There are 3 entries for this date: Thomas Alva Edison, Lydia Maria Child, and Leslie Nielsen.

On this date in 1847, Thomas Alva Edison was born in Ohio, the youngest of seven. The inventor--famed for reading Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire before the age of ten, and for vowing at age 12 to read the entire contents of the Detroit Public Library--was largely self-taught. Supporting himself at a very early age, Edison sold newspapers, worked for railroad companies and became a telegraph operator. He invented the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and improved the telegraph and telephone, becoming a highly successful businessman and manufacturer. Edison, who held more than 1,300 U.S. and foreign patents, famously noted: "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." Edison told The New York Times in an interview ( June 8, 1915): "I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill." A lifelong freethinker, one of his oft-repeated lines (for which we could find only secondary sources) is: "So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake . . . Religion is all bunk." D. 1931.

On this date in 1802, Lydia Maria Child was born. Considered one of the "first women of letters" in the United States, she became a famous abolitionist, author, novelist and journalist. Americans continue singing her lyrics in the song, "Over the river and through the woods to grandfather's house we go." The daughter of a Calvinist, she joined the Unitarians in 1820, but was unchurched most of her life. She ran a school, started the first journal for children, wrote several novels, then supported herself (and her husband) by writing such popular how-to books as The Frugal Housewife, The Mother's Book and The Little Girl's Own Book. Her history, The First Settlers of New England, blamed Calvinist-based racism for the treatment of Native Americans.

An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans recruited many to the anti-slavery movement, but made Child a pariah in Boston society. Her 2-volume The History of the Condition of Women, in Various Ages and Nations was published in 1835. She continued abolition work, supporting herself through popular writings and newspaper columns. The Progress of Religious Ideas (1855) rejected theology, dogma, doctrines, and talked of "Providence" as the inward voice of conscience. She later defined religion as simply working for the welfare of the human race. At her death, her funeral was presided over by Wendell Phillips, John Greenleaf Whittier recited a memorial poem in her honor, and The Truth Seeker memorialized her. D. 1880.

Leslie Nielsen

On this date in 1926, actor Leslie Nielsen, the oldest of four sons, was born to Ingvard and Maybelle Nielsen and spent his early childhood in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Nielsen has credited his father, a strict disciplinarian and an officer in the Canadian Mounted Police, for giving him his first acting experiences: He frequently had to lie to his father in order to avoid being punished! When Nielsen and his brother Eric, who grew up to become Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, were old enough to start school, the family moved to Edmonton, Alberta. After graduation, Nielsen joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, where he was an aerial gunner for one year overseas. After WWII ended, Nielsen worked on a Calgary radio station, then enrolled in The Lorne Greene Academy of Radio Arts in Toronto. Falling in love with acting, Nielsen, 23, earned a scholarship to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. Quickly given parts on television shows, Nielsen continued in that medium for the next few years, playing dramatic roles. In the 1950s, Nielsen became interested in film, moved to Hollywood, and made his big screen debut in "Forbidden Planet" (1956). He made more than 50 films over the next 20 years.

In 1980, Nielsen switched from playing drama to playing comedy, and his career took off. Nielsen was an instant hit as the humorless doctor in the comedy spoof, "Airplane!" He went on to play the straight-laced, inept police officer, Det. Frank Drebin, in the TV series "Police Squad!" Continuing to hit his stride in comedy, he got his big breakthrough in 1988, reprising the role of Drebin for film in "Naked Gun: Files From the Police Squad." His success continued with the sequels, "Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear" (1991) and "Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult" (1994). In 1993, Nielsen wrote a fictitious autobiography, The Naked Truth. Switching back to drama in 1996, but in a new genre, Nielsen played the lead in the stage production of "Clarence Darrow," a one-man show that had originated with another freethinker, Henry Fonda, and which toured the United States and proved Nielsen's diversity as an actor. Nielsen's long career has boasted more than 200 films and television programs. Winner of numerous awards, Nielsen received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001, was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame and received UCLA's Jack Benny Award for his comedic roles. Married and divorced three times, Nielsen lives in Arizona with his fourth wife and long-time friend, Barbaree Earl. He has two children.