Five People Born on February 12
Today is February 12, 2010 and the 43rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 322 days left in the year 2010. According the Mayan calendar, there are 1043 days till the end of the current cycle. On this date, in 1999, President Clinton is acquitted in his impeachment trial. Here are five people that share a birthday on this day:
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Sixteenth President of the United States born in Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln is famous for being the first Republican to hold the office of the Presidency, preserving the Union during the Civil War, and bringing about the emancipation of slavery in the U.S. Lincoln was born in the backwoods of America in a log cabin. He had been a country lawyer (without college training), a State legislator, and member of the United States House of Representatives and being defeated twice in the race for the U.S. Senate before becoming President. His time in office was absorbed with the Civil War and defeating the Secessionist States of the South. Most people wouldn’t believe this today, but Lincoln was also one of the most hated U.S. Presidents during his time in office. Virginia chose to secede from the Union because of his decision to send troops through their land in an effort to quell the uprising in South Carolina. Lincoln is also the first U.S. President to be assassinated. He did run the war very closely and forced his cabinet members to work together in times of crisis. He won the re-election of 1864, primarily since the country was at war. He was often criticized for being unbending on the slavery issue by his opponents in Washington. He had a gift for rallying the public with his speeches and is especially is known for his Gettysburg Address. After the war, he sought for a speedy reconstruction of the South, even though he was killed six days following the peace treaty. Part of his legend lives in the fact that he was assassinated on Good Friday. Lincoln has consistently gone down as being one of the greatest of all U.S. Presidents.
Charles Darwin (1809-1862)
Born on the same day as Abraham Lincoln, this English naturalist studied medicine and is famous for his scientific voyage on the HMS Beagle which surveyed South America and the South Seas (1831-1836). His zoological and geological discoveries on the voyage resulted in numerous important publications and formed the basis of his theories of evolution. He worked on his theory for more than 20 years before publishing it in his famous On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859). The book was immediately in great demand, and Darwin’s intensely controversial theory was accepted quickly in most scientific circles; most opposition came from religious leaders. Though Darwin’s ideas were modified by later developments in genetics and molecular biology, his work remains central to modern evolutionary theory. His many other important works included Variation in Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868) and The Descent of Man… (1871). He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Judy Bloom (Born 1938)
Writer, born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA. She studied at New York University (1960), married in 1959, and was divorced in 1976. Bored with suburban life, she developed a creative outlet in writing and illustrating children’s stories. After many rejection slips, she published Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970), Blubber (1974), Tiger Eyes (1981), and several other novels for teenagers that broke new ground in their frank treatment of sensitive issues. She moved into adult fiction with Wifey (1978), which graphically described the constraints of sexual roles within a traditional marriage.
Christina Ricci (Born 1980)
American actress born in Santa Monica, California. The youngest of four children of a lawyer father and realtor mother, Ricci attended Glenfield Middle School in Montclair, New Jersey, before enrolling at the Professional Children’s School in New York City. The precocious, outspoken young actress made her feature debut as Cher’s youngest daughter in Mermaids in 1990. The role proved to be a stepping stone, and Ricci landed the part of Wednesday Addams in the film adaptation of The Addams Family the following year; she reprised the role for the sequel in 1993. Unlike many child stars, Ricci deftly handled the transition to adult roles, evidenced in her nuanced performance in 1997′s The Ice Storm, in which she skillfully seduces two brothers. Subsequent roles included an abductee-turned-girlfriend in Buffalo ’66 and the dark, treacherous Dedee in The Opposite of Sex, for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination. By the late 1990s, Ricci had become one of the most in-demand young actresses in Hollywood. In 1999, she starred in the indie flicks 200 Cigarettes and Desert Blue with Casey Affleck and Kate Hudson. She also took on the role of the Gothic princess Katrina Van Tassel opposite Johnny Depp’s Ichabod Crane in Tim Burton’s adaptation of Sleepy Hollow. In 2000, she starred in the supernatural thriller Bless the Child and as a World War II Jewish refugee in The Man Who Cried.
Joanna Kerns (Born 1953)
Actress and director who was born in San Francisco, California. On the hit sitcom, Growing Pains, Joanna Kerns played one of the most popular television mothers of the late 1980s. She grew up in an athletic family and seriously pursued gymnastics for a time. Her older sister Donna de Varona won two gold medals at the 1964 Olympics in swimming. After a knee injury in 1970 ended her gymnastics career, Joanne Kerns decided to try dancing and then moved on to acting. The first parts she landed were commercials and in 1974 she met her future husband, producer Richard Kerns, on a car commercial shoot. Two years later, the couple married. After that, her acting career began to pick up with guest appearances on Starsky and Hutch, Charlie’s Angels, Laverne & Shirley, Three’s Company, and Hill Street Blues. She even landed a lead role on the 1984 series The Four Seasons, which was based on the 1981 film of the same name. While her first series didn’t last long, Joanna Kerns struck gold with her next project. On Growing Pains, which debuted in 1985, she delighted viewers with her portrayal of warm and sometimes frazzled working mom Maggie Seaver opposite Alan Thicke as her psychologist husband with Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold, and Jeremy Miller as their three children. Ashley Johnson joined the series later on as their fourth child. Ironically as the series was beginning, Kerns’ marriage was ending. The couple divorced that same year. The show ran for seven years as audiences tuned in to watch the Seaver family grow up and overcome life’s many challenges. After it ended in 1992, Joanna Kerns continued to act, appearing in several television movies and reprising her role as Maggie Seaver for The Growing Pains Movie (2000) and Growing Pains: Return of the Seavers (2004). In recent years, Joanna Kerns has spent more of her time working behind the camera. She has directed episodes of many popular television programs, including Ally McBeal, The Division, Scrubs, Ghost Whisperer, and ER.