Let the Counting of Days Begin

We have an item from way, way back today. This is the traditional date of the beginning of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by the Mayans of Latin America. The year was 3114 BC. More recently the Great Famine of Europe, in 1315, became so dire that even the King of England had difficulty buying bread for himself and his entourage. In 1929 Babe Ruth became the first ballplayer to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland. In 1934 the first civilian prisoners arrived at the federal prison at Alcatraz. And in 1972 the last US ground combat unit would leave South Vietnam.

Notables born on this date include American historian and author Alex Haley (Roots, 1921), Frederick W Smith, the founder of FedEx (1944), co-founder of Apple computer scientist Steve Wozniak (1950), American journalist and author David Brooks (1961), and actors Chris Helmsworth (1983 Thor) and Viola Davis (1965,, The Help, and Hidden Figures).

Those who departed on this date include American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1919), American novelist and short story writer Edith Wharton (1937), and American painter Jackson Pollack (1956). It was also the day we said farewell to the kind heart of Eunice Kennedy Shriver (2009) who founded Special Olympics, horror master Peter Cushing (1994), and comedian and master of our heart-strings Robin Williams (2014).