So, with a few clicks I discover that these very different individuals each came into the world through the door marked AUGUST 19: English poet John Dryden [1613] and the gent said to have written Pamela (Was it important that I learned that in college? No. Is it weird that I still remember, yet barely call to mind the people w/whom I went to class? Yes), the first English novel, Sam'l Richardson [1689]. Designer Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel [1883]. Silent film star, dark-haired, sweet-faced Colleen Moore [1899] This link will take you to cyber-glimpses of her glorious doll house: www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/fairycastle

Little Wilbur Wright got a baby brother [I am SO trying to envision the infant Orville and 3-year-old Wilbur. I'm trying to imagine a world in which loving parents would name innocent baby boys Wilbur & Orville.]

Madame DuBarry began her life on this day in 1743. It ended December 8 [same deathday as John Lennon's. yes, roll your eyes heavenward. I do.], 1793, when her head was chopped off. See how lovely she was or, perhaps, how beautifully her portrait was painted by wondrous artist Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun] at this wiki site. Read down far enough, at least to see her last words.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_du_Barry

And if you're reading this, you're the sort of person who might LIKE to know that this is mathematician Blaise Pascal's deathday (1662), James Watt's, too (steamy Scottish inventor, 1819), AND the great & mighty Emperor of Rome, Caesar Augustus kicked the bucket on this day, A.D.14. and that his wife probably poisoned him. Sigh.