Birthdays:
1987 ~ Constance Wu, Taiwanese-American actress best known for her role as Jessica Huang on the television comedy Fresh Off the Boat.
1976 ~ Reese Witherspoon (née Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon), American actress. She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1959 ~ Matthew Modine (né Matthew Avery Modine), American actor. He was born in Loma Linda, California.
1955 ~ Lena Olin (née Lena Marie Jonna Olin), Swedish actress. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden.
1948 ~ Wolf Blitzer (né Wolf Isaac Blitzer), American journalist and television news anchor on CNN. He was born in Augsburg, Germany.
1948 ~ Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber, English director and composer. He was born in London, England.
1946 ~ Rudy Rucker (né Rudolf von Bitter Rucker), American mathematician. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky.
1934 ~ Orrin Hatch (né Orrin Grant Hatch), American lawyer and politician. He is a United States Senator from Utah and served as the President pro tempore of the United States Senate from January 2015 until January 2019. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1931 ~ Burton Richter (d. July 18, 2018), American physicist and recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics. He died at age 87.
1931 ~ William Shatner, Canadian actor best known for his role as Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek. He was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
1930 ~ Stephen Sondheim (né Stephen Joshua Sondheim), American composer and songwriter. He was born in New York, New York.
1924 ~ Paul Fussell, Jr. (d. May 23, 2012), American cultural and literary historian who saw irony in war. He died at age 88.
1924 ~ Al Neuharth (né Allen Harold Neuharth; d. Apr. 19, 2013), American publisher who revolutionized newspapers. He was the founder of USA Today. He died 27 days after his 89th birthday.
1923 ~ Marcel Marceau (né Marcel Mengel; d. Sept. 22, 2007), French mime artist. He was 84 years old.
1920 ~ Werner Klemperer (d. Dec. 6, 2000), German-born actor best known for his role as Captain Klink on the television sit-com Hogan’s Heroes. He died of cancer at age 80.
1920 ~ Katsuko Saruhashi (d. Sept. 29, 2007), Japanese geochemist who turned radioactive fallout into a scientific legacy. She made some of the first measurements of carbon dioxide levels in seawater and subsequently showed the evidence in seawater and the atmosphere of the dangers of radioactive fallout. She died of pneumonia at age 87.
1917 ~ Irving Kaplansky (d. June 25, 2006), Canadian-born mathematician. He died at age 89.
1915 ~ John McConnell (d. Oct. 20, 2012), American peace activist and creator of Earth Day. He died at age 97.
1912 ~ Karl Malden (né Mladen George Sekulovich, d. July 1, 2009), American not-quite leading man who made average Joes shine. He was primarily a character actor and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in A Streetcar Named Desire. He was also known for his role in the television crime drama The Streets of San Francisco. He died at age 97.
1908 ~ Louis L’Amour (né Louis Dearborn L’Amour; d. June 10, 1988), American writer of western novels. He died of lung cancer at age 80.
1887 ~ Chico Marx (né Leonard Marx; d. Oct. 11, 1961), American comedian and actor. He was the eldest of the five Marx brothers. He died of arteriolosclerosis at age 74.
1885 ~ Aryeh Levin (d. Mar. 28, 1969), Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi. He died 6 days after his 84th birthday.
1868 ~ Robert Millikan (né Robert Andrews Millikan; d. Dec. 19, 1953), American physicist and recipient of the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the photoelectric effect. He died at age 85.
1857 ~ Paul Doumer (né Joseph Athanase Gaston Paul Doumer; d. May 7, 1932), President of France. He was president from 1931 until his assassination a year later. Prior to entering politics, Doumer was a professor of mathematics. He was 75 years old at the time of his death.
1817 ~ Braxton Bragg (d. Sept. 27, 1876), Confederate General during the American Civil War. He died suddenly and unexpectedly at age 59. Fort Bragg in North Carolina is named in his honor.
1797 ~ Wilhelm I, German Emperor (d. Mar. 9, 1888). He was the first German Emperor. He reigned as German Emperor from January 18, 1871 until his death in March 1888. He was also the King of Prussia from January 2, 1861 until his death. In 1829, he married Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar. They had 2 children. He was of the House of Hohenzollern. He was the son of Frederick William III, King of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He was Lutheran. He died 13 days before his 91st birthday. He was succeeded by his son, Frederick III, German Emperor.
1615 ~ Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh (d. Dec. 3, 1691), British scientist and chemist. She was the sister of Robert Boyle and assisted him in his work in chemistry. She died at age 76.
1609 ~ John II Casimir Vasa (d. Dec. 16, 1672), King of Poland from 1648 until his abdication in 1668. He died at age 63.
1599 ~ Sir Anthony van Dyck (né Antoon van Dyck, d. Dec. 9, 1641), Flemish painter. He died in London at age 42 following a long illness.
1459 ~ Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. Jan 12, 1519). He ruled as the Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death in 1519. He died at age 59.
1394 ~ Ulugh Beg (né Mīrza Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh, d. Oct. 27, 1449), Persian mathematician and astronomer. He was also a ruler and sultan. He is best known for his work in trigonometry and geometry. His academic legacy was the creation of the Ulugh Beg Observatory. He died at age 55.
Events that Changed the World:
2019 ~ Robert Mueller (b. 1944) delivered his report on the Russian government’s influence on Donald Trump’s election in the 2016 presidential election.
2017 ~ Terror attack in London. A suspected terrorist plowed his vehicle into a crowd of people near Parliament, killing 4 people and injuring numerous people. He then stabbed a police officer to death.
2014 ~ A significant oil spill occurred in the Houston Ship Canal after a 585-foot bulk carrier collided with an oil tanker, spilling approximately 1,000,000 gallons of intermediate fuel oil and 170,000 gallons of tar-like oil into the waters of the Gulf Coast. Numerous bird habitats in Galveston Bay were threatened.
1997 ~ The Hale-Bopp Comet made its closest recorded approach to Earth.
1972 ~ The United States Supreme Court, in Eisenstadt v. Baird, ruled that unmarried couples have the right to access contraceptives. Justice William Brennan authored the opinion.
1972 ~ The United States Congress sent the Equal Rights Amendment to the States for ratification. It has yet to be ratified.
1963 ~ The Beatles’ first album, Please Please Me, was released in the United Kingdom.
1960 ~ The first patent for a laser was issued. Theodore Maiman (1927 ~ 2007) is credited with inventing the first working laser, based upon the theoretical work of Arthur Schawlow (1921 ~ 1999) and Charles Townes (1915 ~ 2015). Both Schawlow and Townes were later awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in the development of lasers, in 1981 and 1964, respectively.
1945 ~ The Arab League was founded in Cairo, Egypt. The Arab League is a regional organization of Arab countries. The original six country members were Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria.
1941 ~ The 99th Pursuit Squadron, better known as the Tuskegee Airmen, was activated. This was the first all African-American Air Army Corps.
1933 ~ The concentration at Dachau, the first Nazi concentration camp, was completed and opened with the arrival of about 200 prisoners from Munich’s Stadelheim Prison.
1916 ~ Yuan Shikai (1859 ~ 1916), the last Emperor of China, abdicated the throne and the Republic of China was restored. He would die 3 months later from an illness.
1894 ~ The Montreal Hockey Club beat the Ottawa Hockey Club 3-1 in the first Stanley Cup Final game. The first Stanley Cup playoff games had begun 5 days earlier, on March 17, 1894.
1872 ~ Illinois became the first State in the United States to require sexual equality in employment.
1765 ~ The British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, which levied a tax directly on the American colonies.
1638 ~ Anne Hutchinson (1591 ~ 1643), a Puritan spiritual leader, was expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.
1630 ~ The Massachusetts Bay Colony outlawed the possession of cards, dice and gaming tables.
1622 ~ This is the date ascribed to when a group Algonquian Indians killed 347 English settlers in the Jamestown, Virginia colony.
1621 ~ The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony signed a peace treaty with the Massasoit (d. 1661) the leader of the Wampanoag Indians.
1508 ~ King Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452 ~ 1516) commissioned Amerigo Vespucci (1454 ~ 1512) as the chief navigator of the Spanish Empire.
Good-Byes:
2018 ~ Charles Lazarus (né Charles Philip Lazarus; b. Oct. 4, 1923), American retail pioneer who build a toy empire. In 1957, he opened the first Toys-R-Us store. Ironically, the chain stores closed and the company filed for bankruptcy just a week before his death at age 94.
2018 ~ Johan van Hulst (né Johan Willem van Hulst; b. Jan. 28, 1911), Dutch teacher who saved hundreds of children during the Holocaust. He was the principal at a teachers college that was situated next to a nursery. He helped to develop an elaborate scheme to stop the children from being sent to concentration camps by the Nazis. He received the Yad Vashem distinction Righteous Among the Nations from Israel in 1973. He died at age 107.
2017 ~ Francine Hughes Wilson (b. Aug. 17, 1947), American domestic violence victim who inspired The Burning Bed. In March 1977, after suffering years of abuse, she set fire to her husband while he was sleeping. She immediately recognized the horror of her actions and turned herself in to police. Although she was charged with first-degree murder, she was acquitted by the jury. She died of pneumonia at age 69.
2017 ~ Dallas Green (né George Dallas Green; b. Aug. 4, 1934), American outspoken baseball coach who took the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series in 1980. He died of kidney disease at age 82.
2013 ~ Bebo Valdés (né Dionisio Ramón Emilio Valdés Amaro; b. Oct. 9, 1918), Cuban pianist and bandleader. He was 94 years old.
2010 ~ Sir James Black (né James Whyte Black; b. June 14, 1924), Scottish physician and recipient of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He was 85 years old.
2005 ~ Kenzō Tange (b. Sept. 4, 1913), Japanese architect. He was 91 years old.
2004 ~ Janet Akyüz Mattei (née Janet Akyüz; b. Jan. 2, 1943), Turkish-American astronomer. She was the head of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. She died of leukemia in Boston, Massachusetts at age 61.
2001 ~ William Hanna (né William Denby Hanna, b. July 14, 1910), American cartoon animator and co-founder of Hanna-Barbera. He died of throat cancer at age 90.
1994 ~ Walter Lantz (né Walter Benjamin Lantz; b. Apr. 27, 1899), American animator, screenwriter and actor. He is best known for creating such cartoon characters as Woody Woodpecker. He died of heart failure a month before his 95th birthday.
1978 ~ Karl Wallenda (b. Jan. 21, 1905), German-born acrobat and member of the Flying Wallendas. He fell from an attempted high-wire walk between two towers of a ten-story building in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was 73 years old.
1973 ~ Hilda Geiringer (b. Sept. 28, 1893), Austrian mathematician. In the early 1930, she and her then fiancé moved to Turkey to escape the Nazis. She later moved to the United States. She died at age 79
1958 ~ Mike Todd (né Avrom Hirsch Goldbogen; b. June 22, 1909), American film producer and third husband of Elizabeth Taylor. He was the only husband that Taylor did not divorce, however, he was killed in a plane crash a year after their marriage. He was 48 at the time of his death.
1945 ~ John Hessin Clarke (b. Sept. 18, 1857), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was nominated to the High Court by President Woodrow Wilson. He served as an Associate Justice from July 1916 until September 1922. He replaced Charles Hughes on the Court. He was succeeded in the Court by George Sutherland. He died at age 87.
1924 ~ Sir William Macewen (b. June 22, 1948), Scottish surgeon and neuroscientist. He is best known for his pioneering work in brain surgery and bone grafts. He died at age 75.
1912 ~ John Noble (né John Willock Nobel; b. Oct. 26, 1831), 18th United States Secretary of the Interior. He served under President Benjamin Harrison from March 1889 until March 1893. He died at age 80.
1889 ~ Stanley Matthews (né Thomas Stanley Matthews, b. July 21, 1824), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was nominated to the High Court by President James Garfield. He replaced Noah Swayne on the Court. He was succeeded by David Brewer. He served on the Court from May 1881 until his death 8 years later. He died at age 64.
1845 ~ Cassandra Austen (née Cassandra Elizabeth Austen; b. Jan. 9, 1773), English watercolorist and older sister of writer Jane Austen. She died of a stroke at age 72.
1840 ~ Étienne Bobillier (b. Apr. 17, 1798), French mathematician. He died of an illness less than a month before his 42nd birthday. The crater Bobillier on the moon is named in his honor.
1832 ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (b. Aug. 28, 1749), German writer and politician. He died at age 82.
1820 ~ Stephen Decatur, Jr. (b. Jan. 5, 1779), American naval officer during the American Revolutionary War. He is known for his heroism during the Barbary Wars and in the War of 1812. He was killed in a duel at age 41.
1758 ~ Jonathan Edwards (b. Oct. 5, 1703), American Congregationalist theologian on colonial America. He died at age 54.
1544 ~ Johannes Magnus (b. Mar. 19, 1488), Swedish archbishop and theologian. He was the last functioning Catholic bishop in Sweden. He died 3 days after his 56th birthday.
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