About "Born Today"

I always hated History in school; Mrs. Entwhistle in the fifth grade was a good example of the kind of stodgy old bat who chose to drill this information into the soft pliable minds of 10-year-olds. My reasoning was that, unlike subjects like Math, English, and Science, I would never need this information in later life. What good could it possibly do me to know in which year Columbus sailed the ocean blue?

Then, one day about four years ago, I bought a book of quotes at lunchtime: The 637 Best Things Ever Said, compiled by Robert Byrne. Around the same time, I was supporting Web Products for SBT, and I built the first version of my Web site. I enjoyed the quotes so much, I felt compelled to share them on my Web site. I also started typing them into a FoxPro database for my own reference.

Occasionally, I would find a particular saying attributed to two different people, and I would do a bit of research to determine who said it first. Many quotes are made more relevant by the knowledge of the times in which they were made. Also, often, a person would say something about another person from the same time period, and it helped to know who coexisted with whom.

So, in my database, I started adding information about birth and death, the occupation of the "attributee," and sometimes the subject of the quote (Gandhisaying "I think it would be a good idea" doesn’t mean much unless you know he was asked what he thought of Western Civilization).

I’ve gained a new respect for Mrs. Entwhistle - it’s fascinating to read the words of artists, businessmen, politicians, and cultural icons of all times, and to be able to put history in perspective by way of the people who lived in it.

The database now contains over 6500 quotes, with at least one for almost every day of the year (2/29? Gioacchino Rossinni [and Dinah Shore-s2000]).

Since rejoining SBT, I rebuilt the web site, and added a set of daily quotes pages, and also added more information about the people quoted. It’s a work in progress, so right now the only active dates are those between the end of August and today, but I encourage you to check it out!

Update 8/13/1999:

Completed the year!  If any links don't work, please let me know.

I'm not finished with the project, but there is now a page for every day of the year (yes, including February 29).

Update 5/6/2000:

Moved to this new location. Renamed files from <monthname>_<daynumber> to <mm-dd>, and (think I) replaced all the links. Also started adding "Died Today"pages. Most of the dates don't work now (added 01-01 and 01-02, and then started at 05-04 (for which I currently have no quotes).

Update 8/13/2000:

So much to do, so little time! Have quotes for deathday 5/4now, but I'm still missing some other dates. Have finished "Died Today" pages from 05/01through 02/15; I'll probably finish the year in a few weeks, at the rate I'm going.

Updated ALL "Born Today" pages to use the new navigation tables top and bottom. On most (eventually all) pages, clicking an author's birth date takes you to the "Died" page for that date, and clicking their death date takes you to the "Born" page for that date - probably confusing, but it doesn't make sense the other way around, because it would just take you to the page you're already on.

FYI, there are now over 2300 quotes (my database contains 7351 at this writing, but if you want 46 Groucho Marxquotes, I guess you can find them at 46 other sites, though note that many of his quotes were actually written by screenwriters like of S. J. Perelman) and almost 1800 pictures on this site, and besides the 366 "Born" and 296 "Died" pages, there are 137 "special" pages that you'll find by clicking certain linked names and images.

I also added the Timelines (by birth date) and the alphabetical author indexes, to help you find your way around; I'll update these periodically, as I find more dates in my researches. Loretta Youngdied yesterday...

Making these pages has been, and continues to be, an overwhelmingly positive experience. I have probably acquired the equivalent of a degree in history - me, Steve Miller, who hated history in high school and barely graduated!

Update 9/8/2007:

Wow, seven years since I last hit this file!?

Recent updates: moved the data from FoxPro to MS Access; split the "people" data from the "quote" data, so it's now in two relational tables with less duplication of info. Anyone who can help me generate a report from MS Access that has a date field that looks (and links) like "11/01/1957," please contact me! I'm close. I understand how to do substrings etc. I just need the "<a href'" part to not appear as text.

Added a zillion extra pictures. These are the "hidden" pages you get where an author name or picture is a link. Yes, they're often kinda cheesecakey.

Another "hidden" feature: In many cases, the author's real name is in the Alt text for their image. Hover over the image of e.g. Marilyn Monroeto see her real name.

Also behind the scenes: I've slowly but surely added anchors to each author/quote on every page, so you can jump directly to, say, Jeanne Moreauby adding "#moreau_jeanne" to the URL for "01-03.htm." Those anchors are usually in last_first form, but I tried to use the most familiar name, and wasn't always as consistent as perhaps I should have been. So fire me.

A lot of info I couldn't find before is now available on the Internet—Thanks, Wikipedia!

Lastly: I get email. And I appreciate it, really. But if you're going to tell me I "forgot" some fuzzy-faced singer from a boy band, PLEASE first think about what this site is about: QUOTES. Witty, or funny, or odd, or goofy, or ingenuous, or stupid quotes, but QUOTES. Maybe I haven't yet added your boy because HE HASN'T YET SAID ANYTHING WORTH RECORDING. I don't usually add folks just cuz they're purty. There are plenty of sites for that.

I now have 12317 quotes (6318 used on the site) by 5006 authors.

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