July 25

Birthdays:

1978 ~ Louise Brown (née Louise Joy Brown), the world’s first “test tube baby.”  She was the first person to have been born after conception by in vitro fertilization, or IVF.  She was born in Lancashire, England.

1965 ~ Illeana Douglas (née Illeana Hesselberg), American actress.  She was born in Quincy, Massachusetts.

1941 ~ Emmett Till (né Emmitt Louis Till, d. Aug. 28, 1955), African-American teenager who was lynched and murdered in Mississippi, thereby galvanizing the American Civil Rights Movement.  He was 14 years old.

1930 ~ Mitzi Shore (née Lillian Saidel; d. Apr. 11, 2018), American stand-up matriarch who ruled Los Angeles comedy.  She co-founded The Comedy Store in 1972.  She died at age 87 in West Hollywood, California.

1924 ~ Frank Church (né Frank Forrester Church, III; d. Apr. 7, 1984), American politician and United States Senator from Idaho.  He died at age 59 from a pancreatic tumor.

1923 ~ Estelle Getty (née Estelle Scher; d. July 22, 2008), American sharp-tongued actress who brightened The Golden Girls.  She died 3 days before her 85^th birthday.

1923 ~ Edgar Gilbert (né Edgar Nelson Gilbert; d. June 15, 2013), American mathematician.  He died at age 89 following a fall in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.

1921 ~ Murray Handwerker (d. May 14, 2011), American businessman who expanded the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, the company his father had founded.  He was born in New York, New York.  He died at age 89 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

1920 ~ Rosalind Franklin (née Rosalind Elsie Franklin; d. Apr. 16, 1958), British chemist whose research made it possible for Watson and Crick to discover the molecular structure of DNA.  She died of ovarian cancer at age 37.

1915 ~ Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (né Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr.; d. Aug. 12, 1944), the oldest son of Joseph and Rose Kennedy.  He was a pilot during World War II.  He was shot down and was killed 18 days after his 29^th birthday.

1905 ~ Elias Canetti (d. Aug. 14, 1994), Bulgarian-born novelist and playwright.  He was the recipient of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died 20 days after his 89^th birthday.

1901 ~ Mohammed Helmy (d. Jan. 10, 1982), Egyptian physician.  He saved several Jews from the Nazis during World War II and has been recognized as Righteous Among Nations by Yad Vashem.  He died at age 80.

1898 ~ Eric Hoffer (d. May 21, 1983), American social and moral philosopher.  Shortly before his death, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  He was born in the Bronx, New York.  He died at age 84 in San Francisco, California.

1896 ~ Josephine Tey (née Elizabeth MacKintosh; b. Feb. 13, 1952), Scottish author of mystery novels.  She died of liver cancer at age 55.

1894 ~ Walter Brennan (né Walter Andrew Brennan; d. Sept. 21, 1974), American actor.  He is best known for his role on the TV show, The Real McCoys.  He was born in Lynn, Massachusetts.  He died of emphysema at age 80.

1870 ~ Maxfield Parrish (né Frederick Parrish, d. Mar. 30, 1966), American artist.  He died in Plainfield, New Hampshire at age 95.

1848 ~ Arthur Balfour, 1^st Earl of Balfour (né Arthur James Balfour; b. Mar. 19, 1930), Scottish-English politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He served as Prime Minister from July 1902 until December 1905.  He is best known for the Balfour Declaration, drafted in 1917, which was a letter recognizing the need for a Jewish state in the Middle East.  He died at age 81.

1847 ~ Paul Langerhans (d. July 20, 1888), German pathologist.  He studied the pancreas.   The Isle of Landerhans in the pancreas is named after him.  He died of renal failure 5 days before his 41^st birthday.

1844 ~ Thomas Eakins (né Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins; d. June 25, 1916), American artist.  He died a month before his 72^nd birthday.

1775 ~ Anna Harrison (née Anna Elizabeth Tuthill Symmes; d. Feb. 25, 1864), First Lady of the United States and wife of President William Henry Harrison.  Because her husband died a month after his inauguration, she never lived in the White House.  She was born in Morristown, New Jersey.  She died at age 88 in North Bend, Ohio.

1750 ~ Henry Knox (d. Oct. 25, 1806), American general and politician.  He served as the 1^st United States Secretary of War from September 1789 until December 1794.  This position was established under President George Washington.  Fort Knox in Maine is named in his honor.  He died at age 56 from an infection after having swallowed a chicken bone.

1642 ~ Louis I, Prince of Monaco (d. Jan. 3, 1701).  He was Prince of Monaco from January 1662 until his death 9 years later.  He died at age 58.

1394 ~ James I of Scotland (d. Feb. 21, 1437).  He reigned from April 4, 1406 until his death in February 1437.  He was married to Joan Beaufort.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but it is often considered to have been July 25, 1394.  He was assassinated at age 42 in a failed coup attempt.

Events that Changed the World:

1994 ~ Israel and Jordan signed the Washington Declaration, formally ending the state of war that had existed since 1948.

1992 ~ The 1992 Summer Olympics opened in Barcelona, Spain.  The games ran through August 9, 1992.

1984 ~ Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya (b. 1948) became the first woman to walk in space.

1979 ~ Israel peacefully returned a section of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt.

1978 ~ Louise Brown was the first “test tube” baby.  She was conceived via in vitro fertilization.

1956 ~ The Italian ocean liner, the SS Andrea Doria, collided with the MS Stockholm off of Nantucket Island, and sank.  51 people were killed.

1952 ~ Puerto Rico became a United States Commonwealth, although the island had come under control of the United States following the Spanish-American War in 1898.

1946 ~ In Operation Crossroads, an atomic bomb was detonated underwater in the lagoon of Bikini Atoll.

1945 ~ During the Cold War, the United States Army secretly admitted 88 German scientists and engineers to help develop rocket technology in what was called Operation Paperclip.  The name is derived from the fact that paperclips were used on the more troublesome files.

1868 ~ Wyoming became a United States territory.

1866 ~ The United States Congress passed legislation authorizing the rank of Five-Star General.  Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant (1822 ~ 1885) became the first 5-Star General.

1755 ~ The British governor, Charles Lawrence (1709 ~ 1760), and the Nova Scotia Council ordered the deportation of the Catholic Acadians.  Many of the Acadians settled in southern Louisiana and are now known as Cajuns.

1722 ~ Dummer’s War began along the Maine-Massachusetts border.

1603 ~ King James VI (1566 ~ 1625) of Scotland was crowned King James I of England, thereby bringing the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into a personal union.  The political unification, however, would not take place until 1707.

1593 ~ King Henry IV of France (1553 ~ 1610) converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.

1554 ~ Queen Mary I, also known as Bloody Mary (1516 ~ 1558), married Philip II of Spain.

1547 ~ Henry II (1519 ~ 1559) was crowned King of France.

1137 ~ Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 ~ 1204) married Prince Louis (1120 ~ 1180), the eldest son of King Louis VI of France.

Good-Byes:

2017 ~ Gretel Bergmann (née Margarethe Bergmann; b. Apr. 12, 1914), German-born Jewish field and track athlete who was banned by the Nazis from participating in the 1936 Summer Olympics.  At the June 1936 Olympic trials, she beat her rivals with a jump of 5 feet 3 inches, but was forbidden to compete in the Olympics and her jump was scrubbed from the record books.  She died at age 103.

2014 ~ Bel Kaufman (née Bella Kaufman; b. May 10, 1911), German-born American author who skewered school bureaucracy.  She is best known for book, Up the Down Staircase.  She died at age 103.

2013 ~ Billy Guste (né William Joseph Guste, Jr.; b. May 26, 1922), Louisiana Attorney General.  He served as the Attorney General from May 1972 until January 1992.  He was born and died in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He died at age 91.

2009 ~ Harry Patch (né Henry John Patch; b. June 17, 1898), the British soldier who was the Great War’s last “Tommy.”  He died at age 111 years, 38 days.

2008 ~ Randy Pausch (né Randploh Frederick Pausch; b. Oct. 23, 1960), American professor whose last lecture inspired millions.  He died at age 47 of pancreatic cancer.

1997 ~ Ben Hogan (né William Ben Hogan; b. Aug. 13, 1912), American professional golfer.  He is considered one of the greatest golfers in the sport.  He died in Fort Worth, Texas 19 days before his 85^th birthday.

1995 ~ Toru Kumon (b. Mar. 26, 1914), Japanese mathematician.  He was born in Kochi, Japan.  He died of pneumonia at age 81 in Osaka, Japan.

1987 ~ Malcolm Baldridge, Jr. (né Howard Malcolm Baldridge, Jr.; b. Oct. 4, 1922), American businessman and 26^thUnited States Secretary of Commerce.  He served under President Ronald Reagan.  He served as the Secretary of Commerce from January 1981 until his death at age 64 in July 1987.  He was born in Omaha, Nebraska.  He died following injuries sustained in a rodeo accident in Walnut Creek, California.

1986 ~ Vincente Minnelli (né Lester Anthony Minnelli, b. Feb. 28, 1903), American film director, husband of Judy Garland and father of Liza Minnelli.  He died of emphysema and pneumonia at age 83.

1966 ~ Frank O’Hara (Francis Russell O’Hara; b. Mar. 27, 1926), American author.  He died at age 40 from injuries sustained after having been hit by a motor vehicle

1959 ~ Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog (b. Dec. 3, 1888), Polish rabbi.  He was the Chief Rabbi of Ireland from 1919 through 1936.  He also served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine from 1936 until 1948.  He died at age 70.

1958 ~ Harry Warner (né Hirsz Mojżwa Wonsal; b. Dec. 12, 1881), Polish-born American movie studio executive.  He, along with his brothers, Albert (né Abraham Wonsal; 1884 ~ 1967), Sam (né Szmuel Wonsal; 1887 ~ 1927) and Jack (né Jacob Wonsal; 1892 ~ 1978), founded Warner Brothers.  Harry Warner was 76 years old at the time of his death.

1934 ~ François Coty (né Joseph Marie François Spoturno; b. May 3, 1874), French businessman, perfumer and founder of Coty, Inc.  He died at age 60 of pneumonia.

1881 ~ Nathan Clifford (d. Aug. 18, 1803), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was nominated to the High Court by President James Buchanan.  He served on the Court from January 1858 until his death on this date 23 years later.  He replaced Benjamin Curtis and was succeeded by Horace Gray.  Prior to his appointment to the High Court, he served as the 19^th United States Attorney General.  He served as Attorney General during the James Polk administration.  He was born in Rumney, New Hampshire and died in Cornish, Maine.  He died 24 days before his 78^th birthday.

1843 ~ Charles Macintosh (b. Dec. 29, 1766), Scottish chemist and inventor of waterproof fabric, hence the reason raincoats are sometimes referred to as Macintoshes.  He died at age 76.

1834 ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge (b. Oct. 21, 1772), English poet.  He is best known for The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.  He died at age 61.

1790 ~ William Livingston (b. Nov. 30, 1723), 1^st Governor of New Jersey.  He was Governor from August 1776 until his death on this date 4 years later.  He was also one of the signers of the United States Constitution.  He was 66 years old.

1572 ~ Isaac Luria (b. 1534), Rabbi and Jewish mystic.  He was born in Jerusalem and died in Safed.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.

1564 ~ Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. Mar. 10, 1503).  He reigned as Holy Roman Emperor from February 1558 until his death 6 years later.  He was married to Anne of Bohemia and Hungary.  He died at age 61.

1492 ~ Pope Innocent VIII (né Giovanni Battista Cybo; b. 1432).  He was Pope from August 1484 until his death on this date 8 years later.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.