September 2, 1850
“The Children’s Poet,” Eugene Field was born on this day in St. Louis. His boyhood home is now a the Eugene Field and Toy Museum at 634 South Broadway in St. Louis.
August 29, 1891
Birthday of Joyce C. Hall from Kansas City who founded Hallmark Cards, Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Hall of Fame, etc. Read more about him in Tales From Missouri and the Heartland.
August 15, 1791
Duff Green was born on this date. Green founded the towns of Chariton and Bluffton, and established the first stage line west of the Mississippi. He was a teacher, lawyer, and the owner and editor of the St. Louis Enquirer, Missouri’s second newspaper.
July 29, 1892
Legendary actor William Powell was born in Pennsylvania, though his family moved to Kansas City in 1907.
July 18, 1867
Birthday of Margaret Brown in Hannibal, MO. She led an extremely interesting life, which included being a passenger on the Titanic, and was made famous in the Broadway show and movie called The Unsinkable Molly Brown, named in part for stories about her unbreakable spirit during the ship's sinking. She was portrayed by Kathy Bates in James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic.
June 23, 1902
This is the birthday of "The Coach," Don Faurot, the namesake of Mizzou's Faurot field.
June 3, 1906
Josephine Baker was born on this day in St. Louis. In her time, she was a world famous dancer and jazz and pop singer. She was also a civil rights leader who defected to France, where she became a citizen in 1937.
April 27, 1822
Birthday of President, General, and adoptive Missourian Hiram Ulysses Grant (aka Ulysses S. Grant).
April 16, 1857
Birthday of Henry Smith Pritchett, astronomer, who was born at Fayette, MO and attended Pritchett College in Glasgow, MO. After additional training at the U.S. Naval Observatory he went to work at Washington University in St. Louis. He was named Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Guard Geodetic Survey and was president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Peace.