May 26

Birthdays:

1971 ~ Matt Stone, American animator and co-creator of South Park.

1966 ~ Helena Bonham Carter, English actress.

1966 ~ Zola Budd, South American athlete.

1951 ~ Sally Ride (d. 2012), First American female astronaut to go into space.

1928 ~ Jack Kevorkian (né Murad Kervorkian, d. 2011), American pathologist and activist for assisted suicide.  Ironically, he chose not to die by suicide.  He died 8 days after his 83^rd birthday.

1926 ~ Miles Davis (d. 1991), American Jazz trumpeter, bandleader and composer.

1923 ~ James Arness (d. 2011), American rugged actor who played Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke.  His brother was Peter Graves.

1920 ~ Peggy Lee (d. 2002), American singer and actress.

1912 ~ Jay Silverheels (d. 1980), Canadian actor.

1907 ~ John Wayne (d. 1979), American actor.

1895 ~ Dorothea Lange (d. 1965), American photographer, best known for her work during the Great Depression.

1886 ~ Al Jolson (né Asa Yoelson, d. 1950), Lithuanian-born American comedian and singer.

1867 ~ Mary of Teck (d. 1953), Queen consort of King George V of the United Kingdom.

1667 ~ Abraham de Moivre (d. 1854), French mathematician.

1478 ~ Pope Clement VII (né Giulio di Giuliano de’Medici, d. 1534).

Events that Changed the World:

1998 ~ The US Supreme Court ruled in New Jersey v. New York, that Ellis Island is mainly in the State of New Jersey and not New York.

1983 ~ A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Japan and caused a tsunami that killed over 100 people and injured scores of others.

1978 ~ The first legal casino in the eastern United States opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

1972 ~ The United States and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

1946 ~ A patent was filed in the United States for the hydrogen bomb.

1938 ~ The US House Un-American Activities Committee began meeting.

1908 ~ At Masjed Soleyman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East was made.  The rights to the oil was acquired by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which in 1954 became known as the British Petroleum or BP Company.

1897 ~ Bram Stoker’s Dracula was published.

1896 ~ The first edition the of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, by Charles Dow, was published.

1896 ~ Nicholas II became Tsar of Imperial Russia.

1869 ~ Boston University received its charter from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

1868 ~ The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson concluding finding Johnson not guilty.

1830 ~ The Indian Removal Act was passed by US Congress.  President Andrew Jackson signed the Act into law two days later, on May 28.  This Act ultimately lead to the Trail of Tears, in which Native Americans were forcibly removed from their land to migrate west.

1736 ~ During the Battle of Ackia, British and Chicksaw soldiers repelled a French and Choctaw attack on the village of Ackia (near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi).  Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, the French Louisiana governor, had hoped to link Louisiana with Acadia and other northern colonies of New France.

1647 ~ Alse Young (1600 ~ 1647), of Hartford, Connecticut, became the first person executed as a witch in the American colonies. 

1538 ~ The city of Geneva expelled John Calvin and his followers.  He relocated in exile to Strasbourg.

1293 ~ An earthquake in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan killed an estimated 30,000 people.

Good-Byes:

2010 ~ Art Linkletter (b. 1912), Canadian-American radio and television host.

2008 ~ Sydney Pollack (b. 1934), American Oscar-winning director, who tackled many genres.

2005 ~ Dale Velzy (b. 1927), American surfboard maker who defined the “surfer dude lifestyle.”

2005 ~ Eddie Albert (b. 1906), American actor, best known for his role in the television sit-com, Green Acres.

1943 ~ Edsel Ford (b. 1893), American businessman.  He was the son of Henry Ford.  The car named after him was introduced in 1957, many years after his death.

1939 ~ Charles Horace Mayo (b. 1865), American physician and co-founder of the Mayo Clinic.

1914 ~ Jacob August Riis (b. 1849), Danish-American journalist, photographer and social reformer.

1907 ~ Ida Saxton McKinley (b. 1847), 25^th First Lady and wife of President William McKinley.

1904 ~ Georges Gilles de la Tourette (b. 1857), French neurologist who first described the condition now known as Tourette’s syndrome.

1703 ~ Samuel Pepys (b. 1633), English civil servant and diarist.

946 ~ Edmund I of England (b. 921).  He was murdered by a thief.

735 ~ Bede (b. 673), English historian and theologian.