Birthdays:
1962 ~ Laura San Giacomo, American actress. She is best known for her role as Cynthia in the 1989 film Sex, Lies and Videotapes. She was born in West Orange, New Jersey.
1959 ~ Bryan Stevenson, African-American civil rights lawyer. He was born in Milton, Delaware.
1956 ~ Peter R. de Vries (né Peter Rudolf de Vries; d. July 15, 2021), Dutch investigative journalist and crime reporter. He reported in high-visibility crimes, such as the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. He was born in Aalsmeer, Netherlands. He was assassinated at age 64 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
1954 ~ Condolezza Rice, 66th United States Secretary of State. She served under President George W. Bush from January 2005 until January 2009. She previously served as the 20th National Security Advisor under President George W. Bush from January 2001 until January 2005. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama.
1948 ~ Charles III, King of the United Kingdom (né Charles Philip Arthur George). He assumed the throne on September 8, 2022 following the death of his mother. At age 73, he became the oldest person to ascend to the British throne. Prior to becoming king, he was the Prince of Wales. He was married twice. In 1981, he married Lady Diana Spencer (1961 ~ 1997). They divorced in 1996. They were the parents of William, Prince of Wales and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. His second wife, whom he married in 2005, was his long-time mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles (b. 1947). He is of the House of Windsor. He was the son of Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
1947 ~ Buckwheat Zydeco (né Stanley Joseph Dural, Jr.; d. Sept. 24, 2016), African-American accordion player. He was born and died in Lafayette, Louisiana. He died of lung cancer at age 68.
1947 ~ P.J. O’Rourke (né Patrick Jake O’Rourke; d. Feb. 15., 2022), American journalist, author, and political satirist. He was a conservative humorist who skewered all sides. He was also a frequent panelist on Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me! He was born in Toledo, Ohio. He died of lung cancer at age 74 in Sharon, New Hampshire.
1946 ~ Sacheen Littlefeather (née Marie Louise Cruz; d. Oct. 2, 2022), Native American activist who shocked Oscar-goers. She is best known for representing Marlon Brando at the 45th Academy Awards in 1973 where she, on behalf of Brando, she declined his Best Actor award. She was born in Salinas, California. She died at age 75 in Novato, California.
1944 ~ Karen Armstrong, English religious scholar, and author.
1935 ~ Hussein, King of Jordan (né Hussein bin Tal; d. Feb. 7, 1999). He was King of Jordon from August 1952 until his death in February 1999. His fourth wife was the American, Lisa Halaby, who became known as Queen Noor, upon her marriage to the King. He was born and died in Amman, Jordan. He died of cancer at age 63.
1934 ~ Ellis Marsalis, Jr. (né Ellis Louis Marsalis, Jr.; d. Apr. 1, 2020), American jazz pianist and musician from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the father of Branford and Wynton Marsalis. He was born and died in New Orleans, Louisiana. He died of complications from Covid-19 at age 85.
1931 ~ Terence Marsh (d. Jan. 9, 2018), British production designer who made movies look real. He was born in London, England. He died at age 86 in Los Angeles, California.
1930 ~ Edward H. White (né Edward Higgins White, II; d. Jan. 27, 1967), American astronaut and crewmember of the ill-fated Apollo I, which caught fire during a test of the spacecraft. He was born in San Antonio, Texas. He died at age 36 at Cape Kennedy, Florida.
1929 ~ Jimmy Piersall (né James Anthony Piersall; d. June 3, 2017), American eccentric baseball player who battled mental illness. He was best known for his well-publicized battle with bipolar disorder that was the subject of the book, Fear Strikes Out. He was born in Waterbury, Connecticut. He died at age 87 in Wheaton, Illinois.
1922 ~ Veronica Lake (née Constance Frances Marie Ockelman; d. July 7, 1973), American actress. She was born in Brooklyn, New York. She died in Burlington, Vermont at age 50 of renal failure.
1922 ~ Boutros Boutros-Ghali (d. Feb. 16, 2016), Egyptian politician and diplomat. He served as the 6th Secretary General of the United Nations. He was the first UN Secretary General from Africa. He was from a Coptic Christian family and played a pivotal role in negotiating the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. He was born and died in Cairo, Egypt. He died at age 93.
1921 ~ Brian Keith (né Robert Alba Keith; d. June 24, 1997), American actor. He is best known for his role as Uncle Bill on the television sit-com Family Affair. He was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. He died by suicide at age 75 in Malibu, California.
1916 ~ Roger Apéry (d. Dec. 18, 1994), French mathematician. He was born in Fouen, France. He died of Parkinson’s disease about a month after his 78th birthday in Caen, France.
1908 ~ Joseph McCarthy (né Joseph Raymond McCarthy; b. May 2, 1957), United States Senator from Wisconsin, and head of the Un-American Activities Committee who tried to root out Communism in the United States. He fueled the Red Scare in the 1950s and led the investigations of numerous individuals alleging they supported Communism. He was born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin. He died at age 48 in Bethesda, Maryland.
1908 ~ Yedidia Shofet (d. June 24, 2005), Chief Rabbi of Iran. Following the 1979 Iranian revolution, he moved to California. He was born in Kashan, Iran. He died at age 96 in Los Angeles, California.
1907 ~ Astrid Lindgren (née Astrid Anna Emilia Ericsson; d. Jan. 28, 2002), Swedish writer and creator of Pippi Longstocking. She was born in Vimmerby, Calmar, Sweden. She died at age 94 in Stockholm, Sweden.
1907 ~ William Steig (d. Oct. 3, 2003), American cartoonist and children’s author, whose most familiar character is the ogre, Shrek. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He died in Boston, Massachusetts at age 95.
1906 ~ Lane Dwinell (né Seymour Lane Dwindel; d. Mar. 27, 1997), 69th Governor of New Hampshire. He served as Governor from January 1955 through December 1959. He was born in Newport, Vermont and died in Hanover, New Hampshire. He died at age 90.
1900 ~ Aaron Copland (d. Dec. 2, 1990), American composer. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He died 18 days after his 90th birthday in North Terrytown, New York.
1896 ~ Mamie Eisenhower (née Mamie Geneva Doud; d. Nov. 1, 1979), First Lady of the United States and wife of President Dwight David Eisenhower. She was born in Boone, Iowa. She died in Bethesda, Maryland 13 days before her 83rd birthday.
1891 ~ Sir Frederick Banting (né Frederick Grant Banting; d. Feb. 21, 1941), Canadian physician who was the principal discoverer of how insulin functions in the human body. He, along with his co-worker John Macleod, received the 1923 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for this discovery. He was born in Alliston, Ontario, Canada. He was killed at age 49 from injuries sustained in a plane crash near Musgrave Harbour, Newfoundland, Canada.
1889 ~ Jawaharlal Nehru (d. May 27, 1964), 1st Prime Minister of India of an independent India from 1947 until 1964. He was also the father of Indira Gandhi, the country’s 3rd Prime Minister. He died of a heart attack at age 74 in New Delhi, India.
1883 ~ Ado Birk (d. Feb. 2, 1942), Prime Minister of Estonia from for 3 days, from July 28 to July 30, 1920. At the beginning of World War II, he was arrested by the Soviet secret police. He was sentenced to death but died before he could be executed. He died at age 58.
1878 ~ Julie Manet (d. July 14, 1966), French artist and model. She was the niece of painter Édouard Manet. She was born and died in Paris, France. She died at age 87.
1863 ~ Leo Baekeland (né Leo Henricus Arthur Baekland; d. Feb. 23, 1944), Belgian-American chemist and inventor. He was the inventor of Bakelite, the first synthetic plastic. He was born in Ghent, Belgium. He died at age 80 in Beacon, New York.
1848 ~ Sándor Wekerle (d. Aug. 26, 1921), Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary. He served as Prime Minister for 3 non-consecutive terms. He died at age 72 in Budapest, Hungary.
1845 ~ Ulisse Dini (d. Oct. 28, 1918), Italian mathematician and politician. He is best known for his contribution to real analysis. He was born and died in Pisa, Italy. He died 17 days before his 73rd birthday.
1840 ~ Claude Monet (né Oscar-Claude Monet; d. Dec. 5, 1926), French impressionist painter. He was born in Paris, France. He died 3 weeks after his 86th birthday in Giverny, France.
1812 ~ Maria Cristina of Savoy (d. Jan. 21, 1836), Queen consort of the Two Sicilies and first wife of Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies (1810 ~ 1859). They married in 1832. She was of the House of Savoy. She was the youngest daughter of Victor Emmanuel I, King of Sardinia and Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Este. She was Roman Catholic. She died of complications of childbirth at age 23.
1805 ~ Fanny Mendelssohn (d. May 14, 1847), German composer and pianist. She was the sister of Felix Mendelssohn and the granddaughter of Moses Mendelssohn. She died of complications of a stroke at age 41.
1797 ~ Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet (d. Feb. 22, 1875), Scottish geologist. He was born in Angus, Scotland. He died at age 77 in London, England.
1765 ~ Robert Fulton (d. Feb. 24, 1815), American inventor and engineer who created the first successful steam ship. He was born in Little Britain, Pennsylvania. He died of consumption at age 49 in New York, New York.
1650 ~ William III, King of England (d. Mar. 19, 1702). He was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1689 until his death in 1702. Prior to becoming King, he was known as the Prince William of Orange. He was married to Mary II, Queen of England (1662 ~ 1695). They married in 1677. He and his wife reigned as William and Mary. His date of birth and death is sometimes noted as being November 4, 1650 and March 8, 1702, respectively, because the Julian calendar was in use in England at the time of his birth. He was of the House of Orange-Nassau. He was the son of William II, Prince of Orange and Mary, Princess Royal. He was born in his mother’s 29th birthday. He was Protestant. He died of pneumonia at age 51.
1401 ~ Infanta Maria of Castile (d. Sept. 4, 1458), Queen consort of Aragon and wife of Alfonso V, King of Aragon (1396 ~ 1458). They married in 1415. There were no children of their marriage. She was also the Princess of Asturias in her own right. She was of the House of Trastámara. She was the daughter of Henry III, King of Castile and Catherine of Lancaster. She was Roman Catholic. She died at age 56.
Events that Changed the World:
2016 ~ A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck in New Zealand.
1995 ~ A budget standoff between the Democrats and Republicans in the United States Congress forced a federal government shutdown, which temporarily closed national parks and museums.
1979 ~ United States President Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) issued an Executive Order freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis.
1973 ~ Britain’s Princess Anne (b. 1950) married Captain Mark Phillips (b. 1948) in Westminster Abby. They divorced in 1992.
1969 ~ NASA launched Apollo 12. This was the second manned mission to the surface of the moon. The mission ended on November 24 when the craft landed back on Earth.
1967 ~ Theodore Maiman (1927 ~ 2007) was granted a patent for his ruby laser systems, which were the first known lasers.
1960 ~ Ruby Bridges (b. 1954) became the African-American child to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana. United States Marshals escorted her to the William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. She was six years old. The event was depicted in a painting by Norman Rockwell.
1956 ~ The Knesset agreed to an Israeli withdrawal from the territory captured during the Sinai campaign.
1941 ~ German forces in Słonim, Russia, began Operation Barbarossa and murdered 9000 Jews in a single day.
1940 ~ The city of Coventry, England was heavily bombed by German bombers during World War II. Coventry Cathedral was almost completely destroyed.
1935 ~ The Nazis began the First Implementation Order to the Reich Citizenship, which defined a Jew as “a person descended from at least three grandparents who were full Jews by race.”
1922 ~ The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) began its radio service in the United Kingdom.
1918 ~ Czechoslovakia became a republic.
1889 ~ Journalist Nellie Bly (née Elizabeth Cochran; 1864 ~ 1922) began to trip around the world. She hoped to circumnavigate the world in less than 80 days and succeeded by completing the trip in 72 days.
1886 ~ German inventor Friedrich Soennecken (1848 ~ 1919) filed a patent for the two-hole punch.
1851 ~ Herman Melville’s novel, Moby Dick, was first published.
1770 ~ James Bruce (1730 ~ 1794), a Scottish explorer, traced what he believed to be the source of the Nile River.
Good-Byes:
2020 ~ Peter Florjančič (b. Mar. 5, 1919), Slovene inventor who lived large and spent big. He also participated as a ski-jumper in the 1936 Olympic games. Among his inventions are the perfume atomizer, a skiing treadmill and plastic photographic slide frames. He died at age 101.
2019 ~ Branko Lustig (b. June 10, 1932), Croatian Holocaust survivor who produced Schindler’s List. He was born in present-day Osijek, Croatia. During World War II, he was imprisoned in Auschwitz. After the War, he became a movie director. He died at age 87 in Zagreb, Croatia.
2016 ~ Gwen Ifill (née Gwendolyn Ifill, b. Sept. 29, 1955), African-American news anchor and journalist who broke down racial barriers. She was born in New York, New York. She died of endometrial cancer at age 61 in Washington, D.C.
2014 ~ Glen Larson (né Glen Albert Larson; b. Jan. 3, 1937), American writer-producer who churned out hit television shows. He created such shows as Battleship Galactica and Quincy, M.D. He was born in Long Beach, California. He died at age 77 of esophageal cancer in Santa Monica, California.
2014 ~ Jane Byrne (née Jayne Margaret Burke; b. May 24, 1933), American politician and first female mayor of Chicago. She was the City’s 50th Mayor and served from April 1979 until April 1983. She was born and died in Chicago, Illinois. She died of complications of a stroke at age 81.
2014 ~ Eugene Dynkin (b. May 11, 1924), Russian-born mathematician. He was born in Leningrad, Soviet Union. He died at age 90 in Ithaca, New York.
1990 ~ Malcolm Muggridge (né Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge; b. Mar. 24, 1903), British journalist and satirist. He was a British soldier and spy during World War II. He helped to bring Mother Teresa to popular attention in the West. He died at age 87.
1971 ~ Hanna Neumann (née Johanna von Caemmerer; b. Feb. 12, 1914), German-born British mathematician. She was born in what is today a district of Berlin. She moved to England in 1933 to follow Bernhard Neumann, her fiancé, who was Jewish, to escape the Nazis. She died of a cerebral aneurysm at age 57 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
1956 ~ Elisabeth of Romania (b. Oct. 12, 1894), Queen consort of the Hellenes. Queen consort of the Hellenes. She was married to George II, King of Greece. They divorced after 14 years of marriage. She was of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. She was the daughter of Ferdinand I, King of Romania and Marie of Edinburgh. She was Eastern Orthodox. She died just over a month after her 62nd birthday.
1918 ~ Robert Anderson Van Wyck (b. July 20, 1849), Mayor of New York City. He was the first Mayor of New York after the consolidation of the 5 boroughs into the City of Greater New York in 1898. He was Mayor from January 1898 through December 1901. He was born in New York, New York. He died at age 69 in Paris, France.
1916 ~ Saki (né Hector Hugh Munro; b. Dec. 18, 1870), British short story writer. He was killed by a German sniper during World War I. He died just over a month before his 46th birthday.
1915 ~ Booker T. Washington (né Booker Taliaferro Washington; b. Apr. 5, 1856), African-American educator and civil rights activist. The actual date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been born on April 5, 1856. He was born in Hale’s Ford, Virginia. He died at age 59 in Tuskegee, Alabama.
1908 ~ Guangxu (b. Aug. 14, 1871), 11th Chinese Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. He reigned from February 1875 until his death at age 37.
1866 ~ Miguel I, King of Portugal (b. Oct. 26, 1802). He reigned as King of Portugal and the Algarves from July 1828 until May 1834. He was known as The Usurper. He was forced into exile in May 1834. In 1851 at age 51, he married to Princess Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg (1831 ~ 1909). They married after he was exiled, thus was never the queen consort. They had six daughters and one son. He was of the House of Braganza. He was the 7th child and 3rdson of John VI, King of Portugal and Carlota Joaquina of Spain. He was Roman Catholic. He died in a hunting accident 19 days after his 64th birthday.
1831 ~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (b. Aug. 27, 1770), German philosopher. He died at age 61 in Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia.
1716 ~ Gottfried Leibniz (né Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz; b. July 1, 1646), German mathematician. He died at age 70.
1687 ~ Nell Gwynne (née Eleanor Gwyn, b. Feb. 2, 1650), mistress of Charles II, King of England. She died at age 37.
1522 ~ Princess Anne of France (b. Apr. 3, 1461), member of the French royal family. She married Peter II, Duke of Bourbon (1438 ~ 1522) in 1473 and became the Duchess consort of Bourbon. She was the older sister of Charles VIII, King of France and acted as Regent during her brother’s minority. She was of the House of Valois. She was the daughter of Louis XI, King of France and Charlotte of Savoy. She died at age 61.
1442 ~ Infanta Yolande of Aragon (b. Aug. 11, 1384), Duchess consort of Anjou and wife of Louis II, Duke of Anjou (1377 ~ 1417). Louis had also claimed the throne of Naples. They married in 1400 and were the parents of several children, including René, King of Naples. She was of the House of Barcelona. She was the daughter of John I, King of Aragon and Yolande of Bar. She was Roman Catholic. She died at age 58.
976 ~ Emperor Taizu of Song (b. Mar. 21, 927), Chinese emperor who was the founder and first emperor of the Song Dynasty. He was Emperor from February 960 until his death in November 16 years later. He died at age 49.
565 ~ Justinian the Great, Byzantine Emperor (b. May 11, 482). The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been 83 years old at the time of his death.
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