FOREVER GARY: Coinciding with the unlikely return to the gossip pages of Conrad Bain, it's time once again to wish Happy Birthday to Gary Coleman, who turns 35 on Saturday. Gary's birthday was celebrated annually by my friends and I back in college, and I always swore I would pay tribute to him in my college newspaper column (I finally did, on the occasion of his birthday in 2000).
Other major events that occurred on the date of Gary's birth (February 8, 1968): The original "Planet of the Apes" was released, The Beatles' Eastern-flavored masterpiece "Across the Universe" was recorded, Robert F. Kennedy delivered a major policy speech decrying the war in Vietnam, and three black students were killed in a National Guard raid in Orangeburg, SC. In fact, a Google search of that date turns up no reference at all to Gary until the 5th page.