Some of our favorite historical figures were born in the month of March. We couldn't possibly name them all, but here are just a handful whose lives we'll be celebrating.
1. MARCH 2, 1904: THEODOR GEISEL (A.K.A. DR. SEUSS)
As a student at Dartmouth during Prohibition, Geisel was caught hosting a gin-soaked get-together and was banned from the school's humor magazine, the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern.To keep publishing he used his middle name as a pen name: "Seuss." The "Dr." came later.
Before Harlow became a leading lady and world famous sex symbol in the '30s, she did what any aspiring actor does: She worked as an extra. A teenaged Harlow and her mother were background characters in a few silent films in the late 1920s.
The poetic meter in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" might have originated with Browning's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship." Poe dedicated The Raven and Other Poems to her, “with the most enthusiastic admiration and with the most sincere esteem."
In 1907, Einstein had what he called the “happiest thought of my life.” It wasn't what you might expect—it was about a man falling from a building. Einstein realized that a person falling alongside a ball would not be able to recognize the effects of gravity on the ball. In other words, it’s all relative. This connection between gravity and acceleration became known as the equivalence principle.
Mabley was the first woman comedian to be featured at Harlem's famous Apollo Theater, and went on to appear on its stage more than any other performer in history.
Rogers wasn't just beloved by humans; Koko the gorilla was also a huge fan. The Stanford-educated Great Ape loved Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and when Rogers took a trip to meet her, she not only embraced the television icon, but followed standard protocol based on what she'd seen on the show: she took his shoes off.
Bach and fellow German composer George Frideric Handel were born in the same year and share yet another (far less fun) biographical note: Both were operated on rather unsuccessfully by early—and rather dubious—oculist, John Taylor. He reportedly is to blame for rendering both men blind.
Houdini was famous for debunking mystics, but he held out some hope that the living could communicate with the dead. So he and his wife Bess made a pact that whoever died first would try to reach out from beyond the grave using a secret code derived from their private stage language. Houdini died first, and Bess held séances until 1936—but (barring one time, when a medium claimed to have received the message "Rosabelle- answer- tell-pray, answer- look- tell- answer, answer- tell," which spelled out “BELIEVE” in Houdini and Bess's private stage language and was quickly dismissed as a hoax) he never came through.
The author had a particular affinity for birds and in particular, peacocks. She owned and raised dozens of them, sending their discarded feathers to friends in the mail, and caring for her flock up until her death in 1964 at age 39.
