September 17

Birthdays:

1968 ~ Cheryl Strayed, American author and co-host of the podcast, Dear Sugar.

1962 ~ Baz Luhrmann (né Mark Anthony Luhrmann), Australian film director.

1948 ~ John Ritter (d. Sept. 11, 2003), American actor.  He died 6 days before his 55^th birthday.

1947 ~ Jeff MacNelly (né Jeffrey Kenneth MacNelly, d. June 8, 2000), American political cartoonist and creator of the comic strip, Shoe.  He died of lymphoma at age 52.

1944 ~ Jean Taylor, American mathematician.  She is best known for her work on the mathematics of soap bubbles.

1939 ~ David Souter, United States Supreme Court Associate Justice.  He was appointed to the High Court by President George H.W. Bush.  He served from October 1990 until his retirement 10 years later in 2009.

1938 ~ Paul Benedict (d. Dec. 1, 2008), American actor.  He is best known for his role as Mr. Bentley on The Jeffersons.  He died at age 70.

1935 ~ Ken Kesey (d. Nov. 10, 2001), America author, best known for his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.  He died following complications from surgery at age 66.

1932 ~ Robert Parker (d. Jan. 18, 2010), American author best known for creating Spenser in his detective series.  He died at age 77.

1931 ~ Anne Bancroft (née Anna Maria Louisa Italiano, d. June 6, 2005), American actress.  She is best known for her role as Mrs. Robinson in the movie The Graduate.  She died of uterine cancer at age 73.

1930 ~ Edgar Dean Mitchell (d. Feb. 4, 2016), American astronaut who had an epiphany in space.  While looking out of his spacecraft and seeing the Earth and the stars, he was overwhelmed with a sense of “connectedness” and became obsessed with esoteric scientific phenomena and extraterrestrial life.  He died at age 85.

1930 ~ Thomas Stafford, American astronaut.  He was the Commander of Apollo 10, the second manned mission to orbit the moon.

1923 ~ Hank Williams (né Hiram King Williams, d. Jan. 1, 1953), American country musician.  He died at age 29 of heart failure exacerbated by drug and alcohol abuse.

1918 ~ Chaim Herzog (d. Apr. 17, 1997), 6^th President of Israel.  He was born in Ireland until his family emigrated to Israel in 1935.  He served as President for 10 years, from 1983 to 1993.  He died at age 78.

1916 ~ Mary, Lady Stewart (née Mary Florence Elinor Rainbow, d. May 9, 2014), British novelist, best known for her 5-book Merlin Chronicles, about the Arthurian legends.  She died at age 97.

1907 ~ Warren E. Burger (d. June 25, 1995), 15^th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Richard Nixon.  He served as Chief Justice from June 1969 until his retirement in September 1986.  He died at age 87.

1903 ~ Frank O’Connor (né Michael Francis O’Donovan, d. Mar. 10, 1966), Irish writer best known for his short stories.  He died at age 62.

1900 ~ John Willard Marriott, Sr. (d. Aug. 13, 1985), American hotelier.  He founded the Marriott Corporation.  He died at age 84 in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

1883 ~ William Carlos William (d. Mar. 4, 1963), American poet.  He died at age 79.

1869 ~ Christian Lous Lange (d. Dec. 11, 1938), Norwegian political scientist and recipient of the 1921 Nobel Peace Prize.  He died at age 69.

1854 ~ David Dunbar Buick (d. Mar. 5, 1929), Scottish-born American automotive executive and founder of the Buick company.  He died at age 74.

1826 ~ Bernhard Riemann (d. July 20, 1866), German mathematician.  He died at age 39 of tuberculosis.

1825 ~ Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, II (d. Jan. 23, 1893), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Grover Cleveland.  He served in that Office from January 1888 until his death at age 67 in January 1893.  He had previously served as the 16^th United States Secretary of the Interior also during the Grover Cleveland administration.

1743 ~ Marquis de Condorcet (né Marie Jean Antoine Nicholas de Caritat, d. Mar. 28, 1794), French mathematician, political scientist and philosopher.  He was also a social advocate and was a strong supporter of women’s rights.  He died at age 50.

1739 ~ John Rutledge (d. July 23, 1800), 2^nd Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President George Washington.  He initially served as an Associate Justice from September 1789 until his resignation in March 1791.  Four years later he was appointed to be the Chief Justice by George Washington and served in that recess appointment until December 1791, when the Senate rejected his appointment.  He died 5 years later at age 60.

1730 ~ Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben (d. Nov. 28, 1794), Prussian solder who served as an American General in the American Revolution.  He died at age 64.

1677 ~ Stephen Hales (d. Jan. 4, 1761), English clergyman, physiologist and chemist.  He invented the Forceps for use in medical procedures.  He is also the first person known to measure blood pressure.  He died at age 83.

1550 ~ Pope Paul V (né Camillo Borghese, d. Jan. 28, 1621).  He was Pope from May 1605 until his death 16 years later at age 68.

879 ~ King Charles III, known as Charles the Simple of France (d. Oct. 7, 929).  He died 20 days weeks after his 50^th birthday.

Events that Changed the World:

2011 ~ The Occupy Wall Street movement began in Zuccotti Park in New York City.

2006 ~ Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupted.  It was the first eruption of the volcano in an estimated 10,000 years.

1988 ~ The 1988 Summer Olympics opened in Seoul, Korea.

1983 ~ Vanessa Williams (b. 1963) became the first African-American Miss America.  She was forced to relinquish her crown later, however, when pictures of her in compromising positions were published in Penthouse magazine.

1980 ~ After weeks of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, the independent trade union, Solidarity, was established.

1978 ~ The Camp David Accords were signed by Israel and Egypt.

1976 ~ NASA unveiled its first Space Shuttle, the Enterprise.

1961 ~ The Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania opened, becoming the first retractable-dome stadium in the world.

1957 ~ Malaysia joined the United Nations.

1928 ~ The Okeechobee hurricane Struck southeastern Florida.  Over 2,500 people perished in the storm.

1925 ~ Frida Kahlo (1907 ~ 1947) was seriously injured in a bus accident in Mexico.  Her injuries were so severe that she was forced to give up her medical studies and turn to art instead.

1908 ~ The Wright Flyer, flown by Orville Wright (1871 ~ 1948) with passenger Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge (1882 ~ 1908), crashed.  Selfridge was killed, becoming the first airplane fatality.

1862 ~ The Allegheny Arsenal, located near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which housed ammunition for the American Civil War, exploded causing the largest civilian disaster during the War.  By the time the fire caused by the explosion had been put out, 78 workers at the facility, mostly young women were dead.  Most of the bodies could not be identified and were buried in a mass grave in a nearby cemetery.

1862 ~ The Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in the American Civil War, was fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland.  Union General George McClellan stopped General Robert E. Lee’s troops from advancing northward.  At the end of the day, over 22,717 soldiers were either dead, wounded or missing.

1814 ~ Francis Scott Key (1779 ~ 1843) finished is poem Defence of Fort McHenry.  The poem later became the lyric to The Star-Spangled Banner.  It became the national anthem by congressional resolution on March 3, 1931.

1787 ~ The United States Constitution was signed in Philadelphia.

1778 ~ The Treaty of Fort Pitt was signed.  It was the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe, the Delaware Indians.

1683 ~ Antonie van Leeuwehoek (1632 ~ 1723) wrote a letter to the Royal Society describing what he called “amiulcules,” which later became known as protozoa.

1382 ~ Mary (1371 ~ 1395), daughter of Louis I (1326 ~ 1382), also known as Louis the Great was crowned “King” of Hungary.

Good-byes:

2013 ~ Eiji Toyoda (b. Sept. 12, 1913), Japanese industrialist and founder of the Toyota Motor Company.  He died 5 days following his 100^th birthday.

2011 ~ Charles Percy (b. Sept. 27, 1919), American GOP senator from Illinois who stood for moderation.  He was a United States Senator from Illinois.  He died 10 days before his 92^nd birthday.

2006 ~ Patricia Kennedy Lawford (b. May 6, 1924), American socialite and member of the Kennedy clan.  She died of pneumonia at age 82.

1997 ~ Red Skelton (né Richard Bernard Skelton, b. July 18, 1913), American actor and comedian.  He died at age 84.

1996 ~ Spiro T. Agnew (b. Nov. 9, 1918), 39^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President Richard Nixon.  He resigned the Office following an investigation of extortion, tax fraud, bribery and conspiracy.  He died at age 77.

1985 ~ Laura Ashley (b. Sept. 7, 1925), British fashion designer.  She died just 10 days after her 60^th birthday after falling down a flight of stairs.  She suffered from a brain hemorrhage.

1924 ~ William Lewis Douglas (b. Aug. 22 1845), 42^nd Governor of Massachusetts.  He served as Governor from January 1905 until January 1906.  He died 26 days after his 79^th birthday.

1908 ~ Thomas Selfridge (b. Feb. 8, 1882), American lieutenant and first known airplane crash fatality.  He was 26 years old.

1899 ~ Charles Alfred Pillsbury (b. Dec. 3, 1842), American businessman and co-founder of the Pillsbury company.  He was born in Warner, New Hampshire.  He died of heart disease at age 56.

1858 ~ Dred Scott (b. 1795), American slave who sued for his freedom in Dred Scott v. Sanford, which went before the United States Supreme Court.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 59 years old.

1676 ~ Sabbatai Zevi (d. Aug. 1, 1626), Sephardic-Turkish rabbi who claimed to be the Messiah.  He ultimately was forced to convert to Islam by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV.  He died at age 50.

1609 ~ Judah Loew ben Bezalel (b. 1512), rabbi of Prague.  He is best known for creating the Golem of Prague.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been born sometime between 1512 and 1526.

1422 ~ Constantine II of Bulgaria (b. 1370).  The exact date of his birth is unknown.

454 ~ Pope Dioscorus I of Alexandria.  The date of his birth is unknown.