Thursday, February 11, 2021

February 11

Birthdays:

 

1971 ~ Damian Lewis (né Damian Watcyn Lewis), British actor.  He is best known for his role as Nicholas Brody in the television series Homeland.  He was born in London, England.

 

1969 ~ Jennifer Aniston (née Jennifer Joanna Aniston), American actress.  She was born in Sherman Oaks, California.

 

1967 ~ Hank Gathers (né Eric Gathers, b. Mar. 4, 1990), American basketball player.  He collapsed and died during a game.  He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He died less than a month after his 23rd birthday in Los Angeles, California.

 

1964 ~ Sarah Palin (née Sarah Louise Palin), American politician and Vice-Presidential candidate with running-mate with John McCain in the 2004 US Presidential race.  She was also the 9th Governor of Alaska.  She was born in Sandpoint, Idaho.

 

1961 ~ Carey Lowell, American model and actress.  She is best known for her role as Assistant District Attorney Jamie Ross on the television drama Law & Order.  She was born in Huntington, New York.

 

1957 ~ Pico Iyer (né Siddharth Pico Raghaven Iyer), British author and essayist.

 

1953 ~ Jeb Bush (né John Ellis Bush, Sr.), American politician and 43rd Governor of Florida.  He was also a presidential candidate in the 2016 election.  He was born in Midland, Texas.

 

1936 ~ Burt Reynolds (né Burton Leon Reynolds, Jr.; d. Sept. 6, 2018), American Hollywood heartthrob who played it for laughs.  He died of cardiac arrest at age 82.

 

1934 ~ Manuel Noriega (d. May 29, 2017), Panamanian dictator.  He died following complications of brain surgery.  He was 83 years old.

 

1934 ~ Tina Louise (née Tatiana Josivovna Chernova Blacker), American actress best known for her role as Ginger Grant on Gilligan’s Island.  She was born in New York City.

 

1934 ~ Dame Mary Quant (née Barbara Mary Quant), English fashion designer who was very influential during the 1960s.  She was born in London, England.

 

1931 ~ Lionel Batiste (d. July 8, 2012), African-American jazz musician from New Orleans.  He was born and died in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He died at age 81.

 

1926 ~ Leslie Nielsen (né Leslie William Nielsen; d. Nov. 28, 2010), Canadian-born American dramatic actor who bloomed into a dolt.  He became well known after the success of Airplane!  He died of pneumonia at age 84.

 

1926 ~ Paul Bocuse (d. Jan. 20, 2018), French chef who made chefs celebrities.  He died of Parkinson’s disease 22 days before his 92nd birthday.

 

1925 ~ Virginia Johnson (née Mary Virginia Eshelman, d. July 24, 2013), sexologist and partner of Dr. William Masters.  She was the researcher who helped redefine sex.  She died at age 88.

 

1921 ~ Lloyd Bentsen (né Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr., d. May 23, 2006). American politician and 69th Secretary of the United States Treasury.  He served under President Bill Clinton from January 1993 until December 1994.  He was also the 1988 Vice Presidential candidate as a running mate to Michael Dukakis.  He died at age 85.

 

1920 ~ King Farouk I of Egypt and the Sudan (d. Mar. 18, 1965).  He was overthrown during the Egyptian Revolution of 1952.  He died at age 45.

 

1919 ~ Eva Gabor (d. July 4, 1995), Hungarian-born actress.  She is best known for her role as Lisa Douglas on the sit-com Green Acres.  She died of respiratory failure and pneumonia at age 76.

 

1917 ~ Sidney Sheldon (né Sidney Schechtel; d. Jan. 30, 2007), American author.  He died 12 days before his 90thbirthday.

 

1915 ~ Richard Hamming (né Richard Wesley Hamming; d. Jan. 7, 1998), American mathematician.  He died about a month before his 83rd birthday.

 

1915 ~ Sir Patrick Fermor (né Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor; d. June. 10, 2011), British writer who walked across Europe.  He was 96 years old.

 

1909 ~ Max Baer (né Maximilian Adelbert Baer; d. Nov. 21, 1959), American boxer.  He was the father of actor Max Baer, Jr., who played Jethro on The Beverly Hillbillies.  He died of a heart attack at age 50.

 

1897 ~ Emil Leon Post (d. Apr. 21, 1954), Polish-born American mathematician.  He died of a heart attack at age 57.

 

1863 ~ John Francis Fitzgerald (d. Oct. 2, 1950), American politician and Mayor of Boston.  He was Mayor for two separate terms, first from 1906 until 1908 and second from 1910 until 1914.  He also served as a representative in the United States House of Representatives from the State of Massachusetts.  He was known as Honey Fitz.  He was the father of Rose Kennedy and the grandfather of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.  He died at age 87.

 

1855 ~ Ellen Day Hale (d. Feb. 11, 1940), American impressionist artist and painter.  She was from Massachusetts.  She died on her 85th birthday.

 

1847 ~ Thomas Edison (né Thomas Alva Edison; d. Oct. 18, 1931), American inventor.  He died at age 84.

 

1839 ~ Almon Strowger (né Almon Brown Strowger; d. May 26, 1902) American undertaker and inventor who patented the Strowger switch, a device which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching.  He died of an aneurysm at age 63.

 

1839 ~ Josiah Willard Gibbs (d. Apr. 28, 1903), American mathematical physicist.  An instructorship at the Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut is named in his honor.  He was born and died in New Haven, Connecticut.  He died at age 64.

 

1833 ~ Melville Fuller (né Melville Weston Fuller; d. July 4, 1910), 8th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was nominated to the High Court by President Grover Cleveland.  He replaced Morrison Waite on the Court.  He was succeeded by Edward Douglas White.  He served on the Court from October 1888 until his death at age 77 on this date 22 years later.  He was born in Augusta, Maine and died in Sorrento, Maine.

 

1812 ~ Alexander Hamilton Stephens (né Alexander Hamilton Stephens; d. Mar. 4, 1813), Vice President of the Confederate States of America.  He served under Confederate President Jefferson Davis.  He died less than a month after his 71st birthday.

 

1802 ~ Lydia Maria Frances Child (née Lydia Maria Frances; d. Oct. 20, 1880), American journalist, abolitionist, and activist for women’s rights.  She was from Massachusetts.  She is best known for her poem Over the River and Through The Woods.  She died at age 78.

 

1800 ~ Henry Fox Talbot (né William Henry Fox Talbot; d. Sept. 17, 1877), English photographer and inventor.  He developed the Calotype process, a precursor of modern photography.  He died at age 77.

 

1535 ~ Pope Gregory XIV (né Niccolò Sfondrato, d. Oct. 16, 1591).  He was Pope from December 1590 until his death 10 months later.  He died at age 56.

 

1466 ~ Elizabeth of York (d. Feb. 11, 1503), wife of King Henry VII of England.  She died on her 37th birthday following complications of childbirth.  She was the mother of King Henry VIII.

 

1261 ~ Otto III, King of Hungary and Croatia (d. Nov. 9, 1312).  He ruled Hungary from December 6, 1305 until he abdicated in 1308.  He was the Duke of Lower Bavaria from February 2, 1290 until his death in November 1312.  He died at age 51.

 

855 ~ Li Congke (d. Jan. 11, 937), Chinese Emperor and last emperor of the Later Tang dynasty.  He ruled from May 834 until January 937.  He died in a mass suicide a month before his 52nd birthday.

 

Events that Changed the World:

 

2013 ~ Pope Benedict XVI (b. 1927) announced his intention to resign at the end of the month from the papacy.

 

2011 ~ After several weeks of protests in Egypt, Hosni Mubarak (1928 ~ 2020) surrendered his presidency to the military, ending 30 years of authoritarian rule.  Power was transferred to the Supreme Military Council.

 

2006 ~ United States Vice President Dick Cheney (b. 1941) accidently shot Harry Wittington (b. 1927) in the face while quail hunting in Texas.  Whittington recovered from his wounds.  Cheney never apologized for the incident.

 

1990 ~ Nelson Mandela (1918 ~ 2013) was released from prison after being imprisoned as a political prisoner for 27 years.

 

1979 ~ The Ayatolla Ruhollah Khomeini (1902 ~ 1989) established an Islamic theocracy in Iran.

 

1978 ~ China lifted its ban on the works of Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.

 

1973 ~ The first release of American prisoners of war in Vietnam began.

 

1971 ~ The Seabed Arms Control Treaty, which banned the emplacement of nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters, was signed.  Eighty-seven countries signed the treaty, including the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union.

 

1953 ~ The Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with Israel.

 

1953 ~ President Dwight David Eisenhower (1890 ~ 1969) refused a clemency appeal for Julius (1918 ~ 1953) and Ethel Rosenberg (1915 ~ 1953).  They were subsequently executed as spies against the United States.

 

1943 ~ General Dwight David Eisenhower (1890 ~ 1969) was selected to command the allied armies in Europe during World War II.

 

1916 ~ Emma Goldman (1869 ~ 1940) was arrested for lecturing on birth control.

 

1873 ~ King Amadeo I of Spain (1870 ~ 1890) abdicated as a result of the Spanish revolution, which ushered in the short-lived First Spanish Republic.  He fled to Italy, where he spent the rest of his life.

 

1861 ~ The United States House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution guaranteeing non-interference with slavery in any state.

 

1812 ~ Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry (1744 ~ 1814) signed legislation allowing the Republican-controlled legislature to designate voting districts to enhance certain partisan districting.  This practice became known as “gerrymandering”.

 

1794 ~ The first session of the United States Senate is opened to the public.

 

1790 ~ The Quakers begin to petition the United States Congress for the abolition of slavery.

 

1531 ~ Henry VIII, King of England (1491 ~ 1547) became recognized as the supreme head of the Church of England.

 

Good-Byes:

 

2020 ~ Joseph Shabalala (né Bhekizizwe Joseph Siphatimandla Mxoveni Mshengu Bigboy Shabalala; b. Aug. 28, 1941), South African singer who took South African sounds global.  He was the founder and musical director of the choral group Ladysmith Balck Mambazo.  He was born in Ladysmith, South Africa.  He died in Pretoria, South Africa at age 79.

 

2018 ~ Vic Damone (né Voto Rocco Farinola; b. June 12, 1928), the American velvet-voiced crooner who wowed Frank Sinatra.  He died at age 89.

 

2018 ~ Anthony Acevedo (né Anthony Claude Acevedo; b. July 31, 1924), American medic who documented the horrors of Nazi concentration camps.  He had been captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge.  He received a Red Cross care package that contained a diary and fountain pen.  He began to meticulously document his Holocaust ordeal.  He died at age 93.

 

2015 ~ Bob Simon (né Robert David Simon; b. May 29, 1941), American television foreign correspondent who was it all.  He was killed at age 73 from head injuries sustained when the taxi cab he was traveling in crashed.

 

2015 ~ Jerry Tarkanian (né Jerry Esther Tarkanian, b. Aug. 8, 1930), American rebel basketball coach who battled the NCAA.  He was the long-term head coach for the men’s basketball team at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he was known as Tark the Shark.  He was 84.

 

2012 ~ Whitney Houston (née Whitney Elizabeth Houston; b. Aug. 9, 1963), American pop goddess who fell from grace.  She died of drowning due to a drug overdose.  She was 48 years old.

 

2010 ~ Alexander McQueen (né Lee Alexander McQueen; b. Mar. 17, 1969), English fashion designer who embraced audacity.  He died by suicide at age 40 on the eve of his mother’s funeral.  She had died 9 days earlier.

 

2009 ~ Estelle Bennett (b. July 22, 1941), American sassy ‘60s singer who rocked with the Ronettes.  She died of colon cancer at age 67.

 

2009 ~ Willem Johan Kolff (b. Feb. 14, 1911), Dutch surgeon who was known as the father of artificial organs.  He died 3 days before his 98th birthday.

 

2008 ~ Tom Lantos (né Tamás Péter Lantos, b. Feb. 1, 1928), Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor who championed human rights.  He served in the United States House of Representatives, representing California, for over 25 years.  He died 10 days after his 80th birthday.

 

2006 ~ Peter Benchley (né Peter Bradford Benchley; b. May 8, 1940), American author and screenwriter.  He is best known for his novel Jaws.  He died of complications of pulmonary fibrosis at age 65.

 

2005 ~ Mary Jackson (née Mary Winston; b. Apr. 9, 1921), African-American mathematician and aerospace engineer at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor of NASA.  Her story was portrayed in the 2016 movie, Hidden Figures.  She died at age 83.

 

2000 ~ Roger Vadim (né Roger Vadim Plemiannikov; b. Jan. 26, 1928), French actor and director.  He was married 5 times to several women including Brigitte Bardot and Jane Fonda.  He died of cancer 16 days after his 72nd birthday.

 

1994 ~ William Conrad (né John William Cann, Jr.; b. Sept. 27, 1920), American actor.  He died at age 73.

 

1993 ~ Robert Holley (né Robert William Holley; b. Jan. 28, 1922), American biochemist and recipient of the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died 14 days after his 71st birthday.

 

1986 ~ Frank Herbert (né Frank Patrick Herbert, Jr.; b. Oct. 8, 1920), American science-fiction author best known for his science fiction series Dune.  He died at age 65.

 

1978 ~ Harry Martinson (b. May 6, 1904), Swedish author and recipient of the 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died by suicide at age 73 by cutting his stomach open with a pair of scissors.

 

1976 ~ Dorothy Maud Wrinch (b. Sept. 12, 1894), English mathematician and biochemical theorist.  She died in Falmouth, Massachusetts at age 81.

 

1973 ~ J. Hans D. Jensen (né Johannes Hans Daniel Jensen; b. June 25, 1907), German physicist and recipient of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 65.

 

1963 ~ Sylvia Plath (b. Oct. 27, 1932), American poet.  She was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  She was married to Ted Hughes.  She committed suicide at age 30.

 

1948 ~ Sergei Eisenstein (né Sergei Malkailovich Eisenstein; b. Jan. 22, 1898), Soviet film director and film theorist.  He is best known for his 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin.  He died of a heart attack 20 days after his 50th birthday.

 

1940 ~ Ellen Day Hale (b. Feb. 11, 1955), American impressionist artist and painter.  She was from Massachusetts.  She died on her 85th birthday.

 

1931 ~ Sir Charles Algeronon Parsons (b. June 13, 1854), Irish engineer and inventor of the steam turbine.  He died at age 76.

 

1923 ~ Wilhelm Killing (né Wilhelm Karl Joseph Killing; b. May 10, 1847), German mathematician.  He made important advancement is Lie algebra.  He died at age 75.

 

1901 ~ Milan I of Serbia (né Milan Obrenović; b. Aug. 22, 1854).  He ruled Serbia first as Prince, then as King from 1868 until 1889.  In January 1889, Milan adopted a new constitution and two months later abdicated the throne to his young son.  He died suddenly and unexpectedly at age 46.

 

1878 ~ Charles M. Conrad (né Charles Magill Conrad, b. Dec. 24, 1804), politician and United States Senator from Louisiana.  He was a senator from April 1842 until 1843.  He served as the 22nd United States Secretary of War under Presidents Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce from August 1850 until March 1853.  After Louisiana seceded from the Union, he served a member of the Confederate Congress.  He died in New Orleans, Louisiana at age 73.

 

1868 ~ Léon Foucault (né Jean Bernard Léon Foucault; b. Sept. 18, 1819), French physicist, best known for the invention of the Foucault pendulum.  He died at age 48.

 

1828 ~ DeWitt Clinton (b. Mar. 2, 1769), 6th Governor of New York.  He had also served as the Mayor of New York.  He died less than a month before his 59th birthday.

 

1650 ~ René Descartes (b. Mar. 31, 1596), French philosopher and mathematician.  He died of pneumonia at age 53.

 

1626 ~ Pietro Cataldi (né Pietro Antonio Cataldi; b. Apr. 15, 1552), Italian mathematician.  He died at age 77.

 

1617 ~ Giovanni Magini (né Giovanni Antonio Magini; b. June 13, 1555), Italian mathematician, cartographer and astronomer.  He died at age 61.

 

1503 ~ Elizabeth of York (b. Feb. 11, 1466), Queen consort of Henry VII of England.  She died on her 37th birthday following complications of childbirth.  She was the mother of King Henry VIII.

 

824 ~ Pope Paschal I (né Pascale Massimi).  He was pope from January 817 until his death on this date 7 years later.  The date of his birth is not known.

 

806 ~ Emperor Shunzong of Tang (b. 761).  The exact date of his birth is not known.

 

731 ~ Pope Gregory II (né Gregorius Sabellus, b. 669).  He was Pope from May 715 until his death nearly 16 years later.  The exact date of his birth is not known.

 

55 ~ Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus (b. Feb. 12, 41), heir to the Roman Emperorship, died under mysterious circumstances.  His death led to Nero stepping up to become Emperor.  He was the Roman son of Claudius.  He is believed to have died a day before his 14th birthday.

 

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