Saturday, December 5, 2020

December 5

Birthdays: 

1985 ~ Frankie Muniz (né Francisco Muniz, IV), American actor and race car driver.  He is best known for his role as Malcolm in the television sit-com, Malcolm in the Middle.  He was born in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey.

 

1968 ~ Margaret Cho (née Margaret Moran Cho), American comedian.  She was born in San Francisco, California.

 

1945 ~ Moshe Katsav (né Musa Qasab), 8th President of Israel.  He was President from August 2000 to July 2007.  He was born in Yazd, Iran and moved to Israel when his family emigrated in 1951.

 

1938 ~ J.J. Cale (né John Weldon Cale; d. July 26, 2013), rock musician who wrote Cocaine.  He died at age 74.

 

1936 ~ Robert Freemen (d. Nov. 6, 2019), British photographer who shaped the Beatles’ image.  He was born and died in London, England.  He died about a month before his 83rd birthday.

 

1936 ~ James Lee Burke, American writer of detective stories, many of which are set in the Louisiana-Texas Gulf coast.  He was born in Houston, Texas.

 

1935 ~ Calvin Trillin (né Calvin Marshal Trillin), American journalist.  He was born in Kansas City, Missouri.

 

1934 ~ Joan Didion, American novelist and screenwriter.  She was born in Sacramento, California.

 

1932 ~ Little Richard (né Richard Wayne Penniman; d. May 9, 2020), American flamboyant showman who shaped rock ‘n roll.  singer and pianist.  He was born in Macon, Georgia.  He died in Tullahoma, Tennessee at age 87.

 

1932 ~ Sheldon Lee Glashow, American physicist and mathematician.  He was the recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He was born in New York, New York.

 

1917 ~ Stanley Resor (né Stanley Rogers Resor; d. Apr. 17, 2012), 9th United States Secretary of the Army.  He served under President Lyndon B. Johnson from July 1965 until June 1971.  He was born in New York, New York.  He died at age 94 in Washington, D.C.

 

1916 ~ Hilary Koprowski (d. Apr. 11, 2013), Polish-born virologist and immunologist.  He is credited with creating the Polio vaccine.  He died at age 96.

 

1905 ~ Otto Preminger (né Otto Ludwig Preminger; d. Apr. 23, 1986), Ukranian-born film director.  He died at age 80.

 

1903 ~ C.F. Powell (né Cecil Frank Powell; d. Aug. 9, 1969), English physicist and recipient of the 1950 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 65.

 

1902 ~ Strom Thurmond, Sr. (né James Strom Thurmond; d. June 26, 2003), United States Senator from South Carolina.  He had also served as the 103rd Governor of South Carolina.  He died at age 100.

 

1901 ~ Walt Disney (né Walter Elias Disney; d. Dec. 15, 1966), American movie producer and pioneer in movie animation.  He changed the way the world viewed movies.  He died of circulatory collapse caused by lung cancer 10 days after his 65th birthday.

 

1901 ~ Werner Heisenberg (né Werner Karl Heisenberg; d. Feb. 1, 1976), German physicist and recipient of the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He was a pioneer in quantum mechanics.  He died of kidney cancer at age 74.

 

1897 ~ Gershom Scholem (né Gerhard Scholem; d. Feb. 21, 1982), German-born Israeli philosopher and historian.  He died at age 84.

 

1896 ~ Carl Ferdinand Cori (d. Oct. 20, 1984), Czech-born biochemist and pharmacologist.  He was the co-recipient of the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with his wife Gerty Cori (1896 ~ 1957) and Bernardo Houssay (1887 ~ 1971).  They had discovered how glycogen was broken down and resynthesized by the body as an energy source.  He died at age 87 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

1895 ~ Elbert Frank Cox (d. Nov. 28, 1969), American mathematician.  He was the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics.  He earned his degree at Cornell University.  He was born in Evansville, Indiana.  He died 8 days before his 74th birthday in Washington, D.C.

 

1894 ~ Philip K. Wrigley (né Philip Knight Wrigley; d. Apr. 12, 1977), American chewing gum manufacturer and baseball executive.  He inherited the Wrigley company and the Chicago Cubs from his father.  He was born in Chicago, Illinois.  He died at 82 in Elkhorn, Wisconsin.

 

1890 ~ Fritz Lang (né Friedrich Christian Anton Lang; d. Aug. 2, 1976), Austrian film director, best known for his silent film, Metropolis and M.  He was born in Vienna, Austria.  He died at age 85 in Los Angeles, California.

 

1886 ~ Rose Wilder Lane (née Rose Wilder; d. Oct. 30, 1968), American journalist and author.  She was the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  She died at age 81.

 

1879 ~ Clyde Cessna (né Clyde Vernon Cessna; d. Nov. 20, 1954), American aviation designer and founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation.  He died 15 days before his 75th birthday.

 

1863 ~ Paul Painlevé (d. Oct. 29, 1933), French mathematician and politician.  He served as the Prime Minister of France twice, first from September 1917 until November 1917, and second from April 1925 until November 1925.  He died at age 69.

 

1839 ~ George Armstrong Custer (d. June. 25, 1876), American Army general who lead the fateful charge at the Battle of Little Big Horn.  He died along with two of his brothers, Colonel Thomas Ward Custer (b. 1845) and General Boston Custer (b. 1848), who also died in the Battle of Little Big Horn.  George Custer was 36 years old.  His brother Thomas was 31 and Boston was 27.

 

1830 ~ Christina Rossetti (née Christina Georgina Rossetti; d. Dec. 29, 1894), English poet.  She died 24 days after her 64th birthday.

 

1822 ~ Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz (née Elizabeth Cabot Cary; d. June 27, 1907), American educator and co-founder of Radcliffe College.  She also served as the first president of Radcliff College.  She was married to Louis Agassiz, the Swiss-born geologist and biologist.  She was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Arlington, Massachusetts.  She was 84 at the time of her death.

 

1782 ~ Martin Van Buren (né Maarten Van Buren, d. July 24, 1862), 8th President of the United States.  He was President from March 1837 until March 1841.  He had previously served as the 8th United States Vice President under President Andrew Jackson from March 1833 until March 1837.  He served as the 10th 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.

 

1443 ~ Pope Julius II (né Guiliano della Rovere; d. Feb. 21, 1513).  He was known as the Warrior Pope and ruled from November 1503 until his death 10 years later.  He died at age 69.

 

1377 ~ Jianwen Emperor (d. July 13, 1402), 2nd Chinese Emperor of the Ming Empire.  He reigned from June 1398 until his disappearance 4 years later.  He was 24 years old.

 

852 ~ Zhu Wen (d. July 18, 912), Chinese emperor at the end of the Tang dynasty.  He reigned from June 907 until his death 5 years later.  He died at age 59.

 

Events that Changed the World:

 

2012 ~ A 5.6 earthquake struck in the South Khorasan Province in Iran.

 

1983 ~ The military junta in Argentina was dissolved.

 

1979 ~ Sonia Johnson (b. 1936) was formally excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints for her criticism of the church’s position on the Equal Rights Amendment.

 

1955 ~ The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO.

 

1945 ~ Flight 19 was lost in the Bermuda Triangle.  Flight 19 was the designation of 5 TBM Avenger torpedo bombers during a United States Navy overwater navigation training flight.  All the airmen on the flight disappeared and their bodies never found.

 

1936 ~ The Soviet Union adopted a new constitution and the USSR was formally established.

 

1933 ~ Prohibition in the United States ended after Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution.  This amendment overturned the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the manufacture, sale or transportation of alcohol.

 

1932 ~ Albert Einstein (1879 ~ 1955) was granted an American visa.

 

1876 ~ A fire at the Brooklyn Theater in Brooklyn, New York killed over 275 people.  They had been watching the melodrama Two Orphans.

 

1865 ~ In the Chincha Island War, Peru allied with Chile against Spain.

 

1848 ~ In a speech before Congress, President James Polk (1795 ~ 1849) confirmed that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.  This was a precursor to the great California Gold Rush of ’49.

 

1847 ~ Jefferson Davis (1808 ~ 1889) was elected to the United States Senate.  He was a Senator from Mississippi until January 21, 1861.

 

1831 ~ Former President John Quincy Adams (1767 ~ 1848) took his seat in the House of Representatives.

 

1776 ~ The Phi Beta Kappa was founded at the College of William and Mary.  It was the first American college fraternity.

 

1766 ~ James Christie (1730 ~ 1803) held his first auction in London, England.

 

1560 ~ Charles IX (1550 ~ 1574) became king of France.

 

1492 ~ Christopher Columbus (1451 ~ 1506) is said to have reached land in the New World when his ships landed on the island of Hispaniola, which is now present day Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

 

1496 ~ Manuel I, King of Portugal (1469 ~ 1521), issued a decree ordering the expulsion of all Jewish heretics from the country.

 

1484 ~ Pope Innocent VIII (1432 ~ 1492) issued a papal bull allowing Heinrich Kramer (1430 ~ 1505) and James Sprenger (d. 1495) as inquisitors to root out witchcraft in Germany.  This lead to one of the most oppressive witch hunts in European history.

 

771 ~ Charlemagne became the King of the Franks following the death of his brother, Carloman.  Carloman had died the previous day.  They had co-ruled, but after Carloman’s death, Charlemagne seized the entire realm, leaving Carloman’s son without.

 

Good-Byes:

 

2017 ~ Michael I of Romania (b. Oct. 25, 1921).  He reigned as King from July until June 1930.  He reigned for a second time from September 1940 until his abdication in December 1947.  He died at age 96.

 

2015 ~ Chuck Williams (né Charles Edward Williams; b. Oct. 2, 1915), American businessman and food lover and co-founder of Williams-Sonoma.  He died at age 100.

 

2013 ~ Nelson Mandela (né Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela; b. July 18, 1918), 1st President of South Africa and recipient of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.  He was the anti-apartheid icon who forged a new South Africa.  He died at age 95.

 

2012 ~ Dave Brubeck (né David Warren Brubeck; b. Dec. 6, 1920), American pianist who reshaped the rhythms of jazz.  He died 1 day before his 92nd birthday.

 

2012 ~ Oscar Niemeyer (né Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Fiho; b. Dec. 15, 1907), Brazilian architect who designed Brazil’s space-age capital.  He died 10 days before his 105th birthday.

 

2010 ~ Don Meredith (né Joseph Don Meredith; b. Apr. 10, 1938), American football quarterback who lit up the broadcast booth.  His nickname was “Dandy Don.”  He died at age 72 of a brain hemorrhage.

 

2009 ~ James Rohn (né Emanuel James Rohn; b. Sept. 17, 1930), American motivational speaker and entrepreneur and author.  He was born in Yakima, Washington.  He died of pulmonary fibrosis at age 79 in Los Angeles, California.

 

2008 ~ Nina Foch (née Nina Consuelo Maud Fock; b. Apr. 20, 1924), Dutch-American actress.  She died at age 84.

 

1973 ~ Jimmy Cannon (b. Apr. 10, 1909), American sports journalist.  He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame for his coverage of boxing.  He was born and died in New York, New York.  He died at age 64.

 

1973 ~ Sir Robert Watson-Watt (né Robert Alexander Watson-Watt; b. Apr. 13, 1892), Scottish inventor who is credited with creating the Radar.  He died at age 81.

 

1969 ~ Princess Alice of Battenberg (b. Feb. 25, 1885), great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.  She was married to Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark.  She died at age 84.

 

1965 ~ Joseph Erlanger (b. Jan. 5, 1874), American physiologist and recipient of the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died a month before his 92nd birthday.

 

1959 ~ Mary Winston Newson (née Mary Frances Winston; b. Aug. 7, 1869), American mathematician.  She was the first American woman to receive a Ph.D. from a European university.  She received her advance degree from the University of Göttingen.  She was only 1 of 22 women to join the American Mathematical Society before 1900.  She was born in Forreston, Illinois.  She died in Lowell, Indiana at age 90.

 

1951 ~ Shoeless Joe Jackson (né Joseph Jefferson Jackson; b. July 16, 1887), American baseball player associated with the 1919 Black Sox scandal.  He was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing.  He died at age 64.

 

1931 ~ Vachel Lindsay (né Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, b. Nov. 10, 1879), American poet.  He died by suicide 25 days after his 52nd birthday.

 

1926 ~ Claude Monet (né Oscar-Claude Monet; b. Nov. 14, 1840), French impressionist painter.  He died 3 weeks after his 86th birthday.

 

1925 ~ Władysław Reymont (b. May 7, 1867), Polish writer and recipient of the 1924 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 58.

 

1899 ~ Sir Henry Tate, 1st Baronet (b. Mar. 11, 1819), English sugar magnate of Tate & Lyle, the multinational agribusiness.  He is also known for being the founder of the Tate Art Gallery in London, England.  He died at age 80.

 

1870 ~ Alexandre Dumas the Elder (né Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie; b. July 24, 1802), 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.

 

1791 ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b. Jan. 27, 1756), Austrian composer.  He died at age 35.

 

1784 ~ Phillis Wheatley (b. 1753), African-American slave and poet.  The exact date of her birth is not known, but she is believed to have been about 31 at the time of her death.

 

1770 ~ James Stirling (b. May 1692), Scottish mathematician.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been 78 at the time of his death.

 

1560 ~ King Francis II of France (b. Jan. 19, 1544).  He was King from July 1559 until his death 18 months later.  He was married to Mary, Queen of Scots, making him the King consort of Scotland.  He died at age 16.

 

902 ~ Ealhswith, Queen consort of Wessex.  She was the wife of King Alfred the Great.  The date of her birth is not known.

 

334 ~ Li Ban (b. 288), Chinese emperor of the Chang Han.  He is believed to have reigned from August 334 until his death 4 months later.  The exact date of his birth is not known.

 

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