July 24

Birthdays:

1982 ~ Elizabeth Moss (née Elizabeth Singleton Moss), American actress best known for her role as Peggy on Mad Men.  She was born in Los Angeles, California.

1982 ~ Anna Paquin (née Anna Hélène Paquin), Canadian actress.  She received an Oscar for her performance in the 1993 movie, The Piano.  She was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

1968 ~ Kristin Chenoweth (née Kristi Dawn Chenoweth), American actress and singer.  She was born in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

1964 ~ Barry Bonds (né Barry Lamar Bonds), American baseball player.  He was born in Riverside, California.

1963 ~ Karl Malone (né Karl Anthony Malone), American basketball player.  He was known as The Mailman because he delivered the points.  He was born in Summerfield, Louisiana.  He attended Louisiana Tech University.

1951 ~ Lynda Carter (née Linda Jean Córdova Carter), American actress, best known for role as Wonder Woman on the television show of the same name.  She was born in Phoenix, Arizona.

1949 ~ Marc Yor (d. Jan. 9, 2014), French mathematician.  He died at age 64.

1949 ~ Michael Richards (né Michael Anthony Richards), American actor and comedian best known for his role as Cosmo Kramer in the television sit-com Seinfeld.  He was born in Culver City, California.

1936 ~ Ruth Buzzi (née Ruth Ann Buzzi), American actress and comedian, best known for her role in Laugh-In.  She was born in Westerly, Rhode Island.

1935 ~ Pat Oliphant (né Patrick Bruce Oliphant), Australian-born American political cartoonist.  He was born in Adelaide, Australia.

1933 ~ Doug Sanders (né George Douglas Sanders; d. Apr. 12, 2020), American flamboyant professional golfer who partied with Frank Sinatra.  He was born in Cedartown, Georgia.  He died in Houston, Texas at age 86.

1932 ~ William Ruckelshaus (né William Doyle Ruckelshaus; d. Nov. 27, 2019), American incorruptible Republican who defied President Nixon.  He was the deputy attorney general when President Nixon ordered Attorney General Eliot Richardson to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox.  Richardson refused and resigned.  Nixon then ordered Ruckelshaus to fire Cox.  Ruckelshaus also refused to perform the act, and also resigned.  Ruckelshaus had the nickname of Mr. Clean.  He served as the 1^st Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under Richard Nixon, a position he held from December 1970 until April 1973.  He later served as the 5^th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Reagan administration, from May 1983 until February 1985.  He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana.  He died at age 87 in Medina, Washington.

1922 ~ Charles Mathias (né Charles McCurdy Mathias, Jr.; d. Jan. 25, 2010), American United States Senator from Maryland who was one of the last liberal Republicans.  He was born in Frederick, Maryland.  He died at age 87 in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

1921 ~ Giuseppe Di Stefano (d. Mar. 3, 2008), Italian tenor whose career was cut short when he was brutally attacked outside his home in Kenya.  He was beaten by an unknown assailant in 2004 and never fully recovered.  He was 86 years old.

1921 ~ Billy Taylor (né William Taylor; d. Dec. 28, 2010), African-American pianist who proclaimed the jazz gospel.  He died at age 89.

1920 ~ Bella Abzug (née Bella Savitsky; d. Mar. 31, 1998), American politician.  She was a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York State.  She was known for wearing big hats.  She died of breast cancer at age 77.

1916 ~ John D. MacDonald (né John Dann MacDonald; d. Dec. 28, 1986), American author of thrillers and detective stories.  He died at age 70.

1914 ~ Frances Oldham Kelsey (née Frances Kathleen Oldham; d. Aug. 7, 2015), Canadian pharmacologist and physician who blocked a dangerous pregnancy drug.  She was most famous as the reviewer for the United States Food and Drug Administration who refused to authorize thalidomide for market because she had concerns about the drug’s safety.  She died 2 weeks after her 101^st birthday.

1900 ~ Zelda Fitzgerald (née Zelda Sayre; d. Mar. 10, 1948), American writer and wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald.  She was killed in a fire at age 47.

1897 ~ Amelia Earhart (d. July 2, 1937), American aviator.  The plane she was piloting went missing on July 2, 1937, 3 weeks before her 38^th birthday.  She was attempting to circumvent the earth when she lost communications and was never heard from again.  She was legally declared dead on January 5, 1939, at age 41.

1895 ~ Robert Graves (né Robert von Ranke Graves; d. Dec. 7, 1985), English author best known for his book, I, Claudius, which was later made into a miniseries.  He died at age 90.

1889 ~ Agnes Driscoll (née Agnes Meyer; d. Sept. 16, 1971), American cryptanalyst.  In 1918, she joined the United States Navy where she became a leading code-breaker during both World War I and World War II.  She died at age 83.

1857 ~ Henrik Pontoppidan (d. Aug. 21, 1943), Danish writer and recipient of the 1917 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died a month after his 86^th birthday.

1856 ~ Émile Picard (né Charles Émile Picard; d. Dec. 11, 1941), French mathematician.  He died at age 85.

1851 ~ Friedrich Schottky (d. Aug. 12, 1935), German mathematician.  He died 21 days after his 84^th birthday.

1802 ~ Alexandre Dumas the Elder (né Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie; d. Dec. 5, 1870), French novelist and playwright.  He is best known for his novels such as The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.  He died at age 68.

1796 ~ John M. Clayton (né John Middleton Clayton; d. Nov. 9, 1856), 18^th United States Secretary of State.  He served under Presidents Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore from March 1849 until July 1850.  He was born in Dagsboro, Delaware.  He died at age 60 in Dover, Delaware.

1786 ~ Joseph Nicollet (né Joseph Nicholas Nicollet; d. Sept. 11, 1863), French mathematician and explorer.  He also led three expeditions on the Mississippi River.  He died at age 57.

1783 ~ Simón Bolívar (d. Dec. 17, 1830), Venezuelan military commander and 2^nd President of Venezuela.  He had also served as the President of Peru and President of Bolivia.  He died at age 47.

1468 ~ Catherine of Saxony, Archduchess of Austria (d. Feb. 10, 1524).  Her first husband was Sigismund, Archduke of Austria.  He was 40 years her senior.  She was his second wife and she was her first husband.  After his death, she married Eric I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.  She died at age 55.

Events that Changed the World:

2001 ~ Simeon Sax-Coburg-Gotha (b. 1937), the last Tsar of Bulgaria when he was a child, was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Bulgaria.  He served as Prime Minister from July 2001 until August 2005.

1998 ~ A gunman burst into the United States Capitol and opened fire.  Two police officer were killed.

1974 ~ In United States v. Nixon, the United States Supreme Court ruled that President Richard Nixon did not have the authority to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes.  He was ordered to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor.  Chief Justice Warren Burger (1907 ~ 1995) drafted the decision.

1937 ~ The State of Alabama dropped the rape charges against the Scottsboro Boys, 9 African-American teenagers who had been tried and convicted of the rape of a white woman in 1931.

1922 ~ The draft of the British Mandate of Palestine was formally confirmed by the League of Nations.  It went into effect on September 26, 1923.

1915 ~ The passenger ship the SS Eastland capsized while trying to dock in the Chicago River.  Nearly 850 passengers and crew were killed in this shipwreck.

1911 ~ Hiram Bingham, III (1875 ~ 1956) re-discovered Machu Picchu, the Lost City of the Incas.

1901 ~ O. Henry (né William Sydney Porter, 1862 ~ 1901) was released from prison in Austin, Texas after serving three years for embezzlement from a bank.

1866 ~ Tennessee became the first state readmitted into the Union following the American Civil War.

1823 ~ Chile abolished slavery.

1701 ~ Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac (1658 ~ 1730) established a trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, which is present-day Detroit, Michigan.

1567 ~ Mary, Queen of Scots (1542 ~ 1587), was forced to abdicate.  She was replaced by her 1-year-old son, James VI (1566 ~ 1625).

1534 ~ Jacques Cartier (1491 ~ 1557) claimed the Gaspé Peninsula in Canada in the name of King Francis I of France.

Good-Byes:

2016 ~ Marni Nixon (née Margaret Nixon McEathron; b. Feb. 22, 1930), American actress and singer.  She is best known for being the voice that was dubbed in such movies as The King and I and My Fair Lady.  She died at age 86.

2013 ~ Virginia Johnson (née Mary Virginia Eshelman; b. Feb. 11, 1925), sexologist and partner of Dr. William Masters.  She was the researcher who helped redefine sex.  She died at age 88.

2012 ~ Sherman Hemsley (né Sherman Alexander Hemsley; b. Feb. 1, 1938), American actor who gave heart to George Jefferson on the sit-com, The Jeffersons.  He died of cancer at age 74.

2012 ~ Chad Everett (né Raymond Lee Cramton; b. June 11, 1937), American actor.  He died of lung cancer at age 75.

2012 ~ Robert Ledley (b. June 28, 1926), American physiologist and physicist.  He is best known for inventing the CT scanner.  He died about a month after his 86^th birthday.

2007 ~ Albert Ellis (b. Sept. 27, 1913), American psychologist.  He died at age 93.

1997 ~ William Brennan, Jr. (né William Joseph Brennan, Jr.; b. Apr. 25, 1906), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was nominated to the High Court by President Dwight David Eisenhower.  He replaced Sherman Minton on the Court.  He was succeeded by David Souter.  He served on the Court from October 1956 until July 1990.  He died at age 91.

1993 ~ Anna Maurizio (b. Nov. 26, 1900), Swiss biologist best known for her study of bees.  She died at age 92.

1991 ~ Isaac Bashevis Singer (b. Nov. 21, 1904), Polish-born Yiddish author and 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He wrote primarily in Yiddish.  He died at age 88.

1986 ~ Fritz Albert Lipmann (b. June 12, 1899) German-American biochemist and recipient of the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died at age 87.

1980 ~ Peter Sellers (né Richard Henry Sellers; b. Sept. 8, 1925), British comedian and actor.  He is best known for his role as Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies.  He died of a heart attack at age 54.

1974 ~ Sir James Chadwick (b. Oct. 20, 1891), English physicist and recipient of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the neutron.  He died at age 82.

1954 ~ Mary Church Terrell (née Mary Church; b. Sept. 23, 1863), African-American civil rights activist and author.  She was one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree.  She was born in Memphis, Tennessee.  She died at age 90 in Annapolis, Maryland.

1949 ~ Virginia M. Alexander (b. Feb. 4, 1899), American physician and public health researcher.  She was born and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  She died of lupus at age 50.

1934 ~ Hans Hahn (b. Sept. 27, 1879), Austrian mathematician.  He was born and died in Vienna, Austria.  He died at age 54.

1862 ~ Martin Van Buren (né Maarten Van Buren; b. Dec. 5, 1782), 8^th President of the United States.  He was President from March 1837 until March 1841.  He had previously served as the 8^th United States Vice President under President Andrew Jackson from March 1833 until March 1837.  He served as the 10^th United States Secretary of State during the Andrew Jackson administration from March 1829 until May 1831.  He was from New York State and had also served as the Governor of New York from January 1829 until March 1829.  He had previously served as a United States Senator from New York from March 1821 until December 20, 1828.  He died at age 79.