December 14

Birthdays:

1960 ~ James Comey, 7^th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  He served during the Obama Administration, but was fired by President Trump.

1955 ~ Jill Pipher, American mathematician.

1949 ~ William “Bill” Buckner, American baseball player best known for his fumble of the ball in the 1986 pennant race between the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox.  The Red Sox lost.

1946 ~ Sanjay Gandhi (d. June 23, 1980), Indian politician and son of Indira Gandhi.  He was killed in a private airplane crash at age 33.

1946 ~ Patty Duke (née Anna Marie Duke, d. Mar. 29, 2016), American actress.  She died at age 69.

1935 ~ Lee Remick (d. July 2, 1991), American actress.  She was born in Quincy, Massachusetts.  She died at age 55 of kidney cancer.

1922 ~ Nikolay Basov (d. July 1, 2001), Russian physicist and recipient of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 78.

1922 ~ Don Hewitt (né Donald Shepard Hewitt, d. Aug. 19, 2009), American television producer and creator of 60 Minutes.  He died of pancreatic cancer at age 86.

1920 ~ Clark Terry, Jr. (d. Feb. 21, 2015), African-American trumpet virtuoso who taught the art of Jazz.  He died at age 94.

1917 ~ June Taylor (née Marjorie June Taylor, d. May 16, 2004), American choreographer.  She was the choreographer for the Jackie Gleason Show.  She died at age 86.

1916 ~ Shirley Jackson (d. Aug. 8, 1965), American author best known for her short story The Lottery.  She died at age 48 of heart failure in North Bennington, Vermont.

1911 ~ Spike Jones (né Lindley Armstrong Jones, d. May 1, 1965), American bandleader, musician, and comedian.  He died of emphysema at age 53.

1909 ~ Edward L. Tatum (d. Nov. 5, 1975), American geneticist and recipient of the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died of heart failure at age 65.

1908 ~ Morey Amsterdam (né Moritz Amsterdam, d. Oct. 27, 1996), American actor and comedian.  He died of a heart attack at age 87.

1902 ~ Frances Bavier (d. Dec. 6, 1989), American actress best known for her role as Aunt Bea on The Andy Griffith Show.  She died 8 days before her 87^th birthday.

1897 ~ Margaret Chase Smith (d. May 29, 1995), American politician and United States Senator from Maine.  She died at age 97.

1896 ~ Jimmy Doolittle (né James Harold Doolittle, d. Sept. 27, 1993), American general and pilot who led the first bombing raid on Tokyo during World War II.  He died at age 96.

1895 ~ King George VI of the United Kingdom (d. Feb. 6, 1952).  He was the father of Queen Elizabeth II.  He died at age 56.

1816 ~ Abraham Hochmuth (d. June 10, 1889), Hungarian rabbi.  He died at age 72.

1631 ~ Anne Conway (d. Feb. 18, 1679), English philosopher and author.  She died at age 47.

1546 ~ Tycho Brahe (né Tyge Ottesen Brahe, d. Oct. 24, 1601), Danish astronomer alchemist who developed a systematic approach for observing the planets and stars.    He lost a part of his nose in a duel and wore a brass prosthesis.  He is the central character in the novel, The Book of Splendor, by Frances Sherwood,  He died at age 54 of a mysterious illness.

1503 ~ Nostradamus (né Michel de Nostredame, d. July 2, 1566), French astrologer and seer who published collections of prophecies.  The exact date of his birth is unknown; it is sometimes recorded as December 21, 1503.  He was 62 when he died.

Events that Changed the World:

2012 ~ An armed shooter entered  the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut and shot and killed 26 people, including 20 six- and seven-year olds, as well as 6 teachers and school administrators before killing himself.

2008 ~ President George W. Bush made his final trip to Iraq as President.  An angry Iraqi journalist threw two shoes, nearly striking him, during a news conference in Baghdad.

1994 ~ Construction on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China began.

1964 ~ In Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Congress can use the Constitution’s Commerce Clause as a mechanism to fight racial discrimination.

1962 ~ Mariner 2 became the first spacecraft to fly past Venus.

1946 ~ The United Nations General Assembly voted to establish its headquarters in New York City.

1940 ~ Plutonium was first isolated in a laboratory in Berkeley, California.

1939 ~ The League of Nations expelled the Soviet Union for invading Finland during the Winter War.

1911 ~ Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872 ~ 1928) and his team became the first known humans to reach the South Pole.

1903 ~ The Wright brothers made their first attempt to fly at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1902 ~ The Commercial Pacific Cable Company laid the first Pacific telegraph cable from San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.

1819 ~ Alabama became the 22^nd State of the Union.

1814 ~ During the War of 1812, the Royal Navy seized control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.

1542 ~ Princess Mary Stuart became Mary, Queen of Scots (1542 ~ 1587).

1287 ~ The sea wall on the Zuider Zee in the Netherlands collapsed, killing over 50,000 people during the St. Lucia’s flood.

557 ~ An earthquake severely damaged Constantinople (present day Istanbul).

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Lillian Vernon (née Lilli Menacsche, b. Mar. 18, 1927), German-American businesswoman and founder of the Lillian Vernon Company.  She died at age 88.

2014 ~ Bess Myerson (b. July 16, 1924), first, and to date the only, Jewish Miss America.  She won the title in 1945.  She died at age 90.

2014 ~ Sy Berger (né Seymour Berger, b. July 12, 1923), American Topps salesman who reinvented the baseball card.  He died at age 91.

2013 ~ George Rodrigue (b. Mar. 13, 1944), American artist from New Iberia, Louisiana most famous for his Blue Dog series.  He died of lung cancer at age 69.

2013 ~ Peter O’Toole (b. Aug. 2, 1932), Irish actor.  He is best known for his role as T.E. Lawrence in the 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia.  He died at age 81.

2001 ~ W. G. Sebald (né Winfried Georg Sebald, b. May 18, 1944), German-born writer.  He died in a car crash at age 57.

1998 ~ Norman Fell (b. Mar. 24, 1924), American actor.  He died at age 74.

1998 ~ Annette Strauss (b. Jan. 26, 1924), American philanthropist and mayor of Dallas, Texas.  She was the second female mayor and the second Jewish mayor of the city.  She died at age 74.

1994 ~ Orval Faubus (b. Jan. 7, 1910), 36^th Governor of Arkansas from January 1955 until January 1967.  He is best known for his 1957 stand against desegregation of the public schools in Little Rock.  He died 3 weeks before his 85^th birthday.

1993 ~ Myrna Loy (b. Aug. 2, 1905), American actress.  She died at age 88.

1989 ~ Andrei Sakharov (b. May 21, 1921), Russian physicist and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize.  He died at age 69.

1988 ~ Stuart Symington (b. June 26, 1901), 1^st United States Secretary of the Air Force.  He was appointed to this office by President Harry S Truman and served as the Secretary of the Air Force from September 1947 through December 1950.  He went on to become a United States Senator from Missouri.  He died at age 87.

1985 ~ Roger Maris (b. Sept. 10, 1934), American baseball player.  He died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 51.

1984 ~ Vincente Aleixandre (b. Apr. 26, 1898), Spanish writer and recipient of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 86.

1980 ~ Richard Gurley Drew (b. June 22, 1899), American engineer and inventor of Masking tape.  He died at age 81.

1974 ~ Walter Lippmann (b. Sept. 23, 1889), American journalist and political commentator.  He died at age 85.

1963 ~ Dinah Washington (née Ruth Lee Jones, b. Aug. 29, 1924), African-American singer and pianist.  She died at age 39.

1956 ~ Juho Kusti Paasikivi (b. Nov. 27, 1870), 7^th President of Finland.  He died 18 days after his 86^th birthday.

1953 ~ Majorie Kinnan Rawlings (b. Aug. 8, 1896), American novelist who is best known for her novel, The Yearling.  She died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 57.

1947 ~ Stanley Baldwin, 1^st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (b. Aug. 3, 1867), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He was Prime Minister from June 1935 through May 1937 during the reigns of Kings George V, Edward VIII and George VI.  He died at age 80.

1943 ~ John Harvey Kellogg (b. Feb. 26, 1852), American surgeon and breakfast food manufacturer.  He created Corn-Flakes.  He died at age 91.

1942 ~ Hubert Work (b. July 3, 1860), 29^th United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under President Warren G. Harding from March 1923 until July 1928.  He previously served as the 47^th United States Postmaster General under President Warren Harding from March 1922 until March 1923.  He died at age 82.

1927 ~ Yulian Vasilivich Sokhotsku (b. Feb. 2, 1842), Russian mathematician.  He died at age 85.

1902 ~ Julia Dent Grant (b. Jan. 26, 1826), 19^th First Lady and wife of President Ulysses S. Grant.  She died at age 76.

1873 ~ Louis Agassiz (b. May 28, 1807), American paleontologist and geologist.  He died at age 66.

1861 ~ Albert, Prince Consort (b. Aug. 26, 1819), husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.  He died at age 42.

1860 ~ George Hamilton-Gordin, 4^th Earl of Aberdeen (b. Jan. 28, 1784), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He died at age 76.

1831 ~ Martin Baum (b. June 15, 1765), Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio.  He died at age 66 during an influenza epidemic.

1806 ~ John Breckinridge (b. Dec. 2, 1760), 5^th United States Attorney General.  He served under President Thomas Jefferson from August 1805 until his death in December 1806.  He died of tuberculosis 12 days after his 46^th birthday.

1799 ~ George Washington (b. Feb. 22, 1732), American general during the American Revolutionary War and 1^st President of the United States.  He died at age 67.

1542 ~ King James V of Scotland (b. Apr. 10, 1512).  He died at age 30.

1476 ~ Vlad III, the Impaler (b. 1431), the date commonly ascribed to his death.  The exact dates of his birth and death are not known.

872 ~ Pope Adrian II (b. 792).  He served as Pope from December 14, 867 until his death exactly 5 years later.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 80 at the time of his death.