American author and engineer

Homer Hickam

Homer Hadley Hickam Jr. is an American author, Vietnam War veteran, and a former NASA engineer who trained the first Japanese astronauts. His 1998 memoir Rocket Boys was a New York Times Best Seller and was the basis for the 1999 film October Sky. Hickam's body of written work also includes several additional best-selling memoirs and novels, including the "Josh Thurlow" historical fiction novels, his 2015 best-selling Carrying Albert Home: The Somewhat True Story of a Man, his Wife, and her Alligator and in 2021 the sequel to Rocket Boys titled Don't Blow Yourself Up: The Further Adventures and Travails of the Rocket Boy of October Sky.

Born

1943

February 19

Died

Living

Era

1940s

Country

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About

Homer, in brief

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Life timeline

Key dates

1943 Born

Also on February 19

What else happened on this day, through history

197 Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum, the bloodiest battle between Roman armies.
356 The anti-paganism policy of Constantius II forbids the worship of pagan idols in the Roman Empire.
607 Pope Boniface III is consecrated in Rome.
1594 Having already been elected to the throne of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1587, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa is crowned King of Sweden, having succeeded his father John III of Sweden in 1592.

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The world in 1943

When Homer arrived

april 13 World War II: The discovery of mass graves of Polish prisoners of war killed by Soviet forces in the Katyń Forest Massacre is announced, causing a diplomatic rift between the Polish government-in-exile in London and the Soviet Union, which denies responsibility.
april 13 The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth.
april 16 Albert Hofmann accidentally discovers the hallucinogenic effects of the research drug LSD. He intentionally takes the drug three days later on April 19.
april 18 World War II: Operation Vengeance, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is killed when his aircraft is shot down by U.S. fighters over Bougainville Island.

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Same-day contemporaries

Also born on February 19

Nicolaus Copernicus 1473–1543 Prussian mathematician and astronomer (died 1543) Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor 1960– second son of Elizabeth II David Bronstein 1924–2006 Ukrainian-Belarusian chess player and theoretician (born 1924) K. Viswanath 1930–2023 Indian actor, director, and screenwriter (died 2023) Nikola Jokić 1995– Serbian basketball player Norm O'Neill 1937– Australian cricketer and sportscaster (died 2008) Paul Krause 1942– American football player and politician Raúl Grijalva 1948–2025 United States representative from Arizona (died 2025) Reynhard Sinaga 1983– Indonesian sex offender

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Same-year contemporaries

Also born in 1943

Albano Carrisi 1943– Italian singer, actor, and winemaker Blythe Danner 1943– American actress Burt Rutan 1943– American engineer and pilot Davey Johnson 1943– American baseball player and manager (died 2025) Eddie Low 1943–2024 New Zealand country singer and musician (died 2024) Emerson Boozer 1943– American football player and sportscaster Florence Ballard 1943–1976 American singer (born 1943) Gamini Lokuge 1943– Sri Lankan politician (died 2025) Gary Wright 1943– American singer-songwriter, keyboard player, and producer (died 2023)

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Keep going

More to explore

Homer's birthday February 19 Homer's zodiac Pisces When Homer arrived 1943