October 17

Birthdays:

1962 ~ Mike Judge, American animator and creator of King of the Hill and Beavis and Butt-Head.

1948 ~ George Wendt, American actor, best known for his portrayal of Norm on the television sit-com, Cheers.

1946 ~ Ronni Chasen (d. Nov. 16, 2010), American movie publicist who was mysteriously murdered.  Police ultimately concluded she was murdered during a random robbery.  She died a month before her 65^th birthday.

1938 ~ Evel Knievel (né Robert Craig Knievel, d. Nov. 30, 2007), American stuntman.  He died at age 69.

1933 ~ Jeanne Paule Deckers (d. Mar. 29, 1985), Belgian singer and nun, known as The Singing Nun.  She left the convent and moved in with Annie Pécher (1944 ~ 1985), her companion of 10 years.  She and Pécher committed suicide.  She was 51 years old.

1930 ~ Robert Atkins (d. Apr. 17, 2003), American nutritionist and physician.  He was the creator of the Atkins diet.  He died at age 72.

1928 ~ James Earl “Jimmy” Breslin (d. Mar. 19, 2017), American streetwise columnist who spoke truth to power.  He was the voice of New York City.  In addition to newspaper columns, he wrote novels.  He is best known for his novel .44, a fictionalized account of the Son of Sam murders.  He died at age 88.

1927 ~ Friedrich Hirzenbruch (d. May 27, 2012), German mathematician.  He died at age 84.

1921 ~ Tom Poston (b. Apr. 30, 2007), American actor.  He is best known for his portrayal of George Utley on Newhart.  He died at age 85.

1920 ~ Montgomery Clift (né Edward Montgomery Clift, d. July 23, 1966), American actor.  He died of a heart attack at age 45.

1918 ~ Rita Hayworth (née Margarita Carmen Cansino, d. May 14, 1987), American actress.  She died at age 68 of Alzheimer’s disease.

1917 ~ Sumner Locke Elliott (d. June 24, 1991), Australian-born novelist, whose autobiographical novel was Careful, He Might Hear You.  He died at age 73.

1915 ~ Arthur Asher Miller (d. Feb. 10, 2005), American playwright.  He died at age 89.

1914 ~ Jerry Siegel (né Jerome Siegel, d. Jan. 28, 1996), American writer and illustrator.  He, along with his friend Joseph Shuster, was the co-creator of Superman.  He died at age 81.

1912 ~ Pope John Paul I (né Albino Luciani, d. Sept. 28, 1978).  He served as Pope for only 33 days, from August 26 until September 28, 1978.  He died 19 days before his 66^th birthday.

1903 ~ Nathanael West (né Nathan Weinstein, d. Dec. 22, 1940), American author.  He was killed in a car accident at age 37.

1902 ~ Irene Ryan (née Jessie Irene Noblett, d. Apr. 26, 1973), American actress, best known for her role as Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies.  She died of a heart attack at age 70.

1898 ~ Shinichi Suzuki (d. Jan. 26, 1998), Japanese violinist and creator of the Suzuki method for teaching violin to young children.  He died at age 99.

1888 ~ Paul Bernays (d. Sept. 18, 1977), Swiss mathematician.  He died a month before his 89^th birthday.

1865 ~ James Rudolph Garfield (d. Mar. 24, 1950), 23^rd United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under President Theodore Roosevelt from March 1907 until March 1909.  He was also the son of slain President James Garfield.  He died at age 84.

1859 ~ Childe Hassam (d. Aug. 27, 1935), American artist.  During the early 1900s, Hassam painted many scenes of New England, including the shore, country-side and life in Boston.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died at age 75.

1780 ~ Richard Mentor Johnson (d. Nov. 19, 1850), 9^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President Martin Van Buren from March 1837 until March 1841.  He died a month after his 70^th birthday.

1720 ~ Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini (d. Jan. 19, 1795), Italian composer.  She died at age 74.

Events that Changed the World:

2016 ~ Sukkot.

1992 ~ Japanese foreign exchange student, Yoshihiro Hattori (1974 ~ 1992), was shot and killed by Rodney Pearis, a homeowner in Baton Rouge, Louisiana after having stopped at a wrong house on his way to a Halloween party.

1989 ~ A 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay area causing 57 deaths.

1979 ~ The US Department of Education and the US Department of Health and Human Services were created.

1979 ~ Mother Teresa (1910 ~ 1997) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1973 ~ OPEC began an oil embargo against many western countries, including the United States.

1965 ~ The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair closed after 2 years.  More than 51 Million people attended the Fair.

1956 ~ Donald Byrne (1930 ~ 1976) and Bobby Fischer (1943 ~ 2008) played a famous game of chess that was dubbed The Game of the Century.  Thirteen-year old Fischer won the game.

1956 ~ Queen Elizabeth II (b. 1926) officially opened the first commercial nuclear power station.  It was located in Sellafield, in Cumbria, England.

1933 ~ Albert Einstein (1879 ~ 1955) fled from Nazi Germany and immigrated to the United States.

1931 ~ Gangster Al Capone (1899 ~ 1947) was convicted of income tax evasion.

1919 ~ The Radio Corporation of American (RCA) was incorporated.

1912 ~ Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in the First Balkan War.

1907 ~ Guglielmo Marconi’s company began the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Nova Scotia, Canada and Ireland.

1781 ~ British General Lord Charles Cornwallis (1738 ~ 1805) surrendered at the Siege of Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War.

1777 ~ British General John Burgoyne (1722 ~ 1792) surrendered his army at Sarasota, New York, after being surrounded by the newly formed American army lead by General Horatio Gates (1727 ~ 1806).

1610 ~ King Louis XIII (1601 ~ 1643) of France was crowned King.

1448 ~ During the Second Battle of Kosovo, the Hungarian army led by John Hunyadi (1406 ~ 1456) was defeated by the Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad II (1404 ~ 1451).

1346 ~ At the Battle of Neville’s Cross, Kind David II (1324 ~ 1371) of Scotland was captured by Edward III (1312 ~ 1377) of England and imprisoned in the Tower of London for 11 years.

539 BCE ~ The traditional date ascribed to when Cyrus the Great marched into Babylon and released the Jews from 70 years of exile.  The Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.  Some Jews remained in Persia, where they had a flourishing community until the beginning of the 20^th Century.

Good-Byes:

2008 ~ Levi Stubbs (né Levi Stubbles, b. June 6, 1936), African-American soulful baritone who helped define the Motown sound.  He was the lead singer of The Four Tops.  He died at age 72.

2007~ Joey Bishop (né Joseph Abraham Gottlieb, b. Feb. 3, 1918), American deadpan comic who was the last member of the Rat Pack.  He died at age 89.

2004 ~ Uzi Hitman (b. June 9, 1952), Israeli musician.  He died of a heart attack at age 52.

2001 ~ Rehavam Ze’evi (b. June 20, 1926), Israeli general and politician.  He was an Israeli tourist minister.  He was the first Israeli minister to be assassinated in a terrorist attack.  He died at age 75.

1999 ~ Nicholas Metropolis (b. June 11, 1915), Greek-American mathematician and physicist.  He died at age 84.

1991 ~ Tennessee Ernie Ford (né Ernest Jennings Ford, b. Feb. 13, 1919), American singer and actor.  He died at age 72.

1979 ~ S.J. Perelman (né Sidney Joseph Perelman, b. Feb. 1, 1904), American author and humorist.  He died at age 75.

1973 ~ Bernt Balchen (b. Oct. 23, 1899), Norwegian-American aviation pioneer.  He died a week before his 74^th birthday.

1972 ~ George, Crown Prince of Serbia (b. Aug. 27, 1887).  He relinquished his right to the throne after he caused the death of a servant when he was in his early 20s.  He died at age 85.

1963 ~ Jacques Salomon Hadamard (b. Dec. 8, 1865), French mathematician.  He died at age 97.

1934 ~ Santiago Ramón y Cajal (b. May 1, 1852), Spanish neuroscientist and recipient of the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in histology of the central nervous system .  He died at age 82.

1920 ~ John Reed (b. Oct. 22, 1887), American journalist and socialist activist.  He is best remembered for his first-hand account of the Bolshevik Revolution in his book Ten Days that Shook the World.  He died in Moscow of spotted typhus just 5 days before his 33^rd birthday.

1910 ~ Julia Ward Howe (b. May 27, 1819), American poet and abolitionist.  She wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic.  She died at age 91 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

1849 ~ Frédéric Chopin (b. Mar. 1, 1810), Polish composer and pianist.  He died at age 39.

1587 ~ Francesco I de’Medici (b. Mar. 25, 1541), Grand Duke of Tuscany.  He died at age 46.

532 ~ Pope Boniface II.  He was Pope from September 17, 530 until his death on this date two years later.  The date of his birth is not known.

33 ~ The date ascribed to the death of Agrippina the Elder (b. BCE 14).  She was the Roman wife of Germanicus.  She is believed to have been about 47 years old.