Wednesday, December 6, 2023

December 6

Birthdays:

 

1997 ~ Sabrina Ionescu (née Sabrina Elaine Ionescu), American professional basketball player.  She played for the New York Liberty of the Women’s National Basketball association.  She was born in Walnut Creek, California.

 

1993 ~Elián González, Cuban technician.  In late 1999, he and his mother were attempting to flee Cuba.  His mother drowned, and he became embroiled in an international custody battle between his father, who lived in Cuba, and relatives living in the United States.  Ultimately, he was returned to Cuba to live with his father.

 

1984 ~ Princess Sofia (née Sofia Kristina Hellqvist), Duchess of Värmland.  She is the wife of Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, Duke of Värmland.  She was a commoner who married into the Swedish royal family.

 

1979 ~ Luke Letlow (né Luke Joshua Letlow; d. Dec. 29, 2020), American Republican politician from Louisiana.  He had been elected to the United House of Representatives to represent the Louisiana 5th Congressional District.  He died just days before he was due to take his seat in Congress.  He was born in Monroe, Louisiana.  He died in Shreveport, Louisiana just 23 days after his 41st birthday of complications of Covid-19.

 

1971 ~ Ryan White (né Ryan Wayne White; d. Apr. 8, 1990), American AIDS activist.  He had hemophilia and contracted AIDS from his numerous blood transfusions.  He was born in Kokomo, Indiana.  He died at age 18 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

 

1967 ~ Judd Apatow, American movie director.  He was born in Flushing, New York.

 

1965 ~ Eric Boehlert (d. Apr. 4, 2022), American liberal critic and journalist who railed against bias in the press.  He was born in Utica, New York.  He was struck and killed by an eastbound New Jersey transit train while biking.  He was 56 years old.

 

1957 ~ Andrew Coumo (né Andrew Mark Cuomo), American politician and 56th Governor of the State of New York.  He served as governor from January 2011 until August 2021, when he resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment.  He had previously served as the 64th Attorney General of New York.  He was born in New York, New York.

 

1955 ~ Steven Wright (né Steven Alexander Wright), American comedian.  He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

1953 ~ Tom Hulce (né Thomas Edward Hulce), American actor and theater director.  He is best known for his portrayal of Mozart in the 1984 film Amadeus.  He was born in Detroit, Michigan.

 

1952 ~ Craig Newmark (né Craig Alexander Newmark), American computer programmer and founder of Craigslist.  He was born in Morristown, New Jersey.

 

1949 ~ William Powell (d. July 11, 2016), American radical who wrote The Anarchist Cookbook when he was 19 years old.  The book was a comprehensive “how-to” guide for insurrectionists.  He later tried to atone for his actions in creating the book by co-founding a non-profit organization for handicapped and disabled children.  He died of a heart attack while on vacation with his family.  He was 66 years old.

 

1948 ~ JoBeth Williams (née Margaret JoBeth Williams), American actress.  She was born in Houston, Texas.

 

1933 ~ Henryk Górecki (né Henryk Mikołaj Górecki; d. Nov. 12, 2010), Polish composer who shed dissonance and found success.  He died of complications from a lung infection 24 days before his 77th birthday.

 

1924 ~ Wally Cox (né Wallace Maynard Cox; d. Feb. 15, 1973), American actor.  He was the voice of Underdog on the cartoon of the same name.  He was born in Detroit, Michigan.  He died at age 48 of a heart attack in Hollywood, California.

 

1920 ~ George Porter, Baron Porter of Luddenham (d. Aug. 31, 2002), English chemist and recipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 81.

 

1920 ~ Dave Brubeck (né David Warren Brubeck; d. Dec. 5, 2012), American pianist who reshaped the rhythms of jazz.  He was born in Concord, California.  He died 1 day before his 92nd birthday in Norwalk, Connecticut.

 

1917 ~ Irv Robbins (né Irvine Robbins; d. May 5, 2008), Canadian-born American businessman and co-founder of Baskin-Robbins.  He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.  He died at age 90 in Rancho Mirage, California.

 

1908 ~ Baby Face Nelson (né Lester Joseph Gillis; d. Nov. 27, 1934), American gangster.  He was born in Chicago, Illinois.  He was killed 9 days before his 26th birthday in a shoot-out with the FBI during a bank robbery in Wilmette, Illinois.

 

1908 ~ Herta Freitag (née Herta Taussig; d. Jan. 25, 2000), Austrian-born American mathematician.  Her family emigrated from Austria to England in 1938 to escape the Nazi regime.  She was born in Vienna, Austria.  She died at age 91 in Roanoke, Virginia.

 

1906 ~ Carl Weiss, Sr. (né Carl Austin Weiss, d. Sept. 8, 1935), American physician and alleged assassin of Louisiana Senator Huey Long.  Weiss was killed by Long’s bodyguards after he allegedly shot Long in the State Capitol building.  Huey Long died two days after being shot.  He was born and died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  He was 28 years old at the time of his death.

 

1904 ~ Ève Curie Labouisse (née Ève Denise Curie; d. Oct. 22, 2007), French journalist.  She was the youngest daughter of Marie and Pierre Curie.  She was born in Paris, France.  She died at age 102 in New York, New York.

 

1900 ~ Agnes Moorehead (née Agnes Robertson Moorehead; d. Apr. 30, 1974), American actress.  She is best known for her role as Endora on the sit-com Bewitched.  She was born in Clinton, Massachusetts.  She died of uterine cancer at age 73 in Rochester, Minnesota.

 

1898 ~ Gunner Myrdal (né Karl Gunnar Myrdal; d. May 17, 1987), Swedish economist and recipient of the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.  He died at age 88.

 

1898 ~ Alfred Eisenstaedt (d. Aug. 23, 1995), German-born photographer.  He died in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts at age 96.

 

1896 ~ Ira Gershwin (né Israel Gershowitz; d. Aug. 17, 1983), American lyricist and songwriter.  He was born in Brooklyn, New York.  He died at age 86 in Beverly Hills, California.

 

1887 ~ Lynn Fontanne (née Lillie Louise Fontanne; d. July 30, 1983), British actress.  She was born in Woodford, Essex, United Kingdom.  She died at age 95 in Genesee Depot, Wisconsin.

 

1886 ~ Joyce Kilmer (né Alfred Joyce Kilmer, d. July 30, 1918), American poet.  He is best known for his poem Trees.  He was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey.  He died at age 31 during the Second Battle of Marne during World War I.

 

1856 ~ Walther von Dyck (né Walther Franz Anton von Dyck; d. Nov. 5, 1933), German mathematician.  He was born and died in Munich, Germany.  He died a month before his 78th birthday.

 

1808 ~ Levi Boone (né Levy Day Boone; d. Jan. 24, 1882), 17th Mayor of Chicago.  He was a member of the Know-Nothing Party.  He served as Mayor from 1855 until 1856.  He was born near Lexington, Kentucky.  He died at age 73 in Chicago, Illinois.

 

1803 ~ Princess Maria Josepha Amalia of Saxony (d. May 18, 1829), Queen consort of Spain and 3rd wife of Ferdinand VII, King of Spain (1784 ~ 1833).  They married in 1819.  There were no children of this marriage.  She was of the House of Witten.  She was the daughter of Maximilian, Crown Prince of Saxony and Princess Caroline of Parma.  She was Roman Catholic.  She died at age 25 of a fever.

 

1792 ~ William II, King of the Netherlands (b. Mar. 17, 1849).  He reigned from October 1840 until his death in March 1849.  He was married to Anna Pavlovna of Russia.  He was of the House of Orange-Nassau.  He was the son of William I, King of the Netherlands and Princess Wilhelmine of Prussia.  He was of the Dutch Reformed Church.  He died at age 56.

 

1752 ~ Gabriel Duvall (d. Mar. 6, 1844), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was nominated to the High Court by President James Madison.  He replaced Samuel Chase on the Court.  He was succeeded by Philip Barbour.  He served on the Court from November 1811 until January 1835.  He was considered one of the most insignificant Supreme Court Justices.  He died in Glenn Dale, Maryland.  He was 91 years old at the time of his death.

 

1645 ~ Maria de Dominici (b. Dec. 6, 1645), Maltese sculptor, painter, and nun.  She died at age 57 in Rome, Italy.  In 2010, a crater on the Mercury was named in her honor.

 

1520 ~ Barbara Radziwiłł (d. May 8, 1551), Queen consort of Poland and 2nd wife of Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland (1520 ~ 1572).  She had been his mistress, so they married in a secret ceremony.  He was her 2nd husband.  She had been widowed and was previously married to Stanislovas Goštautas (1507 ~ 1542).  She was of the Radziwiłł family.  She was the daughter of Jerzy Radziwiłł and Barbara Kolanka.  She was Roman Catholic.  She died at age 30 after suffering a long illness.

 

1421 ~ Henry VI, King of England (d. May 21, 1471).  His first reign was from September 1422 until March 1461, and his second reign ran from October 1470 until April 1471.  He was also the disputed King of France from October 1422 until October 1453.  He was married to Margaret of Anjou.  They married in 1445.  He was of the House of Lancaster.  He was the son of Henry V, King of England and Princess Catherine of Valois.  He died, at what may have been a murder, at age 49 in the Tower of London.

 

1285 ~ Ferdinand IV, King of Castile and León (d. Sept. 7, 1312).  He reigned from April 1295 until his death in September 1312.  He was known as The Summoned.  He was married to Infanta Constance of Portugal.  He was of the Castilian House of Ivrea.  He was the son of Sancho IV, King of Castile and Maria de Molina.  He was Roman Catholic.  He was 26 years old at the time of his death.

 

Events that Changed the World:

 

2022 ~ Senator Raphael Warnock (b. 1969) beat former football player Hershel Walker (b. 1962) in the Georgia State United States Senate run-off.

 

2017 ~ The Trump administration announced that the United States would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

 

2015 ~ Chanukah began at sunset.

 

1973 ~ The United States House of Representatives voted to confirm Gerald Ford (1913 ~ 2006) as Vice President of the United States.  The United States Senate had voted for his confirmation on November 27, 1973.

 

1969 ~ Meredith Hunter (1951 ~ 1969) was stabbed to death by the Hells Angels during a Rolling Stone’s concert at the Altamont Speedway in California.

 

1967 ~ Adrian Kantrowitz (1918 ~ 2008) performed the first human heart transplant in the United States.  The surgery was performed on an infant at the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York.  This transplant occurred just three days following the first human heart transplant lead by Christiaan Bernard’s team in South Africa.

 

1953 ~ Vladimir Nabokov (1899 ~ 1977) completed Lolita.

 

1947 ~ The Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated.

 

1933 ~ United States Federal Judge John Woolsey (1877 ~ 1945) ruled that James Joyce’s novel, Ulysses, was not obscene.

 

1917 ~ A munitions explosion in Halifax, Nova Scotia killed more than 1900 people and cause massive damage to the city.  This event was depicted in the book, The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy and Extraordinary Heroism, by John U. Bacon.

 

1917 ~ Finland declared its independence from Russia.

 

1912 ~ The Nefertiti Bust was discovered in Egypt by a German archeological team.

 

1907 ~ A coal mine explosion in Monongah, West Virginia killed over 360 miners and other workers.

 

1897 ~ London became the world’s first city to host licensed taxicabs.

 

1884 ~ The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., was completed 36 years after construction had begun in 1848.

 

1877 ~ The Washington Post began publication.

 

1865 ~ The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which banned slavery in the United States, was ratified.

 

1790 ~ The United States Congress moved its location from New York City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

 

1534 ~ The City of Quito, Ecuador was founded by Sebastián de Belalcázar (d. 1551).

 

1060 ~ Béla I (d. 1063) was crowned King of Hungary.  He would rule for 3 years, until his death in September 1063.

 

Good-Byes:

 

2014 ~ Ralph Baer (né Rudolf Heinrich Baer, b. Mar. 8, 1922), German-born American engineer who became a video game pioneer.  He was known as the Father of Video Games.  His family left Germany to escape from the Holocaust.  He died in Manchester, New Hampshire at age 92.

 

2008 ~ Sunny von Bülow (née Martha Sharp Crawford, b. Sept. 1, 1932), American heiress and socialite who was in a coma for over 27 years.  She was born in Manassas, Virginia.  She died in Manhattan, New York.  She was 76 years old at the time of her death.  Her husband, Claus von Bülow (1926 ~ 2019) was accused of attempted murder, but his murder conviction was later overturned.

 

2002 ~ Father Philip Berrigan (né Phillip Francis Berrigan; b. Oct. 5, 1923), American priest and civil rights activist.  He was born in Two Harbors, Minnesota.  He died of cancer at age 79 in Baltimore, Maryland.

 

2000 ~ Werner Klemperer (b. Mar. 22, 1920), German-born actor best known for his role as Captain Klink on the television sit-com Hogan’s Heroes.  He was born in Cologne, Germany.  He died of cancer at age 80 in Manhattan, New York.

 

1995 ~ James Reston (né James Barrett Reston; b. Nov. 3, 1909), Scottish-born American journalist.  He had a long career with the New York Times.  He was born in Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, Scotland.  He died about a month after his 86thbirthday in Washington, D.C.

 

1993 ~ Don Ameche (né Dominic Felix Amici; b. May 31, 1908), American actor.  He was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  He died of prostate cancer at age 85 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

 

1991 ~ Sir Richard Stone (né John Richard Nicholas Stone; b. Aug. 30, 1913), British economist and recipient of the 1984 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.  He was born in London, England.  He died at age 78 in Cambridge, England.

 

1989 ~ Frances Bavier (née Frances Elizabeth Bavier; b. Dec. 14, 1902), American actress best known for her role as Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show.  She was born in Manhattan, New York.  She died 8 days before her 87th birthday in Siler City, North Carolina.

 

1988 ~ Roy Orbison (né Roy Kelton Orbison; b. Apr. 23, 1936), American singer and songwriter.  He was born in Vernon, Texas.  He died of a heart attack at age 52 in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

 

1955 ~ Honus Wagner (né Johannas Peter Wagner; b. Feb. 24, 1874), American baseball player.  He played for the Pittsburg Pirates nearly his entire career.  He was born in Chartiers Borough, Pennsylvania.  He died at age 81 in Carnegie, Pennsylvania.

 

1951 ~ Harold Ross (né Harold Wallace Ross; b. Nov. 6, 1892), American journalist and co-founder of The New Yorkermagazine.  He was born in Aspen, Colorado.  He died a during surgery month after his 59th birthday in Boston, Massachusetts.

 

1949 ~ Lead Belly (né Huddie William Ledbetter, b. Jan. 20, 1888), African-American folk and blues musician.  He was born in Mooringsport, Louisiana.  He died at age 61 in New York, New York.

 

1889 ~ Jefferson Davis (né Jefferson Finis Davis; b. June 3, 1889), President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.  He has previously served as the United States Secretary of War from March 1853 until March 1857, under Franklin Pierce.  Following the Civil War, he was imprisoned at Fort Monroe, in Virginia.  He was born in Fairview, Kentucky.  He died at age 81 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

 

1882 ~ Alfred Escher (né Johann Heinrich Alfred Escher vom Glas; b. Feb. 20, 1819), Swiss businessman and founder of Credit Suisse.  He was born in Zürich, Switzerland.  He died at age 63.

 

1882 ~ Anthony Trollope (b. Apr. 24, 1815), British writer.  He was born and died in London, England.  He died at age 67.

 

1879 ~ Erastus Brigham Bigelow (b. Apr. 2, 1814), American industrialist and inventor of weaving machines.  He was born in West Boylston, Massachusetts and died in Boston, Massachusetts.  He was 65 at the time of his death.

 

1867 ~ Giovanni Pacini (b. Feb. 17, 1796), Italian composer best known for his operas.  He was born in Catania, Italy.  He died at age 71 in Pescia, Italy.

 

1686 ~ Eleanora Gonzaga, Princess of Mantua (b. Nov. 18, 1630), Holy Roman Empress consort and Queen consort of Hungary and Bohemia.  She was the third wife of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor.  They married in 1651.  She was of the House of Gonzaga.  She was the daughter of Charles Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers and Maria Gonzaga, Duchess of Montferrat.  She was Roman Catholic.  She died 3 weeks after her 56th birthday.

 

1685 ~ Marie Adélaïde of Savoy (d. Feb. 12, 1712), Dauphine of France.  In 1697, she married Louis, Dauphin of France, Duke of Brittany (1682- 1712).  It was a happy marriage.  She was of the House of Savoy.  She was the daughter of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy and Anne Marie d’Orléans.  She was Roman Catholic.  She died of measles at age 26 just 6 days before her husband.

 

1658 ~ Baltasar Gracián y Morales (b. Jan. 8, 1601), Spanish Jesuit priest and philosopher.  He died about a month before his 58th birthday.

 

1616 ~ Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi (b. Dec. 18, 1552), Moroccan writer and mathematician.  He died 12 days before his 64thbirthday in Fez, Morocco.

 

1562 ~ Garzia de’Medici (b. July 5, 1547), Tuscan prince.  He never married.  He was of the House of Medici.  He was the son of Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleanor of Toledo.  He died of malaria at age 15.

 

1352 ~ Pope Clement VI (né Pierre Roger; b. 1291).  He was Pope from 1342 until his death 10 years later.  He reigned during the Black Death (1348 ~ 1350) and is known for granting remission of sins for all who died during the plague.  The exact date of his birth is not known.

 

1185 ~ Afonso I, King of Portugal (b. July 25, 1109).  He ruled from July 1139 until his death in December 1185.  He was known as The Conqueror.  He was married to Mafalda of Savoy.  He was of the Portuguese House of Burgundy.  He was the son of Henry, Count of Portugal and Teresa, Countess of Portugal.  He was Roman Catholic.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he generally considered to have been born on July 25, 1109.

 

343 ~ Saint Nicholas (b. Mar. 15, 270).  Greek/Turkish bishop and saint.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but it is often given as March 15.  He died at age 73.


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