Happy birthday, astronaut Gregory Harbaugh!

Gregory Harbaugh, born April 15, 1956 in Cleveland, Ohio, went into space four times. 

His first mission was aboard Discovery (STS-39) as mission specialist in April 28, 1991. The mission was dedicated to the US Department of Defense. He spent over 8 days in space, returning to Earth on May 6.

His second flight was aboard Endeavour (STS-54) as mission specialist launched January 13, 1993. During the mission, Harbaugh and fellow astronaut Mario Runco conducted a 5 hour EVA in the cargo bay to advance NASA's understanding of working in space. He spent almost 6 days in space, returning to Earth January 19.

His third mission was aboard Atlantis (STS-71) as mission specialist to the Russian space station Mir, the third mission in the Shuttle-Mir program, launched June 27, 1995. He spent almost 10 days in space, returning to Earth, July 7. 

His fourth and final trip into space was aboard Discovery (STS-82) as mission specialist, launched February 11, 1997.  It was the second mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.  He and fellow astronaut Joseph Tanner conducted two EVAs during the mission for a total of about fifteen hours.  He spent almost 10 days in space before returning to Earth on February 21.

Celebrating Black History Month: Nelson Trout, first African American Lutheran bishop

 

Nelson Wesley Trout, born in 1921 in Columbus, Ohio, graduated from Capital University and Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus.  He received his Doctor of Divinity from Warburg College in Waverly, Iowa.

He served at Trinity Lutheran Church in Montgomery, Alabama, and held several positions on the staff of the American Lutheran Church in Dayton, Ohio.  He returned to Trinity Lutheran Seminary as the professor and Director of Minority Ministry Studies.

In 1983, he was elected bishop of the ALC's South Pacific District, becoming the first African American bishop in US Lutheranism. After the 1987 merger which formed the ELCA, Dr. Trout became Bishop Emeritus of the new Southwest California Synod.  He also served as Director for Mission Theology and Evangelism Training for the ELCA.

Dr. Trout passed away in 1996.

Happy birthday. astronaut Donald Thomas!

Donald Alan Thomas, born May 6, 1955 in Cleveland, Ohio, has made four trips into space.  He got his BS in Physics from Case Western Reserve University in 1977, a MS and PhD in Materials Science, both from Cornell University.

NASA selected him as an astronaut in January 1990.  His first mission was aboard Columbia (STS-65) as mission specialist in July 1994, with birthday twin Chiaki Mukai. It was the mission that deployed the International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-2) into space.  He spent almost 15 days in space.

His second flight was aboard Discovery (SGS-70) as mission specialist in July 1995.  It was the last of seven missions to carry a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) into orbit.  He spent 9 days in space.

On his third mission, he flew on Columbia (STS-83) as mission specialist in April 1997.  The flight was cut short due to a technical problem in a fuel cell, and the crew landed after just 4 days.

His fourth and final spaceflight was aboard Columbia (STS-94) as mission specialist in July 1997.  It was the re-flight of STS-83 just three months before.  The mission was a success and he landed after almost 16 days in space.

Celebrating Black History Month: Granville T. Woods, inventor

Granville T. Woods, born April 23, 1856 in Columbus, Ohio, was an African American inventor who held over 50 US patents.  He had to leave school at age 10 to work to help support his poor family.  He worked in a machine shop, where he learned machining and blacksmithing.  

In 1872, he worked as a fireman for the Danville and Southern Railroad in Missouri. In 1874, he moved to Springfield, Illinois where he worked at a rolling mill.  He studied mechanical and electrical engineering in college but there is no evidence he received a college degree.

Among his inventions are a egg incubator, an automatic brake, a steam boiler furnace, and a patented Synchronous Multiplex Railway telegraphs, which allowed communications between train stations from moving trains.  

Thomas Edison filed a claim to ownership of this invention, saying he had created it first.  He took Woods to court twice, but Woods prevailed both time. Woods spent a lot of time defending his inventions from others who claimed they were the ones who invented them.

Woods died of a cerebral hemorrhage in New York City, January 30, 1910.  In 2006, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Astronaut Dave Low born 1956

George David Low, born February 19, 1956 in Cleveland, Ohio, went into space three times during his career as an astronaut.

His first mission was aboard Columbia (STS-32) as mission specialist in January 1990.  He spent almost 11 days in space, which at the time was the longest shuttle mission yet.

His second mission was aboard Atlantis (STS-43) as mission specialist in August 1991.  He spent almost 9 hours in space.

His third and final mission was on Endeavour (STS-57) as mission specialist in June 1993. He spent almost 10 days in space. 

He passed away in March 2008 from colon cancer.

Dark Shadows actor Joel Crothers born 1941

Joel Crothers, born January 28, 1941 in Cincinnati, Ohio with handsome, boy-next-door features, is probably best-known for his performances on Dark Shadows.  He played Joe Haskell and Nathan Forbes, appearing in 166 episodes. 

He went on to appear in another daytime drama, The Edge of Night until 1984.

Crothers passed away in November 1985 from AIDS-related lymphoma.

Happy birthday, Babylon 5 actress Andrea Thompson!

Beautiful actress Andrea Thompson, born January 6, 1960 in Dayton, Ohio, is probably best known for her work on NYPD Blue, but my favorite is her appearance as Psi Officer Talia Winters on Babylon 5.  She also appeared in an episode of Murder, She Wrote with Angela Lansbury.  

Thompson was only in two seasons of Babylon 5, appearing in 44 episodes, and her character was written out of the series rather rudely, but I understand there were some extenuating circumstances.  

Celebrating Black History Month: Frederick McKinley Jones, first African-American to receive the National Medal of Technology

Frederick McKinley Jones, born May 17, 1893 in Cincinnati, Ohio was an African-American inventor who was awarded 61 patents over his lifetime.  After serving in the US Army during WWI, he went back to Hallock, Minnesota where he had lived prior to the war.  He built a transmitter for the new radio station in town.  He invented a device to combine sound with motion pictures, since the local theater could not afford the speaker system for "talkies". 

About 1938, Jones designed a cooling system that made it possible to transport food over long distances without spoiling.  These portable cooling units were used during WWII to preserve blood, medicine and food which were so important to army hospitals.  His inventions helped save thousands of lives.

He passed away in Minneapolis in 1961.  In 1977, he was inducted into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame.  In 1991, then President George Bush awarded the National Medal of Technology to Joseph Numero, who hired Jones in 1930, and Fred Jones, making Jones the first African-American to win the award.

Margaret Hamilton, aka the Wicked Witch of the West, born 1902

Margaret Hamilton, born December 9, 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio, is fondly remembered for her role as the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz.  Although she played a mean witch, Hamilton was known to love children, an advocate for animal rights, and generally loved by casts and crews.  

Her role as the Wicked Witch of the West was ranked as #4 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 years of the Greatest Screen Heroes and Villains.

She passed away in May 1985 of a heart attack. 

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Michael Good!

Michael Good, born October 13, 1962 in Parma, Ohio, is a veteran of two space shuttle flights.  

His first trip into space was aboard Atlantis (STS-125) as mission specialist to the Hubble Space Telescope, the fifth and final flight to the Hubble Telescope in May 2009.  He conducted 2 EVAs with fellow astronaut Michael Massimino for almost 16 hours total.

His second and final flight was aboard Atlantis (STS-132) as mission specialist to the International Space Station in May 2010.  He conducted two more EVAs with fellow astronauts Steve Bowen and Garrett Reisman.  

Ron Parise, Space Shuttle astronaut, born 1951

Ronald Parise, born May 24,1951 in Warren, Ohio, was a veteran of two space shuttle missions.

His first flight was aboard Columbia (STS-35) as mission specialist in December 1990.  Being a ham radio operator, Parise conducted radio transmissions with ground-based amateur operators.

His second and last flight was aboard Endeavour (STS-67) as payload specialist in March 1995.  It was the second spacelab mission to conduct astronomical observations in the ultraviolet spectrum.

Parise passed away in May 2008 from a brain tumor just weeks shy of his 57th birthday.

Judith Resnik, astronaut, born 1949

Judith Resnik, born April 5, 1949 in Akron, Ohio, was a veteran of two space shuttle flights.  She was the second US woman in space and the first Jewish astronaut ever.

Her first flight was on Discovery (STS-41-D) as mission specialist August-September 1984.  It was the first flight of the Discovery.

Her second flight was aboard Challenger (STS-51-L) as mission specialist on January 28, 1984.  Unfortunately, Resnik and the rest of the crew were lost when Challenger exploded shortly after lift-off.

Celebrating Black History Month: Hannah Beachler, first African-American to win Oscar for Best Production Design

Hannah Beachler, a graduate of the University of Cincinnati in fashion design, is the first African-American to be nominated and the first to win an Academy Award for Best Production Design for her work on Black Panther. She is also the first female production manager of a Marvel film, in which she had a $30M art budget and supervised several hundred people.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Carl Walz!

Carl Walz, born September 6, 1955 in Cleveland, Ohio, is a veteran of four space shuttle flights. 

His first flight was aboard Discovery (STS-51) as mission specialist in September 1993.  He and fellow astronaut Jim Newman performed an EVA to evaluate tools and procedures for a Hubble Telescope maintenance flight later in the year.

His second flight was aboard Columbia (STS-65) as mission specialist in July 1994.  The mission included the second flight of the International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-2).

Walz's third mission was aboard Atlantis (STS-79) as mission specialist in September 1996.  Shannon Lucid returned from Mir after her record-breaking stay.

His fourth and final mission was aboard Endeavour (STS-108) as mission specialist to the International Space Station in December 2001.  Walz was part of Expedition 4.  He returned to Earth in June 2002 aboard Endeavour (STS-111).

Robert Overmyer, Space Shuttle astronaut, born 1936

Space Shuttle astronaut Robert Overmyer, born July 14, 1936 in Lorain, Ohio, went into space twice.  He became an astronaut in 1969 and served as part of the support crews for the Apollo program, the Skylab program and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

His first trip into space was aboard Columbia (STS-5) as pilot in November 1982. It was the first officially "operational" shuttle mission.

His second and final was aboard Challenger (STS-51-B) as commander April-May 1985.

Overmyer was testing a plane on March 22, 1996 near Duluth International Airport in Minnesota when his plane crashed. 

Celebrating Black History Month: Halle Berry, first African-American to win Oscar for Best Actress

The most recent Academy Awards saw an unprecedented number of African-American winners, riding the strength of Black Panther, which was a totally awesome film.  But way back in 2002, Halle Berry became the first African-American woman to take home the Oscar for Best Actress, for her performance in the movie Monster's Ball.

Born August 14, 1966 in Cleveland, Ohio, she won Miss Teen All-American Pageant in 1985, representing Ohio.  She was the first runner-up in the Miss U.S.A pageant in 1986.  She started modeling which led to her acting career.  Her performance in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever was her big screen breakthrough. 

The year before Monster's Ball, she appeared as Storm (first African-American female superhero) in the X-Men movie series, playing in four movies.

Happy birthday, Space Shuttle astronaut Ronald Sega!

Ronald Sega, born December 4, 1952 in Macedonia, Ohio, is a veteran of two space shuttle missions.

His first flight was aboard Discovery (STS-60) as mission specialist in February 1994.  It was the first flight mission of the US/Russian Shuttle-Mir program. 

HIs second mission was on Atlantis (STS-76) in March 1996 also to the space station Mir as mission specialist. He has spent more than 17 days in space.

Karl Henize, Space Shuttle astronaut, born 1926

Karl Henize, born October 17, 1926 in Cincinnati, Ohio, traveled into space aboard Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-51-F) July-August 1985 as mission specialist.  Chosen as an astronaut by NASA in 1967, he completed jet pilot training at Vance AFB in Enid, Oklahoma(!) and served as support crew for Apollo 15 and Skylab 2-4 missions.

On Challenger, he logged 188 hours in space.

He passed away in October 1993 from high altitude pulmonary edema during a climb of Mount Everest.  He was part of test to study how people's bodies would be affected by radiation for long duration space missions.

Happy birthday, Chip Davis, founder of Mannheim Steamroller!

Louis "Chip" Davis, Jr., born September 5, 1947 in Hamler, Ohio, is the founder of the new age group Mannheim Steamroller.  He studied music at the University of Michigan and worked with an ad agency in Omaha, Nebraska where he co-invented the fictional character C. W. McCall.  Remember Convoy?

Davis founded Mannheim Steamroller in 1974 to concentrate on fusing modern music and classical music techniques.  He released Fresh Aire in 1975.  In 1984, he released Mannheim Steamroller Christmas and changed the face of holiday music forever.   

I was introduced to Mannheim Steamroller at a Kappa Kappa Psi keg party, where Mere Image from Fresh Aire III was playing.  Fraternity bro Tammy Stewart told me about the group and so I went looking for their albums.  I couldn't find Fresh Aire III so I bought Fresh Aire IV which featured one of my favorite songs of all time, Dancing Flames.

John Glenn, first American in orbit, born 1921

John Glenn, born July 18, 1921 in Cambridge, Ohio, is the first American to orbit Earth.  In February 1962, he orbited Earth three times in Friendship 7, lasting almost 5 hours.  After his historic flight, JFK said Glenn was too valuable to the nation as an iconic figure that he would not risk putting Glenn back in space.

After leaving NASA, Glenn ran for the US Senate and became Ohio's senator from 1974 to 1999. 

Glenn did return to space in 1998 aboard the space shuttle Discovery (STS-95) October-November 1998, making him the oldest person in space.

Glenn passed away in December 2016.