September 16

Birthdays:

1974 ~ Julian Castro, 16^th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.  He served in President Barak Obama’s administration from July 2014 until January 2017.

1971 ~ Amy Poelher, American actress.

1966 ~ John Bel Edwards, 56^th Governor of Louisiana.  He took Office in January 2016.

1958 ~ Jennifer Tilly, American actress.

1956 ~ David Copperfield (né David Seth Kotkin), American magician.

1948 ~ Susan Ruttan, American actress best known for her role as Roxanne Melman on L.A. Law.

1945 ~ Arthur “Al” Howie (d. June 21, 2016), Scottish ultramarathoner who couldn’t stop running.  At age 30, he quit smoking and took up running.  He died at age 70.

1927 ~ Peter Falk (b. June 23, 2011), American actor, best known for his role as the title character in the TV series Columbo.  He died at age 83.

1926 ~ John Knowles (d. Nov. 29, 2001), American author.  He is best known for his novel A Separate Peace.  He died at age 75.

1925 ~ B.B. King (né Riley Benjamin King, d. May 14, 2015), American musician.  He was the Mississippi sharecropper who became the King of the Blues.  His nickname of B.B. stood for “Blues Boy.”  He was 89 years old.

1924 ~ Lauren Bacall (née Betty Joan Perske, d. Aug. 12, 2014), American actress.  She died about a month before her 90^th birthday.

1923 ~ Lee Kuan Yee (né Harry Lee Kuan Yew, d. Mar. 23, 2015), the uncompromising statesman who built modern Singapore.  He is considered to be the founding father of Singapore and was the country’s first Prime Minister.  He died at age 91.

1919 ~ Laurence Peter (d. Jan. 12, 1990), Canadian educator and hierachiologist, best known for formulating the Peter Principle, whereby every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetency.  He died at age 70.

1914 ~ Allen Funt (d. Sept. 5, 1999), American radio and television personality.  He was best known for his role as host on Candid Camera.  He died less than 2 weeks before his 85^th birthday.

1898 ~ H.A. Rey (né Hans Augusto Rey, d. Aug. 26, 1977), German-born American children’s author and illustrator.  He, along with his wife Margret Rey (1906 ~ 1996), created Curious George.  Although born in Germany, he fled with his family when the Nazis came to power.  He died 3 weeks before his 79^th birthday.

1893 ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi (d. Oct. 22, 1986), Hungarian physiologist credited with discovering vitamin C and the importance of the citric acid cycle.  He was the 1937 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died in Woods Hole, Massachusetts at age 93.

1888 ~ Frans Eemil Sillanpää (d. June 3, 1964), Finish writer and recipient of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 75.

1888 ~ W.O. Bentley (né Walter Owen Bentley, d. Aug. 13, 1971), British race car driver and engineer.  He founded the Bentley Motor Limited.  He died at age 82.

1886 ~ Jean Arp (d. June 7, 1966), Alsatian sculptor and painter.  He was sometimes known as Hans Arp.  He died at age 79.

1880 ~ Alfred Noyes (d. June 25, 1958), English poet.  He died at age 77.

1877 ~ Jacob Schick (d. July 3, 1937), American-Canadian inventor of the electric razor.  He was the founder of the Schick Razor Company.  He died of complications following kidney disease at age 59.

1875 ~ James Cash Penney, Jr. (d. Feb. 12, 1971), founder of the American department store chain, J.C. Penney’s.  He died at age 95.

1858 ~ Andrew Bonar Law (d. Oct. 30, 1923), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He served as Prime Minister from October 1922 through May 1923.  He died at age 65.

1853 ~ Albrecht Kossel (d. July 5, 1927), German physician and recipient of the 1910 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in determining the chemical composition of nucleic acids.  He died at age 73.

1846 ~ Anna Kingsford (d. Feb. 22, 1888), English physician.  She was one of the first British women to earn a medical degree.  She later became an advocate for animal rights.  She died at age 41 of pneumonia.

1837 ~ King Pedro V of Portugal (d. Nov. 11, 1861).  He reigned as King from November 1853 until his death 8 years later.  He died of typhus fever at age 24.

1777 ~ Nathan Mayer Rothschild (d. July 28, 1836), German banker and financier.  He died at age 58.

1666 ~ Antoine Parent (d. Sept. 26, 1716), French mathematician.  He died 10 days after his 50^th birthday.

1507 ~ Jiajing (d. Jan. 23, 1567), Emperor of China.  He was the 11^th Emperor of the Ming dynasty.  He died at age 59.

Events that Changed the World:

2012 ~ Rosh HaShanah began at sunset, bringing in the year 5773.

2004 ~ Hurricane Ivan made landfall in Gulf Shores, Alabama.  It was a Category 3 storm.

1992 ~ The trial of Manuel Noriega (1934-2017), the deposed Panamanian dictator, ended in the United States.

1987 ~ The Montreal Protocol was signed to protect the ozone layer from depletion.

1978 ~ A 7.5 earthquake hit the city of Tabas, Iran killing about 25,000 people.

1966 ~ The Metropolitan Opera House opened at the Lincoln Center in New York City.

1961 ~ Typhoon Nancy made landfall in Osaka, Japan, killing over 170 people.

1959 ~ The Xerox 914, first successful photocopier was introduced.

1920 ~ A bomb in a horse-drawn wagon exploded in front of the J.P. Morgan building on Wall Street in New York City.  Thirty-eight people were killed and hundreds were seriously injured.  No one claimed credit for the bombing and it has never been solved.

1908 ~ The General Motors Corporation was founded.

1880 ~ The Cornell Daily Sun began its publication in Ithaca, New York.  The Sun is the country’s oldest, continuously-independent college daily newspaper in the US.

1863 ~ Robert College of Istanbul, Turkey, was founded by Christopher Robert (1802 ~ 1878).  This was the first American educational institution that got its start outside the United States.

1812 ~ The Fire of Moscow, Russia began and over the course of the next several days, destroyed nearly 75% of the city.

1701 ~ James Francis Edward Stuart (1688 ~ 1766) became the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England and Scotland.  He is sometimes known as the Old Pretender to the Throne.

1620 ~ The traditional date ascribed to when the Pilgrims set sail from England on the Mayflower to North America.

1400 ~ Owain Glyndŵr (1359 ~ 1415) was declared Prince of Wales.  He was the last native Welshman to hold this title.

Good-Byes:

2016 ~ Edward Albee (b. Mar. 12, 1928), American playwright.  He died at age 88.

2009 ~ Mary Travers (b. Nov. 9, 1936), American folksinger and member of the trio, Peter, Paul and Mary.  She died of leukemia at age 72.

2005 ~ Gordon Gould (b. July 17, 1920), American physicist and inventor of the Laser.  He died at age 85.

1996 ~ McGeorge Bundy (b. Mar. 30, 1919), 6^th National Security Advisor.  He served under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from January 1961 until February 1966.  He was from Boston, Massachusetts.  He died at age 77.

1992 ~ Millicent Fenwick (b. Feb. 25, 1910), American politician and writer.  She was a Representative from New Jersey.  She died at age 82.

1984 ~ Louis Réard (b. 1897), French fashion designer.  He is best known for creating the bikini.  The exact date of his birth is not known; he is believed to have been 86 or 87 at the time of his death.

1977 ~ Maria Callas (b. Dec. 2, 1923), Greek-American opera singer.  She died at age 53 of a heart attack.

1946 ~ Sir James Hopwood Jeans (b. Sept. 11, 1877), English physicist and mathematician.  He died 5 days after his 69^th birthday.

1932 ~ Sir Ronald Ross (b. May 13, 1857), English physician and mathematician.  He was the recipient of the 1902 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work in the study of malaria.  He died at age 75.

1925 ~ Alexander Friedmann (b. June 29, 1888), Russian mathematician.  His birthday is June 16 in accordance with the Julian calendar.  He died of typhoid at age 37.

1915 ~ Susan LaFlesch Picotte (b. June 17, 1865), Omaha Native American shaman and physician.  She was a social reformer who advocated for Native American health rights.  She died at age 50.

1824 ~ King Louis XVIII of France (b. Nov. 17, 1755).  He reigned as King from July 1815 until his death in September 1824.  He died at age 68.

1736 ~ Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (b. May 24, 1686), German physicist, engineer and glass blower.  He is best known for inventing the mercury thermometer and the temperature scale that is named after him He developed the Fahrenheit temperature scale.  He died at age 50.

1701 ~ King James II of England (b. Oct. 14, 1633).  He was King from February 1685 until December 11, 1688.  He was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland.  He died a month before his 68^th birthday.

1672 ~ Anne Bradstreet (b. Mar. 20, 1612), Puritan American poet.  She died at age 60.

1498 ~ Tomás de Torquemada (b. 1420), Dominican friar and first Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been about 77 or 78 at the time of his death.

1394 ~ Antipope Clement VII (d. 1342).  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been 52 at the time of his death.

1380 ~ King Charles V of France (b. Jan. 21, 1338).  He died at age 42.

1087 ~ Pope Victor III (né Dauferio, b. 1026).  He served as Pope from May 24, 1086 until his death just over a year later.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.

655 ~ Pope Martin I (b. June 21, 598).  He was Pope from July 649 until his death 6 years later.  He died at age 57.