Today's Famous Birthdays

[IceWizard]

John Wilkes Booth
(May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865)

was an American stage actor who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at
Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century
Booth theatrical family from Maryland, he was a noted actor who was also a Confederate
sympathizer; denouncing President Lincoln, he lamented the then-recent abolition of slavery
in the United States.









Fred Astaire
(born Frederick Austerlitz May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987)

was an American dancer, actor, singer, choreographer and presenter. He is widely regarded
as the "greatest popular-music dancer of all time". He received numerous accolades including
an Honorary Academy Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, a BAFTA Award, two
Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award. He was honored with the Film Society of
Lincoln Center tribute in 1973, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1978, and AFI Life
Achievement Award in 1980. He was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960,
American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1972, and the Television Hall of Fame in 1989.
Fred Astaire was born Frederick Austerlitz on May 10, 1899, in Omaha, Nebraska,
the son of Johanna "Ann" (née Geilus; 1878–1975) and Friedrich "Fritz" Emanuel Austerlitz
(1868–1923), known in the US as Frederic Austerlitz.









George Allen "Pat" Summerall
(May 10, 1930 – April 16, 2013)

was an American football player and television sportscaster who worked for CBS, Fox, and ESPN.
In addition to football, he announced major golf and tennis events. Summerall announced 16
Super Bowls on network television (more than anyone else), 26 Masters Tournaments, and
21 US Opens. He contributed to 10 Super Bowl broadcasts on CBS Radio as a pregame
host or analyst. Summerall was married to Cheri Summerall. As of 2013, they had 3 children,
including political consultant Susie Wiles, and 10 grandchildren. Summerall was a Christian.
In his book, Summerall: On and Off the Air, he wrote about his faith and his recovery from
alcoholism saying "My thirst for alcohol was replaced by a thirst for knowledge about
faith and God. I began reading the Bible regularly at the Betty Ford treatment center,
and it became a part of my daily life."









Gary Owens
(born Gary Bernard Altman; May 10, 1934 – February 12, 2015)

was an American voice actor, radio personality and disc jockey. His polished baritone speaking
voice generally offered deadpan recitations of total nonsense, which he frequently demonstrated
as the announcer on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Owens was equally proficient in straight or silly
assignments and was frequently heard on television and radio as well as in commercials.
Owens was born in Mitchell, South Dakota, the son of Venetta (née Clark), an educator and
county auditor, and Bernard Joseph Altman, a county treasurer and sheriff.








"Mother" Maybelle Carter
(born Maybelle Addington; May 10, 1909 – October 23, 1978)

was an American country musician and "among the first" to use the Carter scratch, with which
she "helped to turn the guitar into a lead instrument." It was named after her. She was a member
of the original Carter Family act from the late 1920s until the early 1940s and a member of the
Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle group. She was born Maybelle Addington on May 10, 1909,
in Nickelsville, Virginia, the daughter of Margaret Elizabeth (née Kilgore; 1879–1960) and
Hugh Jackson Addington (1877–1929). On March 13, 1926, Maybelle married Ezra Carter.
They had three daughters, Helen, June, and Anita.








Donovan Phillips Leitch
(born 10 May 1946),

known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer.
He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock
and world music (notably calypso). He has lived in Scotland, Hertfordshire (England),
London, California, and—since at least 2008—in County Cork, Ireland, with his family.
Emerging from the British folk scene, Donovan reached fame in the United Kingdom in
early 1965 with live performances on the pop TV series Ready Steady Go!. Donovan was
born on 10 May 1946, in Maryhill, Glasgow, to Donald and Winifred (née Phillips) Leitch.
His grandmothers were Irish. He contracted polio as a child.









John Simon Ritchie
(10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979),

better known by his stage name Sid Vicious, was an English musician, best known as the
bassist for the punk rock band Sex Pistols. Despite dying in 1979 at age 21, he remains an
icon of the punk subculture; one of his friends noted that he embodied "everything in punk
that was dark, decadent and nihilistic." John Simon Ritchie was born on 10 May 1957 in
Lewisham to John and Anne Ritchie nee McDonald (1933–1996). Anne had dropped out
of school and joined the British Army, where she met Ritchie's father, a guardsman at
Buckingham Palace and a semi-professional trombone player on the London jazz scene.










Paul David Hewson
(born 10 May 1960),

known by the nickname Bono (/ˈbɒnoʊ/ BON-oh), is an Irish singer-songwriter, activist, and
philanthropist. He is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Born and raised
in Dublin, he attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where in 1976 he began dating
his future wife, Alison Stewart, as well as forming, with schoolmates, the band that became U2.
Paul David Hewson was born in the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin on 10 May 1960, the second
child of Iris (née Rankin) and Brendan Robert "Bob" Hewson. His brother, Norman, is eight
years older than him. Bono was raised in the Northside suburb of Finglas.