Today's Famous Birthdays

[IceWizard]

Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope KBE, KC*SG, KSS
(May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003)

was an American comedian, actor, and entertainer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years,
Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films—54 in which he starred. These included
a series of seven Road to ... musical comedy films with Bing Crosby as Hope's top-billed partner.
Leslie Townes Hope was born on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, County of London
(now part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich),
in a terraced house on Craigton Road in Well Hall, where there is now a blue plaque in his memory.
He was the fifth of seven sons of an English father, William Henry Hope, a stonemason from
Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, and a Welsh mother, Avis (née Townes), a light opera singer from
Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, who later worked as a cleaner.









Walter Stacy Keach Sr.
(May 29, 1914 – February 13, 2003),

known professionally as Stacy Keach Sr. was an American actor whose screen career spanned more
than five decades. Keach was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was of English descent. His career ranged
from 1942 to 1997, with more than seventy movie and television appearances. He and his wife, the
former Mary Cain Peckham, were members of the Peninsula Players summer theater program
during the 1930s.









John Fitzgerald Kennedy
(May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963),

often referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the
United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person to assume the
presidency by election and the youngest president at the end of his tenure. Kennedy served at the
height of the Cold War, and the majority of his foreign policy concerned relations with the Soviet Union
and Cuba. A Democrat, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in both houses of the U.S. Congress
prior to his presidency. John Fitzgerald (Jack) Kennedy was born outside Boston in Brookline,
Massachusetts on May 29, 1917, at 83 Beals Street, to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., a businessman and
politician, and Rose Kennedy (née Fitzgerald), a philanthropist and socialite. His paternal grandfather,
P. J. Kennedy, served as a Massachusetts state legislator. Kennedy's maternal grandfather and namesake
John F. Fitzgerald served as a U.S. Congressman and was elected to two terms as Mayor of Boston.











John Warnock Hinckley Jr.
(born May 29, 1955)

is an American man who attempted to assassinate U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C.
on March 30, 1981, two months after Reagan's first inauguration. Using a .22 caliber revolver, Hinckley
wounded Reagan; police officer Thomas Delahanty; Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy; and White House
Press Secretary James Brady, who was left permanently disabled. Hinckley was reportedly seeking fame
to impress actress Jodie Foster, with whom he had a fixation. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity
and remained under institutional psychiatric care for over three decades. Public outcry over the verdict
led state legislatures and Congress to narrow their respective insanity defenses.










La Toya Yvonne Jackson
(born May 29, 1956)

is an American singer and television personality. The fifth child and middle daughter of the Jackson family,
Jackson first gained recognition on the family's variety television series, The Jacksons, on CBS between
1976 and 1977. Thereafter, she saw success as a solo recording artist under multiple record labels in the
1980s and 1990s, including Polydor, Sony Music and RCA, where she released nine studio albums over
the course of 15 years. Her most successful releases in the United States were her self-titled debut album
(1980) and the 1984 single "Heart Don't Lie". Jackson's other songs include "If You Feel the Funk",
"Bet'cha Gonna Need My Lovin'", "Hot Potato", "You're Gonna Get Rocked!", and "Sexbox". Another one
of Jackson's songs, "Just Say No" from her fifth album was composed for US first lady Nancy Reagan and
Reagan administration's anti-drug campaign.









Melissa Lou Etheridge
(born May 29, 1961)

is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and guitarist. Her eponymous debut album was released in 1988
and became an underground success. It peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200 and its lead single,
"Bring Me Some Water", garnered Etheridge her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance,
Female in 1989. Her second album, Brave and Crazy, appeared that same year and earned Etheridge two
more Grammy nominations. In 1992, Etheridge released her third album, Never Enough, and its lead single,
"Ain't It Heavy", won Etheridge her first Grammy Award. Etheridge was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, the younger
of two daughters of Elizabeth (Williamson), a computer consultant, and John Etheridge, an American Constitution
teacher at her alma mater, Leavenworth High School. John Etheridge died in August 1991.