Wikimedia Commons has media related to: 1906

This article is about the year 1906. For other uses, see 1906 (disambiguation).

Year 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar.

Events[link]

January–February[link]

• January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: a nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah to grant a constitution and establish a national assembly, the Majlis.
• January 16–April 7 – Algeciras Conference to resolve the First Moroccan Crisis between France and Germany.
• January 22 – The SS Valencia strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, Canada, killing over 100 (officially 136) in the ensuing disaster.
• January 31 – Ecuador-Colombia earthquake (8.8 on the Moment magnitude scale) and associated tsunami.
• February 10 – HMS Dreadnought is launched and sparks the naval race between Britain and Germany.
• February 11 – Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos.

January 31: Ecuador earthquake (8.6).

March–April[link]

• March 10 – Courrières mine disaster: an explosion in a coal mine in France kills 1,060.
• March 18 – Traian Vuia makes a short flight in a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft.
• April 7 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.
• April 18 – San Francisco earthquake (estimated magnitude 7.8) on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, USA, killing at least 3,000, with 225,000–300,000 left homeless, and $350 million in damages.
• April 23 – In Tsarist Russia, the Fundamental Laws are announced at the first state Duma.

May–June[link]

• May – Jack London's novel White Fang is serialized in The Outing Magazine.
• June 7 – The RMS Lusitania is launched in Glasgow. It is the world's largest ship.

July–August[link]

• July 6 – The Second Geneva Convention meets.
• July 12 – Alfred Dreyfus is exonerated. He is reinstalled in the French Army on July 21, thus ending the Dreyfus affair.
• August 16 – A magnitude 8.2 earthquake in Valparaíso, Chile leaves approximately 20,000 dead.
• August 22 – The first Victor Victrola, a phonographic record player, is manufactured.
• August 23 – Unable to control a rebellion Cuban President Tomás Estrada Palma requests United States intervention. The subsequent provisional occupation administration lasts until 1909.^{[citation needed]}

September–October[link]

• September 11 – Mahatma Gandhi coins the term Satyagraha to characterize the Non-Violence movement in South Africa.
• September 18 – A typhoon and tsunami kill an estimated 10,000 in Hong Kong.^{[citation needed]}
• September 30 – The first Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning is held, starting in Paris. The winning team, piloting the balloon United States, lands in Fylingdales, Yorkshire, England.
• October 1 – The Grand Duchy of Finland becomes the first nation to include the right of women to stand as candidates when it adopts universal suffrage.
• October 6 – The Majlis of Iran convenes for the first time.
• October 11 – A United States diplomatic crisis with Japan arises when the San Francisco public school board orders Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
• October 16 – Imposter Wilhelm Voigt impersonates a Prussian officer and takes over the city hall in Köpenick for a short time.
• October 23 – An aeroplane of Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off at Bagatelle in France and flies 60 meters (200 feet). This is the first officially recorded powered flight in Europe..
• October 28 – The Union Minière du Haut Katanga, a Belgian mining trust, is created in the Congo.

November–December[link]

• November 3 – SOS becomes an international distress signal.
• November 22 – Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin introduces agrarian reforms aimed at creating a large class of land-owning peasants.
• December 2 – HMS Dreadnought, the first all-big-gun warship, is commissioned.
• December 14 – The first German Imperial Navy submarine, U-1 (launched on August 4), is commissioned.
• December 24 – Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast: a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.
• December 26 – The world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, is released.

Date unknown[link]

• The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) immunization for tuberculosis is first developed.
• Richard Oldham argues that the Earth has a molten interior.
• Construction begins on the current Great Mosque of Djenné.
• The Simplo Filler Pen company is founded, later to become the Montblanc Company.

Births[link]

January–February[link]

• January 11 – Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist (d. 2008)
• January 13 – Zhou Youguang, Chinese linguist
• January 14 – William Bendix, American film, radio, and television actor (d. 1964)
• January 21 – Igor Moiseyev, Russian choreographer (d. 2007)
• January 22 – Robert E. Howard, American author (d. 1936)
• February 4
  • Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (d. 1997)
  • Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German religious leader and resistance leader (d. 1945)
• February 5 – John Carradine, American actor (d. 1988)
• February 7 – Puyi, Last Emperor of China (d. 1967)
• February 10 – Lon Chaney, Jr., American actor (d. 1973)
• February 18 – Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980)
• February 22 – Helge Kjærulff-Schmidt, Danish actor (d. 1982)
• February 26 – Madeleine Carroll, British actress (d. 1987)
• February 28 – Bugsy Siegel, American gangster (d. 1947)

March–April[link]

• March 1 – Pham Van Dong, Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2000)
• March 6
  • Victor Hasselblad, Swedish inventor and photographer (d. 1978)
  • Lou Costello, American actor (d. 1959)
• March 7 – Elmar Lipping, Estonian statesman and soldier (d. 1994)
• March 16 – Francisco Ayala, Spanish writer (d. 2009)
• March 19
  • Adolf Eichmann, German war criminal (d. 1962)
  • Roy Roberts, American actor (d. 1975)
• March 25 – A. J. P. Taylor, English historian (d. 1990)
• March 26 – Rafael Méndez, Mexican trumpet player (d. 1981)
• March 31 – Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1979)
• April 1 – Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev, Russian engineer and airplane designer (d. 1989)
• April 4 – Bea Benaderet, American actress (d. 1968)
• April 9 – Antal Doráti, Hungarian conductor (d. 1988)
• April 13 – Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1989)
• April 19 – Luis Alberti, Dominican Republic musician (d. 1976)
• April 22 – Eddie Albert, American actor (d. 2005)
• April 28
  • Kurt Gödel, Austrian logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics (d. 1978)
  • Paul Sacher, Swiss conductor (d. 1999)

May–June[link]

• May 2 – Philippe Halsman, Latvian-born American photographer (d. 1979)
• May 3 – Mary Astor, American actress and writer (d. 1987)
• May 6 – André Weil, French mathematician (d. 1998)
• May 8 – Roberto Rossellini, Italian director (d. 1977)
• May 11 – Jacqueline Cochran, American aviatrix (d. 1980)
• May 15 – Humberto Delgado, Portuguese general and politician (d. 1965)
• May 16 – Arturo Uslar Pietri, Venezuelan writer (d. 2001)
• May 19 – Bruce Bennett, American athlete and actor (d. 2007)
• May 20 – Giuseppe Siri, Italilan Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 1989)
• May 23 – Lucha Reyes, Mexican singer (d. 1944)
• May 27 – Buddhadasa, Buddhist monk (d. 1993)
• May 29 – T. H. White, British writer (d. 1964)
• May 30 – Bruno Gröning, German faith healer (d. 1959)
• June 3 – Josephine Baker, American-born French entertainer (d. 1975)
• June 4 – Ivan Knunyants, Soviet chemist (d. 1990)
• June 6 – Max August Zorn, German-born American mathematician (d. 1993)
• June 12 – Sandro Penna, Italian poet (d. 1977)
• June 15 – Léon Degrelle, Belgian fascist (d. 1994)
• June 19 – Ernst Boris Chain, German-born British biochemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1979)
• June 22
  • Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and aviator (d. 2001)
  • Billy Wilder, Austrian-born American screenwriter, film director and producer (d. 2002)
• June 24 – Pierre Fournier, French cellist (d. 1986)
• June 28 – Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)

July–August[link]

• July 1 – Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur (d. 2004)
• July 2
  • Hans Bethe, German-born American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
  • Oleg Antonov, Soviet aircraft designer (d. 1984)
• July 3 – George Sanders, British actor (d. 1972)
• July 7
  • William Feller, Croatian-born mathematician (d. 1970)
  • Satchel Paige, American baseball player (d. 1982)
• July 11 – Herbert Wehner, German politician (d. 1990)
• July 12 – Pietro Tordi, Italian actor (d. 1990)
• July 23 – Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1998)
• July 25 – José Figueres Ferrer, President of Costa Rica (d. 1990)
• August 5 – Joan Hickson, British actress (d. 1998)
• August 14 – Horst P. Horst, German photographer (d. 1999)
• August 19 – Philo Farnsworth, American inventor (d. 1971)
• August 27 – Ed Gein, American serial killer (d. 1984)
• August 28 – John Betjeman, English poet (d. 1984)

September–October[link]

• September 1
  • Joaquín Balaguer, Dominican politician and writer (d. 2002)
  • Franz Biebl, German composer (d. 2001)
  • Eleanor Burford, English writer (d. 1993)
• September 4 – Max Delbrück, German biologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1981)
• September 6 – Luis Federico Leloir, French-born Argentine chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1987)
• September 8 – Andrei Kirilenko (politician), Soviet politician (d. 1990)
• September 17 – Junius Richard Jayewardene, President of Sri Lanka (d. 1996)
• September 25 – Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (d. 1975)
• October 6 – Janet Gaynor, American actress (d. 1984)
• October 9 – Léopold Sédar Senghor, President of Senegal (d. 2001)
• October 10 – Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Narayan, Indian novelist (d. 2001)
• October 14
  • Imam Hassan al Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (d. 1949)
  • Hannah Arendt, German political theorist (d. 1975)
• October 23 – Gertrude Ederle, American swimmer (d. 2003)
• October 24 – Marie-Louise von Motesiczky, Austrian painter (d. 1996)
• October 26 – Primo Carnera, Italian boxer (d. 1967)
• October 27 – Kazuo Ohno, Japanese dancer (d. 2010)

November–December[link]

• November 2 – Luchino Visconti, Italian theatre and cinema director and writer (d. 1976)
• November 5 – Fred Lawrence Whipple, American astronomer (d. 2004)
• November 13 – Hermione Baddeley, English character actress (d. 1986)
• November 14 – Louise Brooks, American actress (d. 1985)
• November 15 – Curtis LeMay, United States Air Force general (d. 1990)
• November 16 – Henri Charrière, French author (d. 1973)
• November 17 – Soichiro Honda, Japanese industrialist (d. 1991)
• November 18
  • Klaus Mann, German writer (d. 1949)
  • George Wald, American scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1997)
  • Alec Issigonis, Greek-born British automobile designer (d. 1988)
• December 5 – Otto Preminger, Austrian-born American film director (d. 1986)
• December 6 – Ahn Eak-tai, Korean composer (d. 1965)
• December 9 – Grace Hopper, American computer scientist and naval officer (d. 1992)
• December 19 – Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet leader (d. 1982)
• December 24 – James Hadley Chase, English writer (d. 1985)
• December 25 – Ernst Ruska, German physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1988)
• December 26 – Imperio Argentina, Argentinian singer and actress (d. 2003)
• December 27 – Oscar Levant, American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor (d. 1972)

Deaths[link]

January–June[link]

• January 19 – Bartolomé Mitre President of Argentina (b. 1821)
• January 25 – Joseph Wheeler, American general and politician (b. 1836)
• January 29 – King Christian IX of Denmark (b. 1818)
• February 13 – Albert Gottschalk, Danish painter (b. 1866)
• February 27 – Samuel Pierpont Langley, American astronomer, physicist, and aeronautics pioneer (b. 1834)
• March 4 – John Schofield, American general (b. 1831)
• March 8 – Henry Baker Tristram, English clergyman, and ornithologist. (b. 1822)
• March 13 – Susan B. Anthony, American civil rights and women's suffrage activist (b. 1820)
• March 19 – Victor Fatio, Swiss zoologist (b. 1838)
• March 29 – Slava Raškaj, Croatian painter (b. 1877)
• April 6 – Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (b. 1849)
• April 19
  • Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
  • Spencer Gore, British tennis player and cricketer (b. 1850)
• May 14 – Carl Schurz, German revolutionary and American statesman (b. 1829)
• May 23 – Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright (b. 1828)
• June 17 – Harry Nelson Pillsbury, American chess champion (b. 1872)

July–December[link]

• September 1 – Giuseppe Giacosa, Italian poet and librettist (b. 1847)
• September 5 – Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist (b. 1844)
• October 8 – Adelaide Ristori, Italian actress (b. 1822)
• October 22 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (b. 1839)
• October 24 – Vladimir Stasov, Russian music critic (b. 1824)
• December 7 – Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist and activist, Nobel laureate (b. 1833)
• December 13 – Jan Gerard Palm, Dutch composer (b. 1831)

Nobel Prizes[link]

• Physics – Sir Joseph John Thomson
• Chemistry – Henri Moissan
• Medicine – Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramón y Cajal
• Literature – Giosuè Carducci
• Peace – Theodore Roosevelt

References[link]

Jay Leno
Leno in July 2008
Birth name	James Douglas Muir Leno
Born	(1950-04-28) April 28, 1950 (age 62)[1] New Rochelle, New York, U.S.[1]
Medium	Television, Film, Stand up
Nationality	American
Years active	1973–present
Genres	Observational comedy, Political satire
Subject(s)	American culture, Everyday life
Influences	Johnny Carson, Robert Klein, Alan King, George Carlin,[2] Don Rickles, Bob Newhart, Rodney Dangerfield
Influenced	Dennis Miller[3]
Spouse	Mavis Leno (1980–present)
Notable works and roles	The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (host, 1992–2009, 2010–) The Jay Leno Show (host, 2009–2010)
Signature
Website	The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series 1995 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno /ˈlɛnoʊ/ (born April 28, 1950)^[1] is an American stand-up comedian and television host.

From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. (Eastern Time, UTC-5), also on NBC. After The Jay Leno Show was canceled in January 2010 amid a host controversy, Leno returned to host The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 1, 2010.^[4]

Early life[link]

James "Jay" Leno was born in New Rochelle, New York, in 1950. His mother, Catherine (née Muir; 1911–1993), a homemaker, was born in Greenock, Scotland, and came to the United States at age 11. Leno's father, Angelo (1910–1994), who worked as an insurance salesman, was born in New York to immigrants from Flumeri, Italy.^[5] Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts, and although his high school guidance counselor recommended that he drop out of school, he later obtained a Bachelor's degree in speech therapy from Emerson College, where he started a comedy club in 1973.^[6] Leno's siblings include his late older brother, Patrick, who was a Vietnam veteran^[7] and a lawyer.^[6]

Career[link]

During the 1970s, Leno appeared in minor roles in several television series and films, first in the 1976 episode "J.J. in Trouble" of Good Times and the same year in the pilot of Holmes & Yo-Yo. After an uncredited appearance in the 1977 film Fun with Dick and Jane, he played more prominent parts in 1978 in American Hot Wax and Silver Bears. Other films and television series from that period include Almost Heaven (1978), "Going Nowhere" (1979) from One Day at a Time, Americathon (1979), Polyester (1981), "The Wild One" (1981) from Alice, "Feminine Mistake" (1979) and "Do the Carmine" (1983) from Laverne & Shirley.

[edit] The Tonight Show

Leno in 1993, shortly after becoming host of The Tonight Show

Starting in 1987, Leno was a regular substitute host for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. In 1992, he replaced Carson as host^[8] amid controversy with David Letterman, who had been hosting Late Night with David Letterman since 1982 (aired after The Tonight Show), who many had expected to be Carson's successor. The story of this turbulent transition was later turned into a book and a movie. Leno continued to perform as a stand-up comedian throughout his tenure on The Tonight Show.

In 2004, Leno signed a contract extension with NBC which would keep him as host of The Tonight Show until 2009.^[9] Later in 2004, Conan O'Brien signed a contract with NBC under which O'Brien would become the host of The Tonight Show in 2009, replacing Leno at that time.^[10]

During the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike, Leno was accused of violating WGA guidelines by writing his own monologue for The Tonight Show. While NBC and Leno claim there were private meetings with the WGA where there was a secret agreement allowing this, the WGA denied such a meeting.^[11] Leno answered questions in front of the Writers Guild of America, West trial committee in February 2009 and June 2009, and when the WGAW published its list of strike-breakers on 11 August 2009, Leno was not on the list.^[12][13]

In 1998, Leno competed in a tag-team match at the WCW's "Road Wild" pay-per-view . In 2001, he voiced The Crimson Chin, a superhero in the Nickelodeon animated series The Fairly OddParents and continues to do so today.

Leno said in 2008 that he was saving all of his income from The Tonight Show and living solely off his income from stand-up comedy.^[14]

On April 23, 2009, Leno checked himself into a hospital with an undisclosed illness.^[15] He was released the following day and returned to work on Monday, April 27. The two subsequently cancelled Tonight Show episodes for April 23 and April 24 were Leno's first in 17 years as host.^[16][17] Initially, the illness that caused the absence was not disclosed, but later Leno told People magazine that the ailment was exhaustion.^[17][18]

Michael Jackson trial[link]

In the 2005 trial of Michael Jackson over allegations of child molestation, Leno appeared as a defense witness (many celebrity defense witnesses had been expected, but Leno was one of the few whose testimony was actually needed). In his testimony regarding a call by the accuser, Leno testified that he never called the police, that no money was asked for, and there was no coaching — but that the calls seemed unusual and scripted.^[19]

Leno in 2006.

As a result, Leno was initially not allowed to continue telling jokes about Jackson or the case, which had been a fixture of The Tonight Show's opening monologue in particular. But he and his show's writers used a legal loophole by having Leno briefly step aside while stand-in comedians took the stage and told jokes about the trial. Stand-ins included Roseanne Barr, Drew Carey, Brad Garrett, and Dennis Miller among others.^[20]

[edit] Succession by Conan O'Brien and The Jay Leno Show

Because Leno's show continued to lead all late-night programming in the Nielsen ratings, the pending expiration of Leno's contract led to speculation about whether he would become a late-night host for another network after his commitment to NBC expired.^[21] Leno left The Tonight Show on Friday May 29, 2009,^[22][23] and Conan O'Brien took over on June 1, 2009.

On December 8, 2008, it was reported that Leno would remain on NBC and move to a new hour-long show at 10 p.m. Eastern Time (9 p.m. Central Time) five nights a week.^[24] This show follows a similar format to The Tonight Show, tapes at the same lot, and retains many of Leno's most popular segments. Late Night host Conan O'Brien was his successor on The Tonight Show.^[25]

Jay Leno's new show, titled The Jay Leno Show, debuted on September 14, 2009. It was announced at the Television Critics Association summer press tour that it would feature one or two celebrities, the occasional musical guest, and keep the popular "Headlines" segments, which would air near the end of the show. First guests included Jerry Seinfeld, Oprah Winfrey (via satellite), and a short sit-down with Kanye West discussing his controversy at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.^[26]

[edit] Timeslot conflict and return to The Tonight Show

Wikinews has related news: US TV host Conan O'Brien rejects NBC's offer to switch his show's time slot

In their new roles, neither O'Brien nor Leno succeeded in delivering the viewing audiences the network anticipated. On January 7, 2010, multiple media outlets reported that beginning March 1, 2010, Jay Leno would move from his 10pm weeknight time slot to 11:35pm, due to a combination of pressure from local affiliates whose newscasts were suffering, and both Leno's and O'Brien's poor ratings.^[27][28] Leno's show would be shortened from an hour to 30 minutes. All NBC late night programming would be preempted by the 2010 Winter Olympics between February 15 and February 26. This would move The Tonight Show to 12:05am, a post-midnight timeslot for the first time in its history. O'Brien's contract stipulated that NBC could move the show back to 12:05 a.m. without penalty (a clause put in primarily to accommodate sports preemptions).^[29]

On January 10, NBC confirmed that they would move Jay Leno out of primetime as of February 12 and intended to move him to late night as soon as possible.^[30][31] TMZ reported that O'Brien was given no advance notice of this change, and that NBC offered him two choices: an hour-long 12:05am time slot, or the option to leave the network.^[32] On January 12, O'Brien issued a press release that stated he would not continue with Tonight if it moved to a 12:05am time slot,^[33] saying, "I believe that delaying The Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t The Tonight Show."

On January 21, it was announced that NBC had struck a deal with O'Brien. It was decided that O'Brien would leave The Tonight Show. The deal was made that O'Brien would receive a $33 million payout and that his staff of almost 200 would receive $12 million in the departure. O'Brien's final episode aired on Friday, January 22.^[34][35][36] Leno returned as host of The Tonight Show following the 2010 Winter Olympics on March 1, 2010.

On July 1, 2010, Variety reported that total viewership for Jay Leno's Tonight Show had dropped from 5 million to 4 million for the second quarter of 2010, compared to the same period in 2009. Although this represented the lowest second-quarter ratings for the show since 1992, Tonight was still the most-watched late night program, ahead of ABC's Nightline (3.7 million) and David Letterman's Late Show (3.3 million).^[37] Ratings over the following summer, when compared to the same period in 2009 with O'Brien hosting The Tonight Show (including O'Brien's highly rated debut), showed that while total viewership was 12% higher for Leno, viewership in the important "adults aged 18–49" demographic was 23% lower.^[38] NBC ratings specialist Tom Bierbaum commented that due to the host being out of late night television for a period of time and the subsequent 2010 Tonight Show conflict, Leno's ratings fall was "not a surprise at all".^[39]

Public image[link]

Criticism of Leno[link]

Leno on The Tonight Show in 2005

Leno has faced heated criticism and some negative publicity for his perceived role in the 2010 Tonight Show timeslot conflict.^[40][41] Critics have pointed to a 2004 Tonight Show clip, wherein Leno claimed he would allow O'Brien to take over without incident.^[41][42] At the time, Leno stated he didn't want O'Brien to leave for a competing network, adding, "I'll be 59 when [the switch occurs], that's five years from now. There's really only one person who could have done this into his 60s, and that was Johnny Carson; I think it's fair to say I'm no Johnny Carson."^[42] Leno also described The Tonight Show as a dynasty, saying "you hold it and hand it off to the next person. And I don't want to see all the fighting..." At the end of the segment, he said, "Conan, it's yours! See you in five years, buddy!"^[43]

Actor and comedian Patton Oswalt was among the first celebrities to openly voice disappointment with Leno, saying, "Comedians who don't like Jay Leno now, and I'm one of them, we're not like, 'Jay Leno sucks;' it's that we're so hurt and disappointed that one of the best comedians of our generation... willfully has shut the switch off."^[44] Rosie O'Donnell has been among O'Brien's most vocal and vehement supporters,^[45][46] calling Leno a "bully" and his recent actions "classless and kind of career-defining."^[47]

Bill Zehme, the co-author of Leno's autobiography Leading with My Chin, told the Los Angeles Times: "The thing Leno should do is walk, period. He's got everything to lose in terms of public popularity by going back. People will look at him differently. He'll be viewed as the bad guy."^[48]

Support for Leno[link]

NBC Sports head executive and former Saturday Night Live producer Dick Ebersol spoke out against all who had recently mocked Leno, calling them "chicken-hearted and gutless."^[49]

Jeff Gaspin also defended Leno: "This has definitely crossed the line. Jay Leno is the consummate professional and one of the hardest-working people in television. It's a shame that he's being pulled into this."^[48]

Paul Reiser and Jerry Seinfeld are two of the number of celebrities to have voiced support for Leno.^[50][51]

Responding to the mounting criticism, Leno claimed that NBC had assured him that O'Brien was willing to accept the proposed arrangement and then would not let either host out of his contract.^[52] Leno also said that the situation was "all business."^[52] He appeared on the January 28 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show in an attempt to repair some of the damage done to his public image.^[53][54]

Personal life[link]

Leno with President Barack Obama in March 2009

Leno has been married since 1980 to Mavis Leno; they have no children.^[55]

He is known for his prominent jaw, which has been described as mandibular prognathism.^[56] In the book Leading with My Chin he stated that he is aware of surgery that could reset his mandible, but does not wish to endure a prolonged healing period with his jaws wired shut.

Leno is dyslexic.^[6] He claims to sleep only four to five hours each night.^[57] Leno does not drink or smoke, nor does he gamble.^[58] He spends most of his free time visiting car collections or working in his private garage.^[58]

Leno reportedly earns $32 million each year;^[59] his total net worth is unknown, but has been estimated to be at least $150 million.^[60]

Charity[link]

In 2001, along with his wife, he donated $100,000 to the Feminist Majority's campaign to stop gender apartheid in Afghanistan, to educate the public regarding the plight of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Mavis Leno is on the board of the Feminist Majority.^[61][62]

In 2009, he donated $100,000 to a scholarship fund at Salem State College in honor of Lennie Sogoloff. Mr. Sogoloff gave Leno his start at his jazz club, Lennie's-on-the-Turnpike.^[63]

Love Ride[link]

Since 1985 Jay Leno has been the grand marshal for the Love Ride, a motorcycle charity event which since its founding in 1984 has raised nearly $14 million dollars for charities benefiting muscular dystrophy research and, in 2011, Autism Speaks.^{[citation needed]}

Leno arriving at the 45th Primetime Emmy Awards in his Hispano-Suiza Aero^[64]

Vehicle collection[link]

Leno owns approximately 100 vehicles, not including about 90 motorcycles.^[65] He also has a website called "Jay Leno's Garage," which contains video clips and photos of his automobiles in detail.^[66]

He has a regular column in Popular Mechanics which showcases his car collection and gives advice about various automotive topics, including restoration and unique models, such as his jet-powered motorcycle and solar-powered hybrid. Leno also writes occasional "Motormouth" articles for The Sunday Times,^[67] reviewing high-end sports cars and giving his humorous take on automotive matters.

References[link]