Birthdays:
1958 ~ Michael Flatley (né Michael Ryan Flatley), Irish-American dancer and choreographer. He was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1956 ~ Tony Kushner (né Anthony Robert Kushner), American playwright. He is best known for his Angels in America, a play about the AIDS epidemic. Although he was born in Manhattan, shortly after his birth, his family moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana.
1948 ~ Rubén Blades, Panamanian actor. He was born in Panama City, Panama.
1948 ~ Pinchas Zukerman, Israeli violinist and conductor. He was born in Tel Aviv, Israel.
1947 ~ Alexis Herman (née Alexis Margaret Herman), 23rd United States Secretary of Labor. She served under President Bill Clinton from May 1997 until January 2001. She was born in Mobile, Alabama.
1934 ~ Katherine D. Ortega (née Katherine Dávalos Ortega), 38th Treasurer of the United States. She served from September 1983 until June 1989 during the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. She was born in Tularosa, New Mexico.
1932 ~ Richard Thornburgh (né Richard Lewis Thornburgh), 76th United States Attorney General. He served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W.H. Bush from August 1988 until August 1991. He had previously served as the 41st Governor of Pennsylvania. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1928 ~ David Treen, Sr. (né David Connor Treen, d. Oct. 29, 2009), 51st Governor of Louisiana. He was Governor from March 1980 until March 1984. He was born in Baton Rouge and died in Metairie, Louisiana. He died at age 81.
1928 ~ Jim Rathmann (né Royal Richard Rathmann; d. Nov. 23, 2011), American Indy champ with the right stuff. He won the Indianapolis in 1960. He died at age 83.
1926 ~ Irwin Rose (né Irwin Allan Rose; d. June 2, 2015), American biologist and recipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He was 88 years old.
1924 ~ Bess Myerson (d. Dec. 14, 2014), first, and to date the only, Jewish Miss America. She won the title in 1945. She died at age 90.
1918 ~ George Mueller (né George Edwin Mueller, d. Oct. 12, 2015), American electrical engineer who spearheaded the Apollo Program. He headed NASA’s Office of Manned Space Flight from September 1963 until December 1969. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He died at age 97 in Irving, California.
1911 ~ Ginger Rogers (née Virginia Katherine McMath; d. Apr. 25, 1995), American actress and dancer. She died at age 83.
1907 ~ Barbara Stanwyck (née Ruby Catherine Stevens; d. Jan. 20, 1990), American actress. She died at age 82.
1907 ~ Orville Redenbacher (né Orville Clarence Redenbacher; d. Sept. 19, 1995), American farmer and businessman. He was the founder of the Orville Redenbacher’s Company that manufactured popcorn. He died at age 88.
1903 ~ Irmgard Flügge-Lotz (d. May 22, 1974), German mathematician. She is best known for her work in aerodynamics. She died at age 70.
1896 ~ Trygve Lie (né Trygve Hlavdan Lie, d. Dec. 30, 1968), Norwegian politician and 1st Secretary-General of the United Nations. He served as the Secretary-General from February 1946 until November 1952. He died of a heart attack at age 72.
1888 ~ Frits Zernike (d. Mar. 10, 1966), Dutch physicist and recipient of the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the phase-contrast microscope. He died following a long illness at age 77.
1887 ~ Shoeless Joe Jackson (né Joseph Jefferson Jackson; d. Dec. 5, 1951), American baseball player associated with the 1919 Black Sox scandal. He was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing. He died at age 64.
1872 ~ Roald Amundsen (d. June 18, 1928), Norwegian explorer who is credited with leading the first expedition to reach the South Pole. He died about a month before his 56th birthday when the plane he was flying on a rescue mission over the Arctic presumably crashed. The bodies of those in the plane were never found.
1862 ~ Ida B. Wells (née Ida Bell Wells; d. Mar. 25, 1931), African-American journalist and political activist. She died of kidney failure at age 68.
1821 ~ Mary Baker Eddy (d. Dec. 3, 1910), American religious leader and founder of the Christian Science movement. She was born in Bow, New Hampshire. She died in Newton, Massachusetts at age 89.
1796 ~ Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (d. Feb. 22, 1875), French painter. He died at age 78.
1749 ~ Cyrus Griffin (d. Dec. 14, 1810), American politician and last president of the Continental Congress. He died at age 62.
1746 ~ Guiseppe Piazzi (d. July 22, 1826), Italian mathematician. He died 6 days after his 80th birthday in Naples, Italy.
1731 ~ Samuel Huntington (d. Jan. 5, 1796), 18th Governor of Connecticut. His birthday under the Julian calendar is considered to be July 5. He was Governor from May 1786 until January 1796. He died in office at age 64.
1723 ~ Sir Joshua Reynolds (d. Feb. 23, 1792), English painter. He specialized in portraits. He died at age 68.
1661 ~ Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville (d. July 9, 1706), French-Canadian explorer and founder of the colony of Louisiana. His brother, Jean-Baptiste le Moyne de Bienville, founded New Orleans. He died of yellow fever a week before his 45th birthday.
1194 ~ St. Clare of Assisi (né Chiara Offreduccio, d. Aug. 11, 1253). She founded the monastic religious order of the Poor Ladies. Following her death, the order became known as the Poor Clares. She died less than a month after her 59th birthday.
Events that Changed the World:
2015 ~ Four United States Marines were killed in a shooting spree in Chattanooga, Tennessee by a deranged gunman.
2007 ~ A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck in Japan injuring over 800 people and causing damage to a nuclear power plant.
2004 ~ Chicago’s Millennium Park was opened to the public.
1990 ~ A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck in the Philippines.
1979 ~ Saddam Hussein (1937 ~ 2006) became President of Iraq.
1973 ~ Alexander Butterfield (b. 1926), Federal Aviation Administrator during the Nixon administration, informed the United States Senate that President Nixon secretly taped White House conversations.
1969 ~ Apollo 11, the first manned space mission to land on the Moon, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1965 ~ The Mont Blanc Tunnel through the Alps opened linking France and Italy.
1951 ~ The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger (1919 ~ 2010) was first published.
1948 ~ The Miss Macao, a passenger seaplane, was hijacked when Wong Yu stormed the cockpit and shot the pilot. The hijacker survived, however, the plane crashed and the passengers were killed. It was the first recorded hijacking of a commercial plane.
1945 ~ As part of the Manhattan Project, the first atomic bomb was set off in Alamogordo, New Mexico, marking the beginning of the Atomic Age.
1942 ~ The government of Vichy France ordered the arrest of over 13,100 Jews who were held at the Winter Velodrome in Paris until they were deported to Auschwitz. This became known as the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup. The event forms the basis for the book, Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay.
1935 ~ Oklahoma City, Oklahoma installed the world’s first parking meters.
1931 ~ Emperor Haile Selassie I (1892 ~ 1975) signed the first constitution of Ethiopia.
1862 ~ David Farragut (1801 ~ 1870) was promoted to rear admiral, becoming the first officer in the United States Navy to achieve the rank of admiral.
1790 ~ The District of Columbia was established as the capital of the United States following the signature of the Residence Act.
1782 ~ The first public performance of Mozart's opera, Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio).
1769 ~ Father Junípero Serra (1713 ~ 1784) founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá, what is now California’s first mission. The mission eventually evolved into the city of San Diego, California.
1661 ~ The first banknotes in Europe were issued by the Swedish bank, Stockholms Banco.
1377 ~ Richard II (1367 ~ 1400) was crowned King of England. His reign began three weeks earlier.
1054 ~ The beginning of the East-West Schism of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Christian Church.
622 ~ The date ascribed to the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
Good-Byes:
2019 ~ John Paul Stevens (b. Apr. 20, 1920), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court who became a liberal icon. He was nominated to the High Court by President Gerald Ford. He replaced William O. Douglas on the Court. He was succeeded by Elena Kagan. He served on the Court from December 1975 until June 2010. He died at age 99.
2017 ~ George Romero (né George Andrew Romero, b. Feb. 4, 1940), American cult film director who made zombies mainstream. He is best known for his 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead. He died of lung cancer at age 77.
2014 ~ Johnny Winter (né John Dawson Winter, III, b. Feb. 23, 1944), American guitarist who rocked the Texas blues. His brother is musician Edgar Winter. He died at age 70.
2013 ~ Yuri Vasilyevich Prokhorov (b. Dec. 15, 1929), Russian mathematician who work in probability theory. He was born and died in Moscow, Russia. He died at age 83.
2012 ~ Stephen Covey (né Stephen Richards Covey; b. Oct. 24, 2012), American businessman, author and educator. He is best known for his book entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He died at age 79 of injuries sustained when he fell from a biking accident in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
2012 ~ Kitty Wells (née Ellen Muriel Deason; b. Aug. 30, 1919), the American trailblazing “Queen of Country Music.” She died at age 92.
2008 ~ Jo Stafford (née Jo Elizabeth Stafford; b. Nov. 12, 1917), the American pop singer who was a World War II favorite. She died at age 90.
2008 ~ Sherman Maxwell (né Sherman Leander Maxwell; b. Dec. 18, 1907), African-American sportscaster who was a radio pioneer. He is believed to be the first African-American sports broadcaster. He died at 100 years old.
2003 ~ Carol Shields (née Carol Ann Warner; b. June 2, 1935), American-born Canadian novelist. She is best known for her novel, The Stone Diaries. She died of breast cancer at age 68.
2003 ~ Celia Cruz (b. Oct. 21, 1924), Cuban salsa singer. She died at age 77.
1999 ~ Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy (née Carolyn Jeanne Bessette; b. Jan. 7, 1966), wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr. She was killed when the small plane husband was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while they were on their way to Martha’s Vineyard to attend a family wedding. She was 33 years old.
1999 ~ John F. Kennedy, Jr. (né John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr.; b. Nov. 25, 1960) and his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy (1966 ~ 1999) were killed when the plane Kennedy was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. Carolyn was 33 years old; John was 38.
1995 ~ May Sarton (née Eleanore Marie Sarton, b. May 3, 1912), Belgian-born author and poet. She died in of breast cancer in York, Maine at age 83.
1994 ~ Julian Schwinger (né Julian Seymour Schwinger; b. Feb. 12, 1918), American physicist and recipient of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics. He died of pancreatic cancer at age 76.
1991 ~ Frank Rizzo (né Francis Lazarro Rizzo; b. Oct. 23, 1920), American police officer who became Philadelphia’s 93rd Mayor. He died of a massive heart attack at age 70.
1991 ~ Robert Motherwell (b. Jan. 24, 1915), American painter. He died at age 76.
1985 ~ Heinrich Böll (né Heinrich Theodor Böll, b. Dec. 21, 1817), German writer and recipient of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died at age 67.
1981 ~ Harry Chapin (né Harry Forster Chapin, b. Dec. 7, 1942), American musician. He was killed at age 38 in a car accident.
1960 ~ John P. Marquand (né John Phillips Marquand, b. Nov. 10, 1893), American novelist, best known for his novel, The Late George Apley. He died at age 66.
1930 ~ Juan Luis Sanfuentes (b. Dec. 27, 1858), President of Chile from December 1915 through December 1920. He died at age 71 in Santiago, Chile.
1915 ~ Ellen G. White (née Ellen Gould Harmon, b. Nov. 26, 1827), American author and religious leader. She was a co-founder of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. She was born in Gorham, Maine. She died at age 87.
1896 ~ William E. Russell (né William Eustis Russell, b. Jan. 6, 1857), 37th Governor of Massachusetts. He served as Governor from January 1891 through January 1894. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He died unexpectedly, probably of heart failure, at age 39 in Quebec, Canada.
1882 ~ Mary Todd Lincoln (née Mary Ann Todd, b. Dec. 13, 1818), First Lady and wife of President Abraham Lincoln. She died at age 63.
1576 ~ Isabella de’Medici (b. Aug. 31, 1542), Italian princess. She is believed to have been murdered at age 33.
1557 ~ Anne of Cleves (b. Sept. 22, 1515), English noblewoman and fourth wife of King Henry VIII. The marriage was never consummated and was annulled after a few months, thus Anne did not lose her head. She outlived all of Henry’s other wives. She died at age 41.
1342 ~ King Charles I of Hungary (b. 1288). The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 53 or 54 at the time of his death.
1216 ~ Pope Innocent III (né Lotario die Conti di Segni, b. 1161). He was Pope from January 1198 until his death 18 years later. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 55 of 56 at the time of his death.
716 ~ Rui Zong (b. June 22, 662), 5th and 9th Chinese Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. He ruled first February 684 until October 690, then again from July 710 to September 712. He died at age 54.
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