What about the other 11 “Ides”? by Kaye Spencer #IdesofMarch #history #trivia

We’re familiar with the Ides of March thanks to William Shakespeare and Julius Caesar, but what about the other eleven months? Do they have ides?

In fact, they do.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the Ides occur on “the 15th day of March, May, July, or October or the 13th day of any other month in the ancient Roman calendar…” This day was associated with the first full moon in any given month.

So, instead of deaths, and in keeping with the Roman calendar’s dates, let’s look at notable historic Ides birthdays.

January 13
  • 1832: Horatio Alger, Jr., American minister and author (Tattered Tom)
  • 1886: Sophie Tucker, theater and film actress, singer
  • 1850: Charlotte E. Ray, first female African-American lawyer in the U.S. in 1972

February 13
  • 1891: Grant Wood, painter, educator (American Gothic)
  • 1919: Tennessee Ernie Ford, American folk and country music artist (Sixteen Tons)
March 15
  • 277: St. Nicholas (Nikolaos of Myra) Greek Bishop who became the model for Santa Claus
  • 1767: Andrew Jackson, 7th U.S. President

April 13
  • 1743: Thomas Jefferson, 3rd U.S. President
  • 1866: Butch Cassidy, American outlaw legend (clip from the movie: https://youtu.be/1IbStIb9XXw )
  • 1909: Eudora Welty, American author, photographer, journalist, Pulitzer winner

May 15
  • 1859: Pierre Curie, chemist, physicist, scientist

June 13
  • 1893: Dorothy L. Sayers, author, scholar
  • 1892: Basil Rathbone, film actor, theatrical actor

July 15
  • 1606: Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch painter

August 13
  • 1899: Alfred Hitchcock, British film director
  • 1860: Annie Oakley, American folk legend

September 13
  • 1911: Bill Monroe, American bluegrass and country music artist
  • 1916: Roald Dahl, children’s author (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)

October 15
  • 70 BCE: Virgil [Publius Vergilius Maro], Roman poet of the Augustan period (Aeneid)
  • 1844: Friedrick Nietzsche, philosopher, scholar, author (Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
  • 1920: Mario Puzo, author, screenwriter (The Godfather)

November 13
 
  • 1850: Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author (Treasure Island, Kidnapped, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, A Child’s Garden of Verses)

 


  • 1814: Joseph Hooker, American Civil War general
  • 1969: Gerard Butler, actor *because this makes me happy* 🙂

December 13
  • 1818: Mary Todd, wife of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. President
  • 1925: Dick Van Dyke, actor, comedian, writer
  • 1929: Christopher Plummer, film and theatrical actor

Until next time,
 

Kaye

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