Friday, January 18, 2019

January 18

Birthdays:

1971~ Amy Barger, American astronomer.

1969~ Jesse L. Martin (né Jesse Lamont Watkins), African-American actor.  He is best known for his role as Detective Ed Green on the television drama Law & Order.

1963~ Martin O’Malley (né Martin Joseph O’Malley), American politician and 61st Governor of Maryland.  He was a presidential candidate in the 2016 United State Presidential campaign.

1961~ Sir Mark Rylance (né David Mark Rylance Waters), British actor.

1955~ Kevin Costner (né Kevin Michael Cosner), American actor.

1937~ John Hume, Northern Irish politician and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize.

1933~ Ray Dolby (né Ray Milton Dolby, d. Sept. 12, 2013), American sound engineer and innovator.  He died of leukemia at age 80.

1930~ Clarabelle Lansing (d. Apr. 28, 1988), American stewardess on the ill-fated Aloha Airlines.  She was the only fatality when the fuselage ripped open mid-flight.  She was 58 years old.

1925~ Art Paul (né Arthur Paul, d. Apr. 28, 2018), American graphic designer who gave Playboyits bunny.  He died at age 93.

1921~ Yoichiro Nambu (d. July 5, 2015), Japanese-born American physicist and recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 94.

1920~ William Liebenow (d. Feb. 27, 2017), American Navy skipper who rescued a stranded John F. Kennedy in 1943 during World War II.  As a Lieutenant in the Navy, he used the cover of darkness to take his patrol boat into enemy waters to rescue the crew of PT-109.  He died at age 97.

1911~ Danny Kaye (né David Daniel Kaminsky; d. Mar. 3, 1987), American actor, singer and comedian.  He died of heart failure at age 76.

1908~ Jacob Bronowski (d. Aug. 22, 1974), Polish-born English mathematician.  His family moved to England during World War I.  He died of a heart attack at age 66.

1904~ Cary Grant (né Archibald Alexander Leach, d. Nov. 29, 1986), British-born American actor.  He died at age 82.

1901~ Ivan Petrovsky (d. Jan. 15, 1973), Russian mathematician.  He died 3 days before his 72nd birthday.

1892~ Oliver Hardy (né Norvell Hardy, d. Aug. 7, 1957), American comedian and half of the Laurel and Hardy comedy team.  He died of cerebral thrombosis at age 65.

1882~ A.A. Milne (né Alan Alexander Milne; d. Jan. 31, 1956), English author, best known for his Winnie the Pooh series of children’s books.  He died 2 weeks after his 74th birthday.

1877~ Sam Zemurray (né Schmuel Zmurri, d. Nov. 30, 1961), Russian-born American businessman who founded the Cuyamel Fruit Company.  He entered into the banana trade, establishing a center in New Orleans, Louisiana.  The story of his rise in the trade was depicted in Rich Cohen’s book, The Fish that Ate the Whale.  He died in New Orleans at age 84.

1856~ Daniel Williams (né Daniel Hale Williams, d. Aug. 4, 1931), African-American surgeon. In 1893, he is reported to have performed the first successful pericardium heart surgery to repair a wound.  The patient survived and lived an additional 20 years.  Williams died at age 75.

1854~ Thomas Watson (né Thomas Augustus Watson; d. Dec. 13, 1934), American assistant to Alexander Graham Bell during the invention of the telephone.  He was born in Salem, Massachusetts.  He died just over a month before his 81st birthday.

1850~ Seth Low (d. Sept. 17, 1916), 92nd Mayor of New York City.  He was Mayor from January 1902 through December 1903.  He had previously served as the President of Columbia University from 1890 until 1901.  He died of cancer at age 66.

1813~ Joseph Glidden (d. Oct. 9, 1906), American farmer who patented barbed wire.  He was born in Charlestown, New Hampshire.  He died at age 93.

1795~ Anna Pavlovna of Russia (d. Mar. 1, 1865), Queen consort of the Netherlands and wife of King William II of the Netherlands.  She was the daughter of Paul I of Russia.  She died at age 70.

1782~ Daniel Webster (d. Oct. 24, 1852), American politician and attorney.  He was the 14th and 19th United States Secretary of State.  He served under President Millard Fillmore from July 1850 to October 1852 and William Henry Harrison from March 1841 until May 1843.  He also served two non-consecutive terms as a United States Senator from Massachusetts.  He was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire, and died in Marshfield, Massachusetts.  He died at age 70.

1779~ Peter Mark Roget (d. Sept. 12, 1869), French physician and lexicographer.  He is best known for publishing the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases, now known simply as Roget’s Thesaurus.  He died at age 90.

1752~ John Nash (d. May 13, 1835), British architect.  He designed a number of buildings, including Buckingham Palace.  He died at age 83.

1689~ Montesquieu (Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu; d. Feb. 10, 1755), French lawyer and philosopher during the Age of Enlightenment.  He died 23 days after his 66th birthday.

1519~ Isabella Jagiellon (d. Sept. 15, 1559), Queen consort of Hungary and wife of John Zápolya.  She died at age 40 following a long illness.

Events that Changed the World:

2016~ Martin Luther King, Jr., Day was observed in the United States.

2009~ Hamas announced it would accept the Israeli Defense Forces’s offer of a ceasefire to end the assault during the Gaza War.

1991~ During the Gulf War, three Iraqi SCUD missiles hit Ramat Gan, outside of Tel Aviv, in Israel killing 3 people and injuring 96 others.

1990~ Marion Barry (1936 ~ 2014), Mayor of Washington, D.C., was arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.

1983~ The International Olympic Committee restored the Olympic medals to the family of Jim Thorpe (1887 ~ 1953).  He had received gold medals in the 1912 Olympics, but was stripped of these medals after the Olympic Committee learned that he had been paid for playing semi-professional baseball for two seasons.

1978~ The roof of the Hartford Civic Center in Connecticut collapsed due to heavy snow.  The collapse fell just hours after the University of Connecticut basketball team beat the University of Massachusetts team.  When the roof collapsed, no one was in the building and there were no injuries.

1977~ The bacterium that caused Legionnaires’ disease was isolated and identified as Legionella pneumophila.

1974~ The Disengagement of Forces Agreement was signed between Israel and Egypt, thereby ending the conflict on the Egyptian front of the Yom Kippur War.

1967~ Albert DeSalvo (1931 ~ 1973), the criminal known as the “Boston Strangler”, was convicted of numerous crimes and murder.  He was sentenced to life in prison, where, in 1973, he was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate.

1945~ The Red Army liberated the Budapest ghetto.

1944~ The three-year Siege of Leningrad ended when Soviet forces liberated Leningrad from the Nazis.

1944~ The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City held its first jazz concert.  The performers included Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.

1943~ The first Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of the Jews during World War II.

1919~ Bentley Motors Limited was founded.

1919~ The Paris Peace Conference following World War I began in Paris, France.

1911~ Eugene B. Ely (1886 ~ 1911) landed an aircraft on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania in the San Francisco Bay.  It was the first recorded landing of an aircraft on a ship.

1896~ An X-ray machine was formally displayed for the first time.

1778~ James Cook (1728 ~ 1779) is the first known European to reach the Hawaiian Islands, which he named the Sandwich Islands.

1535~ The Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro (1571 ~ 1541) founded Lima, which would become the capital of Peru.

1520~ King Christian II (1481 ~ 1559) of Denmark and Norway defeated the Swedes at Lake Ȧsuden.

1486~ King Henry VII of England (1457 ~ 1509) married Elizabeth of York (1466 ~ 1503), daughter of Edward IV.

1126~ Emperor Huizong (1082 ~ 1135) the 8th emperor of the Song dynasty abdicated the throne in favor of his son Enperor Qinzong (1100 ~ 1161).

Good-Byes:

2018~ Julius Lester (né Julius Bernard Lester; b. Jan. 27, 1939), African-American author of children’s books.  He died 9 days before his 79th birthday in Palmer, Massachusetts.

2018~ Stansfield Turner (b. Dec. 1, 1923), 12th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He served in that capacity during the Carter Administration from March 1977 until January 1981.  He died at age 94.

2017~ Roberta Peters (née Roberta Peterman, b. May 4, 1930), American overnight success who became an opera legend.  She died at age 86.

2016~ Glenn Frye (né Glenn Lewis Frye; b. Nov. 6, 1948), American musician and member of the band, the Eagles.  He died following surgery at age 67.

2011~ Sargent Shriver (né Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr.; b. Nov. 9, 1915), American politician who married into the Kennedy clan.  He was married to Eunice Kennedy.  He was the Kennedy in-law who battled poverty.  He also served as the 21st United States Ambassador to France.  He died at age 95.

2010~ Robert B. Parker (né Robert Brown Parker, b. Sept. 17, 1932), American author best known for creating Spenser in his detective series.  He died at age 77.

2008~ Jimmy James (né Bertram Arthur James; b. Apr. 17, 1915), British RAF flier who was a participant in, and survivor of, the Great Escape during World War II, which was later depicted in the movie of the same name.  He died at age 85.

1997~ Paul Tsongas (néPaul Efthenuis Tsongas; b. Feb. 14, 1941), American politician from Massachusetts.  He served in the United States House of Representatives and as a United States Senator.  He died of complications of pneumonia and non-Hodgkins’s lymphoma less than a month before his 56th birthday.

1995~ Adolf Butenandt (b. Mar. 24, 1903), German chemist and recipient of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on sex hormones.  He was a member of the Nazi party and in accordance with government policy did not accept the award when it was granted.  Following World War II, however, he accepted the award.  He died at age 91.

1989~ Bruce Chatwin (né Charles Bruce Chatwin, b. May 13, 1940), English travel writer.  He died following a long illness at age 48.

1980~ Sir Cecil Beaton (né Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton; b. Jan. 14, 1904).  British fashion photographer.  He died 4 days after his 76th birthday.

1974~ Bill Finger (né Milton Finger; b. Feb. 8, 1914), American author and co-creator, along with Bob Kane, of Batman.  He died of heart disease 21 days before his 60th birthday.

1963~ Ted Titchmarsh (né Edward Charles Titchmarsh; b. June 1, 1899), English mathematician.  He died at age 63.

1956~ Konstantin Päts (b. Feb. 23, 1874), 1st President of Estonia.  He served as president from April 1938 until July 1940.  He died at age 81.

1952~ Curly Howard (né Jerome Lester Horwitz, b. Oct. 22, 1903), American actor and comedian.  He was one of the Three Stooges.  He died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 48.

1949~ Charles Ponzi (b. Mar. 3, 1882), Italian-born criminal, for whom the term Ponzischeme was named.  He was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison on fraud charges.  After being released from federal prison, the State of Massachusetts charged him with 22 counts of larceny.  He died in Brazil at age 66.

1936~ Rudyard Kipling (né Joseph Rudyard Kipling, b. Dec. 30, 1865), 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 70th birthday.

1873~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (né Edward George Earle Lytton Bylwer-Lytton, b. May 25, 1803), British novelist, poet, playwright and politician.  He is best known for drafting the line: It was a dark and stormy night.  He died at age 69.

1869~ Bertalan Szemere (b. Aug. 27, 1812), Hungarian poet.  He also served as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary.  He was in Office from May 1849 until August 1849 during the short period of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.  He died at age 56.

1862~ John Tyler (b. Mar. 29, 1790), 10th President of the United States.  John Tyler was also the 10th Vice President, although he served in that Office for only a month.  He became the first Vice President to become President following the death of an incumbent president.  President William Henry Harrison had died within a month of taking office.  Tyler died at age 71.

1860~ John Nelson (b. June 1, 1791), 17th United States Attorney General.  He served in the John Tyler administration from July 1843 until March 1845.  He died at age 68.

1367~ Peter I of Portugal (b. Apr. 8, 1320).  He was also known as both Peter the Just and Peter the Cruel.  He ruled Portugal from May 1357 until his death in 1367.  He was married to Constanze Manuel until her death following childbirth.  He then married Inês de Castro.  He died at age 46.

1357~ Princess Maria of Portugal (b. Feb. 9, 1313), Queen consort of Castile and León and wife of Alfonso XI of Castile.  She died 22 days before her 44th birthday.

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