October 27

Birthdays:

1967 ~ Scott Weiland (né Scott Richard Kline, d. Dec. 3, 2015), American rock star and frontman for the Stone Temple Pilots who struggled with drug addiction.  He died at age 48 of a drug overdose.

1950 ~ Fran Lebowitz, American writer.

1939 ~ John Cleese, British actor.

1932 ~ Sylvia Plath (d. Feb. 11, 1963), American poet who committed suicide at age 30.

1926 ~ H.R. Haldemann (né Harry Robbins Haldemann, d. Nov. 12, 1993), American politician and 4^th White House Chief of Staff.  He served under President Nixon from January 1969 until April 1973.  He was involved in the Watergate scandal cover-up.  He died abdominal cancer 16 days after his 67^th birthday.

1925 ~ Warren Christopher (d. Mar. 18, 2011), 63^rd US Secretary of State.  He served during President Bill Clinton’s first term from January 1993 until January 1997.  He died at age 85.

1923 ~ Roy Lichtenstein (d. Sept. 29, 1997), American artist.  He died about a month before his 74^th birthday.

1922 ~ Ruby Dee (d. June 11, 2014), American activist actress who stood up for civil rights.  She was 91 years old.

1922 ~ Ralph Kiner (d. Feb. 6, 2014), American major league baseball player and slugger who became a broadcaster and voice of the Mets.  He died at age 91.

1914 ~ Dylan Thomas (d. Nov. 9, 1953), Welsh poet.  He died 2 weeks after his 39^th birthday.

1908 ~ Lee Krasner (née Lenore Krassner, d. June 19, 1984), American painter.  She was the wife of Jackson Pollack.  She died at age 75.

1906 ~ Earle Cabell (d. Sept. 24, 1975), Mayor of Dallas, Texas.  He was Mayor of Dallas in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  He died about a month before his 69^th birthday.

1889 ~ Enid Bagnold, Lady Jones (d. Mar. 31, 1981), British playwright, best known for her novel, National Velvet.  She died at age 91.

1872 ~ Emily Post (d. Sept. 25, 1960), American etiquette expert.  The exact date of her birth is not known.  She died about a month before her 88^th birthday.

1868 ~ Roy Owen West (d. Nov. 29, 1958), 30^th United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under President Calvin Coolidge from July 1928 until March 1929.  He died a month after his 90^th birthday.

1858 ~ Theodore Roosevelt (d. Jan. 6, 1919), 26^th President of the United States, and 25^th Vice President of the United States.  He became President following the assassination of William McKinley.  He served as President from September 1901 until March 1909.  He had previously served as the Governor of New York from January 1899 through December 1900.  Roosevelt was also the recipient of the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.  He died at age 60.

1844 ~ Klas Pontus Arnoldson (d. Feb. 20, 1916), Swedish writer and pacifist.  He was the recipient of the 1908 Nobel Peace Prize.  He died at age 71.

1838 ~ John Davis Long (d. Aug. 28, 1915), 34^th United States Secretary of the Navy.  He served under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt from March 1897 until Apr. 1902.  He had previously served as the 32^nd Governor of Massachusetts from January 1880 until January 1883.  He was born in Buckfield, Maine  and died in Hingham, Massachusetts.  He was 76 years old at the time of his death.

1828 ~ Jacob Dolson Cox (d. Aug. 4, 1900), 10^th United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under President Ulysses S. Grant.  He served in that Office from March 1869 thorough October 1870.  He had previously served as the 28^th Governor of Ohio, from January 1866 until January 1868.  He died in Gloucester, Massachusetts at age 71.

1811 ~ Isaac Singer (d. July 23, 1875), American inventor who made improvements to the sewing machine ,and entrepreneur founder of the Singer Corporation.  He fathered at least 24 children through various wives and mistresses.  He died at age 63.

1782 ~ Niccolò Paganini (b. May 27, 1840), Italian violinist and composer.  He died at age 58.

1744 ~ Mary Moser (d. May 2, 1819), British painter and artist.  She was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy.  She died at age 74.

1401 ~ Catherine of Valois (d. Jan. 3, 1437), Wife of Henry V of England.  She died at age 35 following complications of childbirth.

Events that Changed the World:

2004 ~ The Boston Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series games, winning their first World Series championship since 1918.

1971 ~ The Democratic Republic of the Congo changed its name to Zaire.

1967 ~ In protest of the war in Vietnam, Father Philip Barrigan (1923 ~ 2002) and others of the so-called “Baltimore Four” poured blood on Selective Service records.

1954 ~ Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. (1912 ~ 2002) became the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.  Almost 14 years to the day earlier, his father had become the first African-American general in the United States Army.

1936 ~ Mrs. Wallis Simpson (1896 ~ 1986) filed for a divorce from her second husband, freeing her to marry King Edward VII (1894 ~ 1972) of the United Kingdom.  He would ultimately abdicate and the couple would become known as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

1904 ~ The New York City Subway line, run by the as the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, or IRT, opened.  The System would become the biggest in the United States.

1838 ~ Missouri governor, Lilburn Boggs (1796 ~ 1860), issued an Extermination Order, which ordered all Mormons to leave the state or be exterminated.

1810 ~ The United States annexed the former Spanish colony of West Florida.

1682 ~ The city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was founded.

Good-Byes:

2014 ~ Starke Taylor (b. July 2, 1922), Mayor of Dallas, Texas.  He was Mayor from 1983 until 1987.  He died at age 92.

2013 ~ Lou Reed (né Lewis Allan Reed, b. Mar. 2, 1942), American singer and guitarist.  He died of liver disease at age 71.

2012 ~ Hans Werner Henze (b. July 1, 1926), German composer who was repelled and inspired by Germany.  He died at age 86.

2012 ~ Rodney Quinn (b. May 27, 1923), Secretary of State of Maine from 1979 to 1988.  He died at age 89.

2010 ~ Néstor Carlos Kirchner (b. Feb. 25, 1950), 51^st President of Argentina.  He served as President from May 2003 until December 2007.  He died of cardiac arrest at age 60.

2009 ~ Roy DeCarava (b. Dec. 9, 1919), African-American photographer who chronicled black lives.  He died at age 89.

1996 ~ Morey Amsterdam (né Moritz Amsterdam, b. Dec. 14, 1908), American actor and comedian.  He died of a heart attack at age 87.

1990 ~ Xavier Cugat (b. Jan. 1, 1900), Spanish-born musician.  He died at age 90.

1980 ~ John Hasbrouck van Vleck (b. Mar. 13, 1899), American physicist and mathematician.  He was the recipient of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 81 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1977 ~ James M. Cain (b. July 1, 1892), American detective writer and journalist.  He is best known for his novels, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity.  He died at age 85.

1975 ~ Rex Stout (b. Dec. 1, 1886), American detective-story writer.  He created fictional detective Nero Wolf.  He died in Danbury, Connecticut at age 88.

1974 ~ C.P. Ramanujam (né Chakravarthi Padmanabhan Ramanujam, b. Jan. 9, 1938), Indian mathematician.  He committed suicide at age 36.

1930 ~ Ellen Hayes (b. Sept. 23, 1851), American mathematician and social activist.  She died about a month after her 79^th birthday.

1675 ~ Gilles de Roberval (b. Aug. 10, 1602), French mathematician.  He died at age 73.

1505 ~ Tsar Ivan III of Russia (b. Jan. 22, 1440).  He was known as Ivan the Great.  He died at age 65.

1449 ~ Ulugh Beg (né Mīrza Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh, b. Mar. 22, 1394), Persian mathematician and astronomer.  He was also a ruler and sultan.  He is best known for his work in trigonometry and geometry.  His academic legacy was the creation of the Ulugh Beg Observatory.  He died at age 55.

1327 ~ Elizabeth de Burgh (b. 1289), Scottish wife of King Robert I of Scotland.  The exact date of her birth is unknown, but she is believed to have been about 43 at the time of her death.

939 ~ Ǽthelstan (b.895), English King.  The date of his birth is unknown.