May 26

Birthdays:

1971 ~ Matt Stone, American animator and co-creator of South Park.

1966 ~ Helena Bonham Carter, English actress.

1966 ~ Zola Budd, South American athlete.

1951 ~ Sally Ride (d. July 23, 2012), First American female astronaut to go into space.  She died at age 61 of pancreatic cancer.

1928 ~ Jack Kevorkian (né Murad Kervorkian, d. June 3, 2011), American pathologist and activist for assisted suicide.  Ironically, he chose not to die by suicide.  He died 8 days after his 83^rd birthday.

1926 ~ Miles Davis (d. Sept. 28, 1991), American Jazz trumpeter, bandleader and composer.  He died at age 65.

1923 ~ James Arness (né James King Aurness, d. June 3, 2011), American rugged actor who played Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke.  His brother was Peter Graves.  Arness died 8 days after his 88^th birthday.

1920 ~ Peggy Lee (née Norma Deloris Egstrom, d. Jan. 21, 2002), American singer and actress.  She died at age 81 of complications from diabetes following a heart attack.

1912 ~ Jay Silverheels (né Harold John Smith, d. Mar. 5, 1980), First Nation Mohawk actor, best known as Tonto, companion of the Lone Ranger on the television show of the same name.  He died of a stroke at age 67.

1907 ~ John Wayne (né Marion Robert Morrison, d. June 11, 1979), American actor.  He died of stomach cancer 16 days after his 72^nd birthday.

1895 ~ Dorothea Lange (d. Oct. 11, 1965), American photographer, best known for her work during the Great Depression.  She died at age 70.

1886 ~ Al Jolson (né Asa Yoelson, d. Oct. 23, 1950), Lithuanian-born American comedian and singer.  He died of a heart attack at age 64.

1867 ~ Mary of Teck (d. Mar. 24, 1953), Queen Consort to King George V of the United Kingdom.  She died at age 85.

1667 ~ Abraham de Moivre (d. Nov. 27, 1854), French mathematician.  He died at age 87.

1478 ~ Pope Clement VII (né Giulio di Giuliano de’Medici, d. Sept. 25, 1534).  He was Pope from November 1523 until his death in 1534.  He died at age 56.

Events that Changed the World:

1998 ~ The US Supreme Court ruled in New Jersey v. New York, that Ellis Island is mainly in the State of New Jersey and not New York.

1983 ~ A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Japan and caused a tsunami that killed over 100 people and injured scores of others.

1978 ~ The first legal casino in the eastern United States opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1972 ~ The United States and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

1946 ~ A patent was filed in the United States for the hydrogen bomb.

1938 ~ The US House Un-American Activities Committee began meeting.

1908 ~ At Masjed Soleyman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East was made.  The rights to the oil was acquired by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which in 1954 became known as the British Petroleum or BP Company.

1897 ~ Bram Stoker’s Dracula was published.

1896 ~ The first edition the of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, by Charles Dow (1851 ~ 1902), was published.

1896 ~ Nicholas II (1868 ~ 1918) became Tsar of Imperial Russia.

1869 ~ Boston University received its charter from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

1868 ~ The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson concluding finding Johnson not guilty.

1830 ~ The Indian Removal Act was passed by US Congress.  President Andrew Jackson signed the Act into law two days later, on May 28.  This Act ultimately lead to the Trail of Tears, in which Native Americans were forcibly removed from their land to migrate west.

1736 ~ During the Battle of Ackia, British and Chicksaw soldiers repelled a French and Choctaw attack on the village of Ackia (near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi).  Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, the French Louisiana governor, had hoped to link Louisiana with Acadia and other northern colonies of New France.

1647 ~ Alse Young (1600 ~ 1647), of Hartford, Connecticut, became the first recorded person executed as a witch in the American colonies. 

1538 ~ The city of Geneva expelled John Calvin (1509 ~ 1564) and his followers.  He relocated in exile to Strasbourg.

1293 ~ An earthquake in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan killed an estimated 30,000 people.

Good-Byes:

2010 ~ Art Linkletter (né Arthur Kelly, b. July 17, 1912), Canadian-American radio and television host.  He died at age 97.

2008 ~ Sydney Pollack (b. July 1, 1934), American Oscar-winning director, who tackled many genres.  He died of cancer at age 73.

2005 ~ Dale Velzy (b. Sept. 23, 1927), American surfboard maker who defined the “surfer dude lifestyle.”  He died at age 77.

2005 ~ Eddie Albert (né Edward Albert Heimberger, b. Apr. 22, 1906), American actor.  He is best known for his role as Oliver Wendell Douglas on the sit-com Green Acres.  He died of complications of pneumonia at age 99.

1943 ~ Edsel Ford (b. Nov. 6, 1893), American businessman.  He was the son of Henry Ford.  The car named after him was introduced in 1957, many years after his death.  He died of stomach cancer at age 49.

1939 ~ Charles Horace Mayo (b. July 19, 1865), American physician and co-founder of the Mayo Clinic.  He died at age 73.

1914 ~ Jacob August Riis (b. May 3, 1849), Dutch-born American journalist and photographer.  He devoted his career to social reformer.  He died 3 weeks after his 65^th birthday.

1907 ~ Ida Saxton McKinley (b. June 8, 1847), First Lady and wife of President William McKinley.  She died 13 days before her 60^th birthday.

1904 ~ Georges Gilles de la Tourette (b. Oct. 30, 1857), French neurologist who first described the condition now known as Tourette’s syndrome.  He died at age 46.

1902 ~ Almon Strowger (b. Feb. 11, 1839) American undertaker and inventor who patented the Strowger switch, a device which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching.  He died at age 63.

1703 ~ Samuel Pepys (b. Feb. 23, 1633), English civil servant and diarist.  He died at age 70.

946 ~ Edmund I of England (b. 921).  He was murdered by a thief.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.

735 ~ Bede (b. 673), English historian and theologian.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.