Wednesday, February 26, 2020

February 26

Birthdays:

1976 ~ Nalini Anantharaman, French mathematician.  She is the daughter of two mathematicians.  She was born in Paris, France.

1958 ~ Tim Kaine (né Timothy Michael Kaine), American politician and United States Senator from Virginia.  He is best known for being the Democratic Vice President nominee in the 2016 Presidential election.  He was the running mate of Hillary Clinton.  He was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

1954 ~ Recep Tayyio Erdoğan, 12th President of Turkey.  He assumed office in August 2014.

1949 ~ Elizabeth George (née Susan Elizabeth George), American writer of mystery stories set in Great Britain.  She was born in Warren, Ohio.

1948 ~ Sharyn McCrumb, American author whose books focus on the folklore of Appalachia.  She was born in Wilmington, North Carolina.

1946 ~ Ahmed Zewail (d. Aug. 2, 2016), Egyptian-born American chemist.  He was the recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He is known as the Father of Femtochemistry, the study of chemical reactions on extremely short durations.  He died at age 70.

1932 ~ Johnny Cash (né John Ray Cash; d. Sept. 12, 2003), American singer.  He died at age 71.

1931 ~ Robert Novak (né Robert David Sanders Novak; d. Aug. 18, 2009), American journalist.  He died at age 78 of complications from a brain tumor.

1928 ~ Ariel Sharon (né Ariel Scheinermann; d. Jan. 11, 2014), 11th Prime Minister of Israel.  He was a retired General.  He had been a commander in the Israeli Army from its inception in 1948, thus he lead Israel in war and peace.  He suffered a massive stroke in January 2006 and remained in a coma for the rest of his life.  He died at age 85.

1928 ~ Fats Domino (né Antoine Dominique Domino, Jr.; d. Oct. 24, 2017), African-American New Orleans pianist who shaped rock ‘n’ roll.  He died in Harvey, Louisiana at age 89.

1927 ~ Tom Kennedy (né James Edward Narz), American game show host.  He was born in Louisville, Kentucky.

1926 ~ Sandy Green (né James Alexander Green; d. Apr. 7, 2014), Scottish mathematician.  He died at age 88.

1921 ~ Betty Hutton (née Elizabeth June Thornburg; d. Mar. 12, 2007), American stage and film actress.  She died of colon cancer 2 weeks after her 86th birthday.

1920 ~ Tony Randall (né Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg; d. May 17, 2004), American actor.  He was married twice.  His first wife, Florence Gibbs, died in 1992.  At age 75, he remarried Heather Harlan, who was 25 years old.  They had two children.  He died at age 84.

1916 ~ Jackie Gleason (né John Herbert Gleason; d. June 24, 1987), American actor and musician.  He died of cancer at age 71.

1916 ~ Joan Struthers Curran (né Joan Elizabeth Curran; d. Feb. 10, 1999), Welsh scientist.  She was instrumental in the development of radar and the atomic bomb during World War II.  She invented the chaff, a radar countermeasure technique.  She attended Cambridge University to study physics, however, because she was a woman, she was not awarded her degree.  After she finished her courses, she began a graduate program.  Again, she was not awarded an advanced degree because she was female.  She was born in Swansea, Wales.  She died of cancer in Glasgow, Scotland 16 days before her 83rd birthday.

1903 ~ Guilio Natta (d. May 2, 1979), Italian chemist and recipient of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 76.

1887 ~ William Frawley (d. Mar. 3, 1966), American actor best known for his role as Fred Mertz on the I Love Lucyshow.  He died of a heart attack 5 days after his 79th birthday.

1882 ~ Husband E. Kimmel (né Husband Edward Kimmel, d. May 14, 1968), American admiral.  He died at age 86.

1866 ~ Herbert Henry Dow (d. Oct. 15, 1930), Canadian-American businessman and founder of the Dow Chemical Company.  He died at age 64.

1861 ~ Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (d. Sept. 10, 1948).  He was the Tsar of Bulgaria from October 1908 until October 1918.  He died at age 87.

1852 ~ John Harvey Kellogg (d. Dec. 14, 1943), American surgeon and vegetarian advocate.  He was from Battle Creek, Michigan and ran a sanitarium that focused on nutrition and exercise.  He, along with his brother Will (1860 ~ 1951), became known for creating the breakfast cereal, Kellogg’s Cornflakes.  He died at age 91.

1846 ~ Buffalo Bill Cody (né William Frederick Cody; d. Jan. 10, 1917), American frontiersman and showman.  He died of kidney failure at age 70.

1844 ~ Horace Lurton (né Horace Harmon Lurton; d. July 12, 1914), Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court.  He was nominated to the High Court by President William Taft.  He replaced Rufus Peckham on the Court.  He was succeeded on the Court by James Clark McReynolds.  He was nominated to the Court at age 65, making him the oldest Justice at the time to be appointed.  He served on the Court for 5 years.  He was born in Newport, Kentucky.  He died of a sudden heart attack in Atlantic City, New Jersey while still in Office at age 70.

1829 ~ Levi Strauss (né Löb Strauß; d. Sept. 26, 1902), German-born American clothing manufacturer.  He founded Levi Strauss & Company, the first company to manufacture denim blue jeans, which were worn by gold miners during the California Gold Rush.  He died at age 73.

1808 ~ Honoré-Victorin Daumier (d. Feb. 10, 1879), French artist, painter, illustrator and sculptor.  He died 16 days before his 71st birthday.

1802 ~ Victor Hugo (né Victor Marie Hugo, d. May 22, 1885), French novelist best known for his novels Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  He died at age 83.

1786 ~ François Arago (né Dominique François Jean Arago; d. Oct. 2, 1853), French mathematician and politician.  He died at age 67.

1777 ~ Mateja Nenadović (d. Dec. 11, 1854), Serbian priest, historian and politician.  He is considered the 1stPrime Minister of Serbia.  He died at age 77.

1564 ~ Christopher Marlowe (d. May 30, 1593), English playwright.  He was stabbed to death at age 29.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he was baptized on February 26.

1416 ~ Christopher II, King of Denmark (d. Jan. 5, 1448).  He was also known as Christopher of Bavaria.  He was married to Dorothea of Brandenburg.  He died at age 31.

1361 ~ Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia (d. Aug. 16, 1419), King of Bohemia.  He died at age 58.

Events that Changed the World:

2013 ~ A hot air balloon carrying tourist crashed near the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt.  Nineteen people were killed.

2008 ~The New York Philharmonic performed in Pyongyang, North Korea.  It was the first such an event to occur in North Korea.

1995 ~ The United Kingdom’s oldest investment banking institution, the Barings Bank, collapsed after a securities broker lost $1.4 Billion by speculating on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange using future contracts.

1993 ~ A truck bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City exploded, killing 6 people in injuring over 1000.

1980 ~ Egypt and Israel established full diplomatic relations.

1972 ~ The Buffalo Creek Flood in West Virginia caused a dam to burst, killing 125 people.

1971 ~ United Nations Secretary-General U Thant (1909 ~ 1974) signed a United Nations Proclamation of the establishing the vernal equinox as Earth Day.

1935 ~ Adolf Hitler (1889 ~ 1945) ordered the Luftwaffe to be reformed in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.

1929 ~ President Calvin Coolidge (1872 ~ 1933) signed an Executive Order establishing Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

1919 ~ President Woodrow Wilson (1856 ~ 1924) signed an Act of Congress establishing the Grand Canyon National Park.

1917 ~ The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded the first Jazz record.  The band originally called itself the Original Dixieland Jass Band.

1909 ~ The first successful color motion picture process, the Kinemacolor, was first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London, England.

1815 ~ Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 ~ 1821) escaped from Elba.

1794 ~ The first Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark burned down.

1616 ~ Galileo Galileo (1564 ~ 1642) was banned by the Catholic Church from teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun.

Good-Byes:

2019 ~ Charles McCarry (b. June 14, 1930), American CIA agent who became a best-selling spy novelist.  He was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.  He died at age 88.

2017 ~ Ludvig Faddeev (b. Mar. 23, 1934), Russian mathematician.  He died less than a month before his 83rdbirthday.

2017 ~ Joseph Wapner (né Joseph Albert Wapner; b. Nov. 15, 1919), American judge who presided over The People’s Court.  He was the first star of the reality television court.  His show ran from 1981 until 1992.  He died at age 97.

2015 ~ Earl Lloyd (né Earl Francis Lloyd; b. Apr. 3, 1928), American NBA player who broke the color barrier.  In 1950, he became the first African-American to play in the National Basketball Association.  He was drafted by the Washington Capitols.  He was 86 years old.

2013 ~ Thomas C. Griffin (né Thomas Carson Griffin; b. July 10, 1916), American World War II navigator who helped steer the Doolittle Raid.  He died at age 96.

2011 ~ Eugene Fodor (né Eugene Nicholas Fodor, Jr.; b. Mar. 5, 1950), American violin virtuoso haunted by addiction.  He died of liver disease 7 days before his 61st birthday.

2011 ~ Arnošt Lustig (b. Dec. 21, 1926), Czech novelist who recalled the horrors of the Holocaust.  He died at age 84.

2010 ~ Louis Fabian Bachrach, Jr. (b. Apr. 9, 1917), American photographer who put the powerful at ease.  He is best known for his photographs of celebrities, politicians and presidents.  He was born and died in Newton, Massachusetts.  He died at age 92.

2005 ~ Jef Raskin (né Jeff Raskin; b. Mar. 9, 1943), American tech genius who created the Macintosh for Apple.  He died of pancreatic cancer 11 days before his 62nd birthday.

2005 ~ Henry A. Grunwald (né Heinz Anatole Grünwald; b. Dec. 3, 1922), Austrian-born American journalist and editor who reinvented Time magazine.  He died at age 82.

1998 ~ Theodore Schultz (né Theodore William Schultz; b. Apr. 30, 1902), American economist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.  He died at age 95.

1994 ~ Avery Fisher (né Albert Robert Fisher; b. Mar. 4, 1906), American audio specialist.  He is best known for the design of the auditorium in the Lincoln Center cultural complex in Manhattan.  He died 6 days before his 88thbirthday.

1993 ~ Fletcher Knebel (b. Oct. 1, 1911), American author best known for his political fiction.  He is best known for his novel Seven Days in May.  He was born in Dayton, Ohio.  He died by suicide following a long bout with cancer in Honolulu, Hawaii.  He was 81 years old.

1985 ~ Albert Turner Bharucha-Reid (né Albert Turner Reid; b. Nov. 13, 1927), American mathematician who worked on probability theory.  He died at age 57.

1985 ~ Tjalling Koopmans (né Tjalling Charles Koopmans; b. Aug. 28, 1910), Dutch-American mathematician and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Economic Science.  He died in New Haven, Connecticut at age 74.

1969 ~ Levi Eshkol (né Levi Yitzhak Shkolnik; b. Oct. 25, 1895), Prime Minister of Israel.  He served as Prime Minister from June 1963 until his death in February 1969.  He died in office at age 73.

1954 ~ William Ralph Inge (b. June 6, 1860), Anglican priest and author.  He died at age 93.

1931 ~ Otto Wallach (b. Mar. 27, 1847), German chemist and recipient of the 1910 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on alicyclic compounds.  He died a month before his 84th birthday.

1903 ~ Richard Jordan Gatling (b. Sept. 12, 1818), American inventor who invented the Gatling gun, the first successful machine gun.  He died at age 84.

1850 ~ Daoguang Emperor (b. Sept. 16, 1782), Chinese Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.  He reigned during the First Opium War.  He died at age 67.

1839 ~ Sybil Ludington (b. Apr. 5, 1761), heroine of the American Revolutionary War.  At age 16, she rode her horse 40 miles throughout the night of April 22, 1777 to warn the militiamen that British troops were planning to attack Danbury, Connecticut.  She died at age 77.

1834 ~ Alois Senefelder (né Johann Alois Senefelder; b. Nov. 6, 1771), Czech inventor of the lithography printing process.  He died at age 62.

1813 ~ Robert Livingston (b. Nov. 27, 1746), American politician and assisted in the negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase from France.  He was the 1st United States Secretary for Foreign Affairs.  He served in this position during the George Washington administration from October 1781 until June 1783.  He died at age 66.

1638~ Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac (b. Oct. 9, 1581), French mathematician.  He died at age 56.

1603 ~ Archduchess Maria of Austria (b. June 21, 1528), Holy Roman Empress consort and wife of Maximilian II.  She died at age 74.

1577 ~ King Eric XIV of Sweden (b. Dec. 13, 1533).  He ruled from September 1580 until he was deposed 8 years later in September 1568.  After he was deposed, he was imprisoned and believed to have been murdered.  He died at age 43.

1548 ~ Lorenzino de’Medici (b. Mar. 23, 1514), Italian writer and politician.  He is best known for assassinating his cousin, Alessandro de’Medici.  He was subsequently murdered about a month before his 34th birthday.

1275 ~ Margaret of England (b. Sept. 29, 1240).  She was the Queen consort of Scots and wife of King Alexander III of Scotland.  She was the second child of King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence.  She died at age 34.

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