Happy Birthday to y - - Holy Shit! Both of you were born today?!

That was essentially my reaction when Gimpy told me that Darwin beat out Abe Lincoln for the jazzed-up Google logo today, though both of them turn 200 today. I find it pretty remarkable that Darwin beat out Honest Abe for greater notoriety. Darwin did some ground-breaking shit, but by any metric, Lincoln is one of the top 3 Presidents (if not by quality, than certainly by importance).

It would probably be appropriate at this point to admit that I have a huge boner for Lincoln. I've read 2 biographies of him and (I think) every one of his speeches let alone some of his written work. He's an incredible person, and if you don't believe me read Lincoln's Melancholy. It's an incredible look at the life-long depression that that gangly motherfucker faced.

But the more important thing here is that both Darwin and Lincoln were born on the exact same day! What the fuck?! That is absurd! That's on par with Jefferson and John Adams both dying on the same day within hours of each other. Oh, and that date of their death also happens to be the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. (Look me in the face and tell me those two weren't euthanized, though. You can't. That's how unbelievable that is. But that's a story for another day.)

No single person has had a greater impact on science since Newton than Darwin has; and I'm including Einstein in that. Darwin's theory was so impressive that it touched almost every area of daily life, including how it impacted American social structure for the next 50-odd years. And Darwin's thoughts impact far more people on a daily basis than those of any other scientists and maybe any other thinker of the last two centuries. Think about it.

But Lincoln. Every grammar school kid knows what Lincoln did. Every presidential scholar (or close to it) considers Lincoln to be the best writer of our 43 Presidents (see below if you think that number should be 44). Lincoln was so important that everyone still knows John Wilkes Booth's name.

But I've glossed over the most important revelation here: given that these two titans of history were born on the same day, you have to wonder - - who shares a birthday with me?