February 25

Birthdays:

1976 ~ Rashida Leah Jones, American actress.  Her parents are Quincy Jones and Peggy Lipton.

1975 ~ Chelsea Joy Handler, American comedian and actress.

1966 ~ Téa Leoni (née Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni), American actress.

1950 ~ Néstor Carlos Kirchner (d. Oct. 27, 2010), 51^st President of Argentina.  He served as President from May 2003 until December 2007.  He died of cardiac arrest at age 60.

1943 ~ George Harrison (d. Nov. 29, 2001), English musician and member of the Beatles.  He died of cancer at age 58.

1937 ~ Bob Schieffer (né Bob Lloyd Schieffer), American television journalist.

1935 ~ Sally Jessy Raphael (née Sally Lowenthal), American talk show host known for her signature red-framed glasses.

1927 ~ Dick Jones (né Richard Percy Jones. d. July 7, 2014), The American actor who voiced Disney’s Pinocchio.  He died at age 87.

1926 ~ Masatoshi Gündüz Ikeda (d. Feb. 9, 2003), Turkish-Japanese mathematician.  He died 16 days before his 77^th birthday.

1920 ~ Sun Myung Moon (né Mun Yong-myeong, d. Sept. 3, 2012), South Korean super-rich “messiah” who founded the Moonies.  He was the religious leader who founded the Unification Church.  He died at age 92.

1918 ~ Bobby Riggs (né Robert Larimore Riggs, d. Oct. 25, 1995), American tennis player.  He is best known for his 1973 tennis match with Billy Jean King, which was dubbed The Battle of the Sexes, in which he lost.  He died of prostate cancer at age 77.

1917 ~ Anthony Burgess (né John Anthony Burgess Wilson, d. Nov. 22 1993), British author best known for his novel, A Clockwork Orange.  He died at age 76.

1913 ~ Jim Backus (né James Gilmore Backus, d. July 3, 1989), American actor, best known for his roles as Mr. Magoo and the Millionaire on Guilligan’s Island.  He died of pneumonia at age 76.

1910 ~ Millicent Fenwick (d. Sept. 16, 1992), American politician and writer.  She served in the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey.  She died at age 82.

1901 ~ Zeppo Marx (né Herbert Manfred Marx, d. Nov. 30, 1979), American actor and comedian.  He was the youngest of the Marx brothers.  He was the last surviving Marx brother.  He died of lung cancer at age 78.

1888 ~ John Foster Dulles (d. May 24, 1959), 52^nd Secretary of State.  He served under President Dwight David Eisenhower from January 1953 until his death.  He died of colon cancer at age 71.

1873 ~ Enrico Caruso (d. Aug. 2, 1921), Italian tenor.  He died of peritonitis at age 48.

1841 ~ Pierre-August Renoir (d. Dec. 3, 1919), French impressionist painter and sculptor.  He died at age 78.

1778 ~ José de San Martín y Matorras (d. Aug. 17, 1850), Argentine general and 1^st President of Peru.  He died at age 72.

1670 ~ Maria Margareth Kirch (d. Dec. 29, 1720), German astronomer.  She was one of the first famous astronomers of her time due to her writings on the conjunction of the sun with Saturn, Venus and Jupiter.  She died at age 50.

1475 ~ Edward Plantagenet, 17^th Earl of Warwick (d. Nov. 28, 1499), last male member of the House of York.  He was beheaded at age 24 on grounds of treason.

449 ~ Emperor Qianfei (d. Jan. 1, 466), Chinese emperor of the Liu Song dynasty.  He died at age 16.

Events that Changed the World:

1994 ~ Baruch Goldstein (1956 ~ 1994) opened fire with an automatic rifle killing 29 Palestinians and injuring an addition 125 people in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.  He was subsequently beaten to death.

1986 ~ Ferdinand Marcos (1917 ~ 1989), the President of the Philippines, was ousted by the People Power Revolution.  He and his wife, Imelda (b. 1929), fled the country.  Corazon Aquino (1933 ~ 2009) became the first woman president of the Philippines.

1954 ~ Gamal Abdul Nassar (1918 ~ 1970) became premier of Egypt.

1945 ~ Turkey declared war on Germany, thereby entering World War II.

1919 ~ Oregon became the first State to impose a gasoline tax when it placed a 1 cent per gallon tax on gasoline.

1901 ~ United States Steel Corporation was incorporated by J.P. Morgan (1837 ~ 1919).

1870 ~ Hiram Rhodes Revels (1827 ~ 1901) became the first African-American to sit in the US Congress after he was sworn into the United States Senate.  He was a Republican from Mississippi and he represented that State from 1870 ~ 1871.

1836 ~ Samuel Colt (1814 ~ 1862) was granted a US Patent for the Colt revolver.

1570 ~ Queen Elizabeth I of England was excommunicated by Pope Pius V.

Good-Byes:

2017 ~ Bill Paxton (b. May 17, 1955), American actor.  He died of a stroke following complications from surgery.  He was 61 years old.

2015 ~ Eugenie Clark (b. May 4, 1922), American pioneering oceanographer who swam with sharks.  She was known as The Shark Lady.  She was 92 years old.

2014 ~ Paco de Lucía (b. Dec. 21, 1947), the Mexican guitarist who reinvented flamenco.  He died at age 66.

2013 ~ Allan Brian Calhmer (b. Dec. 7, 1931), American mild-mannered mailman who invented the board game Diplomacy.  He died at age 81.

2013 ~ C. Everett Koop (né Charles Everett Koop, b. Oct. 14, 1916), American surgeon who became “America’s Doctor.”  He was the 13^th Surgeon General of the United States.  He served from January 1982 until October 1989, during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.  He died at age 96.

2010 ~ Aaron Cohen (b. Jan. 5, 1931), American engineer who ran Mission Control.  He was the Acting Deputy Administrator for NASA from February 1992 until November 1992.  He died at age 79.

2005 ~ Peter Benenson (b. July 31, 1921), British attorney and activist.  He was the founder of Amnesty International.  He died at age 83.

1999 ~ Glenn Theodore Seaborg (b. Apr. 19, 1912), American chemist and recipient of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 86.

1983 ~ Tennessee Williams (né Thomas Lanier Williams, III, b. Mar. 26, 1911), American playwright, best known for A Streetcar Named Desire.  He died a month before his 72^nd birthday.

1972 ~ Hugo Steinhaus (né Władysław Hugo Dionizy Steinhaus, b. Jan. 14, 1887), Polish mathematician and educator.  He died at age 85.

1971 ~ Theodor Svedberg (b. Aug. 30, 1884), Swedish chemist and recipient of the 1926 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 86.

1970 ~ Mark Rothko (né Markus Yakovlevich Rotkovich, b. Sept. 25, 1903), Latvian-born American painter.  He died at age 66.

1964 ~ Grace Metalious (b. Sept. 8, 1924), American novelist best known for her novel, Payton Place.  She was born in Manchester, New Hampshire.  She died at age 39 in Boston, Massachusetts.

1950 ~ George Richards Minot (b. Dec. 2, 1885), American physician and recipient of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with pernicious anemia.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Brookline, Massachusetts at age 64.

1934 ~ Elizabeth Gertrude Britton (b. Jan. 9, 1858), American botanist.  She died at age 76.

1899 ~ Paul Reuter (né Israel Beer Josaphat, b. July 21, 1816), German-born British journalist and founder of Reuters news service.  He died at age 82.

1864 ~ Anna Harrison (b. July 25, 1775), First Lady of the United States and wife of President William Henry Harrison.  She died at age 88.

1850 ~ Daoguang Emperor (b. Sept. 16, 1782), 8^th Chinese Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.  He died at age 67.

1841 ~ Philip Pendleton Barbour (b. May 25, 1783), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Andrew Jackson.  He served on the Court from March 1836 until his death 5 years later.  He had previously served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.  He was a Representative from Virginia.  He died at age 57.

1822 ~ William Pinkney (b. Mar. 17, 1764), 7^th United States Attorney General.  He served under James Madison from December 1811 until February 1814.  He died 3 weeks before his 58^th birthday.

805 ~ De Zong (b. May 27, 742), Chinese Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.  He died at age 62.