Thursday, June 9, 2022

June 9

Birthdays:

 

1981 ~ Natalie Portman (née Nata-Lee Hershlag), Israeli-born actress.  She was born at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, Israel.

 

1964 ~ Wayman Tisdale (né Wayman Lawrence Tisdale; d. May 15, 2009), African-American NBA basketball player who became a guitarist.  He was born in Fort Worth, Texas.  He died of cancer three weeks before his 45th birthday in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

1963 ~ Johnny Depp (né John Christopher Depp, II), American actor.  He was born in Owensboro, Kentucky.

 

1961 ~ Michael J. Fox (né Michael Andrew Fox), Canadian-American actor.  At age 29, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.  He became a strong advocate for fighting for a cause of this disease.  He was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

 

1961 ~ Aaron Sorkin (né Aaron Benjamin Sorkin), American screenwriter and producer.  He was born in Manhattan, New York.

 

1956 ~ Patricia Cornwell (née Patricia Carroll Daniels), American author of detective and crime novels.  She was born in Miami, Florida.

 

1952 ~ Uzi Hitman (d. Oct. 17, 2004), Israeli musician.  He died of a heart attack at age 52.

 

1939 ~ Charles Webb (né Charles Richard Webb; d. June 16, 2020), American novelist who wrote The Graduate and ran from success.  In 1963, when he was 24 years old, The Graduate was published.  He spent the rest of his life repudiating the novel.  He was born in San Francisco, California.  He died 7 days after his 81st birthday in England.

 

1933 ~ Don Young (née Donald Edwin Young; d. Mar. 18, 2022), American irascible congressman who got Alaska perks.  He served as member of the United States House of Representatives from March 1973 until his death 49 years later.  He was known for procuring billions of dollars in federal funds for the State, including the infamous “bridge to nowhere”. He was born in Meridian, California.  He died at age 88 in flight from Los Angeles, California to Seattle, Washington, before catching a plane to Alaska.  He was declared dead in SeaTac, Washington.

 

1931 ~ Phoebe Snetsinger (née Phoebe Geddes Bennett, d. Nov. 23, 1999), American birdwatcher.  She had identified nearly 8,400 species at the time of her death at age 68 in a car accident in Madagascar.  She was born in Lake Zurich, Illinois.

 

1928 ~ Jackie Mason (né Yacov Moshe Hakohen Maza; d. July 24, 2021), American ex-rabbi who became a comedy icon who made kvetching into comedy gold.  He was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.  He died at age 93 in Manhattan, New York.

 

1926 ~ Happy Rockefeller (née Margaretta Large Fitler; d. May 19, 1926), American socialite and philanthropist.  She was the wife of Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, making her the Second Lady of the United States.  She was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.  She died 21 days before her 89th birthday in Pocantico Hills, New York.

 

1921 ~ Arthur Hertzberg (né Avraham Hertzberg; d. Apr. 17, 2006), Polish-born American Conservative rabbi and scholar.  He died of heart failure at age 84 in Westwook New Jersey.

 

1916 ~ Robert McNamara (né Robert Strange McNamara; d. July 6, 2009), 8th United States Secretary of Defense who was undone by Vietnam.  He served under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson from January 1961 until February 1968.  He was a major figure in America’s role in the Vietnam War.  He was born in San Francisco, California.  He died less than a month before his 94th birthday in Washington, D.C.

 

1915 ~ Les Paul (né Lester William Polsfuss; d. Aug. 12, 2009), American guitarist and inventor.  He was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin.  He died at age 94 in White Plains, New York.

 

1912 ~ Gerald Whitrow (né Gerald James Whitrow; d. June 2, 2000), English mathematician.  He died 7 days before his 88th birthday.

 

1906 ~ Huguette Clark (née Huguette Marcelle Clark; d. May 24, 2011), American tycoon’s daughter who hid for seven decades.  She became a recluse and lived in various hospitals for the last 20 years of her life.  She is the subject of the book, Empty Mansions, by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.  She was born in Paris, France.  She died 16 days before her 105th birthday in New York, New York.

 

1891 ~ Cole Porter (né Cole Albert Porter; d. Oct. 15, 1964), American songwriter.  He was born in Peru, Indiana.  He died of kidney failure at age 73 in Santa Monica, California.

 

1875 ~ Sir Henry Dale (né Henry Hallett Dale; d. July 23, 1968), English pharmacologist and recipient of the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in the study of acetylcholine as an agent in the chemical transmission of nerve impulses.  He died at age 93

 

1861 ~ Pierre Duhem (né Pierre Maurice Marie Duhem; d. Sept. 14, 1916), French mathematician and physicist.  He died at age 55.

 

1851 ~ Charles Bonaparte (né Charles Joseph Bonaparte; d. June 28, 1921), 46th United States Attorney General.  He served under President Theodore Roosevelt.  He also served as the 37th Secretary of the Navy in President Roosevelt’s administration.  He died less than three weeks after his 70th birthday.

 

1843 ~ Baroness Bertha von Suttner (d. June 21, 1914), Austrian novelist and recipient of the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize.  She was the first woman to be awarded the Peace Prize.  She died less than 2 weeks after her 71st birthday.

 

1836 ~ Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (née Elizabeth Garrett; d. Dec. 17, 1917), English physician and woman’s rights advocate.  She was the first woman in Britain to qualify as a physician and surgeon.  She died at age 81.

 

1672 ~ Peter I, Tsar of Russia (d. Feb. 8, 1725).  He was also known as Peter the Great.  He co-ruled with his older half-brother, Ivan V, for a few years before Ivan’s death in 1696.  Peter led a cultural reform in Russia, based on Western’s Europe’s Enlightenment.  He married twice.  His first wife was Eudoxia Lupukhina.  After they divorced, he married Martha Skavronskaya.  He was of the House of Romanov.  He was the son of Tsar Alexis I, Tsar of Russia and his second wife, Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina.  He died at age 52 on the 49th anniversary of his father’s death and the 29thanniversary of his half-brother’s death.

 

1661 ~ Feodor III, Tsar of Russia (d. May 7, 1682).  He was Tsar from 1676 until his death in 1682.  He was married twice.  His first wife was Agafiya Semyonovna Grushetskaya.  After her death, he married Marfa Apraxina.  He was of the House of Romanov.  He was the son of Alexis I, Tsar of Russia and Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya.  He died about a month before his 21st birthday.  His young death sparked the Moscow Uprising of 1682.

 

1640 ~ Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. May 5, 1705).  He reigned from July 1658 until his death 57 years later.  He was married three times.  His first wife was Margaret Theresa of Spain.  After her death, he married Claudia Felicitas of Austria.  His third wife was Eleonore Magdalena of Neuburg.  He was of the House of Habsburg.  He was the son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, and Maria Anna of Spain.  He died about a month before his 65th birthday.

 

Events that Changed the World:

 

1993 ~ Naruhito, Emperor of Japan (b. 1960) married commoner Masako Owada (b. 1963).  At the time of their marriage, he was the Japanese Crown Prince.

 

1978 ~ The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons) opened its priesthood to “all worthy men”, thereby ending a 148-year-old policy excluding black men from participating in the liturgy.

 

1973 ~ Secretariat won the Triple Crown in horse racing.

 

1967 ~ Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six-Day War.

 

1959 ~ The USS George Washington was launched.  It is the first American submarine to carry ballistic missiles.

 

1958 ~ London’s Gatwick Airport was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II (b. 1926).  The airport is actually located just outside of London.

 

1934 ~ The Disney character Donald Duck first appeared in a movie.  The movie was The Wise Little Hen.

 

1923 ~ Bulgaria’s military took over the government in a coup.

 

1915 ~ William Jennings Bryan (1860 ~ 1925) resigned as Secretary of State in the Woodrow Wilson administration over a disagreement in the United States’ handling of the sinking of the RHS Lusitania.  This event is recounted in Erik Larson’s book, Dead Wake.

 

1815 ~ Luxembourg declared its independence from France.

 

1732 ~ James Oglethorpe (1696 ~ 1785) was granted a royal charter for the colony of Georgia.

 

1534 ~ Jacques Cartier (1491 ~ 1557) became the first recorded European to discover the St. Lawrence River.

 

Good-Byes:

 

2017 ~ Adam West (né William West Anderson; b. Sept. 19, 1928), American actor best known for his role as Batman in the 1960s television show of the same name.  He died of leukemia at age 88.

 

2016 ~ Richard Shrimsley (b. Jan. 13, 1931), British journalist.  He died at age 85.

 

2009 ~ Norman Brinker (né Norman Eugene Brinker; b. June 3, 1931), American restaurateur who pioneered the salad bar.  He was born in Denver, Colorado.  He died 6 days after his 78th birthday in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

 

1994 ~ Jan Tinbergen (b. Apr. 12, 1903), Dutch economist and recipient of the 1969 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science.  He died at age 91.

 

1989 ~ George Beadle (né George Wells Beadle; b. Oct. 22, 1903), American geneticist and recipient of the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died at age 85.

 

1982 ~ Elmer Robinson (né Elmer Edward Robinson; b. Oct. 3, 1894), American politician and 33rd Mayor of San Francisco.  He served as Mayor from 1948 until 1856.  He was born in San Francisco, California.  He died at age 87 in Paradise, California.

 

1981 ~ Allen Ludden (né Allen Packard Ellsworth; b. Oct. 5, 1917), American game show host and husband of Betty White.  He died of stomach cancer at age 63.

 

1975 ~ Albert Spencer, 7th Earl Spencer (né Albert Edward John Spencer; b. May 23, 1892), British peer and grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales.  He died 17 days before his 84th birthday.

 

1974 ~ Miguel Ángel Asturias (b. Oct. 19, 1899), Guatemalan writer and recipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 74.

 

1974 ~ Katharine Cornell (b. Feb. 16, 1893), American stage actress.  She was born in Berlin, Germany.  She died in Tisbury, Massachusetts at age 81.

 

1962 ~ Polly Adler (née Pearl Adler; b. Apr. 16, 1900), Russian-born American madam and author.  She was born in Yanow, Belarus.  She died of cancer at age 62 in Hollywood, California.

 

1959 ~ Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus (b. Dec. 25, 1876), German chemist and recipient of the 1928 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on sterols and their relation to vitamins.  He died at age 82.

 

1927 ~ Victoria Woodhull (née Victoria California Claflin; b. Sept. 23, 1838), American suffragist.  In 1872, she ran for President, however, she was under the constitutionally mandated age for being President at the time.  In November 1853, she married Canning Woodhull.  She was barely 15 years old at the time.  Her husband was an alcoholic and a womanizer, so she divorced him, but kept his name because she had 2 children.  She died in England at age 88.

 

1911 ~ Carrie Nation (née Carrie Amelia Moore; b. Nov. 25, 1846), American temperance advocate.  She was born in Garrard County, Kentucky.  She died at age 64 in Leavenworth, Kansas.

 

1871 ~ Anna Atkins (née Anna Children; b. Mar. 16, 1799), British botanist and photographer.  She is considered to be the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images.  She died at age 72.

 

1870 ~ Charles Dickens (né Charles John Huffman Dickens; b. Feb. 7, 1812), British novelist, best known for such novels as Oliver Twist and Great Expectations.  He died of a stroke at age 58.

 

1820 ~ Judith Sargent Murray (née Judith Sargent; b. May 1, 1751), American activist for women’s rights and playwright.  She was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts and died in Natchez, Mississippi.  She was 69 years old at the time of her death.

 

1572 ~ Jeanne III, Queen of Navarre (b. Nov. 16, 1528).  She reigned from May 1555 until her death in 1572.  She was of the House of Albret.  She was the daughter of Henry II, King of Navarre and Margaret of Angoulême.  She died at age 43.

 

1505 ~ Hongzhi (b. July 30, 1470), 10th Chinese Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.  He reigned from September 1487 until his death 18 years later.  He died at age 34

 

68 ~ Nero (b. Dec. 15, 37), Roman Emperor.  This is the traditional date ascribed to Nero’s death at age 30.


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