Sunday, May 19, 2019

May 19

Birthdays:

1966~ Jodi Picoult (née Jodi Lynn Picoult), American novelist.

1959~ Nicole Brown Simpson (née Nicole Brown; d. June 12, 1994), former wife of O.J. Simpson and murder victim.  She was killed less than a month after her 35th birthday.

1951~ Joey Ramone (né Jeffrey Ross Hyman; d. Apr. 15, 2001), American musician.  He died of lymphoma about a month before his 50th birthday.

1948~ Grace Jones (née Grace Beverly Jones), Jamaican singer-songwriter.

1946~ André the Giant (né André René Roussimoff; d. Jan. 27, 1993), French professional wrestler and actor.  He stood 7 feet, 4 inches.  He was best known for his role as Fezzik in The Princess Bride.  He died of congestive heart failure at age 46.

1945~ Pete Townshend (né Peter Dennis Blanford Townshend), English musician and band member of The Who.

1944~ Peter Mayhew (né Peter William Mayhew; d. Apr. 30, 2019), English-American actor and gentle giant who played Chewbacca in the Star Wars movies.  He was 7 ft. 3 inches.  He died at age 74.

1941~ Nora Ephron (d. June 26, 2012), American filmmaker, writer and journalist whose wit defined an era.  She died of leukemia at age 71.

1939~ Dick Scobee (né Francis Richard Scobee; d. Jan. 28, 1986), American commander who was killed in the Space Shuttle Challengerdisaster.  He was 46 years old.

1934~ Jim Lehrer (né James Charles Lehrer), American journalist.  He was the news anchor for the PBS Newshour.

1927~ Serge Lang (d. Sept. 12, 2005), French-born American mathematician.  At the time of his death he was a professor emeritus at Yale University.  He died at age 78.

1925~ Malcolm X (né Malcolm Little, d. Feb. 21, 1965), Black American Muslim leader who was assassinated by other members of the Nation of Islam.  He was age 39 at the time of his assassination.

1925~ Pol Pot (d. Apr. 15, 1998), Cambodian dictator.  He died at age 72 under mysterious circumstances.

1920~ Tina Strobos (née Tineke Buchter; d. Feb. 27, 2012), Dutch physician and psychologist who saved dozens of Jews during World War II.  A secret compartment had been built into her attic as a hiding place for Jews.  She worked with the resistance and was able to get passports and other documents so Jews could leave the country.  She and her mother are recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Vad Vashem in Jerusalem.  She died at age 91.

1914~ Max Perutz (néMax Ferdinand Perutz; d. Feb. 6, 2002), Austrian-born English biologist and recipient of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 87.

1909~ Sir Nicholas Winton (né Nicholas George Winton; d. July 1, 2015), British humble hero who saved children from the Nazis.  He organized the Kindertransport and saved nearly 700 Czech children.  He died at age 106.

1903~ Ruth Ella Moore (d. July 19, 1994), African-American bacteriologist.  In 1993, she became the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in the natural sciences.  She became the head of the Department of Bacteriology at Howard University.  She died at age 91.

1890~ Hô Chí Minh(d. Sept. 2, 1969), 1st President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.  He assumed the Office of 1St President of the Democratic Republic Of Vietnam on his 55th birthday.  He served in this Office from September 1945 until his death 24 years later. He died at age 79.

1886~ Francis Biddle (né Francis Beverley Biddle; d. Oct. 4, 1968), 58th Attorney General.  He served under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman during World War II from August 1941 until June 1945.  He had previously served as the 24th United States Solicitor General from January 1940 until August 1941.  Prior to that, he had served as a Federal Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.  He also served as the primary judge at the Nuremberg Trials.  He died in Wellfleet, Massachusetts at age 82.

1881~ Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (d. Nov. 10, 1938), 1st President of Turkey.  He brought Turkey into modernity.  He died at age 57 following a long illness.

1879~ Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor (née Nancy Witcher Langhorne; d. May 2, 1964), American socialite and British politician.  She moved to England at age 26.  Her second husband was Waldorf Astor.  She became the first woman Member of Parliament.  She died 17 days before her 85th birthday.

1876~ Wilson Mizner (d. Apr. 3, 1933), American playwright.  He died at age 56.

1861~ Dame Nellie Melba (née Helen Porter Mitchell; d. Feb. 23, 1931), Australian soprano and actress.  She took the pseudonym “Melba” from her hometown of Melbourne, Australia.  She died at age 69.

1795~ Johns Hopkins (d. Dec. 24, 1873), American businessman, abolitionist and philanthropist.  Johns Hopkins University was one of the beneficiaries of his will.  He died at age 78.

1744~ Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. Nov. 17, 1818), German wife of King George III (1738 ~1820) of the United Kingdom.  She died at age 74.

Events that Changed the World:

2018~ Prince Henry (b. 1984) married American divorcée Meghan Markle (b. 1981). Following their wedding, they became known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

2016~ EgyptAir Flight 804 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea while traveling from Paris to Cairo.  There were no survivors.

2001~ The first two Apple Stores opened.  One was in Tysons Corner, Virginia and the other was in Glendale, California.

1962~ In a birthday salute to United States President John F. Kennedy (1917 ~ 1963), which took place in Madison Square Garden, Marilyn Monroe (1926 ~ 1962) gave her iconic and breathy rendition of Happy Birthday.

1950~ Egypt closed the Suez Canal to Israeli ships and commerce.

1921~ The United States Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas on immigration into the United States.

1828~ President John Quincy Adams (1767 ~ 1848) signed the Tariff of 1828 into law, thereby protecting the wool manufacturers in the United States.

1743~ Jean-Pierre Christin (1683 ~ 1755) developed the centigrade temperature scale.

1649~ An Act of Parliament declared England a Commonwealth through the enactment of the Long Parliament.  For the next 11 years, England would be a republic.

1588~ The Spanish Armada set out for England, where it was ultimately defeated.

1536~ Anne Boleyn (1500s ~ 1536) was beheaded after being convicted of adultery, treason and incest.

1445~ Catherine of Aragon (1485 ~ 1536) was married by proxy to Arthur Tudor (1486 ~ 1502), Prince of Wales.  She was 13 years old and he was 12 years old.  He was first in line to become king of England, but upon his death, Catherine married his brother who would become Henry VIII (1491 ~ 1547).

1051~ Henry I of France (1008 ~ 1060) married Anne of Kiev (1030 ~ 1075).  She was his second wife.

Good-Byes:

2018~ Bernard Lewis (b. May 31, 1916), English-American historian and scholar who shaped Western views on Islam.  He died 12 days before his 102nd birthday.

2016~ Morley Safer (b. Nov. 8, 1931), American journalist.  He is best known for his long tenure on 60 Minutes, where he worked for nearly 36 years.  He died of pneumonia at age 84 just 1 week after his retirement from 60 Minutes.

2016~ Alan Young (né Angus Young; b. Nov. 19, 1919), English-born Canadian-American actor and television personality.  He was best known for his role as Wilber Post on the television sit-com, Mister Ed.  He died at age 96.

2015~ Happy Rockefeller (née Margaretta Large Fitler; b. June 9, 1926), American socialite and philanthropist.  She was the wife of Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, making her the Second Lady of the United States.  She died 21 days before her 89thbirthday.

2011~ Tom West (né Joseph Thomas West; b. Nov. 22, 1939), American businessman who put the soul in a new machine.  He was the subject of Tracy Kidder’s The Soul of a New Machine.  He was a famous computer engineer.  He died of a heart attack at age 71.

2009~ Herbert York (né Herbert Frank York; b. Nov. 24, 1921), American physicist and atomic scientist who tried to curb the use of atomic arms.  He died at age 87.

2009~ Robert F. Furchgott (né Robert Francis Furchgott; b. June 4, 1916), American biochemist and recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died 16 days before his 93rdbirthday.

2002~ Walter Lord (néJohn Walter Lord, Jr.; b. Oct. 8, 1917), American writer, best known for his book, A Night to Remember, about the sinking of the Titanic.  He died at age 84.

1994~ Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (née Jacqueline Lee Bouvier; b. July 28, 1929), 37thFirst Lady and wife of President John F. Kennedy.  She died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma at age 64.

1971~ Ogden Nash (né Frederic Ogden Nash; b. Aug. 19, 1902), American poet.  He is best known for writing humorous poems.  He died at age 68 of complications from Crohn’s disease.

1954~ Charles Ives (né Charles Edward Ives; b. Oct. 20, 1874), American composer.  He died at age 79.

1946~ Booth Tarkington (né Newton Booth Tarkington; b. July 29, 1869), American novelist.  He is best known for his novel The Magnificent Ambersons.  He died at age 76.

1935~ T.E. Lawrence (né Thomas Edward Lawrence, b. Aug. 16, 1888), British army officer and writer.  He was known as Lawrence of Arabia.  He died at age 46 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.

1921~ Edward Douglass White, Jr. (b. Nov. 3, 1845), 9th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was initially nominated to the High Court as an Associate Supreme Court Justice by President Grover Cleveland. He served as an Associated Justice from March 1894 until December 1910, when he was promoted to become the Chief Justice.  He served in that position until his death 10 years later.  He died in Office.  He was from Thibodaux, Louisiana.

1898~ William Gladstone (né William Ewart Gladstone; b. Dec. 29, 1809), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He was one of Britain’s most beloved and respected Prime Ministers.  He served several terms as Prime Minister, both during the term of Queen Victoria. He died at age 88.

1864~ Nathaniel Hawthorne (b. July 4, 1804), American author.  He is best known for his novel, The Scarlett Letter.  He was born in Salem, Massachusetts and died in Plymouth, New Hampshire.  He died at age 59.

1795~ James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (b. Oct. 29, 1740), Scottish biographer of his contemporary and literary figure, Samuel Johnson.  He died at age 54.

1795~ Josiah Bartlett (b. Dec. 2, 1729), Governor of New Hampshire.  He was Governor from June 1790 until June 5, 1794.  He was born before the implementation of the Gregorian calendar, so his birthday is sometimes given as November 21, 1729, under the Julian calendar, or December 2 under the Gregorian calendar.  He died at age 65 in Kingston, New Hampshire.

1536~ Anne Boleyn (b. 1501), English second wife of King Henry VIII of England.  She was beheaded after being convicted of treason and adultery.  The exact date of her birth is unknown, but she is believed to have been between 28 and 35 at the time of her execution.

1296~ Pope Celestine V (né Pietro Angelerio; b. 1215).  He served as Pope for only a few months, from July 1294 until December 1294, before he resigned his position, preferring to live the life of a hermit.  It would be over 700 years before another Pope resigned from the position. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 81 at the time of his death.

1218~ Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor.  He ruled from 1209 ~ until 1215.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.

1102~ Stephen, Count of Blois (b. 1045).  He was one of the leaders of the First Crusade.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.

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