August 25

Birthdays:

1968 ~ Rachel Ray, American chef and television host.

1964 ~ Blair Underwood, American actor.

1958 ~ Tim Burton, American film director.

1954 ~ Elvis Costello, English musician.

1949 ~ Gene Simmons (né Chaim Witz), Israeli-American musician and frontman of the band, Kiss.

1938 ~ Frederick Forsyth, English author.

1933 ~ Tom Skerritt, American actor.

1931 ~ Regis Phibin, American television host.

1930 ~ Sir Thomas Sean Connery, Scottish actor, best known for his role as James Bond.

1928 ~ Herbert Kroemer, German-born physicist and recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1921 ~ Monty Hall, Canadian game show host.

1919 ~ George Wallace (d. Sept. 13, 1998), 45^th Governor of Alabama and segregationist.  He later renounced his segregationist ideas.  After an assassination attempt in 1972, which left him paralyzed, he was wheelchair bound for the remainder of his life.  He died 19 days after his 79^th birthday.

1918 ~ Leonard Bernstein (d. Oct. 14, 1990), American conductor and composer.  One of his best-known musicals was West Side Story.  He died at age 72.

1917 ~ Mel Ferrer (né Melchor Gastón Ferrer, d. June 2, 2008), Cuban-born American actor.  Audrey Hepburn was one of his wives.  He died of heart failure at age 90.

1916 ~ Frederick Chapman Robbins (d. Aug 4, 2003), American virologist and recipient of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with the polio virus.  He died 3 weeks before his 87^thbirthday.

1913 ~ Walt Kelly (né Walter Crawford Kelly, d. Oct. 18, 1973), American illustrator and cartoonist.  He is best known for creating the comic strip Pogo.  He died at age 60 from complications of diabetes.

1909 ~ Ruby Keeler (née Ethel Ruby Keeler, d. Feb. 23, 1993), Canadian singer and actress.  She died at age 83.

1900 ~ Sir Hans Adolf Krebs (d. Nov. 22, 1981), German-born physician and biochemist.  He was the recipient of the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his identification of the metabolic cycle now known as the Krebs cycle.  He died at age 81.

1898 ~ Helmut Hasse (d. Dec. 26, 1975), German mathematician.  He died at age 81.

1888 ~ Inayatullah Khan Masriqi (d. Aug. 27, 1963), Pakistani mathematician.  He died 2 days after his 75^th birthday.

1850 ~ Charles Richet (d. Dec. 4, 1935), French physiologist and recipient of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on anaphylaxis.  He died at age 85.

1841 ~ Emil Theodor Kocher (d. July 27, 1917), He was the recipient of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the thyroid gland.  He died a month before his 76^th birthday.

1836 ~ Bret Harte (né Francis Bret Harte, d. May 5, 1902), American author best know for his stories about the American west.  He died at age 65 in England of throat cancer.

1819 ~ Allan Pinkerton (d. July 1, 1894), American private detective and founder of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.  He died at age 64.

1588 ~Elizabeth Poole (d. May 21, 1654), English settler in the New England.  She is the first woman known to have founded a town in the Americas when she founded Taunton, Massachusetts.  She died at age 65.

1561 ~ Philippe van Lansberge (d. Dec. 8, 1632), Dutch mathematician.  He died at age 70.

1530 ~ Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (d. Mar. 28, 1584).  He was known as Ivan the Terrible.  This is the traditional date of his birthday under the Gregorian calendar.  Using the Julian calendar, is birthdate is considered to be September 3.  He died at age 53 from a stroke while playing chess.

Events that Changed the World:

2012 ~ Voyager 1 entered interstellar space, becoming the first man-made object to do so.

1991 ~ Belarus gained its independence from the Soviet Union.

1989 ~ Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Neptune.

1980 ~ Zimbabwe joined the United Nations.

1950 ~ US President Harry Truman (1884 ~ 1972) ordered the US Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to prevent a strike.

1948 ~ The House Un-American Activities Committee held the first-ever televised congressional hearing.

1944 ~ Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.

1933 ~ The Diexi earthquake struck in Sichuan, China killing nearly 9,000 people.

1916 ~ The United States National Park Service was established.

1894 ~ Kitasato Shibasaburō (1853 ~ 1931) discovered the infectious agent that caused the bubonic plague.  His findings were published in The Lancet.  Around the same time, Swill physician, Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin (1863 ~ 1943), also discovered the bacillus that caused the plague.  The bacterium was named Yersinia pestis in his honor.

1875 ~ Matthew Webb (1848 ~ 1883), became the first person to swim across the English Channel.  He swam from Dover, England to Calais, France in 22 hours.

1825 ~ Uruguay declared its independence from Brazil.

1768 ~ James Cook (1728 ~ 1779) began his first voyage.

1609 ~ Galileo (1564 ~ 1642) demonstrated his first telescope to the Venetian lawmakers.

Good-Byes:

2016 ~ James Cronin (b. Sept. 29, 1931), American particle physicist and recipient of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 84.

2016 ~ G. Spencer Brown (né George Spencer Brown, b. Apr. 2, 1923), English mathematician.  He died at age 93.

2012 ~ Neil Armstrong (b. Aug. 5, 1930), American astronaut and reluctant hero who first walked on the moon.  He died 20 days after his 82^nd birthday.

2012 ~ Joseph P. Vaghi, Jr. (b. June 27, 1920), American Navy officer who helped guide the D-Day landings.  At age 23, he was the youngest beachmaster on D-Day.  He was on of the first to land on Omaha Beach, and directed the arrival of new troops and the evacuation of the dead and wounded.  He died at age 91.

2009 ~ Edward M. Kennedy (b. Feb. 22, 1932), American liberal icon who was known as the “Lion of the Senate.”  He died of a brain tumor at age 77.

2008 ~ Josef Tal (b. Sept. 18, 1910), Israeli composer.  He died 3 weeks before his 98^th birthday.

1998 ~ Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (b. Sept. 19, 1907), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Richard Nixon.  He served on the Court from January 1972 until his retirement in June 1987.  He died 25 days before his 91^st birthday.

1985 ~ Samantha Smith (b. June 29, 1972), American peace activist from Houlton, Maine.  In 1982, she wrote a letter to Russian General Secretary Yuri Andropov and received a personal reply and an invitation to visit the Soviet Union.  She was killed in a small private plane crash at age 13.

1984 ~ Truman Capote (né Truman Streckfus Persons, b. Sept. 30, 1924), American author best known for his true crime novel, In Cold Blood, which recounted the 1959 murder of a Kansas family by two drifters.  Capote was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and much of his work is set in the South.  He died of liver disease at age 59.

1981 ~ Leonidas Alaoglu (b. Mar. 19, 1914), Greek-Canadian mathematician.  He died at age 67.

1981 ~ Kathryn Hulme (b. July 6, 1900), American writer, best known for her novel, The Nun’s Story.  She died at age 81.

1976 ~ Eyvind Johnson (b. July 29, 1900), Swedish author and recipient of the 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died 27 days after his 76^th birthday.

1956 ~ Alfred Kinsey (b. June 23, 1894), American biologist and sexologist who founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University.  He died at age 62.

1908 ~ Henri Becquerel (b. Dec. 15, 1852), French physicist and recipient of the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 55.

1900 ~ Friedrich Nietzsche (b. Oct. 15, 1844), German philosopher.  He died at age 55.

1867 ~ Michael Faraday (b. Sept. 22, 1791), British chemist and physicist who discovered the principle of electromagnetic induction.  He died a month before his 76^th birthday.

1822 ~ William Herschel (b. Nov. 15, 1738), German-born astronomer.  He died at age 83.

1819 ~ James Watt (b. Jan. 30, 1736), Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer best know for the creation of the modern steam engine.  He died at age 83.

1776 ~ David Hume (b. May 7, 1711), Scottish philosopher and historian.  He died at age 65.

1699 ~ King Christian V of Denmark (b. Apr. 15, 1646).  He died at age 53.

1688 ~ Sir Henry Morgan (b. 1635), Welsh admiral and buccaneer.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 53 at the time of his death.

1482 ~ Margaret of Anjou (b. Mar. 23, 1430), Queen consort of Henry VI of England.  She died at age 52.

1270 ~ King Louis IX of France (b. Apr. 25, 1214).  He was also known as Saint Louis.  He died at age 56 while on the Eighth Crusade.

August 4

Birthdays:

1965 ~ Dennis Lehane, American author.  He was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

1965 ~ Fredrik Reinfeldt, 42^nd Prime Minister of Sweden.

1962 ~ Roger Clemens, American baseball player.

1961 ~ Barack Obama, the first African American to be elected to the Office of United States President.  He is the 44^th President of the United States and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.  He assumed the Office of President in January 2009 and served until January 2017.

1955 ~ Alberto Gonzales, 80^th United States Attorney General.  He served under President George W. Bush from February 2005 until September 2007.

1955 ~ Billy Bob Thornton, American actor.

1944 ~ Richard Belzer, American actor and comedian.

1934 ~ Dallas Green (d. Mar. 22, 2017), American outspoken baseball coach who took the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series in 1980.  He died of kidney disease at age 82.

1928 ~ Gerard Damiano (d. Oct. 25, 2008), American hard-core film director who made Deep Throat.  He died at age 80.

1920 ~ Helen Thomas (d. July 20, 2013), American journalist.  She was a White House correspondent for many years.  Her career took a downspin after she made anti-Semitic remarks when she was 89 years old.  She died only 2 weeks before her 93^rd birthday.

1915 ~ Warren Avis (d. Apr. 24, 2007), American businessman and founder of Avis Rent-a-Car.  He died at age 91.

1912 ~ Raoul Wallenberg (d. 1947), Swedish diplomat.  He is known for saving thousand of Jews during the Holocaust.  He was detained by the Soviets during the Siege of Budapest and disappeared.  He was declared to be presumed dead on July 17, 1947.  He would have been 34 years old.

1912 ~ Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov (d. July 27, 1999), Russian mathematician.  He died a week before his 87^th birthday.

1909 ~ Saunders Mac Lane (d. Apr. 14, 2005), American mathematician.  He died at age 95.

1901 ~ Louis Armstrong (d. July 6, 1971), American jazz trumpeter and singer.  He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He died a month before his 70^th birthday

1900 ~ Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (d. Mar. 30, 2002), Scottish Queen Consort of King George VI, and mother of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.  She was known as the Queen Mother.  She died at age 101.

1859 ~ Knut Hamsun (d. Feb. 19, 1952), Norwegian writer and recipient of the 1920 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 92.

1834 ~ John Venn (d. Apr. 4, 1923), English mathematician.  He is best known for introducing the Venn diagram into the field of mathematics.  He died at age 88.

1821 ~ Louis Vuitton (d. Feb. 27, 1892), French designer of leather goods, especially trunks and bags.  He is the founder of the House of Louis Vuitton.  He died at age 70.

1805 ~ Sir William Hamilton (d. Sept. 2, 1865), Irish mathematician.  He died of a severe gout attack about a month after his 60^th birthday.

1792 ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley (d. July 8, 1822), English poet.  He drowned a month before his 30^th birthday.

1521 ~ Pope Urban VII (né Giovanni Battista Castagna, d. Sept. 27, 1590).  He was Pope for only 12 days, from September 15 through September 27, 1590.  His papacy was the shortest in history.  He died at age 69.

1470 ~ Lucrezia de’Medici (d. Nov. 15, 1553), Italian noblewoman.  The exact date of her death is not known, but it is believed she died sometime between November 10 and 15, 1553.  She was 83 years old.

1463 ~ Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’Medici (d. May 20, 1503), Italian banker and politician.  He died at age 39.

Events that Changed the World:

1977 ~ President Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) signed legislation creating the United States Department of Energy.  James Schlesinger (1929 ~ 2014) was the first Secretary of Energy.  He served from August 6, 1977 through August 23, 1979.

1964 ~ The bodies of Civil Rights workers, Michael Schwerner (b. 1939), Andrew Goodman (b. 1943), and James Chaney (b. 1943), were found in Mississippi.  They had been missing since June 21.

1958 ~ The Billboard Hot 100 list was first published.

1946 ~ An 8.0 magnitude earthquake hit Dominican Republic killing 100 people and leaving 20,000 people homeless.

1944 ~ Anne Frank and her family were discovered hiding by the Gestapo.

1914 ~ Germany invaded Belgium causing Belgium and the United Kingdom to declare war on Germany during World War I.  The United States, at this point in time, remained neutral.

1892 ~ The father and stepmother of Lizzie Borden (1860 ~ 1927) were discovered murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.

1821 ~ The Saturday Evening Post was began publication as a weekly newspaper.

1783 ~ The volcanic Mount Asama in Japan erupted killing about 1,400 people.  The eruption ultimate caused a famine resulting in the deaths of nearly 20,000 people.

1693 ~ The traditional date ascribed to Dom Perignon’s discovery of the process of making champagne.

70 ~ The traditional date ascribed to the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans.

Good-Byes:

2014 ~ James Brady (b. Aug. 29, 1940), 14^th White House Press Secretary.  He served under President Ronald Reagan.  He was seriously injured when he was shot in the head during an assassination attempt on President Reagan in 1981 and spent the last 33 years in a wheelchair.  Following his injury, he became a gun control advocate.  He died at age 73, less than 4 weeks before his 74^th birthday.

2013 ~ Art “The Bulldog” Donovan (né Arthur James Donovan, Jr., b. June 5, 1924), Hall of Fame tackle for the Baltimore Colts.  He died at age 89.

2003 ~ Frederick Chapman Robbins (b. Aug 25, 1916), American virologist and recipient of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with the polio virus.  He died 3 weeks before his 87^thbirthday.

1977 ~ Edgar Adrian, 1^st Baron Adrian (b. Nov. 30, 1889), British electrophysiologist and recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physiology or medicine for his work on the function of neurons.  He died at age 87.

1940 ~ Ze’ev Jabotinsky (né Vladimir Yevgingevich Zhabotinsky, b. Oct. 18, 1880), Jewish political activist and general.  He died of a heart attack at age 59.

1886 ~ Samuel J. Tilden (b. Feb. 9, 1814), 25^th Governor of New York State.  He was Governor from January 1875 until December 1876.  He died at age 72.

1875 ~ Hans Christian Andersen (b. Apr. 2, 1805), Danish writer of children’s stories and fairy tales.  He died at age 70.

1792 ~ General John Burgoyne (b. Feb. 24, 1723), British General who fought in the American Revolutionary War.  He died at age 70.

1306 ~ King Wenceslaus III of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland (b. Oct. 6, 1289).  He was assassinated at age 16.  His murder remains a mystery.

1060 ~ King Henry I of France (b. May 4, 1008).  He died at age 52.