December 18

Birthdays:

1980 ~ Christina Aguilera, American musician.

1978 ~ Katie Holmes, American actress.

1968 ~ Rachel Griffiths, Australian actress.

1963 ~ Brad Pitt, American actor.

1946 ~ Steven Spielberg, American movie director.

1943 ~ Bobby Keys (né Robert Henry Keys, d. Dec. 2, 2014), American saxophone player who rolled with the Rolling Stones.  He died 2 weeks before his 71^st birthday.

1943 ~ Keith Richards, English musician and member of the Rolling Stones.

1939 ~ David Margolis (d. July 12, 2016), American eccentric prosecutor who took on the mob.  He was the head of the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section of United States Department of Justice for 14 years.  He was 76 years old.

1939 ~ Harold Varmus, cell biologist and recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes.

1936 ~ Gary Dahl (d. Mar. 23, 2015), American ad man and copywriter who, in 1975, invented the Pet Rock.  He died at age 78.

1927 ~ Ramsey Clark (né William Ramsey Clark), 66^th Attorney General of the United States.  He served under President Lyndon B. Johnson from November 1966 until January 1969.

1924 ~ Cicely Tyson, American actress.

1917 ~ Ossie Davis (né Raiford Chatman Davis, d. Feb. 4, 2005), African-American actor and civil rights activist.  He was married to Ruby Dee.  He died at age 87.

1916 ~ Betty Grable (née Elizabeth Ruth Grable, d. July 2, 1973), American actress and pin-up girl.  She died at age 56 of lung cancer.

1913 ~ Willy Brandt (né Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm, d. Oct. 8, 1992), 4^th Chancellor of Germany and recipient of the 1971 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to strengthen cooperation in western Europe through the EEC to achieve reconciliation between West Germany and Eastern Europe.  He resigned as Chancellor in 1974 after one of his closest aides was exposed as an agent of the East German secret police.  He died at age 78.

1907 ~ Sherman Maxwell (d. July 16, 2008), the African-American sportscaster who was a radio pioneer.  He is believed to be the first African-American sports broadcaster.  He died at 100 years old.

1890 ~ Edwin Armstrong (d. Jan. 31, 1954), American engineer and inventor of the FM radio.  He died at age 63.

1886 ~ Ty Cobb (né Tyrus Raymond Cobb, d. July 17, 1961), baseball pitcher.  He died at age 74.

1884 ~ Emil Starkenstein (d. Nov. 6, 1942), Czech-Jewish co-founder of clinical pharmacology.  He was murdered at the Mauthausen-Gausen concentration camp during the Holocaust.  He was 57 years old.

1879 ~ Paul Klee (d. June 29, 1940), Swiss painter.  He died at age 60.

1878 ~ Joseph Stalin (d. Mar. 5, 1953), leader and dictator of the Soviet Union.  He died at age 74.

1870 ~ Saki (né Hector Hugh Munro, d. Nov. 14, 1916), British short story writer.  He was killed by a German sniper during World War I.  He died just over a month before his 46^th birthday.

1863 ~ Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (d. June 28, 1914), heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne.  He was assassinated along with his wife, Sophia, Duchess of Hohenberg, and their assassination in 1914 sparked the beginning of World War I.  He was 50 years old at the time of his death.

1856 ~ Sir J. J. Thomson (né Joseph John Thomson, d. Aug. 30, 1940), English physicist and recipient of the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the electron and for his work on the conduction of electricity in gases.  He died at age 83.

1845 ~ Nikola Pašić (d. Dec. 10, 1926), Prime Minister of Serbia and Yugoslavia.  He died 8 days before his 81^st birthday.

1724 ~ Louise of Great Britain (d. Dec. 19, 1751), Queen of Denmark and Norway.  She died of complications of childbirth 1 day after her 27^th birthday.

1707 ~ Charles Wesley (d. Mar. 29, 1788), English pastor and leader of the Methodist church.  He is mostly known for writing over 6,000 hymns.  He died at age 80.

1626 ~ Queen Christina of Sweden (d. Apr. 19, 1689).  She died at age 62.

Events that Changed the World:

2010 ~ Governmental protests began in Tunisia, beginning the 2010-2011 Arab Spring, which ran through the Middle East and North Africa, toppling several dictatorial regimes.

1971 ~ Capitol Reef National Park in Utah was established.

1915 ~ President Woodrow Wilson (1856 ~ 1924) married Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (1872 ~ 1961) while in Office.

1912 ~ Charles Dawson (1864 ~ 1916) announced the discovery of the Piltdown Man, which was later discovered to be a hoax.

1892 ~ The Nutcracker premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia.

1799 ~ The funeral of George Washington (1731 ~ 1799) was held.  It was attended by over 4,000 people.

1787 ~ New Jersey ratified the United States Constitution, becoming the third state to do so.

1777 ~ The United States celebrated its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent October victory by the Americans over the British in the Battle of Saratoga.

1655 ~ The Whitehall Conference ended with the determination that there was no law preventing Jews from returning to England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290.

1271 ~ Kublai Khan (1215 ~ 1294) renamed his empire Yuan, thereby officially marking the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty in Mongolia and China.

Good-Byes:

2016 ~ Zsa Zsa Gabor (née Sári Gábor, b. Feb. 6, 1917), Hungarian-born actress and socialite.  She was married 9 times.  She died of cardiac arrest at age 99.

2015 ~ Chaney Joseph, Jr. (b. Nov. 22, 1942) Louisiana law professor.  He died less than a month after his 73^rd birthday.

2014 ~ Mandy Rice-Davies (née Marilyn Rice-Davies, b. Oct. 21, 1944), British model and showgirl best known for her association with Christina Keeler and her role in the 1960s Profumo scandal.  She died at age 70.

2013 ~ Ronnie Briggs (né Ronald Arthur Briggs, b. Aug. 8, 1929), English criminal who was involved in the Great Train Robbery of 1963, which he committed on his 34^th birthday.  He died at age 84.

2011 ~ Václav Havel (b. Oct. 5, 1936), Czech playwright who went on to lead the bloodless “Velvet Revolution” of Czechoslovakia.  He was the 10^th and last president of Czechoslovakia (from 1989 ~ 1992) and the first president of the Czech Republic (1993 ~ 2003).  He died at age 75.

2008 ~ W. Mark Felt (né William Mark Felt, b. Aug. 17, 1913), American FBI agent and the infamous “Deep Throat” of the Watergate Scandal, who leaked information to reporters, who then informed the citizens of the United States of the activities of the Richard Nixon presidency.  He died at age 95.

2008 ~ Hannah Frank (b. Aug. 23, 1908), Scottish sculptor.  She died at age 100.

2006 ~ Joseph Barbera (b. Mar. 24, 1911), American animator and co-founder of Hanna-Barbera.  He died at age 85.

1997 ~ Christopher “Chris” Farley (b. Feb. 15, 1964), American actor and comedian.  He died of a drug overdose at age 33.

1994 ~ Roger Apéry (b. Nov. 14, 1916), Greek-born French mathematician.  He died of Parkinson’s disease about a month after his 78^th birthday.

1993 ~ Sam Wanamaker (né Samuel Wattenmacker, b. June 14, 1919), American actor.  He died at age 74.

1992 ~ Mark Goodson (b. Jan. 14, 1915), American game show producer and creator of game shows such as Family Feud and The Price is Right.  He died less than a month before his 78^th birthday.

1980 ~ Alexei Kosygin (b. Feb. 21, 1904), 8^th Premier of the Soviet Union.  He died at age 76.

1880 ~ Michel Chasles (b. Nov. 15, 1793), French mathematician.  He died about a month after his 87^th birthday.

1862 ~ Barbara Fritchie (b. 1766), American Civil War Unionist.  John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a poem about her defending the Union Flag during the Civil War.  She died 15 days after her 96^th birthday.

1848 ~ Bernard Bolzano (b. Oct. 5, 1781), Bohemian priest and mathematician.  He died at age 67.

1829 ~ Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (né Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck, b. Aug. 1, 1744), French soldier and naturalist.  He died at age 85.

1799 ~ Jean-Étienne Montucla (b. Sept. 5, 1725), French mathematician.  He died at age 74.

1737 ~ Antoino Stradivari (b. 1644), Italian violin maker.  The exact date of is birth is not known, but he is believed to have been about 93 at the time of his death.

1290 ~ Magnus III (b. 1240), King of Sweden.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been about 49 at the time of his death.

1075 ~ Edith of Wessex (b. 1025), English queen and wife of Edward the Confessor.  The exact date of her birth is unknown, but she is believed to have been about 49 or 50 at the time of her death.