July 14

Bastille Day in France.

Birthdays:

1960 ~ Jane Lynch, American actress.

1953 ~ Martha Coakley, 58^th Attorney General for the State of Massachusetts.  She served as Attorney General from January 2007 through January 2015 during the governorships of Governors Charlie Baker and Deval Patrick.

1940 ~ Susan Howatch, British novelist, known for writing historical sagas.

1938 ~ Jerry Rubin (d. Nov. 28, 1994), American political activist.  He died at age 56 of a heart attack following having been struck by a vehicle while crossing a street.

1932 ~ Rosey Grier (né Roosevelt Grier), American football player.

1927 ~ John Chancellor (d. July 12, 1996), American journalist and news anchor.  He died of stomach cancer 2 days before his 69^th birthday.

1926 ~ Harry Dean Stanton, American actor.

1921 ~ Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson (d. Sept. 26, 1996), English chemist and recipient of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 75.

1918 ~ Ingmar Bergman (né Ernest Ingmar Bergman, d. July 30, 2007), Swedish film maker.  He died 2 weeks after his 89^th birthday.

1914 ~ Kenneth B. Clark (d. May 1, 2005), African-American educator psychologist and civil rights activist who, along with his wife, Mamie Phipps Clark (1917 ~ 1983), fought segregation.  He died at age 90; his wife died at age 66.

1913 ~ Gerald Ford (né Leslie Lynch King, Jr., d. Dec. 26, 2006), 38^th President of the United States and only president who was never elected by the populous.  Prior to becoming President, he had served as the 40^th Vice President of the United States under President Richard Nixon, as he assumed that office following the resignation of Spiro Agnew.  He died at age 93.

1912 ~ Woody Guthrie (né Woodrow Wilson Guthrie, d. Oct. 3, 1967), American folksinger and musician.  He died of complications of Huntington’s disease at age 55.

1910 ~ William Hanna (d. Mar. 22, 2001), American cartoon animator and co-founder of Hanna-Barbera.  He died of throat cancer at age 90.

1906 ~ Tom Carvel (né Athanasios Karvelas, d. Oct. 21, 1990), American businessman and founder of the Carvel brand of Ice Cream.  He died at age 84.

1903 ~ Irving Stone (né Irving Tennenbaum, d. Aug. 26, 1989), American writer.  He is best known for his biographical novels such as The Agony and the Ecstasy about the life of Michelangelo.  He died at age 86.

1868 ~ Gertrude Bell (d. July 12, 1926), English archaeologist, writer and spy.  She died 2 days before her 58^th birthday of an overdose of sleeping pills.  Her death may have been a suicide.

1862 ~ Gustav Klimt (d. Feb. 6, 1918), Austrian painter and graphic artist.  He died at age 55 during the flu epidemic.

1861 ~ Kate M. Gordon (d. Aug. 24, 1931), American women’s rights activist.  She was born and died in New Orleans, Louisiana.  She died at age 71 of a cerebral hemorrhage.

1785 ~ Mordecai Manuel Noah (d. May 22, 1851), Jewish-American writer and journalist.  He died at age 65.

1671 ~ Jacques d’Allonville (d. Sept. 10, 1732), French mathematician and astronomer.  He died at age 61.

1610 ~ Ferdinando II de’Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. May 23, 1670).  He died at age 59.

Events that Changed the World:

2016 ~ In Nice, France, a terrorist drive his truck into a crowd of people, killing 86 individuals and injuring over 400 others.

2015 ~ Harper Lee’s second novel, Go Set a Watchman, was published.

1976 ~ Canada abolished capital punishment.

1969 ~ The United States officially withdrew the $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills from circulation.

1957 ~ Rawya Ateya (1926 ~ 1997) became the first women parliamentarian in the Arab world to be elected when she took her seat in Egypt’s National Assembly.

1943 ~ The George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond, Missouri became the first United States Monument to honor an African American.

1933 ~ All political parties in Germany were outlawed except the Nazi Party.

1902 ~ The Campanile in St. Mark’s Square in Venice, Italy, collapsed.  It was reconstructed 10 years later.

1874 ~ The Great Chicago Fire of 1874 burned down over 47 acres of the city, killing at least 20 individuals and destroying more than 800 buildings.

1853 ~ The first major world’s fair opened in New York City and was billed as the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations.

1798 ~ The Sedition Act became law in the United States, which made it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States Government.  The Act expired in 1800.

1789 ~ French citizens stormed the Bastille in an act that marks the start of the French Revolution.

1771 ~ Father Junípero Serra (1713 ~ 1784) founded the Mission San Antonio de Padua in what is now the state of California.

1223 ~ Louis VIII (1187 ~ 1226) became King of France following the death of his father, King Philip II (1165 ~ 1223).

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Marlene Sanders (b. Jan. 10, 1931), American reporter who blazed a trail for newswomen.  She was the mother of writer Jeffrey Toobin.  She died at age 85.

2014 ~ John Victor Parker (b. Oct. 14, 1928), United States District Judge for the Middle District of Louisiana.  He was born and died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  He served as Judge from October 1998 until his death on this date at age 85.

2011 ~ Leo Kirch (b. Oct. 21, 1926), German who build and lost a media empire.  He died at age 84.

1998 ~ Richard McDonald (b. Feb. 16, 1909), American businessman and co-founder along with his brother Maurice James McDonald (1902 ~ 1971) of McDonald’s.  Richard was born and died in New Hampshire.  He was 89 at the time of his death.

1980 ~ Felix Berezin (b. Apr. 25, 1931), Russian mathematician.  He drowned at age 49.

1965 ~ Adlai Stevenson, II (b. Feb. 5, 1900), American politician and 5^th US Ambassador to the United Nations.  He was the Democratic candidate for President in the 1952 presidential campaign.  He died at age 65.

1954 ~ Jacinto Benavente (b. Aug. 12, 1866), Spanish writer and recipient of the 1922 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died a month before his 88^th birthday.

1953 ~ Richard Edler von Mises (b. Apr. 19 1883), Austrian-born mathematician.  He was of Jewish ancestry and with the rise of the Nazi party, he fled Austria and ultimately moved to the United States.  He died in Boston, Massachusetts at age 70.

1904 ~ Paul Kruger (né Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, b. Oct. 10, 1824), 5^th President of the South African Republic.  He was President from May 1882 until September 1900.  The currency of South Africa, the Krugerrand, was named after him.  He died at age 78.

1881 ~ Billy the Kid (né William Bonney, Jr., b. 1859), American outlaw who was shot and killed by Pat Garrett.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.  He was 21 years old.

1865 ~ Benjamin Gompertz (b. Mar. 5, 1779), British mathematician and actuary.  He died at age 86.

1817 ~ Germaine de Staël (née Anne Louise Germaine Necker, but known as Madame de Staël, b. Apr 22, 1766), French author.  She died at age 51.

1223 ~ King Philip II of France (b. Aug. 21, 1165).  He died at age 57.