Saturday, February 5, 2022

February 5

Birthdays:

 

1987 ~ Darren Criss (né Darren Everett Criss), American actor best known for his role Blaine Anderson in the television series Glee.  He was born in San Francisco, California.

 

1972 ~ Mary (née Mary Elizabeth Donaldson), Crown Princess of Denmark and wife of Crown Prince Frederik.  She was born in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

 

1969 ~ Michael Sheen (né Michael Christopher Sheen), Welsh actor.  He was born in Newport, Wales.

 

1962 ~ Jennifer Jason Leigh (née Jennifer Leigh Morrow), American actress.  She was born in Hollywood, California.

 

1961 ~ Timothy Meadows, American comedian and actor.  He was born in Highland Park, Michigan.

 

1948 ~ Christopher Guest, British and American film director and actor.  He is formally known as Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guess.  He is married to Jamie Lee Curtis.  He was born in New York, New York.

 

1948 ~ Barbara Hershey (née Barbara Lynn Herzstein), American actress.  She was born in Hollywood, California.

 

1948 ~ Errol Morris (né Errol Mark Morris), American documentary film director.  He is best known for his film The Thin Blue Line.  He was born in Hewlett, New York.

 

1948 ~ Tom Wilkinson (né Thomas Geoffrey Wilkinson), English actor.  He is best known for his role as Gerald in The Full Monty.  He was born in Wharfedale, England.

 

1947 ~ Mary L. Cleave (née Mary Louise Cleave), American engineer and astronaut.  She was born in Southampton, New York.

 

1946 ~ Charlotte Rampling (née Tessa Charlotte Rampling), English actress.  She was born in Sturmer, Essex, England.

 

1945 ~ Sarah Weddington (née Sarah Catherine Ragle; d. Dec. 26, 2022), American attorney and law professor.  She was the attorney who in 1971, at just age 26 and with almost no legal experience, appeared before the United States Supreme Court to successfully argue Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that would legalize abortion in the United States.  She was born in Abilene, Texas.  She died at age 76 in Austin, Texas.

 

1942 ~ Roger Staubach (né Roger Thomas Staubach), American professional football player.  He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.

 

1941 ~ Stephen J. Cannell (né Stephen Joseph Cannell; d. Sept. 30, 2010), American scriptwriter and movie producer.  He was born in Los Angeles, California.  He died at age 69 of cancer in Pasadene, California.

 

1940 ~ H.R. Giger (né Hans Rudolf Giger; d. May 12, 2014), Swiss artist who made monsters.  He was a surreal artist who designed the monster in the movie Alien.  He died at age 74 from injuries suffered in a fall.

 

1939 ~ Jane Bryant Quinn, American finance journalist.  She was born in Niagara Falls, New York.

 

1937 ~ Alar Toomre, Estonian-born American astronomer and mathematician.  He was born in Rakvere, Estonia.  His family emigrated to the United States in 1949 following the Soviet occupation of Estonia.

 

1934 ~ Hank Aaron (né Henry Louis Aaron; d. Jan. 22, 2021), African-American baseball player.  He was the home run king who bested Babe Ruth.  He played for 21 seasons for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves.  He is known as Hammerin’Hank.  He was born in Mobile, Alabama.  He died just 14 days before his 87th birthday in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

1929 ~ Hal Blaine (né Harold Simon Belsky; d. Mar. 11, 2019), American session drummer who defined the pop beat.  He was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts.  He died about a month after his 90th birthday in Palm Desert, California.

 

1928 ~ Andrew Greeley (d. May 29, 2013), American Catholic maverick priest who chided his church.  He also wrote novels of straying priests and detective thrillers.  He was born in Oak Park, Illinois.  He died at age 85 in Chicago, Illinois.

 

1927 ~ Ruth Fertel (née Ruth Ann Udstad; d. Apr. 16, 2002), founder of Ruth’s Chris Steak House.  She was a Louisiana businesswoman, born and died in New Orleans.  She died at age 75.

 

1926 ~ Arthur Ochs Sulzberger (d. Sept. 29, 2012), American newspaper chief who published the Pentagon Papers the New York Times.  He was known as Punch.  He was born in New York, New York.  He died in Southampton, New York at age 86.

 

1919 ~ Cornelia Clark Fort (d. Mar. 21, 1943), First American female pilot to be killed during United States Military service.  She was born in Nashville, Tennessee.  She died in Merkel, Texas.  She was 24 years old at the time of her death.

 

1919 ~ Andreas Papandreou (d. June 23, 1996), Prime Minister of Greece.  He died at age 77.

 

1919 ~ Red Buttons (né Aaron Chwatt; d. July 13, 2006), American actor.  He was born in New York, New York.  He died of vascular disease at age 87 in Los Angeles, California.

 

1915 ~ Robert Hofstadter (d. Nov. 17, 1990), American physicist and recipient of the 1961 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He was born in New York, New York.  He died in Stanford, Connecticut at age 75.

 

1915 ~ Margaret Millar (née Margaret Ellis Sturm; d. Mar. 26, 1994), American-Canadian mystery writer.  She was born in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.  She died at age 79 in Santa Barbara, California.

 

1914 ~ William S. Burroughs (né William Seward Burroughs, II; d. Aug. 2, 1997), American author.  He was a primary figure in the Beat Generation.  He was born in St. Louis, Missouri.  He died at age 83 in Lawrence, Kansas.

 

1914 ~ Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (d. Dec. 20, 1998), British biophysicist and recipient of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died at age 84.

 

1908 ~ Peg Entwistle (née Millicent Lilian Entwistle; d. Sept. 16, 1932), Welsh-born American actress.  She was a stage actress who appeared in one movie.  She is best known for her suicide.  She jumped off the “H” in the Hollywood sign. She was 24 years old.

 

1906 ~ John Carradine (né Richmond Reed Carradine; d. Nov. 27, 1988), American actor.  He was born in New York, New York.  He died at age 82 in Milan, Italy.  His body was buried at sea.

 

1900 ~ Adlai E. Stevenson, II (né Adlai Ewing Stevenson, II; d. July 14, 1965), American politician and 5th United States Ambassador to the United Nations.  He was the Democratic candidate for President in the 1952 presidential campaign.  He had previously served as the Governor of Illinois.  He was born in Los Angeles, California.  He died of a massive heart attack at age 65 in London, England.

 

1878 ~ André Citroën (né André-Gustave Citroën; d. July 3, 1935), French industrialist and founder of the Citroën Company.  He was born and died in Paris, France.  He died of stomach cancer at age 57.

 

1858 ~ Mahlon R. Pitney, IV (d. Dec. 9, 1924), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was nominated to the High Court by President William Taft.  He served on the Court from March 1912 through December 1922.  He wrote the majority opinion in Frank v. Magnum, which upheld the wrongful murder conviction of Leo Frank.  He replaced John Harlan on the Court.  He was succeeded by Edward Sanford.  He was born in Morristown, New Jersey.  He died in Washington, D.C., at age 66, two years after his retirement from the Court.

 

1848 ~ Belle Starr (née Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr; d. February 3, 1889), American Wild West outlaw.  She was born in Carthage, Missouri.  She was killed in Briartown, Oklahoma just 2 days before her 41st birthday under mysterious circumstances.  Her murderer was never found.

 

1788 ~ Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (d. July 2, 1850), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He served two terms as Prime Minister, the first from December 1834 to April 1835 during the reign of William IV, King of the United Kingdom and second from August 1841 until June 1846 during the reign of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom.  He died at age 62.

 

1784 ~ Nancy Hanks Lincoln (née Nancy Hanks; d. Oct. 5, 1818), American mother of Abraham Lincoln.  She died in at age 34 when Abraham Lincoln was only 9 years old.

 

1725 ~ James Otis, Jr. (d. May 23, 1783), early American lawyer and patriot.  He was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts Bay Colony.  He died at age 58 after being struck by lightning in Andover, Massachusetts.

 

1608 ~ Gaspar Schott (d. May 22, 1666), German mathematician and Jesuit priest.  He died at age 66.

 

Events that Changed the World:

 

2020 ~ The United States Senate acquitted President Donald Trump (b. 1946) of all impeachment charges in his first impeachment trial.  All Republican Senators, with the exception of Mitt Romney (b. 1947), voted to acquit the president.

 

2017 ~ The New England Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons in a score of 34 to 28 in Super Bowl LI, which was held in Houston, Texas.

 

2008 ~ A series of major tornados swept across the Southern United States, killing at least 57 people.

 

2000 ~ Russian forces massacred over 60 civilians in Grozny, Chechnya.

 

1997 ~ The so-called Big Three Banks in Switzerland announced the creation of a $71M fund to assist Holocaust survivors and their families.

 

1994 ~ Byron De La Beckwith (1920 ~ 2001) was convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers (1925 ~ 1963).

 

1988 ~ Manuel Noriega (1934 ~ 2017) was indicted in drug smuggling and money laundering charges.

 

1976 ~ A swine flu outbreak was recognized at Fort Dix, New Jersey.  The flu had begun to spread a few days earlier.

 

1975 ~ In Lima, Peru, the police forces went on strike, which resulted in massive riots throughout the city.  The riots, known as the Limazo, was suppressed by the military dictatorship.

 

1971 ~ The Apollo 14 mission landed on the moon.  The crew on the mission were Alan Shepard (1923 ~ 1998), Stuart Roosa (1933 ~ 1994) and Edgar Mitchell (1930 ~ 2016).

 

1958 ~ During an exercise practice by the United States Air Force, an F-86 fighter plane collided with a B-47 bomber that was carrying a hydrogen bomb.  The bomb, known as the Tybee Bomb, was jettisoned of the coast of Savannah, Georgia, near Tybee Island.  The bomb has never been recovered.

 

1958 ~ Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918 ~ 1970) was nominated as the first president of the United Arab Republic.

 

1939 ~ Generalísimo Francisco Franco (1892 ~ 1975) became the dictator of Spain.  He would rule Spain until his death in 1975.

 

1937 ~ President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 ~ 1945) announced his plan to pack the Supreme Court by increasing the number of justices who could serve on the United States Supreme Court at any given time.  This would have given him authority to appoint additional justices who would, presumably support his policies.

 

1919 ~ United Artists studio was created by Charlie Chaplin (1889 ~ 1977), Mary Pickford, (1892 ~ 1979) Douglas Fairbanks (1883 ~ 1939) and D.W. Griffith (1875 ~ 1948).

 

1918 ~ During World War I, Stephen W. Thompson (1894 ~ 1977) became the first member of the United States military to shoot down an enemy aircraft when he shot down a German plane over Saarbrücken, Germany.

 

1917 ~ The United States Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917, which banned immigration from nearly all south and southeast Asia.  The Act was passed over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto.

 

1909 ~ Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland (1863 ~ 1944) created Bakelite, the first synthetic plastic.

 

1885 ~ Leopold II, King of Belgium (1835 ~ 1909) established the Congo as his personal possession.

 

1852 ~ The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia opened to the public.  It is one of the oldest and largest museums in the world.

 

1818 ~ Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (1763 ~ 1844) ascended to the thrones of Sweden and Norway as Charles XIV John.

 

1852 ~ The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia opened to the public.  It is one of the oldest and largest museums in the world.

 

1783 ~ A series of massive earthquakes struck in Calabria, Italy.

 

1778 ~ South Carolina became the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

 

1649 ~ The Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II (), King of England and Scotland to be the King of Great Britain.  Neither the Parliament of England nor the Parliament of Ireland ratified this action.  England entered the period known as the English Interregnum, or the English Commonwealth.  In practice, he did not become the undisputed King of England until May 1660.  England became a de facto republic, lead by Oliver Cromwell (1599 ~ 1658), who was a virtual dictator of England, Scotland and Ireland.

 

1631 ~ Roger Williams (1603 ~ 1683) immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts from London, England.

 

62 ~ Pompeii, Italy is believed to have been struck by a severe earthquake.

 

Good-Byes:

 

2021 ~ Christopher Plummer (né Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer; b. Dec. 13, 1929), Canadian Shakespearean actor best known for his role as Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music.  He despised this film and referred to it as The Sound of Mucus.  He was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  He died at age 91 in Weston, Connecticut of injuries sustained in a fall.

 

2020 ~ Beverly Pepper (né Beverly Stoll; b. Dec. 20, 1922), American sculptor who found beauty in medal.  She is known for her monumental works and land art.  She was born in Brooklyn, New York.  She died at age 97 in Todi, Italy.

 

2020 ~ Stanley N. Cohen (b. Nov. 17, 1922), American biologist and recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in the isolation of nerve growth factor and the discovery of epidermal growth factor.  He was born in Brooklyn, New York.  He died at age 97 in Nashville, Tennessee

 

2020 ~ Kirk Douglas (né Issur Danielovitch; b. Dec. 9, 1916), American actor.  He was the Spartacus star who blazed his own path in Hollywood.  He was born in Amsterdam, New York.  He died at age 103 in Beverly Hills, California.

 

2015 ~ Val Logsdon Fitch (b. Mar. 10, 1923), American nuclear physicist and recipient of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He was born in Merriman, Nebraska.  He died in Princeton, New Jersey about a month before his 92nd birthday.

 

2013 ~ Stuart Freeborn (b. Sept. 5, 1914), British makeup artist who gave Star Wars life.  He was born and died in London, England.  He died at age 98.

 

2011 ~ Brian Jacques (né James Brian Jacques; b. June 15, 1939), British milkman and writer who sold 20 million books.  He was born and died in Liverpool, England.  He died at age 71.

 

1999 ~ Wassily Leontief (b. Aug. 5, 1905), Russian economist and recipient of the 1973 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.  He was born in Munich, German Empire.  He died at age 93 in New York, New York.

 

1988 ~ Dorothy Lewis Bernstein (b. Apr. 11, 1914), American mathematician.  She was the first woman elected to be president of the Mathematics Association of American.  She was born in Chicago, Illinois.  She died at age 73 in Providence, Rhode Island.

 

1983 ~ Margaret Oakley Dayoff (né Margaret Belle Oakley; b. Mar. 11, 1925), American biochemist and physical chemist.  She was a pioneer in bioinformation.  She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  She died of a heart attack at age 57 in Silver Spring, Maryland.

 

1981 ~ Ella Grasso (née Ella Rosa Giovianna Oliva Tambussi; b. May 10, 1919), 83rd Governor of Connecticut.  She served as Governor from January 1975 through December 31, 1980.  She was born in Windsor Locks, Connecticut.  She died of ovarian cancer at age 61 in Hartford, Connecticut.

 

1972 ~ Marianne Moore (née Marianne Craig Moore; b. Nov. 15, 1887), American poet.  She was born in Kirkwood, Missouri.  She died at age 84 in New York, New York.

 

1967 ~ L. L. Bean (né Leon Leonwood Bean; b. Oct. 13, 1872), American inventor, author, outdoor enthusiast and founder of L.L. Bean’s Sporting Goods Store.  He was born in Greenwood, Maine.  He died at age 94 in Pompano Beach, Florida.

 

1953 ~ Iuliu Maniu (b. Jan. 8, 1873), Prime Minister of Romania.  He served for three terms as Prime Minister between 1928 and 1933.  He died in prison less than a month after his 80th birthday.

 

1947 ~ Hans Fallada (né Rudolf Wilhelm Friedrich Ditzen, b. July 21, 1893), German novelist best known for his novel, Every Man Dies Alone.  He died at age 53.

 

1931 ~ Athanasios Eftaxias (b. 1849), Prime Minister of Greece.  He served as Prime Minister briefly from July to August in 1926.  The exact date of his birth is not known.

 

1922 ~ Slavoljub Penkala (né Slavoljub Eduard Penkala; b. Apr. 20, 1871), Croatian engineer and inventor.  He invented the mechanical pencil.  He died of pneumonia at age 50.

 

1882 ~ Elizabeth Louisa Mather (née Elizabeth Louisa Foster; b. Jan. 7, 1815), American writer and social activist.  She was born in East Haddam, Connecticut.  She died about a month after her 67th birthday.

 

1881 ~ Thomas Carlyle (b. Dec. 4, 1795), Scottish writer, historian, and mathematician.  He died at age 85 in London, England.

 

1819 ~ Hannah Van Buren (née Hannah Hoes; b. Mar. 8, 1783), wife of United States President Martin Van Buren.  Even though she died before her husband became president, she is sometimes considered to be a First Lady.  She was born in Kinderhook, New York.  She died of tuberculosis in Albany, New York about a month before her 36th birthday.

 

1818 ~ Charles XIII, King of Sweden (b. Oct. 7, 1748).  He was married to Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp.  He was of the House of Holstein-Gottorp.  He was the son of Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden and Louisa Ulrika of Prussia.  He died at age 69.

 

1661 ~ Shunzhi Emperor (b. Mar. 15, 1638), 2nd Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.  He was also the first emperor to rule over China proper.  He died at age 22. 


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