September 7

Birthdays:

1955 ~ Efim Zelmanov, Russian mathematician.

1954 ~ Corbin Bernsen, American actor best known his role as Arnie Becker on LA Law.

1951 ~ Chrissie Hynde, American singer and guitarist.  She was a member of The Pretenders.

1950 ~ Julie Kavner, American actress best known as the voice of Marge Simpson on the TV show, The Simpsons.

1950 ~ Peggy Noonan (née Margaret Ellen Noonan), American journalist and political speechwriter.  She was the primary speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan.

1949 ~ Gloria Gaynor, American singer.

1936 ~ Buddy Holly (né Charles Hardin Holly, d. Feb. 3, 1959), American singer.  He was killed in a plane crash at age 22.

1934 ~ Meir Brandsdorfer (d. May 13, 2009), Belgian-Israeli rabbi.  He died at age 74 of cardio-vascular disease.

1926 ~ Ronnie Gilbert (née Ruth Alice Gilbert, d. June 6, 2015), American folksinger who was blacklisted in the 1950s during a period of anti-communist sediment due to her left-wing sympathies.  She was one of the original members of The Weavers.  She was 88 years old.

1925 ~ Laura Ashley (d. Sept. 17, 1985), British fashion designer.  She died just 10 days after her 60^th birthday after falling down a flight of stairs.  She suffered from a brain hemorrhage.

1925 ~ Robert Jastrow (d. Feb. 8, 2008), American astronomer who brought outer space down to earth.  He died at age 82.

1924 ~ Daniel Inouye (d. Dec. 17, 2012), American politician from Hawaii.  He died at age 88.

1923 ~ Peter Lawford (né Peter Sydney Ernest Alyen, d. Dec. 24, 1984), English-American actor.  He was the former brother-in-law to President John F. Kennedy during his marriage to the President’s sister, Patricia.  He died at age 61 of cardiac arrest, complicated by renal and liver failure.

1917 ~ Sir John Cornforth (d. Dec. 8, 2013), Australian chemist and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 96.

1915 ~ Kiyoshi Itō (d. Nov. 7, 2008), Japanese mathematician.  He died at age 93.

1914 ~ James Van Allen (d. Aug. 9, 2006), American physicist.  The Van Allen radiation belts are named in his honor.  He died a month before his 92^nd birthday.

1912 ~ David Packard (d. Mar. 26, 1996), American businessman and co-founder of Hewlett-Packard.  He died at age 83.

1911 ~ Todor Zhivkov (d. Aug. 5, 1998), Prime Minister of Bulgaria.  He served in that position from November 1962 until July 1971.  He died a month before his 87^th birthday.

1909 ~ Elia Kazan (d. Sept. 28, 2003), Greek-American actor and movie director.  He died 3 weeks after his 94^th birthday.

1908 ~ Michael Ellis DeBakey (d. July 11, 2008), Lebanese-American cardiologist, surgeon and inventor, best known for being a pioneer in heart transplants.  He made heart transplants seem routine.  He was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana,  He died at age 99.

1900 ~ Taylor Caldwell (né Janet Miriam Holland Taylor Caldwell, d. Aug. 30, 1985), English-born American novelist.  She is best known for her novel entitled Captains and the Kings.  She died 8 days before her 85^th birthday.

1887 ~ Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (d. Dec. 9, 1964), British poet and critic.  She died at age 77.

1885 ~ Elinor Wylie (d. Dec. 16, 1928), American author and poet.  She died of a stroke at age 43.

1875 ~Edward Francis Hutton (d. July 11, 1962), American businessman and financier.  He was a co-founder of E.F. Hutton & Company.  He died at age 86.

1860 ~ Grandma Moses (née Anna Mary Robertson Moses, d. Dec. 13, 1961), American folk artist.  She died at age 101.

1836 ~ Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (d. Apr. 22, 1908), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He was Prime Minister from December 1905 until his death on this date in April 1908 during the reign of King Edward VII.  He died at age 71, just 19 days after he resigned as Prime Minister.

1819 ~ Thomas A. Hendricks (d. Nov. 25, 1885), 21^st Vice President of the United States.  He served under President Grover Cleveland for only 8 months, from March 1885 until his death at age 66 in November 1885.

1818 ~ Thomas Talbot (d. Oct. 6, 1885), 31^st Governor of Massachusetts.  He served as Governor from January 1879 until January 1880.  He died a month after his 67^th birthday.

1707 ~ Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (d. Apr. 16, 1788), French mathematician.  He died at age 80.

1533 ~ Queen Elizabeth I of England (d. Mar. 24, 1603).  She was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.  She was Queen from November 1558 until her death nearly 50 years later.  She died at age 69.

1524 ~ Thomas Erastus (d. Dec. 31, 1583), Swiss physician and theologian.  He argued that sinners should be punished by the government, and not the Church, believing that the Church should not withhold sacraments to sinners.  He died at age 59.

Events that Changed the World:

2015 ~ Labor Day in the United States.

2008 ~ The United States government took control over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

2004 ~ Hurricane Ivan hit Grenada as a Category 5 storm, killing nearly 40 people.

1999 ~ A 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit Athens, Greece, killing over 140 people, and leaving over 50,000 people homeless.

1979 ~ The Chrysler Corporation sought a $1.5 Billion hand-out from the United States government to avoid bankruptcy.

1979 ~ The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) began broadcasting.

1978 ~ While walking across the Waterloo Bridge in London, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov (1929 ~ 1978) was assassinated when he was hit with a ricin pellet fired from a specially designed umbrella by a Bulgarian secret police agent.

1953 ~ Nikita Khrushchev (1894 ~ 1971) was elected as the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1943 ~ A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston, Texas killed over 50 people.  This fire remains the worst loss of life in a fire in that city’s history.

1942 ~ Over 8,700 Jews from Kolomyia in the western Ukraine were sent to the Belzec concentration camp.

1940 ~ The Blitz of London in World War II began.  The bombing lasted for 57 consecutive nights.

1927 ~ The first fully electronic television system was achieved by Philo Farnsworth (1901 ~ 1971).

1923 ~ The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) was formed.

1921 ~ The first Miss American Pageant was held.  It was a two-day event in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  Sixteen-year old Margaret Gorman (1905 ~ 1995) would be crowned the first Miss America on the second day of the event.

1901 ~ The Boxer Rebellion during the Qing dynasty in China officially ended with the signing of the Boxer Protocol.

1896 ~ Physician Ludwig Wilhelm Rehn (1849 ~ 1930) Carl conducted the first successful heart surgery when he repaired a stab wound suffered by a 22-year old man.

1864 ~ General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820 ~ 1891) ordered the evacuation of Atlanta, Georgia during the American Civil War.

1822 ~ Brazil declared its independence from Portugal.

1818 ~ Carl III (1763 ~ 1844) of Sweden-Norway was crowned King of Norway.

1654 ~ The first Jewish immigrants in North America fled from Recife, Brazil, after Portugal took control of the country.  The Jews settled in what was is now New York.  The Dutch West Indies Company allowed them to stay despite the opposition of Governor Peter Stuvyesant.

1630 ~ The City of Boston, Massachusetts was founded.

1228 ~ Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1194 ~ 1250) landed in Acre, in what is now Israel, and started the Sixth Crusade.  This ultimately resulted in a peaceful restitution of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

70 ~ The tradition date ascribed to when the Roman army under Titus occupied and plundered Jerusalem.

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Dickie Moore (né John Richard Moore, Jr., b. Sept. 12, 1925), American child superstar who survived the Hollywood limelight.  He was one of the last surviving actors to have appeared in silent films.  He appeared in such films as Our Gang and Sergeant York.  He died 5 days before his 90^th birthday.

2010 ~ Barbara Holland (b. Apr. 5, 1933), American writer who celebrated her vices, such as drinking and smoking cigarettes.  She died at age 77 of lung cancer.

2010 ~ John Werner Kluge (b. Sept. 21, 1914), German-born American immigrant who build a media empire.  He died 2 weeks before his 96^th birthday.

2003 ~ Warren Zevon (b. Jan. 24, 1947), American musician.  He died at age 56.

2002 ~ Uziel Gal (b. Dec. 15, 1923), Israeli firearms designed and namesake of the Uzi submachine gun.  He died at age 78.

1991 ~ Edwin McMillan (b. Sept. 18, 1907), American physicist and recipient of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died less than 2 weeks before his 84^th birthday.

1981 ~ Christy Brown (b. June 5, 1932). Irish painter and writer.  He had cerebral palsy and was able to write and paint only with his feet.  His autobiography was entitled My Left Foot, which was later made into a film by the same name.  He died at age 49.

1978 ~ Keith Moon (b. Aug. 23, 1946), British musician who played was the drummer for The Who.  He died of a drug overdose 15 days after his 32^nd birthday.

1969 ~ Everett Dirksen (b. Jan. 4, 1896), United States Senator from Illinois.  He died at age 73.

1962 ~ Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke, (née Karen Christenze Denesen, b. Apr. 17, 1885), Danish author who wrote under the name Isak Dinesen.  She is best known for her memoir, Out of Africa.  She died at age 77.

1951 ~ John French Sloan (b. Aug. 2, 1871), American artist.  He died at age 80 in Hanover, New Hampshire.

1942 ~ Cecilia Beaux (b. May 1, 1855), American painter.  She died at age 87 in Gloucester, Massachusetts.

1893 ~ Hamilton Fish (b. Aug. 3, 1808), 26^th United States Secretary of State.  He served under Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes.  He served in that Office from March 1869 through March 1877.  He had previously served as the Governor of New York, from January 1849 through December 1950.  He died about a month after his 85^th birthday.

1892 ~ John Greenleaf Whittier (b. Dec. 17, 1807), American poet and abolistionist.  He was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts and died in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire.  He died at age 84.

1731 ~ Eudoxia Lopukhina (b. Aug. 9, 1669), Russian wife of Tsar Peter the Great.  She died a month after her 62^nd birthday.

1362 ~ Joan of The Tower (b. July 5, 1321), Scottish wife of King David II of Scotland.  She was known as Joan of the Tower because she was born in the Tower of London.  She died at age 41.  She was most likely a victim of the Black Death.

1151 ~ Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou (b. Aug. 24, 1113).  He died suddenly just 14 days after his 38^th birthday.

859 ~ Emperpr Xuānzong of Tang (b. July 27, 810), Chinese emperor.  He was the last emperor of the Tang dynasty.  He died at age 49.