September 30

Birthdays:

1971~ Jenna Elfman (née Jennifer Mary Butala), American actress.

1970~ Tony Hale (né Anthony Hale), American actor, best known for his role as Buster Bluth on the television sit-com Arrested Development.

1961~ Eric Stoltz, American actor.

1957~ Fran Drescher (née Francine Joy Drescher), American actress.

1951~ Barry Marshall (né Barry James Marshall), Austrian physician and recipient of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for showing that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori is the cause of most peptic ulcers.  This reversed the common medical theory that most ulcers were caused by stress, spicy foods and too much acid.

1950~ Laura Esquivel, Mexican author, best known for her novel, Like Water for Chocolate.

1945~ Ehud Olmert, 12^th Israeli Prime Minister. He served from 2006 to 2009.

1943~ Jody Powell (né Joseph Lester Powell, Jr., d. Sept. 14, 2009), American White House Press Secretary to President Jimmy Carter.  He died of a heart attack 16 days before his 66^th birthday.

1943~ Johann Deisenhofer, German chemist and recipient of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his determination of the first crystal structure of an integral membrane protein, a membrane-bound complex of proteins and co-factors that is essential to photosynthesis.

1943~ Marilyn McCoo, American singer and member of The 5^thDimension.

1939~ Jean-Marie Lehn, French chemist and recipient of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his synthesis of cryptands.

1931~ Angie Dickinson (née Angeline Brown), American actress.

1930~ T.J. Moran (né Thomas J. Moran, d. May 18, 2015), American businessman and restauranteur.  He bought the first franchise of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.  He owned and ran TJ Ribs, where LSU sports memorabilia was on display.  He died in Baton Rouge at age 84.

1928~ Elie Wiesel (né Eliezer Wiesel, d. July 2, 2016), Romanian-born Jewish-American writer and Holocaust survivor who refused to let the world forget.  His book Night, was based on his experience in the Auschwitz, Buna and Buchenwald concentration camps during the Holocaust.  He was the recipient of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize.  He died at age 87.

1924~ Truman Capote (né Truman Streckfus Persons, d. Aug. 25, 1984), American author best known for his true crime novel, In Cold Blood, which recounted the 1959 murder of a Kansas family by two drifters.  Capote was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and much of his work is set in the South.  He died of liver disease at age 59.

1921~ Deborah Kerr (née Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer, d. Oct. 16, 2007), Scottish actress who was a proper leading lady.  She is best remembered for the kiss scene with Burt Lancaster in From Here to Eternity.  She died 17 days after her 86^th birthday.

1917~ Buddy Rich (né Bernard Rich, d. Apr. 2, 1987), American jazz drummer and bandleader.  He died of a brain tumor at age 69.

1915~ Lester Maddox, Sr. (né Lester Garfield Maddox, d. June 25, 2003), American politician and 75^th Governor of Georgia.  He died at age 87.

1905~ Sir Nevill Francis Mott (d. Aug. 8, 1996), English physicist and recipient of the 1977 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems, especially amorphous semiconductors.  He died at age 90.

1882~ Hans Geiger (né Johannes Wilhelm Geiger, d. Sept. 24, 1945), German physicist best known as being the co-inventor of the Geiger Counter.  Unfortunately, the name of his co-inventor, Walther Muller (1905 ~ 1979), who was Geiger’s student, has been lost to history.  Geiger died 6 days before his 63^rd birthday.

1870~ Jean Perrin (né Jean Baptiste Perrin, d. Apr. 17, 1942), French physicist and recipient of the 1926 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 71.

1861~ William Wrigley, Jr. (d. Jan. 26, 1932), American chewing gum industrialist and founder of the Wrigley Company.  He was also the owner of the Chicago Cubs, hence the name of the Cubs home field, Wrigley’s field.  He died at age 70.

1836~ Remigio Morales Bermúdez (d. Apr. 1, 1894), President of Peru.  He served from August 1890 until his death at age 57 on April 1, 1894.

1832~ Ann Jarvis (née Anne Maria Reeves, d. May 9, 1905), American activist and co-founder of Mother’s Day.  She died at age 72.

1827~ Ellis H. Roberts (né Ellis Henry Roberts, d. Jan. 8, 1918), 20^th Treasurer of the United States.  He served under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt from July 1897 until June 1905.  He died at age 90.

1550~ Michael Maestlin (d. Oct 20, 1631), German mathematician.  He died 3 weeks after his 81^st birthday.

1227~ Pope Nicholas IV (né Girolamo Masci, d. Apr. 4, 1292).  He was Pope from February 1288 until his death 4 years later.  He was 64 at the time of his death.

1207~ Rumi (d. Dec. 17, 1273), Turkish poet and Islamic Sufi mystic.  His poetry is some of the most widely read in the world today.  Rumi is also known as the founder of the sect of Whirling Dervishes.  He is buried in Konya, Turkey, which is a major pilgrimage site.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 65 or 66 at the time of his death.

Events that Changed the World:

2017~ Yom Kippur.

2016~ Hurricane Matthew, which formed in the Caribbean Sea, became a Category 5 hurricane.

2009~ A 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit Sumatra, killing over 1100 people.

1993~ A 6.2 magnitude earthquake in India killed thousands of people.

1972~ Roberto Clemente (1934 ~ 1972), records his 3,000^th and final hit of his baseball career.

1962~ James Meredith (b. 1933) enrolled at the University of Mississippi, the first African-American to be a student at this institution.

1962~ César Chávez (1927 ~ 1993) founded the National Farm Workers Association.  It later became known as the United Farm Workers.

1954~ The United States Navy submarine the USS Nautilus was commissioned.  It was the first nuclear reactor powered vessel.

1949~ The Berlin Airlift ended.

1947~ The Baseball World Series was televised for the first time.  The series was between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers.  The New York Yankees beat the Dodgers.

1935~ The Hoover Dam was dedicated.

1927~ Babe Ruth (1895 ~ 1948) became the first baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a season.

1901~ Hubert Cecil Booth (1871 ~ 1955) received a patent for the vacuum cleaner.

1882~ Thomas Edison’s first commercial hydroelectric power plant began operating on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin.  The plant later became known as the Appleton Edison Light Company.

1813~ At the Battle of Bárbula, Simón Bolíva (1783 ~ 1827) defeated Santiago Bobadilla (1783 ~ 1830).

1791~ The Magic Flute, Mozart’s last opera, made its debut in Vienna, Austria.

1399~ Henry IV (1367 ~ 1413) was proclaimed as King of England.  He was King from September 1399 until his death 14 years later.

Good-Byes:

2017~ Monty Hall (né Monte Halparin, b. Aug. 25, 1921), Canadian game show host.  He died at age 96.

2014~ Martin Lewis Perl (b. June 24, 1927), American physicist and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of the Tau Lepton.  He died of a heart attack at age 87.

2014~ Jerrie Mock (née Geraldine Fredritz, b. Nov. 22, 1925), American housewife who flew around the world.  In 1960, she became the first woman to fly solo around the world.  The journey took her 29 days, 11 hours and 59 minutes.  She died at age 88.

2012~ Barry Commoner (b. May 28, 1917), American cellular biologist and political activist.  He died at age 95.

2011~ Ralph Steinman (né Ralph Marvin Steinman, b. Jan. 14, 1943), Canadian biologist and recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the dentritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity.  He died of pancreatic cancer 3 days before the Nobel Prize committee announced the 2011 recipients so was awarded the Nobel Prize posthumously.  He was 68 years old at the time of his death.

2011~ Roger G. Kennedy (né Roger George Kennedy, b. Aug. 3, 1926), American polymath and preservationist with a broad view of America’s past.  He served as the Director of the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of American History from 1979 to 1992 before heading the National Park Service in 1993.  He was responsible for putting Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz in display.  He died at age 85.

2010~ Stephen J. Cannell (né Stephen Joseph Cannell, b. Feb. 5, 1941), American scriptwriter and movie producer.  He died at age 69 of cancer.

2003~ Robert Kardashian (néRobert George Kardashian, b. Feb. 22, 1944), Armenian-American lawyer, best known for being on the defense team during the 1995 O.J. Simpson trial.  He died at age 59 of esophageal cancer.

1994~ André Michel Lwoff (b. May 8, 1902), French microbiologist and recipient of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the mechanism by which some viruses can infect bacteria.  He died at age 92.

1994~ Roberto Eduardo Viola (b. Oct. 13, 1924), Argentine general, President of Argentina and military dictator.  He served in the Office of President from March 1981 until December 1981.  He died 14 days before his 70^th birthday.

1990~ Patrick White (né Patrick Victor Martindale White, b. May 28, 1912), Australian writer and recipient of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 78.

1990~ Ruth Cheney Streeter (b. Oct. 2, 1895), first director of the United States Marine Corps Women’s Reserve.  In 1943, she became the first woman to reach the rank of Major in the United States Marine Corps.  She died in Morristown, New Jersey 2 days before her 95^th birthday.  She is buried in Peterboro, New Hampshire.

1985~ Charles Francis Richter (b. Apr. 26, 1900), American geophysicist and creator of the Richter magnitude scale that measures the strength of earthquakes.  He died at age 85.

1978~ Edgar Bergen (né Edgar John Berggren, b. Feb. 16, 1903), American actor and ventriloquist.  He was the father of actress Candice Bergen.  He died at age 75.

1955~ James Dean (né James Bryon Dean, b. Feb. 8, 1931), American actor, best known for his role in Rebel Without a Cause.  He was killed in an automobile accident.  He died at age 24.

1948~ Edith Roosevelt (née Edith Kermit Carow, b. Aug. 6, 1861), First Lady of the United States and second wife of President Theodore Roosevelt.  She died at age 87.

1910~ Maurice Lévy (b. Feb. 28, 1838), French mathematician.  He died at age 72.

1837~ 10^th Dalai Lama (né Tsultrum Gyatso, b. Mar. 29, 1816).  He died at age 21.

1632~ Thomas Allen (b. Dec. 21, 1542), English mathematician and astrologer.  He died at age 89.

1627~ Tianqi Emperor (d. Dec. 23, 1605), 15^th Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.  He died at age 21.

1626~ Nurhaci (b. Feb. 21, 1559), Chinese Emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty. He died at age 67.

420~ St. Jerome (b. Mar. 347), Roman Catholic priest and theologian.  The exact date of his birth is not known.  He died at about age 73.

September 29

Birthdays:

1956~ Sebastian Coe, Baron Coe (né Sebastian Newbold Coe)British athlete.  He was the model for the runner in the movie,Chariots of Fire.

1955~ Gwen Ifill (née Gwendolyn Ifill, d. Nov. 14, 2016), African-American journalist and newscaster.  She died of endometrial cancer at age 61.

1951~ Michelle Bachelet, Chilean politician and 34^th President of Chile.  She assumed office in March 2014.

1943~ Lech Wałęsa, Polish politician, trade-union organizer and human-rights activist.  He served as the 2^nd President of Poland and was the recipient of the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize.

1942~ Madeline Kahn (née Madeline Gail Wolfson, d. Dec. 3, 1999), American actress. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  She died at age 57 of ovarian cancer.

1936~ Silvio Berlusconi, Italian politician and Prime Minister of Italy.

1935~ Jerry Lee Lewis, American musician.  He was born in Ferriday, Louisiana.

1932~ Rai Weiss (né Rainer Weiss), German-born, American physicist.  He was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work to the LIGO detection and observation of gravitational waves.  He is a professor emeritus at MIT and an adjunct professor at LSU.

1931~ Anita Ekberg (née Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg, d. Jan. 11, 2015), (Swedish bombshell who lit up La Dolce Vita.  She was a former Miss Sweden.  She died at age 83.

1931~ James Cronin (né James Watson Cronin, d. Aug. 25, 2016), American particle physicist and recipient of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 84.

1923~ Stanley Berenstain (né Stanley Melvin Berenstain, d. Nov. 26, 2005), American author and illustration.  He, along with his wife, Janice (1922 ~ 2012), created the Berenstain Bears.  He died at age 82.

1923~ Bum Phillips (né Oail Andrew Phillips, d. Oct. 18, 2013), American cowboy who coached the Houston Oilers.  He died 19 days after his 90^th birthday.

1922~ Lizabeth Scott (née Emma Matzo, d. Jan. 31, 2015), American actress known for her smoky-voice.  She played the femme fatale in many 1940s and 1950s film noir.  She was 92.

1920~ Peter Mitchell (né Peter Dennis Mitchell, d. Apr. 10, 1992), English biochemist and recipient of the 1878 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his discovery of the chemiosmotic mechanism of the ATP synthesis.  He died at age 71.

1907~ George Jenkins (né George Washington Jenkins, Jr., d. Apr. 8, 1996), American businessman and founder of the Publix grocery store chain.  He died at age 88.

1907~ Gene Autry (né Orvon Grover Autry, d. Oct. 2, 1998), American actor and cowboy singer.  He was known as the Singing Cowboy.  He died 3 days after his 91^st birthday.

1904~ Greer Garson (née Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson, d. Apr. 6, 1996), British actress.  She died in Dallas, Texas at age 91.

1903~ Diana Vreeland (née Diana Dalziel, d. Aug. 22, 1989), American journalist and columnist.  She was best known for working in the fashion magazine industry.  She was the Editor-in-Chief of Vogue for many years.  She died at age 86.

1901~ Enrico Fermi (d. Nov. 28, 1954), Italian American nuclear physicist and recipient of the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on nuclear processes.  He is best known for the development of the first nuclear reactor.  Fermium, a synthetic element created in 1952, was named after Fermi.  He died at age 53 of stomach cancer.

1900~ Miguel Alemán Valdés (d. May 14, 1983), President of Mexico.  He served as President from December 1946 until November 1952.  He died at age 82.

1899~ László Bíró (né László József Schweiger, d. Oct. 24, 1985), Hungarian inventor who invented the ballpoint pen.  He died 25 days after his 86^th birthday.

1881~ Ludwig von Mises (d. Oct. 10, 1973), Austrian economist.  He died 11 days after his 92^nd birthday.

1864~ Miguel de Umanumo y Jugo (d. Dec. 31, 1936), Spanish Basque essayist, novelist and philosopher.  He died at age 72.

1838~ Henry Hobson Richardson (d. Apr. 27, 1886), American architect.  He designed Trinity Church in Copley Square in Boston.  He was born in St. James Parish, Louisiana.  He died in Brookline, Massachusetts at age 47 of Bright’s disease.

1831~ John McAllister Schofield (d. Mar. 4, 1906), 28^th United States Secretary of War.  He served under Presidents Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant from June 1868 until Mar. 1869.  He died at age 74.

1803~ Jacques Charles François Sturm (d. Dec. 15, 1855), French mathematician. His name is one of 72 engraved at the Eiffel Tower.  He died at age 52 after a long illness.

1786~ Guadalupe Victoria (né José Miguel Ramón Adaucto Fernández y Félix, d. Mar. 21, 1843), 1^st President of the United Mexican States.  He was President from October 1824 through March 1829.  He died of epilepsy at age 56.

1758~ Horatio Nelson, 1^st Viscount Nelson (d. Oct. 21, 1805), British admiral.  He defeated the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar in Britain’s greatest naval victory in 1805.  He died in battle at less than a month after his 47^th birthday.

1703~ François Boucher (d. May 30, 1770), French painter.  He died at age 66.

1561~ Adriaan van Roomen (d. May 4, 1615), Flemish mathematician.  He died at age 53.

1547~ Miguel de Cervantes (d. Apr. 23, 1616), Spanish author best known for writing Don Quixote.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.  He is believed to have died at age 68.

1518~ Tintoretto (né Jacopo Comin, d. May 31, 1594), Renaissance painter and artist.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but it is generally ascribed to late September or early October.  He died at about age 75.

1276~ King Christopher II of Denmark (d. Aug. 2, 1332).  He died at age 55.

1240~ Margaret of England (d. Feb. 26, 1275).  She was the Queen consort of Scots.  She was the second child of King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence.  She died at age 34.

926~ Qian Chu (d. Oct. 7, 988), last Chinese king of the Wuyue.  He surrendered his kingdom to the Song Dynasty.  He died 8 days after his 59^th birthday.

106 B.C.E.~ Pompey (d. 48 B.C.E.), the date the Roman General was considered to have been born.  He is believed to have been assassinated 1 day before his 58^th birthday.

Events that Changed the World:

2017~ Yom Kippur began at sunset.

2009~ An 8.0 magnitude earthquake near the Samoan Islands caused a tsunami.  Over 1,115 people would be killed in this event.

2005~ John Roberts (b. 1955) was confirmed as the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

1990~ The construction of the Washington National Cathedral was completed.  Work had begun on this Episcopal Church on September 29, 1907.

1982~ The Tylenol murders began when the first of 7 individuals died in Chicago after taking cyanide-laced Tylenol.  The first victim was a 12-year old girl.

1960~ Nikita Khrushchev (1894 ~ 1971), leader of the Soviet Union, disrupted a meeting at the United Nations General Assembly with many angry outbursts, including banging his shoe against the desk.

1954~ The convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) was signed.

1951~ The college football game between Duke University and the University of Pittsburgh was televised on NBC.  It was the first live sporting event that was seen nationwide.  Duke defeated Pittsburgh in a score of 19-14.

1923~ The British Mandate for Palestine took effect, which created Mandatory Palestine.

1911~ Italy declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

1907~ The cornerstone to the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., was laid.  Construction would not be complete until September 23, 1990!

1829~ The Metropolitan Police of London was founded.

1789~ The United States Department of War established a regular army.

1789~ The 1^st United States Congress adjourned.

1227~ Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1194 ~ 1250), was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades.

Goodbyes:

2014~ Shotgun Shuba (néGeorge Thomas Shuba, b. Dec. 13, 1924), American baseball player who shook hands with history.  He is remembered for his role in breaking down the color barrier when, while playing for a farm team in the 1940s, he offered a congratulatory handshake to teammate Jackie Robinson.  He was 89 years old.

2013~ Marcella Hazan (b. Apr. 15, 1924), Italian-born Sephardic cookbook author who redefined Italian cooking.  She was 89 years old.

2012~ Michael Henry Heim (b. Jan. 21, 1943), American translator who gave his all to world literature.  He was a professor of Slavic languages and translated many works of literature in Czech, Russian, Dutch, French, Italian, and Serbo-Croatian.  He died of complications from melanoma at age 69.

2012~ Arthur Ochs Sulzberger (b. Feb. 5, 1926), American newspaper chief who published the Pentagon Papers in The New York Times.  He died at age 86.

2011~ Sylvia Robinson (née Sylvia Vanterpool, b. Mar. 6, 1935), American singer known as the godmother of hip-hip.  She died of congestive heart failure at age 76.

2010~ Tony Curtis (né Bernard Schwartz, b. June 3, 1925), American actor and singer. He died at age 85.

2010~ Georges Charpak (né Jerzy Charpak, b. Mar. 8, 1924), Ukrainain-born physicist and recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 86.

2007~ Katsuko Saruhashi (b. Mar. 22, 1920), Japanese geochemist who turned radioactive fallout into a scientific legacy.  She made some of the first measurements of carbon dioxide levels in seawater and subsequently showed the evidence in seawater and the atmosphere of the dangers of radioactive fallout.  She died of pneumonia at age 87.

1998~ Tom Bradley (né Thomas J. Bradley, b. Dec. 29, 1917), African-American politician and 38^th Mayor of Los Angeles.  He served as Mayor from July 1973 until July 1993.  He died at age 80.

1997~ Roy Lichtenstein (né Roy Fox Lichtenstein, b. Oct. 27, 1923), American artist.  He died of pneumonia at 28 days before his 74^th birthday.

1989~ Gussie Anheuser Busch (né August Anheuser Busch, b. Mar. 28, 1899), American brewer and grandson of the founder of the Anheuser-Busch brewing company.  He died at age 90.

1988~ Charles Addams (né Charles Samuel Addams, b. Jan. 7, 1912), American cartoonist who became famous for his dark humor.  His cartoons were published in The New Yorker.  His characters inspired The Addams family, which was a TV series in the 1960s, and later became a Broadway musical.  He died at age 76.

1983~ Sir Roy George Douglas Allen (b. June 3, 1906), British economist and mathematician.  He died at age 77.

1975~ Casey Stengel (né Charles Dillon Stengel, b. July 30, 1890), American baseball player and manager.  He died at age 85.

1973~ W.H. Auden (né Wystan Hugh Auden, b. Feb. 21, 1907), Anglo-American poet.  He died at age 66.

1967~ Carson McCullers (née Lula Carson Smith, b. Feb. 19, 1917), American author, best known for her novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.  She died at age 50 of a brain hemorrhage.

1927~ Willem Einthovern (b. May 21, 1860), Dutch physician and inventor.  He was the recipient of the 1924 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for inventing the first practical electrocardiogram (ECG). He died at age 67.

1925~ Léon Bourgeois (né Léon Victor August Bourgeois, b. May 21, 1851), French politician and recipient of the 1920 Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the United Nations.  He was the Prime Minister of France, serving from November 1895 until April 1896.  He died at age 74.

1913~ Rudolf Diesel (né Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel, b. Mar. 18, 1858), German mechanical engineer and inventor of the diesel engine.  He developed the first internal-combustion engine in which fuel was ignited without a spark, now known at the diesel.  He died at age 55 under mysterious circumstances.  He had boarded a steamer ship and after dinner retired to his cabin.  He was never seen again and his bed had not been slept in.  His clothing, however, was neatly folded beneath an after deck railing, leading to believe he had committed suicide.

1910~ Winslow Homer (b. Feb. 24, 1836), American illustrator and painter.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Prouts Neck, Maine.  He was 74 years old at the time of his death.

1902~ Émile Zola (b. Apr. 2, 1840), French novelist and critic.  He is best known for his article, J’Accuse, which was instrumental in the exoneration of Alfred Dreyfus, an army officer who had been convicted of a crime simply because he was Jewish.  The article brought to light the false accusations against Dreyfus.  Zola died at age 62 of carbon monoxide poisoning, which some believe was murder.

1804~ Michael Hillegas (b. Apr. 22, 1728), American politician and 1^st Treasurer of the United States.  He served in that office from July 1775 until September 1789.  He died at age 75.

1560~ Gustav I of Sweden (né Gustav Eriksson, b. May 12, 1496).  The exact date of his birth is unknown.  He ruled from June 1523 until his death in September 1560.  He is believed to have been about 64 years old at the time of his death.

September 28

Birthdays:

1967~ Mira Sorvino (née Mira Katherine Sorvino), American actress.

1957~ Bill Cassidy (né William Morgan Cassidy), United States Senator from Louisiana.

1956~ Martha Isabel Fandiño Pinilla, Colombian mathematician.

1950~ John Sayles (né John Thomas Sayles), American movie director.

1947~ Rhonda Hughes (née Rhonda Jo Weisberg), American mathematician.

1943~ J.T. Walsh (né James Thomas Patrick Walsh, d. Feb. 27, 1998), American actor.  He died of a heart attack at age 54.

1938~ Ben E. King (né Benjamin Earl Nelson, d. Apr. 30, 2015), American soul legend who sang Stand by Me.  He was 76 years old.

1934~ Brigitte Bardot (née Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot), French actress.

1925~ Martin David Kruskal (d. Dec. 26, 2006), American physicist and mathematician. He died at age 81.

1924~ Marcello Mastroianni (né Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni, d. Dec. 19, 1996), Italian actor.  He died of pancreatic cancer at age 72.

1916~ Peter Finch (néFrederick George Peter Ingle Finch, d. Jan. 14, 1977), English actor.  He is best known for his role as television anchorman Howard Beale in the movie Network.  He died at age 60 of a heart attack.

1914~ Maria Agatha Franziska Gobertina von Trapp (d. Feb. 18, 2014), the singer whose life inspired The Sound of Music.  She was the second oldest daughter of Captain von Trapp.  She died at age 99.

1909~ Al Capp (né Alfred Gerald Caplin, d. Nov. 5, 1979), American cartoonist.  His is best known for his comic strip Li’l Abner. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut.  He died of emphysema in South Hampton, New Hampshire at age 70.

1905~ Max Schmeling (né Maximillian Adolph Otto Siegfried Schmeling, d. Feb. 2, 2005), German boxer who defeated, then lost to, Joe Louis.  He died at age 99.

1901~ Ed Sullivan (né Edward Vincent Sullivan, d. Oct. 13, 1974), American television show host.  He died of esophageal cancer 15 days after his 73^rd birthday.

1901~ William S. Paley (né William Samuel Paley, d. Oct. 26, 1990), American radio and television executive.  He died a month after his 89^th birthday.

1900~ Isabel Pell (née Isabel Townsend Pell, d. June 5, 1951), American socialite and fighter in the French Resistance during World War II.  She died at age 50.

1899~ Boris Yefimov (d. Oct. 1, 2008), Soviet political cartoonist who was a favorite of Joseph Stalin.  He was known for his critical political caricatures of Adolf Hitler and other Nazis.  He died 3 days after his 109^th birthday.

1887~ Avery Brundage (d. May 8, 1975), American businessman and 5^th President of the International Olympic Committee.  He served in that office from August 1952 until September 1972.  He died at age 87.

1871~ Grazia Deledda (née Grazia Maria Cosima Damiana Deledda, d. Aug. 15, 1936), Italian writer and recipient of the 1926 Nobel Prize for Literature.  She died of breast cancer at age 64.

1860~ Paul Ulrich Vallard (d. Jan. 13, 1934), French chemist and physicist.  He discovered gamma rays.  He died at age 73.

1856~ Kate Douglas Wiggin (née Kate Douglas Smith, d. Aug. 24, 1923), American author.  She is best known for her children’s novel, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.  She died of pneumonia at age 66.

1852~ Henri Moissan (né Ferdinand Frederick Henri Moissan, d. Feb. 20, 1907), French chemist and recipient of the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in isolating fluorine from its compounds.  He died at age 54 from an acute case of appendicitis.

1852~ Isis Pogson (née Elizabeth Isis Pogson, d. May 14, 1945), British astronomer and meteorologist.  She died at age 92.

1841~ Georges Clemenceau (né Georges Benjamin Clemenceau, d. Nov. 24, 1929), Prime Minister of France.  He was Prime Minister from November 1917 until January 1920.  He died at age 88.

1836~ Thomas Crapper (d. Jan. 27, 1910), English plumber and inventor of the ballcock in the modern toilet.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he was baptized on September 28, 1836.  He died at age 73.

1735~ Augustus FitzRoy, 3^rd Duke of Grafton (b. Mar. 14, 1811), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He was Prime Minister from October 1768 until January 1770 during the reign of King George III.  He died at age 75.

1725~ Arthur Guinness (d. Jan. 23, 1803), Irish founder of the Guinness brewery.  He died at age 77.

1605~ Ismaël Bullialdus (d. Nov. 25, 1694), French mathematician and astronomer.  He died at age 89.

1571~ Caravaggio (né Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, d. July 18, 1610), Italian artist.  He died under mysterious circumstances at age 38.

551BCE~ The traditional date ascribed to the birth of Confucius (d. 479 BCE).  He is believed to have died at about age 71 or 72.

Events that Changed the World:

2000~ Ariel Sharon (1928 ~ 2014) visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a site generally off-limits to Jews, and known as the Al Aqsa Mosque to the Muslims.

1995~ Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (1922 ~ 1995) and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat (1929 ~ 2004) signed the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

1971~ The Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971 was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom banning the medical use of cannabis.

1961~ A military coup in Damascus, Syria ended the United Arab Republic, which had been the union between Egypt and Syria.

1951~ CBS made the first color televisions available for sale to the public.  Unfortunately the product was short-lived and was discontinued less than a month later.

1950~ Indonesia was admitted to the United Nations.

1939~ Warsaw, Poland surrendered to Nazi Germany in World War II.

1928~ Sir Alexander Fleming (1881 ~ 1955), discovered that the penicillin mold could kill bacteria.  In 1945, he would be the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this discovery.

1928~ The United Kingdom passed the Dangerous Drugs Act, which outlawed cannabis.

1885~ Riots broke out in Montreal, Canada in protest of the government’s mandatory smallpox vaccinations.

1867~ Toronto was named the capital of Ontario.

1844~ Oscar I of Sweden-Norway (1799 ~ 1859) was crowned King of Sweden.

1791~ France became the first European country to emancipate its Jewish population.

1787~ The newly completed United States Constitution was voted on by the U.S. Congress to be sent to the individual state legislatures for approval.

1066~ William the Conqueror (1028 ~ 1087) began the Norman Conquest of England. At the time of the invasion of England, he was known as William the Bastard.

Good-Byes:

2016~ Shimon Peres (né Szymon Perski, b. Aug. 2, 1923), Israeli politician.  He served as Prime Minister of Israel from November 1995 until June 18, 1996.  He served as the President of Israel from July 2007 until July 2014.  He died at age 93.

2016~ Agnes Nixon (née Agnes Eckhardt, b. Dec. 10, 1922), American soap opera writer who put taboo subjects on television.  She died of Parkinson’s disease at age 93.

2004~ Geoffrey Beene (né Samuel Albert Bozeman, Jr., b. Aug. 30, 1927), American fashion designer.  He was from Hayesville, Louisiana.  He died of cancer 29 days after his 77^th birthday.

2003~ Elia Kazan (né Elias Kazantzoglou, b. Sept. 7, 1909), Greek-American actor and movie director.  He died 3 weeks after his 94^th birthday.

2000~ Pierre Trudeau (Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, b. Oct. 18, 1919), 15^th Prime Minister of Canada.  In 2015, his son, Justin (b. 1971) became the 23^rd Prime Minister of Canada.  Pierre died 20 days before his 81^st birthday.

1993~ Peter de Vries (b. Feb. 27, 1910), American novelist.  He died at age 83.

1991~ Miles Davis (né Miles Dewey Davis, III, b. May 26, 1926), African-American Jazz trumpeter, bandleader and composer.  He died at age 65.

1990~ Larry O’Brien (né Lawrence Francis O’Brien, b. July 7, 1917), 57^th United States Postmaster General.  He served under President Lyndon Johnson from November 1965 until April 1968.  He subsequently served as the 3^rd Commissioner of the NBA from 1975 until 1984.  He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts.  He died at age 73.

1989~ Ferdinand Marcos (né Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, b. Sept. 11, 1917), Filipino politician and 10^th President and dictator of the Philippines.  He died 16 days after his 72^nd birthday.

1978~ Pope John Paul I (né Albino Luciani, b. Oct. 17, 1912).  He served as Pope for only 33 days, from August 26 until September 28, 1978.  He died 19 days before his 66^th birthday.

1970~ Gamal Abdel Nasser (b. Jan. 15, 1918), second president of Egypt.  He died of a heart attack at age 52 while still in office.  Anwar Sadat was named his successor.

1970~ John Dos Passos (né John Roderigo Dos Passos, b. Jan. 14, 1896), American novelist.  He is best known for his trilogy U.S.A.  He died at age 74.

1964~ Harpo Marx (né Adolph Marx, b. Nov. 23, 1888), second-oldest of the Marx brothers, American comedian and actor.  He died at age 75.

1956~ William E. Boeing (né Wilhelm Böing, b. Oct. 1, 1881), American aviation pioneer and founder of the Boeing Company.  He died just 3 days before 75^th birthday.

1953~ Edwin Hubble (né Edwin Powell Hubble, b. Nov. 20, 1889), American astronomer. The Hubble telescope is named in his honor.  He died of cerebral thrombosis at age 63.

1938~ Charles Duryea (né Charles Edgar Duryea, b. Dec. 15, 1861), American automobile pioneer.  He died at age 76.

1914~ Richard Sears (né Richard Warren Sears, b. Dec. 7, 1863), American businessman and co-founder of the department store, Sears and Roebuck.  He died at age 50 of Bright’s disease.

1898~ Thomas F. Bayard (né Thomas Francis Bayard, b. Oct. 29, 1828), 30^th United States Secretary of State.  He served from March 1885 until March 1889 during the administrations of Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison.  He died about a month before his 70^th birthday.

1895~ Louis Pasteur (b. Dec. 27, 1822), French microbiologist who made major contributions to medicine.  He is best known for developing a process of using heat to kill germs, which is used today to preserve milk.  This process is known as pasteurization.  He died at age 78.

1891~ Herman Melville (b. Aug. 1, 1819), American novelist best known for his novel Moby Dick.  He was heavily influenced by Richard Henry Dana’s novel, Two Years Before the Mast, when he wrote Moby Dick.  Interestingly, they were both born on the same day, just 4 years apart.  He died at age 72.

1869~ Gugleilmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja (b. Jan. 1, 1803), Italian mathematician. He died at age 66.

1694~ Gabriel Mouton (b. 1618), French mathematician. The exact date of his birth is not known.

1330~ Elizabeth of Bohemia (b. Jan. 20, 1292), Queen Consort of John of Luxembourg.  She died of tuberculosis at age 38.

1197~ Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor (b. Nov. 1165).  He was 31 years old.  The exact date of his birth is not known.

935~ King Wenceslas I, also known as Saint Wenceslas (b. 907), was murdered by his brother, Boleslaus I of Bohemia.  He was about 28 years old at the time of his death.  The exact date of is birth is not known.

48 B.C.E.~ Pompey (b. Sept. 29, 106 B.C.E.), the date the Roman General was believed to have been assassinated.  He is believed to have died 1 day before his 58^th birthday.