Former astronaut and U.S. senator John Glenn, was born in Cambridge, Ohio, July 18, 1921. Interesting note from Glenn’s wiki bio: “Glenn and his wife both suffer from varying degrees of hearing loss, and concern for this issue has always been one of Glenn’s foremost interests.” Read about how Johyn Glenn jumpstarted Cindy Swanson’s radio interviewing career.

Nelson Mandela, b. 1918. From Mandela’s wiki bio: “In 2003, Mandela attacked the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration in a number of speeches, going so far as calling Bush a racist for not following the UN and its secretary-general Kofi Annan (who is African) on the issue of the War in Iraq. ‘Is it because the secretary-general of the United Nations is now a black man? They never did that when secretary-generals were white,’ Mandela said. The comments caused a rare moment of controversy and criticism for Mandela, even among some supporters.” I missed that little kerfluffle (if everyone else can use that word, I can, too), and I also didn’t know that he divorced Winnie in 1996 and then two years later married Graca Machel, who was the widow of the president of Mozambique.