December 3

Birthdays:

1968 ~ Brendan Fraser, Canadian-American actor.

1965 ~ Katarina Witt, German figure skater.

1963 ~ Terri Schiavo (d. Mar. 31, 2005), American medical patient who was the center of a wrenching right-to-die dispute.  In 1990, she suffered from a cardiac arrest, form which she never recovered conscientiousness.  Her husband and her parents found themselves on opposite sides of a dispute when her husband wanted to remove her feeding tube.  After years of legal battling, the feeding tube was removed and she died 13 days later at age 41.

1960 ~ Daryl Hannah, American actress.

1960 ~ Julianne Moore, American actress.

1948 ~ Ozzy Osbourne (né John Michael Osbourne), English singer and member of the band, Black Sabbath.

1938 ~ Sally Shlaer (d. Nov. 12, 1998), American mathematician.  She died 21 days before her 60^th birthday.

1933 ~ Paul J. Crutzen, Dutch chemist and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

1930 ~ Jean-Luc Godard, French film director.

1927 ~ Andy Williams (né Howard Andrew Williams, d. Sept. 25, 2012), American singer who was the last of the great easy-listening crooners.  He died of cancer at age 84.

1924 ~ John Backus (d. Mar. 17, 2007), American mathematician and computer scientist.  He died at age 82.

1921 ~ John Doar (d. Nov. 11, 2014), American civil rights lawyer who fought segregation and drafted the articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon.  He died 3 weeks before his 93^rd birthday.

1900 ~ Robert Kuhn (d. Aug. 1, 1967), Austrian biochemist and recipient of the 1938 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  During World War II, he collaborated with high-ranking Nazi officials and denounced three of his Jewish co-workers.  He was 66 years old at the time of his death.

1895 ~ Anna Freud (d. Oct. 9, 1982), Austrian-born British psychoanalyst and daughter of Sigmund Freud.  She died at age 86.

1888 ~ Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog (d. July 25, 1959), Polish rabbi.  He was the Chief Rabbi of Ireland from 1919 through 1936.  He died at age 70.

1886 ~ Karl Manne Siegbahn (d. Sept. 26, 1978), Swedish physicist and recipient of the 1924 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 91.

1857 ~ Joseph Conrad (né Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, d. Aug. 3, 1924), Polish-born British writer.  He is best known for his novel Lord Jim, as well as stories of the sea.  He died at age 66.

1842 ~ Charles Alfred Pillsbury (d. Sept. 17, 1899), American businessman and co-founder of the Pillsbury company.  He was born in Warner, New Hampshire.  He died of heart disease at age 56.

1842 ~ Ellen Swallow Richards (d. Mar. 30, 1911), American chemist.  She was born in Dunstable, Massachusetts.  She died at age 68 in Boston, Massachusetts.

1842 ~ Phoebe Hearst (d. Apr. 13, 1919), American philanthropist.  She was the mother of William Randolph Hearst.  She died at age 76.

1826 ~ George B. McCellan (d. Oct. 29, 1885), American Union Civil War general.  He was also the 24^th Governor of New Jersey.  He died at age 58.

1766 ~ Barbara Fritchie (d. Dec. 18, 1862), American Civil War Unionist.  John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a poem about her defending the Union Flag during the Civil War.  She died 15 days after her 96^th birthday.

1755 ~ Gilbert Stuart (d. July 9, 1828), American painter, best known for his portrayal of George Washington.  He died in Boston, Massachusetts at age 72.

1616 ~ John Wallis (b. Nov. 8, 1703), English mathematician.  He died less than a month before his 87^th birthday.

1368 ~ King Charles VI of France (d. Oct. 21, 1422).  He was known as Charles the Beloved.  He died at age 53.

Events that Changed the World:

2012 ~ Typhoon Bopha struck the Philippines causing massive damage and killing at least 475 people.

1997 ~ In Ottawa, Canada, the Ottawa Treaty was signed by representatives from 121 countries.  The treaty prohibited the manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines.  The United States, Russia and the People’s Republic of China did not sign the treaty.

1984 ~ A cloud of methyl isocyanate from a leak at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, killed nearly 4,000 people and injured hundreds of thousands more.  The Bhopal disaster remains one of the world’s word industrial disasters in history.

1982 ~ A soil sample taken from Times Beach, Missouri was discovered to contain over 300 times the safe level of dioxin.

1979 ~ The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902 ~ 1989) became the first Supreme Leader of Iran.

1967 ~ Dr. Christiaan Barnard (1922 ~ 2001) and his team performed the first human heart transplant at the Grotte Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.  Louis Washkansky (1913 ~ 1967), a Lithuanian Jew, had serious heart failure.  The procedure was entirely experimental and Mr. Washkansky lived only 2 weeks following the transplant.

1960 ~ The musical Camelot made its debut at the Majestic Theater on Broadway.  This play became associated with the Kennedy administration.

1927 ~ The first Laurel and Hardy film was released.  It was called Putting Pants on Philip.

1912 ~ Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia signed an armistice with the Ottoman Empire granting a temporary halt to the First Balkin War.  When the armistice expired in February 1913, the hostilities resumed.

1910 ~ George Claude (1870 ~ 1960) demonstrated modern neon lighting at the Paris Motor Show.

1818 ~ Illinois became the 21^st State of the Union.

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Scott Weiland (né Scott Richard Kline, b. Oct. 27, 1967), American rock star and frontman for the Stone Temple Pilots who struggled with drug addiction.  He died at age 48 of a drug overdose.

2014 ~ James Stewart (b. Mar. 29, 1941), Canadian mathematician.  He died at age 73.

2014 ~ Nathaniel Branden (né Nathaniel Blumenthal, b. Apr. 30, 1930), Canadian-American psychologist who became Ayn Rand’s lover.  He died at age 84.

2010 ~ Cora Sadosky (b. May 23, 1940), Argentinian mathematician.  She died at age 70.

2009 ~ Richard Todd (b. June 11, 1919), British actor who played dashing roles.  He died at age 90.

2004 ~ Shiing-Shen Chern (b. Oct. 26, 1911), Chinese mathematician.  He died at age 93.

1999 ~ Madeline Kahn (née Madeline Gail Wolfson, b. Sept. 29, 1942), American actress.  She died at age 57 of ovarian cancer.

1994 ~ Elizabeth Glaser (b. Nov. 11, 1947), American AIDS activist.  She died 22 days after her 47^th birthday.

1993 ~ Lewis Thomas (b. Nov. 25, 1913), American physician and etymologist.  He died 8 days after his 80^th birthday.

1984 ~ Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin (b. Aug. 23, 1919), Soviet mathematician.  He died at age 65.

1981 ~ Walter Knott (b. Dec. 11, 1889), American farmer and creator of Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park in California.  He died 8 days before his 92^nd birthday.

1973 ~ Adolfo Ruiz Cortines (b. Dec. 30, 1890), 47^th President of Mexico.  He was President from December 1952 through November 1958.  He died 27 days before his 83^rd birthday.

1939 ~ Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll (b. Mar. 18, 1848), sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria.  She died at age 91.

1935 ~ Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom (b. July 6, 1868).  She was the daughter of King Edward VII and younger sister of King George V.  She died at age 67.

1926 ~ Charles Ringling (b. Dec. 2, 1863), American circus owner and co-founder of the Ringling Brothers Circus.  He died the day after his 63^rd birthday.

1919 ~ Pierre-August Renoir (b. Feb. 25, 1841), French impressionist painter.  He died at age 78.

1910 ~ Mary Baker Eddy (b. July 16, 1821), American religious leader and founder of the Christian Science movement.  She was born in Bow, New Hampshire.  She died at age 89.

1894 ~ Robert Louis Stevenson (b. Nov. 13, 1850), Scottish writer best known for such children’s adventure novels as Treasure Island and Kidnapped.  He died 20 days after his 44^th birthday.

1888 ~ Carl Zeiss (b. Sept. 11, 1816), German lens maker and founder of the Optical Instrument.  He died at age 72.

1552 ~ Saint Francis Xavier (né Francisco de Jasso y Azpiliceuta, b. Apr. 7, 1506).  Spanish missionary and co-founder of the Society of Jesus.  He died of a fever at age 46.

1533 ~ Vasili III Ivanovich, Grand Prince of Moscow (b. Mar. 25, 1479).  He died at age 54.

1154 ~ Pope Anastasius IV (né Corrado Demetri della Suburra, b. 1073).  He was Pope from July 8, 1153 until his death a year and a half later.  The date of his birth is not known.