Thursday, December 19, 2019

December 19

Birthdays:

1987 ~ Ronan Farrow (né Satchel Ronan O’Sullivan Farrow), American journalist, lawyer and political advisor.  His investigative journalism uncovered the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations in 2017.  He is the son of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow.  He was born in New York City, New York.

1980 ~ Jake Gyllenhaal (né Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal), American actor.  He was born in Los Angeles, California.

1963 ~ Jennifer Beals, American actress best known for her role as Alex Owens in the 1983 movie Flashdance.  She was born in Chicago, Illinois.

1961 ~ Eric Allin Cornell, American physicist and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He was born in Palo Alto, California.

1957 ~ Kevin McHale (né Kevin Edward McHale), American basketball player with a long career with the Boston Celtics.  He was born in Hibbing, Minnesota.

1949 ~ Uffe Haagerup (d. July 5, 2015), Danish mathematician.  He drowned while swimming in the Baltic Sea.  He was 65 days old at the time of his death.

1946 ~ Robert Urich (né Robert Michael Urich; d. Apr. 16, 2002), American actor.  He died of cancer at age 55.

1944 ~ Alvin Lee (né Graham Anthony Barnes; d. Mar. 6, 2013), English reluctant rocker and guitarist who wowed Woodstock.  He was the lead singer and guitarist with Ten Years After.  He died from complications of surgery at age 68.

1944 ~ Mitchell Feigenbaum (né Mitchell Jay Feigenbaum; d. June 30, 2019), American mathematical physicist.  His focus of study was in chaos theory.  He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He died in New York City at age 74.

1944 ~ Tim Reid (né Timothy Lee Reid), African-American actor.  He is best known for his role as Venus Flytrap on the television sit-com WKRP in Cincinnati.  He was born in Norfolk, Virginia.

1943 ~ James L. Jones (né James Long Jones, Jr.), American general and 22nd United States National Security Advisor.  He served under President Barack Obama from January 20, 2009 through October 8, 2010.  He was born in Kansas City, Missouri.

1942 ~ Cornell Dupree (né Cornell Luther Dupree; d. May 8, 2011), African-American jazz guitarist who enhanced hundreds of hits.  He died of complications of emphysema at age 68.

1941 ~ Maurice White (d. Feb. 4, 2016), African-American musician and vibrant frontman and founder of the 1970s megagroup Earth, Wind and Fire.  He died of Parkinson’s disease at age 74.

1940 ~ Phil Ochs (né Philip David Ochs; d. Apr. 9, 1979), American singer and songwriter.  He died by suicide at age 35.

1925 ~ Robert B. Sherman (né Robert Bernard Sherman; d. Mar. 6, 2012), American songwriter who made Disney musicals soar.  He died at age 86.

1924 ~ Cicely Tyson, African-American actress.  She was born in Harlem, New York.

1918 ~ Professor Longhair (né Henry Roeland Byrd; d. Jan. 30, 1980), African-American New Orleans Blues singer-songwriter and pianist.  He was born in Bogalusa, Louisiana and died in New Orleans.  He died of a heart attack at age 61.

1917 ~ Donald L. Hollowell (né Donald Lee Hollowell; d. Dec. 27, 2004), African-American attorney and civil rights advocate.  He was instrumental in the movement to desegregate public institutions in Georgia.  He died of heart failure 8 days after his 87th birthday.

1915 ~ Édith Piaf (née Édith Giovanna Gassion; d. Oct. 10, 1963), French singer and actress.  She died of cancer at age 47.

1906 ~ Leonid Brezhnev (d. Nov. 10, 1982), General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.  He served in that Office from October 1964 until his death in November 1981.  He died at age 75.

1903 ~ George Davis Snell (d. June 6, 1996), American geneticist and recipient of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He was born in Bradford, Massachusetts.  He died at age 92 in Bar Harbor, Maine.

1875 ~ Carter G. Woodson (né Carter Godwin Woodson; d. Apr. 3, 1950), African-American historian, author and journalist.  He died at age 74.

1875 ~ Grace Marie Bareis (d. June 15, 1962), American mathematician.  She was the first woman to earn a doctorate degree in mathematics from Ohio State University.  She died at age 86.

1852 ~ Albert A. Michelson (né Albert Abraham Michelson; d. May 9, 1931), Prussian-born American physicist and recipient of the 1907 Nobel Prize in Physics for his design of precise optical instruments.  He was the first American to be awarded a Nobel Prize in science.  He died at age 78.

1820 ~ Mary Livermore (née Mary Ashton Rice; d. May 23, 1905), American journalist, abolitionist and women’s right activist.  She was from Massachusetts.  She died at age 84.

1814 ~ Edwin Stanton (né Edwin McMasters Stanton; d. Dec. 24, 1869), 25th United States Attorney General.  He served in this position under President James Buchanan.  He subsequently served as the 27th United States Secretary of War under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.  He died 5 days after his 55th birthday.

1778 ~ Marie Thérèse of France (d. Oct. 19, 1851).  She was the oldest child of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.  She died at age 72.

1714 ~ John Winthrop (d. May 3, 1779), American mathematician and astronomer.  He served as the acting President of Harvard College from 1769 until 1773.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts at age 64.

1554 ~ Philip William, Prince of Orange (d. Feb. 20, 1618).  He died at age 63.

Events that Changed the World:

2016 ~ A terrorist attack in Berlin, Germany killed and injured numerous people when a truck was driven into an open-air Christmas market.

2012 ~ Park Geun-hye (b. 1952) became the first female elected as President of South Korea.  In 2016, due to the ratification of impeachment proceedings against her, her presidential duties were suspended effective December 9, 2016.  She would be ousted on charges related to influence peddling, and sentenced to 24 years in prison.

1998 ~ Impeachment proceeding relating to the Monica Lewinsky (b. 1973) scandal, against President Bill Clinton (b. 1946) began.

1986 ~ Andrei Sakharov (1921 ~ 1989) and his wife, Yelena Bonner (1923 ~ 2011), were released from exile in Gorky by Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931), the leader of the Soviet Union.

1974 ~ Nelson Rockefeller (1908 ~ 1979) was sworn in as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford (1913 ~ 2006).  He was the 41st Vice President of the United States.

1941 ~ Adolf Hitler became the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.

1924 ~ The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was sold in London, England.

1907 ~ A mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania kills 239 coal miners.

1843 ~ Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was first published.

1606 ~ Three ships, the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery, left England for the New World.  The ships carried settlers who would found Jamestown, Virginia, the first European colony to be settled in what would become the United States.

1490 ~ Anne, Duchess of Brittany (1477 ~ 1514), was married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1459 ~ 1519) by proxy.

1154 ~ Henry II of England (1133 ~ 1189) was crowned at Westminster Abby.  He reigned as King from December 1154 until his death in July 1189.  He was the first Plantagenet king.  He was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine (1124 ~ 1204).

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Kurt Masur (b. July 18, 1927), German conductor.  He was known as one of the last old-style maestros.  He died at age 88.

2012 ~ Robert Bork (né Robert Heron Bork; b. Mar. 1, 1927), American legal scholar and rejected Supreme Court nominee.  He was the United States Attorney General during the Richard Nixon administration from October 1973 until December 1973.  He died at age 85.

2004 ~ Herbert C. Brown (né Herbert Charles Brown; b. May 22, 1912), English chemist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 92.

2000 ~ John V. Lindsay (né John Vliet Lindsay; b. Nov. 24, 1921), American politician and 103rd mayor of New York City.  He served as Mayor from January 1966 through December 1973.  He died 25 days after his 79th birthday.

1997 ~ Masaru Ibuka (b. Apr. 11, 1908), Japanese businessman and co-founder of Sony.  He died at age 89.

1996 ~ Marcello Mastroianni (né Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni; b. Sept. 28, 1924), Italian actor.  He died of pancreatic cancer at age 72.

1993 ~ Hans Rohrback (b. Feb. 27, 1903), German mathematician.  He was a member of the Nazi party.  He died at age 90.

1986 ~ V.C. Andrews (née Cleo Virginia Andrews; b. June 6, 1923), American author, illustrator and painter.  She was best known for writing in the Gothic horror genre.  She died of breast cancer at age 63.

1983 ~ Käte Fenchel (née Käte Sperling; b. Dec. 21, 1905), German mathematician.  She died 2 days before her 78thbirthday.

1977 ~ Nellie Tayloe Ross (né Nellie Davis Tayloe; b. Nov. 29, 1976), American politician and 14th Governor of Wyoming.  She was the first woman to be elected to a State office.  She served as Governor from January 1925 until January 1927.  She later served as the 28th Director of the United States Mint from May 1933 until April 1953.  She died 3 weeks after her 101st birthday.

1953 ~ Robert Millikan (né Robert Andrews Millikan; b. Mar. 22, 1868), American physicist and recipient of the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect.  He died at age 85.

1915 ~ Alois Alzheimer (né Aloysius Alzheimer; b. June 14, 1864), German physician and neuroscientist who first described the signs of dementia, which ultimately was determined to be the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.  He died of heart failure at age 51.

1851 ~ J.M.W. Turner (né Joseph Mallord William Turner; b. Apr. 23, 1775), English landscape painter.  He died of cholera at age 76.

1848 ~ Emily Brontë (née Emily Jane Brontë; b. July 30, 1818), English novelist.  She is best known for her novels Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.  She died at age 30.

1840 ~ Felix Grundy (b. Sept. 11, 1777), 13th United States Attorney General.  He served under Martin Van Buren from July 1838 until January 1840.  He had previously served as a United States Senator from Tennessee.  He died at age 63.

1813 ~ James McGill (b. Oct. 6, 1744), Scottish-Canadian businessman.  He was the founder of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.  He died at age 69.

1751 ~ Louise of Great Britain (b. Dec. 18, 1724), Queen consort of Denmark and Norway.  She was the wife of King Frederick V of Denmark.  She died of complications of childbirth 1 day after her 27th birthday.

1741 ~ Vitus Bering (né Vitus Jonassen Bering; b. Aug. 5, 1681), Danish explorer.  The Bering Sea and the Bering Strait are named in his honor.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he was baptized on August 5, 1681.  He died at age 60.

1476 ~ Vlad III, the Impaler (b. 1431).

1370 ~ Pope Urban V (né William de Grimoard; b. 1310).  He was Pope from September 1362 until his death on this date.  The exact date of his birth is not known.  He died at age 60.

401 ~ Pope Anastasius I.  He was Pope from 399 until his death on December 19, 401.  The date of his birth is not known.

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