May 6, 1961

The Tuesday Timeline is definitely one of my favourite entries to write because I always learn so much based on the amount of research that I do in order to write one every week.  I'm also interested in reading about some of the events that took place on specific dates throughout history.  That was one of the motivations behind keeping the Tuesday Timeline going for another year.  I genuinely love doing them.

But, considering that I am trying to make May a month of changes, I'm going to be doing the Tuesday Timeline entries for the month of May a little different.  Sure, I'll still be posting the historical events and celebrity birthdays for this and every Tuesday this month...but the twist is that for every single Tuesday Timeline this month, I will be featuring a celebrity birthday.

And, to challenge myself, for each of these celebrity birthdays, I'll attempt to find one piece of trivia for each year that they have been alive.  Like, for instance, if the topic subject was Roma Downey, who turns 54 years old today, I would have to find fifty-four different pieces of trivia about Roma in celebration of her life.

But, just to make things clear...today's subject is NOT Roma Downey.  So, let's discover who this Tuesday Timeline IS about.  Of course, we'll start with pieces of history that took place on the sixth of May.

1682 - Louis XVI of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles

1757 - Two conflicts - The Konbaung-Hanthawaddy War and The Burmese Civil War - end

1835 - The first issue of the New York Herald is published by James Gordon Bennett Sr.

1840 - The Penny Black - the world's first adhesive postage stamp - becomes valid for use in Great Britain and Ireland

1844 - The world's first mechanically frozen ice rink - The Glacarium - opens

1861 - The community of Richmond, Virginia becomes the official capital of the Confederate States of America

1889 - The Eiffel Tower opens to the public

1915 -   Film legend Orson Welles (d. 1985) is born in Kenosha, Wisconsin

1916 - Twenty-one Lebanese nationalists are executed in the Martyr's Square, Beirut by Jamal Pasha, the Ottoman wali

1929 - Paul Lauterbur (d. 2007), the man who was responsible for the development of the MRI is born in Sidney, Ohio

1937 - The Hindenburg zeppelin catches fire and is completely engulfed in flames after just one minute; 36 lose their lives

1940 - Author John Steinbeck wins the Pulitzer Prize for his novel "The Grapes of Wrath"

1941 - Comedian Bob Hope performs the first of many USO shows at California's March Field

1945 - The final major battle of the Eastern Front during World War II - The Prague Offensive - begins

1954 - Roger Bannister becomes the first person to run the mile in under four minutes

1964 - Actress Dana Hill (d. 1996) is born in Encino, Los Angeles, California

1966 - Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors murders in England

1983 - The Hitler Diaries are revealed to be a hoax after experts examine them

1994 - Paula Jones files a lawsuit against then president Bill Clinton, accusing him of sexually harassing her three years prior

2013 - Ariel Castro is taken into custody after three women (Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, Gina DeJesus) are found alive in Cleveland, Ohio more than a decade after they went missing

And, here are a list of the celebrity birthdays that unfortunately I will NOT be featuring in this edition of the Tuesday Timeline.  But do help me in wishing Willie Mays, Larry Gogin, David Friesen, Bob Seger, Alan Dale, Mary MacGregor, Jeffery Deaver, Gregg Henry, Fred Newman, Tony Blair, Lynn Whitfield, Tom Bergeron, Roma Downey, Leslie Hope, Martin Brodeur, Marc Chouinard, Mark Eaton, Kerry Ellis, Nicole Brunner, Edyta Sliwinska, Kyle Shewfelt,  Adrianne Palicki, Gabourey Sidibe, Naomi Scott, and Emily Alyn Lind a very happy birthday!

Okay, so what date will we be going back in time to this week?  Well, how about May 6, 1961?

That was the day that a particular actor was born.  An actor who made a career in both film and television.  An actor who women have swooned over for the better part of a quarter-century.  An actor who until recently was considered to be Hollywood's most eligible bachelor (well, prior to his engagement to Amal Alamuddin).

I suppose that I don't need to make much more of an introduction here.

Today just happens to be the fifty-third birthday of movie and television actor George Clooney.  And, in celebration of his birthday, here are fifty-three pieces of trivia that you may or may not know about this man.  So, sit back and grab a beverage as we dig a little deeper into George's life.

1 - George was born in Lexington, Kentucky on May 6, 1961.

2 - He is the son of Nick Clooney (a former anchorman/game show host) and Nina Bruce (former beauty pageant queen/city councilwoman)

3 - Singer/actress Rosemary Clooney was his aunt.  She died in 2002.

4 - George's aunt Rosemary married actor Jose Ferrer, and they gave birth to five children, Miguel, Maria, Gabriel, Monsita and Rafael Ferrer.  You might recognize Miguel from his current role in NCIS: Los Angeles, and Rafael does voice acting.  Seems like acting runs in the family!

5 - Another interesting fact is that singer Debby Boone is related to George by marriage.  George's cousin Gabriel married her in September 1979.

6 - When George was in middle school, he developed Bell's Palsy - a condition that partially paralyzes the face, which subjected him to teasing and bullying from classmates.  Fortunately, it went away within a year.

7 - He attempted to become a professional baseball player in his youth, trying out for the Cincinnati Reds in 1977, but he was cut after the first round.

8 - His very first acting role was as an extra in the 1978 TV miniseries "Centennial".

9 - Everyone remembers George Clooney for his role as Dr. Doug Ross in the NBC drama, ER.  Many don't remember that he was in a separate show called E/R which was a sitcom that aired on CBS for the 1984/85 season!  Imagine the weirdness, starring in two shows with almost the same exact name. 

10 - George Clooney was also a regular on "The Facts of Life" for the 1985-1986 season.  He played the role of George, a handyman who helped the girls construct the "Over Our Heads" store.  His character was written off the show after he went on tour with a character named Cinnamon (Stacey Q).

11 - He also had a prominent part on the sitcom "Roseanne", playing the role of Roseanne and Jackie's supervisor Booker Brooks during the show's debut season.

12 - George Clooney also appeared in the movie "Return of the Killer Tomatoes"!

13 - George stayed on ER for five seasons, departing in 1999.  But he did return for the final episode of the series, which aired in 2009.

14 - The first film that George Clooney appeared in was 1996's "From Dusk 'Til Dawn".

15 - He is directly involved with the "Not On Our Watch Project".

16 - He is also a staunch supporter of gay rights, even appearing in a performance of Dustin Lance Black's play "8" - which is based off of the controversial Proposition 8 bill being passed.

17 - He was arrested in March 2012 outside the Sudanese Embassy for civil disobedience due to his advocacy for resolving the Darfur conflict.

18 - Despite his long-standing bachelor status, Clooney was married once.  His marriage to actress Talia Balsam lasted four years.

19 - He has also been linked to Lisa Snowden, Ginger Lynn Allen, Celine Balitran, Sarah Lawson, Stacy Kiebler, and Elisabetta Canalis, and has reportedly dated Kelly Preston, Renee Zellweger, and Krista Allen.

20 - George's next door neighbours are Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber.

21 - George Clooney was injured in a motorcycle accident in September 2007 when a car slammed into him.  Both he and his then girlfriend were fine.

22 - George Clooney once owned a black, potbellied pig named Max, a gift from then girlfriend Kelly Preston.  Clooney owned him from 1988 until his death in 2006.

23 - Clooney stated that Max actually saved his life by waking him up just moments before the Northridge earthquake caused major damage in January 1994.

24 - Is one of only three people to be named People's "Sexiest Man Alive".  Clooney won the honour in 1997 and in 2006.

25 - Clooney was also named one of TIME Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World for three years straight (2007-2009).

26 - Is a two-time Academy Award winner.  He won the award for "Best Supporting Actor" for 2005's "Syria", and seven years later was honoured when 2012's "Argo" won Best Picture - a film that Clooney helped produce.

27 - He has also won four Golden Globes between 2000 and 2012.

28 - His middle name is Timothy.

29 - His height is listed as five feet, eleven inches.

30 - Both Nicole Kidman and Michelle Pfeiffer bet Clooney ten thousand dollars that Clooney would at least have one child before his fortieth birthday.  Needless to say, when the deadline came and went in May 2001, both actresses sent him the money via personal check...

31 - ...but Clooney returned the money and bet both of them double or nothing that he still would be childless by the time he reached his fiftieth birthday.  I wonder if that bet went through, given that George is still childless at 53.

32 - George once appeared as a guest star on "The Golden Girls", playing a police detective.

33 - George Clooney opened up a new production company with Grant Heslov - Smokehouse Productions - in 2006.

34 - He served as best man at Richard Kind's wedding.

35 - Launched a boycott of "Entertainment Tonight" after the show filmed Clooney without his permission.

36 - When Rosie O'Donnell's talk show first debuted in the summer of 1996, Clooney was her very first guest!

37 - Clooney and "Three Kings" director David O. Russell nearly broke out in fisticuffs after Clooney reportedly took issue with the way that Russell was treating the extras.

38 - Because of his desire to work with the Coen Brothers, he committed himself to 2000's "O Brother, Where Art Thou" without even reading the script!

39 - Clooney didn't perform "live" in "O Brother, Where Art Thou".  His voice was dubbed in during the editing.

40 - He once rode a bicycle to auditions while he was struggling to get his big break.

41 - Voiced the role of Stan's gay dog, "Sparky" in an episode of "South Park".  Part of the reason why Clooney wanted to do it was because he was a huge fan of the show.

42 - Auditioned five times for a role in "Thelma and Louise" - a part that would eventually go to one of his dear friends, Brad Pitt.

43 - Clooney lived in some strange places while he was a struggling actor.  He even reportedly lived in a friend's walk-in closet!

44 - Was seriously injured on the set of 2005's "Syria".  Although he made a full recovery, he suffered from back pain, headaches, and temporary memory loss.

45 - He became the sixth actor to play Batman when he appeared in 1997's "Batman & Robin".

46 - His famous "Roman Haircut" hairstyle of the mid-1990s was actually created by accident!  He had wanted the unique cut to make his character in "From Dusk 'Til Dawn" seem really crazy.  The only crazy thing was that it became as popular as "The Rachel"!

47 - Had George Clooney turned down "Batman & Robin", he would have taken over Michael Keaton's role in "Jack Frost".

48 - Although George Clooney was once a smoker, he quit for good following his uncle's death from lung cancer.

49 - He has appeared on the cover of GQ Magazine at least four times.

50 - Worked in the shoe department of a department store in the late 1970s.

51 - Although he and actress Sandra Bullock have been friends for at least a quarter of a century, the first and only time they've appeared in a film together was 2013's "Gravity".

52 - Got into a little bit of a controversy when he poked fun of Charlton Heston being diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and refused to apologize for it at first.  Though he would later write a note to Heston and his family in 2008 - the same year that Heston passed away.

And...

53 - The most that George Clooney was paid for one film role was $20,000,000...a sum he earned filming "Ocean's Eleven" in 2001.

Happy birthday, Mr. Clooney!