July 8

Birthdays:

1968~ Billy Crudup (né William Gaither Crudup), American actor.

1958~ Kevin Bacon (né Kevin Norwood Bacon), American actor.

1958~ Tzipi Livni (née Tziporah Malka Livni), Israeli politician and 18^thJustice Minister of Israel.

1952~ Anna Quindlen (née Anna Marie Quindlen), American columnist and novelist.

1951~ Angelica Huston, American actress.

1949~ Wolfgang Puck (né Wolfgang Johannas Topfschnig), Austrian-born  celebrity chef.

1947~ Kim Darby (née Deborah Zerby), American actress, best known for her role in True Grit.

1944~ Jeffrey Tambor (né Jeffrey Michael Tambor), American actor.

1934~ Marty Feldman (né Martin Alan Feldman, d. Dec. 2, 1982), English comedian and actor.  He died of a heart attack at age 48.

1929~ Shirley Ann Grau, American author from New Orleans, Louisiana.

1926~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (d. Aug. 24, 2004), Swiss-born psychiatrist who specialized in the study of death and dying.  She died at age 78.

1918~ Paul B. Fay (né Paul Burgess Fay, Jr., d. Sept. 29, 2009), Acting United States Secretary of the Navy in November 1963.  He died at age 91.

1916~ Jean Rouverol (d. Mar. 24, 2017), American screenwriter who became a Hollywood exile.  She was blacklisted during the McCarthy era.  She died at age 100.

1914~ Billy Eckstein (né William Clarence Eckstein, d. Mar. 8, 1993), American trumpet player and singer.  He died at age 78.

1914~ Elisabeth Bing (née Elisabeth Dorothea Koenigsberger, d. May 15, 2015), German physical therapist and natural-birth campaigner who popularized Lamaze.  She was known as the Mother of Lamaze.  She was 100 years old.

1908~ Nelson A. Rockefeller (né Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, d. Jan. 26, 1979), 41^st Vice President of the United States.  He served under President Gerald Ford from December 1974 until January 1977. He also served as the 49^th Governor of New York State from January 1959 until December 1973.  He was the grandson of John D. Rockefeller, whose birthday was also on July 8.  He was born in Bar Harbor, Maine.  He died at age 70.

1906~ Philip Johnson (né Philip Cortelyou Johnson, d. Jan. 25, 2005), American architect gadfly who changed America’s skyline.  He died at age 98.

1904~ Henri Cartan (né Henri Paul Cartan, d. Aug. 13, 2008), French mathematician.  He made significant contributions to the field of algebraic topology.  He died at age 104.

1898~ Alec Waugh (né Alexander Raban Waugh, d. Sept. 3, 1981) English writer.  He was the brother of writer Evelyn Waugh.  He died at age 83.

1895~ James P. McGranery (né James Patrickk McGranery, d. Dec. 23, 1962), 61^st United States Attorney General.  He served under President Harry S Truman from April 1952 until January 1953. He died at age 67.

1895~ Igor Tamm (d. Apr. 12, 1971), Russian physicist and recipient of the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 75.

1894~ Pyotr Kapitsa (d. Apr. 8, 1984), Russian physicist and recipient of the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics. He is best known for his work in low-temperatures physics. He was born when Russia still used the Julian calendar, so his birth date is sometimes given as June 26.  He died at age 89.

1885~ Hugo Boss (né Hugo Ferdinand Boss, d. Aug. 9, 1948), German fashion designer and founder of Hugo Boss.  He had joined the Nazi Party two years before Hitler came into power.  He died of a tooth abscess a month after his 63^rdbirthday.

1883~ Oszkár Gerde (d. Oct. 8, 1944), Hungarian athlete and two-time Olympic gold medalist in fencing in the 1908 and 1912 Olympic games.  He was murdered in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp during the Holocaust.  He was 61 years old at the time of his death.  In 1989, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

1857~ Alfred Binet (d. Oct. 18, 1911), French psychologist.  He devised the first practical intelligence test.  He died at age 54.

1839~ John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (né John Davidson Rockefeller, d. May 23, 1937), American industrialist and philanthropist.  He founded the Standard Oil Company as well as Rockefeller University.  He died at age 97.

1838~ Eli Lilly (d. June, 6, 1898), American industrialist and pharmaceutical chemist.  He was the founder of Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company.  He died of cancer about a month before his 60^th birthday.

1838~ Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (né Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin, d. Mar. 8, 1917), German aircraft manufacture and father of the Zeppelin.  He died at age 78.

1831~ John Pemberton (né John Stith Pemberton, d. Aug. 16, 1888), American pharmacist and inventor of Coca-Cola.  He died at age 57 of stomach cancer.

1760~ Christian Kramp (d. May 13, 1826), French mathematician.  He worked primarily with fractals.  He died at age 65.

Events that Changed the World:

2011~ The Space Shuttle Atlantiswas launched in the final mission of the United States Space Shuttle program.

1994~ Kim Jong-il (1941 ~ 2011) became the supreme leader of North Korea upon the death of his father, Kim Il-sung (1912 ~ 1994).

1960~ Francis Gary Powers (1929 ~ 1977), was charged with espionage by the Soviet Union as a result of his reconnaissance over that country.  He would later be charged and sentenced to 10-years hard labor. In 1962, he was release to the United States in a prisoner exchange.  This event was depicted in the movie Bridge of Spies.

1948~ The United States Air Force accepted its first female recruits in its Women in the Air Force (WAF) Program.

1947~ Initial reports were broadcast that a UFO crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.

1892~ St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1892.

1889~ The Wall Street Journal began its publication.

1730~ A massive earthquake struck in the southern Pacific Ocean causing considerable damage to Chile’s coastline.

1663~ King Charles II of England (1630 ~ 1685) granted John Clarke (1609 ~ 1676) a Royal charter to what is now Rhode Island.

1497~ Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama (1460s ~ 1524), set sail on the first direct European voyage to India.

Good-Byes:

2015~ Ken Stabler (né Kenneth Michael Stabler, b. Dec. 25, 1945), American football and one of the National Football League’s most successful quarterback.  He partied as hard as he threw.  He was 69 years old.

2013~ Nadezhda Popova (b. Dec. 17, 1921), Russian “Night Witch” who bombed the Nazis.  She was one of the first female Russian military pilots.  During World War II, she joined a night bombing regiment and bombed Germany to revenge the death of her brother.  She died at age 91.

2012~ Lionel Batiste (b. Feb. 11, 1931), African-American musician from New Orleans. He died at age 81.

2012~ Ernest Borgnine (né Ermes Effron Borgnino, b. Jan. 24, 1917), American actor whose tough guy act lasted 60 years.  He died at age 95.

2011~ Betty Ford (née Elizabeth Ann Bloomer, b. Apr. 8, 1918), First Lady of the United States and wife of President Gerald Ford. She elevated candor to a public virtue. She died at age 93.

2010~ David Blackwell (né David Harold Blackwell, b. Apr. 24, 2010), American mathematician.  He died at age 91.

2008~ Sir John Templeton (néJohn Marks Templeton, b. Nov. 29, 1912), the American investor who helped fund the search for God.  In 1968, he took British citizenship and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1987.  He died at age 95.

2006~ June Allyson (née Eleanor Geisman, b. Oct. 7, 1917), American actress, best known for her role as Timmy’s mother in Lassie.  She died of respiratory failure at age 88.

1999~ Pete Conrad (né Charles Conrad, Jr., b. June 2, 1930), American astronaut. He was a part of the Apollo 12 mission and became the 3^rd man to walk on the moon.  He died at age 69 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.

1994~ Dick Sargent (né Richard Stanford Cox, b. Apr. 19, 1930), American actor. He is best known for his role as Darrin Stephens on the television sit-com Bewitched.  He was the second actor to take that role.  He died of prostate cancer at age 64.

1994~ Kim Il-sung (b. Apr. 15, 1912), 1^st Eternal President of North Korea.  He died at age 82.

1986~ Hyman Rickover (né Chaim Godalia Rockover, b. Jan. 27, 1900), American admiral. He was born in Poland.  He is known as the Father of the Nuclear Navy. He died at age 86.

1985~ Simon Kuznets (né Simon Smith Kuznets, b. Apr. 30, 1901), Ukrainian economist and recipient of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.  He died at age 84 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1979~ Robert Burns Woodward (b. Apr. 10, 1917), American organic chemist and recipient of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He was born and died in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died of a heart attack at age 62.

1979~ Michael Wilding (né Michael Charles Gauntlet Wilding, b. July 23, 1912), English actor and husband of Elizabeth Taylor.  He died 15 days before his 67^th birthday from head injuries resulting from a fall down a flight of stairs.

1979~ Shin’ichiro Tomonaga (b. Mar. 31, 1906), Japanese physicist and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 73.

1973~ Ben-Zion Dinur (b. Jan. 2, 1884), Russian-born Israeli educator and historian. He served as the 4^th Israeli Minister of Education.  He served as Minister of Education from 1951 until 1955.  He died at age 89.

1971~ Kurt Reidemeister (néKurt Werner Friedrich Reidemeister, b. Oct. 31, 1893), German mathematician.  He died at age 77.

1967~ Vivien Leigh (née Vivian Mary Hartley, b. Nov. 5, 1913), English actress, best known for her role as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind.  She was married to Lawrence Olivier and was known as Lady Olivier.  She died of tuberculosis at age 53.

1957~ Grace Coolidge (née Grace Anna Goodhue, b. Jan. 3, 1879), First Lady and wife of President Calvin Coolidge.  She was born in Burlington, Vermont.  She died of heart disease at age 78 in Northhampton, Massachusetts.

1941~ Moses Schorr (b. May 10, 1874), Polish rabbi.  He died in a Russian work camp in Usbekistan at age 67.

1939~ Havelock Ellis (né Henry Havelock Ellis, b. Feb. 2, 1859), English psychologist and author.  He died at age 80.

1859~ King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway (né Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte, d. July 4, 1799).  He was King from March 1844 until his death in 1859.  He died just 4 days after his 60^th birthday.

1822~ Percy Bysshe Shelley (b. Aug. 4, 1792), English poet.  He drowned about a month before his 30^th birthday.

1721~ Elihu Yale (b. Apr. 5, 1649), American–born Welch businessman and slave trader.  He was a major benefactor of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, which is named in his honor.  He died at age 72.

1695~ Christiaan Huygens (b. Apr. 14, 1629), Dutch mathematician and astronomer. He died at age 66.

1623~ Pope Gregory XV (né Alessandro Ludovisi, b. Jan. 9, 1554).  He was Pope from February 1621 until his death 2 years later.  He died at age 69.

1153~ Pope Eugene III (né Pietro dei Paganelli di Montemagno, b. 1087).  He was Pope from February 1145 until his death on this date 9 years later.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.

975~ Edgar the Peaceful (b. 943), English king.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.  He is believed to have been about 31 or 32 at the time of his death.