Born in 1959 – Paul Westerberg, American singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Listen below to “Swingin Party” from the 1985 Replacements album, Tim.

Born in 1901 – Marlene Dietrich, German-American actress and singer.

In 1812, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published Kinder-und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales).

Václav Havel, Czech poet, playwright, and the first President of the Czech Republic, died on this day in 2011.

In 1986 he said, 

“As soon as man began considering himself the source of the highest meaning in the world and the measure of everything, the world began to lose its human dimension, and man began to lose control of it.”

It’s the Feast of Saint Lucy.

Lucy was a martyr in Syracuse during the Diocletianic Persecution of 304 AD. Her name is found in the Greek inscriptions from the catacombs of St. John in Syracuse.

“For Saint Lucy, even when her persecutors lit a fire around her she still would not burn. They gouged out her eyes, yet she still would not die. They attempted to kidnap her for nefarious means, but they could not move her. After her death it was found that her eyes had been miraculously restored.”

Above: An icon of Saint Lucy by Raphael Winters.

Born in 1863 – Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter and illustrator.

Above: Munch’s 1894 painting, Melancholy.

Born in 1996 – Hailee Steinfeld, American actress.

Above: Steinfeld, during the filming of the Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2010 film, True Grit.

Photograph by Jeff Bridges.

In 1884, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published.

“All kings is mostly rapscallions, as fur as I can make out.”

Born in 1928 – Noam Chomsky, American linguist and political theorist.

“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”

Previously: Tom Waits

Born in 1935 – Woody Allen, American filmmaker and humorist.

Above: Allen and Death in his 1975 film, Love and Death.

Death: You’re an interesting young man. We’ll meet again.
Young Boris: Don’t bother.
Death: It’s no bother.