January 17

Birthdays:

1964 ~ Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States and wife of President Barack Obama.

1957 ~ Steve Harvey, American comedian and game show host.

1942 ~ Muhammad Ali (né Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., d. June 3, 2016), African-American heavyweight boxing champion who shook up the wall.  He died at age 74.

1934 ~ Sydney Schanberg (d. July 9, 2016) American journalist who covered Cambodia during the period known as The Killing Fields in the 1970s.  He died at age 82 of a heart attack.

1933 ~ Shari Lewis (née Sonia Phyllis Hurwitz, d. Aug. 2, 1998), American puppeteer and ventriloquist.  She was known for creating her sock puppets, Lamb Chops and Charlie Horse.  She died at age 65 of uterine cancer.

1931 ~ Don Zimmer (Donald William Zimmer, d. June 4, 2014), American baseball player and long-time coach of the Boston Red Sox.  He was the journeyman who became the face of baseball.  He died at age 83.

1931 ~ Don Zimmer (d. June 4, 2014), American infielder, manager, and longtime coach of the Boston Red Sox.  He was the journeyman who became the face of baseball.  He died at age 83.

1931 ~ Douglas Wilder (né Lawrence Douglas Wilder), Governor of Virginia.  He was the first African-American elected governor of Virginia.  He served in that Office from January 2005 until January 2009.

1931 ~ James Earl Jones, American actor.

1928 ~ Vidal Sassoon (d. May 9, 2012), English cosmetologist and hair stylist.  He died of leukemia at age 84.

1927 ~ Eartha Kitt (d. Dec. 25, 2008), American singer and actress.  She died 23 days before her 82^nd birthday.

1922 ~ Nicholas Katzenbach (d. May 8, 2012), 65^th Attorney General.  He served under President Lyndon B. Johnson.  He served as Attorney General from February 1965 until October 1966.  He died at age 90.

1922 ~ Betty White, American actress.

1914 ~ Irving Brecher (d. Nov. 17, 2008), American quick wit who wrote for the Marx Brothers.  He died at age 94.

1911 ~ George Stigler (d. Dec. 1, 1991), American economist and recipient of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.  He died at age 80.

1899 ~ Al Capone (né Alphonse Gabriel Capone, d. Jan. 25, 1947), American gangster.  He was ultimately arrested on tax evasion.  He died 8 days after his 48^th birthday of cardiac arrest following a stroke.

1899 ~ Nevil Shute (né Nevil Shute Norway, d. Jan. 12, 1960), 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.

1882 ~ Arnold Rothstein (d. Nov. 6, 1928), American gangster.  He was known as “The Brain.”  He is believed to have been the mastermind of the fixing of the 1919 Baseball World Series.  He was murdered at age 46.

1881 ~ Antoni Łomnicki (d. July 4, 1941), Polish mathematician.  He was murdered at age 60 by the Nazis during the Massacre of the Lwów professors during World War II.

1871 ~ Nicolae Iorga (d. Nov. 27, 1940), 34^th Prime Minister of Romania.  He served in that Office from April 1931 until June 1932.  He died at age 69.

1867 ~ Carl Laemmle (né Karl Lämmle, d. Sept. 24, 1939). German-born American film producer and founder of Universal Studios.  He died at age 72.

1863 ~ David Lloyd George, 1^st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (d. Mar. 26, 1945), Welsh attorney and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He served as Prime Minister from December 1916 until October 1922.  He died at age 82.

1820 ~ Anne Brontë (b. May 28, 1849), English novelist and poet.  She died at age 29.

1814 ~ Ellen Price Wood (d. Feb. 10, 1887), English author.  She died 24 days after her 73^rd birthday.

1706 ~ Benjamin Franklin (d. Apr. 17, 1790), American statesman, inventor, diplomat, and printer.  He served as the 1^st United States Postmaster General, an Office he held from July 1775 until November 1776.  He died at age 84.

1640 ~ Jonathan Singletary Dunham (d. Sept. 6, 1724), Early American settler.  Although born in what is now Massachusetts, he settled with his family in what is now New Jersey.  He was the 8^th great-grandfather of President Barack Obama.  He died at age 84.

1574 ~ Robert Fludd (d. Sept. 8, 1637), British physician mathematician.  He died at age 63.

1504 ~ Pope Pius V (né Antonio Ghislieri, d. May 1, 1572).  He was Pope from January 1566 until his death 6 years later.  He died at age 68.

1492 ~ Adam Ries (d. Mar. 30, 1559), German mathematician.  He died at age 66.

Events that Changed the World:

1998 ~ The Drudge Report first reported on the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair.

1995 ~ The Great Hanshin earthquake of 7.3 magnitude hit near Kobe, Japan, killing nearly 6,500 people.

1994 ~ Northridge, California was struck by a 6.7 magnitude earthquake.

1991 ~ Harald V (b. 1937) became King of Norway.

1991 ~ Operation Desert Storm began after Iraq fired 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful attempt to provoke Israeli retaliation.

1977 ~ Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore (b. 1940) was executed by a firing squad in Utah.  His was the first execution in the United States in over 10 years, following a moratorium on capital punishment.

1950 ~ The Great Brinks Bank Robbery occurred when 11 thieves stole over $2M from a Brink’s armored car outside the Brinks offices in Boston, Massachusetts.  All of the perpetrators were eventually arrested.

1949 ~ The first American television sit-com, The Goldbergs, made its debut.

1946 ~ The United Nations Security Council held its first session.

1945 ~ Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg (1912 ~ 1947) was taken into custody in Hungary by the Soviets.  He was never seen again and was presumed killed.  In 1947 he was officially declared dead.

1945 ~ The Nazis began to evacuate the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces began to close in.

1929 ~ The cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man, created by E.C. Segar (1894 ~ 1938) was first published in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.

1917 ~ The United States purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25M.

1912 ~ Captain Robert Scott (1868 ~ 1912) reached the South Pole one month after Roald Amundsen’s expedition.

1899 ~ The United States took possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.

1773 ~ Captain James Cook (1728 ~ 1799) and his crew became the first known Europeans to sail below the Antarctic Circle.

1595 ~ King Henry IV (1553 ~ 1610) of France declared war on Spain.

1377 ~ Pope Gregory XI (1329 ~ 1378) moved the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon, France.

395 ~ Roman Emperor Theodosius I (347 ~ 395) died, causing the Roman Empire to be re-divided into an eastern and western portion.

Good-Byes:

2010 ~ Erich Segal (b. June 16, 1937), American author, best known for his novel, Love Story.  He was a classical scholar.  He died of a heart attack at age 72..

2008 ~ Bobby Fischer (né Robert James Fischer, b. Mar. 9, 1943), American chess player.  He died of renal failure at age 64.

2007 ~ Art Buchwald (né Arthur Buchwald, b. Oct. 20, 1925), American columnist and humorist.  He died at age 81.

2003 ~ Richard Crenna (b. Nov. 30, 1926), American actor.  He died of congestive heart failure at age 76.

2002 ~ Camilo José Cela (b. May 11, 1916), Spanish writer and recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 85.

1997 ~ Clyde Tombaugh (b. Feb. 4, 1906), American astronomer who first cited the dwarf planet, Pluto.  He died 18 days before his 91^st birthday.

1996 ~ Amber Hagerman (b. Nov. 25, 1986), American kidnapped and murder victim.  Her kidnapping inspired the AMBER Alert system for missing children.  She was 9 years old at the time of her abduction.

1996 ~ Barbara Charline Jordan (b. Feb. 21, 1936), African-American politician from Texas.  She served as the United States House of Representatives from January 1973 until January 1979.  She died of pneumonia at age 59.

1991 ~ King Olav V of Norway (b. July 2, 1903).  He reigned as King from September 1957 until his death at age 87 in January 1991.

1977 ~ Gary Gilmore (b. Dec. 4, 1940), American murderer who is known for being the first person to be executed after the United States Supreme Court deemed that the states’ death-penalty statutes were constitutional.  Gilmore was executed by firing squad in Utah.  Norman Mailer wrote an account of Gilmore’s story in the novel, Executioner’s Song.  He was 36 years old at the time of his execution.

1972 ~ Betty Smith (née Elizabeth Lillian Wehner, d. Dec. 15, 1896), American author best known for her novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  She died of pneumonia about a month after her 75^th birthday.

1964 ~ T.H. White (né Terence Hanbury White, b. May 29, 1906), English author best known for his novel The Once and Future King about the King Arthur legend.  He died of heart failure at age 57.

1961 ~ Patrice Lumumba (b. July 2, 1925), 1^st Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  He was executed by firing squad at age 35.

1933 ~ Louis Comfort Tiffany (b. Feb. 18, 1848), American artist and glass designer.  He died about a month before his 85^th birthday.

1927 ~ Juliette Gordon Low (d. Oct. 31, 1860), American founder of the Girl Scouts.  She died of breast cancer at age 66.

1893 ~ Rutherford B. Hays (b. Oct. 4, 1822), 19^th President of the United States.  He served as President from March 1877 until March 1881.  He previously served as Governor of Ohio for two non-consecutive terms.  He died at age 70.

1891 ~ George Bancroft (b. Oct. 3, 1800), 17^th Secretary of the Navy.  He served in that capacity from March 1845 until September 1846.  During his tenure as Secretary of the Navy, in 1845 he established the United States Navy Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.  He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts.  He died at age 90.

1882 ~ Alexander Bullock (b. Mar. 2, 1816), 26^th Governor of Massachusetts.  He was Governor from January 1866 until January 1869.  He died at age 65.

1874 ~ Chang and Eng Bunker (b. May 11, 1811), Thai-American conjoined twins.  Because they were from Thailand, then called Siam, co-joined twins became known as Siamese Twins.  Each brother married and collectively they had a total of 21 children.  They were 62 at the time of their death.

395 ~ Theodosius I (b. Jan. 11, 347), Roman emperor.  He was known as Theodosius the Great.  He was the last Roman emperor to have ruled both the eastern and western portions of the Roman Empire.  He is believed to have died 6 days after his 48^th birthday.