March 26

Birthdays:

1985 ~ Keira Christina Knightley, English actress.

1973 ~ Lawrence Page, American computer scientist and co-founder of Google.

1960 ~ Jennifer Grey, American actress, best known for her role in Dirty Dancing.

1954 ~ Curtis Sliwa, American founder of the Guardian Angels.

1953 ~ Lincoln Davenport Chafee, Governor of Rhode Island.

1953 ~ Elaine Lan Chao, 18^th United States Secretary of Transportation in the Trump administration.  She previously served under President George W. Bush as the 24^th United States Secretary of Labor from January 2001 until January 2009.  She is married to Mitch McConnell.

1951 ~ Carl Edwin Wieman, American physicist and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1950 ~ Teddy Pendergrass (né Theodore DeReese Pendergrass, d. Jan. 13, 2010), American Rhythm and Blues star who over came 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.

1950 ~ Martin Hayter Short, Canadian comedian.

1949 ~ Vicki Lawrence (née Victoria Ann Lawrence) American actress.

1948 ~ Steven Tyler (né Steven Victor Tallarico), Lead singer of Aerosmith.

1944 ~ Diana Ross (née Diana Ernestine Earle Ross), American singer and lead singer of The Supremes.

1943 ~ Bob Woodward (né Robert Upshur Woodward), American journalist, best known for working with Carl Bernstein and uncovering Watergate.

1942 ~ Erica Jong (née Erick Mann), American actor best known for her novel, Fear of Flying.

1940 ~ James Edmund Caan, American actor.

1940 ~ Nancy Pelosi (née Nancy Patricia D’Alesandro Pelosi), American politician and first woman Speaker of the House.  She served as the 60^th Speaker of the House of Representatives.

1938 ~ Sir Anthony James Leggett, American physicist and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1934 ~ Alan Wolf Arkin, American actor.

1931 ~ Leonard Nimoy (d. Feb. 27, 2015), American actor best known for his role as Mr. Spock from the Star Trek Series.  Although he initially was not keen on the role of Mr. Spock, he learned to love the alien.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died about a month before his 84^th birthday.

1930 ~ Sandra Day O’Connor, first woman Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  She was appointed to the High Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.  She served on the Court from September 1981 until January 2006 when she retired.

1926 ~ Guido Stampacchia (d. Apr. 27, 1978), Italian mathematician.  He died of a heart attack a month after his 52^nd birthday.

1925 ~ Vesta Roy (née Vesta M. Coward, d. Feb. 8, 2002), Governor of New Hampshire.  She served as Governor for only a few days, December 29, 1982 until January 6, 1983, after the sitting governor, Hugh Gallen, died in office.  She died at age 76.

1923 ~ Bob Elliot (né Robert Brackett Elliot, d. Feb. 2, 2016), American comedian and actor.  He was half of the comedy duo of Bob and Ray.  His son is comedian Chris Elliot.  He died of throat cancer at age 92 in Cundy Harbor, Maine.

1916 ~ Christian Boehmer Anfinsen, Jr. (d. May 14, 1995), American chemist and recipient of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 79.

1914 ~ Toru Kumon (d. July 25, 1995), Japanese mathematician.  He died of pneumonia at age 81.

1914 ~ General William Childs Westmoreland (d. July 18, 2005), American general who was in charge of all military commands during the Vietnam War from 1964 until 1968.  He died at age 91.

1913 ~ Paul Erdős (d. Sept. 20, 1996), Hungarian mathematician.  He died at age 83.

1911 ~ Tennessee Williams (né Thomas Lanier Williams, III, d. Feb. 25, 1983), American playwright, best known for A Streetcar Named Desire.  He died a month before his 72^nd birthday.

1911 ~ Sir Bernard Katz (d. Apr. 20, 2003), German-born biophysicist and recipient of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died less than a month after his 92^nd birthday.

1881 ~ Guccio Gucci (d. Jan. 2, 1953), Italian fashion designer and founder of Gucci.  He died at age 71.

1874 ~ Robert Lee Frost (d. Jan. 29, 1963), American poet.  He was born in San Francisco and died in Boston, Massachusetts at age 88.

1873 ~ Condé Montrose Nast (d. Sept. 19, 1942), American publisher.  He was 69 years old.

1868 ~ King Faud I of Egypt (d. Apr. 28, 1936).  He died about a month after his 68^th birthday.

1859 ~ Aldolf Hurwitz (d. Nov. 18, 1919), German mathematician.  He died at age 60.

1859 ~ A.E. Housman (né Alfred Edward Housman, d. Apr. 30, 1936), English poet.  He died at age 77.

1850 ~ Edward Bellamy (d. May 22, 1898), American author, socialist and utopian visionary.  He is best known for his novel Looking Backwards.  He was from Chicopee, Massachusetts.  He died at age 48 of tuberculosis.

1773 ~ Nathaniel Bowditch (d. Mar. 16, 1838), American mathematician.  He is best known for his contribution to ocean navigation.  He died in Boston, Massachusetts of stomach cancer 10 days before his 65^th birthday.

1698 ~ Prokop Diviš (d. Dec. 21, 1765), Czech scientist and inventor of the lightning rod.  He died at age 67.

1656 ~ Nicholas Hartsoeker (d. Dec. 10, 1725), Dutch mathematician.  He died at age 69.

1613 ~ Sir Henry Vane the Younger (d. June 14, 1662), English politician and Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he was baptized on March 26, 1613.  He was executed in England at age 49.

1031 ~ Malcolm III of Scotland (d. Nov. 13, 1093).  The exact date of his birth is not known, but it is generally considered to be March 26, 1031.  He died at age 62.

Events that Changed the World:

2000 ~ Vladimir Putin was elected as president of Russia.

1979 ~ Anwar Sadat (1918 ~ 1981), Menachem Began (1913 ~ 1991) and Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) signed the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.

1971 ~ East Pakistan declared its independence from Pakistan to become the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

1953 ~ Jonas Salk (1914 ~ 1994) announced the development of the polio vaccine.

1942 ~ The first female prisoners began arriving at Auschwitz.

1934 ~ The United Kingdom began requiring driving tests.

1931 ~ SwissAir, the national airline of Switzerland, was founded.

1920 ~ This Side of Paradise, F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s first novel was published.

1830 ~ The Book of Mormon was first published.

1812 ~ A political cartoon coined the term “gerrymander” to describe the oddly-shaped electoral districts designed to help incumbents win reelections.  The word Gerrymander is a portmanteau of Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry (1774 ~ 1814) and the word Salamander because the redistricting that he proposed resembled a salamander.

1812 ~ An earthquake destroyed much of Caracas, Venezuela.

1027 ~ Conrad II (990 ~ 1039) was crowned as the Holy Roman Emperor.

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Tomas Gösta Tranströmer (b. Apr. 15, 1931), Swedish writer and recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died about 3 weeks before his 84^th birthday.

2015 ~ Friedrich L. Bauer (b. June 10, 1924), German mathematician.  He died at age 90.

2011 ~ Geraldine Ferraro (b. Aug. 26, 1935), American Congresswoman and Vice Presidential nominee in the 1984 presidential campaign.  Walter Mondale selected her to be his running mate.  She died of multiple myeloma at age 75.

2005 ~ Georgeanna Jones (b. July 6, 1912), American reproductive endocrinologist who began an in vitro fertilization clinic with her husband, Howard Jones (1910 ~ 2015), after reaching retirement age.  Elizabeth Carr, born on December 28, 1981, was first “test tube” baby born in the United States, was born as a result of their research.  Georgeanna Jones died at age 92.

2005 ~ James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff (né Leonard James Callaghan, d. Mar. 17, 1912), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He died 1 day before his 93^rd birthday.

2003 ~ Daniel Patrick Moynihan (b. Mar. 16, 1927), American politician and US Senator from New York State.  He was also the 12^th United States Ambassador to the United Nations.  He died 10 days after his 76^th birthday.

2000 ~ Alexander “Alex” Comfort (b. Feb. 10, 1920), English physician and author.  He died at age 80.

1996 ~ Edmund Sixtus Muskie (b. Mar. 28, 1914), American politician and long-term senator from Maine.  He also served as the 58^th US Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from May 1980 until January 1981.  He died 2 days before his 82^nd birthday.

1996 ~ David Packard (b. Sept. 7, 1912), American businessman and co-founder of Hewlett-Packard.  He died at age 83.

1990 ~ Halston (né Roy Halston Frowick, b. Apr. 23, 1932), American fashion designer.  He died less than a month before his 58^th birthday.

1983 ~ Sir Anthony Frederick Blunt (b. Sept. 26, 1907), English historian and Soviet spy.  He died at age 75.

1973 ~ Sir Noël Peirce Coward (b. Dec. 16, 1899), English composer and playwright.  He died at age 73.

1970 ~ Julius Albert Krug (b. Nov. 23, 1907), 33^rd United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under President Harry S. Truman from March 1946 until December 1949.  He died at age 62.

1969 ~ John Kennedy Toole (b. Dec. 17, 1937), American novelist from New Orleans.  His most well-known novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, was published after his suicide at age 31.

1959 ~ Raymond Thornton Chandler (b. July 23, 1888), American detective-fiction writer.  He died at age 70.

1945 ~ David Lloyd George, 1^st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (b. Jan. 17, 1863), Welsh attorney and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He served as Prime Minister from December 1916 until October 1922.  He died at age 82.

1932 ~ Henry Martyn Leland (b. Feb. 16, 1843), American inventor and automotive entrepreneur.  He founded the luxury automobiles of Cadillac and Lincoln.  He was born in Vermont.  He died at age 89.

1923 ~ Sarah Bernhardt (b. Oct. 22, 1844), French actress.  Her birth date is sometime noted as being on October 23, 1844.  She died at age 78.

1902 ~ Cecil John Rhodes (b. July 5, 1853), English-born South African explorer and businessman.  He was the founder of the DeBeers diamond mining company.  He died of heart failure at age 48.

1900 ~ Isaac Mayer Wise (b. Mar. 29, 1819), Bohemian-born American rabbi and founder of the Reform Movement in the United States.  He died 3 days before his 81^st birthday.

1892 ~ Walt Whitman (né Walter Whitman, b. May 31, 1819), American poet.  He died at age 72.

1885 ~ Anson Stager (b. Apr. 22, 1925), American businessman who co-founded Western Union.  He died less than a month before his 60^th birthday.

1862 ~ Uriah Phillips Levy (b. Apr. 22, 1792), Commodore of the United States Navy.  He was the first Jewish Commodore of the Navy.  He is best known for stopping flogging and corporal punishment.  He died less than a month before his 70^th birthday.

1827 ~ Ludwig van Beethoven (b. Dec. 17, 1770), German composer.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he was baptized on December 17, 1770.  In his later years he became deaf, yet continued to compose music.  His famous Ninth Symphony was written when he was completely deaf.  He died at age 56.

1814 ~ Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (b. May 28, 1738), French physician and namesake of the guillotine.  He did not invent the guillotine and was, in fact, an opponent of the death penalty.  He died at age 75.

1776 ~ Samuel Ward (b. May 25, 1725), 31^st Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island.  He died of small pox at age 50.

1729 ~ Simon de la Loubère (b. Apr. 21, 1642), French diplomat and mathematician.  He died less than a month before his 87^th birthday.

1649 ~ John Winthrop (b. Jan. 12, 1587/88), Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but Jan 12 is typically the date ascribed to his birth.  He died at about age 61

1535 ~ Georg Tannsetter (b. April 1482), Austrian mathematician.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.

908 ~ Ai (b. Sept. 27, 892), last emperor of the Tang Dynasty.  He ascended to the throne at age 11 and was poisoned at age 15.

752 ~ Pope-Elect Stephen.  He died before he was installed as Pope.  He was elected Pope but died of a stroke before formally being ordained.  The date of his birth is unknown.