October 29

Birthdays:

1971 ~ Daniel J. Bernstein, American mathematician.

1971 ~ Winona Ryder, American actress.

1967 ~ Rufus Sewell, English actor.

1957 ~ Dan Castellaneta, American voice actor best known for being the voice of Homer Simpson on the cartoon The Simpsons.

1951 ~ Dirk Kempthorne, 49^th United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under President George W. Bush.

1950 ~ Abdullah Gül, President of Turkey from August 2007 until August 2014.

1947 ~ Richard Dreyfuss, American actor.

1945 ~ Melba Moore, American singer and actress.

1938 ~ Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 24^th President of Liberia and recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.  She assumed the Presidential Office in January 2016.

1928 ~ Benjamin “Ben” Chapman (d. Feb. 21, 2008), American minor actor who was a major movie monster.  He was best known for playing Gill-man in the 1954 horror film classic, Creature From the Black Lagoon.  He died at age 79.

1927 ~ George Nichopoulos (d. Feb. 24, 2016), American doctor who enabled Elvis Presley’s drug habit.  His medical license was revoked in 1993.  He died at age 88.

1925 ~ Dominick Dunne (d. Aug. 26, 2009), American elegant writer who chronicled the famous and infamous.  He died of cancer at age 83.

1925 ~ Nathan Divinsky (d. June 17, 2012), Canadian mathematician.  He died at age 86.

1923 ~ Carl Djerassi (d. Jan. 30, 2015), Austrian-born chemist who helped develop the birth control pill.  He was 91.

1925 ~ Klaus Fredirch Roth (d. Nov. 10, 2015), German mathematician.  He was raised in the United Kingdom after his family moved there in 1933.  He died 11 days after his 90^th birthday.

1920 ~ Baruj Benacerraf (d. Aug. 2, 2011), Venezuelan-born American immunologist and recipient of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts at age 90.

1897 ~ Joseph Goebbels (né Paul Joseph Goebbels, d. May 1, 1945), Nazi Minister of Propaganda.  He and his wife Magda (b. Nov. 11, 1901) killed their children then both committed suicide to avoid trial for war crimes at the end of World War II.  He was 47; his wife was 41 at the time of their suicides.

1891 ~ Fanny Brice (née Fania Borach, d. May 29, 1951), American singer and actress.  She died at age 59 of a cerebral hemorrhage.

1875 ~ Marie of Romania (d. July 18, 1938), Queen Consort of Romania.  She was the wife of King Ferdinand I of Romania.  She died at age 62.

1808 ~ Caterine Scarpellini (d. Nov. 28, 1873), Italian astronomer and meteorologist.  One of the craters of Venus is named in her honor.  She died a month after her 65^th birthday.

1740 ~ James Boswell, 9^th Laird of Auchinleck (d. May 19, 1795), Scottish biographer of his contemporary and literary figure, Samuel Johnson.  He died at age 54.

1690 ~ Martin Folkes (d. June 28, 1754), British mathematician.  He died at age 63.

Events that Changed the World:

2015 ~ China announced the end of its One-Child policy, which had been in effect for 35 years.

2013 ~ Turkey opened a sea tunnel in Istanbul connecting Europe and Asia across the Bosporus Strait.

2012 ~ Hurricane Sandy hit the northeast coast of the United States.  The storm killed nearly 150 people and caused over $70 billion in damages.  This storm became known as Super-Storm Sandy.

2008 ~ Northwest Airlines merged with Delta Airlines, thereby creating the world’s largest airline.

1998 ~ Hurricane Mitch made landfall in Honduras.

1967 ~ Expo ’67, Montreal’s World Fair, closed.  Over 50 Million visitors had attended the Fair.

1964 ~ Thieves broke into the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and made off with a collection of gems, including the Star of India, which is one of the largest star sapphires in the world.  The thieves were captured within 2 days of the robbery, however, the stones were not recovered until January 1965.

1957 ~ David Ben-Gurion (1886 ~ 1973), Israel’s Prime Minister and five others were injured when a hand grenade was thrown into the Knesset.

1956 ~ The Suez Crisis began when Israeli forces invaded the Sinai Peninsula.

1941 ~ In the Kaunas Ghetto, over 10,000 Jews were shot and killed by the Germans in what was known as the Great Action Massacre.

1929 ~ The New York Stock Exchange crashed in what would later become known as Black Tuesday.  This event marked the beginning of the Great Depression.

1923 ~ Turkey became a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1922 ~ King Victor Emmanuel III (1869 ~ 1947) of Italy appointed Benito Mussolini (1883 ~ 1945) as Prime Minister.

1888 ~ The Convention of Constantinople was signed, which guaranteed free maritime passage through the Suez Canal.

1863 ~ The International Red Cross was formed in Geneva, Switzerland.

1792 ~ Mount Hood in what is now the State of Oregon was named after the British naval officer Samuel Hood, 1^st Viscount Hood (1724 ~ 1816).

1787 ~ The first performance of Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni, was performed in Prague.

1591 ~ Pope Innocent IX (né Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti, 1519 ~ 1591) was elected Pope.  He was Pope, however, for only 2 months before his death in December 1591.

539 BCE ~ Tradition holds that on this date, Cyrus the Great entered the City of Babylon and ended the Babylonian captivity of the Jews.  He gave the Jews permission to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple.  Many Jews, however, chose to remain in Babylon.

Good-Byes:

2012 ~ Letitia Baldridge (b. Feb. 9, 1926), American manners guru who served the Kennedys in the White House.  She died at age 86.

2009 ~ David Treen (né David Connor Treen, Sr., b. July 16, 1928), 51^st Governor of Louisiana.  He was Governor from March 1980 until March 1984.  He was born in Baton Rouge and died in Metairie, Louisiana.  He died at age 81.

2004 ~ Peter Twinn (b. Jan. 9, 1916), English mathematician.  He died at age 88.

1994 ~ Shlomo Goren (b. Feb. 3, 1917), Israeli rabbi.  He died at age 77.

1993 ~ Lipman Bers (b. May 22, 1914), American mathematician.  He died at age 79.

1987 ~ Woody Herman (né Woodrow Charles Herman, b. May 16, 1913), American bandleader and musician during the Swing Era.  He died at age 74.

1971 ~ Duane Allman (b. Nov. 20, 1946), American musician and member of The Allman Brothers Band.  He was killed less than a month before his 25^th birthday in a motorcycle accident.

1971 ~ Arne Tiselius (b. Aug. 10, 1902), Swedish chemist and recipient of the 1948 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 69.

1957 ~ Louis B. Mayer (né Lazar Meir, b. July 12, 1884), Russian-born American film director.  He died of leukemia at age 73.

1950 ~ King Gustaf V of Sweden (b. June 16, 1858).  He died at age 92.  He was King of Sweden from December 1907 until his death in October 1950.

1947 ~ Frances Folsom Cleveland (b. July 21, 1864), First Lady of the United States and wife of President Grover Cleveland.  They married when he was in Office.  She was 21 years old at the time of her marriage in 1886, making her the youngest First Lady.  She died at age 83.

1933 ~ Paul Painlevé (b. Dec. 5, 1853), French mathematician and politician.  He was the Prime Minister of France from April 1925 until November 1925.  He died at age 69.

1924 ~ Frances Hodgson Burnett (b. Nov. 24, 1849), British author best known for her children’s classic, The Secret Garden.  She died less than a month before her 75^th birthday.

1911 ~ Joseph Pulitzer (b. Apr. 10, 1847), Hungarian-American publisher.  He died at age 64.

1901 ~ Leon Czolgosz (b. May 5, 1873), American assassin of President William McKinley.  He was electrocuted at age 28 for his crime.

1877 ~ Nathan Bedford Forrest (b. July 13, 1821), General in the Confederate Army.  He was an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan.  He died of complications from diabetes at age 56.

1885 ~ George B. McCellan (b. Dec. 3, 1826), American Union Civil War general.  He was also the 24^th Governor of New Jersey.  He died at age 58.

1783 ~ Jean le Rond d’Alembert (b. Nov. 16, 1717), French mathematician.  He died 18 days before his 66^th birthday.

1618 ~ Sir Walter Raleigh (b. 1554), English explorer and adventurer.  He was beheaded for allegedly conspiring against King James I of England.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 65 at the time of his death.