December 14

Birthdays:

1949 ~ William “Bill” Buckner, American baseball player best known for his fumble of the ball in the 1986 pennant race between the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox.  The Red Sox lost.

1946 ~ Patty Duke (née Anna Marie Duke, d. 2016), American actress.  She was 69 years old.

1935 ~ Lee Remick (d. 1991), American actress.  She died of cancer at age 55.

1922 ~ Nikolay Basov (d. 2001), Soviet physicist and recipient of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 78.

1922 ~ Don Hewitt (d. 2009), American television producer and creator of 60 Minutes.  He died at age 86.

1920 ~ Clark Terry, Jr. (d. 2015), American trumpet virtuoso who taught the art of Jazz.  He died at age 94.

1917 ~ June Taylor (d. 2004), American choreographer.  She was the choreographer for the Jackie Gleason Show.  She died at age 86.

1916 ~ Shirley Jackson (d. 1965), American writer, best known for her short story, The Lottery.  She died at age 48 of heart failure.

1911 ~ Spike Jones (né Lindley Armstrong Jones, d. 1965), American comedian and musician.  He died of emphysema at age 53.

1909 ~ Edward Tatum (d. 1975), American geneticist and recipient of the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died at age 65.

1908 ~ Morey Amsterdam (né Moritz Amsterdam, d. 1996), American comedian and actor.  He died of a heart attack at age 87.

1902 ~ Frances Bavier (d. 1989), American actress best known for her role as Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show.  She died 8 days before her 87^th birthday.

1897 ~ Margaret Chase Smith (d. 1995), American politician and senator from Maine.  She died at age 97.

1896 ~ James Doolittle (né James Harold Doolittle, d. 1993), American general and pilot who led the first bombing raid on Tokyo in World War II.  He died at age 96.

1895 ~ King George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 1952).  He was the father of Queen Elizabeth II.  He died at age 56.

1816 ~ Abraham Hochmuth (d. 1889), Hungarian rabbi.  He died at age 72.

1631 ~ Anne Conway (d. 1679), English philosopher and author.  She died at age 47.

1546 ~ Tycho Brahe (né Tyge Ottesen Brahe, d. 1601), Danish astronomer and alchemist who developed a systematic approach for observing the planets and stars.  He is a central character in the novel The Book of Splendor, by Frances Sherwood.  He died at age 54.

1503 ~ Nostradamus (né Michel de Nostredame, d. 1566), French astrologer and seer who published collections of prophecies.  The exact date of his birth is unknown; it is sometimes recorded as December 21, 1503.  He was 62 when he died.

Events that Changed the World:

2012 ~ An armed shooter entered a school in Newtown, Connecticut and shot and killed 26 people, including 20 six- and seven-year olds, as well as 6 teachers and school administrators before killing himself.

2008 ~ President George W. Bush made his final trip to Iraq as President.  An angry Iraqi journalist threw two shoes, nearly striking him, during a news conference in Baghdad.

1994 ~ Construction on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China began.

1964 ~ In Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Congress can use the Constitution’s Commerce Clause as a mechanism to fight racial discrimination.

1962 ~ Marina 2 became the first spacecraft to fly past Venus.

1946 ~ The United Nations General Assembly voted to establish its headquarters in New York City.

1939 ~ The League of Nations expelled the Soviet Union for invading Finland during the Winter War.

1911 ~ Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872 ~ 1928) and his team became the first known humans to reach the South Pole.

1903 ~ The Wright brothers made their first attempt to fly at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1902 ~ The Commercial Pacific Cable Company laid the first Pacific telegraph cable from San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.

1819 ~ Alabama became the 22^nd State of the Union.

1814 ~ During the War of 1812, the Royal Navy seized control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.

1542 ~ Princess Mary Stuart became Mary, Queen of Scots (1542 ~ 1587).

1287 ~ The sea wall on the Zuider Zee in the Netherlands collapsed, killing over 50,000 people during the St. Lucia’s flood.

557 ~ An earthquake severely damaged Constantinople (present day Istanbul).

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Lillian Vernon (née Lilli Menacsche, b. 1927), German-American businesswoman and founder of the Lillian Vernon Company.  She died at age 88.

2014 ~ Bess Myerson (b. 1924), first Jewish Miss America.  She won the title in 1945.  She died at age 90.

2014 ~ Sy Berger (né Seymour Berger, b. 1923), American Topps salesman who reinvented the baseball card.  He died at age 91.

2013 ~ George Rodrigue (b. 1944), American artist from New Iberia, Louisiana most famous for his Blue Dog series.  He died at age 69.

2013 ~ Peter O’Toole (b. 1932), Irish actor who portrayed Lawrence of Arabia.  He died at age 81.

2001 ~ W.G. Sebald (né Winfried Georg Sebald, b. 1944), German writer.  He died in a car accident at age 57.

1998 ~ Norman Fell (b. 1924), American actor.  He died at age 74.

1998 ~ Annette Strauss (b. 1924), American philanthropist and mayor of Dallas, Texas.  She was the second female mayor and the second Jewish mayor of the city.  She died at age 74.

1993 ~ Myrna Loy (b. 1905), American actress.  She died at age 88.

1989 ~ Andrei Sakharov (b. 1921), Russian physicist and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize.  He died at age 68.

1985 ~ Roger Maris (b. 1934), American baseball player.  He died of cancer at age 51.

1984 ~ Vincent Aleixandre (b. 1898), Spanish writer and recipient of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 86.

1974 ~ Walter Lippmann (b. 1889), American journalist and political commentator.  He died at age 85.

1956 ~ Juho Kusti Paasikivi (b. 1870), 7^th President of Finland.  He died at age 86.

1953 ~ Marjorie Rawlings (b. 1896), American author, best known for her novel, The Yearling.  She died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 57.

1947 ~ Stanley Baldwin, 1^st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (b. 1867), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He died at age 80.

1943 ~ John Harvey Kellogg (b. 1852), American surgeon and breakfast food manufacturer.  He created Corn-flakes.  He died at age 91.

1942 ~ Hubert Work (b. 1860), 29^th United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under President Warren G. Harding from March 1923 until July 1928.  He had previously served as the 47^th United States Postmaster General, from March 1922 until March 1923.  He died at age 82.

1927 ~ Yulian Vasilivich Sokhotsku (b. 1842), Russian mathematician.  He died at age 85.

1902 ~ Julia Dent Grant (b. 1826), 19^th First Lady and wife of President Ulysses S. Grant.  She died at age 76.

1873 ~ Louis Agassiz (b. 1807), Swiss-born American zoologist and geologist.  He died at age 66.

1861 ~ Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (b. 1819), consort of Queen Victoria.  He died at age 42.

1860 ~ George Hamilton-Gordin, 4^th Earl of Aberdeen (b. 1784), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He died at age 78.

1831 ~ Martin Baum (b. 1765), 5^th Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio.  He died at age 66.

1806 ~ John Breckinridge (b. 1760), 5^th United States Attorney General.  He served under President Thomas Jefferson from August 1805 until his death at age 46 in December 1806.  He died 12 days after his 46^th birthday.

1799 ~George Washington (b. 1732), American general during the American Revolutionary War and 1^st President of the United States.  He died at age 67.

1542 ~ King James V of Scotland (b. 1512).  He died at age 30.

1476 ~ Vlad III, the Impaler (b. 1431), the date commonly ascribed to his death.

872 ~ Pope Adrian II (b. 792).  He served as Pope from December 14, 867 until his death exactly 5 years later.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 80 at the time of his death.