Wednesday, August 21, 2019

August 21

Birthdays:

1986~ Usain Bolt (né Usain St. Leo Bolt), Jamaican athlete and sprinter.

1973~ Sergey Brin, Russian-American computer scientist and co-founder of Google.  He was born in Moscow, Russia.

1967~ Alexander Chee, American author.  He was born in South Kingston, Rhode Island.

1956~ Kim Cattrall (née Kim Victoria Cattrall), English-Canadian actress.  She is best known for her role as Samantha Jones on the television show Sex in the City.

1951~ Eric Goles (né Eric Antonio Goles Chacc), Chilean mathematician.

1947~ Travis Bean (né Clifford Travis Bean; b. July 10, 2011), American guitar maker who made metal sing.  He died at age 63.

1940~ Endre Szemerédi, Hungarian mathematician.  He is best known for his work in combinatorics and theoretical computer science. He was born in Budapest, Hungary.

1937~ Robert Stone (d. Jan. 10, 2015), American novelist who chronicled American dreams gone south.  He died at age 77.

1936~ Wilt Chamberlain (né Wilton Norman Chamberlain; d. Oct. 12, 1999), American basketball player.  He died at age 63.

1936~ Booth Gardner (d. Mar. 15, 2013), American Governor of Washington State who battled for death with dignity.  He was an advocate for suicide-assisted death for patients with terminal diseases.  He died of Parkinson’s disease at age 76.

1930~ Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (d. Feb. 9, 2002), sister of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.  She died following a stroke at age 71.

1929~ Marie Severin (d. Aug. 30, 2018), American pioneering comic book artist who created Spider-Woman.  She was one of the first women to become a major comic book artist.  She died 8 days after her 89th birthday.

1924~ Arthur Janov (d. Oct. 1, 2017), American psychologist who believed in therapeutic screaming.  He died at age 93.

1920~ Christopher Robin Milne (d. Apr. 20, 1996), son of writer A.A. Milne and inspiration for the character of Christopher in Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books.  He died at age 75.

1917~ Leonid Hurwicz (d. June 24, 2008), Russian-born Polish mathematician and economist.  At age 90, he was the oldest recipient of a Nobel Prize when he was awarded the 2007 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science.  He died at age 90.

1909~ Nikolay Bogolyubov (d. Feb. 13, 1992), Russian mathematician.  He died at age 82.

1908~ M.M. Kaye (née Mary Margaret Kaye; d. Jan. 29, 2004), British writer, best known for her book The Far Pavilions.  She died at age 95.

1904~ Count Basie (né William James Basie; d. Apr. 26, 1984), American jazz musician, bandleader and composer.  He was born in Red Bank, New Jersey.  He died at age 79.

1872~ Aubrey Beardsley (né Aubrey Vincent Beardsley; d. Mar. 16, 1898), English author and illustrator.  He died of tuberculosis at age 25.

1789~ Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy (d. May 23, 1857), French mathematician.  He died at age 67.

1765~ King William IV of the United Kingdom (d. June 20, 1837).  He reigned as King from June 1830 until June 1937.  He had no legitimate heirs at the time of his death, hence, he was succeeded by Queen Victoria.  He died at age 71.

1754~ William Murdoch (d. Nov. 15, 1839), Scottish engineer and inventor.  He created gas lighting.  He died at age 85.

1665~ Giacomo F. Maraldi (né Giacomo Filippo Maraldi; d. Dec. 1, 1729), Italian mathematician.  He died at age 64.

1660~ Hubert Gautier (d. Sept. 27, 1737), French mathematician.  He was also an engineer and in 1716 wrote one of the first books on bridges.  He died a month after his 77th birthday.

1165~ King Philip II of France (d. July 14, 1223).  He died at age 57.

Events that Changed the World:

2017~ A solar eclipse traversed the continental United States.

2007~ Hurricane Dean, which was the first storm since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 to make landfall as a Category 5 storm.  Dean hit Costa Maya on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

1991~ A coup attempt against Russian leader, Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931), collapsed.

1988~ A 6.9 earthquake struck on the Nepal-India border, killing between 700 and 1500 people.

1979~ Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov (1949 ~ 1995), defected to the United States while on tour with the Bolshoi Ballet.

1961~ Motown released Please Mr. Postman by the Marvelettes.  The song would become Motown’s first #1 hit.

1959~ Hawaii became the 50th State of the Union.

1942~ The Walt Disney movie, Bambi, was released to theaters.

1911~ The Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre by an employee.  It was recovered 2 years later.

1897~ The Oldsmobile automobile company was founded by Ransom E. Olds (1864 ~ 1950).  The company ceased to exist in 2004.

1888~ William Burroughs (1855 ~ 1898) patented the first successful adding machine in the United States.

1858~ The first of the Lincoln-Douglas debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas began.  The two met for a series of debates that held in Illinois occurred between August 21 and ran through October 15, 1858.

1831~ Nat Turner (1800 ~ 1831), a former slave, lead a violent rebellion in Virginia.

1770~ James Cook (1728 ~ 1778) claimed eastern Australia for Great Britain and named it New South Wales.

Good-Byes:

2014~ Helen Rae Bamber (née Helen Balmuth; b. May 1, 1925), British campaigner who cared for torture victims.  She was a psychologist and established the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.  She worked with Holocaust survivors following the liberation of the concentration camps.  She died at age 89.

2012~ William Thurston (né William Paul Thurston; b. Oct. 30, 1946), American mathematician.  He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982.  He died at age 65 of cancer.

2007~ Elisabeth P. Hoisington (née Elizabeth Paschel Hoisington; b. Nov. 3, 1918), American Brigadier General.  In 1970, she became one of the first two women to reach the rank of Brigadier General.  She died at age 88.

2006~ S. Yizhar (né Yizhar Smilansky, b. Sept. 27, 1916), Israeli author and politician.  He died about a month before his 90th birthday.

2005~ Robert Moog (né Robert Arthur Moog; b. May 23, 1934), American inventor of the Moog synthesizer.  He died at age 81.

1995~ Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (b. Oct. 19, 1910), Indian-born astrophysicist and mathematician.  He was the recipient of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 84.

1989~ William F. Bolger (b. Mar. 13, 1923), 65th United States Postmaster General.  He served in this position from March 1975 until January 1985.  He died at age 66

1988~ Ray Eames (née Bernice Alexandra Kaiser; b. Dec. 15, 1912), American designer, artist and architect.  She and her husband, Charles (1907 ~ 1978) made major contributions to modern architecture and furniture design.  She died exactly 10 years to the day after her husband’s death.  She was 75 years old at the time of her death.

1978~ Charles Eames (né Charles Ormand Eames, Jr.; b. June 17, 1907), American designer, artist and architect.  He, along with his wife Bernice “Ray” Eames (1912 ~ 1988), made major contributions to American architecture and furniture design.  He died of a heart attack at age 71.  His wife died exactly 10 years to the day after his death.

1943~ Henrik Pontoppidan (d. July 24, 1857), Danish writer and recipient of the 1917 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died a month after his 86th birthday.

1940~ Leon Trotsky (né Lev Davidovich Bronstein; b. Nov. 7, 1879), Russian Marxist revolutionary and founder of the Red Army.  He ultimately fled Russia and was in exile in Mexico, where he was assassinated at age 60.

1157~ Alfonso VII, King of León, Castile and Galicia (b. Mar. 1, 1105).  He was considered the Emperor of All Hispania.  He died at age 52.

No comments:

Post a Comment