September 23

Birthdays:

1970 ~ Ani DiFranco, American singer-songwriter.

1961 ~ William C. McCool (d. Feb. 1, 2003), American astronaut.  He was the commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia.  He died at age 41 when the Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry to the Earth.

1959 ~ Elizabeth Peña (d. Oct. 14, 2014), American actress.  She died 3 weeks after her 55^th birthday.

1959 ~ Jason Alexander, American actor best known for his role as George Costanza on Seinfeld.

1949 ~ Bruce Springsteen, American musician, known as The Boss.

1947 ~ Mary Kay Place, American actress.

1930 ~ Ray Charles (né Ray Charles Robinson, d. June 10, 2004), American musician.  He was 73 years old.

1927 ~ Dale Velzy (d. May 26, 2005), American surfboard maker who defined the “surfer dude lifestyle.”  He died at age 77.

1926 ~ John Coltrane (d. July 17, 1967), American musician.  He died at age 40 of liver cancer.

1926 ~ André Cassagnes (d. Jan. 16, 2013), French toymaker and creator of the Etch-A-Sketch.  He died at age 86.

1920 ~ Mickey Rooney (né Joseph Yule, Jr., d. Apr. 6, 2014), American child actor.  He died at age 93.

1917 ~ Knut Magne Haugland (d. Dec. 25, 2009), Norwegian commando and resistance fighter during World War II who sailed on Kon-Tiki.  He died at age 92.

1915 ~ Clifford Shull (d. Mar. 31, 2001), American physicist and recipient of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 85.

1902 ~ Su Buqing (d. Mar. 17, 2003), Chinese mathematician.  He died at age 100.

1901 ~ Jaroslav Seifert (d. Jan. 10, 1986), Czech poet and journalist.  He was the 1984 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 84.

1899 ~ Tom Campbell Clark (d. June 13, 1977), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Harry S Truman.  He served on the Supreme Court from August 1949 until June 1967.  Prior to joining the Supreme Court, he served as the 59^th US Attorney General under President Harry S Truman.  He died at age 77.

1899 ~ Louise Nevelson (d. Apr. 17, 1988), Russian-born American sculptor.  She died at age 88.

1889 ~ Walter Lippmann (d. Dec. 14, 1974), American journalist.  He died at age 85.

1880 ~ John Boyd Orr, 1^st Baron Boyd-Orr (d. June 25, 1971), Scottish physician and recipient of the 1949 Nobel Peace Prize for his research in to nutrition and malnutrition.  He died at age 90.

1876 ~ Moshe Zvi Segal (d. Jan. 11, 1968), Israeli rabbi and scholar.  He died at age 91.

1869 ~ Typhoid Mary Mallon (d. Nov. 11, 1938), Irish-American carrier of Typhoid fever.  She died at age 69.

1851 ~ Ellen Hayes (d. Oct. 27, 1930), American mathematician and social activist.  She died about a month after her 79^th birthday.

1838 ~ Victoria Woodhull (d. June 9, 1927), American suffragist.  She died in England at age 88.

1647 ~ Joseph Dudley (b. Apr. 2, 1720), Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.  He died at age 72.

1215 ~ Kublai Kahn (d. Feb. 18, 1294).  He died at age 78.

480 BCE ~ Euripides (d. 406 BCE), The date ascribed to the birth of this Greek writer.  How do historians know?

Events that Changed the World:

2015 ~ Pope Francis began his first visit to the United States.

2014 ~ Former Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals head, Bruce Greenstein, was indicted on 9 charges of felony perjury.  In 2016, the newly elected Attorney General dropped all perjury charges.

1973 ~ Juan Perón (1895 ~ 1974) returned to power in Argentina.

1972 ~ Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos announced the implementation of martial law.

1969 ~ The Chicago Eight trial began in Chicago.

1962 ~ The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts opened in New York City.

1952 ~ Richard Nixon made his famous “Checkers” speech.

1941 ~ The Nazis began their experiment in mass murder with the first gas chambers at Auschwitz.

1932 ~ The Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd was renamed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1911 ~ Earle Ovington (1879 ~ 1936), a pilot and assistant to Thomas Edison, piloted the first official air mail delivery.  He delivered a bag of mail from Garden City, New York to Mineola, New York.  The mail bag was dropped from the plane, but burst open upon landing on the ground, scattering all the mail!

1909 ~ The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux (1868 ~ 1927), was first published as a serialization in a French magazine.

1889 ~ The Nintendo company was founded in Japan.  The company originally made playing cards for a Japanese game.  A century later, the company was a leader in computer games.

1846 ~ Neptune was discovered by French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier (1811 ~ 1877), British astronomer John Couch Adams (1819 ~ 1892), and German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle (1812 ~ 1910).

1806 ~ Lewis and Clark returned to St. Louis after their 3-year trek to the Pacific Northwest.

1779 ~ A squadron commanded by John Paul Jones (1747 ~ 1792) on the Bonhomme Richard, defeated the British in a naval battle during the American Revolutionary War.

1642 ~ Harvard College held its first commencement exercises.

1338 ~ The Battle of Arnemuiden during the Hundred Years’ War was the first naval battle to involve artillery.

Good-Byes:

2012 ~ Sam Steiger (b. Mar. 10, 1929), American conservative politician from Arizona who courted trouble.  He is known for shooting two burros, allegedly in self-defense, much to the outrage of his constitutents.  He was in the United States House of Representatives from Arizona.  He died at age 83.

2009 ~ Paul B. Fay (b. July 8, 1918), United States Secretary of the Navy.  He died at age 91.

1991 ~ Klaus Barbie (b. Oct. 25, 1913), Nazi war criminal.  He died in prison about a month before his 78^th birthday.

1987 ~ Robert Louis “Bob” Fosse (b. June 23, 1927), American choreographer.  He died of a heart attack at age 60.

1973 ~ Pablo Neruda (né Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalta, b. July 12, 1904), Chilean poet and recipient of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died under mysterious circumstances at age 69.  In 2013, his body was exhumed to determine whether or not he had been murdered.

1971 ~ James Waddell Alexander, II (b. Sept. 19, 1888), American mathematician and topologist.  He died 4 days after his 84^th birthday.

1939 ~ Sigmund Freud (b. May 6, 1856), Austrian physician and founder of psychoanalysis.  He died at age 83.

1929 ~ Richard Adolf Zsigmondy (b. Apr. 1, 1865), Austrian chemist and recipient of the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics for his research in colloids.  He died at age 64.

1900 ~ William Marsh Rice (b. Mar. 14, 1816), American businessman and founder of Rice University in Houston, Texas.  He was born in Massachusetts, but moved to Texas to seek his fortune, which he made in land investments.  He died at age 84.

1889 ~ Wilkie Collins (né William Wilkie Collins, b. Jan. 8, 1824), British author best known for his novels, The Woman in White and Moonstone.  He died of a stroke at age 65.

1877 ~ Urbain Jean Joseph LeVerrier (b. Mar. 11, 1811), French mathematician who is best known for his work with John Couch Adams and their discovery of Neptune.  They were credited with the planet’s discovery almost exactly 31 years to the day earlier!  He died at age 66.

1877 ~ Urbain Le Verrier (b. Mar. 11, 1811), French mathematician.  He died at age 66.

1830 ~ Elizabeth Monroe (b. June 30, 1768), First Lady and wife of President James Monroe.  She died at age 62.