King Edward II was born on this day in 1284. It is not known if he was really gay, but Christopher Marlowe certainly thought he was. His play is excellent, and the only reason I’ve even included the king today. Villain or hero Oliver Cromwell (I lean more toward hero) was born in 1599. The great physicist Wolfgang Pauli was born in 1900. I would have featured him today but I did Max Planck just the other day. Too many AustrioGerman theoretical physicists! Ella Fitzgerald was born in 1917. Blues guitarist Albert King was born in 1923. And songwriter Jerry Leiber was born in 1933.

Director Paul Mazursky is 83 today. Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemon is 82. With a name like that, he ought to be a blues man. Al Pacino is 73. Idiot pundit Dinesh D’Souza is 52. Hank Azaria is 49. And Renee Zellweger is 44.

The day belongs to Edward R. Murrow who was born in 1908. I don’t know much about him. All I know about him is from watching Good Night, and Good Luck. Well, I know a bit more. He was a great man. Too bad about the smoking, which took his life at 57.

Afterword

Here’s one of Leiber’s songs (co-written as always):