January 15

Birthdays:

1979 ~ Drew Christopher Brees, American football player with a long career with the New Orleans Saints.

1958 ~ Boris Tadić, President of Serbia.  He served as President from July 2004 until April 2012.

1945 ~ Vince Foster (d. July 20, 1993), Deputy White House Counsel in the Bill Clinton Administration.  He died at age 48 under some mysterious circumstances, but ultimately his death was ruled a suicide.

1942 ~ Frank J. Polozola (d. Feb. 24, 2013) American Federal District Court Judge in the Middle District of Louisiana.  He was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  He died just over a month after his 71^st birthday.

1933 ~ Ernest J. Gaines, Louisiana-born African-American author.

1929 ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. (né Michael King, Jr., d. Apr. 4, 1968), African-American Civil Rights activist and recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.  He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee at age 39.

1918 ~ Gamal Abdel Nasser (d. Sept. 28, 1970), second president of Egypt.  He died of a heart attack at age 52 while still in office.  Anwar Sadat was named his successor.

1913 ~ Lloyd Bridges (d. Mar. 10, 1998), American actor.  He died at age 85.

1908 ~ Edward Teller (d. Sept. 9, 2003), Hungarian-born physicist.  He is sometimes known as the Father of the Hydrogen Bomb.  He died at age 95.

1906 ~ Aristotle Onassis (d. Mar. 15, 1975), Greek shipping magnate and second husband of Jacqueline Kennedy.  He also had a long-term affair with opera singer Maria Callas.  He died at age 69.

1903 ~ Paul A. Dever (d. Apr. 11, 1958), 58^th Governor of Massachusetts.  He served as Governor from January 1946 until January 1953.  He was born and died in Boston.  He died at age 55 of a heart attack.

1895 ~ Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (d. Nov. 11, 1973), Finnish chemist and recipient of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 78.

1866 ~ Nathan Söderblom (né Lars Olof Jonathan Söderblom, d. July 12, 1931), Swedish archbishop and recipient of the 1930 Nobel Peace Prize.  He died at age 65.

1850 ~ Sofia Kovalevskaya (d. Feb. 10, 1891), Russian mathematician.  She is known for her contributions to analysis, differential equations and mechanics.  She died of influenza 26 days after her 41^st birthday.

1754 ~ Richard Martin (d. Jan. 6, 1834), Irish activist and co-founder of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).  He died 9 days before his 80^th birthday.

1716 ~ Philip Livingston (d. June 12, 1778), early American patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence.  He died at age 62.

1622 ~ Molière (né Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, d. Feb. 17, 1673), French playwright.  He died of tuberculosis a month after his 51^st birthday.

Event that Changed the World:

2018 ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. Day observed.

2009 ~ US Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency landing in the Hudson River shortly after take-off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City.  The plane was piloted by Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (b. 1953).  There were no fatalities and the incident became known as the Miracle on the Hudson.  This event was also depicted in the movie, Sully.

2001 ~ Wikipedia became available online.

1971 ~ The Aswan Dam on the Nile in Egypt was dedicated.

1970 ~ Muammar Gadhafi (1942 ~ 2011) was proclaimed premier of Libya.

1970 ~ After nearly 3 years of war in order to gain its independence from Nigeria, Biafra, a small country-state that had seceded from Nigeria in 1967, ceased to exist and became once again incorporated into Nigeria

1967 ~ The first Football Super Bowl was held in Los Angeles, California.  The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the game with a score of 35-10.

1962 ~ The Derveni Papyrus, the oldest surviving manuscript in Europe was found in northern Greece.  The papyrus was believed to be from approximately 340 BCE.

1949 ~ During the Chinese Civil War, the Communist forces took over Tianjin from the Nationalist Government.

1947 ~ The dismembered corpse of Elizabeth Short (1924 ~ 1947) was found in Los Angeles.  She became known as the Black Dahlia due to the graphic nature of her murder.

1943 ~ The Pentagon, the world’s largest office building, was dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.

1934 ~ A massive earthquake in Nepal and Bihar killed an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 people.

1919 ~ The Boston Molasses Disaster occurred when a large tank of molasses burst sending a wave of molasses throughout the streets, killing 21 people and injuring 150 others.  This event was depicted in Dennis Lehane’s novel The Given Day.

1892 ~ James Naismith (1861 ~ 1939) published the rules of basketball.

1889 ~ The Coca-Cola Company (initially known as the Pemberton Medicine Company) was incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia.

1870 ~ The donkey is first depicted as representing the US Democratic party in a cartoon by Thomas Nast that was published in Harper’s Weekly.

1844 ~ The University of Notre Dame received its charter from the State of Indiana.

1815 ~ During the War of 1812, the American frigate, the USS President, commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur (1779 ~ 1820), was captured by the British.

1782 ~ Robert Morris (1734 ~ 1806), the United States Superintendent of Finance, recommended the establishment of a national mint to the US Congress.

1759 ~ The British Museum opened.

1559 ~ Elizabeth I (1522 ~ 1603) was crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abby.  She ruled until her death in March 1603.

1493 ~ Christopher Columbus began his return voyage from Hispaniola, thus ending his first trip to the New World.

588 BCE ~ The traditional date given to the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon began and lasted until July 23, 586 BCE.

Good-Byes:

2016 ~ Daniel Francis Haggerty (b. Nov. 19, 1942), American animal loving actor best known for playing the title role in The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.  He died of spinal cancer at age 73.

2014 ~ John Dobson (b. Sept. 14, 1915), American former Hindu monk who looked to the stars.  He was an amateur astronomer and is best known for the Dobsonian telescope.  He died at age 98.

2012 ~ Ed Derwinski (né Edward Joseph Derwinksi, b. Sept. 15, 1926), 1^st United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs.  He served from 1989 to 1992 under President George H.W. Bush.  He died at age 85.

2011 ~ Susannah York (née Susannah Yolande Fletcher, b. Jan. 9, 1939), English actress, known as the “English Rose”, who hungered for edgy roles.  She died of multiple myeloma 6 days after her 72^nd birthday.

2011 ~ Romulus Linney (b. Sept. 21, 1930), American playwright who drew on his Southern boyhood.  His daughter is the actress Laura Linney.  He died at age 80.

2010 ~ Marshall Warren Nirenberg (b. Apr. 10, 1927), American biochemist and recipient of the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for breaking the genetic code.  He died at age 82.

2007 ~ James Hillier (b. Aug. 22, 1915), Canadian-born scientist who co-designed the electron microscope.  He died at age 91.

2004 ~ Olivia Goldsmith (née Randy Goldfield, d. Jan 1, 1949), American author.  She died following complications of cosmetic surgery just 2 weeks after her 55^th birthday.

2002 ~ Michael Anthony Bilandic (b. Feb. 13, 1923), Mayor of Chicago.  He served as mayor from December 1976 until April 1979.  He died a month before his 79^th birthday.

2000 ~ Carolyn Eisele (b. June 13, 1902), American mathematician.  She died at age 97.

1994 ~ Harry Nilsson (b. June 15, 1941), American singer-songwriter and musician.  He died of a heart attack at age 52.

1993 ~ Sammy Cahn (né Samuel Cohen, b. June 18, 1913), American lyricist who wrote many songs for Broadway shows.  He is also known for his winter song, Let it Snow!  He died at age 79.

1988 ~ Seán MacBride (b. Jan. 26, 1904), Irish politician and recipient of the 1974 Nobel Peace Prize.  He died 11 days before his 84^th birthday.

1987 ~ Ray Bolger (né Raymond Wallace Bolger, b. Jan. 10, 1904), American actor best known for his role as the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz.  He died 5 days after his 83^rd birthday.

1983 ~ Meyer Lansky (né Meier Suchowlanski, b. July 4, 1902), Russian-born American gangster.  He died of lung cancer at age 80.

1973 ~ Ivan Petrovsky (b. Jan. 18, 1901), Russian mathematician.  He died 3 days before his 72^nd birthday.

1970 ~ William Piper (b. Jan. 8, 1881), American businessman and founder of Piper Aircraft.  He died 7 days after his 89^th birthday.

1948 ~ Josephus Daniels (b. May 18, 1862), 41^st Secretary of the Navy.  He served under President Woodrow Wilson from March 1913 until March 1921.  He died at age 85.

1947 ~ Black Dahlia (né Elizabeth Short, b. July 29, 1924), American waitress and murder victim.  She was the victim of a gruesome and highly publicized murder, which remains unsolved.  She was 22 years old at the time of her death.

1945 ~ Wilhelm Wirtinger (b. July 15, 1865), Austrian mathematician.  He died at age 79.

1927 ~ David Rowland Francis (d. Oct. 1, 1850), 20^th United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under Presidents Grover Cleveland and William McKinley from September 1896 until March 1897.  He died at age 76.

1919 ~ Rosa Luxemburg (b. Mar. 5, 1871), Socialist revolutionary, Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and political activist.  She was murdered by the Freikorps, a group was right-wing paramilitary group in Germany.  She 47 at the time of her murder.

1915 ~ Nikolay Umov (b. Jan. 23, 1844), Russian physicist and mathematician.  He died 8 days before his 69^th birthday.

1896 ~ Mathew Brady (b. May 18, 1822), American pioneer in photography.  He is best known for his photographs of the American Civil War.  He died at age 73.

1891 ~ John Wellborn Root (b. Jan. 10, 1850), American architect who helped develop the “Chicago School” style of architecture.  He designed the Rookery Building in Chicago.  He died of pneumonia 5 days after his 41^st birthday.

1876 ~ Eliza McCardle (b. Oct. 4, 1810), American wife of President Andrew Johnson.  They married in March 1827.  She became the First Lady at age 54 when President Johnson assumed the presidency.  She served in that role April 1965 until March 1869.  She died at age 65.

1865 ~ Edward Everett (b. Apr. 11, 1794), 20^th United States Secretary of State.  He served in this office from November 1852 until March 1853.  He served under President Millard Fillmore.  Previously, he had served as the 15^th Governor of Massachusetts, from January 1836 until January 1840.  The town of Everett, Massachusetts was named in his honor.  He died at age 70.

1815 ~ Emma, Lady Hamilton (née Amy Lyon, b. Apr. 26, 1761), English mistress of Horatio Nelson.  She died of liver failure at age 49.

1790 ~ John Landen (b. Jan. 23, 1719), English mathematician.  He died 8 days before his 71^st birthday.