January 13

Birthdays:

1977 ~ Orlando Bloom, British actor.

1961~ Julia Louis-Dreyfus, American actress best known for her role as Elaine in Seinfeld.

1960 ~ Eric Betzig (né Robert Eric Betzig), American physicist and recipient for the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1949 ~ Brandon Tartikoff (d. Aug. 27, 1997), American television executive.  He died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 48.

1943 ~ Richard Moll (né Charles Richard Moll), American actor best known for his role as Bull in the television sit-com, Night Court.

1931 ~ Charles Nelson Reilly, II (d. May 25, 2007), American actor.  He died of pneumonia at age 76.

1927 ~ Brock Adams (né Brockman Adams, d. Sept. 10, 2004), 5^th United States Secretary of Transportation.  He served under President Jimmy Carter from January 1977 until July 1979.  He died at age 77.

1927 ~ Sydney Brenner, South African biologist and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

1926 ~ Michael Bond (né Thomas Michael Bond, d. June 27, 2017), British soldier and author.  He created Paddington Bear.  He died at age 91.

1925 ~ Gwen Verdon (née Gwyneth Evelyn Verdon, d. Oct. 18, 2000), American dancer and actress.  She was married to Bob Fosse.  She died at age 75.

1902 ~ Karl Menger (d. Oct. 5, 1985), Austrian mathematician from the Vienna Circle.  He died at age 83.

1893 ~ Chaim Soutine (d. Aug. 9, 1943), Belarusian painter.  He died of a perforated ulcer at age 50.

1884 ~ Sophie Tucker (née Sonya Kalish, d. Feb. 9, 1966), Ukrainian-born singer and performer.  She died 27 days after her 79^th birthday.

1885 ~ Alfred Fuller (d. Dec. 4, 1973), Canadian-American businessman and founder of the Fuller Brush Company.  He died at age 88.

1864 ~ Wilhelm Wien (d. Aug. 30, 1928), German physicist and recipient of the 1911 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 64.

1832 ~ Horatio Alger, Jr. (d. July 18, 1899), American minister and author.  He died in Natick, Massachusetts at age 67.

1808 ~ Samuel Portland Chase (d. May 7, 1873), 6^th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Abraham Lincoln.  He served on the Court from December 1864 until his death on this date 9 years later.  He had previously served as the 25^th United States Secretary of the Treasury under the Lincoln administration.  Although born in Cornish, New Hampshire, he served as the 23^rd Governor of Ohio from January 1856 through January 1860.  He died at age 65.

1805 ~ Thomas Dyer (d. June 6, 1862), 18^th Mayor of Chicago.  He was mayor from 1856 until 1857.  He died at age 57.

1787 ~ John Davis (d. Apr. 19, 1854), 14^th and 17^th Governor of Massachusetts.  In his first term, he served from January 1834 until March 1835.  He was in office for his second term from January 1841 until January 1843.  He died at age 67.

1334 ~ King Henry II of Castile (d. May 29, 1379).  He died at age 45.

5 BCE ~ Guangwu of Han (d. Mar. 29, 57 CE), Chinese emperor of the Han dynasty.

Events that Changed the World:

2012 ~ The Italian cruise ship, Costa Concordia, hit a reef off the small island of Giglio off the Tuscan coast.  The Captain, Francesco Schettino (b. 1957), abandoned his ship, leaving over 4200 passengers and crew.  At least 32 people were killed when the ship capsized.  In a trial ending in 2015, the ship’s Captain was ultimately found guilty of manslaughter, and abandoning his ship and was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

2001 ~ A massive earthquake hit El Salvador, killing over 800 people.

1990 ~ Douglas Wilder (b. 1931) became the first elected African-American governor when he was sworn in as Governor of Virginia.

1982 ~ Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into Washington, D.C.’s 14^th Street Bridge.  78 people, including 4 motorists were killed.

1968 ~ Johnny Cash (1932 ~ 2003) performed live at Folsom State Prison.

1966 ~ President Lyndon Johnson (1908 ~ 1973) appointed Robert Weaver (1907-1997) as the 1^st Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.  He was the first African-American to hold a cabinet position.  He took office on January 18, 1966.

1964 ~ Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, was appointed as archbishop of Kraków, Poland.

1915 ~ An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy killed over 29,800 people.

1910 ~ The first public radio broadcast, which was a performance of the an opera from the New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, aired.

1898 ~ Émile Zola’s J’accuse letter was published in the French newspaper.  In the letter, Zola accused the French government of anti-Semitism and the unlawful jailing of Alfred Dreyfus (1859 ~ 1935), who had been imprisoned for espionage.

1888 ~ The National Geographic Society was founded.

1830 ~ A fire in New Orleans began when 5,000 bales of cotton caught fire.

1733 ~ James Oglethorpe along with 130 other colonists arrived in Charleston, South Carolina.

Good-Byes:

2017 ~ Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, 1^St Earl of Snowdon (b. Mar. 7, 1930), the British photographer who married British royalty.  His wedding to Princess Margaret was the first televised royal wedding.  They divorced after 18 years.  He died at age 86.

2013 ~ Chia-Chiao Lin (b. July 7, 1916), Chinese-born mathematician.  He died at age 96.

2011 ~ Tuviah Friedman (b. Jan. 23, 1922), Polish-born Israeli Nazi hunter who sought revenge.  He died 10 days before his 89^th birthday.

2010 ~ Teddy Pendergrass (né Theodore DeReese Pendergrass, b. Mar. 26, 1950), American Rhythm and Blues star who overcame a devastating accident.  At age 31, he was involved in a car accident that left him a paraplegic, but he resumed his singing and became a spokesperson for the disabled.  He died at age 59.

2009 ~ Hortense Calisher (b. Dec. 20, 1911), American author best known for her book, Sunday Jews.  She was the second woman president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  She died 24 days after her 97^th birthday.

1980 ~ André Kostelanetz (b. Dec. 22, 1901), Russian-born American orchestra conductor and composer.  He died 22 days after his 78^th birthday.

1978 ~ Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (b. May 27, 1911), 38^th Vice President of the United States.  He served in that office under President Lyndon Johnson from January 1965 until January 1969.  He died at age 66 of cancer.

1962 ~ Ernie Kovacs (né Ernest Edward Kovacs, b. Jan. 23, 1919), American actor and comedian.  He was killed in a car accident 10 days before his 43^rd birthday.

1958 ~ Jesse Louis Lasky (b. Sept. 13, 1880), American movie producer and co-founder of Paramount Pictures.  He died at age 77.

1951 ~ Dorothea Bate (b. Nov. 8, 1878), British paleontologist and archaeozoologist.  She died of a heart attack at age 72.

1943 ~ Sophie Taeuber-Arp (b. Jan. 19, 1889), Swiss painter and sculptor.  She was the wife of Dada artist, Jean Arp.  She died 6 days before her 54^th birthday of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

1941 ~ James Joyce (b. Feb. 2, 1882), Irish writer.  He died at 20 days before his 59^th birthday.

1934 ~ Paul Ulrich Vallard (b. Sept. 28, 1860), French chemist and physicist.  He discovered gamma rays.  He died at age 73.

1929 ~ Wyatt Earp (b. Mar. 19, 1848), American western law enforcement officer who is best known for his role in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.  He died at age 80.

1894 ~ Nadezhda von Meck (b. Feb. 10, 1831), Russian businesswoman best known as being the financial support for Peter Tchaikovsky.  Although they never met, she provided him with financial support for over 13 years.  She died of tuberculosis at age 62.

1885 ~ Schuyler Colfax, Jr. (b. Mar. 23, 1823), 17^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President Ulysses S. Grant from March 1869 until March 1873.  He had previously served as the 25^th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.  He died of a heart attack at age 61.

1864 ~ Stephen Foster (b. July 4, 1826), American composer and songwriter.  He died at age 37.

1717 ~ Maria Sibylla Merian (b. Apr. 2, 1647), German naturalist, entomologist and illustrator.  She died at age 69.

1625 ~ Jan Brueghel the Elder (b. 1568), Flemish painter.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.

1599 ~ Edmund Spenser (b. 1552/1553), English poet, best known for The Faerie Queene.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 46 or 47 at the time of his death.

1151 ~ Abbot Suger (b. 1081), French politician and historian.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.

858 ~ Æthelwulf of Wessex (b. 795).  The actual date of his birth is not known.