Valentine's Day
Birthdays:
1977~ Anna Erschler (née Anna Grennadievna Dyubina), Russian mathematician. She specializes in probability theory.
1973~ Annalisa Buffa, Italian mathematician. She is best known for her work in numerical analysis.
1970~ Simon Pegg (né Simon John Beckingham), British actor and film director.
1968~ Scott McClellan, 25th White House Press Secretary. He served under President George W. Bush from July 2003 until May 2006.
1962~ Kevyn Aucoin (né Kevyn James Aucoin; d. May 7, 2002), American make-up artist and photographer from Lafayette, Louisiana. He died at age 40.
1960~ Meg Tilly (née Margaret Elizabeth Chan), American actress.
1959~ Renée Fleming (née Renée Lynn Fleming), American soprano.
1951~ Terry Gross, Host of Fresh Air, which is on National Public Radio.
1948~ Teller (né Raymond Joseph Teller), American magician, illusionist and comedian. He is the silent half of the comedy/magic team of Penn and Teller.
1947~ Judd Gregg (né Judd Alan Gregg), 76th Governor of New Hampshire. He served as Governor from January 1989 until January 1993. He went on to serve as a United States Senator from New Hampshire from January 1993 until January 2011.
1946~ Gregory Hines (né Gregory Oliver Hines; d. Aug. 9, 2003), American actor and dancer. He died of liver cancer at age 57.
1944~ Carl Bernstein, American journalist. He is best known for his investigative journalism and reporting on the Watergate scandal with Bob Woodward.
1942~ Michael Bloomberg (né Michael Rubens Bloomberg), American politician and 108th Mayor of New York City. He served as Mayor from January 2002 through December 2013.
1941~ Paul Tsongas (né Paul Efthenuis Tsongas; d. Jan. 18, 1997), 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.
1941~ Donna Shalala (née Donna Edna Shalala), 18th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. She served under President Bill Clinton from January 1988 until January 1993.
1939~ Eugene Fama (né Eugene Francis Fama), American economist and recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Economic Science. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
1936~ Fanne Foxe (née Annabelle Battistella), Argentine dancer and stripper, best known for being involved in a 1974 sex scandal with Congressman Wilber Mills.
1934~ Florence Henderson (née Florence Agnes Henderson; d. Nov. 24, 2016), American actress. She is best known for her role as Carol Brady on the television sit-com,The Brady Bunch. She died at age 82.
1929~ Vic Morrow (né Victor Morozoff, d. July 23, 1982), American actor. He was killed at age 53 when the stunt helicopter he was in during the filming of The Twilight Zone crashed.
1921~ Hugh Downs (né Hugh Malcolm Downs), American television host, best known for his role as co-host on the Today Show.
1917~ Herbert A. Hauptman (né Herbert Aaron Hauptman; d. Oct. 23, 2011), American mathematician and chemist. He was the recipient of the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He died at age 94.
1913~ Jimmy Hoffa (né James Riddle Hoffa, presumed d. July 1975), American labor union leader. He vanished in July 1975 and is presumed to have been killed. His body has never been found.
1913~ Woody Hayes (né Wayne Woodrow Hayes; d. Mar. 12, 1987), American football player and college coach. He had a long-term career coaching the football team at Ohio State University. He died about a month before his 75th birthday.
1911~ Willem Johan Kolff (d. Feb. 11, 2009), Dutch surgeon who was the father of artificial organs. He died 3 days before his 98th birthday.
1894~ Jack Benny (né Benjamin Kublesky, d. Dec. 26, 1974), American comedian. He died at age 80.
1886~ Walter Liggett (né Walter William Liggett; d. Dec. 9, 1935), American newspaper editor and muckraker. He was murdered in a gangland shooting. He was 49 years old.
1882~ John Barrymore (né John Sidney Blyth, d. May 29, 1942), American actor and member of the Barrymore acting dynasty. His birthdate is sometimes listed as Feb. 15, 1882. He died at age 60.
1869~ Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (d. Nov. 15, 1959), Scottish physicist and recipient of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the cloud chamber. He died at age 90.
1859~ George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. (d. Nov. 22, 1896), American engineer and inventor of the Ferris Wheel. The Ferris Wheel was created for the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exhibition. He died at age 37 of typhoid fever.
1847~ Anna Howard Shaw (d. July 2, 1919), American suffragette. She was also one of the first ordained Methodist ministers in the United States. In addition, whe was a physician. She died at age 72.
1838~ Margaret E. Knight (née Margaret Eloise Knight; d. Oct. 12, 1914), American inventor. She liked to tinker with things. She invented, among other things, the machine that folds and glues paper to form the flat-bottomed brown paper bags. She was born in York, Maine and died in Framingham, Massachusetts. When she died at age 76, she held 87 patents.
1819~ Christopher Sholes (né Christopher Latham Sholes; d. Feb. 17, 1890), American journalist and inventor of the QWERTY keyboard for the typewriter. He died 3 days after his 71st birthday.
1800~ Emory Washburn (d. Mar. 18, 1877), 22nd Governor of Massachusetts. He was Governor from January 1854 until January 1855. He died about a month after his 77th birthday.
1677~ Johann Ludwig Bach (d. May 1, 1731), German violinist and composer. He was a third cousin of Johann Sebastian Bach. He died at age 54.
1613~ Samuel Butler (d. Sept. 25, 1680), English poet. The actual date of his birth is unknown, but he was baptized on this date. He died at age 67.
1602~ Francesco Cavalli (né Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni; d. Jan. 14, 1676), Italian composer. He died a month before his 74th birthday.
1545~ Lucrezia de’Medici (d. Apr. 21, 1561), Duchess consort of Ferrara. She was the first wife of Alfonso II d’Este. She died at age 16, probably of tuberculosis.
1468~ Johannes Werner (d. May 1522), German mathematician and priest. The exact date of his death is not known, but he is believed to have been 54 at the time of his death.
Events that Changed the World:
2018~ A disgruntled former student entered the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and began shooting. Seventeen students and teachers were killed and several others were severely wounding. Shortly after the massacre, students, tired of hearing “thoughts and “prayers”, organized rallies and met with political leaders to demand restrictions of guns.
2005~ YouTube was launched.
1989~ Ruhollah Khomeini (1902 ~ 1989) issued a fatwas against Salman Rushdie (b. 1947) for his novel, The Satanic Verses, in which he urged Muslims to kill Rushdie.
1989~ Union Carbide agreed to a $470 Million settlement to the Indian government for damages resulting from the 1984 Bhopal disaster.
1962~ Jacqueline Kennedy (1929 ~ 1994) gave television viewers a tour of the White House for the first time.
1961~ Lawrencium, element 103 on the periodic table, was first synthesized at the University of California.
1949~ The Israeli Knesset convened for the first time.
1946~ The Bank of England was nationalized.
1945~ The British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces began fire-bombing the city of Dresden, German during World War II.
1929~ Seven people, including six gangster rivals of Al Capone’s gang, were murdered in Chicago, Illinois, in what became known as the St. Valentine’s Day massacre.
1924~ The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation, or IBM.
1920~ The League of Women voters was founded in Chicago, Illinois.
1918~ The Soviet Union adopted the Gregorian calendar.
1912~ The first diesel-powered submarine was commissioned in Groton, Connecticut.
1912~ Arizona became the 48th State of the Union.
1903~ The United States Department of Commerce and Labor was created. It was later split into two distinct entities: the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor.
1899~ The United States Congress approved the use of voting machines for federal elections.
1876~ Alexander Graham Bell (1847 ~ 1922) applied for a patent for the telephone. Elisha Gray (1835 ~ 1901) also applied for a patent for a telephone on the same day, however, Bell’s patent beat out Gray’s.
1859~ Oregon became the 33rd State of the Union.
1855~ A telegraph connection was completed between New Orleans, Louisiana and Marshall, Texas, which finally linked Texas to the rest of the United States.
1849~ United States President James Polk (1795 ~ 1849) became the first sitting President to have his photograph taken.
1556~ Thomas Cranmer (1489 ~ 1556), an early English religious reformer during the reign of King Henry VIII, was declared a heretic by the Catholic Church.
1349~ The Strasbourg massacre occurred where several hundred Jews in retaliation for the Black Death. This is one of the first and worst pogroms against the Jews in modern history. The Jews who were not killed were forcibly removed from the city.
1130~ Innocent II (d. 1143) was elected Pope.
1076~ Henry IV (1050 ~ 1106), Holy Roman Emperor was excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII (1015 ~ 1085) over tensions between Church and State authority.
1014~ Henry (973 ~ 1024) of Bavaria, King of Germany and Italy was Crown Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Benedict VIII (980 ~ 1024).
Good-Byes:
2015~ Louis Jourdan (né Louis Robert Gendre; b. June 19, 1921), French actor. He died at age 93.
2013~ Reeva Steenkamp (Reeva Rebecca Steenkamp; b. Aug. 19, 1983), South African model. She was murdered by her boyfriend, Olympian Oscar Pistorius. She was 29 years old.
2013~ Ronald Dworkin (né Ronald Myles Dworkin; b. Dec. 11, 1931), American legal scholar who based law in morality. He was a Constitutional law scholar. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He died in London, England at age 81.
2011~ Chuck Allen (né Charles Lee Allen, b. Sept. 13, 1936), American surfing coach turned snowboard evangelist. He was 74 years old.
2011~ Sir George Shearing, OBE (né George Albert Shearing; b. Aug. 13, 1919), British pianist with a signature sound. He was born blind to working-class parents in London and became one of the best known jazz pianists of his time. He died at age 91.
2010~ Doug Fieger (né Douglas Lars Fieger; b. Aug. 20, 1952), American new-wave rocker who co-wrote My Sharona. He had been the lead singer of The Knack. He died of cancer at age 57.
2010~ Dick Francis (né Richard Stanley Francis; b. Oct. 31, 1920), British jockey who was a best-selling novelist. He died at age 89.
1999~ John Ehrlichman (né John Daniel Ehrlichman; b. Mar. 20, 1925), key figure in the events leading to the Watergate scandal that brought down the Nixon administration. He was also the 12th White House Counsel and served during the Nixon Administration. He died of complications of diabetes at age 73.
1991~ John A. McCone (né John Alexander McCone; b. Jan. 4, 1902), 6th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He served under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from November 1961 until April 1965. He died at age 89.
1988~ Frederick Loewe (b. June 10, 1901), Austrian-American composer who collaborated with Alan Jay Lerner to compose many Broadway musicals. He died of cardiac arrest at age 86.
1975~ Sir Julian Huxley (né Julian Sorell Huxley; b. June 22, 1887), British biologist. He died at age 87.
1975~ Sir P.G. Wodehouse (né Pelham Grenville Wodehouse; b. Oct. 15, 1881), English author. He died of a heart attack at age 93.
1943~ David Hilbert (b. Jan. 23, 1862), German mathematician. He died 22 days after his 81stbirthday.
1943~ Alice Henry (d. Mar. 21, 1857), Australian suffragist, journalist and trade unionist. She died at age 85.
1894~ Eugène Charles Catalan (b. May 30, 1814), Belgian mathematician. He died at age 79.
1891~ William Sherman (né William Tecumseh Sherman; b. Feb. 8, 1820), American Union general in the American Civil War. Prior to serving in the Army, he served as the president of the Louisiana State University. He died 6 days after his 71st birthday.
1884~ Alice Roosevelt (née Alice Hathaway Lee, b. July 29, 1861), first wife of Theodore Roosevelt. She was born in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. She died of Bright’s Disease just 2 days after giving birth to their only child, named Alice Lee Roosevelt. She was 22 years old.
1881~ Fernando Wood (b. June 14, 1812), Mayor of New York City. He first served from January 1855 until January 1858, and his second term was from January 1860 until December 1862. He died at age 68.
1831~ Vicente Guerrero (b. Aug. 10, 1782), President of Mexico. He served as President from April 1829 until December 1829. His government was ousted and he was ultimately executed at age 48.
1780~ Sir William Blackstone (b. July 10, 1723), English politician and lawyer. He died at age 56.
1779~ Captain James Cook (b. Nov. 7, 1728), British naval officer and explorer. Under the Julian calendar, is birthday is considered to have been on October 27, 1728. He was killed at age 50 in a confrontation with natives on the Hawaiian Islands.
1744~ John Hadley (b. Apr. 16, 1682), English mathematician and inventor of the octant, an instrument used in navigation. He died at age 61.
1714~ Maria Luisa of Savoy (b. Sept. 17, 1688), Queen consort of Spain and wife of Philip V of Spain. She was of the House of Savoy. She died of complications of tuberculosis at age 25.
1400~ King Richard II of England (b. Jan. 6, 1367). He reigned over England from June 1377 until he was overthrown in 1399. He was married first to Anne of Bohemia (1366 ~ 1394). Following her death, he married Isabella of Valois (1389 ~ 1409). After Edward was deposed, he was imprisoned in the London Tower. He died and was likely murdered from starvation on orders of Henry Bolingbroke. He was 33 years old at the time of his death.
1317~ Marguerite of France (b. 1282), Queen consort of England and wife of King Edward I. She was his second wife. She was of the House of Capet. The exact date of her birth is not known.
1043~ Gisela of Swabia (b. Nov. 11, 990), Queen consort of the Holy Roman Empire through her third marriage to Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor. She died at age 52.
945~ Zhu Wenjin, Chinese emperor of the State of Min during the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. He reigned from August 30, 939 until his death on this date 6 years later. The date of his birth is not known.
869~ St. Cyril (b. 827), Greek monk and theologian.
270~ St. Valentine (b. 226), the traditional date for the death of St. Valentine. Very little else is known about St. Valentine.
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