Birthdays:
1967 ~ David Berman (né David Cloud Berman; d. Aug. 7, 2019), American musician, poet and cartoonist. He is best known for his work with the indie-rock band the Silver Jews. He was born in Williamsburg, Virginia. He died by suicide at age 52 in Brooklyn, New York.
1965 ~ Julia Ormond (née Julia Karin Ormond), English actress. She was born in Epsom, United Kingdom.
1964 ~ Dot-Marie Jones (née Dorothy-Marie Jones), American actress and athlete. She is best known for her role as Coach Beiste on Glee. She was born in Turlock, California.
1963 ~ Dave Foley (né David Scott Foley), Canadian comedian and actor. He was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
1958 ~ Andy Borowitz, American writer, satirist, and comedian. He was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
1958 ~ Matt Frewer (né Matthew George Frewer), Canadian-American actor. He is best known for portraying Max Headroom. He was born in Washington, D.C.
1945 ~ Richard R. Schrock (né Richard Royce Schrock), American chemist and recipient of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He was born in Berne, Indiana.
1943 ~ Doris Kearns Goodwin (né Doris Helen Kearns), American historian and writer. She earned her undergraduate degree from Colby College. She was born in New York, New York.
1940 ~ Helmut Jahn (d. May 8, 2021), German-American brash architect who aimed to dazzle. He was born in Nuremberg, Germany. He was killed in a bicycling accident at age 81 in Campton Hills, Illinois.
1940 ~ Brian Josephson (né Brian David Josephson), Welsh physicist and recipient of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics. He was born in Cardiff, Wales.
1940 ~ Gao Xingjian, Chinese-born novelist and recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in Ganzhou, China.
1937 ~ Dyan Cannon (née Samille Diane Friesen), American actress. She was also Cary Grant’s 4th wife. She was born in Tacoma, Washington.
1935 ~ Floyd Patterson (d. May 11, 2006), American professional heavyweight boxing champion. He was born in Waco, North Carolina. He died at age 71 in New Paltz, New York.
1932 ~ Shoshichi Kobayashi (d. Aug. 29, 2012), Japanese mathematician. He was born and died in Kōfu, Japan. He was 80 years old.
1930 ~ Don Shula (né Donald Francis Shula; d. May 4, 2020), American NFL football player and coach who kept on winning. He was born in Grand River, Ohio. He died at age 90 in Indian Creek, Florida.
1920 ~ William Colby (né William Egan Colby; d. Apr. 27, 1996), 10th Director of the Central Intelligence. He served under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford from September 1973 until January 1996. He died in what appeared to be a boating accident. He took off on a canoe near Rock Point, Maryland on April 27, 1996. His body was discovered on May 6, 1996. Although the coroner determined that he died drowning after having suffered a stroke or heart attack, there has been speculation that his death may have been due to foul play or suicide. He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was 76 years old.
1914 ~ Herman Franks (né Herman Louis Franks; d. Mar. 30, 2009), American baseball catcher and manager. He was born in Price, Utah. He died at 95 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
1902 ~ John A. McCone (né John Alexander McCone; d. Feb. 14, 1991), 6th Director of the Central Intelligence. He served under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from November 1961 until April 1965. He was born in San Francisco, California. He died at age 89 in Pebble Beach, California.
1896 ~ Everett Dirksen (né Everett McKinley Dirksen; d. Sept. 7, 1969), United States Senator from Illinois. He was born in Pekin, Illinois. He died at age 73 in Washington, D.C.
1895 ~ Leroy Grumman (né Leroy Randel Grumman; d. Oct. 4, 1982), American engineer and co-founder of the Grumman Aeronautical Engineering Company. He was born in Harrington, New York. He died at age 87 in Manhasset, New York.
1858 ~ Carter Glass (d. May 28, 1946), 47th United States Secretary of the Treasury. He served during President Woodrow Wilson’s term, from December 1918 until February 1920. He subsequently became a United States Senator from Virginia from February 1920 until his death in May 1946. He was born in Lynchburg, Virginia. He died at age 88 in Washington, D.C.
1838 ~ General Tom Thumb (né Charles Sherwood Stratton; d. July 15, 1883), American circus performer. He was a dwarf who achieved fame as a performer in the P.T. Barnum circus. He was born and died in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He died at age 45.
1809 ~ Louis Braille (d. Jan. 6, 1852), French teacher of the blind and inventor of the Braille system of printing and writing for the blind. An accident at age 3, followed by a serious infection, left him blind. He died, most likely of tuberculosis, 2 days after his 43rd birthday in Paris, France.
1785 ~ Jacob Grimm (né Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm; b. Sept. 20, 1863), German attorney and author. He is best known for his work along with his brother, Wilhelm (1786 ~ 1859), for compiling the Grimm Fairy Tales. He died at age 78.
1772 ~ Caesar Augustus Rodney (d. June 10, 1824), 6th United States Attorney General. He served under Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison from January 1807 until December 1811. He subsequently became a United States Senator from Delaware from January 1882 until January 1823. He was born in Dover, Delaware. He died at age 52 in Buenos Aries, Argentina while serving as the United States Minister to Argentina.
1643 ~ Sir Isaac Newton (d. Mar. 31, 1727), English mathematician, astronomer, physicist, philosopher and natural scientist. He is credited with inventing a branch of mathematics called calculus. Under the old calendar (the Julian calendar), Newton’s birthdate would fall on December 25, 1642, so that date is sometime listed as his actual birthdate. He is believed to have been 84 at the time of his death.
1567 ~ François d’Aguilon (d. Mar. 20, 1617), Belgian Jesuit priest and mathematician. He was born in Brussels, Belgium. He died at age 50 in Antwerp, Belgium.
1077 ~ Emperor Zhezong (d. Feb. 23, 1100), Chinese Emperor of the Song dynasty. He ruled from April 1085 until his death 15 years later. He was of the House of Zhezong. He died at age 24.
Events that Changed the World:
2010 ~ The tallest man-made structure at the time, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, opened. It is 2,717 feet high.
2007 ~ Nancy Peliso (b. 1940) was elected the first female Speaker of the United States House of Representatives by a vote of her peers. She served in that position from January 2007 until January 2011. She served a 2nd term as Speaker of the House beginning in January 2019.
2006 ~ Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (1928 ~ 2014) suffered a second and serious stroke. Ehud Omert (b. 1945) became acting Prime Minister. Sharon remained in a vegetative state until his death on just over 5 years later, on January 11, 2014.
1999 ~ Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura (b. 1951) was sworn in as Governor of Minnesota. He served as Governor until January 2003.
1995 ~ The Republicans gained control of the United States Congress for the first time in 40 years.
1987 ~ An Amtrak train traveling to Boston, Massachusetts from Washington, D.C., collided with Conrail engines in Maryland. Sixteen people were killed in the accident.
1965 ~ United States President Lyndon Johnson (1908 ~ 1973) announced his “Great Society” during his State of the Union address.
1948 ~ Burma gained its independence from the United Kingdom.
1903 ~ Topsy the Elephant (1875 ~ 1903) was electrocuted by its owners at Coney Island because the elephant no longer had a handler and was considered dangerous. Thomas Edison’s movie company filmed the electrocution. It was a gruesome death.
1896 ~ Utah became the 45th State of the Union.
1865 ~ The New York Stock Exchange opened its first permanent headquarters near Wall Street in New York City.
1847 ~ Samuel Colt (1814 ~ 1862) sold his first colt pistols to the United States government.
1762 ~ Great Britain entered the Seven Years’ War when it declared war on Spain.
1649 ~ The English Rump Parliament voted to hold a trial of Charles I, King of England (1600 ~ 1949), in furtherance of the English Civil War. He would be found guilty of high treason and executed.
1642 ~ Charles I, King of England (1600 ~ 1649) sent his soldiers to arrest members of Parliament, thus instigating England’s Civil War.
871 ~ Æthedred of Wessex (847 ~ 871) was defeated by an invading Danish army during the Battle of Reading.
Good-Byes:
2021 ~ Martinus Veltman (né Martinus Justinus Godefriedus Veltman; b. June 27, 1931), Dutch physicist and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in particle theory. He was born in Waalwijk, Netherlands. He died at age 89 in Bilthoven, Netherlands.
2019 ~ Eugeniu Iordachescu (b. Nov. 8, 1929), Romanian civil engineer who rolled Romanian churches to safety. When the Communist Party came into Romania, it intended to demolish ancient churches in the country. Eugeniu Iordachescu persuaded the government to relocate these churches. He died of a heart attack at age 89.
2019 ~ Harold Brown (b. Sept. 19, 1927), 14th United States Secretary of Defense. He served from January 1977 until January 1981 during the Jimmy Carter Administration. He also served as the 8th United States Secretary of the Air Force from October 1965 until Feb. 1969 during the Lyndon Johnson administration. He was born in New York, New York. He died at age 91 in Rancho Santa Fe, California.
2018 ~ Aharon Appelfeld (b. Feb. 16, 1932), Israeli author and Holocaust survivor. He was born in Bukovina, Romania. He died at age 85 in Petah Tikva, Israel.
2018 ~ Brendan Byrne (né Brendan Thomas Bryne; b. Apr. 1, 1924), 47th Governor of New Jersey. He served as Governor from January 1974 through January 1982. He was born in West Orange, New Jersey. He died at age 93 in Livingston, New Jersey.
2012 ~ Eve Arnold (née Eve Cohen; b. Apr. 21, 1912), American photojournalist. She was the master photographer of telling portraits. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She died at age 99 in London, England.
2010 ~ Tsutomu Yamaguchi (b. Mar. 16, 1916), Japanese survivor of both Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings during World War II. He was an engineer. He was born and died in Nagasaki, Japan. He died of stomach cancer at age 93.
2005 ~ Frank Harary (b. Mar. 11, 1921), American mathematician. He specialized in graph theory. He was born in New York, New York. He died at age 83 in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
2005 ~ Robert L. Heilbroner (b. Mar. 24, 1919), American economics and historian of economic thought. He was the educator who made economics interesting. He was born and died in New York, New York. He died at age 84.
2004 ~ Joan Aiken (née Joan Delano Aiken; b. Sept. 4, 1924), English author of gothic novels. She died at age 79.
2001 ~ Les Brown, Sr. (né Lester Raymond Brown; b. Mar. 14, 1912), American saxophonist and bandleader. He was born in Reinerton, Pennsylvania. He died at age 88 in Pacific Palisades, California.
1982 ~ Margaret Culkin Banning (née Margaret Frances Culkin; b. Mar. 18, 1891), American novelist. She was born in Buffalo, Minnesota. She died in Tyron, North Carolina at age 90.
1965 ~ T.S. Eliot (né Thomas Stearns Eliot; b. Sept. 26, 1888), American-born British poet and recipient of the 1948 Nobel Prize for Literature. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He died of emphysema at age 76 in London, England.
1961 ~ Erwin Schrödinger (né Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger; b. Aug. 12, 1887), Austrian physicist and recipient of the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics. He is best known for his thought experiment, or paradox, of Schrödinger’s cat, which illustrated the problem of an interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. Under this theory, a cat is randomly put into a box where it being both alive and dead are possibilities. He was born and died in Vienna, Austria. He died of tuberculosis at age 73.
1960 ~ Albert Camus (b. Nov. 7, 1913), Algerian-born French Existentialist writer and philosopher. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in Dréan, Algeria. He was killed in a car accident at age 46 in Villeblevin, France.
1958 ~ Archie Alexander (né Archie Alphonso Alexander; b. May 14, 1888), African-American engineer and mathematician. In 1954, he was appointed to serve as the Governor of the United States Virgin Islands. He served in that position from 1954 until 1955. He was born in Ottumwa, Iowa. He died at age 69 in Des Moines, Iowa.
1941 ~ Henri Bergson (né Henri-Louis Bergson; b. Oct. 18, 1859), French philosopher and recipient of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in Paris, France. He died in occupied France of bronchitis at age 81.
1931 ~ Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife (b. Feb. 20, 1867). She was married to Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife. She was of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She was the eldest daughter of Edward VII, King of England and Alexandra of Denmark. She died at age 63.
1926 ~ Margherita of Savoy (b. Nov. 20, 1851), Queen consort of Italy and wife of Umberto I, King of Italy. She was of the House of Savoy-Genoa. She was the daughter of Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Genoa and Princess Elisabeth of Saxony. She died at age 74.
1926 ~ Mary Eliza Mahoney (b. May 7, 1845), African-American nurse and social activist. She was the first African-American to train and work as a professional nurse. She was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She died at age 80 in Boston, Massachusetts.
1904 ~ Anna Winlock (b. Sept. 15, 1857), American astronomer. She is best remembered for her calculations and studies of asteroids. She was one of the first members of the female computer group known as the Harvard Computers. She was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She died suddenly at age 47 in Boston, Massachusetts.
1903 ~ Topsy (b. 1875), the circus elephant that was killed by electrocution. The elephant had killed three people, including its abusive trainer, thus the decision was made to put the animal down. Electrocution was new technology and was deemed to be the most humane.
1877 ~ Cornelius Vanderbilt (b. May 27, 1794), American industrialist and philanthropist. He was known as Commodore Vanderbilt. He was the founder of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He was born in Staten Island, New York. He died at age 82 in Manhattan, New York.
1849 ~ Franz Xaver Gabelsberger (b. Feb. 9, 1789), German inventor of stenography. He was born and died in Munich, Germany. He died about a month before his 60th birthday.
1825 ~ Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies (b. Jan. 12, 1751). He reigned from December 1816 until his death in January 1825. He was married first to Maria Carolina of Austria. After her death, he married Lucia Migliaccio. He was of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. He was the son of Charles II, King of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony. He was born and died in Naples, Italy. He died 8 days before his at age 74th birthday.
1821 ~ Elizabeth Ann Seton (née Elizabeth Ann Bayley; b. Aug. 28, 1774), American Catholic nun and American saint. She was canonized as a saint in 1975. She was born in New York, New York. She died at age 46 of tuberculosis in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
1786 ~ Moses Mendelssohn (b. Sept. 6, 1729), German-Jewish philosopher. He died at age 56.
1761 ~ Stephen Hales (b. Sept. 17, 1677), English clergyman, physiologist and chemist. He invented the Forceps for use in medical procedures. He is also the first person known to measure blood pressure. He died at age 83.
1752 ~ Gabriel Cramer (b. July 31, 1704), Swiss mathematician. He was born in Geneva, Republic of Geneva. He died at age 47 in Bagnols-sur-Cèze, France.
1248 ~ Sancho II, King of Portugal (b. Sept. 8, 1209). He reigned from March 1223 until his death. He was married to Mércia Lopes de Haro. He was of the House of Burgundy. He was the son of Afonso II, King of Portugal and Urraca of Castile. He died at age 38.
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