December 30

Birthdays:

1984~ LeBron James (né LeBron Raymone James), American basketball player.

1975~ Tiger Woods (né Eldrick Tont Woods), American golfer.

1959~ Tracey Ullman, English actress and comedian.

1957~ Matt Lauer (né Matthew Todd Lauer), American morning news anchor.  He hosted the Today show for 20 years before he was dismissed for allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior towards subordinates in the workplace.

1953~ Meredith Vieira (née Meredith Louise Vieira), American journalist and game show host.

1946~ Patti Smith (née Patricia Lee Smith), American musician.

1945~ Davy Jones (né David Thomas Jones; d. Feb. 29, 2012), English musician and lead singer for The Monkees.  He was The Monkees’ romantic heartthrob.  He died of a heart attack at age 66.

1944~ Joseph Hilbe (né Joseph Michael Hilbe; d. Mar. 12, 2017), American mathematician.  He died at age 72.

1942~ Michael Nesmith (né Robert Michael Nesmith), American musician in The Monkees.

1937~ Paul Stookey (né Noel Paul Stookey), American singer-songwriter and member of the trio of Peter, Paul and Mary.

1935~ Sandy Koufax (né Sanford Braun), American baseball player.  He is known for refusing to play during Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because the game fell on Yom Kippur.

1930~ Tu Youyou, Chinese chemist and recipient of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology.  Her research focused on tropical medicine.

1929~ Professor Dame Rosalinde Hurley (aka Mrs. Gortval, d. June 30, 2004), British physician, microbiologist public health administrator and barrister.  She died at age 74.

1928~ Bo Diddley (né Ellas Ortha Bates, d. June 2, 2008), American musician.  He died at age 79.

1924~ Yvonne Brill (née Yvonne Madelaine Claeys, d. Mar. 27, 2013), Canadian-born woman who blazed a trail in rocketry.  She was a propulsion engineer best known for her development of rocket and jet propulsion technologies.  She died at age 88.

1920~ Jack Lord (né John Joseph Patrick Ryan, d. Jan. 21, 1998), American actor.  He died of heart failure 22 days after his 77^th birthday.

1914~ Bert Parks (né Bertram Jacobson, d. Feb. 2, 1992), American television host, best known as being the emcee for the Miss America beauty contests.  He died of lung cancer at age 77.

1910~ Paul Bowles (né Paul Frederic Bowles; d. Nov. 18, 1999), American composer and author known for his association with Morocco. He is best known for his novel, The Sheltering Sky.  He died at age 88.

1910~ Bill Haast (d. June 15, 2011), American snake handler who charmed tourists and saved lives.  He learned how to extract venom from poisonous snakes for medical and research use.  He was the director of the Miami Serpentarium Laboratories in Florida. He was 100 years old.

1910~ Howard W. Jones, Jr. (né Howard Wilbur Jones, Jr., d. July 31, 2015), American medical doctor who pioneered in vitro fertilization in the United States.  When he turned 65, he refused to stop working, despite having reached the mandatory retirement age at Johns Hopkins University.  Instead, in 1975, he began a gynecological practice with his wife, Georgeanna Jones (1912 ~ 2005), a reproductive endocrinologist, and set up the first in vitro fertilization clinic in the United States.  Elizabeth Carr, born on December 28, 1981, was first “test tube” baby born in the United States.  He died at age 104.

1890~ Adolfo Ruiz Cortines (d. Dec. 3, 1973), 47^th President of Mexico.  He was President from December 1952 through November 1958.  He died 27 days before his 83^rd birthday.

1873~ Al Smith (né Alfred Emanuel Smith, d. Oct. 4, 1944), 42^nd Governor of New York.  He served as Governor from January 1923 through December 1928.  He was also a Democratic candidate for president in the 1928 election.  He died at age 70.

1865~ Rudyard Kipling (né Joseph Rudyard Kipling, d. Jan. 18, 1936), British writer.  In 1907, he became the first English writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.  He was born in British India.  He died 19 days after his 70^th birthday.

1851~ Asa Griggs Candler (d. Mar. 12, 1929), Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia.  He served as Mayor from 1916 until 1919.  He died at age 77.

1838~ Émile Loubet (né Émile François Loubet; d. Dec. 20, 1929), President of France.  He served as President from February 1899 until February 1906.  He died 10 days before his 91^st birthday.

1819~ John W. Geary (néJohn White Geary; d. Feb. 8, 1879), 16^th Governor of Pennsylvania and 1^st Mayor of San Francisco, California.  He was also a Union General during the American Civil War. He served as Pennsylvania’s governor from January 1867 until January 1873.  He served as Mayor of San Francisco from May 1850 until May 1851.  He was born and died in Pennsylvania.  He was 53 at the time of his death.

1371~ Vasily I of Moscow (d. Feb. 27, 1425).  He was the Grand Prince of Moscow from May 1389 until his death 36 years later.  He was married to Sophia of Lithuania (1371 ~ 1453).  He died at age 53.

39~ Titus (d. Sept. 13, 81), the traditional date ascribed to the birth of this Roman Emperor. He is best known for leading the siege on Jerusalem and destroying the Second Temple.  The actual dates of his birth and death are not known.  He is believed to have been 40 or 41 at the time of his death.

Events that Changed the World:

2006~ Saddam Hussein (1937 ~ 2006), former president of Iraq, was executed.

2005~ Tropical Storm Zeta formed in the Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone to form in the North Atlantic basin.

1993~ Israel and the Vatican City established diplomatic relations.

1965~ Ferdinand Marcos (1917 ~ 1989) became the President of the Philippines.  He retained that position until 1986 when he was removed from power to corruption.

1948~ Kiss Me, Kate, the Cole Porter musical, opened and became the first show to win the Best Musical Tony Award.

1947~ King Michael of Romania (1921 ~ 2017) was forced to abdicate by the Soviet Union-backed communist government.

1936~ The United Auto Workers union staged its first sitdown strike.

1927~ The first subway in Asia opened with the Ginza Line in Tokyo, Japan.

1924~ Edwin Hubble (1889 ~ 1953) announced the existence of other galaxies.

1922~ Vladimir Lenin (1870 ~ 1924) proclaimed the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics.

1919~ At the Lincoln’s Inn in London, England the first female student was admitted to the bar.

1916~ King Charles IV (1887 ~ 1922) and Queen Zita (1892 ~ 1989) were crowned in Hungary.  This would be last Hungarian coronation before the monarchy was abolished.

1903~ A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois killed over 600 people.

1853~ The United States purchased a strip of land that now includes a portion of Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico in what is known as the Gadsden Purchase.  The purpose was to facilitate the construction of the railroads in the Southwest, but also to provide a clear boundary between the two countries.

1825~ The Treaty of St. Louis of 1825, between the United States and the Shawnee Nation was proclaimed.  This treaty had been signed on November 7, 1825.

1816~ The Treaty of St. Louis of 1816, between the United States and the united Ottawa, Ojibwa and Potawatomi Indian tribes was made public.  The treaty had been signed on August 24, 1816.

1813~ During the War of 1812, British soldiers burned the town of Buffalo, New York.

1066~ The Granada massacre occurred when a Muslim mob stormed the palace in Granada and massacred most of the city’s Jewish population, including Joseph ibn Naghrela (1035 ~ 1066), the Jewish vizier.

Good-Byes:

2016~ Tyrus Wong (b. Oct. 25, 1910), the Chinese-American artist who brought Bambi to life.  He was the lead artist on the 1942 Disney animated film, Bambi.  He died at age 106.

2013~ Paul Sally (né Paul Joseph Sally, Jr.; b. Jan. 29, 1933), American mathematician.  He was born in Massachusetts.  He died of heart failure a month before his 81^st birthday.

2012~ John Sheardown (né John Vernon Sheardown; b. Oct. 11, 1924), Canadian envoy who sheltered Americans in Tehran during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979.  He sheltered 6 Americans for 79 days in the Canadian embassy.  This event was depicted in the 2012 movie Argo.  He died at age 87.

2012~ Beate Sirota Gordon (né Beate Siorta; b. Oct. 25, 1823), Austrian woman who shaped Japan’s constitution following World War II.  She was a performing artist and woman’s right’s activist.  Her family moved to Japan when she was 6 years old and became fluent in Japanese.  Following World War II, she was on the team that worked under General MacArthur to draft a new constitution for Japan.  She died at age 89.

2012~ Rita Levi-Montalcini (b. Apr. 22, 1909), Italian neurologist and recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  She was of Sephardic ancestry.  She died at age 103.

2010~ Roger Milliken (b. Oct. 24, 1915), American business tycoon who turned South Carolina a red (republican) state.  He was known as the political godfather to the American conservative movement.  He died at age 95.

2006~ Saddam Hussein (b. Apr. 28, 1937), 5^th President, and virtual dictator, of Iraq. He was executed for war crimes and the mass execution of Iraqi Shi’ietes.  He was 69 years old.

2005~ Rona Jaffe (b. June 12, 1931), American writer.  She died of cancer at age 74.

2004~ Artie Shaw (né Arthur Jacob Arshawsky, b. May 23, 1910), American clarinetist and bandleader.  He died at age 94.

2003~ John Gregory Dunne (b. May 25, 1932), American author and critic.  He was married to author Joan Didion.  His younger brother was Dominick Dunne.  He died of a heart attack at age 71.

1993~ Swifty Lazar (né Samuel Lazar, also known as Irving Paul Lazar, b. Mar. 28, 1907), American talent agent.  He died at age 86 from complications of diabetes.

1983~ Violette Cordery (b. Jan. 10, 1900), British race car driver.  In the 1920s she competed in many car races.  She broke long distance records.  She died 11 days before her 84^th birthday.

1979~ Richard Rodgers (né Richard Charles Rodgers, b. June 28, 1902), American composer.  He is best known for his corroboration with Oscar Hammerstein II.  They wrote many musicals together.  He died at age 77.

1970~ Sonny Liston (né Charles L. Liston, b. May 8, 1932), American boxer.  The actual date of his birth is unknown but is believed to have been sometime between May 8 and July 22, 1930.

1968~ Trygve Lie (né Trygve Hlavdan Lie, b. July 16, 1896), Norwegian politician and 1^st Secretary-General of the United Nations.  He served as the Secretary-General from February 1946 until November 1952.  He died of a heart attack at age 72.

1966~ Christian Herter (néChristian Archibald Herter; b. Mar. 28, 1895), 53^rd United States Secretary of State.  He served under President Dwight David Eisenhower from April 1959 until January 1961.  He also was the 1^st United States Trade Representative under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson from December 1962 through December 1966.  He had earlier served as the 59^th Governor of Massachusetts from January 1953 to January 1957.  He was 71 years old at the time of his death.

1947~ Alfred North Whitehead (b. Feb. 15, 1861), English mathematician and philosopher.  He died at age 86 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1944~ Romain Rolland (b. Jan. 29, 1866), French author and recipient of the 1915 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died a month before his 79^th birthday.

1916~ Grigori Rasputin (b. Jan. 21, 1869), Russian monk.  He was murdered by a group led by Prince Felix Yusupov just 22 days before his 48^thbirthday.  His frozen and trussed body was discovered in a Moscow river 3 days after his murder.  He was best known for his influence over the family of Tsar Nicholas II.

1906~ Josephine Butler (née Josephine Elizabeth Grey; b. Apr. 13, 1828), British women’s rights activist and social reformer.  She fought against human trafficking and prostitution.  She died at age 78.

1894~ Amelia Bloomer (née Amelia Jenks, b. May 27, 1818), American women’s rights activist. Women’s pants called Bloomers are named after her.  She died at age 76.

1591~ Pope Innocent IX (né Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti, b. July 20, 1519).  He was Pope from October 1591 until his death 2 months later.  He died at age 72.

1525~ Jakob Fugger (b. Mar. 6, 1459), German banker.  He died at age 66.

274~ Pope Felix I.  He served as Pope from January 269 until his death on this date in 274.  The date of his birth is not known.