Birthdays:
1952 ~ Zoran Đinđić (d. Mar. 12, 2003), 6th Prime Minister of Serbia. He served as Prime Minister from January 2001 until March 2003, when he was assassinated. He had previously served as the 67th Mayor of Belgrade. He was assassinated in Belgrade, Serbia at age 50.
1945 ~ Douglas Osheroff (né Douglas Dean Osheroff), American physicist and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physics. He was born in Aberdeen, Washington.
1942 ~ Jerry Garcia (né Jerome John Garcia; d. Aug. 9, 1995), American musician and front man for the band The Grateful Dead. He was born in San Francisco, California. He died of a heart attack 8 days after his 53rd birthday in Forest Knolls, California.
1941 ~ Ron Brown (né Ronald Harmon Brown; d. Apr. 3, 1996), 30th United States Secretary of Commerce. He was the first African-American to hold this position. He served under President Bill Clinton from January 1993 until his death 3 months later. He was killed while in Office when the plane he was in crashed in Croatia. He was 54 years old. All 35 crew and passengers aboard the plane were killed. He was born in Washington, D.C.
1939 ~ Robert James Waller (d. Mar. 10, 2017), American author who made Madison County famous. He is best known for his novel The Bridges of Madison County. He was born in Charles City, Iowa. He died at age 77 in Fredericksburg, Texas.
1936 ~ Yves Saint Laurent (d. June 1, 2008), French fashion designer. He was born in Oran, French Algeria. He died at age 71 of brain cancer in Paris, France.
1933 ~ Dom DeLuise (né Dominick DeLuise; d. May 4, 2009), American actor and comedian. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He died of kidney cancer at age 75 in Santa Monica, California.
1932 ~ Meir Kahane (né Meir David HaKohen Kahane; d. Nov. 5, 1990), Orthodox rabbi and American founder of the Jewish Defense League. He was assassinated after giving a speech in Brooklyn. He was born and died in New York, New York. He was 58 years old.
1930 ~ Károly Grósz (d. Jan. 7, 1996), Communist leader of Hungary. He died of kidney cancer at age 65.
1930 ~ Lawrence Eagleburger (né Lawrence Sidney Eagleburger; d. June 4, 2011), 62nd United States Secretary of State. He was the career diplomat beloved for his bluntness. He served briefly in that Office under President George H.W. Bush from December 1992 until January 1993. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He died of pneumonia at age 80 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
1930 ~ Geoffrey Holder (né Geoffrey Lamont Holder; d. Oct. 5, 2014), Trinidadian-American actor and dancer who excelled across art forms. He was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He died at age 84 in New York, New York.
1927 ~ María Teresa López Boegeholz (d. June 6, 2006), Chilean oceanographer. She is considered a pioneer in the field of marine science. She died at age 78 following a long illness.
1927 ~ John Smale (né John Gray Smale; d. Nov. 19, 2011), Canadian executive who lead Proctor and Gamble to growth. He was born in Listowel, Ontario, Canada. He died at age 84 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1920 ~ Henrietta Lacks (née Loretta Pleasant; d. Oct. 4, 1951), African-American woman whose cancerous cervical cells were the first known to survive in culture. These cells are known as HeLa cells, and are used today to aid in medical research. She was born in Roanoke, Virginia. She died of cervical cancer at age 31 in Baltimore, Maryland. Her story is depicted in the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.
1918 ~ T.J. Jemison (né Theodore Judson Jemison; d. Nov. 15, 2013), African-American minister and civil rights activist. He was born in Selma, Alabama. He died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at age 95.
1910 ~ Gerda Taro (née Gerdt Pororylle; d. July 26, 1937), Jewish-German war photographer. She photographed many events during the Spanish Civil War. She is regarded as the first female photojournalist to cover the front lines of a war. She was killed following a vehicular accident while covering the war events. She died 6 days before her 27th birthday.
1905 ~ Helen Sawyer Hogg (née Helen Battles Sawyer; d. Jan. 28, 1993), American-Canadian astronomer. She is known for her pioneering research into global clusters. She was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. She died in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada at age 87.
1885 ~ George de Hevesy (né György Károly Hevesy; d. July 5, 1966), Hungarian chemist and recipient of the 1943 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in radioactive tracers. He died 26 days before his 81st birthday.
1881 ~ Otto Toeplitz (d. Feb. 15, 1940), German mathematician best known for his work in functional analysis. He emigrated to what is now Israel in 1938. He died of tuberculosis at age 58 in Jerusalem.
1881 ~ Dame Rose Macaulay (née Emilie Rose Macaulay; d. Oct. 30, 1958), British writer. She is best known for her semi-autobiographical novel The Towers of Trebizond. She was born in Rugby, England. She died at age 77 in London, England.
1863 ~ Gaston Doumergue (d. June 18, 1937), President of France from June 1924 until June 1931. He was born and died in Aigues-Vives, France.He died at age 73.
1843 ~ Robert Todd Lincoln (d. July 26, 1926), oldest son of President Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. He served as the 35th United States Secretary of War under Presidents James Garfield and Chester Arthur. He served in that office from March 1881 until March 1886. He died a week before his 83rd birthday.
1837 ~ Mother Jones (née Mary G. Harris; d. Nov. 30, 1930), American labor organizer. Her actual birthdate is unknown, although she was baptized on August 1, 1837. May 1 is ascribed to her birth because it is International Labor Day. She was 93 at the time of her death.
1819 ~ Herman Melville (d. Sept. 28, 1891), American novelist best known for his novel Moby Dick. He was heavily influenced by Richard Henry Dana’s novel, Two Years Before the Mast, when he wrote Moby Dick. Interestingly, they were both born on the same day, just 4 years apart. He was born and died in New York, New York. He died at age 72.
1818 ~ Maria Mitchell (d. June 28, 1889), American astronomer. She was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts. She died of brain disease at age 70 in Lynn, Massachusetts.
1815 ~ Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (d. Jan. 6, 1882), American lawyer and author, best known for his novel/memoir Two Years Before the Mast. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He died at age 66.
1779 ~ Francis Scott Key (d. Jan. 11, 1843), American lawyer who is best known for writing the words to the Star Spangled Banner, the American National Anthem. He died at age 63.
1770 ~ William Clark (d. Sept. 1, 1838), American explorer who, along with Meriwether Lewis, led the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition throughout the Louisiana territory to the Pacific Northwest in 1804. He later served as the 4th Governor of the Missouri Territory. He died a month after his 68th birthday.
1744 ~ Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (né Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck, d. Dec. 18, 1829), French soldier and naturalist. He died at age 85.
1626 ~ Sabbatai Zevi (d. Sept. 17, 1676), Sephardic-Turkish rabbi who claimed to be the Messiah. He ultimately was forced to convert to Islam by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV. He died at age 50.
1068 ~ Taizu (d. Sept. 19, 1123), 1st Chinese Emperor of the Jin Dynasty. He ruled from January 1115 until his death 8 years later. He died at age 55.
10 BCE ~ The traditional date ascribed to the death of Roman Emperor Claudius (d. Oct. 13, 54 AD), Roman Emperor. He was poisoned under mysterious circumstances and his 17-year old stepson, Nero, succeeded him as emperor. Claudius is believed to have been about 63 at the time of his death.
Events that Changed the World:
2011 ~ The first day of Ramadan.
2008 ~ Eleven mountaineers from international expeditions died on K-2, the second highest mountain in Earth, making this the worst single accident to date in the history of K-2 mountaineering.
2007 ~ The Interstate I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed during even rush hour. Thirteen people were killed and nearly 150 others were injured.
2001 ~ In the middle of the night, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore (b. 1947) installed a monument of the Ten Commandments in the courthouse. He did not tell his fellow justices, but did allow a Christian television station to film the installation. The monument was first seen by the public on the morning of August 1, 2001. This led to a lawsuit to have it removed, and in November 2003, Moore was removed from office. In 2012, however, he was reelected to the office of Alabama Chief Justice.
1993 ~ The Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993 came to a peak.
1981 ~ MTV made its debut. The first video aired was Video Killed the Radio Star, by The Buggles.
1980 ~ Vigdís Finnbogadótti (b. 1930) took office as the first democratically elected head of state when she became the President of Iceland. She served in that Office for 16 years, until Aug. 1, 1996.
1966 ~ Charles Whitman (1941 ~ 1966), a mathematics student at the University of Texas in Austin, holed himself in the University’s bell tower went on a shooting spree killed 16 people on campus. He was ultimately shot and killed by police.
1966 ~ China begins purging intellectuals and imperialists, thereby marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.
1965 ~ The science fiction novel, Dune, by Frank Herbert (1920 ~ 1986), was first published.
1964 ~ The Belgian Congo was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
1960 ~ Islamabad was declared the federal capital of the Government of Pakistan.
1957 ~ The United States and Canada formed the North American Air Defense Command (NOARD).
1950 ~ Guam was organized as a United States Commonwealth.
1944 ~ The Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi occupation broke out in Warsaw, Poland.
1936 ~ The 1936 Summer Olympics opened in Berlin. Adolf Hitler presided over the opening ceremony.
1914 ~ Germany declared war on Russia in what ultimately would become known as World War I.
1911 ~ Harriet Quimby (1875 ~ 1912) passed her pilot’s test, becoming the first American woman to earn an Aero Club of America aviator’s certificate. Sadly, she was killed in a plane crash a year later at age 37.
1893 ~ Henry Perky (1843 ~ 1906) patented a process for shredded wheat. He opened his first bakery to make shredded wheat biscuits in Boston in 1895. In 1928, after his death, his company was sold to Nabisco.
1876 ~ Colorado became the 38th State of the United States of America.
1834 ~ Slavery was abolished in the British Empire.
1831 ~ The “new” London Bridge opened to the public.
1800 ~ The Acts of Union of 1800 was passed thereby merging the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1774 ~ Joseph Priestly (1733 ~ 1804) discovered oxygen gas.
1714 ~ King George I (1660 ~ 1727) became King of Great Britain. His ascendancy to the throne marked the beginning of the Georgian era in British history. He reigned until his death in 1727.
1498 ~ Christopher Columbus (1451 ~ 1506) and his crew became the first known Europeans to visit what is now known as Venezuela.
527 ~ Justinian I (482 ~ 565) became the sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire. He ruled until his death 38 years later.
Good-Byes:
2020 ~ Wilford Brimley (né Anthony Wilford Brimley; b. Sept. 27, 1934), American cowboy turned actor who starred in Cocoon. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He died at age 95 in St. George, Utah.
2019 ~ D.A. Pennebaker (né Donn Alan Pennebaker; b. July 15, 1925), American documentarian who showed life up close. He was born in Evanston, Illinois. He died 17 days after his 94th birthday in Sag Harbor, New York.
2016 ~ Queen Anne of Romania (b. Sept. 18, 1923), wife of King Michael I of Romania. She died at age 92.
2015 ~ Vincent Marotta, Sr., (né Vincent George Marotta; b. Feb. 22, 1924), American businessman who revolutionized coffee-making. He invented the Mr. Coffee. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. He died at age 91 years old in Pepper Pike, Ohio.
2009 ~ Corazon Aquino (née Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco; b. Jan. 25, 1933), 11th President of the Philippines. She was in office from February 1986 until June 1992. She was 76 at the time of her death of cancer.
1996 ~ Tadeusz Reichstein (b. July 20, 1897), Polish chemist and recipient of the 1950 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He died 2 weeks after his 99th birthday.
1977 ~ Francis Gary Powers (b. Aug. 17, 1929), American pilot who was shot down while on a reconnaissance mission over the Soviet Union in 1960. He was captured and served in a hard labor camp before being released in in a prisoner exchange 1962. This event is depicted in the film Bridge of Spies. He was killed in a helicopter crash just 16 days before his 47th birthday.
1970 ~ Frances Farmer (née Frances Elena Farmer, b. Sept. 19, 1913), American actress. She died at age 56 of esophageal cancer.
1970 ~ Otto Heinrich Warburg (b. Oct. 8, 1883), German physician and biochemist. He was the recipient of the 1931 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He died at age 86.
1967 ~ Richard Kuhn (né Richard Johann Kuhn; b. Dec. 3, 1900), Austrian biochemist and recipient of the 1938 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. During World War II, he collaborated with high-ranking Nazi officials and denounced three of his Jewish co-workers. He was 66 years old at the time of his death.
1919 ~ Oscar Hammerstein I (b. May 8, 1846), American businessman and composer. He was the grandfather of composer Oscar Hammerstein II. He was born in Szczecin, Poland. He died at age 73 in Manhattan, Kansas.
1903 ~ Calamity Jane (née Martha Jane Cannary; b. May 1, 1852), American Wild West frontierswoman. She died at age 51.
1714 ~ Queen Anne of Great Britain (b. Feb. 6, 1665). She was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland. She was the first Queen of Britain, which was formed when the Kingdom of Scotland united with the Kingdom of England and Wales. She was also the Queen of Ireland. She was the last monarch of the royal House of Stuart. None of her children survived her. She was succeeded by a distant cousin, George, Elector of Hanover. She was 49 at the time of her death. She was in ill health. The 2018 movie, The Favourite, is a fictionalized version of the last years of her life.
1464 ~ Cosimo de’Medici (b. Sept. 27, 1389), Italian ruler. He died at age 74.
1137 ~ King Louis VI of France (b. Dec. 1, 1081). He was known as Louis the Fat. He reigned as King of France from July 1108 until his death 29 years later. He died at age 55.
527 ~ Justin I (b. Feb. 2, 450), Byzantine Emperor. He ruled from September 518 until his death in August 527. He was married to Euphemia. He is believed to have been about 77 at the time of his death.
30 BCE ~ The traditional date ascribed to the death of Marc Antony (b. Jan. 14, 83 BCE), Roman politician, general and lover of Cleopatra. He is believed to have been about 53 at the time of his death.
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