{"id":1962,"date":"2026-01-17T00:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T05:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.celebrateandlearn.com\/?p=1962"},"modified":"2025-12-09T15:39:59","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:39:59","slug":"birthdays-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.celebrateandlearn.com\/?p=1962","title":{"rendered":"Birthdays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Muhammad Ali<\/strong> (born Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, 1942; died Scottsdale, Arizona, June 3, 2016) was a heavyweight boxer. He carried the torch for part of the opening ceremonies for the 1995 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Children could learn more at: Muhammad Ali<\/a><\/p>\n

John Bellairs<\/strong> (born Marshall, Michigan, 1938; died Haverhill, Massachusetts, March 8, 1991) was a children\u2019s author. He published at least 31 mystery and suspense novels. His work includes The Curse of the Blue Figurine<\/em> and The House with a Clock in its Walls<\/em>. Edward Gorey illustrated many of his books. Children could investigate a website devoted to him: http:\/\/www.bellairsia.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Robert Cormier<\/strong> (born Leominster, Massachusetts, 1925; died Leominster, Massachusetts, November 2, 2000) was a children\u2019s author of at least eighteen books. Two of his works are The Chocolate War<\/em> and I Am the Cheese<\/em>. Children could read a transcript of an interview with him at: Cormier Interview<\/a>. They could learn more at:\u00a0Robert Cormier<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Franklin<\/strong> (born Boston, Massachusetts, 1706; died Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 17, 1790) was a statesman, writer, printer and much more. He signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He published Poor Richard\u2019s Almanack<\/em>. He invented many items, including bifocal glasses and the lightning rod. He created the first fire company and the first free library. Idea: Children could make a timeline of his life and then decide whether he made the most contributions to science or to the freedom of America. Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia<\/em>, by Margaret Cousins, is an excellent source of information. Children could learn more at: Ben Franklin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shari Lewis<\/strong> (born Shari Hurwitz in New York, New York, 1934; died Los Angeles, California, August 2, 1998) was a puppeteer and a leader in children\u2019s educational television. The creator of the puppet Lamb Chop, she published at least 60 children\u2019s books. Idea: Bring in materials to make puppets of various kinds. Consider sock puppets, stick puppets, even finger puppets. Children could produce a puppet show.<\/p>\n

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Michelle Obama<\/p><\/div>\n

Michelle Obama<\/strong> (born Chicago, Illinois, 1964) was America’s First Lady from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017. Married to Barack Obama, the 44th President, she was a lawyer before she began helping her husband\u2019s political career. As First Lady, she devoted time and energy to Let\u2019s Move<\/em>, a program to reduce childhood obesity and increase children\u2019s knowledge of healthy lifestyle choices. She also planted and maintained a large garden on the White House property. Children can learn more about her at: Michelle Obama<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Janet Stevens<\/strong> (born Dallas, Texas, 1953) began illustrating books for children in 1978. Today she creates her images using Adobe Photoshop and other technology tools. She received a 1996 Caldecott Honor Award for her illustrations in Tops and Bottoms<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky, 1942; died Scottsdale, Arizona, June 3, 2016) was a heavyweight boxer. He carried the torch for part of the opening ceremonies for the 1995 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Children could learn more at: Muhammad Ali John Bellairs (born Marshall, Michigan, 1938; died Haverhill, Massachusetts, March […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1537,5045,6124,5044,5046,5043,5047,5048],"class_list":["post-1962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birthdays","tag-benjamin-franklin","tag-janet-stevens","tag-january-17-birthdays","tag-john-bellairs","tag-michelle-obama","tag-muhammad-ali","tag-robert-cormier","tag-shari-lewis","category-4-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateandlearn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateandlearn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateandlearn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateandlearn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateandlearn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1962"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateandlearn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29000,"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateandlearn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1962\/revisions\/29000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateandlearn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateandlearn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celebrateandlearn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}