One of America’s most popular broadcast journalists is celebrating a birthday today — happy birthday Ted Koppel!

Probably best known for his 25 years as the anchor of Nightline, Koppel hasn’t slowed down since leaving the TV program. He has since served as managing editor for the Discovery Channel and is currently a senior news analyst for NPR and BBC!

To learn more about Ted Koppel and his many career highlights, check out his bio at NPR.org!

Koppel began his broadcasting career at WMCA Radio, New York. In 1963, he joined ABC Radio News as a correspondent for its daily Flair Reports program, where one of his first assignments was to cover the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He moved to television in 1966 when reporting on the Vietnam War.

During his 42 years at ABC News, Koppel also worked as anchor of The ABC Saturday Night News, chief diplomatic correspondent, Vietnam War correspondent and Hong Kong bureau chief. He has also had a major reporting role in every presidential campaign since 1964.

Koppel has won every major broadcasting industry honor, including 41 Emmy Awards, eight George Foster Peabody Awards, ten duPont-Columbia Awards, ten Overseas Press Club Awards, two George Polk Awards and two Sigma Delta Chi Awards, the highest honor bestowed for public service by the Society of Professional Journalists. Among his other tributes are the first Gold Baton in the history of the duPont-Columbia Awards for Nightline’s weeklong series originating from South Africa, the Gabriel Personal Achievement Award from the National Catholic Association of Broadcasters and Communicators and selection as a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Republic of France. He has received more than 20 honorary degrees from universities in the United States.

A native of Lancashire, England, Koppel moved to the United States with his parents when he was 13 years old and became a U.S. citizen in 1963. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Syracuse University and a master’s degree in mass communications research and political science from Stanford University.

If you’ve ever read a legal thriller, chances are it was written by today’s birthday boy — American author John Grisham.

A successful lawyer in Mississippi, John found moments of spare time to escape the courtroom and focus on his first love — writing.

John began writing what he knew best and soon became one of the most popular artists in the world, selling over 250 million books worldwide!

To learn more about how John turned a law degree into publishing gold, check out his bio at www.jgrisham.com/bio.

Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn’t have the right stuff for a pro career, he shifted gears and majored in accounting at Mississippi State University. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. In 1983, he was elected to the state House of Representatives and served until 1990.

One day at the DeSoto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl’s father had murdered her assailants. Getting up at 5 a.m. every day to get in several hours of writing time before heading off to work, Grisham spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, it was eventually bought by Wynwood Press, who gave it a modest 5,000 copy printing and published it in June 1988.

Since first publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year (his other books are The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, A Painted House, Skipping Christmas, The Summons, The King of Torts, Bleachers, The Last Juror, The Broker, Playing for Pizza, The Appeal, and The Associate) and all of them have become international bestsellers. There are currently over 250 million John Grisham books in print worldwide, which have been translated into 29 languages. Nine of his novels have been turned into films (The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Chamber, A Painted House, The Runaway Jury, and Skipping Christmas), as was an original screenplay, The Gingerbread Man. The Innocent Man (October 2006) marked his first foray into non-fiction, and Ford County (November 2010) was his first short story collection.

Grisham took time off from writing for several months in 1996 to return, after a five-year hiatus, to the courtroom. He was honoring a commitment made before he had retired from the law to become a full-time writer: representing the family of a railroad brakeman killed when he was pinned between two cars. Preparing his case with the same passion and dedication as his books’ protagonists, Grisham successfully argued his clients’ case, earning them a jury award of $683,500—the biggest verdict of his career.

Country music superstar, Garth Brooks, turns the big 4-8 today!

Pretty much every music lover is a Garth Brooks fan! By integrating rock elements into his music, he successfully moved beyond country music and into the pop music arena — becoming a mainstream hit.

Transcending genres, it’s no surprise that Garth has had one of the most successful careers in country music history — breaking records for both sales and concert attendance through the ‘90s!

To date, his album sales are over 68.3 million, making him the best-selling albums artist in the U.S. — even more successful than the Beatles!

Now retired from the touring circuit, he is regular performer in Las Vegas

Happy birthday, Garth! Here’s to many more.

Oh, and for all you football fans, happy Super Bowl Sunday!

The more birthdays crew had an amazing day at the Utah Olympic Park, hanging out with the U.S. Olympic Bobsled Team!

This incredible group of athletes is helping us spread the word about our movement and what each and every one of us can to do help reduce our risk of cancer and live to celebrate more birthdays! We took a ton of great footage — so stay tuned for more on our day with the Olympians

Until then, check out some of our photos — and go USA!

Happy birthday Woman’s Day magazine! The popular health and beauty magazine celebrates its 79th birthday this month!

First published in 1931, Woman’s Day began as a free A&P in-store recipe planner, but quickly grew to become one of the most popular publications in the country. Today the magazine has over 21 million readers!

Unlike so many magazines out there today, Woman’s Day really focuses on helping women and their families do what they can to live well!

But it’s not just about healthy living. Woman’s Day aims to make all of our lives just a little bit easier — and we could all use a little help. Whether it’s picking out a Valentine’s Day gift for your significant other or saving some extra cash this month,Woman’s Day is there for you

Check it out for yourself at www.womansday.com!

Throughout the years, I’ve been given more than my fair share of opal jewelry (yes, I’m an October birthday) and I’ve always wondered where the concept of birthstones came from. To satisfy my curiosity, I turned to King’s Jewelry.

The origin of the birthstone goes back thousands of years to the time of Moses. It was at his command that the Breast Plate of the High Priest was made with the twelve colors, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, and a corresponding gemstone was attributed to each color. Over the centuries, the number twelve developed mystical proportions. There were twelve tribes of ancient Israel, twelve apostles, twelve foundation stones of the Holy City, twelve months of the year and twelve signs of the zodiac. As time passed, people wanted to own all twelve stones of the sacred Breast Plate and began wearing one gemstone set into a piece of jewelry each month and changing it as the months changed. Eventually, in a quest for individuality, people began wearing only his or her stone of birth all year, giving birth to the twelve birthstones. Each birthstone supposedly represents a magical power. Some were said to ward off evil, protect the wearer in battle, cure blindness, gout and palsy, and even immunize the wearer from drunkenness.

Interesting! So in honor of all you February birthdays, here’s some information on what your birthstone means!

The Amethyst was credited with many other extraordinary attributes. Among its reputed benefits was an ability to quicken the intelligence and make the owner more successful in business, protect the soldier and assure victory, help hunters, guard against contagious diseases, and control evil thoughts.

To men, the amethyst promised sober judgment and industry; to women, lofty thoughts and religious love.

In honor of Super Bowl Sunday (it’s just around the corner), I’m giving you some tips on how to throw an amazing football-themed party!

To satisfy your little football fan’s birthday wishes, I visited kids-birthday-guide.com to get all the details.

Decorations:

• Use the colors of your favorite team for the football birthday party decorations. Play Monday Night theme music (or Jock Jams) in the background.
• Create signs like “Go Broncos!” or “(Your child’s name) for Superbowl MVP”, and tape them to the fence or the trees outside the house. Spread footballs, helmets, and football pads around the yard.
• Fill the walls of your party room with football memorabilia. Hang pennants, posters of all-star players, jerseys, hats, and other football related items.
• Cover the football birthday party table with a paper tablecloth made to look like a football field. Place tiny toy footballs in a bowl for a centerpiece. Hang a personalized “Happy Birthday!” banner in the area.
• Blow up many balloons and hang them around the house along with paper streamers.

Guest Arrival and Introductory Activities:

• Helmet Head Art: This is a great football birthday party activity to do while your guests continue arriving. Cut off the upper half of the gallon-sized milk or water jugs, and use just the bottom half. Provide the guests with stickers, glue, scissors, glitter, yarn, buttons, etc. Let the kids huddle up and come up with various ideas how they can decorate the jugs to look like helmets. Then let the creating begin!
• Design Your Football Jersey: Give each football birthday party guest a white t-shirt. Put a newspaper pieces inside the shirts to avoid the bleed-through. Provide the kids with markers, paints, and other decorative items – so they can create their own football jerseys.
• Football Autographs: Here is how you can create a great memento from the event. Get the official size football. Have the kids sign the ball with a black marker. Everyone will sign except the birthday child. You can “frame” the ball, and put it in your child’s room as a great memory of his birthday party.

Favors:

• Fill your football party favor bags with football cards, pennants, posters, whistles, stickers, or colorful books about favorite football teams.

Food and Drink:

• Football Cake: Bake a 9″x13″ white cake. Once the cake is cool, cut the corners to make a football shape. Use chocolate frosting for the entire cake, and decorate the ball stripes and stitches with vanilla frosting.
• Football Field Cake: Bake a rectangular cake. Frost the cake with green frosting for a football field. Draw all football grid lines as needed. Line up plastic football cake toppers on the field, as though they’re playing the game.
• Veggie “Plays” Tray: Arrange various veggies in rows on tray. Pull string cheese into thin pieces. Form cheese into X’s on top of veggies (like you might see in coach’s playbook) on one side of the tray. Cut yellow cheese into circles to represent the opposing team, and add to top of remaining veggies on other side of the tray.
• Championship Punch: Combine about 4 cups of fruit punch and about 8 cups of ginger ale in a punch bowl. Serve to hydrate all your football birthday party guests.
• Gatorade & Powerade
• Various Fruit Juices

Can you believe that Facebook is only 6 years old today! It’s hard to remember how we communicated without it!

Yes, Facebook has become a global phenomenon. During its brief 4 years, it has quickly evolved from a social networking site for a few university students to a network of over 350 million dedicated users!

We’ve all lost touch with more friends than we’d like to admit, but Facebook has made it easy for us to rekindle old relationships and keep track of friends and family members — no matter where they are!

But Facebook isn’t just about connecting with friends both past and present. It also gives each and every one of us another avenue to support the causes that are near and dear to our hearts — like the movement for more birthdays!

So who is responsible for this internet revolution? That would be 25-year old Harvard dropout, Mark Zuckerberg.

To learn more about Mark and his online phenomenon, check out his interview with 60 Minutes. And if you haven’t visited it yet, check out our More Birthdays Facebook page!

Today we are celebrating Norman Rockwell’s birthday and the over 4,000 original works of art he created during his 84 years!

The 20th-century painter and illustrator was immensely popular in the U.S., most notably for the illustrations of everyday life he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine. In fact, Rockwell created 322 covers over his 47 years illustrating for the publication!

So what made Rockwell so successful? According to the artist, “If a picture wasn’t going very well, I’d put a puppy in it.” Always seems to do the trick

To learn more about Rockwell, check out the Farmers’ Almanac!

Rockwell was born in 1894 in New York City. He attended the Chase Art School, and then went to the National Academy of Design and later to the Art Students League. In 1913, Rockwell was hired as the art director for Boy’s Life, a publication of the Boy Scouts of America.

Rockwell attempted to enlist in the U.S. Navy during World War I, but was rejected because he was several pounds underweight. Not to be deterred, Rockwell went on an all-night eating binge and gained enough weight for the military to enlist him the next day. However, he was assigned the role of military artist and never saw any combat action during his tour of duty. In 1943, Rockwell painted a patriotic series called “The Four Freedoms.” Exhibition of these works helped raise almost $140 million for the World War II bond effort.

Rockwell also illustrated calendars for the Boy Scouts of America from 1925 until 1976. Later in his career, Rockwell spent ten years painting for Look magazine, where he focused on his interests in civil rights, poverty, and space exploration. He was commissioned to paint portraits for Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, as well as other high profile figures such as Judy Garland. In 1977, Rockwell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor for a civilian.

Today is the 140th birthday of the 15th Amendment!

The last of the so-called Reconstruction Amendments, the 15th Amendment prohibits the government from denying a citizen the right to vote based on race.

Talk about a birthday worth celebrating!

The 15th Amendment was ratified on February 3, 1870. Almost 2 months later, Thomas Mundy Peterson cast his ballot in a school board election in New Jersey, becoming the first African American to vote in an election under the newly enacted provisions!

To learn more about the ratification of the 15th Amendment, visit Harpweek.com!