By Danielle Daniels
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Philip Hampson Knight (born February 24, 1938) is an American billionaire business magnate who is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc., a global sports equipment and apparel company. He was previously its chairman and CEO. As of December 2023, Forbes estimated his net worth at $45.0 billion. He is also the owner of the stop motion film production company Laika. Knight is a graduate of the University of Oregon and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was part of the track and field club under coach Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon with whom he would later co-found Nike.
Knight has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to each of his alma maters, as well as Oregon Health & Science University. He has donated over $2 billion to these three institutions.
Early life and education
Phil Hampson Knight was born on February 24, 1938, in Portland, Oregon, to Bill Knight, a lawyer turned newspaper publisher, and his wife, Lota Cloy (née Hatfield) Knight. He grew up in the Portland neighborhood of Eastmoreland, and attended Cleveland High School. According to one source, “When his father refused to give him a summer job at his newspaper [the now defunct Oregon Journal], believing that his son should find work on his own,” Knight “went to the rival Oregonian, where he worked the morning shift tabulating sports scores and every morning ran home the full seven miles.”
Knight continued his education at the University of Oregon in Eugene, where he ran for the famed Oregon track and field program, was a sports reporter for the Oregon Daily Emerald and was a member of Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. Knight earned a business degree (B.B.A.) in 1959 in just three years. That same year, Knight also received his Army Reserve Commission and was a “Distinguished Military Graduate“.
As a middle-distance runner at Oregon, his personal best was 1 mile (1.6 km) in 4 minutes, 13 seconds, and he won varsity letters for his track performances in 1957, 1958, and 1959. In 1977, together with Bowerman and Geoff Hollister, Knight founded an American running team called Athletics West.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
In 2023, the Full Moon rises on February 5. Usually the heaviest snows fall in February. Hunting becomes very difficult, and hence to some Native American tribes this was the Hunger Moon. Learn more on our February Full Moon Guide.
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Wilhelm Grimm (folklorist) –
- Winslow Homer (painter) –
- Chester Nimitz (U.S. fleet admiral) –
- Philip Knight (co-founder of Nike) –
- Debra Jo Rupp (actress) –
- Sid Meier (Canadian-American programmer and game designer ) –
- Steve Jobs (computer pioneer) –
- Eddie Murray (baseball player) –
- Mike Lowell (baseball player) –
- Bronson Arroyo (baseball player) –
Died
- Dinah Shore (singer) –
- Henny Youngman (vaudevillian who fiddled his way into television and films) –
- John McMorran (the oldest American man [at the time of his death] died from heart failure) –
- John Randolph (actor) –
- Dennis Weaver (actor) –
- Don Knotts (actor) –
- Jan Berenstain (co-creator of The Berenstain Bears book series) –
- Harold Ramis (actor & director) –
Events
- Thomas Edison married Mina Miller. He wooed the 19 year old woman via Morse code–
- Thermite explosive first used to break ice jam, Waddington, NY–
- Nylon toothbrush bristles made by DuPont–
- When You Wish Upon a Star recorded–
- Discovery (by Jocelyn Bell) of the first pulsar announced–
- Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer–
- Hockey player Wayne Gretzky scored his 77th goal of the season and broke Phil Esposito’s 1971 record–
- A deadly 6.5-magnitude earthquake shook northeastern Morocco killing more than 560 people and injured approximately 300 more–
- Eastern Ontario and western Quebec were shaken by a 4.5 earthquake–
- Pilots of two planes reported UFO over Arizona–
Weather
- Brown snow fell in Vermont and New Hampshire. The color was caused by dust blown from storms in the Great Plains.–
- The temperature in Jacksonville, Florida, plummeted to 24 degrees F–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
