Sunday, November 17, 2019

November 17

Birthdays:

1978 ~ Rachel McAdams (née Rachel Anne McAdams), Canadian actress.

1964 ~ Susan Rice (née Susan Elizabeth Rice), 24th United States National Security Advisor.  She served in the Barack Obama administration.  She held that Office from July 2013 until January 2017.

1960 ~ RuPaul (né RuPaul Andre Charles), American drag queen and actor.

1954 ~ Chopper Read (né Mark Brandon Read; d. Oct. 9, 2013), Australian criminal who became a legend.  The 2000 movie Chopper was based on his life of crime.  He died at age 58 of liver cancer.

1951 ~ Stephen Root, American actor and comedian.

1949 ~ John Boehner (né John Andrew Boemher), American politician and 61st Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.  He served as a United States Representative from Ohio.

1948 ~ Howard Dean (né Howard Brush Dean, III), American physician and politician.  He was the 79th Governor of Vermont and a presidential candidate in 2000.

1947 ~ Will Vinton (né William Gale Vinton; d. Oct. 4, 2018), American animator who made the California Raisins come alive.  He is best known for his work in clay, known as Claymation.  He died of multiple myeloma at age 70.

1944 ~ Danny DeVito (né Daniel Michael DeVito, Jr.), American actor.

1944 ~ Lorne Michaels (né Lorne David Lipowitz), Canadian producer of Saturday Night Live.

1943 ~ Lauren Hutton (née Mary Laurence Hutton), American actress and model.

1942 ~ Martin Scorsese (né Martin Charles Scorsese), American film director.

1938 ~ Gordon Lightfoot (né Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr.), Canadian singer and musician.

1937 ~ Peter Cook (né Peter Edward Cook; d. Jan. 9, 1995), British comedian and actor.  He died of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at age 57.

1928 ~ Rance Howard (né Harold Rance Beckenholdt; d. Nov. 25, 2017), American actor and father of actor Ron Howard.  He died 8 days after his 89th birthday.

1925 ~ Rock Hudson (né Roy Harold Scherer, Jr.; d. Oct. 2, 1985), American actor.  He died of AIDS at age 59.

1922 ~ Stanley Cohen, American biologist and recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

1917 ~ Ruth Aaronson Bari (née Ruth Aaronson; d. Aug. 25, 2005), American mathematician best known for her work in graph theory.  She died at age 87.

1916 ~ Shelby Foote (né Shelby Dade Foote, Jr.; d. June 27, 2005), American author and historian.  He died at age 88.

1906 ~ Soichiro Honda (d. Aug. 5, 1991), Japanese engineer and businessman who co-founded the Honda car company.  He died at age 84.

1902 ~ Eugene P. Wigner (né Eugene Paul Wigner; d. Jan. 1, 1995), Hungarian-born American physicist and mathematician.  He was the recipient of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 92 in Princeton, New Jersey.

1901 ~ Lee Strasberg (né Israel Lee Strassberg; d. Feb. 17, 1982), American actor and director.  He died at age 80.

1878 ~ Grace Abbott (d. June 19, 1939), American social worker.  She died of multiple myeloma at age 60.

1790 ~ August Ferdinand Möbius (d. Sept. 26, 1868), German mathematician and astronomer.  He is best known for the Möbius Strip.  Möbius was a pioneer in the branch of geometry known as topology.  He died at age 77.

1755 ~ King Louis XVIII of France (d. Sept. 16, 1824).  He reigned as King from July 1815 until his death in September 1824.  He died at age 68.

1749 ~ Nicolas Appert (d. June 1, 1841), French chef and inventor of the canning process.  He died at age 91.

1612 ~ Dorgon (d. Dec. 31, 1650), Chinese prince and regent of the early Qing dynasty.  He died at age 38.

9 ~ Emperor Vespasian (d. June 23, 79), the traditional dates ascribed to the birth and death of the Roman Emperor.  He died at age 69.

Events that Changed the World:

2000 ~ Alberto Fujimori (b. 1938) was removed from office as president of Peru on corruption charges.

1997 ~ Islamic militants killed 62 people, most of whom were tourists, outside the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt.  The assailants were subsequently killed by Egyptian police.

1993 ~ The United States House of Representatives passed a resolution to establish the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

1989 ~ The Czechoslovakian Velvet Revolution began when students in Prague began a demonstration.  Although the police halted the demonstration, it began an uprising that ultimately overthrew the communist government.

1970 ~ The trial of Lieutenant William Calley (b. 1943) for his role in the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War began.

1968 ~ NBC interrupted the end of the Raiders-Jets football game to broadcast the movie Heidi.

1962 ~ Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., area was dedicated.  The airport was named after John Foster Dulles, the 52nd Secretary of State.  Eero Saarinen designed the airport.

1950 ~ Lhamo Dondrub (b. 1935) was officially named the 14th Dalai Lama.

1947 ~ The Screen Actors Guild implemented an anti-Communist loyalty oath.

1939 ~ Nine Czech students were executed in as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations.  Czech universities were closed and over 1200 Czech students were sent to concentration camps.  This date is now known as International Students’ Day and is celebrated in many countries.

1933 ~ The United States formally recognized the Soviet Union.

1894 ~ H.H. Holmes (1861 ~ 1896) was arrested in Boston, Massachusetts for the serial murders of many women, mostly during the time of the Chicago World’s Fair in the early 1890s.  He is a central character in Erik Larson’s book, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America.

1869 ~ The Suez Canal, which links the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, opened to traffic.

1858 ~ The city of Denver, Colorado was founded.

1837 ~ An earthquake struck in Valdiva, Chile, which caused tsunamis along the coast of Japan, flooding its rice fields and destroying salmon traps.

1820 ~ Captain Nathaniel Palmer (1799 ~ 1877) became the first known American to see the continent of Antarctica.  The Palmer Peninsula on Antarctica was named after him.

1811 ~ José Miguel Carrera (1785 ~ 1821) was sworn as president of the executive Junta of the government of Chile.  He is considered a founding father of Chile.

1800 ~ The United States Congress met for the first time in Washington, D.C.

1777 ~ The Articles of Confederation were submitted to the States of the Union for ratification.

1603 ~ Sir Walter Raleigh’s trial for treason began.

1558 ~ The Elizabethan era began with the death of Queen Mary I (1516 ~ 1558) of England and her half-sister Elizabeth I (1533 ~ 1603) became Queen of England.

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Irma Wyman (b. Jan. 31, 1928), American computer engineer.  She was the first woman to become vice president at Honeywell, Inc.  She died at age 87.

2013 ~ Doris Lessing (née Doris May Tayler; d. Oct. 22, 1919), English plainspoken novelist who rejected the feminist label.  She was the recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature.  She died 26 days after her 94th birthday.

2012 ~ Margaret Yorke (née Margaret Larminie; b. Jan. 30, 1924), British crime fiction author.  She died at age 88.

2011 ~ Betty Haas Pfister (née Elizabeth Haas; b. July 23, 1921), American female World War II pilot who never lost her love of flying.  She joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) following college.  She died at age 90.

2010 ~ Isabelle Caro (b. Sept. 12, 1982), French fashion model who warned that women can be too thin.  She died of anorexia at age 28.

2008 ~ Irving S. Brecher (b. Jan. 17, 1914), American quick wit who wrote for the Marx Brothers.  He died at age 94.

2002 ~ Abba Eban (né Aubrey Solomon Meir Eban; b. Feb. 2, 1915), Israeli diplomat.  He was born in Cape Town, South Africa.  He died at age 87.

2000 ~ Louis Néel (né Louis Eugène Félix Néel; b. Nov. 22, 1904), French physicist and recipient of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died 5 days before his 96th birthday.

1998 ~ Esther Rolle (b. Nov. 8, 1920), African-American actress best known for her role as Florida Evans on the television sit-com Maude.  She died just 9 days after her 78th birthday of complications from diabetes.

1990 ~ Robert Hofstadter (b. Feb. 5, 1915), American physicist and recipient of the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died in Stanford, Connecticut at age 75.

1958 ~ Yutaka Taniyama (b. Nov. 12, 1927), Japanese mathematician.  He died by suicide 5 days after his 31stbirthday.

1917 ~ Auguste Rodin (né François-Auguste René Rodin; d. Nov. 12, 1840), French sculptor.  He is best known for his sculpture of The Thinker.  He died 5 days after his 77th birthday.

1865 ~ James McCune Smith (b. Apr. 18, 1813), African-American physician and abolitionist.  He earned his medical degree in Scotland and returned to the United States to practice medicine.  He was the first African-American to hold a medical degree.  He died of congestive heart failure at age 52.

1862 ~ Mary Whitwell Hale (b. Jan. 29, 1810), American school teacher and hymnwriter.  She was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Keene, New Hampshire.  She died at age 52.

1818 ~ Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. May 19, 1744), German wife of King George III of the United Kingdom.  She died at age 74.

1796 ~ Catherine II (b. May 2, 1729), Empress of Russia.  She is also known as Catherine the Great.  She became Empress after her husband, Peter III of Russia, was assassinated in 1762.  She died at age 67.

1768 ~ Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle (b. July 21, 1693), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He was Prime Minister from March 1754 until November 1756 during the reign of King George II, and again during the reigns of King George II and King George III, from March 1757 until May 1762.  He died at age 75.

1592 ~ King John III of Sweden (b. Dec. 20, 1537).  He was King of Sweden from September 1568 until his death 14 years later.  He died at age 54.

1558 ~ Queen Mary I of England (b. Feb. 18, 1516).  first reigning queen of England.  She was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, as well as being the half-sister of Queen Elizabeth I.  She was known as “Bloody Mary” because of the persecutions of Protestants during her reign.  She died at age of 42 during an influenza epidemic, however, she was in ill health prior to the epidemic.  When she died, her half-sister, Elizabeth I, ascended to the throne.

1231 ~ St. Elizabeth of Hungary (b. July 7, 1207).  She was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungry.  She was married at 14 and widowed at age 20.  She then began building hospitals to tend to the sick.  She died at age 24.

935 ~ Wang Yanjun, Chinese Emperor of Min.  He ruled from the late 920s until his death in 935.  The date of his birth is not known.

474 ~ Leo II (b. 467), Byzantine emperor.  The exact date of his birth is not known.  He was 7 years old when he died.

375 ~ Emperor Kang of Jin (b. 322), Chinese emperor of the eastern Jin Dynasty.  He was emperor for only 2 years.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been about 21 or 22 at the time of his death.

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