January 12

Birthdays:

1987 ~ Naya Marie Rivera, American actress.

1966 ~ Olivier Martinez, French actor.

1964 ~ Jeff Bezos, American businessman and founder of Amazon.com.

1960 ~ Oliver Platt, American actor.

1954 ~ Howard Stern, American radio personality.

1952 ~ Walter Mosley, African-American author.

1951 ~ Kirstie Alley, American actress.

1944 ~ Joe Frazier (né Joseph Frazier, d. Nov. 7, 2011), American heavyweight champ whose rivalry with Muhammad Ali defined an era.  He died at age 67.

1944 ~ Cynthia Robinson (d. Nov. 23, 2015), American trumpeter who was the soul of The Family Stone.  She died at age 71.

1923 ~ Alice Miller (née Alicija Englard, d. Apr. 14, 2010), the Polish-born Swiss psychologist who explored childhood trauma.  She died at age 87.

1916 ~ P.W. Botha (né Pieter Willem Botha, d. Oct. 31, 2006), South African politician.  He was President of South Africa from 1978 to 1989.  He had a reputation as being a tough and ruthless leader.  He died of a heart attack at age 90.

1906 ~ Kurt Hirsch (d. Nov. 4, 1986), German-born mathematician.  He left Germany for England to escape Nazi persecution.  He died at age 80.

1899 ~ Paul Hermann Müller (d. Oct. 12, 1965), Swiss chemist and recipient of the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of insecticidal qualities and use of DDT in the control of vector diseases such as malaria and yellow fever.  He died at age 66.

1895 ~ Leo Aryeh Mayer (d. Apr. 6, 1959), Israeli scholar of Islamic art and rector of Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  He died at age 64.

1716 ~ Antonio de Ulloa (d. July 3, 1795), Spanish general and 1^st Spanish Colonial Governor of Louisiana.  He died at age 79.

1877 ~ Frank Corr (d. June 3, 1934), 45^th Mayor of Chicago.  He was mayor from March 1933 until April 1933.  He died at age 57.

1876 ~ Jack London (né John Griffith Chaney, d. Nov. 22, 1916), American writer, best known for his novels, White Fang, and The Call of the Wild.  He died at age 40.

1856 ~ John Singer Sargent (d. Apr. 14, 1925), American artist and painter.  He died at age 69.

1853 ~ Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro (d. Aug. 6, 1925), Italian mathematician.  He died at age 72.

1822 ~ Étienne Lenoir (né Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir, d. Aug. 4, 1900), Belgium engineer and designer of the internal combustion engine.  He died at age 78.

1799 ~ Priscilla Susan Bury (née Priscilla Susan Falkner, d. Mar. 8, 1872), British botanist and illustrator.  She died at age 73.

1729 ~ Edmund Burke (d. July 9, 1797), English philosopher and statesman.  He died at age 68.

1628 ~ Charles Perrault (d. May 16, 1703), French author known for laying the foundation for the fairy tale.  He died at age 75.

1587/88 ~ John Winthrop (d. Mar. 26, 1649), the English-born Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but this is typically the date ascribed to his birth.  He died at about age 61.

Events that Changed the World:

2016 ~ A bombing near the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey killed 10 people and wounded several others.

2010 ~ A massive 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti, killing approximately 316,000 people and destroying the majority of the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince.

1991 ~ An Act of the U.S. Congress authorized the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait in the Gulf War.

1971 ~ All in the Family made its television debut.

1969 ~ Super Bowl III between the New York Jets and the Baltimore Colts was played.  The Jets beat the Colts in one of the greatest upsets in sports history.  The Jets were the underdogs, but beat the Colts in a score of 16-7.

1967 ~ Dr. James Bedford (1893 ~ 1967) became the first person to be cryonically preserved.

1932 ~ Hattie W. Caraway (1878 ~ 1950), became the first woman to be elected to serve a full term as a United States Senate.  She was from Arkansas.  Previously, a provision of the law allowed widows to complete the terms of their deceased spouse.

1921 ~ Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis (1866 ~ 1944) was elected as Major League Baseball’s first Commissioner.  This post was created in the wake of the Black Sox Scandal and was intended to restore the public’s confidence in the sport.

1918 ~ Finland’s Mosaic Confessors law went into effect making Finish Jews full rights of citizenship.

1915 ~ The United States House of Representatives rejected a proposal to allow women the right to vote.

1528 ~ Gustav I (1496 ~ 1560) of Sweden was crown King.

Good-Byes:

2017 ~ William Peter Blatty (b. Jan. 7, 1928), American comedy writer who spooked readers with The Exorcist.  He died of multiple myeloma 5 days after his 89^th birthday.

2015 ~ Darrell Winfield (b. July 30, 1929), American rancher and cowboy who defined the Marlboro Man.  He was the real-life cowboy who appeared in the Marlboro cigarette advertisements.  He was 85 years old.

2013 ~ Eugene Patterson (b. Oct. 15, 1923), American Southern editor who fostered racial equality.  He died of cancer at age 89.

2009 ~ Claude Berri (né Claude Berel Langmann, b. July 1, 1934), French actor, director and writer.  He died at age 74.

2004 ~ Olga Aleksandrovna Ladyzhenskaya (b. Mar. 7, 1922), Russian mathematician.  She died at age 81.

2003 ~ Maurice Gibb (b. Dec. 22, 1949), Australian musician and member of the Bee Gees.  He was the twin brother of Robin Gibb (1949 ~ 2012).  Maurice died 3 weeks after his 53^rd birthday.

2003 ~ Leopoldo Galtieri (b. July 15, 1926), 44^th President of Argentina.  He died at age 76

2002 ~ Cyrus Vance (b. Mar. 27, 1917), 57^th Secretary of State.  He served during the Carter administration from January 1977 until April 1980.  He had previously served as the 7^th United States Secretary of the Army from July 1962 until January 1964 under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.  He died at age 84.

2001 ~ William Reddington Hewlett (b. May 20, 1913), American engineer and co-founder of Hewlett-Packard.  He died at age 87.

1997 ~ Charles B. Huggins (b. Sept. 22, 1901), Canadian-born physician and recipient of the 1966 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering that hormones could be used to control the spread of some cancers.  His specialty was prostate cancer.  He died at age 95.

1996 ~ Joachim Nitsche (b. Sept. 2, 1926), German mathematician.  He died at age 69.

1990 ~ Laurence Johnston Peter (b. Sept. 16, 1919), Canadian educator and hierachiologist, best known for formulating the Peter Principle, whereby every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetency.  He died at age 70.

1976 ~ Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller Christie, Lady Mallowan (b. Sept. 15, 1890), British mystery writer.  She died at age 85.

1960 ~ Nevil Shute (né Nevil Shute Norway, b. Jan. 17, 1899), British-born Australian author best known for his novel On the Beach, about a nuclear holocaust and A Town Like Alice.  He died 5 days before his 61^st birthday.

1922 ~ Helen Blanchard (b. Oct. 25, 1840), American inventor.  She received 28 patents between 1873 and 1915, many of which were improvements on the sewing machine.  She was born in Portland, Maine and died in Providence, Rhode Island.  She died at age 81.

1909 ~ Hermann Minkowski (d. June 22, 1864), German mathematician.  He died at age 44.

1899 ~ Hiram Walker (b. July 4, 1816), American businessman and distiller.  He founded Canadian club whiskey.  He was born in East Douglas, Massachusetts.  He died at age 82.

1880 ~ Ellen “Nell” Herndon Arthur (b. Aug. 30, 1837), American wife of President Chester Arthur.  She died of pneumonia at age 42 before her husband became President.

1834 ~ William Grenville, 1^st Baron Grenville (b. Oct. 25, 1759), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He served as Prime Minister from February 1806 until March 1807 during the reign of King George III.  During his term, slave trade in Britain was abolished.  He died at age 74.

1665 ~ Pierre de Fermat (b. Oct. 31, 1607), French mathematician.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, although it is generally attributed to have been 1601 it may have been as late as 1607.  Also, he may have been born as late as December 7, 1607.  He was, thus, either 57 or 63 at the time of his death.  He did pioneering work in analytic geometry.

1519 ~ Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. Mar. 22, 1459).  He ruled as the Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death in 1519.  He died at age 59.