Thursday, September 15, 2022

September 15

Birthdays:

 

1984 ~ Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, member of the British royal family.  In 2018, he married the American actress Meghan Markle.  He is of the House of Windsor.  He is the son of Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales.

 

1977 ~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigerian writer.  She was born in Enugu, Nigeria.

 

1977 ~ Tom Hardy (né Edward Thomas Hardy), British actor.  He was born in London, England.

 

1973 ~ Prince Daniel (né Olof Daniel Westling), Duke of Västergötland.  He is the husband of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden.  They married in 2010.  He was a personal trainer and gym owner prior to their marriage.  He is the son of Olle Westling and Ewa Westring.

 

1972 ~ Letizia Rocasolano (née Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano), Queen consort of Spain and wife of Felipe VI, King of Spain.  He is her second husband.  When she and Felipe married, he was the Prince of Asturias.  She had previously been married to Alonso Guerrero Pérez.  It was a brief marriage that lasted only a year.  She is the daughter of Jesús José Ortiz Álvarez and Maíia de la Paloma Roscasolano Rodríguez.

 

1958 ~ Wendie Jo Sperber (d. Nov. 29, 2005), American actress.  She was born in Hollywood, California.  She died of breast cancer at age 47 in Sherman Oaks, California.

 

1947 ~ Russel Honoré, African-American Lieutenant General.  He is best known for serving as commander of the Joint Task Force during the Hurricane Katrina by coordinating the military relief efforts.  He is sometimes referred to as The Ragin’ Cajun.  He was born in Lakeland, Louisiana.

 

1946 ~ Tommy Lee Jones, American actor.  He was born in San Saba, Texas

 

1946 ~ Oliver Stone (né William Oliver Stone), American film director.  He was born in New York, New York.

 

1938 ~ Sylvia Moy (née Sylvia Rose Moy; d. Apr. 15, 2017), African-American songwriter who saved Stevie Wonder’s career.  She was born in Detroit, Michigan.  She died of complications from pneumonia at age 78 in Dearborn, Michigan.

 

1938 ~ Gaylord Perry (né Gaylord Jackson Perry), American baseball player.  He was born in Williamston, North Carolina.

 

1937 ~ Fernando de la Rúa (d. July 9, 2019), President of Argentina.  He served as President from December 1999 until December 2001.  He died at age 81.

 

1937 ~ Robert Lucas, Jr., (né Robert Emerson Lucas, Jr.) American economist and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.  He was born in Yakima, Washington.

 

1929 ~ Murray Gell-Mann (d. May 24, 2019), American physicist and recipient of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He is known for coining the term Quark.  He was born in Manhattan, New York.  He died at age 89 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

 

1926 ~ Ed Derwinski (né Edward Joseph Derwinksi; d. Jan. 15, 2012), 1st United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs.  He served from 1989 to 1992 under President George H.W. Bush.  He was born in Chicago, Illinois.  He died at age 85 in Oak Brook, Illinois.

 

1926 ~ Jean-Pierre Serre, French mathematician.  He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1954.  He is best known for his contributions to algebraic topology, algebraic geometry, and algebraic number theory.  He was born in Bages, France.

 

1925 ~ Forrest Compton (d. Apr. 2, 2020), American actor and World War II veteran.  He is best known for his portrayal of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Gray on the 1960s sit-com Gomer Pyle.  He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania.  He died at age 94 in Shelter Island, New York from complications of Covid-19.

 

1924 ~ Bobby Short (né Robert Waltrip Short; d. Mar. 21, 2005), African-American musician.  He was born in Danville, Illinois.  He died at age 80 in New York, New York.

 

1924 ~ György Lázár (d. Oct. 2, 2014), Hungarian politician who served as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the People’s Republic of Hungary.  He served in this Office from May 1975 until June 1987.  He was born in Isaszeg, Hungary.  He died in Budapest, Hungary just 2 weeks after his 90th birthday.

 

1918 ~ Nipsey Russell (né Julius Russell, d. Oct. 2, 2005), African-American comedian.  He was born in Atlanta, Georgia.  He died just over 2 weeks following his 87th birthday in New York, New York.

 

1913 ~ John N. Mitchell (né John Newton Mitchell; d. Nov. 9, 1988), 67th United States Attorney General.  He served under President Richard Nixon from January 1969 until March 1972.  He was born in Detroit, Michigan.  He died of a heart attack at age 75 in Washington, D.C.

 

1911 ~ Luther Terry (né Luther Leonidas Terry; d. Mar. 29, 1985), 9th Surgeon General of the United States.  He served under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.  He is best known for his warnings against the dangers of tobacco usage.  He was born in Red Level, Alabama.  He died of heart failure at 73 years old in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

 

1907 ~ Fay Wray (née Vina Fay Wray; d. Aug. 8, 2004), American actress best known for her role as the lead female character in King Kong.  She was born in Cardston, Alberta, Canada.  She died at age 96 in New York, New York.

 

1904 ~ Umberto II, King of Italy (d. Mar. 18, 1983).  He ruled Italy for only a few weeks: from May to June 1946.  He was the last King of Italy.  He was married to Marie-José of Belgium.  He was of the House of Savoy.  He was the son of Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy and Princess Elena of Montenegro.  After Italy became a republic, Umberto lived the remainder of his life in exile.  He died at age 78.

 

1903 ~ Roy Acuff (né Roy Claxton Acuff; d. Nov. 23, 1992), American country music singer and fiddler.  He was born in Maynardville, Tennessee.  He died at age 89 in Nashville, Tennessee.

 

1903 ~ Yisrael Kristal (né Izrael Icek Kryształ; d. Aug. 11, 2017), Polish-born Israeli holocaust survivor.  In 2016, he finally celebrated his bar mitzvah.  He missed his bar mitzvah because when he turned 13, Poland was in the midst of World War I.  During World War II, he was sent to Auschwitz.  After the war, he emigrated to Israel.  In 2014, he was recognized as the oldest living Holocaust survivor.  He died in Haifa, Israel about a month before his 114th birthday.

 

1895 ~ Magda Lupescu (née Elena Lupescu; d. June 29, 1977), Romanian mistress of Carol II, King of Romania.  After his abdication, she became his wife.  The actual date of her birth is in dispute.  She is believed to have been 81 at the time of her death.

 

1894 ~ Jean Renoir (d. Feb. 12, 1979), French movie director and son of artist Pierre-August Renoir.  He was born in Paris, France.  He died at age 84 in Beverly Hills, California.

 

1890 ~ Dame Agatha Christie, Lady Mallowan (née Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller; d. Jan. 12, 1976), British mystery writer.  She died at age 85.

 

1889 ~ Robert Benchley (né Robert Charles Benchley; d. Nov. 21, 1945); American humorist and actor.  He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts.  He died at age 56 in New York, New York.

 

1888 ~ Hanna Rovina (d. Feb. 3, 1980), Israeli actress.  She is known as the First Lady of Hebrew Theater.  She was born in Byerazino, Belarus.  She died at age 91 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

 

1887 ~ Carlos Dávila (né Carlos Gregorio Dávila Espinoza; d. Oct. 19, 1955), Chilean journalist and President of Chile. He was born in Los Ángeles, Chile.  He died about a month after his 68th in Washington, D.C.

 

1886 ~ Paul Lévy (né Paul Pierre Lévy, d. Dec. 15, 1971), French mathematician.  He is best known for his work in probability theory.  He was born and died in Paris, France.  He died at age 85.

 

1883 ~ Esteban Terradas i Illa (d. May 9, 1950), Catalan mathematician.  He died at age 66.

 

1872 ~ Max Factor, Sr. (né Maksymilian Faktorowicz, d. Aug. 30, 1838), Polish-born American make-up artist and founder of the Max Factor Company, a cosmetics manufacturer.  He was born in Zdunska Wola, Poland.  He died of an illness following a fright just 16 days before his 66th birthday in Beverly Hills, California.

 

1857 ~ Anna Winlock (d. Jan. 4, 1904), 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.

 

1857 ~ William Howard Taft (d. Mar. 8, 1930), 27th President of the United States and 10th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He served as President from March 1909 until March 1913.  He had previously served as the 42ndUnited States Secretary of War, from February 1904 until June 1908.  Following his term as President, he was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Warren Harding.  He served on the Court from July 1921 until Feb. 1930.  He replaced Edward Douglass White on the Court.  He was succeeded by Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice.  He died about a month after his retirement from the High Court.  He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He died in Washington, D.C.  He was 72 at the time of his death.

 

1852 ~ Edward Bouchet (né Edward Alexander Bouchet; d. Oct. 28, 1918), African-American physicist.  He was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. at any American university.  He earned his Ph.D. at Yale University.  He was born and died in New Haven, Connecticut.  He died at age 66.

 

1846 ~ George Grant (né George Franklin Grant; d. Aug. 21, 1910), African-American dentist and inventor.  He was the first African-American professor at Harvard University.  He was also the inventor of the wooden golf tee.  He was born in Oswego, New York.  He died of liver disease in Chester, New Hampshire 25 days before his 64th birthday.

 

1835 ~ Richard Olney (d. Apr. 8, 1917), 40th United States Attorney General.  He served under President Grover Cleveland from March 1893 until June 1895.  He also served as the 34th United States Secretary of State from June 1895 until March 1897 during the administrations of Grover Cleveland and William McKinley.  He was born in Oxford, Massachusetts.  He died in Boston, Massachusetts at age 81.

 

1830 ~ José de la Cruz Porfiro Díaz Mori (b. July 2, 1915), President of Mexico.  He was President from December 1884 until he was forced to resign May 1911 during the Mexican Revolution.  He was born in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico.  He died at age 84 in exile in Paris France.

 

1789 ~ James Fenimore Cooper (b. Sept. 14, 1851), American novelist best known for The Leatherstocking Tales, a series of five novels about Natty Bumppo, a frontiersman.  He was born in Burlington, New Jersey.  He died 1 day before his 62nd birthday in Cooperstown, New York.

 

1788 ~ Gerard Brandon (né Gerard Chittocque Brandon; d. Mar. 28, 1850), Governor of Mississippi.  He served two terms as Governor.  He was born in Natchez, Mississippi.  He died at age 61 in Fort Adams, Mississippi.

 

1745 ~ Shneur Zalman (d. Dec. 27, 1812), Lithuanian rabbi and founder of the Chabad movement.  He died at age 67.

 

1736 ~ Jean Sylvain Bailly (d. Nov. 12, 1793), French mathematician and 1st Mayor of Paris.  He was an early leader in the French revolution, but he refused to testify against Marie Antoinette, thus he was arrested and ultimately guillotined.  He was born and died in Paris, France.  He was age 57 at the time of his execution.

 

1613 ~ François de La Rochefoucauld (d. Mar. 17, 1680), French author best known for his maxims and memoirs.  He was born and died in Paris, France.  He died at age 66.

 

1533 ~ Catherine of Austria (d. Feb. 28, 1572), Queen consort of Poland and 3rd wife of Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland.  He was her 2nd husband.  She was previously married to Francesco III Gonzaga.  Her first marriage lasted only 4 months before he died of pneumonia.  She was of the House of Habsburg.  She was the daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary.  She died at age 38.

 

1505 ~ Mary of Austria (d. Oct. 18, 1558), Queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia.  She was the wife of Louis II, King of Hungary.  She also served as the Governor of Habsburg-Netherlands in her own right from January 1531 until October 1555.  She was of the House of Habsburg.  She was the daughter of Philip I, King of Castile and Joanna of Castile.  She died just over a month after her 53rd birthday.

 

1254 ~ Marco Polo (d. Jan. 8, 1324), Italian explorer and merchant.  The exact dates of his birth and death are unknown, but he is believed to have been about 69 or 70 at the time of his death.  He was born and died in Venice, Italy.

 

 

Events that Changed the World:

 

2021 ~ Erev Yom Kippur.

 

2008 ~ Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  It was the largest bankruptcy filed in the United States.

 

2000 ~ The 2000 Summer Olympics, also known as the Games of the CCVII Olympiad, opened in Sydney, Australia.

 

1981 ~ Sandra Day O’Connor (b. 1930) was unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee to become the first female Supreme Court Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  She was nominated to the Court by President Ronald Reagan (1911 ~ 2004).  She replaced Justice Potter Stewart (1915 ~ 1985).

 

1967 ~ In response to a sniper attack at the University of Texas in Austin, President Lyndon Johnson (1908 ~ 1973) wrote to congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation.

 

1963 ~ The bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama killed four young African-American girls.

 

1959 ~ Nikita Khrushchev (1894 ~ 1971) visited the United States, the first Soviet leader to do so.

 

1935 ~ The Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of their citizenship.  Nazi Germany also adopted a new national flag bearing the swastika.

 

1923 ~ Miguel Primo de Rivera (1870 ~ 1930), became dictator of Spain, although his official title was Prime Minister.

 

1916 ~ The British Army became the first to use military tanks in battle.  A British Mark I Male Tank was used during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette as part of the wider Somme Offensive.

 

1862 ~ During the American Civil War, Confederate forces captured Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

 

1789 ~ The United States Department of Foreign Affairs was renamed the Department of State.  The new Department was also given number of domestic duties.

 

Good-Byes:

 

2019 ~ Ric Ocasek (né Richard Theodore Otcasek; b. Mar. 23, 1944), American musician and frontman for The Cars who drove rock’s new wave.  He was born in Baltimore, Maryland.  He died at age 75 in New York, New York.

 

2019 ~ Phyllis Newman (b. Mar. 18, 1933), American actress.  She was born in Jersey City, New Jersey.  She died of a lung disorder at age 86 in Manhattan, New York.

 

2019 ~ Azellia White (b. June 3, 1913), African-American aviator who found freedom in the sky.  She was one of the first African-American women to earn a pilot’s license.  She was born in Gonzales, Texas.  She died at age 106 in Houston, Texas.

 

2017 ~ Albert Speer, Jr. (b. July 29, 1934), German architect who worked to escape his Nazi father’s legacy.  He was born in Berlin a year after Hitler took power.  He became one of Germany’s most successful architects.  He died at age 83 in Frankfurt, Germany.

 

2017 ~ Harry Dean Stanton (b. July 14, 1926), American actor.  He was born in West Irvine, Kentucky.  He died at age 91 in Los Angeles, California.

 

2011 ~ Frances Bay (née Frances Evelyn Goffman; b. Jan. 23, 1919), Canadian-born character actress.  She was born in Mannville, Alberta, Canada.  She died at age 92 in Tarzana, California.

 

2006 ~ Oriana Fallaci (b. June 29, 1929), Italian journalist and writer.  She was born and died in Florence, Italy.  She died of lung cancer at age 77.

 

2004 ~ Johnny Ramone (né John Williams Cummings; b. Oct. 8, 1948), American guitarist and member of the Ramones.  He was born in Queens, New York.  He died of prostate cancer three weeks before his 56th birthday in Los Angeles, California.

 

2003 ~ Garner Ted Armstrong (b. Feb. 9, 1930), American televangelist.  He was born in Portland, Oregon.  He died of complications due to pneumonia at age 73.

 

1989 ~ Robert Penn Warren (b. Apr. 24, 1905), Southern American novelist, best known for All the King’s Men, which is a fictional account of Louisiana’s Huey P. Long.  He was born in Guthrie, Kentucky.  He died at age 84 in Stratton, Vermont.

 

1978 ~ Willie Messerschmitt (né Wilhelm Emil Messerschmitt, b. June 26, 1898), German aircraft designer and manufacturer.  He died at age 80.

 

1973 ~ Gustav VI Adolf, King of Sweden (b. Nov. 11, 1882).  He reigned as King from October 1950 until his death in September 1973.  He was married twice.  His first wife was Princess Margaret of Connaught.  After her death, he married Lady Louise Mountbatten.  He was of the House of Bernadotte.  He was the son of Gustaf V, King of Sweden and Victoria of Baden.  He died at age 90.

 

1945 ~ André Tardieu (b. Sept. 22, 1867), Prime Minister of France.  He served 3 terms as Prime Minister.  He was born in Paris, France.  He died a week before his 69th birthday.

 

1940 ~ William B. Bankhead (né William Brockman Bankhead; b. Apr. 12, 1874), American politician from Alabama.  He served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from June 1936 until his death on September 15, 1940.  He was born in Sulligent, Alabama.  He died of an abdominal hemorrhage at age 66 in Washington, D.C.

 

1938 ~ Thomas Wolfe (né Thomas Clayton Wolfe; b. Oct. 3, 1900), American author best known for his novel, Look Homeward, Angel.  He was born in Asheville, North Carolina.  He died 18 days before his 38th birthday of complications of “military” tuberculosis of the brain in Baltimore, Maryland.

 

1933 ~ Yisrael Meir Kagan (b. Jan. 26, 1838), Lithuanian-Polish rabbi and author.  He was influential in the Musar movement.  He was born in Dzyatlava, Russian Empire and died in Raduń, Poland at age 95.

 

1926 ~ Rudolf Christoph Eucken (b. Jan. 5, 1846), German writer and philosopher and recipient of the 1908 Nobel Prize for Literature.  He died at age 80.

 

1902 ~ Horace Gray (b. Mar. 24, 1828), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was nominated to the High Court by President Chester Arthur.  He served from December 1881 until his death in September 1902.  He replaced Nathan Clifford on the Court.  He was succeeded by Oliver Wendell Holmes.  He sided with the majority in the Plessy v. Ferguson case, which upheld segregation.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Nahant, Massachusetts.  He died at age 74.

 

1883 ~ Joseph Plateau (né Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau; b. Oct. 14, 1801), Belgian physicist and mathematician.  He is best known for demonstrating the illusion of a moving image.  He is also known for the physics of soap bubbles, known as Plateau’s laws.  He was born in Brussels, French Republic.  He died a month before his 82nd birthday in Ghent, Belgium.

 

1874 ~ Benjamin Robbins Curtis (b. Nov. 4, 1809), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was nominated to the High Court by President Millard Fillmore.  He served on the Court from September 1851 until September 1857.  He was the first Supreme Court Justice to hold a law degree.  He is best known for being one of the two dissenters in the Dred Scott decision.  The acrimony over the Dred Scott decision ultimately led to his resigning from the Court after serving for only 6 years.  He had replaced Levi Woodbury on the Court and was succeeded by Nathan Clifford.  He is also known for having acted as the chief counsel for the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson during the 1st presidential impeachment trial.  He was born in Watertown, Massachusetts and died in Newport, Rhode Island.  He died at age 64.

 

1835 ~ Sarah Davis (née Sarah Knox Taylor; b. Mar. 6, 1814), first wife of Jefferson Davis.  She was also the daughter of United States President Zachary Taylor.  She died in St. Francisville, Louisiana, at age 21 of malaria, just three (3) months after her marriage to Jefferson Davis.

 

1559 ~ Isabella Jagiellon (b. Jan. 18, 1519), Queen consort of Hungary and wife of John Zápolya, King of Hungary and Croatia.  She was of the House of Jagiellon.  She was the daughter of Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Bona Sforza.  She died at age 40 following a long illness.


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