Wednesday, December 21, 2022

December 21

Birthdays:

 

1977 ~ Emmanuel Macron (né Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron), President of France.  He assumed the Office of President in May 2017.  In December 2020, he contracted Covid-19.  He was born in Amiens, France.

 

1969 ~ Julie Delpy, French model and actress.  She was born in Paris, France.

 

1966 ~ Kiefer Sutherland (né Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland), Canadian actor.  He was born in London, England.  He is the son of actor Donald Sutherland.

 

1962 ~ Steven Mnuchin (né Steven Terner Mnuchin), 77th United States Secretary of the Treasury.  He served under the Trump administration from February 2017 until January 2021.  Prior to his public service, he was a Hollywood financier and former Goldman Sachs executive.  He was born in New York, New York.

 

1959 ~ Florence Griffith Joyner (née Florence Delorez Griffith; d. Sept. 21, 1998), American athlete.  She was known as Flo-Jo.  She was born in Los Angeles, California.  She died of an epileptic seizure at age 38 in Mission Viejo, California.

 

1955 ~ Jane Kaczmarek (née Jane Frances Kaczmarek), American actress.  She is best known for her portrayal of Lois on the television sit-com Malcolm in the Middle.  She was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

 

1954 ~ Chris Evert (née Christine Marie Evert), American tennis player.  She was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

 

1950 ~ Jeffrey Katzenberg, American screenwriter, producer, and co-founder of DreamWorks Animation.  He co-founded DreamWorks Animation.  He was born in New York, New York.

 

1948 ~ Samuel L. Jackson (né Samuel Leroy Jackson), American actor.  He was born in Washington, D.C.

 

1947 ~ Paco de Lucía (d. Feb. 25, 2014), the Mexican guitarist who reinvented flamenco.  He died of a heart attack at age 66.

 

1940 ~ Frank Zappa (né Frank Vincent Zappa; d. Dec. 4, 1993), American musician and composer.  He was born in Baltimore, Maryland.  He died of prostate cancer 17 days before his 53rd birthday in Los Angeles, California.

 

1937 ~ Jane Fonda (née Jane Seymour Fonda), American actress.  She is the daughter of actor Henry Fonda.  She was born in New York, New York.

 

1935 ~ John G. Avildsen (né John Guilbert Avildsen; d. June 16, 2017), American film director who made underdogs into champions.  He directed such movies as Rocky and The Karate Kid.  He was born in Oak Park, Illinois.  He died of pancreatic cancer at age 81 in Los Angeles, California.

 

1935 ~ Phil Donahue (né Phillip John Donahue), American talk show host.  His second wife is Marlo Thomas.  They married in 1980.  He was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

 

1926 ~ Arnošt Lustig (d. Feb. 26, 2011), Czech novelist who recalled the horrors of the Holocaust.  He was born and died in Prague.  He died at age 84.

 

1926 ~ Joe Paterno (né Joseph Vincent Paterno; d. Jan. 22, 2012), legendary football coach at Pennsylvania State University.  He was forced to resign from his coaching position in November 2011 following the arrest of his long-time assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, who was arrested on child sexual abuse charges.  Paterno allowed his staff to ignore sexual abuse towards young boys by Sandusky, thus his resignation was due to his inaction after learning Sandusky had been abusing young boys.  He was born in Brooklyn, New York.  He died a month after his 85th birthday in State College, Pennsylvania.

 

1922 ~ Cécile DeWitt-Morette (née Cécile Andrée Paule Morette; d. May 8, 2017), French mathematician and physicist.  She was born in Paris, France.  She died at age 94.

 

1922 ~ Paul Winchell (né Paul Wilchinksy; d. June 24, 2005), American ventriloquist who was the voice of Jerry Mahoney and Tigger.  He was born in New York, New York.  He died at age 82 in Los Angeles, California.

 

1920 ~ Alicia Alonso (d. Oct. 17, 2019), Cuban ballerina.  She was the grande dame who ruled Cuban ballet.  She founded the Ballet Alicia Alonso in 1948.  She was born and died in Havana, Cuba.  She died at age 98.

 

1918 ~ Donald Regan (né Donald Thomas Regan; d. June 10, 2003), 11th White House Chief of Staff.  He served under President Ronald Reagan from February 1985 through February 1987.  He had previously served as the 66th Secretary of the Treasury, also during the Ronald Reagan administration from January 1981 until February 1985.  He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He died of cancer at age 84 in Williamsburg, Virginia.

 

1918 ~ Kurt Waldheim (né Karl Josef Waldheim; d. June 14, 2007), 9th President of Austria.  He served as President from July 1986 until July 1992.  While running for President, allegations were made that while he was serving as an intelligence officer in Nazi Germany’s Wehrmacht during World War II, he had committed war crimes.  He denied the allegations.  He had previously served as the 4th Secretary-General of the United Nations.  He served in that Office from January 1972 until December 1981.  He died of heart failure at age 88 in Vienna, Austria.

 

1917 ~ Heinrich Böll (né Heinrich Theodor Böll; d. July 16, 1985), German writer and recipient of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 67.

 

1915 ~ Werner von Trapp (né Werner Ritter von Trapp; d. Oct. 11, 2007), Austrian singer and member of the Von Trapp family.  He was the second oldest son in the family.  He died in Waitsfield, Vermont at age 91.

 

1914 ~ Frank Fenner (né Frank Johannes Fenner; d. Nov. 22, 2010), Australian virologist who fought smallpox, malaria and rabbits.  He died a month before his 96th birthday.

 

1909 ~ George Ball (né George Wildman Ball; d. May 26, 1994), American diplomat.  He served as the 7th United States Ambassador to the United Nations.  He was also the United States Under Secretary of State, where he is best remembered for being the only major dissenter to the Vietnam War.  He was born in Des Moines, Iowa.  He died in New York, New York at age 84.

 

1905 ~ Käte Fenchel (née Käte Sperling; d. Dec. 19, 1983), German mathematician.  She died 2 days before her 78thbirthday.

 

1905 ~ Anthony Powell (né Anthony Dymoke Powell; d, Mar. 28, 2000), British novelist.  He died at age 94.

 

1892 ~ Dame Rebecca West (née Cicely Isabel Fairfield; d. Mar. 15, 1983), English writer.  She was born and died in London, England.  She died at age 90.

 

1891 ~ John W. McCormack (né John William McCormack; d. Nov. 22, 1980), Speaker of the House of Representatives in the United States Congress.  He served as Speaker of the House from January 1962 until January 1971.  He was from member of Congress from Massachusetts.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died in Dedham, Massachusetts a month before his 89th birthday.

 

1890 ~ Hermann Joseph Muller (d. Apr. 5, 1967), American geneticist and recipient of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He is best known for his work on the effects of radiation on living cells.  He was born in New York, New York.  He died at age 76 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

 

1878 ~ Jan Łukasiewicz (d. Feb. 13, 1956), Polish mathematician.  He is best known for his work in logistics, including mathematical logic.  He died at age 77 in Dublin, Ireland.

 

1877 ~ Jaan Sarv (d. Aug. 23, 1954), Estonian mathematician.  He died at age 76.

 

1860 ~ Henrietta Szold (b. Feb. 13, 1945), American activist and founder of Hadassah.  She was born in Baltimore, Maryland.  She died at age 84 in Jerusalem, Israel.

 

1823 ~ Jean-Henri Fabre (né Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre; d. Oct. 11, 1815), French naturalist.  He was fired from his teaching job because he allowed girls to attend his science classes.  He died at age 91.

 

1804 ~ Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (d. Apr. 19, 1881), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He served as Prime Minister for two terms, first from February 1868 until December 1868, and second from February 1874 until April 1880.  He was born Jewish, but later converted to the Church of England.  He was born and died in London, England.  He died at age 76.

 

1795 ~ Jack Russell (né John Russell; d. Apr. 28, 1883), English parson and dog breeder.  He died at age 87.

 

1603 ~ Roger Williams (d. 1683), English theologian and founder of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.  The exact date of his death is not known, but it is believed to have been between January and March 1683.

 

1542 ~ Thomas Allen (d. Sept. 30, 1632), English mathematician and astrologer.  He died at age 89.

 

1119 ~ Saint Thomas Becket of Canterbury (d. Dec. 29, 1170), Lord Chancellor of England and Archbishop of Canterbury and Christian martyr.  Although Becket was appointed archbishop by Henry II, King in 1162, conflicts erupted between the two and the King’s nights murdered Becket in the Canterbury Cathedral.  He is now an English saint.  The exact date of his birth is not known, December 21 is generally considered to be his birthday.  He was about 51 at the time of his death.

 

Events that Changed the World:

 

2012 ~ The song Gangnam Style, by Korean singer Psy (b. Dec. 31, 1977), became the first YouTube video to reach 1 Billion views.

 

1995 ~ The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.

 

1994 ~ Mexican volcano Popocatépetl, which had been dormant for 47 years, erupted gases and ash.

 

1988 ~ A bomb exploded aboard Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 270 aboard and 11 others on the ground.

 

1973 ~ The Geneva Conference on the Arab-Israeli conflict began.

 

1970 ~ Elvis Presley (1935 ~ 1977) met President Richard Nixon (1913 ~ 1994) at the White House.  Presley had requested the visit so he could offer his services to the United States government’s war on drugs.  The request was denied.

 

1967 ~ The movie, The Graduate, premiered.

 

1962 ~ Norway established its first national park with the creation of Rondane National Park.

 

1946 ~ A massive 8.1 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Nankaidō, Japan killed over 1,300 people.

 

1937 ~ The first full-length animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theater.

 

1919 ~ Emma Goldman (1869 ~ 1940), was deported to Russia for being an anarchist political activist.  Although born in Russia, her family immigrated to the United States when she was a child.

 

1913 ~ Arthur Wayne (1871 ~ 1945) created the first modern crossword puzzle.  It was published in the Sunday edition of the New York World newspaper.

 

1907 ~ The Chilean Army committed the Santa María School massacre by killing an estimated 2000 striking nitrate miners along with their wives and children.  The massacre occurred at the Domingo Santa María School in Iquique, Chile.

 

1879 ~ The world première of Henrik Ibsen’s play, A Doll’s House, was performed at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark.

 

1826 ~ American settlers in Nacogdoches, Mexican Texas, declared their independence and started the Fredonian Rebellion.

 

1620 ~ The Pilgrims are believed to have landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts.

 

Good-Byes:

 

2017 ~ Bruce McCandless, II (b. June 8, 1937), American astronaut.  He conducted the first untethered spacewalk.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died at age 80.

 

2017 ~ Jerry Yellin (né Jerome Yellin; b. Feb. 15, 1924), American pilot who flew the last combat mission of World War II.  He was born in Newark, New Jersey.  He died at age 93 in Orlando, Florida.

 

2009 ~ Edwin G. Krebs (né Edwin Gerhard Krebs, b. June 6, 1918), American biochemist and recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He was 91 years old.

 

1996 ~ Margret Rey (née Margarete Elisabethe Waldstein; b. May 16, 1906), German-born author, who along with her husband, H.A. Rey (né Hans Augusto Rey; 1898 ~ 1977), created the Curious George series of children’s books.  She was born in Hamburg, Germany.  She died at age 90 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

1992 ~ Stella Adler (b. Feb. 10, 1901), American actress and acting coach.  She died at age 91.

 

1988 ~ Nikolaas Tinbergen (b. Apr. 15, 1907), Dutch ethologist and recipient of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died at age 81.

 

1967 ~ Louis Washkansky (b. 1913), the first human to have a heart transplant died 18 days after receiving the transplant.  He was 54 years old.

 

1945 ~ George S. Patton (né George Smith Patton, Jr.; b. Nov. 11, 1885), American General.  He was known as Old Blood and Guts.  He was born in San Gabriel, California.  He died at age 60 of injuries suffered in a car accident in Germany.

 

1940 ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald (né Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald; b. Sept. 24, 1896), American novelist, best known for his novel, The Great Gatsby.  He died of a heart attack at age 44.

 

1937 ~ Frank B. Kellogg (né Frank Billings Kellogg; b. Dec. 22, 1856), 45th United States Secretary of State.  He served under Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover from March 1925 until March 1929.  He was also the recipient of the 1929 Nobel Peace Prize.  He was born in Potsdam, New York.  He died of pneumonia following a stroke just 1 day before his 81st birthday in St. Paul, Minnesota.

 

1900 ~ Roger Wolcott (b. July 13, 1847), 39th Governor of Massachusetts.  He served as Governor from January 1897 until January 1900.  He was born and died in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died of typhoid fever at age 53.

 

1880 ~ Amos T. Akerman (né Amos Tappan Akerman; b. Feb. 23, 1821), 31st United States Attorney General.  He served during Ulysses S. Grant administration from November 1870 until December 1871.  During the American Civil War, he joined the Confederate Army and rose to the rank of Colonel.  As United States Attorney General, he actively prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan.  He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  He died at age 59 in Cartersville, Georgia.

 

1864 ~ Archduke Louis of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia and Prince of Tuscany (né Louis Joseph Anton Johann; b. Dec. 13, 1784), member of the Holy Roman Empire family.  He never married and had no known children.  He was of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.  He was the 15th child of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain.  He was born in Florence, Italy.  He died 8 days after his 80th birthday in Vienna, Austria.

 

1824 ~ James Parkinson (b. Apr. 11, 1755), English physician, surgeon, geologist, paleontologist and political activist. He was the first to describe the condition now known as Parkinson’s disease.  He died of a stroke at age 69.

 

1765 ~ Prokop Diviš (b. Mar. 26, 1698), Czech scientist and inventor of the lightning rod.  He died at age 67.

 

1750 ~ Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (b. Aug. 28, 1691), Holy Roman Empress consort and wife of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor.  They married in 1708.  She was of the House of Welf.  She was the daughter of Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen.  She converted from Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism upon her marriage.  She died at age 59.

 

1549 ~ Marguerite de Navarre (b. Apr. 11, 1492), Queen consort of Navarre and first wife of Henry II, King of Navarre.  Henry was her second husband.  She had previously been married to Charles IV, Duke of Alençon.  She was of the House of Valois-Angoulême.  She was the daughter of Charles, Count of Angoulême and Louise of Savoy.  She died at age 57.


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