September 10

Birthdays:

1968 ~ Guy Ritchie, British movie director and former husband of Madonna.

1960 ~ Colin Firth, English actor.

1950 ~ Joe Perry (né Anthony Joseph Pereira), American musician and guitarist for Aerosmith.

1948 ~ Margaret Trudeau, Canadian actress, author and former wife of Canadian President Pierre Trudeau.

1941 ~ Stephen Jay Gould (d. 2002), American paleontologist.  He died of cancer at age 60.

1937 ~ Jared Diamond, American biologist and author.

1934 ~ Roger Maris (d. 1985), American baseball player.  He died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 51.

1934 ~ Charles Kuralt (d. 1997), American television journalist.  After his death, it was learned that he had a second, shadow family, while married to his first wife.  He died at age 62.

1933 ~ Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer.

1931 ~ Philip Baker Hall, American actor best known for his role as Lieutenant Bookman, the library cop on Seinfeld.

1929 ~ Arnold Palmer, American golfer.

1918 ~ Rin tin tin (d. 1932), original German-American acting dog.  The dog died almost 14 years later, in August 1932.

1896 ~ Adele Astaire (d. 1981), American dancer and elder sister of Fred Astaire.  She died at age 84.

1892 ~ Arthur Compton (d. 1962), American physicist and recipient of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 69.

1890 ~ Duke Kahanamoku (d. 1968), American competition swimmer and surfer.  He is credited with being the father of surfing.  He was known as the Big Kahuna.  He died at age 77.

1890 ~ Elsa Schiaparelli (d. 1973), Italian fashion designer.  She died at age 83.

1886 ~ Hilda Doolittle (d. 1961), American poet and novelist.  She died 11 days after her 75^th birthday.

1839 ~ Isaac Funk (d. 1912), American minister and publisher.  He was a co-founder of Funk & Wagnalls.  He died at age 72.

1839 ~ Charles S. Peirce (d. 1914), American philosopher and mathematician.  He died at age 74.

1801 ~ Marie Laveau (d. 1881), Creole-American from New Orleans, best known for her practices into voodoo.  She died at age 86.

1786 ~ Nicolás Bravo (d. 1854), 11^th President of Mexico.  He died at age 67.

1753 ~ Sir John Soane (d. 1837), English architect.  He died at age 83.

1659 ~ Henry Purcell (d. 1695), English composer.

1487 ~ Pope Julius III (né Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, d. 1555).  He was Pope from February 1550 until his death 5 years later.  He died at age 67.

920 ~ King Louis IV of France (d. 954).  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been born and died on September 10, at age 33 or 34.

Events that Changed the World:

2008 ~ The Large Hadron Collider at CERN was powered up in Geneva, Switzerland.

2003 ~ Anna Lindh (1957 ~ 2003), the foreign minister of Sweden, was stabbed while shopping.  She died at age 53 the following day from her injuries.

2002 ~ Switzerland joined the United Nations.

1967 ~ The people of Gibraltar voted to remain British subjects as opposed to joining and becoming a part of Spain.

1955 ~ The western television series Gunsmoke premiered on CBS.

1946 ~ While on a train to Darjeeling, India, Sister Teresa Bojaxhiu of the Loreto Sisters’ Convent decided to leave the convent and live among the poor.  She would be known to the world as Mother Teresa (1910 ~ 1997).

1939 ~ Canada declared war on Nazi Germany, joining France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.

1846 ~ Elias Howe (1819 ~ 1867) was granted a patent for the sewing machine.

1823 ~ Simón Bolívar (1783 ~ 1830) was named the President of Peru.

1813 ~ The United States defeated the British at the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812.

1776 ~ Nathan Hale (1755 ~ 1776) volunteered to spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.  He was caught and hanged as a traitor 12 days later, on September 22, 1776 at age 21.

1515 ~ Thomas Wolsey (1473 ~ 1530) became a Cardinal.

1509 ~ A massive earthquake struck Constantinople.

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Norman Farberow (b. 1918), American psychologist who worked to save the suicidal.  He was 97 years old.

2014 ~ Richard Kiel (b. 1939), American gentle giant who became a Bond villain.  He was the seven-foot-two actor who was best known for his role as Jaws in the 1977 James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me.  He died three days before his 75^th birthday.

2014 ~ Edward Nelson (b. 1932), American mathematician.  He died at age 82.

2012 ~ Edwin P. Wilson (b. 1928), American CIA agent who was convicted for selling arms to Libya.  He died at age 84.

2011 ~ Cliff Robertson (né Clifford Parker Robertson, b. 1923), American Oscar-winning actor snubbed by Hollywood.  His acting career lost momentum in 1977 after he blew the whistle on a high-level check fraud going on at a top movie studio.  He died one day after his 88^th birthday.

2008 ~ Reudi Rymann (b. 1933), Swiss yodeler who was a national icon.  He died at age 75.

2007 ~ Anita Roddick (b. 1942), English businesswoman and founder of The Body Shop.  She died at age 64.

2007 ~ Jane Wyman (b. 1917), American actress and first wife of President Ronald Reagan.  She died at age 90.

2005 ~ Hermann Bondi (d. 1919), Austrian mathematician.  He died at age 85.

2004 ~ Brock Adams (b. 1927), 5^th United States Secretary of Transportation.  He served under President Jimmy Carter from January 1977 until July 1979.  He died at age 77.

1983 ~ Felix Bloch (b. 1905), Swiss-American physicist and recipient of the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 77.

1983 ~ Norah Lofts (né Norah Ethyl Robinson, b. 1904), English author of gothic novels.  She died 3 weeks after her 79^th birthday.

1975 ~ George Paget Thompson (b. 1892), English physicist and recipient of the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 83.

1966 ~ Emil Julius Gumbel (b. 1891), German mathematician.  He died at age 75.

1948 ~ Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (b. 1861).  He died at age 87.

1935 ~ Huey Long (b. 1893), American politician and 40^th Governor of Louisiana.  He died from the gunshot wounds he had received two days earlier.  He was 42 years old.

1931 ~ Dmitri Egorov (b. 1869), Russian mathematician.  He died at age 61.

1889 ~ Prince Charles III of Monaco (b. 1818).  He died at age 70.

1851 ~ Reverend Thomas H. Gallaudet (b. 1787), American educator for the deaf.  He died at age 63.

1842 ~ Letitia Christian Tyler (b. 1790), First Lady of the United States and first wife of President John Tyler.  She died at age 51 while her husband was in Office, thereby becoming the first wife of a President to die while in office.

1797 ~ Mary Wollstonecraft (b. 1759), English author best known for her novel, Frankenstein.  She died at age 38 from complications of childbirth.

1749 ~ Émilie du Châtelet (né Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet, b. 1706), French mathematician and author during the Age of Enlightenment.  She died a week after having given birth to her third child.

1382 ~ Louis I of Hungary (b. 1326).  He was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 until his death at age 56 in 1382.

1167 ~ Empress Matilda of England (b. 1102).  She died at age 65.

954 ~ King Louis IV of France (d. 920).  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been born and died on September 10, at age 33 or 34.