There are 3 entries for this date: George Orwell, Dan Barker and Ricky Gervais.

On this date in 1903, George Orwell (ne Eric Arthur Blair) was born in India. Educated at Eton College, Blair joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma as a young man, later writing a novel, Burmese Days (1934), about it. Bumming around Europe for the experience, Blair wrote an autobiographical account, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933). Teaching for income, he continued to write novels, including A Clergyman's Daughter (1935), with its unflattering look at the repression of religion, Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936), and Coming Up for Air (1939). He also wrote a sympathetic nonfiction account of miners, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937). His book, Homage to Catalonia (1938), was written after he was wounded by Francoists while fighting for Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War. When Stalinists came after Blair and his anarchist friends, his views on communism changed. While he supported a mild socialism, his masterpiece, Animal Farm (1945), skewered Stalinism: "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." Religion was satirized by the character "Moses," a bird, who was a "spy and a tale-bearer," who talked up "Sugarcandy Mountain, to which all animals went when they died." Blair did commentary for the BBC during WWII. His second masterpiece, the cautionary tale, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), unforgettably put "newspeak" and "Big Brother" into the political lexicon, and conjured up a terrifying image of totalitarianism. Blair died of tuberculosis. In 1968, the 4-volume Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell was published. D. 1950.

On this date in 1949, Dan Barker was born in California. His father, Norman Barker, a talented trombonist, played with Hoagy Carmichael, and has a cameo with Judy Garland in the movie "Easter Parade." Dan, who became a piano-player and songwriter, worked as a volunteer missionary as a teenager, going to Mexico with youth groups. He attended Asuza Pacific College, majoring in religion. Ordained by a Christian Church congregation, Dan worked as an assistant minister in several churches, but mainly freelanced with a musical ministry, also writing secular children's music. Many of his songs and two Christian children's musicals were produced by Manna Music and other Christian publishing houses. In his early thirties, Dan began a course of reading in science, liberal theology and rationalism that led to "an intense inner conflict." Finally, "I just lost faith in faith." In 1983, he publicly left religion. He joined the staff of the Freedom From Religion Foundation in 1987, and has written the book Losing Faith in Faith (1992), as well as three freethought/humanist books for children, and more than 30 freethought songs, including "You Can't Win with Original Sin," "None of the Above," and "Nothing Fails Like Prayer." He has recorded his freethought songs, as well as other traditional and contemporary freethought music, in three music cassettes and two CDs, "Friendly Neighborhood Atheist," and "Beware of Dogma."

Ricky Gervais

On this date in 1961, comedian and actor Ricky Gervais was born in Reading, England. One of four children, Gervais was raised in a poor, working class family and credits his parents, Jerry and Eva, with creating a home life with laughter, teasing and open honesty. He attended Ashmead School and then the University College London, where he first studied biology, later changing to philosophy. In 1983, during his last year at college, Gervais and a friend formed a musical duo called Seona Dancing, signing a record label with London Records and releasing two singles. Working briefly as the manager for a few other bands, Gervais then became events manager for the University of London Union, and eventually for radio station XFM London. He hired Stephen Merchant as his assistant, beginning what was to become a successful artistic collaboration, first on radio and then on TV. In 2001, Gervais and Merchant created a six-episode series called "The Office," which, over the next two years slowly became the No. 1 rated show in the UK. In 2003, Gervais toured England with his standup comedy show, "Animals," and his "Politics" show toured the following year. Gervais and Merchant wrote a 12-episode sitcom called "The Extras" in 2005, which also became a hit.

Known for off-color language and for being politically incorrect, Gervais is nonetheless respected for his willingness to take on sensitive subject matter, including that of religion. The winner of five Emmy awards, three Golden Globe awards, and seven BAFTA awards in the U.S., as well as similar awards in England, Gervais is currently working on "A Day in the Life of an Idiot" for BBC 2 and will be starring in the comedy film "This Side of the Truth," due to be released in 2008.