September 15

Birthdays:

1984 ~ Prince Harry, Prince of England.

1977 ~ Tom Hardy, British actor.

1958 ~ Wendie Jo Sperber (d. Nov. 29, 2005), American actress.  She died of breast cancer at age 47.

1946 ~ Tommy Lee Jones, American actor.

1946 ~ Oliver Stone, American film director.

1938 ~ Sylvia Moy (d. Apr. 15, 2017), African-American songwriter who saved Stevie Wonder’s career.  She died of complications from pneumonia at age 78.

1938 ~ Gaylord Perry, American baseball player.

1937 ~ Fernando de la Rúa, 51^st President of Argentina.

1937 ~ Robert Lucas, Jr., American economist and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

1929 ~ Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist and recipient of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1926 ~ Jean-Pierre Serre, French mathematician.

1924 ~ Bobby Short (né Robert Short, d. Mar. 21, 2005), American musician.  He died at age 80.

1924 ~ György Lázár (d. Oct. 2, 2014), Hungarian politician who served as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People’s Republic of Hungary.  He served in this Office from May 1975 until June 1987.  He died just 2 weeks after his 90^th birthday.

1918 ~ Nipsey Russell (né Julius Russell, d. Oct. 2, 2005), American comedian.  He died just over 2 weeks following his 87^th birthday.

1913 ~ John N. Mitchell (d. Nov. 9, 1988), 67^th United States Attorney General.  He served under President Richard Nixon.  He died at age 75.

1911 ~ Luther Terry (d. Mar. 29, 1985), 9^th Surgeon General of the United States.  He served under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.  He was 73 years old.

1907 ~ Fay Wray (née Vina Fay Wray, d. Aug. 8, 2004), American actress best known for her role as the lead female character in King Kong.  She died at age 96.

1895 ~ Magda Lupescu (née Elena Lupescu, d. June 29, 1977), Romanian mistress of King Carol II of Romania.  After his abduction, she became his wife.  She died at age 81.

1894 ~ Jean Renoir (d. Feb. 12, 1979), French movie director and son of artist Pierre-August Renoir.  He died at age 84.

1890 ~ Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller Christie, Lady Mallowan (d. Jan. 12, 1976), British mystery writer.  She died at age 85.

1887 ~ Carlos Dávila (d. Oct. 19, 1955), Chilean journalist and President of Chile.  He died at age 68.

1886 ~ Paul Lévy (d. Dec. 15, 1971), French mathematician.  He died at age 85.

1883 ~ Esteban Terradas i Illa (d. May 9, 1950), Catalan mathematician.  He died at age 66.

1872 ~ Max Factor, Sr. (né Maksymilian Faktorowicz, d. Aug. 30, 1838), Polish-born American make-up artist and founder of the Max Factor Company, a cosmetics manufacturer.  He died of an illness following a fright just 16 days before his 66^th birthday.

1857 ~ Anna Winlock (d. Jan. 4, 1904), American astronomer.  She died at age 47.

1857 ~ William Howard Taft (d. Mar. 8, 1930), 27^th President of the United States and 10^th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He served as President from March 1909 until March 1913.  He had previously served as the 42^nd United States Secretary of War, from February 1904 until June 1908.  Following his term as President, he was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Warren Harding.  He served on the Court from July 1921 until Feb. 1930.  He died about a month after his retirement from the High Court.  He was 72 at the time of his death.

1830 ~ José de la Cruz Porfiro Díaz Mori (b. July 2, 1915), 29^th President of Mexico.  He was President from December 1884 until May 1911.  He died at age 84.

1789 ~ James Fenimore Cooper (b. Sept. 15, 1851), American novelist best known for The Leatherstocking Tales, a series of five novels about Natty Bumppo, a frontiersman.  He died on his 62^nd birthday.

1788 ~ Gerald Brandon (d. Mar. 28, 1850), Governor of Mississippi.  He served two terms as Governor.  He died at age 61.

1736 ~ Jean Sylvain Bailly (d. Nov. 12, 1793), French mathematician and 1^st Mayor of Paris.  He was an early leader in the French revolution, but he refused to testify against Marie Antoinette, thus he was arrested and ultimately guillotined.  He was age 57 at the time of his execution.

1505 ~ Mary of Hungary (d. Oct. 18, 1558), she was Queen Consort of Hungary and Bohemia and was the wife of King Louis II of Hungary.  She died at age 53.

1254 ~ Marco Polo (d. Jan. 8, 1324), Italian explorer and merchant.  The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown, but he is believed to have been about 60 or 70 at the time of his death.

Events that Changed the World:

2008 ~ Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  It was the largest bankruptcy filed in the United States.

2000 ~ The 2000 Summer Olympics, also known as the Games of the CCVII Olympiad, opened in Sydney, Australia.

1981 ~ Sandra Day O’Connor (b. 1930) was unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee to become the first female Supreme Court Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

1967 ~ In response to a sniper attack at the University of Texas in Austin, President Lyndon Johnson wrote to congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.

1963 ~ The bombing at the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama killed four young African-American girls.

1961 ~ Hurricane Carla hit Texas with sustained winds of 175 miles per hour.

1959 ~ Nikita Khrushchev (1894 ~ 1971) visited the United States, the first Soviet Leader to do so.

1935 ~ The Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of their citizenship.  Nazi Germany also adopted a new national flag bearing the swastika.

1916 ~ The British Army became the first to use military tanks in battle.  A British Mark I Male Tank was used during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette as part of the wider Somme Offensive.

1862 ~ During the American Civil War, Confederate forces captured Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

1789 ~ The United States Department of State was established.  It developed from the Department of Foreign Affairs, but the duties were expanded to include a variety of domestic matters.

1752 ~ The United Kingdom and the American colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar.  The previous day was September 2.

Good-Byes:

2006 ~ Orina Fallaci (b. June 29, 1929), Italian journalist and writer.  She died of lung cancer at age 77.

2004 ~ Johnny Ramone (né John Williams Cummings, b. Oct. 8, 1948), American guitarist and member of the Ramones.  He died of prostate cancer three weeks before his 56^th birthday.

2003 ~ Garner Ted Armstrong (b. Feb. 9, 1930), American televangelist.  He died at age 73.

1989 ~ Robert Penn Warren (b. Apr. 24, 1905), Southern American novelist, best known for All the King’s Men, which is a fictional account of Louisiana’s Huey P. Long.  He died at age 84 in Stratton, Vermont.

1978 ~ Willie Messerschmitt (né Wilhelm Emil Messerschmitt, b. June 26, 1898), German aircraft designer and manufacturer.  He died at age 80.

1973 ~ King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden (b. Nov. 11, 1882).  He died at age 90.

1945 ~ André Tardieu (b. Sept. 22, 1867), Prime Minister of France.  He served 3 terms as Prime Minister.  He died a week before his 69^th birthday.

1940 ~ William B. Bankhead (b. Apr. 12, 1874), American politician from Alabama.  He served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from June 1936 until his death on September 15, 1940.  He died at age 66.

1938 ~ Thomas Wolfe (b. Oct. 3, 1900). American author best known for his novel, Look Homeward, Angel.  He died 18 days before his 38^th birthday of complications of “military” tuberculosis of the brain.

1926 ~ Rudolf Eucken (b. Jan. 5, 1846), German writer and philosopher and recipient of the 1908 Nobel Prize for Literature.  He died at age 80.

1902 ~ Horace Gray (b. Mar. 24, 1828), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Chester Arthur.  He served from December 1881 until his death in September 1902.  He died at age 74.

1874 ~ Benjamin Robbins Curtis (b. Nov. 4, 1809), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was appointed to the High Court by President Millard Fillmore.  He served on the Court from September 1851 until September 1857.  He was the first Supreme Court Justice to hold a law degree.  He is best known for being one of the two dissenters in the Dred Scott decision.  The acrimony over the Dred Scott decision ultimately lead to his resigning from the Court after serving for only 6 years.  He was born in Watertown, Massachusetts and died in Newport, Rhode Island.  He died at age 64.

1851 ~ James Fenimore Cooper (b. Sept. 15, 1789), American novelist best known for The Leatherstocking Tales, a series of five novels about Natty Bumppo, a frontiersman.  He died on his 62^nd birthday.

1835 ~ Sarah Knox Taylor Davis (b. Mar. 6, 1814), wife of Jefferson Davis.  She was also the daughter of United States President Zachary Taylor.  She died in St. Francisville, Louisiana, at age 21 of malaria, just three (3) months after her marriage to Jefferson Davis.