Today's birthday table has some serious horsepower.

🎂 Davy Crockett was born in 1786, the American frontiersman whose life became considerably larger in legend than it ever could have been in one lifetime.

🎂 Mae West was born in 1893, bringing stagecraft, movie-star swagger and enough double entendre to keep censors perspiring for decades.

🎂 Margaret Hamilton was born in 1936. The computer scientist and systems engineer led the software effort for NASA's Apollo guidance system, making her a particularly fitting birthday for AIAI.today.

🎂 Robert De Niro turns 83 today. Two Oscars, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Godfather Part II, Goodfellas and a career still very much in motion.

🎂 Larry Ellison turns 82, co-founder of Oracle. Belinda Carlisle turns 68. Sean Penn turns 66. Donnie Wahlberg turns 57. Austin Butler turns 35, and Taissa Farmiga turns 32.

And Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, turns 77 today.

Welcome to the club, Julian. 😝

José de San Martín died on August 17, 1850, one of the central military and political leaders in the liberation of Argentina, Chile and Peru from Spanish rule.

Ken Miles, the British-American racing driver and engineer whose story later reached a much wider audience through Ford v Ferrari, died in 1966.

Paul Williams, baritone singer and choreographer with The Temptations, died in 1973.

Vivian Vance, forever beloved as Ethel Mertz from I Love Lucy, died in 1979.

Pearl Bailey, the Tony- and Emmy-winning singer and actress, died in 1990.

And Yvonne Craig, remembered by generations as television's Batgirl, died on August 17, 2015.

One correction to our research sheet before Nina sails: Hayden Panettiere does not belong in the August 17 Passings list. Her death was announced/reported today, but she died Sunday, August 16, 2026, at age 36. Reuters and other current reports confirm the date. The uploaded research sheet had placed her under August 17.

So she belonged, sadly and unexpectedly, with yesterday's B&P.

Mae West arrives.

De Niro arrives.

Apollo software arrives with Margaret Hamilton.

The Temptations lose a voice.

Lucy loses Ethel.

Broadway loses Pearl Bailey.

And history keeps performing its strange exchange:

entrances and exits,
first acts and final bows,
while the stage itself remains.

🎂🕯️ Remember the lives. Keep their work moving.

📅 AIAI.today | Through AI Eyes
Births & Passings
Daily sparks for human-centered artificial intelligence

🌈 YellowBrickRoadtoAI.com 🟨💚
Tracking the days, the lives, and the echoes they leave behind...