December 10

Birthdays:

1960 ~ Kenneth Branagh, Irish actor.

1956 ~ Rod Blagojevich, 40^th Governor of Illinois who was convicted on federal corruption charges.

1952 ~ Susan Dey, American actress.

1934 ~ Howard Martin Temin (d. 1994), American geneticist and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died of lung cancer at age 59.

1922 ~ Agnes Nixon (née Agnes Eckhardt, d. 2016), American soap opera writer who but taboo subjects on television.  She died of Parkinson’s disease at age 93.

1914 ~ Dorothy Lamour (d. 1996), American actress.  She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  She died at age 81.

1911 ~ Chet Huntley (né Chester Robert Huntley, d. 1974), American journalist and anchorman with David Brinkley.  He died of lung cancer at age 62.

1907 ~ Rumer Godden (né Margaret Rumer Godden, d. 1998), English writer.  She died a month before her 91^st birthday.

1891 ~ Nelly Sachs (d. 1970), German-born Jewish writer and recipient of the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature.  She died at age 78.

1851 ~ Melvil Dewey (d. 1913), American librarian and creator of the Dewey Decimal System.  He died 16 days after his 80^th birthday.

1830 ~ Emily Dickinson (d. 1886), American poet.  She died at age 55.

1815 ~ Ada Lovelace (d. 1881), English mathematician and computer scientist.  She died of uterine cancer 13 days before her 37^th birthday.

1813 ~ Zachariah Chandler (d. 1879), 12^th United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under President Ulysses S. Grant from October 1875 until March 1877.  He was born in Bedford, New Hampshire.  He died at age 65.

1804 ~ Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi (d. 1851), German mathematician.  He died at age 46.

1787 ~ Thomas Gallaudet (d. 1851), American pioneer for education of the deaf.  He founded the American School for the Deaf.  He died age 63.

1452 ~ Johannes Stöffler (d. 1531), German mathematician.  He died at age 88.

1394 ~ King James I of Scotland (d. 1437).  He died at age 42.

Events that Changed the World:

1983 ~ Raúl Alfonsín (1927 ~ 1009) became president of Argentina, marking the restoration of democracy in the country.

1978 ~ Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Began (1913 ~ 1992) and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (1918 ~ 1981) were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1963 ~ Zanzibar gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

1955 ~ The Mighty Mouse Playhouse debuted on television.

1948 ~ The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

1936 ~ King Edward VIII (1894 ~ 1972) signed the Instrument of Abdication, thereby relinquishing his rights to the British throne.

1911 ~ Calbraith Rogers (1879 ~ 1912) completed the first transcontinental flight across the United States.  He began the flight on September 17, 1911, from Sheepshead Bay, New York.

1909 ~ Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (1858 ~ 1940) became the first woman writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1906 ~ President Theodore Roosevelt (1858 ~ 1919) became the first American to win a Nobel Prize when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  He was given this award for his role in the mediation of the Russo-Japanese War.

1902 ~ Women were given the right to vote in Tasmania.

1901 ~ The first Nobel Prizes were awarded.

1898 ~ The Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the Spanish-American War in which Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States.

1884 ~ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain (1835 ~ 1910) was published.

1869 ~ The Kappa Sigma fraternity was founded at the University of Virginia.

1869 ~ The territory of Wyoming authorized women to vote and to hold political office.

1868 ~ The first traffic lights were installed outside of the Palace of Westminster in London, England.

1861 ~ Kentucky became the 13^th State of the Confederate States of America.

1817 ~ Mississippi became the 20^th State of the Union.

1799 ~ France adopted the meter as its official unit of length.

1541 ~ English courtiers Thomas Culpepper (1514 ~ 1541) and Francis Dereham (1513 ~ 1541) were executed for allegedly having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VII.

1520 ~ Martin Luther (1483 ~ 1546) burned his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine.

Good-Byes:

2014 ~ Robert Oakley (b. 1931), American diplomat who thrived in danger zones.  He served as the 19^th United States Ambassador to Pakistan.  He died at age 83.

2010 ~ John Fenn (b. 1917), American chemist and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 93.

2006 ~ Augusto Pinochet (d. 1915), Chilean general and 30^th President of Chile.  He died 15 days after his 91^st birthday.

2005 ~ Richard Pryor (b. 1940), American comedian.  He died 9 days after his 65^th birthday.

2005 ~ Eugene “Gene” McCarthy (b. 1916), American United States Senator from Minnesota.  He was the Democratic candidate for United States President in the 1968 Presidential campaign.  He died at age 89.

1999 ~ Franjo Tuđman (b. 1922), 1^st Croatian politician and President of Croatia.  He served in Office from May 1990 until his death on this date 9 years later.  He died at age 77.

1990 ~ Armand Hammer (b. 1898), American industrialist and art collector.  He died at age 92.

1978 ~ Edward Wood, Jr. (b. 1924), American filmmaker.  He is best known for his low-budget science fiction movies, such as Plan 9 From Outer Space.  He died at age 54 of a heart attack.

1967 ~ Otis Redding (b. 1941), American singer.  He was killed in a plane crash at age 26.

1936 ~ Luigi Pirandello (b. 1867), Italian writer and recipient of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 69.

1926 ~ Nikola Pašić (b. 1845), Prime Minister of Serbia and Yugoslavia.  He died 8 days before his 81^st birthday.

1920 ~ Horace E. Dodge (b. 1868), American automobile manufacturer and co-founder, along with his brother John (1864 ~ 1920) of the Dodge company.  He died at age 52 of the Spanish flu.

1911 ~ Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (b. 1817), British botanist.  He died at age 94.

1896 ~ Alfred Nobel (b. 1833), Swedish chemist and engineer.  He invented dynamite.  He also founded the Nobel Prize.  There is no Nobel category for mathematics, however.  The first Nobel Prizes were awarded on the 5^th anniversary of his death.  He died at age 63.

1878 ~ Henry Wells (b. 1805), American businessman and co-founder of Wells Fargo and American Express.  He was from Thetford, Vermont.  He died two days before his 73^rd birthday.

1865 ~ King Leopold I of Belgium (b. 1790).  He died 6 days before his 75^th birthday.

1626 ~ Edmund Gunter (b. 1581), English mathematician.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been 45 at the time of his death.

1198 ~ Averroes (né Ibn Rušd, b. 1126), Spanish philosopher, physicist, physician and astronomer.  He is sometimes known as the Father of Secular Though in Western Europe.  He died at age 72.