Sunday, November 20, 2022

November 20

Birthdays:

 

1971 ~ Joel McHale (né Joel Edward McHale), American comedian and actor.  He was born in Rome, Italy.

 

1963 ~ Timothy Gowers, English mathematician.  He is best known for his work in functional analysis.  He was born in Wiltshire, England.

 

1956 ~ Bo Derek (née Mary Cathleen Collins), American actress best known for her role in the movie 10.  She was born in Long Beach, California

 

1948 ~ John Bolton (né John Robert Bolton), 27th United States National Security Advisor.  He began his service in the Trump Administration in April 2018 and was fired in September 2019.  Prior that he had served as the 25th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 until December 2006 during the George H.W. Bush administration.  He was born in Baltimore, Maryland.

 

1946 ~ Duane Allman (né Howard Duane Allman; d. Oct. 29, 1971), American musician and member of The Allman Brothers Band.  He was born in Nashville, Tennessee.  He was killed less than a month before his 25th birthday in a motorcycle accident in Macon, Georgia.

 

1946 ~ Judy Woodruff (née Judy Carline Woodruff), American journalist and news anchor on public television.  She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

1943 ~ Veronica Hamel, American actress.  She is best known for her role as Joyce Davenport on the television drama Hill Street Blues.  She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

 

1942 ~ Bob Einstein (née Stewart Robert Einstein; d. Jan. 2, 2019), American actor and comedy writer.  He is best known for creating the satirical stuntman character known as Super Dave Osborne.  He also played Marty Funkhouser on Curb Your Enthusiasm.  He was the brother of Albert Brooks.  He was born in Los Angeles, California.  He died of cancer at age 76 in Indian Wells, California.

 

1942 ~ Joe Biden (né Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.), 46th President of the United States.  He assumed office in January 2021.  He also served as the 47th Vice President of the United States under President Barack Obama from January 2009 until January 2017.  He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

 

1941 ~ Dr. John (né Malcolm John Rebennack, Jr.; d. June 6, 2019), American musician who embodied New Orleans.  He was born and died in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He died of a heart attack at age 77.

 

1939 ~ Dick Smothers (né Richard Remick Smothers), American comedian and half of the Smothers Brothers comedy team.  He was born in New York, New York.

 

1936 ~ Don DeLillo (né Donald Richard DeLillo), American novelist.  He was born in The Bronx, New York.

 

1932 ~ Richard Dawson (né Colin Lionel Emm, d. June 2, 2012), English-American actor, comedian and game-show host.  He is best known for his role in Hogan’s Heroes.  In his later career, he became a game show host of Family Feud.  He died of esophageal cancer at age 79 in Los Angeles, California.

 

1930 ~ Curly Putman (né Claude Putman, Jr.; d. Oct. 30, 2016), American composer who wrote Green, Green, Grass of Home.  He was born in Princeton, Alabama.  He died three weeks before his 86th birthday in Lebanon, Tennessee.

 

1926 ~ Ann Turner Cook (née Ann Leslie Turner; d. June 3, 2022), American educator and mystery novelist who gave Gerber its baby face.  In 1928, when Gerber was looking for a face for its line of baby food, a drawing of Ann Turner was selected.  She was born in Westport, Connecticut.  She died at age 95 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

 

1925 ~ Bobby Kennedy (né Robert Francis Kennedy; d. June 6, 1968), American politician.  He was the 64th Attorney General of the United States.  He served during the presidency of his brother, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson.  He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts.  He died from gunshot wounds sustained a day earlier in Los Angeles, California.  He was 42 years old.

 

1925 ~ Maya Plisetskaya (née Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya; d. May 2, 2015), Russian ballerina who stayed loyal to the USSR.  Her father was executed as an “enemy of the people” when she was 11, and her mother spent time in a labor camp, and although she was banned from touring in the West for fear that she would defect, Maya stayed in the Soviet Union because of her love of the Bolshoi Theater.  She was born in Moscow, Russia.  She died at age 89 in Munich, Germany.

 

1925 ~ George Barris (né George Salapatas; d. Nov. 5, 2015), American car designer who custom-made cars and is best known for creating the Batmobile.  He was born in Chicago, Illinois.  He died 15 days before his 90th birthday in Encino, California.

 

1925 ~ Kaye Ballard (née Catherine Gloria Balotta; d. Jan. 21, 2019), American comedian and actress.  She was born in Cleveland, Ohio.  She died at age 93 in Rancho Mirage, California.

 

1924 ~ Benoît Mandelbrot (d. Oct. 14, 2010), Polish-born French mathematician.  He was born in Warsaw, Poland.  He died of pancreatic cancer in Cambridge, Massachusetts at age 85.

 

1923 ~ Nadine Gordimer (d. July 13, 2014), South American writer and political activist.  She was the author who challenged apartheid.  She was the recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature.  She was born in Springs, South Africa.  She died at age 90 years old in Johannesburg, South Africa.

 

1921 ~ Jim Garrison (né Earling Carothers Garrison; d. Oct. 21, 1992), District Attorney of Orleans Parish, Louisiana from 1962 ~ 1973.  He is best known for his investigations into the assassination of President John Kennedy.  He was born in Denison, Iowa.  He died in New Orleans a month before his 71st birthday.

 

1919 ~ Jane C. Wright (née Jane Cooke; d. Feb. 19, 2013), African-American oncologist and cancer research.  She is credited with developing a technique of using human tissue culture rather than lab rats to test the effects of potential drugs on cancer.  She was born in Manhattan, New York.  She died at age 93 in Guttenberg, New Jersey.

 

1917 ~ Leonard J. Savage (né Leonard Ogashevitz; d. Nov. 1, 1971), American mathematician and statistician.  He was born in Detroit, Michigan.  He died 19 days before his 54th birthday in New Haven, Connecticut.

 

1916 ~ Evelyn Keys (née Evelyn Louise Keys; d. July 4, 2008), the American veteran actress who is best known for her role as Suellen O’Hara, sister of Scarlett O’Hara’s sister in Gone with the Wind.  She was born in Port Arthur, Texas.  She died at age 91 in Montecito, California.

 

1913 ~ Charles Berlitz (d. Dec. 18, 2003), American linguist.  He is best known for his series of language-learning courses and books.  He was born in New York, New York.  He died about a month after his 90th birthday in Tamarac, Florida.

 

1912 ~ Otto von Habsburg (d. July 4, 2011), the last crown prince of Austria-Hungary.  He was the crown prince from 1916 until the dissolution of the Austria-Hungary empire.  In 1951, he married Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen.  He was of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.  He was the son of Charles I, Emperor of Austria and Zita of Bourbon-Parma.  He died at age 98.

 

1910 ~ Willem Jacob van Stockum (d. June 10, 1944), Dutch mathematician.  He was born in Hatten, Netherlands.  He was killed at age 33 during a bombing raid during World War II, when his plane was hit by flak.

 

1910 ~ Pauli Murray (née Anna Pauline Murray; d. July 1, 1985), African-American civil rights activist, lawyer and Episcopal priest.  She was the first African-American woman to be ordained as an Episcopal priest.  She was born in Baltimore, Maryland.  She died of pancreatic cancer at age 74 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

 

1908 ~ Alistair Cooke (né Alfred Cooke; d. Mar. 30, 2004), English-born journalist and longtime host of Masterpiece Theater.  He was born in Salford, Lancashire, England.  He died at age 95 in New York, New York.

 

1900 ~ Helen Bradley (née Helen Layfield; d. July 19, 1979), British artist.  She died at age 78.

 

1900 ~ Chester Gould (d. May 11, 1985), American cartoonist and creator of Dick Tracy.  He was born in Pawnee, Territory of Oklahoma.  He died at age 84 in Woodstock, Illinois.

 

1893 ~ André Bloch (d. Oct. 11, 1948), French mathematician.  His mathematical legacy is his contribution to complex analysis.  He is probably best remembered, however, for the murder of his brother, George, and his aunt and uncle.  He was committed to an insane asylum, where he spent the rest of his life.  While in the asylum, he made his mark in the field of mathematics.  He died of leukemia at age 54.

 

1892 ~ James Collip (né James Bertram Collip; d. June 19, 1965), Canadian biochemist and co-discoverer of Insulin.  He was born in Belleville, Ontario, Canada.  He died at age 72 in London, Ontario, Canada.

 

1889 ~ Edwin Hubble (né Edwin Powell Hubble; d. Sept. 28, 1953), American astronomer.  The Hubble telescope is named in his honor.  He was born in Marshfield, Missouri.  He died of cerebral thrombosis at age 63 in San Marino, California.

 

1886 ~ Karl von Frisch (d. June 12, 1982), Austrian ethologist and zoologist.  He was the recipient of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He studied the sensory perceptions of the honeybee.  He was born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary.  He died at age 95 in Munich, West Germany.

 

1885 ~ Olive Wetzel Dennis (d. Nov. 5, 1957), American engineer.  Many of her designs were innovations in the railroad industry.  She was born in Thurlow, Pennsylvania.  She died in Baltimore, Maryland 15 days before her 72nd birthday.

 

1874 ~ James Michael Curley (d. Nov. 12, 1958), 4-term Mayor of Boston.  His terms as Mayor were non-consecutive, making him the 41st, 43rd, 45th and 48th Mayor of the City.  He also served as the 53rd Governor of Massachusetts from January 1935 until January 1937.  He was born and died in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died 8 days before his 84thbirthday.

 

1866 ~ Kenesaw M. Landis (né Kenesaw Mountain Landis; d. Nov. 25, 1944), American Federal judge and first commissioner of professional baseball.  He had also served as a federal district court judge for the United States District Court of Northern Illinois.  He is best remembered for his handling of the Black Sox scandal, which involved eight Chicago White Sox players who conspired to lose the 1919 World Series.  He was born in Millville, Ohio.  He died 5 days after his 78th birthday in Chicago, Illinois.

 

1858 ~ Selma Lagerlöf (née Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf; d. Mar. 16, 1940), Swedish author and recipient of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature.  She was the first female to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.  She was born and died in Mårbacka, Sweden.  She died at age 81.

 

1851 ~ Margherita of Savoy (d. Jan. 4, 1926), 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.

 

1841 ~ Victor D’Hondt (d. May 30, 1901), Belgian mathematician.  He was born and died in Ghent, Belgium.  He died at age 59.

 

1761 ~ Pope Pius VIII (né Francesco Saverio Maria Felice Castiglioni; d. Nov. 30, 1830).  He was Pope for a year and a half, from March 31, 1829 until his death on November 30, 1830.  He died 10 days after his 69th birthday.

 

1726 ~ Oliver Wolcott, Sr. (d. Dec. 1, 1797), American politician and 19th Governor of Connecticut.  He was born in Windsor, Connecticut.  He died 11 days after his 71st birthday in Litchfield, Connecticut.

 

939 ~ Tai Zong (d. May 8, 997), 2nd Chinese emperor of the Song Dynasty.  He was emperor from November 976 until his death in 997.

 

Events that Changed the World:

 

1992 ~ A fire in Windsor Castle, causing severe damage to the castle and property.

 

1985 ~ Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released to the public.

 

1980 ~ A misplaced Texaco oil probe drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine, causing Lake Peigneur in Iberville Parish, Louisiana to drain into the salt deposit.

 

1977 ~ Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (1918 ~ 1981) became the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel.  He met with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (1913 ~ 1992) and spoke before the Israeli Knesset to seek a permanent peace agreement.

 

1974 ~ The United States Department of Justice filed an anti-trust suit against AT&T.  The suit later was the reason for the breakup of AT&T and its Bell Systems.

 

1969 ~ The public became aware of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam after the Cleveland, Ohio newspaper, The Plain Dealer, published explicit photographs of dead villagers.

 

1968 ~ Seventy-eight miners were killed in an explosion at the Consolidated Coal Company’s Number 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia.

 

1962 ~ The Cuban missile crisis ended after the Soviet Union agreed to remove its missiles from Cuba.

 

1947 ~ Princess Elizabeth (1926 ~ 2022) of the United Kingdom married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten (1921 ~ 2021) at Westminster Abbey in London, England.  Upon his marriage to Elizabeth, he became known as the Duke of Edinburgh.

 

1945 ~ The Nuremberg trials against 24 Nazi war criminals began at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany.

 

1820 ~ A sperm whale attacked a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts off the western coast of South America.  This event gave novelist Herman Melville (1819 ~ 1891) the inspiration for Moby Dick, which was published 30 years later.

 

1789 ~ New Jersey became the first State of the Union to ratify the Bill of Rights.

 

1194 ~ Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI (1165 ~ 1197) conquered Palermo, Sicily.

 

Good-Bye:

 

2020 ~ Jan Morris (née James Humphry Morris; b. Oct. 2, 1926), Welsh historian and travel writer who broke barriers.  She was born male, but had sex reassignment surgery and became known as Jan.  She died at age 94.

 

2019 ~ Jake Burton Carpenter (b. Apr. 29, 1954), American “punk” who made snowboarding a sport.  He was the founder of Burton Snowboards and invented the modern-day snowboard.  He was born in Manhattan, New York.  He died of cancer at age 65 in Burlington, Vermont.

 

2019 ~ Fred Cox (né Frederick William Cox; b. Dec. 11, 1938), American NFL football kicker who helped invent the Nerf football.  He was a kicker for 15 years with the Minnesota Vikings.  He was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania.  He died 21 days before his 81st birthday.  He died in Monticello, Minnesota.

 

2018 ~ Sir Aaron Klug (b. Aug. 11, 1926), Lithuanian-English chemist and biophysicist.  He was the recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in the development of crystallography electron microscopy.  He was born in Lithuania.  He died at age 92 in Cambridge, England.

 

2014 ~ Doña María del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva; 18th Duchess of Alba (b. Mar. 28, 1926).  She died at age 88.

 

2013 ~ Sylvia Browne (née Sylvia Celeste Shoemaker, b. Oct. 19, 1936), American television psychic who often got the future wrong.  She was born in Kansas City, Missouri.  She died a month after her 77th birthday in San Jose, California.

 

2011 ~ Theodore Forstmann (né Theodore Joseph Forstmann; b. Feb. 13, 1940), American pioneer of private equity.  He was born in Greenwich, Connecticut.  He died at age 71 of complications from brain cancer in New York, New York.

 

2010 ~ Chalmers Johnson (né Chalmers Ashby Johnson; b. Aug. 6, 1931), American scholar who decried an empire.  He was a political scientist who specialized in comparative politics.  He was born in Phoenix, Arizona.  He died at age 79 in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California.

 

2009 ~ Lester D. Shubin (b. Sept. 27, 1925), American chemist who saved lives with Kevlar.  He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He died of a heart attack at age 84 in Fairfax County, Virginia.

 

2009 ~ Charis Wilson (née Helen Charis Wilson; b. May 5, 1914), American model who inspired photographer Edward Wilson.  She was born in San Francisco, California.  She died at age 95 in Santa Cruz, California.

 

2007 ~ Ian Smith (né Ian Douglas Smith; b. Apr. 8, 1919), Zimbabwean politician and Prime Minister of Rhodesia.  He was born in Selukwe, Rhodesia.  He died at age 88 in Cape Town, South Africa.

 

2006 ~ Zoia Ceauşescu (b. Feb. 28, 1949), Romanian mathematician.  She was the daughter of Communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife, Elena.  She was born and died in Bucharest, Romania.  She died of lung cancer at age 57.

 

2006 ~ Robert Altman (né Robert Bernard Altman; b. Feb. 20, 1925), American film director.  He was born in Kansas City, Missouri.  He died at age 81 in Los Angeles, California.

 

1986 ~ Arne Beurling (né Arne Carl-August Beurling; b. Feb. 3, 1905), Swedish mathematician.  He was born in Gothenburg, Sweden.  He died at age 81 in Princeton, New Jersey.

 

1975 ~ Francisco Franco (b. Dec. 4, 1892), Spanish dictator.  He died 14 days before his 83rd birthday in Madrid, Spain.

 

1962 ~ Rosalie Edge (née Rosalie Barrow; b. Nov. 3, 1877), American environmental advocate and suffragist.  In 1929, she established the Emergency Conservation Committee to expose the conservation establishment’s ineffectiveness and to advocate for species preservation.  In 1934, she founded the world’s first preserve for birds of prey in Eastern Pennsylvania.  She was born and died in New York, New York.  She died 3 weeks after her 85th birthday.

 

1954 ~ Clyde Cessna (né Clyde Vernon Cessna; b. Dec. 5, 1879), American aviation designer and founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation.  He was born in Hawthorne, Iowa.  He died 15 days before his 75th birthday in Wichita, Kansas.

 

1945 ~ Francis William Aston (b. Sept. 1, 1877), British chemistry and 1922 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of isotopes of non-radioactive elements.  He died at age 68 in Cambridge, England.

 

1943 ~ Bertha Lamme Feicht (née Bertha Lamme; b. Dec. 16, 1869), American electrical engineer.  She was the first woman to receive a degree from the Ohio State University.  She was born in Bethel Township, Ohio.  She died 26 days before her 74th birthday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

 

1940 ~ Harriot Stanton Blatch (née Harriot Eaton Stanton; b. Jan. 20, 1856), American suffragist and daughter of women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  She was born in Seneca Falls, New York.  She died at age 84 in Greenwich, Connecticut.

 

1938 ~ Edwin Hall (b. Nov. 7, 1855), American physicist.  He discovered the eponymous Hall effect.  He conducted thermoelectric research.  He was born in Gorham, Maine.  He died 13 days after his 83rd birthday in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

1938 ~ Maud of Wales (b. Nov. 26, 1869), Queen consort of Norway.  She was married to Haakon VII, King of Norway.  They married in 1896.  She was of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.  She was the youngest daughter of Edward VII, King of Great Britain and Alexandra of Denmark.  She died 6 days before her 69th birthday, and on the 13th anniversary of her mother’s death.

 

1934 ~ Willem de Sitter (b. May 6, 1872), Dutch mathematician and astronomer.  He died after a brief illness at age 62.

 

1925 ~ Alexandra of Denmark (b. Dec. 1, 1844), Queen consort of the United Kingdom and wife of Edward VII, King of the United Kingdom.  They married in 1863.  She was of the House of Glücksburg.  She was the daughter of Christian IX, King of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel.   She died 11 days before her 81st birthday.

 

1914 ~ Vinnie Ream (née Lavinia Ellen Ream Hoxie; b. Sept. 25, 1847), American sculptor.  She is best known for the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the United States Capitol rotunda.  She was 18 years old when she received the commission for this statue.  She was born in Madison, Wisconsin.  She died at age 67 in Washington, D.C.

 

1910 ~ Count Leo Tolstoy (b. Sept. 9, 1828), Russian author.  He is best known for his epic novels such as War and Peaceand Anna Karenina.  He died at age 82.

 

1908 ~ Georgy Voronoy (b. Apr. 28, 1868), Russian mathematician.  He died at age 40 following a severe illness in Warsaw, Poland.

 

1894 ~ Anton Rubinstein (b. Nov. 28, 1829), Russian pianist and composer.  He died 8 days before his 65th birthday in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire.

 

1888 ~ Nathaniel Currier (b. Mar. 27, 1813), American illustrator, who worked with James Ives to create lithographs of current events and life in the mid-1800s America.  Together James Ives and Nathaniel Currier co-founded Currier and Ives.  Currier was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts.  He died at age 75 in Amesbury, Massachusetts.

 

1856 ~ Farkas Bolyai (b. Feb. 9, 1775), Hungarian mathematician.  He died at age 81.

 

1778 ~ Francesco Cetti (b. Aug. 9, 1726), Italian priest, zoologist, and mathematician.  He died at age 52.

 

1764 ~ Christian Goldbach (b. Mar. 18, 1690), Prussian mathematician.  He is best known for Goldbach’s conjecture.  He died at age 74 in Moscow, Russian Empire.

 

1737 ~ Caroline of Ansbach (b. Mar. 1, 1683), Queen consort of Great Britain.  She was the wife of George II, King of Great Britain.  They married in 1705.  She was of the House of Hohenzollern.  She was the daughter of John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Princess Eleanor Erdmuthe of Sax-Eisenach.  She died at age 54.

 

1597 ~ Princess Elizabeth Vasa (b. Apr. 5, 1549), Duchess consort of Mecklenburg and second wife of Christopher, Duke of Mecklenburg.  They married in 1581.  She was of the House of Vasa.  She was the daughter of Gustav I, King of Sweden and Margaret Leijonhufvud.  She died at age 48.

 

1593 ~ Hans Bol (b. Dec. 16, 1534), Flemish artist.  He died 26 days before his 48th birthday.

 

1480 ~ Princess Eleanor of Scotland (b. 1433), Queen consort of Austria and first wife of Sigismund, Archduke of Austria.  She was of the House of Stewart.  She was the daughter of James I, King of Scotland and Joan Beaufort.  The exact date of her birth is not known, but she is believed to have been about age 46 or 47 at the time of her death.

 

1316 ~ John I, King of France and Navarre (b. Nov. 15, 1316).  He ruled France and Navarre for only 5 days.  He was of the House of Capet.  He was the son of Louis X, King of France and Clementia of Hungary.  His father had died before he was born, thus he became king upon his birth, thus was referred to as John the Posthumous.  He died, however, 5 days after his birth.

 

869 ~ Edmund the Martyr (b. 841), English king.  He was killed in battle.  The date of his birth is not known.


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