November 8

Birthdays:

2003 ~ Lady Louise Windsor, daughter of the British Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex.

1986 ~ Aaron Swartz (d. Jan. 11, 2013), Computer wizard whose activism for an open Web led to wire-fraud charges.  He was arrested on computer hacking and committed suicide before his trial.  He was 26 years old.

1968 ~ Parker Posey, American actress.

1954 ~ Rickie Lee Jones, American musician.

1952 ~ Alfre Woodard, American actress.

1949 ~ Bonnie Raitt, American musician.

1931 ~ Morley Safer (d. May 19, 2016), American journalist.  He is best known for his long tenure on 60 Minutes, where he worked for nearly 36 years.  He died of pneumonia at age 84 just 1 week after his retirement from 60 Minutes.

1927 ~ Patti Page (née Clara Ann Fowler, d. Jan. 1, 2013), singer who made a 1950 hit of Tennessee Waltz.  She died at age 85.

1923 ~ Jack Kilby (d. June 20, 2005), American physicist and recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 81.

1922 ~ Christiaan Barnard (d. Sept. 2, 2001), South African cardiac surgeon who performed the first human heart-to-heart transplant.  He died of a severe asthma attack at age 78.

1914 ~ George Dantzig (d. May 13, 2005), American mathematician.  He died at age 90.

1900 ~ Margaret Mitchell (d. Aug. 16, 1949), American novelist who wrote Gone with the Wind.  She died at age 48 after having been struck by a speeding car as she crossed a street in Atlanta, Georgia.

1897 ~ Dorothy Day (d. Nov. 29, 1980), American journalist and activist.  She died 21 days after her 83^rd birthday.

1884 ~ Hermann Rorschach (d. Apr. 1, 1922), Swiss psychologist and author.  He is best known for devising the inkblot test.  He died at age 37 of peritonitis following a rupture appendix.

1878 ~ Dorothea Bate (d. Jan. 13, 1951), British paleontologist and archeozoologist.  She died of a heart attack at age 72.

1868 ~ Felix Hausdorff (d. Jan. 26, 1942), German mathematician.  He died at age 73.

1865 ~ Henry L. Fuqua (d. Oct. 11, 1926), Baton Rouge businessman and 38^th Governor of Louisiana.  He died in office of causes unknown.  He died in Baton Rouge, Louisiana less than a month before his 61^st birthday.

1848 ~ Gottlob Frege (d. July 26, 1925), German mathematician and logician.  He died at age 76.

1847 ~ Jean Casimir-Perier (d. Mar. 11, 1907), 6^th President of France.  He died at age 59.

1847 ~ Abraham “Bram” Stoker (d. Apr. 20, 1912), Irish novelist who was best known for his Gothic novel, Dracula.  He died at age 64.

1836 ~ Milton Bradley (d. May 30, 1911), American businessman and founder of the Milton Bradley Company.  He was born in Maine and died in Massachusetts at age 74.

1772 ~ William Wirt (d. Feb. 18, 1834), 9^th United States Attorney General.  He served under Presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams from November 1817 until March 1829.  He is credited with turning the position of United States Attorney into one of great influence.  He died at age 61.

1710 ~ Sarah Fielding (d. Apr. 9, 1768), British author and sister of writer Henry Fielding.  She died at age 58.

1656 ~ Edmond Halley (d. Jan. 25, 1742), British astronomer and mathematician.  He is best known for calculating the orbit of the comet that was ultimately named in his honor ~ Halley’s Comet.  He died at age 85.

1622 ~ King Charles X Gustav of Sweden (d. Feb. 13, 1660).  He died of complications from pneumonia at age 37.

Events that Changed the World:

2016 ~ Election Day in the United States.  Donald Trump (b. 1946) was elected President, defeating Hillary Clinton (b. 1947).

2013 ~ Typhoon Haiyan hit The Philippines causing massive damage.  Over 6,300 people were killed in the storm.

1966 ~ Edward Brooke (1919 ~ 2015), the former Attorney General of Massachusetts, became the first African-American to be elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.

1965 ~ The United Kingdom abolished the death penalty.

1960 ~ John F. Kennedy (1917 ~ 1963) was elected 35^th President of the United States.  He was the youngest elected president.

1933 ~ President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 ~ 1945) announced the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for the unemployed during the Great Depression.

1932 ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 ~ 1945) was elected the 32^nd President of the United States.

1895 ~ Wilhelm Röntgen (1845 ~ 1923) discovered the X-ray.

1892 ~ The New Orleans general strike began, which united both black and white American trade unionists in a 4-day general strike action.

1889 ~ Montana became the 41^st State of the Union.

1837 ~ Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in Massachusetts (later renamed to Mount Holyoke College) opened for women.  The school was founded by Mary Mason Lyon (1897 ~ 1849).  She was a strong advocate for the education of women, and in 1834, she had founded the Wheaton Female Seminary (now known as Wheaton Colleage) in Norton, Massachusetts.

Good-Byes:

2014 ~ Ina Ginsburg (b. Oct. 10, 1916), German-born refugee from the Holocaust who became a Washington, D.C., socialite.  She died about a month after her 98^th birthday.

2014 ~ Ernie Vandeweghe (né Ernest Maurice Vandeweghe, b. Sept. 12, 1928), American physician who played professional basketball for the New York Knicks.  He died at age 86.

2013 ~ William C. Davidon (b. Mar. 18, 1927), American mathematician.  He died at age 86.

2011 ~ Bil Keane (né William Aloysius Keane, b. Oct. 5, 1922), American cartoonist and chronicled family life with the creation of Family Circle.  He died at age 89.

2009 ~ Vitaly Ginzburg (b. Oct. 4, 1916), Russian-born theoretical physicist who worked on the H-bomb.  He was the recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 93.

1998 ~ Rumer Godden (née Margaret Rumer Godden, b. Dec. 10, 1907), British writer.  She died a month before her 91^st birthday.

1983 ~ Mordecai Kaplan (b. June 11, 1881), Lithuanian-born American rabbi and founder of the Reconstructionist movement.  He died at age 102.

1978 ~ Norman Rockwell (b. Feb. 3, 1894), American illustrator.  He died at age 84.

1960 ~ Otto Frederick Rohwedder (b. July 7, 1880), American engineer and inventor of sliced bread.  Interestingly, the first loaves of sliced bread began to be sold on his 48^th birthday.  He died at age 80.

1953 ~ Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin (b. Oct. 22, 1870), Russian author and recipient of the 1933 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died 2 weeks after his 83^rd birthday.

1887 ~ Doc Holliday (né John Henry Holliday, b. Aug. 14, 1851), American gambler, gunfighter and dentist in the American Wild West.  He died at age 36 of tuberculosis.

1858 ~ Benjamin Franklin Butler (b. Dec. 17, 1795), 12^th United States Attorney General.  He served under President Martin Van Buren from November 1833 until July 1838.  He died at age 62.

1719 ~ Michel Rolle (b. Apr. 21, 1652), French mathematician.  He died at age 67.

1703 ~ John Wallis (b. Dec. 3, 1616), English mathematician.  He died less than a month before his 87^th birthday

1674 ~ John Milton (b. Dec. 9, 1608), English poet.  He is best known for his work Paradise Lost.  He died a month before his 66^th birthday.

1308 ~ John Duns Scotus (b. 1266), Scottish philosopher.  He is believed to have been 42 at the time of his death, but the date of his birth is unknown.

1226 ~ Louis VIII of France (b. Sept. 5, 1187).  He reigned as King from July 1223 until his death 2 years later.  He died at age 39.

955 ~ Pope Agapetus II (b. Mar. 5, 905).  He was Pope from May 10, 1946 until his death 8 and a half years ago.  He was 50 years old at the time of his death.

618 ~ Pope Adeodatus I.  He was Pope from October 19, 615 until his death on this date 3 years later.  He is also known as Saint Adeodatus.  The date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been about 48 years old at the time of his death.