Samuel Johnson, 300

Happy 300, big guy:

Samuel Johnson was born in Lichfield in Staffordshsire, on the 18th of September, N.S. 1709, and his initiation into the Christian church was not delayed; for his baptism is recorded in the register of St. Mary's parish in that city, to have been performed the day of his birth:... His father was Michael Johnson, a native of Derbyshire, of obscure extraction, who settled in Lichfield as a bookseller and stationer. His mother was Sarah Ford, descended of an ancient race of substantial yeomanry in Warwickshire. They were well advanced in years when they married ... I asked his old school-fellow, Mr. Hector, surgeon, of Birmingham, if [Johnson's mother] was not vain of her son. He said "she had too much good sense to be vain, but she knew her son's value."

--James Boswell, Life of Johnson, L.L.D. 15 (Modern Library ed. [ffollowing Malone's sixth edition])