The many iconic birthdays of February, part 2

In the last post we covered Washington, Lincoln, Douglas and Parks.

You know the problem with February though, there's just too many greats!

Moving on to part 2 and another 4 amazing people who have impacted the world many times over, enjoy- 

YTime.

Langston Hughes

Being a poet myself, I feel it's an honor well earned when I set Hughes at the top of this list.

Born February 1st 1902, Hughes was a writer of more then just poems, he published many books and was even a playwright. He was also known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance, an artistic period that is considered by some the  "rebirth" of African-american arts. Most of Hughes poems were geared toward the lives and struggles of the working African-american community, he died in 1967.

Steve Jobs

 Some might argue against Jobs's place on this list, after all, he didn't win any wars... But Jobs did win a war, a war against the society. This may seem cheesy but Jobs was in a hard place when he started, a college dropout, sleeping on a friends floor and returning coke bottles for cash ( his words, not my'n) by all means he should have been homeless, or at least fighting his whole life right?

Wrong, Jobs co-created the first versions of Apple computers and kick-started the company in 1976, however, Jobs was initially kicked out of Apple in 1985! Not to worry, Jobs later rejoined Apple and then worked his way to being the CEO before resigning for health reasons in 2009.

Jobs's company is still the world's number 1 information tech company.  This blog was written on an Apple. Jobs's tech was a revolution in the world of tech and, like many others on this list, he showed that hardships can be overcome.

Jobs was born on Feb 24 though, so he still hasn't overcome second place to me on the list of Feb 24 birthdays all time.

Michael Jordan

   

He has shoes named after him, he has movies named from him and he was so great that his number was retired by three teams. He was and is the greatest "baller" in Basketball history, we're talking Michael Jordan. Born Feb 17th 1963, "MJ's" NBA career started in 1984, right off the bat (a Jordan pun I'll explain later) Jordan was a star and was even such a fan favorite that many veteran players refused to pass him the ball during games because they were upset at the amount of attention he was getting. He won rookie of the year, was voted an All-Star and was slapped onto "Sports Illustrated" with the heading "A star is born". Jordan continued to rack up awards later in his career including his first of many NBA Finals MVP award in his third season, he went on to win the award the next season... And the next, it was his first "three-peat".

Jordan played for the Bulls until 1993 before playing briefly in minor league baseball, before returning for a second "three-peat" for the Bulls from 1995 to 1998.

Jordan retired from the NBA AGAIN in 1999 before returning AGAIN in 2001 for the Wizards.

The awards listed below are only the awards Jordan received in the NBA, Jordan also took home a gold medal from the "Dream team" in the 1992 mens Olympic basketball finals where the American team beat all but two teams by more then 40 points, and beat those two teams by 33 and 38, he also won a gold in the 1984 Olympics as a college player. Jordan was also awarded the Presidential medal of freedom in 2016.

After he retired, Jordan kept busy giving loads to charity and, if you didn't already guess, playing YET ANOTHER sport... Golf.

Jordan also partially owns the Hornets... Another NBA team.

• 6× NBA champion (1991–1993, 1996–1998)
• 6× NBA Finals MVP (1991–1993, 1996–1998)
• 5× NBA Most Valuable Player (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998)
• 14× NBA All-Star (1985–1993, 1996–1998, 2002–2003)
• 3× NBA All-Star Game MVP (1988, 1996, 1998)
• 10× All-NBA First Team (1987–1993, 1996–1998)
• All-NBA Second Team (1985)
• NBA Defensive Player of the Year (1988)
• 9× NBA All-Defensive First Team (1988–1993, 1996–1998)
• NBA Rookie of the Year (1985)
• 10× NBA scoring champion (1987–1993, 1996–1998)
• 3× NBA steals leader (1988, 1990, 1993)
• 2× NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion (1987, 1988)
• No. 23 retired by Chicago Bulls
• No. 23 retired by Miami Heat
• No. 23 retired by the University of North Carolina
• 3× AP Athlete of the Year (1991, 1992, 1993)
• 2× USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year (1983, 1984)
• NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team
• NCAA champion (1982)
• National college player of the year (1984)
• 2× Consensus first-team All-American (1983, 1984)
• ACC Player of the Year (1984)

And another sports legend...

Jim Brown

All sports fans have different views on "who's the best", whether it's the fans fighting over Manning and Brady (and so on...) or fans fighting over running backs like Bo Jackson and Jim Brown.

Jim Brown was a legend before there were legends, people even joke that the Browns (his former  football team) were named after him. 

Brown was born Feb 17, 1936 and was a sports star even before he played football, setting the record for average basketball points in his home town, he earned 13 Varsity letters for many different sports but went with football in college.

He was picked up by the Browns in the 1957 draft and set several records in his rookie year.

He was the first player to reach the 100 touchdowns milestone and few have done so since, even more impressive, he reached 100 touchdowns in a time when only 12 games were played per year (Brown played 14 games in the last five of his 9 seasons, there are now 16 regular season games).  Brown won one championship with the Browns and was invited to the Probowl every year he was in the NFL. 

Brown was also an actor in 44 movies.

It goes without saying, Brown easily made it into the Hall of fame.

There are so many more Greats but February is now gone and we are moving on! Please let me know in the comments what you thought of my list and 1UP this post.

Until next time- YTIME.