November 26

Birthdays:

1954 ~ Roz Chast (née Rosalind Chast), American cartoonist.

1948 ~ Elizabeth Blackburn, Australian-born biochemist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  She holds dual citizenship with the United States and Australia.

1939 ~ Wayland Flowers (d. 1988), American actor and puppeteer.  He died at age 48.

1939 ~ Tina Turner, American musician and singer.

1938 ~ Porter Goss, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  He served during the George W. Bush administration from April 2005 until March 2006.

1938 ~ Rich Little (né Richard Caruthers Little), Canadian comedian and impersonator.

1933 ~ Robert Goulet (d. Oct. 30, 2007), American actor and singer.  He died 27 days before his 74^th birthday.

1931 ~ Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentine activist and recipient of the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize.

1926~ Albert Maysles (d. Mar. 5, 2015), American filmmaker.  Albert, along with his brother David (1931 ~ 1987), transformed the documentary.  They are best known for the film, Grey Gardens.  He was 88 years old at the time of his death.

1922 ~ Charles Schultz (d. Feb. 12, 2000), American cartoonist and creator of Charlie Brown.  He died at age 77.

1918 ~ Patricio Aylwin (d. Apr. 19, 2016), 32^nd President of Chile.  He served as President from March 1990 until March 1994.  He died at age 97.

1912 ~ Eric Sevareid (né Arnold Eric Sevareid, d. July 9, 1992), American journalist.  He died at age 79.

1903 ~ Alice Herz-Sommer (d. Feb. 23, 2014), Czech-born pianist whose spirit survived the Holocaust.  She was interned at the Theresienstadt concentration camp.  She died at age 110.

1902 ~ Maurice James McDonald (d. Dec. 11, 1971), American fast-food entrepreneur and co-founder, along with his brother Richard McDonald (1909 ~ 1998), of McDonald’s.  He was born in Manchester, New Hampshire.  Richard died at age 89; Maurice died 14 days after his 69^th birthday.

1899 ~ Bruno Hauptmann (d. Apr. 3, 1936), German convicted kidnapper and killer of the son of Charles Lindbergh.  He was executed for his crime although there has been some question as to whether or not he was actually guilty.  He was 36 years old.

1898 ~ Karl Walderman Ziegler (d. Aug. 12, 1973), German chemist and recipient of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on polymers.  He died at age 74.

1895 ~ William Griffith “Bill” Wilson (d. Jan. 24, 1971), American co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.  His organization is often called Friends of Bill W.  He was born in East Dorset, Vermont.  He died at age 75.

1894 ~ Norbert Wiener (d. Mar. 18, 1964), American mathematician.  He died at age 69.

1876 ~ Willis Carrier (d. Oct. 7, 1950), American engineer and inventor of air conditioning.  He died at age 73.

1861 ~ Albert Bacon Fall (d. Nov. 30, 1944), 28^th United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under President Warren G. Harding from March 1921 until March 1923.  He died 4 days after his 83^rdbirthday.

1858 ~ Katharine Drexel (d. Mar. 3, 1955), American nun and Roman Catholic Saint.  She died at age 96.

1853 ~ Bat Masterson (né Bartholemew William Barclay Masterson, d. Oct. 25, 1921), American journalist, buffalo hunter, gambler and western lawman.  He died of a heart attack a month before his 68^th birthday

1847 ~ Maria Fyodorovna (d. Oct. 13, 1928), Danish wife of Tzar Alexander III of Russia.  She died at age 80.

1832 ~ Mary Edwards Walker (d. Feb. 21, 1919), American physician.  She served during the American Civil War and as of 2016, she was still the only woman to be awarded the Medal of Honor.  She died at age 86.

1827 ~ Ellen Gould Harmon White (d. July 16, 1915), American author and religious leader.  She was a co-founder of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.  She was born in Gorham, Maine.  She died at age 87.

1792 ~ Sarah Moore Grimké (d. Dec. 23, 1873), American author and abolitionist.  She died less than a month after her 81^st birthday.

1609 ~ Henry Dunster (d. Feb. 27, 1659), English-American clergyman and academic.  He became the first President of Harvard College.  The date of his birth is not known, but he was baptized on November 26, 1609.  He died at age 49.

1607 ~ John Harvard (d. Sept. 14, 1638), English-American clergyman whose deathbed bequest provided the seed funding for a school of higher education, which was first known as Harvard College, and lager became known as Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He died at age 30 of tuberculosis.

1604 ~ Johannes Bach (d. 1673), German composer and musician.  He is the patriarch of the Bach family of musicians.  The exact date of his death is not known.  He was buried on May 13, 1673.  He is believed to have died at age 68.

Events that Changed the World:

2015 ~ Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

2009 ~ Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

2003 ~ The SST Concorde made it final flight.

2000 ~ George W. Bush (b. 1946) was certified as the Presidential winner of the Florida Electoral votes.  He went on to win the United States Presidential election despite losing in the national popular vote.

1983 ~ In London, England, robbers stole 6,800 gold bars from the Brink’s-Mat Vault at Heathrow Airport.

1942 ~ The movie Casablanca, staring Humphrey Bogart (1899 ~ 1957) and Ingrid Bergman (1915 ~ 1982), premiered.

1922 ~ Howard Carter (1874 ~ 1939) and George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5^th Earl of Carnarvon (1866 ~ 1923) became the first people to enter the tomb of King Tut (the Pharaoh Tutankhamun) in over 3000 years.

1909 ~ The Jewish fraternity, Sigma Alpha Mu, also known as “Sammy”, was founded by 8 Jewish men at City College of New York.

1863 ~ President Abraham Lincoln (1809 ~ 1865) proclaimed November 26 as a National Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November.  Since 1941, the holiday has been celebrated on the 4^th Thursday of the month.

1842 ~ The University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, was founded.

1789 ~ President George Washington (1732 ~ 1799) proclaimed and recommended a national day of Thanksgiving, which was subsequently approved by Congress.

1778 ~ Captain James Cook (1728 ~ 1779) became the first European to visit Maui in the Hawaiian Islands.

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Amir Aczel (b. Nov. 6, 1950), Israeli mathematics historian.  He died of cancer 20 days after his 65^th birthday.

2015 ~ Guy Lewis (b. Mar. 19, 1922), the American college basketball coach who lead the University Houston Cougars.  He died at age 93.

2014 ~ Frankie Fraser (né Francis Davidson Fraser, b. Dec. 13, 1923), the British vicious gangster who became a beloved celebrity.  He died 17 days before his 91^st birthday.

2012 ~ Joseph Murray (b. Apr. 1, 1919), American physician and recipient of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He and his team performed the first successful kidney transplant in 1954.  He died at age 93.

2005 ~ Stanley Berenstain (né Stanley Melvin Berenstain, b. Sept. 29, 1923), American author and illustration.  He, along with his wife, Janice (1922 ~ 2012), created the Berenstain Bears.  He died at age 82.

1981 ~ Max Euwe (né Machgielis Euwe, b. May 20, 1901), Dutch mathematician.  He died at age 80.

1956 ~ Thomas “Tommy” Francis Dorsey, Jr. (b. Nov. 19, 1905), American bandleader.  He died 7 days after his 51^st birthday.

1944 ~ Florence Foster Jenkins (née Narcissa Florence Foster, b. July 19, 1868), American socialite and amateur soprano.  Her life story was depicted in the 2016 movie, Florence Foster Jenkins, which starred Meryl Streep.  She died at age 76.

1943 ~ Edward “Butch” O’Hare (b. Mar. 13, 1914), American flying ace.  The O’Hare Airport in Chicago is named after him.  He was shot down during a mission during World War II.  He was 29 years old.

1915 ~ Washington Atlee Burpee (b. Apr. 5, 1858), Canadian horticulturist and founder of the Burpee Seed Company.  He died at age 57.

1883 ~ Sojourner Truth (née Isabella Baumfree, b. 1797), former slave and American abolitionist.  Although the exact date of her birth is not known, she is believed to have been 86 years old at the time of her death.

1842 ~ Robert Smith (b. Nov. 3, 1757), 6^th Secretary of State.  He served under President James Madison from March 1809 until April 1811.  He had previously served as the 2^nd United States Secretary of the Navy under President Thomas Jefferson.  He served in that position from July 1801 until March 1809.  He died 23 days after his 85^th birthday.

1836 ~ John McAdam (b. Sept. 23, 1756).  Scottish engineer, road builder and inventor.  Without his invention would we still be driving on dirt roads?  He died at age 80.

1829 ~ Bushrod Washington (b. June 5, 1762), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President John Adams.  He served from December 1798 until his death at age 67 in November 1829.

1807 ~ Oliver Ellsworth (b. Apr. 29, 1745), 3^rd Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President George Washington.  He served on the Court from March 1796 until September 1800.  He died at age 62.

1717 ~ Daniel Purcell (b. 1664), English composer.  The exact date of his birth is not known.

1504 ~ Queen Isabella I (b. Apr. 22, 1451), of Castile, Spain, and patron of Christopher Columbus.  She, along with her husband, King Ferdinand, were the Catholic monarchs who implemented the Spanish Inquisition.  She died at age 53.

399 ~ Pope Siricius (b. 334).  He was Pope from December 384 until his death on this date 15 years later.  The date of his birth is not known.