Isaac Asimov, one of the Big Three--along with Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein--who brought science fiction literature to its golden age in the middle of the 20th century, used to celebrate his birthday on the second of January. But the man who bequeathed us the three laws of robotics was himself a great fictional character, starting with the first of his fictions--his own date of birth. Born in Petrovichi, a remote village in rural Russia, the day that he entered the world left no record even in the memory of his family, who came up with tentative range of dates between October 4, 1919 and January 2, 1920; it was Asimov himself who chose this last date as his birthday.