September 9

Birthdays:

1966 ~ Adam Sandler, American actor and comedian.

1960 ~ Hugh Grant, English actor.

1941 ~ Otis Redding (d. Dec. 10, 1967), American musician.  He was killed in a plane crash at age 26.

1935 ~ Chaim Topol, Israeli actor.

1923 ~ Daniel C. Gajduske (d. Dec. 12, 2008), American physician and recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with kuru.  He died at age 85.

1923 ~ Cliff Robertson (né Clifford Parker Robertson, III, d. Sept. 10, 2011), American Oscar-winning actor snubbed by Hollywood.  His acting career lost momentum in 1977 after he blew the whistle on a high-level check fraud going on at a top movie studio.  He died 1 day after his 88^th birthday.

1922 ~ Hans Georg Dehmelt (d. Mar. 7, 2017), German-American physicist and recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 94.

1920 ~ Feng Kang (d. Aug. 17, 1993), Chinese mathematician.  He died 3 weeks before his 73^rd birthday.

1917 ~ Philipp Frieherr von Boeselager (d. May 1, 2008), German officer who involved in the July 20, 1944 Plot, which was a conspiracy among high-ranking Wehrmach officers to assassinate Hitler.  He died at age 90.

1903 ~ Phyllis A. Whitney (d. Feb. 8, 2008), American author of gothic mystery novels.  She died at age 104.

1900 ~ James Hilton (d. Dec. 20, 1954), English novelist best known for his novels, Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips.  He died of cancer at age 54.

1890 ~ Colonel Harland David Sanders (d. Dec. 16, 1980), American businessman and founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, later renamed KFC.  He died at age 90.

1887 ~ Alf Landon (né Alfred Mossman Landon, d. Oct. 12, 1987), American politician and 26^th Governor of Kansas.  He was the Republican nominee in the 1936 Presidential race.  He lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt.  He died about a month after his 100^th birthday.

1877 ~ James Agate (d. June 6, 1947), English author and critic.  He died of heart disease at age 69.

1828 ~ Count Leo Tolstoy (d. Nov. 20, 1910), Russian author.  He is best known for his epic novels such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina.  He died at age 82.

1789 ~ Menachem Mendel Schneerson (d. Mar. 17, 1866), Polish rabbi.  He died at age 77.

1754 ~ William Bligh (d. Dec. 7, 1817), British admiral and politician.  He was the Admiral of the HNS Bounty, when his crew mutinied.  He survived, and 15 years after the mutiny, he became the 4^th Governor of New South Wales.  He died at age 63.

1711 ~ Thomas Hutchinson (d. June 3, 1780), early American politician and Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay.  He died at age 68.

1585 ~ Cardinal Richelieu (né Armand Jean du Plessis, d. Dec. 4, 1642), French clergyman and statesman.  He died at age 57.

Events that Changed the World:

2015 ~ Queen Elizabeth II of England became the longest reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing the previous record set by Queen Victoria.

1993 ~ The Palestine Liberation Organization recognized Israel as a legitimate state.

1971 ~ A four-day prison riot at Attica Prison in New York State began.  By the time the riot ended, 39 people were killed.

1965 ~ Hurricane Betsy made landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana.  The storm killed 76 people and caused enormous damage.

1965 ~ The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was created.

1956 ~ Elvis Presley (1935 ~ 1977) made his first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

1948 ~ Kim Il-sung (1912 ~ 1994) declared the establishment of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

1947 ~ The first computer but was discovered when a moth lodged itself in a relay at Harvard University, hence, the first use of the term “debug.”

1863 ~ During the American Civil War, the Union Army entered Chattanooga, Tennessee.

1850 ~ California became the 31^st State of the Union.

1839 ~ John Herschel (1792 ~ 1871) is credited with taking the first glass plate photograph.

1791 ~ The capital of the United States was officially named Washington, D.C., after President George Washington.

1776 ~ The Continental Congress officially named its new union of sovereign states the United States of America.

1543 ~ Nine-month old Mary Stuart (1542 ~ 1587) was crowned Queen of Scots.

1087 ~ William Rufus (1056 ~ 1100) became King of England.  He took the title King William II and reigned until his death in 1100.

Good-Byes:

2003 ~ Edward Teller (b. Jan. 15, 1908), Hungarian-born physicist.  He died at age 95.

1999 ~ Catfish Hunter (né James Augustus Hunter, b. Apr. 8, 1946), American baseball player.  He died at age 53 from ALS.

1997 ~ Burgess Meredith (né Oliver Burgess Meredith, b. Nov. 16, 1907), American actor.  He is best known for his role as Mickey Goldmill in the Rocky movies.  He died at age 89.

1985 ~ Paul Flory (b. June 19, 1910), American chemist and recipient of the 1974 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 75.

1978 ~ Jack L. Warner (né Jacob Warner, b. Aug. 2, 1892), Canadian production manager and co-founder, along with his brothers Samuel, Harry and Albert, of Warner Brothers movie studio.  He died about a month after his 86^th birthday.

1976 ~Mao Zedong (b. Dec. 26, 1893), Chinese politician.  He died at age 82.

1976 ~ Yehezkel Abramsky (b. 1886), Russian rabbi.  The exact date of his birth is not known.

1941 ~ Hans Spemann (b. June 27, 1869), German embryologist and recipient of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died of heart failure at age 72.

1915 ~ Albert Spalding (b. Sept. 2, 1950), American baseball player and co-founder of the Spalding Sporting Goods Company.  He died of a stroke a week after his 66^th birthday.

1901 ~ Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (b. Nov. 24, 1864), French painter.  He died at age 36.

1815 ~ John Singleton Copley (b. July 3, 1738), American painter, best known for his portraits of early American patriots.  The exact date is unknown, but he is believed to have been born on July 3, making him 77 at the time of his death.

1806 ~ William Paterson (b. Dec. 24, 1754), Irish-born American Associate Justice of the United State Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President George Washington.  He served on the High Court from March 1793 until his death at age 60 on this date 13 years later.  Prior to serving on the Supreme Court, he served as the 2^nd Governor of New Jersey, from October 1790 until March 1793.  The town of Paterson, New Jersey is named in his honor.

1569 ~ Pieter Bruegel the Elder (b. 1525), Flemish painter.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 43 or 44 at the time of his death.

1513 ~ King James IV of Scotland (b. Mar. 17, 1473).  He died in the Battle of Flodden.  He died at age 40.

1087 ~ William the Conqueror, King of England (b. 1028).  The exact date of his birth is known, but he is believed to have been about 59 at the time of his death.

1000 ~ King Olaf I of Norway (b. 960).  The exact date of his birth is unknown.  He is believed to have been 40 years old at the time of his death.