Sunday, August 25, 2019

August 25

Birthdays:

1987~ Blake Lively (née Blake Ellender Brown), American actress.

1970~ Claudia Schiffer (née Claudia Maria Schiffer), German fashion model.

1968~ Rachael Ray (née Rachael Domenica Ray), American chef and television host.

1964~ Blair Underwood (né Blair Erwin Underwood), American actor best known for his role as Jonathan Rollins on the television drama, L.A. Law.

1958~ Tim Burton (né Timothy Walter Burton), American film director.

1954~ Elvis Costello (né Declan Patrick MacManus), English musician.

1949~ Martin Amis (né Martin Louis Amis), British novelist.

1949~ John Savage (né John Smeallie Youngs), American actor.

1949~ Gene Simmons (né Chaim Witz), Israeli-American musician and frontman of the band, Kiss.

1942~ Howard Jacobson (né Howard Eric Bacobson), British novelist and journalist.

1938~ Frederick Forsyth (né Frederick McCarthy Forsyth), English author.

1933~ Tom Skerritt (né Thomas Roy Skerritt), American actor.

1931~ Regis Phibin (né Regis Francis Xavier Philbin), American television host.

1930~ Sir Sean Connery (né Thomas Sean Connery), Scottish actor, best known for his role as James Bond.

1928~ Herbert Kroemer, German-born physicist and recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1927~ Althea Gibson (d. Sept. 28, 2003), African-American tennis player and golfer.  She was the first Black to cross the color line of international tennis.  In 1956, she was the first African-American to win a Grand Slam in tennis. She died about a month after her 76th birthday.

1921~ Monty Hall (né Monte Halparin, d. Sept. 30, 2017), Canadian game show host.  He died at age 96.

1919~ George Wallace (né George Corley Wallace, Jr.; d. Sept. 13, 1998), 45th Governor of Alabama and segregationist.  He later renounced his segregationist ideas.  After an assassination attempt in 1972, which left him paralyzed, he was wheelchair bound for the remainder of his life.  He died 19 days after his 79th birthday.

1919~ David Wolkowsky (d. Sept. 23, 2018), American developer who revitalized Key West.  He died about a month after his 99th birthday.

1918~ Leonard Bernstein (né Louis Bernstein; d. Oct. 14, 1990), American conductor and composer.  One of his best-known musicals was West Side Story.  He was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts.  He died of a heart attack at age 72.

1917~ Mel Ferrer (né Melchor Gastón Ferrer; d. June 2, 2008), Cuban-born American actor.  Audrey Hepburn was one of his wives.  He died of heart failure at age 90.

1916~ Frederick Chapman Robbins (d. Aug. 4; 2003), American virologist and recipient of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with the polio virus.  He died 3 weeks before his 87th birthday.

1913~ Walt Kelly (néWalter Crawford Kelly, Jr.; d. Oct. 18, 1973), American illustrator and cartoonist.  He is best known for creating the comic strip Pogo. He died at age 60 from complications of diabetes.

1911~ Võ Nguyên Giáp (d. Oct. 4, 2013), Vietnamese general who ousted France and America from Vietnam.  He died at age 102.

1909~ Ruby Keeler (néeEthel Ruby Keeler; d. Feb. 28, 1993), Canadian singer and actress. She died of kidney cancer at age 83.

1900~ Sir Hans Adolf Krebs (d. Nov. 22, 1981), German-born physician and biochemist.  He was the recipient of the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his identification of the metabolic cycle now known as the Krebs cycle.  He died at age 81.

1898~ Helmut Hasse (d. Dec. 26, 1975), German mathematician.  He died at age 81.

1893~ H. Trendley Dean (né Henry Trendley Dean; d. May 13, 1962), American dentist.  He is known for his research in water fluoridation for the prevention of tooth decay.  He died at age 68.

1889~ William A. Feather (d. Jan. 7, 1981), American publisher.  He died at age 91.

1888~ Inayatullah Khan Masriqi (d. Aug. 27, 1963), Pakistani mathematician.  He died 2 days after his 75th birthday.

1877~ Joshua Cowen (né Joshua Lionel Cowen; d. Sept. 8, 1965), American businessman and co-founder of the Lionel Company known for model railroads and toy trains.  He died 14 days after his 88th birthday.

1862~ Louis Barthou (né Jean Louis Barthou; d. Oct. 9, 1834), Prime Minister of France.  He served as Prime Minister from March 1913 until December 1913.  He died at age 72

1850~ Charles Richet (né Charles Robert Richet; d. Dec. 4, 1935), French physiologist and recipient of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on anaphylaxis.  He died at age 85.

1845~ Ludwig II of Bavaria (d. June 13, 1886), King of Bavaria from March 1864 until his death 22 years later.  He is best known for spending massive amounts of money on architectural projects, most notably the Neuschwanstein Castle.  He also provided funds to support composer Richard Wagner.  He died at age 40 under mysterious circumstances.

1841~ Emil Theodor Kocher (d. July 27, 1917), He was the recipient of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the thyroid gland.  He died a month before his 76th birthday.

1836~ Bret Harte (né Francis Bret Harte, d. May 5, 1902), American author best know for his stories about the American west.  He died at age 65 in England of throat cancer.

1819~ Allan J. Pinkerton (d. July 1, 1894), Scottish-born American private detective and founder of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.  He died at age 64.

1588~Elizabeth Poole (d. May 21, 1654), English settler in the New England.  She is the first woman known to have founded a town in the Americas when she founded Taunton, Massachusetts.  She died at age 65.

1561~ Philippe van Lansberge (d. Dec. 8, 1632), Dutch mathematician.  He died at age 71.

1530~ Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (d. Mar. 28, 1584).  He was known as Ivan the Terrible.  This is the traditional date of his birthday under the Gregorian calendar.  Using the Julian calendar, is birthdate is considered to be September 3.  He was the first Tsar of All Russia and he ruled from January 1547 until his death 27 years later.  He died at age 53 from a stroke while playing chess.

Events that Changed the World:

2017~ Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas.  It was a powerful Category 4 hurricane.  Over the course of the next several days, the hurricane caused massive flooding in Houston, Texas and killed over 100 people.

2012~ Voyager 1 entered interstellar space, becoming the first man-made object to do so.

1991~ Belarus gained its independence from the Soviet Union.

1989~ Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Neptune.

1981~ Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Saturn.

1980~ Zimbabwe joined the United Nations.

1950~ President Harry Truman (1884 ~ 1972) ordered the United States Army to seize control of the nation’s railroads to prevent a strike.

1948~ The House Un-American Activities Committee held the first-ever televised congressional hearing.

1944~ Paris was liberated by Allied forces after four years of Nazi occupation.

1933~ The Diexi earthquake struck in Sichuan, China killing nearly 9,000 people.

1916~ The United States National Park Service was established.

1894~ Kitasato Shibasaburō (1853 ~ 1931) discovered the infectious agent that caused the bubonic plague.  His findings were published in The Lancet.  Around the same time, Swiss physician, Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin (1863 ~ 1943), also discovered the bacillus that caused the plague.  The bacterium was named Yersinia pestis in his honor.

1875~ Matthew Webb (1848 ~ 1883), became the first person to swim across the English Channel.  He swam from Dover, England to Calais, France in 22 hours.

1825~ Uruguay declared its independence from Brazil.

1814~ During the second day of the Burning of Washington during the War of 1812, British troops burned the Library of Congress, the United States Treasury, and the Department of War building.

1768~ James Cook (1728 ~ 1779) began his first voyage.

1609~ Galileo (1564 ~ 1642) demonstrated his first telescope to the Venetian lawmakers.

Good-Byes:

2018~ John McCain (né John Sidney McCain, III; b. Aug. 29, 1936), American politician and war hero who served as a Senate maverick.  He served in Vietnam and from 1967 until 1973, he was a Prisoner of War.  He died of brain cancer 4 days before his 82nd birthday.

2016~ James Cronin (né James Watson Cronin; b. Sept. 29, 1931), American particle physicist and recipient of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 84.

2016~ Sonia Rykiel (née Sonia Flis; b. May 25, 1930), French fashion designer.  She died of complications of Parkinson’s disease at age 86.

2016~ G. Spencer-Brown (né George Spencer-Brown; b. Apr. 2, 1923), English mathematician.  He died at age 93.

2012~ Neil Armstrong (né Neil Alden Armstrong; b. Aug. 5, 1930), American astronaut and reluctant hero who first walked on the moon.  He died 20 days after his 82nd birthday.

2012~ Joseph P. Vaghi, Jr. (né Joseph Peter Vaghi, Jr., b. June 27, 1920), American Navy officer who helped guide the D-Day landings.  At age 23, he was the youngest beachmaster on D-Day.  He was on of the first to land on Omaha Beach, and directed the arrival of new troops and the evacuation of the dead and wounded.  He died at age 91.

2009~ Edward M. Kennedy (né Edward Moore Kennedy; b. Feb. 22, 1932), American liberal icon who was known as the “Lion of the Senate.”  He was the youngest son in the Kennedy clan.  He died of a brain tumor at age 77.

2008~ Josef Tal (né Josef Grünthal; b. Sept. 18, 1910), Israeli composer.  He died 3 weeks before his 98th birthday.

2005~ Ruth Aaronson Bari (née Ruth Aaronson; b. Nov. 15, 1917), American mathematician best known for her work in graph theory.  She died at age 87.

1998~ Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (né Lewis Franklin Powell, Jr., b. Sept. 19, 1907), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was nominated to the High Court by President Richard Nixon.  He served on the Court from January 1972 until his retirement in June 1987.  He replaced Hugo Black on the Court and was succeeded by Anthony Kennedy.  He died 25 days before his 91st birthday.

1985~ Samantha Smith (née Samantha Reed Smith, b. June 29, 1972), American peace activist from Houlton, Maine.  In 1982, she wrote a letter to Russian General Secretary Yuri Andropov and received a personal reply and an invitation to visit the Soviet Union.  She was killed in a small private plane crash at age 13.

1984~ Truman Capote (né Truman Streckfus Persons; b. Sept. 30, 1924), American author best known for his true crime novel, In Cold Blood, which recounted the 1959 murder of a Kansas family by two drifters.  Capote was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and much of his work is set in the South.  He died of liver disease at age 59.

1981~ Leonidas Alaoglu (b. Mar. 19, 1914), Greek-Canadian mathematician.  He died at age 67.

1981~ Kathryn Hulme (née Kathryn Cavarly Hulme; b. July 6, 1900), American writer, best known for her novel, The Nun’s Story.  She died at age 81.

1976~ Eyvind Johnson (né Olof Edvin Verner Johsson, b. July 29, 1900), Swedish author and recipient of the 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died 27 days after his 76th birthday.

1956~ Alfred Kinsey (né Alfred Charles Kinsey; b. June 23, 1894), American biologist and sexologist who founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University.  He died at age 62.

1908~ Henri Becquerel (né Antoine Henri Becquerel; b. Dec. 15, 1852), French physicist and recipient, along with Marie and Pierre Currie of the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work with radiation.  He died at age 55.

1900~ Friedrich Nietzsche (né Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche; b. Oct. 15, 1844), German philosopher.  He died at age 55.

1867~ Michael Faraday (b. Sept. 22, 1791), British chemist and physicist who discovered the principle of electromagnetic induction.  He died a month before his 76th birthday.

1822~ William Herschel (né Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel; b. Nov. 15, 1738), German-born astronomer and mathematician.  He died at age 83.

1819~ James Watt (b. Jan. 30, 1736), Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer best know for the creation of the modern steam engine.  He died at age 83.

1776~ David Hume (b. May 7, 1711), Scottish philosopher and historian.  He died at age 65.

1699~ King Christian V of Denmark (b. Apr. 15, 1646).  He reigned from February 1670 until his death in August 29 years later. He died at age 53 from injuries sustained in a hunting accident.

1688~ Sir Henry Morgan (b. 1635), Welsh admiral and buccaneer.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 53 at the time of his death.

1482~ Margaret of Anjou (b. Mar. 23, 1430), Queen consort of England and wife Henry VI of England.  She died at age 52.

1270~ King Louis IX of France (b. Apr. 25, 1214).  He was also known as Saint Louis.  He died of dysentery at age 56 while on the Eighth Crusade.

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