August 27:Birthday of Vice Presidents

Three vice presidents were born on August 27, more than any other day in the calendar, though only two if you count vice presidents who never made it to the presidency.

In 1809, Hannibal Hamlin (pictured, left) was born in Paris, Maine, and spent most of his life as a successful Maine politician. He was 15th Vice President of the United States, under President Lincoln, and as such the first Republican to hold that office; he is also the only Mainer to be vice president, and the only veep named after a Carthagian. Lincoln unceremoniously dropped him from the ticket in 1864, so President Hamlin was not to be.

In 1865, Charles C. Dawes (pictured, right) was born Marietta, Ohio, though he's associated with Evanston, Illinois, where he lived later in life as a successful banker and Republican politico. Dawes was 30th Vice President of the United States, under President Coolidge, and in as much as one can fail at being vice president, Dawes did. Early in his term he managed to alienate both the president and the US Senate, so his time as vice president was even more uneventful than is usual for that office.

August 27 is also birthday of Lyndon Johnson, 37th Vice President and 36th President of the United States, born in 1908.