Sunday, March 17, 2019

March 17

St. Patrick’s Day

Birthdays:

1972~ Mia Hamm (née Mariel Margaret Hamm), American soccer player.

1969~ Alexander McQueen (né Lee Alexander McQueen, d. Feb. 11, 2010), English fashion designer who embraced audacity.  He died by suicide at age 40 on the eve of his mother’s funeral.  She had died 9 days earlier.

1964~ Rob Lowe (né Robert Hepler Lowe), American actor.

1962~ Kalpana Chawla (d. Feb. 1, 2003), Indian-born astronaut.  She was aboard the ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia and was killed at age 40 when the shuttle exploded upon returning to earth.

1961~ Dana Reeve (né Dana Charles Morosini; b. Mar. 6, 2006), wife and widow of Christopher Reeve and activist for medical health.  She died of lung cancer 11 days before her 45th birthday

1959~ Danny Ainge (né Daniel Ray Ainge), American basketball player who had a long career with the Boston Celtics.

1955~ Gary Sinise (né Gary Alan Sinise), American actor.

1954~ Lesley-Anne Down, English actress, best known for her portrayal of Cinderella.

1951~ Kurt Russell (né Kurt Vogel Russell), American actor.

1949~ Patrick Duffy, American actor best known for his roll as Bobby Ewing on the television drama Dallas.

1948~ William Gibson (né William Ford Gibson), Canadian speculative fiction novelist.

1945~ Valery Senderov (d. Nov. 12, 2014), Russian dissident and mathematician.  He was known for his advocacy against state-sponsored anti-Semitism.  He died at age 69.

1945~ Michael Hayden (né Michael Vincent Hayden), Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  He served under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.  He served as the Director from May 2006 until February 2009.  He had previously served as the Director of the National Security Agency from March 1999 until April 2005, during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations.

1940~ Mark White, Jr. (né Mark Wells White, Jr.; d. Aug. 5, 2017), 43rd Governor of Texas.  He was governor from 1983 until 1987.  He died of a heart attack at age 77.

1938~ Rudolf Nureyev (d. Jan. 6, 1993), Russian-born dancer and choreographer.  He died of complications of AIDS at age 54.

1920~ Donald Hornig (né Donald Frederick Hornig; d. Jan 21, 2013), American scientist who babysat the first atom bomb.  He was an explosives expert and developed the firing unit that triggered the bomb’s detonation.  He also served as the President of Brown University from 1970 to 1976.  He died in Providence, Rhode Island at age 92.

1919~ Nat King Cole (né Nathaniel Adams Coles; d. Feb. 15, 1965), African-American singer and musician.  He died of lung cancer at age 45.

1917~ Bernard Barker (né Bernard Leon Barker; d. June 5, 2009), Cuban-born CIA agent who was a Watergate burglar.  He died at age 92.

1881~ Walter Rudolf Hess (d. Aug. 12, 1973), Swiss physiologist and recipient of the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for mapping areas of the brain that control internal organs.  He died of heart failure at age 92.

1866~ Pierce Butler (d. Nov. 16, 1939), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was nominated to the High Court by President Warren Harding.  He replaced William Day on the Court.  He served on the Court from December 1922 until his death at age 73 in November 1939.

1834~ Gottlieb Daimler (né Gottlieb Wilhelm Damler; d. Mar. 6, 1900), German businessman and founder of the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft automobile company.  He was a pioneer in the internal-combustion engineer and automobile development.  He died 11 days before his 66th birthday.

1832~ Walter Q. Gresham (né Walter Quintin Gresham; d. May 28, 1895), 33rd United States Secretary of State.  He served under President Grover Cleveland from March 1893 until his death on May 28, 1895.  He had previously served as the 35th United States Secretary of the Treasury for a month from September to October 1884 during the Chester Arthur administration.  He had also served as the 31st United States Postmaster General from April 1883 until September 1884 also during the Chester Arthur administration.  He died in Office of Secretary State at age 63.

1806~ Norbert Rillieux (d. Oct. 8, 1894), African-American inventor and chemical engineer.  He is best known for inventing the multiple-effect evaporator, an innovation in the sugar industry.  He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He died at age 88 in Paris, France.

1777~ Roger B. Taney (né Roger Brooke Taney; d. Oct. 12, 1864), 5th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Andrew Jackson.  He is best known for presiding over the Court when the Dred Scott decision was rendered.  He served on the Court from March 1936 until his death at age 87 on October 12, 1864.  Prior to serving on the Supreme Court, he served as the 11th United States Attorney General under President Jackson from July 1831 until November 1833, when he became the 12th United States Secretary of the Treasury.  He served in that position from September 1833 until June 1834.

1764~ William Pinkney (d. Feb. 25, 1822), 7th United States Attorney General.  He served under James Madison from December 1811 until February 1814.  He argued many cases before the United States Supreme Court, including McCulloch v. Maryland.  He died 3 weeks before his 58th birthday.

1665~ Élizabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (néeÉlizabeth Jacquet; d. June 27, 1729), French musician and composer.  She died at age 64.

1473~ King James IV of Scotland (d. Sept. 9, 1513).  He died in the Battle of Flodden.  He died at age 40.

Events that Changed the World:

2013~ The largest meteorite that NASA observed, since observing the moon in 2005, hit the moon.

2008~ David Paterson (b. 1954) became governor of New York State after Eliot Spitzer (b. 1959) resigned after a scandal involving a high-end prostitute.

1992~ The Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aries, Argentina was attacked with a suicide car bomb, killing 29 and injuring over 240 others.

1970~ The United States Army charged 14 officers with suppressing information relating to the My Lai Massacre.

1969~ Golda Meir (1898 ~ 1978) became the first female Prime Minister of Israel.

1959~ The 14th Dalai Lama (b. 1939) fled Tibet and went to India.

1950~ Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announced the creation of the element 98, which they named Californium.

1942~ The first Jews from the Lvóv Ghetto were gassed at the Belzec concentration camp, in what is now eastern Poland.

1941~ The National Gallery of Art was officially opened by President Franklin Roosevelt (1882 ~ 1945).

1776~ During the American Revolutionary War, British forces left Boston, Massachusetts, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington (1732 ~ 1799) and Henry Knox (1750 ~ 1806) placed artillery in positions that overlooked the city.

1762~ Irish soldiers in the British army held the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City.

1337~ Edward, the Black Prince (1330 ~ 1376), was made Duke of Cornwall, the first Duchy in England.

Good-Byes:

2017~ Sir Derek Walcott (né Derek Alton Walcott; b. Jan. 23, 1930), West Indies writer and recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 87.

2016~ Meir Dagan (né Meir Hubermann; b. Jan. 30, 1945), Israeli military officer and Director of Mossad from 2002 until 2011.  He died of cancer at age 71.

2015~ Guido Zappa (b. Dec. 7, 1915), Italian mathematician.  He was 99 years old.

2014~ L’Wren Scott (née Laura Bambrough; b. Apr. 28, 1964), the American fashion designer who styled the stars.  She was Mick Jagger’s long-time girlfriend.  She committed suicide at age 49.

2014~ Bunny Mellon (née Rachel Lowe Lambert; b. Aug. 9, 1910), American heiress who designed the Rose Garden at the White House.  She died at age 103.

2012~ Chaleo Yoovidhya (b. Aug. 17, 1923), Thai businessman and duck hunter’s son who created Red Bull.  He died at age 88.

2012~ John Demjanjuk (né Ivan Mykolaiovych Demjanjuk; b. Apr. 3, 1920), Ukrainian-American convicted Nazi war criminal who managed to escape detection for many years. He was convicted of murdering many Jews while a guard at concentration camps during World War II.  He was ultimately convicted of war crimes in 2011. He died 17 days before his 92nd birthday.

2007~ John Backus (né John Warner Backus; b. Dec. 3, 1924), American mathematician and computer scientist.  He died at age 82.

2006~ Oleg Cassini (né Oleg Cassini Loiewski; b. Apr. 11, 1913), American fashion designed who designed many of the clothes Jackie Kennedy wore while in the White House.  He died from complications of an aneurism less than three weeks before his 93rd birthday.

2005~ Gary Bertini (b. May 1, 1927), Israeli conductor.  He died at age 77.

2005~ László Fejes Tóth (b. Mar. 12, 1915), Hungarian mathematician.  He died 5 days after his 90th birthday.

2003~ Su Buqing (b. Sept. 23, 1902), Chinese mathematician.  He died at age 100.

1993~ Helen Hayes (née Helen Hayes Brown; b. Oct. 10, 1900), American stage actress.  She was known as the First Lady of American Theater.  She died at age 92.

1983~ Haldan Keffer Hartline (b. Dec. 22, 1903), American physiologist and recipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died at age 79.

1974~ Louis Kahn (né Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky; b. Mar. 5, 1901), Russian-American architect. He was born in Russia and the calendar in use at the time was the Julian calendar, so his birthday is sometimes noted as February 20th.  He died of a heart attack shortly after his 73rd birthday.

1962~ Wilhelm Blaschke (né Wilhelm Johann Eugen Blaschke; b. Sept. 13, 1885), Austrian-German mathematician.  He was a member of the Nazi Party.  He died at age 76.

1961~ Susanna M Salter (née Susanna Madora Kinsey; d. Mar. 2, 1860), United States politician and activist.  She was elected mayor of Argonia, Kansas, thereby becoming the first woman elected mayor of any United States city, and one of the first women to be elected to any political office in the United States.  She died 15 days after her 101st birthday.

1956~ Irène Joliot-Curie (b. Sept. 12, 1897), French physicist and recipient of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  She was the daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie.  She died at age 58 of leukemia.

1937~ Sir Austen Chamberlain (né Joseph Austen Chamberlain; b. Oct. 16, 1863), English politician and recipient of the 1925 Nobel Peace Prize.  He was the half brother of British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain.  He died at age 73.

1866~ Menachem Mendel Schneerson (b. Sept. 9, 1789), Polish rabbi.  He was the 3rdRebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch movement.  He died at age 77.

1853~ Christian Doppler (né Christian Andreas Doppler; b. Nov. 29, 1803), Austrian physicist and mathematician.  He is best known for his principle known as the Doppler effect, that the observed frequency of a wave depends upon the relative speed of the source and the observer.  He died at age 49 of pulmonary disease.

1849~ King William II of the Netherlands (b. Dec. 6, 1792).  He reigned from October 1840 until his death in March 1849.  He was married to Anna Pavlovna of Prussia.  He died at age 56.

1846~ Friedrich Bessel (né Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel; b. July 22, 1784), German mathematician.  He died at age 61.

1829~ Sophia Albertina (b. Oct. 8, 1753), Princess-abbess of Quedlinburg.  She was the daughter of King Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia.  She died at age 75.

1782~ Daniel Bernoulli (b. Feb. 8, 1700), Dutch-Swiss mathematician and physicist.  He died at age 82.

1680~ François de La Rochefoucauld (b. Sept. 15, 1613), French author best known for his maxims and memoirs.  He died at age 66.

1611~ Princess Sophia of Sweden (b. Oct. 29, 1547), daughter of Gustav I of Sweden and Margaret Leijonhufvud.  She was the Duchess of Saxe-Lauenburg through her marriage to Magnus II, Duke of Saxe-Lauernburg.  She died at age 63.

1058~ Lulach, King of Scotland.  He ruled Scotland from August 1057 until his death 9 months later.  He was known as The Unfortunate.  The date of his birth is not known.

1040~ Harold I, King of England (b. 1016).  He was known as Harold Harefoot because he was fleet of foot.  The actual date of his birth is unknown.  He is believed to have been 24 at the time of his death.

460~ St. Patrick (b. 387), Patron saint of Ireland.  This is the date sometimes ascribed to his death.  The actual dates of his birth and death are unknown.

180~ Marcus Aurelius (b. Apr. 26, 121), this is the traditional date ascribed to the birth of this Roman emperor.  He ruled the Roman Empire from March 161 until his death in March 180.  He died about the age of 58.

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