Charles Vincent Massey PC CH CC CD FRSC(hon)
(February 20, 1887 – December 30, 1967)

was a Canadian lawyer and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada, the 18th since
Confederation. Massey was the first governor general of Canada who was born in Canada after
Confederation.

Massey was born into an influential Toronto family and was educated in Ontario and England,
obtaining a degree in law and befriending future prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
while studying at the University of Oxford. He was commissioned into the military in 1917 for
the remainder of the First World War and, after a brief stint in the Canadian Cabinet, began his
diplomatic career, serving in envoys to the United States and United Kingdom. Upon his return
to Canada in 1946, Massey headed a royal commission on the arts between 1949 and 1951,
which resulted in the Massey Report and subsequently the establishment of the National Library
of Canada and the Canada Council of the Arts, among other grant-giving agencies. In 1952 he
was appointed Governor General by King George VI on the recommendation of Prime Minister
Louis St. Laurent, to replace the Viscount Alexander of Tunis as viceroy, and he occupied the
post until succeeded by Georges Vanier in 1959.










Ansel Easton Adams
(February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984)

was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white
images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers
advocating "pure" photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range
of a photograph. He and Fred Archer developed an exacting system of image-making called the
Zone System, a method of achieving a desired final print through a deeply technical understanding
of how tonal range is recorded and developed during exposure, negative development, and printing.
The resulting clarity and depth of such images characterized his photography.











Addison Mitchell McConnell III
(born February 20, 1942)

is an American politician and retired attorney serving his seventh term as the senior United States
senator from Kentucky, which he has held since 1985. McConnell is the Senate leader of the
Republican Party, having served as minority leader since 2021 and previously from 2007 to 2015,
and as majority leader from 2015 to 2021.

McConnell first served as a Deputy United States Assistant Attorney General under President Gerald
Ford from 1974 until 1975 and went on to serve as Jefferson County Judge/Executive from 1977 until
1984 in his home state of Kentucky. McConnell was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and is
the second Kentuckian to serve as a party leader in the Senate. During the 1998 and 2000 election
cycles, he was chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He was elected Majority Whip
in the 108th Congress and re-elected to the post in 2004. In November 2006 he was elected Senate
minority leader – the post he held until Republicans took control of the Senate in 2015.











Patricia Campbell Hearst
(born February 20, 1954)

is the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known
for the events following her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was found and
arrested 19 months after being abducted, by which time she was a fugitive wanted for serious crimes
committed with members of the group. She was held in custody, and there was speculation before trial
that her family's resources would enable her to avoid time in prison.

At her trial, the prosecution suggested that Hearst had joined the Symbionese Liberation Army of her
own volition. However, she testified that she had been raped and threatened with death while held
captive. In 1976, she was convicted for the crime of bank robbery and sentenced to 35 years in prison,
later reduced to 7 years. Her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter, and she was later
pardoned by President Bill Clinton.