By Michelle Richardson
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, producer, and narrator. In a career spanning six decades, he has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for a Tony Award. He was honored with the Kennedy Center Honor in 2008, an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2011, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2012, and Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2018. In a 2022 readers’ poll by Empire, he was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Freeman was raised in Mississippi, where he began acting in school plays. He studied theater arts in Los Angeles and appeared in stage productions in his early career. He rose to fame in the 1970s for his role in the children’s television series The Electric Company. Freeman then appeared in the Shakespearean plays Coriolanus and Julius Caesar, the former of which earned him an Obie Award. In 1978, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his role as Zeke in the Richard Wesley play The Mighty Gents.
Freeman received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor playing a former boxer in Clint Eastwood‘s sports drama Million Dollar Baby (2004). He was Oscar-nominated for Street Smart (1987), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and Invictus (2009). He also acted in Glory (1989), Lean on Me (1989), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Unforgiven (1992), Se7en (1995), Amistad (1997), Deep Impact (1998), Gone Baby Gone (2007), and The Bucket List (2007). He also portrayed Lucius Fox in Christopher Nolan‘s Dark Knight trilogy (2005–2012) and acted in the action films Wanted (2008), Red (2010), Oblivion (2013), the Now You See Me films (2013–2025), and Lucy (2014).
Known for his distinctive voice, he has narrated numerous documentaries including The Long Way Home (1997), March of the Penguins (2005), Through the Wormhole (2010–2017), The Story of God with Morgan Freeman (2016–2019), Our Universe (2022) and Life on Our Planet (2023). He made his directorial debut with the drama Bopha! (1993). He founded the film production company Revelations Entertainment with business partner Lori McCreary in 1996, under which they produced projects such as the CBS political drama Madam Secretary (2014–2019).
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Shavuot begins at sundown on this day. Called the Feast of the Weeks in the Jewish calendar, Shavuot is a two-day holiday that was originally a harvest festival. It’s also a thanksgiving day to commemorate the Giving of the Law, the Torah, recalling when Moses and the Israelites received the Ten Commandments from God at Mount Sinai. Shavuot, which means weeks, always begins exactly seven weeks after Passover. Shavuot is known also as Yom Habikkurim, or “The Day of the First Fruits,” because Israel’s farmers would bring a bundle from their first harvest to the temple in Jerusalem as a token of thanksgiving to God. Spring harvests in Israel began with the barley crop at Passover. Each farmer would set aside the first of each type of fruit to ripen, tie it in ribbon, and all would be brought to the city, accompanied by a joyful, musical celebration.
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Francis Edgar Stanley (American inventor) –
- Freelan Oscar Stanley (American inventor) –
- Marilyn Monroe (actress) –
- Andy Griffith (actor) –
- Pat Boone (singer) –
- Morgan Freeman (actor) –
- Teri Polo (actress) –
- Heidi Klum (model) –
- Alanis Morissette (singer & songwriter) –
Died
- James Buchanan (15th U.S. president) –
- Leslie Howard (actor) –
- Helen Keller (blind, deaf, and mute author) –
- Yves Saint Laurent (fashion designer) –
- Julian and Adrian Riester (92-year-old identical twin friars died hours apart, each from heart failure) –
- Ann B. Davis (actress) –
HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY
Events
- Earthquake shook Plymouth, MA –
- Kentucky admitted into the Union as the 15th state –
- Tennessee admitted into the Union as the 16th state –
- Captain James Lawrence ordered crew, Don’t give up the ship! –
- A lake appeared this month in Salton Sink, Colorado Desert, California –
- Corning Glass Works in N.Y. announced the invention of photosensitive glass –
- The Cable News Network (CNN) made its debut –
- Thirteen-year old Katharine Close spelled “ursprache” correctly to win the 79th Annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. She was the first champion ever from New Jersey –
Weather
- Hail up to four inches in diameter fell in parts of Maine during a series of severe thunderstorms across central and northern New England –
- Thirty-nine degrees F in Springfield, Illinois –
- An EF-3 tornado caused extensive damage from Westfield to Charlton, Massachusetts –
- 1” snow, Delta Junction, Alaska –
COURTESY www.almanac.com
