Happy birthday, the real Mary Poppins

It is the birthday of writer Pamela Lyndon Travers (1899), who created the magical English nanny Mary Poppins, and wrote seven sequels after the initial success of her first novel Mary Poppins (1934). While working in the British Ministry of Information in New York during World War II, Roy Disney contacted her about adapting the story for a Disney film. She was not pleased with the results, especially the animation, and never allowed another Disney production. In the 1990s, she agreed to a British stage version as long as no Americans were involved. She died in 1996 at the age of 96. Here is a fascinating British television program about Pamela Travers.

Happy birthday, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

It is the birthday of writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896), who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for her novel The Yearling (1938), the beloved coming-of-age story set in the Florida backwoods in the late 1800s. This video from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection tells about Rawlings' arrival in Florida in 1928.

Dancer Mata Hari was executed as a spy

It is the birthday of Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari (1876), who was convicted in a secret French military trial of espionage during World War I and executed by firing squad in 1917. She was accused of being a double agent for France and Germany, and the prosecutor proclaimed her the world's greatest woman spy, but recent scholarship suggests she was convicted on evidence as flimsy as her costumes and that she was far more successful as a risqué dancer and courtesan than as a spy. She had many military officers as lovers, she spoke four languages fluently, traveled alone throughout Europe, and had plenty of money, all factors that probably led to her arrest. She faced her executioners without a blindfold or being bound to a stake. A silent Mata Hari film was made in 1927, Greta Garbo starred as Mata Hari in a 1931 and Sylvia Kristel starred in a 1985 version.

Judah P. Benjamin was CSA cabinet member

Benjamin appeared on the CSA two-dollar bill. Top left: Gamble Mansion in Ellenton, where Benjamin hid.

It is the birthday of Judah P. Benjamin (1811), who served in several cabinet positions for the Confederate States of America. He was born in the West Indies but came with his family to the United States and became a citizen. While serving as U.S. senator from Louisiana, Benjamin felt insulted by something Sen. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi said about him on the Senate floor so he challenged Davis to a duel. Davis apologized and the two became close friends. When Louisiana seceded from the Union, Benjamin resigned his post. CSA President Jefferson Davis appointed Benjamin Attorney General, then later Secretary of War and then Secretary of State. When the Confederacy collapsed, Benjamin and other cabinet members fled to escape prosecution. Benjamin took refuge at the Gamble Mansion in Ellenton near Bradenton and eventually escaped to the Bahamas and traveled to England, where he became a successful corporate lawyer. Benjamin wrote Treatise on the Law of Sale of Personal Property (1868), still considered an important work in commercial law in England.