December 4

Birthdays:

1964 ~ Marisa Tomei, American actress.

1951 ~ Patricia Wettig, American actress.

1949 ~ Jeff Bridges, American actor.

1945 ~ Roberta Bondar, Canadian neurologist who became the first Canadian woman to travel into space when she joined the astronauts on the Space Shuttle Discovery in January 1992.

1940 ~ Gary Gilmore (d. Jan. 17, 1977), Gary Gilmore, American murderer who was executed by firing squad in Utah.  Norman Mailer wrote of his execution in the novel, Executioner’s Song.  He was 36 years old at the time of his execution.

1937 ~ Max Baer, Jr., American actor best known for his role as Jethro on The Beverly Hillbillies.

1935 ~ Paul O’Neill, 72^nd United States Secretary of the Treasury.  He served under President George W. Bush.

1934 ~ Wink Martindale (né Winston Conrad Martindale), American game show host.

1923 ~ Charles Keating, Jr. (d. Mar. 31, 2014), American attorney and businessman.  He is best known for his role in the Savings and Loan scandal of the late 1980s.  In 1991, he was charged with 17 counts of fraud, racketeering and conspiracy.  He was given a 10-year prison sentence for his crimes.  He died at age 90.

1918 ~ Robert Ettinger (d. July 23, 2011), American cryonics pioneer who fought death with deep freezers.  He is known as the Father of Cryogenics.  He died at age 92.

1914 ~ Claude Renoir (d. Sept. 5, 1993), French cinematographer and son of impressionist painter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  He died at age 79.

1908 ~ Alfred Hershey (d. May 22, 1997), American biochemist and recipient of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died at age 88.

1892 ~ Francisco Franco (d. Nov. 20, 1975), Spanish dictator.  He died 14 days before his 83^rd birthday.

1878 ~ Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia (d. June 13, 1918), younger brother of Tsar Nicholas II.  He was the first Romanov to be murdered by the Bolsheviks.  He was 39 years old at the time of his death.

1875 ~ Rainer Marie Rilke (né René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Marie Rilke, d. Dec. 29, 1926), Austrian author.  He died 25 days after his 51^st birthday.

1875 ~ Joe Corbett (né Joseph Aloysius Corbett, d. May 2, 1945), American baseball player.  He died at age 69.

1865 ~ Edith Cavell (d. Oct. 12, 1915), English nurse.  She served as a nurse in World War I and is known for caring for Allied soldiers who had escaped from German-occupied Belgium during the War.  She was arrested for treason and found guilty by court-marshal.  She was executed by a German firing squad.  She was 49 years old.

1860 ~ Lillian Russell (née Helen Louise Leonard, d. June 6, 1860), American actress.  The year of her birth is sometimes listed as 1861.  She died at age 60 or 61.

1835 ~ Samuel Butler (d. June 18, 1902), English author and poet.  He died at age 66.

1795 ~ Thomas Carlyle (d. Feb. 5, 1881), Scottish writer, historian, and mathmatician.  He died at age 85.

1777 ~ Juliette Récamier (d. May 11, 1849), French businesswoman.  The chaise lounge, or réclamier is named after her.  She died at age 71.

1585 ~ John Cotton (d. Dec. 23, 1652), English-American minister who served in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  He died 19 days after his 67^th birthday.

Events that Changed the World:

2006 ~ Six black teens assaulted a white teenager in Jena, Louisiana.

1992 ~ United States President George H.W. Bush sent over 28,000 American soldiers to Somalia to assist in the Somali Civil War.

1991 ~ American Associated Press correspondent Terry Anderson (b. 1947) was released after being held captive as a hostage in Beirut for 6 years and 8 months.  He was the longest-held American hostage in Lebanon.

1991 ~ Pan American World Airways ceased operations following its bankruptcy, ending 64 years of operation.

1984 ~ Hezbollah militants hijacked a Kuwait Airlines plane and killed four passengers.

1982 ~ The People’s Republic of China adopted its constitution.

1978 ~ Dianne Feinstein (b. 1933) became San Francisco, California’s first female mayor.  She became mayor following the murder of Mayor George Moscone (1929 ~ 1978) the previous day.  She served as mayor for just over 9 years.

1971 ~ The Montreux Casino in Switzerland was set ablaze during a Frank Zappa concert when someone shot a flare gun.  The band Deep Purple would memorialize the event in the song, Smoke on the Water.

1956 ~ Jerry Lee Lewis (b. 1935), Carl Perkins (1932 ~ 1998), Johnny Cash (1932 ~ 2003) and Elvis Presley (1935 ~ 1977) got together for the first and only time at Sun Studios.  This event was later memorialized in the musical, Million Dollar Quartet.

1954 ~ The first Burger King restaurant opened.  It was in Miami, Florida.

1945 ~ The United States Senate approved the United States’ participation in the United Nations, which had been established on October 24, 1945.

1943 ~ President Franklin D. Roosevelt shut down the Works Progress Administration (WPA), because of high levels of employment resulting for World War II.

1918 ~ President Woodrow Wilson (1856 ~ 1924) became the first American president to travel to Europe while still in office when he set sail for Versailles, France to discuss peace talks at the conclusion of World War I.

1909 ~ The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club was founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association.  The club is the oldest professional hockey franchise in the world.

1881 ~ The Los Angeles Times began publication.

1875 ~ Boss Tweed (William M. Tweed, 1823 ~ 1878), the New York politician, escaped from prison and fled first to Cuba, then to Spain, where he was ultimately captured and returned to prison where he died.

1829 ~ In India, the British governor Lord William Bentinck (1774 ~ 1839) issued an order declaring that all who abet in the practice of suttee would be guilty of culpable homicide.

1674 ~ Father Jacques Marquette (1637 ~ 1675) founded a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan.  This mission would later become the city of Chicago, Illinois.

1110 ~ During the First Crusade, the Crusaders sacked Sidon, in what is now present-day Lebanon.

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Robert Loggia (né Salvatore Loggia, b. Jan. 3, 1930), American actor.  He died of Alzheimer’s disease a month before his 86^th birthday.

2008 ~ Forrest James Ackerman (b. Nov. 24, 1916), American collector of science fiction books and fantasy buff who coined the term “Sci-Fi.”  He died about 2 weeks after his 92^nd birthday.

1993 ~ Frank Zappa (b. Dec. 21, 1940), American musician and composer.  He died of prostate cancer 17 days before his 53^rd birthday.

1975 ~ Hannah Arendt (née Johanna Arendt, b. Oct. 14, 1906), German political theorist.  She died at age 69.

1967 ~ Bert Lahr (né Irving Lahrheim, b. Aug. 13, 1895), American actor best know for his role as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz.  He died at age 72.

1945 ~ Thomas Hunt Morgan (b. Sept. 25, 1866), American evolutionary biologist, geneticist and embryologist.  He was the 1933 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the role chromosomes played in heredity.  He died at age 79.

1935 ~ Charles Richet (b. Aug. 25, 1850), French physiologist and recipient of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on anaphylaxis.  He died at age 85.

1902 ~ Charles Henry Dow (b. Nov. 6, 1851), American journalist who, along with Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser, founded the Dow Jones & Company.  He was also the founder of the Wall Street Journal.  He died less than a month after his 51^st birthday.

1850 ~ William Sturgeon (b. May 22, 1783), English physicist and inventor of the electric motor.  He died at age 67.

1828 ~ Robert Jenkinson, 2^nd Earl of Liverpool (b. June 7, 1770), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He served in that office from June 1812 through April 1927.  He died at age 58 of a stroke.

1680 ~ Thomas Bartholin (b. Oct. 20, 1616), Danish physician and mathematician.  He died at age 64.

1679 ~ Thomas Hobbes (b. Apr. 5, 1588), English philosopher.  He is considered the Father of Modern Political Science.  He died at age 91.

1642 ~ Cardinal Richelieu (né Armand Jean du Plessis, b. Sept. 9, 1585), French clergyman and statesman.  He was the 1^st Chief Minister to the French King.  He died at age 57.

1609 ~ Alexander Hume (b. 1560), Scottish poet.  The exact date of his birth is not known.

1576 ~ Rheticus (né Georg Joachim de Porris, b. Feb. 16, 1514), Austrian mathematician and astronomer.  He died at age 60.

1334 ~ Pope John XXII (né Jacques Duèze, b. 1249).  He was Pope from August 1316 until his death 13 years later.  The exact date of his birth is not known.

1214 ~ William the Lion (b. 1143), Scottish king.  He was king from December 1165 until his death 49 years later.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been about 71 at the time of his death.

1131 ~ Omar Khayyám (b. May 18, 1048), Persian mathematician and poet.  He died at age 83.

771 ~ Carloman I (b. June 28, 751), King of the Franks.  He died at age 20.

530 BCE ~ The date ascribed to the death of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire.  He was known for his compassion towards the Jews who had been exiled to Babylon.