Portrait of Stan Mikita

Birthday profile

Stan Mikita

Stan Mikita, Slovak-Canadian ice hockey player and sportscaster (died 2018)

Born
May 20, 1940
Died
August 7, 2018
Zodiac sign
Taurus
Birth year
1940

About Stan Mikita

Stanley Mikita (born Stanislav Guoth; May 20, 1940 – August 7, 2018) was a Slovak-born Canadian ice hockey player who played his entire 22-year National Hockey League (NHL) career with the Chicago Black Hawks. Born in the Slovak Republic, Mikita was adopted and moved to Canada at the age of eight. After a few stellar seasons in the OHA, he was promoted to the Black Hawks in 1959. In the 1961 Stanley Cup playoffs, Mikita led the league in goals with six as the Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup, which made him the first Slovak-born player to win the Cup. The following season saw him named to his first All-Star Team on his first of fourteen consecutive 20-goal seasons. He won the first of four Art Ross Trophies as the leading point scorer in the 1963–64 season, which saw him record the most points four times in a span of five seasons. He won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy, and the Ross Trophy in the 1966–67 and 1967–68 seasons, the first and so far only time a player has won each award in the same season. In 1972, he was the sixth person to record 1,000 points and in 1977, he became the eighth player to score 500 goals in NHL history. Generally regarded as the best centre of the 1960s, Mikita recorded over 500 goals and 900 assists in nearly 1,400 games. When he retired, he was one of only two players to record 500 goals and 900 assists for a career and he had recorded the most points for a player to have played with only one franchise. Mikita was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983 along with the Slovak Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002. He had his jersey retired by the Black Hawks in 1980, the first player to receive the honor in franchise history. In 2017, he was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players. In 1961, he became the first Slovak-born player to win the Stanley Cup. His aunt and uncle also gave him their surname, and he anglicized his first name to Stanley. In his second full year, in 1961, the Black Hawks won their third Stanley Cup. The 1967–68 season, an 87-point effort from Mikita, was the last year a Chicago player won the scoring title until Patrick Kane's 106-point 2015–16 season.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Stan Mikita timeline

  1. In 1961, he became the first Slovak-born player to win the Stanley Cup.
  2. In his second full year, in 1961, the Black Hawks won their third Stanley Cup.
  3. The 1967–68 season, an 87-point effort from Mikita, was the last year a Chicago player won the scoring title until Patrick Kane's 106-point 2015–16 season.

The world when Stan Mikita was born

Stan Mikita was born in 1940. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1940

  • #1 song"In the Mood" – Glenn Miller
  • Top movieRebecca
  • Best-selling bookFor Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst televised college basketball game
  • Top headlineWinston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister
  • Technology milestoneFirst McDonald's restaurant opens
  • Defining fadSwing music hits its peak
  • Notable inventionJeep (military vehicle)
  • World population2.30 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championCincinnati Reds (World Series)
  • U.S. population132.2M

1940 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Stan Mikita's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19402026
Gas$0.18$3.45/gal
Average home$5,300$435,000
Average income$3,100$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population132.2M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, NHL, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.